Day 95 – The Puzzle – No Skipping Line Part 2

Marketing success is a line, a LONG ASS LINE!

Nike – In 1964 Phil Knight started what we know as Nike. They went public in 1980. In the mid 70’s Phil Knight was always bumming money from sales reps while traveling, because he was putting every penny into Nike.  But it wasn’t until 1984 when they signed Michael Jordan that they started to catch their stride.  The Jordan brand is a huge lesson in marketing.  I grew up wearing Air Jordan, but it wasn’t until 10-15 years ago that the Jordan Brand REALLY took off.  Today, Jordan can launch anything and everything and sell out instantly.  

Apple – In 1976 Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak founded Apple.  But I’m going to guess 99% of Apple users who read this blog didn’t have one of their products until the debut of the Apple iPhone in 2008.  Apple could announce an insanely high-priced phone, tablet, or laptop today and consumers would run out the door to get it.  

Chipotle – The first Chipotle opened in Denver on July 13th, 1993 (that’s me visiting it in the picture above back in 2018. A fan, Levi, wanted to meet me to get a signed copy of my first book).  In 2000 they were a client of mine in radio.  They had one store on UC’s campus and no one had any clue who they were.  Heck, I thought it was a local spot.  I had free food there for two years and would tell people about it all of the time and I never had anyone say “oh yeah, I know that spot.”  Flash forward to 2010 and they started making noise in our area.  Now in 2024, they are easily the biggest brand in most major areas, including Northern Kentucky. 

Chick-fil-A – In 1961 Truett Cathy founded Chick-fil-A.  From 1995-1998 I had one on my college campus, for 2 years I stayed in the dorm building it was housed in.  I ate there twice most days.  Again, I had no clue what Chick-fil-A was, and now that’s a much different story.

So why am I giving you a business history lesson?  

Because every major brand we know today started just like you and I, and they struggled with marketing and sales.  They meant absolutely nothing to anyone, yet today they are icons and leaders in their industry 

BRAND and time build marketing campaigns that drive sales. 

Every example above waited their turn in line.  Some longer than others, but along the way they took important steps to build a brand that sells products easily. 

Now onto you.

As you probably know by this point, we help restaurants drive sales through marketing strategies built around their customer database.  I’ve been doing pretty much the same thing since 2008. 

The strategies we use work great, but to different degrees based on the restaurant’s brand strength.  You can have two identical restaurants in two different places in the line.  We can launch a campaign with restaurant #1 and see 40% conversion rates and customer acquisition costs of $2-3.  With restaurant #2 it could be 10% conversion rates and $10 to acquire a customer.  

Does that mean our marketing plan isn’t working?  NOPE.  It simply means each of those restaurants is in a different place in the minds of the consumer.  And if you want to be restaurant #1 the only thing that fixes that is taking the necessary steps and committing to take the TIME to get there.  

I’ve worked with thousands of small businesses and restaurants.  I’ve had tens of thousands of conversations.  

I’d say 50%-75% of the restaurant owners that we come across want one thing, sales tomorrow.  They don’t want to hear that it’s going to take 2-3 years.  I can point out a laundry list of issues with their marketing; their website, database size, social media marketing, branding, etc.  

They brush it all off and think that’s all “no big deal.”  

Then after a few months pass and they don’t see MASSIVE results, they want to cancel.  What they don’t realize is the results are not a product of us, or any marketing campaign, it’s almost always a product of their lack of WAITING IN LINE!  

I’ll never forget a client we worked with for a year, Cup Bop, out in Idaho. The owner hired us for our restaurant customer acquisition program and mentioned he wasn’t happy with their prior advertising agency.  He said they never saw an increase in sales and their marketing had no proof tied to it.  When I examined the campaigns they’d been running, it was all branding.  Zero calls-to-action, simple branding 101.  

After one month with us, their sales were up 18% and the owner was ecstatic.  But I did something he wasn’t expecting, I gave a lot of credit to the prior agency.  I told him our program kicked off so strong due to the branding the prior company had done.  They put Cup Bop into customers’ minds and primed the audience for us.  Was our program a success 100% due to that, no, but it put us farther up in the line for sure. 

Sales success is a product of a great restaurant and great marketing.  You must have both.  And when you have that great restaurant, no marketing campaign is going to pay off right away. You have to be willing to build a marketing plan and stick with it for a LONG TIME. 

