Latest / The Inspired Stories Podcast / Breaking Generational Patterns: How Dawn Nielsen Led Kolache Factory to 23% Growth During COVID

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Breaking Generational Patterns: How Dawn Nielsen Led Kolache Factory to 23% Growth During COVID · 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
0:12
their successes and be inspired by how they've overcome
0:15
adversity. My name is Anthony Codaspodi and
0:18
today's guest is Don Nielsen. Don is the Chief Operating
0:22
Officer at Kolache Factory, a family owned bakery cafe founded
0:27
in 1982. They serve a variety of fresh
0:31
kolaches and specialty baked goods with over 60 locations
0:35
nationwide. Now, a kolache, for the
0:38
uninformed, is a soft pastry that you can fill with just
0:41
about anything sweet or savory. And Kolache Factory's mission is
0:46
to bring delicious, authentic flavors to local communities,
0:50
honoring old world traditions while embracing new ideas.
0:54
As the COO, Don has truly led the company through incredible
0:58
growth and created innovative marketing strategies to expand
1:02
their brand presence. Under her guidance, they've
1:05
ranked multiple times in Entrepreneurs Franchise 500 and
1:09
was named the number one baked goods franchise for two years in
1:13
a row. Don's background is firmly
1:17
rooted in the business since she started working at the bakery at
1:20
just nine years old, learning the ropes as it grew and
1:24
evolved. Her passion for food innovation
1:27
and strong leadership have driven record sales, especially
1:31
during the pandemic recovery. Now before we get into all that
1:34
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Add Back benefits.com. All right, back to our guest
2:07
today, the CEO of Kolache Factory, Don Nielsen.
2:11
I appreciate you making the time to Share your story today.
2:14
Well, I'm thrilled to be here and chat with you, Anthony.
2:16
Look forward to all the things we're going to discuss today.
2:19
And let's start with what is a kolache?
2:22
A lot of people haven't heard of this before.
2:25
Educate us. Yes.
2:26
So the kolache is originally a Czech inspired pastry that was
2:33
brought over in the early to late 1800s and primarily they
2:39
settled here, the checks settled here in Texas and in Nebraska.
2:43
So you will hear a lot of people being very familiar with
2:47
kolaches in West TX etcetera. And so that is kind of what how
2:54
it came over here. Sweet yeast bread traditionally
2:59
filled with fruits such as prunes, apricots, Peach, cream
3:05
cheeses, poppy seed. Those are your traditional
3:08
flavors. And then, you know, Texas is
3:13
been around a minute and we kind of a melting pot.
3:17
We like to turn things and change them up.
3:21
And so the kolachi eventually evolved into what what's known
3:26
as a Klobuninski now. But that's so hard to spell and
3:29
say. We just call them kolaches and
3:33
so they're filled with meats, eggs, cheese, pizza, the gamut.
3:38
We have over 25 different kinds that have evolved over our 40
3:43
plus years running the business and their inspirations not only
3:48
from our customers, but they are inspiration, inspirations from
3:53
our employees who work with the dough every day and say, hey,
3:56
you know what, this would be great to go in our kolachi
3:59
dough. And so that's how we have over
4:00
25 different varieties. So it's been a work in progress,
4:04
not just by my father or my mother or just by me.
4:08
It's been a whole group of a community inside and out that
4:12
have come up with these great flavors over the years.
4:14
So it started out more as fruit and sweets that were sort of
4:19
embedded in there. And so as I'm hearing you
4:21
describe that I started thinking about like a Jelly filled
4:25
doughnut. But I think the the the
4:27
experience and the consistency is much different.
4:30
Very much different. So when you think of what you're
4:33
describing, that's a fried very light dough and injected with a
4:39
a light Jelly filling. Ours is a heavier dough like I
4:43
mentioned earlier, yeast spread and that's allowed to rise and
4:47
then we put sort of a thicker pie filling or preserve feeling
4:52
inside. So it appears much more like a
4:54
Danish as opposed to a doughnut. A Jelly filled doughnut.
4:59
Gotcha. And then very similar for more
5:03
of the savouries, the meats and the proteins in terms of the the
5:06
bread consistency. Bread.
5:08
It doesn't change from one variety to the next.
5:12
It's all the same bread and dough that's made fresh every
5:15
day on site. And then but the meat 1 fields
5:20
do appear different, so they're rolled and the the yummy
5:23
goodness is on the inside. So it's kind of like a enlarged
5:26
dinner roll. When you think of our sausages,
5:31
those are going to be oblong. So think of sausage on a stick
5:36
with the bread around it. But the bread is all enclosed.
5:39
So traditional. Check.
5:42
What came over was the Danish type.
5:45
What has, you know, morphed into this Texas style is this, you
5:50
know, hearty, savory, salty, meaty deliciousness that we have
5:56
available. Because it went from being maybe
5:58
a little bit more like a side or a a dessert or a treat to now it
6:02
can be kind of the main course. Right.
6:04
Absolutely. Yeah, it's 100%.
6:06
It was created as a treat, a little dessert, and that is
6:13
still available today, but not many really gravitate towards
6:18
that as much as they do those eggs and ham and cheese and
6:21
sausage varieties. And I would imagine the way that
6:24
you're describing it is this is like a really great on the go
6:28
kind of a thing, you know, like years ago, I, you know,
6:31
sometimes we pull when I'm traveling, I pull through like a
6:34
McDonald's drive through to get like a, you know, sausage egg
6:36
Mcmuffin or something. And, and it like it's hand size
6:39
and what, but it's like I bite into it.
6:41
I don't know, stuff's running everywhere.
6:42
This is, I don't know, a little bit more self-contained.
6:46
Absolutely. And that is one of the things
6:48
that we pride ourselves on. You know the the number one
6:52
thing my father wanted when he opened this business was to get
6:57
people in and out and on their way and be able to get them to
7:01
their meetings looking just as fresh as they left their house.
7:04
So you can't really do that with a glazed doughnut.
7:07
You can't really do that with a cream free cream cheese bagel,
7:10
right. I mean, you know, there's, you
7:12
know, you see a lot of ladies putting on their mascara.
7:15
It's not necessarily the safest thing to do in the car.
7:18
Well, I'd probably argue the same thing with cream cheese and
7:21
and lox and bagels in a car. Not really convenient.
7:25
So that is the the thing. Get people in and out on their
7:27
way, give them some nutritious, delicious, unique, fun things to
7:32
eat that didn't leave any sort of evidence behind.
7:36
So it's a crime, free food in the car.
7:41
I like that. So yeah, say more about because
7:43
what's it been 40 years? What?
