Podcasts about five guys burgers

This week, the guys are having a heck of a Friday as they're recording together in person after teaming up to take on Five Guys. Don't worry, no fisticuffs preceded this episode as they were together taking down Five Guys Burgers and Fries. Still, it's a hefty load to bear! Their lunch date leads to discussions about what lunch looks like for each of them and how often they go to lunch. The guys also have a shared murder mystery experience to discuss, as well as some other exciting happenings. So, did Evan crack the case, or was Josh the man for the job? And what other shenanigans will happen in the middle of their in-person recording? Listen in to find out! And as always, there are Fact of the Week, "sticking it to the man," and This Day in Hear-story tidbits for your listening pleasure.

In this powerful episode of Unstoppable Mindset, I sit down with Raheem Lindsey, a man whose life journey defies the odds. Born three months premature and raised in a challenging environment shaped by his mother's drug addiction, foster care, abuse, and incarceration, Raheem shares how faith and purpose led him to become a minister and founder of Relentless Living Online Ministries.   Raheem walks us through the transformative power of self-reflection, accountability, and a deep commitment to servant leadership. He introduces his "Relentless Living Pyramid"—Consumer, Service, Leadership—as a model for turning personal pain into purpose. His message: don't chase money, chase purpose, because purpose leaves a legacy.   Michael and Raheem explore how faith becomes the anchor in moments of doubt and how seeing past our circumstances can help us step into leadership. Today, Raheem is transitioning from construction to full-time ministry and speaking, using his story to inspire others to lead with empathy and serve where they've been broken and healed.   Listeners are encouraged to connect with Raheem at raheemlindsey81@gmail.com or via his Relentless Living YouTube channel.   Tune in for an unforgettable conversation that proves anyone—no matter their start—can lead an unstoppable life of service and significance.     About the Guest:   Hello, I'm RaHeem Lindsey, which means "merciful one" or "one who establishes a deep connection." I'm 43 years old, born on August 12th. I'm a father of three, husband, entrepreneur, and servant of God. My purpose is to please God and serve His people. I believe life is not about personal gain, but about serving and impacting others. As a follower of Jesus Christ, I strive to make a positive difference in the world. Growing up, I faced significant challenges. My father was murdered when I was 15, and I overcame foster care after experiencing abuse at a young age. Despite these difficulties, I'm grateful for my journey and the lessons I've learned. I come from a humble background, raised by a single mother in government housing. However, I've learned to see these experiences as opportunities for growth and blessing. My story is one of resilience and determination. As an empath, servant, student, and leader, my goal is to impact the world in the name of Christ Jesus. I'm driven to serve others and make a positive difference. I love and bless everyone, and I'm grateful for the opportunity to share my story.   Ways to connect with RaHeem:   https://youtube.com/@rltalkrelentlesslivingglob7210?si=0Km3z7m7Ie_e2Ul4 https://open.spotify.com/show/5Mr5x2456rf31d7R36bfmv?si=ZUCs8yBaSJG664vFeuHoCQ https://www.instagram.com/relen_tlessliving?igsh=aW53b3RhcXc1ZWFv&utm_source=qr     About the Host:   Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog.   Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards.   https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/   accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/ https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/       Thanks for listening!   Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below!   Subscribe to the podcast   If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can subscribe in your favorite podcast app. You can also support our podcast through our tip jar https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/unstoppable-mindset .   Leave us an Apple Podcasts review   Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts.       Transcription Notes: Michael Hingson ** 00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us.   Michael Hingson ** 01:17 Hi everyone, and welcome to another episode of unstoppable mindset. And today, by my standards, we have a guest who really is unstoppable. You know, one of the things that I hear regularly from people who talk to me about my own experiences of being in the World Trade Center is it's amazing what you went through and how you survived, and you're resilient and all that. I don't think tend to think a whole lot about that. I understand what people are saying, but our guest today, RaHeem Lindsay, I think, has a much more resilient and unstoppable story than I do. A lot of people might disagree, but that's okay. We're both we're both unstoppable, and I think most people are more unstoppable than they think they are. It's just that we tend to underrate ourselves. But we're going to hear a great story today, and I know Raheem has got a lot to tell us. So Rahim, let's start by welcoming you to unstoppable mindset.   RaHeem Lindsey ** 02:18 Thank you, Michael, such a pleasure and an honor to be a guest on your podcast. It's really an honor. I couldn't believe that you actually have reached out to me when you did. I was like, Really, I'm just very flattered, because just to have to have accomplished the feats that you have, and yourself you're you're a definition of relentless living, which is the name of my online ministry, relentless living, refusing to take no for an answer. You know, seeing life's obstacles as opportunities, things of that nature, right? That that resilience, that that that grit, that fortitude, that we all have, but we have to be willing to embrace in order to go forward in life,   Michael Hingson ** 03:01 right? I agree. Well, tell me, what? What does Raheem   RaHeem Lindsey ** 03:05 mean? It means merciful.   Michael Hingson ** 03:09 There you go. Yes, sir, you're, you're committed, right from the name,   RaHeem Lindsey ** 03:14 yes, absolutely yes. And it's funny that you asked that, Michael, because in totality, so Raheem, Lamar Lindsay, so in totality, it means Merciful One, one who establishes a deep connection, which very well fits me, defines me to a T cool   Michael Hingson ** 03:31 well, and I'm really looking forward to hearing a lot more about that. Why don't we start by you telling us a little bit about kind of the early Raheem, growing up and and I know that that's an integral part of your story, is you get a little bit older, if you will. But tell us about you growing up and all that.   RaHeem Lindsey ** 03:49 Okay, so Raheem growing up, I like to tell individuals, friends, etc, that I am, I'm I'm well, I'm well, diverse when it comes to my my growing up as a young man into adulthood, I have a mixed upbringing. I was raised with my mother, right? And then I was actually, let's start here. I was born in Houston, Texas. I left there as an infant, okay, and as a infant, I was hospitalized because I was born premature at six months years old. I mean, at six months old, rather, what did you weigh? I weighed, oh, my goodness. Oh, I was about six, so I six pounds or so. Was that   Michael Hingson ** 04:41 I was born premature about two months, and I weighed two pounds, 13 ounces, so I was a little   RaHeem Lindsey ** 04:47 Okay, and it might be less than that, actually, just to be honest with you, Michael, it's been quite some time I would have to ask my mother   Michael Hingson ** 04:54 you don't remember, huh?   RaHeem Lindsey ** 04:57 But, but long story short. Up, though, and that's really amazing that we have, that that's another connection that we have, as well as being, you know, individuals that are resilient, that are relentless, right? And so I was hospitalized in the incubator for the first, I believe, what two months of my life, I had to be fed through an IV in my head, actually. So it was, it was very, was a very tough   Michael Hingson ** 05:24 time for you. Were one of those people who lost eyesight because you were in an incubator.   RaHeem Lindsey ** 05:30 Oh, my goodness. So yours is. Your journey has been from birth, right? Okay, wow, wow. Come on. Wow.   Michael Hingson ** 05:41 You know, the the issue is that medical science, when I was born, wasn't ready to believe although some doctors were starting to recognize it and say it, but most doctors were not ready to admit that even too much oxygen could be a bad thing. And the result was that the retina didn't develop properly. But that didn't happen for everyone, but they also eventually did figure it out. And so a lot of times, children aren't necessarily given an absolute pure oxygen environment nowadays for 24 hours a day, just depends on what they weigh and what's needed, and it can still be that a person could lose eyesight if they're in an incubator with a pure oxygen environment. But medical science understands it a lot more now. So it doesn't happen like it did back in the 1950s where we actually because of the number of premature births, lower the age, the average age of blind people from 67 to 65 years just because of premature birth.   RaHeem Lindsey ** 06:43 Interesting. Okay, wow.   Michael Hingson ** 06:47 So anyway, you were so you were put in an incubator   RaHeem Lindsey ** 06:50 for a while. Yes, no, I was put in incubator for a while. And so I went through that opportunity of resilience. It started at a young age for us both, right? I don't want to say an issue. I don't like to really use that word. I say opportunities for growth and development, right? Because while we might have had an area of concern, let's say that it, it enabled us in other ways, right? It made us more resilient, more more built for the race, right to go forth in the future, right? So that's awesome. So in the incubator, and then raised with my mother, of course, up until the age of seven. Right now, here's my life begins to take a another dramatic turn. My mother, at the time, was battling a crack addiction. God bless her heart, okay, and but much respect to her. I never lost not one ounce of respect for her, because she always remained a mother to me, even over even, you know, facing those odds, right, facing the the adversity of that she still remained a mother, and I appreciate that. And so with my mother, while being a Christian woman, a woman of faith, as I am, a Christian man myself, she was still, she was a believer, but also still in the world, not fully transitioned, as most of us have. We all go through that time in our lives where we're still, you know, trying to make that full transition. And matter of fact, honestly, we will always be in the event, in the race of transition throughout our entire lives, because we'll never have it fully correct, or know everything for that matter, right? So anyhow, my mother, she was following a crack addiction at the moment, and so I had a family member that ended up calling Child Protective Services on my mother, an older cousin, so I ended up going into the foster care system. I was in the foster care system for a round just under a year, I'd say, seven to eight months during this time while in the foster care system, I was beaten and molested, all while staying right next door to a cousin. But at the time, I'm only seven, going into eight years old, right? So for me, as much as I wanted to reach out and I wanted to make this known, I felt, I felt conflicted once again, I'm still an adolescent, right? I'm still a child,   Michael Hingson ** 09:49 yeah, so you don't have the tools yet to really deal with that.   RaHeem Lindsey ** 09:54 Absolutely, yes, exactly, not having the tools yet necessary to deal with that. Certain. Stance. So I was very reclusive, and I never mentioned it to anyone. So about let me see seven, eight months was my stay there, my aunt Andrea, my great aunt, ended up getting custody of me, which is my mother's aunt, my great aunt, etc, end up getting custody of me. Now, once again, mentioning my mother was always in a very deep rooted transition, both battling addiction and just her personal life itself, and also being a woman of faith. So my mother, my upbringing with her was not as structured as, say, it should have been, but I grew up, my mother cared and she was very hands on, but yet and still, she was a single parent, and so I somebody grew up in in the streets a bit, if you will, okay,   Michael Hingson ** 11:06 your father wasn't around at all. No,   RaHeem Lindsey ** 11:08 my father was not around at all. Okay. And funny story mentioning the father, he was in my life up until about four years old, and then my mother and him had separated, and they were, you know, in other relationships, whatever have you. And I went to visit him. One day, my mother took me to visit him, and he asked me, Hey, who's your dad? Now, me not having a normal, typical, constant relationship of seeing him on a regular basis. I say my mother, I mean my wife. I mean, I'm sorry, my mother's boyfriend at the time and so kind of all hell broke loose with that. He wanted nothing else to do with me. Keep in mind, I'm only four at the time, right? So from that point, yes, so from that point forward, he was out of my life. Okay? So now we fast forward back again to getting in custody with my aunt. My aunt has gained custody of me after getting out of the foster home. So with my aunt, my aunt Andrea, my great aunt, with her, the home is very structured. It's just me and her, her only child, which is my older cousin, Todd. He's in the Air Force, whatever have you. He's in his mid 20s at the time. Okay, okay, and so it's just me and my aunt Andre so with her very structured. Sunday church, Sunday evening church, Wednesday, youth night church, if church was open, we were attending. And it wasn't enough to just attend. We had to be operating. We had to be serving in some capacity. So I was involved in, you know, the youth crowd, any and everything that had to do where we could serve in the church we were doing it. And so that helps create kind of a illustration, if you will, a visual of who Rahim is. I am, both one who is street smart, also one of I love to seek Intel. I love to read. I am a avid reader, so forth and so on. That was very much encouraged within the household with my aunt, so she very much stressed those areas. I was made to memorize Scripture and so forth in her household, things of that nature. Got involved in activities outside of school, baseball, things of that nature. So that helps bring you to who I am today, as of relentless living. To kind of give you a a quick synopsis, if you will, because I know we know we like to talk about some other topics and so forth, but that gives you a bit of my background and who I am. So I tell people I'm very textured, for that matter.   Michael Hingson ** 14:07 So what, what did you do, school wise? Then, once you were growing up,   RaHeem Lindsey ** 14:14 school wise. So I, you know, went through, you know, the elementary and so forth, as everyone else does. I ended up dropping out my 11th no my senior year, I dropped out. Reason being, I was working, obtained a full time job, and I was kind of in that time as most of us are exploring the world, getting to know myself as a young man and a young adult, if you will. So there's the girl aspect, right? Then there's, you know, hey, rahims, now I have a job, so I'm bringing in my own finances. So I. Have responsibility of self, and also being back in the presence of my mother, because my mother gained custody of me again after about three to four years with my aunt. So she battled, she overcame her crack addiction and also regained custody of me. So kudos to her. So being back in the presence of my mother, she always instilled responsibility upon me. She's very big on that, so I'll be responsible for, say, a particular bill. Maybe it was the electricity bill. Obviously, not as high as they are now, right? The economy's changed. Their face changed. So not as much, right? Now we're talking, you know, hundreds of dollars, you know, when then it was like, you know, hey, maybe you know, 150 you know, for light bill. No big deal. So, and those things just helped me to learn about responsibility at a early age as a young man, setting me up also for future success, I will say, so school, so I dropped out. Like I said, 12th grade year I was I got in a little bit of trouble. I always had a great head on my shoulder. Always had great values and morale. But as we all know, bad nature or Bad company corrupts good nature, Bad company corrupts good nature. And so it is not enough to simply do well on your own. It was never meant for us to do anything simply on our own, because you can't be great alone. It takes a team. It takes a strategic alliance of a group of individuals. It may be somewhat semi minute. It could be Lacher, depending upon the need and the desire and the the vision itself. But you cannot be great yourself. It takes a team. And so I tended to I would do well for such a period of time, I was always very much into church, but then there's that street side of Raheem, and I have some street friends, so therefore I would find myself regressing, or rather, let's say, digressing, from the progress that I've made because of my choice of friends. Now, not all of them were in the streets, per se. Others were doing well and focused on the future and doing an accomplishing great things on the positive note. But there's that conflict, right? I've got this internal conflict because my homeboys, you know, and so forth from my mother's end of, you know, the spectrum, you know, we're in the streets, we're products of the environment, right? And it's very easy to become a product of your environment, and then also to get to a point where you sever some of those relationships, not because that's so you're too good, because you've outgrown such a thing, and you've been outside of the environment. So if you see better, logically and hopefully, we will then do better. So it was conflicted, so I I got in a bit of trouble, you know, throughout my childhood and and young adulthood, from, I say, at the time of 14 to, oh goodness, mid 20s, maybe about 2627 I would, you know, I do well, and then I would have a issue, you know, with the law. You know, I was, there was times when I was younger, I know, broken into homes, things of that nature, and it would be quite, I wouldn't even say, like, quite unexpected to those who knew me and had relationships with me, because I was, I was a great person. I really was, you know, good morale, good values, things of that nature, but when I got around the wrong company, then there we have it. Now, Rahim is no longer who I know to be, but I'm who I was, or the tainted version of Raheem, and not the more fulfilled, better version of Raheem, for lack of better terms. So I went through, you know, in and out the system for a while. You know, I've been in on the in the county jails. I've did a year in the penitentiary at one point in time. But I saw this to say, for anyone that has battled such things, no matter what it is, Do not despise it, because, because, because of those situations, it has helped make me who I am today. So I'm able to help other individuals who have battled or in the same storms as I face and I stand today before you as a victor, victorious over those. Circumstances, adverse situations and so forth and so what nearly killed me is situations for yourself. Michael, what nearly you know killed you things that you thought were nearly impossible to get out of, challenges that we face, so much adversity, that caused so much pain, that caused us to have to be resilient because we had no other choice. Right, right? What nearly killed us. Now we can reach back and bring life unto others, because we were able to overcome it, but I have to go here because me, being a man of faith, I will say, not by our power nor our strength, but by God's Spirit. Thus saith the Lord, because of that, because ourselves, we're not capable of such things on our own. We're just not it would be insane to think that we could do the things that we have accomplished, and furthermore that we will accomplish going forward without a divine entity, without divine help, because some things are simply limited to the the carnal existence of   Michael Hingson ** 21:05 being, did you ever, did you ever finish high school?   RaHeem Lindsey ** 21:09 I Okay. So, great question. Michael, so when I was in the penitentiary for a year, I actually ended up getting my GED. So I was, I came up. I had the mindset like, you know, what, if I want to be here, I'm going to, I'm going to go ahead and I'm going to use the system against itself. So, okay, I'm going to be here. You will pay for my education. I'm going to better myself while I'm here. I'm not going to, you know, be depressed and be in this, this slump of a mind state and existence of being No, I want to better myself and come out with a vengeance to succeed and be a better version of Rahim. Rahim, 2.0   Michael Hingson ** 21:48 Did you? Did you ever go into college after you got out of the penitentiary and all that?   RaHeem Lindsey ** 21:53 Absolutely, yes, I did. I did not finish, not because I could not, not because I didn't have the intellect, just simply I didn't have the motivation to stay in tune with it, because and now seeing Hindsight is 2020, it wasn't my purpose. Wasn't connected to my purpose, added value to who I am. It helped me to find my purpose, but it wasn't my purpose. So I ended up going to college for Business Administration for a little under a year, Phoenix University, online, okay? And then another time I went for personal training. I've always been a fitness head, so forth and so on. So I love you know, to have, you know, a good overall health, along with, you know, a good mindset, so forth, mind, body, spirit, right,   Michael Hingson ** 22:47 right. So what did you do then, from a job or profession standpoint, to support yourself?   RaHeem Lindsey ** 22:57 Okay? So throughout those times, a lot of times, I delved in sales. I'm very much a people person, so being a store manager at one point in time of GNC, okay, telemarketing, oh, my God, an array of things usually having to do with retail. Because, like I said, once again, I'm very much a people person. I'm an introvert, but I'm a, I mean, I'm an extrovert, but I'm an introvert. When it comes to my issues, I don't share a lot of my issues with   Michael Hingson ** 23:31 individuals. That's fine. Okay, so you did, you did a lot of sales, and yes, and I think that's a very honorable profession, having been in sales for many years in my life as well. Okay, what did sales teach you? What did what did you? How did it help you grow as an individual?   RaHeem Lindsey ** 23:54 Sales taught me how to be a great consumer. Because in order to be a great salesman, you need to consume the needs of others. What's why, who, when, where. I love that I will, I will say in part, I learned from GNC, because when you're trying to sell, I don't sell. I like to build relationships and a rapport. So henceforth, once again, the who, what, who, what, why, when, where. Why are you doing these things? What are you doing this for? When do you plan on achieving the goal that you want? Etc, etc. So being a great consumer helps you to be a great salesman, because then you make it personal when you ask these questions.   Michael Hingson ** 24:48 Well, yeah. And you also learn how to be a good communicator if you're doing a decent job,   RaHeem Lindsey ** 24:55 yes, as well, absolutely.   Michael Hingson ** 25:00 I unexpectedly ended up going into sales, but I've learned those same basic tenants and those same basic things. And the reality is, you learn to be a good communicator, and you also learn that ultimately, good sales people really don't sell anything. First of all, the customers really got to want to buy it. And the good sales people guide customers to find what it is they really need. And I know I've had situations where my product wouldn't do what the customer wanted, and the last thing I would want to do would be to and I probably could have done it, convince them to buy my product anyway, even though it might not do everything, because I knew that come back to bite me.   RaHeem Lindsey ** 25:46 Yes, absolutely. Michael, I so concur. Um, touching on that real quick. So exactly the same thing with me, right? I would never sell a individual on something just because it was the item of the week, so to speak, right? We would have conference calls, and so we have, you know, one item, maybe two items, for the week that were the main point of sale, make sure that we're pushing this item to each and every customer, while I would offer that I was more in tune and cared about what they needed and what they wanted. So those questions we spoke about briefly here just a moment ago. And so by doing that, as you said, you develop a rapport and trust. They trust you now because they know that you're just you're just not going to give them any product, sell them any product just for the sake of the monetary gain, but we want you to get what you truly need. We want to make sure that your needs are met, and so they'll come back. And that's how you establish, you know, long term Jeopardy and long term relationships with customers, and then customers become friends clients, and there you have it, and that's how you know, you establish it and build from there. Absolutely what you said.   Michael Hingson ** 27:09 Did you ever have situations where your boss is wanting you to sell a product and you knew that it wasn't going to be what a particular customer wanted? Did you ever have some discussions or conversations with your bosses about that kind of thing.   RaHeem Lindsey ** 27:24 Did I ever have a conversation with them about that indirect, indirectly, that usually it went over well, once again, it's not about what you say, but it's how you say it, right? Michael, so I would say, what ifs what if I have a customer that is not in need of this particular product, but I mentioned it to them, so I'm still doing my job, right? I'm still doing as directed by the superiors. So I'm asking, What do you think about this product? Now, here's the funny thing, though, when we're dealing with, you know, GNC, right? So it's vitamins. There's a lot of things that compliment the other so sometimes, while not really pushing that specifically, I would say, hey, based upon your needs. I recommend this, but just so happens only if it was applicable, this product here will enhance your will enhance the results that you're looking for. And so I would present that to my superiors, my manager, because I was a store manager myself at my own store. So I would present that to them, and they would say, okay, Raheem, Hey, as long as you're, you know, mentioning the product, and you are pushing the product, to some extent, that's fine, okay, so that ended up working out for me, right?   Michael Hingson ** 29:03 So how long did you sell for? GNC?   RaHeem Lindsey ** 29:06 Ah, GNC, I sold for a little over a year. I enjoyed that. That's one of my favorite jobs. One of my most favorite jobs that I've ever had was GNC, just being able to serve. Being able to serve Michael is my thing. I find myself when I'm not able to serve others, I'm not content, right? I'm not I don't feel miserable at times, because I really live to serve. I have the heart of a servant.   Michael Hingson ** 29:41 So what did you do after GNC?   RaHeem Lindsey ** 29:43 After GNC, let's see here, after GNC, I was in restaurant for a minute. Worked at Five Guys Burgers as a store manager there. Also I'm an entrepreneur. I started. In a fried ice cream business? Yes, absolutely. So fried ice cream the first of its kind, right? Ever put into pints and gallons? Okay, so I started that myself back in 2017 the funny way that that even came about was I had lost my job building house trusts. Okay, so I've also done construction, which I'm in now. Currently, I do construction. I do concrete right now, but in this season of time, at the age that I am, I'll be 44 in August, everything is about purpose. Everything is about purpose. And I feel the Lord definitely pulling me more into that direction and being more in tune with that. So henceforth, opportunities like this to be on this podcast, this is in alignment with purpose. But anyhow, so 2017 I started the ice cream. I fried ice cream led me into being into retail for myself. I was in the mall twice. I had a few partnerships with a few local restaurants and so forth and so on. I was supposed to be on food, carnival foods, but I ended up missing that. I had a Oh my God, has some meaning of some sort. I end up missing that. So I fried ice cream was actually supposed to be on Carnival foods on Food Network. So we make quite a bit of feats and accomplishments with that. So there's that. And then I've also, like I said, the construction, telemarketing, my gosh, what else have I done? Probably more sales. And like I said, most recent, I'm in concrete construction. I've been doing that over the last three years, and so that kind of brings you to current but I'm kind of growing quite weary of it, just because I know that I have a story, I have a message. There's some things that God has put on my heart to teach as a minister, as a servant, as an evangelist, so many things that that that wrap up and make up Raheem, I don't put one title on myself, because the Lord has allowed Me and enabled me to be many things due to what I've endured throughout my life, has given me that, you know, variation of existence.   Michael Hingson ** 32:31 So, so tell me more about what you're looking at in terms of being an evangelist and so on, what you're what you're moving toward, and what you think you're   RaHeem Lindsey ** 32:40 going to do. So Well, I'll say, you know, right now, over the last, oh, my god, probably see three, three going, Whoa. No, four years. Let's say four years. Online ministry has been my go to my YouTube channel. Very much, relentless living online ministries where, you know, I do reels, so forth and so on. Really wanting to, I want to do much more than just give a word, but in today's society, you kind of draw them in more with the short term, you know, short term memory is very, very dominant anymore. We're not as much as consumers as we once were. And I think that's just due to the the way of, you know, the AIS and technology and so forth. It's made mankind a bit lazy if you let, if you let. Now, it's also very innovative and creative. And it challenges us to go further in our you know, our mindset, our cerebral capacity and so forth. So it can make you lazy if you allow it. By the same time, it can challenge you and allow you to express yourself in new ways and insight and creativity if you let it, such as myself, yourself, others, etc. So, but just you know, teaching others how to understand the word more, also giving, showing truth and Revelation through the word that applies to your everyday life, that will inspire, that will encourage and edify you, and then also helping you to be able to build business from it, which I've done and and and coaching and things of that nature. It's such a variation of it, but all stemming from what I shared earlier, which is, well, I didn't completely share, but I like to call it my relentless living pyramid. And the base of it is being a consumer. The middle of it servant in the peak is leadership, being a leader, but the most important is being a great consumer, because in order to be a great leader, he was first be a great consumer. Take in the needs, evaluate the. Needs of others. Do an assessment, if you will, right. And then, based upon that, we can better serve who are. Demographic is our tribe is right. And then, as we prove ourselves, we develop a rapport, friendships, so forth and so on. And now there's trust, and when there's trust, people allow you to lead them. And then, in order to remain a great leader, I like to call a servant leader, because the greatest leaders are servant leaders, because a great leader has to be a servant to remain a leader. And so you repeat that process in order to remain relevant, whether it's in marriage, business school, you name it, the relentless living pyramid applies for every facet of life. So in that space alone allows me I see myself speaking engagements, coaching, leadership, development. There's so much that comes from that space and that pyramid, because it applies to everything. And I've been through a lot, if I haven't been through it myself. Personally, I know someone close to me who has so that's the great thing about acknowledging and knowing from what you've come from and not despising it, but instead seeing that as a vehicle of momentum, as long as you have changed and learn from your mistakes, right to become better, that is actually added value, because now you can teach others where you did not fail at because you got through it. So remember that God brings you to it. To bring you through it, the storm that you face today is not to kill you. It's not to stop you, but it's meant to propel you. Because you are eagles. We are eagles. Eagles fly a fly with the storm. They fly towards the storm and use the momentum of the storm to carry them into the next destiny, step, destination for us, purpose. So do not see the storm as a opposition. See it as a opportunity for growth, development, pruning so   Michael Hingson ** 37:26 you you emphasize faith a lot. Yes, tell me. Tell me more about faith and what how you define it. And another question I would ask is, what role do you believe that faith plays in discovering your purpose? Okay? A lot of questions   RaHeem Lindsey ** 37:44 there. Okay, okay, okay, yes, absolutely, okay. I'll start the last one because that because I remember that one best. So okay, what role does faith play in finding purpose? Correct? Michael, yeah, okay, so I'll start with this. I guess maybe I could call it my mantra for relentless living ministries. And this will sum it up. And then I will go into more in depth, live in pursuit of your God given purpose, and then you will find life and life more abundantly. But how do you find your purpose? Okay, so how do you find your purpose? I want to start here. I believe you for myself speaking, I believe you have to incorporate God, because how can you find purpose if you do not include the One who created you with a purpose for himself, I believe is the purpose. So now further going, going even more in depth, finding purpose, going through the obstacles, going through the storms. So me going through being in the system as a adult, a young adult, me going through being in the foster care system as a child. Me going through being beaten and molested. Me going through being the black sheep of the family. Me going through at times, being deserted, okay, sometimes not being liked, not because of who I am, but because of who I am, because of a light that is in me, because of my faith, because of my belief, right? So being facing the facing the trials and the tribulations. Each and everything that you face and that you overcome helps establish you into walking into your divine purpose. I believe that your divine purpose is based upon everything that you have overcome, because most of us, and matter of fact, I can almost guarantee all of us in some way, shape or form, what we have gone through has helped shape our future. It's inevitable what we go through helps to shape our future. That's why decisions are so important. The decisions that we make today will affect our tomorrow. So everything that I've gone through in my past has. Purposed me to be able to help those that are in the same situation that I face, to help them overcome. Like I said, What nearly killed us will nearly kill the individuals that will be watching this podcast that they've endured, the trials, the hardship carrying their own cross, if you will. But yet they survive. Yet they're victorious. It's a reason why you're victorious. So you have to become what you were meant to say. So to speak for those that are you know men and women of faith, everybody knows Jesus, our Lord and Savior. Okay, I'll just go. I'm just going to go here. Scripture says, He who was, I'm sorry, He who knew no sin became sin. You have to become what you want to overcome. You have to go through what you are meant to overcome. Because if you don't endure it, you can't overcome it. There is no testimony without the test going here, being chosen, right? And being chosen, I believe, is part of purpose, because you're chosen for a something we're chosen for a someone you know in marriage, right? There's a someone we're chosen for that we choose, they choose us. So everyone wants to be chosen. Everyone wants to be the one, until they find out how much it cost, because to be chosen, it will cost you something, and it will cost you everything. To be chosen, it's cost you a lot, Michael, to be the man who you are today. It didn't just drop off the sky to you. Wasn't just fed to you. You had to endure some things, some hardships, some struggles, but you turned them into opportunities. Nonetheless. This is why you stand here today as the strong man that you are, because you never gave up. You remained relentless in the face of adversity.   Michael Hingson ** 42:04 So how do people learn to recognize that, and learn to recognize whether they're making the right choices?   RaHeem Lindsey ** 42:12 Okay, great question. So how do people learn to recognize that? I think the recognition is easy when we take ourselves out of the equation, and we look at it from a broader scope. And stop looking at why me, like in the, in the in the in the victim perspective, and think, Why me so the why me. The second why me is, why am I enduring this? There has to be a reason for this. Now, some things are self inflicted, and some things happen. Life happens. But even within that, there's always a lesson to be learned. Always lesson to be learned if we want to evolve now the lessons there, whether we like it or not, but we have to choose to want to see it, or we can be naive and we can neglect the fact that this has happened, and we can play the victim in every world and every role. Or we can choose to see that, hey, I'm victorious. I did overcome this, whether it's self inflicted or just life happened. But the easy way to know about these things are, I think every experience will increase the knowledge of the knowing.   Michael Hingson ** 43:33 But what I'm getting at, I think, is that in reality, until you are willing to stop and analyze and look at what you're doing, look at what's happened, look at why it's happened, and listen to your inner voice, if you will. Yes, that guides you until you're willing to do all of that, it's really very difficult to find out what your purpose ought to be or how you should proceed, and that's the thing that most people don't do, is take the time to be self analytical.   RaHeem Lindsey ** 44:10 Come on, absolutely. Michael, I agree 100% Absolutely. We don't take the time to be self analytical, and that it takes, it takes courage to do that, because sometimes we don't want to look at the reflection that's in the mirror. We brother, you know, cast the, you know, the judgment or the the you know, it's someone else's fault, play someone else at fault, the situation's fault. Oh, you know, I'm always, you know, the innocent one, but yet, at most times, if we're really honest with ourselves, we are our own worst enemy, and it's very unfortunate, and so that's why it's very necessary to confront ourselves on a daily basis and hold ourselves accountable. It so that we can have positive growth and development, because where there's accountability, there's also confrontation, whether it's with yourself or can be with others. Now, confrontation is good. There's good confrontation and bad confrontation, but ultimately, confrontation is good, because confrontation there has to be something confronted, and so something is a dress, then we cannot, we can't cover we can't we can't address it unless it's been spoken of, unless it's been, you know, brung up, right? We have to address it. So with that comes, you know, the accountability, and so accountability requires being uncomfortable   Michael Hingson ** 45:52 Well, or it requires that you recognize that there are lessons to be learned Absolutely, and you go out and recognize that you're going to be your best teacher and that you need to learn them. How do people overcome self doubt when they're when they're going through life and so on? How do you how do you get beyond all the self doubt? I think we've talked about it some, but, you know, I'm curious to see if you want to add   RaHeem Lindsey ** 46:17 to that absolutely, I'd love to Michael, so overcoming self doubt at some point in time in life, and there's been a few times, for every single individual, you have overcame something that you thought was nearly impossible, because if you, if you didn't, each and every one of us wouldn't be where we are today. Now. We could all be, obviously, maybe doing a bit better, but could always be a lot worse. So we discover so I lost print thought, repeat that one more time. I'm so sorry, Michael.   Michael Hingson ** 46:55 I was just asking how people deal with and how do you overcome self doubt to be able to advance and move forward.   RaHeem Lindsey ** 47:01 Okay, so overcome this self doubt. Remember that you know what. I have to go. I have to go here. I have to go here. Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world? This is how I help myself, and I hope that it helps all of us. It will help all of us say that once more, Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world? Okay? So you get some people, may, you know, it might be the inner voice for me, it's God, Jesus, you know, he's the wrong. Same thing, okay, same thing, right? What does the inner voice say about you? What does God say about you? You are fearfully and wonderfully made in God's image. See the this thing here, the flesh, the carnality, will always feed you the lies, because you'll always see just what is in front of you. But the inner voice is what gives you vision, right? So when you have vision, when you're looking outside the physical parameter of things, you see the greater, okay? And you want to see yourself by the inside voice. The inside voice says that you're perfectly, wonderfully made the image of God through Christ, Jesus. You can do all things. You are great. You are amazing. You are wonderful. These things, you are the you are the victor, no longer the victim. Okay, you are the head, not the tail. These are the things, the positive things that are truth, that are said about you, said about me, each and every one of us. So when we learn to see beyond the present circumstance and remember this, it's not always what it looks like, especially when it comes to yourself. Anything that is that is opposite of the positive things that have been spoken of you, that you know about yourself, even is a lie of the enemy. So you have to be willing to know the truth, willing to walk by faith and not by sight. I will add this in, for faith comes by hearing and hearing the Word of God. Faith. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. So you may have been the drug addict, you may have been the the alcoholic, but I see you as the doctor, as the lawyer, as the nurse, as the store manager, so forth and so on. We have to feed ourselves with the positivity, but the knowing who you are, for me comes from the word. It's times I struggle with myself. I'm like, I don't think I'm the greatest person in the world, but then I have to go back and I reflect. I go back to the world. What does God say about rain? What does God say about you? That's the truth, not the lies that the world may spill upon you and try to demonize your name and slander your reputation, assassinate your character, not those things. Things that might have happened, but you are not that. So seeing the greater in you for me and that will share with anyone that I have the opportunity to encounter you, got to go back to what the inner says about you, the inner self, because the inner you is great, despite what you may go through on the exterior and what is inside will soon come outside. It will reflect   Michael Hingson ** 50:29 you mentioned earlier, the whole concept of being a servant leader. What is a servant leader?   RaHeem Lindsey ** 50:34 A servant leader? A servant leader is one who, obviously, they I see them as being an empath of some extent. I think a great leader has to be empathetic. Because I believe you have to be empathetic in order to want to solve one's needs, to care about their needs. Now it's one thing just to be in business, and this is what separates a servant leader from a leader. A leader may be great and sells the sofa and so on right, and they're leading. But do they care? Are they gathering the Intel of the consumers because of a want and a desire to change lives and to help others. So you have to be a great servant in order to be that great leader. And when you're a great servant leader, you serve based upon the needs of others, and that brings life into you. By giving life unto others by fulfilling their needs. You find your need being met, and you develop that trust and that relationship, and then you leave. But you lead, not only to have that title, forget the title. It's not about the title, but you're led because you're called to lead, because the people trust you and you have been enabled to and you have the insight to based upon being a great consumer, and you want to serve others, you have to be a servant. So consumer servant leadership, once again, the pyramid kind of sums that up and gives you, you know, a synopsis of that. How you know being a great servant leader. They have to be all those things, consumer, servant leader, servant leader, and then repeat, in order to remain relevant, it can never be about you. To be a great leader, it can never be about you. It has to be about the people whom you're serving. Because the moment it becomes about you, it becomes singular. And if you're only there to help self, guess what? At some point in time, you may run out of needs, but when you're serving the capacity of many, there is always a need to be met, and not only that, you're operating in purpose. So I like to share with people this, this, this, this train of thought, if you will. Everyone's always, you know, concerned about financials, right? Money, right? Not me, it's purpose. Because if you chase purpose, the money will follow chase your purpose. Because here's the thing, as scripture says, I'll go here once again, money answereth all things, not something people may say initially and whatnot, oh my god, money, money, money, right for those that are, you know, you know, into the word things like that, right, as myself, sometimes we get it misconstrued and say, Well, money is evil. No, it's not. It depends on whose hands it's in. The word says the love of money is the root of all evil. The love when you love the money over the inner voice over God so forth, then it's the root of all evil, because people will do anything for money. But when you're operating on purpose, you're on divine assignment, it's bigger than you, and so money answers all things, right? But what happens when it's singular? It's just you. There's only so many needs one person can have, so there's no longer a call for the money to answer. And this is kind of a illustration, a parable, if you will. You know, you pick up the phone, it's because someone called Money answers all things. So there has to be a call in order for the money to answer, being a need the call a need for money to answer. But what happens when all your needs are answered as a one individual? It's done, but when you're operating out of purpose, your purpose outlives you. Purpose creates legacy, and purpose helps fulfill others other than yourself, so you're constantly on assignment, so therefore you always stay in motion.   Michael Hingson ** 54:48 So how do you balance personal ambition and serving others?   RaHeem Lindsey ** 54:54 Personal ambition and serving others? Wonderful question. Michael, personal ambition. And serving others, because it's it's why, it's why I'm here. It's my assignment, Michael, it's my purpose in life. As I mentioned earlier, I literally I feel terrible when I'm not able to help others. I'd much rather give than receive any day, because I've been through so much, and I know what it's like to need and others have the wrong perspective of you and not want to help you based upon what somebody else has said. And it's the wrong narrative, it's the wrong story, it's a lie. And then some things may be a bit true. There's some things that, oh, well, yeah, that that is true, but I'm not that. I'm not the individual anymore. That was, that was a mistake that I made, but it does not define me. I know it's like to be misunderstood. I know what it's like to be in need. That's why it's so good that I have went through and endured everything that I have in my life because it's made me appreciative of help when it comes, and it's given me such a capacity with the void that has been left in me because of what I have endured to want to help others, that that's that's my purpose. It may it makes when I, when I, when I have a chance to speak unto other people. I speak life unto them. If I have the opportunity to help somebody financially, it's, it's my pleasure, it's, it's a duty, because I know it's my assignment. Based upon everything that Rahim has went through. I went through and experienced homelessness. I've, I've had a mother that was addicted to hardcore drugs. I've been in the system, both incarceration and as a child, you know, being in the foster care and so forth. I've endured all these things. So it's given me a heart for people that are in the same situations. So it's not too many people you know that themselves or don't know somebody directly close to them, that hasn't been incarcerated, that hasn't been a victim of something in the system as a child, that hasn't had a close loved one, that's battled an addiction, if not yourself, that hasn't went through homelessness, that hasn't been, you know, rejected by the family, you know, a black sheep or whatever have you, that you know all those things and some so I remember what it's like, and some of those things I still endure. And I'm like, all I want to do is to help and to love and to serve. If I do nothing else in life, I'm good with that. I'm fine with that, because I know that's my purpose. Well, oh, go ahead, yes and yeah, go ahead and so just just just knowing that. Like I said, You know what you go through life, ladies and gentlemen, what you go through in life, pay close attention. Hindsight is 2020. That is a part of your purpose, what you overcame. I promise you a lot of people, how do I find purpose? How do I find purpose? It's not as hard as we make it, and I can probably deny and I share this with so many people, and they you're absolutely right, and if it doesn't lead directly, if it doesn't define purpose for you, it helps lead you to your purpose. So don't despise anything that you grow through. But yet, please, learn from it. Learn from it and gain insight.   Michael Hingson ** 58:38 How do you think one can cultivate a let me, yeah, how do you think that one can cultivate a servant leadership mindset in their lives?   RaHeem Lindsey ** 58:52 By I would say by first, you can't it can't be about self. You can't be about self. Now we'll say this, okay, and it's not contradictory, if you, if you take it in the right state of mind, okay, and get what I'm saying, what I'm not saying, you have to be able to help yourself before you can help someone else, because you cannot pour from an empty cup. But knowing that what's in the cup is for you, in the overflow of whatever it may be, your anointing, your finances, your time, your energy, your space, the overflow, once your needs are met, it's for others. So there's a time to think about self initially, because you have to work and develop yourself, you have to fill yourself so that you have something to give. But then once those need once the need is met. So I guess next would be, when is the need met? Well, let's put it in this kind of illustration. Let's say you've got rent, right? Right? It's going to this something everybody can relate to. You got rent, or you got your mortgage. The mortgage is paid, right? The the electrics paid, but you got an exceedingly, you know, amount of of financials left after that. Now you have to be wise. Always exercise wisdom, right? But after that, okay, well, I'm good. My needs met. You know, I've got clothes on my back. You know, there's gas in the car, etc, etc, whatever. Now it is not good for you to hold because God gives seed to the giver. I mean seed to the sower. You see, if you hold what you have in your hand, once again, dealing with singular possessiveness, right? It stays there. It goes no farther than where you set your feet. But the moment you open up your hand, what do you have in your hand? What do you have in your hand? And you spread it and you then it multiplies, right? It multiplies. So it cannot be just about you. We have to get out of the the self mindset? But know that, yes, you have to be able to help yourself before you can help others. Once again, you can't pour from empty cup. But after that, remove self from it and realize that everything that you've gotten, everything that you have obtained, is by the grace of God, that's simply what you've done. Because some things, I'm quite sure, if you look back, how in the world did I do that? And someone helped you, like I said, we cannot be great by ourselves. So it takes a community. It takes individuals. It takes a unit in unity, right? So how to go about that? We move self out the equation and think, How can I serve in a capacity where I have been afflicted in my life, where I overcame, because if you're a decent human being, by my beliefs, you will have a void in your heart, a concern in your heart, and you're drawn towards individuals who are going through what you went through, because you remember what it was like. I wish I had someone who would have understood. I wish I had someone that have spoken a kind word to me, said, I love you when I needed it most, instead of turn their back on me, instead of opposed me, I wish someone would have lended a hand when I was short on the rent, short on the electricity bill, and yes, I was doing everything that I could. So Wow. To reflect back on those things, should give you a heart of gratitude, because obviously you were able, you were able to overcome it by some way. Someone gave you a hand. Somebody, everybody's had somebody help them. And so you may have more rejections than the help. And so the thing   Michael Hingson ** 1:03:00 yes please. And so the thing to do is to pay it forward. Pay it   RaHeem Lindsey ** 1:03:04 forward, simply put, Michael, yes, I'm sorry. I'm long winded at times.   Michael Hingson ** 1:03:10 Well, I hear you and I understand and I appreciate all the things that you've said. If people want to reach out to you, how do they do that?   RaHeem Lindsey ** 1:03:18 You can reach out to me there's I'll start with email. That's Raheem Lindsey, 80 one@gmail.com   1:03:29 spell that for me, if you would. That's K, A,   RaHeem Lindsey ** 1:03:33 H, E, E, M, as in man Lindsey, L I, N, D, S, e, y, 80 one@gmail.com Raheem Lindsey, 80 one@gmail.com Okay, and then, and you can reach out to me for you know, whatever speak, counsel, leadership, whatever it may be. Then also, I have my YouTube channel, relentless living online ministries. It is exactly that relentless living International Ministries on YouTube, you'll see this gorgeous face here.   Michael Hingson ** 1:04:13 Okay, so the name of the channel, again, is relentless living. Relentless living, yes,   RaHeem Lindsey ** 1:04:19 okay, yep. Relentless living ministries on YouTube. And so, yeah, I have those two things there. And, you know, if need further, then, you know, I'm always free, you know, to, you know, give out my contact, you know, which is more than more than more than welcome to utilize. I have no problem with that as well.   Michael Hingson ** 1:04:40 Well, I want to thank you for being here and giving people a lot of insight. I hope people will take it to heart. I've always been a great fan of the whole concept of servant leadership. I think it's extremely important. And I think any good leader is or should be, a servant leader. Otherwise you're. Are missing a lot of the dimensions of what leadership is all about. So I want to thank you for being here, and I want to thank everyone who was listening today for being here. Love to hear from you. Love your thoughts. Please email me at Michael H i@accessibe.com accessibe is spelled A, C, C, E, S, S, I, B, E, so it's Michael M, I, C, H, A, E, L, H, i@accessibe.com, and wherever you're listening, please give us a five star review for the podcast episode. We love it, we appreciate it, and we really do value all that you have to say to us and about us. If you know anyone who ought to be a guest on the podcast, and Rahim as well. For you, if you know anyone else who ought to be a guest, we'd love to hear from you, or please give us an introduction to anyone who you think ought to be a guest. We're always looking for people, because I think everyone has a story to tell. And the reality is, as Rahim is so greatly demonstrated today, we can deal with whatever circumstances come along, but it's our choice to make, to deal with things, and we can choose to do it or not that is up to us. Absolutely. We can listen to God or not, that is up to us. So thank you again, everyone for being here. And Rahim, I want to thank you once more for being here. This has been wonderful,   RaHeem Lindsey ** 1:06:21 absolute pleasure. Michael, I just, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart, once again, complete honor. I've enjoyed just your your your intellect, your wisdom and the Great, the great questions that you've asked may for, I think, a great podcast session as many others before me as I've had the privilege of watching, so I just I thank you. God. Bless you, and continue doing what you're doing, being an inspiration, a great servant leader and just innovation to many an inspiration and motivation.   **Michael Hingson ** 1:07:00 You have been listening to the Unstoppable Mindset podcast. Thanks for dropping by. I hope that you'll join us again next week, and in future weeks for upcoming episodes. To subscribe to our podcast and to learn about upcoming episodes, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com slash podcast. Michael Hingson is spelled m i c h a e l h i n g s o n. While you're on the site., please use the form there to recommend people who we ought to interview in upcoming editions of the show. And also, we ask you and urge you to invite your friends to join us in the future. If you know of any one or any organization needing a speaker for an event, please email me at speaker at Michael hingson.com. I appreciate it very much. To learn more about the concept of blinded by fear, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com forward slash blinded by fear and while you're there, feel free to pick up a copy of my free eBook entitled blinded by fear. The unstoppable mindset podcast is provided by access cast an initiative of accessiBe and is sponsored by accessiBe. Please visit www.accessibe.com . AccessiBe is spelled a c c e s s i b e. There you can learn all about how you can make your website inclusive for all persons with disabilities and how you can help make the internet fully inclusive by 2025. Thanks again for Listening. Please come back and visit us again next week.

