Welcome. We're changing it up a little bit uh here with Entrepreneur Magazine sponsored by
Toast. I'm now the host and uh who I'll be interviewing today is someone that you all know,
very near and dear, who's not an acquaintance but a close friend of mine, Sean Wal chef,
himself, owner and operator of Cali barbecue. Since what, 2008, 2008. Awesome. Here we go.
I'm, I'm the Regional V P here for Toast and we just wrapped up an awesome event spark with
the help of Sean and his team. We got to capture everything digitally that we're excited
to get out. But on top of that, I also joked around with Sean for a while that I watched
these interviews non stop. And he's got a fascinating story. And the problem with him
sitting in this seat is we don't get to hear from him from that one. So Sean, I'll kick this
off. Obviously, we go back a ways now. We, we've been doing this together for three or so
years. I got to ask because I've always been joking about you. You're so technological
forward on everything. Everything's techno technology here how can we create a digital
hospitality? What took you so long to make a change off of your legacy system that you've
had for, you know, eight plus years? I mean, was it COVID was like the jump start? Because
when we met, you were already talking about it , like what was uh what was the part that got
you scared to jump in the water? You know, technology is very funny as somebody that hosts
multiple shows about technology, restaurant, technology, digital hospitality, as much as I
believe in the internet. There's been so many times in my career where I was
stubborn. I was scared. I didn't know what, I didn't know until somebody showed me a
better way. And I think back in 2008 when we opened up the restaurant, I remember in
2007, even before we opened, I was meeting with Corey, my business partner at the time and
then Lou Bush who was a former Charger. So Lou Bush was opening up a barbecue restaurant and I
remember him saying Sean, I can't tell you how excited I am. There's a new iphone coming out
and I'm like, what are you talking about? Lou He's like, Apple's dropping a new iphone. I'm
going to go line up like you're going to go line up. It's like, yeah, I'm going to go wait
hours in line for this iphone. I'm like, come on, dude. That's crazy. I have a perfectly good
Android phone. Yeah, it took me probably three years before I got my first iphone
for us to switch from Aloha to toast. Took 12 years. We've been with toast since
2020. You and I met when you and I met. It's funny, Howard Solomon sent
us the original text that started this whole thing. Yeah, we got it today. Three years ago.
I was beat up in bullied by him and his restaurant consultant. And here we are now
bullied. Well, the bully bullies, the bulli I see now that I'm hosting, I get to control the
narrative. That's true. That's true. But nonetheless, I, I think to answer your question
was fear like we were comfortable in a system that we had Eric, my G M and business partner
was very comfortable on a until the pandemic hit. And we realized we
already believe in the internet. Yet we can't update online ordering. Online ordering is
going to fuel the growth to keep our restaurant open. If we don't switch to toast,
we're going to have significant problems getting food out, getting more barbecue to more
people. We switched and ever since we switched making toast, our primary technology partner,
everything has become easier. Toast is our primary technology partner because toast
integrates with so many other best in class technology solutions. So I I I gotta ask
because it seems like from that point, fear has been off the table for you, especially on
the tech front and it, and it fascinates me truly as, as a, as a partner, as a friend and
everything in between because, you know, you're fully all in. But it, it shocked me.
I've always wanted to ask you, I haven't ask you this off camera. The question, ask you, but
it doesn't make sense to me in a lot of ways because of it seems like throughout your career,
it's like fear has been the motivator. It's like you opened up in 2008. You're selling
barbecue in Southern California, I can't say without laughing, you know, location, location,
location, you're next to some automobile shops . And like, so I guess moving forward, like you
make the toast jump. Was that like the catapulting effect where you're like, OK, this
worked, I'm all in on everything or was it all part of the plan to be? Like, I need to make a
substantial change and like you say, not pivot but jump all in. Well, what's interesting is
like, I now create a lot of content around restaurant tech stack. Like I was asked to go
speak at the National Restaurant Association last year at the big trade show about our tech
stack. And what did I do to figure out our tech stack and to get ready for the
presentation? I took out a pen and paper and wrote down, what is it like? What do we use?
