Latest / The Inspired Stories Podcast / Deric Rosenbaum on Building Groucho's Deli Tech Stack, Franchise Systems, and 85 Years of Neighborhood Legacy

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Deric Rosenbaum on Building Groucho's Deli Tech Stack, Franchise Systems, and 85 Years of Neighborhood Legacy · The Inspired Stories Podcast

0:04
Welcome to another edition of the Inspired Stories podcast,
0:08
where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from
0:11
their successes and be inspired by how they've overcome
0:14
adversity. As you listen today, let one
0:17
idea shape what you do next. My name is Anthony Kotaspodi,
0:21
and today's guest is Derek Rosenbaum, president and
0:25
resident CTO of Groucho's Deli, a quick service restaurant brand
0:29
known across the Carolinas and Georgia as Your Neighborhood
0:33
Deli. Founded in 1941 by Harold
0:36
Groucho Miller, the company built its reputation on fresh
0:39
sandwiches, signature salads and the famous Formula 45 sauce.
0:45
Today, Groucho's operates more than 30 neighborhood locations
0:48
and a growing catering arm, all driven by the simple promise
0:52
that quality is the most important ingredient in a
0:55
sandwich. Under Derek's leadership, the
0:58
brand has modernized its entire tech stack, rolled out online
1:02
ordering and boosted repeat guest visits by more than 20%.
1:07
The company's longevity has earned dozens of local Best Deli
1:11
awards and it's 80 plus year story was recently featured in
1:16
Southern Living before joining the family business full time.
1:20
Derek helped launch its first franchises in the early 2000s
1:24
and is active with the Family Connection of South Carolina.
1:29
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back benefits.com. All right, back to our guest
2:23
today, President of Grouchos Deli, Derek Rosenbaum.
2:26
Thanks for making the time to Share your story today.
2:28
Absolutely. Thanks for having me on Anthony.
2:30
He's excited to have the conversation.
2:32
Let's do it. So before we talk about your 20
2:35
plus years with Grouchos, what kind of work were you doing
2:38
before that? So complete departure from the
2:41
hospitality industry. I was in commercial
2:43
construction. So the first, I don't know, I
2:48
was in college, I was running concrete cutting, coring crews,
2:51
and then kind of morphed over into the commercial space as a
2:54
project manager, Superintendent. So doctor's offices, school
2:57
renovations, restaurants, catering halls, kind of a mixed
3:01
bag of all sorts of general construction.
3:04
So I am actually a trained Carpenter.
3:07
OK. So how did you get from the
3:09
trades into quick service restaurant industry?
3:13
So my business partner is Bruce Miller, third generation family
3:18
owner of Groucho's Deli. We lived across the street from
3:22
each other. We were best friends hanging
3:24
out, buddies, drinking buddies, doing all the things that dudes
3:26
do in their 20s, right? And it's time.
3:29
Groucho's had 1-2 locations we had, we had, it was a satellite
3:34
location in Lexington. They were just kind of testing
3:36
the waters on franchising and he's like, you know, how to
3:39
build restaurants. I know how to run restaurants.
3:41
So we got together, we opened up our first franchise on this side
3:44
of town and was very successful and did both for about 6 months.
3:49
And then quickly realized, OK, I need to pick a career path.
3:52
And then kind of went full, full tilt and learned the business
3:56
from within the four walls. And then it evolved from there.
4:00
So and that first franchise location that you guys opened
4:04
together, you were literally building the walls, hiring Subs
4:09
to come in and do all the physical labor to put the
4:11
physical structure. Together I did everything from
4:13
drawing the space to turnkey, the whole process start to
4:17
finish. And I obviously had Subs because
4:20
I'm not like an electrician or a plumber, but yes.
4:23
And so when that location opened up, were you continuing to be
4:27
involved? Were you like, where was the
4:29
gate? I was there nights and weekends
4:31
trying to learn the business because like I'm not a person of
4:34
half measures. I'm in or I'm out.
4:35
So I wanted to understand everything about the business.
4:37
So I was doing both and then I was because at the time I didn't
4:41
know, is this going to be successful?
4:42
Is this going to, you know, provide for my family?
4:44
I had a very young family and actually I didn't have a child
4:47
at that point, but still newly married and trying to figure all
4:51
that out. And so and then I realized, OK,
4:52
I can make a successful living and provide for a family out of
4:55
this restaurant business. So then six months and I quit
4:59
construction and went full tilt, and then we opened up three more
5:02
restaurants together and then it morphed into completely
5:05
different things after that, so. And what was the timelines?
5:09
You said six months in, you quit your construction job, you were
5:12
full in on the restaurant and then in what time span did you
5:14
open up those three additional locations?
5:19
Between 2000 and 2003 and then after that where?
5:26
Was that what? When did you quit construction?
5:28
Just so I have the full timeline here.
5:32
Early 2001. OK.
5:35
All right. So you guys got into opening new
5:37
locations pretty quickly? Yeah.
5:39
Well, I mean, I, I had the building experience, I had the
5:41
contacts, I had the chops. So that part was pretty cut and
5:45
dry. And then, you know, is then
5:47
operationalizing that. And then at that point I really
5:51
wasn't on the franchise side of the business.
5:52
I was still just running our franchises collectively and
5:56
still learning, you know, the accounting, the the
5:58
distribution, the logistics, the managing the people, process
6:01
problems, all of those things, how to systematize all of these
6:05
things. And then we opened up our own
6:07
central distribution company because we wanted to learn the
6:09
distribution side of our business.
6:11
So we had our own warehouse on refrigerated trucks, built that
6:14
up to a multi $1,000,000 distribution company, sold it
6:17
three years later. I I learned what I needed to
6:20
learn about that side of our industry and then so now we
6:24
control it, we don't touch it and morphed over in 2007 more
6:31
into the role that I'm in today. OK.
6:34
So few things I want to pull apart there.
6:37
How did you finance these first few locations?
6:42
My very first location I borrowed 20 grand from my dad
6:46
and the rest I paid and then everything else we paid cash
6:50
for. We have no, we have no debt.
6:53
That is some fiscal responsibility there, yeah.
6:57
Where did you learn those skills?
6:59
I don't like owing anybody anything, man.
7:02
It's just how I am as a human. And you know, I mean, you have
7:06
to plan. And you know, the good thing
7:08
about a successful restaurant is it's a good cash flow.
7:11
And you know, if, if you manage that cash flow effectively and
7:15
judiciously, you can, you know, early on, I mean, especially
7:20
during those first 3 restaurants and building up this, you know,
7:22
there was a lot of debt, but it was what I would call
7:25
intelligent debt for me personally.
7:28
And knowing that I trusted in myself to achieve what we were
7:31
after, and knowing that I would be able to pay that debt off
7:34
sooner rather than later. You said intelligent debt.
7:37
What is that? That is going into debt with,
7:44
with the know how and the where, how to be able to pay it back.
