He Runs 66 Pizza Restaurants. His Biggest Challenge Is Making Sure Customers Know What to Expect at Every One

Entrepreneur

Entrepreneur Network Podcasts Master Schedule Entrepreneur Network Podcasts Master Schedule  100% E19  Ed Bogan and his brother own Pizza King, a 70-year-old chain with 66 locations. Bogan wants customers to know what to expect at every restaurant, while staying open to new ideas that can help the business. Watch now to learn how Ed Bogan approaches consistency across 66 Pizza King restaurants and decides which new ideas are worth bringing back to his teams. Restaurant Influencers is sponsored by: • Toast All-In-1 Restaurant POS: https://entm.ag/ToastRI • PepsiCo Foodservice: https://entm.ag/RIPepsico Summarize this data  Ed Bogan and his brother own Pizza King, a 70-year-old chain with 66 locations. Bogan wants customers to know what to expect at every restaurant, while staying open to new ideas that can help the business.  Watch now to learn how Ed Bogan approaches consistency across 66 Pizza King restaurants and decides which new ideas are worth bringing back to his teams.  Restaurant Influencers is sponsored by: • Toast All-In-1 Restaurant POS: https://entm.ag/ToastRI • PepsiCo Foodservice: https://entm.ag/RIPepsico

Transcript

00:00We've run consumer surveys, you know, people prefer video to photo 8 to 10.

00:05No way!

00:07Say it again. Say it again.

00:08They prefer video to photo.

00:11I knew it.

00:13I knew it.

00:15I knew it!

00:18Oh!

00:26Welcome to Restaurant Influencers, presented by Entrepreneur.

00:29I'm your host, Sean Walcheff.

00:30This is a Cali BBQ Media production in life, in the restaurant business, and in the new creator economy.

00:36We learn through lessons and stories.

00:38We travel all the way to Chicago.

00:40We left our restaurants.

00:41Ten years, I was stuck in my restaurants, and I never figured out how to get to Chicago.

00:46I've been coming now for five years.

00:47Every year we come to Chicago, we come to the Pop Menu booth.

00:50So we believe deeply in hospitality, in technology, and storytelling.

00:54That's why we started this show.

00:55And the coolest thing about today's episode is that I have the co-founders of Pop Menu,

01:01but more importantly, I have a restaurant guest.

01:04His name is Ed Gogan, Pizza King, and he is going to speak the truth directly.

01:09So these guys can't run.

01:10They can't hide.

01:11They have incredible technology, but he can speak the truth.

01:13Ed, welcome to the show.

01:14Thank you very much.

01:15And it's Bogan.

01:16Bogan.

01:17Ed Bogan.

01:18Pizza King.

01:18How many locations do you guys have?

01:20Sixty-six locations.

01:21We have 65 in Indiana, one in Illinois, and we just celebrated our 70th year.

01:27Wow.

01:28April 29th, and we look forward to about 70 more.

01:31How many generations?

01:34Well, it was started with the founder.

01:37Started it in 1956.

01:38He sold it to Don Schuetz in 1965, and then Don took it until 2020,

01:51and my brother and I purchased the company in 2020.

01:54Amazing.

01:55Congratulations.

01:5670-year legacy.

01:57That means a lot.

01:58What are you hoping for at this year's National Restaurant Show?

02:02Well, this is my first time being on stage with Tony.

02:05Again, Tony said it yesterday.

02:06You're great.

02:07We argue, but that means he understands.

02:11Well, what is the argument?

02:13Let's start there.

02:14The truth vibrates the fastest.

02:15He's just candid.

02:16We make a mistake.

02:18He lets us know about it.

02:19But, no, I mean, first of all, credit to you both for coming to the show.

02:23There's a lot of big companies that don't come to the show,

02:26so I appreciate you guys coming here to have conversations with your customers.

02:29It's literally the only way for us to grow in the restaurant tech space

02:33and the restaurant space.

02:34I mean, things are moving quick.

02:36How fast have things been moving just in the last couple years, Ed?

02:39A hundred mile an hour, and what we've done in three years with Pop Menu,

02:42I couldn't, I mean, it speaks volumes of what they're doing,

02:45and they're not sitting still.

02:47Yep.

02:47And that's the way my brother and I operate.

02:50We're way, you know, built to be busy, built for busy, right?

02:54Yes, 100%.

02:54I kind of run like that.

02:56I think Tony does, too.

