Latest / The Inspired Stories Podcast / Second Generation Wendy's Franchisee Ryan O'Malley on Breakfast Domination, DoorDash Strategy, and Smart Growth

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Second Generation Wendy's Franchisee Ryan O'Malley on Breakfast Domination, DoorDash Strategy, and Smart Growth · The Inspired Stories Podcast

• 0:04
  Welcome to another edition of the Inspired Stories podcast,
• 0:08
  where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from
• 0:11
  their successes and be inspired by how they've overcome
• 0:14
  adversity. As you listen today, let one
• 0:17
  idea shape what you do next. My name is Anthony Kotaspodi and
• 0:21
  today's guest is Ryan O'Malley, A franchise owner with Wendy's
• 0:25
  of Bowling Green, a premier Wendy's partner that owns 133
• 0:29
  restaurants and manages 2 more across Kentucky, Tennessee,
• 0:33
  Indiana, West Virginia and Alabama.
• 0:36
  The company's mission is simple. Serve fresh food fast while
• 0:40
  putting people first, whether they are guests or team members.
• 0:44
  Under this mission, Wendy's of Bowling Green has quadrupled its
• 0:48
  store count in just six years, posted the nation's top
• 0:51
  breakfast sales average for the brand and raised more than
• 0:55
  $2,000,000 for the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption.
• 1:00
  Ryan's own journey at Wendy's started as AGM in 2007.
• 1:04
  He moved up to district manager and director of operations
• 1:07
  before becoming a franchise in 2021.
• 1:10
  Today, he sits on the board of directors for the Wendy's
• 1:13
  Franchise Association, leads the Lewisville Franchise Marketing
• 1:17
  Group, and speaks at industry events like QSR Evolution about
• 1:22
  culture and growth. Now before we get into all that
• 1:25
  good stuff, today's episode is brought to you by my company,
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  Back benefits.com. All right, back to our guest
• 2:23
  today, Wendy's franchise of Wendy's Bowling Green.
• 2:27
  Ryan O'Malley, thanks for making the time to Share your story
• 2:29
  today. Anthony, it's great to be here.
• 2:31
  Thanks so much. So Ryan, I love your story.
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  I my very first job back in high school was opening Grill Man at
• 2:39
  our local Wendy's in North Canton.
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  OH, so you have to hear sort of, you know, the quick ascension
• 2:46
  that you've taken through the ranks is pretty fascinating.
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  Take us through sort of step by step how you went from GM to
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  owning 133 locations in less than 20 years.
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  So graduated from Xavier University in 2006.
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  What led you from there into Wendy's?
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  So Anthony, you know, my path with Wendy's started out and I,
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  I think I'd have to, to start off through my father.
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  So I'm a second generation franchise, so my dad is probably
• 3:20
  close to 50 years in the Wendy system.
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  And, and that's kind of how I got my start in the brand.
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  So this is not necessarily a rags to riches story where just
• 3:32
  with, you know, hard work, you, you come from a, a grill
• 3:36
  operator or a, a general manager and you, you grow and, and own a
• 3:44
  whole bunch of Wendy's. I think that maybe could happen,
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  but that wasn't necessarily my story.
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  I think, you know, where I started out was is Wendy's has
• 3:56
  been around me and I've, I've been within the Wendy system
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  really my whole life. So really as I was in high
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  school and in college, I knew what I wanted to do and, and
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  that be I wanted to be in the Winnie system, I wanted to be in
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  ownership and to get there I needed to have skills.
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  So I spent most of that, whether it was in college learning about
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  business and a lot of my my projects in school were related
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  to the restaurant or QSR industry.
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  And then I wanted to understand how the business works.
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  So in each position that I had, you know, the goal was to get to
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  ownership, to be my own boss. So I wanted to to excel and to
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  understand what made a restaurant successful, what made
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  Wendy's successful and obviously how are you are able to
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  influence A-Team to get results through that.
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  So that's kind of really how how I got my start within Wendy's.
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  So you grew up around Wendy's. This is what your dad did.
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  You got to, you know, kind of have a front row seat to
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  everything. What was it that you saw as a
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  child and then a young man that you were so drawn to it like,
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  oh, yeah, this is where I'm going.
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  This is what I want to do with my life.
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  Yes, I, I would say that at first, you know, as a kid you're
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  like, well, what do you want to do?
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  And then as you get closer into high school and approaching
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  college, you're like, well, jeez, I, I need to decide what
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  that is. I, I don't think we ever
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  necessarily had a, a rich life, but I think we had a really good
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  life. And that was something that,
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  that I wanted for myself. And I knew that that Wendy's
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  took care of me, took care of my parents, took care of my brother
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  and I Wendy's has been good to my family.
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  And I thought that that was a brand and a company that that I
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  could help in service and and be a part of.
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  So that's that's what brought interest to me.
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  And what's the typical path? I know you went to college, you
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  wanted the business skills 'cause you know you had plans of
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  owning your own franchise. Is it typical for a Wendy's
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  general or district manager to have college education, or is
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  that not necessarily a prerequisite?
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  You know, that's a great question.
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  So the cool thing about Wendy's, a lot of people in the franchise
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  community and in and upper leadership do have college
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  education. But the great thing about
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  Wendy's that's not really required.
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  A lot of the skills are developed and taught throughout
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  the Wendy's system. Really, if people can perform
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  well, they can have success in the Wendy system, I think in a
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  lot of QSR and you can grow up the ranks.
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  A lot of the restaurant industry, I can't remember some
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  of the the examples, but there's a number of CE OS that were just
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  crew members that started out continue to progress, you know,
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  continue to get results, get noticed.
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  And they, they rose up the ranks and we've got a number of
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  leadership positions that were crew members even within the
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  windy system. They're not maybe the CEO, but
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  they are vice presidents within, you know, the Wendy's
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  headquarters and etcetera, so. That's really cool because
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  there's not a lot of industries where that can happen.
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  A lot of industries just to get your foot in the door, you have
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  to have that college degree, you know, something even beyond him
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  at a bachelor's, like a master's sometimes.
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  But it's the nice thing about restaurants, QSR specifically,
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  where you can come in at rather ground level and if you're
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  working hard and you're doing the right things there, there's
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  opportunities there. And the, and the uniqueness to
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  it is within QSR, in particular Wendy's, it's not just that
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  there is some hyper focused skill you got to have mastery of
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  of finance and maybe you're not ACPA, you got to have expertise
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  within marketing, within operation skills, HR because you
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  are running kind of a micro business.