What do we use for marketing? What do we use for loyalty. What do we use as our point of
sale provider? What do we use for scheduling? What do we use for back of the house? And all
of those things are all cobbled together until we had toast. Once we had toast. Now, I
realize that our ecosystem, our digital ecosystem can have this heartbeat and once it
has a heartbeat, now I can go find a solution that toast might not have. Do they integrate
with toast? Is the first question I asked if they integrate with toast. Now, I want to learn
more, learn more, teach me more. Tell me why my fear of finances is the way that it is. How
can you help me with this? How can you help me with this? And once I do that now, we have an
incredible position where, you know, events like this spark L A where I get to come and
talk to restaurant owners who have way more restaurants than we do. This is where I learn.
This is where we move our business forward. But it's hard to do. It's hard to get out of
the four walls of your restaurant and to invest in the things that are actually going to
allow you to grow. I think we learned a lot about that today. A lot of those owners were
hesitant to make changes and we were lucky that we had a healthy face of clients and
prospects, I guess like if you could look back like postmortem, it, it would be tough to say
postmortem because of all your success. But I think it's easy for someone to watch your
podcast or see the people that you're interviewing with. Was there ever a point where
you're like this? I'm, I'm failing at this and I'm not gonna make this. And like, how close
were you to like being at some point like this game's not for me. If I do not
quit, I cannot lose. If I do not quit, I cannot lose.
Ever since 2008. The number one goal is to stay in business. We opened as a breakfast
restaurant. We added a sports bar, we added a dinner service. We got into barbecue, we got
laughed at for doing barbecue. We got into events, we threw terrible events, we got into
barbecue made terrible brisket. But the longer that we focus on the craft, the first podcast
we made, the first videos we made were terrible. The first photos we took were
terrible. I still take bad videos. I still take bad photos. I still have bad podcasts, but
this might be one of them might be, this might be the worst one. This is not the worst one yet.
It takes the courage of making a bunch of bad stuff and knowing that I'm ok. My audience
trusts me. My customers, trust me. My family trusts me to know that I might fall. You know,
I have a five year old son, his name is Colleen. I have a three year old daughter and I
teach them what Batman says. Which is why do we fall? Get back
up so we can learn how to get back up. That's right, Bruce. Yeah. Why do we fall? But as
restaurant owners, we're scared, as humans, we're scared to fail when you've been
successful. It's that much harder to pivot when you've had success running your restaurant
on a, on a legacy system. Like Aloha switching to toast is a big commitment. We've been with
Union Bank forever. This isn't a plug for Union Bank. This is a challenge to Union Bank.
It's like get your shit together because there's other digital hospitality banks that
are out there offering better solution to business owners. It's crazy to me how bad banks
are yet. It's been so long that I've been with one bank. I need to upgrade my banking, but I
haven't made it a priority in a year from now. I'm going to find a digital bank that cares
about small business owners that cares about cash flow. That's going to go. Hey, Sean, why
didn't you switch to that? And I'm going to go , I have no idea. I have no idea why I was with
Union Bank for as long as I was because Union Bank hasn't done anything for me. I spoke up to
toast and you guys called, I called you out. I was like, will prove it to me. You're like,
this is the best in class. And I'm like, you better prove it to me because I'm going to
document it. I'm going to tell all the restaurant owners out there the good, the bad,
the ugly. And yet here I am going to toast customer advisory board meetings where
literally Steve the founder, he sits in every cab meeting taking
notes, vigorous notes. This founder does not have to be there yet. He he's there
because he knows why it's important that all these restaurants have feedback loop. And now a
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I got to pull back because I know that part of me interviewing you and this and why I wanted
to do this is I think you do so many things incredible. And there's one thing I can take
away from this event is that restaurant owners really don't talk to each other. It's like,
it's, it's crazy to me. It really is, you know , like we sit here and we say like, hey, the
average restaurant has seven streams of revenue to be successful in 2023. That's
something we predict, right? I think it's nuts to me because I had a buddy, a childhood friend
that was here and he was like that session blew my mind. I'm not necessarily in
restaurants, but I never thought of it that way that a restaurant has to do this told him
it's like if you were to go and rent a seven bedroom house and you knew that either the rent
or the mortgage was going to take 100% of your earnings. The first thing you're gonna do is go
figure out how to rent another six rooms out, correct to recoup. And, but there's books on
that. There, there, I could call a million people and say, hey, I wanna get in the real
estate game. I wanna start here. I wanna get to multi unit. Why is it that in the restaurant
world as owners? You feel like there's not enough collaboration and like uh an area where
you go can be vulnerable and like learn from those times where you're like, I might fail at
this or you know, I'm on the borderline of really closing the doors. Like why is there not
those stories being shared and only you kind of hear like you don't hear about it until
you're successful at 50 60 70 locations. To be honest with you, I think what's exciting for me
is a rising tide lifts, all ships, something we talk about on all these shows. It's that
digital first restaurants, technology, restaurants that care about not just in real
life, hospitality, but digital hospitality. We're starting to have those conversations
spark this event, events like this other industry leaders that are putting on events,
putting restaurant owners in the same place saying, hey, we have a partner ecosystem even
though Toast is developing all these incredible products. We also have other
solutions. We know that not the best at everything. We want to be the best as as many
things as possible. But if we get restaurant owners in the room and if I have the courage to
be vulnerable up on stage and to say things that I did that failed. All of a sudden, five
different restaurant owners come up to me and go, hey, thank you for sharing that story. Yet.