7:50
Like, you know, I, I read about a bankruptcy last week of a
7:52
large unit of subway franchisees that were over leveraged with
7:57
basically credit card forwarding loans and with like 60%,
8:00
seventy, 80% interest rates. Like that is not sustainable
8:03
debt. That is the opposite of
8:06
intelligent debt. Like you need debt to grow.
8:10
I mean, unless you're just independently wealthy, you know,
8:13
but you know, how do you leverage that debt in an A
8:16
judicious way? So were these traditional bank
8:19
loans or other types of instruments?
8:22
Bank loans, you know, a little bit of it was cash advances on
8:26
credit cards, but you know, those were quick turn around
8:28
pays and you know, and then taking the profits we were
8:32
making from our restaurants and reinvesting those instead of
8:35
reinvesting those in some personal endeavor.
8:38
Got it. OK.
8:39
And then you talked about building a distribution company.
8:42
Was this just for your locations or were you serving other types
8:46
of customers strictly Grouchos? OK.
8:49
And then so did you sell it to Grouchos corporate?
8:52
Who did you sell it to? Cisco.
8:57
And so did. They distributor, I'm sure you
8:58
heard of them, yeah. They're a small upstart company.
9:02
I think. Yeah, it rings a bell, OK.
9:06
But this distribution company was just to service your, what
9:09
was it, 3 or 4 locations at this time?
9:11
And when we opened that company, we was 8 locations.
9:13
There was other franchises that have come on board.
9:15
And then we continued to grow. I was running the distribution
9:19
side and our franchises, Bruce was scaling up the other
9:23
franchises. And then in 2007, we disposed of
9:28
the commissary and then I went full time into the franchising
9:32
side of their business. So you continue to have your own
9:37
franchises, but then you got involved in sort of the
9:39
corporate side to correct expand the franchising side of the
9:43
business. Yeah.
9:44
And then systematize all of all of the processes and, you know,
9:49
documenting all of these things and standardizing everything
9:52
that we were doing. Give me an example of something
9:56
that most people wouldn't think needs a system behind it, but
9:59
without it you guys would have fallen apart.
10:06
I mean, we spent time building comprehensive spreadsheets to
10:10
understand our true costs. So we we've built these formulas
10:14
so our people can actually plug in their costs and then do
10:17
strategic menu analysis to understand margins across every
10:21
menu item. That would be one way we built
10:25
an internal knowledge base with all of our proprietary data
10:29
recipes and we've recently upgraded that tremendously.
10:32
And you know, so it was a one stop shop resource tool for our
10:36
franchisees with the technology that existed at the time.
10:38
Like I said, we just made it tremendously better with, you
10:41
know, the Gentek AI. But it's, yeah, I mean, you, you
10:46
have to have these processes. And, you know, back then it was
10:49
still very much paper driven operation manuals like.
10:52
And so how do you take that from this biblical document and then
10:56
move this into a digital realm and then, you know, teaching
11:00
people to understand those things and, you know, teaching
11:03
the the art of the perceived relationship with your guests.
11:06
And I mean, how, how do you translate all of these things?
11:11
So I want to come back to how you grew the franchise side of
11:15
the business. But I feel like for those folks
11:18
among us, myself included, that have never been to a Grouchos,
11:22
we're doing the audience A disservice.
11:24
Let's explain the customer experience.
11:28
So I, I guess, let's back up to, you know, in 1940, Harold
11:33
Groucho Miller moved here from Philadelphia and opened up
11:37
Miller's Delicatessen on Main Street in Columbia, SC.
11:41
This is the end of the vaudeville period.
11:43
It's at the time he moved here from Philly.
11:46
So he had an accent, he had a mustache, he wore glasses, He
11:49
had a brash sense of humor. This is the end of vaudeville.
11:52
People on the Columbia immediately started calling him
11:54
Groucho. So the next year, we rebranded
11:56
to Groucho's Delicatessen. Like literally in this glass box
11:59
behind me in my office is a matchbook that my partner's son
12:03
found on eBay that says Miller's Delicatessen.
12:06
I mean, it's crazy. The thing even is still here
12:08
today. So at that time, grouchos was
12:12
more like a traditional meat and cheese like Jewish deli.
12:15
Very much so. Just a few limited tables,
12:19
little bit of beer sandwiches, meat, cheese counter kind of ran
12:25
that way for decades and decades and decades.
12:27
There was a a specialty foods retail component as well that
12:30
you couldn't get elsewhere. We would import stuff from New
12:34
York, Chicago to to cater to specific pallets within the
12:38
region. And then in the 90s, my partner
12:43
stepped into the business and kind of got rid of the retail
12:46
component and we went more into a full service dining
12:49
experience. So we do have full table service
12:51
within our restaurants today. Yeah.
12:53
So that kind of makes us a bit more of a hybrid QSR fast casual
12:57
model. So that's what we look like
13:00
today. And then I mean, yes, the menu
13:04
has evolved, but not terribly much in the last 30 to 40 years.
13:08
So we're we're kind of known for a hot open faced dipper
13:11
sandwiches. We make all of our dressings
13:13
from scratch. Our signature formula 45 sauce
13:16
is crazy ridiculous popular. And then like we were one of the
13:20
first restaurants in Columbia to bring like lunch salads as a
13:23
thing. So our my wife's salad is hands
13:27
down one of our most popular menu items is just this massive
13:30
salad that is that what it's called?
13:32
My wife's salad. Correct.
13:34
OK. My partner's dad, Ivan, who ran
13:38
the business for decades, came up with this salad for his wife,
13:42
Faye, who ran a satellite location in downtown Columbia
13:45
for years and named it after her.
13:46
This is my wife's salad. I love it.
13:51
What is the Formula 45 sauce? Why is this so popular?
13:55
I mean, I can. The closest I can liken it to is
13:57
like a Russian 1000 island. So I mean, it's just it's good
14:03
on everything. I really don't know how to
14:05
explain it. Like customers tell us all the
14:07
time. Yeah, I had some cold shrimp
14:08
with the other night. I put it on my pizza crust like.
14:11
It's. Crazy.
14:12
Like, I mean, we sell it by the court.
14:14
We sell it, you know, it's just, we make so much of it.
14:19
I buy commodity contracts on soybean oil for mayonnaise.
14:22
OK, there's a lot of turnover in this product.
14:27
Yes, yeah. What's your favorite thing on
14:29
the menu? Depends on the day, but I, I
14:37
really like our slaw Reuben variation.
14:41
And so we use, we use pastrami in our Reubens instead of corned
14:45
beef. We can get corned beef, but
14:47
instead of kraut, we use our homemade coleslaw.
14:50
And to me that's like our most, I mean, it's just so flavorful.
14:53
And we serve it on pumpernickel or rye, your choice.
14:56
And then, you know, the Arcadian chicken pita is probably a top
14:59
contender for me. If you're looking for, you know,
15:01
as we get a little older, we have to eat a little leaner.
