Latest / Single Tree Nation Show / Kelly Sennatt Esten (Toast) | The Future of Restaurants, Tech & Hospitality Growth |

Transcript

Kelly Sennatt Esten (Toast) | The Future of Restaurants, Tech & Hospitality Growth | · Single Tree Nation Show

0:01
Welcome back to Singletree Nation, guys.
0:04
I'm your man, Charlie Eblen.
0:06
And as always,
0:06
we have our illustrious co-host, Mr.
0:09
Derry Wells with us today.
0:11
What is up, everybody?
0:12
We got to give a quick shout out
0:14
to our primary partner at the restaurant
0:18
and here on the show for Toast.
0:21
They help us with all of our technology
0:23
to provide the most undeniable hospitality
0:26
we can give.
0:28
And we love them for that.
0:29
We do.
0:30
We do.
0:30
Pretty much.
0:30
It's great.
0:31
I love it.
0:32
I love when I swipe my card and
0:33
they take my money.
0:37
I don't know if Toast is taking your
0:39
money.
0:39
Well, they've got to get a cut,
0:40
don't they?
0:41
Somebody said.
0:41
It's great.
0:43
Look, today is a long time coming.
0:47
I can't believe it has been taken as
0:51
long as it has to have our very
0:52
special guest today.
0:55
We have Miss Kelly from Toast,
0:59
the chief marketing officer joining us
1:01
today.
1:01
Welcome, Kelly.
1:03
Welcome to the show.
1:05
I know it's been way too long, Charlie.
1:06
I think we've been talking about this for,
1:08
I don't know, a couple of years, probably.
1:11
almost two years yes almost two years
1:13
we've been chatting about it so i'm
1:15
excited to have you on the show i
1:17
think uh we were talking pre-show and i
1:20
think that it's people love toast people
1:24
love what we do they love the restaurants
1:26
that you guys serve they love all of
1:29
the technology that you provide but a lot
1:30
of times i think we get lost in
1:33
the the why we do what we do
1:36
I think we sometimes get wrapped up in
1:39
a conversation around how technology is
1:42
going to make us better and do things
1:45
for us and take the world into the
1:47
next generation and what AI is going to
1:51
happen, right?
1:52
I'm sure you have more questions
1:54
surrounded in the AI and tech world than
1:58
you care to imagine it on a day-to-day
2:00
basis, but...
2:02
I think sometimes we forget that it's
2:04
people that are the ones providing all of
2:07
this and coming up with these ideas.
2:11
And there's always a why, right?
2:14
I would love to kind of get into
2:16
who Kelly is and why she's doing what
2:20
she's doing,
2:20
how she got to toast and what makes
2:23
toast so special and all of those things.
2:25
But before we do that, um,
2:27
our first segment of every show,
2:29
we like to ask our guests what their
2:32
favorite toast is.
2:33
And what we've been doing is we've been
2:36
going back and forth between whether
2:38
that's a breakfast toast.
2:41
Ooh.
2:42
or a cheers.
2:44
And so I'm the last one that messed
2:47
this up.
2:51
I'm going to,
2:52
I'm going to go just to throw it
2:54
out there.
2:55
Okay.
2:56
It's gotta be the breakfast toast for two
2:58
reasons.
2:58
A there's a lot more variety and probably
3:01
radio friendly.
3:02
B it is the insignia.
3:05
It's the logo.
3:05
It looks like a piece of bread on
3:07
your hat.
3:08
Yes.
3:09
So, um,
3:10
I w we've got to go that role,
3:11
but I did mess it up last time
3:13
trying to come up with a salutation.
3:15
So it didn't work so far.
3:18
I think, I think we're like, Oh,
3:19
for a hundred on people that have been
3:21
able to come up with like a cheers.
3:23
Oh, like give a toast.
3:25
Yes.
3:25
Oh, at least one that's radio friendly.
3:28
Yeah.
3:29
I see.
3:29
Yeah.
3:29
No,
3:29
I'm happy to pick a piece of bread.
3:32
Yeah.
3:40
what is what is kelly's favorite favorite
3:42
bread so now we can get into the
3:46
whole like what's the sandwich world too
3:48
because yes i really had to pick a
3:51
favorite bread it would actually probably
3:53
be or a favorite toast would be a
3:55
cinnamon raisin bagel toasted
4:00
I'm going to allow it because you toast
4:02
it.
4:02
You toast it and you can put butter
4:04
on it or cream cheese or peanut butter.
4:06
That feels like toast,
4:07
but cinnamon raisin flavor is my favorite.
4:12
That reminds me of a six-year-old.
4:14
Yeah.
4:15
When I was six years old,
4:17
not like that you're a child,
4:18
just when I was six years old.
4:20
Are you calling my taste profile childish?
4:23
Not at all.
4:24
Four minutes into this and you're already
4:25
giving the guests a hard time.
4:28
Thank you.
4:29
I will say I'm shopping in the grocery
4:31
store and I'm like, oh,
4:32
the kids would really like it if I
4:33
got cinnamon raisin one day.
4:36
Knowing that you're going to eat your
4:37
share.
4:40
That's being a parent.
4:41
I'm actually not even sure my kids do
4:43
like cinnamon.
4:44
Love it.
4:46
I'll tell you a funny story about that.
4:48
My kids, when they have peanut M&Ms,
4:51
they won't come anywhere close to me.
4:52
Right.
4:54
because peanut M&Ms are my favorite candy.
4:57
So they know, they know,
4:59
they know I'm going to,
5:00
I'm going to get me a few.
5:01
They know.
5:02
Oh, if they have the peanut M&Ms.
5:04
I thought you said if you had them.
5:06
Oh, no, no, no, no.
5:07
If they have them, they're running away.
5:09
They're in the other side of the house.
5:10
That's right.
5:11
They're outside.
5:12
They're just not even close.
5:12
Smart.
5:12
We call that the dad tax in our
5:13
house.
5:15
That's right.
5:16
Yes.
5:16
Right.
5:16
A hundred percent.
5:17
And they are protecting their investment.
5:19
So I just got to make sure it's
5:20
okay.
5:20
Yeah.
5:20
I'm more likely to steal the Sour Patch
5:23
Kids.
5:25
Yeah, my wife is right there with you.
5:26
Yeah,
5:26
we do have peanut M&M's in the office
5:28
here at Toast.
5:29
And we also have regular M&M's.
5:31
And I justify it.
5:32
I'm like, well,
5:32
if I eat the peanut ones,
5:33
they've got a little bit of protein in
5:34
them.
5:34
That's exactly right.
5:35
Well done.
5:36
There's a reason why when I come to
5:38
Boston, I've always gained five pounds.
5:40
It's the M&M's in the office.
5:42
It's the M&M's.
5:42
I love it.
5:46
That's rich.
5:47
I love it.
5:48
Well, Kelly,
5:48
why don't you take a second or two,
5:50
if you would, and kind of tell people,
5:52
you know, who you are, what you do,
5:54
and if you want to start, you know,
5:56
how we even got into the IT marketing
5:59
world.
6:00
Yeah.
6:01
Yeah.
6:01
Wow.
6:01
Okay.
6:02
So, so first of all,
6:03
thank you so much for having me again.
6:05
I'm,
6:05
I'm the chief marketing officer at Toast,
6:08
as you mentioned,
6:08
and we do restaurant technology for small
6:11
businesses is our history,
6:12
but now restaurants of all sizes across
6:14
the US and increasingly in countries
6:17
around the world,
6:18
which has been really fun.
6:19
And I've been at Toast eight and a
6:21
half years.
6:22
So I've seen it grow from tens of
6:25
millions of dollars in revenue.