Michael Dell and Shaquille O'Neal planned their work and worked their plans.Dell understood the formulas, and followed the rules, of efficiency.O'Neal understood the formulas and followed the rules of basketball.Each of them faithfully followed a Structural plan.Michael Dell invented nothing, improvised nothing, and innovated only once. But that single innovation made him a billionaire. Dell's innovation was to bring tested, reliable, proven methods of cost-cutting to the manufacturing and distribution of computers. When all his competitors were selling through retailers, Dell sold direct to consumer. This made his costs lower and his profits higher.Michael Dell's strengths are discipline, professionalism, and Structural thinking.Likewise, Shaq says, “I didn't invent basketball, but I am really good at executing the plays.” Discipline, professionalism, and Structural thinking made Shaq an extraordinary basketball player. These same characteristics also made him an amazing operator of fast-food franchises.“The most Shaq ever made playing in the NBA was $29.5 million per year. Now, it's estimated that the big man is bringing in roughly $60 million per year, much of which is coming from his portfolio of fast-food businesses around the U.S.”– 24/7wallst.comShaq didn't invent car washes or Five Guys Burgers and Fries, but he owns more than 150 of each.Michael Dell and Shaquille O'Neal are masters of Structural planning and thinking.Structural thinking relies on proven elements and best practices. “Gather the best pieces and processes and connect them together like LEGO blocks. What could possibly go wrong?”Structural planning and thinking:Invent, Improvise, Innovate?“NO, because those things are untested. We want to avoid mistakes.”Reliable, Tested, Proven?“YES!”Steve Jobs and Michael Jordon are masters of Gestalt planning and thinking.Gestalt planning and thinking:Invent, Improvise, Innovate?“YES!“Reliable, Tested, Proven?“NO, because those things are predictable. We want to be different.“The fundamental idea of Gestalt thinking is that the behavior of the whole is not determined by its individual elements; but rather that the behavior of the individual elements are determined by the intrinsic nature of the whole.It is the goal of Gestalt thinking to determine the nature of the whole, the finished product.Gestalt thinkers who can fund their experiments and survive their mistakes often become paradigm shifters and world-changers.Steve Jobs got off to a slow start because he refused to use MS-DOS, the operating system that everyone else was using. But he was sensitive to the needs and hungers of the marketplace. When Steve Jobs had a crystal-clear vision of the things that people would purchase if those things existed, he brought those things into existence.Structural thinkers rely on planning and execution. Gestalt thinkers rely on poise and flexibility, often deciding on small details at the last split-second. Ask a Gestalt thinker why they do this and most of them will tell you, “I decide at the last minute because that is when I have the most information.”The reason you never knew what Michael Jordan was going to do is because Michael Jordan had not yet decided. Michael's internal vision was simple and clear: “Put the basketball through the hoop.” With the clarity of that crystal vision shining brightly in his mind, Michael could figure out everything else along the way.Gestalt thinkers like Steve Jobs and Michael

Send us a textWeston Lockhart serves as an Advisor with SVN Stone Commercial Real Estate focusing on Retail Real Estate. He is a native of Lexington and received a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Kentucky.During his time at SVN, Weston has worked successfully with clients assisting with asset acquisition/disposition, site selection for national and local retailers, and property repositioning through lease-up.Weston serves as the Kentucky / Tennessee Talent Development Chair for ICSC and is heavily involved in Retail Real Estate in the Southeast. Weston has worked closely on portfolio expansion with the following tenants: Popeyes Chicken, Goodwill Industries of Kentucky, Driven Brands, Ractetrac, Five Guys Burgers and Fries, Pizza Hut, Bargain Hunt, Take 5 Oil Change & more. Being in a relationship-driven industry, he views himself as another team member for Emerging Brands, Developers, and Investors in order to achieve their goals and optimize their respective businesses and investment portfolios._______________________________Find Weston onLinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/weston-lockhartReal Estate:https://myelisting.com/commercial-agent/weston-lockhart-131289/X:https://x.com/WestonBLockhart/status/1795650024480583962Stone Commercial Real Estate:https://svnstone.com/our-team/?brokerId=weston.lockhart%40svn.comDevelopLex Podcast:https://www.middletech.com/developlexBuild Out:https://buildout.com/plugins/51/svnlex.com/brokers/weston.lockhart@svn.com?pluginId=0&iframe=true&embedded=true&brokerId=weston.lockhart%40svn.com&cacheSearch=trueFacebook:https://www.facebook.com/developlexpod/_______________________________Show hosted by Landry Fieldshttps://www.x.com/landryfieldz'https://www.linkedin.com/in/landryfields/https://www.instagram.com/landryfields_https://www.youtube.com/@landryfields_www.novainsurancegroup.com859-687-2004