7:45
What was the inspiration behind your family starting this?
7:48
Yeah. So interesting story, if you've
7:51
got a minute. So originally my father and
7:56
mother were not in the kolachi business, and we are not Czech
7:59
backgrounds. You know, for years it was
8:02
always like, oh, should we tell anybody that or not?
8:04
But now, you know, it's, you know, everybody.
8:06
We're Heinz 57, American here. We can be whatever we want to
8:10
be. But my mom had a gift shop in
8:13
the same strip center. And these two sisters at the
8:16
time had a place called Kolachi Factory that was around the
8:20
corner. And one day my dad went over
8:24
there to get hamburgers. They sold kolaches and
8:26
hamburgers at lunchtime and they were closed.
8:30
And my dad did many years at Missus Baird's company and their
8:35
finance and their delivery, their their day old products,
8:40
the gamut. He run a, a huge portion over
8:43
that Missus Baird's for many years and then went into the
8:46
military. And so anyway, when he came back
8:50
and told my mother, he said, you know, this is just such a great
8:54
concept and I think I can do this with our experience and you
8:59
know, banking and finance and and retail.
9:04
This just makes a lot of sense. So he reached out to the 2
9:06
ladies and they were willing to sell and he bought the whole
9:13
kaboodle for about 6 grand and kept the name.
9:18
This is one of his favorite stories.
9:19
Kept the name because the name was going to be $900 to replace
9:24
on signage. I wish I could buy signage today
9:26
for $900 folks, but it is like 9000 to 19,000 depending on how
9:32
big your sign is. So he didn't want to spend $900
9:36
to change the name and that is why we are here 40 plus years
9:40
later as Kolache Factory. I love it.
9:42
I I enjoy the name. I mean, it's a great name
9:45
anyways, but I love that the reason was less because of that,
9:49
more because he didn't want to buy a new sign.
9:51
Yep. You have to be super, you know,
9:53
frugal and cost conscious when you're first getting started
9:55
with a new business. That's right.
9:57
That's right. Yeah, you started working there,
10:00
if I had my notes correct when you were just nine years old.
10:03
Yeah, I mean, plus or minus a year or two somewhere, I'm sure.
10:08
But I was going to the roller rink at the same time, so it's
10:11
pretty safe bets. But yeah, so family owned
10:17
business. My mom still had her gift shop.
10:19
My dad was spending a lot of time with all of the friends and
10:23
connections that my mother had. She had a very well known and
10:28
reputable and high end gift shop.
10:30
So she had a lot of connections with chefs in China and you
10:33
know, just lots of connections. So they spent a lot of time
10:39
doing their research on coming up with a kolache that we could
10:44
stand behind that stayed true to its roots, but that could be
10:49
mass produced. So when you think of Kolache's
10:53
in the Czech community, it's grandma and the family that's
10:58
making a small batch and then they're gone by the at the end
11:01
of the day, it's a one day process.
11:03
Our day is a three day process and so it goes through the
11:08
making of the dough, the freezing, the thawing, and then
11:10
the preparing. And so all of that was a little
11:13
bit outside of where I was at 8 or 9, but I was short and
11:20
flexible. And so I was put on the floor to
11:23
scrub baseboards and to change the toilet paper and to clean
11:28
off tables. And so there's, you know,
11:32
there's no one protecting you and it's a family owned
11:35
business. You are in there pulling your
11:37
own weight, even if it is kind of lightweight, doing tables and
11:42
stuff so. Yeah, fair enough.
11:44
So I want to hear a little bit more about the process of making
11:48
the kolache because it used to be like you're saying, kind of
11:50
old school. It was like a one day process.
11:53
Now you guys are, you're making the dough, you're freezing it,
11:55
you're why are you freezing and then thawing it?
11:57
Like what? What what's the?
11:58
So the whole reason behind that was to have a tiered effect, to
12:02
always be able to have dough that could come out at some
12:06
point of that process and be available for sale.
12:12
And The thing is, is if you make fresh bread, if you do make
12:15
fresh bread at home, right, It's only going to last you a day or
12:19
two before it's going to mold or what have you, right?
12:22
Or everybody eats it all and it's gone, right?
12:25
The ability that my father came up with was that if we can have
12:30
these in a staged process, so you have some that are
12:35
completely thawed ready to prepare, you have some in a semi
12:39
thawed process and then you have some in a frozen state, right?
12:43
So your greenest dough is frozen and then that day rotates,
12:48
you're allowed to pull it and put that into a fridge that
12:52
begins to defrost. So if you have a really
12:55
unexpected busy day and anytime you can start pulling that stuff
12:59
out of the freezer and allowing that stuff to thaw, to come to
13:02
room temperature to rise to be able to use that day.
13:06
And subsequently you also have enough inventory for the next
13:10
day to continue to open. So you're always preparing 3
13:14
days out, but you have the inventory available at any point
13:18
in time, at any point in those those structures to be able to
13:22
utilize that dough. Are you making more dough every
13:25
day? Yes, putting it into the
13:26
freezer. Dough is made every single day,
13:29
no exceptions. The benefit of not using sort of
13:32
that newly made dough is that you've got sort of the stockpile
13:36
that you can pull from because I don't know, Monday might be a
13:39
little bit slower, but man, this Tuesday there was a convention
13:42
in town and. And we didn't even know about
13:45
it, right? Exactly.
13:46
It's to be able to prepare for the unknown.
13:50
OK, So you started working there around the age of nine.
13:52
You were scrubbing baseboards and whatnot.
13:54
Did did you think growing up as a kid, oh I am, I'm going to be
13:59
in this family business, or did this idea kind of come about
14:03
later? Well, the here's here's, here's
14:07
the reality of it. I thought at that time I would
14:11
become a veterinarian and in, in all transparency, I probably
14:15
should have. I, I tend to like animals a
14:18
whole lot better than people, but I'm also an only child.
14:24
And so the reality is that there comes a point when your parents
14:29
look at you and say, and I was fortunate.
14:33
They said you need to basically or get off the pot.
14:36
You need to figure out what you're going to do because we
14:38
have to figure out what we're going to do.
14:41
There is no one after me, right? I mean, there is now I have two
14:44
children, but at that time when I was in my early 20s, there
14:49
wasn't. So it becomes a, are we going to
14:53
sell it? Are we going to close it or what
14:55
are we going to do? And so I think it was at that
15:00
moment that I realized, having almost finished my college, that
15:08
I would have to go to a lot more college to become a
15:11
veterinarian, or I could just start work with my mom and dad.
15:16
And boy, that just I took the easy route.