6:26
And we probably could know most of our
6:29
customers to a place where we've got one
6:31
hundred and fifty thousand customers on
6:32
the platform.
6:34
And we get to know many of our
6:35
customers,
6:35
but maybe not all at the same scale
6:38
these days.
6:39
And, you know,
6:41
I've been mostly in marketing during my
6:43
time at Toast,
6:45
but I also got the chance to run
6:46
our enterprise business serving our
6:49
largest restaurant groups on Toast within
6:51
the last few years.
6:52
And then I've been CMO about two years.
6:56
And my first marketing job was, you know,
7:01
prior to Toast,
7:02
I had been working at a bank right
7:04
out of school.
7:05
And my very first job I ever took
7:07
was selling municipal bonds on a trading
7:09
floor as a summer internship at my
7:11
parents' encouragement.
7:13
and um i actually loved it i had
7:15
a blast um hitting the phones all day
7:17
being on a big trading floor environment
7:19
um being around people uh doing that doing
7:22
math actually as nerdy as that is and
7:24
um i love it how accurate is wolf
7:27
of wall street then i need insider input
7:29
here it was um not quite like that
7:33
okay i'm glad to hear that
7:38
At least by the time I got there.
7:39
Sure.
7:40
There's like a Mad Men equivalent in
7:42
marketing, too,
7:43
where my day looks nothing like Don
7:45
Draper's.
7:46
Okay.
7:46
Right.
7:47
Nor does, I don't think,
7:48
my agency partners, I hope.
7:52
But it was still a fun environment.
7:56
And after I'd done that for a few
7:57
years,
7:58
I had been actually living in Europe.
8:00
working for the bank and I kind of
8:02
wanted to come home and, you know,
8:04
put down roots.
8:05
And so I went back to business school
8:07
and then got into tech and marketing as
8:09
a kind of second career for myself after
8:12
a bunch of years at the bank.
8:14
And
8:16
fell in love first and foremost with
8:17
marketing.
8:18
I worked at a clean energy company here
8:20
in Boston for six years.
8:22
We grew it and we sold it.
8:24
What I fell in love with was building
8:25
businesses, learning about customers,
8:27
being out doing sales.
8:29
Myself, I ran sales and marketing
8:31
parts of marketing there for a few years.
8:34
And then when I heard about Toast,
8:36
when we sold that last company,
8:40
it was exciting to me for a few
8:42
reasons.
8:43
One, first is the customers.
8:45
Really easy to get excited about waking up
8:48
every day to serve restaurants because
8:50
they're, first of all,
8:51
like the social places where we all go
8:53
with our friends and family to celebrate,
8:55
to commiserate,
8:57
to grab a coffee on the way to
8:58
work.
8:58
That's such a fabric of everyone's day to
9:00
day lives.
9:02
I could explain to my parents what I
9:03
was doing.
9:04
That was kind of cool.
9:05
And, you know,
9:07
they were a growing company looking for
9:09
marketers.
9:10
And so that was how I got my
9:11
foot in the door.
9:13
And we can talk a little bit more
9:14
about the journey, too.
9:15
But that's that's the quick how I got
9:16
to Toast.
9:18
I love it.
9:19
Yeah, that's that's a pretty.
9:23
pretty cool thing to go from Wolf of
9:25
Wall Street to IT marketing.
9:27
I was more excited that she went from
9:29
Europe back to here.
9:32
Where in Europe did you stay?
9:34
Yeah.
9:34
So I was living in New York City.
9:36
I was like twenty one and I was
9:39
doing this management rotation program
9:41
where you got to go to different
9:42
departments every three to six months and
9:44
learn about different parts of the bank.
9:47
And they said, hey,
9:49
we're going to try and do a rotation
9:50
in Zurich, Switzerland with a Swiss bank,
9:53
UBS.
9:54
And does anyone want to move to
9:56
Switzerland for three months?
9:57
And I was like, I do, of course.
10:00
single, living in New York City, why not?
10:03
And so I moved to Zurich for three
10:06
months.
10:06
And when I was working there,
10:08
I worked for a wonderful boss who was
10:10
actually British.
10:11
And he said, hey,
10:12
I'm actually moving back to London to
10:13
start a team in London doing what we're
10:15
doing here in Zurich.
10:16
Do you want to come be part of
10:17
that team?
10:18
And so I ended up kind of going
10:20
home and packing up and moving to London.
10:23
for what was supposed to be, you know,
10:25
six to twelve months and ended up turning
10:27
into three and a half,
10:28
four years in London.
10:32
And my last job there,
10:34
I got to be the chief of staff
10:36
to the head of Europe.
10:37
And so we traveled.
10:38
He was responsible for thirteen countries
10:40
across Europe.
10:40
And so I would often travel with him
10:42
and got to see all the different countries
10:43
across Europe.
10:45
which is a really awesome job in your
10:47
twenties.
10:48
Both to learn management from him,
10:50
to travel.
10:51
It was great.
10:52
It was great.
10:53
Europe's one of those places,
10:54
just the diversity.
10:56
Because you can go from like England and
10:58
then up to Switzerland.
10:59
Then you got the...
11:01
europe proper if you will germany spain
11:03
that stuff but like it's such a wide
11:05
diverse you go down to italy and stuff
11:07
and greece like it's just it's a the
11:10
so many places like i'm thinking of just
11:12
a drive down our local road here you
11:14
go to a greek restaurant uh italian
11:16
restaurant uh you know well all those are
11:18
there
11:20
having it all so you drive four hours
11:23
in texas and you're still in texas but
11:24
if you drive four hours in europe you
11:27
can cross multiple countries exactly and
11:29
if you take the train like forty five
11:32
minutes let's go so yeah yeah it's great
11:34
it's great a little bit a little bit
11:35
different than uh driving through driving
11:38
through tennessee
11:42
know which is also cool very oh it
11:44
is it is there's it's beautiful it's just
11:46
it's just different yes for sure so you
11:52
you you travel you've seen the seen the
11:55
world and come back you go to school
12:00
now you're you're starting at toast you
12:02
started in product at toast isn't that
12:04
right
12:04
Product marketing.
12:05
Yeah.
12:06
Which is kind of the team that sits
12:07
in between the go-to-market teams and the
12:10
R and D teams and helps translate like
12:12
all the amazing things that the
12:14
engineering and product teams are building
12:16
and say like,
12:16
how do we translate this for customers,
12:19
um, for our sales team, uh,
12:20
into marketing.
12:22
And so that's really the team that sits
12:23
at the intersection of those two
12:25
departments at Toast and at a lot of
12:27
tech companies.
12:29
so and now i've i looked at your
12:32
resume through toast and and a couple of
12:35
years ago when when i when i joined
12:37
myself but i i don't remember at all
12:41
and you've done many many different jobs
12:44
at toast over the last eight and a
12:45
half years yeah if if you could if
12:49
you could say hey that role that position
12:55
was the job that i had the most
12:58
fun doing
13:00
Out of all of them,
13:01
and if it's your current one, then great.
13:03
But out of all of them,
13:05
what was the job that you felt like
13:08
this is what it's all about?
13:12
You know, first of all,
13:13
like eight and a half years is a
13:15
long time these days to be at a
13:17
tech company.
13:18
And so I'm having fun all the time.
13:20
It's definitely been a huge part of why
13:25
I've got longevity at Toast because I
13:27
actually really love my job.
13:30
I would say the job, though,
13:31
that really was a turning point for me
13:34
in like
13:35
deepening my passion for what we're doing
13:37
is actually the enterprise job.
13:39
And the reason is because it got me
13:42
out talking to customers every day.