Five Guys (Burgers & Fries), throwing fish at the DMV, food that was created for evil, and more!  Chicago's best morning radio show now has a podcast! Don't forget to rate, review, and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts and remember that the conversation always lives on the Q101 Facebook page.  Brian & Kenzie are live every morning from 6a-10a on Q101.    Subscribe to our channel HERE: https://www.youtube.com/@Q101 Like Q101 on Facebook HERE: https://www.facebook.com/q101chicago Follow Q101 on Twitter HERE: https://twitter.com/Q101Chicago Follow Q101 on Instagram HERE: https://www.instagram.com/q101chicago/?hl=en Follow Q101 on TikTok HERE: https://www.tiktok.com/@q101chicago?lang=enSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Five Guys (Burgers & Fries), throwing fish at the DMV, food that was created for evil, and more!  Chicago's best morning radio show now has a podcast! Don't forget to rate, review, and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts and remember that the conversation always lives on the Q101 Facebook page.  Brian & Kenzie are live every morning from 6a-10a on Q101.    Subscribe to our channel HERE: https://www.youtube.com/@Q101 Like Q101 on Facebook HERE: https://www.facebook.com/q101chicago Follow Q101 on Twitter HERE: https://twitter.com/Q101Chicago Follow Q101 on Instagram HERE: https://www.instagram.com/q101chicago/?hl=en Follow Q101 on TikTok HERE: https://www.tiktok.com/@q101chicago?lang=enSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Fransmart is a global leader in franchise development. For over 20 years, they've excelled at turning emerging concepts into national and global brands. Led by company founder Dan Rowe, Fransmart is known throughout the franchising community for spotting and growing brands like Five Guys Burgers & Fries and Qdoba Mexican Grill, from single unit businesses to the powerhouse chains they are today. Fransmart has built restaurants in all of the top 150 media markets in North America. Fransmart's success stories include Five Guys, Qdoba Mexican Grill and Halal Guys – a franchise that started from a success food cart in New York City. Today, Halal Guys is the most successful Middle Eastern restaurant in America. Dan's success stems from his knowledge of each market and the potential franchisees in each market. With that knowledge, he can often predict whether a restaurant will find franchisees and be successful. The biggest mistake a lot of franchisees make is picking the wrong brand to invest in. Another mistake franchisees make is not following the system put in place by the brand they're investing in.  QUOTES “A good franchisee wants to follow somebody else's system. A bad franchisee buys a franchise and tries to do everything different.” (Dan)  “In every market, we know where the best operators are, we know where the best intersections are, where the best projects are, the best architects, contractors, food distributors, so we just sort of developed this knack for understanding the best way to do everything in these markets.” (Dan) “I want to be relentless about getting the right site (for a new restaurant). For any concept, there's 10 or 15 or 20 potential sites. But there's really only three or four first sites. You have to be very careful when you're building a brand in a brand new market. There's something very strategic about using real estate and real estate's role in marketing.” (Dan) “You have to be really good at knowing exactly where your bullseye's are and coming up with some logic around what order you should be growing.” (Dan) “You have staff for the sales you want and you have to staff for the company you're trying to build.” (Dan) “I've never seen a concept that I can't figure out how to drive sales and lower costs.” (Dan)  TRANSCRIPT 00:00.00vigorbrandingHello if you’re a restaurant looking to become an an international restaurant chain or if you’re um, you know I’m gonna start over I’m sorry it’s kind of fumble that all just yeah, hello if you’re a restaurant looking to become an international restaurant chain or if you’re an entrepreneur who wants to own a franchise today’s episode is for you. My guest is Dan Rowe he’s the Ceo and founder of fransmart and he takes emerging restaurant concepts and turns them into national and international franchises. He’s been called the chainmakerr and we’re gonna talk to him today about his process. Dan. Thank you so much for joining us. 00:32.74dan_fransmart_comUm, yeah, thanks, thanks for having me. 00:36.52vigorbrandingWell let’s just jump right in. Let’s start with Fransmart tell me a little bit about it How you started maybe a little bit about your history and where you got your start. 00:44.96dan_fransmart_comsure sure I I started washing dishes and cooking got into technology if id never went to college so barelegged out of high school. So I but I was lucky enough when I was like nineteen eighteen and a half nineteen for about 5 years I got into technology. Worked for a guy that grew software companies made some money and what do I do go right back in the restaurant business I bought a franchise of a bagel bakery and it was a 6 unit bagel chain in Washington d c I lived in California the idea originally was to bring the franchise to California ah, because there’s no bagel shops near me. And I went into business with a buddy mine and his wife and they wanted to move to Denver so we opened up our first franchise in Denver I had negotiated a deal I said hey if we’re successful with this I want to also do your franchising and because I’m proving you outside of Dc where all your stores are. We were very successful and I was 23 I think he was 25 enty five or 26 and we were more successful than most of the stores that they had in Dc so we did their franchise development and we grew them from 6 stores to around 200 in about 4 years sold the company. 01:51.64vigorbrandingWow. 01:57.90dan_fransmart_com1 of my shops in Denver was across from the first Chipotle we tried to get him to franchise. He wasn’t interest in he did just fine without us but somebody who copied him was ah Kudoba Kudoba mexican so we approached Kudoba we got involved with Kedoba when they were only open a couple months. 01:59.35vigorbrandingI. 02:13.86dan_fransmart_comHelped him put together the whole franchise program grew that to think about 100 open and few hundred in development sold that to Jack in the box and at that point I had grown 2 companies at a time as individual, you know, like 2 different companies at a time under 2 different companies. And then I said it was 2000. Everything was a.com back then and I said you know what I’m going to I’m going to start a new company instead of growing one brand at a time I’m going to grow a portfolio at a time so we started fransmart. 02:45.15vigorbrandingThat’s brilliant Now you know, ah and talking with you I’ve learned a couple things number one I did 2 work in the restaurant first and I believe wholeheartedly that everyone should start out working a restaurant. You’ve got to take orders. You’ve got to get things Done. You have to execute you have to talk to people by and large. You have to get to know how to handle problems I mean there’s a whole lot of education that happens in a restaurant doesn’t it. The other thing I It’s very humbling. Ah, that’s right, That’s absolutely right? The other thing I will say is I also did not. 03:04.41dan_fransmart_comYeah, yeah, yeah, it’s It’s also humiliating and it’s humbling and it’s ah it’s good. It’s good to see why you should treat people better. 03:17.44vigorbrandingGo to college I I was a creative guy so I just like thought well hell I’m really smart at doing these big ideas and creating stuff I don’t need to go school so I didn’t and you know at the end of the day. It’s it’s kind of funny because 1 time my daughter was asked in school like hey do your parents ever have any sayings you know like you know what? what are they known for saying and. 03:23.23dan_fransmart_comYeah. 03:34.41vigorbrandingMy my daughter raised your hands and my dad said C students run the world so that was me I was just like yeah an underachiever. But just I worked really hard. So anyway, um so look with frasmar. Essentially you take this guesswork out of franchising right? You’re connecting entrepreneurs. 03:36.80dan_fransmart_comYeah. 03:51.90vigorbrandingAh, the one to get into the restaurant ownership business with emerging restaurants and I mean so you’re’re, you’re finding great ideas or you have these great ideas. You’re finding people that that are business people and maybe good operators but also teaching them how to operate um you know So what? at the end of the day. What makes a good franchisee. 04:05.99dan_fransmart_comA good franchisee wants to follow somebody else’s system a bad franchisee buys a franchise and then tries to do everything different or or argues with the the company. But yeah I mean franspart’s main business were franchise development company. We have big picture vision. So like with 5 guys. You know we didn’t invent burgers. We just saw a micro niche of you know, fresh burgers and nobody really owned that segment we saw burger King Wendy’s Mcdonald’s but nobody was really doing high quality. Um chefy food and. So 5 guys was in Dc they were near us. They won these awards all the time for best burgers. They had a really really good hamburger. It was more expensive than the other guys. Whatever but they had 4 units and I just said you know what? I’ve already grown you know mexican chain a bagel chain all across the country There’s nobody else doing this in any other market around the country and so our playbook is basically become we. We’ve built restaurants and all the top hundred and fifty biggest media markets in North america so New York’s the biggest something around Savannah Georgia or something like that is somewhere around one fifty 05:12.95vigorbrandingMe. 05:20.00dan_fransmart_comAnd in in every market we know who the best operators are we know where the best intersections are the best projects are the best architects contractors food distributors and so we’ve just sort of developed this knack for understanding the best known way to do everything in every one of these markets and so yeah, we did it with 5 guys. We. You know, wound up growing those guys I think we grew them from 6 4 4 locations to about 100 open a few hundred in development we sold. They’re like 2000 stores. Um, we did with halal guys. So here’s another thing like my premise was gosh. There’s a billion and a half muslims in the world. And when I go to Chipotle or Starbucks I’d ask my wife like do you know any muslim actors or singers or apparel companies or tech companies or car companies or food brands. There’s a no no no no no I’m like well wait a minute There’s a the biggest demographic population in the world and there’s no brand. 06:10.71vigorbrandingA. 06:16.28dan_fransmart_comAnd so and we were opening american brands over in the Middle East and so you know most of our franchisees are super wealthy. Many of them are royal family and the first night they gee whiz you with their homes and just the way that they live. Second day they’re like what do you want to do and I said I want to go get street food and they would take you to some of this amazing amazing middle eastern street food and I tell myself I’m like somebody’s going to figure out how to build a brand out of this and so we did with the halal guys. Ah, we hal. All guys was a cart in New York City for 25 years They had 3 carts in the city. Not even a food truck just a cart but they made really good kind of chicken or gyro over rice with this white sauce and. 06:47.34vigorbrandingUm, yeah. 07:00.43dan_fransmart_comAnd people stood in line for it and I’m like okay here we go so I found that same thing same playbook biggest 150 media markets. Best franchise operators you know exactly where to put them so anyone I mean sometimes these locations anybody could succeed there. 07:16.49vigorbrandingYeah. 07:16.65dan_fransmart_comBut that’s part of the hack. That’s part of the hack is is going into these markets and we’d pick great operators I remember the the 2 corporate stores that we built in New York City both did like ridiculous volume like 2 times what a 5 guys in the same location would do because we picked the right site. 07:34.20vigorbrandingHe. 07:36.18dan_fransmart_comThe first franchisee in Chicago opened up to like $80000 a week or some weird number the first California in first the first California store that we opened up clear across the country did over 100 grand it’s first week in sales. So. 07:48.67vigorbrandingWell. 07:51.51dan_fransmart_comYou take a good concept you package it right? and then you just have to build the right teams that can handle the volume pick the right locations and but that’s our playbook. We just keep doing it over and over. 08:01.41vigorbrandingThat’s fantastic That makes it mean it’s awesome and so like I have to ask like so the Halal guys I mean I’ve eaten it I mean I know know the carts I know that I know the whole deal Did you just like walk up there one day and say hey guys I’d like to talk to you about an idea I have. 08:12.41dan_fransmart_comSo they didn’t even have a website they didn’t have a website. They didn’t have a social media page. They had a fan page So a fan had created what I thought was the website. It wasn’t a website it was called. 08:21.50vigorbrandingScott. 08:26.38dan_fransmart_comFifty third and 6 are dot com or whatever it was but it was a fan page and I so and I basically emailed and they said hey I’ve done this and this and this and this and I want to do middle eastern and the guy’s like hey ah I don’t actually own it I’m just creating a fan page because I love these guys I’m like can you introduce me to them and they introduce me to him. 08:42.85vigorbrandingWow. 08:46.36dan_fransmart_comBut it was funny I’ll never forget when I went to go meet him I’m like hey I’m the guy that did 5 guys in qdoba and they’re like what’s that like they don’t know these were super religious muslim. They come to America looking for the american dream I mean. 08:53.20vigorbrandingYeah, yeah, yeah, so yeah. 09:01.88dan_fransmart_comAwesome founders, amazing! Beautiful people, great people. They came to America look they all had advanced degrees came here looking to the american dream and America basically shut the door and they started off driving cabs and they just you know, kind of worked really hard and then they opened a street cart. Was originally a hot dog cart that that they converted to halal food and they would use it as a way to sort of give people jobs like bring family members and friends over here and give them jobs and they had a couple of these carts but it’s like in the beginning when I was first trying to tell them. Oh I’ve got this big vision I want to go do all this stuff. 09:25.29vigorbrandingMay he. 09:36.38vigorbrandingYeah. 09:36.82dan_fransmart_comThey’re like what are you talking about and you know because they they just weren’t they didn’t realize they didn’t see what I saw and they and they were not taken at all with my background they could care less. Yeah. 09:44.63vigorbrandingWell, and yeah, they they had to start with they start with probably nothing right? So to get the cart and be able to get a corner probably was like they felt like they had they’d achieved a you know a lot which they had but they had no idea with with the capacity of that you could bring them like in in the locations and everything. 09:57.46dan_fransmart_comNo no and and and they didn’t care they frankly they said we don’t want to open what they didn’t want to do was be embarrassed, be ashamed. They’re like very prideful of what they do. It’s funny when you talk to the owners. They still talk about they could talk for. 10:03.10vigorbrandingWow. 10:15.46dan_fransmart_com10 minutes just about this plate of food and how to make that plate of food perfect and it’s like that’s why they have those long lines right? So like a guy like me I’m not the reason that they’re successful. They’re successful because they care about that plate of food tasting the way it tastes. 10:15.96vigorbrandingHe. Yeah. 10:30.31dan_fransmart_comYou know my job is not to screw it up but that it took a year from the time I first met him to the time that they finally said let’s go and it was mainly me convincing them that I wasn’t going to screw it up like this is a way that they’re feeding their family. They’re very proud of what they built and even though they didn’t have social media or whatever everybody knew what it was it was just 10:39.27vigorbrandingMy home. 10:49.71dan_fransmart_comThere’s 8000000 carts in the city and 3 of them have long long like absurdly long lines and they just didn’t want me to screw that up. So yeah. 10:55.79vigorbrandingUm, so I mean for us I mean you know we we do marketing and advertising so we focus on the restaurant segment with vigor and like they they took off is it because I kind of think it might be but. Because of the long lines in New York because of the word of mouth. Do you think it was just one of those things once they start getting locations people just kind of knew of it already because they had been exposed to it from the street or or is it like a lot of word of mouth or how do you think the explosion happened. 11:17.40dan_fransmart_comUm, well well yeah I mean well to take a step back a million people tried to knock him off none of them have none of a have a million people when this thing started to fly everybody who’s put the word halal. 11:26.40vigorbrandingHe wow. 11:35.29dan_fransmart_comOn their cart in their storefront or whatever when when I started franchising this. There was all these metoo copycats. None of them are around and it’s because they’re not authentic and they didn’t do the right thing but no, it took off what I did is the way I marketed it to people outside of New York was funny. The first few franchisees. 11:36.52vigorbrandingYep. 11:42.10vigorbrandingWow. 11:53.96vigorbrandingIn here. 11:54.63dan_fransmart_comKnew it from New York like when they would come to New York they would go there and so like my Chicago franchisee my vegas franchise or my um southern cow in my Houston franchisees even my Dc franchisee they they every time they went up to New York they went there so the minute that they found out we were franchising they they bought it. Everybody else? What? what? What would happen is we would just market pictures of the line so initially it was lines of the cart and so people would be like what is roe babbling on about and it’s like this long line would at least stop them to get them to look you know at the next line or at the next page. 12:17.41vigorbrandingHere here. 12:31.38dan_fransmart_comAnd then as soon as the first couple stores opened this the Southern California store doing 100 grandits first week that line looked like ah I mean it was Quarter mile long and so like even the news was taking pictures of it. So all I did is reposted what the news because. 12:41.45vigorbrandingA. 12:48.90vigorbrandingSure no doubt. 12:49.70dan_fransmart_comYou know it’s also a credibility technique. It’s like if I if I post a long long line people like yeah if the news posts it. It seems more credible. So yeah, we we just. In the beginning we would we kind of did that I didn’t want to explain with a lot of words what the concept was or what I thought it could be I just wanted to show long lines and then that would get people to come see it. Try it eat it and then you meet the owners and you just know like this this we had. 13:12.92vigorbrandingYeah, it’s authentic. 13:16.35dan_fransmart_comAlmost everybody who came in for Discovery day wanted a franchise but they wouldn’t approve him. They were very picky about who they let in I mean it’s funny. We had a guy that came in and the minute that they that they gave in the indication they weren’t going to run the place right? or hire the right team out like they would even get up and leave the meeting and um. 13:28.82vigorbrandingE well. 13:35.74dan_fransmart_comAnd then we even had a guy come in I’ll never forget it. He goes does the meat really have to be halal does it have to be halal because halal food’s more expensive and and I’ll never forget it like we’re all looking at each other like did he just say that and he did and it’s like meeting was over guy flew clear across the country for the meeting and within 8 minutes the meeting was over. 13:43.57vigorbrandingYeah. He had done. 13:55.41dan_fransmart_comAnd so yeah, it was but it’s a funny story but it’s’s ah I mean it’s such a great concept. It’s just a great concept. You think about billion and a half people no brands. It’s really the largest I mean certainly the largest restaurant chain MiddleEastern restaurant chain in North America 14:00.40vigorbrandingGood. 14:12.54vigorbrandingYeah. 14:12.74dan_fransmart_comBut now we’re open in London we’re open in Korea we’re open. You know we’re we’re we’re growing. So my goal with that and you know also when I started I’ll never forget when I first started growing the company. We got an interview with 1 of the big New York papers and I said this is going to and we only had carts and in. I said this is Goingnna be the biggest middle eastern brand in the world. The biggest muslim brand the biggest halal brand blah bla blah bla blah and the lady was laughing on the phone and I’m like what are you laughing about she was Dan They have carts and I’m like I know but I see something bigger so I’m not always right? But in halauge’s case I was. 14:35.62vigorbrandingIn. 14:43.11vigorbrandingYep, that’s fantastic. Well I love your line I’ve heard you say it many times that you let people vote people vote with their wallets right? So you followed the line that’s bright I mean ah and your marketing was smart too I mean using the the news and all that and showing the lines I mean that’s the proof and that’s ah. 14:50.15dan_fransmart_comYeah, yeah, yeah. 15:00.48vigorbrandingThat’s masterful marketing and so that that brings me to sort of another question because it’s really an interesting ah like I’m really interested in what you do I mean you find these great products and these great brands you you look at the lines you say?? Okay, this is. There’s ah, there’s some white space in the ah in this in the restaurant world for this. This can be the next big thing. But then there’s also ah you need to know a fair amount about real estate right? There’s certain you just said. There’s some real estate that you could put anything in there I’m sure that’s not true, but probably any of your products you could put in there and they’d be successful. But then there’s also the the franchisees people want to own a restaurant or maybe Master franchise. These folks that have like a. You know they have a serious office and they own a bunch of different brands in some cases talk about like the whole thing coming together that whole thing coming together. Well just you have these the master franchisees right? So you got to find them then there’s the the actual then there’s the real estate part right. 15:37.93dan_fransmart_comYeah. Wait wait which part. Um, yeah, yeah, oh um, yeah, so for me I always start with the end in mind I I see a chain for what it can be 10 years down the road and that in that tells me the. 15:52.73vigorbrandingAnd then there’s also sort of the restaurant part. How does that all work together. 16:07.16dan_fransmart_comYou know the 150 biggest markets in North America US and canada canada most of the canadian markets behave like us. So I always talk about North America but um and then certain international markets like we’ve sold tons and tons and tons of deals internationally so like I already know where this is going to go. 16:22.24vigorbrandingA. 16:24.47dan_fransmart_comI Already know the franchisees in those markets and so I know which ones are going to like the brand and why and how I have to package or maybe I have to cook it a little longer before I show it to a certain guy like I already kind of know that whenever I take on a brand. The most important thing. 16:38.66vigorbrandingNate. 16:40.62dan_fransmart_comWhen I get a new brand because I’m getting them at a very early very early stage. They’re still hair on them. They’re still rough around the edges. They still don’t know what they don’t know 5 guys didn’t have pos systems for example, like the whole all guys didn’t have dead carts right? They didn’t have pos they they. 16:44.30vigorbrandingMe. 16:54.48vigorbrandingYeah, say they had carts. 16:58.36dan_fransmart_comYeah, so it’s like that’s okay, that’s okay, it’s like I know the other stuff but that and ironically like what I know is not um, as important is the fact that 5 guys had a line out the door or ha all guys had a line down the block like I can figure out how to build a system or manual. Way faster than I can ever figure out how to organically get a line down the road like that’s that’s a different level. So yeah, that is the magic but what I do is is it’s really interesting like when I I don’t leave anything to chance. No matter who I’m selling no matter what brand what market and who the franchisee is. 17:15.21vigorbrandingRight? That’s the magic. 17:30.87dan_fransmart_comI I act like they’ve never been in this business before because I want to be relentless about getting the right site. So like here I’m in Scottsdale right in Phoenix Arizona there’s for any concept. There’s 10 or 15 or 20 potential sites. But there’s really only 3 or 4 first sites. 17:36.65vigorbrandingYeah, he. 17:48.15dan_fransmart_comLike yeah to be very careful when you’re building a brand in a brand New Market is like there’s something very strategic about using real estate in real estate’s role in marketing and real estate’s role in branding and so you have to be really good of knowing exactly where your bull’s-eyes are and coming up with some logic around. 17:56.12vigorbrandingA. 18:07.15dan_fransmart_comWhat kind of order you should be growing and so we’re that kind of pedantic even about real estate. It’s not just about hey I need a twelve hundred foot space or fifteen hundred foot space like no, no, no there’s so much more to it and then once you have the right spot you have to make sure that your unit economics hit. So that that’s the thing is like you can’t you can’t go into a spot and then have cost overruns or you can’t have what you know it needs the cost. What everyone thought it was going to cost to open it needs to open above. Whatever sales everybody was thinking originally it needs to hit profitability faster because there’s all these weird things in people’s minds that like even if it’s a great site and for some reason it gets off to a slow start all of a sudden people like oops not going like plan. And psychological psychological. Ah they’ll start making dumb decisions. They’ll start cutting people cutting marketing cutting problems like wait a minute and so we we assume all that stuff’s going to happen so we’re relentless about how we pick real estate how we market how we build the team I always say you got a staff for the sales you want. And you have to staff for the company you’re trying to build. We never sell mom and pop franchises ones e toosey’s we sell territories and so whenever we’re selling like a halal guys. For example, the California franchisee opened with a director of operations from Panera. 19:11.99vigorbrandingHere. 19:25.37dan_fransmart_comAh, director of operations from Chipotle and I think a director of culinary from one of those 2 concepts too. Plus the manager plus the owners were there well, that’s also why that first store in California self-funded 7 more is because you you know you basically open up with the the team’s bandwidth could easily handle. 19:32.00vigorbrandingWell. 19:37.32vigorbrandingAre here. 19:45.32dan_fransmart_comThe kind of sales I think it was doing over three million a year and so you you have to sta for that if you if you open up doing you know $5000000 run rate with a million dollar team your sales go down. They never come back up and so like all of that little stuff. It’s like Dan you’re just the sales guy. It’s like mm. 19:46.10vigorbrandingWow. 19:55.19vigorbrandingAnd he. 20:02.92dan_fransmart_comI I sell a lot of franchises not because I’m good at sales I sell a lot of franchises because I make the brand sell themselves So all the things we talk about are kind of how do we get the brands to sell themselves the best the best marketing tool Any brand would ever have selling a franchise is the existing franchisees and so. 20:07.58vigorbrandingMan. 20:19.58vigorbrandingYeah. 20:22.35dan_fransmart_comYou have to make those franchisees So successful. So happy so referenceable that even when you’re not, they’re trying to orchestrate just the right reference even if they just run into somebody what they’re saying sells your franchise. 20:34.20vigorbrandingSure I mean it’s the experience the the customers get the franchisees get everybody. It’s got to be. You know everyone’s a customer at that point right? You know they’re selling the the actual brands to to new franchisees. So that’s. I mean that’s ah, that’s a really really great point. So what is the biggest mistake you see like franchisees making like when they you know they’re first coming to you. 20:57.35dan_fransmart_comUm, Fran when a franchisee ah picking the wrong brand like if they pick I mean I if they pick the wrong brand if they don’t staff the right way like everybody think about why somebody wants a franchise in the first place. The only reason to own a franchise is to get wealthy like there otherwise. 21:00.70vigorbrandingMan. 21:15.40dan_fransmart_comIt’s not worth the risk like you’re risking capital you’re risking an Sba loan or A Loan you’re risking signing a lease now you’re on the hook for that lease for years. The liability, the cash outlay the liabilities and the contingent liabilities those are real costs. The only reason to do that is because you’re trying to get to a completely different level in life and so now the question is what’s the right vehicle to get there. So what’s the thing that that’s going to make so much profit that I want to keep doing it and how do I do it and so the mistake a lot of people make is they’ll pick the wrong brand. 21:45.53vigorbrandingUm. 21:49.50dan_fransmart_comSo they want to get to never never land. They just pick on the wrong the wrong brand to get there when they buy a territory so somebody that wants to own 5 or 10 or 20 units when they open up their first store and they open up with a skeleton crew. You know we all have we have so much turnover in the restaurant business. You open up a store. 22:03.81vigorbrandingSure. 22:07.62dan_fransmart_comWith the skeleton crew and you even just have normal attrition. You’re constantly in a hole right? So you have to staff for the volume you want you have to staff for the company you’re trying to build that has to include redundancy has to include turnover so a franchisee who thinks a franchise only costs 300 grand to open. 22:09.63vigorbrandingHe. 