02:58How did you find out about Pop Menu?

03:02In 2000, or in 2021, Chris Mullender reached out to us.

03:10He was in Indiana.

03:13Signed up a meeting with myself and Rob Hancock.

03:17Next thing you know, we had Tony fly in from California,

03:20and my brother, Rob, and I were more or less inked the deal that afternoon.

03:26Oh, wow.

03:27So it was pretty quick.

03:28What excited you about the product that they were offering?

03:31Rob had a very good vision on the SEO traffic and where we really need to be with our businesses.

03:38And going from South Bend, Indiana, all the way down to Evansville, Indiana,

03:41we need to go ahead and be consistent, kind of like the McDonald's platform.

03:45You know, we want consistency from South Bend, Evansville.

03:49And for him to go ahead and say, hey, this is what we're kind of trying to do,

03:53put the SEO traffic, direct people to your website, and the rest is history.

03:59We keep building.

04:01And now Veronica has come, and she travels with me quarterly to our locations

04:07because then I don't need to sell it.

04:09She shows them.

04:11And, you know, when you can get in front of a customer, you have one opportunity.

04:15And she's taken it and ran with it.

04:17Veronica's our in-market client success.

04:19Okay.

04:19So we really get close with the operators.

04:21I think it's a big differentiator that we do.

04:24Why is it important to be close to operators?

04:26I mean, it seems simple.

04:28It's not a talking point because you guys actually live it.

04:31Like, how do you live it?

04:32How do you implement it?

04:33Well, I always say you never want to be surprised.

04:36I don't want him to surprise me.

04:37I'm not going to surprise him.

04:38If something's wrong, you can talk it through, and then you figure out a solution.

04:41It's hard to do that if you're not face-to-face occasionally,

04:44certainly with larger operators.

04:46You know, there's just so much going on.

04:47So we just emphasize that for all customers are important,

04:51but especially people like Ed that have scaled and have been in business for so long.

04:54You take that personally.

04:55You don't want to mess up a business that's been around.

04:57You know, seven decades.

04:59So just getting in market allows us to get feedback.

05:02What are the things they're enjoying?

05:03What are the things they're having issues with?

05:04What are the ideas they have that we can explore and bring back to the product teams?

05:07And I think that's the best way to do it.

05:09This is a very relationship business.

05:10All the AI stuff's fantastic.

05:12There's a lot of great applications for it.

05:14At the end of the day, this business in particular is very, very relationship-driven.

05:18Yeah, so we're now dedicating time for more and more of our CX team to actually go out

05:23and go on-prem and spend time with operators.

05:25And you think, okay, we're not a point of sale, you know?

05:28And so why do you need to be on-prem?

05:31Man, the variance is so wide in like, what tech are they using to even operate Bob Menu?

05:38And what kind of problems are they having?

05:41I went to a restaurant in the Atlanta area where I live.

05:46And the owner was awesome.

05:47Spent some time with him.

05:48Gave me some great dishes.

05:49And then he's like, hey, can you take a look at my Pop Menu?

05:51Like, he had a setting that he, you know, had heard about.

05:54And he didn't, he was like, I haven't turned it on.

05:56I go back and there's a 500-year-old computer with a monitor, like the size of a fridge.

06:00Sounds about right.

06:01That checks out.

06:02And there was a screen from Pop Menu that literally just wasn't rendering.

06:06Really?

06:07The screen's not there.

06:08You know, I get on the tech team.

06:09I'm like, I don't, I've never seen this before.

06:12And so that's just one example.

06:13But you know all the offices at the back of restaurants look like that.

06:17They all look like that.

06:18And all the technology looks like that.

06:19And so sometimes you just got to be there to solve problems.

06:23It doesn't matter that we're not POS or anything else that really needs to live on-prem.

06:27It matters that you're meeting them where they are and seeing the problems that they're facing

06:31and the challenges that they're facing.

06:32And so it's a big part of our plan this year is to do more and more, you know,

06:36opening up time for our CX team to go out.

06:39Because we don't want to sell.

06:40We just don't have to, like, just stay with us, you know?

06:43Just go listen.

06:44Just go ask questions and listen.

06:46And literally.

06:46And also, the big thing is, can we make sure you're getting the value out of the system

06:49that you deserve and that you signed up for?

06:51And so sometimes you just got to be in person to get there.

06:54Yeah.

06:57Whether you're a global restaurant powerhouse or local independent like us here at Cali BBQ,

07:02we all want the same thing, sustainable growth.

