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Niche Concepts: Surviving Small Town Seasonality with Hillary Zio · Big Talk About Small Business

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_05: If I have an idea, like I have to see if it has legs.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_05: That's it.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_05: And I'm like not watching TV.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_05: I'm not scrolling.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_05: I'm just working on whatever business idea this is.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_05: And then if I find out it doesn't work, hey, at least I know and I'm not sitting around wondering.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_01: This is another episode of Big Talk about all business.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_01: And Hillary, you don't know what you're in for today.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_02: It's uh that's the so for the guests, we were talking about Mark getting hearing aids, and that was like a so Mark will be getting hearing aids here in a maybe a month or two.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we'll see.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we're just worried about the interference in the microphone, so we're kind of practicing what our reaction will be if that happens.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_02: We need to be prepared for the show.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_01: Uh we've got to be.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_01: It's all it's all about the preparation.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_01: That's what my old carpenter in Boston used to say.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_01: Ray stockpole.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_01: That's right, man.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_01: It's all about the preparation.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, Hillary.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_01: Uh we're here with Hilary Zio, and um she doesn't know what she's in for because we we keep it loose, ear, and very informal.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_01: Like we've given her no warning about anything, have we?
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_02: No, no.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, they give us the script sheet.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_01: We don't look at these things, Hillary.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_01: Really?
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_01: Really?
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_01: We just I mean, just to pronounce people's names correctly.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_01: I know.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_01: I hope I got that right.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_01: Did I?
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_05: You actually did, yeah.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_01: I did somebody actually call you Xio.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_01: They do.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, so people will say Xyo all the time.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_05: I'm like, interesting, interesting.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_05: But it's not my real last name, it's just my pen name, because it's the last three letters of my full last name, which I don't even think you want to try.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, hit us with it.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we want to now you gotta, yeah, we wanna we wanna try.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_05: It's D Argenzio.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_05: But usually if you saw it on paper, you'd say Dargenzio or are you like Calabrian or Sicilian?
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_01: Or what is your actually, yeah.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_05: Calabria is is where it's from.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_05: But it is my ex-husband's name.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_05: I just kept it.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_01: It's a cool name.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_01: I my grandmother came from there.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_01: I know.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_01: Dude, you are a I'm actually cultured, like freaking uh just give me a break.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_01: But no, seriously, they moved from Sicily to Calabria, and then Calabria to this country, but they were actually Sicilian.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_01: If you look at my 23andme, so but that's your freaking four ex-husband.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_01: We don't even know.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_05: I know, I'm not even telling my 23andme.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_05: It had, I wasn't even one percent of anything.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_05: I was like 0.9 English, 0.8 French.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_05: Like everybody's French.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_02: But you're originally from where where did you grow up?
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_05: Colorado.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_02: Colorado, okay.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_02: Oh wow, okay.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_02: So you're Coloradian.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_05: I guess, yeah.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, I moved, I went to Arizona State after that, and then I moved straight to New York City.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_05: So I've been in New York for like 20 years.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_05: I feel like a New Yorker.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_01: But you're living in Hudson Valley now, so you're two hours away, right?
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_05: Yep.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_05: I go down about every other month still for work reasons, food reasons, to see friends, you know.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_01: Get good pastrami that you just can't get anywhere else, right?
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_05: Sushi, anything from Asia.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_05: They just not a lot of that in Hudson Valley.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_01: Well, tell us now.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_01: Hillary is like you and me, Eric.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_01: She's got like 20 different things she does.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_01: Tell us about all your different businesses, Hillary.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_05: So I own a restaurant.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_05: It's been in business for two years, but it took about a year to do all the renovation, wait for the liquor license.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_05: So it feels more like three.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_05: And I also have a wine club, about 100 members.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_05: And I only put my wines, I actually pour behind the bar in the club.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_05: So that's what makes it really different and special than like any other random winery club or a place that does just like closeouts and gives you whatever.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_05: This is like the stuff I'm that obsessed with on my buy the glass list.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_05: And yeah, ships all over the country.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_05: I just wrote my second book in May, and it's called Working in Wine, still working in wine 20 years later.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_05: So the first one I wrote was 10 years later, and that was called The Unfiltered Guide to Working in Wine.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_05: So the first one is like a guidebook, and the second one, 10 years later, was really a memoir.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_05: Really just like personal stuff and vulnerable and you know, having a child and going through divorce and opening a restaurant and all the different things that can happen along the way.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_05: So that was really fun.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_05: And now I'm actually yeah, go ahead.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_05: I've got a lot going on.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_02: No, say it.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_02: You were saying it.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_05: So the last thing, I swear, the last thing I'm working on, which is a course that I'm developing for attorneys.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_05: And so basically it helps them with client dining and hosting and entertaining, just like obviously networking, communication, and all the wine stuff that you obviously don't get taught in law school, that helps you pick the right bottle to close the deal.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_01: Love it.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I saw something the other day I was reading.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_01: It was pretty interesting.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_01: It was like whenever you go to a business dinner, and God knows I've been to thousands of them, they said, don't ever talk business at all unless the client brings it up.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_01: Otherwise, just don't talk business.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_01: Just shut up and have fun.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_01: Just shut up and get drunk and no.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_05: They're trying to earn your trust.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_05: You know, it's it's about the relationship building, exactly.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_05: And a lot of times, the younger generation, especially, you know, these junior attorneys, they go out, they just don't know how to lead the table, how to take charge, you know, really in control of the whole situation, grab the list, talk about it, order correctly, food pairing, just like things like that.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_02: You know, and that's such a uh that's I mean, it's such an important part about building a business, building your network, being able to entertain.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, and you're right, that's kind of a lost the the the lost ability for folks to feel comfortable about connecting with other people and building that relationship is it's not all over text and email, is it?
