Rudy Leal

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01:09Welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio, the tastiest hour of talk in Music City. Now here's your host, Brandon Styll. Hello, Music City, and welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio. My name is Brandon Styll, and I am your host. This is a Nashville Restaurant Business Radio episode today, and our guest is Rudy Layal. He's the managing partner for 19 Jason's Delis in seven states. He's also a man that I happen to respect both as a leader and as an all-around great person. He's a great dad, and he's been a great friend of mine for a really long time, so I can't wait to get there. If you watched the Music City Roundup this week, you know that I spoke about saving restaurants and the 16 million people that work in the restaurants, the 500,000 small businesses that are out there that are dying right now in jeopardy because of COVID-19.

02:22We need your help. They need your help. Everybody needs your help. We need you to head over to saverestaurants.com forward slash letter. There is a bill out there that's going to provide $120 billion to the restaurant industry to hopefully help with payroll, help with rent, help with everything that the PPP bill didn't do. It's for independent restaurants. The president-elect likes it. The House representatives are good with it. We've got to get it through the Senate. We need you to go sign the letter immediately. It is absolutely vital and to help us make it. And speaking of making it, we're all doing what we can right now to generate revenue, to manage margin, just to save, to get by in everything we possibly can. And one idea that some restaurants are doing right now, and my buddy Charlie and Julie McPherson, who own Miracle One Winery, want to help make it happen for you, create a wine growler program.

03:29You know, to go, alcohol has been a thing. You've got people that come in to pick up their beer and growlers. Why not do wine? Miracle One wines are wines that you serve and they come in a keg, which means they stay fresh. You can use them for your house wines, use them for whatever you want to. They're a premium wine. They're highly rated and you can do growlers. Yes. So every time someone places to go order, you want to add a growler to that and make it happen. They are distributed by Empire or you can find them by just checking them out on Instagram at Miracle One Winery. Send them a message. Let them know you'd like to learn more about it. Learn what the costs are. Learn about the quality of the wine. You want to set up a tasting, whatever it may be. They would love to have you do that. Just a reminder, we also are doing everything we can here at Nashville Restaurant Radio to get by and make it. We have got t-shirts and hats that are still for sale. If you go to NashvilleRestaurantRadio.com, we would love it if you would help support us and purchase a t-shirt.

04:33Wear it around town. They are these super duper soft tri-blend t-shirts and the hats are super high quality as well. Help support us. Let people know you love the show. And I'm ready to get into this one. Rudy Laal. This is going to be a great one. I'm so excited to share this episode with you. Let's start it up right now. All right. I am so excited to welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio Rudy Laal, who is the managing partner for Jason's Deli. What's up, Rudy? A little bit of everything on this wet Saturday morning. I don't think you're going to get the yard work you wanted to get done. No, it's supposed to end at noon. And I, you know, I don't know. I'm a crazy person. I like to get out. That's my happy place. Therapeutic. It is, man. I get out in the woods and I walk around and I forge for wood. I make a fire. We're clearing a big area in the back. I have a trail that leads from my house to my parents' house. And in their backyard, it's all woods behind us. And we're going to complete it this year, a full quarter mile circle.

05:37We're going to have our own private greenway in the backyard. Watch out. Very cool. See, that's what's interesting to me is that for some people doing yard work or things like that, it's just a huge chore. And for someone like you or like me, like I said, that's why I use the word therapeutic. Like that's my happy place. I'm just going to go out there and do some do some yard work and be just fine. You know, I think it might have to do with working in restaurants. And I'll tell you why. I'll tell you my theory here is that I was talking to a friend of mine owns a restaurant the other day and I said, would you what's your like admin work? Can you do it in a restaurant? Do you have to go to Panera? Do you have to like go somewhere else to sit? He's like, I would rather just be at home knocking stuff out because if I'm in the restaurant every 30 seconds, somebody will come up and talk to me. Hey, can you discount this? Hey, can you do this? Hey, can you do that? And it's like, I think being alone in the woods for like hours at a time is just like. Nobody's asking me anything right now. I could just do alone. It's great.

06:39I can track with that for sure. That's got to be it because it is you're you're doing it. You're doing solo between that and running for me. That's my quiet time. My happy place and just get getting some of the junk out, which is yeah, which is nice to be able to take that. That's amazing. I'm so jealous of runners because I'm a giant. You know that I'm. I my knees are so shot from years of basketball and just all the crazy stuff that I've done to my knees. I can't run. I'm not like a distance guy. I'm a sprinter. And yeah, I've always been jealous of the long distance runner. So Rudy, so excited to have you on this show today. I have this is this is Nashville restaurant business radio today. So we're going to I want to jump into some of the aspects of what you do because you are the managing partner for Jason's deli. Now little back story. I've known you for I think I met you in 2006.

07:39Yeah, yeah, it's been a long, long time. And you've been one of those people who's been absolutely consistent throughout. You've had one job. Yep, you've worked with Jason's deli that entire time. You are a leader. You're a father. You've your culture of your locations is absolutely amazing. I've caught up with you once or twice during the pandemic. And I just the way your brain works, what you do, your leadership. I want to share that with my audience because I've talked to a lot of independent restaurant tours and I've got a lot of great stuff. But for somebody who manages multiple locations for a large company, I think that your insight is going to be super valuable. So let's get into a little bit of your background as to what you did, how you got where you are. Tell us a little about Jason's deli and just just that 90 second elevator pitch that you would give somebody if they said, what do you do? How did you get into doing that? Great, great. So if you would give me permission and just take a little sidebar and go back to when we when we first met in that course, because this was such a fun time.

08:47And yes, I've known Brandon now for what is that, about 14 years, right? Yeah. So at that time, I want to say you were working with Fresh Point Produce. I was. When I first met you, when I first met you, it was Creation Gardens. Creation Gardens. OK, it was one of those two. I couldn't remember exactly which one. But anyhow, meet Brandon and, you know, eat a sandwich, a salad bar. He's a customer. And at the same time, he's trying to pitch, you need to be buying produce from me. And I'm like, yeah, OK, you know, that that'll happen eventually at some point. And so but then I'm at another location and there's Brandon eating at the deli and getting some ice cream and you should really, you know, have our produce. Well, time goes on. And what I started to learn is like, man, this guy really is a Jason's fan. And you always would like, you know, hey, I'm not eating today, but is it OK if I grab some ice cream real quick?