07:04And let me tell you, PepsiCo is a partner built to do exactly that, help you build a sustainable business.

07:10As operators, we get it.

07:12We know that digital matters.

07:13Online ordering, third-party apps, digital menus, online visibility.

07:18It's a lot, and it's incredibly hard to prioritize when you're just trying to take care of your kitchen

07:23and manage a busy team.

07:24But a few small digital tweaks can have a massive impact, especially when you have the right team backing you

07:30up.

07:31That's where PepsiCo's Digital Lab stands apart.

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07:59If you're a Pepsi customer, stop waiting.

08:01Talk to your Pepsi rep today or click the link in the show notes below to learn how to unlock

08:06your growth advantage.

08:08Let's keep that momentum going.

08:13What's exciting you this year?

08:15You guys are here at the show.

08:16I mean, is there any announcements?

08:19Yeah.

08:19What do we got?

08:20What are we building?

08:22We're 10 years old now.

08:2310 years old?

08:24A decade?

08:24We're coming on.

08:25It's close enough.

08:26Okay, close enough.

08:27Fair enough.

08:28Like a little kid starts going on.

08:29There you go.

08:29I like it.

08:29I'm 10 now.

08:30I'm big.

08:31My son's almost there.

08:32It's fantastic.

08:32And so we're like, there was some reflection earlier this year on how we started, why we started, why it

08:38got going.

08:38And I think we've spent so much time really the past four or five years doing things that were necessary

08:44but not sexy.

08:46And so, so much integration work, so important.

08:49And, you know, we got to do that stuff.

08:51You have to have an interconnected system that creates efficiency, all this stuff.

08:55How are we delivering ROI?

08:57Like there's so much plumbing and kind of, you know, grown up kind of startup stuff that I was like,

09:03it's time to do something sexy.

09:05Yep.

09:06And the truth is when we reflected on that and said, hey, 10 years ago, the whole innovation we brought

09:11to the market was what restaurants are able to deliver in a menu experience pales in comparison to what, you

09:19know, consumers want.

09:20And at the time it was photos and reviews and ratings and social validation.

09:25And we said, hey, people shouldn't have to, you know, bounce off your site and go to Yelp and go

09:29to TripAdvisor, go to OpenTable to get those things.

09:32They should all be in the restaurant website under your control.

09:34And so really we responded to what the consumers really demanded before they made a dining decision.

09:4010 years later, the consumers are way different.

09:43Way different.

09:43And their experiences are way different.

09:45And so we said, hey, let's take the menu experience forward.

09:50And let's be informed by how people are consuming information now, which is a lot of TikTok, a lot of

09:55social reels, videos.

09:56Wait, wait, what did you say?

09:58People, how are people consuming information?

10:00Social.

10:00On the internet?

10:01On the internet.

10:01On social?

10:02That's right.

10:03That's right.

10:03Despite the fact that there's still text menus and PDF menus everywhere, we said, all right, let's take our menu

10:09experience forward and just get the people what they want.

10:14And so the whole idea is that gives you even more of a weapon to win a customer when you're

10:20at the point of consideration.

10:21So if someone's comparing, okay, it's my anniversary dinner.

10:25Here's three different places.

10:26This one is a little bit of text on the menu.

10:28I don't really understand what they have.

10:30This one maybe has one or two photos or maybe it's not even in the menu.

10:33Maybe it's like this is the ambiance of the place or whatever.

10:35This one has just an explosion of information that you can get and really get a feel.

10:40And so we've run consumer surveys.

10:43You know, people prefer, you know, the visuals to text 8 to 10.

10:47They also prefer video to photo 8 to 10.

10:50Say it again.

10:51I would say it again.

10:52People prefer the photos to text 8 to 10.

10:56It's actually more than 8 to 10, but let's round it.

10:59And then they prefer video to photo at 8 to 10 as well.

11:03Video to photo.

11:04Wow.

11:04And the interesting thing is that survey skewed a little bit older.

11:07So there were more 65 plus people in the survey.

11:11So it's probably more like 90%.

11:13Because they're like, just give me the text, baby.

11:14Makes sense.

11:15So we wanted to show it to you.

11:17Okay.

11:18Right now.

11:18Stop it.

11:19Let's see it.

11:20This new sexy menu experience.

11:20So we think it's the next revolution in the menu experience.

11:23Are you serious?

11:24Now the Wi-Fi.