13:45
And I spent time on the road with
13:48
our sales team,
13:48
with our customer success team,
13:50
in front of customers,
13:51
kind of like as my default
13:54
way of operating.
13:55
And that got me, first of all,
13:58
our customers are really fun, like you.
14:00
They're interesting people,
14:02
passionate about their own businesses,
14:04
building things.
14:06
Hospitality people are the best.
14:08
But also,
14:10
it just gave me so much more context
14:11
and color on the decisions I was making
14:13
as an executive,
14:14
what I was bringing back to Toast.
14:16
And when I went back to marketing,
14:17
I think it's been one of the biggest
14:19
like up levels for me,
14:21
making sure that I'm bringing the voice of
14:23
our customer into our marketing,
14:25
into our executive team meetings.
14:27
And the way I think and operate is
14:28
totally transformed by a few years getting
14:32
really deep with customers and
14:34
understanding like how they think about
14:35
the world and what they need from a
14:37
technology perspective.
14:39
That's outstanding.
14:40
So, well,
14:41
we are going to take a quick break
14:43
before we get into the next question,
14:45
but that brings me right into our next
14:47
segment.
14:47
So y'all stay tuned.
14:49
We'll be right back.
14:53
Welcome back, guys.
14:55
I'm your man, Charlie Eblen,
14:56
right here at Singletree Nation with my
14:58
man, Derry Wells.
15:00
As always, today's show is exciting.
15:05
It's been a long time coming.
15:06
We have Miss Kelly from...
15:10
host our primary technology partner you
15:13
like my dramatic pause i was trying to
15:14
figure out where i was going i was
15:16
like all right quite honestly i was about
15:18
to cough into the microphone so i was
15:19
trying to hold it so yeah i caught
15:24
myself off guard too i just uh i
15:26
didn't know how to how to flow into
15:28
that without without choking thank you all
15:32
right sorry um so to roll right into
15:34
this is job number one right we want
15:35
everyone to make it through the podcast
15:39
Yes, yes, yes.
15:40
I need to stay alive for the next
15:41
forty five minutes here.
15:43
Oh, my Lord.
15:45
Look,
15:46
we were talking about the things that
15:47
you've done and the stuff that you've
15:48
enjoyed at Toast and which kind of brings
15:51
me into why?
15:54
Why Toast?
15:55
What what about Toast?
15:57
What about what you do today makes what's
16:01
fulfilling about the job?
16:03
It's I.T.
16:04
It's it's.
16:05
you know, AI and, and crazy things that,
16:08
you know, I,
16:09
I had a conversation with my father this
16:11
morning and he answers the phone.
16:14
This is, now keep in mind,
16:15
this is like six thirty.
16:16
Okay.
16:17
To be a fly on that wall.
16:18
Yeah.
16:18
I'd love it.
16:19
I'm getting ready to tell you.
16:21
So we're, we're.
16:22
Not like he would.
16:22
No, no.
16:22
Now I want to meet Charlie's dad.
16:27
Oh, it's a, it's a wild ride.
16:29
Yeah.
16:30
Get your son,
16:31
y'all go to my YouTube page.
16:33
There is a show that is titled Pappy,
16:36
the man with no introduction needed.
16:40
He gets on the phone this morning and
16:43
before he says, good morning to me,
16:44
before he says, how you doing?
16:46
What's going, what's the plan?
16:47
What's going on today?
16:49
It's,
16:49
do you know what the definition of
16:52
algorithm is?
16:56
Deep questions for six thirty in the
16:58
morning.
16:58
Wow.
16:59
I know what an algorithm is,
17:00
and I'm thinking that he wants he's
17:03
wanting me to answer that question.
17:04
No, it was rhetorical.
17:06
He already had the Wikipedia definition.
17:08
And of course he did.
17:08
I love it.
17:09
So then we had a thirty minute
17:11
conversation about algorithms and what
17:14
they mean.
17:15
And it is if you don't know what
17:18
it is,
17:18
it's the Wikipedia definition will will
17:21
blow your mind.
17:22
Your father with a cup of coffee at
17:24
six a.m.
17:25
working on algorithms just delights the
17:28
thought that that would entail.
17:33
And I will probably get it wrong,
17:36
but it is essentially a set of
17:39
instructions to predict an outcome of a
17:43
product.
17:44
So if you are essentially saying Facebook,
17:51
Instagram, TikTok,
17:52
all of the social media algorithms are set
17:56
to have a criteria.
17:58
And if something meets those criteria,
18:00
then they will be shown more.
18:02
If they don't meet that criteria,
18:04
then it will be shown less.
18:06
like most likely to get you to actually
18:09
watch it and then keep swiping and then
18:12
therefore see more apps and click on them
18:13
and buy things you definitely need at
18:17
three o'clock in the morning on Instagram.
18:18
Yeah.
18:19
Why do y'all do that?
18:20
Y'all being ladies.
18:21
I'm so sorry.
18:27
That got personal that listen,
18:32
the amount of reels I wake up to
18:34
from my wife and the amount of things
18:37
added to the Amazon cart.
18:38
She at least doesn't purchase,
18:40
but our cart will go from like.
18:43
One fifty something we could do if we
18:45
wanted to.
18:46
I opened up our Amazon cart yesterday
18:48
morning.
18:49
There was six hundred and eighty three
18:51
dollars of stuff in there.
18:52
What has she done?
18:53
I don't know.
18:55
There was furniture.
18:56
Fairness.
18:58
But I'm not going to tell you what's
18:59
in mine.
19:00
I am telling you, it was it was.
19:02
Do you know how hard it is to
19:03
go uncheck all those things when I need
19:05
my little twenty dollar cabinet hardware?
19:06
Because that was a process.
19:08
But anyway, it's not personal.
19:10
It's universal.
19:11
And it is the algorithm at work.
19:12
That's the algorithm.
19:12
And it knows what my wife likes.
19:17
It does.
19:17
It knows what I like.
19:20
all i can say so she's gonna kill
19:22
me i hope she didn't watch this episode
19:23
hey hey it is what it is it
19:29
is it is what was the question charlie
19:32
yeah sorry i did that i did that
19:34
i don't know i think we i think
19:35
we i think we saw a squirrel kelly
19:36
we went to left field right there so
19:38
listen i do want to bring up
19:41
You mentioned about the customers and the
19:42
unique part of y'all's end of things is
19:44
your customer is the restaurant owner
19:46
who's also trying to drive customers.
19:49
And so in a weird sense,
19:53
you are both middlemen for making the end
19:56
user, whoever's purchasing the product,
19:59
you're both middlemen to go back forth
20:01
each way,
20:01
whether it's payment issues on your end or
20:04
whether it's inventory reliance on the
20:08
owner's end or the entrepreneur's end.
20:11
Y'all play a special role in that.
20:13
And so when getting to do that kind
20:14
of thing,
20:16
how do you approach the entrepreneur who
20:20
owns a business who says,
20:21
here's what I'm wanting and treat them
20:24
like a customer,
20:25
even though what they're ultimately doing
20:27
is seeking out the customer and still
20:30
keeping that relationship in a bond where
20:33
you're helping them,
20:34
but also allowing yourself or the company
20:37
toes to be
20:39
the product that they need?
20:40
How are you avoiding the middleman while
20:42
being the middleman?
20:43
Yeah, that's a great question.
20:45
I think first and foremost, it comes from
20:49
thinking about who is our primary
20:51
customer.
20:52
And I think that question has actually
20:53
been really core to Toast.
20:56
And for Toast, it's the restaurant.
21:01
We call it the customer's customer,
21:02
the guest,
21:03
because we had to come up with language
21:05
for Toast.
21:06
Like who's the customer and who's the
21:07
guest?