09:48Absolutely, man. Go for it. Next thing I know, we just this was this really good relationship. I'm like, you know what? Let's start talking. And next thing you know, we get this deal done. And that was it. So, man, it has been really, really nice and cool just to just to get to know you a bit more. I mean, this was pre kiddos, probably pre marriage. I'm not I'm not sure. But let me I'm going to cut you off right there because I want to tell you from my side of this story what that what that meant to me because as a produce guy, a place like Jason's Deli who does the massive amount of volume and you have a salad bar. Right. So you're selling like that's that's like a little gold mine sitting in the back of your building. That's like you're just selling lettuce all day. And I'm like, yes, I can sell a lot of lettuce there, avocados and just tomatoes, everything. A lot of sandwiches. This is beautiful. So I did love it as a salesperson. When you're out in the street all the time, you don't have like an office. You're sitting in all the time.

10:48You're constantly out. You're constantly going in. Jason's Deli was a perfect way to pop in. You can grab a really good healthy sit because there's no healthy food you can just pop in and eat. Very rare. Or you have to sit down and eat a meal like this was we're talking a little a long time ago. So it wasn't a lot of the options you have now. All the juice like weren't there. So I love coming in a salad bar. And then, yeah, the ice cream on a hot day popping into and in your locations are in the perfect locations for sales reps. But I had built a relationship. We worked with your Murphy's Bro store. And I first of all, as a produce salesman, you're selling some of this perishable and so many people are already angry at you. Right. So what you look for is when wins in this business and you sell a perishable product is a really tough business. And every time that I dealt with anybody within your company, they were always really nice. They're really nice. And they were they were like, get it, people. And they wanted to work with you in just every possible way. And I just you could feel the culture when you're in somewhere and you could tell you were the leader of that.

11:48And it it solidifies that want. It's like these people are good people. They're doing the right thing and they buy a ton of produce. I want to be in there so bad. And so your produce company you were using, you had a great relationship with Murphy Produce. You bought from a local purveyor. You are you are big time on buying from local people and you bought from Murphy and Murphy was bought one day. They worked with Creation Gardens and I was the sales manager at Freshpoint. They bought from Creation Gardens and I was walking into the arena one day. We had just, you know, lost a big account and I was walking into the arena with the president of the company. And I looked out on my phone that said Rudy Liao and I said, hey, Rudy, and you said, hey, man, I just got a call that our produce company is closed. And and so they've been bought by another company and we need to decide who we're going to go to. And everybody in our company that keeps saying your name and I love you. You've been coming around for a really long time. We'd love to give you a shot.

12:48And it was one of those moments for me. It was like it was a tough day and sales is at ebbs and flows. But you making that phone call with the president of the company. I had this huge smile and I looked at him and I go, it's Jason's deli. They want to come on. And he was like, oh, my gosh. And we had like this little dance right there in the arena that he just called. And it just made my entire like day month year that phone call. And it meant so much to me that you wanted to put your trust in our company. Absolutely. Man, that that's great. That's some some good memories there for sure, because again, and this is what we talk about. And maybe that's hopefully what you experienced then talking to our folks that get it. People, as you said, is that we tell people all the time, look, we truly are in the people business. We just happen to sell sandwiches. That's our problem. OK. And for you, yes, you were in the produce business. But really, we were buying you. We were buying that relationship, that connection, that that that factor that, hey, if if there's an issue or something that we need to discuss, whatever, I know I can talk to Brandon.

13:55And I know that in some way we're going to come to a resolution. You know, we're going to figure this out together. So, yeah, I think a lot of that is going to hinge a bunch, a lot on the the the relationship, the connection, the human factor for sure, not not just the transaction. Yeah, for sure. So I hijacked your story. You were going to the back story and then you're going to say just a little about how you and your position, what you do get back into that. Yeah. So, OK, I'm sorry. We didn't know. I love that story. Let's see. I've been with Jason's now for 20 years. And in that time, yeah, I've seen a lot of changes, probably none like this year, like 2020, of course, like for many, but have loved and continue to love the the ride I'm on with Jason's. Let's see. So started in Vegas with a franchise group out there and then ended up out here in Tennessee with another franchise group, but all together in 20.

14:56So my 90 second pitch is what is what the question was, I believe. So what do I do with Jason's deli? So if we're an elevator, I will tell you what I get to do is bring smiles to the restaurant, to the place. And that means smiles for the customers, smiles for our employees and managers and then smiles, hopefully for the investor. When all three of those components are smiling, then I know I'm doing my job well. And at the same time, we want to make sure that, look, you know, are you having a good experience there? So serving food, how you feel when you walk in the place, because it's not just serve as its hospitality. Very, very different, distinct difference between the two service. I give you a product for the money you give me hospitality. How do I make you feel while we're doing that entire experience? But sorry, I'm jumping around a little bit.

15:57I love that. Keep going. Keep going. This exactly this all rolls into what I want to ask you next. But but so what do I do truly is I work for our people in the stores as well as for our customers and then as well for the investor too. But that's it. I mean, I will wash dishes. I will, you know, help serve food, whatever it is. And sometimes it may just be talking to folks much like we're doing about Jason's Deli and what we do. So one of the things that I thank you for that, Rudy, I and I see that every time in the building. If I'm eating and I see you in there, sometimes you're meeting with an employee, but then you're always up walking around, busing tables, talking to guests, you're doing the whole thing. And I've always respect that's kind of an old school approach to look in the middle of a rush. We just got to get it done. We got it. The ultimate goal for everybody in this building needs to be we have to take care of the guest and nobody's above that.

16:57There's nobody in a restaurant. And if you do feel like you're above that, I think there's a problem. I mean, I think that there's there's a fine line there about delegation as well as I think if you do too much of that, you can be a crutch because then people can stand around like, oh, well, he'll just do it. I mean, I think you have to to lead people into wanting to that. But leading by example is very important. Absolutely. So one of the things the reason I wanted to ask you on today is because I've got a lot of independent restaurant tours that I've been talking to. I've done 130 episodes so far and we're going through a global pandemic. And I've been screaming from the mountaintops just buy local, go eat at local restaurants. We got to support our local people. And with this pivot to the Nashville Restaurant Business Radio, I think that there's a lot. There is a lot that local restaurateurs can take from a company like Jason's Deli, a company that has multiple locations.

