Practical Restaurant Marketing with Kristine Mylls

00:00Running a restaurant is tough. Staff turnover, rising costs, and the endless tasks that bog you down and take you away from what you love. Let Adams Keegan lighten that load. Their privately held Tennessee-based restaurant and hospitality-focused outsourced HR, payroll, and benefits firm. The team at Adams Keegan removes the administrative burdens of HR administration, payroll benefits management, garnishments, unemployment claims, compliance, 401k, and so much more. From their proprietary HRIS platform to seamless payroll and competitive benefits that keep your team smiling, they've got you covered. Adams Keegan lets you focus on what you do best, creating unforgettable dining experiences while they handle the rest. Essentially, think of Adams Keegan as your back office HR department, right here in Music City. One of the many things I love about Adams Keegan is that unlike big publicly traded companies out there, they have an incredibly high standard of customer service. And that's what we all need, is really good customer service in these areas. They don't give you a 1-800 number and make you fill out an IT ticket submission.

01:04They surround every client with a team of experts, all based right here in Tennessee. You can call them today at 615-627-0821, or visit adamskeegan.com, that's A-D-A-M-S-K-E-E-G-A-N.com, for your free HR consultation and see how they can create a customized solution to help your restaurant thrive. ["The Tastiest Hour of Talk in Music City"] Welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio, the tastiest hour of talk in Music City. Now here's your host, Brandon Styll. ["The Tastiest Hour of Talk in Music City"] Hello, Music City, and welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio. My name is Brandon Styll, and I am your host. We are powered by Gordon Food Service, and today is a really fun episode. We are talking with Christine Miles.

02:07She is the owner of Miles Hospitality Marketing, and she just went to the NRA show, and I work with Christine, and she said, "'Man, I've got so much good stuff from Chicago.'" And she went to Meg, all the marketing executive conference, and I said, "'Great, let's come on and talk about it.'" And I work with Christine all the time. So this episode, it's long. We talked like an hour and 15 minutes, but man, I had so much fun. Somebody asked me if it was a highlight of a week last week, and I said, "'Talking with Christine for like an hour was so much fun. We don't do a lot of restaurant marketing, but today we do.'" And that's where the fun stops on this episode, because I, well, June is Mental Health Awareness Month, and we lost somebody in our industry, Chris Speedy Krantz, and this past week lost his battle with mental health. And I was broken, just absolutely broken last week, hearing this news.

03:12I met Speedy back in 2002, 2003. I used to be the bar manager at Amerigo on West End, and every night we got off work, we would go to a place called Rumba. Rumba was across the street from Houston's, used to be a place called Martini's, and then it turned into Rumba. And Rumba was a really cool bar. The woman I work with now used to be a manager there. And Speedy was the bartender. Speedy was amazing. Every night we would go in, he was friendly. He remembered our drinks, but he used to make this, I'll never forget, he would always make this layered drink for me in a Martini glass, and he called it Sex with an Alligator. And it was just the coolest looking drink. You know, this was way before, like really cool cocktails, a lot of shots, a lot of crazy stuff going on. But you know, we get off work and we wanted to drink, and we wanted to drink fast. And I was kind of like, why do they call you Speedy?

04:12And then after knowing the guy for a couple hours, I was like, oh, that's why they call you Speedy, because he just would fly around behind the bar. But always like the kindest gentle person you'll ever meet. One of my favorite bartenders I've ever had in the city. And I went on to go to Brentwood and work at the Amerigo there, and then I got into food sales. And I hadn't really seen Speedy in a long time, and then he started working for Uncle Nearest. And saw him at a golf tournament, and he was pouring drinks and got to catch up with them. Seen him in the restaurant, seen him, you know, kind of sporadically around town as you do people in our industry. Every time I see him, big hug. What's going on, man? Like just the nicest guy, and just such a warm heart, warm smile. And I'm just broken. I mean, this is so horrible, because I don't know what to say. What I do know what to say is that I have praying for his family, and everybody, all of his friends, and everybody, there is going to be a service.

05:23Now you might listen to this in time, you may not, but there's gonna be a visitation from 10 to 12, a memorial service from 12 o'clock this Thursday, June 5th at Mount Olivet, O-L-I-V-E-T, funeral home, 1101 Lebanon Pike. If you would like, if you know Speedy and you wanna go pay your respects and whatever we do. So that is something that is happening that I'm gonna be going to, and I'll see you there. Otherwise, June is Mental Health Awareness Month, and I wanna talk about it, because I don't talk about it as much as I think that we should. And since we're here, I did an episode, gosh, four years ago, and it was called Hello, My Name is Brandon, and I'm an Alcoholic. And I had no idea what kind of mental health I was dealing with, because I was always drunk, because I did not like to address my emotions, and working in this industry is crazy.

06:30I've talked about this a lot. There's a lot of trauma that goes on, there's a lot of crazy bullshit that we have to deal with, from rude people to vendors screwing you behind your back to just the insanity of a crazy rush. And drugs and alcohol work really well to curb some of that mental health issues that this may create, or you may already have. This industry, it's all over the place. So I wanna provide some interesting information and tell some anecdotes around it. So June is Mental Health Awareness Month, providing an important opportunity to highlight mental health issues, particularly, I wanna talk to men and fathers. While mental health challenges affect all demographics, men often encounter unique obstacles due to societal expectations and stigmas. And that's the thing, approximately 19.7 of US adult men experience some form of mental illness annually.

07:31That's 20% of you out there listening to this, two of every 10 people experience something. Two of 10 people you come in contact with, two of 10 people that you work with, two in 10 people that you wait on, it's everywhere. Nearly one in 10 men report experiencing depression or anxiety. Men die by suicide at a rate of four times higher than women. Here's the problem, only 42% of men with mental health concerns seek treatment compared to 57% of women. 25% of young American men, ages 15 to 34, report feeling lonely, a higher percentage than their female counterparts in young men and other developed countries. And amongst fathers, like new fathers, there's a lot of information too, that 10% of fathers experience postpartum depression with the highest risk occurring between three and six months after a child's birth. And if a mother has postpartum depression, there's a 50% increase that the men will also develop it.

08:37And the paternal depression can negatively impact children's cognitive and behavioral development with effects observable as early as 3.5 years. Now here's the problem, again, societal norms often discourage men from expressing vulnerability, leading to underdiagnosis and undertreatment of mental health issues. This reluctance is compounded by the stigma associated with seeking help, which can prevent men from accessing necessary support services. This was me, this was me kind of my whole life. I've recently learned that I have ADHD and it's severe. It's like I have a strong version of ADHD and I've constantly wondered why I am the way, I'm on a journey to find out why I am the way that I am. And if you go back and listen to my episode where I talk about being an alcoholic, I grew up in a world where everything was very masculine and I was told to, you're the man, be a man, man up.

09:40You have to be stronger than everybody else. Suck it up, be a man. And I was told that your reward at the end of the day was you get to have a drink. You get to have a drink. You know what, just shut up, know your role. None of that stuff, that emotion stuff is for sissies. And I stopped drinking and I started having all these crazy, not panic attacks, but I didn't know what was happening to me because I was having emotions. I was having anxiety because I didn't know how to deal with my emotions. I didn't know what emotions were. And so I started learning. I started reading. I started going to support groups. I went to a therapist. I still go to a therapist to this day. It's really, it's one of the most important things. I messaged my therapist today and said, hey, I need to come see you because I've got a lot going on and there's a lot of scary things. And this whole ADD stuff has really opened my eyes to why I am the way that I am.

10:47And when you have ADD, especially as a child, a lot of people don't know what's wrong with you. Why is this kid hyper? Why is he all over the place? He can't, he does really, really good for a short period of time and then he falls off the map. And when you do really good for a short period of time, people tell you that you're doing great. And then when you fall off the map, people go, what the hell is wrong with you? And they make you feel like you're broken. And I was kind of that ping pong back and forth, kids making fun of you, and I had so much anger. Oh my God. And this just leads into your adult life if you don't get this stuff treated. And I've done a lot to figure out my own stuff. And I've hopefully been vulnerable enough on this podcast to talk about it that maybe you out there have went, hey, he seems to be doing okay. And I am doing okay. But it isn't because I haven't done anything. I've raised my hand and I've said, look, I'm not broken, but I need to know what I need to work on.

11:51And I've done a lot of work. And I have depression at times. I have anxiety. I recorded this episode four days ago, and I know that I needed to record this intro. And I know that I'm really excited about putting this episode out because I love the content inside of it, but I have been paralyzed to get started. And I don't know why, I don't know why. I have done 400 and something episodes of this thing, but I just, I will play a game on my phone or I will, oh, I need to wash my car. I need to go, oh, you need to go to the store. I'll go to the store. I will just pick things up to avoid doing stuff. And it's crippling. And then I lay in bed and I go, I am just terrible, I'm terrible. I don't know why I can't do these things. And I beat myself up. And that voice inside my head is really fucking strong. I do another podcast with my business coach who kind of acts as a therapist for me, and it's called Shut Up and Thrive.

12:52And the whole idea of about Shut Up and Thrive is tell the voices inside your head to shut up because they're trying to keep you safe, but they'll also ruin you. And that's my anxiety. That's the stuff that really gets to me. And I'm working through it. Breathing, breath work, meditation, counseling, all these things help me be incredibly functional, but I'm not doing alcohol as a method of coping in recovery because that's not the answer for me. It's probably not the answer for you either. And I don't know why I'm saying all of this, but to say that if you're a man out there and you're feeling any of this stuff, raise your hand. There's nothing wrong with asking for help. There's nothing wrong with saying, hey, I'm not okay. There was a whole year on the podcast where I would start the podcast and say, hey, you okay, how you doing today?