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_02: No, and you know, and COVID screwed that up for dogs too, man.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, like it allowed you to be isolated and you still survived and they come out of it, and I'm it's hard to get back into.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I'll be the first to admit after having some separation from folks.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I actually hated it and I didn't really stop doing what I was doing.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_02: But everybody else I got kind of used to, like, oh, I don't have to reconnect.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_02: And it's been I've noticed that it was a little bit of a conscious effort to do that.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_02: And so, but I mean, like, tell us a bit more about that.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, like, give give some folks some pointers and some stuff about that.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, yeah.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_05: So, like you said, you know, people are online, they've got their phones, they have AI that gives them just unlimited information.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_05: But what people are missing is the human connection and just having a transformation.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_05: So that's why it I'm doing a course, right?
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_05: It's about five hours, five different modules, and you have to get 75% on each, you know, quiz to move to the next session and and like that.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_05: But really, it's just about listening, not talking the whole time, asking a lot of questions.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_05: You know, if you ask people questions about themselves, they will walk away thinking that you're the coolest dude ever.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_01: You know, that is so true.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_01: 100%.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_01: It's that you can tell people nothing, but just ask them questions about themselves and they'll think you're great.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_02: And you know what I would also find kind of interesting here is that the as much as you believe in that and advocate for it, and you're around the big city, right?
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_02: I know you're in a small town, but I mean I'm assuming your business is kind of built from folks that are from in the big city.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, it's which is fast-paced.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_02: You don't really think about folks building relationships, you know, in such a busy place like New York and you know, these bigger cities, right?
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I kind of think of that as a little a little bit more of a small town thing.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, did you uh kind of get into that because of you living in a small town?
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_02: Or I mean, was this always something you had as a core philosophy?
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, I mean, I've always been interested in the education where like wine is concerned.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_05: I've taught like 500 classes in the last 20 years on wine, but there's kind of a point that where there's I call it like the pain point for people when they just can't figure out how to order wine for client gifting, right?
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_05: They just like they actually do need to know how to order a bottle at a dinner, you know, these things.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_05: So I wanted to make it like very much a real life approachable uh program and not turning people into small years because they don't need to do that, right?
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_05: They're not trying to enter into the industry, they're just trying to develop these client relationships.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_01: What do you think about today?
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_01: It seems like the bourbon aficionados are trying to be like the wine connoisseurs and then the you even the craft beer people seem to have adopted some of the same sort of language in describing their piss you off, Hillary.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_05: I am so irritated by all of it.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_05: No, it's funny, like when people try and they are to be doing their Cicerone to become like a beer master.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_05: It's like, okay, cool, do whatever you need, or how is as far as you want to educate yourself, and that's cool.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_05: But it's a problem when you start really bragging about it and showing off.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_05: And look at the legs of my wine, aren't they great?
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_05: I'm like, tell me about the legs because the temperature in this room could dictate whether those legs are falling quicker or forming faster.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_05: You know, it's just pretty silly.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_02: Dang, Hillary's ready to bust somebody out.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I'm telling you.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_02: Tell me about those, like, you don't understand like the physics behind what just happened in your glass, and you're over there bragging about it.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not gonna talk about this stuff with Hillary.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know anything.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_01: I drink Bud Light.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_01: Hillary smokes cigarettes.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm like the worst person to have this conversation with.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_01: It's amazing.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_01: You think I couldn't even function?