We're all sitting next to each other waiting for somebody to go. I mean, there was a guy
that spoke at your session that goes, I feel like I'm running a nonprofit and everyone
started laughing like out of fear, but also out of empathy, out of empathy for
knowing how fucking hard it is to run our businesses to make money. But if you have the
conversation, if you're willing to stay curious to get involved and to ask for help,
then we're in a different place and you can have conversations that actually move your
business forward. One thing that you just hit on that, I think you do a really good job at.
But I know that you're always kind of on the Kobe Bryant mob mentality of like never jobs
not finished vain for you. What is it that you're either one kind of went into spark being
curious about or now leaving here being a little bit more curious for your own business.
I know as much as I believe in digital storytelling, in real life storytelling matters.
So two years ago, we started doing weekly rooms on Clubhouse, the social audio app
Clubhouse every Wednesday, every Friday at 10 AM 10 AM Pacific time. So if you're listening
to this, please join us, tell us about your restaurant. Tell us about what you're working
on. We have sales professionals, marketing professionals, hospitality, professionals,
content creators from all over the globe that literally come and talk about their stories. I
met probably seven of them here today. I wish I was joking about that in real life. These are
people that we've only heard. Not even zoom calls, you don't see video. This is just audio,
but we're speaking truth to each other in a safe space and a free space. And then when we
come and meet in real life, now we have a deep connection. That's what in real life stuff does.
And the more that toast leans in to getting restaurant owners into the same room to have
the same conversation. I think there's going to be like I said it on stage today. They had a
picture of a man's basement where toast started 10 years ago. And like we're here at
the London Hotel. There was over 200 hospitality professionals, restaurant owners
here, cutting edge restaurant owners. And we're going to look back five years from now,
three years from now when Toast has thousands of people coming to these spark events we're
going to go. Do you remember that? We, we would, the London camp. I love the London. This
place is amazing. But unfortunately, as toast grows, fortunately, we're going to have better
conversations. Absolutely. And it was awesome. I had a lot of people coming up to me saying
I'm Sean's friend. A lot of picture today. I dusted out my selfie arm. It's good and I, and
I, and I needed it, but it was a testament to the reach really, which I thought was
interesting because for anyone that's like watching this interview, you're probably
thinking, I'm the one that's pitching tiktok and Clubhouse and, and all this to him, it's
almost like a Robin Big uh sequel here where it's just like, totally opposite. But I, I, I
got to see that reach a lot today. One thing that I will say because for those of you who
are at home, you get to watch Sean Day in and day out. I think the interesting thing is I, I,
I'm, I'm blessed and I'm fortunate that I get to serve industry that I'm passionate about.
And I can only hope that my team feels that way that, you know, my immediate team, the team,
the team around me, other departments. I would , I always wonder about that. When I go home. I
like when I clock out from work, which is like , really my head almost never. I joke. But it's
because I love what I do and I hope that it transcends. I'm envious of what you've been
able to do at Cali barbecue because it's your team around you has. And there's so many
changes you've gone to full service to quick service. I mean, there's any time you go there,
he's changed something entirely new. It's normally for the better, but it could be new
smokers. It could be the whole nine. I mean, you put your team through what most
restaurateurs would say is extreme friction. You probably do it like once a month probably.
But it's a culture that you've created with. I mean, he had 34 or five people join him from
San Diego driving up here and just to be at this event to support him speak as much as I
love to think that it's because of toast. It's a lot because of that. How do you create that
culture in a restaurant? I mean, how do you have such loyal employees and don't cut
yourself short on this and give me the cop out answer. I, I won't take it. Like, how do you do
that as an owner and as a leader? Because a lot of people can be owners but not a lot can
be leaders. It has to do with the courage to look stupid. It sounds stupid if you start from
the top and are willing to be vulnerable as a leader and know that I don't have all the
answers. There's a reason why Eric is on my team. There's a reason why Howard is on my team.