13:55And people go, I'm good. No, no, no, that's not like a question, like a greeting. Like, are you okay? We're all going through some serious shit right now with this pandemic. Are you okay? Like, raise your hand. And I hate hearing news like Speedy and my heart is still just breaking and I don't know how many other people out there are feeling this way or they don't know what to do and they don't think that everything is gonna be okay because you know what it is? Everything's gonna be okay. You just gotta raise your hand. There's help for all kinds of people. I am here to help you or put you in touch with somebody who can help. Message me on Instagram. If you're having trouble with alcohol or whatever it is, I certainly don't want you to make any decisions that would lead to something like this. I don't really know what to say here. I just know that my heart is broken and I certainly go through a lot of this too and apparently 20% of men out there do too.

15:02I'm sure a lot of women do too. I'm not trying to stay away from women. I can only talk about my experiences and I'm a human being. I'm a human being who grew up as a middle child in a household who had ADD, ADHD and still do and I'm still dealing with the effects of it but I am going to deal with the effects of it every single day. It's a battle and I know that. If I can help one person, if one person hears this and says, oh, you know what, if that guy can do it, maybe I could reach out. Maybe I can find some help. Maybe I can get diagnosed. Maybe I can figure it out because there's medicine out there. There's all kinds of stuff that will help you through whatever you're doing. Just group therapy, there's AA. There's all kinds of stuff. If you are struggling with mental health, I will tell you that you can dial 988 for immediate assistance for the Suicide and Crisis Hotline. Just dial 988, hit send. Mental Health America, mhanational.org offers resources and screening tools.

16:07The National Institute of Mental Health, nimh.nih.gov provides information on mental health conditions and treatments. Addressing men's health is crucial for the wellbeing of individuals and families and promoting open conversations and reducing stigma. We can encourage more men and fathers to seek help if they need it. Also, you know, there's lots of organizations, the Giving Kitchen. Giving Kitchen has opportunities. They can point you in the right direction. givingkitchen.org. Core, you're gonna hear us talk about Core in this episode. Core Gives, coregives.org. Big Tables, another one. You call any, look up any of these people and just raise your hand, ask for help. It's the hardest thing that you can do. Once you do that, once you climb that mountain and you ask for help, the sky's the limit. You can do anything from that point forth, but it won't get better if you don't address what's going on inside of you today.

17:08And it's easy for me to talk about it on a podcast. I get it, I get it. But I love each and every one of you. I end every episode and I say, love you guys, bye, because this is a very special community. These are very special people out there and we are a mixed bag. Restaurant industry, people come from all walks of life. Nobody knows what anybody else is going through until you raise your hand and say, hey, I'm going through some stuff. I need some help. So that's my take away, hopefully. Hopefully it helped, I don't know. Hopefully you have the courage and the strength to say, I'm not okay. Because there's a lot of times I'm not okay. And that's when I reach out and I ask for help. And it's amazing how much help helps. So, okay, we're gonna jump in with Christine Myles. We're gonna change the tone of this. Again, prayers for all of Speedy's friends and family. And yeah, it's been a tough week.

18:12And if ever there's a time, reach out, ask for help. All right, let's jump in right now with Christine Myles. Super excited today to welcome in Christine Myles. Christine is the owner of Myles Hospitality Marketing. And I love it because your last name is M-Y-L-L-S. My last name was S-T-Y-L-L. So we have that Y-L-L thing going on together in our last names. That is correct. Y is the vowel. Y is the vowel. Yes, it is. It is. Is that when sometimes Y and W is a vowel? I've only heard Y as the vowel. Sometimes Y? Yeah, yeah. Okay, so that's it in my last name, Y is a vowel. Yes, you're just now figuring this out. I never understood that. I didn't know when Y was a vowel and now it's in my name. Yeah.

19:12Wow, okay. Well, see, that's why this is fun, the way you do things like this. Already learning something. You know, it's weird how some things, I had this table the other day and they were sitting at table 11, or it was a family of five and they walked in and they had table 11 and I said, hey folks, it was like Mother's Day or something. And I said, welcome in. They said, yeah, we're the Johnson family. And I said, great, I have a table. Actually, can we sit outside? And I said, sure. And so I took them outside and I said, you can pick any, you're the first table, pick any table you want outside and they picked table 101. Okay. And so I thought that was interesting that they were scheduled for table 11 and then they picked table 101. So I walked them back and I said, oh, you chose table 101. They go, yeah. Okay. Like whatever, dude. And I said, it's interesting cause, and I never, I don't know why I said this, but I said, you were originally scheduled for table 11 and then you picked table 101, the first table in the restaurant and the first table outside. And I go, it's just a lot of ones.

20:13And I don't know why I said that to you. And the guy goes, you know what's even more interesting? And I said, what's that? He goes, we got married on 111.11 at 1 p.m. Stop it. At 1 11 p.m. Stop it. And I said, shut up. And he goes, no, that's when we got, we got married on 111.11 at 1 11 p.m. And I said, that's crazy. It's crazy. Like those little things sometimes in life that just like, what? Cause it went from kind of this like awkward moment, you feeling like, oh, this is, I don't know why I'm telling you that this is table one. I'm just saying ones all over the place. I don't know why. There's just a lot of ones here with you guys. I don't know what the deal is with that. And the guy was like, it's our thing. That's crazy. Crazy. That's crazy. Those little moments in the world where you're like, what the hell just happened? Why did this happen? Yeah. And so Y is a vowel.

21:14Look at how I learned that Y is a vowel. All right. Christine, you just now went to Meg. Yes. And the NRA show. Yes, that is correct. National restaurant. Restaurants, not rifles. That is correct. Restaurants, not rifles. That's right. It gets confusing to people. Well, I was gonna do the Nashville Restaurant Alliance, but that was another NRA and I didn't want the confusion. So I added the area, the Nashville Area Restaurant Alliance. And now it's NARA instead of NRA. Yes. Okay. And I'm sorry. I just noticed that your hat, you have a NARA hat. And I was like, what is going on with that? Yeah. Okay, I'm with you now. It's supposed to bring your attention. Now it's a thing. Yes. It's upside down and backwards. Yes, it is upside down in the basket for people who can't see it. He's wearing a hat that says NARA, upside down and backwards. And it's, you notice it. You absolutely notice it. Marketing. Hey now. Yeah. So you do marketing for restaurants. And full disclosure, you do restaurant marketing for us and our restaurants at Green Hills Grill, Marable and Chago.

22:18So we spend a lot of time together. Yes, we do. And I think you're amazing. Oh, thank you. You're one of my favorite people we work with. Thank you. You create no drama. I try. It's the favorite thing about somebody. Don't create drama. You're good in my book. On top of everything else. So a little bit of background from you. What have you spent the last 25 years, 30 years doing? My entire career. My entire professional career has been in hospitality marketing, restaurant marketing. Specifically, I was with the J Alexander's Holdings, which is J Alexander's restaurants. They have been recently purchased a couple years ago by SPB Hospitality. But I led their marketing department for the past 25 years. So you led the marketing at J Alexander's for 25 years. Yes. Now full disclosure, there are whopping, there was me for a long time and then one other person. So it's not like it was a huge team, but we were small but mighty. You led the team. The team was, you were the team. I was the team for a long period of time. Yes. I love it. And then when they got purchased, they just said everybody on the C-suite is gone.

23:21Right? Is that how that worked? It wasn't everybody, but it was a lot of people. Yes. They just took an ax and said, thank you for your service. Yeah. Which is very common in when, you know, that's and totally they're right. When a company comes in and says, we, you know, we're going, you know, Different direction. I don't even know a different direction, but just, you know, we have people to do that already. And so, you know, and that's, they were a very large company that a very full marketing department. And so, but yes, they, they came in and kind of first day, got rid of a lot of people. So yeah. So I met you because you, you volunteer a lot of time with CORE. Yes. Children of restaurant, but that's changing. Tell me how it's changing. Oh, we haven't done an official announcement yet, but yes. Okay. Nevermind. Children of restaurant employees, CORE, you launch a lot of time. Cause that's something very special to you. It is absolutely. They, we are, I'm just gonna, we're CORE gives now, instead of CORE, CORE gives because it more accurately describes what we do.

24:24And we are a national nonprofit that gives financial grants to food and beverage service families. So something very similar. Another, I know you are very involved with giving kitchen, similar programs. We are more focused on a, on the family level as compared to the individuals. So there does have to be a dependent child under the age of 18 in order to get a, to qualify for a grant, but very similar program as to what giving kitchen is, is that if there's some kind of crisis that this, the server is going through, we want to help them out and make sure that they can, you know, bridge that gap until they can get back to work. And so we'll give financial grants. Server, restaurant manager, anybody, right? Or is it just our? It's primarily hourly, front of the house, back of the house. Okay. I mean, it probably depends also on the circumstance as far as like we're doing a lot with the California wildfires still. And so there's a lot of people that, you know, lost their homes, lost their businesses. And so that we might take a, you know, things are different for those circumstances, but primarily we help out front of the house, back of the house, hourlies.

25:30I love that. And I do talk a lot about giving kitchen because I love them and they, I just love helping restaurant people. 100%. And so core as another, another core gives is another just amazing tool for people out there. If you do have families and you need help, what's the website that people can look up? Coregives.org. Coregives.org. And that's a way in which you can get assistance if you need help and go check it out. If you're a restaurant manager and you're salaried, go check it out anyway, so that you can understand if you have an employee who needs it, you can direct them there. I think it's really important. Any of these things, big table, core gives, giving kitchen, three organizations I'm a big fan of. Absolutely. And here's the thing too is like, just because you, if you apply for a grant at giving kitchen does not mean you can't apply for a grant at core gives. It's just, we're all here to help. And so, you know, look at all of us, let's work together. Yeah, let's get you the support and the help that you need. 100%, absolutely. I love that. Okay.