18:00You have some buying power. You have a culture. You've got a corporate office. So I want to talk about some of the differentiators that you might have, some things that you do innately that could translate to a locally like a mom and pop restaurant that they can go. Oh, I see how you guys do that. That's interesting. And there's some things you probably take for granted that local restaurants don't even know they could do. Does that make sense? Totally, totally. You know, I think one of the things anytime, you know, obviously through this year, you know, whatever the playbook was prior to, you know, March 2020, go ahead and pitch that in the trash can and start start from scratch. And everything that we start from scratch had to be how can we scale? How can this be scaled? So what system? What process? Putting all of those things in place. And then, OK, now let's roll that out. We're in seven states. We own and operate 19 units.

19:01And so you're constantly looking at, you know, again, can this scale? You know, can when I go in and have this sandwich or this recipe or even the salad, as we were talking about before, can I scale that and replicate that in seven other states? Because that's a lot a lot of different people. And, you know, just the the workforce can change a little bit to those dynamics. You know, we talked about relationships earlier to a lot of relationships to negotiate and to get people to really understand that. But then once they do and they believe in it, oh, man, you better bet you're going to have a very good, consistent experience in all of those 19 units. What are your core values? Core values. So we have five of those. One of them is the highest quality food. One of them is out of this world service. Another one is a healthy growing business. Let's see. We have the highest personal standards and oh, gosh, let's see.

20:07And you love being put on the spot for your core values. Great place to work. Yes. Yes. No, that's good. That's good. Great place to work. Yeah. I think that's one of the things that I think a lot of people have in their restaurant. Everybody has a culture that they've developed in their location. But actually having core values that you know and that you live and lead by, I think, is that foundation to anything that you do that's going to create success. If you're an entrepreneur and you have a company, you have to have core values that you hire and fire. This is our bedrock for which we stand. I can tell when I walk in the door of a restaurant when somebody has really good core values. How does your core values lead you on a daily basis? So help you lead. Just like you're saying, you know, number one, they have to be more than just printed on a piece of paper. They have to be more than something that's framed and matted, you know, with a spotlight on it.

21:08It has to be some it has to be alive. It can't just be something static that's printed off, given an orientation. And that's it. We never talk about it again. They have to be lived. They have to be lived out every single day. And so that language will be used when we talk about food. If we're going down the line and I'm working with an employee, talking to them, showing them some things, asking them some questions, manager included, whoever. Pretty much if it's anybody around them like, hey, let's look at this together and let's see what we find. And let's look at all the good things and let's look at some things that probably should be better. And it would be tied to that core value, highest quality food. So for us, you know, I'll talk to our folks a lot about, you know, if if we just leave that on the paper, then that's all it is. The core values are nothing more than a facade. It has to be something that that is true and that you're passionate about.

22:08When we talk about great place to work, that's not just for the GM. That's not just for the manager. That has to be for the employee, too. That has to be for the 16 year old that is getting their first job. Like, I want that to be such a good experience for that for that kid coming in and going, man, I love my first job. And then 10 years from now, they'll talk about it and tell their kids, oh, man, you should get a job at a restaurant. You know, there's some good people there. But to have those good experiences with that, though, too. What a great what a what a cool little takeaway right there. I mean, I think that there's this there's there's sometimes there's a culture of hazing or there's a culture of, hey, there's a newbie. Go make them do this. But just the idea that somebody's first job, this is somebody's first job. They're going to remember this for the rest of their life. It's a piece of clay. They're just a piece of clay like you get to be. I always love doing an orientation for somebody like that because I had this in my brain. I thought they're going to remember this for the rest of their life.

23:08And I have an opportunity right now to to just fundamentally instill some really amazing things in them that they're going to remember forever. Their ninth job that they have, they're not going to remember the orientation like they remember this job. And I always took it so seriously. And I was like, do you understand how like this is what we do and the core values in that moment? Because they would they just they don't have any bad habits. You know, they have they're open, their eyes are big, they're excited. I always love those moments. What a great take on that. Like, be a great place to work for that person to the GM. Totally, totally. And, you know, for example, highest personal standards. So again, with that young person in mind or with, you know, a lady or another gentleman that we're working with, too, we don't cuss. I don't like, you know, any kind of vulgarities, vulgar language or anything like that. And if I hear something like, hey, let's correct that, because that's not a highest personal standard, which is another core value for us.

24:09But again, because we are an open kitchen and there's a lot going on and there might be that young person that hears that. I'm like, I don't want them hearing that. Also, I mean, what if a customer hears it across the counter? So bottom line, it's like, look, we don't do it. If I hear it, we correct it. I've never separated with a manager or employee or anything because they were habitually late or couldn't tuck in their shirt or because they were cussing or something. But we have separated with people because of violation of or crossing the line on highest personal standards or because they're not contributing to a great place to work. So core values have to be just that. They have to be the core to your operation. But you've really got to, it's got to be in your everyday language, your everyday action. If not, again, I go back to, man, just go ahead and keep that fancy frame and mat and print and spotlight on those core values.

25:12And that's all it is. And let it collect dust. You got to make it real. Well, see, I do this a lot. And I talk to people, restaurateurs that have issues when I do my consulting and they say, I just can't get this manager to do this or my manager won't lead this way or I can't. They're having trouble getting people to do what's in their head. And I go, well, you don't have a you don't have core values. You have no way. Like it's so easy for managers to lead when they believe in when you have a set list of core values that you believe in. It's real easy to go. That's not a highest personal standard. That's not the best quality food. When you see something that comes out that doesn't look good, you can sit there and say, does that look like the best quality food? I don't know if you'd say like that passive aggressively, but I'd say I don't think this looks like the best quality food. That's not up to our standards. We don't want to serve that. And when you live that, it makes it real easy to manage people because you're just living up to a core that this is what we have to do. And once everybody gets it, it's really a cool moment.