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  So all of those things come into play.
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  So I think that there's some benefits that as people grow,
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  they developed all these different skill sets that maybe
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  someone that was in a specialized industry would be
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  really good in 11 aspect. So.
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  So you grew up around the Wendy's system, but you know,
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  looking in from the outside, even a front row seat like you
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  had, is different than working on the inside.
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  Was there something that surprised you when you took that
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  first GM job there? It was hard.
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  There are long days, you know, it's a 10 hour shift at the
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  minimum. A lot of times it's longer if
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  you just let people get you. You want to be the nice guy and
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  you let people get away with things.
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  It doesn't turn out very well. I think that as a new person,
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  you're like, well, I'm going to be not necessarily the cool boss
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  or whatever. You know, there are there are
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  challenges. I think that when you get in
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  there. So yeah, I think it was a great
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  experience learning. I think when I was doing it at
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  the time, it wasn't so fun. You know, you're like, man, I,
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  you knew where the end goal was, right?
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  You're like, I want to be, I want to be an owner.
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  But you had, I think to some extent my dad with his start,
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  you didn't want to have any signs of, of special treatment.
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  So I think really whatever I did was I need to do more than what
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  was it. You were under a microscope.
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  Yeah, sure. Sure.
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  So there wasn't any, any free pass or you know, and I think my
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  team would say that they would say that, you know, any
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  position, any job, any task cleaning, you know, I'm right
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  there with the team to to help assist or that I've done that in
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  the past. So.
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  So I'm going to read between the lines a little bit.
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  Sounds like when you first got started, maybe folks were
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  getting away with things with you around a little bit.
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  Was there maybe a particular story there where you were
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  finally like, OK, I got to take a different approach here?
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  Well, I think a lot of times, you know, you know, operate in a
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  restaurant, cleanliness is a big deal.
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  So a lot of times if you ask someone to clean something,
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  that's not necessarily a desirable thing to do.
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  But I think I quickly learned if I was going to uphold a high
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  standard, you know, I need to communicate what my expectation
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  was. You can do it nicely, but at the
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  end of the day, there's a standard that needs to be upheld
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  and, and it's my job to drive that result.
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  So I think it took a period of time.
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  You also have to learn how do I balance a team that in a sense
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  you've inherited, You know, once you've taken a position, say you
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  get promoted to general manager. And that was, I've always said
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  still, I always wanted to be an owner, but the position I was
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  most proud of because I started out as a crew member and I was
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  an assistant manager, a business.
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  Oh see, I thought you came as as AGM.
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  You started out. And I started.
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  Out. Ironically, I started out as a
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  grill operator as well. So my most proud moment was to
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  be promoted to a general manager to get my own store, my own
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  team. You inherit that team because
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  it's at already at an existing store, but but now it's yours.
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  And now it's the task of claiming this team, developing
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  them, helping to teach and educate, but also be a steward
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  of learning from what they have to share with you.
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  So really, I always go back to, you know, now I'm a franchise
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  owner and really still my most prideful moment was being
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  promoted to a general manager and have my own store.
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  That's interesting. You know, and I hear what you're
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  saying about the cleaning. You know, it's been 30 some
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  years since I worked at a Wendy's, but when I first worked
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  there, I remember everybody asking like they wanted The
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  Dirty secrets, like oh, what goes on behind the scenes?
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  And I'm like, like, everything is like top notch, like spic and
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  span, like, and if it's like quiet in the restaurant, like
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  we're supposed to grab a rag and they'll start wiping something
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  down. So yeah, you're nodding your
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  head. So it's still there's time.
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  Still that way. Time to clean?
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  Yep. So for somebody who hasn't been
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  in a Wendy's recently, what's the customer experience look
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  like these days? Yeah, So at its basics, Wendy's
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  is known for fresh, never frozen North American beef, you know,
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  our square patties. I think Wendy's has tried to
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  establish it, establish itself as a quality leader.
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  You know, I think Wendy's has found itself on having great
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  hospitality. You know, that doesn't always
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  necessarily translate to the customer that I think the effort
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  is still there, but you know, we fall short at times.
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  You know, our task is to to uphold the brand standards, the
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  quality ingredients, the great customer experience.
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  And but yeah, that that would be our our main thing.
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  You know, Wendy's recently this past year has established a
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  program called Project Fresh, which is to strengthen the brand
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  on a number of things, whether it be, you know, right size and
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  assets to improving the food quality from where it exists
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  currently to enhancing the customer experience.
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  So that's something that the brand is currently working on.
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  Listen, I think we can always improve.
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  You know, how we treat our customers, you know, when they
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  come in, do they feel valued that they're not just coming
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  there for a sandwich, but that they truly feel appreciated that
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  they're a customer. So we talked to our employees
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  about that, that I or others are not signing their check.
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  You know, it's, it's the customer.
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  So how we take care of them dictates not how successful the
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  company is. But you know, I talked about
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  that we have a fundamental responsibility, wouldn't that be
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  in food safety and generating profit and all of that?
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  I think that almost goes without saying.
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  But for me it's, you know, managing a business that we are
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  profitable enterprise that makes payroll.
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  I mean that is kind of a fundamental thing.
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  So the only way to do that is to provide a service to our
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  customers such that they keep coming back.
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  What are some of the most popular menu items today?
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  Yeah. So on our value side, we've got
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  our junior bacon cheeseburger or double stack.
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  You know, we've got our classic chili and then you know, we've
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  got other items like which is probably my favorite, the spicy
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  chicken sandwich number six combo.
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  And you know, I think we've been famous on our single double s
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  and triples and and of course, our frosty, right?
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  I remember the Frosty machine. Wow.
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  Yeah, it was a popular treat, especially in the summertime.
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  I want to hear a little bit more about Project Fresh.
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  Can you give me one or two examples of some things that you
• 16:29
  guys have undertaken there? Yeah.
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  So Project Fresh, one of which I would say is that the stores
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  that are maybe older Wendy's is allowing some of those to
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  sunset. So Project Fresh is, is
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  multifaceted. So there's a bunch of different
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  things that are going on within that.
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  So you know, you assess your portfolio and see do you have
• 16:56
  any of those restaurants that, that meet those requirements.