15:18
And I will tell you it hasn't been easy.
15:20
OK, You think it's easy. The road's easy.
15:23
You know, nepotism, whatever you want to call it, you know, you
15:26
just swoop on in. No, no, no.
15:29
You get burned and you fall down and you make a ton of mistakes
15:33
and but I don't regret any of it.
15:36
You know, I wouldn't be the person I am today without
15:39
without all of that. Let's back up a little bit.
15:42
I'm kind of curious. So your family buys the one
15:46
existing location, obviously a lot of things to figure out and
15:51
you guys are tweaking the recipes and, you know, how can
15:53
we make it ours and you know, still kind of hold true to the
15:56
roots. At what point did your family
15:59
realize, hey, this is really working and we're going to open
16:04
up more locations? Yeah, I think probably the day
16:08
they opened it and, and I'll say this because my mom was
16:14
brilliant. She was one of the first women
16:16
in the early 70s to become head of the bank.
16:22
It's escapes me right now anyway, one of the major banks
16:28
and I'll remember when we get off the call.
16:29
So my apologies. Savings and loan.
16:32
Thank you pair. That's so hard.
16:35
And so she was a real whippersnapper.
16:38
My father, as I told you, had served in the military.
16:40
It, you know, did his time with Missus Baird so that he had
16:44
worked for other companies. So he had a vast understanding
16:48
of financials and what makes a successful company.
16:52
And they knew the location was a bad location.
16:57
It was sort of one of these giant spread out strip centers
17:02
that has locations inside and outside and all around and, and
17:07
nothing functional for driving, you know, someone wanting to get
17:11
in and out. So the lease was left with, I
17:15
think a year on it. And my father's immediate goal
17:19
was to get across the street on Morningside traffic.
17:22
And if that's what somebody wants to know out of your, you
17:26
know, podcast today, how to become successful, be smart on
17:30
where you put your location. And so he wanted to be able to
17:36
get people heading into work, get them where they can get in
17:40
and out easily and conveniently. And so that's what he did.
17:46
And as soon as he moved that location, Anthony, over a year
17:49
later, business took off. And it was a matter of a few
17:54
years later that he went from a second location to 1/3.
18:00
And then I believe it was around 9495, Don't quote me on that.
18:07
They expanded to seven very quickly.
18:10
And so that's when it started to, you know, really begin to
18:14
grow. Were there Dr. Throughs as a
18:16
part of the the new setup the. New.
18:18
Not initially, no. No.
18:20
All of the day there are today, when we're gifted by the gods to
18:26
be able to find a location that has easy access and a drive
18:30
through and the bank's not in it or Starbucks isn't in it, then
18:35
great. Or isn't, you know, 8000 square
18:38
feet. But those are hard to come by.
18:42
But we do grab them and we can find them.
18:44
What's a typical footprint square footage?
18:47
Typical footprint for us generally is around 16 to 1800
18:53
square feet. We're trying to push on the
18:55
smaller end. It changes how we do business.
19:00
So we're still toying around with that.
19:02
We have some smaller locations, deliveries have to change
19:06
etcetera on how we, excuse me, manage those units.
19:12
But yes, we are trying to find some smaller footprints because
19:15
rent is so high. Rent's high and from what I
19:18
understand, like consumer behavior has changed since
19:21
COVID. There's fewer people coming in
19:24
to sit down and and eat there even more.
19:27
Take away more third party delivery.
19:29
Exactly. Yeah, So move locations across
19:35
the street because it's easier access for the direction that
19:38
people are going in the morning and the location had, you know,
19:42
easier kind of in out access. So as soon as customers realize
19:45
that they're like, hey, this is great.
19:47
I'm just going to pop in there, grab my breakfast sandwich on
19:50
the way and we're ready to go. At what point did you guys,
19:53
you're open several locations Then over the next several
19:56
years, at what point did you decide, hey, we've got something
19:59
here, let's try the franchise model?
20:02
So we first started franchising in the year 2000.
20:05
That was our very first one. And that individual franchise is
20:12
still with us today. He's a multi unit owner.
20:15
He's 5 locations here in the Houston surrounding area.
20:20
Yeah. So that's, I think when my
20:23
father and mother saw that, it was able to explode very
20:27
quickly. You know, like I mentioned, the
20:29
early 90, late mid to late 90s that quickly it it immediately
20:35
went into we want a franchise and we can make this happen.
20:40
And at what point did you become involved in more of the
20:43
day-to-day? Because obviously, you know,
20:45
you're a kid, you're going through school, you go to
20:47
college. And what was the year where you
20:49
you sort of stepped in? Well, I kind of farted around a
20:53
little bit, but I probably, you know, my husband and I got
21:02
married and had kids very young. I think I was 22 when we had our
21:05
first child. And that's really when you start
21:08
getting serious. It's like, OK, well, fun and
21:10
games are over. Or we have to, you know, settle
21:13
down, start thinking about, you know, our family daycare,
21:16
etcetera, etcetera. And so he ended up going to work
21:19
for my father and, and managing one of our locations for a
21:23
couple of years. And, and I was in the office,
21:26
you know, doing payables or payroll or receivables,
21:30
whatever, whatever it was that, you know, that was my next thing
21:34
I had to learn. So, yeah, it was in our early
21:39
20s when when we became, you know, sort of understood that
21:44
this was going to be our life. And so it was like you, you kind
21:49
of got into the ground and you were sort of learning like all
21:51
the back office functions and kind of slowly worked your way
21:55
up into, you know, increasingly like higher levels of
21:59
responsibility. Correct.
22:01
Yeah. And so how many locations are we
22:08
at today? 62 today we have another
22:13
location. Hopefully if they pass health
22:16
inspection, it'll be a franchise unit that will open the first
22:20
week of April. Excuse me, we're in April, May
22:25
and that will be in McKinney, TX.
22:27
So we're, we're really looking forward to that location getting
22:30
open. It's been on the books for a
22:32
long time. So what?
22:34
Where are the geographies that you're serving now?
22:35
Are they all Texas? So we're in nine different
22:42
states. Most of the locations that
22:46
corporate owns are within the Houston area.
22:52
We have purchased locations back.
22:54
So locations like that are in Austin and McAllen,
22:59
Indianapolis, Kansas. Those locations are, are ours,
23:04
Virginia Beach, South Carolina, but we've got great franchises
23:09
that are in Indiana as well, California, Brentwood, Missouri.
23:16
So and then we franchise, most of the franchises that we do
23:22
have are here in the state of Texas with the exclusion of the
23:26
the states I just mentioned. Where?