There's a reason why Jean, why Lisa, why Ian, why Steven Sws Aaron is here? Why Tony is
here? Why Kyle flew out from New York? It's like I can't do it. I don't want to do it alone.
I want to encourage other people to tell their stories. I put a phone in your face because you
know, just like, you know, me for long enough to know that sales and marketing, the problem
with sales and marketing is that they're not working together. Sales thinks marketing has a
job and marketing thinks sales has a job. When everyone has the same job, we have the same job.
This isn't a siloed thing. Social media isn't someone else's job. It's my job to have a
conversation that hopefully permeates through the rest of my team so that they feel empowered
that when I say, hey, we've got a camera appearance for Fox Five in San Diego or we got
to go to K U SI or we got to do this magazine or there's a podcast coming to the restaurant.
They know what the drill is. They know there's a tiktok influencer, a youtube influencer. They
know that it's just as important to take care of the guests that's there in real life as to
put on a show for the people that might see us on the internet and I got to ask this because I
think this is so great because this Entrepreneur magazine, it is not just
restaurant owners. So I got to ask you, like, how do you hire? Like, what is it that you're
looking for when you're hiring? It seems like it's all. So I always say it's one team, like
we believe it at our core. Like, you know, we're only as good as our customers and it's
one team mentality. I don't think you have like a crazy slogan or a mission statement and
maybe you do. But like when you're hiring someone, how do you know that? Like they're
gonna come on the team and they're ready to be a team player because you have nothing but a
team mentality when I walk in from the time that I'm sat down at Cali barbecue or the time,
just take it out. It's, it's nonstop. Everyone's willing to help. Like, how do you
interview curious, hospitable and humble. Stay curious, get involved, ask
for help. If you don't have hospitality in your DNA, you're just not going to be able to
work for us like it has nothing to do with experience. We can teach anyone on earth.
Anyone that's watching the show how to make Incredible brisket, it's going to take a long
time. You're going to have to be willing to do a lot of different things. But if your life
goal is to make a perfect brisket on our old hickory smokers. There is a job for you and you
can learn how to do it. But what we care about is, do you have that Mamba mentality? Are you
willing to get 1% better every day? Are you willing to tell us when you make a mistake?
Because so much of hospitality is having the empathy to know. Hey, I'm not perfect. I mess
up all the time. Why do we fall that man? So we can learn how to get back up. I love that.
And so for you and I, I applaud it, I feel like the last word I think of when I
think of you is like humble and, and I use humble, not just in a sense as someone that has
a lot going on that wants to downplay it, but I think that a lot of times when me and you
talk, you're doing incredible things and you're like kind of to you. They don't seem
incredible. And it's funny because I think we as leaders as coaches and everything in between.
I always find myself struggling to coach the things that I'm really good at, which is ironic,
right? You know, I'm better at telling you how to swing a golf club than the things I'm really
good at. Why? Because a golf game is probably like 160. But I have to think about the process
so much for you. How do you test for humility? Throughout an interview process or what does
humility mean to be on your team? I mean, obviously be asked for help when they're
struggling. But in the interview process, like , what is it you're looking for that separates
someone so much of hospitality is the invisible hospitality.
So when we actually heard this on a podcast that I'm going to steal, but we do open
interviews. So every single week at three PM, you can come on Thursday and come for an
interview. But what I heard somebody say on a podcast that I was listening to was like, they
give a specific time. It was Jeff Fencer. So Jeff Fencer who owns Ever Bowl incredible
entrepreneur, serial entrepreneur. He's like I tell them to come at a very specific time. So
I'll tell him to come at 3 27 and I'll shift the time and I'll tell him to come to the
interview with one weird item. Now you're testing for, are you willing to come at a weird
time? 3 27? And are you willing to bring a red paper clip? Now, this isn't something that we
do now, but this is something that because I'm curious because I'm always learning, I pick up
from another business owner who is either in real life or online telling their story. And I
go, that's a really good idea. Now, we're going to implement that idea. How do you test
for humility when they come to that open interview. Do they look around the room and
welcome other people in the room. How do they, how do they sit at their chair? Do they open
their chair? Do they ask for a pen? Are they polite to my hostess, hostess, polite with them?