21:08
Who's the customer's customer?
21:09
It's the guest.
21:09
And so we center the restaurant in all
21:13
of our decisions.
21:14
But if you talk to restaurants about what
21:16
do they need,
21:17
to your point one of the biggest things
21:19
that we could do to help restaurants is
21:21
to get more guests right i get guests
21:23
come back to um you know help them
21:27
make the guest experience great um to
21:30
market to guests etc and so there is
21:33
a there's a natural tension
21:36
that we face and it's actually one of
21:37
the things we talked to the customer
21:39
advisory board that Charlie's been on
21:42
about a lot is like,
21:43
let's make sure we're doing the things
21:47
they want us to do to drive what
21:50
we say is drive demand to bring more
21:51
guests into the restaurants versus
21:55
stepping in between them and their guests.
21:57
And the moments where we've gone wrong
22:00
have been when we've gotten too far in
22:02
between restaurants and their guests
22:04
versus when we've been there as a tool
22:07
for restaurants to reach their guests
22:09
directly and gotten a little bit out of
22:11
the way.
22:12
And so one of the things like I'm
22:13
pretty excited about for next year is how,
22:16
like with the AI, you know,
22:19
of it all.
22:21
How do we,
22:22
as we're all starting to get used to
22:24
talking voice to text and to voice AI,
22:28
how do we start to actually get the
22:29
technology even less in the way and we
22:34
get more eyes up as we're interacting with
22:36
each other?
22:36
I think one of the great outcomes of
22:40
all the changes we're seeing in the
22:41
platforms, again,
22:42
it was like phones were the first big
22:44
change that allowed Toast actually to grow
22:46
and for all the technology that we rely
22:48
on every day.
22:49
But now we've got a bunch of people
22:50
walking around like this all day.
22:52
And it's like,
22:52
how do we actually get to a place
22:53
where this goes away and we're eyes up
22:56
again?
22:56
Because the voice and the way we talk
22:58
to each other now can be captured and
23:00
supported by the technology and not us
23:03
typing into screens all day long,
23:05
talking to each other versus...
23:07
you know,
23:07
finding those moments to be heads up
23:09
again.
23:09
And so for us, it's like,
23:10
how does the technology go to the
23:11
background and enable the restaurant tours
23:14
and the staff to be in front of
23:16
their guests and to get them coming back
23:17
because they've had a great experience.
23:18
That's a that's a that's a great segue
23:22
into my question.
23:24
Numero uno from from the gauntlet of
23:26
questions.
23:26
OK.
23:28
The I spoke to some friends today and
23:32
we were we were discussing about how
23:37
We want to actually get people into the
23:39
business.
23:40
We want to actually get guests to come
23:43
and see us.
23:44
We want to actually be able to provide
23:46
the undeniable hospitality,
23:48
but we can't do that if we don't
23:49
have people coming through the doors.
23:51
In today's economy and in today's world,
23:54
it's very, very challenging.
23:56
You have all kinds of different things
23:57
that could be an if, a why,
23:59
a what.
24:01
for the most part you have some great
24:03
operators out there that are still you
24:06
know staring staring at the wall trying to
24:08
figure out how people are coming in so
24:11
with with having this opportunity of
24:13
having an expert in marketing sitting in
24:16
front of me today what what would you
24:20
do what would you tell an opera if
24:22
you were an operator today and you owned
24:24
a small business small restaurant
24:27
What would you do that actually drives
24:31
people into the restaurant and fill up the
24:33
seats?
24:34
Yeah.
24:36
You know,
24:36
I think any good marketer starts at the
24:38
same place,
24:39
which is knowing your customer and knowing
24:42
your guest.
24:43
And I think that's one of the biggest
24:44
challenges that restaurant operators have
24:46
is a lot of times their guests are
24:48
anonymous and they don't know who's
24:51
walking in the door.
24:52
And if you don't know who's walking in
24:53
the door,
24:54
you don't know if they came back,
24:55
how often, what they liked,
24:57
what they didn't like.
24:59
you know, where else they go,
25:00
all sorts of their demographics,
25:02
all sorts of things about them.
25:03
And so when I think about our marketing
25:05
at Toast,
25:05
one of the reasons we spend so much
25:07
time with customers and with our customer
25:08
advisory boards and on digital marketing
25:11
is because we want to understand deeply
25:15
our customers and then digital marketing
25:17
allows us to capture
25:19
our customers and prospects information
25:22
and bring them into our funnel.
25:24
And so I think one of the biggest
25:26
unlocks for especially small restaurants
25:28
is how do you start to capture guest
25:30
information?
25:32
And how do you incentivize guests when
25:33
they come into your restaurant to check
25:35
in, to give their email,
25:36
their phone number, their name?
25:38
to link a credit card,
25:39
to start gathering that history and that
25:41
profile on the guest.
25:43
And that allows you to do a couple
25:45
of things.
25:45
One is it allows you to know those
25:48
guests and start to what we call segment
25:50
them.
25:51
So think about who hasn't been here in
25:52
thirty days?
25:53
Who are my, I don't know,
25:56
brisket lovers that I'm running a special
25:58
against that and I should email all of
25:59
them who've ordered that in the past?
26:01
Or who's going to come in for a
26:03
drink special?
26:04
Or who has a birthday coming up or
26:08
has celebrated special occasions in my
26:09
restaurant?
26:10
And can you start to understand the groups
26:12
of people that come in and reach out
26:13
to them in a way that feels more
26:15
personal and draws them back?
26:17
But then you can also start to say,
26:19
what are the kind of people that come
26:20
to my restaurants?
26:21
Where do they live?
26:22
Are they families?
26:23
Are they young adults?
26:26
What's their spending profile?
26:27
So you can go look for people like
26:28
them when you're going out and looking for
26:31
new guests.
26:32
And I think the big challenge that a
26:34
lot of people face right now is some
26:35
of the easiest ways to get new demand
26:39
are third-party platforms,
26:40
whether it's for reservations or delivery,
26:43
where you often lose that guest data and
26:46
you don't have control over the tools to
26:48
bring them back.
26:49
And so then having your own direct
26:51
channels out to guests,
26:53
whether it's your own emails and text
26:55
messages and online ordering and
26:57
reservations,
26:58
and we're starting to even help
26:59
restaurateurs with
27:01
ads, Google ads,
27:02
Instagram ads that reach lookalike
27:05
audiences to the guests that are already
27:08
coming in and find ways to digitally
27:11
connect with them and drive traffic,
27:13
either from repeat guests or from guests
27:14
that look like the guests that already
27:16
love your restaurant.
27:18
I think those are the
27:20
It's the basics and making sure that
27:23
understanding who your guest is,
27:24
segmenting how you talk to them,
27:26
personalizing that touch so they feel
27:28
seen,
27:29
and then having a great guest experience
27:31
that often knowing a little bit about them
27:34
drives a huge uptick in whether or not
27:37
someone comes back.
27:38
I'll give a quick example.
27:39
There's this restaurant near me called
27:41
Mida.
27:42
These are pizza and pasta.
27:44
By the way,
27:45
the pizza and pasta is awesome,
27:47
but there's a lot of places in Boston
27:48
I can get Italian food.
27:50
We're known for it in our schools.
27:52
There's a pretty good Italian district
27:54
down the street.
27:55
There's pretty good Italian food in
27:56
Boston.
27:57
We do a couple things well.
27:58
Seafood, Italian food are two of our best.
28:02
But, you know,
28:03
the staff has been steady and they've
28:05
started to recognize us and say welcome
28:08
back.
28:08
And they're nice to our kids.
28:11
And it's a place where we feel known.