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, it's like tasting though is totally subjective.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_05: It's you there is no wrong answer.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_05: If you're smelling basil and thyme, that's probably because you're cooking with it every night.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_05: It just comes, you know, from our life experiences, and people just don't want to be wrong and say blackberry.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_05: Well, newsflash, blackberry is in like 50% of red grapes.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_05: So, like, you're not gonna be wrong.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_05: But people are really scared, I think, to kind of like talk about it.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_02: So, Hiller, let's let's talk a little bit about you said from small town, you're you're in a small town, your restaurant's in a small town, correct?
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_02: It's a high-class small town.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_02: It's a high-class small town.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, a lot of vacationers there.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, it's definitely an affluent area.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_05: It's about, I would say, 50% retirees and the other 50% families from New York City that just wanted to escape and have a couple kids, fix up an old house.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_05: It's one of the oldest towns in America, like right a couple after Philadelphia.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_05: So there's a ton of history.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_05: One of those towns you you drive through and there's like a plaque on every house, you know.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, cool.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_02: Excellent.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_02: So it's very unquaint.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_02: How many people are what's the population there?
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_05: Oh my gosh, I hate population questions.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_05: Maybe 4,000, 5,000 Kinderhook.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_05: Um, but but it's in the real center of just north of Hudson before you get to Albany.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_05: So you're surrounded by Chatham and Stuyvesant and Valetia and all these towns that don't really have a restaurant scene.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_05: So I get to sort of be that in this little like hub.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_01: So why a restaurant?
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you also have a consulting business, don't you, that we didn't talk about?
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, I'm currently doing a lot of consulting work.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_05: So I do the purchasing for a wine shop in town right now, which is like fun and easy.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_05: And I also at my wine bar, I haven't mentioned this yet, but all of my wines come from islands and coasts of Europe.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_05: So it's very specific.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_05: And I taste a lot of these, like Sicilian, Sardinian, you know, Southern French, Greek wines.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_05: And when I get to consult for a shop, I actually get to do the entire world and taste all these new world wines, America, see what's happening in Australia, New Zealand.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_05: So that's really fun for me.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_05: And I have all the relationships already.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_05: And so I do a lot of tastings in the city, but some really great reps come to me too, which is nice.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_02: And then your so your restaurant, tell us a little about that.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_02: Like what's its atmosphere?
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, I mean, what's kind of its unique proposition?
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_05: Totally.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_05: So it's 24 seats, and it's really built around the whole concept of transporting someone to an island, right?
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_05: To these European islands and coasts.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_05: So the name is Isola, which in Italian means island.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_05: So it's it has a lot of like little plates I found from the 1800s in France on the walls, and like a really special uh tile that you would really only see in Europe.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_05: It's supposed to just kind of make you sit down with your wife, and you're like, doesn't this remind you of that place in Tuscany?
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_05: We went that year with our kids, you know, it's just a transporting kind of thing.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_05: And the food is really built around those same regions.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_05: So islands and coasts of Europe is where uh it's all of the like inspiration comes from.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_05: But we use just Hudson Valley ingredients for almost every single day.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_05: So it's super local, and the menu changes every Wednesday.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_02: What kind of food do you serve?
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_02: Do you have like a, I mean, you know, yeah, we've got like pasta.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_05: Well, there's always a homemade pasta.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_05: We have crudos, we do steak tartare, we do chicken liver mousse.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_05: It's a little bit upscale.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_05: I wouldn't say that it's fine dining or we don't have anything super like fancy about our service.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_05: Like we don't use trays, but at the same time, it's adults only.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_05: You know, there's always some music playing that reminds you of these islands and coasts.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_05: I never have American English words.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_05: Playing is always either French, Italian, or Spanish.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_05: And yeah, it's just like a celebratory place, a great date night spot.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_01: It it but it's doesn't it seem like Hillary has no passion for this at all?
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, look at how she lights up with you when she said when she said I mean seer.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, oh my gosh, they're missing out.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_02: Well, then the video.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_02: And then when she says American, it's like very like American.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_05: Hey, there's so much great wine in America.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_05: I just I will say that it's a lot fruitier.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_05: When you think about like California wines, you Napa, you know, Merlot, juicy, fruity reds that have all these like berries, not always gonna pair with your steak tartare.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_05: Not gonna work with chicken liver mousse.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_05: You need something that has a little more herbaceous earthiness.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_01: I'm always looking for something that goes with chicken liver mousse.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_01: Never.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_01: I got some chicken liver mousse in my pocket right now.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_01: So it sounds very esoteric.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_01: But I know it's a small place.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_01: You've only got 24 seats.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_01: How does that work for you economically?
