Scaling a BBQ Brand: Micha Magid’s Journey from Wall Street to Mighty Quinn’s Co-CEO | Restaurants & Franchises Series

Intro  

Welcome to another edition of inspired stories where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from their successes, how they’ve overcome adversity, and explore current challenges they’re facing.

Anthony Codispoti: welcome to another edition of the inspired stories, podcast where leaders share their experiences. So we can learn from their successes and be inspired by how they’ve overcome adversity.

68
00:06:25.700 –> 00:06:43.729
Anthony Codispoti: My name is Anthony Kodisbodi, and today’s guest is Misha Majit, co-founder and co-CEO of mighty quinn’s barbecue a restaurant that got its start at an outdoor food market in Brooklyn, New York, where they were doing smoked briskets and pulled pork on the back of a mobile pit attached to a truck.

69
00:06:44.100 –> 00:06:51.230
Anthony Codispoti: seeing instant success validated, that they were filling a gap in the city where it was hard to find authentic barbecue

70
00:06:51.550 –> 00:06:55.859
Anthony Codispoti: that led them to open their 1st brick and mortar location in the East village.

71
00:06:56.030 –> 00:07:03.130
Anthony Codispoti: 3 months later they found themselves on the front cover of the New York Times dining section, and they were off to the races.

72
00:07:03.360 –> 00:07:09.380
Anthony Codispoti: We will hear how Misha made the transition from the whirlwind of Wall Street to slow cooked meats.

73
00:07:09.490 –> 00:07:23.239
Anthony Codispoti: and before we get into all that good stuff. Today’s episode is brought to you by my company. Add back benefits agency, where we offer very specific and unique employee benefits that are both great for your team and fiscally optimized for your bottom line.

74
00:07:23.400 –> 00:07:48.490
Anthony Codispoti: One recent client was able to add over $900 per employee per year in net profits by implementing one of our proprietary programs. Results vary for each company, and some organizations may not be eligible to find out if your company qualifies contact us today at addback benefitsagency com. Now back to our guest today, co-CEO co-founder of mighty Quinn’s barbecue Misha. I appreciate you making the time to share your story today.

75
00:07:48.910 –> 00:07:50.950
Micha Magid: Anthony. Thanks for having me. I appreciate it.

76
00:07:51.150 –> 00:07:56.819
Anthony Codispoti: Yeah. So, Misha, tell us, how did you go from working on Wall Street to starting barbecue restaurants?

77
00:07:57.180 –> 00:08:07.910
Micha Magid: Yeah, I guess it’s not the most conventional path into the world of restaurants. But when I was on Wall Street I was what was called a generalist investor. So we really, you know, my fund invested across a diverse

78
00:08:07.980 –> 00:08:09.600
Micha Magid: list of industries.

79
00:08:09.710 –> 00:08:12.340
Micha Magid: and I always kind of gravitated towards

80
00:08:12.420 –> 00:08:18.026
Micha Magid: the industries that touch the consumer, because as a consumer myself, I found in most

81
00:08:19.210 –> 00:08:47.399
Micha Magid: I would say, most efficient to understand the real kind of drivers of the business value as a as a customer of that business versus some areas like, you know, chemical manufacturers, oil and gas businesses where, as a consumer, you don’t really interact with as an end user. So having that end, user exposure always kind of gravitating gravitated me towards consumer focused businesses. Then I think that was kind of like my foray into things that were, you know, consumer package facing restaurant industry and other retail businesses.

82
00:08:47.810 –> 00:09:03.000
Micha Magid: And so what happened was my brother-in-law. Hugh started smoking meats in Brooklyn, and at the time I came in solely as an investor. But when we saw that what we were doing really had some legs to it myself, and my 2 other partners really decided to focus on mighty Quinn’s full time.

83
00:09:03.490 –> 00:09:06.619
Anthony Codispoti: And so it started basically as a food truck, right?

84
00:09:07.160 –> 00:09:34.719
Micha Magid: Yeah, not so much a food truck, because we didn’t actually have. We weren’t serving out of a truck. We had a mobile pit, which is basically dragged behind the truck. So a little bit of a different. So if you think about kind of the pit next to a 10 by 10 tent, you know, we had all the meats already smoked, obviously because some of these things take, you know, upwards of a day to finish, and so we would open up at 11. You know, we had lines down the block and basically just kind of served barbecue for 5 or 6 h until we sold out on the weekends.