15:04
So that front and those would be my 2 most favorite items, but
15:09
the STP Dipper is hand down hands down the most popular
15:13
sandwich we have. And they dip it in this Formula
15:17
45 sauce. Yeah, so it that's Turkey, roast
15:19
beef, bacon, a bit Swiss cheese, serve hot, open face.
15:22
And so we liken it to, so these were invented during the 60s
15:26
during the space race. So we kind of liken it to a
15:28
capsule getting dunked into the sauce.
15:30
I mean, we've got some old marketing, some a bunch of old
15:32
hand painted signs and it's literally a rocket drawn on the
15:36
advertising. You know, Derek, with this kind
15:39
of legacy, right, 85 years, you guys are celebrating this
15:43
weekend, right? Actually, let's take a moment to
15:45
talk about the party coming up. Yeah, yeah, we're having it.
15:48
We're throwing a big party this weekend and we got people coming
15:50
in from all over. We got operators, general
15:52
managers, we got friends and family and people that have been
15:56
part of this system. You know, obviously we require a
15:59
lot of professionals to do what we do and vendor partners and
16:02
just having a great celebration and celebrating the legacy of
16:06
what it is we do. I mean, I it's, it's very, very
16:09
rare to have a restaurant brand that did it that is this old
16:12
like. And so we're going to honor that
16:14
and celebrate what what what's been achieved throughout the
16:17
generations. Yeah.
16:18
And it strikes me that it's such a challenge to do what you're
16:22
doing, right? I mean that longevity is a
16:25
challenge and part of it is you want to stay true to parts of
16:31
the legacy, right, while acknowledging that things are
16:36
evolving and correct, customer tastes are evolving and customer
16:39
expectations are evolving. How do you kind of wrap your
16:42
head around all of this? I mean, we, we like to say we
16:46
adapt, we don't change. I mean the restaurant industry
16:49
is completely different from what even when I started, like
16:53
when I started it was 90% cash and 10% credit cards.
16:56
Now we're the complete opposite way.
16:58
And we had two channels. You ate the store or you called
17:00
in and placed a pickup order. That was it.
17:02
Now you have first party native digital, you have third party
17:05
digital, you have third party catering.
17:07
Like everything we do now is Omni channel.
17:10
So like how do you adapt and evolve and meet, meet your
17:14
guests where they want to be? And that's kind of like we are
17:16
channel agnostic. We, we just want to be where our
17:19
guests are and where they want us to be.
17:21
And so how do you, how do you figure that out and monitor that
17:24
and use technology to help you systematize these things?
17:28
Is, is kind of where we are. But I mean the the ultimate it,
17:31
my job is to ensure that we adapt and evolve with the way
17:36
consumers are changing without compromising the legacy of
17:45
community of Grouchos. I can't hear you.
17:53
Any intro we talked, we mentioned that you were the sort
17:57
of the, the resident CTO. So what does this mean?
18:01
You're obviously a president. You're, you know, you're kind of
18:03
running the show, but you've also taken on a lot of tech
18:06
responsibilities, too. Yeah, I kind of lead our tech
18:09
road map in what we're doing. I mean, in 2012 I had this whole
18:12
vision of like a, a franchise tech stack in a box.
18:15
Unfortunately, the technology at that time really didn't exist.
18:20
And you know, so we when I first started the Grouchos, we have
18:23
electronic cash registers. So like PL. us, like you make
18:26
the thing sing songs. You were fast enough typing in
18:29
POUSI mean I I still remember what it's Pou 37 and 19 for a
18:34
suite TNT product. Number just like a like a UPC
18:37
code code. Yeah, an ID number.
18:39
Yeah. And I would dial up credit
18:41
cards. And so I mean, now we have, you
18:44
know, complete comprehensive, We have a, so we're fully cloud
18:49
based now. We migrated over to Square for
18:52
franchises this past summer. We've been on the cloud since 19
18:56
and but we made a different change this summer and you know,
18:59
we now have built a a universal Omni channel menu.
19:01
So we have one menu from the top pushed down to every location.
19:05
Then we toggle off and on based on what channel that menu is
19:09
served on. So that allows for lots of
19:15
cleaner reporting first and foremost and then it allows us
19:18
to control the SEO and the guest experience across all channels.
19:22
So like lots of time went into building this and so you know,
19:27
up until recently most people had multiple menus for multiple
19:31
channels. So if you made a change, it was
19:33
just onerous and insanely time consuming.
19:36
Help me understand that the difference between multiple
19:39
menus for multiple channels versus the single menu.
19:43
You guys just have some sort of tech stack built so that here
19:46
the menu sits kind of master in the cloud and when you make
19:50
changes you sort of distributed all the different channels.
19:56
So we use Square for restaurants and on top of that we sit Square
19:59
for franchises and that's where this menu, this Omni channel
20:02
menu resides. So we make a change to the
20:04
master menu that goes to every location, whether it's a
20:08
description, an image, or we add a new menu item or take away a
20:12
menu item. And then the only thing we don't
20:14
control is the pricing because you can't control pricing and
20:16
franchising, right? So the franchisees?
20:20
We, we manage the menus for all our franchisees so they can
20:22
focus on operating because you know this menus fed in lots of
20:25
different places. So with the singular menu with
20:28
our APIs with Square that directly connects into DoorDash,
20:32
it directly collects into our native online ordering, it
20:34
directly connects into Uber, Grubhub, fill in the blank,
20:38
whatever the channel is and then all of that is controlled at
20:43
that central menu level. So for like, we had a lot of
20:48
things online, like we're not going to give you all the
20:50
modifiers online that you would get within the store that our
20:53
staff needs for what people can do to menus.
20:56
Modifiers meaning like extra coleslaw or something like that?
21:00
Etcetera or yeah or I want this deli club for 2 split into two
21:05
boxes with a pickle, 2 Pickles in this box and one.
21:08
And I'm not going to give you that option online because that
21:10
would just break our kitchen up. But so, and, and there's certain
21:14
things that physically can't be made.
21:16
You can't make a deli club for two on a Kaiser roll.
21:18
It just won't work. It'll fall over.
21:20
So things like that. And then, but previously, you
21:23
know, we, we had a menu that fed the in store and a, a menu that
21:26
fed online and a menu that fed on in our native channel.
21:30
And all of those you would have to go and change all of those
21:34
every time you made a change. Now we only have to change it
21:37
one time per location. And it distributes out, correct.
21:43
So let's get back to the transition that you made into
21:46
getting involved in building the franchise side of the business.
21:50
Why? Let's just start there actually.
21:52
Why make that change? Why was that something you
21:55
wanted to get involved with? We needed systems and processes
22:05
and more centralized. Control is not the right word,
22:13
but standards and, and I'm at the end of the day, I'm a
22:17
builder. Whether I'm building a physical
22:19
space or I'm building a tech stack or I'm building a team or
22:22
a process or an SOP, I'm a builder.