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it seems like the restaurant business is hard enough, but having a really small establishment like that.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_05: Well, very European of me.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_05: Uh, the chef and I are basically the only people working in there um 90% of the time.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_05: So there's no hostess, there's no manager.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_05: It's just the two of us running around doing our thing.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_05: And sometimes we'll have a high school food runner who's just doing dishes and running plays.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_05: It's that easy.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_05: Also, we're only open four days a week from five to nine.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_05: And nobody has has minded.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_05: I have cut the hours because I want to get the dinner crowd for financial reasons instead of the lunch crowd.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_05: It's it's not worth my time, to be totally honest.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_05: And it closes at nine because that's when everybody's gone.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_05: I've never had to stay open a little later, which is great for me having a seven-year-old who gets up at 5:30 every day.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_05: It's just a really, you know, nice experience.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_05: And the fact that it's not the only thing I do.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_05: Because the first year, I did not make money.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_05: This was not profitable.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_05: And then the second year, it was up 38% because word had to get around, you know?
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_01: It's like heirloom here, which is basically run by the chef and his girlfriend.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_01: Or friends of ours.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_01: Now you probably have a long waiting list now to get in, right?
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_01: As small as that is.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_05: Like every night I would say I have three or four groups, couples that are waiting 15 to 30 minutes.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_05: Because everybody wants to come at the same time.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_05: Like, you know, you could always make a reservation.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_05: And there are some nights where I'm like on social media, hey guys, we've got too many reservations.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_05: You know, we can't we can't have walk-ins tonight.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_05: And it's usually just it's a kitchen thing, right?
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_05: If I only have one chef back there, that's that's all we can do.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_05: But it makes it kind of special.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_05: And then they just make a reservation and come back next week.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_02: Sounds awesome.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you keep your overhead low, right?
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_02: Or I mean your staff problems down that way.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_05: Staff was the biggest problem in the first year.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_05: That's something I I was a sommelier for many years in New York City, and I never saw the actual cost of keeping staff on.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_05: It was over 50% of my expenses.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_05: So I was like, you guys, you gotta go.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_05: I'm sorry.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_05: I gotta just do this on my own, but it's only I only work there four hours a day.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_05: So it's not yeah.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_02: So you started out with a a larger staff when you open up the restaurant.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_02: Is that what you're saying?
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_02: Really?
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_02: How many well, how'd you start it out?
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_02: How many how many folks did you have on?
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_05: So when I opened, a lot of people were really excited and I was very busy, like any place that just opens, you know, people want to come in.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_05: And I sort of took that as okay, so if I'm making this much, that means I can hire this amount of people.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_05: And I opened in October.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_05: Obviously, November and December are super busy here, holidays, people visiting.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_05: And then January came and I was like, Yeah.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, it was like scary.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_05: It was also like the worst winter we've ever had.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_05: I remember just everything felt like it was frozen, like you couldn't walk around.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_05: You needed like cleats on your feet, really.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_05: It was one of those winters.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_05: And so I just like saw the numbers.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_05: I'm like, I can't keep doing this.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_05: So I made one, like sort of my manager employee go down to two days a week.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_05: And then I just kind of got went down from there.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_05: But everybody who's worked with me has been so great.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_05: There's still pe there right now.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, if I am leaving town or if I just had to get foot surgery, for example, I have some people that are friends of mine that have full-time jobs that are like really happy to just stand behind the bar, take orders, you know, pour wine.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_05: There's no uh hard alcohol, there's no mixed drinks or shots.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_05: So it's this.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_05: That's all you gotta do.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_01: So do have you watched The Bear is what I want to know.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_05: You know what's so funny?
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_05: Everyone asks me that, and I get a little triggered.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_05: It's anyone who's works in restaurants gets a little triggered by that show.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_05: They've known a chef, they've known someone in the kitchen, and they're like, ugh, they feel a little uncomfortable, especially if you worked in New York City.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_05: And the thing about working in New York City, there's somebody who wants your job waiting at the door.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_05: You know, you don't ever feel like most places you work, that they really care about you, that you're just totally irreplaceable.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_05: It they have everybody, but in smaller towns, you're kind of like, oh my God, you are irreplaceable.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_05: Do you know how many people in Kinderhook, New York, want to work at a wine bar?
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_05: Like I said, they're either retired or they're working remotely.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_05: Some of them are going back and forth to the city every week.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_05: There's just so few young people, there's no college.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_05: So I treat people with like, thank you so much.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_05: I need you.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_01: That the one thing about the bear, though, that I think is relevant in this discussion is the fact that they change their menu all the time.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that seems to me like, I mean, I realize that maybe a big part of what you offer is that variety and and and surprise when you go.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_01: But at the same time, doesn't that make the business a lot harder?