26:31I also wanted to say thank you because you've been a big supporter of me and this podcast and you've been to so many different events with me and you're all over the place and you take a lot of pictures. I just want to say it means a lot to me how much you've supported this podcast and me in general throughout all of this. You're just truly an amazing person. It means a lot to me. Thank you, I appreciate that. And sending the love right back at you. I appreciate for what you do. And also for what you do for the restaurant community because I love restaurants. I love hospitality. Hospitality industry is one of the only industries where people can start working as a bus boy or as a, you know, a bar back and then go on to create a restaurant empire. And with the, you don't have to go to college. It's just, I just, I love this industry so much. Hard work and dedication can get you everything. Absolutely, and it's fantastic and you're a huge supporter of that, especially for the locals and the little guys. And so I just, I love that. So thank you. You have spirit of service and a work ethic. You can do a lot in this industry.

27:32Absolutely. And I love that aspect of it too, because I'm that guy. Yeah. I didn't graduate college. You know, here's something I did not know that. I did not graduate college. I went straight in and I was 22 years old. I got hired as a manager at Amerigo. Okay. And I moved to Jackson, Mississippi instead of finishing college. I thought I can go work in the industry I wanna do and just start hands-on. It's 22 years old. Yeah. And I haven't looked back. I've just did that and kept going. I'm 46. And there you go. Here you are now. Yeah, it's crazy. Yeah. It's just crazy. And I'm like, I'm like some gigantic success story, but I mean, like I'm doing okay. Hey, you're kind of Mr. Restaurant in Nashville. Well, hey, I don't even know what to say about that. So you went to Meg, which is marketing. Executives group. And it is put on by the National Restaurant Association. It's their restaurant marketing conference. And it is the Wednesday to Friday prior to the NRA show.

28:33The NRA show starts on Saturday. And so a whole slew of restaurant marketers from all around the country showed up on Wednesday. And there was just some of the best restaurant marketers in the world got, were together for conferences and fireside chats and all of the things that you do at a conference. And then that led into the NRA show. And so then I was out there for a couple of days at the NRA show as well. So you called me and you were like, dude, there's so much going on here. This is crazy. So much going on. Every time we go to like the RLC, the Restaurant Leadership Conference or FS Tech, one of these things, you get minds from around the world. And I feel like we live in kind of a bubble here in Nashville. And every time I go, I just get so inspired because there's so many people that are operating restaurants. They're stuck in their restaurants doing their owner operators and they don't have the opportunity to go to these things. So I love sharing these bigger, what is the world doing right now? What is the next big thing? And you have a gigantic list. So this episode today is about what did Christine learn at Meg and the NRA because there's a lot of stuff in here.

29:40So if you have a restaurant or you're somebody who's in the industry and you wanna know what the trends are, what's going on out there, AI is a big deal. I think a lot of people are like, I don't even know what the hell that means. How does AI even work for restaurants? I'm not, everybody's trying to sell this to me, but I don't even know what that means. So where do you wanna start? Sure, well, let's just lead right into that, AI. So again, this was starting right out at the restaurant industry at the Meg conference. AI and hospitality, how do you work? How do you, it's more than just, first of all, let me just say, when I say AI, I'm mainly referring to chat GPT. Everyone can, it's a free site. You can't pay for it, but there's a free level as well. Anyone can use it. And how can you use that to help your restaurant? So there's different ways. If you're just looking for copywriting, absolutely. You can just put in prompts and it'll help you out with some copywriting issues. It can help you out also with some marketing plans and things like that. But they're also taking it to a next level of, okay, we are specifically marketing, let's just say, okay, I'm having a decline in sales.

30:49Why am I having a decline in sales? Well, you can, there's a one case study that we saw where they, forgive me, I'm gonna read this list because they put everything in here. They put in their Placer AI data, which Placer AI is a demographic software that is pretty expensive. Not everyone has access to it, but in this case, it's a chain they did. Experian reports, again, demographic data. They're raw sales data. They're P&Ls, they're PMICs, guest data, guest sentiment feedbacks. They're social media interactions. They went and scrubbed all of their social media, put it in a file, dumped it into ChatGPT. Well, this is something I don't think, I'm gonna pause, this is something I don't think people realize you can do. And I pay for ChatGPT because I like Chat, when I log into ChatGPT, I want ChatGPT to remember every single thing that I put in there because it is a learning, it learns all of your stuff. So if it's, I pay for it because when I type in there, I don't wanna just do the free one and it's like, who are you again?

31:52Like, I want it to know, oh, hi, Brandon. You, it remembers everything I've ever asked it. So I can go in there and say, hey, ChatGPT, will you scrub Yelp reviews and tell me the number one issue that I have over the last six months? The number one thing that was a complaint. Can you tell me the number one thing that guests loved or my average? And it will look through all of your reviews in like 10 seconds and tell you everything you need to know. It's that type of stuff, but keep going. I just didn't even know if people knew they could do that. That's an excellent point, yes. So yeah, all of that, those types of things, they basically took every piece of data that they could find on this particular restaurant and put it into ChatGPT. And again, it's the sales data. It's the trends, all of that. And then they said, okay, the prompt was, we want you to diagnose the reason for declining sales and we want you to analyze our guest retention, demographic data and our marketing effectiveness.

32:54And then we want you to create a data-driven 90-day marketing plan to drive a 5% increase in same store sales. And it did it. Did it tell you the solution? Yes, it found out that they were, their issues were top of funnel marketing. They weren't getting enough first-time guests in there. And then once they got their first-time guests in there, they were having trouble with retention coming back. So really, they were like, well, there's obviously something, one, in our marketing, that we're not getting that first-time guests coming in. So what do we need to do to fix that? But then two, if they're not coming- Once we get the first-time guests, how do we make them repeat guests? And so that's obviously, that's something that's operational and that they need to work on operationally. So yeah, and that's, they're implementing it. It was successful. And they started turning things around. And so it's just, that used to take a very long time and a lot of trial and error to find out exactly what was going on.

33:54And- Well, that's the thing with AI right now is that there's a new system we're testing. It's called Zignal. And not a sponsor or anything, but it's a new scheduling software, but it's also does forecasting and notes and all these different things. A schedule shouldn't be that hard. But the problem with data, every day we're just creating data right and left. Restaurants are just data creation machines. Absolutely. And I think that's the thing that local restaurants miss, is that there is just data being poured in right and left all day long. And if you use a system like Toast or any kind of cloud-based system, there's a lot of AI that will take this information and tell you what it means. Absolutely. You can dream up any report, which in the past would take a team of people. Absolutely, you'd have data analysts of like, let's look at this and how, absolutely. And then as far as our marketing, it's like, well, let's test this and see, is this what's not working or is this not working?

35:01And so now it's just kind of there. I mean, they're using it to create entire menus. They're using it to create LTOs, which is a limited time offerings. They're using it to create, okay, these are our guests. This is our guest base. We created a catering program. Who of our current guest base would be best to promote to for catering sales? And so they're using it for guest segmentation as far as it's really a very powerful tool. And again, my case study was a larger chain. They have some things like Placer AI that probably a local restaurant isn't going to use, but you can still use these tools to your advantage, absolutely. Like you said the other day, Placer AI is like 12 grand a year, right? So that's like a thousand dollars a month. And I think to the layman or anybody in the world, you go a thousand dollars a month, that's really expensive. And then you go, well, if it can write my menu and it can write my schedule and tell me all this information and I can gain.

36:07How much do you pay a manager a month? Well, okay. You know, I mean, like how much do you, these are things that you can really supplement and you can get big ROI on. Yeah, well, real quick, Placer AI is a demographic software. So that's what was 12,000 a month. And don't, that might have changed. That was about a year ago that I looked at pricing on that. Okay, well, I don't know. I mean, just. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But that's not what's, that's not, it's a tool to help you with these decisions. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you're talking about like, if we enter in every recipe for everything on our menu. Yeah. Right? So we have every recipe for everything. You put it in a toast or whatever your third back office software is. And then you upload that in a chat GBT and say, I need five menu items that are this, this, that are proteins or an appetizer or an entree or whatever it is. And I don't want to bring in any new ingredients, make them with the ingredients that I currently have. It will scrub every ingredient that you currently have in the restaurant and make you a menu based around, this is what we currently have.

37:08So if you just want to mix things up a little bit, you're like, hey, I have a Mexican restaurant or I have a fine dining restaurant or I have a fast casual restaurant. I need five menu items. These are the ingredients that I already have. It'll mix them up and then bam. And then you can tweak those things to the way you like them. But I mean, just for ideas, I mean, shit, if you could get eight to 10 new menu items in three minutes. And not have to bring in any more, any more new menu items. I mean, that's, yeah, absolutely. And then- No more new ingredients? No more new ingredients. And you can look at your guest, your guest action, like how, who's gonna order this? Is this going to be a popular menu? Not just, oh, I have the ability to make this, but yes. Will somebody buy this? Will somebody buy this? And based on their past purchases, they are statistically more likely to buy this item than this item. And see, this is the thing that scares the shit out of me because local restaurants don't do this per se. Like not everybody, I mean, we don't necessarily even do this and we're a relatively larger three restaurant group.

38:16But I mean, like if you have one restaurant and you're in their hustle and trying, you're not doing this. But every single chain in the world is doing this. If they're not doing it, they're going to, absolutely. Every chain, because they have the people that are at MEG, that are at NRA looking at this and their job is to figure this stuff out. They're utilizing their data to look at the psychology of their guests and really use that to bring them back in. And that's just, if you wonder why local restaurants are closing and why these chains are coming in and how can they afford that? Well, because they're cheating. They're cheating. It's not cheating. It's not cheating. It's not cheating. But like, it's- It's an advantage. Way advanced than what you're going around shaking hands and wishing, thanking people and creating these great menu. I'm not saying you need to have chat, you need to make your menu. I think having a chef do that brings a lot of heart and it's the whole thing. But there's a lot of opportunity out there that doesn't take a lot of time, but you have to spend the time to figure out what you want to do.