Tomorrow’s blog post is going to be about what marketing success looks like.  Meaning, that when you spend X, what can you expect to get Y.  This way you’ll have some idea of how long the line is that you’re standing in and what steps to take to move forward. 

MP OUT!

Day 94 – The Puzzle – We All Have To Stand In Line – Part 1

For business owners waiting can be brutal, especially if you’re a vision-driven owner like me.  You know where you want to go and try to get there before you’ve earned it.  This was the case for me two years ago. It was the first quarter of 2022 and I saw it.  I saw where we were going.  And I thought, what if I can outwork time and get us there 5 years earlier?  BAD IDEA!

Sometimes you forget what you’ve seen others do that they shouldn’t have, and still do stupid shit.  I can’t tell you how many restaurant owners I’ve worked with over the years who had a decent restaurant and who were a few years away from the promised land..  Then they say “Let’s open a second location all of our problems will go away.”  

WRONG!  Now you have two average restaurants and maybe worse.

As I sat on the beach in Bermuda today I watched this line for way too long 🙂 As I watched the line it hit me, we all hate waiting in line.  And I watched the worker in the red shirt yell at a guy “Well you got out of line, so you’re in the back again.”  It was hot, the lines for beach chairs were long and that guy didn’t want to wait and Big Mike (that’s what his coworkers called him) pointed out the rules of the “line.” 

We are not built to wait in lines, but we must fix that if we want to win. 

The two examples that went through my head, are fitness and business.  

Weight loss is a line.

Business Success is a line.

For me, these two always seem to come front and center.  There are so many parallels and I’ve been around both for a long time. 

For Fitness I think about the show “The Biggest Loser” and how the contestants go hard for a few months and lose crazy amounts of weight.  But in a year they are right back where they started.  I also think about my fitness journey.  For the past five years, I tried many things to outrun a bad diet, and while I worked out and had small victories I always circled back around.  If someone is really out of shape, with 100 pounds or more to lose, that’s a long-ass line!  And it’s a line with many steps that can’t be skipped.  To do it right you’ve got 3-5 years of cardio, nutrition, stress control, sleep, and weight lifting to right the ship.  And unless you want it, you give up.

And then there’s business success.  

Take my company for example.  From 2008-2014 I thought “small.”  

I’d given up on building something special, something big.  I didn’t think I was that guy.  My company served 30-40 clients annually and did $300,000 to $400,000 in sales.  I was happy, but not fulfilled.  Then in 2015, I got a taste of what could take my company to the next level.  From 2015 to 2021 I ran hard and fast without looking backwards.  I didn’t focus a ton on where we could end up, I was 100% focused on week-to-week growth.  And, I also didn’t focus on what others were doing.   

On a flight back from Vegas in 2019 I recall showing a friend my plans to triple my company.  He was amazed and asked, “You can do that?”  Of course, I said, but honestly in the back of my head was a LOT OF DOUBT!  I’d never actually proven to myself that it was possible and that I was the person who could do it.  

By the end of 2022 that had all changed.  I knew I was that guy, I knew I had the idea and I knew the restaurant industry needed it. 

I saw where we could go.  I recall putting it on paper and realizing, SHIT I CAN DO THIS!  

WE CAN DO THIS!

I saw a path to a goal by 2030, it was wild to say the least, because I had belief and a plan. 

And that’s when I got stupid.  That’s when I also started watching a few other entrepreneurs and comparing my journey to theirs.  I started to convince myself we could do it faster.  I wanted it NOW.  I told myself I could go faster, and work harder. That lasted about 6 months and then I started to back off it.  It took me about 9 months to come back to reality.  

2024 has been a year of reflection for me. 

I’ve started to ask myself “Matt do you believe you will get there?”

“OK, what matters more?  Getting there faster or right?” 

RIGHT.  ALWAYS RIGHT!

I’ve had to change a lot.  I’ve had to change how I lead my team and how I think.  It’s been tough, but so damn rewarding.  At times the unneeded pressure I was putting on myself was forcing me to lead my team wrong.  And while we “may” have gotten there faster, it was going to be done wrong.  I’d say one of the biggest issues I created with my pushing was the perception of our company due to our marketing and sales strategies.  