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_05: So here's the thing.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_05: If you go on my Instagram every Wednesday, I literally just did this.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_05: I post the menu and I put new, new, new, new, new on all the things that are new.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_05: And Chef is like so more than happy to do this.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_05: She lived in New York City the same, you know, 15 years that I did.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_05: And she's just bored at the end of the week by the same food.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_05: And she watches not seasons, but like micro seasons when it comes.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_05: To produce.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_05: She's like, you know what?
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_05: Tomatoes are gone, moving on.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_05: So all of it, it's it's actually yeah, it makes more sense.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_05: And we have small quantities, so we've we've been able to like make that work.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_05: And I change the wine list every two weeks.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_05: Same reason.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_05: I get sick of the same stuff.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, Mark, it's hard for Mark to understand that because he just likes a quarter pounder of a cheese.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, the same thing every day.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_02: McDonald's.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_02: Now wait a minute.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_01: I think Outback is pretty good when I want a steak.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, come on.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_01: Hell yeah.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe Outback's got one too.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I guess I'm steaking on there.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_02: How do you compete with somebody like an Outbag?
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, I would take that bloom and onion any day, didn't I?
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_05: That's delicious.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, he has 2,200 calories.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_01: No wonder.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_02: You have a bloom and onion and a carrot cake.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, you're it's a basically a death sentence.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_02: It's true.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_01: I start blooming when I have that.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_05: It's funny that you said that you said competition too, because I don't know if you've ever been to Albany, but there isn't one.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_05: There really is not a single wine bar.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_05: It's cold.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_05: So people are, they drive 30 minutes to me if they want to go to a real wine bar and talk to a real Somalier.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_05: You know, same thing in Hudson.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_05: There's like not really a designated wine bar and definitely nowhere that a certified Somalier owns the place.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_02: What would you tell somebody that's listening that wants to, I'm like, man, I'd really want to open a restaurant.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, they've got this fantasy about doing what you're doing.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_02: There's a lot of people.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, now that you've been bragging about your your business, let's tell them like what really like what they need to watch out for.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, I mean, I would say really think about your location.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_05: That's gonna change whether this is gonna be a seasonal business or not, right?
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_05: And is it walkable from a train?
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_05: Is it even a walkable town?
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_05: Or is it a driving, just destination only type of place?
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_05: And for me, I had a couple of things in my favor, but it still is like rather seasonal.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_05: And maybe having something else on the side, at least to start, if it is a real small town, you know?
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, because when you chose your restaurant location, were you living in in the area already, or were did you kind of seek it out?
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_05: I was living about 10 minutes away.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_05: And when I saw that it was available, I mean, the building was right next to the library, coffee shop, and a very established restaurant.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_05: And next door to that was like a a craft beer place that's really cool.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_05: So I was like, you know what?
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_05: There's nothing else like it in this town, or like really in the vicinity of about 45 minutes.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_01: So it made sense.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, being by other locations like that where people go.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_01: And you were already a why uh a smallier, right?
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_05: It's uh since uh 2010, I've been a certified Smallier.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_05: And that took uh like two and a half years after my like basic econ degree at at university.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_02: So you had, I mean, I guess I'm kind of painting a little bit of story, because if you're listening, right, and somebody has a an idea and they have a passion to do this.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, but you know, when they see successful uh restauranteers like yourself, right?
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_02: You had a specialty, an expertise in something.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_02: You know, you were you know, you really looked at your location like you're talking about.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_02: You looked at the vicinity, the different, you know, was it walkable?
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_02: What's the seasonality to it?
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_02: You're thinking about all that.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_02: There's a lot of contemplation that goes in to make sure you don't start up a bombshell, right?
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, because well, a bomb, yeah.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_01: I think that yeah, you're right.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_01: Sorry.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_01: Because a bomb, not a bombshell.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_01: Because um yeah, you see so many people, it's like, oh, this place is available.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_01: I I always wanted a restaurant, eager to get up and going.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_02: That's my attitude.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_02: I'm the like to be the worst person like locations available for lease.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_02: How much is it?
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, right.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, I mean all the equipment's already there.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_03: All right, yeah.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_03: Let's go.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_01: And that's what people do.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_01: And then they open up the in here, it's like the 22nd Mexican restaurant within a two-mile radius.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_01: Isn't that the truth?
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_01: It's like king empty restaurant, king burritos going in, okay?
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_01: I'm I mean, I'm just telling you, that's the way it is.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_01: So, yeah, they're not thinking about all these things.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_01: I I think the uniqueness and and all is a really big part of it.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_02: So, in like in your case, you staffed up, resourced up, you found out real quick that you were bloated up on the on the expense side.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_01: Overhead was out of control.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_02: Overheads out of control.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_02: How would you do it again?
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I mean, what would be your plan?