28:14
We're not, you know,
28:15
any anything special other than we go
28:17
there enough that we start to see the
28:20
same people and they start to know us.
28:22
And I think those little touches make such
28:24
a big difference in what drives someone to
28:26
pick your spot versus someone else's on
28:29
that.
28:29
You know, one night out,
28:30
they're going to have a week,
28:32
especially in this environment.
28:33
It makes a big difference.
28:37
I'm going to play devil's advocate for a
28:38
second.
28:39
yeah the the guests who are customers
28:42
places who were still that old hard like
28:47
qr codes are a blast now right it's
28:49
it's fun it's interactive it's whatever um
28:52
they even have tabletop you know pos
28:56
systems that a lot of them do for
28:58
various restaurants what about the guest
29:00
that still wants the paper ticket what a
29:03
guest that still wants a hard menu in
29:05
front of them and i want to watch
29:06
you write something down
29:09
How do you incorporate?
29:10
Yeah, you know, I do.
29:17
I think I think that's a real thing.
29:19
And I actually think the QR code is
29:23
a great example of technology that got
29:26
adopted because of COVID.
29:27
Like it really was like,
29:29
what's the easiest,
29:30
fastest way we can solve like a whole
29:32
host of problems with tech?
29:35
um but by no means is it uh
29:38
i think where that place will end and
29:41
that's what i mean by heads up technology
29:42
heads up technology it's like the qr
29:45
code's kind of awful like i sit there
29:47
i pull out my phone now like i
29:49
have a rule at my house and there
29:50
are no phones at the dinner table now
29:52
i and especially at a restaurant like we
29:54
don't put our kids on ipads at restaurants
29:56
like we try and make them talk to
29:57
us even though you know twenty minutes in
30:01
everyone's like they're like squirming and
30:03
punching each other you know
30:05
whatever,
30:05
but we have a no phones at the
30:08
table rule.
30:09
And then all of a sudden everyone whips
30:10
out their phones and it's QR code and
30:11
it's really easy to just swipe over and
30:13
check the email or the Slack.
30:15
And all of a sudden everyone at the
30:16
table is in their phone.
30:18
And so I actually don't love
30:20
that experience there's all sorts of great
30:23
reasons to do it in some um service
30:25
environments things like hey you know i
30:28
want to get that one more drink and
30:29
my server is busy or i'm going to
30:32
close out a check that way because
30:33
actually my kids have hit their limit and
30:35
i want to get out of there as
30:36
fast as possible and not wait for you
30:38
to drop a payment check
30:40
And then take my credit card away to
30:41
the back and yada yada.
30:43
But I do think we all want that
30:46
feeling of I sit down in a full
30:49
service environment.
30:50
Someone takes care of me.
30:51
And part of going out is being served
30:54
and having that hospitality.
30:56
And we want to find ways to make
30:59
the technology such that.
31:02
were not all then buried back in our
31:05
screens.
31:05
But instead, for example,
31:07
what if there was a little thing listening
31:09
in and transcribing the order and all the
31:12
server had to do was check it and
31:14
make sure it was accurate before they
31:15
pushed it off to the engine?
31:17
Or what if you already had some
31:20
suggestions of things I might like on your
31:24
handheld?
31:26
Because I've been here ten times,
31:27
and so you know I always order the
31:29
same glass of wine or the same
31:31
meal for my kids and you walk down
31:33
and say hey would you like me to
31:34
fire like your kids favorite meal and your
31:36
favorite drink while you look at uh menu
31:38
today and what the specials are and like
31:40
you can kind of take away some of
31:41
those things and so finding ways to bring
31:45
technology in a way that's not all of
31:48
us back in our phones is one of
31:50
the big themes we're working on for twenty
31:51
six nice yeah
31:54
troy uh troy hooper a good friend of
31:56
mine said i love troy troy's the man
32:02
the myth the legend i've met troy one
32:04
time for exactly like an hour and a
32:06
half the center of the room easily all
32:12
things flowed through troy it was great
32:16
he's the life of the party whenever he's
32:17
in the room it was great
32:18
isn't that a great like some people are
32:20
just like that it's uh it's a really
32:22
great characteristic and it wasn't
32:25
something he walked in to demand it he
32:27
just sat down for a meal yes and
32:29
then all of a sudden his just he
32:31
oozes that just an eccentric just kind of
32:35
like hey here i am i'm excited he's
32:37
easy to talk to he's knowledgeable like it
32:40
just he's got all of it just firing
32:41
on all different so anyway fangirling over
32:45
troy here
32:57
He was on stage not too long ago
33:03
at a conference that I was at.
33:04
And, and he mentioned,
33:06
somebody asked him about AI and he asked
33:08
him about technology and I would love to
33:09
get your opinion.
33:12
But, and I think it's,
33:13
I think it's a valid point.
33:15
we were talking about as much as we,
33:18
just like in your household, my household,
33:20
we're not allowed to have phones at the
33:21
dinner table.
33:22
You know,
33:23
I try to limit the amount of screen
33:24
time my kids have.
33:25
It's difficult, right?
33:27
It's hard to do because that's, that's,
33:29
you know, what kids do nowadays.
33:34
But,
33:36
There is a point to where technology can
33:38
go too far and we lose that hospitality
33:45
that we are looking for, i.e.
33:48
QR codes were a great solution, right?
33:52
But how do we take technology and continue
33:56
to advance it without losing the
33:59
hospitality?
34:00
Yeah.
34:01
Yeah.
34:02
You know,
34:02
the way I think about it is twofold.
34:04
One is Joanne Chang,
34:06
who's a well-known restaurateur here in
34:08
Boston.
34:09
She owns a series of bakeries,
34:12
but then also a really cool kind of
34:14
like Chinese fusion restaurant,
34:16
Meyers and Chang here.
34:18
And she said something at the toast
34:20
company meeting a few years ago, gosh,
34:23
quite a few years ago now,
34:24
where she said, you know,
34:26
hospitality to me
34:28
Joanne is, you know, I walk in,
34:31
you look me in the eye,
34:33
we have a quick exchange.
34:35
I say, good morning.
34:36
You ask me what I want.
34:37
I tell you, you give it to me.
34:38
There's like a pleasantries and that's
34:40
part of the experience.
34:42
And she's like,
34:42
but hospitality to someone else might be
34:45
I'm running late to my meeting and I
34:47
can still grab my cup of coffee because
34:49
I know I can order ahead and it's
34:51
going to be waiting for me and it's
34:52
going to be on time and I'm not
34:53
going to get there and be stuck in
34:54
some big line.
34:56
And that coffee makes my morning because I
34:59
get to have my coffee and be on
35:01
time for work and like my everything goes
35:04
perfectly to plan.
35:06
And I think there's this truth in it,
35:10
which is hospitality means different
35:12
things in different moments,
35:14
different concepts, different day parts,
35:16
different reasons that you're going out to
35:20
a restaurant.
35:22
And there are times where you want the
35:23
technology to take over and click a few
35:26
buttons on your phone
35:27
Maybe in the future,
35:28
talk to your AI assistant and your
35:30
coffee's waiting for you on your way to
35:33
work.
35:33
But also moments where the whole reason we
35:39
go to restaurants is to be with people
35:42
and have an experience.
35:44
And food is a really important part of
35:47
that experience,
35:47
but the experience is also a really
35:49
important part of that experience.
35:51
And finding ways to make the technology,
35:54
as I said,
35:54
melt into the background is a big piece
35:58
of that.
35:59
I also say I've now worked with
36:01
restaurants of almost every type.
36:05
all the way Michelin star fine dining to
36:08
the corner coffee shop.