85
00:09:35.170 –> 00:09:39.462
Anthony Codispoti: And so were you doing any kind of special promotions or advertising.

86
00:09:40.250 –> 00:10:04.929
Micha Magid: No? Well, you know the odor off the pit is kind of like your 2 block free advertising. Right? Those smells just kind of permeate everywhere. So I think people knew that where we were serving with someone of a weekend food destination, so people were already coming to discover new and interesting things. So that was really the marketing done for us. So the crowds were already at the market, and I think they just gravitated towards you know what we’re doing with, you know, Wi-fi, or smoking, always attracts a crowd.

87
00:10:05.150 –> 00:10:11.809
Anthony Codispoti: And your brother-in-law Hugh. Did he have a background in this, or was he just he just kind of started doing it for fun on the side, and

88
00:10:12.070 –> 00:10:16.030
Anthony Codispoti: friends and family were like, oh, this tastes good! You should. You should sell this to people.

89
00:10:16.030 –> 00:10:37.949
Micha Magid: That’s a good question. He’s a classically trained chef. So you know, cut his teeth and some formal restaurant environments. And I think you know, having a dad with some Houston lineage led him down the path of barbecue. And so, as most chefs are artists, and they experiment with different things, you know this this barbecue thing kind of clicked, and we were off to the races. From there.

90
00:10:38.470 –> 00:10:46.839
Anthony Codispoti: And so how long were you operating the food truck before you were like, man? We’re really onto something. We should take this leap into a brick and mortar location.

91
00:10:46.840 –> 00:10:57.529
Micha Magid: Yeah, the outdoor markets are running for about a couple of years, but after the 1st year is when we really hit the pavement to find that 1st brick and mortar location. We knew it would take a while to find a place that we could, you know, smoke

92
00:10:58.010 –> 00:11:00.879
Micha Magid: in. In a restaurant environment in the city.

93
00:11:01.220 –> 00:11:06.830
Micha Magid: and so that probably took us better part of a year to lock down a spot that we were happy with.

94
00:11:07.510 –> 00:11:11.430
Anthony Codispoti: Is that because there’s special permits required to smoke meats.

95
00:11:11.710 –> 00:11:22.169
Micha Magid: There’s still. I mean, there’s logistic challenges, you know. Bring the 6,000 pound pit into a restaurant. So you know, you need load capacity on the floor need to be able to vent per code like you just pointed out.

96
00:11:22.384 –> 00:11:44.239
Micha Magid: And in a way that’s not going to affect, you know the the neighbors or anybody else in the building. So, and at the same time you also as a new brand. You want that great visibility right? So you you don’t want to find yourself in, you know, an off the beaten path, hard to find location. We really wanted to find a place where we can kind of plant the flag and say, You know, Barbecue is here. Mike Quince is here. Come, try us out, and we did that by finding a great corner location in the East Village.

97
00:11:44.520 –> 00:11:48.560
Anthony Codispoti: And there just wasn’t much in the way of good barbecue in the city at the time.

98
00:11:48.690 –> 00:12:11.780
Micha Magid: There was definitely there was definitely barbecue in the city, but I think it wasn’t as accessible as we thought it should be. There are more kind of sit down restaurants, you know, where you’re committing an hour and a half. We wanted a more casual place where people can come get meats at the counter and get out of there. They can hang out over beers for an hour or 2, and we really wanted to have that kind of convenience factor tied into this amazing cuisine category, and that that dynamic, we thought didn’t really exist in the city.

99
00:12:12.570 –> 00:12:14.799
Anthony Codispoti: Where does the name? Mighty quins come from?

100
00:12:15.030 –> 00:12:24.429
Micha Magid: So Quinn is Hugh’s eldest son. It was named after him, and just given the the brand recognition. We we went with it as we opened up into brick and mortar.

101
00:12:24.840 –> 00:12:41.230
Anthony Codispoti: Okay, so you guys are operating out of a food truck. You guys are selling out consistently. So was it profitable? Pretty early on, even as a food. Not a food truck. Sorry, not a food truck, but it. Yeah. You had to pit the 2. You drug behind the the truck.

102
00:12:41.230 –> 00:12:56.229
Micha Magid: Exactly the mobile pair. Yeah, the the economics of the business were great cause we had what seemed at the time to be just as much we could fulfill as much demand as as we could possibly supply, for so that’s kind of a nice dynamic to have. The more the more we made, the more we sold.