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_02: Because I mean, if you do the opposite, then you have opposite problems, right?
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_05: No, I mean, I guess I would have I would have said, first of all, to have patience because my community, they needed to find out from book club and their neighbors.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_05: They're not on social media, like I said, a little older.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_05: And I I wouldn't have been so, oh my God, I have to close.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_05: I'm so slow this week, that kind of thing.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_05: But also with the staffing, yeah, in smaller towns, like I said, without colleges, not gonna have the kind of staff that you that will want to be there and work in restaurant and have a passion for hospitality, right?
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_05: So expect that it's going to be you there every single day, opening to close.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you most people forget like you are the primary source of labor for your business in something like this, right?
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_01: Like you need to have to think that they aren't gonna be.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_02: Dude, shit, man.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_02: I can tell you this from personal experience.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_02: Now, now before, you know, I had a you know, a successful exit or whatever you want to call it, like I was definitely new, like incredibly successful intuitively that I was in the grind, right?
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I mean, there was no question.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_02: I go work, I mean I'm dogging this puppy, and everything's all depending on my energy here.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_02: But after that, like I had I had this uh stupid idea that for some reason that the second time around, I would not necessarily have to be so engaged and involved in the company, and I got slapped straight in the face with that uh ignorant mentality, right?
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_02: That's true.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_02: That's being an investor and entrepreneur are two very different things.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_02: If you're gonna be an investor, that's why you play in the stock market or whatever, you put your money or you know, you sit back and watch things happen.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_02: But if you got the idea and you're starting, nah, you're in, bro.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_02: You're in.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_02: But uh, you know, you you said something, Hillary, that I wanted to point out.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_02: Uh like if in the in in like when you in your experience, you bloated up a little bit too much in your expenses.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_02: Did you, like maybe a lot of folks, were kind of agonizing about having to make some hard decision to reduce that?
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_02: And did you agonize with that a little too long when you found out?
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_02: And you mentioned it.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_01: Good question.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_02: These are still good, these people still care for you.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_02: Things worked out okay, but the agony you went through to make those decisions was it wasn't worth it.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, I didn't necessarily think I had to be there every night.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_05: I didn't want to be.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_05: I was like, look, can't I just do what I do best?
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_05: Wine education and like train these people and they can help me out.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_05: And and then I finally hired a financial uh person who she's like does these really cool um, like, I don't even know how to explain it.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_05: She has people go on 30 days of like not buying anything, they're like money cleanses, and then she analyzes everything.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_05: It's pretty crazy.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_05: You'll see like what you spend on Amazon and just like all your random subscriptions.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_05: So we worked together, and she was like, Hey, look, you've got this crazy amount of payroll expenses.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_05: Like, why are you doing this?
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_05: You just can't be there.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, it's 24 seats.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_05: Why do you think you would need an extra server than you?
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_05: And I was like, all right, fine, you know, I'm just gonna go out on my own and see.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_05: And I could do even the busiest night, like a busy night for me would be like 3,000, right?
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_05: And I did it by myself fine with a high schooler as a runner.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_05: And that changed everything.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_05: Because for the entire first year, I didn't have any runners.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_05: I had two servers.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_05: So a server makes twice as much as a runner, right?
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_01: Makes total sense.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, there's uh there's so much uh people I think don't think about when they there's so many people want to be in that business and they rush into it.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_01: They don't really have a plan and it blows up on them quickly.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I think one of the key words when you said it, Hillary, is like this patience, right?
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I mean, and I'm and I'm getting it, man.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_02: I'm I'm I'm definitely a six-shooter type person.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I mean it's ready, shoot, dude, ready, fire, it hurts, it hurts me nine times out of ten.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_02: I might get one right, but I mean, yeah, but it's painful on the process.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_02: And I mean, I don't know if you're kind of the same way, Hillary.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_02: You got like 13 things going on too, right?
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_02: You know, you are that same way.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_05: If I have an idea, like I have to see if it has legs.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_05: That's it.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_05: And I'm like not watching TV, I'm not scrolling, I'm just working on whatever business idea this is.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_05: And then if I find out it doesn't work, hey, at least I know and I'm not sitting around wondering.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_05: So here's a good example of that.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_05: This earlier in the year in January, I actually purchased the building that my restaurant's in.
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_05: So I was able to get that.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_05: And um, so now I'm the landlady of the building, and it also includes five other businesses.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_05: So there's a hair salon and an esthetician and a jewelry designer and and all these things.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_05: But before they were there, we had this idea that maybe on the other side of the building, the retail side, I was actually going to open like a play cafe.