36:10
And we try not to prescribe like this
36:14
is the pieces of toast that everyone
36:16
should use.
36:17
Our handhelds, for example,
36:19
are our marquee product.
36:21
They've been at one of our most important
36:22
products.
36:23
I wouldn't put a handheld in a Michelin
36:25
star dining room.
36:26
It's not appropriate for that kind of
36:29
service.
36:29
But I was at Union Square Cafe the
36:33
other night in New York City,
36:35
which is a white tablecloth Danny Meyer
36:37
restaurant.
36:38
And they were using the handhelds.
36:40
And it was totally appropriate,
36:41
which is amazing.
36:42
So you have to find the way they
36:45
did it was appropriate.
36:46
It was not a prominent part of the
36:48
experience.
36:49
But when we went to go pay the
36:50
bill, out it came on the table.
36:51
We could drop it, pay,
36:52
and be done super fast.
36:54
And finding those moments where the
36:56
technology actually adds to the
36:57
hospitality versus takes away from it and
37:00
letting it tailor to every hospitality
37:02
experience and the level at which you're
37:04
trying to deliver it,
37:05
I think is the key.
37:06
Yeah, it's incredible.
37:08
Look,
37:08
we've talked a lot about hospitality.
37:10
We've talked a lot about IT.
37:11
We've talked a lot about the guest being
37:14
the guest to me and you,
37:17
me being the customer to you.
37:18
Yeah.
37:20
How do you, or how would,
37:23
or maybe Toast is already looking at this,
37:26
but how can we figure out what the
37:31
customer acquisition cost is from multiple
37:37
different levels,
37:38
but from a basic standpoint,
37:41
from a restaurant standpoint of how much
37:44
does this guest cost me to get?
37:46
And then what that value is over a
37:49
lifetime, right?
37:50
So I've had this customer for a year.
37:53
This is the value that they've brought,
37:55
but it cost me X, right?
37:58
Is there a way technology and Toast could
38:01
help us figure those things out as well
38:05
as how to get that customer?
38:07
Yeah, absolutely.
38:09
We are working on pieces of this.
38:11
And by the way,
38:12
so are many partners in our ecosystem,
38:15
right?
38:15
Like one of the cool things about Toast
38:17
is you can plug in over three hundred
38:19
different technologies to Toast and some
38:21
of them are super focused on customer
38:24
acquisition,
38:24
loyalty providers in particular.
38:28
But some of the places where we're
38:29
starting to piece this together at
38:31
Toaster,
38:32
we have a new product called Toast
38:33
Advertising.
38:35
And it gives you the ability to put
38:37
ads out and measure your customer
38:39
acquisition costs because we know how much
38:41
we're spending on ads.
38:42
And then through our partnership that
38:44
we're doing with Google in particular and
38:48
through our own tables platform,
38:51
which is reservations and increasingly
38:52
with our partners like Resi, you can see,
38:56
OK,
38:57
I did this ad and then someone either
39:01
clicked on my restaurant and followed
39:03
directions in Google Maps to my restaurant
39:06
or made a reservation or ordered directly
39:10
through Google to Toast.
39:11
And actually,
39:11
you can order already in AI mode in
39:14
Google directly on Toast through online
39:17
ordering at our customers.
39:19
It's super cool.
39:21
But all of those abilities to close the
39:23
loop and track whether or not an order
39:25
was actually made or a reservation was
39:27
made or someone walked into your
39:29
restaurant using Google Maps,
39:31
which is such like a true use case.
39:33
Like when I'm in the city,
39:34
I like pull up Google Maps and I'm
39:35
like, what restaurants are near here?
39:38
And that's really how I use.
39:39
That's how I find restaurants sometimes.
39:42
Look, I use the advertising portion,
39:44
and I will tell you that so far
39:49
since I've been using it,
39:52
I was very skeptical at first.
39:53
Were you?
39:54
I'm sure.
39:55
I was.
39:55
You should be.
39:56
Look,
39:56
any time I spend money on an unproven
39:58
product, I'm a little nervous.
40:00
Yep.
40:02
i think we're since we've been using it
40:05
now for five months i think it is
40:07
does that sound about right i think that's
40:10
right four or five months um she doesn't
40:12
have your account pulled up she was just
40:17
she was there when it was offered i
40:23
think we're like a six-time return on
40:25
investment so you know that's a that's a
40:27
pretty that's a pretty good return on on
40:29
marketing dollars i believe
40:31
Yeah, it is.
40:31
That's a great ROAS is the is the
40:35
jargony way we say it in marketing.
40:37
But I think like measuring those things is
40:39
really important.
40:40
And finding channels that you can own
40:43
allows you to do that.
40:44
Like you're the one doing the advertising
40:47
and you're the one capturing that in your
40:49
own channels and in your own restaurant.
40:51
And that gives you the visibility.
40:54
to be able to see those metrics.
40:56
And I think that's,
40:59
as we think about how do we plug
41:01
more channels into that and more surfaces
41:04
that your guests can interact with you
41:05
across, as I said,
41:07
all the different ways they can come spend
41:09
money with you,
41:10
that gives you the opportunity to grow
41:14
your ability to invest against driving
41:16
demand in your own restaurant versus
41:18
giving those ad dollars to a platform
41:20
company
41:21
who's then gonna drive kind of more
41:24
transactional to hand your way.
41:25
Yeah, I love it.
41:28
I love it.
41:29
But look, I think it's time for us,
41:32
we've talked a lot about having dinner at
41:33
these amazing restaurants in Boston and
41:36
all across the country here.
41:38
I think it's time for us to talk
41:39
about dinner for two.
41:40
Let's do it.
41:42
You ready for that?
41:43
Yeah.
41:44
All right.
41:45
Kelly, if you could have dinner
41:49
With anybody past, present, or future,
41:53
who would it be and why?
41:55
You guys,
41:55
I have been delaying my trip down to
42:00
see your restaurant for way too long.
42:04
I was going to come down.
42:05
I was going to,
42:06
I was going to learn how to make
42:07
barbecue.
42:07
That was the promise.
42:10
The offer is still available in the
42:13
morning and get the fire going.
42:15
And so that's why that's,
42:17
that's the one that's on my bucket list
42:19
for.
42:19
Well,
42:19
we would love to have you at any
42:23
given point in time.
42:24
Yeah.
42:25
But you can't answer us.
42:29
You can't put a stipulation on your own
42:30
answer.
42:31
I'm just kidding.
42:32
I'm just kidding.
42:32
I'm just kidding.
42:34
I just thought I'd throw a monkey wrench
42:36
on the answer.
42:38
My other answer,
42:39
my other answer as a working mom is
42:41
always, you know, finding more,
42:43
more opportunities to sit down and have a
42:45
meal with my kids too.
42:46
You know,
42:47
they all get busy with sports and we're
42:49
all running a million directions.
42:51
And so if it can't be with you
42:52
guys,
42:53
I guess I'd have to be with my
42:54
kids.
42:54
Well, that's fair.
42:55
You are always invited to have dinner with
42:57
us.
42:58
You can bring the kids to have dinner.
43:01
They would be, they would be, we can,
43:02
they can be up at four AM and
43:04
learn how to smoke too.
43:05
Great.
43:06
Yeah.
43:07
We had Emily, you know,
43:08
Emily did a great job.
43:10
I know Emily subbed in for me.
43:11
I was so jealous.
43:12
It was great.
43:13
It was great.
43:13
We'll do it.
43:14
We'll do it in
43:18
Do we have you guys at Toast do
43:20
a big tour every year?
43:24
And I think it's changed names a couple
43:26
of different times.
43:26
But for twenty twenty six,
43:30
do we have do we have that agenda?