22:27.40dan_fransmart_comIt’s like yeah but you need another 100000 in these extra soft costs to basically get to the point you know to get to this point and so it’s people not really thinking that through or at the first sign of things didn’t go like I thought. They start cutting. They abandon the big picture and they go start focusing internally and what happens is you start managing that business down so that’s the biggest mistake and then another big mistake is people just not following the systems like I interview from my podcast. All these franchisees of other brands I’m like tell me the difference between you and the. 22:46.60vigorbrandingAnd. 22:59.60dan_fransmart_comI Mean you like you’re one of the most successful franchisees and whatever the brand is I’m interviewing the guy for like what’s the difference between you and someone who struggles with the same brand almost to a T they go. We just follow the system and I said whenever you buy a struggling franchisee stores. How do you make them successful. 23:10.22vigorbrandingA. 23:17.45dan_fransmart_comGo back and follow the systems just execute like people are buying 5 guys because they want that burger those fries to taste exactly like they think they don’t want chicken sandwich. They’re not there to get you know salad or whatever they want that like just go back to making that. That’s all you got to do and it’s people overthink it and it’s like. 23:17.80vigorbrandingLeave you. 23:31.72vigorbrandingInconsistency. Yeah. 23:37.53dan_fransmart_comThat’s all you got to do if you’re buying a jack on the box at Mcdonald’s if you’re buying you know a Jiffy Lube right it’s like whatever it is. It’s like people are going to that brand because they want that experience all you have to do is give give it that give that to them. 23:51.50vigorbrandingYeah, well I mean we always say like in in marketing what we do. We always say ah the definition of a brand is brand is a promise and you know in the case with the restaurants I mean if I go to 5 guys no matter which one I go to I want I want them to basically promise me and give me that same thing I want that same product I don’t want it to vary from place to place. So. 24:03.60dan_fransmart_comYeah. 24:08.98vigorbrandingI think that’s amazing. Do you find yourself because I have to think this is is somewhat the case because you find these I’ll say these raw concepts these great concepts whether it’s halal guys or 5 guys or or probably Qdoba when you start with them I mean you’ve you’ve launched them. Are you bringing? you always talk about a playbook. Are you bringing that playbook to them. Are you kind of saying. Yeah, this is great here’s how we operationalize this thing. Do you find yourself really kind of setting up the operations a lot I figured. 24:32.20dan_fransmart_comUm, almost always so not not I mean not only setting maybe some sometimes it’s just tweaking right or giving them some best known tool we have because some people in me actually have really good systems for. 24:37.50vigorbrandingE e. 24:47.70dan_fransmart_comThere are 1 or 2 or 3 stores that the owners are constantly there and even if they don’t have a written system. They kind of all know how each other thinks and you know all that stuff. So there’s there’s really just technique about the best known way to do everything I mean marketing staffing operations time and motion studies like everything you can think of. 25:06.70vigorbrandingMe. 25:06.79dan_fransmart_comLike we have a tool in our toolbox for it and those tools keep getting changed. They keep getting retrofitted because think about marketing twenty years ago versus marketing today or tech the tech stack like there wasn’t even a tech stack twenty years ago so it’s like you have to keep evolving but our ecosystem in the restaurant business. 25:14.36vigorbrandingSure right. 25:25.52dan_fransmart_comIsn’t only every restaurant brand I’ve ever worked with I’m on the board of the national restaurant association. So there’s not really a Ceo I don’t know there’s not a big franchisee of any brand that I don’t know um I’m I’m ah oh and then kitchen fund. So we have a fund a kitchen fund. 25:29.85vigorbrandingUm, yeah. 25:39.51vigorbrandingThe. 25:42.51dan_fransmart_comWe were early investors in like sweet green and Kava and you know all kinds of different brands. So like our ecosystem’s pretty good and pretty valuable like we have a lot of really successful successful access in our in our ecosystem to always getting the best answer and so if there’s something coming up or something my brands are dealing with. Like I just go find 2 or 3 people that I know are just knocking it out of the park and you know we sort of get those answers and then we weave that back into our brand so it’s it’s a little bit of cheating. But. 26:14.52vigorbrandingUm, you know? yeah. 26:14.64dan_fransmart_comYeah, it’s something that we’re able to do you and I are on ypo together. There’s like most of the most successful franchisors and franchisees are in ypo and if you reach out to ah I mean I always say success leaves clues like if you’re trying to get a better answer like most people are pretty generous with their time like as long as you’re not overtly. 26:29.76vigorbrandingUm, yeah. 26:34.18dan_fransmart_comCompeting with them or annoying them. They’ll kind of help they’ll they’ll kind of help you figure that out. but but yeah but back to what the stuff we bring to the table is I think I liken it to a chain that goes around your neck like every link in the chain it takes to open a restaurant and operate a restaurant. Every link in a chain. It takes to what do I have to buy when do I have to buy it. What’s supposed to cost every link in the chain we feel like we have the best known chain with the best known links and so any brand that we take on who’s used to only having 1 or 2 or 5 or 9 or whatever it is like we’ll just have. 26:57.48vigorbrandingMe here a hint. 27:09.24dan_fransmart_comAll these links in the chain were like you know like some of the things they they may say no I’ve already got that I don’t need that but most often they they want help with that and then I’ve never seen a concept that I can’t figure out how to drive sales and lower costs like ah like drive drive sales I was on a call earlier today with a brand that that we’re looking at. 27:21.38vigorbrandingA. 27:28.90dan_fransmart_comBut it’s like you know it’s some of the stuff. It’s sort of like you and marketing like you could conversationally talk about marketing of stuff That’s just second nature to you to someone who’s not a marketing expert and they think you ah are you know a guru and it’s like I’m not really a guru I’ve just had we just have so many of these conversations. 27:38.24vigorbrandingRight mean he. 27:48.31dan_fransmart_comAnd we’re constantly trying to figure out how how who’s doing something better than everyone else. So we’re constantly having this conversation about the best known way So when these conversations come up. We’re able to just rattle them all up and it’s not. You know it’s just nature of our business. 27:52.40vigorbrandingMe. 28:03.61vigorbrandingYeah, and just we got to be refined, always refining so like I’m interested tonight. So someone called you and and I know you probably can’t say which I totally respect. But you’re looking at something I mean is it somebody that says hey I’ve got two like stores and I really think I have something here that could be. 28:12.14dan_fransmart_comYeah, yeah. 28:19.50vigorbrandingThe next big thing the next 5 guys. Ah or is it stuff that like you might have stumbled on to something or heard about something I mean how does that? How do how do they come to you or how does that work. 28:28.61dan_fransmart_comOh ah, well well those are 2 2 different things the way we get brands half the time they’re coming to us or someone will refer someone or someone says hey have you checked this out the other time we know what we’re looking for like we know what we’re looking for and we. We go after the best known players and whatever the market is so I’m I’m on this whole latin kick that nobody nobody’s done anything new in latin since Chipotle and they’re not even latin and so they’re as wide as I am and so we’re on this whole kick I met pitbull the rapper. 28:43.28vigorbrandingGot you? he. 28:59.86dan_fransmart_comAnd he’s like how come no Mexican chains are owned by Mexicans and how come no latins own the big Latino restaurant brands I’m like let’s fix that because probably because they might have like some of the best tacos or its best best restaurants you’ve ever been or in the hands of authentic latinos. 29:00.16vigorbrandingUm, he. 29:14.88vigorbrandingRight? Bum pop. 29:17.96dan_fransmart_comWhy haven’t they figured out how to build chains like I don’t know. Maybe it’s capital. Maybe it’s confidence. Maybe it’s know-how it’s like well we have plenty of all those. So now we’re targeting Latinos like pitbull and I are targeting Latinos with really good concepts we’re given a. 29:24.24vigorbrandingHe he. 29:33.10dan_fransmart_comEverything that both of us know think about his ecosystem like we’re giving him everything that we know to make to drive um success around that brand So we’re actually going to and we want to get wealthy helping Latinos get wealthy right? So that’s. 29:34.50vigorbrandingUm, yeah. 29:47.57vigorbrandingThat’s fantastic. 29:48.95dan_fransmart_comThat’s like but that that was one of these things where as soon as he and I came up with this I’m like okay now I got to go find a really great brand and in that case, what I did is I went to Us foods the biggest supplier in the country or one of the biggest suppliers in the country said here’s what pit bull and I are looking for who do you know. And all of a sudden they’re like this brand in Chicago we think is the next thing could be the next chipotle blah blah blah blah blah fly out to Chicago and it like you are right right? So that that goes from you know, somebody a Us foods we we told us foods like I told 90 people what I’m looking for us foods. Basically you know. Said here’s we have a lot of latin brands here’s one that’s a standout and you think about that too is like like us foods has something to gain too because now they have a client that goes from I think it was 8 stores when we got there now. It’s 13 with 6 or 8 new territories around the country. Now. They’re going to have instead of a 8 unit brand they’re going to wind up having a 500 unit customer you know and it was because they basically brought it up to us. 30:49.54vigorbrandingThat’s awesome. So do you think a latino brand. Do you think that’s going to be Franz Mars Next big big thing in the portfolio or you have something else cooking or what? what do you think the next big big thing is. 30:57.31dan_fransmart_comWe we? Yeah, we have a few brands that are doing record numbers like this this latin brands called cilantro it’s growing faster for me so far than 5 guys did like our first several months is growing faster. 31:06.43vigorbrandingI Love the name. 31:11.34dan_fransmart_comAnd it’s growing every franchisee is a franchisee of another brand and so they all have experience. They all know what they’re doing. They have capital but they also have a perspective of why they like this brand better than what they’re doing and so um, it’s interesting. Keep an eye on cilantra. That’s gonna be a fun one and then we’re. 31:25.93vigorbrandingAnd again I don’t know who does your naming but I love that I Love the name Slanic because I think that’s so approachable yet It’s intriguing. You know. 31:33.69dan_fransmart_comYeah, but it’s it’s like Chipotle right? So it’s like cilantro and and ah but it’s I mean it’s a real authentic story because I’m like the world doesn’t need another chipotle another mexican created by a white guy like they need. It should be like so our tagline or our. 31:43.75vigorbrandingE. 31:49.14dan_fransmart_comPositioning is the next big thing in Mexican is actually really mexican and so this is a family that kind of you know snuck into the country and like so many do and started off ah humbly through life in America you know like the halal guys. 31:50.94vigorbrandingShe. 31:56.48vigorbrandingHe. 32:06.56dan_fransmart_comAh, yeah, but they you know they came across and they they literally started opened up a restaurant to make a living to feed people to make a living turned out that what they were serving and it was latin for latinos so they started off their whole career is making this amazing. So think about how tough that customer is it’s not Latin Latino for gringos. 32:18.00vigorbrandingBriefly. 32:25.61vigorbrandingWe hear. 32:25.73dan_fransmart_comThis is latino for latinos and it was a standout brand that was doing crazy numbers and then all of a sudden they had opened 2 locations. They took over a failed baha fresh and it’s doing crazy numbers. They took over a failed chipotle right? That’s America’s darling is chipotle. 32:41.70vigorbrandingUm, right. 32:44.30dan_fransmart_comWhere Chipotle couldn’t succeed in this area of Chicago they’re packed. They’re busy and so you’re like wait a minute latino for latinos yeah, people like it and I’m like this thing’s going to be a monster and that’s why like I think we had 6 or 8 people come look at it all 6 or 8 of them are our franchisees now. 32:47.27vigorbrandingYeah, and again so it’s it’s quality. Yeah. 33:01.87dan_fransmart_comSo they’re all buying the franchise but that and then the other thing I’m excited about we got approach and beginning a covid if you you remember when Covid first happened the government was scrambling every day with new rules and regulations and restaurants had to close or could only open every other seat or had to do dividers Whatever was driving the industry crazy. 33:02.11vigorbrandingThat’s awesome. 33:20.40dan_fransmart_comAnd I had a franchise lawyer that said hey I’ve got this electronics Brand Would you take it on I’m like I don’t think so I don’t know anything about electronics Long story short. We took it on that thing’s growing faster than any brand I’ve ever grown. It’s way more successful than any restaurant has ever been. It’s called pay more pay more electronics. It’s. 33:35.64vigorbrandingThat’s great, very cool. 33:37.90dan_fransmart_comBuy sell trade new and used electronics and the irony is a lot of food guys are building it and then all of a sudden I run across um, a ah facial Studio Skincare Studio called Glow thirty. So it’s a small little and and I was approached by her. 33:40.57vigorbrandingShe. 33:53.68vigorbrandingYou know. 33:54.36dan_fransmart_comHer commercial broker her real estate broker. She goes hey would you ever do like a facial place I’m like I don’t know I’ve never even had a facial and I I talked to the lady and she said hey I want to be the orange theory of skin care I’m like I don’t know what that means and I’ve never been to orange theory and I’ve never had a facial but I. 34:06.19vigorbrandingAnd then. 34:13.40dan_fransmart_comAnd I saw the lady who was in Bethesda Maryland I looked on through my Linkedin I found somebody at orange theory and Bethesda and I said hey can I venmow you some money and you go check this place out and she said sure I’ve venmoed her some cash she went and checked it out. She looked up my background she goes I don’t know what your plan is with this brand but whatever it is I’m in. 34:30.79vigorbrandingYeah, yeah. 34:33.90dan_fransmart_comAnd so she actually left orange theory came to work for me. She’s the vice president of 4 us growing low 30 and this is skincare clinic that’s growing faster than I mean it’s just grown like crazy. So we’ve gone from being a restaurant franchise development company to a franchise development company and um. 34:50.48vigorbrandingThat’s awesome. 34:51.84dan_fransmart_comBut we keep looking for food like I’m I’m I’m ah I can’t offline I’ll tell you who, but it’s but we’re we’re working on a pretty pretty big project right now like I’m still I’m at the end of the day I like to feed people. There’s just something very rewarding about feeding somebody someone pays you for the food that you give them. 34:59.73vigorbrandingUm, yes, yeah. 35:11.33dan_fransmart_comAnd they say thank you and they come back and they bring friends like there’s just something instantly gratification gratify gratifying about about that. So like I’ll always be in the in the restaurant business but the restaurant industry is getting a little wakeup call because it’s from a business perspective. It’s hard. 35:12.11vigorbrandingYeah, he. 35:29.54dan_fransmart_comHarder to make money nowadays in restaurants which is why so many like at this places glow 30 like we just sold all of Arizona to a huge food franchisee Greg Flynn the biggest franchisee in the world is this starting to expand with nonfoo and and ah yeah. 35:39.47vigorbrandingUm, sure. Yeah, the the glow 30 thing look I’ll be very very honest I think it’s fantastic because I know that look feeding people makes you feel great. If you haven’t gotten a facial i. Absolutely recommend it I look I’m a father of daughters I’ll admit it I go every two months. It is the greatest thing on earth. So the fact that you are in the on the but the ground floor of a franchise for this brilliant I guarantee it will explode I mean I just ah, in fact I buy a bunch of the gift cards and I give them out to folks here in the office because I just think it’s like. 36:02.53dan_fransmart_comUm, yeah. 36:11.60dan_fransmart_comYeah, well I it will now I can’t now so glow 30 It’s one of these members. It’s a membership skincare which is another thing it’s sort of like memberships is the ultimate hack because you make money while you sleep. You basically make money whether people use. 36:11.71vigorbrandingAh, great hour of your life. You know? So if you if you haven’t done it. Do it. Ah perfect. Yeah yeah, right. 36:28.82dan_fransmart_comSomething or not when you have a membership think about fitness studios how many times you buy a membership and you don’t go and the fitness studio is happy. They’re happy because you’re not there so they wind up selling one hundred and fifty percent of capacity knowing that the third of the morons never show up. So um. 36:31.63vigorbrandingYep, yeah. 36:41.56vigorbrandingUm, that’s right. 36:44.97dan_fransmart_comBut that’s that’s sort of the membership model and it’s like man this thing you buy a membership and the ah but the irony here is people don’t not use it. So it’s ah every month the the facial changes right? So like in October it was like a pumpkin facialin. 36:52.97vigorbrandingAre a are. 36:59.45dan_fransmart_comJuly I think it was like lemoncello or whatever but every month it’s a different carefully curated facial and people don’t miss it. So it’s not like you just get a facial and no big deal I get one next week it’s people like no, it’s the end of the month they’re going to change this month into next month I don’t want to miss last month so the reason I still haven’t ever been to glow is every time I come in for discovery day. These guys are booked out three weeks in advance. So like if you said you wanted a franchise right now for glow the earliest I could book your discovery day is like three weeks because we want you to get a facial as part of your discovery day. It’s like yeah and so. 37:19.90vigorbrandingOh yeah, yeah yeah. 37:26.37vigorbrandingWow Yeah in the in the facial is the product’s holding it up right. 37:35.15dan_fransmart_comSo yeah, so it’s ah but it’s yeah, it’s funny, but but now I mean it’s franchising like we had. We is weird. We had a record year last year we we had more new franchise sales last year than ever the first quarter of this year doubled last year so like been doing this for 30 years and 37:48.56vigorbrandingA. 37:54.11dan_fransmart_comAnd that’s even food like I mean our food brands like cilantro we have. We have the largest fastest growing indian brand called curry up now. So there’s another one. There’s a billion and a half indians when you think about how many indians and pakistani eat what looks like to you and I indian food. It’s like no one’s ever built a brand. 37:54.65vigorbrandingUm, yeah. 38:11.40vigorbrandingUm, right. 38:12.55dan_fransmart_comAnd so we you know now we have 100 units in development for curry up now. We just sold London so that’s now international. So the London franchisee is the subway franchisee for for all of Uk. He actually bought all of Uk for curry up now. So yeah, we’re going we’re going nuts we got dessert franchises. We got. You know we we got really good things but I’m drawn to things that have really good numbers. So like I have a cookie franchise called smackery in New York City and no one. There’s no real number 2 to crumble and nobody I mean crumble just went like a monster I tried to get smackery 6 or 7 5 five five 38:38.32vigorbranding8 38:44.17vigorbrandingYeah, yeah. 38:50.41dan_fransmart_comYears ago before I ever saw crumble and I couldn’t even get him to call me back and then finally I knew someone who knew him and we made a deal about a year ago but there’s no number 2 to to crumble all the people that are trying to build cookie shops are all doing six hundred Grand seven hundred Grand a year this guy is. He’s in Eight hundred Square feet and I think he did two point three million dollars last year. So yeah, yeah, cookies 3 yeah so I mean ridiculous sales and and um, but he’s doing a difference. It was like well even in New York there’s a lot of other places that do under a million dollars why is he doing. 39:09.85vigorbrandingWow Cookies That’s fantastic. 39:27.26dan_fransmart_comMore than double what everyone else is doing. It’s like that’s what I look for so like I look for concepts that just do like haa guys. There’s a lot of people selling meat over rice with sauce in New York only 1 guy had a line down the block. So I got him it was smackerys only 1 guy is doing whatever. 39:33.77vigorbrandingNo. 39:39.46vigorbrandingYeah, that’s right. 39:46.65dan_fransmart_comThousand dollars a foot in sales. He’s $3000 a foot in sales or whatever he’s doing even in New York like by New York standards that’s still 2 times the sales per foot than any other chain does and it’s like well you know so there’s something about that which makes yeah which makes my life easy because I don’t have. 39:56.93vigorbrandingUm, there’s some there. Yeah. 40:02.94dan_fransmart_comYou know like I don’t have the guy that’s only doing 7 or eight hundred Grand a year in cookies I have the guy doing two point three million so makes my life a little bit easier. 40:06.62vigorbrandingYeah, very cool. Let’s let’s talk 1 more thing about that you’re’re you’re embarking on the podcast journey you’re gonna do smart franise you go talk a little bit about that. 40:16.50dan_fransmart_comSure so I started a franchise. It’s the first question I ask whenever I meet successful franchisees or franchisors I’m like what makes you successful. What are you doing? What do you know that I don’t or what you know why are you getting results that other people are getting and so. 40:31.22vigorbrandingIs. 40:33.95dan_fransmart_comStarted smart franchising with frans smart I just believe success leaves clues and I feel like people are willing to share and so my first guest on was the biggest franchisee in the world. Greg Flynn he owns 2700 something franchises all over the world. He’s now going I mean I think he’s targeting 5000 franchises. He’s going to go to some weird number and it’s like okay, well and I’d ask him right on the podcast What do you do different like why are you getting the results you’re getting why are you and without saying it I’m kind of like why are you better than everyone else or what are you doing that people can learn from. 41:06.64vigorbrandingMe here. 41:10.85dan_fransmart_comAnd surprisingly I mean he’s he’s obviously um, careful. Ah, but he gave some really good. Um, really good tidbits and then but like I had franchisees of 5 guys and and um, franchisee really successful franchisee from um, red robin. 41:27.74vigorbrandingHe sure. 41:29.52dan_fransmart_comRight? So casual dining is taking a beating right now. Well here’s a guy that’s doing double-digit sales increases and he’s still growing. So I’m like what thell are you doing that like Chilis can’t figure out in Fridays are closing restaurants and you’re building more restaurants you’re doing great. What are you doing and he’ll tell you he’ll tell you exactly as secrets as success. 41:38.98vigorbrandingSo in here. 41:44.92vigorbrandingYeah. 41:49.00dan_fransmart_comAh, 5 guys franchisees like why? Why do you have 80 stores. Why do you? This other guy had 17 another guy had 80 like what is it, you do different than everyone else they leave that and one I had 2 other guys on that are really really cool by bunch but 1 of them was Don Fox from Firehouse sold a sandwich shop right? You think there’s not room for another sandwich shop or he builds one he sells it for $1000000000 so it’s like how did you do it like what can what can my audience learn or Freddy’s like even after fiveges. Freddy is the burger and and milk shake company. 42:08.98vigorbrandingYou’re right. Shift a. 42:22.10dan_fransmart_comSame thing like you get his whole story and you get how he did it and they tell it in a way that tells you if you follow what they did. You’re going to have the same result and then 1 thing right now that I think is mystifying a lot of people is the restaurant tech stack people don’t understand restaurant marketing or the tech stack. Most. 42:31.42vigorbrandingMan. 42:38.63vigorbrandingPerformance. 42:41.80dan_fransmart_comMost people don’t get it I had a guy on that I think is the best and most brilliant in the space and he decoded the whole thing and not only decoded it I’m like give me the app to fix this. Give me the app to fix that if you were a franchisee. What are the first 3 things that you’d make sure that you did. 42:57.90vigorbrandingMe. 42:59.16dan_fransmart_comAnd he went into detail about everything and so it’s you know stuff that he charges a lot of money as a consultant. He’s giving it all away for free so smart franchising with Fransmar is really just that. It’s like what’s this. What’s the best known way to do everything um in a way that people can learn from. 43:15.69vigorbrandingYeah I mean it seems to me and I don’t know if you found this but I feel like there’s a lot of the same ingredients I mean it typically starts with a really good quality product I think people think a lot of times when there’s a franchise or whatever. It’s like you figure out ways to ah ah skip. And to save money and certainly have to run the operation but it’s usually a quality product. Um consistency. Ah great operations and then I go back to that sort of that brand promise like there’s a story. There’s there’s this great authenticity that that kind of exudes and and kind of you can carry from place to place. We just had. I just had betsy ham ah from duck donuts on and that that’s a franchise that kind of grew I mean yeah, did the world need another donut shop I mean you know Russ Degiio the the founder thought so and and a great story I mean was it he was at the outer banks ah always thought of like you know going and getting fresh donuts at the beach the jersey shore we are. Lots of places have you know, fresh. You know, homemade Duck. He didn’t he couldn’t find one so he thought he should start a donut place at the outer banks out in duck and that’s where that’s where it came from and it was like I mean you know puts this together and it’s this. Ah, it’s this great franchise. So I feel like a lot of these guys have ah just a great story. A passion. 44:17.76dan_fransmart_comYeah. 44:29.72vigorbrandingAnd it’s an authenticity that you know makes it makes it kind of ah ah, magnetic that other people want it and and want to grow from it. Yeah. 44:33.49dan_fransmart_comYeah, yeah, yeah I agree but that I duck don’t I Love duck donuts and they’re delicious, but you think about it’s like well how did he create that it’s like because he created it like how did I do what I did because he did it. 44:43.90vigorbrandingYeah, yeah, that’s it. Yeah yeah, yeah, that’s right, you know execute That’s right, you know don’t be afraid to fail the whole thing I tell my I tell my daughters all the time I mean look I failed a lot. So. 44:49.77dan_fransmart_comIt’s like that’s the biggest thing is people sitting on the sidelines like you got to get going life is short. Yeah. 45:01.28dan_fransmart_comYeah, yeah. 45:01.81vigorbrandingThe C student guy Again, you know you you fail. You just go out there and you know hey look hopefully you get an a here bring that average up to a C but you know you’re allowed to fail you go out and try things and pivot and and keep going. It’s it’s exciting. So you said you start your podcast out with the same question I end mine with the same question. So I’m going to. 45:09.78dan_fransmart_comYeah. 45:17.85vigorbrandingI’m gonna ask this? Um I look forward to your answer, you’ve created a lot of restaurants you’ve built brands all over the the world. So your last meal one final meal. What would you eat where and why and there’s a disclosure you’re not going to assault any of your ah ah franchisees. You can just pick anything. So. 45:31.60dan_fransmart_comOh man, probably my last meal would be my last meal is going to be Italian and it’s probably going to be. 45:47.32dan_fransmart_comI don’t know got to think about this? um I wish you said it ahead of time but ah, but there’s a restaurant in New York City it’s my favorite in the world and it’s because the dad cooks the mom’s the hostess and the son’s the waiter. It’s called Sandros Sandros 46:04.57vigorbrandingSandros. Okay. 46:05.57dan_fransmart_comAnd it’s the best food I’ve ever had. It’s dinky teeny tiny but everything that comes out’s unbelievable. It’s the opposite of pretentious. It’s the ah I mean it’s just a neighborhood place that you could walk by a hundred times and never know it was there every time I go to New York I 46:13.37vigorbrandingE. 46:22.30vigorbrandingI I just wrote it down I’m in New York all the time. So I’m gonna I’m gonna try and fight is it in Manhattan it’s okay Sandros. 46:23.10dan_fransmart_comBlock time to go there. That’s probably my favorite meal of all places sandros. Yeah yeah, yeah in the upper East but it’s like it’s awesome. Food’s good. Price are reasonable. You know and you all and you go there and you feel like they appreciate that you’re there the whole the whole load but it was definitely my last meal of no matter where would be Italian like favorite food I could I mean I Just can’t get enough of that. So I Love it. But yeah, Thanks ma’am. 46:39.42vigorbrandingHe. Yeah, you go? Yeah hey I Appreciate you know I could talk to you for hours is fascinating I Absolutely enjoy it. Thank you so much soon. 46:57.21dan_fransmart_comYou’re welcome. We’ll see you soon. 