23:29
Where are the new franchise opportunities?
23:32
Where are you guys looking to grow currently?
23:34
Everywhere. OK.
23:36
I mean, is there and I think that's a fair answer.
23:40
Sometimes when I talk with franchises, there's like a like
23:43
a logistics, a supply chain issue, like how do we get the
23:47
right ingredients? There are those logistic issues
23:50
and we've had those for years and we will, everyone will
23:54
continue to have them. I mean, if you're going to get
23:57
in an area, you're going to have the logistic issues until you
24:00
get in. That's just the reality of it.
24:03
So we don't stop a potential location from opening just
24:08
because we have drama in the distribution line.
24:14
So yeah, we just, we just won't do that.
24:17
But we are looking to open up more locations in Dallas proper.
24:22
We are on the outside of Dallas. I'd love another location in San
24:26
Antonio. There's so many areas in the
24:30
Houston metro outside the Houston metro area for us to
24:33
expand to Indianapolis, Castleton, we'd love more
24:38
locations on the East Coast, and California's doing fantastic.
24:41
So really, we're just waiting for the right franchise who's
24:46
ready to, you know, look at taking a different path and
24:52
really enjoys eating bread to come on board and become, you
24:58
know, part of our expansion. So what is it that you're
25:01
specifically looking for in a franchise?
25:04
Is there, I don't know, particular experiences, a
25:07
particular type of personality? Yeah, that's a really good
25:12
question. I think the the first thing is
25:17
we're looking with people who have the capital.
25:21
I think a lot of times people think that they can get into
25:24
franchise franchising fairly inexpensively.
25:28
And the reality is, if you didn't renovate your house
25:33
during COVID, you now know what things cost.
25:37
So construction is so expensive, Equipment now is so expensive.
25:44
We now have the tariffs to worry about when we talk about steel
25:48
and aluminum and things of that nature.
25:53
So I think what we're looking for for a franchise is someone
25:56
who's a realist, someone that understands the nature of what
26:01
it takes, that has the stomach and the backbone and the thick
26:05
skin to get through it. Because it takes a lot to get
26:09
through building out a location, getting to know your community.
26:15
We're looking for a person that wants to be in their store and
26:25
wants to serve their community and wants to not reinvent the
26:30
wheel. So I think those are the things
26:34
that we're really looking for someone that is really looking
26:37
to change, have a change of pace in their current work life, that
26:43
appreciates what the relationship is between
26:46
franchise and franchisor and that the franchisor has gone
26:51
through these major hurdles in life for a reason.
26:57
And to abide by what those rules, guidelines, training and
27:04
support provide them. And so they can go in there, be
27:08
trained, run their business, the Kolache Factory way and, and
27:12
hopefully, you know, everything lines out in that area, in that
27:18
community where they are well received.
27:21
And so I think that's a very long winded answer is someone
27:24
that's a realist, someone that's got a little bit of deep
27:26
pockets, someone that's got an appreciation and and love for
27:31
wanting to be in the food industry and someone that
27:34
doesn't want to set their own rules they want to follow.
27:38
You guys have gone through that hard steps to get your diploma
27:42
from the school of Hard Knocks. They don't need to go through
27:45
and and that same Rd. Correct.
27:48
So I'm going to guess that, you know, as you're talking with,
27:51
you know, new candidates for opening up a franchise location,
27:55
they're also considering other franchise opportunities.
28:00
People who choose Kolache Factory, what is it that they
28:03
see there that they're not seeing in the other
28:05
opportunities? Yeah, that's a great question.
28:08
Thank you for asking. Excuse me?
28:14
The bulk of them have told us before that they have come to
28:18
Houston for whatever reason for work, been here for a couple
28:22
years, fell in love with us and wanted to take it home to
28:25
Indiana, wanted to take it home to with them to California.
28:29
They relocated or their families from another state.
28:32
And that is the story we repeat repeatedly hear every time, is
28:37
that I came there because I was coming down to meet family.
28:41
They introduced me to you. I came down here for a job.
28:45
I had to pick up kolaches every day for the office, you know,
28:50
and we realized that there was nothing like it anywhere else
28:53
and there was nothing like y'all's kolaches.
28:56
And so that's how we have gotten the folks that we have gotten.
29:02
We have done the mainstream advertising for looking for new
29:07
franchise prospects. We've done the franchise Gator,
29:10
we've done, you know, the, you know, the trade shows and none
29:17
of those work out for us. And I think we're a niche and I
29:23
think we used to look at that as a negative thing, but I don't
29:26
look at that like that anymore. I, I look at it as if someone
29:32
wants to invest in this brand and in this company because they
29:35
believe in the product and they will do that.
29:37
They will come in their own time.
29:40
Our obligation is just to our employees, to our current
29:44
franchisees and most importantly to our customer to continue to
29:48
do what we do every day and at the scale that we do it at.
29:53
So that's the that's the reality.
29:56
My husband works very hard. He's in franchise sale trying to
29:59
make those sales, but we're just not going to be out there paying
30:06
these big exorbitant fees to try to find someone who isn't in
30:09
love with us already. I, I, I would guess that, you
30:12
know, a big part of the sale is somebody tries a kolache, right?
30:16
Which in a trade show kind of environment to running, you
30:19
know, ads online, people don't get that chance and they see
30:23
this funny looking word that they don't know how to pronounce
30:26
and they don't know what it means.
30:28
And so there's no connection. When you get them in, they put
30:31
this in their mouth that, you know, they have the experience.
30:34
They're like. Oh, now I get it.
30:37
Yeah. Yeah.
30:38
And so is it mostly a breakfast experience?
30:42
Is there lunch, dinner? Like what's?
30:44
How's this? So no dinner.
30:46
But what is interesting is here in Texas, it is primarily
30:50
breakfast. And our hours have been 5:30 to
30:55
2:00 PM for years. But you find when you move up to
31:01
the Midwest, those hours shift a little bit.
31:05
So they'll have their morning rush, but they'll also have a
31:08
lunch rush because up there, they weren't, you know, they
31:11
didn't grow up with kolaches. It's fairly new to them.
31:17
Of course, we've been in Indiana, Indiana, Indianapolis
31:19
well over 10 years now. So now some people have grown up
31:22
with it up there. But excuse me.
31:27
Yeah, most everybody down here knew us as breakfast food.
31:30
And when you open up in a new market, you really get to, you
31:33
know, sort of reinvent what you are or, or let let your
31:38
customers tell you what you are, right.
31:41
And so that's, that's exciting for us to see that.