26:12You go, oh, well, now now it's really easy to lead people because we have to do these five things. Just go and do it with that in the back of your mind. Right. And it takes time. It takes consistency and that constant message, that consistent messaging of it. And then and then it will it will settle in. I mean, it always does, you know, when you said it's real simple, you know, become it can become simple to manage. It really can't. The concept is simple. Getting it to where you want it to be is not the easy part. That's the hard part. That's where all the work comes in. Right. But that's why you've definitely got to have a presence in your in your place. You've got to again, like we were talking about the relationships, you've got to get to know people. Because when I can connect with you and know something about your family, something that you're interested in, anything like that, a hobby, how you're doing in school, whatever it might be. Well, we can talk about that together as two people. And then I say, hey, and by the way, let's look at this, you know, because now there's a humanity component to this.

27:14It's not just boss and employee. It's like, no, man, we're we are two people here, both trying to get a good job done. We both like to sleep indoors. We both like to, you know, we like air conditioning. We like to, you know, pay our bills. So how about we just figure out how to do this really well together? And man, everything's going to be fine. I like that. We both like to sleep indoors. Thank you. So let me ask you this. Pre pandemic. Let's talk about last summer, not this summer before that. You guys are you guys are going. You're killing it. Every time you go by that West End location, if you go to the West End location at eight forty five in the morning, nine o'clock in the morning, what does it look like? Oh, gosh. Great question. Not OK. So let's say nine o'clock in the morning, we will have, oh, gosh, forty employees on staff, maybe a little bit more.

28:14We've been in our dining room, so all of our tables will be covered up with delivery bags. I mean, all every table, every table, there will be makeshift prep tables because our kitchen, we're beyond that capacity. Like we we we need more space. So we we have some pop up tables that there'll be additional people prepping product and putting trays together, that type of thing. We have we at that time, I believe we had five phone lines. We had added on additional phone lines because the phones just keep ringing. Online ordering will keep coming in. So all of this is going on. There's a lot of movement, a lot of excitement, a lot of energy, a lot of passion, a lot of let's get it done. So this was like it's just this this wave that's building and building and building before because at 10 o'clock when 10 o'clock comes, that's it. Everything's got to be out the door because everybody wants that prime time. Eleven to eleven thirty delivery or eleven thirty the noon, whatever.

29:16So so that's what's going on is as about nine o'clock is the build up. And that's when it's probably the most intense is that that to me, we call that I call that moment where you have to dig inside and you've got to have turbo boost is what we call that is me and some people call that. But there's a to find people that thrive in that environment. Is that is that the funnest time of the day? Like when you just when everything's happening at one time and it's like at eleven o'clock, you're going to be full of people walking in the front door. You can't have all your tables covered and you've got to get it to the people. That's just the best time. Yeah, it is. It's a big rush, but I love watching our people that that are coordinating all of this are our managers and they know exactly like who's supposed to be doing what they'll know if we're off pace. If we're if we're running a little bit behind and they'll, you know, grab a few folks from this area and have them start making more sandwiches or work the phones more or start bagging orders, you know, a bit more if we get behind there.

30:23And they'll just negotiate that and navigate that all throughout the morning. And it's just so cool to see him like, man, you guys are good. Like, you know what's going on. You know how to orchestrate this symphony of sandwiches that are being produced and and potato bars, pasta bars, all of this stuff. And and they get it all lined out. So I think our people are truly amazing with that. And you deliver through your own you have your own drivers who deliver in is it their own vehicles or do you have like Jason's deli vehicles? No, we so we have our own drivers and they do have their own vehicles as well. Okay, so you had that set up well in advance of the pandemic. Yes, sir. So let's fast forward a little bit to March. March, we kind of did you have any idea? Were you looking at this in January? And would people say you get an email? Were you guys having conversations about what's going to happen if this thing hits and what, you know, where were you at?

31:23So in the beginning of this, funny enough, I was in Ohio on a trip visiting some stores there. And, you know, we got news this was already starting to hit. We were taking a tour of our Ohio stores and, you know, pretty much the bottom falls out. So by the time we get back that Friday, I mean, just again, yeah, the bottom falls out. So that weekend was immediately OK. You know, we're on the phones. We're setting up video calls. We're getting in touch with everybody on what needs to happen right away. There was just a lot of uncertainty at that point. So the first thing was, OK, let's slow down. Let's stop and then figure out what needs to happen first. And I think the biggest thing that needed to happen first for all 19 units was for our people to hear from us. That was one of the one of the first things, you know, whether that's to give them some little sense of calm or some some sense of clarity, some sense of assurance that, hey, it's going to be OK.

32:33We're going to figure this out together. Wow. Because that's it. Was it if it's assurance? Just is it just a communication or was there like a we're going to be OK because we're Jason's deli? Like what is it? Was that a leadership thing? Because I'm just I'm just curious about that, because it's a unique position as Jason's deli to be able to do that. I think a lot of people initially were just scared to death. Like what are we going to do with our employees and to be able to go and tell them something like what do you actually tell them in that moment? Well, we tell them in that moment, gosh. First off again, to try to establish some some level of calmness in that uncertainty with what's going on, any kind of anxiety like how am I going to employ our people? What are we going to have to do? I mean, we had to we did. We had to separate with quite a few folks because again, we lost dining rooms.

33:34We could only do carry out. So the delivery side was still working for us for sure. But, you know, we had to lower staff right away and get that checked up again. Some of those people that, you know, cross-trained knew a lot of a lot of positions for us were able to stay on and keep working. But I mean, that was, man Brandon, that was a painful period for us. It was a tough time. We go into March and you guys have that lovely, amazing salad bar that I was waxing poetically about earlier as a produce salesman. I have not been in adjacent deli since this thing has started. I apologize. You've got that new location over there in the old Ruby Tuesdays in Brentwood, which I worked at for multiple years that Ruby Tuesdays back in the day. A lot of bad memories, good memories there. But what is this that what is that? What are you doing with the salad bar now? So the salad bar is empty.

34:34So we have this. Oh, man, for lack of a better way to describe it, this dinosaur that's just sitting out there on an exhibit that is doing nothing for us right now. We opted to move those salad bar options to our kitchen line. So just like we've produced sandwiches and soups and potatoes for people for years on the line, we, you know, rework the schematic for our lines. And now we have all the vegetables, all the fixings, all the sides, the pasta salads, the potato salads, that type of stuff is all on our line. So you would come in and you would just walk down the line and, you know, I'd like some of this, I'd like some of that. And we build it for you right right there in front of you. And then, you know, serve it up. So it's not an all you can eat. It's a one one shot deal. But it seems to be working for our customers. We're still trying to figure out, you know, how do we get this dinosaur as I called it before?