103
00:12:56.790 –> 00:12:59.340
Micha Magid: and I think that at the time

104
00:12:59.490 –> 00:13:20.649
Micha Magid: coming into the city as a brick and mortar restaurant, we weren’t really competing with many people. If you think about you’re being a new Italian joint or a sushi joint, or really Mexican, all these categories are so competitive. We really felt we were 101 or one or 2 in our area. You want to barbecue you’re coming to us. So that was a nice little protected boat that we thought was exciting.

105
00:13:21.470 –> 00:13:28.900
Anthony Codispoti: Okay. So you go through all this work to find a location. There’s probably a pretty significant investment for the build out.

106
00:13:28.970 –> 00:13:31.350
Anthony Codispoti: You open this new location

107
00:13:31.450 –> 00:13:38.279
Anthony Codispoti: 3 months later. You guys are but on the cover of the New York Times dining section.

108
00:13:38.620 –> 00:13:39.410
Micha Magid: Yeah.

109
00:13:39.830 –> 00:13:40.600
Anthony Codispoti: Come about.

110
00:13:40.800 –> 00:13:41.930
Micha Magid: I’m just.

111
00:13:42.060 –> 00:13:43.659
Micha Magid: I think that

112
00:13:44.210 –> 00:13:53.769
Micha Magid: you know the team at the times they do their thing. I don’t know how they discover how they pick who they pick but we were fortunate enough to be on that that list.

113
00:13:54.330 –> 00:14:14.739
Micha Magid: One of the reviewers, Pete Wells, came in and had an amazing experience. And the cool thing about that review is that you know we’re serving food on like disposable plates. Right? This is barbecue. This is not white tablecloths, you know, porcelain dishware whatnot. So he saw past all that, and really just rated us on the food, and he’ll be scored in it. We had an amazing 2 and half star review from him.

114
00:14:15.030 –> 00:14:39.350
Micha Magid: And you know we found out really the day it did. You know the morning it hit, and you know me as kind of new to the restaurant industry was kind of like, oh, cool, you know we got a nice review, but you know my partners here. More experience are like, you know, oh, shit. This is kind of like the Academy awards of opening a restaurant like we just won. So I was like, okay, interesting. And then, of course, after that, we had, you know, lines down the block, and we’re selling out at 8 o’clock. And

115
00:14:39.410 –> 00:14:41.570
Micha Magid: you know, really saw momentum pick up.

116
00:14:41.910 –> 00:14:45.669
Anthony Codispoti: And was that like overnight, like the review shows up.

117
00:14:45.950 –> 00:14:51.129
Anthony Codispoti: you know, Sunday, and then Sunday night or Monday, like the lines start forming around the block.

118
00:14:51.130 –> 00:15:02.700
Micha Magid: Yeah, I think it was actually published midweek cause. I remember still being on the trading desk at the time. And it was literally the next day was the transformation to, you know. Crazy demand.

119
00:15:03.330 –> 00:15:07.220
Anthony Codispoti: And so at this time you were still keeping your day. Job.

120
00:15:07.680 –> 00:15:11.230
Anthony Codispoti: Was there a point where you made a transition into full time?

121
00:15:11.790 –> 00:15:30.819
Micha Magid: Yeah, there was, you know, I was on Wall Street, for you know, 10 years in different capacities, you know, on the banking side, on the hedge fund side, and I just really thought that what mighty Quints was doing was unique, and that the brand I’d like to expand beyond just one location, and so I think it was just a mixture of being excited by doing something different.

122
00:15:30.820 –> 00:15:44.299
Micha Magid: and also jumping into something that kind of already tested the the waters and proved successful. The the combination of those 2 things led me to, you know, leave the hedge fund that I was at at the time and and focus on my sequence full time with my 2 partners.

123
00:15:44.460 –> 00:15:46.520
Anthony Codispoti: And when did that transition take place?

124
00:15:46.520 –> 00:15:50.460
Micha Magid: I was like I would say mid thir, mid, 2013.

125
00:15:50.990 –> 00:15:54.599
Anthony Codispoti: Okay. And and how many locations did you have at that point? Was it still just the one.

126
00:15:54.600 –> 00:16:01.630
Micha Magid: It’s just the one. It was just the one, and we still had our weekend pop up in Brooklyn. So it’s really just that was a seasonal location, and then our our main location.