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_05: It's where like you get a coffee, you can drop off your kid for two hours, and there's like a nanny or two there, and you can have like five kids hang out at the same time because there's so many kids, and and just child care is such a problem where I am.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_05: Like people are constantly looking for nannies.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_05: Oh my gosh, they're always hiring opairs from out of country.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_05: Just it's crazy.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_05: So I tried this for about three months, like wheels.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_05: Like you said, I was like, let's gung-ho figure this out.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_05: And by the third month, after like going back and forth with the town, the village here, I would have had to put a hundred grand on sheetrocking my basement to be child care approved in this village.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_05: Do you know what I'm saying?
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_05: So there's always like these little things, but but guess how much I learned in the process about child care if I ever need to, but also about like just zoning and all just all kinds of things.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_05: I feel like I took a crash course and it's gonna be beneficial for me one day, you know.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_02: You know, the Mark over here is the expert in real estate, but I mean, I'm not.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_02: And I mean it doesn't sound like you were, but I mean, like, you know, as a business person, you're like, well, I should buy that, you know, because you hear, you know, equity, I'm gaining an appreciation, but you buy something and it's immediately like, what the hell are you talking about?
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_02: You know, then you gotta figure out lease agreements, you gotta figure out.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_02: It's a hassle.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, it's it's a job.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_01: Terrible, it's not passive income.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_01: It is not passive income.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's the point for sure.
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_01: No, you're talking about no, go on.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_05: I'm sorry.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_05: Oh no, I was just gonna say, so above the bar, it was just empty for so many years.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_05: This building is from 1787.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_05: That's how old it is.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_05: And there was nothing up there.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_05: And I was like, oh, I'm allowed to have an apartment.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_05: Okay, yes.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_05: Finding out I can only have a one bedroom, that's fine.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_05: So I do the one bedroom on the top floor, lease it out in March, and that's great.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_05: And with the other side of the building, so above the aesthetician's office, I wanted to do another apartment.
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_05: I was like, this is what people need.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_05: There were tons of people that reached out that need an apartment.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_05: So I tried to do that, and I was 40 square feet short of being able to due to my parking lot size, you know?
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_05: So it's just all these things.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_05: All right, well, we're putting in an hair salon.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_05: Let's go.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_05: Like, whatever.
• 34:23
  SPEAKER_02: It's so freaking painful.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_02: Hey, and Hillary, I apologize for Mark.
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_02: He keeps cutting you off.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_02: Like when you're talking about it.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_05: No, I'm just I always just talk whenever I feel like it.
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_02: Snowball crap.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_02: Hey, we only we do only have a few more minutes, Mark.
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, in you know, with Hillary.
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_02: So, like, is there anything that we wanted to to zero in on about her uh her history?
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_02: Or Hillary, do you got any things that you really want to express?
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_02: Advice.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, advice to entrepreneurs or wannabe.
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_01: Restaurant owners, restaurants, employers.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, obviously, if you want to do something that's kind of niche and specific, then having something else on the side will help you.
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_05: You know, like my course that I was telling you guys about.
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_05: It's like there are attorneys that are getting ready to use it.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_05: It's coming out in December, but I also have a ton of random people who just like hosting that want to learn more about wine and hospitality that are interested in taking this.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_05: And so that is something where I can maybe make a little bit of money while I'm sleeping so that I can have a little wine bar.
• 35:29
  SPEAKER_02: How do you make money while you're sleeping?
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_02: Because it's a digital course, right?
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_02: They subscribe to it.
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_05: It's self-paced through think of it.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_01: Where can people find this course?
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_05: So on my website, hilaryzeo.com.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_05: You can see it's just on the homepage at the bottom.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_05: Click and and then you can find out about the course and get on the email list.
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_05: Um, yeah, or my Instagram, HilaryZio.com at HillaryZio.
• 35:54
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• 35:56
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• 36:02
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• 36:05
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• 36:10
  SPEAKER_02: Now, another thing that you do is you do uh, I mean, I guess what would you call it?
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_02: A content creator, you're a content creator.
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, you're in that space, right?
• 36:19
  SPEAKER_02: And uh kind of like a self PR person.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, do you coach people on that too as well?
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_05: I have.
• 36:26
  SPEAKER_05: So I actually, weirdly, in 2010, I think I was like one of the first wine professionals on Instagram.
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_05: And so a lot of PR companies saw that.
• 36:37
  SPEAKER_05: I was like one of the first people to use hashtag wine.
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_05: And then brands in Europe actually started sending me over to create content for like their wineries and their regions, and you know, they have a budget for that.
• 36:48
  SPEAKER_05: Unlike in America, they don't really send you this area to do a lot of video and and make a blog about it.
• 36:54
  SPEAKER_05: But Europe's quite different in that way.