Do they listen, when somebody else is speaking ? Those are things that you can't coach? That's
just who they are. Yeah. That's great. And it's funny because I did my homework on every
uh every guest that I have on this podcast and I make sure that I, I dive in deep um because I
wouldn't come unprepared at all. Or improv, do an interview. Yeah, or just do an improv
interview after a spark event. I'd never do that. But what you were describing a lot and,
and the at home that are familiar is Sean's grandfather has a book that's like has a lot of
humility throughout it. It just seems like it exuberate the humility. And so one thing I want
to ask you is outside of like, you know, the obvious things, you seem to draw a lot from
your grandfather and, and his lessons and his life lessons and the fact that he was able to
put it and you guys were able to put it in literature is awesome where you are today. If
you could look back, what do you think you learned the most from? You could pick one thing
from him. What is it that you that you've learned the most. That's been tried and true
throughout the years of marriage, kids, opening restaurants, expanding restaurants,
business pandemics, all that. Like what's been the one thing that you learned that you want
the audience to know that he shared with you? He seems like an incredible guy and I hate that
I couldn't meet him. So growing up not knowing my father getting raised by my
Bulgarian grandfather. There were times when we were working on his book. When I was young,
I was 21 years old and we were traveling through Europe helping document his story. And
I remember traveling with him and every city that he took me to, whether it was Paris or
Germany or just these incredible places. He always wanted to take the pamphlets
of what was the castle, what was the Eiffel Tower? What was the history behind it? And
whenever we were on tour, he always wanted to be the front of the bus. And he always asked
the question to the point where I'm like, grandpa, like, you know, stop asking so many
questions like these other people, like they want to get on with the tour. He wasn't asking
those questions for himself. He was asking them for me. And what that taught me is that
so many times in my life when I was in class, he told me to sit in front of the class, but I
didn't, I sat in the back of the class and who were the kids that always got, got advanced.
They were the ones that raised their hands. They were the ones that sat in the front and
they were the ones that stayed after, who were the kids that were the best athletes. They were
the ones that showed up early. They were the ones that stayed after practice. They were the
ones that always went above and beyond. When the coach asked them to do something, it's like,
stay curious, get involved and then ask for help. If you have the courage to raise your
hand. When you hear a keynote speaker with 400 people, you don't want to ask that question
because you don't want the other 399 people to judge you for being so stupid. The chances are
they all have the same question? You're not asking that question for you, you're asking it
for them. It's incredible hearing you talking about because I know so much about you at this
point. I feel like throughout and then get to see you operate as an owner and then as an
incredible father, family member and friend to a lot of people. I'm curious to get your take
on this, especially being huge in the social media thing. We kind of are in this era that
you were just hitting on it, just like being curious, kind of being the first one to show up,
the last one to leave and we feel like we're kind of met at a crossroads almost from a
society standpoint where we're shifting a little bit away from that. But we also need to
start focusing on like the mental health components of it. And I think that it's funny,
I have a little brother who's at that impressionable age. Right. Your early twenties,
it's kind of like your defining decade is like , what I would probably say is like, you know,
your 20 in a lot of ways and it's a lot of messaging around like, you know, you don't have
to figure this out or you don't have to do this like lifelong, don't hustle, don't grind.
Now, you feel like I feel like you're at very much a real harmony of like focusing and
prioritizing on your mental health, but you're a grinder, talk to me about that like, where is
it that you found that balance? And how do you find that harmony? Because I mean, you are for
those who don't know, he's up at four ami know I get the text and um and you're a grinding, I
mean, you're on the Peloton and then it's right to meetings, it's back to back. You're
also huge advocates of mental health and knowing you. Like, where did you struggle the
most? And where did you find that harmony? So it's a great question because so much of my
life is wanting to be the rabbit in the race, always wanting to be the first one there.
Always wanting to win, always want to get, you know, have a successful business, build an
incredible empire, do all these incredible things and do it right away like a unicorn. But
so much of what I've learned is that that low and slow, how we build our barbecue, how we
build our media, how I build my family. It's appreciating one day at a time and it's like I
heard a quote the other day and I've repeated it pretty much every day since I've heard it.
And it's stop praying for as fast as possible and start praying for as long as it takes.