31:47
So if if I have my notes correct here, Don, you guys at a time
31:52
when most restaurants were, you know, really suffering and
31:55
contracting two 2021 during COVID, you guys actually saw
32:00
your biggest growth. Do I have that right?
32:03
Yeah, so I call it. So my birthday is March 14th and
32:10
when COVID hit, it was March 15th for us.
32:14
And so it was just like the 1929 depression.
32:17
We literally went down just like everybody else and it was scary
32:21
and it was sad and, but we went in.
32:26
I immediately called a, a, a war room meeting on on March.
32:32
I think it was fourth 'cause I knew it was coming.
32:34
I'm a bit, I'm a bit of a post apocalyptic person.
32:38
So I was into those books and into those shows.
32:42
And so we were really on it. We nobody knew the answers back
32:46
then. Absolutely zero.
32:48
Nobody knew anything. I followed the CDC, The Who,
32:51
they didn't know what they was. Nobody knew.
32:53
But you had to do something. And so we did what everything
32:59
was asked of the protocols, the six feet, the, you know, put put
33:03
up the plexiglass windows, everybody wear gloves, you know,
33:08
but ultimately, I think the restaurant, the National
33:14
Restaurant Association really came out for restaurant tours
33:18
and really put that out into the media that we needed help.
33:23
You know, that we support so many people in our communities
33:27
all across the country. And you really saw start to see
33:32
the community give back to you, you know, so they were coming in
33:35
and tipping or they were coming in and placing orders to go.
33:39
And we really did like to say that we were the pandemic proof
33:42
food. You know, you place your order
33:44
online or you call us, we put it in a box, it's in a plastic bag
33:48
and out the door you go, right? You don't have to stand there
33:51
and look at the shelves anymore. You don't have to do any of that
33:54
when you're in fear. And we implemented curbside
33:59
service that didn't do as well as we expected, but everybody
34:03
else was doing it. And you know, after a few short
34:07
months, we started starting to see things shift and we were up
34:13
in 2021, I believe it was 23%, don't quote me on that.
34:18
We are in between a software change out with new POS.
34:23
So I cannot pull my data that I would like to since some of
34:28
these stores have been converted.
34:30
But yes, we were up about 2324% system wide for the year 2021.
34:36
It was fantastic, but we all did suffer that first in 2020.
34:42
It was such a hard time for so many businesses.
34:46
And you said something interesting there about the
34:49
community giving back. And tell me if I'm right or
34:53
wrong here, but I suspect you saw a lot of that because of the
34:57
way that you had been giving to your communities all along.
35:02
You know, the the local partnerships, the charity work,
35:06
it seems like it's kind of part of the brand identity.
35:09
Yeah, we've been giving to our community.
35:11
That was that was really one of my mom's initiatives.
35:15
I can't really take credit for it.
35:18
She's not been with us since 2008, but when they first opened
35:23
the store, her biggest thing to do was to give it away that, you
35:27
know, nobody can sit down and eat a dozen Donuts.
35:30
I mean, I'm sure somebody can, so don't quote me on that, but
35:33
they really shouldn't. And the same goes for a dozen
35:37
kolaches. So her big thing was buy 6, get
35:40
6. And she knew they would take
35:42
that back to the office and they would share or they would take
35:46
it home and the kids would gobble it up.
35:48
And and it really did work from for many years until I came
35:54
along and said no more of this buy 6 get 6 for doing buy three
35:57
get 3. And now customers actually love
36:00
the buy three get 3 because maybe they don't want a dozen.
36:04
They just want enough for the kids in the car, you know, and
36:09
since COVID, things have shifted.
36:13
We still do not have the business to business, you know
36:16
money that we were bringing in at all prior to COVID, our
36:22
average sale online on our website was running $65 to $67.
36:29
Today it's at 3599. Now with that said, we've
36:34
onboarded many third parties and so that drops your average
36:39
ticket down, but I would still have expected that to see that
36:43
number come back up a little bit somewhere be around 45, 50 but
36:48
it it hasn't happened. So I am hoping that more and
36:53
more businesses will come back and be looking to feed the
36:57
boardrooms because we miss those, those orders and and what
37:02
you're seeing is a lot of orders that are great.
37:05
We have more volume, but we're not seeing those four 508
37:10
hundred $700.00 standing orders that were coming in.
37:15
You know, we're recording this April 28th, 2025 and we're
37:20
seeing more return to office kinds of things happening, big
37:25
companies, you know, different government agencies talking
37:28
about it even locally here in Columbus, OH, like I hear, you
37:32
know, some of the regional businesses are doing more of it.
37:34
So it'd be interesting to see over the next several months
37:38
done if you start to see that kind of tick back up a little
37:42
bit. I'm anxious.
37:43
I did see one in there just before I got on the phone with
37:46
you today for 1500 and I was like Hallelujah.
37:50
But I need to see more of those come in.
37:54
All right, well, local businesses are listening.
37:56
You guys, you need food, right? You've got conferences going on.
37:59
You're, you know, trying to do the free lunch Friday kind of a
38:02
thing that this is a great option, especially for folks who
38:05
haven't tried them before. It'll be a fun treat.
38:07
Awesome, yes. So tell me a little bit about
38:11
the implementation of your rewards program, Don.
38:15
So we started our app, I believe it was three years ago at least
38:23
we start begin working on it. And so it is our true rewards
38:27
program where customers come in so many times, spend $50 and
38:32
they get $5 back towards their next meal or purchase.
38:39
And so it has been well received.
38:42
It's easy to use. We hear a few complaints on it,
38:49
which is great. So I'm really excited about it.
38:53
We we've had different versions of apps over the years where you
38:56
try to do something cheap and you get what you pay for.
39:01
So I highly advise not doing that.
39:06
If you can't do it right, then just wait till you can.
39:10
But I love our rewards program because you can kind of see what
39:15
your your customers are doing, what they're purchasing.
39:18
You know, how often they're redeeming these offers, how
39:22
often they're opening, you know, special offers that are sent to
39:26
them. So it's still a big learning
39:28
curve for us, but it's it's all really great for everyone.
39:38
You know, I know our customers love it.
39:40
Our franchisees love that we have an app and it makes me
39:44
proud that we have a branded one that that functions so well.
39:48
Is it possible to sort of tease out any metrics to show kind of
39:53
the overall impact that it's having?
39:55
I mean, obviously you hear a lot of customers happy, your
39:57
franchisees are happy. Those are both, you know, right
40:00
there, great boxes to check. But I don't know if there's any
40:03
like actual data that says, oh, we see this kind of an uptick in
40:06
sales. I can't give you any off hand
40:10
right now other than that we have about 300,000 people that
40:14
have downloaded our app, about half of that are very active
40:21
users. So I would call that successful.