11:25Are we unboxing something?

11:26Yeah, we're unboxing.

11:27Oh, fantastic.

11:28On a phone?

11:28That's even better.

11:30Let me see this.

11:31Yeah, we got to get your reaction on camera.

11:33Okay, we're going to see.

11:34So this is the menu.

11:36Okay.

11:36So some of these are not, you know,

11:37loading right now because the connection's so bad.

11:40But you start with reels at the top.

11:41Yes.

11:42You can feature.

11:43Are you serious right now?

11:44In video format.

11:45Dishes.

11:46You can do specials.

11:47You can do all kinds of things.

11:49And here, one of the things that's always made PopMenu special is we have a lot of proprietary

11:52data that we're bringing forward in the menu.

11:54And so things like Pops and things like first party reviews, they're always in there.

12:00But now we're bringing them forward.

12:01See, now the review, you don't have to click in to see it.

12:03Now all this different information is brought to the front.

12:06You can do dark mode.

12:08You can do all kinds of things.

12:09It's what?

12:09Sorry?

12:10It's amazing.

12:10Okay, I just wanted to make sure we got that out and clear.

12:12That's video though?

12:13Like I can upload video?

12:15Yes.

12:15And we can also create video from photos.

12:17Like the video that restaurant owners are making on reels and on TikTok and Facebook and YouTube?

12:22And we can suck in reels.

12:23We can create.

12:24Come on.

12:25Suck in probably is not the best technical term.

12:28We can pull reels in via API.

12:30We can ingest.

12:31And then you can pick which ones you want to show.

12:33Yeah, we can ingest.

12:34There you go.

12:34You're no problem.

12:35You're the tech guy.

12:35I got it.

12:36Then we can also like convert photos to videos.

12:41That is really, really cool.

12:42You can also, you can see like leave a review up here.

12:44So it's not just what's in the menu.

12:46It's interspersing engagement.

12:47So what does Ed have to do to get this?

12:49We're going to hook it up.

12:50See, I got you.

12:51I got you, Ed.

12:53I'm on it, Ed.

12:54I need to see the Pizza King videos.

12:57Yeah, that's right.

12:57Yes, sir.

12:58You want to unbox?

12:58Yes, sir.

12:58We got to show you more with the better connection downstairs.

13:01We will.

13:01100%.

13:02That's exciting.

13:03There are also moving visuals on every dish.

13:06We can do that just through AI enhancement.

13:08It doesn't replace the dish.

13:10I think it's very important not to fool around too much with AI.

13:14I agree.

13:14But when it brings a little bit more, you know, in the mold.

13:17A little bit of light.

13:18Restaurant lighting is terrible for photos.

13:20Well, it does everything.

13:21Our restaurant's terrible for photos.

13:22You got to see the molten lava cake.

13:23Like, it was a picture.

13:24It breaks open.

13:24It steams.

13:25And you're like, yeah, I'm doing that.

13:27I'm in.

13:27I'm definitely doing that.

13:28So this is what we're most excited about.

13:29And I think it's, you know, our idea is what we've built over these 10 years is a way to

13:35compete at every step of the consumer journey.

13:38And so whether it's AI or SEO, at the very beginning of it, we've always positioned people to, you know,

13:44be at the best possible position in the list.

13:47Whether it's, you know, after someone has decided, I'm narrowed down to a few different, you know, contenders for the

13:54anniversary dinner or whatever.

13:55We make it so you can present your, you know, your creativity of your offering, your quality of your ingredients,

14:00your plating, all that stuff through our menu experience.

14:03Whether it's people who aren't actively thinking about where am I going to eat and we're making it automatic and

14:08personalized to keep, you know, visuals in front of them with emails and texts and social, you know, all that

14:14stuff.

14:15You know, we've been doing all that.

14:17This is drilling in to help restaurants compete at the point of consideration and say, man, do everything you can.

14:23You got to fight at every step now.

14:24It's super, super competitive.

14:25And so this is a step to say, we're really going to help you dial in at the consideration point.

14:29Did you know that Toast powers over 140,000 restaurants across the United States, Canada, and UK?

14:37It's an incredible company.

14:39I'm on the Toast Customer Advisory Board.

14:40They are proud sponsors of this show, Restaurant Influencers.

14:43We couldn't do it without their support.

14:45They power our barbecue restaurants in San Diego.