I like that. I'm stealing that from you. Stop praying for as fast as possible and start
praying for as long as it takes. It's hard to do. It's really hard to do. There's so many
things we want to accomplish with barbecue, with our media company, with helping other
restaurant owners, with helping other retailers, with other business owners, with
other humans that want to tell their story online, preserve their story, preserve their
legacy. But I know that if I just keep doing what I'm doing every day and if I appreciate it
and I take time to smell the roses, like literally, that's, it sounds corny. But I went
to the flower fields yesterday with my family. My wife was so happy to be in the flower fields
and like I took time to slow myself down because usually I want to get through fat. But
I'm like, take your time and figure out where are the pain points where my wife wants to take
a picture. My kids don't. My kids want to take a picture. My wife doesn't like we're a content
family. Like we want to make content. My kid, my son wants to make videos. My daughter wants
to make videos. It's like, how can we enjoy this experience and know that like our her mom
visiting from Bulgaria is here with us for this event. Like just enjoy it because it's
gonna be gone. Yeah, we're gonna document it but it's still gonna be gone. Yeah. What's your
most recent moment where you found yourself smelling the flowers? Uh, on the on the work
side of things,
probably going to interview Rob Beard honestly with you. I mean, I
in full disclosure, I knew who Rob Dede was. I had no idea how many
people he's impacted and from the content that we posted, whether it was on Facebook, on
linkedin, on tiktok, on Instagram in real life . The breadth of people, different ages,
different backgrounds of people that are like, I love Rob and I'm like, you're 18
or you're 45 or you're 70. Yeah. How do you all love Rob Deer? And
like for me to be there and to be able to go there with you and to have to sponsor this show.
I mean, Kyle and Sarah literally sitting over there, he flew in from New York to be here at
this event at Spark. The first time that I met Kyle in real life because he's a content
creator that does an incredible job. Kyle and Sarah on Tik Tok, he makes incredible videos.
We're a co host of a show called Restaurant Idea Factory with Jensen Cummings, but I met
him in New York undercover because I was going out to the toast. IP O toast was going
public and I was invited, I, me and Eric got to go as one of the 20 customers to the
toast. IP O but I couldn't tell anybody and I'm a loud mouth. They're like Sean, you can't
tell anyone. I'm like, what are you talking about? And yet we went out to the IP O and then
I recorded interviews for restaurant influencers and now we're here at Spark L A in
West Hollywood at the London. And it's like, stop praying for as fast as possible. Start
praying for as long as it takes. It's so cool. Um, you know, it is interesting right out of
every celebrity Rob Deer really transcends like multiple generations. Unbelievable. It's,
um, you know, there's like few celebrities or musicians that have that ability. I mean, you
really think that through like how many people have that type of reach and a select few, I
think the thing that I learned through that is like one I have to echo it. It was definitely
that moment where I was up in L A and I'm in the Uber on the way there and I kind of had my
head, you know, looking out. It's like, it's rare that I'm not on the phone. If I'm in like
Uber, I'm like, all the folks. There's something about that day heading over there. I
didn't want to take a call. I'm, I'm a big grateful Dead fan. I remember I threw my
grateful Dead. I was listening and I was just like, oh my God, we're about to go do this and
you don't know what to expect. I thought the cool thing about that interview was how genuine,
how nice but how authentic he was when the cameras weren't rolling. Like it wasn't
like a oh cameras rolling. Let me tell you how I'm an entrepreneur and let me tell you how I'm
monitoring this. I'm time boxing this. I mean, we were walking and talking and he was pacing
but so kind like embracing with warm handshakes, hugs was a really awesome
experience for you because I'm curious who's the next dream guest on this podcast, Shaquille
o'neal. Big Shaq, big chicken, big chicken. We're going after Big
Kid Want the diesel. I wanna have the diesel. We have uh Josh, who's the CEO he's coming on
the podcast next week. Um which I'm really excited about. I probably will air before that
time. Um But yeah, I mean, Shaquille o'neal growing up as a Lakers fan. And then now what
he's doing as an entrepreneur, that's why we created the show. I love it to get Shaq Shaq
the whole whole idea. How do we mastermind this whole thing just to get Shaq? Yeah, we, we,
once we get Shaq, then we get Kevin Hart. You know, then we get Martha Stewart, then we get,
you know, Jose Andres would be another incredible. He's an absolutely phenomenal
entrepreneur. He actually spoke at Spark, the first virtual spark, Jose Andres uh chef Jose
Andres talk, you guys contact somewhere. I'm sure we shake the tree and grab that one. Let
me ask you this. Um growing up, who are your three idols and how they changed now that
you're, you know, where you are. Uh my idols were my with my grandfather, but a huge Jerry
Jones guy um love the fact that I just love people that they, whenever they tell
you. No, they show you watch me. So whether it's Ray Croc, whether it's Howard Schultz,
whether it's Jerry Jones, whether it's Dana White. These are all people that so many times
they were told. No. And what do they do? They get back up. It's like how many times can you
get back up? I cannot lose if I do not quit. I love it. I
stole this from someone who does this a lot more than I do. But where, what's
your favorite arena that you've ever been to our favorite venue that you've ever been to? My
favorite venue would be, uh, Wimbledon center court. Wimbledon center court. You're tennis
guy. I'm a huge tennis guy. I've completed a grand slam as a fan. Wimbledon French Open,
Aussie Open Us Open. Uh, they didn't debrief me on that before. We did this interview. I
would have definitely brought it up. So you're at Wimbledon? It's a pack, it's a packed
stadium. You're a sinner. Who, why should the crowd want to get? Subscribe to
Entrepreneur Magazine, all of your podcasts, all your content from top to bottom. What would
make them want to do that? A rising tide lifts all leaderships, your story matters.