40:27
We are working right now on a win back campaign.
40:30
So those, you know, customers of ours who don't come in as
40:34
frequently or, or lapse out of 90 days, how can we find ways to
40:39
drive them back in? And that's part of one of my
40:42
many agencies responsibilities to do on my behalf.
40:46
And, and I have about 5 agencies that I work with and they've
40:50
done wonderful things for our brand and, and I couldn't be
40:54
happier to be working with them. Not many companies, as they
40:58
remind me frequently say they can get this many different
41:01
types of similar businesses on the phone and work together, but
41:04
you somehow did it. Yeah, When you said 5 agencies,
41:08
these are 5 like marketing type agencies all sort of working
41:12
together courts. Wow.
41:14
Yeah. So I don't, I don't have one
41:16
agency that does it all. I could and they all probably
41:20
could, but they don't. They won't.
41:22
Not for me. So I have a you.
41:25
Feel like they're, they're each strong and kind of their own
41:28
specific thing. And so, yeah, let the experts do
41:31
the expert. Yeah.
41:32
And and we have weekly calls and it's it's great.
41:35
We brainstorm and our brand wouldn't be where it is today
41:41
without without all of us doing that together.
41:45
That's great when you can find those partners like that, Don,
41:50
you know, every time I talk with a successful company, they give
41:54
a lot of credit to the team that is with them, making it happen
41:59
every day. Curious to hear what you've
42:02
tried and found success with when it comes to recruiting good
42:06
folks. And then once you find somebody
42:08
good, how do you hold on to them?
42:12
Prayers. I'll be honesty.
42:18
The industry average is as you know is you know you're going to
42:21
lose them within two to three years because you know, pay is
42:27
the great motivator. There's other things that people
42:30
you know want in job security, etcetera, etcetera.
42:33
But it's pay and benefits is what it comes down to.
42:39
We have many people who have worked for US 20 plus years,
42:43
Anthony Intercool people that I without to sound corny or
42:50
insensitive or or what whatever you want to call it.
42:54
We deeply consider them family. They have been with us from
42:58
almost the beginning and have built us, whether here in this
43:02
office that I sit at or they're out there running my stores for
43:06
us. They are responsible for the day
43:10
in and day out intricacies of running a multi $1,000,000
43:15
business. I would not be here where I am
43:19
without each one of those people we have had.
43:21
We've been fortunate to have people retire on us and that is
43:25
one of the happiest things that I get to celebrate.
43:30
It's always sad, but I'm glad they chose to stay with us, you
43:36
know, and in an age where that just doesn't exist anymore.
43:40
We recently lost an employee who'd been with us for 23 years,
43:44
Extremely hard worker, loved her to death.
43:48
Go get her. But she's off to go move to
43:50
Spain. And I couldn't have been
43:52
happier. But that was a punch to the gut,
43:55
you know, and the kidney, I mean, at the same time.
43:59
But I wasn't upset, you know, I said, well, we just fill it, You
44:02
know, we have to fill the, we have to fill the vacancy.
44:05
We have to make some changes, but how exciting for you to go
44:09
and adventure. And I'm going to be happy for
44:12
you. And you spent, you know, 20
44:14
years with us. Thank you for your service.
44:17
How do you keep them? That's a hard question.
44:21
I talked to my supervisors about it.
44:23
It's setting expectations. We have a program called On a
44:28
Roll, which is kind of a gamification where, you know,
44:31
questions are asked usually silly.
44:33
Do you like pancakes? Do you like waffles?
44:36
Then I went back to on a roll and I said I'd like training.
44:39
Can you make these questions training?
44:42
So they've done that for us. And then they earn points and
44:46
they can redeem them for gift cards and things like that.
44:49
So there's just different ways that we attempt to provide
44:54
incentives for them, you know, whether that's, you know,
44:59
healthiest you, whether that's on a roll or they're, you know,
45:03
kind of earning points, whether that's giving time off when they
45:09
need time off. We don't really have that luxury
45:13
in the restaurant industry very much like you would in an office
45:17
setting. But we try to be more flexible
45:20
because you have to be in this age.
45:24
But ultimately it's, it's, it's about picking and choosing the
45:28
people that follow the behavioral competencies that we
45:33
expect, which is trust, integrity, ownership, pride in
45:40
the brand and making sure that we we uphold them to that
45:44
culture that we want to set. That's the best answer I can
45:48
give you is that we just try to do better every day and hope
45:53
that a few of them, whether they're here for a moment or
45:58
they're here for a lifetime, enjoy their stay and eventually
46:02
share that with other people and we'll send other people our way.
46:06
You know, I appreciate you sharing all that, especially the
46:09
parts about, you know, you've had employees that have been
46:11
with you for years and years. And I don't know, kind of feels
46:14
a little bit like a, a parent, like sending a, a kid off to
46:18
college, like you're, you know, out into the work world.
46:20
And it's like, you know, I love you like I, I, I want you here.
46:25
I want you to stay. I want you to, you know,
46:26
continue. But I know that you've got to
46:28
spread your wings. And I'm glad that we've been
46:31
able to share this time together and we could be part of each
46:34
other's sort of forward development.
46:37
Absolutely, 100%. Don, I want to shift gears now
46:42
and maybe talk about a serious challenge that you've overcome,
46:46
whether it's personal or professional.
46:49
How did you get through it? What did you learn?
46:53
Well, I've had two serious ones and I'll be real honest with
46:58
you, one led to the other. I lost my mother from lung
47:05
cancer and brain cancer in January of 2008.
47:10
And if anyone's experienced, you know, losing their mother, their
47:16
mentor, their best friend, and being an only child, it took me
47:20
about six months before I think I knew that I had fallen into a
47:25
black hole. Like I, I just like, I just been
47:29
sucked out of my existence. Excuse me.
47:34
And so that led to a drinking problem.
47:39
And, and so I struggled with that for, for many, many years.
47:45
When you lose someone that is so big and so vibrant and like
47:53
every just don't make a move without some sort of guidance
47:57
from them. You know, they're sort of your
47:59
guardian Angel and they're, they're everything to you.
48:03
There's no one to fill that void.
48:06
And and so for me, that would have been well, we'll just have
48:11
fun. We'll just have more drinks.
48:12
We'll just, I'll just drown it in that instead of looking at it
48:18
and saying, you know, my husband can't fill this, my father can't
48:22
fill this, my best friend can't fill this.
48:24
Nope, there's nobody that can fill this.
48:26
She was one-of-a-kind. She was not perfect.