Five Guys Burgers

OCT. 24 Five Guys Burgers and Fries, 12210 West Broad Street – No violations reported during a routine inspection. First Watch, 8621 Quioccasin Road – The following violations were reported during a routine inspection: facility doesn't have a certified food protection manager; sausage and chicken on the line are at the incorrect temperature; time is not being tracked for home fries; spatulas and scoops found in standing ambient temperature water; to-go receptacles are stored uncovered; mop sink doesn't have a dual check valve installed; dust is building up on ceiling vents. Genova Pizza Express, 8936 Quioccasin Road – The following...Article LinkSupport the show

In hour three, Hoch and Crowder unknowingly eat the same midday snack. Froyo vs Ice Cream and we get to our biggest gripe with Five Guys Burgers. Plus, Solana drives a podcaster to quit podcasting. Then, we grade Don Bailey Jr's performance last night working our calls into the UM broadcast vs Bethune-Cookman. 

Chaz, the studio guard dog, in his old age is getting pickier and pickier with his food.  Today, after the show, I'll venture up to his vet's office to get him more canned food.  Seems he SOMETIMES likes Science Diet “stew style”, the easy on the GI tract version.  Then off to Five Guys Burgers to pick up dinner…LUCKILY Lori needs to draw a picture of someone, ME, eating a burger, for a project she's working on…so, Five Guys Bacon Cheeseburger it will be!  The Music Authority Podcast...listen, like, comment, download, share, repeat…heard daily on Podchaser, Deezer, Amazon Music, Audible, Listen Notes, Mixcloud, Player FM, Tune In, Podcast Addict, Cast Box, Radio Public, and Pocket Cast, and APPLE iTunes!  Follow the show on "X" JimPrell@TMusicAuthority!  Please, are you listening? Please, are you sharing the podcast?  Please, has a podcast mention been placed into your social media?  How does and can one listen in? Let me list the ways...*Podcast - https://themusicauthority.transistor.fm/   The Music Authority Podcast!  Special Recorded Network Shows, too!  Different than my daily show! *Radio Candy Radio Monday Wednesday, & Friday 7PM ET, 4PM PT*Rockin' The KOR Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday at 7PM UK time, 2PM ET, 11AM PT  www.koradio.rocks*Pop Radio UK Friday, Saturday, & Sunday 6PM UK, 1PM ET, 10AM PT!  *The Sole Of Indie  https://soleofindie.rocks/  Monday Through Friday 6-7PM EST!August 22, 2023, Tuesday, page two…Blaine Campbell - 05_It's Never Enough [Blaine Campbell And The California Sound]Leopard Print Taser - 11-Family LLC [Existential Bathroom Graffiti]Tamar Berk - 09 I Was Saved By The Beauty In The World [Tiny Injuries]Kooked Out - Vis Viva [Vis Viva]Dany Laj and The Looks - Smile [Ten Easy Pieces] (Rum Bar Records)The Mommyheads - 03 Spookarama [Coney Island Kid]SUPER 8 Music - 12 The Hangman's Daughter [Hoopla]Scott Yoder- 13 Fallen To The Forest Floor [Wither On Hollywood & Vine]@K7s - 05_Strength To Endure [Mondo Bizarro] (koolkatmusik.com)@Onesie - 09 - Cross The Night [Liminal Hiss] (koolkatmusik.com)@The Jacks - 05 Pretty Poison [English - EP]The Gold Needles - Village Green [Jem Records Celebrates Ray Davies] (Jem Records)Cyanide Pills - It's Over [Soundtrack To The New Cold War] (Damaged Goods Records)The Lodger - 07 Stop That Girl! [Cul De Sac Of Love]The Julies - 07 This Momentary Bliss [Always And Always]The Heat Inc. - 01 - Souvenir [Asleep In The Ejector Seat] (@Melted Dino Records)The Vanrays – Hey Alright Now [LP Mixes 2021]

In this episode of Telaid Tech Connect, host Beth Bergmann is joined by Thom Schmitt, VP of Sales at ComplianceMate. They explore the value of IoT for complying with food safety regulations as well as achieving greater operational efficiency and reducing shrink.     IN THIS EPISODE:     [1:48] What major problems were foodservice operators facing?   [2:28] What are some environmental or sustainability challenges?  [3:25] How do all these technologies come together to help mitigate loss and support food safety and sustainability goals?  [5:55] What is the operational role of IoT sensors?   [7:25] What are some successful use cases?  [8:35] What are some applications in c-stores?   [9:51] What are some key points that we can arm operational leaders with to bring the solution to their executive teams?  [15:15] What does food safety tech look like in next 5 years?    KEY TAKEAWAYS:     Operators need to ensure they are complying with food safety regulations, while also reducing waste.   We have temperature monitors that monitor temperature 24/7, automatically generating notifications if the temperature has fallen outside the specified range. The tool also digitizes any type of checklist that goes on within an operation to ensure employees are doing what they are supposed to be doing, when they are supposed to be doing it.   IoT is not new – the biggest things measured are temp and humidity, but IoT ecosystem offer the opportunity to expand into measurement of many more elements.  IoT devices also provide data over time, so when the health department comes in, the operator can present them with documentation that shows them temperatures in coolers over time.   ROI on this solution is very quick because operators keep thousands of dollars of product in coolers and if one breaks, all the food is lost. Coolers are mechanical devices, and they break down about once every 60 months.   In the future, we'll see sensor technology measuring elements we have not yet considered as well as advancement through the development of AI and predictive analytics.     LINKS MENTIONED     LinkedIn – Thom Schmitt    www.compliancemate.com     BIO:   Thom Schmitt serves as Vice President of Sales at ComplianceMate, bringing over 30 years of experience directing sales of SaaS Solutions as well as consumer/industrial electronics. Thom joined CM Systems, LLC in 2011 having previously worked for over 20 years at Hitachi Electronic Devices USA. Over the course of his career, Thom has forged longstanding relationships with his customers, including Five Guys Burgers and Fries, Chick-fil-A, and several other nationally known restaurant concepts. Thom has also worked with several leading retailers and grocers including Hy Vee and Roche Brothers. Thom holds a BA from the University of Iowa. 

Big Ron, Dusty and Scott are back to play Over Rated/ Under Rated. Five Guys, Pro Cards, Movie Talk, a Chris Cormier story and more . TIME STAMPS BELOW

Not a Competition 10/06/2022: Fantasy football discussion

Bik and Randip talk about the big win to begin the homestand and then talk about what is better for supporting the team between keeping or trading J.T. Miller. Then, the play-by-play voice, John Shorthouse joins the guys to give his thoughts on the Canucks' current situation. 

The Five Guys restaurant chain offers fast casual dining restaurants which specialize in the sale of freshly made hamburgers, french fries, and hotdogs. The restaurant offers a menu that is plain and simple and contains a variety of burgers made from 100% fresh never-frozen ground beef. The Five Guys Burgers and Fries first opened in 1986, and began offering franchise opportunities in 2002. As of 2020, over 1400+ Five Guys franchises have opened across the country and they continue to expand. Visit the franchise profile on Vetted Biz: https://www.vettedbiz.com/five-guys-franchise/ Want to speak with a franchise specialist about Five Guys or another franchise? Click here: https://share.hsforms.com/1ZtNM19w4R8WIXyNa_97N7w4e0xw If you are looking for more information, you can connect with us through our networks: https://www.vettedbiz.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/vettedbiz/ https://www.facebook.com/vettedbiz

Mike Morman is currently a facilities manager for Five Guys Burgers and Fries. He formerly worked at the Board of Trade and Mercantile Exchange and became a culinary. He was a culinary student who became a chef when he was 30. It's Men's Month on Survive to Thrive! Don't forget to like, subscribe, and share! Movember Mo: https://www.movember.com

Welcome to the PowerFall Project!We are known for our TOP 5 lists!  We discuss everything from top 5 movies, athletes, cars and sometimes venture into hypothetical lists such as top 5 things we'd want for the zombie apocalypse.A handsome, mild mannered, ex motocross, former fitness coach and media production entrepreneur...Nick Powers!A goof ball, former athlete, coach and serial entrepreneur...Addy Drip DaddyThis week:  Top 5 Burgers!! Last week:  Top 5 NEW impact people!Next week: Top 5 PowerFall Powerball Purchases!Also Discussed: Dad jokes, Rapid Fire Questions, Would you Rather, Dongs, and Burgers.If you have an idea for a list you would like us to discuss, send us a message!Be sure to follow us on Instagram!>>> PowerFallProject

Cody Chalker makes his triumphant return and we talk about a variety of topics including higher education, finance, and the World-famous Twinsday Festival in Twinsburg, Ohio. I have been friends with Cody for almost 30 years and it felt great to kick it with an old friend. I don't think we solved any of the world's problem's or answered any of the unanswered questions, but that didn't stop us from trying and we had a ton of laughs along the way. I hope you enjoy. Topics/Keywords: Student loans; higher education; trade school; on-the-job training; Salt Lake City; Utah; homelessness; family; finance; blockchain; cryptocurrencies, decentralized finance; Solana; Dogecoin; meme-coins; twin studies; Louis CK; Harvey Weinstein; Bill Gates; COVID-19 vaccine; sexual assault, privacy, technology; addiction; recovery; bachelor parties; Tony Robbins; Shallow Hal; tall guys who can't dunk; camping; Salt Lake Community College; parenting teens; retirement; absorbed twins; privacy; paintball accidents; Five Guys Burgers and Fries; Papa Murphy's; Culver's; cheese curds; ashwaganda; insulin-like growth factor; reproductive science; anxiety; Kratom; herbal remedies; benzodiazepines; antidepressants; gluten; Celiac's Disease; sugar; cooking; eating healthy; money management; gambling; Ethereum; NFTs; trucks; Toyota; GMC Canyon; Tesla; Cybertruck; King of the Hill;   The Simpsons; sitcoms; TGIF; South Park; Comedy Central; soft-core porn; the weather. -------------------------------------- Ramble by the River Links: Patreon for exclusive episodes Patreon.com/Ramblebytheriver Social Media Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jeff.nesbitt.9619 (https://www.facebook.com/jeff.nesbitt.9619) Instagram: https://instagram.com/ramblebytheriver?r=nametag (@ramblebytheriver) Twitter: @RambleRiverPod Youtube: https://youtube.com/channel/UCNiZ9OBYRxF3fJ4XcsDxLeg (https://youtube.com/channel/UCNiZ9OBYRxF3fJ4XcsDxLeg) Business inquiries/guest booking: Ramblebytheriver@gmail.com Website: (For episode catalogue): https://my.captivate.fm/Ramblebytheriver.captivate.fm (Ramblebytheriver.captivate.fm) (Podcast main website): https://my.captivate.fm/RamblebytheRiver.com (RamblebytheRiver.com) Music Credit(s): Still Fly, Revel Day. Alone on a Swan in LA (instrumental version), Pandaraps. Support this podcast

This week, Coop and Dylan swipe on low power mode as they get back in the swing of things with Macross 7's Plus Short Collection and the Movie: The Galaxy's Calling Me! Some life updates, Meltran Doujinshi, and No More Heroes 3 come up in the conversation. Music Used: My Friends (Super Robot Wars Alpha 3 OST) Try Again (Super Robot Wars Alpha 3 OST)

Nano is back! Listen to him and the guys listen to the two singles from Whapö as they prepare for his next album on SoundCloud (https://soundcloud.app.goo.gl/aQWooWVfK1LaTQjt8). They also talk about the Spurs, Texas BBQ, the greatness (or the crappiness) of Five Guys Burgers, and a fun class and story of working out with Nano, to name a few of the topics. Follow the podcast on Instagram @ott_podcast and follow Whapö @soy_whapo. Also, make sure to subscribe, like, and share our channel on YouTube!! --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/offthetoppodcast/support

In round 6 of this delicious competition, Scoff and Wonk compare poutines from Five Guys Burgers and Fries and Dixon's Public House. Both were delicious, but we had to go with Five Guys for the best classic poutine we have tasted so far in this bracket contest!