35:39How do we get that alive again? How do we get that working? Because there are some places that are they're navigating a buffet type line and working that. We just started this past week at Mayor Bowl there in Brentwood. They do a huge brunch and we did the brunch buffet. We now have the brunch buffet is up and running fully operational and it's server assisted. So there's we have stanchions. There's actual ropes that go and the server walks down and they say, I want some of that. And they build the plate for you and they hand it to you at the very end. And then you go eat. And if you want to go, you can go through as many times you want to. But like it is an actual server assisted deal. And you know what? It worked flawlessly. Yeah. Because what we want to do is make sure number one, can it be safe? And do you feel safe when you're doing that? Does our employees feel safe while they're doing this? And if we can get the win on all of those, then we know we can get this done and get it done well. But again, we're not navigating that for just one unit.

36:39We're making sure. Hey, how do we scale this to 19 units in seven states and make sure that this is going to be safe for for everybody? And, you know, I think that that's something that we're working on right now. I'll just say that. Yeah. But that's an interesting perspective, too. It's not just you can just do it at West End. Like you've got to look at 19 locations and what you're going to do at all of them. You can't just do different things at every one. You can't do that. What's the system? What's the process through this whole experience, though? You know, the one thing that the what hasn't changed, it's only the how. And as leaders, that's what we have to figure out is the how. Because the what is OK. People still want a salad bar. People still want to eat out just in general then. OK, not not even target. People still want to. OK, so how then do we provide that for people to come in and still have a good experience, but still feel safe and that we're following, you know, all of the guidelines that are out there that we need to that we need to navigate?

37:47Because, again, let's see, we're seven states. So when you're in seven states, well, now you're trying to figure out, well, what, you know, what is this governor saying? And what is this health department saying in addition to the CDC guidelines? So it it kind of drips down all the way to the local municipality, too, and what they're wanting and desire. Because I mean, even just in Cool Springs, not too long ago for Franklin, they were on a mask mandate, but we weren't out in Mount Juliet, you know, at that time. So there were there's some differences, I think, even in just our local area when you walk in and sometimes people go, well, I was in this restaurant and that wasn't happening. It's like different county. I don't know what to tell you. You know, we can't do you have to. Has that been a challenge for you guys managing stuff like that? I mean, I know a lot of restaurants are very upset. I mean, Tom Morales closed his downtown location for Acme Feed and Seed. He goes, because my municipalities aren't doing their job.

38:47They're telling us we have to have a mask mandate and then they're they're expecting us to police it. He goes, and I'm in the job of creating a guest experience. I'm not in the job of making sure that my guests are following law. I believe it. I believe that you should be wearing a mask. He's like, but if you're a drunk 24 year old kid from Chicago who's here in town for the weekend, you don't care what I think. And it's it's tough because I'm like, you have to wear a mask to be in here. And they're like, go pound sand. And it's like, how do you manage? He's like, it's just not what I got in this business to do. And when you have somebody saying I was in Mount Juliet, I didn't have to wear a mask. I have to wear a mask here. Like, do you just say as a leader, do you say across the company? We feel like it's safest if you wear a mask, no matter which location we have, you have to wear a mask. Or do you go by county by county, whatever they say? We're going to comply to the best of our ability with whatever is out there and to the I would say the route, which is that local municipality at the same time.

39:49I mean, there is so much going on in the restaurant that you're you know, we have this. We call it a COVID cleaning checklist has to be done every hour on the hour. And it's, you know, however many items that are supposed to be on there, but high contact areas, high contact surface areas, whatever that may be. There's a list and they've got to go through our folks go through and they clean those things up every hour on the hour. I mean, that's just part of our part of our process. But in addition, so there's all these additional things that have come up since this COVID hit that our folks are trying to navigate. In addition to now, well, now I need to make sure that everybody coming in is wearing a mask. I'm like to the best of your ability. That's the best I can tell you, because here's the thing. You know, we get busy. You have to run and start helping, you know, taking orders or bagging food. And you may not be waiting there at the front door to just, you know, police this.

40:49And it's like, look, we're going to do the best that we can. We're human and we're going to we're going to make an effort. But at the same time, I'm not going to hold our folks feet to the fire. That's like, why is this person in here without a mask? Sure. I mean, it's also a little hard to eat with a mask on when you're eating. You know, at some point it's going to come off. And that's not to take it lightly at all. It's just to make sure, look, we're going to do our part to the best of our ability. I want our folks to know, look, regardless of your political affiliation, regardless of your your fashion statement, you know, whatever it might be is like, look, we're going to wear a mask. And we're going to do this if you want to get your hours. If if we want to stay in business, then this is what we're going to do. We've got distancing for the tables. You know, we've got those marked off and that type of thing. But I mean, Brandon, it is tough to navigate that every single day. I applaud our people that for doing it every single day.

41:50Some some days are better than others. But for the most part, that's what I'm going to say is that our folks are going to do the best that they can on that. How are you guys doing as a company right now? We hear we heard a report. Hundred thousand restaurants across the nation have closed since the pandemic has begun. We're anticipating thousands more in the coming weeks. We're trying to get the safe restaurants, the legislation to go with this one hundred and twenty billion dollar plan to help save restaurants, to give us the financial support we need, because without it, I don't know how restaurants are going to make it. How is Jason's Deli doing right now as a company? So as a company overall, we're one of those companies that will continue on. Fortunately, we have had to make some arrangements. One of the stores that we even own and operate, we have 20, but we're only owning and we're only operating 19 right now. One of them we did have to close for a period that's in Cincinnati, Ohio.

42:50And now there are some options for us that come March or so we may decide, do we go ahead and open this back up? Is there is there a different option for us at that point? But Jason's Deli will be a brand that continues on past past twenty twenty one for sure. And for our franchise, the same thing. Now, that's not to say that we didn't have some markers or some checkpoints through the summer. There was a point in time where we're talking about, you know, OK, we need to be at this milestone August 1st. We need to be at this milestone. And then once we hit August 1st, OK, now the next one is October 31st. You know, if we're at this point, October 31st, all of that just continues to extend out the likelihood of where we'll be in twenty twenty one. And fortunately, thankfully for all the customers that have continued to come out and support us, all the employees that have continued to come out and show up for work and learn a lot of new positions. We have so many people that used to only be what we would call a one trick pony.