22:24
That's what I am. That's who Derek Rosenbaum is.
22:26
You were. Well suited for this.
22:28
Correct. And I, I, I saw the need and
22:32
jumped in. I mean, I just the first six
22:34
months when I assumed my role that I'm in today was like
22:36
literally me locked in a small office downstairs, rebuilding
22:40
our entire operations manual from the ground up to cover
22:43
every facet of what we do right before it was like 20 pages.
22:48
It became biblical when I got done.
22:50
So you know, you know, you need these references when you're
22:53
franchising because, you know, you have a franchise that's
22:55
three hours away and they have a question and my director of
22:58
operations is busy or I'm busy, you know, here's the reference,
23:01
right? So here, here, here's the
23:03
standard. And then taking my knowledge
23:07
from running that commissary and applying that to our
23:10
distribution logistics and, and negotiating with manufacturers
23:13
and things like that. So I, I, I wear mini hats, but
23:19
to me it, it, it's building this enterprise system that allows us
23:23
to run efficiently. And like I told you, I started
23:26
this process in 2012. Like, I think by the end of this
23:29
year, we're going to be completely done with all of
23:31
that. Like that's how long it takes to
23:33
get these things done. And for the technology to, I
23:36
mean, the one good thing about COVID, it allowed, I mean, it
23:38
amplified the rate of development for, for, for
23:43
technology like tremendously. So it it's allowed us to, we now
23:46
can build the things that we dreamed about building 10 years
23:49
ago. It strikes me that for a group
23:51
your size, your tech stack is pretty impressive.
23:55
Yes, it it, it is. It is very large.
23:58
And like I told you, we just upgraded our knowledge base.
24:00
So we went in and built a new, I built a new system called Grouch
24:04
dot OS, which is Grouchos, obviously, but it's a, a new one
24:08
stop operations dashboard. And then we I built a gentic, I
24:13
built agents. So now they can directly access
24:16
two different siloed knowledge bases.
24:18
So now our teams can chat to sequel and get answers to
24:22
everything that's in it. They don't have to go hunt, they
24:24
don't have to PEC, they don't have to like go through sub
24:26
files and files anymore in a Google Drive.
24:28
They can literally just type the question and and get the answer.
24:32
So how did you build this? You go into ChatGPT in their
24:36
agentic section and I don't know.
24:40
There's lots. There's lots of ways to do it.
24:44
ChatGPT is not how I did it, but no.
24:46
So we, we had all the knowledge base already within our, our
24:49
cloud storage, so our Google Drive.
24:50
So what we first we did is we took all of that information.
24:54
We club, we scrubbed it, we cleaned it.
24:56
We kind of then siloed it because everything was in a lake
24:59
before and then siloed it because we're only allowing
25:02
those agents to talk to that data set and not search the web
25:07
or some large language learning model.
25:08
It can only search this data set.
25:11
So our first two bots is 1 is just pure operations and the
25:15
other one is more allergen and nutrition information.
25:17
And so those are two separate things.
25:19
And so first you have to clean your data.
25:21
Make sure you mean if you have two of the same thing, then you
25:24
have none. You have to have one singular
25:26
data point for whatever that is. So it is the source of truth.
25:31
So if you have two catering, SO PS and one's outdated, which
25:34
one's pulling right? And then then that's when you
25:36
start getting hallucinations and and random things.
25:39
So then that was step one. And then we built the agents,
25:44
connected them to those siloed knowledge bases.
25:47
And then so when we update the knowledge base, it updates the
25:51
knowledge that the agent can access.
25:54
And then through basically, I just built a website for
25:59
Groucho's OS that's means behind a firewall.
26:01
I mean, this is all a wall garden.
26:02
Like we have governance. We have all these things like
26:05
this isn't open to anyone besides people in in the
26:08
Groucho's realm. And so then we embed those
26:11
agents in there. And then we also have access to
26:15
like our Google Calendar for Groucho's gives backs.
26:18
We have lots of charitable events we do for all of our
26:21
organizations, for all of our locations.
26:23
And then my oldest daughter introduced me to Notebook LM
26:27
last year and she's in grad school and she's like the queen
26:31
of Quizlets and, and study guys through Notebook LM with her
26:34
cohort. And she told me about this.
26:37
I'm like, this is amazing. So what we started doing is
26:40
building our own internal podcast with Notebook LM around
26:43
subject matter, which makes it much, much easier for our
26:46
franchisees and general managers to consume because they can
26:49
listen to it. And you know, I, I don't know
26:52
about you, but I like, I like to listen to podcasts at like 1.2.
26:54
It makes it quicker and, and more efficient.
26:57
But you know, I have a neighbor who's a professor who listens at
27:00
1.5. It's weird to me, but basically
27:02
it allows them to digest their information while they're at
27:05
work or driving home or working on their schedule and not have
27:09
to read some diatribe e-mail. Interesting.
27:12
So let me see if I understand this because I just read about
27:14
this the other day and I don't think it quite landed for me.
27:18
So you've taken your knowledge base, you put it into notebook
27:21
LM and it has a function in there to take that data set and
27:27
turn it into a podcast to personas talking to each other
27:32
about this, the date, get out of town.
27:35
Yep. And, and usually within, I mean,
27:39
you feed it the data, whatever the subject matter of the the
27:42
podcast is like service recovery is a great one.
27:44
So you feed it all the information about service
27:46
recovery, you give it a couple prompts, you let it generate,
27:49
you listen to it, you give it a couple corrective prompts, I
27:52
mean, and you're done. And is it walled off as well
27:55
like or the data that you put in there?
27:59
Is it, I don't know, teaching Google?
28:02
'S. I mean, you should never put
28:06
anything proprietary or confidential in a free LLM ever
28:13
because then it becomes part of the public domain.
28:15
You want to have paid for services.
28:17
I mean notebook LM is owned by Google.
28:19
We are a Google organization. We pay for these services and
28:22
this information is not shared. Same with ChatGPT, same with
28:25
Claude. You have to go in and say do not
28:27
share any of this with a large language learning model.
28:30
So for anybody listening, that's governance step number one.
28:34
Don't put anything sensitive into a free LLM.
28:37
So basically when you start paying for it, when you've got a
28:39
subscription model, there's a setting in there that you can
28:42
toggle and says don't share this, don't learn from this
28:45
data, correct. Got it.
28:47
And how are the podcasts? I mean, they're great.
28:51
I mean, our, our franchisees love them.
28:52
I mean, they've, they've all told me like, let's keep it
28:54
under 13 minutes. That's like the perfect time for
28:56
us. So like that's a commute to work
28:59
or, or whatever and it, it just makes the information more
29:02
engaging and I think it makes it more digestible trying to put 13
29:06
minutes of oration into an e-mail.