There’s a very successful entrepreneur I follow named Grant Cardone.  Early on he would film himself coaching his sales team and there was a moment that hit home for me during this time.  He was telling his team to always be honest and pure when selling.  Don’t ever sell someone something they don’t need or can’t afford, because then they are going to be mad at ME, Grand Cardone.  He said, “I’m going to be here in 10 years, you might not, so I don’t want you burning my name for a short-term victory. They’ll forget you, but remember my brand.”

It really hit home.  I’d strayed from my roots and we’d become for a short time, what I despised.  

That was one of the big changes I made in myself and my business.  I told myself to go to the back of the line and do it right.

This experience has made me even more sensitive to what our clients, restaurant owners, are doing to shoot themselves in the foot.

So in part 2 of this blog, I’m going to tackle what I see that restaurants are doing to short-circuit their success.  How they are trying to skip line, and how to fix it.

MP OUT!

P.S. Oddly enough as I was finishing typing this blog the song below came on, “We will still come through, in the LONG RUN…”

Day 93 – The Puzzle – If They Can Find Employees Like This, Then So Can You

1,821 employees make sure this floating city on the sea runs every week.

This is the Norwegian Joy, the cruise ship I’m on for a 7-day cruise to Bermuda out of NYC.

Recently it’s been in my head how scalable is my company, specifically our staff.  Meaning, how many people are out there that can do what we need to do at the level WE DEMAND!  How many are willing to hustle, grind, and learn at the level I need?

It starts to make you wonder, are they out there?  Are there enough people in my city, my state, the country, and the WORLD that will do what we need to be done?

And then you see a company like Norwegian Cruise Lines.

As I’m on this cruise I’m watching hundreds of employees dart every direction all freaking day.  The employees on this ship don’t get a break, it’s non-stop and there are probably not many other jobs like this.  They work multiple weeks in a row and many doubles.  There’s a reason the majority of the people who work on cruise ships are not from the United States, my guess is the US labor laws would be problematic. 

So it gets you wondering.  Why did they choose this grueling back-breaking job over staying home and working with their friends?  What was it, the pay, the travel, the opportunity for advancement?  

While I’m not your guy to answer that question, I can give you the answer to another question you may have.

“Matt, what does this have to do with my restaurant?”

NCL painted a picture these people wanted to be a part of.  They gave them a job opportunity that filled a gap in their life.  Is your restaurant doing the same in your community?  They have found a way to get thousands of people to jump at the opportunity for what they are offering, and these employees do an amazing job.

Almost all of you complain about needing employees, I hear it every day.  It’s not a matter of the employees not being out there, they are.  It’s a matter of you showing them WHY you’re different. 

When I look at what you’re offering, at least from the peak I get from your website and social media, it’s BLAH!  You look just like every burger, pizza, and wing joint in every town.

Now, maybe your restaurant isn’t anything special, well then you might be screwed.  

But, I’d imagine if you’re reading this blog or listening to my podcast then you’re NOT THAT GUY!  If that’s the case, then it’s time you figure out how to become NCL.  How can you excite people to want to be in the same 4-walls as you? To be excited to come to work every day?  To ask for more shirts so they can wear clean ones around town when they are off?

My friends, just like the streets are lined with gold for growing your sales, the same streets have rockstar employees wandering on them every day hoping to find the job they really want.  



Day 92 – The Puzzle – A Facebook Ad Got Me

The picture above is me and the family high above NYC.  This $190 purchase is the product of paid new customer acquisition. 

It’s exactly what YOU should be doing every day for your restaurant, but you’re not.

It was actually a pretty simple process.  Sunday morning we had a few hours to kill and as I scrolled through Facebook I was Targeted with a Facebook ad from “The Edge.” 

In the 36 hours I was in New York I was targeted with more paid Facebook and Instagram ads than I could count.  I’ve been preaching about the power of paid ads on Facebook for over 10 years and in the past year I’ve started to see companies in the bigger cities leveraging them.  

On my trips to New York, Chicago, Las Vegas, and Miami two years ago I scratched my head as to WHY I’m not being targeted as a tourist, well I finally am now. 

In this example, I saw the ad, looked at their website, and was SOLD!  I saw that it was a quick walk from our hotel and I was willing to spend the money to take my family there.  This ad had ZERO discounts or financial offers, they offered a great-looking experience. 