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  So you're basically, you've got a, you could have a restaurant
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  or, or a store that is, is losing money when he's working
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  out a plan such that you can sunset that that restaurant so
• 17:18
  that you can conserve your cash flow towards other resources.
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  So that strengthens the brand, that strengthens the franchise,
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  you know, and another piece would be is that there's a big
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  hospitality push and we we've created on our own, this is
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  outside of Project Fresh, but we got a hospitality pyramid that
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  we meet with our team about. Some of the fundamentals
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  basically are, you know, our interaction in the dining room
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  with our customers, you know, are we doing table visits?
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  Are we getting drink refills? You know, one of the things that
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  I'm excited about is we have a loyalty program for DoorDash.
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  DoorDash being one of, it's funny, it's probably if there's
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  a single largest customer, DoorDash is our largest customer
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  we have. So, you know, we want to give
• 18:13
  our Doordashers free drinks. Like I said, we've got a a
• 18:16
  loyalty card so that they they get rewards on the frequency of
• 18:23
  them visiting a Wendy's and picking up an order.
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  So yeah, there's a lot of really good things going on within
• 18:30
  Wendy's. So I want to talk a little bit
• 18:33
  about DoorDash. That's interesting to me.
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  Why give free drinks to the folks that are coming in?
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  It's not like you want to keep them coming back because they're
• 18:42
  your biggest customer, but it's not ultimately them that's
• 18:45
  placing the order right. Yeah, so I'll be completely
• 18:50
  transparent. This was a lot for me to noodle
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  on at first. These were my least favorite
• 19:00
  customer DoorDash was. One of the challenges is if
• 19:05
  there's an error on an order you it just gets completely refunded
• 19:13
  whether it was an error or not. Or it could be the dasher forgot
• 19:18
  to pick up a drink so therefore the whole thing got refunded.
• 19:21
  It was really frustrating. I think it came to point to me
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  where I realized instead of me being an adversarial role
• 19:30
  between DoorDash, I looked upon it as well.
• 19:33
  This is actually our largest customer and how would you treat
• 19:36
  your largest customer? You'd treat them with great
• 19:41
  respect and trying to claim them.
• 19:45
  I'll give you a couple examples. So some of the Doordashers would
• 19:49
  cut the line in the drive through.
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  They wouldn't wait and place the order.
• 19:53
  They would just drive right in front of somebody.
• 19:55
  Of course that's kind of rude and it's not really a great
• 19:58
  experience. So what we tried to do is if we
• 20:02
  were their chosen place to visit that they like to come in there,
• 20:06
  they would select orders more frequently from Wendy's.
• 20:12
  We would, we tried to bring them inside.
• 20:15
  So the pickup location is now out of the drive through.
• 20:19
  And ready in the dining room so they can grab a drink.
• 20:23
  Obviously they can, you know, utilize our loyalty program
• 20:27
  where they can get points on their card.
• 20:30
  And, and basically we're trying to find a way to break up this
• 20:36
  bad habit of some DoorDash drivers, not all.
• 20:39
  And quite frankly, there's probably a minority of drivers,
• 20:45
  but that created a lot of friction where that would
• 20:48
  frustrate our employees, the experience.
• 20:51
  And we felt that by giving to them, those behavioral
• 20:56
  challenges improved or were eliminated and it became much
• 21:01
  more of a positive relationship. Have you actually seen it play
• 21:05
  out that way? Yeah, yeah.
• 21:08
  You know, I, I think a lot of times our frequency goes up with
• 21:13
  drivers and, and redemption because at the end of the day,
• 21:18
  they don't have to pick up a Wendy's or, or McDonald's or any
• 21:22
  of those orders. They have to choose to want to
• 21:25
  go. Like, for instance, if you were
• 21:27
  a restaurant and you were, you had a reputation of being slow.
• 21:32
  Well, that affects their bottom line where they may not want to
• 21:38
  go to that. It could even be whether it's
• 21:41
  the brand or a restaurant where it's like, well, I don't want to
• 21:44
  go there. It's same thing as a customer,
• 21:46
  right? Whereas you're like, I know I
• 21:48
  can go to, you know, this brand because they get my order,
• 21:53
  right? It's quality food.
• 21:56
  I've got a good experience. You're naturally going to go
• 21:58
  there. Same thing as as Dashers.
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  They're not going to just select an order unless they feel that
• 22:05
  they can get in and out fast and that their experience was
• 22:08
  positive. What motivated you to sort of
• 22:12
  flip your thinking on that relationship from adversarial to
• 22:16
  how do we, how do we become friends?
• 22:20
  You know, so I think, I think I was realizing how much money
• 22:27
  DoorDash had involvement within the brand.
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  And I could look at it two ways. I we, we could be enemies or we
• 22:36
  could be friends. And, and I think I decided I'm
• 22:41
  like, you know what, this is too big of a role.
• 22:44
  I wouldn't say that's probably the norm that others are doing.
• 22:46
  This isn't a Wendy's suggested relationship with, with whether
• 22:55
  it's loyalty or, or free drinks, etcetera.
• 23:01
  And we just came up with this on our own.
• 23:04
  But yeah, they're, they're a big player and, and we need to show
• 23:07
  respect that way. So.
• 23:10
  Something else that you mentioned a few minutes ago,
• 23:12
  Ryan, I want to go back to table visits.
• 23:15
  So is this something that you're encouraging the managers to do,
• 23:20
  the crew members like go around and what is involved in the
• 23:24
  visit 'cause this is quick service.
• 23:26
  I'm not accustomed to somebody coming to my table to check on
• 23:30
  me. Well.
• 23:32
  So Anthony, the good news is in the QSR industry, the bar is set
• 23:36
  pretty low. So if if it's not hard to exceed
• 23:41
  that expectation. So you know, our customers are
• 23:45
  important. We just talked about that.
• 23:46
  They are the ones signing all of our paychecks and table visit
• 23:55
  encompasses many different things.
• 23:57
  So and in fact, you know, I've got an interesting vantage point
• 24:02
  with with kiosk. A lot of times people think of a
• 24:04
  kiosk being this tool that cuts labor, less of a customer
• 24:11
  interaction experience. My take is that you know,
• 24:17
  whether I punch in an order or you punch in an order, the order
• 24:21
  gets placed. I would rather spend my time
• 24:26
  facilitating putting that order together or being out in the
• 24:29
  dining room serving you as opposed to just doing a manual
• 24:34
  task. So I think of a kiosk.