48:29
OK? I'm not sitting here and, you
48:31
know, monopolizing everyone's time and saying that she was
48:34
some perfect entity. But she was my mom, my only mom,
48:39
and she was all of those things to me.
48:41
So when you talk about being in business and what you would
48:46
recommend to people and go out and get a mentor, well, she was
48:49
my mentor. She was my best friend.
48:51
She was my mom. She was all of these.
48:53
She was my caregiver. You know, when you're sick, you
48:56
know, she was just all of those things.
48:59
And that rocked me to my core, and it rocked me to my core for
49:03
a very long time. And I had a lot of shame and a
49:06
lot of guilt over my behavior and some of those things.
49:10
And I didn't end up arrested and I didn't go hang out on the
49:13
corner somewhere trying to pick up my next gig.
49:16
But you just end up in this kind of circle of shame and loss and
49:22
misery. And finally, interestingly
49:27
enough, along comes 2020. I get some therapy.
49:33
COVID comes around, it shows me that all the sudden I don't have
49:38
to be insecure and I do know what I'm doing.
49:40
And COVID showed me so many things about myself that I had
49:45
no clue, no clue I was capable of doing.
49:49
But it did teach me my own self respect and so anyway, that
49:54
probably really got dark, so sorry, not really.
49:57
No, this whatever comes to mind, I I tell my guests is always the
50:01
the right topic and I really appreciate you sharing that.
50:05
So I'm curious, Don, were you getting therapy before Covet
50:10
hit? Got started therapy in January
50:12
of 2020, so before it hit. So it was all very cataclysmic
50:18
and all very. The pieces just shifted at the
50:21
right time. And yeah.
50:25
And it was something about COVID that sort of, I don't know,
50:28
snapped you to attention. Yeah.
50:29
My therapist tells me all the time she's like Dawn, it was you
50:32
and she goes everybody else, it all went to hell.
50:37
And but you and my one other client, y'all shown during that
50:41
time. And then the best compliment I
50:43
ever did get is a franchise reached out to me and he said, I
50:47
have to tell you, my brother works for Boeing or some giant
50:55
airline. Don't, don't.
50:57
I'm not saying it's Boeing, OK. And he said they're not as well
51:00
put together with a plan as you are.
51:03
And, and I and I think that was one of the most self defining
51:09
moments where you go, why have I beat myself up for so long
51:14
thinking I couldn't do the job when I could and I can and I
51:18
have so. So was that a big part of the
51:21
shame spiral is perhaps you thought, without your mother,
51:24
your mentor, your coach, your confidant, your best friend that
51:28
you were unsuited for? This correct?
51:31
Yep. With no direction, no beacon, no
51:36
figure, you know, Got to figure it out on your own.
51:38
But yeah, for sure. And then COVID hits and you're
51:42
thrown into the fire and you, you have no choice.
51:45
It is. No choice.
51:46
And it was all very seamless and matter of fact.
51:50
And I, you know, I just went in with my people and I said this
51:53
is what we're doing, this is what you can expect.
51:55
This is what I don't know, this is what we won't know and this
51:59
is what we're going to do. And they they all went OK, it
52:01
went and did it so. I'm sure that you've had a
52:06
chance to, you know, whether it's friends or other family
52:09
members, sort of speak from a place of experience of what you
52:13
went through. What kind of advice do you offer
52:16
to people, or could you offer to people that you know are going
52:19
through their own dark hole where there's no light, where
52:21
there seems like there's no out? Yeah, there is only one person
52:28
that can get you out and that is you.
52:31
And you have to decide if you're going to save yourself or not.
52:35
That's that's it. You are the life preserver
52:38
should you choose to blow it up and use it.
52:42
Friends and family are there, but they don't know.
52:45
No one knew the level of pain and sorrow and all of the things
52:51
that I had because no one understood.
52:53
No one else had that experience where they had a mom that was
52:55
all of these things and that was running this company.
52:58
I had a mom. I had friends that had moms.
53:02
They were still alive, but they didn't own their own company.
53:05
You know, they didn't do this, they didn't do that.
53:07
So you're really left with this trying, trying to find a, some
53:13
way to fill this thing that is unfillable.
53:16
You know, it's not like you wrecked your car and you just go
53:19
get another car. You know, it's not the same.
53:22
The car's not the same. As we're talking a few years
53:27
later now, do you feel like Don Nielsen you've you've kind of
53:32
hit your groove? Yeah.
53:35
You figure out who you are, you're comfortable in this
53:38
space. 100% different person. I'm happy, I'm grateful for the
53:45
small things and I have learned to listen.
53:52
That's a big one. You need to figure out when
53:54
you're a lot younger, but you never do.
53:59
Who do you listen to? Employees and and we may
54:04
disagree, but there's been a few that have made me change my mind
54:09
on some things, having a different perspective where I,
54:13
you know, couldn't see it. My daughter's now coming into
54:20
the business. She's been with us for three
54:21
years and she is 26, so she has a completely different
54:27
perspective. We're polarly opposites when it
54:30
comes to political ideals. So, you know, we but, you know,
54:34
when it comes to, I don't know how to look at things.
54:38
It's refreshing. It's different.
54:40
It's it kind of takes you back, you know, to when you are a lot
54:46
younger and you might have thought the same thing, but then
54:48
somehow things changed. So I'm looking forward to the
54:54
new generation, I'm looking forward to doing more bird
54:57
watching and some more travelling and and being
55:02
thankful and grateful for the obstacles and the journeys that
55:07
I had to go through on my own. My mom was supposed to leave
55:11
when she did and I was supposed to struggle the way I did to get
55:16
where I am and I, I don't think I'd take any of it back.
55:19
I'm wish I would have been kinder on myself that that I
55:22
will tell you. That's a big lesson I think a
55:24
lot of people can take from this.
55:27
It's pretty rare that we're too easy on ourselves.
55:30
It's quite the opposite. Most of us are too hard on
55:33
ourselves. And hearing your story just a
55:35
couple minutes that you shared sounds like you really beat
55:39
yourself up. You really put yourself through
55:40
the wringer for a number of years.
55:42
Oh, you yeah, for sure. You may.
55:45
Probably have some wrinkles for it somewhere too.
55:48
You mentioned the small things are there.
55:51
I don't know, like daily habits, practices, rituals that help get
55:56
you started, keep you centered moving forward.
55:59
You know, I'd like to say it's like some of these other famous
56:02
people out there, you know, like Warren Buffett or Elon Musk, you
56:08
got to read all this stuff. And I just pop on my Merlin bird
56:13
app, you know, and I go outside and I, I listen to a few birds
56:17
and I get excited when I identify 1.