So, it looks like businesses in those markets have woken up.

Now my next question is “When will I start being targeted back home by restaurants miles from my house? ” 

Yes, you!  

The owner of a mom-and-pop restaurant in the suburbs.  For the past 10 years, you’ve had access to tools that allow you to target anyone, at any time.  You’ve had at your disposal a new customer acquisition method that WORKS! 

You can’t afford to sit around and WAIT for customers to come into your restaurants.  Making a post on Facebook and sending a lame sales email 52 weeks per year will only get you so far.  You need a strategy to go out there and TAKE customers from other restaurants.  

What I saw this week in New York was exactly that.  No less than 20 companies were targeting me, a tourist, with an offer to come check out what they had to offer.  It’s a matter of who has the best offer for each person who sees the ad, that’s who wins. 

And if you’re like most restaurants across the US you’re feeling the squeeze right now.  There are insane food costs and rising employment costs all eating away at your profit margins.  Well, there’s one easy way to fix that, raise your top line and stack more profit on your bottom line.  

How do you raise your top end?  You go out there and find customers through methods like paid Facebook ads. 

Now I will say most restaurants are not armed with the expertise to do this, well that’s where investing in a partnership comes into play.

Our new restaurant marketing platform DRYVER powered by Repeat Returns is being built to fill this gap.  There will be three levels of service, and the second level is all about GROWING your customer base so you can grow your sales.  

The DRYVER Accelerator program is all about acquiring new customers through paid ads for you.  It’s a 100% done-for-you program that will leverage Facebook and Instagram to target customers in your backyard who are spending money elsewhere.  

Don’t you think it’s time for you to get your fair share?

Doesn’t it excite you, that you can do what the big companies in New York are doing?  It should, and it’s honestly the #1 way you’re going to drive sales in 2024 and beyond. 

So in closing, PLEASE PLEASE investigate paid Facebook and Instagram ads for your restaurant.  

At least reach out to me and have Shaheen from my team, a 28-year restaurant owner, show you the power of DRYVER ACCELERATE.  Worst case scenario you get a lesson in the power of paid ads. 

As another reminder, here’s the picture again.  That’s a $2-5 Facebook ad that drove $190.  Imagine if you captured customers like me in your backyard to $2, your win is much bigger over 3-5 years.

Day 91 – The Puzzle – Let’s Go That Way

New notebook to start a new chapter.

When I get back from vacation we officially launch our new digital restaurant marketing platform DRYVER powered by Repeat Returns and the next level of America’s Best Restaurants.

So, I thought it only made sense to start with a new 🍊 planner.

Paige & Cole saw the price tag after I bought it and said “show us what an $80 notebook looks like.”

My response…

“I’ll make $8 million the next few years off the notes in there, so $80 is a solid ROI 👊

🧡🚀🌙

Stay hungry my friends!

Day 90 – The Puzzle – The Change That Needed To Happen

It’s been 6 months and 1 week since I eliminated stuff like this out of my life.

It started as a 90 days “let’s see” what happens.

By the time 60 days rolled around I’d seen major differences in everything, especially the scale and my waist so I said “let’s go ALL YEAR” 😱

No cookies, cake, donuts, ice cream, etc FOR 1 YEAR!

If this was a year ago and I walked into a candy store or a crazy awesome bakery, like we just did I WOULD HAVE WENT HOG WILD 😜

But what’s absolutely insane is there was ZERO temptation, zero “I must have that.” Absolutely NO craving.

How’d that possible? Something I’ve eaten for 40+ years and always thought I had to have,?is all of a sudden GONE.

If you know me, then you know. I loved surgery treats and even though I rarely over indulged, I almost ALWAYS indulged 😍

And now here we are, 6 months later and zero cravings. ZERO need for a treat and a much healthier MP.

For me, this is just a start.

A start to discovering how we’ve all been programmed to eat sugar and processed garbage.

I still am guilty of certain things, like the Doritos I enjoyed with my Wagyu steak the other day 🤣

One step at a time, who knows where I’ll end up.

My friends, you can do it too.

Your kids deserve a healthier you.

Your family deserves a healthier you.

YOU DESERVE a healthier YOU!