127
00:16:01.990 –> 00:16:11.149
Anthony Codispoti: And so you came in full time. You’re like, I see where this is going. There’s there’s a lot of growth opportunity here. And so where are your energies focused now?

128
00:16:11.920 –> 00:16:17.539
Micha Magid: Yeah. So now it’s gonna be evolved into a bigger company with the franchise business. And you know, licensing business.

129
00:16:18.070 –> 00:16:41.419
Micha Magid: I would say, you know, aside from kind of strategic oversight, more kind of on the finance and marketing side and the development side, you know, we’re trying to understand in this very dynamic restaurant environment. You know, where fast casual is headed, where barbecue is headed. You know what returns look like on new store buildouts, you know, and and and based on that kind of return profile where we should be looking and how we should be expanding. So

130
00:16:41.420 –> 00:16:50.070
Micha Magid: I would say that the job is now very dynamic, because we’re in a very dynamic market. If if there, I guess if there’s ever.

131
00:16:50.070 –> 00:16:58.400
Micha Magid: you know an industry that is constantly changing, you know, ironically. It’s it’s restaurants, even though it’s probably one of the oldest businesses you know to exist.

132
00:17:00.270 –> 00:17:02.009
Micha Magid: it always keeps us on our toes.

133
00:17:02.850 –> 00:17:12.810
Anthony Codispoti: You say it’s very dynamic, constantly change like wh, constantly evolving. What? What about the industry? Do you see that it is is sort of is constantly changing.

134
00:17:12.819 –> 00:17:19.789
Micha Magid: Yeah, sure. So if you think about just 10 years ago, you opened a restaurant with a dining room to serve your guests at a table.

135
00:17:19.939 –> 00:17:45.039
Micha Magid: And now a meaningful percentage of basically all fast casual business is done digitally. And so those customers often never even step foot in your restaurant. Right. So if you think about just the math behind, you know real estate selection, build out how you configure your restaurant to accommodate people who are just picking up food and not see, not not sitting to eat, or 3rd party couriers. It’s it’s a very different thing. And so we’ve had to adjust

136
00:17:45.079 –> 00:17:54.279
Micha Magid: by. You know, we’ve had these restaurants that existed, for you know our oldest restaurants, or, you know, 1010 plus years old. At this point we’ve had to, you know.

137
00:17:54.459 –> 00:18:00.209
Micha Magid: renovate and redo the way that the restaurant flows to accommodate this huge new digital impact.

138
00:18:01.160 –> 00:18:05.620
Anthony Codispoti: And when you say digital impact, you’re talking about like uber eats grub hub like.

139
00:18:05.790 –> 00:18:06.130
Micha Magid: Yeah.

140
00:18:06.130 –> 00:18:07.409
Anthony Codispoti: Delivery services.

141
00:18:07.410 –> 00:18:20.829
Micha Magid: One component 3rd party delivery is one component. But then you also have our own native web, ordering solutions on our own app right, so which can accommodate both delivery and takeout. So again, like you know, you design a restaurant for someone to come. Order, sit down and eat.

142
00:18:20.830 –> 00:18:40.619
Micha Magid: And now we’re receiving an order through a tablet, you know, to a guest who’s probably has not even step within the restaurant, or there’s a potential that they haven’t even step up in the restaurant. They’re just probably, you know, could be a delivery only customer. It could be a takeout. Only customer. So just serving that guest is is a much different thought process right, than knowing that they’re eating and sitting back or sitting down to eat.

143
00:18:42.090 –> 00:18:53.259
Anthony Codispoti: And so, as you are looking at new store locations, does the footprint change under this new dynamic of fewer people sort of coming in to sit down.

144
00:18:53.260 –> 00:18:56.469
Micha Magid: Yeah, absolutely. You know the to accommodate the same.

145
00:18:56.500 –> 00:19:04.669
Micha Magid: You got a Ub is the app, you know, average unit volume of the store. You now need less real estate because you don’t have to have the seats to hit that revenue number.

146
00:19:05.120 –> 00:19:07.849
Micha Magid: So we want to think about things like

147
00:19:07.890 –> 00:19:13.580
Micha Magid: very fast throughput from when an order gets received to when it’s put in the bag and predict to be picked up.

148
00:19:13.887 –> 00:19:23.049
Micha Magid: We have to focus more on minimizing order errors, if you, you know, forgetting something in that bag, being the guest is not there to like, see it with their own eyes.