39:21Which is why we're here to kind of go, hey, look, we've spent some time to look at this stuff and just to even let you know that this is a possibility. And that's really what it is. And it doesn't, again, you don't have to have all of the things, but you have a P-Mix. You have a P&L. I'm assuming you have some kind of guest data of some sort. If you use OpenTable or Rezzy or Toast, you have a lot of guest data. You have more than what you probably think and just put it up in chat GPT. See what comes up. Well, you know, we use Bickey. We do use Bickey. And Bickey. Love Bickey. Is another thing that can help you own your guest data. And we're not talking about stealing guest data. We're just talking about guest purchasing behavior. Absolutely. When they come in, how often they come in. Is this a first time guest? Is this the 50th time guest? What are they ordering when they come in? And if you have that information, that's where the remember me, one of our core values is remember me and it's understanding when the guest comes in, what are they, what is their preference?

40:21And recognizing that, hey, you've spent a good amount of money here and a good amount of time here. We should know a lot of this information about you. And every time we have a regular guest that we say, it's your first time in? It just crushes it. And it's like, we need to know this. We need to know this stuff. Right. And it's also just using going back to Bickey real quick. And honestly, I'm wondering if chat GPT can probably maybe come up with some of this data too, if you don't want to pay for Bickey. But when like we know Wednesday night at one of our restaurants, that is the night that if you come in as a first time guest on a Wednesday night, you are statistically more likely to come back than any other night of the week. Okay, well, why? Figure that out, why? You know, and it's like, you need to look at that and be like, okay, is that because, well, we have special events on other nights or is it because there's a server who's fantastic and that server is the one who's bringing people in is because do you have a special happy hour or something like, but it's just, it's information that it's great to look at. And, you know, there might be an obvious reason as to why that is, but there also might not be.

41:25So you might want to figure out what it is. And so you can replicate that on other nights. You want my hypothesis on that exact thing. I know that's not what we're talking about. Sure. Y'all today we are talking as always about SuperSource. And you know, one cool thing about SuperSource is did you know that they develop most of their cleaning products and chemicals in their in-house facility. They're environmentally conscious and only use dyes that are safe for the employees and the environment. They carry a number of products for keeping your dishes, flatware, services, floors, restrooms, laundry, basically your entire facility clean, bright and smelling and feeling new. This is just one of the many reasons SuperSource is taking over this city for dish machine and chemicals. You need to call Jason Ellis. His number is 770-337-1143. And he would love it if you would give him a call and let him come down and just check out your operation, meet him, say hi, see if there's any way he can help.

42:27He is here to help you succeed. That's Jason Ellis with SuperSource, 770-337-1143. Sharpier's Bakery is a locally owned and family operated wholesale bakery, providing bread to Nashville's best eateries. They have operated in Nashville since 1986. Yes, next year will be 40 years. They providing high quality fresh bread daily for restaurants, catering companies, hospitals and universities. Their bread is also free from any preservatives and artificial flavors. They're right off of White Bridge Road. Erin Mosso and her team been doing this for a long time. And you know what I love about them is that they're local and they care. They care about your business. That's like the number one thing you're gonna hear me talk about is, do they care about your business? And I 100% believe that they do. If you would like to be working with a bakery that cares about your business, give them a call. 615-356-0872.

43:31That's 615-356-0872. Now you can always visit them at sharpier.com. That's C-H-A-R-P-I-E-R-S.com. And they have pictures of all of the bread that they can have for you and contact information. Go check them out, Sharpier's Bakery. Calexo is an art and design collective of BIPOC, LGBTQ, women and allies focused on creating delightful drinking opportunities for all, focusing on quality, taste and experience. We delight humankind by creating delicious and health-conscious drinking experiences that shift perspectives, encouraging real-life connection to ourselves and our communities. Cheers. This is what Calexo says on their website. They have three amazing flavors. They have the cucumber citron, five milligrams of hemp-derived THC, citrus rose, which also has five milligrams of hemp-derived THC, and they have my personal favorite, the semi-tropic.

44:34It has five milligrams of hemp-derived THC as well. These products are available by a Lipman Brothers, if you'd like to order them for your restaurant, or if you wanna go try them yourself, you can visit drinkcalexo.co, or you can pick them up at Killjoy in East Nashville. This is an amazing company. They're not some conglomerate who's jumping into the THC game. They are a craft THC beverage company where just like you and I, this is their only focus. This is the only product that they make. So they put 100% of their detail and love into it. Please enjoy responsibly. You want my hypothesis on that exact thing? I know that's not what we're talking about, but. Sure. Well, I think Wednesday night's the night where people just, it's hump day, it's the middle of the week, and if you're a family, by that time you're like, I'm tired, I don't wanna cook dinner, let's go out to eat. So you have the most local people coming out to dine in your restaurant on that night. It's not Friday or Saturday, it's not date night, it's a, we're just hungry, where are we gonna go? And if you can execute really well on that night, then people will come back because, oh, we were just hungry for dinner and man, that was great.

45:40Let's go do that again. And I'll bet it happens more on Wednesdays the other day. Tuesday night, businesses, people fly into town. Monday, Tuesday is like the big night to go out. Tuesday and Thursday night, because it's not Friday night, that's the business cycle nights, Tuesday and Thursday night. Wednesday night is like the night for locals to go out. And then those are the people, if you execute well on those nights, that will come back on a more regular basis. That's a very good hypothesis. Yeah, sure. It's my hypothesis. And it's a good one. Yeah. Okay. Okay, so let's- I would imagine Sunday night too, but probably Wednesday, then Sunday, if I was guessing. We can go back and look at the dinner and find out. All right, what's the next thing? The next thing for Meg, this was, I have feelings on this one. Marketing is entertainment. So the- I smell reels coming in here. TikTok is about to happen. Well, here's the thing. The CEO of Liquid Death was one of the keynote speakers. And I don't know if, I would think everyone here is familiar with Liquid Death.

46:44I know I am. Yes, it's- I love it. It's a water, it's a great water. I love it. It's great. I don't know if it's great, it's just convenient. Well, and their marketing is amazing. Now, again, he's not a restaurateur. He's a product marketer, and his background was in advertising. However, one of the things that he said was, marketing is easy, entertainment is hard. And which is kind of a bold thing to say in a conference room full of restaurant marketers. But I get his point because with TikTok, with reels, with all of that, with, it's so much more than just, than just, here's our restaurant. It's, you need to entertain people in order to get their attention and in order to stand out in a world that's full of everyone's making reels and everyone's doing everything. And so it is hard. It's hard to find that, to create that story, to like, to really stand out and to entertain people in order enough to capture their attention.

47:50Now, why I kind of have issues with this is because it, and I'm old school. I believe the best marketing actually is within the four walls. And so you need to do what you need to do. The kind of the feeling that I kind of got out of the talk was if you have enough entertainment, it doesn't really matter what your product is. And that made me very sad because I grew up, mentioned before, I came from the Jay Alexander School where my old CEO, Lonnie Stout, was very much, you know, it's four walls. It's what, it's, the guest experience is above everything. And in fact, we didn't have a huge marketing budget. You know, we didn't do, you know, I was famous back in the day, if people would call and say, hey, do you want to advertise here? And I'd be like, we're a non-advertising concept because we were so focused in what was going on within the four walls. That worked for Jay Alexander. It did. Because your consistency of everything was perfect.

48:52And it's very, very, very hard to do that. But that's a whole nother thing. But yeah, so I personally think that, you know, people need to make sure that what is going on, because what I'm finding is that there are restaurants who come to me and they're like, oh, we need TikTok, we need this, we need that. And I'm like, I can't get my meal. You can't serve me something that's, my salad was wrong. And for the record, I am not including our three restaurants in here. This is other experiences that I've had with people where I'm like, you know, my chicken sandwich was burnt. I don't think you need to worry about a TikTok channel because you can't get your food quality, you know, your food's not correct. My order's not correct. My server took 12 minutes to get to my table. Work on that rather than working on, you know, following the latest TikTok trends. So that's the thing that just kind of, that's what gets me. I want people to work on what's in the restaurant.

49:53Well, I mean, look, there's several different schools of thought there. And I tend to think about Red Bull. Yes, yeah. Red Bull, they came out and they've said that there's been a million different soda brands and nobody's been able to topple Coke. But these people came out with, all the focus groups said that the drink tasted like piss. They said, this is terrible. And then they served it in a smaller can and they charged four times as much for it. And that's the product that beat Coke. And if you look at Red Bull's marketing, none of it is somebody drinking the drink, nothing. It's all branding around what this drink does for you, it's Red Bull people jumping off of cliffs. It's the fluged hog. It's the guy in a helicopter jumping over a thing. It's the motorbikes. It's like, Red Bull gives you wings. Sure. And all of it comes back to this drink.

50:55Then now it's synonymous with extreme sports and going above and beyond what you're supposed to do. And this drink is that, so I mean, that's the one, I mean, that's the one thing that's like, marketing is entertainment. That's entertainment watching that. But then it's associated with, that's the thing that allows you to do it. Right. It's brilliant. Oh, totally agree. And again, it's a different situation though with restaurants and that is a consumer product. But you are absolutely correct. It's an idea. Right. Their marketing is people doing these crazy stunts and jumping from space and doing all these, and it's an entertainment channel. And that's how Liquid Death, they have some of the best commercials. It's fantastic. It's just- I don't think I've ever seen one. They do more like online social. I say commercials, it's more online on YouTube as well. Like I said commercial and I don't mean that as like a TV, not on TV. But you know, we've thought about for Chagos doing like a real, like a, as the world turns, like a dramatic series on TikTok for like servers being goofy and like, but doing stuff.