29:08
Nobody wants to read that like, so it's just, and then you can
29:13
layer in a little bit of humor depending on how you prompt the
29:16
system. But yeah, I mean it, it's a
29:17
great way to engage. So we've, we've layered that
29:21
into the Grouchos OS. So basically Grouchos OS is, is
29:24
Grouchos is, it's a one stop shop for our franchisees.
29:28
We've got other tools and calculators in there that we've
29:30
built one stop like quick reference guides to get to all
29:34
of our various platforms, so. Let's talk about the franchise
29:39
experience a bit more because, you know, as you're talking with
29:42
a potential franchise, obviously they're considering other
29:46
options. Why do you think the folks that
29:49
choose Grouchos over other opportunities go with you guys?
29:57
I think it's twofold. So we have two types of
29:59
franchisees, those that come up through the system which early
30:02
on was a lot. I mean we have a lot of long
30:04
time franchisees that worked here while they were at the
30:06
University of South Carolina and then open their own franchise.
30:12
And then we have others that have worked their way up through
30:14
management and then become partners and you know, kind of
30:16
that that path. And then we have outsiders and,
30:24
you know, there, there are two types of outsiders and one one
30:27
is what I call a belt buckle collector.
30:29
They're just looking to throw some money at it and then have
30:31
somebody else operate it. And we're no longer interested
30:34
in those people at all because typically, typically they become
30:39
problematic. Like they they just really don't
30:41
have a vested interest. They just want to say, I own a
30:43
Grouchos and, you know, so then that becomes a burden on my team
30:48
that that's kind of counterintuitive to what
30:50
franchising is supposed to be. History tells us that they have
30:58
a greater likelihood of becoming problematic, whatever that
31:04
means. I mean, that can mean lots of
31:05
different things. So now we're leaning more into
31:10
people that are, you know, I, I think what ultimately makes
31:13
Groucho successful is our sense of community, that we are your
31:16
neighborhood delity. And you can't teach that and
31:20
instill that in your teams if you're not there with a vested
31:24
interest to be part of your community, like hiring a general
31:27
manager. I mean, that's great.
31:30
But do they have the same vested interest?
31:33
And knowing that you come in three times a week, Anthony, And
31:37
when you walk in like your sweet tea is going to be at your table
31:39
because you order one every time, right?
31:41
And, and, and instilling that art of the perceived
31:43
relationship. You can't do that without a
31:46
vested interest and that's the type of operators we're looking
31:50
for today. And you know, we're being much
31:54
more selective around that process.
31:56
And, and I think it's really just ultimately, to answer your
32:00
question, it's people that have faith and trust in US and the
32:02
systems that we built and the brand that we built.
32:05
And that, you know, when, when you buy a franchise, you're,
32:09
you're buying a brand, you're buying a systems and you're
32:11
buying processes, right? And you have to adhere to those
32:13
things. And you know, if, if you're not
32:15
going to do that, then you should go open up Anthony's
32:17
Deli. I mean it.
32:20
It's really I. Don't think that would be nearly
32:22
as successful. So let's talk more about where
32:28
this opportunity exists. Like are you guys looking to
32:31
keep it pretty regional for now because you've got like a hub
32:35
and spoke distribution model or Sky's the limit anywhere in the
32:39
country? No concentric growth, we're
32:41
going to grow this way because you need it for two roof,
32:44
twofold 1 brand recognition and two economies of scale and
32:47
distribution. Like you can't go to a new
32:49
distribution Opco with one location because your ship, your
32:53
freight for proprietary items is not going to really make sense.
32:58
So you have to kind of grow that way and like we are not looking
33:03
to open 1000 units. We are, that's just not who we
33:06
are. That's not what we want to be.
33:08
You know, we are very controlled growth company.
33:10
I mean 30 locations in 26 years is not like crazy growth.
33:15
I mean that's sustainable growth.
33:19
I like to sleep at night and I want to continue to sleep at
33:21
night. And you know, growth for the
33:24
sake of growth, I just is not productive and that's not who we
33:28
are and that's not who we want to be.
33:29
Yeah. Talk to us about the sense of
33:32
community aspect. What does it look like to get
33:35
involved in the community? I mean, you mentioned like
33:37
knowing that Sally orders a sweet tea and sort of greeting
33:40
her there. But I have a sense that this
33:42
goes deeper than that. It does, I mean, and it's been
33:45
instilled since day one. Harold Grotto Miller was like a
33:48
champion fundraiser for what is now Easter Seals, but back then
33:52
it was called Buck a Cup for Crippled Children.
33:55
And like we have a section down the hallway, it was just all
33:59
these awards. And so being plugged in the
34:01
community and tied in and, and whether that's doing a
34:05
fundraiser for a youth mission trip or whether that's a, a
34:08
Little League baseball team or, you know, something within your
34:12
immediate trading area is how we, and then corporately we, we
34:15
do it a different level for sure.
34:16
But yes, we encourage our franchisees to plug themselves
34:19
into all sorts of various local organizations.
34:23
And, and you know, it takes a long time to build that
34:25
community. And I, I was at a, a Christmas
34:28
party in December and a professor walked over to me and
34:34
he goes, I just want to tell you, you, your office donated to
34:39
my 15 year old daughter who was doing a fundraiser for something
34:44
something. And it changed the trajectory of
34:46
her program and it made me think differently about Grouchos.
34:50
And so now, like when somebody's like, let's go have lunch, I'm
34:53
like, let's go to Grouchos because they're giving back to
34:55
us. So like, doing that at scale is
34:59
certainly challenging. And then as a organization, we
35:04
do a lot with cancer charities and we do a lot with children's
35:08
charities, especially around medically complex and special
35:11
needs. Is that the Family First
35:14
organization that we mentioned in the intro?
35:15
Family, we work with Family Connections and we also work
35:18
with a group called The Therapy Place and they also connections,
35:21
Family Connections of South Carolina and then we work with
35:24
another group called Therapy Place and and then many, many
35:27
cancer charities. Wow, What is Colonel Miller?
35:35
So the name comes so Harold Groucho Miller.
35:41
Oh, they're not here. They took him for the party.
35:45
There's a very interesting character.
35:47
So not only was he a 32nd degree Mason, he was also a legit
35:53
Kentucky Colonel. So I mean, he, we have his
35:57
kernel ship framed on on the wall in the office.
36:01
So the name came from there, Colonel Miller.
36:03
So Colonel Miller is a separate company that is set up to handle
36:08
basically all of our proprietary brokerage around food items,
36:12
anything with the brand on it, the logo, so menus, T-shirt,
36:15
apparel, all of that kind of goes through that company.
36:20
Like it holds the IP or it's just for all the merch and
36:24
whatnot. It's more just a separation of
36:27
church and state. I mean it at the end of the day,
36:29
it's more like a a firewall. But yes, I mean it, it handles
36:33
anything with the Groucho's brand on it for us.
36:36
And then so if we decided to go into retail, that would come
36:40
through that business, like if we decided to retail package 45
36:43
sauce, that would run through that arm of the business.