"Part of our Mission is to conduct an amazing, two way, connected, live stream workout with coaches that see and care about you. . . and two-way is the word I want to repeat! We're one of the leaders in it, and it's what the Peloton's of the world simply aren't doing," states CEO and serial entrepreneur Kyle Bergman. A former lacrosse college athlete who went on to play on the Israeli national team, Kyle got his retail background at Bloomingdales, coached for 4 years at Orange Theory and Flywheel and founded Sweat From Home due to COVID. This wide ranging chat touches on the critical importance of focusing on hiring the right people for word-of-mouth growth, the importance of using breakout rooms in ZOOM, dealing with competitors, and how Five Guys Burgers are critical to the fitness industry! (Not a typo!) Listen now to learn more.

Dan Rowe, CEO of Fransmart, joined the Food Institute podcast to discuss the restaurant of the future. Rowe discusses the current restaurant landscape in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, and what brands/concepts could take advantage of today's market dynamics. Additionally, Rowe shares his prospects for drive-thrus, delivery, ghost kitchens, and curbside pickup options among foodservice operators in the years to come. Hosted By: Chris Campbell Recorded: Jan. 29, 2021 More About Dan Rowe: Dan Rowe specializes in finding the next big thing and for over 20 years has identified and grown brands like Five Guys Burgers & Fries, QDOBA Mexican Grill and The Halal Guys from small unit businesses to the powerhouse chains they are today. Under Dan Rowe's direction, Fransmart's current and past franchise development portfolio brands have opened more than 5,000 restaurants worldwide, and facilitated franchise investments that have cumulatively generated over 1-billion in revenues to date. Dan is Co-Managing Partner at The Kitchen Fund and FranInvest, which have invested in Sweetgreen, Cava, by Chloe, Inday, eegee's, to name just a few, and is an active board member of YPO and the National Restaurant Association. To learn more about Fransmart, please visit: https://www.fransmart.com Connect with Dan on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/dan-rowe/a/894/189

When you need insight, asking an expert is the right way to go. Which is why Barbara Castiglia, host of The Main Course, sat down with Dan Rowe, Founder & CEO, Fransmart to discuss all things franchise. Why did we turn to Rowe to learn more about how to grow franchises? Good question. Rowe specializes in finding the next big thing in the franchise world. For more than 20 years, he has identified and grown brands like Five Guys Burgers & Fries, QDOBA Mexican Grill and The Halal Guys from small unit businesses to the powerhouse chains they are today. Under Dan Rowe's direction, Fransmart's franchise development portfolio brands have opened more than 5,000 restaurants worldwide, as well as facilitated franchise investments that cumulatively generated over 1-billion in revenues to date. In other words, he knows how to make franchises a success.

Review of Five Guys Burgers and Fries

Have you ever been to Five Guys Burgers and Fries? If you have then listen in and hear what we have to say. If you haven't, then listen in and hear what we have to say. You know Snooty is always right. Do you like a mountain of delicious fries? This is THE place for your French Fry fantasy.

This episode’s guest chose ‘sharing’ as his word of the day and he really delivers on that front. Fred Schebesta is perhaps best known as the co-founder of one of the world’s leading comparison websites, Finder.com. He’s a serial entrepreneur, author and media commentator who sold his first business for $1.36 million and made his debut on the AFR Young Rich List in 2019 at number 22. Fred is also the co-founder of Finder Ventures, Finder’s venture capital arm, and cryptocurrency exchange HiveEx. But interwoven with Fred’s entrepreneurial journey is one of self-discovery and reinvention. Fred stands out in the crowd for his total commitment to being himself. A samurai sword hangs above the entrance at Finder HQ as a reminder of the company’s deepest low when Google penalised them for some ‘grey hat’ SEO tactics and the site lost most of its traffic overnight. At the EY Young Entrepreneur Awards, he wore an outrageous Versace jacket in a sea of tuxedos. He calls himself an ‘internet rockstar’ on LinkedIn and that’s how he shows up, whether to a speaking engagement or a meeting with a potential business partner. Listen in to find out how hiring an emotional coach to get through his divorce highlighted issues for his role in the business, why he chooses to be a slow driver, and the business insights he has gleaned from his favourite burger joint, Five Guys Burgers and Fries. https://www.linkedin.com/in/fredschebesta/ https://twitter.com/schebesta https://www.instagram.com/fredschebesta https://www.fredschebesta.com/ Leave feedback or get in touch here:   Samantha Dybac Managing Director and founder The PR Hub www.theprhub.com.au/podcast https://www.instagram.com/influenceunlockedpodcast/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/samanthadybac/   Producer: Andrew Menczel http://www.piccolopodcasts.com.au/

It's an honor to welcome marketing guru Jay Baer to the show to talk about his and Daniel Lemin's spectacular book Talk Triggers: The Complete Guide to Creating Customers with Word of Mouth. About the Book:  Word of mouth is directly responsible for 19% of all purchases, and influences as much as 90%. Every human on earth relies on word of mouth to make buying decisions. Yet even today, fewer than 1% of companies have an actual strategy for generating these crucial customer conversations. Talk Triggers provides that strategy in a compelling, relevant, timely book that can be put into practice immediately, by any business. The key to activating customer chatter is the realization that same is lame. Nobody says "let me tell you about this perfectly adequate experience I had last night." The strategic, operational differentiator is what gives customers something to tell a story about. Companies (including the 30+ profiled in Talk Triggers) must dare to be different and exceed expectations in one or more palpable ways. That's when word of mouth becomes involuntary: the customers of these businesses simply MUST tell someone else. Talk Triggers contains: Proprietary research into why and how customers talk More than 30 detailed case studies of extraordinary results from Doubletree Hotels by Hilton and their warm cookie upon arrival, The Cheesecake Factory and their giant menu, Five Guys Burgers and their extra fries in the bag, Penn & Teller and their nightly meet and greet sessions, and a host of delightful small businesses The 4-5-6 learning system (the 4 requirements for a differentiator to be a talk trigger; the 5 types of talk triggers; and the 6-step process for creating talk triggers)  Surprises in the text that are (of course) word of mouth propellants Consumers are wired to discuss what is different, and ignore what is average. Talk Triggers not only dares the reader to differentiate, it includes the precise formula for doing it.  Combining compelling stories, inspirational examples, and practical how-to, Talk Triggers is the first indispensable book about word of mouth. It's a book that will create conversation about the power of conversation. About the Authors: Jay Baer is a 7th generation entrepreneur, author of 6 best-selling books, and founder of five multi-million dollar companies. He's the founder of Convince & Convert a marketing consultancy that helps the world's most iconic brands grow. He is a hall of fame keynote speaker and emcee, and co-host of the Social Pros podcast. Daniel Lemin is a respected authority on the reputation industry, a consultant for prominent Fortune 500 companies, a frequent public speaker, and an analyst with Convince & Convert. He is the author of Manipurated, and the co-founder of Selectivor, a food intelligence start-up. Connect with Jay: TalkTriggers.com ConvinceAndConvert.com Facebook Twitter Instagram For additional show notes, visit ShaunTabatt.com/258.

The man pictured above is Nigel Farage, the leader of the Brexit Party. An anti-Brexit "remainer" hit him with a salted caramel and banana milkshake from Five Guys Burgers & Fries. The big news here is that the United Kingdom has Five Guys. Does this look like the face of a woman that would jailbreak her boyfriend by calling the jail and pretending to be the sheriff? If you said yes, gold star. This is Maxine Feldstein, her boyfriend Nick Lowe was in Douglas County Jail in Arkansas for charges of identify theft back in Ventura Country, California. Lowe was awaiting transfer to Cali when Feldstein called up pretending to be from the Ventura Sheriffs department to let them know that he could be let because of overcrowding in Ventura County. Douglas County bought it hook line and sinker. Go figure. Now Feldstein is facing 15 years in the slammer.  Their fatal flaw? They didn't leave Arkansas. Bummer. Also...- Trump slams Biden for moving out of Pennsylvania- The French are lazy and shut down the Eiffel Tower because some guy climbed it- A Disney World employee stole an animatronic puppet from Disney, obviously for sex.Brought to you by WeThePeopleHolsters.com enter promo code: FACTOR

This week marks the highly anticipated return of the world famous "Sense & Theory Grab Bag" episode! From the Mueller Report to the College Admission Scandal and Creepy Joe Biden to Five Guys Burgers, the fellas sound off on a range of topics and catch some of the stories that fell through the cracks in early 2019!

It's another It's a Security Thing Thursday. Craig talked about how the bad guys can hack through using Wi Fi as they did to Five Guys burgers. These and more tech tips, news, and updates visit - CraigPeterson.com --- Related Articles  --- Below is a rush transcript of this segment, it might contain errors. Airing date: 02/14/2019 Wi Fi Hack Five Guys Burgers Craig Peterson 0:00 Hey, good morning everybody. It is a cyber security week. So it's a perfect week to have yet another cyber security thing. And that's what we're going to do right now. Talk about one of the things that has happened recently out there in the world that's really caused some cyber security anxiety. And we're going to start by talking a little bit about something that happened to Five Guys. Now, do you like Five Guys? I think, you know, they're my favorite burger place by far. There's no question about that night. I think that they understand burgers, but according to the California Attorney General's office, they received a letter from Five Guys which by the way you have to do if you have a breach and you have any customers in California. So if you have a breach and you're in New Hampshire as a business and you have one customer in California,  you should check the law here because in sometimes it's a hundred  customers. Sometimes it's more or less. Varies from state to state. Isn't that fun? But they informed them that the name, date of birth, social security number, address, higher date, termination date, and 401k contribution information had been stolen and it was affecting their employees. Now, they didn't say exactly how many employees were affected, but the company gave them a complimentary one year membership to Experian's identity works service. Yeah, Experian. I love them too. So keep that in mind. In this case, it said that it did happen because of one employee and that's all it takes. An investigation into the matter determined that an employee's inbox contained messages or attachments that had all that information in it. So have you ever sent for instance W2 information via email to someone else in the company? 1099 information, HR information via email? Well apparently the bad guys hacked their way into this email. Now, there's a lot of ways that they could have done it. One of them is via Wi Fi, and monitoring the Wi Fi. So let's say an employee is over at an airport, they're traveling, they connect to the airports Wi Fi system and they now access their email. There's a good chance a bad guy could be monitoring, could be fooling the email system and gaining access. I don't know that this is what happened to Five Guys that might be but when that happens, they have access to your email which means any of this type of private identifiable information could be stolen as well as bank account numbers etc etc. So keep that in mind and also this week I talked all about Wi Fi and how to secure and how to use it when you're on the road that was on Monday. I have a special video up that you can access but you have to go to http://CraigPeterson.com and these videos these training videos it's all about the training I got hours that I did and posted this week all about the training you will find at http://CraigPeterson.com. But you only have a couple of days left before that training is taken down because I really want to motivate motivate you guys you got to get off of your collective butts and get it done. And those people who already watched the training and let me know how much you appreciate it. Hey, I appreciate the great feedback. So http://CraigPeterson.com. Don't let you or your business get nailed by one of these Wi Fi vulnerabilities and I've got all the training for you all for free so you don't have any excuses anymore. Take care. Talk to you tomorrow.  --- More stories and tech updates at: www.craigpeterson.com Don't miss an episode from Craig. Subscribe and give us a rating: www.craigpeterson.com/itunes Message Input: Message #techtalk Follow me on Twitter for the latest in tech at: www.twitter.com/craigpeterson For questions, call or text: 855-385-5553