52:05And that doesn't have to do with our food or anything. But I think that that's what draws engagement. And that's the, in a world that's crowded, full of pictures of food and basic stuff, like what people are looking for is what's gonna draw me in that's gonna make me engage, that makes me wanna be part of what you're doing. Right. And here's, I, I do wanna say, I'm kind of talking broadly when it comes to things, but I agree that would be something fun. And I restaurant, yes, have fun with your restaurants and your reels and all of that. I'm not trying to say, no, don't do that. My thing is I, I don't like it when restaurants don't have what's going on within the four walls going. So that's great. I think Bar Taco, and I don't, I'm not trying to talk smack about somebody, Bar Taco is busy as hell. Yeah. And they have this model where you go in and you scan your food and do a little thing. But like, I don't know their marketing, but the perception based around their marketing is this is a cool happening place and this, but like, I think 90% of people that I know that go to Bar Taco are like, it's so frustrating to go there.

53:14Because of the- All of the stuff. It's just, it's just cumbersome to eat there, which is, I don't know. I'm not, I'm not trying to poo poo Bar Taco, but that's where entertainment and a brand and a vibe, when you could focus on how do you make that experience much better. But again, it's the entertainment, so it doesn't really matter, I guess. Well, and it also depends on- And there's a patio and location. It depends on, that's the thing. It's your location. It's, you know, I don't know Barton. I don't know their numbers. They are very busy here. I don't know if that's a nationwide thing. You know, I don't, I don't know. But if you deal with a lot of tourists, then you're not really worried about people coming back. So that's something as well. I'm more referring to, and I say things like, it's more of a local restaurant. Well, it can be a national too, but it's like a local restaurant that depends on returned guests. That it's just, make sure that your four walls are cleaned up before you worry about your TikTok channels and doing all these videos and stuff like that.

54:15It's fun. I know why people want to do it. It's a lot of fun. But- Or if you have somebody that can do that and it's free and it's seamless, and you have like a kid on your team who's like, I love doing that and they can just do it. Marvelous. Sure, yeah. It's just, yeah, focus on what's going on as well. Focus on the AI and how you're gonna knock all this stuff out. Yes, okay. So onto the next thing, kind of sort on thing, micro influencers. Let's talk about influencers. Let's talk about micro influencers. So everyone knows influencers come in. Love or hate them. Love or hate them. They're a thing. They're here. They are here. They are not going anywhere. And even if you don't have a budget for them, you can still utilize influencers by using micro influencers. Because we know not every restaurant can pay $3,000 to have someone that has 100,000 followers come in and do a reel on their restaurant. That's a lot of money for a 60 second ad, quote on good.

55:17So yeah, use micro influencers. You can get people that have 2,000, 3,000 people that follow, you know, they're friends. One of the big takes out was everyone is an influencer. So one, treat your guests like they're an influencer because you don't know how many followers they have on their Instagram. And you might have just have a random person coming in, eating on a Tuesday afternoon that happens to have 50,000 followers and they can take a picture of your food and it can go crazy. So one, treat everyone like they are an influencer. Make sure every dish that goes out is perfect. Yes. I'm a big fan of make it right or make it twice. Yeah. I don't care how busy you are. Just because you're busy doesn't mean that you don't have to clean this out of the plate or that we're just putting this on here. We gotta just sell it or my three least, that's not my job and just sell it are my like worst phrases I hear in a restaurant. Yeah, yeah. Because right, who wants to be served ugly food?

56:19I mean, there aren't, don't get me wrong. There's actually some food that like is supposed to be kind of like not great, but still tastes delicious. That's a different, that's a different thing. But yeah, so yeah, you wanna make your food look nice. But also if to really lean into it, get people who are those micro influencers who are willing to come in and dine with you for a free meal or depending on your price point, you can give them a bunch of $10 coupon. So they just keep coming back and doing it. Every time they come in, they do a poster reel and then one, you're gonna be using that content again. And then they're sending it out to their followers as well. One little trick that I thought was interesting is that someone was saying they, anytime someone did a five star review, the restaurant would reach back out to them and say, hey, do you want, would you mind coming back in and we'll give you a free meal. And instead of doing a review, do a post. Yeah. So that way you're, again, it's micro influencing.

57:19You get a bunch of people and you're losing your food costs, sucking up a meal, but you get that exposure. So you know what I think is a real, similarly, when you present a check to somebody, and this is something that I love to do at Merle, I did it last night. Something I do is I drop the check to somebody and go, thank you so much for coming in this evening. I hope everything is wonderful. Would you guys like me to take a picture of you? Ask them if you can take a picture of them with their phone and they, when do people go out to eat? There's not a selfies, whatever, but if you say as a server or a manager, whoever, hey, can I take a picture before you go? And they go, yeah. And then they both get in there and you take a photo of a nice clean table with them at the end of the meal and say, just make sure to tag us when you post that online. If every server does that and you get a picture of everybody sitting at their tables, if 20% of those people make a post that says, what an amazing meal we had last night at Merle Bowl. This was great. And then all of a sudden, that's compounding interest.

58:22And when I was at Team Heidi and I interviewed the woman who's in charge of marketing for Tzikis, and I said, what's the biggest bang for your buck? And she said, influencers. She goes, influencers are what we're doing because print is kind of dead. Radios, people are listening to podcasts now. They're not listening to just the general radio and it's not a captive audience. She said, but people follow influencers. And I think this is an important thing. I was down on influencers. I was like annoyed by influencers because these people want free food. What, so you can post online about it? This is the dumbest shit. And this is a boomer response, right? I don't understand why people take, people, you gotta do hard work and these people just wanna take pictures of food and make all this money. And it's like, hey, they have 20,000 followers. They have 5,000, they have 10,000 followers. Line up 10,000 people who specifically follow somebody because of their take on food. Now here's the difference. If I'm Janie whatever, and I'm from Idaho and I'm coming in on a bachelorette party and I call you and I say, we're all coming in and we want free food, we'll post about it.

59:31That's not necessarily what we're talking about. We're talking local influencers. People in Nashville, Delia Jo Ramsey who's in restaurants all the time and she's posting and people follow her and they go where she said. Inviting those people and even paying them money but like inviting them in for a free meal to take pictures and create a reel for you and then posting about it, there's massive ROI in that. Don't sleep on that. Use these people and you're saying it doesn't have to be 50,000 followers, 2,000 followers, 3,000 followers. Invite those people in also because they're growing and when you show them some love, that lasts for a while. All of a sudden, this isn't only what people are showing online. There's a lot of people they talk to every day. We talk about the experience of a guest, a good experience, how many people they're gonna tell when it was great versus how many people are gonna tell when it's bad.

01:00:32You bring an influencer in who does influence people and they have a great time. They're not only gonna post about it, they're gonna go tell all their friends about it too. And I mean, there's just big upside to that. And that's the whole thing. Again, word of mouth marketing is the most important marketing that you can get and this is just kind of an extension of that where, yeah, I mean, you might have to sweeten the pot a little bit for them to come in. You're kinda like, okay, here's your free meal to come in but you're absolutely right. If they have a great experience, they're going to tell, they're gonna post but they're gonna also tell their friends and family and be like, no, this place is legit and it's really good and you really need to go there. One way to do these is from my influencer events. And if you work with a PR company, Diana Barton does a great job at this, hosting different events for influencers where they close a restaurant for that when you're opening but they'll invite all the influencers in and have a special spread for them. So it's not like you gotta buy a $250 meal for them.

01:01:32You bring in 20 at a time, they all get to hang out and talk together and then you have a bunch of food that they get to try and drinks and then you get 20 reels in a week and that's just, and you gotta be ready because that's when it's all gonna start moving. There's a lot of different ways that you can do it but I love that you talked about influencers because I mean, like it or hate it. They're here. They're here and there's a ton of ROI on it and you know what? These are people that wanna learn about your food and care about your food. Local influencers. Local influencers. If you live in Montana, I really don't care how many followers you have because they're not gonna be coming to my restaurant on a regular basis. That's exactly right. So that's just my take. I don't care. Well, if your take is, well, people in Montana come to Nashville and I want them to hear about me first, then great. Whatever it is, I don't. Exactly, because a lot of people you have to look at, who's your guest base? You know, if you're a downtown bar where you get a lot of tourists, well, okay, that might be something else that you wanna do. 100%. But you know, for a local establishment. For a Brentwood restaurant or a Green Hills restaurant or you know.

01:02:36That caters to the locals, then yes, you want those local ones. East Nashville. Right, right. And again, and the main point is you don't have to spend a lot of money to have influencers come in because there are some people who pay, who charge a lot of money and they get it. I mean, I'm not saying they're not worth it. It's just a lot of people don't have that in their budget. And so this is a way to get involved with influencers without spending a lot of money. Yeah. Yeah. I love going into restaurants and doing that for free. Yeah. I wanna pay for my food because I wanna support you, but also I wanna share about you too. So I mean, let me know if you want me to come in and eat. You know, well, there's some places like the Nolensville Road, like Nolensville. Sure. Where ICE has been in. I met with a guy last night and he said, their business is down 90%. Wow. 90% over there in Nolensville Road because people are afraid to drive at night. They don't, guests, they won't come out.