36:45
At the end of the day, that's really all it is.
36:49
OK. All right.
36:51
Well, that was a cool name. I thought there had to be
36:53
something neat behind it and talking about neat things behind
36:58
other things. Every successful companies got a
37:01
great team behind it. How do you guys approach the
37:04
hiring and the retaining of good frontline workers, good
37:08
corporate workers, etcetera? Yeah, that's always the hard
37:11
part, especially nowadays. So the the corporate team, the
37:17
vast majority of my team has come up through our systems as
37:21
like my director of operations started working at Groucho's and
37:24
Pawleys Island when he was in high school.
37:26
And then he moved here to go to college at University of
37:28
Carolina. Worked at one of my stores
37:30
across town for four years, migrated up here, became a field
37:33
inspector, learned that the business that way.
37:36
And now he's made his way into the director of operations.
37:39
And the new field guy is same thing came from its store,
37:42
worked his way up marketing teams, a little different, but
37:47
yeah, I mean, still in that same vein.
37:49
And then it's the store level, it gets a little more nuanced
37:52
because you know, we, we have to as a franchisor or we have to
37:55
respect that fine line in the sand of joint employer
37:58
liability. So we, we are more of A and most
38:02
franchises are more of a train the trainer sort of construct.
38:06
So we train the key people and this key key team members in the
38:10
ownership. And late last year, we renovated
38:15
one of our original stores and made it our new corporate
38:18
training facility. So it's not just that, it's also
38:21
where we vet all new technologies and all new systems
38:24
and product testing would happen there.
38:27
And the former Director of Operations is assumed the
38:30
general manager role there. And so he is now the gatekeeper
38:34
to any potential new franchise getting a keys to their own
38:38
Kingdom. So we can ensure that the
38:40
trainings happening the way that we wanted to prior, we kind of
38:43
like plug them into existing franchises and that's fine, but
38:45
it can be disruptive. So having that corporate
38:49
training stores kind of remove that component because that's an
38:51
expectation of everyone that works there that this will be a
38:54
training facility. So, and then, and then building
39:00
these tools, like I mentioned, Groucho's OS, where people have
39:03
this resource at their fingertips and building micro
39:06
learning to teach the younger generation the things that they
39:13
may be deficient on, like especially in soft skills like
39:16
that. That's a challenge for young
39:18
people today is like making eye contact and, and knowing how to
39:21
communicate and even talk on the phone.
39:23
Like, I mean it, you know, my kid would it, it cracks me up.
39:28
My, my, my 16 year old would be upstairs with my wife and her
39:30
bedroom and they're texting each other or, or, you know, having a
39:33
text argument, you know, whatever moms and 16 year old
39:36
girls do. And I'm like, this is crazy to
39:38
me. Like walk upstairs and have a
39:40
conversation, but you know, and, and so that's part of that.
39:45
And again, that's adapting and learning.
39:47
I mean, we, we tried a different, we tried an LMS tool
39:51
for like, it was more like TikTok style micro learning.
39:54
And you know, it ultimately didn't work for our brand
39:57
because we have a lot of legacy operators and you know, they're
39:59
like, why do I need this? But so, but I learned a lot from
40:01
that process and that's kind of helped how we're evolving this
40:05
new operations platform. I mean, the next box I'm working
40:08
on are specifically related to training.
40:11
Interesting. What's the future look like?
40:14
Where you guys going? What's some cool stuff?
40:16
Coming I mean from a text perspective, we're pretty locked
40:21
in really happy with what's happening.
40:24
We're just kind of in a in a period of optimization and just
40:27
tweaking the Ferrari as a brand. We are, we're very controlled
40:33
growth and, you know, I, I think in a perfect world, we would
40:37
like to open one store 1/4, but that's, that's, that's certainly
40:39
not like a must do, must be, must have.
40:43
You know, we'll do it when it makes sense and it's right and
40:45
it feels right for both parties. You know, we're, we're looking
40:49
for people to continue on the legacy that we're building.
40:52
And if you can't buy into that, I don't know that we really want
40:55
to be partners with you. So that, and I mean just, you
41:02
know, last year was a lot of change for us, especially around
41:04
the technology side and, and building that corporate training
41:08
store I was talking about and things like that.
41:09
And it, it's really like this year we're focusing, I mean the
41:14
world's become so digital and so disconnected.
41:17
And so we're really focusing in on the fundamentals of
41:21
hospitality and bringing the human back into hospitality.
41:26
Where do you foresee most of the new franchise opportunities
41:30
coming from? How were you guys going to find
41:32
each other? I mean, things like this help
41:38
for sure, you know, trade shows, you know, providing a great
41:43
Groucho's experience. That's where a lot of it comes
41:45
from. You know, somebody goes into
41:46
somebody's from out of town or they goes into a franchise or
41:50
people have grown up here. And I mean, we're talking to a
41:52
guy right now and in the Atlanta area, he's like, we're from
41:56
South Carolina. We love this.
41:57
I'm I'm midlife. I'm looking to make a change and
41:59
like he has a very system driven mind and, and, and you know, so
42:07
finding those people is certainly a challenge, you know,
42:12
through blogging and, and working on our what, what I
42:15
refer to as digital relevance, which there's no one thing that
42:17
makes up digital relevance. It's a combination of all the
42:20
things and, you know, continuing to refine those things.
42:24
No, you know most success stories, they often times have a
42:31
chapter behind them that almost broke somebody.
42:35
I'd be curious to hear. About a serious challenge that
42:38
you've overcome, Derek, and how you got through that.
42:42
Sure. So in 2010 I, my wife and I had
42:53
our second child in 2009 and in 2010, I remember this vividly.
42:58
We had just opened a location in Statesville, NC and we had
43:01
another one back-to-back. You know, it doesn't matter how
43:03
you plan these things, like you try to space them out, it just
43:06
inevitably fails that they're like back-to-back to back.
43:09
And so I was making got this one store in Statesville, NC open
43:13
and was going to Clemson to get another store ready.
43:15
Back then I was like on the road a lot and, you know, still very
43:19
hands on in store launches and things like this.
43:21
And my youngest daughter got very, very sick and my wife
43:27
called me concerned. And, you know, I was just like,
43:29
it's a virus or whatever. And, you know, and then I got
43:33
home and I was like, OK, something is really wrong.
43:36
And so we took her to the doctor and then we ended up being on
43:39
this crazy five year odyssey with my child.
43:43
I mean, the long and the short of it was that she had at seven
43:46
months old, she had an encephalopathic event of unknown
43:49
origin, which is a fancy way of saying we don't know what the
43:51
hell happened and basically lost all of her milestones and sat in
43:56
a bouncy seat for, I don't know, six or seven months and then had
44:00
hypotonia. So basically she was hemoplegic.