• 24:36
  I mean, not kiosk table visit says we're there to greet you
• 24:40
  when you walk in. We're there to thank you when
• 24:43
  you leave or open the door. We're want to check on your food
• 24:48
  and see one has do you have everything And you know, does it
• 24:55
  taste good? You know, I'd rather catch a
• 24:57
  problem by creating myself to be available myself, my crew or my
• 25:03
  managers to be available to to help fix an an issue if there is
• 25:09
  one. Other pieces are, you know,
• 25:13
  getting refills. We got away from that when so
• 25:16
  Wendy's has a Coca-Cola freestyle machine.
• 25:19
  It's the, it's got over 100 different drink choices that
• 25:23
  that you can get. And when we moved from the drink
• 25:27
  machine from behind the counter to in the dining room, that
• 25:32
  behavior went away a little bit. You know, getting refills for
• 25:37
  customers because you're like, well, it's right there.
• 25:39
  They can get it themself. Well, if we get the refill, the
• 25:44
  conversation can continue at the table as opposed to people
• 25:47
  getting up. You know, you also feel much
• 25:50
  more appreciated if someone's out there providing a service to
• 25:55
  you. Yeah, we're, we're a quick
• 25:57
  service restaurant. We're not a table or a full
• 26:01
  service restaurant, but I just think nice things being done for
• 26:06
  folks show our appreciation, show our gratitude.
• 26:11
  We are in the hospitality industry and we don't have to
• 26:14
  meet where our reputation starts.
• 26:18
  I think we can exceed that. So Ryan, when you went into
• 26:23
  Wendy's, you had this vision in mind like you wanted to get to
• 26:26
  ownership and to get there, did you have some sort of like a, a
• 26:30
  checklist of, OK, I need to be a crew member and then assistant
• 26:34
  manager and then GM and then district manager?
• 26:36
  Like what was the the latter that you had in mind for
• 26:39
  yourself? Yeah.
• 26:40
  So obviously the goal was, and it started off a little slower
• 26:43
  than than maybe I would have liked, but the goal is to become
• 26:46
  a general manager. And then the next step after
• 26:50
  that would be is, you know, take on your own market, that being a
• 26:53
  district manager. So you're running and helping to
• 26:57
  teach, coach and provide, you know, the standards for a group
• 27:04
  of general managers. And then obviously, you know,
• 27:07
  operate in a market in a city at the DAO level.
• 27:15
  What is DAO? So a DAO basically is so a
• 27:24
  manager that, you know, operates like a a larger territory.
• 27:29
  So director of operations in a sense is what it stands for.
• 27:35
  And they would for instance, operate a a city or could be
• 27:40
  multiple cities. So they have a larger territory.
• 27:44
  It could be, you know, say 30 to 50 restaurants, some franchises
• 27:49
  out there if they're some of them being larger could have an
• 27:53
  even larger territory. But it depends on kind of the
• 27:56
  geographic area and and you kind of mileage between different
• 28:00
  restaurants. And then subsequently that, you
• 28:03
  know, I had an opportunity with within my family to get into the
• 28:08
  ownership and that was a lifelong dream, so.
• 28:13
  So how did that transition take place?
• 28:15
  What was the point where both you and your family said, OK,
• 28:20
  Ryan, now's the time, Let's bring you in.
• 28:24
  Walk us through that. Yeah.
• 28:25
  So I think part of that was, was I in a position of leadership
• 28:32
  where I had the skills necessary to help with the leadership in
• 28:42
  the organization. And then the other part was I
• 28:46
  think, you know, on the other side where, you know, my dad,
• 28:49
  was he ready for some of that transition.
• 28:52
  So there was a balance between the two.
• 28:55
  Where did I have the right personal skills and was it right
• 29:02
  for the business and, and my father at the time too so.
• 29:05
  Is your father still involved in the business?
• 29:08
  Yeah, he is. I think, you know, over the
• 29:10
  years I think he's, he's started to work a little bit back on
• 29:14
  some of that though. But he's he's still passionate
• 29:16
  about Wendy's and still involved for sure.
• 29:20
  What does he order when he comes in?
• 29:23
  Oh geez, probably one of the the single hamburgers would be my
• 29:27
  guess. That would be probably my guess
• 29:29
  on that. He'd order, yeah.
• 29:32
  Good burgers. Why have you guys been so
• 29:35
  successful with your breakfast sales?
• 29:37
  We called that out in the intro. Yeah, yeah.
• 29:40
  So I talked about my general manager position.
• 29:45
  My first store was actually at a pilot gas station, Wendy's.
• 29:50
  So my entire career from being a general manager to a DMDAL was
• 29:58
  all involved with breakfast. So, so Wendy's a Bowling Green,
• 30:06
  which is our, our organization was involved in a breakfast test
• 30:12
  to learn and discover about the breakfast day part for the Wendy
• 30:16
  system. So we had a lot of practice
• 30:18
  going on within, within, within the breakfast day part.
• 30:23
  So I think some of the things that we've been successful on is
• 30:27
  you know we investment spend, we'll have marketing whether
• 30:31
  it's through radio or own billboards that we'll purchase.
• 30:34
  We've got a lot of graphics that that we have bought or created
• 30:43
  at the store itself to communicate in this day part.
• 30:46
  And then I think a lot of it also has to do with how we we
• 30:52
  treat our customers in the morning.
• 30:54
  So breakfast is uniquely more than any other day part, a very
• 31:00
  habitual situation for all of our customers.
• 31:04
  And to break someone's habit takes work and repetition.
• 31:08
  So I think if you just think, well, I'm just going to go in
• 31:11
  and even if you have the best product to get someone to try
• 31:16
  this new, this new day part, this new sandwich or an
• 31:21
  offering, it could be is difficult because you're people
• 31:26
  are almost on autopilot. Recently I was reading about
• 31:30
  Taco Bell when they were rolling out their breakfast and it was
• 31:34
  kind of just loud and energetic and and indifferent.
• 31:40
  And the situation is when I think all of us, when you're
• 31:43
  waking up, you don't want loud and wild.
• 31:46
  You're kind of just where's my coffee at?
• 31:49
  You know, I'm like, I'm just trying to get through the day.