• 36:57
  SPEAKER_05: And so I was going for 10 years, maybe every month to like France, Italy, or Spain.
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_05: And that's kind of where I had the idea of just doing this kind of restaurant that's focused on these regions with these grapes no one's heard of, like Norello Mascalese, but because they've never heard of them, they're gonna be less expensive.
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_05: They're not Bordeaux, they're not Burgundy.
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_05: So they're more approachable, and you can have three glasses instead of one.
• 37:22
  SPEAKER_02: You know, you just with you just saying that too makes me reiterate the specialty that you had before you opened your restaurant.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_02: It wasn't just that you're a Somalier and you understood that.
• 37:31
  SPEAKER_02: You had real experience, you experienced the like the true native, you know, cultural things that were going on.
• 37:39
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 37:39
  SPEAKER_02: You collected that and then you created this.
• 37:41
  SPEAKER_02: Like, and so I mean, but I think it goes to show there's a lot of folks that have this uh kind of you know deep expertise in something, and and and you building around that is really.
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, these other aspects of your life that you can integrate into your um business.
• 37:56
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, 100%.
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of people don't ever tap into those things, right?
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_02: They're like siloed completely.
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you can't just like say, hey, I want to start a restaurant.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_02: And I mean, like you, you know, because I have I love I love barbecue.
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_02: Right?
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_02: You know, it's kind of like uh what is it, Jordan that looks right?
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I mean, but he started in his backyard, like just perfecting, perfecting, perfecting, and people loved it.
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_02: And then it became, hey, why don't you take that and create a restaurant?
• 38:23
  SPEAKER_02: And that's what the quality of that food is what drives that restaurant.
• 38:27
  SPEAKER_02: You need to have some.
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_02: It's called Wright's Barbecue's here in Northwest Arkansas.
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, it's freaking amazing food.
• 38:32
  SPEAKER_05: We need good barbecue up here, it's it's not the same as down south.
• 38:37
  SPEAKER_05: That's for sure.
• 38:37
  SPEAKER_01: It ain't gonna happen.
• 38:38
  SPEAKER_01: I'm just gonna tell you right now.
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_01: Why?
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_01: Why are you so negative about that, man?
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_05: Someone would have to like move and be trained.
• 38:49
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, it would have to be the whole process.
• 38:52
  SPEAKER_01: I had this idea years ago.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_01: I wanted to open up a restaurant called White Trash and Soul Brother.
• 38:57
  unknown: Wow.
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_01: And I was gonna I was gonna concentrate on like comfort food and and you know, um like African American cuisine, you know, merge bring it all together.
• 39:09
  SPEAKER_01: Bring it all together, and then put that in a really high-end environment instead of your typical like we're going to Granny's Kitchen kind of restaurant.
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know what I mean?
• 39:17
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 39:17
  SPEAKER_01: Like put it like I'm gonna charge, I'm gonna give you half as much and charge three times what you pay.
• 39:23
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 39:24
  SPEAKER_01: And you're gonna love it.
• 39:25
  SPEAKER_01: And you're gonna think it's amazing because nobody else is selling that in a nice restaurant.
• 39:30
  SPEAKER_01: That's really good collard greens.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
• 39:33
  SPEAKER_05: Well, that's like I wanna, I really wanna open a Denver Broncos bar because that's my team.
• 39:40
  SPEAKER_05: And I live in New York, and I'll call it the Donkey Den.
• 39:43
  SPEAKER_05: And you know, I'll be the only I'm I'm the only I'm the only probably Denver Bronco fan in uh upstate New York.
• 39:53
  SPEAKER_05: So see things like that.
• 39:55
  SPEAKER_05: You gotta follow your what you know, follow what you know will uh will work in your community, that's for sure.
• 40:00
  SPEAKER_02: Hillary, for those of us out there that that that are six shooters on the ideas, that might be one that you should just kind of hang out with.
• 40:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yes.
• 40:10
  SPEAKER_01: Think really long.
• 40:11
  SPEAKER_01: Good advice, Eric.
• 40:13
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 40:13
  SPEAKER_01: Think a long time before that one.
• 40:15
  SPEAKER_01: Let's not jump into that.
• 40:17
  SPEAKER_01: So, anyway, if people want more uh on Hillary from Hillary about what she's doing with her program and her business, Hillary H I L L A R Y Z-O-Z-I-O.com.
• 40:30
  SPEAKER_01: I just wanted to make sure everybody understood how that's spelled because there are multiple ways to spell both Hillary and Zio.
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_02: Um and this has been another episode of Big Talk About Small Business.
• 40:52
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for tuning in to this episode of Big Talk About Small Business.
• 40:55
  SPEAKER_00: If you have any questions, four ideas, what's the head over to our websites?