For me it’s more than about health though, it’s about leading my team. It’s about showing them that rules apply to me as well.  Because that was my excuse for the past few years with regard to my weight. I thought “Well, I’m still in better shape than most people, so I’m good.”  But that’s a terrible excuse.  I was on a one-way path with a dead-end road.  

Day 89 – The Puzzle – What Time Away Means For Me & How I Handle It

We all handle time off differently, and it’s up to you to find your speed and the “level” in which you turn your shut-off valve.

And it’s OK to accept that we all need a break occasionally and not beat ourselves up over it. 

Many years ago I realized when a long weekend is upon me, or a vacation is a few days away, I become pretty useless.  I get less concerned with daily hustle and more about free thinking.  I used to beat myself up for this, I’d think “MATT it’s not vacation yet, keep grinding!”

But then one day I accepted it, and I realized we all slow down sometimes.  This week was a great example of that. On accident, I combined these two powers.  I was leaving for vacation today July 6th, during a 4-day weekend 🙂

As I was making some to-do lists the week prior, I realized what I’d done and thought “OH NO” both of my kryptonite are hitting at once 🙂

But then I thought, OH YEAH!!!!!  

PARTY TIME 🙂

So with that, I embraced it.  I looked at the calendar and thought HOW can we have some fun this week? 

Grilling out on Wednesday at the office seemed like the perfect way to end the “work week”, start the long weekend and go into vacation mode. 

PLUS, I knew my team would enjoy it too.  

That’s another reality I had to come to accept as well,.  If Matt Plapp’s brain goes to cruise control before these events, I’m sure my employees are even farther gone.  So embrace it, have fun, and smile.

Now, onto the actual vacation.

As I was walking through the gym Friday night, the day before we left for our cruise I mentioned to a friend “I need this, I’m fried.”

And to be quite honest, that’s the truth. I’ve been running HARD since last Summer and even the few trips I took during that time were not completely what they should have been, since we are in a crazy growth stage.  But now, I have some breathing room and time to chill.  

BUT you also have to know what NOT TO DO in these instances.  You have to be “one with your mind” and know how to keep your brain going.  

For me, that’s why I love cruises.  I love taking a few books, empty paper, and headphones to a secluded area for a few hours and GOING DEEP!  Yes, I get plenty of downtime on trips, but I also know there is no turning off my brain, and when I have done that in the past, I’m miserable. 

The part that I truly love about vacation is the lack of meetings and phone calls.  The fact that there’s zero expectation from me for that time and I can just be ME!

So I’m off for 12 days, but you’ll still find me here every day.  

MP OUT

Day 88 – The Puzzle – Doing What You Don’t Want To Do

I knew this time was coming, and I was dreading it.

As much as I love the daily podcast, it’s days like this where I question my sanity.  It’s days like this where I think “What if I take a week off”, people would understand.

I’m getting ready to head on vacation and for this trip, a microphone isn’t traveling with me, which means I need to knock out 12 podcasts in 2 sessions over 24 hours. 

Two weeks ago I had this great idea “Matt, if you do two episodes per day for the next week or so you’ll be ahead enough!”

GENIUS right?

Well, that didn’t happen and as I sat at my house on Thursday, July 4th around 9 pm I realized I had to do that day’s podcast to do STILL, and “OH SHIT” I need to get another 12 done on top of that 🙂 I thought “I can do them all tomorrow, but then I thought “That’s going to make for a long day” so I sucked it up and knocked out 5 more that night.

And then on Friday I went into the office and got uncomfortable, and knocked out the other 7 podcasts.  Let’s be honest, there are things we love to do that some days we simply don’t want to 🙂 And what I’ve found on those days is the energy you have after you do it is awesome.  You realize “That was brutal, but I did it.”

And something I realized many years ago about taking tough tasks, is it makes easy stuff, REALLY EASY in the future.  I think that’s why doing 1 or 2 podcasts some days is light work because I’ve had plenty of days where I crank out 5 pods.

My friends, there is scientific proof that shows the part of your brain that’s activated in instances like this, ONLY GETS STRONGER, when you do what you don’t want to do.

So get off your ass today, and do something that SUCKS!