43:54They do this one position and they do it really, really well. And they were aces. And at that time, that's what you needed. But in this new era, it's like, no, you need that that player that can be aced out in three or four positions. It can push and pull and do all kinds of things. And so that's been a change, too. But but they've come through with that. So put all that together. Great community support. Great employee dynamic in their in their learning and training and changing that a bit. Our management, too, that now is carrying us through past middle carriers past twenty twenty one. What have you learned as a leader? What have you? You've led people for a long time. What have you learned since the middle of March throughout all of this about yourself as a leader? And how have you have you used the word pivot? Have you had to change? I think what I've learned most is where my foundation really is and how strong that foundation really is and what I believe in.

44:59You know, when storms hit, you find out really quick how strong is your foundation? What's your go to? What's your what's your source of energy to keep going? Because the days can be long at times and the stress can weigh on you so heavily. I think that's what I learned the most is is what is my foundation through all of this? And for me, that is my faith in Christ and being a Christian. You know, immediately when this started hitting, I had I had every excuse in the world prior to March twenty twenty of not journaling and doing a regular daily devotional, which I would do on occasion, but man, Brandon, I tell you what this started hitting. It was a non-negotiable every morning, had to get up. And that's the first thing that has to happen for me now. Now, fortunately, that's now I'm a pretty routine guy. That that has become part of my daily ritual, so to say.

46:03So that helped ground me when all of this started taking place. You know what? I mean, I love hearing that. I think that's something that I've found, too. I don't have the discipline to do the journaling every single day. But I think starting every day off in prayer, really, for me. And, you know, I'm I feel like people on the show got to be getting tired of me talking about this. But, you know, I'm a little more than a year sober. OK, yeah. No alcohol whatsoever. And any kind of my knowledge, but that's part of the deal. It's part of the steps is every single day you do that. And it's amazing to me how it's allowed me every single day to take on every single day with confidence, knowing that it's not all on my shoulders, right? I don't have to this. This all isn't for me that there is a plan that's bigger than me. And I'm just get up every day and be the best me I can be.

47:04And it's OK, because I put so much stress on myself. Right. And that's a fact, because I know if I rely solely on myself, I'm not going to carry this this this cross for very far. I mean, I've got to have that help. I've got to have that that that spirituality, just like we were talking about before early on the the cutting the grass, you know, working in the yard, going for a run, whatever it might be. That that's a great physical relief. And it's it's a good stress relief, too, at the same time. But the faith side for me, that's the foundation. And with that intact and with that working, I would you know, my my relationship with Christ actually has grown stronger through this season. Man, there's just so much I can say about that. That could be a whole other segment. But that that's really been what what I've learned about myself and leadership is that it's not it's not all on me, is that I have a I have the Holy Spirit.

48:09I have Jesus Christ and I have God all available and ready to to help me through this journey. I love that. We just interviewed Peter Demus. He was just on the show this past week on Wednesday. And the second half of our entire show was all about his book, Afraid to Trust. And that's essentially what we talked about was him being saved and his whole journey. I talked about my journey. We probably lost half of our listeners last week. That's OK. I mean, I'm fine sharing this. I think that's exactly this is the important stuff. I feel like sometimes people are afraid to hear and I think people can be turned off by religion. And there's a fear of hearing about it. But you know what? It's really it has saved me. It's been amazing to me. And I'm not the guy that's let me tell you about Jesus, but maybe I should be. But I think that there's a there's this level of peace that I've never felt before in my entire life that I have right now because of it.

49:09And I'm not perfect. I mess up all the time. My language isn't the best. I could be better in so many ways, but like it's all OK. Like all of that is OK. Like I just because I'm not alone. I'm not alone with this thing. And that's been the biggest thing for me is through all of like, what am I going to do? Am I scared? Like, yeah, I'm scared. I got a lot like like not really. I'm like I have this different level of confidence now because I'm not walking alone. Totally. You know, St. Francis said, preach the gospel at all times and when necessary, use words. So again, just like those core values, live it out, man, you know, because that's the way it's really going to speak to people. You know, I don't know, actions speak way louder than words. You've heard that before, for sure. I remember one night we we were at the deli. It was in Cool Springs. And this is pre pandemic, of course. And we got rolled in the dining room like throttle tables covered up.

50:10I mean, we were getting behind, you know, tables needed to be bussed. I happened to pop in. I don't know what I was doing, probably coming home from Nashville. And so I was like, oh, let me pop in the Cool Springs Deli. See how we're doing. It's Friday night. It's probably busy. And I go in and sure enough, there's one kid out there, younger guy. So I go to go start helping, you know, bus tables right away. And once the dust settles and gets all down, man, just like, hey, glad you popped in. I'm like, me too. Trust me. This is a good night that we, you know, a lot of good business. And the kid comes up to me at some point later and he he goes, hey, can I ask you a question? I was like, yeah, sure. He goes, are you a Christian? And I said, yeah. I said, why though? Do I smell funny? What's wrong? And he goes, he goes, no, he goes, you know, you came in. He goes, I was behind on my job. You didn't yell at me. You didn't cuss at me. You didn't belittle me or anything. You just started helping me.

51:10I was like, oh, man, I said, well, there's only so much you can do. I said, and I mean, we there's a lot better for us to just help and get it done. Right. It's like, look, we all wear the same logo. You know, we have different roles in this company, but we all wear the same logo, which means, you know, take care of the customer. I said, but not just the external customer, it's the internal customer as well, which is our employee and our manager. That's those are the, you know, customers, too. And when you see it that way, whole different way of looking at folks work and working with them. One hundred percent. We have a core value at a couple of restaurants I work with called We Love Our Community. And what that is, it's threefold. And it was the way we live it is we love the people. We're nothing without the people that come in here. So we love the actual community, the neighborhood, the community, the people that dine here. And then we love our team like we love our internal community like we let nobody here hates each other.

52:11Like when we're here, we respect each other and we want to work together. And then we give back to our community as part of loving our community is giving back as best we can. And I just kind of examples exactly what you're saying there is just that that's what you got to do. You've got to everybody, whoever it is. Next question, maybe I don't know if this is a tough question. I don't know if you know the answer is maybe this isn't even a thing. What's the biggest mistake you have made? And if I was going to say during the pandemic that you've learned from and what did you learn? And if there's no big mistake that comes to mind, you go back farther. Like what's in time when you're like, I really messed up, but it was a really valuable lesson. Biggest mistake. And I think through this season, it would probably be when when we don't give enough weight to the decisions we're making.