43:32
And are the cities are the cities mapped
43:35
out yet?
43:36
Toast on tour is what we call it.
43:39
And funny you ask,
43:40
I literally ran into the woman who runs
43:43
Toast on Tour for our team this morning
43:45
in the office.
43:45
That's the fun part about being in the
43:47
office today.
43:48
And I was like,
43:49
what cities are we going to for Toast
43:51
on Tour?
43:52
And she rattled them off for me,
43:53
but I can't say that I know them
43:55
all off the top of my head in
43:56
this moment,
43:58
but I know we're doing some really
44:01
exciting ones.
44:02
I think we're doing San Diego.
44:04
We might be doing Nashville.
44:07
I was going to suggest Nashville.
44:09
Yeah, it might be on the list.
44:11
We'll have to confirm.
44:12
I know a guy that could help.
44:15
Okay, I think we might, yeah.
44:17
I guess we have some ideas there.
44:18
Yes.
44:19
And then I could come do some barbecue.
44:21
And then you could come do some barbecue.
44:23
Yeah.
44:24
I like your subtle, shameless plug there.
44:26
I know a guy.
44:29
At least you didn't say,
44:30
I am a guy that can help.
44:31
I don't really care whether you're going
44:33
to LA or San Diego this year, Kelly.
44:37
We're just worried about here.
44:40
I kind of figured San Diego would be
44:42
on the list.
44:43
Oh, yeah.
44:45
We know another barbecue guy there,
44:46
I guess.
44:46
But, you know, I mean,
44:47
you need to come learn how to cook
44:48
Southern barbecue, not California.
44:50
Oh,
44:50
you're going to stir up hornet's nest now.
44:52
I didn't say it was better or worse.
44:55
You didn't have to.
44:55
I just said Southern barbecue.
44:57
There's just a difference.
44:58
There ain't no such thing as Southern
45:01
barbecue.
45:01
There's Texas barbecue and there's no
45:03
barbecue.
45:04
You're going to anger somebody.
45:05
We can, yeah, we can,
45:06
we can get them all ruffled.
45:07
Why not?
45:08
You know, it's great.
45:09
It's great.
45:10
I love it.
45:11
Awesome.
45:12
Barbecue cheese test in twenty twenty six.
45:13
That's the new, that's the new goal.
45:15
That sounds like a good idea.
45:16
We can take a tour.
45:17
I'm in on that.
45:19
We'll,
45:19
we'll make plans to be in San Diego
45:21
when you guys are and we'll, we'll,
45:23
we'll go bombard Cali barbecue.
45:24
Sounds great.
45:27
Sean, we're coming for you.
45:29
All right.
45:30
Speaking of barbecue, Kelly,
45:33
when you go into a barbecue joint,
45:37
there's typically two sides that you would
45:43
get.
45:43
You're either going to get the mac and
45:45
cheese or you're going to get the beans.
45:48
Right?
45:49
Those are staples in barbecue restaurants.
45:51
So when you go into a barbecue joint,
45:54
which one are you getting?
45:55
Are you getting the mac and cheese or
45:56
are you getting the beans?
45:58
Okay,
45:59
I'm getting the beans because the kids are
46:03
going to order the mac and cheese and
46:04
then I can steal some.
46:07
Well thought out.
46:09
Well thought out.
46:09
I think she's watched the show.
46:16
If I only had to pick once there
46:19
may be a little healthier too.
46:22
I'll give you your protein factor.
46:32
I will tell you this,
46:33
that my Mac and cheese, the, the,
46:36
or my beans.
46:40
Yeah.
46:41
Yeah.
46:41
They're not, they're not healthy.
46:42
They're not healthy.
46:44
What do they have?
46:44
They are good.
46:46
What do they have in them that makes
46:49
them so good?
46:49
A lot of sugar.
46:50
A lot of sugar.
46:52
That's what I got.
46:53
Brisket.
46:54
Bacon.
46:55
Oh, wow.
46:57
Beans.
46:58
Barbecue sauce.
47:00
That's more sugar.
47:02
More sugar.
47:08
There's so much sugar and molasses in my
47:12
sauce that it's just...
47:13
I don't go eat barbecue for the long-term
47:15
health benefits.
47:17
I'm an A-OK with it.
47:21
I'm a live-to-eat person,
47:22
not a eat-to-live.
47:24
There's a reason why I work out every
47:27
day.
47:30
i own a barbecue joint need a lot
47:31
of mac and cheese so i have to
47:34
i have to work out if not you
47:36
know what i mean i love it taste
47:38
tester that's what you're so along with
47:41
mac and beans we it's a this or
47:42
that segment so we we talk about different
47:45
things and and so you got the you
47:48
got the beans and the mac with the
47:50
kids but
47:51
From a marketing standpoint,
47:54
would you spend more time and effort on
48:00
storytelling with, i.e.
48:03
podcasting like we do, social media,
48:05
the digital side of it?
48:08
Or do you think person to person
48:10
networking events and marketing events and
48:13
going to do things inside the community
48:16
would benefit you more if you were a
48:20
business owner in today's economy?
48:25
You know,
48:26
I am a big believer in in-person and
48:31
that in-person is differentiated in a
48:33
world where content platforms are kind of
48:37
ubiquitous and we're all spending all this
48:39
time on our phones.
48:41
But I think storytelling is the common
48:46
thread across both.
48:48
So whether you're showing up in person
48:50
somewhere or you're on a platform,
48:55
the story is what breaks through.
48:57
And it's something that we talk a lot
48:58
about at Toast is like,
49:00
we may not spend as much as some
49:02
of our competitors, but if we do,
49:06
if we tell the real stories of our
49:08
customers, of our products, of our people,
49:11
of our community,
49:12
then that will punch above its weight as
49:15
far as how much, you know,
49:16
we're putting behind any ad campaign or
49:20
You know, Google, whatever.
49:23
And so just having that story that is
49:27
authentic and resonates, I think,
49:28
is the most important thing.
49:30
And then finding the platforms that reach
49:32
the people you want to be talking to,
49:34
whether it's, you know,
49:35
the people in your community or beyond.
49:39
If you've got that story,
49:40
then you can invest against that in every
49:43
format.
49:43
And Sean, I was with Sean yesterday,
49:46
and he was giving me a hard time
49:47
about my social media presence as always.
49:51
He was like,
49:52
I watched you take ten pictures in the
49:54
last hour.
49:55
Just put them on Instagram.
49:56
And I'm like, I know I should.
49:58
And even in person,
50:00
it's that opportunity to bring it back to
50:02
the digital platforms and reinforce the
50:05
story that I think we're all working
50:06
towards.
50:07
And I even talked to our marketing team
50:08
at Toast about that, where it's like, hey,
50:10
when we're going to go send people to
50:12
a conference or an event or go meet
50:14
with a customer in person,
50:16
let's make sure to grab a picture and
50:18
bring that back on digital and make the
50:20
story last longer and make the content
50:22
live on because those in-person
50:24
experiences are critical.
50:26
But then finding ways to bring them back
50:28
to digital and make them last and make
50:30
them reach more people, I think,
50:31
is when they really get power.
50:33
So I don't know if I really picked
50:35
there.
50:37
No,
50:37
I think you did a very good job
50:39
of going right down the middle.
50:43
You know,
50:43
at Toast we're calling that right now the
50:44
barbell strategy.
50:46
which is invest super heavily in like
50:50
super digital AI native on one end of
50:53
the marketing spectrum,
50:54
but then always show up in person in
50:56
our local communities on the other end of
50:57
the spectrum.
50:58
And I think the brands that do both
51:01
are the ones that will win in this
51:02
next kind of iteration of marketing.