14:48If you have questions about Toast, if you're thinking about bringing Toast on to be your primary technology partner at

14:55your restaurants, please reach out to me.

14:57I'm happy to get a local Toast representative to take care of you.

15:00You can reach me at Sean P. Welchef on Instagram.

15:04Once again, thank you to Toast for believing in the power of technology, the power of storytelling, the power of

15:10hospitality.

15:11Back to the show.

15:12So, Ed, I heard a stat.

15:14$8.6 million.

15:16Yes, sir.

15:17What does that number mean?

15:21You know, the great part about it is we started with, like, 22 locations being on the platform.

15:28Yep.

15:28And in the last 10 months, I think we've grown another 30 just off the data that we've gotten from

15:36those locations.

15:38And then bringing in someone who's in front of them.

15:41Yep.

15:43That's a huge number.

15:45And again, really for very little work.

15:49And it does it for them.

15:51And this is first-party delivery?

15:52First-party delivery.

15:53So, $8.6 million.

15:55Yep.

15:55Diverted from third-party to first-party.

15:57By using the tools of Pop Mania.

15:59100%.

15:59That is amazing.

16:01Yes.

16:02Yeah.

16:02I think that's why they brought me here.

16:04That's probably why they were so excited.

16:06That's why we brought him because I was in Vegas.

16:07And he was like, hey, I need to talk to you about something.

16:09Yep.

16:10And he had an idea or something that we were having a little challenge with.

16:13And we corrected that.

16:15And then in the same conversation, he says, but I also want to tell you, you're doing really well.

16:19You increased our average guest check average by 17-18%.

16:2217%.

16:22Yeah.

16:22Wow.

16:23So, that's great data.

16:24Because too often times, people come and say, oh, we can double your sales.

16:27The truth is, if I can raise his sales 17% and margin by two or three points, that is

16:31amazing.

16:32That's job well done.

16:33I think it's those real stories that we try and get out to the market so people understand.

16:37There is no secret.

16:38There is no magic.

16:39If you invest in the right things, the menu, the decision point, a lot of other things happen.

16:43I mean, I think that's why we love doing the work that we do is that we go and talk

16:47to the founders, the CEOs, the executives that are building the tech.

16:51They tell us something, and then we go and verify it.

16:53And we find Ed, and Ed tells me, like, no, they actually, not only did they do what they said

16:58they were going to do, but look at this impact.

16:59Like, sometimes we don't even, you don't even know the impact that your technology can have unless you're willing to

17:04do the work, which is, like, come to the show.

17:06Like, it would be easy for you guys.

17:07You have got an incredible team.

17:09They can fully do it without you, but you're here having those conversations.

17:12I mean, the hardest thing is definitely conveying the ROI.

17:16What's the ROI of something that's not scalable?

17:19Well, just, no, the ROI of the system.

17:21Yeah.

17:21And so, you know, he's got a clear case where you can very easily see it.

17:26It's not the same for everybody.

17:27You know, where there's so many variables in the restaurant space.

17:31It's like there's a taco place near me.

17:34Yep.

17:34And three taco places opened up.

17:36Yep.

17:36And so that taco place can say, hey, man, pot menu's failing now because I'm losing revenue or I'm flat

17:41to last year or whatever.

17:42And it's like, without us, you'd have gone lower, you know, because there's more competition.

17:47And so we constantly work on ways to better convey, here's what you're getting.

17:53And that's a big part of why we're here is because trying to understand, like, how are you looking at

17:57this and how can we remove some variables and make sure you see it?

18:00Like, for me, it's the biggest challenge in the space.

18:02And it's why people jump from tech to tech because they're like, I'm not really sure.

18:06Yeah.

18:06And so I do think that's one of the biggest challenges that we strive to change.

18:09One of the things we're doing this year is more snack-size ROI where it's like, this campaign did X

18:14for you.

18:15Because we have all these fancy dashboards and stuff that technology people build.

18:20But it's like, I can tell you, you know, there's a savvy part of the group that looks at it

18:24and they can see or a savvy part of the client base that looks at it and they can see.

18:27There's a lot of them who are like, I don't know.

18:28And so doing more and more to make sure they understand.

18:31And whether it's good enough or not should be up to them.

18:34But they should have the criteria to measure it.

18:36I think that's the biggest challenge in restaurant tech.

18:38Like, what should the number be?

18:40So I'm going to do something I've never done before.

18:41But, Ed, I'm going to give you the floor to ask these gentlemen on camera so we can hold their

18:47feet to the fire.