53:13And what I mean by that, Brandon, is sometimes if you're not including enough people that are boots on the ground in the decisions that you're making. OK, you can become an audience of one or two. And I think as a leader, that's a big mistake. And when we would when some of the things that we rolled out, if they were a bit bumpier than needed to be, I immediately think, well, what did we miss? What was wrong? And when I look back at, you know, my notes or how we came up with this decision and so on, I realize I'm like, you know what? We we didn't cross pollinate enough. We didn't include enough people in helping us with this decision. So I think a big mistake is when we don't keep our ear close to the ground, to the people that are actually living out the decisions that we're making as leaders, got to include them too, because there's some valuable gold there for sure.

54:13If not, you run into blind spots. And I mean, that that should be a big a big concern for a leader, too, because if not, you're you're only thinking one track, you know, and that's it. And it's like somebody else can bring along a perspective that you had really considered, whether that be one of our folks in Ohio, somebody in Texas, somebody in Indiana, something we hadn't really considered it like, man, that might work great in Texas. But in Ohio, this community here, they they feed off of this or whatever, you know, I don't know. So bottom line, it's keeping your ear close to the ground with the folks. What's the best decision that you've made during this time? The best decision. What's the what's the biggest mistake? Like, is there is there a watershed moment where you were like, well, we didn't know what to do. Then we did this and it just it exploded. It worked and everybody was happy and it increased sales 50 percent.

55:15Like, there's something that you did that was just like, wow. Yeah, I would say the best decision for us is, I mean, it's going to go back to the communication side periodically. And we'll get all of our leaders on a phone call or a Zoom call, that is, and we'll we'll talk things out and include them in it. So I think those are some of the better moments, some of the best decisions to help us in our business, too. Again, doesn't mean that it's going to happen just the way Brandon suggested it or the way Megan just recommended we should do this. But it does mean, man, we're going to listen to all of this information and try to make the best decisions possible. I think those are some of the best moves that we make as leaders then for for this company is listening to our folks for sure. I love that. I think that's that's such really that's just great intel. I think we can live in a box and we kind of again, it comes to that.

56:18I got to do it all myself. Like, I got to figure all this stuff. I think so much of us put the stress on our shoulders and it's like there's a lot of people that want to help. There's a lot of people that have great ideas if you just listen. Yeah, just kind of just open your ears a little bit, you know. Totally. Because, you know, when I go into a store, I'm constantly asking about some of the things that we're already working on. And I'll ask an employee even like, what do you think we should be working on next? You know, what's something that we're missing? What's something we should consider? How could we make this better? I mean, I'm a nerd and I'm curious, like nonstop, because all I want to do is be a great employer and, you know, provide a good work experience for our folks. You have that again. I think that you'll get a lot farther in your business because then the people believe that, you know, you've heard this before, too. I'm sure that people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. So you put that out there. They want, they're invested. They want to help, too.

57:22Well, Rudy, we're almost at that hour mark. See how fast this goes? Every time I do, every time I do with these interviews, I'm like, we're already at an hour. Like, holy cow, where did this hour go? I feel like we could just, I could talk and just ask you questions for hours and hours on end. Maybe next time we'll do that. I didn't even get to get into all of the delivery aspect of it because you guys do your own deliveries. And right now, during this time, maybe we can for a second, but you guys are doing your own deliveries and you guys don't, do you use Uber Eats and Thor Dash and all that stuff? Yeah, now, OK, so you said a really good decision. That was a good decision for us. Jason's Deli, we had held off on third party because, again, we do our own delivery. We want to stay in control of that guest experience because it's our driver taking it to our customer, not somebody else in between. OK, had we not, though, finally worked out, you know, some deals with, let's see, we're with DoorDash, Uber Eats and Grubhub now.

58:29OK, well, had we not done that, Brandon, we would be hurting a lot. That has been additional revenue, an additional revenue source that we're capturing. Now, keep in mind, too, Jason's is still a private company. And so we're not a big name, you know, like you're saying, you know, you're doing a lot of local restaurants, a lot of local restaurant tours. We are, yes, we're a bigger brand, but we're still a small company overall when you look at it. You don't see Jason's on billboards necessarily. You don't see Jason's on TV. You don't hear Jason's on radio or anything like that. We're still a kind of a mom and pop feel with the word of mouth with a customer one at a time. And that's really how we've been growing it organically since 1976. Wow, 1976. Here my brother was born. Was not even a thing when you guys started. That's interesting to know. I mean, I think that so many restaurants are.

59:33It's a tough it's almost this weird double edged sword because so many restaurants are hurting because they're paying so much fees to a lot of these delivery companies. And I don't know who does the negotiation with Uber or DoorDash or any of these things. I did an episode last week also with Tom Parker, who's a negotiations expert. And one of the aspects I didn't get into as well with you is just how many things you negotiate on a weekly daily basis with different people and utilizing your leverage that you have with 19 stores because you can do that stuff. But I think that there's a there's a lot of local restaurants that don't recognize that they have that power to you don't buy from four different produce companies. You don't buy from four different broad line companies. You don't pick and choose like I'm going to hold this guy to this guy. I'm going to beat the system. You guys go on the front end. You negotiate a deal with these different companies based upon volume and you have all the information you go in knowing what you need and you negotiate the best thing for all of them.

01:00:43I think a lot of restaurants right now that's kind of part of that initial conversation of what are some things that you guys do that local restaurants can do that help you succeed. So negotiating a better deal with Uber Eats and DoorDash and negotiating better deal with everything that you do with your dishwashing company to your paper goods to chemicals. I mean, everything. Yeah, it's you know, I think the volume on our side is always going to help us a bit because again, you're not saying yes to one. You're saying yes to 19 and we're we're a franchise for Jason. So overall, you know, Nate brand wise, there's 257 units. So there's opportunity there for that vendor to maybe negotiate a little bit more than they would consider with a single unit operator or two unit operator. So that's that's a tough tough one. I know for us, even for our size, it took some time to get to where we wanted to be because it had to work. Obviously, just like when you and I started two years back on the produce side, like, look, I know you need to make some money off of this as well as we need to make sure that we keep our costs in control.