56:20
You know, I try to take not take things so seriously and really
56:26
appreciate the things that you're not going to be able to
56:28
be able to appreciate when you're sitting at a desk doing a
56:31
podcast or looking at numbers or, you know, having to deal
56:35
with interpersonal conflict. You know, So for me it's getting
56:41
away on the weekends and spending time in nature and and
56:46
picking up maybe a good fun book, but something I don't have
56:49
to think too hard on. You mentioned you know more
56:54
travel and future bird watching new generation.
56:58
It is this close to this sort of this transition.
57:03
I don't think I'm going anywhere.
57:04
I know my father's not going well.
57:06
He better not be going anywhere. He hasn't put it on my agenda.
57:09
So I'll be making sure that that's not acceptable since he's
57:13
83. I think we'll always be around.
57:17
And I am here like, you know, the the greatest thing we have
57:20
right now in our lives is technology.
57:23
So whether I'm sitting at my desk where you see me right now
57:26
or I'm, you know, at home in my garden or on my front porch, it
57:33
doesn't matter. I've got my text, I've got my
57:35
Gmail, I've got my phone. I'm just as available as if I
57:40
were right here. So I think that's a great gift
57:44
that we've been given to allow us, you know, executive folks to
57:52
have a little more life family balance.
57:55
Because I know my mom and her father and my father, they work
57:59
themselves to the bone and there wasn't any free time and there
58:03
wasn't any vacations and there wasn't any turn on the Merlin
58:07
app, you know, there wasn't any of that.
58:10
It was how are we going to pay for this?
58:12
How are we going to do that? Where are we going to go from
58:15
here? And all of those questions still
58:18
reside. They're still there.
58:21
But I think the urgency and the angst to try to get somewhere so
58:26
fast isn't anymore. But I will just say this as
58:31
well. We're very fortunate because
58:34
we've been here 43 years and they did all that hard work for
58:40
us to be where we are now. And I, I like to, I like to
58:44
compare our units as a a fine well, well oiled train.
58:51
You know, we have fabulous people all over the place that
58:55
are taking care of our customers.
58:57
We have policies and procedures in place to tell them what they
59:00
need to do when things happen. We have an HR department, we've
59:05
got an executive department, we've got a tech department.
59:08
We've got supervisors that are out in the field.
59:11
And so that that train keeps on going, you know, and it's just a
59:15
matter of when we can slow down long enough to pick up another
59:18
one to add to the caboose and, you know, add to those locations
59:23
as we go, but slow and steady. You said something interesting
59:29
there, Don, I want to explore for just a second sort of this
59:32
sense of like this burning urgency, like got to get
59:35
somewhere, you know, very quickly and and the sense that
59:38
that has sort of subsided. Isn't that got to be now, got to
59:43
be now? What happened along the way for
59:46
for that sort of burning urgency to not be on your shoulders
59:50
anymore? Therapy.
59:57
There we go, I'm going to vote for therapy.
59:59
And then finally, therapy. No, I I think you want for so
1:00:06
long to get somewhere so fast and it doesn't happen and it
1:00:09
doesn't happen. It doesn't happen.
1:00:12
And I have learned over my years that just because you want
1:00:16
something to happen doesn't mean you're going to get what you
1:00:20
want, when you want it, and when you think you deserve it.
1:00:24
Life's too short. I'm 51 years old now.
1:00:27
I've got a few more years on this planet, whether that's 25
1:00:31
or 45, right? Do I want to spend that with my
1:00:34
cortisol levels through the roof, you know, or do I want to
1:00:39
say we're doing great, we're doing good, we have happy
1:00:43
people, and if the right moment and the right spot and the right
1:00:49
people come to pass, it will be. And I 100% believe in that.
1:00:55
You do have to have go getters out there.
1:00:57
I'm certainly not saying that at all.
1:00:59
But I'm also saying you can really enjoy life and be an
1:01:03
entrepreneur too. That's a great message, Don.
1:01:07
Let's say you and I reconnect a year from now and you're
1:01:10
celebrating one thing. What would that be?
1:01:16
Well, maybe my daughter's getting married in October, so
1:01:20
maybe we'll be celebrating another marriage or a
1:01:24
grandchild. I don't know.
1:01:28
But for me, I think the most important thing is to feel good.
1:01:34
I deal with a lot of chronic pain, and I've been doing very,
1:01:37
very well these last few weeks. So I would love to talk to you
1:01:41
next year and say I am the same person you saw last year and I'm
1:01:45
out and doing even more things. So for me it would be living my
1:01:50
best life while I can. That's tremendous.
1:01:54
Don, I've just got one more question for you.
1:01:56
But before I ask it, I want to do 2 things.
1:01:58
First of all, I'm going to invite all listeners to go ahead
1:02:01
and hit the follow button on your favorite podcast app so you
1:02:05
can continue to get more great interviews like we've had today
1:02:08
with Don Nielsen of Kolache Factory.
1:02:10
So I also want to let people know the best way either to get
1:02:13
in touch with you directly, that of the company, or to follow
1:02:16
your story or Kolache Factory story.
1:02:19
What would that be? Yeah, so you can e-mail me
1:02:22
anytime at info@kolachefactory.com or
1:02:26
follow any of our Kolache Factory Facebook, Instagram
1:02:30
pages. I do get all of those messages
1:02:35
as well, so I'm very easy to reach if you know my name.
1:02:40
All right. Don, last question for you then.
1:02:42
As you look to call it the next two to three years, what are the
1:02:46
changes coming to Kolache Factory that you're most excited
1:02:51
about? Well, one, our inventory, our
1:02:57
inventory management system has always been a bit of a bear.
1:03:01
And so that is something that is on the works right now on
1:03:07
finding a better solution. We're moving over, I mentioned
1:03:10
earlier way early in the inception of our conversation
1:03:13
that we're moving POS companies and we're about I think 40%
1:03:19
transitioned over to par Brinks. So I think once that's done,
1:03:24
then we're going to move right into new inventory management
1:03:27
system that's going to be a lot easier and functional for our
1:03:31
field representatives and as well as our franchisees who
1:03:35
really just don't like food track.
1:03:40
Fair enough. Well, Don, I want to be the
1:03:42
first one to thank you for sharing both your time and your
1:03:45
story with us today. I really appreciate it.
1:03:47
Well, thank you so much for the invitation.
1:03:49
I've enjoyed it myself. Folks, that's a wrap on another
1:03:53
episode of the Inspired Stories podcast.
1:03:55
Thanks for learning with us today.