Day 87 – The Puzzle – It’s Time To Change, Your Competitors Aren’t

This one is quite simple, GET TO IT!  The video above links to a quote from David Goggins that is so TRUE

“It’s so easy to be great these days because most people are weak “ 🤯🧡
Now before you read any further, CLICK HERE to watch it and then come back for the rest.
OK, for real, CLICK and watch.
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Ok, now that you’ve heard that, I want to you realize one thing, it’s 100% true. I promise you, most of your competitors SUCK, but unfortunately so do you right now.
 
From 2017-2020 I was pulled into coaching a few hundred marketing companies from around the world.  I had written a book that had training for restaurants and it ended up attracting over 700 marketing people “just like me.”  
 
I put that in “QUOTES” because even though we shared the same business category and had some of the same thoughts, they were nowhere close. 
 
I recall the moment that it hit me, that I was canceling the coaching program.  To put this in perspective, I made $425,000 NET PROFIT in 2019 from this program, and at a moment’s notice, I canceled it.  

WHY?  Because I realized 90% were never going to listen to me and do what I said.  They simply were not built to run.  And on top of that, I was getting dumber talking to most of them since I was simply banging my head against a wall.  
 
Now I tell you this story today so that you realize the opportunity that exists.  YOU as a restaurant owner are probably running too slow.  But the good news is, so are all of your competitors, THEY ARE WEAK!  So now is your time to shine, your time to be different, your time to dig deep and become what you were meant to be.  

Step your game up my friends, I believe in you 👊

Day 86 – The Puzzle – Don’t Be Afraid To Be Yourself

Aways be yourself.

The text above was a followup to a young lady who had applied for a job on our sales team in April 2023.  I didn’t know who she was (which is another story I’ll tell you about below) and I didn’t know if she’d be right for the job.  But I was doing what I should do, follow-up with people who reach out. 

Two days earlier we had discussed when she could come by for an interview and then I got the text above. 

“Thank you for reaching out but XYZ just got back to me and I got a job offer from there.”

The company she mentioned was a BIG ONE, but I also knew what we were doing had much more potential for the right person. I am also very confident in my leadership and our culture, so I fired back “Well you might want to interview with me before you accept it, it would be a shame to not see if you get an offer from the better opportunity 🤔 “

For me it was an easy response and my gut instinct.  “Go work where?!” I thought.  But I also wanted my text to take “some” of that back.  It’s a sales tactic to give someone something, and then take it back.  A chess move you could say, “IF YOU GET AN OFFER.”

But I’ve got to say, she’s the star here.  How many 22 year-olds would reply how she did?  I can’t imagine many.  Most would take the first job with the major company, “the sure thing”.

 

So flash forward to the interview, and she’s a FREAKING ROCK STAR!  I offer her the job and she accepts.  But then drops this bombshell on me “you’re friends with my parents and were best friends with my step-dad growing up.”  

WHAT, who’s your step-dad.  WHAT?! Brandon is your step-dad, why the hell didn’t you lead with that when you walked into my office?

“Because I wanted to get the job on my own!”

MIC DROP 

She started two weeks later and the rest is history.  She’s a freaking rockstar and has a very bright future ahead of her. 

This memory came flooding back to me at dinner with the team Tuesday night.  I was sitting there listen to her interact with her co-workers and talk about how excited she was to be working side-by-side with a childhood friend of hers (Ansley on the right in the picture below). 

I began to think “what if.”

What if I didn’t act like myself and took the approach many people would have taken “ok, good luck, thank you for your interest.”  

Then our company wouldn’t be what it is today.  Not only because we wouldn’t of landed Katie, but because we probably wouldn’t have many of the great team members we have today if I did it how most do.

I’m a tad unorthodox on my hiring and marketing.  When it comes to my company, I know how special our we are and even if it’s a random lady I’d never met, I always stand up for us. 

And the other side of that are the stellar people I’ve built this company around.  I get asked how we find so many great people in such a tough job marketing. I do it by being myself and telling my story, our story.   Katie is the perfect example of that.  I later found out she heard about the job opening from her parents, who have watched my story unfold on Facebook over many years.  

A few weeks later I saw Brandon (her step-dad) at a sporting event.  The irony is, I’d not seen Brandon more than a few times since high school (class of 1994).  We talked about Katie and how she didn’t want to name drop him just to get the job.  Both of us smiled ear to ear knowing just how special that was.