• 31:52
  And they learned from that. And I also think that we learned
• 31:55
  that you got to be fast also in the AM, people have places to
• 32:02
  go. They want their food, they want
• 32:05
  it good and so hot, fresh, you know, they want it accurate.
• 32:10
  And, and we've had some success. I think we we tend to operate in
• 32:14
  the Southeast. So for some reason that has
• 32:18
  given us a lot of success. I don't know why, whether the,
• 32:22
  you know, regionality, you know, plays in in part, but we've been
• 32:25
  really fortunate. Yeah, you, you mentioned, you
• 32:31
  know, it's one of those things that's really driven by habit.
• 32:34
  Have you found any things that sort of get somebody to break
• 32:38
  their old habit and come and give you guys a try for the
• 32:41
  first time? Yeah.
• 32:42
  So I think you know it, it's a trial and and that costs money.
• 32:46
  So that's either giving product away, you know, the hope being
• 32:52
  that you retain them from from the visit.
• 32:56
  You know, a lot of things that we would do is we would try and
• 32:59
  communicate a lot of it's education too.
• 33:04
  You can't go to a brand if you don't know that the brand is
• 33:07
  offering food at that day part. So we would try and educate, you
• 33:13
  know, our our lunch and dinner customers to come and visit us
• 33:17
  at breakfast. You know, so those are a lot of
• 33:20
  the things that we would do. And then obviously Wendy's
• 33:24
  national marketing is helped by by some of their advertising
• 33:27
  efforts, so. Right now I want to go back to
• 33:31
  that transition into ownership. It was sort of this, you know,
• 33:34
  two-part conversation was was dad ready for, you know, you to
• 33:38
  come in and start, you know, taking over some duties?
• 33:42
  Were you ready? Did you have the the skill sets?
• 33:44
  And so once those two points met, everybody's like, OK, yeah,
• 33:48
  now is the time. This is what you've been working
• 33:51
  towards for years. Was there something about that
• 33:55
  transition, though, that surprised you?
• 33:57
  Wasn't what you expected? Yeah, I would say that
• 34:09
  everything comes down to, you know, running a profitable
• 34:14
  healthy organization. You know, there's, there's a lot
• 34:18
  of things that are all at play, whether it's through operations,
• 34:24
  you know, our team at the office and all of us are counting on
• 34:31
  each other to perform such that we're we're successful.
• 34:36
  So we're we're a legacy franchise.
• 34:40
  So a lot of the things are were were established.
• 34:43
  It wasn't like I came in and I was building a franchise from
• 34:47
  the ground up that you're like, oh wow, I learned from this or
• 34:50
  that. So those would be the things
• 34:54
  that I would probably say is that there's a lot of folks
• 34:57
  counting on each other and at the end of the day, if you're
• 35:02
  not a profitable organization, you can get in trouble pretty
• 35:05
  quick, so. So you guys have grown pretty
• 35:09
  significantly. Go back to my notes here.
• 35:14
  What was the growth that you guys saw in the last six years?
• 35:18
  Is that a? Doubling, quadrupling.
• 35:20
  So in in fact, we're we're just under now 160 restaurants.
• 35:26
  Oh my gosh, from the time we researched, OK, so just
• 35:31
  continuing to grow and are you guys acquiring existing
• 35:36
  franchise operators? Are you opening some new from
• 35:38
  the ground up? Is it a combo?
• 35:40
  Yeah. So it's been a mixture.
• 35:42
  I would say most of the growth, growth has been acquisitions.
• 35:48
  You know, we also will naturally, you know, build new
• 35:51
  unit development, but you know, we try and and operate out of
• 36:00
  our existing footprint, you know, and the reason being for
• 36:03
  that is that we've got we've got resources, whether it's team
• 36:11
  skills, they know what our culture is.
• 36:13
  And the more that we can grow in that, that territory help
• 36:21
  strengthen I think that new that new market so.
• 36:26
  So you and I talked a little bit about this before we started the
• 36:29
  recording about how important people are to what you guys are
• 36:34
  doing. Very much like People First
• 36:36
  culture. And with the kind of growth and
• 36:39
  the number of units that you guys have, it makes a ton of
• 36:41
  sense. You couldn't do what you do
• 36:43
  without great team in place from, you know, top all the way
• 36:47
  down. What has been your approach to
• 36:51
  both attracting and retaining really good talent?
• 36:54
  Yeah, Anthony, I think a lot of it comes back to, you know,
• 36:59
  what's your reputation, what's your reputation, the community,
• 37:03
  you know, amongst your people. I think if you have a good
• 37:07
  reputation, people that work for you want to have their friends
• 37:10
  work there too. They're going to help recruit on
• 37:15
  your behalf because they enjoy being there.
• 37:20
  I think it's about showing respect and giving praise to
• 37:24
  employees. At the end of the day, people
• 37:27
  can work anywhere. They'll ultimately choose a
• 37:31
  company that treats them right and takes care of them.
• 37:35
  And I think ultimately it's about, you know, claiming your
• 37:38
  team. So I think if you do a good job,
• 37:42
  you know, treating people right, doing the right thing, you know,
• 37:46
  naturally that's a place where people will want to work.
• 37:51
  Let's talk about some of the philanthropic work that you've
• 37:55
  done. Over $2 million raised for the
• 37:59
  Dave Thomas Foundation for adoption.
• 38:02
  People who know Dave Thomas, who's adopted, this was a big,
• 38:04
  you know, A cause for him throughout his life.
• 38:07
  Why did you latch on to this clause and how did cause and and
• 38:11
  how did you guys raise so much money?
• 38:13
  Yeah. So I think, you know, we've been
• 38:15
  really fortunate in the past. This all goes back to our team.
• 38:20
  You know, each year, I think the past two years we've raised
• 38:22
  $1,000,000 each. You know, so over, I think over
• 38:27
  3 the past three years, we've raised over $3,000,000.
• 38:32
  And you know, so DTFA, Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption,
• 38:37
  it was created, you know, by Dave Thomas because, you know,
• 38:41
  as you mentioned, when he was a kid, he was adopted himself.
• 38:45
  And I talked to earlier that that Wendy's has done a lot for
• 38:50
  my family and a lot for all of our employees.
• 38:52
  What better way to get back to the brand than to work hard to
• 38:56
  claim its signature charity, the Dave Thomas Foundation?