44:03
The left side of her body went like she would like drag her
44:07
body with the left side. And there was lots of other
44:10
issues and around hormonal issues and, and gastrointestinal
44:15
issues. I mean, turns out she does have
44:16
a functional gastrointestinal disease and is now well managed.
44:20
But at the time, like I, I was, we didn't know what the hell was
44:23
going on. And like you, you can only
44:25
imagine because you're helpless, right?
44:27
And then you get into Google and you start reading these things
44:29
and all this time I'm like, I'm still growing this business and
44:32
we're we're actively opening franchises and I'm just like
44:35
managing this. And I quickly realized that, you
44:38
know, I needed to take charge of the medical situation because
44:45
unfortunately, doctors and specialists see moms is like
44:49
helicopter moms. And I just came in with just
44:52
facts and data and like, you know, here are the facts, here's
44:56
the data. And then, you know, let's just
44:58
cut to the chase and get there. So like I was flying her to
45:02
Cincinnati Children's, who is like one of the best premier
45:05
specialists in the country for this.
45:06
I took her to Iowa and then we spent four years in early
45:10
intervention. So that's where my connection to
45:12
family connection came in and under, you know, I saw first
45:15
hand the power of what early intervention can do in a human
45:19
being's life. So my daughter went from fifth
45:21
percent physically to 99th percent physically in seven
45:25
months with therapy. Same thing with the other
45:28
things. And like, as she's gotten older,
45:30
her body's adapted to the to the strange things that's going on
45:34
with her. And, you know, they have
45:36
approved a medicine for a disease, which is completely
45:38
changed the quality of her life. And I mean, she's a normal
45:41
functioning 16 year old that, you know, has some dietary
45:44
limitations, but straight A student softball player on the
45:48
varsity team, like all of these things.
45:50
And it's just, you know, there's lots of ways to say this, But
45:57
you know, you can be in business.
46:01
I, I talk about it this way, you have the excuse mindset of the
46:04
ownership mindset. And then personally, you can
46:06
look at it as I'm a victim or I'm a survivor and like, you
46:11
know, molding that and accepting that and, and figuring out how
46:15
to, I mean, I can't tell you how hard it is to be the stress that
46:24
that puts on a marriage is unbelievable.
46:26
Like that. If you look at the divorce rates
46:29
among people that have special needs children's, it's like 2X
46:33
the, the national average because it's just so much stress
46:36
on a family. Because I mean, my wife became a
46:38
full time caregiver for five, for five years and was like, all
46:42
these therapies were happening in our home.
46:44
And like, you know, how do you, I'm very much a realist.
46:51
So like this, this is what it is.
46:53
We can't feel sorry for ourselves.
46:55
We have to address this. We have to fix this.
46:57
And I still have to run a business.
46:58
And so finding the balance of that was super challenging.
47:02
And you know, I think part of it was, you know, being the
47:05
position I am, I was afforded a little thing.
47:07
I can work really anywhere as long as I have an Internet
47:09
connection. So that did afford me some
47:12
flexibility. And my, I mean, I would just
47:14
tell my partner, look, man, we're flying to Iowa to go see
47:16
the special. Do what you got to do.
47:17
Like, you know, family's first and family will always be first.
47:19
So that was a real challenge. Wow, Why do you think that your
47:25
marriage survived this stress? There was no other option for
47:30
me. I mean, at the end of the day,
47:33
no other option I mean. Anybody who's a parent, you've
47:39
ever seen your kids suffer for even a brief period of time?
47:43
The pain, the heartache, the helplessness.
47:46
You just wish that you could take it on yourself.
47:48
Take it the. Helplessness is what kills you,
47:50
especially if if you're a fixer and like, and by nature, men are
47:54
fixers, right? I was like, what's the problem?
47:56
How can I fix it? You can't fix these things,
47:58
right? So like you, you just, you lean
48:01
in and you educate yourself and you know, but you, you become an
48:04
advocate. And I mean, that's why I was
48:07
basically my daughter's advocate for for years.
48:11
You know, we've touched on this just a couple of other times in
48:14
the show, and I think it's worth maybe just peeling back a layer
48:17
of the onion a little bit, this idea of you really had to take
48:20
control of the medical care, correct?
48:24
Yeah. Tell us more about that
48:26
experience and why you felt that way.
48:32
You know, that is a huge question.
48:33
There's a lot of answers to that.
48:36
You know, unfortunately, in this country, Healthcare is
48:38
ridiculously fragmented. And if you go to a specialist
48:42
and you don't fit perfectly into this box of whatever that
48:45
specialty is, they just continue on down the road.
48:48
But you know, when you're, when you're dealing with multi
48:52
symptom issues, like her autonomic nervous system did not
48:55
function properly for five years, like she didn't sweat for
48:59
the first four years of her life, like she could not control
49:01
her body temperature. Like so you know, and, and then
49:05
educating yourselves and pushing for the answers and pushing to
49:08
see the right specialist. And, you know, if, if a medical
49:11
test is Askew and, and the research is, you know, there's
49:14
enough soft signs to say we should be going down this rabbit
49:17
hole and, you know, looking for this zebra versus the horse.
49:20
And the horse and zebra thing is very much prevalent in the, the
49:23
medical community. Like they're always looking.
49:25
For the horse and zebra thing. So if it if it looks and runs
49:28
like a horse is probably a horse.
49:29
So, you know, whatever this case might be, you know, so let's
49:32
just use diabetes, for example, you have elevated sugar levels
49:35
and this that and the other. But you know, you could have
49:39
pancreatic cancer, that could be the zebra, right?
49:42
So that is very common. And that's how doctors are
49:45
trained. And that's fine.
49:47
And 99% of the time that makes all the sense in the world.
49:50
But when you're dealing with unique cases, I think you just
49:53
have to be there and demand and take ownership and educate
49:57
yourself on whatever, on whatever the case may be, right?
50:01
I mean, in the grand scheme of things, it's come out really
50:05
well. I, I couldn't be I every time we
50:08
go to her pediatrician now, he's like, I'm blown away every time
50:11
I see your daughter, like just the fact that we're here today
50:14
doing this, having a regular well check is mind blowing to
50:17
me. Like it was intense, man.
50:19
It was intense and like dealing with the emotions of of the wife
50:24
and the helplessness and, and and then the impact it has on
50:27
your other child, right? Because you and your wife are
50:30
are like hyper focused on this sick person and you have another
50:33
child that still needs love and care and nurturing.
50:37
So I mean. What advice would you have for
50:39
other folks going through something similar?
50:41
How to approach it? What to do from your learnings?
50:48
Document everything. I mean, we, we had our own
50:51
binder. This was kind of before EMR.
50:53
So we had Everything Everywhere. So anytime we walked into any
50:58
place, it was all covered. Like I had all the information.
51:01
So have all of your information with you at all times.