You created a business, you created a restaurant, you convinced so many people who
told you you couldn't do it. You built that business, you open that business. Once you open,
you realize the marathon hasn't even started and you've been grinding day in day out. All
the different things that we have to do as restaurant owners. Your story matters. And the
coolest thing about the internet, the coolest thing about toast is that they've given us the
opportunity to connect with people all over the globe right now. Toast is in the United
States in Canada is in Dublin, it is in UK, but they will be all over the world. And
even if they're not in your market yet, your restaurant matters. And if you come online if
you subscribe to the show. Our job. My job every single week is to find the best of the
best. What we say, the people playing the game within the game that whatever lessons they've
learned along the way are a shortcut for you and your restaurant go. I'll tell you,
Sean. Um, I don't believe in luck. I'm like, big on it. I really don't. I think that
people work hard and are very genuine. They are authentic and they find themselves in
positions to capitalize. And I always think of you, you walk into a room, your passion is
infectious, the generosity that you give both in time, effort and energy. So people don't
even know you really, I mean on social media, these text messages, I get late at night. Hey,
can you help this person? Hey, I'm looking at this. It's a genuine genuine theme throughout
what you do. And you know, your grandfather acted curious. I think that you are so curious
to help others. I feel like that's like a passion that drives you. And it's awesome to
see what you don't get to see behind the scenes is everything that Sean does for friends,
for family. He's a heck of a father. I think if there's one thing that you can really do
content creation with a view with his family full time, the wolf pack. But I have to end it
with saying, I thank you as someone that cares about the industry and the people that are
around here, there's no better person to be leading something like this because of the deep
genuine curiosity of wanting to spread the word and everything that you do. And with that,
I would say I've been very, very lucky to call your partner and a friend. I appreciate you.
Thank you so fun. Hey, we're just getting started. We're just getting started, right? If
you guys, uh if you're not on toast and you have questions about toast, send me a message
so that I can send. Will a message. I'm at Sean P W S H A W N P W A L C H E
F message me and then I'll message will because that's how it works. Batman's got the
bat phone and a special. Thank you to our title sponsor. Toast. Toast is the primary
technology partner that we use at our restaurant. Cali barbecue. It is also the
primary technology partner that so many of the guests have shared with us on this show. People
like Sam, the cooking guy, Stacey Poon, Kinny Jeff Alexander. So many times the guests tell
us that they're using toast when we didn't even know that going into the interview. That
is why we are so grateful that they, this show , we want you to win you that listen to this
show. We want you to improve your digital hospitality. Toast is built for restaurants and
it's built for you. Toast is the restaurant first platform that's built for your needs.
Whatever your size concept or ambitions improve your bottom line with a customizable
platform that's easy to learn, use and grow with and it meets you where you are with all
the right tools for your price point. If you have any questions about toast, please D M Me
at Sean P. Walsh S H A W N P W A L C H E F. I will get you the
link to the right toast contact in your market . It's so important that if you listen to this
show that you win, we want you to be on this show. Eventually. Let us know that you heard
the show, you heard about toast, you implemented toast. You did a toast unboxing in
your restaurant. Talk to us about how you've impacted your village, your city, your
community, share your toast story with us D M me today to learn more and be sure to check out
toast.