• 39:02
  So the only reason we were able to raise this type of money, you
• 39:07
  know, is due to our people. They're the ones facilitating
• 39:10
  this. There are a couple different,
• 39:14
  you know, promotions that the Wendy's has is, is we got key
• 39:19
  tags and those are when you purchase a key tag, you get a
• 39:24
  free junior Frosty with a purchase for the entire year,
• 39:28
  which is really kind of an amazing deal.
• 39:29
  We, we get no money for it and we get up Frosties for every
• 39:33
  time you visit us for the entire calendar year.
• 39:37
  It's $3. And in fact, I think it's got to
• 39:41
  be one of the, the greatest charity deals out there.
• 39:45
  In fact, when we first rolled it out, it was just a dollar and
• 39:48
  almost the Frosty was almost at that price.
• 39:50
  So it was, it was really a great promotion.
• 39:53
  The other thing is during Halloween time.
• 39:56
  And then that is our our boob books.
• 39:59
  And those are also free Frosty coupons and that's a dollar.
• 40:04
  And all of those go 100% to the Dave Thomas Foundation for
• 40:09
  adoption. And you know, how do we, how do
• 40:16
  we raise the money? You know, I think you sell the
• 40:19
  mission. Of of what the Dave Thomas
• 40:23
  Foundation is, you know more than you know, 140,000 kids are
• 40:29
  currently in foster care. That it's not just adoption, but
• 40:36
  Wendy's highlights the kids that are are deemed harder to adopt
• 40:42
  or been labeled unadoptable. They'd be their families
• 40:47
  disabilities, other challenges that would be they're older.
• 40:51
  Maybe I'm 16 years old, I have a disability and how do you adopt?
• 41:01
  You know, one of those child children as opposed to a a
• 41:04
  newborn. Those are it's a whole lot
• 41:06
  easier. And then the, the, the most
• 41:09
  challenging piece is these kids aging out of foster care, They
• 41:14
  don't have a family. They're out on their own at 18.
• 41:17
  I know myself and, and likely likely you as well, it would be
• 41:21
  really difficult to be on your own at 18.
• 41:25
  So you know, when you hear all of that, the Dave Thomas
• 41:29
  Foundation has facilitated over 16,000 adoptions over the years.
• 41:35
  And at its, at its basics, everybody deserves a home.
• 41:40
  So with all of that said, it gets easy when you communicate
• 41:45
  what the mission is, what are the benefits on raising money.
• 41:50
  And those are the two things that we we mainly raise the most
• 41:53
  amount of money is to with selling key tags or Boo books.
• 41:58
  And all that money goes towards, you know, hiring recruiters that
• 42:03
  match them with future parents. So it's a really great program
• 42:07
  and a great 'cause. I love that if somebody's not
• 42:11
  near one of your stores and they want to give to the 'cause they
• 42:13
  just probably a website that they can find, right?
• 42:16
  Yeah. So you can, you can buy them on
• 42:18
  the Wendy's app. And in fact, it's they're sold,
• 42:22
  we just started selling like a week or two ago for the key tags
• 42:25
  for this calendar year. So every Wendy's in America
• 42:28
  should be selling key tags right now.
• 42:30
  OK. Oh, so this is nationwide?
• 42:33
  Oh, that's fun. I love it great 'cause So I want
• 42:37
  to talk about some of the networking that you do, right?
• 42:41
  You participate in events like QSR Evolution, you lead some
• 42:46
  different industry discussion. You know, that really puts you
• 42:51
  kind of at the forefront and interacting and mingling with a
• 42:53
  lot of your peers and franchise leadership.
• 42:56
  And I'm a big fan of any time you can connect with, you know,
• 43:00
  professional peers. It's a great way to learn from
• 43:05
  and support each other. As you think back to some of
• 43:09
  your ongoing interaction, maybe can you pull out just one or two
• 43:12
  specific things that you've learned from other folks in the
• 43:16
  business that has really helped your business grow?
• 43:20
  Yeah. You know, I would say it's more
• 43:22
  of a, an overall piece. And, and I think that we're all
• 43:28
  here to serve others, you know, to serve our customers,
• 43:33
  community, our teams, it's a people business.
• 43:39
  And ultimately all of these folks, whether they're at this
• 43:42
  conference or not, they're all passionate about food.
• 43:46
  So, you know, most of these things come back to, you know,
• 43:53
  we're, we're a, we're a hamburger brand.
• 43:56
  They could be selling tacos, but at the end of the day, we're in
• 44:01
  the people business. So that's probably where I would
• 44:06
  say most of of my experience when, when you get in a room
• 44:10
  with a bunch of restaurant operators, it it, it either
• 44:15
  talks about food and what we're doing about the, the new
• 44:18
  innovations or quality, those type of things, or it's all
• 44:22
  about people. Those are probably the two
• 44:24
  categories that get talked about the most.
• 44:28
  Innovations. What kinds of restaurant
• 44:31
  innovations have there been recently?
• 44:34
  Yeah, so a lot of it's flavouring, you know, beverage
• 44:40
  is a big one currently in the QSR industry.
• 44:44
  You've probably heard of of brands like 7 Brew or Dutch
• 44:49
  Brothers, you know, coming into the east of the United States.
• 44:55
  So coffee and, and flavourings of, of beverages are, are a big
• 44:59
  thing. You know, spice is another thing
• 45:04
  that's popular that the younger generation likes spicy food.
• 45:09
  So that is a big thing. In fact, McDonald's right now is
• 45:13
  rolling out a hot honey program. So there's a lot of spice.
• 45:18
  All of our new sauces are featuring a little bit hotter,
• 45:24
  So if you don't like heat and then they're not too hot, but
• 45:28
  that's kind of how the industry is going where there's a lot
• 45:30
  more, a lot more spice to it. And then obviously you got these
• 45:35
  flavored sweet drinks that are are a lot more popular now.
• 45:42
  What's the future of your operations look like?
• 45:45
  It sounds like you guys continue to grow at a pretty rapid pace.
• 45:49
  Is that continuing to be the plan?
• 45:52
  Yeah. I think that, you know, our goal
• 45:56
  is, is smart growth. I think you got the balance of
• 46:01
  real estate prices have gone, you know, as an industry they're
• 46:06
  they're higher outpacing what revenues can bring.