Show Summary: Tech Abilities is back in the studio and Serina, Andy and Jeff talk about Smart Devices. From Smart Switches, Smart Thermostats, Smart Smoke and Gas Detectors, Door Bell Cameras and the Google Hub. But is the Apple Home Kit App good enough? Check out this entertaining and informational look at the devices watching you and putting some convenience into your life. How did we get by without it? Hmmm. You can follow Tech Abilities on twitter @AbilitiesTech Contact: Tech Abilities is part of the Blind Abilities Network and be sure to check out all of our shows and podcasts. Thank you for listening! You can follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com Send us an email Get the Free Blind Abilities Appon the App Store.   Full Transcript: Tech Abilities: Hey Portal, You Watching Me? Smart Home Devices and the Smart Shadow Enters the Thought Bubble Serena Gilbert: It's called the Facebook Portal. Does anyone here trust Facebook? Andy Munoz: Other than the fact that we're tech nerds ... Serena Gilbert: Nope, I don't think I'm going to upgrade, and both of you did in a week. Jeff Thompson: Yeah, an accessible thought bubble. Serena Gilbert: Do you have a smart phonograph, Jeff? What the heck is that? Andy Munoz: Google's your friend, look it up. Serena Gilbert: So, you want a smart shadow. Jeff Thompson: Yeah. Andy Munoz: Having these smart devices, they are truly game changers. Serena Gilbert: Silver. Andy Munoz: Space gray. Jeff Thompson: Gold. Andy Munoz: I smell smoke. Is your Nest going off, Jeff? Serena Gilbert: See what happens when you tell me I'm getting fat? Andy Munoz: I said you could grow into that Blind Abilities t-shirt. Jeff Thompson: Boom, music comes on and six sheets of toilet paper pop out. Serena Gilbert: Exactly. Serena Gilbert: All right, you guys ready? I'm not going to count down. I'm going to make you look for when we start [inaudible]. Good luck. Andy Munoz: Three, two- Serena Gilbert: No. Andy Munoz: One. Serena Gilbert: Nope. All right, I will count down. I'll be nice. Three, two, one. Welcome back to Tech Abilities. This is Serena Gilbert and I am, of course, joined with Jeff Thompson and Andy Munoz. Jeff, how are you? Jeff Thompson: Sorry. Serena Gilbert: Apparently, Jeff is choking. Jeff Thompson: I'm doing great, Serena. Glad to be back. Serena Gilbert: We haven't been around for a while now, but we are back and we've got a great episode. Andy, how are you? Andy Munoz: I'm good. I'm good. I'm actually glad to be back. Serena Gilbert: And, Andy's not choking for the record. Andy Munoz: Nope. No choking here. Jeff Thompson: Ouch. Serena Gilbert: Ouch. You'll be okay, Jeff. You're a big boy. Have you guys heard about the latest news about Facebook? Jeff Thompson: Oh, do tell. Do tell. Serena Gilbert: Apparently, they have a new smart device coming out called the Facebook Portal. Jeff Thompson: I'm got a feeling somebody's watching me. Serena Gilbert: Right? Andy Munoz: Cue the Michael Jackson song. There we go. Serena Gilbert: Perfect timing, Jeff, as usual. Everything about it is ironic from the name of it to all the press surrounding it. It's called the Facebook Portal so theoretically I know what they were going for there. It's like you're in the same room, but does anyone here trust Facebook? Jeff Thompson: How about you, Andy? Do you trust Facebook? Andy Munoz: You know, can you trust anything, honestly? Jeff Thompson: Right. Andy Munoz: Yet, we still use it. The way I look at it is I don't put something out there that I don't want somebody to know 'cause even with locking it down and doing all that stuff, there's people, they want it ... Where there's a will, there's a way. Don't put nothing out there that I don't want nobody to see. Serena Gilbert: The weird thing about Facebook is there's already a theory that we think Facebook listens to us when we're not in it. We've tested this. Start talking about childcare and all of a sudden, you're going to have every childcare center ad in your newsfeed that you ever wanted to see. Andy Munoz: Yep, yep. Serena Gilbert: There's something to it. I really do think that there's something that they're listening to. Imagine putting that in your living room where they're not only able to listen but see what you're doing. Jeff Thompson: Yeah, we could really paint this into a corner if we want to, but when you look at other companies such as Target and Home Depot and various other ones on the internet that have had hacks exposing people's identification and personal information, it's inevitable that stuff like this is going to happen, I imagine. It seems like when something like this happens to Facebook, it seems like it really gets a lot of attention. Andy Munoz: Usually, if you have a big name and something happens ... We've all got these high expectations so then they lose credibility, but it really can happen to anybody. Serena Gilbert: Well, let's hear about the specs on this Facebook Portal and then tell me what you guys think about it too. It's funny when you think about it. There's two different versions. There's the standard one. It will be $199. The Portal Plus, as they call it, is a much larger screen and then it's an HD. That will be $349. Both of them say that the camera essentially will follow you as you're talking to somebody or video chatting with them. Serena Gilbert: They initially said that no data was going to be stored and that everything was nice and secure. They then came back and said, "But, wait. We will the information to target ads to you." Yeah. So, the camera's following you in the room and they're targeting ads at you. Still like it? I don't know. Andy Munoz: Regardless of whether you like it or not, there's just no getting away from it because you get the ads even on Facebook itself. I can go right now and I can do a search on Amazon for smart home devices and I guarantee you as soon as I click into Facebook, it's going to show me what I last searched for. For me, it's more or less going to be about what all can it do? What are all the different features? What's going to sell it to me that's going to allow me to really overlook that targeting commercial stuff to me? Serena Gilbert: You're not taking it off your Christmas list yet? Andy Munoz: I wouldn't say I would take it off. It doesn't matter what you do, you're not going to get away from that stuff. As much as you'd like to, as much as I'd like to, it's there. At this point, again, it's going to go back to, what are the features? What's going to make me want to buy this thing that I can't do with another device? Serena Gilbert: Yeah. Jeff, you have this on your shopping list? Jeff Thompson: No, I don't have it on my Christmas list yet, but I should get that started. The thing is, with all these different devices and ecosystems out there, I'm starting to wonder if someone should start with one ecosystem and stick with just one such as yourself. What benefits does the Facebook Portal have over your Amazon Show? Serena Gilbert: I don't think it offers anything different because they both do the video chatting. The screen does appear to be a little bit larger on the Facebook Portal. I think that the entry-level price on it is cheaper because the Amazon Show is, I believe, $229 and the Facebook Portal would be starting at $199. There's a $30 difference there. Serena Gilbert: It's really funny because I saw the ad on Facebook, of course, and the comments ... I just had to read the comments 'cause they were so funny and everyone's like, "So, why can't I just FaceTime?" Jeff Thompson: Yeah, right? Serena Gilbert: You're offering me a speaker that you say I can make all these calls on, I can just do that on my phone already, so what's the point? 'Cause they're not boosting that it has this awesome sound quality, they're not advertising that it's smart. I guess it will have Alexa built into it. Sorry, guys. It will have the 'A' lady built into it, but why would you spend the money on a third-party device to have the 'A' lady when you can get that straight from Amazon anyway? Andy Munoz: The other part of it too is you can actually video chat via Facebook Messenger just depending upon what device you're using. If I'm sitting at my computer, I've already got a 19" HD display so why would I want to invest in something different other than the fact that we're tech nerds and we like to know these things and we never know when we're going to run across something where we're maybe going to have to maybe troubleshoot something like that. That would be maybe its sole purpose. Jeff Thompson: Well, I think that Facebook is coming late into the game in this. The newness of the new products coming out, everyone wanted to experiment or explore these new gidgets and gadgets and now we all have probably multiple ecosystems in our house. You might have a Google or Amazon or an Apple device going right now. Is it time right now to add one more to the mix that we have in our house? That sometimes I think it's not doing exactly what I thought it would. So, I think people are being desensitized from the thrill of it all, the newness of these types of gadgets and Facebook is just a little late into the game. Serena Gilbert: Yeah, it always makes you wonder, is there really room on my shelf for one more smart device? Where would I even put it? Jeff Thompson: I wonder what we're going to have to say to invoke the Facebook Portal, "Mr. Senator," or "Yo, Zucker." Serena Gilbert: You say, and does this sound at all familiar, "Hey, Portal." Jeff Thompson: Really? Serena Gilbert: Yeah, which those of us who are super lucky enough to have HomePods ... Jeff Thompson: Super lucky. Serena Gilbert: Super lucky. Jeff Thompson: Super. Serena Gilbert: Super- Jeff Thompson: Lucky. Serena Gilbert: ... lucky. We know what the wake word is for that. Very similar. Jeff Thompson: It'd be funny if it was Mr. Senator. Yes, Senator. Yes, Senator. Andy Munoz: What kind of responses does it give if you call it the wrong name? Jeff Thompson: I have no idea. It's not out until, what, November? Mid-November? Serena Gilbert: It says November. It doesn't even have a specific data, it just says November. I predict ... I think this is going to be a big, huge flop for Facebook. I think this is going to be a lot of lost money because who knows how many they've already produced. They'll probably sell maybe 100,000 which is nothing when there's how many billion users on Facebook? Jeff Thompson: Yeah, plus the fact when I looked it up. I think ten things came up when I did my search, nine of them were about, "Is this a good idea? Should they pull the plug now? Should they save their costs? Are the stocks falling on Facebook?" and, "Do you trust Facebook to secure this information that it's gathering?" I don't know. I don't think it's going to be on my Christmas list, Serena. Serena Gilbert: I know one thing that I keep trying to get you to add to the Christmas list, but I don't know if you will. Jeff Thompson: What's that? Serena Gilbert: Remember? I told my bestie that you wanted a HomePod. Jeff Thompson: Oh! And you want to go to CSUN. Serena Gilbert: You know it. Jeff Thompson: That's coming up. That's around the corner. Serena Gilbert: Better get to planning. Jeff Thompson: The more we talk, the closer it gets. Serena Gilbert: There's a really good Christmas gift right there. Andy can go too. Andy Munoz: Hey. Jeff Thompson: There you go. Serena Gilbert: We'll get in all kinds of trouble. It's in Anaheim this time. Jeff Thompson: Someone's got to run that Colorado show out there though. Serena Gilbert: We'll be okay. Andy Munoz: We'll survive. Jeff Thompson: A new device that's out from Google is the Google Home Hub ... Yeah, the Google Home Hub. Serena Gilbert: The need a better name for that one. Jeff Thompson: I was wondering if this was the answer to anybody out there that has collected a few devices, one for their Google Home that works on their ... One works on the Amazon Device. If this is the answer that will solve some of the problems of bringing everything together. Serena Gilbert: How does the Hub work? I don't fully understand it. Jeff Thompson: Okay. A hub is also known as a bridge and what it is is a central location device that actually can control all the different smart devices that you have located throughout your house. If you have smart plugs, smart switches, smart doorbells, smart thermostat, you can actually connect them up all to one spot, which is a hub and then access that. Jeff Thompson: Typically, what people do is access it through an iPad or something so they have one control. From there, you can set up groups, you can set up different modes for things to be on that come on at certain times, go off at certain times. You can group lights together, you can have full control over all these devices in one location rather than using the TP app, the WeMo app, and the Nest app and figure out everything else. You can actually tie them all together and that's what a hub/bridge does. Jeff Thompson: The HomeKit app, that app was put out, is something that was trying to become a bridge in your wi-fi system to tie all these together. Now, you've got to remember that everything has to be able to reach the wi-fi system. You might have a plug or a switch far enough away where your wi-fi isn't that great, so you'll have to do an extender. Whereas, you can get pretty elaborate. You can go into the Z-Wave system, which actually every device that's hooked up becomes a little transmitter too so it can chainlink all these together so it can reach a further distance. Jeff Thompson: Interesting stuff once you get interesting stuff once you get into the high-end of homes, but as for affordability and everything, I think Google Home Hub is an idea. It might be something that works good for you, but I think HomeKit really has the advantage here in wi-fi in the future. If you're just talking about adding some conveniences to your house and not really going into the major planning of a full day operation of automation going on. Jeff Thompson: Shades open. Lights on. Mood setting. Thermostat adjust and someday turn on stereo system. Play phonograph. Set the mood. The possibilities could be endless. You can do some of that with HomeKit, but yeah. Basically, that's was a hub/bridge does. It ties everything together under one physical device that you can access and control everything. Serena Gilbert: I'm just so distracted because I'm pretty sure you said phonograph. Andy Munoz: He did say phonograph. Serena Gilbert: What the heck is that? Andy Munoz: It's a record player. Serena Gilbert: Do you have a smart phonograph, Jeff? Jeff Thompson: I'm just saying, yeah, there probably is one. You can get one to skip and ... Andy Munoz: Yeah, you can get it to do some scratchin'. Scratchin'. You know? You know? Jeff Thompson: Yeah. Serena Gilbert: Yes, Jeff. You are definitely the old man right now. Andy Munoz: Well, it's funny because my kid's now into buying vinyls and I'm like, "Why are they even still making those," and come to find out yeah, they're making record players again. Jeff Thompson: I have two record players and I collected albums back in the day and I still have them. They're popular again. It's kind of neat. Andy Munoz: It's kind of interesting how technology's going full circle. Serena Gilbert: Jeff, for the young ones listening to our podcast, what's an album? You going to tell them that? No, I'm just kidding. Andy Munoz: Google's your friend, look it up. Serena Gilbert: On your smart speaker. Andy Munoz: Ask the 'A' lady, she'll tell you. Serena Gilbert: I am curious, because this is all about smart devices, if we could go around, I guess the virtual table and let's hear about what smart devices you have in your home right now and what you like, what you don't like, maybe, if you're on the market for a new one. We'll start with you, Andy. Andy Munoz: Okay. So, right now, I don't have any. I'm in the market. I've got a pretty archaic thermostat. The thing is huge, but the problem is I can see the numbers, but I can't see how it programs. I certainly want something that I have a little bit more that I can do with it then having to rely on somebody else to set it up. Jeff Thompson: What you're saying is you want to be the master of your own domain. Andy Munoz: There you go. Jeff Thompson: There you go. Serena Gilbert: Seinfeld reference. Andy Munoz: Primarily, I'm just looking for a thermostat. Ceiling fans would be nice. Serena Gilbert: They make smart ceiling fans? Andy Munoz: Yeah, they make ... Serena Gilbert: I didn't know that. Andy Munoz: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Serena Gilbert: That would be really cool. Jeff Thompson: Oh, yeah. They invented the ceiling fan right after the phonograph. When I was looking up the Google Home Hub, the GHH, they claim that it can connect up to 5,000 different devices. So, that probably includes the phonographs and let's see, what came out right after phonographs? Ceiling fans, Serena. Yeah, there's probably a smart gidget or gadget out there for pert near anything. Andy Munoz: Oh, yeah. When I was working with Apple, I got a guy that called in that was setting up a smart garage door opener. Serena Gilbert: Now, why do we need that? I really don't understand that. What does it recognize your car when you drive up to it? Jeff Thompson: Well, when you have your smart Amazon Drive in your car, you can then just say, "Open, sesame." Serena Gilbert: Oh, my God. Jeff Thompson: Lower the drawbridge. Serena Gilbert: Secret passcode, right? I really don't understand what a smart garage door would do that a regular garage door ... You push a button and it opens. What else do we need it to do? Jeff Thompson: You have to actually move your arm to push the button. Serena Gilbert: I get it because ... We laugh at how lazy this is making us 'cause we don't have to leave our couch to turn the light on or off or adjust the thermostat, but it truly does open up accessibility for tons and tons of people with disabilities that have mobility impairments or maybe even a cognitive impairment where it just makes a life a lot more independent and affordable. Before, doing something like this would be thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars, now they can just get it right on the market. Andy Munoz: Or, even just the simple fact that you either make some sort of adjustment cosmetically or what have you so that it could be used or you stay reliant on somebody to help you with that. Having these smart devices, they are truly game changers. For the rest of us, yeah, it makes us lazy. Jeff Thompson: As long as your wi-fi doesn't get knocked down. Andy Munoz: Yeah, that too. Yeah. Serena Gilbert: I was just thinking that. I was just about to say, "Until somebody hacks it." Then, it will drive you crazy. Jeff Thompson: One of the concerns I would be looking into is if I was going to get the Canary or the HomeSafe alarm system that hooks up to your wi-fi and is a smart device, that, just like the bridge and the hub, are these connected to just your wi-fi or if someone cuts your wi-fi cable, will it give you an alert through cellular or run off the cellular? Andy Munoz: I believe that they do because actually my brother-in-law just made some changes. He gave up his business-class wi-fi and went back to residential and they bundled it all and got the security system. Yeah, if the wi-fi goes down it then does go to cellular. Jeff Thompson: Oh, that's nice. Serena Gilbert: Yeah, 'cause we have a Honeywell Lyric. With got it for free from our home owner's insurance company and they gave us four of them. What it is is you put anywhere that there's water that could possibly leak and it's connected to wi-fi. It also puts this obnoxious, loud beeping sound A, when there is water that it detects and B, just when the battery is dying. Andy Munoz: Does it go onto the floor? Serena Gilbert: Well, you can do it two different ways. We have one on the hose of our washer and it's got this cord that you can wrap around it that if it detects the water then it will set off the alarm. Or, you can just set it on the floor and you don't need the cord then. As soon as it detects water it will start beeping and it will send a notification to your phone. Serena Gilbert: When we changed our wi-fi, we never put them back on the new wi-fi 'cause I frankly couldn't remember how to do it. When we changed our router out and had to get a new wi-fi network put up, it sent emails to me saying that they were offline. That's really cool because your hot water heater could be leaking for days and you'd never know. Ours is in the basement. We don't go down there but maybe once a month. Jeff Thompson: That's neat. That's less invasive. There's a more invasive one that actually goes right into your plumbing system. You cut the line and you put this device in there and it will notify you if the pressure drops. If you're on vacation, your lines should have no open valves so there should be a constant pressure and if that pressure drops significantly, then it will give you a signal and notify you that there's been a change, possibly a leak, that could really devastate your home. Serena Gilbert: Yeah, that could save a lot of money. Imagine if you came back from vacation and there were six feet of water in your basement. Jeff Thompson: Swimming pool, yeah. Serena Gilbert: Yeah. Andy Munoz: Well, I was talking to somebody that they were out of town, but their son was there. He didn't realize it, but there had been a leak. So, their basement flooded and, on top of it, they ended up with a $5,000 water bill. That was in the course of three weeks. Serena Gilbert: Oh, my God. I would cry. Oh, my God. Andy Munoz: Yeah, it was pretty crazy. Jeff Thompson: Oh, wow. I think a lot of these devices, like you're saying, for someone that has a speech impediment of some sort or something, that there's alternative devices now that through your wi-fi, making the home smarter. We just usually think about these devices that we're using today, but a lot of these switches and commands that we're using are pretty versatile and available to other people. Like you said, it used to be tens of thousands of dollars to make a home accessible for someone with a disability that it may help them open a door or turn on lights as you said, but now, these devices are stuff we buy off the shelf. Jeff Thompson: You can get the Hue lights and dim your lights and do other things and the switches and put everything on a timer. My driveway lights ... I have a WeMo light switch that my driveway lights come on when it gets dark, sunset, and goes off at a certain time. Then, I have some lamps in the living room that come on at the same time and go off at the same time. I have three switches working like that, plug in switches and one light switch. I like that automation because kind of get it. The lights come on. Oh, it's dark out, if you can sense that. If someone comes over, the house isn't just totally dark. Andy Munoz: Well, it's nice especially in today's society, you definitely want to have those lights on on the outside. You don't want people creeping up on your house. For me, I look at the negative side of that just because it is real. You definitely want to make sure that you have some light so your house can be seen, and I think it detracts from people wanting to do anything to it in a negative manner. Jeff Thompson: Plus, when you're away from home ... When I was in England, I could actually turn the lights off or on just from a flip on my phone, from the app. Andy Munoz: Right. Jeff Thompson: Something to remember about some of these home devices, it seems so great. Hey, just put a light switch in, but to put a light switch in with the WeMo and other ones, you do need all three wires there. You need your positive, your negative, and your neutral wire. Andy Munoz: Right. Jeff Thompson: Typically, a house that was built pre-90s, I believe, somewhere around there, switches were interrupters. So, they only ran the hot wire down to one side and to the other so when you switch is down, it breaks the connection. Lot of houses either had them drop down from the ceiling or they came up from the basement. The switches were not the place to run all the wires. They ran those to the lights above and just dropped down the ones. Jeff Thompson: That may be a problem if you want to add a light switch or a dimmer switch, but you will need to have all three there. If you don't, then you have to have an electrician come in and run a neutral wire up and facilitate it that way. So, that could get expensive. Andy Munoz: Right. It's good just to know that in general. Jeff Thompson: Oh, for sure. It also might justify spending the money for a smart light bulb where you can control that specific light bulb or a group of light bulbs with a command from an app or a voice command directed at one of your personal devices such as an Amazon, Google, Apple device, your smart speaker device. Jeff Thompson: Another device that I'm kind of interested is the Look or Nest makes a product, a couple other people make these products, they're cameras on your doorbell. When motion happens at the front door, you'll get a message on your phone that says, "Motion at front door," and that solves the problem of thinking, "Why do I need a camera at the front door?" Well, the camera does give the indication that there's motion, which then triggers the notification that you'll get, but these two need the existing wire that the previous doorbell used because they need a transformer. So, that's something you want to look into. Jeff Thompson: If you don't have a doorbell, then you'll have to install this pre-wiring beforehand. If you do have one, you have to make sure that it's 24 volts running to it because all these devices do need a power source to be running. Just beware, when you're thinking and considering and buying these products, read the small braille. Andy Munoz: Love it. Love it. Small braille. Serena Gilbert: Oh, man. Isn't all the braille small? Jeff Thompson: There is jumbo braille for people with neuropathy. Jeff Thompson: Serena, what kind of devices are you working with? Serena Gilbert: I have a WeMo plug. One thing I wanted to share with you guys is that, if you have Amazon Prime, there's been a few times just in the last few months where they sent out a deal where you can get a smart plug or a smart light bulb for only $10. We bought one when they did that and, sad to say, it's still sitting in the package because I need two and I've just been too cheap to buy the second one for my lamps downstairs. Serena Gilbert: It was summer when I bought them, so I was like, "Oh, we never need the lights on anyways." Now, it gets dark at like 6:15, 6:30 and it would be nice to just go on my phone and turn them on or use the Echo to turn them on. Jeff Thompson: Yeah, I noticed and that's how I've got ... I don't know why I'm coughing. Serena Gilbert: You're just getting too old over there. Jeff Thompson: Geez, you're sticking with this one. Serena Gilbert: See what happens when you tell me I'm getting fat? Jeff Thompson: I didn't say that. I know not to say stuff like that. Serena Gilbert: Would you like to share what you said? Jeff Thompson: I said you could grow into that Blind Abilities t-shirt. Serena Gilbert: No, you said I'm going to grow into it because of the shake that I had. Jeff Thompson: Why don't you tell the listeners what you put in your shake tonight? Serena Gilbert: Shameless plug for Five Guys Burgers and Fries. I had a shake and I added Oreo to it and Oreo cream and Double Stuff Oreo. I see nothing wrong with that. Jeff Thompson: Plus, some ice cream, right? Serena Gilbert: Milk, with sugar. Jeff Thompson: Yeah, so I'll repeat it. You'll probably grow into that t-shirt. Serena Gilbert: This is not helping you. You're going to get some hate mail from all the ladies out there. Jeff Thompson: If anybody else would like to grow into a Blind Abilities t-shirt, email us at info@blindabilities.com. Andy Munoz: Yeah. Serena Gilbert: Oh, my goodness. Not very nice, Jeff. Andy Munoz: But, it is funny. Serena Gilbert: I'm telling my bestie on you. Jeff Thompson: You do have a HomePod, right? Serena Gilbert: I do. If anyone's ever listened to me on any podcast, they know I absolutely adore that HomePod. Jeff Thompson: Yeah, I hear it is good sound. So are the Sonos. The Sonos are pretty good and with the smart device built into those too. The thing is, with API on those since it's not a true Amazon device, you only get partial use of the full functionality of what you'll get out of an Amazon device like the Dot or the Echo. Sometimes you forget that you only get that limited usage out of them. I wonder how much the Facebook Portal will have? Serena Gilbert: It's probably the same API that they have on the Sonos because the Amazon's got to give you some reason to buy theirs. Why would you ever buy the Amazon one when the Sonos clearly sounds way better sound-wise. There has to be some incentive. Jeff Thompson: Yeah, just be aware when you're buying these devices what they connect up with. Some connect up with more than one platform. It might connect up to Amazon or it might connect up to Apple, but just check that out. Jeff Thompson: With the HomeKit app in your iOS device, that application is your hub, your bridge, and that might be the thing of the future, using your wi-fi. Whereas the hub, it just may be ... Serena Gilbert: I feel like it's another way for them to get you to spend- Jeff Thompson: More money. Serena Gilbert: $100. With me, 'cause I have the HomePod, I have the Amazon device, I'm trying to be smart about the devices that I choose since we don't have a smart home yet where either I can find some that work with both or depending on where the device that I'm buying is going to be, it works with whatever is closest to it. Andy Munoz: Definitely some strategy into it. Serena Gilbert: Yeah. One weird thing that I noticed when I did get the HomePod is, for some reason, and I don't know if it's the way that Apple's system is so locked down, but the devices that say they're compatible with HomeKit, they're never the ones ... They're always more expensive it seems. The ones that are compatible with the Amazon devices, there's so many of them that the price has come down on them. When you look at the ones that say HomeKit, it's like upwards of double the price for the same functionality. Andy Munoz: I'm guessing you're right that Apple is so locked down with everything that they do and you don't have a lot of choice as you do with Amazon or Google. A lot of the coding and development and stuff that goes into all that stuff is open source. Not to dog Google in any way, shape, or form by saying this, but their standards are more open than what you get with an Apple. I would venture to say that you're right on that. Jeff Thompson: When I first started down this path of adding smart switches and smart plugins, outlets to the house, I went with WeMo and I stuck with it. It seems to be doing good and just lately, I got an update and now the WeMo switches, the smart, mini WeMo switches, are able to work with the HomeKit, which is the native app in your iOS device titled, "Home," H-O-M-E. Jeff Thompson: The new ones that you get, they'll have a little code on them and you just scan it and it will register right into your application of your HomeKit and boom, there you go. That is very similar to my Nest Protect because all I did there was scan in the product and boom, it was connected up into my app, which just makes it very nice. Jeff Thompson: In the app, it does incorporate that these devices can now be synced up together. I have them synced up with my Amazon device, my google device, my iPhone. I can make my iPad, which stays at home basically, as the hub. By me invoking the HomeKit as my hub, do I really need a Google Home Hub? Do I really need a central device? I think I'm okay. Andy Munoz: I guess if you look at it from most people's perspective, we want it with generally a handheld device. Let's face it. There's times that we're not going to be in our home, when we want to be able to have that remote access, that remote control. I think that the hubs are a nice thought, but I don't know how realistic it is. Jeff Thompson: Serena, you had mentioned that you were considering a basement remodel. Have you thought about incorporating the smart home features? Serena Gilbert: It would be nice kind of thing, but yeah, we haven't officially done that. All I really want in the house right now is a smart thermostat because I really struggle with what temperature it is in the house. The house is only two years old. I meant the builder if they could put in a smart one for me and then I just spaced it. I regret that. Serena Gilbert: I really have to rethink it 'cause I know that my husband would like a doorbell camera at some point. It's like do we go with Ring; do we go with Nest because I'd like it to just all be the same brand just to make life easy. Jeff Thompson: I have a Nest Protect and that's a smoke alarm that mounts to the ceiling. If I buy another Nest Protect, they communicate with each other and announce their location. In a case of an emergency, you will know where the smoke is coming from. Speaker 4:           Emergency. There's smoke downstairs. Jeff Thompson: If I do get a Nest thermostat, that too will connect to the family of Nest products. If there is a fire, it will shut off the furnace so you don't have the air blowing around and flaming the fire ... Flaming? Wafting the flame. Serena Gilbert: Good job. Your old brain worked. Jeff Thompson: Oh, it may not be as quick as a Millennial, but it's wiser. Jeff Thompson: So, having items from the same family, the same Nest products in my situation pays off for me. I would also like to mention that the Nest Protect, the smoke alarm that's in the ceiling, has a glowing light on it and it comes on when it senses motion. So, in the middle of the night, if you walk past it, it will glow brighter. Serena Gilbert: That's cool. Jeff Thompson: Yeah, so that's a neat little feature that will help family members as well. Serena, you mentioned the doorbell with the camera. Now, some people may say, "Why do I need a camera when I can't see who's out there?" However, the camera senses motion and then it will send you a notification that there's motion at the front door. Serena Gilbert: That's very cool. Jeff Thompson: I see the benefits in that as well. Jeff Thompson: Now, a friend of mine, just to be fair, has the Honeywell thermostat. Serena Gilbert: Is the Honeywell app accessible? Jeff Thompson: He says it is, however, he doesn't use voice over but he tested it and he says it is. I haven't put it through the rigors, but it's $100 cheaper and Honeywell is a good product. It has high ratings on it as well. However, being in the same family and interconnecting as such, I think Nest makes a good line of product that really should be considered. Plus, Nest is owned by Google, right? Serena Gilbert: Is it? Jeff Thompson: Yeah. Serena Gilbert: [inaudible] conspiracy. Andy Munoz: I have to say though, I'm with Jeff on the whole ... Usually, if I buy a brand, that's usually what I like to stick to and keep it consistent. A lot of it, I think, has to do for me about what the previous experiences have been. If I bought something like a Samsung TV and it's worked well for me, I'm going to be more inclined to go back out and buy that same brand just because I've had that good experience and I trust it. I think too, part of it too is if they can communicate with each other in some way, shape, or form, all the better. Jeff Thompson: Yeah, safety first. That brings up home security systems in your house that hooks up with wi-fi from doors to windows. I'm starting to wonder how many devices you can have connected up to your wi-fi system before it becomes over-weighted or strained. That's probably where a hub comes in because it would take that load. Until you get to that point, I think that's when you start wondering about a hub. Jeff Thompson: I just want to use the apps that each thing comes with. Set it up one time and move on. I don't want to have to pull that out all the time and say, "Honey, let's set the mood lighting for this movie," or have all my Christmas lights on my iPad so I can spell words or have special designs going across. That's not my bag. I just want these devices to work out of their own app. I just think the HomeKit, the home app, will suffice for most people that are venturing into the smart home devices. Andy Munoz: Well, because I think too we all have this thing where we generally know when we're going to be home and when we're not unless you have something where you're out of the norm, you have a function that you're going to go to or what have you. In my house, I generally know who's going to be home and when they're going to be home. To be able to say, "All right, yeah, let's have a heat come on at this time. Have it shut off at this time," that kind of stuff is super convenient. Andy Munoz: Because right now, it's one of those things where because I can't program it the way that I want and my wife isn't able to program it, she's [inaudible]. It's just an archaic thermostat. There's times she'll say 8:30 at night, "It's cold." I have to turn it up because yeah, it shut down when it really should have been on. There again, it would be nice to have something where definitely have that control and to be able to do that and know that it's going to be consistent. Jeff Thompson: Serena, do you want the Amazon Bathroom where you walk in and the lights come on, the toilet seat heats up, and boom, music comes on and six sheets of toilet paper pop out? Serena Gilbert: If you can find a way to heat my floor in my bathroom, I'd be happy. Jeff Thompson: Oh, they have that. Serena Gilbert: I don't know if I need the toilet seat heat. I'm okay. But, I was thinking about what you guys were talking about and I was just thinking of the cost savings with that. Just the heat alone to save it ... 'Cause right now, our heat's just either off or on. Then, we all know the theory behind how long it takes to raise the heat so many degrees. It's more expensive then to keep it steady. Serena Gilbert: Then, there's also the cost savings of if you own your house. Especially with the smoke detectors that you have, Jeff, I'm sure you're saving money on your home owner's insurance too. Jeff Thompson: Yeah, that's great, Serena, because if you contact your insurance company you can find out so much more about what you could be doing to your house for safety-wise that will ultimately save you money in the insurance policy premium. Serena Gilbert: It'd be totally worth it. Jeff Thompson: Oh, yeah. You want to tell them you have a smoke alarm. Don't call them and tell them you don't have any. Serena Gilbert: What do you mean you didn't have one? Hold on a minute. We need to raise your premium a little bit. Jeff Thompson: Back pay. It's just really nice that there's devices out there that we can implement into our lives. Like you said, Andy, just make it more convenient and ... Especially the doorbell. I'm really intrigued about that, the camera. I was the one that would always say, "Why do I need a camera? I can't see blah, blah, blah," but that it alerts you, you know? Serena Gilbert: Some of them have it where you can speak to them. Jeff Thompson: Oh, yeah. Yeah. Serena Gilbert: And, hear the sound. Jeff Thompson: That's a neat alert. You know someone's at the front door. Andy Munoz: Yes, I was just going to say, "And, they have no idea that you're not even home." Jeff Thompson: Right. I'm going to get one before trick-or-treaters come out. This will be fun. Serena Gilbert: Scare them. Oh, my goodness. Well, it will especially help during the holiday season when you're expecting your Amazon packages 'cause if there's sound with it too, there's pretty distinct noise when the UPS truck pulls up. Jeff Thompson: I think if you do it right ... We should appeal to all the truck drivers that deliver packages to wear little bells on their shoes so we know it's them. Serena Gilbert: It's like a code. That reminds me though. I was watching Shark Tank a few weeks ago and there was a business on there and they didn't get a deal, but it was a smart device that it was a box that the driver would scan the code on the package, it'd open up the box, they'd put the package in there, and then it would close back up again. They didn't get a deal for obvious reasons because, frankly, the UPS drivers probably aren't going to scan it. They're just going to sit the package on top of the box and keep going. Serena Gilbert: It did bring up an interesting thing though. If they could have licensed that to UPS or FedEx or USPS, made it part of their flow, that could really curb porch pirates. Jeff Thompson: I got a question for you guys. What device isn't out there yet, but you would like to have a smart device as? Serena Gilbert: Oh, you know what I'm going to say as my son always says when I ask him questions. I want my smart self-driving car. Jeff Thompson: That's coming. Serena Gilbert: But it's not accessible. There's too many laws. Jeff Thompson: They'll probably have a little screen to open the door and it will be like, "Everything's accessible except you can't get in the door." Serena Gilbert: Yeah. You have to put in this passcode that's on this touchscreen. Jeff Thompson: They'll have a Captcha. Serena Gilbert: God, I hate those things. Then, you try to listen to it. Jeff Thompson: Oh, yeah. Four seven three apple two orange W. Serena Gilbert: You're like, "Are you in a call center doing this?" I don't understand. Jeff Thompson: I know it's crazy. It's like, "Gosh, I had good hearing until I heard that." Andy Munoz: If you'd get you a tin can that would sound so perfect. Jeff Thompson: Yeah. Serena Gilbert: I hate those things. Jeff Thompson: I was on a website today. I know this is off topic. I was on a website today. It was all about accessibility. It's supposed to be an educational accessibility thing and all this stuff. It was really interesting. I was actually intrigued with the layout and stuff and they had a Captcha that was inaccessible. It's like, "Really? You did all this and now that." Andy Munoz: Somebody did not think that through. Jeff Thompson: No. Serena Gilbert: #accesibilityFail. Jeff Thompson: They have accessibility in their name. Serena Gilbert: Did you send them an email? Jeff Thompson: No. Andy Munoz: Wow. Jeff Thompson: I got off of it and I just sat there for a minute thinking, "That's so stupid." Serena Gilbert: You didn't make your trademark noise? Andy, what's the smart device that you're hoping for? Andy Munoz: Wow. That could be plenty but something that would open up my dryer and pull out my laundry and hang it up. Serena Gilbert: Oh, so you want the robot from the Jetsons. Andy Munoz: There you go. Jeff Thompson: That's be Judy wouldn't it? Serena Gilbert: Just your luck 'cause wasn't George always getting all this technology failing for him? Andy Munoz: Yeah, she malfunctioned one day and she did a bunch of different weird stuff that was all backwards. Jeff Thompson: I think for a device that I'm looking forward to and I hope they have it someday, is really a personal assistant, but not a physical one that would actually do things for me but you know how you think of to-do lists and you think of all this stuff? Something that follows your thought like that. When you wake up the next day, it's like, "Jeff, remember the garbage." Serena Gilbert: You want a chip implanted in your head. Jeff Thompson: Just call it the thought bubble or something. Serena Gilbert: Thought bubble. Jeff Thompson: Yeah, an accessible thought bubble. Just like, "Lori told me three things yesterday. What was that?" "Jeff, you weren't listening where you?" I want that companion, that thing that actually helps me move along. Serena Gilbert: Jeff, all you have to do is win the Powerball and then you can just pay someone to follow you around for the rest of your life. Jeff Thompson: But, I think this would help people. We're talking about old age, but people who have memory issues and stuff. That seems to be a prominent thing in today's world. Everyone knows someone that might be going through it or someone that is affected by it. Something that could shadow you, your shadow. If your shadow could talk, it would remember. Serena Gilbert: So, you want a smart shadow? Jeff Thompson: Yeah. Do you guys think that's far off? Andy Munoz: Time wise maybe. I don't know. Technology's so rapid that anything's possible at any given point. I think, for me, it's even pointless half the time for me to put stuff even as reminders 'cause I just ignore them. Serena Gilbert: I'm the same way. Andy Munoz: For work and stuff, obviously, I pay attention to my calendar and that sort of thing, but outside of that, I'll say, "Yeah, I put it in my calendar. I'll do this, that, or the other." It's like it's there but nine times out of 10 I'm just going to blow it off and ignore it anyway. Serena Gilbert: I have a reminder on my phone right now that's 19 days old but I still didn't do it. Like, "Oh, I'll just ignore it and it will pop back up in a couple weeks." Jeff Thompson: Avoid shakes from Five Brothers. Serena Gilbert: Five Guys, get it right. Jeff Thompson: Avoid shakes from Five Guys. Serena Gilbert: You guys don't have Five Guys up in Minnesota? Jeff Thompson: No. We only got three guys. We're working on it. Serena Gilbert: You don't know what you're missing. You don't have Dutch Brothers. You don't have Five Guys. God, how do you live? Jeff Thompson: Well, you're in the fastest growing city in the United States right now. Serena Gilbert: It's 'cause we've got all these Millennials. They love it here. Jeff Thompson: Really? Serena Gilbert: That's why we're getting all these cool home deliver things. We just got Prime Now here. We can get Whole Food delivered in two hours for free. Jeff Thompson: That's awesome. Serena Gilbert: Yeah. Jeff Thompson: How big is Cold Spring? Serena Gilbert: Old Spring? Jeff Thompson: Colorado Springs. How big is Colorado Springs? Andy Munoz: The general city is like 400,000, but then you've got the surrounding areas that make up more and we're probably closer to 650 to 700,000. Jeff Thompson: Really? Serena Gilbert: I think they said by ... Do you remember what year it was, Andy? Maybe it was like 2050, which sounds far away, but it really isn't if you think about it. We would actually be bigger than Denver technically. Andy Munoz: That's what they're saying. Serena Gilbert: Yeah. Andy Munoz: It's ridiculous to think because when you go to Denver, you go to downtown Denver and you see all the big high rise buildings and stuff and then you come to Colorado Springs and you look at our downtown. It's like no comparison. I think the highest building we have is maybe 20 stories. Serena Gilbert: I don't even know if there's a 20-story one, honestly. If there is, then it's one of the hotels. Jeff Thompson: Which leads into is Colorado Springs going to be a smart city? Serena Gilbert: I don't think we will. Just politically, our city and then the other city, there's another small city that's in between Denver and Colorado Springs called Castle Rock, our two cities had the option to be part of the light rail system that's in Denver and they refused. Every time that it comes back up, they keep resisting and keep refusing because they don't want light rail here for some reason. I don't get it. Andy Munoz: Smart city means that you have to have some intelligence and Colorado Springs operates on the motto, "If it doesn't make sense, do it." Jeff Thompson: Yeah, it's really neat here because we do have the light rail running right through Fridley and it's neat. Even our buses and our light rails now have wi-fi while you're on them. Serena Gilbert: Very nice. Jeff Thompson: Yeah, we're not a bustling city anymore, but it's a big area. I think two-thirds of the population of Minnesota is located right in the twin cities, Saint Paul-Minneapolis and the seven-county area. It's nice that you get those little amenities like that but I always thought Colorado Springs was a ... Well, it's not Denver. It's a quaint little town. But, wow, number one in the United States for growth. Serena Gilbert: Real estate too. Andy Munoz: It's really been in just the last several years. It's just really kind of just took off. Serena Gilbert: Well, a lot of it is the people from Denver have moved down here so they're still making their Denver wages. So, they move down here and we're buying Colorado Springs waged houses and then that's driving it all up, but then they're still commuting to Denver for work. That's contributing to the traffic problems too. The commute's about an hour, hour and 10 if you go early enough. Andy Munoz: Yeah, if you go early enough. Jeff Thompson: They need to get that tunnel. Serena Gilbert: I still want my hyperloop. Jeff Thompson: That's ready to open up, isn't it? Serena Gilbert: No. There's a test track in L.A. it's either two minutes or two miles. It's probably the same difference, but they're going to open that up and let people actually be able to test run it. Like, regular people. Jeff Thompson: As opposed to the irregular people? Serena Gilbert: Hey. Jeff Thompson: No, I think it's really neat that smart cities are coming about. A lot of devices are happening. A lot of transportation things like you want the car and I think everyone's been thinking about that and dreaming about that and wondering. Now, we say it's right around the corner, but that's a long ways to that corner sometimes. Serena Gilbert: You know, it will be interesting though because you just told me the NFB conference next year is in Vegas. Vegas is testing a... Lyft is testing a whole fleet of driverless vehicles on the strip there. Jeff Thompson: So, beware. Serena Gilbert: That would be interesting. Andy Munoz: Stay off the sidewalks. Jeff Thompson: Tap widely. Serena Gilbert: But they're safer than human drivers you guys. The accidents they have are only when the human does something to it to cause it to happen. Jeff Thompson: Well, I think ideally it's all going to be safer when there's more and more of them because they'll be able to communicate with each other just like my Nest will be able to communicate with things. Those cars will communicate with the other cars so it will almost be like a light rail once you get a stream of them going in a sense. Serena Gilbert: The only thing I worry about is because obviously to get where you're going it's reliant on some sort of GPS. So, you know there's a couple things that go with that. When the network's down, what happens to the cars? Or, when you're like my house where you weren't on the GPS for two entire years, where does it go? Does it stop somewhere and say you're there when you're really not? Those are things they'd have to definitely fix. Jeff Thompson: From smart devices, smart houses, it will be interesting to learn more about smart cities and smart automobiles. Probably by next show we could get a smart host. Serena Gilbert: I guess I'm coming down off my sugar high. Andy Munoz: She's thinking, "I smell smoke. Is your Nest going off, Jeff?" Jeff Thompson: Maybe the wi-fi went down and the house is burning. Andy Munoz: Uh-oh. Serena Gilbert: Oh, my goodness. I could just see a comic right now where there's a drawing and there's clearly smoke and fire, but the person's just looking at their phone and it says they are like, "Nope. Smoke detectors say that there's no fire." Serena Gilbert: Well, I have had tons of fun talking with you guys. Hopefully, we've got some ideas for our Christmas list right, Jeff? Jeff Thompson: Mm-hmm. CSUN. Serena Gilbert: Still haven't sold you on the HomePod have I? Jeff Thompson: Well, I'm going to be here to look under my tree or I'll just listen under my tree. Maybe it will tell her how to set it up too. Serena Gilbert: But, it's Apple. It just works, right? Jeff Thompson: Oh, yeah. Andy Munoz: There you go. Jeff Thompson: I have to say that I sit amongst an orchard of Apples. Serena Gilbert: You've got every color Apple there is. Jeff Thompson: Oh, by the way, what color is your iPhone X? Serena Gilbert: Silver. Andy Munoz: Space gray. Jeff Thompson: Gold. Serena Gilbert: You got a pink one, Jeff? Jeff Thompson: No, I didn't get rose gold. I got gold. Serena Gilbert: Are you sure you didn't get rose gold? Jeff Thompson: Well, I don't know. I got the case on. I'll never know. Serena Gilbert: Exactly. I just find it so funny with the last podcast we did how much you guys specifically said, "Nope, I don't think I'm going to upgrade," and both of you did in like a week of each other. Jeff Thompson: I walked into the Apple store. That's what went wrong. Andy Munoz: Yeah, I walked into the Sprint store with my son and there we go. I have to run guys. I do have an errand that I need to run. Serena Gilbert: That sounds awful suspicious considering that it's like 10:00 at night. Andy Munoz: Got to go to the pharmacy. Serena Gilbert: I don't even want to know, Andy. Serena Gilbert: Anyway, I enjoyed talked with both you guys and I can't wait to record the next episode and until next time, bye. Andy Munoz: Peace. Jeff Thompson: Bye-bye. Serena Gilbert: Get off the phone. Andy Munoz: I want to thank you for listening. Be sure to follow Tech Abilities on Twitter. That's @AbilitiesTech. A big thank you to Jeff Thompson for the beautiful music. Once again, I want to thank you for listening. We hope you enjoyed. Until next time, bye-bye. [Music]  [Transition noise]  -When we share -What we see -Through each other's eyes... [Multiple voices overlapping, in unison, to form a single sentence] ...We can then begin to bridge the gap between the limited expectations, and the realities of Blind Abilities. Jeff Thompson: For more podcasts with a blindness perspective, check us out on the web at www.BlindAbilities.com, on Twitter @BlindAbilities. Download our app from the App Store, Blind Abilities. That's two words. Or send us an email at info@blindabilities.com. Thanks for listening.