01:03:38And these are people that are locally owned and operated restaurants that are just like, it's a ghost town because everybody's afraid of ICE. Yeah. And it's, which is a whole nother topic. Right. I'm just saying this. If you're thinking about a place to go out to eat tonight, go to Nolensville Road and go support those people cause they need some help right now. A lot of those restaurants over there are really dying because of this. Yes. Totally agree. It's my little PSA. That's okay. One other thing, just real quick with kind of going back into influencers and this is more for user generated content, which is similar to influencers where that's more planned, but user generated is the people who just, they just come into your restaurant. They're not necessarily invited in to make a reel for you. They're your diners who come in and just post because they like whatever. Pay attention to what they're posting about because you might not notice. You might think, hey, I really love my XYZ appetizer, but all these people are starting to post about the, you know, whatever, the different appetizer.

01:04:50RST appetizer. Exactly, exactly. Appetizer. And maybe it's like that, it was interesting because George Felix is the CMO of Chili's and he was talking about how they were, they started just watching what people were posting about and they started making menu changes based on what people were posting about. And it's like, they were talking about like these cheese sticks. They had these cheese sticks on their menu forever. And all of a sudden it's become like a trend. And because it started out with just people in the restaurants posting that because it's fun. They do like the fun little cheese pull and stuff like that. And they leaned into it and started, you know, leaning into it on the, you know, in the menu and their marketing. And so now it's a thing. But, and it's something that's been on the menu for a long time. So, I mean, it's just something, things that you as the restaurateur think might be, this is what my guests like, maybe, but it might not. It might be that there's a little niche here who's having a good time with it over on social media and you can take advantage of that.

01:05:54And so just pay attention to what they're posting about and, you know, you might wanna change your marketing because of it. Very excited to be partnering with C&B Linen. If you know me, it's my number one topic of conversation is linen companies and how shady linen companies can be. I am just disgusted with how the business practices work in this industry, which is why I was so excited when I found C&B Linen. They're out of Waynesboro, Tennessee and they don't charge any fees. So the linen price that you have, whatever that first linen price is, that's your price. And so you may say, well, every year they must raise the price on this seven year contract, right? No, because they don't do any contracts. There's no gas fees. There's no clean green service fees. There's no replacement cost. There's nothing. The only price you pay is the price that you pay for the actual product.

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01:09:04Yes, this is a true thing. So pick it up. Find liquor stores everywhere. Look for Black Sheep Tequila or order it today through Ajax Turner. One of my favorite things about Bickey is understanding what dishes make guests come back. How, what people order and how fast they come back after they order it. And I think it's interesting how you describe an item on a menu. So you may have a pork chop that when you describe it as, this is aged and smoked and it's with a black strap drizzle and this and this. And you're like, whoa. You read it and you're like, that sounds amazing. And you sell a ton of it and you're like, this is my number one seller. This is our gold star. But then you look at Bickey and you go, man, when people order the pork chop, they don't come back. And then you go, maybe it's not that good. Just because you described something on a menu and it should be really good and people order it a lot, doesn't mean that they love it and they wanna come back and eat it again.

01:10:04And that is a really interesting part of Bickey to look at your guest behavior because at Green Hills Grill, the best burger in Green Hills, our hamburger there, which is the best seller, but it's by far the thing that brings people back. For their, if they're a first time guest and they eat the burger five times more in the next item, they will come back faster to eat the, to just come back in the restaurant if they have the burger, but maybe they tried the burger and they wanted to try something different, but that's the item that brings people back the fastest. I don't need to change that. I could probably raise the price on that. But the fish taco, that is the one that's like the longest and that's a great dish, but maybe I need to rework it because that's the one that takes the, we sell a ton of it, but that's the one that takes the longest people to come back to eat. And she go, oh, that's really interesting. That's how knowing data and looking through and you do that stuff for us. Thank you for that. You're welcome. But yeah, making wise decisions on your menu because of through data.

01:11:06Yeah, it's great. Okay, so moving on. Moving on. And let's talk NRA show. All right, I like it. Okay, so. What's hot right now? What's hot right now? What's hot right now, Christine? Pickles are hot right now. Nice. Pickles are hot. Oh, you're good. Stop it. Stop it, the pickles. Oh, you and your pickles. Yeah, pickles are having a moment right now. And one thing I thought was, is really interesting is that fried pickles are having a moment. Now, we're in the South. We are used to our fried pickles here. I'm like, what's the deal? I love me some fried pickles. I love me some fried pickles with ranch dressing. I'm not. Oh my God. It's so good. Not a thing in other parts of the country. So it is, they are definitely having a moment right now. I spoke to an owner of a Popeyes franchise in Hawaii. And they, one, Popeyes has a pickle menu.

01:12:08But two, he's like, I cannot keep fried pickles on the shelf. It's like, I get them in, they're gone. They are gone. So pickles are definitely having a moment and kind of leaning in. As I said, Popeyes has a pickle menu. They have a pickle lemonade, which- Oh my, I just threw up my mouth. I know, I know. I'm just saying. Sonic. Sorry, I'm having too much fun over here. You really are. Sonic has a pickle jalapeno soda. So it's, and again, I'm saying this. I don't know if it's available here or whatever, but I'm just saying like, these are things that people have tried out. It's pickle stuff. There's a Cheetos, there's a flaming hot dill pickle Cheeto. That sounds good. That sounds fantastic. It could be interesting. Pistachio has a pickled flavor of pistachio. Yeah, I'm in for that too. So there's a lot of like, oh, and here's- I like pickles. Heinz has a pickled flavored ketchup where they're going up against big pickle.

01:13:11They want people to don't put pickles on their burger and they want them to use this, the pickled flavored ketchup. And so I tried it, man. It tastes like ketchup and pickle. Tastes like it needs to be on a burger? Yeah, like it tastes like this. Now I'm not giving up my, you can take, you're not taking my pickles away. I can tell you that right now. But it legitimately tastes like ketchup and pickle. It's bizarre. It's bizarre. We ate at the New Cletus the other night in Bellevue. If you have not been to the New Cletus in Bellevue, you need to go. I've heard amazing things. It is so freaking awesome. Just, I'm gonna set the food aside for a second. Yeah. The nostalgia and what Shane and Angela have done with that building, it makes my heart smile. Like everything inside that restaurant just brings good vibes. Like the vibe in there is immaculate.

01:14:13They have done so good. But they, I think that they do, if I'm not wrong. I didn't, I don't think I got them. I think my wife got it. They have a burger with fried pickles on it. Oh. So it's, instead of just pickles on a burger, it's fried pickles on the burger. Oh, yeah. It's pretty fantastic. Yeah. But all their burgers are so good. And their onion rings are like, I'm an onion ring nerd. Like I'm, that's like my jam. If you have onion rings, I'm getting the onion rings. They're the beer battered onion rings and they are unbelievable. Amazing. Yes. Okay, well there you go. There's my little fried pickles on the hamburger. Isn't it a little? Yeah, well there you go. You're getting two trends right there. Boom. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, so pickles. Pickles are big. They're big, right? What else is hot right now, Christine? We, let's see. Dirty sodas. Oh, no. Dirty soda. Oh, sorry. Okay. Dirty soda. What does that mean?

01:15:13Do you know what a dirty soda is? No. Okay. Dirty sodas are, basically they're using mixology in sodas. So you're taking a soda base and adding, you can customize your sodas with coconut or with, I don't know, just whatever. They have a whole, kind of like a, you know, like the TCBY yogurt bar from back in the day where you like had all the things and you can put it in your yogurt. They're doing that with sodas. It's a dirty. No, not a fan. They're big. Swig, have you heard of swig? Swig is on fire. Swig is on fire. Swig is on fire. Yes. They're big. I totally understand the dirty soda thing. I'm a traditionalist. Hey, you know my first love has died, Dr. Pepper. So I mean. No ice. 100, yes, you know me well. I know your drink. Yes. And we're going like, why does she have no ice in her drink? Because I'm a weirdo. Diet Dr. Pepper, no ice. Room temperature. I'm a straight up Coke guy. Yeah. I like Coke. Sometimes the cherry Coke. Okay, nothing wrong with that. I'm down with the cherry Coke. But I'm a sparkling water. Okay, yeah.

01:16:14I'm a soda water with a lime. Yeah. All day. But that's again, a version of a dirty soda, adding lime to it. Absolutely. I'm just haven't opened. I haven't tried enough. I'm open to it. I'm open to it. But I don't know if I'm going to like incorporate that in my recipe. Well, what's very interesting about it, I found is that Pepsi is leaning into it. They have a concept or it's called drips. Am I correct in that? Drips or drops? It's called drips. Yes. So that's their dirty soda line. Coca-Cola actually had a mixologist at the NRA show who was putting these dirty sodas together. Interesting. As we mentioned, Swig is just going crazy. What is interesting is that McDonald's has recently announced that they are closing. They had a, and I can't believe I didn't write it down and the name is Escaping Me, but they had a concept for dirty sodas and they're closing them. So. Huh. Yes. I thought that was interesting. McCosmos, I think is what it was called. Yeah, I saw that. McCosmos. I've seen that on LinkedIn. Yeah. So they are closing those. So I'm not.

01:17:15That's an interesting thing because you think that McDonald's would be right up there in there as well. But yeah, dirty sodas are definitely, they're a thing. So yeah. And then also we're kind of going back to what we mentioned before with AI, but logical tech is becoming more prevalent. And what I mean by that is like, there was kind of like space agey check over the past couple of years where it's like, oh, this is fun. There's a robot that's delivering me my soda. That's neat. It's a cat that meows when it drops off my food. Right. That kind of stuff. There was some kind of fun, practical, a little more space agey kind of stuff. Well, now they're using AI. And so there's a case study from Wingstop that they have done a smart kitchen. And so what they do is that they are using AI to forecast demand in 15 minute intervals. And it takes data and it has hundreds of data points that they use, including like past sales data. They're using weather. They're using local events.