51:05
Well, I,
51:06
it was kind of a trick question for
51:07
myself because I,
51:09
I honestly believe the same thing.
51:10
I do believe that,
51:11
that social media and podcasting and
51:14
digital storytelling is, is, is a must do.
51:17
Um, I don't,
51:18
I don't think there's a choice anymore.
51:20
Um, it's, you know, back in the eighties,
51:22
you had to be in the yellow pages
51:23
for people to find you.
51:24
Right.
51:25
If you're not on social media,
51:26
people aren't going to find you today.
51:27
Right.
51:27
But if you're not in the community and
51:29
doing things as a, as a business owner,
51:32
um,
51:33
it makes it very difficult to be found
51:34
as well.
51:35
Let's just call it what it is.
51:36
You were trying to get some expert advice
51:38
for free from the expert.
51:40
And you wrapped it in a pretty package.
51:43
Yes, pretty much.
51:44
Do more.
51:44
When we talk, we're saying do more, right?
51:47
Yes, just do more.
51:50
Put yourself out there.
51:53
My wife tells me quite often that when
51:55
I develop something or develop somebody to
51:59
be able to do something that I'm doing...
52:06
that with something else that I need to
52:07
do more of.
52:09
Well,
52:09
I think that's just the entrepreneur
52:11
entrepreneurial spirit.
52:12
I don't think any true entrepreneur is
52:14
ever satisfied with, okay,
52:16
I got this monkey off my back.
52:18
I like the successful ones.
52:21
I'm not saying that there aren't plenty of
52:22
people that have made a professional
52:25
business out of what they want,
52:26
but
52:27
that entrepreneurial drive,
52:29
you give something away so that you can
52:31
then go into doing something else.
52:33
It's not ever going to get you to
52:35
a point where you're sitting on the couch
52:36
at home.
52:36
But like Jordan,
52:38
Jordan Peterson talks about that dream is
52:40
not the mimosa on the beach.
52:42
No, we say that out loud.
52:45
a true entrepreneur doesn't give two craps
52:48
about that unless he owns the mimosa being
52:51
rented at the beach.
52:54
Now he's in.
52:56
Exactly.
52:56
Bring it back around.
53:00
I do appreciate your wife recognizing
53:02
that.
53:02
She just got to know she married an
53:04
entrepreneur.
53:06
That's for sure.
53:07
All right, Kelly,
53:08
last question that I have for you.
53:11
With all of the experience that you have,
53:15
you've traveled the world.
53:16
You got a master's degree.
53:19
You are now working for a publicly traded
53:22
company as the chief marketing officer.
53:25
You deal with and work with some amazingly
53:30
talented people and have some even larger
53:34
brands that you work with on a daily
53:35
basis.
53:37
If you could summarize all of that into
53:41
one piece of advice for a small business
53:44
or an entrepreneur that's just getting
53:46
started,
53:48
what would you tell them the best piece
53:49
of advice is?
53:50
In marketing or in?
53:53
I would just say in business in general.
53:55
In business in general.
53:55
Yeah.
53:58
You know,
53:58
I think the thing that has been most
54:01
impactful to my career in business is,
54:06
you know,
54:06
saying yes and then figuring it out.
54:09
And I think if I were to summarize
54:12
up, you know,
54:13
some of those jumps and journeys that I
54:15
went on over the years,
54:17
it was like seizing an opportunity when
54:19
you see it in front of you and
54:20
then figuring out how to get from A
54:23
to B.
54:24
And I think every,
54:25
to your point about the entrepreneurial
54:27
drive,
54:28
I think every great entrepreneur is
54:31
building as they go and leaning into
54:34
opportunities and capturing either ideas
54:37
or whatever.
54:38
I think many of us think there's a
54:41
million reasons not to do things or not
54:43
to try things or not to say yes.
54:45
And I tend to say yes more than
54:47
no, I'd say.
54:49
i love that answer i love that i
54:51
just want to point out i've never heard
54:53
somebody describe you so well say yes and
54:56
then try to figure it out what in
54:57
the world my word yes yes i will
55:02
make it happen
55:05
I just got put on a, uh,
55:07
a catering list just to throw your,
55:09
throw your right in the middle of all
55:10
of this,
55:11
a preferred catering list two or three
55:13
days ago for a, uh,
55:16
an event venue in Nashville.
55:18
And you said yes.
55:21
And, uh, they said, uh, they said,
55:24
what's the most that you've ever catered
55:26
for?
55:29
And the most I've ever catered for,
55:30
I didn't lie, I was truthful,
55:32
was twelve hundred people.
55:34
And it is and it's a big order
55:36
and it was it was challenging,
55:37
but we did it.
55:39
And she said, oh, OK, good.
55:41
Well, we average about nine hundred.
55:47
I'll figure it out.
55:48
We'll figure it out.
55:51
It's fine.
55:51
That's great.
55:52
I love it.
55:52
That is great.
55:52
Darren,
55:52
you got a Friday feel good for us
55:54
today?
55:54
I do.
55:55
On the way over here today,
55:57
I had the privilege of actually seeing a
56:00
quick clip.
56:02
of jelly roll, hugging Joe Rogan.
56:04
And I was like, what's this about?
56:06
And through a wonderful video series,
56:09
he got invited to be a member of
56:11
the Grand Ole Opry and long story short,
56:13
jelly rolls and tears because he is re
56:15
thinking back where he came from.
56:18
The story behind it is great,
56:19
but ultimately,
56:21
even at the height of success,
56:23
whatever your personal success is,
56:25
be thankful for where you came from
56:27
because you never know when that element
56:28
is going to be right in front of
56:29
you that you get to give back to.
56:30
So props to Jelly Roll for being part
56:32
of the Grand Ole Opry now,
56:34
but be thankful for your success and where
56:36
you are.
56:37
You know what to do.
56:37
Find somebody you know.
56:38
Tell them you love them.
56:38
I love it.
56:40
I love it.
56:41
Good advice, Derry, as always.
56:42
We appreciate it.
56:43
Kelly,
56:43
thank you so much for coming to hang
56:47
out with us today.
56:48
Thanks for having us.
56:50
We are super excited.
56:52
If people want to find Toast,
56:55
there's many different ways for them to
56:57
find them.
56:58
They can reach out to me, obviously.
57:01
We are happy to help you here at
57:03
the store and the show to guide you
57:06
in the right direction and give you any
57:10
information you can.
57:10
But
57:11
i appreciate your partnership we
57:13
appreciate toast partnership we couldn't
57:15
do this without you we couldn't we
57:17
couldn't have the successful restaurant
57:18
that we have without you either it's been
57:21
it's been such a blessing to be able
57:23
to work with such amazing and intelligent
57:26
folks up at toast so thank you so
57:28
much for everything that you guys do and
57:30
coming to hang out with us for an
57:31
hour and getting a little bit more insight
57:33
into what toast is
57:35
Thank you so much for having me and
57:37
thanks for being a customer and a partner.
57:39
We love working with you all and we're
57:41
so honored to be a part of it.
57:44
I appreciate it very much.
57:45
Look, you guys know what to do.
57:47
If you wanna get involved with the show,
57:48
you wanted to learn more about Toast,
57:50
please reach out to me at six one
57:51
five three zero seven zero one two zero.
57:54
You can email me at charlie at
57:56
singletreebbq.com.
57:58
Make sure that you like,
57:59
share and subscribe to the show.
58:00
We are every Saturday and Sunday on ESPN,
58:03
ninety four point nine.
58:06
You can't miss a show if you subscribe
58:08
to the YouTube channel as well.
58:10
Look, guys, until next time,
58:12
we'll see you then.
58:13
Y'all be good.