18:48What do you need to help your business right now?

18:50One thing I wanted to give them one more compliment before I ask this question.

18:53Oh, one more compliment before the hard question.

18:55Okay.

18:55Let's go.

18:56They've really brought in, when we signed up with them, the visual side of marketing is so important.

19:03Show me, don't tell me.

19:05Pictures, professional pictures.

19:07Make it look right.

19:09Now they saw what they did with the pictures.

19:11Now to take that to the video side.

19:14Again, they're not standing still.

19:16They're not being stagnant.

19:17Okay.

19:17A lot of times when you get to be the size that they are now, everybody wants to go ahead

19:21and become complacent.

19:22They're not complacent.

19:24So one thing I want them to do, keep doing what they're doing now.

19:26Okay.

19:27Because they're bringing the ideas to me.

19:28I'll always speak on their behalf as long as they keep doing what they're doing for our business.

19:32Again, I appreciate them as a partner.

19:34And I truly believe them as a, they're a great partner.

19:37And their staff is phenomenal.

19:38Well, again, it's, I'm very fortunate that we met Chris.

19:44Yep.

19:44I know Chris is no longer with them, but you know what?

19:47He introduced, we got Tony in front of us and that's a big deal.

19:51That's all that matters for sure.

19:52Yeah, you're welcome.

19:53How many years have you come to this show, National Restaurant Show?

19:55This is my first year to this show.

19:56First year.

19:57Yes.

19:57Amazing.

19:57And I will be coming back next year.

19:59Why, why, why, why is it important for restaurants of any size, small, medium size, big, large enterprise?

20:04Why is it important to be here?

20:06If you can't see it, you don't know about it.

20:08Yeah.

20:09So my feet hurt yesterday.

20:11I walked a lot.

20:13All right.

20:13Wear comfortable shoes.

20:14Yeah.

20:15But, but again, too, is to see everything, you know, technology, you know, everybody wants something.

20:20Now we've got robots.

20:21We've got things like that.

20:22You still have to have that person make the food.

20:24Yep.

20:25Okay.

20:25And consistency is huge.

20:28Visuals are great.

20:29And again, PopMenu does a really good job for us.

20:31What's your one, what's your one piece of advice to the restaurant owner that's watching this piece of content?

20:36What could, what can they do better in 2022, 2026 and beyond?

20:39Well, I, you know, I think obviously people talk about AI.

20:42A lot of talk about AI.

20:43A little bit, a little bit.

20:45A lot, a lot.

20:46It's all over the place.

20:46I see it as a real opportunity for us.

20:48I was telling somebody yesterday when we started the business, we used to have this slide and it had like

20:51this pie chart.

20:52It had like 1500 tiny logos of different restaurant tech and marketing options.

20:58And the point was the restaurants, there's so much to choose from.

21:01They didn't know they needed somebody to help them weed through the noise.

21:03Yeah.

21:03I think AI is presenting that same opportunity.

21:06What we say or what I would tell every restaurant is you, you can't afford to not at least be

21:10learning about it and experimenting with it.

21:13And you can do something really simple.

21:14That's very powerful, which is use it to help you generate more content so that your social posting is more

21:19consistent, that your emails are more targeted.

21:22So I think that's the thing I would tell them is that it doesn't have to be scary.

21:26Find the right partner who can simplify it for you and take easy baby steps.

21:29You'll learn very quickly and then you'll start to accelerate that.

21:32And I think it'll have a massive impact.

21:34I think for a small operator, you can now produce the same or better content, faster, cheaper, more efficiently than

21:40somebody who's got a large marketing team that's competing for, you know, your, your customer's attention.

21:46And for a large operator like Ed, it's like, well, he probably, you know, not everyone can afford to hire

21:5010 more marketing people or 10 more people.

21:52And so he can hire two or three and then use tools to make them very efficient.

21:57So I think either way, whether you're a small operator or a larger operator, it allows you to do more

22:00with less.

22:01And so my biggest thing would be start learning and experimenting and take easy steps like content creation.

22:06I think that's a great way to go.

22:08So we spent all of Friday at Google offices here.

22:11Shout out to Lisa Lansman.

22:13But when we think of social posting, I'm someone that's obsessed with obviously Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube for all the

22:19platforms.

22:19But do not sleep and do not forget that Google, the OG platform, allows you to post as a restaurant.

22:25Please post.

22:27AI will crawl those posts.