In this episode of Retail Intel, we chat with Jeff Rubino, Vice President of Real Estate for Five Guys. As their third official employee, Jeff has played a large part in the Five Guys franchise explosion - from 8 stores in 2003 to nearly 1,500 today. Hear the Five Guys story, their secrets of success, and the family business mentality that made this company into the fast-growing retailer it is today.

This week in “Marketing Today,” Alan talks with Molly Catalano, vice president of marketing and communications at Five Guys Burgers and Fries. Catalano joined Five Guys over 13 years ago when the company had just 30 stores. Today, through sustained growth fueled by franchising, Five Guys has over 1,500 locations in 10 countries. At the heart of the Five Guys success story is the importance they place on the customer experience, a flag planted by the founders, the Murrell family, from day one. It’s something the company — and Catalano — have never lost sight of. “The hardest part of my job is I don’t want to ruin that,” says Catalano. “I never want to do anything marketing-wise that takes away from the purity of the brand, which is that focus on the customer experience.”    Highlights from this week’s “Marketing Today” podcast include:  Catalano relates the Five Guys story — growing from a single store to an international presence. (1:38) A marketing company that isn’t big on advertising: Catalano describes what marketing looks like at Five Guys. (5:19) Catalano talks about the Five Guys in-store experience. (6:30) The Five Guys Mystery Shopping Program has created buy-in across countries and franchises. (8:33) A maniacal focus on the product and the experience. (11:13) Catalano on the recent increase in marketing spend for Five Guys and their use of digital and social. (13:37) Five Guys has found great success in implementing a franchisee task force to drive social and digital efforts. (17:27) Catalano’s advice for other heads of marketing. (19:57) Support the show.

We're back and today we're talking about an economic concept that is called many things including Reaganomics and Supply-side Economics - but is most commonly known as Trickle Down Economics. The TOTALLY AWESOME theory that if you give the rich job creators more money, that they'll distribute that wealth to the working class and give a boost to the economy in its entirety. You'll have to listen to find out whether or not it works! Also Jake is returning from being stranded on a desert island, giving away a million dollars and claiming his lifetime supply of Five Guys Burgers and Fries! It's a fun one. What the Heckonomics is part of the Dragon Wagon Radio independent podcast network - please visit www.dragonwagonradio.com/donate to show your support. "What the Heckonomics" theme by Russell Henson @RustyFawkes

“I don’t believe any story that contains the phrase ‘boating accident.'” Today we review Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction season 2, episode 9. Tiffany is out, but we have a guest host: Tom Bensinger! Tom talks about his supernatural experiences… none. But he’s heard stories from friends… which he doesn’t trust because he thinks humans are just … Read More Read More

Raji Sankar is opening a restaurant in Pittsburgh and came on the show to share her insights from more than a decade in the restaurant industry.   Raji co-founded Wholesome International in 2004, a multi-concept restaurant development company, which owns and operates Choolaah Indian BBQ restaurants and franchised Five Guys Burgers and Fries restaurants. She is co-CEO and is responsible for people, operations, and infrastructure.   Previously, she co-founded and sold a technology company, co-founded a media company, and held leadership positions in technology and media companies in Pittsburgh.   Attend my one-day conference January 27th in Pittsburgh. Learn more here.   Raji’s Challenge; Hire a coach that can help you accomplish the specific goals you are chasing.   If you liked this interview, check out my interview with Bill Fuller from the Big Burrito Group and my other conversations with movers & shakers in Pittsburgh.

This BIG marketing lesson is from Five Guys Burgers & Fries.The lesson is in how to use reviews and testimonials in marketing. For a limited time, get the BIG Lessons from BIG Brands Book here, for FREE.Please do me a favor and review this podcast on iTunes, as it helps it to be discoveredby other small business owners and entrepreneurs!  Thank you! Click to Tweet about this podcast: https://ctt.ec/r6M2I

In Episode 46 of the McTaggart Attack Podcast, Kevin McTaggart disucsses how he thinks the NFL Anthem protest is flawed, Why ESPN are a bunch of hypocrites,  the atrocity that There is no Five Guys Burgers and Fries in Rutlans VT, and his Thoughts on National Coming Out Day among other topics that he can't remember right now. Emjoy! #McTaggartAttack

In this episode of the podcast Reetin, Aroah, and Connor talk about video games, such as Quantum Break, Five Guys: Burgers and Fries, and the Sonic movie. GameTrailers is Dead: http://www.destructoid.com/gametrailers-shuts-down-after-13-years-340130.phtml PC Version In Check With Consoles of Division: http://www.overclock3d.net/articles/gpu_displays/pc_version_of_the_division_had_to_be_kept_in_check_with_consoles/1 Sonic Movie: http://www.destructoid.com/sega-and-sony-are-producing-a-sonic-movie-coming-in-2018-340492.phtml FNaF: http://www.destructoid.com/five-nights-at-freddy-s-world-updated-and-released-for-free-340810.phtml Xbox Cross/Buy Quantum Break: http://www.destructoid.com/xbox-will-make-cross-buy-cross-save-a-platform-feature--340936.phtml Quantum Break PC Requirements: http://www.overclock3d.net/articles/gpu_displays/remedy_updates_quantum_break_pc_system_requirements/2 Five Guys Cancels Harassment Suit: http://gamepolitics.com/2016/02/11/zoe-quinn-drops-harassment-suit-against-ex/ Follow on Twitch: http://www.twitch.tv/reetin Follow on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/reetin Follow on Hitbox: http://www.hitbox.com/reetinabdul Buy Stuff From Green Man Gaming: https://t.co/fhL17TWpi4 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

02:28 - Sebastian McKenzie Introduction Twitter GitHub Blog 02:53 - Babel (Pronunciation Clarification) 05:56 - History Learn ES2015 - Babel 09:14 - The State of Babel 09:59 - Babel and the TC39 Process 11:54 - Features That Can’t Be Transpiled Weak Maps and Proxies     13:45 - Readability and Performance Output Traceur 18:12 - Plugin Architecture 19:58 - ES6/2015 Feature Implementation Blockscoping Labels Exceptions Destructuring 25:49 - The Birth of Babel 26:45 - Babel vs Traceur 28:08 - Future Babel Features Code Optimization Minification Linting 30:15 - The Status of ES2015 and ES2016 31:01 - Browser Support 35:03 - Marketing 35:59 - TypeScript 37:24 - Babel Development and Labor Picks Primitive.io (Joe) Armada: The Novel by Ernest Cline (Joe) How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie (AJ) Web Security Warriors Podcast (AJ) Nodevember (Aimee) The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (Dave) Yellowstone National Park (Dave) React Rally (Dave) Iterativ: AngularJS Kurs (Chuck) Hire Thom Parkin! (Chuck) The Martian by Andy Weir (Sebastian) Five Guys Burgers and Fries (Sebastian)

02:28 - Sebastian McKenzie Introduction Twitter GitHub Blog 02:53 - Babel (Pronunciation Clarification) 05:56 - History Learn ES2015 - Babel 09:14 - The State of Babel 09:59 - Babel and the TC39 Process 11:54 - Features That Can’t Be Transpiled Weak Maps and Proxies     13:45 - Readability and Performance Output Traceur 18:12 - Plugin Architecture 19:58 - ES6/2015 Feature Implementation Blockscoping Labels Exceptions Destructuring 25:49 - The Birth of Babel 26:45 - Babel vs Traceur 28:08 - Future Babel Features Code Optimization Minification Linting 30:15 - The Status of ES2015 and ES2016 31:01 - Browser Support 35:03 - Marketing 35:59 - TypeScript 37:24 - Babel Development and Labor Picks Primitive.io (Joe) Armada: The Novel by Ernest Cline (Joe) How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie (AJ) Web Security Warriors Podcast (AJ) Nodevember (Aimee) The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (Dave) Yellowstone National Park (Dave) React Rally (Dave) Iterativ: AngularJS Kurs (Chuck) Hire Thom Parkin! (Chuck) The Martian by Andy Weir (Sebastian) Five Guys Burgers and Fries (Sebastian)

02:28 - Sebastian McKenzie Introduction Twitter GitHub Blog 02:53 - Babel (Pronunciation Clarification) 05:56 - History Learn ES2015 - Babel 09:14 - The State of Babel 09:59 - Babel and the TC39 Process 11:54 - Features That Can’t Be Transpiled Weak Maps and Proxies     13:45 - Readability and Performance Output Traceur 18:12 - Plugin Architecture 19:58 - ES6/2015 Feature Implementation Blockscoping Labels Exceptions Destructuring 25:49 - The Birth of Babel 26:45 - Babel vs Traceur 28:08 - Future Babel Features Code Optimization Minification Linting 30:15 - The Status of ES2015 and ES2016 31:01 - Browser Support 35:03 - Marketing 35:59 - TypeScript 37:24 - Babel Development and Labor Picks Primitive.io (Joe) Armada: The Novel by Ernest Cline (Joe) How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie (AJ) Web Security Warriors Podcast (AJ) Nodevember (Aimee) The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (Dave) Yellowstone National Park (Dave) React Rally (Dave) Iterativ: AngularJS Kurs (Chuck) Hire Thom Parkin! (Chuck) The Martian by Andy Weir (Sebastian) Five Guys Burgers and Fries (Sebastian)

On this episode we talk to one of the coolest people I have met. The Rev David Ciancio. ( http://revdavidciancio.com/ )Rev is aruguably one of the formost experts on burgers in America. Currently Rev is the Director of Marketing for Schweid & Sons, a family owned and operated gourmet ground beef purveyor located in Carlstadt, NJ. Schweid & Sons’s high quality ground beef can be found in grocery stores around the north east and at restaurants all over the country. His role is to take his passion for hamburgers and match it with his years of experience in branding and hospitality marketing. Restaurants like Five Guys Burgers and Fries, Fuddruckers, GENUINE Roadside and Tasty Burger use Schweid & Sons ground beef.We talk burgers, we talk TV, and we talk judging on this episode of PlumLuvFoods Live!  

Dub and Matt venture out of the lab this week and record from Matt’s new place in lovely Bozeman, MT. Topics Discussed: Seeing Stone, Beef Jerky Store, Five Guys Burgers and Fries, Bare Walls Audio, Highway Hitchhiker Serial Killers, Meth-Trucking, Advice for a Lot Lizard’s Dirty Butt, Addendums: Baseball in the UK, Two-Tier Hustle, Hard Water Replies, Baking Soda, Sodium Bicarbonate, Medical Flip-floppery, Shampoo Bars, the Human Body is Disgusting, Word of the Day, TFBOTG: Russian Head Transplant Volunteer, Scoop the Frontal Lobe out, Medical Ethics, Government Black Sites, Dark Side of the Moon People, Body Harvesting, Netflix’s Daredevil.

Independent Processor Editor-in-Chief Sam Gazdziak caught up with Moseley at the recent NAMA Management Conference, where Moseley delivered the keynote address.

This week, we finally get a chance to play amateur restaurant critic. Yes, we’ve been asked to talk about one of the fastest-growing chains in America, and maybe eat there if we don’t have anything else going on. Will we like it enough to find something nice to say? Will we read the nutritional information […]