149
00:19:23.500 –> 00:19:40.770
Micha Magid: And speed is important, right? You know, someone’s ordering. They’re doing it because it’s a convenient way to get food, and you don’t want them to be waiting. You know more than 30 or 45 min to get that delivered to their home. So there’s a lot more kpis that are different now than they were when we opened 10 years ago.

150
00:19:41.560 –> 00:19:59.879
Anthony Codispoti: Now you mentioned that your brother-in-law Hugh, is a classically trained chef, so that really helped initially right to establish. Excuse me, really delicious food that people were attracted to. But what you’re describing to me now is a lot of like really intense, like operational tweaking.

151
00:19:59.880 –> 00:20:00.620
Micha Magid: Yeah.

152
00:20:00.620 –> 00:20:13.249
Anthony Codispoti: Did anybody in your partnership group there have the experience of sort of that operational side of the restaurant business that they were able to apply? Or is this something that you’ve just kind of been learning as you go.

153
00:20:14.050 –> 00:20:24.769
Micha Magid: Well, we kind of had a cool partnership at the outset. It was Hugh and our other partner, Christos. Foremost. He came from the restaurant industry. He’s been in restaurant and catering halls, basically this whole career. So

154
00:20:24.780 –> 00:20:32.320
Micha Magid: he came in with that operational experience. You know, he came in on the food side, and I kind of came in with, you know, everything else.

155
00:20:32.820 –> 00:21:01.129
Micha Magid: But none of us had an experience. Had the experience of how you transition to 100 seated dinners to, you know, 60 of your revenue being in the restaurant and and 30 to 40% being digital right? So that’s that was a learning process that I think the entire organization goes through. And you know, while we have the foresight to get, we were early on and developing our digital and our web presence for ordering. It certainly was a learning curve to make sure that we’re doing it correctly.

156
00:21:01.590 –> 00:21:16.299
Anthony Codispoti: Were there any? I don’t know resources or mentors that have been helpful to you, and sort of wrapping your head around the sort of the kpis and the metrics and the the operational aspects that you guys, you know, need to kind of level up on.

157
00:21:16.300 –> 00:21:37.859
Micha Magid: Yeah, you know, not at the time that all this was happening. You know, a few years ago we brought on some institutional capital. We’ve had a we have a formal board now with guys who, you know, have a lot of the restaurant experience. But when this was all taking place in kind of the 2,016 to 2,019 period. It was really kind of like a a testing environment

158
00:21:37.880 –> 00:21:40.730
Micha Magid: in terms of figuring out what works, what didn’t work.

159
00:21:41.149 –> 00:21:45.109
Micha Magid: It wasn’t so much that we had a playbook to go by

160
00:21:45.140 –> 00:21:49.450
Micha Magid: from somebody else who had gone through this because the whole industry was going through this, basically at the same time.

161
00:21:50.610 –> 00:22:15.720
Anthony Codispoti: I’m looking at your website, which is mightyquins with an sbq.com dot, and the store locations are really cool looking. Both the interior and the exterior. Did you guys have some outside help in designing these spaces? I mean, you know, you’re in the fast casual space, you know, kind of like a chipotle, but this feels a little more refined. It feels like a little bit of a step up.

162
00:22:15.720 –> 00:22:23.340
Micha Magid: I appreciate you noticing that. Thank you. That we you know, we designed the 1st location. We said, Okay, we want this to feel like a timeless

163
00:22:24.690 –> 00:22:53.899
Micha Magid: restaurant. We didn’t want you to feel like you came in, and we’re being pitched some kind of hooky version of barbecue with, you know license plates on this on the walls, and all the kind of things that you think about or like, stereotypical of, like your barbecue place down south. We just wanted a kind of comfortable, minimalist, timeless location that 10 years later would still feel kind of relevant. And so that was the foundation of the restaurant design. And we’ve had obviously made updates and changes as we’ve evolved in different formats and sizes and locations.

164
00:22:54.185 –> 00:23:05.609
Micha Magid: But for the most part we kind of try to stay true to that ethos of let’s just build something that feels comfortable and authentic and not something that feels, you know, like you’re overly marketing of the food category

165
00:23:05.840 –> 00:23:08.059
Micha Magid: in a way that’s not. That’s not real.

166
00:23:08.370 –> 00:23:10.969
Anthony Codispoti: How many locations do you guys have now you should.

167
00:23:11.270 –> 00:23:16.040
Micha Magid: Yeah, between the franchise corporate and license locations for about 17. Right now.