01:01:51And I'm not looking to for the cheapest by any means, but I am looking for this to be a good a good a good term for both of us. And that always seemed to work out by doing that with people. And you always your main thing was to have a relationship with the vendor. I didn't want it to be just some this the cheapest from some nameless faceless company that sent me the cheapest product. You wanted a relationship with your vendors and you wanted to purchase from somebody local. And you I mean, you're you had that ability to do all those things. And I always respected the heck out of the fact that you guys did that. Absolutely. Thanks, man. There's so there's one other thing. It's a three component deal there that I want to be able to just include and leave you with. And this is something that I learned because I was thinking about this when you asked, like, what did you learn through this through this pandemic period? And what had to change is that so one was voice over text. This is something I learned. What does that mean?

01:02:51People want to hear our voice over a text message or anything typed out, whether that's, you know, if you use some sort of hot schedules, log with employees, whatever your voice is so important to people. They want to be able to hear it because they know you if they know you. If they know you and if they don't know you, they need to get to know you, which is the next one, which is presence over presentation. We've because we're in 19 stores, we had to do so much zoom stuff and we would we would set up, you know, slideshows and what information we're going to cover in so much and so on, too. But what we learned also is that my presence, along with my voice, is so much more powerful and energizing and just motivating for our folks and encouraging at this time versus me sending you an email, a text, any kind of any kind of message like that. Or in a presentation with a bunch of slides and data and information versus me being in your store with you, walking with you through this experience, too, and having some presence and what what's going on to be able to share that information as well.

01:03:59And then that while you're there, being able to provide clarity over certainty is the last bit. So the certainty, man, I always tell people ask me a question, you know, like, well, so what are our sales going to look like next month? And I'm like, man, my crystal ball is still kind of fuzzy right now. I can't exactly tell. But here's what I can tell you. So and here's the clarity. We will open our doors at 10 a.m. tomorrow and we will give the best service we absolutely possibly can on that day for every single customer that comes in. We will do our best for our employees to make sure that they have a good, safe environment. So providing that clarity, I can't give you all of the certainty, but I can provide a lot of clarity for you. So voice over text presence over a presentation and clarity over certainty, I think, has been some of the biggest things to gain and to learn out of. You can't just go on autopilot. Well, I sent them an email. I sent them a text.

01:04:59Well, I gave them the information in a in a presentation that they can download at any time and share with their team. You know, no, you've got to, you know, I think John Maxwell calls it walking the walk in the halls slowly. Yeah, that's that's that's such great, great stuff right there. I heard Andy Stanley, I listened to his leadership podcast. I love Andy Stanley. He said that's one thing is you need people need to hear your voice. They don't need to read your like they need to hear your voice. They need to see your face. That's one of the things right now when you're at home and you're not doing something, they need to hear your voice and see your face. There's a physical reaction. They get to that versus a text that the no not being able to understand tone. Like, what did they mean by that? Was he upset like because you get enough of that and you just you just become numb and you need voice inflections. You need to see somebody smiling when they're talking to you.

01:06:00You can feel it in your heart. You know what I mean? It's your soul. That's what people do to the whole thing. And I think that's something that a lot of us are learning is about the people and how important every individual people that I think the actual individual person is the winner of this. Entire thing of COVID-19 like the individual person not the workers or this like that every single person is unique and everybody brings value. You said there was that person that was your ace and now that person is an ace in three or four different areas. That speaks so much to the individual person and what each individual person is capable of and what they've been able to accomplish. I think that this has just been such an amazing opportunity to learn about so many people individually. It's just been a special moment. So good, man. Yeah. And that's not to say, you know, I know this is the business segment and we didn't get into a bunch of numbers and, you know, spreadsheets and a lot of those things that we're looking at to the analytics because we do that.

01:07:04Of course, you know, we do that as well. But I think ultimately, if you if you don't connect with the folks, you're not going to get very far with that number crunching either. All right, so I will. We're going to wrap this thing up and we got to do this again at some point here, maybe a little bit later on when we have a little more clarity or certainty with what's happening in this world. I'm going to start using that all over the place, by the way. I do give the guests the last word. So the last thing that you take us out, I open the floor. You could say whatever you want to my entire audience, whoever's still listening to this podcast, takes as long as you want. Whatever you want to say, don't even have to just whatever's on your heart. You just go. OK, so for for all the fellow listeners that are out there in leadership positions, what I would say to you is find the root.

01:08:07Find the source of why you got in this business anyway. What was what what made you make that decision? What what how did you put your yes on the table? Why did you put your yes on the table? Whatever that route, whatever that source is, draw from that daily so that you know how to make what decisions to make going forward, how to include your people in it, in the decision making that you've got in front of you. But don't don't lose your passion for doing this business because it can be hard. It can be challenging. If we listen to everything that's on the media, radio, whatever it might be, it can be overwhelming everything that we get to see that that is telling us that, man, the chips are against us. And I would say, let this be our best moment to say, no, this is when I lead bigger. This is when I speak more to our folks.

01:09:08This is when I draw nearer to everything that I put my yes on the table for for doing getting into this business. So that's that's what I would say to this group overall is that, man, there's more in you. And realize to know that you've probably got a lot of people around you, too, that are are just as passionate as you are. We just got to tap into that a little bit. I love it. Absolutely. Thank you so much, Rudy, for joining us today on a Nashville restaurant radio. This was a fun conversation. I really appreciate your your honesty and candor. And I have to come see at the restaurant. Yeah, you need that ice cream, too, man. I'm trying. That's been my problem. I've had way too much of it. You know, I shouldn't say this on the show. We'll see who's still listening. You gave me the best hint. The one day you're I was in the restaurant and I was getting an ice cream and you go, you know, the pro tip is right. And I go, what's that?

01:10:08You go, you get your ice cream in the cup. Then you go put root beer in it. And I was like, oh, and from that day forth, like it was like mind blown. Exactly, exactly. That's awesome. It started. It started a thing for me. That's yeah, root beer flows. My nemesis right now. Thank you so much, man. You got it. Get talking with your brother, Rudy. They are so excited to talk with you today. Thank you so much for joining us here on Nashville restaurant radio. And I hope that you and yours are doing well. Have a wonderful week. Hope you guys are being safe. Love you guys. Bye.