51:05
Keep it well documented and organized and you know, educate
51:09
yourself. And I'm not talking about like
51:12
Google searches. I'm talking about like digging
51:14
into like legit journals and understanding the bio mechanisms
51:21
that are what's causing this. That's beyond a lot of people's
51:26
ability to comprehend, though. I, I, I know more about the
51:31
relationship between the neuroendocrine system and the
51:33
gastrointal tract that any human being should possibly know, but
51:38
that's what I needed to know to feel confident to walk into some
51:42
guy that's got 6 pH DS saying could have just been bad luck.
51:48
And I'm like, no, you know, no, it's really just, you have to
51:54
support your kids and get them the help they need and the
51:56
services they need and you know, and, and be there for them.
52:00
And then, you know, part of the, the, the like with family
52:04
connections, you know, they have three primary charges and it,
52:07
it's raising awareness. So that's raising awareness for
52:10
medically complex kids and special needs children's or, or
52:12
children's with what I call different abilities.
52:14
They're not disabilities, they're different abilities.
52:16
They can do different things. And, you know, so it's raising
52:20
awareness, it's making connections.
52:21
And that's not just connecting you with services or writing
52:24
Ieps or, or it, it's also connecting you with other
52:29
families that are going through the same thing because, you
52:32
know, until you walked in those shoes, you have no idea.
52:34
Like, no idea. And then, you know, and
52:37
promoting inclusion for these people.
52:39
And so that that would be, yeah, that's about it.
52:46
What's your superpower, Derek? I think it's the ability to see
53:04
the ultimate objective and then build the path to connect where
53:06
you are today to get to there and you know, color in the
53:12
lines, if you will. Like I'm one of those people
53:14
like, and there's plenty of people aren't that, you know, I
53:17
can look at a blueprint and I know what that building looks
53:19
like finished. And I, I apply that same
53:22
construct to the way I operate today.
53:24
And, and, and the second part of that is just, I take full
53:28
ownership of anything I'm doing, like I'm in or I'm out, period.
53:33
And if I'm in, I'm all in. No.
53:37
If you had to recommend a resource to our listeners that's
53:42
been helpful to you, either in your personal development or
53:45
professional development, a book, a podcast, a course, what
53:49
would you OfferUp? Oh man, there's so many things
53:53
and so many people and so many products.
53:55
But you know, I, I think the book that has really stuck out
53:59
with me is Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Ghadarah.
54:02
Have you read it? I have.
54:04
It, it, it's just an excellent book and you know it.
54:08
It's really about what I was talking about earlier, about
54:11
bringing that human piece back into hospitality.
54:14
I mean, at the end of the day, people gather around a table.
54:17
It's a social experience. Hospitality is human derived
54:22
period. You can have lots of great tech,
54:25
but it needs to be running in the background.
54:27
It's it it shouldn't be. It should be hospitality first,
54:29
tech 2nd. And I think for me, that book is
54:33
kind of like a guiding North star around and in the line that
54:37
really stuck with me out of the whole.
54:39
I mean, there was lots of great things in the book, but like
54:42
that a customer's perception is their reality.
54:44
And that's the lens that we look at everything with.
54:47
Because I we're one of those crazy brands that responds to
54:50
every piece of feedback and every piece of every review ever
54:53
given. We respond to all of them.
54:55
And you know, sure, there's some crazy in there, but you know,
54:59
that's the lens you have to take when you're when you're dealing
55:02
with guests. Yeah.
55:05
And it doesn't apply just to hospitality.
55:07
That applies to life. Well, you know, and it's
55:10
interesting because one of my guests sent me that book and
55:14
he's not in the hospitality space.
55:16
It's probably the book that gets mentioned more than any other.
55:20
It's right up there with like, you know, like Stephen Covey and
55:23
some of the all time classics. And it often times comes from
55:26
folks that are outside the hospitality industry.
55:28
So I think there's a lot of gold in there.
55:30
I. Agree.
55:30
Yeah, for sure. Yeah.
55:32
What's your favorite thing to do outside of work?
55:36
I love the mountains, I love to hike, I love to walk.
55:42
I used to like to fish. Don't have a lot of time for
55:44
that anymore. But you know, and I, I'm also,
55:49
I, I still like to build things like during COVID, I built a
55:51
whole outdoor kitchen just to keep myself occupied.
55:57
It drives my wife crazy. Like we just renovated the the
55:59
kids, our kids no longer needed a play room.
56:01
So we're now converted into like a second den and in like slash
56:05
guest room. And my wife's like, well, who
56:07
you going to hired? I'm like, no, I'm I'm doing all
56:09
the work myself and it drives her crazy and I'm like, but no
56:12
one's going to do it to the standard that I want it done.
56:14
And so I still like to work with my hands very much, but the
56:18
mountains is where I am happy and where I like to just go and
56:24
be. Yeah, well, Derek, I've just got
56:27
one more question for you today. But before I ask it, I want to
56:30
do 3 quick things for the audience.
56:32
First of all, if you want to get in touch with Derek, you can
56:35
find him on LinkedIn, Derek Rosenbaum.
56:37
And Derek is DERIC Derek Rosenbaum, Groucho's deli.
56:42
You'll find him. We'll have a link in the show
56:44
notes, but you can also e-mail him.
56:46
Derek, at grouchos.com. And again, that's Derek.
56:49
DERIC Derek at grouchos.com. If you're enjoying the show
56:53
today, please take a moment to subscribe wherever you're
56:56
listening. It sends a signal that helps
56:58
others discover our show. So thank you for taking a quick
57:01
moment to do that right now. And as a reminder, you can get
57:04
your restaurant employees access to therapists, doctors and
57:07
prescription meds that, as paradoxical as it seems,
57:10
actually increases your company's net profits, real
57:13
gains that can change how a business is valued.
57:16
Contact us today to add back benefits.com.
57:19
So last question for you, Derek. A year from now, what is 1 very
57:22
specific thing that you hope to be celebrating?
57:32
I mean, definitely the graduation of my daughter from
57:35
grad school. I, I can't say that it will be
57:44
done because it's never done. Everything's constantly evolving
57:48
and tweaking, but I like finishing up the last step of
57:53
what we're working on with our tech stack and, and completing
57:57
that circle like we're, we're, we are this close to closing the
58:01
loop. So we're deep in on it.
58:04
And I, I, I think we'll actually be done before another year.
58:06
So yeah, that would be it. Fun stuff.
58:10
Maybe we'll have you back on and gives us a little more of a deep
58:13
dive tutorial and some of these tech components that you're
58:16
using. So it sounds like fun stuff.
58:20
All right, Derek Rosenbaum from Groucho's Deli, I want to be the
58:22
first to thank you for sharing both your time and your story
58:25
with us today. I really appreciate you being
58:26
here. Thank you so much I it was great
58:28
chatting with you. I enjoyed it.
58:30
Folks, that's a wrap on another episode of the Inspired Stories
58:33
podcast. Thanks for learning with us.
58:35
And if one thing stood out, put that into action today.