01:18:15And they put this all in to determine, to forecast how many chicken wings they need to drop at a time and to help with forecasting sales. And so with all of this, it has dropped their weight by half. It went from 20 minutes to 10 minutes. Wow. So yeah. So it's that kind of practical, logical kind of technology as compared to the fun robot kind of stuff. When are they gonna get logical technology and stop asking for tips everywhere? When are you gonna stop asking for tips like everywhere? Yeah. The tipping culture is interesting. And I think it just has a lot to do with just the POS system that they get. It's all technology. It's now that we have technology, we can start taxing our guests. Yeah. I just, I say that because I'm not trying to shit on restaurant workers. Restaurant workers who provide a service deserve what they earn.

01:19:17Yeah. But when you are tipping at the gas pump on your self gas pump, and that's a gross exaggeration, you're tipping everywhere you go. Somebody asked you for a tip. When you do go to the restaurant and you get service, you're exhausted from tipping. Yeah. And you don't leave the tip you used to. Now it's just a straight 20%, whatever I'm done, versus, wow, you really helped curate an entire experience for me. That's a 35% tip. That's gone for the most part, because people are just exhausted with everybody with their handout. And we gotta stop it. Yeah, I'm wondering if, because I'm thinking of situations right now where, again, it's the POS that you just ring something up. You go to the convenience store and you ask for a tip. Can they turn that off? Yeah, they can turn it off. I mean, what's happening is these large corporates, I went to Jason's Deli yesterday, and I liked, I mean, I went to the gym with my 11-year-old, and he was like, Dad, let's go to eat. And I said, no, we're gonna go home. I'm gonna have a protein shake.

01:20:18We're not gonna go out to eat. And he goes, what about Jason's Deli? And I said, damn it, because it's a salad bar, and I can never get salads. But if I make my own salad, I'm like, oh, you know my weak spot. I get a salad bar and I like ice cream. So we went there, but they've never had the tip, and they have a new POS system. And I did the thing and it said, just gonna ask you some questions. And I was like, and I'm gonna go make my own salad. And now they do clean up after you. I mean, I was fine to give them a tip, but like still, it's a now Jason's Deli. It's just these large corporations have realized that labor is the number one thing that's killing them. And so they go, well, we'll just incorporate tipping. I'm doing air quotes. So we'll just incorporate tipping into it. We'll just start taxing our guest. We'll just add it to the end because with a guy standing there looking at you, you can't not- You feel bad. You feel bad, but you're like, this was never a tipped service. Right. And so every time you go now to whatever donut shop and you're like, I'll just have this dozen donuts. They put a dozen donuts in there for you.

01:21:19It's $19 and then they ask you for a tip. And you're like, is this $19 donut just turned into a $24 donut? Yeah. Like why, this isn't, there's no- There's no reason. You didn't curate this for me. I just ordered. I don't know. It bothers me because it affects the people who really provide a service for people. And people are getting tired of it. And I'm not just stop doing that. But like, if you're not gonna pay the labor to give full service and you're gonna do a part-time, you clean your own table, you get your own drink, you make your own salad, you clean up after yourself, then I'm not gonna leave you. That's not- Right. Sorry, it's a whole separate conversation. Right. I agree with you. I'm sorry. I'm gonna hold diatribe. Yeah. Okay. And just my number one favorite thing of the entire show, I've mentioned this to you. Getting the applause ready. Okay. And you know me. This would 100%, no, I'd geek out over this. I met Duke, the baked beans dog. Yes, you did.

01:22:20I did. And if you follow Christine Miles on LinkedIn, you get to see the picture. Yes. He's a good boy. He's a good boy. He's so good. He was so tired. He was actually a very, very, very good dog. He just sat there and posed for pictures for three hours. They did give him breaks and all of that. Like, you know, he's very well- They weren't like zapping him with like a shocker to wake him up or anything? No, but he was definitely, we caught him on the last part of his visit and he was very tired, but he's a good boy. And then you got your little picture and you went visit the baked beans, Bush's baked bean booth. That's a hard thing to say. Bush's baked bean booth? Yes. And they gave you a little stuffed Duke, like a little stuffed animal. It's Duke. So you got to take a little Duke home with you too. That's marketing right there. Marketing. That's marketing. Yeah. Branding. Oh, people were walking. I was stopped by people and they're like, where'd you get that dog? And I'm like, you had to go get a picture with Duke. You can't just show up at the booth.

01:23:20You have to go meet Duke and then you have to go to the booth. And they are on way opposite parts of the pavilion too. Oh, okay. It's a big pavilion. It's the largest convention center in the United States. It is huge. Wow. Yeah. I looked it up to make sure it is the largest in Chicago, McCormick place. It's huge. So yeah, it's nuts. I don't know how much time we have, but... We got a little time in the world, Christine. Okay. Do you want to... If you've got information that's going to help people, then let's share it. I think it will. Let's do some things right now. Some actionable things that local restaurants can do. Cause we've talked about a lot of things that... Do you have like a top 10 or something? I do. What? Yes. I'm just getting really into this thing. I know you're having a lot of fun with that. Yeah. Cause a lot of the things that we learned at Meg and at the NRA are things that affect, you know, restaurant concepts that have hundreds or thousands of locations. And so you might thinking, hey, how can this affect me? I have one location in Bellevue. What can I do? I'm here to tell you probably the number one thing that you can do.

01:24:24And this sounds so basic, but you'd be surprised at how many people don't have this information correct. Hey guys, today we are talking about Robin's Insurance and restaurants carry a very unique set of risks. We can customize a menu of insurance solutions to meet your specific needs. Reviewing the options and developing a plan for restaurant insurance coverage is a perfect recipe. Every restaurant owner has heard the statistics about how tough it is to survive and thrive in the business. But getting adequate insurance at least gives you a fighting chance to mitigate some of those risks. It's well worth considering a custom built restaurant insurance policy, as it'll not only make life simpler, but it may even overcome some risks you haven't even considered. For example, you'll usually want to cover risks to property such as the building and equipment along with liability to customers and staff, right? Yeah, that's easy. But remember, there's an important difference between general liability such as a customer slipping on a spoiled drink and a professional liability such as about a food poisoning from bad food or inadequate preparation. Other elements that are easily overlooked include the risk of fraud and data theft that come with handling cash and card payments, the risk of spoiled food you have to throw away, if there's a power outage or refrigerator failure, and the risk of lost business if you close for repairs after a fire.

01:25:36Protect your restaurant business by contacting them today. It's so easy. And when any of those situations happen, what you don't want to do is get and dial an 800 number and be put on hold to talk to somebody you have to explain your business to. That is why you call Matthew Clements, Matthew Clements at Robin's Insurance. When any of those scenarios happen, you pick up the phone, you dial 863-409-9372. Matthew answers, he goes, how can I help you? You tell him your problem, he's your friend, you know him. Why would you not have an agent that you work with every single day? Any of these situations right here, you need guidance, you need support, and Matthew Clements and his team at Robin's Insurance are there to provide it. You should call him today. I'm gonna put that number down one more time. That's 863-409-9372. Call Matthew Clements today. Make sure your NAP is correct online. What is your NAP?

01:26:36It is your name, your address, and your phone number. Make sure your thing's on your Google profiles, your websites, your Yelps. Claim your Google profile. Claim your Google profile. Make sure your Google profile is optimized to the best of its ability and it will tell you there's a little thing that says, you know, are you green, are you red, are you yellow? You want that optimization to be green because that means that all of the information that people out there are looking for, you are providing it. So make sure your hours of operations are correct. Just make sure that on all the different platforms that that information is consistent and it's correct. And do a quarterly check because, you know what, Google, it's a user-operated platform as well, and so that means that a guest can go in there and say, I thought they closed and they can mark you as closed and you will not know that you are marked as closed. Google will not tell you that, you know, they've changed you to closed until you start getting phone calls. And so, yeah, do random periodic checks on that as well.

01:27:38Okay, that's good stuff. Number one, what's number two? Number two, I'm old school, but I can tell you, I can name a whole bunch of restaurant marketers that will agree with me on this, email marketing. Is it old school? Yes, do you get annoyed at your emails? Yes, but you tell you what, you are reaching guests that want to hear from you. Curate an email marketing list, a database of your true guests and go through it every once in a while. And if you're noticing that people aren't opening it and they're not engaging, clean them off your list. You don't want, just don't build a list to build a list. Build a list of people who are engaged with you. And again, for people out there that say, I get too many emails already, unsubscribe from the ones that you don't want to get. There's a way to solve this. Heard. We do an event every single Thursday night at Maribor. It's called Bulls in Business. Yes, it is. Right? It's a networking event. What was it like last night? It was great. It was so much fun.

01:28:39How many people? 40 people there, 50 people there? I mean, it was crazy last night. I did a live podcast for the Brentwood Chamber and so many business owners, so many people, the first 10 people that were there, I'd say I went and greeted because I kind of host the thing. And I walked over and I said, hey, nice to meet you. Are you part of the Brentwood up chamber? And they went, no, we're a member. We got an email that said you're doing this and we have a business and we thought that would be really fun. So we're here. Yeah. Like everybody, like there's so many people that got an email and came. Yes. They were like, no, we got an email. And they, so many that work. It works. It works. It works. And that's what I know a lot of people, it's not the fun TikTok. It's not fun. It's not sexy, whatever. It's old school, but it works. Especially if you, as I said, you curate your list and just make sure, just clean it up every once in a while. Make sure you're not sending out spam and just don't add people to your list. Make sure the people voluntarily give you their information or and have easy ways for people to sign up for your email list. Big, huge lover of email I am.