22:28It is very, it is almost more important to be posting there because if you do an Instagram story, it

22:32disappears.

22:33On Google posts, it doesn't disappear.

22:34So just a shout out to Google.

22:36We take Google for granted.

22:38It's been in our lives for so long that we forget about it.

22:41One of the first integrations we did was Google My Business on Google Business Profile.

22:47And so one of the things is, it's a great point.

22:50Like, why don't people do that?

22:51Well, they forget or it's hard or it's whatever.

22:54We forget.

22:54We just take it for granted.

22:55It's Google.

22:56You're like, ah, my Google business page is fine.

22:58No, it's probably not.

22:59Like, we got to prioritize it.

23:01It's only fine if you check in on it.

23:03Yeah.

23:03Well, it's a big, so why do we do that integration?

23:05Part of it is it's a big signal.

23:06You know, I'm sure you've asked them this and everybody asks Google, like, how does this map ranking work?

23:12You know, this person with less stars is above me and this and that.

23:16A big part of it is freshness of content.

23:18Yep.

23:18And so why we did that was so when you make a menu update or you make an announcement or

23:22whatever it is, in pop menu, it flows directly into your Google profile.

23:25And then you don't have to think about that.

23:27And that's what we keep replicating is where it's like, as consumer attention is more and more and more fragmented,

23:34insane,

23:34how much more fragmented it is than even 10 years ago, you've got to be in front of them in

23:39all of these different places and all of these different channels.

23:42You can't do that by just going to each one.

23:43Correct.

23:44You know, and so we just keep trying to build that efficiency where it's like one message.

23:48You got to get a, you got to get an LTO out, an LQO, whatever it is, put it in,

23:53put it in pop menu.

23:54And then it goes to your Google profile.

23:57That's awesome.

23:57And it goes out on social, goes out on email, goes out on text.

23:59That is awesome.

24:00We've launched a consumer app, which, you know, whether you need a consumer app or not for your operation depends

24:07a lot on your operation.

24:08But one thing is it's an ownable communication channel.

24:10And so you can decide how and when you are messaging people through it.

24:14And there's no extra cost like there is with texting, et cetera.

24:16And so it's like what the great state will be, I have a thing that I need to say to

24:22the market.

24:22And it just gets out there and it hits all of these different channels in this super fragmented, you know,

24:28kind of world.

24:29Well, we appreciate you guys for allowing us to have an honest conversation.

24:32Like, I hope other tech leaders and other professionals realize how powerful it is to have people like Ed close.

24:39You got to be close to the problems.

24:41You got to get out there.

24:42Got to get inside restaurants, come to shows like this.

24:44We really appreciate it.

24:45We're going to put links, Ed, to your guys' social handle.

24:47I look forward to come visiting your restaurants, having some pizza.

24:51Thank you, gentlemen, for inviting us here.

24:53This is an annual tradition.

24:54Yeah.

24:55So thank you for the hospitality.

24:56We appreciate it.

24:57But as always, guys, you can reach out to me.

24:59I'm weirdly available at Sean P.

25:01Wellchef, Instagram, LinkedIn, all the platforms.

25:03We will put links to Pop Menu and to Pizza King.

25:06Please follow them.

25:07Please connect with them.

25:08And as always, stay curious, get involved, and don't be afraid to ask for help.

25:11We'll catch you next episode.

25:17Thank you for listening.

25:18If you've made it this long, you are part of the community.

25:21You're part of the tribe.

25:22We can't do this alone.

25:23We started.

25:24No one was listening.

25:25Now we have a community of digital hospitality leaders all over the globe.

25:29Please check out our new series called Restaurant Technology Substack.

25:33It's a Substack newsletter.

25:35It's free.

25:35It's some of our deep work on the best technology for restaurants.

25:39Also, go to YouTube and subscribe to Cali BBQ Media.

25:43Cali BBQ Media on YouTube.

25:44We've been putting out a lot of new original content.

25:47Hopefully, you guys like that content.

25:49If you want to work with us, go to BeTheShow.media.

25:52We show up all over the United States, some international countries.

25:55We would love to work with you and your growing brand on digital storytelling.

25:59You can reach out to me anytime at Sean P. Wellchef on Instagram.

26:03I'm weirdly available.

26:04Stay curious.

26:05Get involved.

26:06Don't be afraid to ask for help.

26:07We'll catch you next episode.

26:08We'll catch you next episode.

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