• 46:12
  So that's a really difficult challenge, you know, for new
• 46:17
  unit growth. You also have inflation, the
• 46:21
  challenges with that and the macro economy.
• 46:24
  So customers are saying things are expensive.
• 46:28
  So all of that leads into a customer that's like, I want to
• 46:34
  try and frequent less, you know, real estate is expensive and
• 46:41
  there's a lot of fluctuation within the economy of the United
• 46:44
  States. So our goal would be is listen,
• 46:49
  we're always interested in in opportunities, but I think that,
• 46:54
  you know, our main focus is we want to focus on, on what we
• 46:57
  have currently right now. You know, a lot of franchise
• 47:02
  operators that I talked to, they're involved with multiple
• 47:06
  different franchise brands. You guys are 100% Wendy's.
• 47:11
  Is the plan to stay that way? Yeah.
• 47:14
  So I think that we're always interested in in opportunities.
• 47:22
  We started as a franchise and company with Wendy's and, and
• 47:26
  had been in fact, this is our our 50th anniversary as Wendy's
• 47:31
  a Bowling Green this year. So that's what we know and that
• 47:37
  what we're good at. I think there's always an option
• 47:40
  to look at other brands out there.
• 47:43
  A lot of work hasn't gone into that.
• 47:46
  We've we've really kind of grown within our footprint of, of the
• 47:49
  Wendy's system. But, but you never know.
• 47:52
  You never know. There's not a there's not a a
• 47:54
  secretive brand that we're about to roll out anytime soon,
• 47:57
  though. Yep, presently focused on
• 48:00
  Wendy's and the units that you guys have.
• 48:03
  Just how do you continue to make them better?
• 48:06
  Let's shift gears and talk about a big challenge that you've
• 48:10
  overcome in your life, Ryan, personal or professional is a
• 48:13
  lot of growth can happen from going through something really
• 48:16
  difficult. Yeah, I would say really I, I
• 48:22
  pick in the business and and that being COVID, you know, I
• 48:29
  think all of us were kind of scared when that took place.
• 48:34
  You know, our CFO actually had a burn rate calendar for cash when
• 48:41
  you would run out and there was a date due to all the
• 48:46
  fluctuation within the industry. Incidentally, personally, I had
• 48:52
  bought a house a couple months before.
• 48:53
  So as you're driving to work and back, you're like, wow, am I
• 48:58
  going to lose my house? You know, what does my future
• 49:04
  have? You got the concerns about, you
• 49:06
  know, your family. So I'm thinking about my parents
• 49:09
  being older. So you've got all of those
• 49:12
  challenges that that are kind of scary.
• 49:15
  Your employees are scared. I remember where someone thought
• 49:19
  that they had COVID and we went in to clean the restaurant,
• 49:25
  myself and another district manager, and you didn't have any
• 49:30
  personal protective equipment. You're like, well, am I going in
• 49:33
  and going to infect myself and then my family.
• 49:37
  So you had all of these, you know, concerns.
• 49:43
  Now, I guess the good news would be is that we modified how we
• 49:51
  operated. There was a lot of different
• 49:53
  things. We, you know, closed the, the
• 49:55
  the dining room and, and operated efficiently through the
• 49:58
  drive through. You put up like the plexiglass
• 50:02
  and whether that was effective or not, that was what you did at
• 50:07
  the time You tried to come up with with how could I continue
• 50:11
  to operate? In fact, my my wife was involved
• 50:14
  and we tried to call grocery stores and bundled large meals
• 50:22
  for them. You know, you were, this was a
• 50:24
  street fight. It wasn't that well, the
• 50:27
  circumstances weren't great and let me just lie down.
• 50:32
  We were going to find sales wherever we we could.
• 50:34
  Grocery stores were wildly busy. They were part of the essential
• 50:38
  employee program, so one of the ways for them to give back was
• 50:44
  buying meals for their employees.
• 50:48
  So we would contact grocery stores all over the area,
• 50:52
  whether it is from Home Depot or, or a grocery store, and we
• 50:57
  would bundle big meals for them. Now you, you look back in, in,
• 51:03
  in the, in the past now and you know, due to the lockdown and we
• 51:11
  had some of our all time record sales, you know that going in,
• 51:16
  but it was probably one of our most healthy, you know, you
• 51:20
  think the dining room's not closed.
• 51:22
  You're operating on a really lean labor model and people are
• 51:29
  cooped up in the house and they can't really go out and
• 51:34
  socialize. So what could they do?
• 51:37
  They could go to the grocery store, they could go to a
• 51:39
  restaurant. Same thing as I'm sure Amazon
• 51:43
  had some of their all time highs where people are just buying,
• 51:46
  buying things. So yeah, it it at one point it
• 51:52
  was wildly scary that, you know, the brand that I had known my
• 51:56
  whole life and the franchise I had known for most of my life
• 52:00
  could suddenly, suddenly for some external reason be
• 52:08
  eliminated, you know, and no fault to our own.
• 52:12
  So it was really scary. And to some extent, you know,
• 52:18
  through the perseverance from our team and the hard work that
• 52:21
  they did and we turned out to be on a net positive overall so.
• 52:28
  How long did it take to go from the Super scary part to numbers
• 52:33
  actually look better? Yeah, well, probably it was
• 52:38
  super scary for months. In fact, I think I worked every
• 52:44
  day of the week for I think it was 3 or 4 weeks because I
• 52:49
  wasn't going to just be like, well, I'm just going to take a
• 52:53
  day off and, and, and relax. There wasn't time to take a day
• 52:57
  off. You felt like you were in the
• 53:00
  fight of your life for your business, for, you know, it
• 53:04
  wasn't just my business. The like we talked earlier,
• 53:08
  employees are relying on you having a healthy organization
• 53:14
  such that they can pay their rent.
• 53:16
  So, yeah, I would say it was a month or two and of it being
• 53:23
  really scary and then it was trying to manage well, how do we
• 53:29
  make all of these changes whether it was labor or
• 53:33
  structures on on how we operate that we did because a lot of it
• 53:41
  was remote, but but where there is no remote when you're when
• 53:45
  you're in the operations business, so.
• 53:50
  You know, it's interesting to me because different people are
• 53:55
  wired differently. Sometimes when there's crisis,
• 53:58
  some people kind of turtle up, you know, they, they sort of
• 54:02
  retreat into a shell. They don't know what to do.