168
00:23:16.410 –> 00:23:22.930
Anthony Codispoti: Okay. And you guys are in New Jersey, New York, Maryland, Florida.

169
00:23:23.510 –> 00:23:29.729
Micha Magid: Yeah, Maryland will open later this year. We, our 1st Florida location, did open at the end of 22 in Tampa.

170
00:23:30.150 –> 00:23:32.760
Micha Magid: That’s also our 1st drive to the location.

171
00:23:32.980 –> 00:23:57.979
Micha Magid: So that was that was pretty cool. Another example of, you know, figuring things out in real time. You know, having a whole new sales distribution channel, you know, selling through a window was an exciting opportunity for us, and we were happy that the Franchisee found this amazing location. And so now we have. Yeah, the drive through sales channel is another kind of arsenal in the Auv tool or a toolkit to to drive sales and new locations.

172
00:23:58.340 –> 00:24:01.829
Anthony Codispoti: What have you learned from that? Drive through experience.

173
00:24:02.407 –> 00:24:21.190
Micha Magid: Speed has never been more important. Right? Once someone places that order that the clock is ticking and they are literally waiting, sitting there staring a window for the food to come out. It’s a little bit different than when you’re trying to get an order out for delivery quickly, because the person’s at home. It’s not like they’re not sitting there staring at their front door, waiting for the doorbell to ring.

174
00:24:21.270 –> 00:24:28.120
Micha Magid: So in this case it was really just figuring out how to dial in the process even further, to get that that order route as quickly as possible.

175
00:24:28.840 –> 00:24:41.479
Anthony Codispoti: Were those lessons, then, that you’re able to apply to your more traditional locations that don’t have drive through where you can still shave seconds off, or did you kind of leave that refinement just for the drive? The location with the drive through.

176
00:24:41.480 –> 00:24:58.650
Micha Magid: Yeah. The refinement was definitely for the drive through. You know, Tampa is a little bit of a different market. It’s fodder year round, so there’s the beverage. Sales are higher. So we have its own dedicated beverage station for the drive through. So there’s certain things that exist in Florida that are not really relevant for the New York market. So I think they’re kind of their own. 2 different things.

177
00:24:59.310 –> 00:25:02.060
Anthony Codispoti: Do you see doing more drive through locations.

178
00:25:02.560 –> 00:25:28.530
Micha Magid: It’s super competitive. Now, whenever you have a great drive to location, come up, you know the big brands are all over it. So you know, you’re competing with guys with much bigger balance sheets than we have. We got lucky down in Tampa because it was a little bit of a of a project to get this this building kind of turned around and and alive again. It was an old bakery that has been closed for some time, so, you know, going forward, we’re definitely looking for them. But we know, you know the club, that

179
00:25:28.570 –> 00:25:34.560
Micha Magid: the class a real estate, drive through locations. They they don’t last long and often don’t even hit the market.

180
00:25:35.570 –> 00:25:38.860
Anthony Codispoti: Got it. And what’s the growth

181
00:25:39.130 –> 00:25:46.900
Anthony Codispoti: projection now, Misha, like? What’s what’s on the horizon? Are there more corporate own locations coming? Are there more franchises.

182
00:25:46.980 –> 00:25:48.270
Anthony Codispoti: What can we expect?

183
00:25:48.270 –> 00:25:57.840
Micha Magid: Yeah, really, both. So we’re working on getting our 1st location open in Connecticut, which is, gonna be another pivot for us. And that that would be a a full service location with a full bar.

184
00:25:58.150 –> 00:26:10.809
Micha Magid: So we’re kind of tweaking the menu to accommodate that new format, and then we have a bunch of franchise locations opening 2 in Maryland 4 down in in the Tampa area.

185
00:26:10.810 –> 00:26:29.050
Micha Magid: And so the team is really focused on just executing this next. You know 5 7 locations. That’s our focus right now. We’re not really looking at growth right now. Beyond that, because when you go from, you know, 17 to 25 or 26 or 24. That’s that’s a big list. And we wanna make sure we execute correctly.

186
00:26:30.000 –> 00:26:51.990
Anthony Codispoti: So the location in Connecticut with a full bar. This is a bit of a different approach, right? Cause. I’m hearing you say that a lot of these locations you’re getting less. Sit down. Business, right? More takeout, more delivery. And now with a full bar, you know now you’re even more so inviting people to come in and kind of, you know. Park it in a seat for a little while. What’s the what’s sort of behind this thought process.