01:29:41Just because you are frustrated with your spam email that you get from these things, you can unsubscribe. Like once a month I go through and unsubscribe from like 50 different things. You go to one NRA event and you get on a thousand lists. But it's a, people just because you are tired of those things doesn't mean everybody is. Exactly. A lot of people have assistants that read these things and they go, oh, hey, you may want to go to this. A lot of this stuff does get read and it does drive results. Yeah. And also even if they might not go to, let's say they, you know, Bulls in Business, it's like, oh, well, we didn't make it to that. But like just seeing your name in their sent folder that it's there, it's like, oh yeah, Mayor Bull, I have not been there this month. We need to go make a reservation. It's just also that reminder that you're staying top of mind. Yeah. So yeah. Impulse buy. Impulse, sure. I always say it's the Snickers at the grocery store that you didn't plan on buying, but you were standing in line to check out and you're like, oh, I love Snickers.

01:30:44Yeah, yeah. It's that. There you go. Just putting it right there. Just going to leave this right here for you to see. Yeah. It just plants a little seed in your brain, just brings it top of mind. Absolutely, agree. Social media presence, that's a thing too. And we were talking about it before. It's a necessary, you know, it's necessary. You have to have it. People will look at it to see if you're on Instagram. 99% of people will look you up online before they go eat there. Yeah. So make sure that you are posting regularly. Again, it doesn't have to be, you know, crazy crafted, you know, video reels and all that, you know, do what you can to the best of your ability. Just make sure that it's consistent. And then again, lean into, if you don't have a, you know, a team that can do a lot of that all the time, lean into the user generated content. And we mentioned before, go online, look at Google Photos, look at your reviews. People are posting photos of your food out there somewhere. So take a look, find them, go to Yelp. Exactly, exactly. SMS texting.

01:31:46This is something that may not be appropriate for every restaurant. More fine dining may not be leaning into this, but definitely smaller, I'm sorry, like fast casual, absolutely can. Send out a text. You have, again, similar thing as email. You're collecting, you know, phone numbers for people that want to receive messaging from you, use it. 90% of these emails are, I'm sorry, not emails of the text. People open them. That's a great open rate. So yes, if you have a happy hour going on, and it can be so easily done too, that it's just a quick little test, send it out. You're like, oh, we were doing a special drink right now. Send it out. It's great. It's really good ROI. Local partnerships. So this is something we do, you know, at Green Hills Grill. Do you go have community nights? You just bring the community into your restaurant somehow. Have a give back night. Sponsor events, or you can sponsor 5Ks or something like that outside, but just get involved with your local community.

01:32:47Again, doesn't have to cost a lot of money, but just support your peeps. It's good. It's something that all local restaurants should do. I agree. Yeah, support your peeps. Encourage, this is number seven, by the way, encourage online reviews. Again, we had talked about earlier this week, have a little QR code on a car to have your server can drop off and say, hey, I noticed you had a really good time. Do you mind leaving the official review? Please use my name. Boom. Or there's a great app called Ovation. Ovation, yes. That does a great job at that. Just not a sponsor, but just great, great people. And Zach Oates has been a guest on the show. Go back and find his episode. They have a lot of really good stuff over there at Ovation. Yep. And then number eight, host events within the restaurant. This is a little different from getting involved with the community. I'm talking now about things like karaoke night, trivia night, things like that, things that people will bring, will come to your restaurant specifically to do. Again, may not be a full fit for every restaurant, but you can cater them exactly.

01:33:50Here's an example. Bulls in business. You know, that's bringing people in. It's brought a lot of people in. It's not that they spend a ton of money. We offer free hors d'oeuvres every Thursday night at Mayor Bull in the month of June, and then we're picking it back up in September and October. If you wanna come in and meet local business people with happy hour pricing on drinks and free hors d'oeuvres, we'd love to see you from five to seven. Five to seven, yes. Yes, those type of events, but that's bringing people to our location that we give them 10% off if they stay and have dinner. We had a bunch of tables stay and have dinner last night. It was awesome. Yeah, it's great. And you meet a bunch of really great people. Limited time offers, LTOs. That's something that you can always do. And that's a great reason to send out an email or a text is like, hey. Creates urgency. It creates urgency, absolutely. We need to go do that now. Right, because this is something that's only gonna be here this weekend. We have to go in there this weekend to get this item. Yeah. Absolutely. The McRib is a great example of that. Oh, sure, yeah. Great marketing for limited time offer. They bring it back and it's, oh, I don't wanna miss it.

01:34:50Yeah, yep. I don't go do it, but it's a thing. It's a thing, it's a thing. Well, I mean, people go crazy when like the strawberry shortcake comes back. Oh, yeah. And it's a longer LTO, but I mean, it's a limited time offer. We only offer it. Strawberry shortcake at the grill, it's popular. People wait for it and they come in for that. And they come in for that. I'm one of those people. Sure, and they will, you know, it's like you better give them a heads up when it's gonna go because they'll be mad. You don't let them know. So, yeah. And then number 10 is just make sure your website is, you're like, yes, obviously you need to have all the information on there, but make sure you can use it. It's user-friendly. There are a lot of websites I go on and I'm like, does anyone actually use their own website because this is kind of hard to navigate. So just make sure to have, look at your website from an outside. And your menu's up to date. Update your menu online. Yes, all of that. Yes, I'm saying all of this stuff should already be done, but like just make sure it's user-friendly. If you wanna be able to, you know, buy a gift card, make sure there's a buy gift card button right there.

01:35:55And so people know where to go. It works. It works. Make it easy on people. Yeah. All that is really good information. Just, if you don't, if you know all of that stuff, go back and listen to those 10 things and just go check on all of those because it's almost like the fundamentals. It's like the bounce pass in basketball. Like you gotta know how to do it. Like we're trying to figure out how to do the 360 dunk. And it's like, we're forgetting that you don't get down the court unless you learn how to dribble the ball, unless you learn how to do the bounce pass. Like these are all fundamentals that you've got to be doing every single day. You gotta own your Google page. You've gotta make sure your website's updated. Your name, address, your phone number. That stuff is all just basic stuff that you've got to focus on. And when you're focusing on staffing and execution of service, a lot of that stuff kind of falls to the side. And just as a good reminder for you to go make sure all that stuff is done. And that's why I say, none of this, that's not rocket science. As I said, these are the basic marketing fundamentals for your restaurant. And they're things that if you just, you focus on a few of them, they can really, again, there are some things.

01:36:55Your name, address, and phone number have got to be correct. But just make sure, you know, focus on a few things at a time. Focus on community events. Focus on, you know, these are things you can do right now to help, you know, increase your sales. So is this something that you do? Like if I was a restaurant and I was like, I just don't have time to do all of this stuff. I need somebody who can come in and help me do this stuff. Would Miles Restaurant Marketing be somebody that can, I don't want you to go anywhere else because I need you 100% for me. But if somebody out there was a restaurant and they were like, man, I love everything she just said. I would love to have Christine on our team to help us. Is this something you're open to doing? Absolutely. And also, I want restaurants to succeed. Yeah. And so, I mean, if you need help, you're trying to figure out, give me a call. Shoot me an email. I mean, I'd be happy to sit down with you for an hour and just kind of take a look and be like, okay, here's some holes that you need to fill. But yes, this is what I do.

01:37:56That's what my company does. And yeah, so absolutely, I'm here to help. I love it. Thank you, Christine, for all of this information. How would people get ahold of you? Tell me, give me some contact information. My email is Christine, and that's with a K. K-R-I-S-T-I-N-E. That is correct. At mileshm, and again, my last name is. M-Y-L-L-E, M-Y-L-L-S. Yes, so my email is Christine, K-R-I-S-T-I-N-E, at mileshm.com. You can also hit up Brandon. Brandon knows how to get in touch with me. That is true. I talk to him a lot. We do, and I love every time I get, and you know, you show up for all of the stuff, and I love that. Like, you're so supportive in everything that we do, and you're there, and you're taking pictures, and you're just, you're just a lovely person. I love working with you. Thank you. Well, and here's the thing too. I'm a fan of supporting people who do the right things for the right reasons, and you guys are absolutely doing the right thing for the right reasons, and you love your people, you love your community, and I'm proud to be a part of it.

01:39:03Well, you're in all of our leadership meetings. You know the nuts and bolts that we're genuinely just wanna make every guest a repeat guest. That is very true. It's a thing. And I think people look at it, and they go, that can't be the real thing, and it's like, it's really basic. It's the real thing. It's really basic. We're just really focused on loving on people, and making sure they have a great time. Yeah. And that's hospitality. That's what we do. Yes. All right. Yes. Look up Miles Hospitality Marketing, Christine, K-R-I-S-T-I-N-E at M-Y-L-L-S-H-M.com. If you have a question or you need some help, it's when I'm going around talking with chefs for NARA, one of the main things is, I need somebody to do marketing for me. I need this, I need this. You can do it. You're affordable. It's something I think that you can help a lot of restaurants with, and I appreciate you coming in today to share all this information. Sure. And again, I'm free. If you want to just talk for an hour, and just know where you can fill in some holes, feel free to reach out. I mean, I want you to succeed. I want small restaurants, local restaurants to succeed, so I'm here to help.

01:40:04All right. Thank you, Christine, and thank you all for listening. What a fun conversation with Christine Miles. Thank you for staying through it. An hour and 40 minutes in, and you're still here. You are a real champion. I will tell you, I did that whole open about mental health, and really I focused on men's mental health, and gave a bunch of stats. On the next episode, I am going to be talking about mental health for women, and I don't mean to discount women. I think that I just wanted to talk to men typically don't ask for help, and I wanted to let people know that as a man, you can ask for help. So we're gonna talk about women's, we'll go over some stats, and moms, and what you guys are going through as mental health awareness month moves forward. Thank you guys for listening today, and hope as always that you guys are being safe. Love you guys. Bye.