• 54:03
  They're scared and they don't, they don't take action sort of,
• 54:07
  you know, taking that day off, sitting on their couch kind of a
• 54:10
  thing, right? And then other people, you know,
• 54:14
  scared as heck ANYWAYS. But they, they get up and they
• 54:18
  do something and they're, they're not sure what's going to
• 54:20
  work and they're not sure what they're going to do.
• 54:23
  Have you ever thought about this?
• 54:24
  Like I'm curious like what causes some people to go one way
• 54:26
  and some people to go the other way?
• 54:29
  Yeah, I know that your question is not necessarily specific to
• 54:33
  our previous example, but it it was one of those things where
• 54:37
  like I guess you could say fight or flight.
• 54:39
  I mean, to me, I'm like, I'm going to go down trying, you
• 54:43
  know, if it was a matter I didn't have any other options
• 54:49
  and I think sometimes, not always, but that's kind of the
• 54:53
  best scenario is that those of which they don't have a lot of
• 54:57
  options can be the most dangerous.
• 55:00
  So you know, we were going to get in there and success was the
• 55:05
  only option and we would find a way to achieve that.
• 55:11
  So I know other brands and other companies had a tremendous
• 55:16
  success during that time too, but all I know is what our
• 55:21
  experience and story was during that time.
• 55:25
  What did you learn, either about yourself or about general human
• 55:29
  behavior, going through the scariest parts of that?
• 55:36
  I think you need to be honest. I think if you were sick, we
• 55:39
  needed to be there for people and I think that you had a team
• 55:47
  that would support you, which was awesome, that anything we
• 55:52
  needed to do, they were there and it was scary health wise,
• 55:57
  not necessarily financially, in a situation where it was
• 56:03
  probably more common sense to stay away, people leaned in.
• 56:09
  So, yeah, I think that those would be some of the main things
• 56:15
  that that I would say. Yeah, well, that's helpful.
• 56:23
  Let's check gears into something more positive.
• 56:25
  What's your superpower, Ryan O'Malley?
• 56:28
  Jeez, I don't know if I have a superpower, but you know, I
• 56:32
  would probably say I'd like to think I'm nice and then I, I
• 56:39
  have a good connection with people that, that I can be
• 56:44
  relatable and, and due to my personality, I can, I can
• 56:50
  influence folks to do things. So.
• 56:55
  Give us an example. Yeah, I think a lot of it's
• 56:58
  relationships. So it, it, I think people are
• 57:05
  inclined to, to be in service. So in the, in the, the
• 57:12
  restaurant industry, we can accomplish more goals as a
• 57:18
  result of people, you know, working for someone and that
• 57:25
  someone being me, they're more inclined to work hard and to, to
• 57:31
  show dedication, I think because they know that they're going to
• 57:34
  be treated with respect and, and their work is appreciated.
• 57:40
  Favorite thing to do outside of work?
• 57:42
  Hobby special interest. Yeah.
• 57:45
  Two things I would say probably would be is I like fishing or
• 57:49
  boating and and golf. Probably not good at either of
• 57:54
  them, but those are probably my two favorite things so.
• 57:59
  How about recommendations for our guests on a book, a podcast,
• 58:04
  some sort of a resource that's been helpful for you?
• 58:07
  I got a couple books 5 levels of Leadership by John Maxwell
• 58:14
  holistic approach to leadership from the beginning to the
• 58:19
  pinnacle. I for the restaurant industry.
• 58:24
  This is maybe my number one recommendation is Setting the
• 58:27
  Table by Danny Meyer. Danny Meyer is the creator of
• 58:30
  Union Square hospitality. Maybe some would know better
• 58:35
  with through Shake Shack, but as some of the number one ranked
• 58:39
  over the years restaurants in New York City for Gramercy
• 58:45
  Tavern to to name 1 and then you know, I would also say another
• 58:49
  book being 7 habits of highly effective people, Stephen Covey
• 58:56
  so. Classic.
• 58:58
  Yeah. And then of course, you know,
• 59:00
  the podcast, Inspired Stories podcast I think would be a great
• 59:04
  option. And then another piece if you're
• 59:07
  trying to work hard in your industry is I always have Google
• 59:11
  Alerts set up on whatever I'm wanting to follow.
• 59:13
  For me, I follow Wendy's or other QSR industry, but any
• 59:20
  business that you're in, it keeps you updated every day of
• 59:23
  what's going on in the field. So.
• 59:26
  Nice. Ryan, I've just got one more
• 59:29
  question for you today. But before I ask it, I want to
• 59:32
  do 3 quick things. First of all, anybody that wants
• 59:35
  to get in touch with Ryan, we've got his e-mail address
• 59:37
  hereromalley@wenbg.com, romalley@whenbg.com and O'Malley
• 59:47
  is OMALLEY, romalley@wendbg.com and we'll have that in the show
• 59:54
  notes for folks. Also, if you're enjoying the
• 59:56
  show today, please take a moment to subscribe wherever you're
• 59:59
  listening. It sends a signal that helps
• 1:00:01
  others discover our podcast. So thank you for taking a quick
• 1:00:05
  moment to do that right now. And as a reminder, you can get
• 1:00:09
  your restaurant employees access to therapists, doctors and
• 1:00:12
  prescription meds. That is paradoxical as it seems,
• 1:00:15
  actually increases your company's net profits, real
• 1:00:18
  gains that can change how a business is valued.
• 1:00:21
  So contact us today at adbackbenefits.com.
• 1:00:24
  Last question for you, Ryan. A year from now, what is 1 very
• 1:00:27
  specific thing that you hope to be celebrating?
• 1:00:31
  Geez, I hope it's probably record sales and record profits,
• 1:00:36
  you know, and and I say that because that means that we're
• 1:00:41
  taking care of our customers and our employees.
• 1:00:45
  So that's probably what I would close with.
• 1:00:48
  Love it. Ryan O'Malley from Wendy's, I
• 1:00:50
  want to be the first to thank you for sharing both your time
• 1:00:52
  and your story with us today. I really appreciate you being
• 1:00:55
  here. Anthony, thanks so much.
• 1:00:58
  I appreciate being here as well. Folks, that's a wrap on another
• 1:01:01
  episode of the Inspired Stories podcast.
• 1:01:04
  Thanks for learning with us. And if one thing stood out, put
• 1:01:07
  it into action today.