187
00:26:51.990 –> 00:26:56.710
Micha Magid: That’s a great question. So if you look at the growth of mighty quins.

188
00:26:56.740 –> 00:27:01.300
Micha Magid: our real estate has not been very formulaic in that one looks like the other.

189
00:27:01.520 –> 00:27:06.320
Micha Magid: We’ve really opened up different location sizes and formats depending on the market.

190
00:27:06.390 –> 00:27:12.640
Micha Magid: So we have a 680 square foot location down on Wall Street with just communal seating as part of a food hall.

191
00:27:12.710 –> 00:27:23.320
Micha Magid: You know we have a 3,500 square foot restaurant in Clifton with 100 seats, right? So very different. And this in this instance, we found a neighborhood where

192
00:27:23.580 –> 00:27:28.750
Micha Magid: people are kind of going to this very specific dining district to hang out and enjoy their evening.

193
00:27:28.900 –> 00:27:35.579
Micha Magid: And so we don’t feel that the fast casual format would really maximize our potential in this market.

194
00:27:35.610 –> 00:27:42.580
Micha Magid: So we want to also accommodate the atmosphere, the bar, the relaxed 5. There’s also going to be a small game room in this location.

195
00:27:42.610 –> 00:27:53.370
Micha Magid: So it’s really about fitting the format and the service dial to the region. And in this case we feel like we’ve kind of linked those 2 together correctly by having a more full service offering.

196
00:27:53.760 –> 00:28:14.519
Anthony Codispoti: Is that a bit difficult on your brain? I would think there’s a part of you that sort of wants to come up with a cookie cutter approach so that it’s easier to stamp out each time. But what you guys are doing, it’s a lot more work, right? You’ve got to look at each location and treat it uniquely and differently.

197
00:28:15.370 –> 00:28:29.800
Micha Magid: Yeah, I I part of your wishes. There could be a cookie cutter solution. But in our markets, and that does work for barbecue in certain markets, right? That the same, you know, 2,000 square feet with caitech, cafeteria style service, or full or fast casual service format

198
00:28:29.940 –> 00:28:38.429
Micha Magid: in the northeast, where we’re finding opportunities. It’s just it. It’s just different. And we don’t want to

199
00:28:38.520 –> 00:28:48.729
Micha Magid: be beholden to the cookie cutter format because it’s easier to execute. We want to find a strategy that maximizes the revenue and value of the brand.

200
00:28:48.740 –> 00:29:14.369
Micha Magid: and so doing it this way. It’s a little harder, but we do think that it’s right. We’re, you know, putting round pegs and round holes and not trying to force a format that we don’t think will be successful in the area. And so it’s it kind of is what it is. We, you know, we do have people that we’re bringing on with, you know, deep experience and and full service format and and the bar business to be kind of partners with us in this location. So I think we set the foundation of correctly to be successful.

201
00:29:14.880 –> 00:29:38.709
Anthony Codispoti: And I think this would be actually really cool from a customer perspective, too, somebody becomes a fan of a mighty Quinn’s barbecue restaurant and they’re traveling. They’re in a either a different part of New York City or they’re traveling in a different part of the country. And oh, I I, yeah, might I love their food? The quality of the food isn’t gonna change, but the dining experience may be a little bit different. Let’s go check it out and see how it, how. It’s a little bit different here.

202
00:29:38.710 –> 00:29:55.790
Micha Magid: Yeah, 100% look, our culinary team is so talented they do an amazing job. But same time they’re still kind of fenced into this fast, casual format service style, right? Which limits what we can do. And now, if you take that same amazing skill set and transfer it into a full kitchen with grills.

203
00:29:55.790 –> 00:30:13.749
Micha Magid: you know, flat tops, everything that we need to create a broader menu. I think people are going to really be impressed with the product we’re putting on the table. Because now, these guys have the ability to really no longer be kind of fenced in to fast casual format parameters. And really can do. We can do whatever we want, and I think the food is going to be truly phenomenal.

204
00:30:14.610 –> 00:30:18.350
Anthony Codispoti: So sometimes when I talk to newer franchises.

205
00:30:18.410 –> 00:30:46.730
Anthony Codispoti: franchisors that are are expanding, sometimes they run into supply chain issues as they go a little bit further out, geographically, you know. So you’ll see traditionally a franchise sort of start, you know. In New York, for example, New Jersey is not a big deal. You can kind of ship all your, you know, different foods and your ingredients in in in a region there. But now you’re expanding to to Maryland. Now you’re expanding to Florida. Were there any issues that you’ve run into there on the supply chain side?

206
00:30:47.290 –> 00:30:54.960
Micha Magid: Well, we, we set up our supply chain out to knowing that we’re expanding this new areas. And so by virtue of that, we only teamed up with national suppliers.

207
00:30:55.780 –> 00:31:01.280
Micha Magid: So the guys that we partner with they can facilitate, you know, deliveries. And really any major market.

208
00:31:01.300 –> 00:31:10.990
Micha Magid: So we feel, and the and the deals that we have with on the on the product side is also with national producers. So in terms of supply chain, I think we’re, we’re fairly dialed in. It’s not an issue.

209
00:31:11.560 –> 00:31:19.437
Anthony Codispoti: Now you mentioned. You’re, you know, 17 going to 25 locations like that is sort of all the further that you’re looking at the moment.

210
00:31:19.930 –> 00:31:30.910
Anthony Codispoti: But you know, what do you think things look like in the next few years? Are you guys you’re looking for more franchisees? Are you looking at other geographies. What? What’s sort of the thought process here?

211
00:31:32.940 –> 00:31:35.350
Anthony Codispoti: Is that too far down the road to really think about.

212
00:31:35.350 –> 00:31:41.980
Micha Magid: Well, we have to think about it, because it’s important as we’re trying to, you know, maximize the value of the company to think about kind of a longer term plan.

213
00:31:42.280 –> 00:31:58.479
Micha Magid: But right now, when you’re kind of you know, when you’re when you’re hiking up a mountain and the mountains very steep. You don’t really. You don’t really care what’s on the other side of that mountain, and we’re kind of we’re that’s where we’re at right now. But I will say that we’re also keeping our eyes open to seeing what the market looks like, you know. I think over just the past

214
00:31:58.670 –> 00:31:59.930
Micha Magid: few months.

215
00:32:00.270 –> 00:32:11.140
Micha Magid: We’ve seen a lot of I will call it, you know, chaos in some of the the multi unit. Restaurant groups. Some, you know, filing for bankruptcy, others getting acquired.

216
00:32:11.200 –> 00:32:25.669
Micha Magid: I think there’s going to be a lot of opportunity to expand in a non traditional way. You know, many quins right now, we’re really looking mostly at second generation spaces that we’re taking over to renovate versus, you know. 6, 7 years ago we were starting with, you know, a concrete shell from from nothing.

217
00:32:26.030 –> 00:32:34.729
Micha Magid: So we’re just, you know, we’re focused on the growth for this year and next year, and we are mindful of keeping our eyes open to seeing what opportunities present themselves in the market.

218
00:32:35.370 –> 00:32:45.169
Anthony Codispoti: Along those lines. I found an article online that mentioned in early 2023, that you made a strategic investment in a Detroit based slows, barbecue.

219
00:32:45.170 –> 00:32:45.770
Micha Magid: Yes.

220
00:32:46.010 –> 00:32:48.480
Anthony Codispoti: Yeah, tell me, tell me more about how that came about.

221
00:32:48.660 –> 00:33:06.399
Micha Magid: Yeah. So you know one of the interesting things about fast casual barbecue. I guess barbecue in general is, you know, there is no nationally recognized barbecue chain. Right? There’s no shake shack of barbecue right? There’s regionally strong multi unit players who are probably number one or number 2 in their markets.

222
00:33:06.880 –> 00:33:17.920
Micha Magid: And we kind of have to step back and say, Okay, why is that right? Why can’t there become a nationally recognized? Go to spot for this category, and the reason is a few fold. 1st off.

223
00:33:18.030 –> 00:33:28.260
Micha Magid: you know, there are some regional styles, but I think that’s kind of like a secondary issue. The main issue is like these, brands come up and they become the go to spots for their market. They’re loved locally.

224
00:33:28.280 –> 00:33:33.470
Micha Magid: and time and time again, you know, we see them trying to expand into new markets and often fail.

225
00:33:33.580 –> 00:34:01.110
Micha Magid: And so we’re very mindful of this category. Being very successful in a small regional basis doesn’t have to be one state or city, but a cluster of states, or a cluster of markets where the company really has lineage and history. And so we thought that. And I think the kind of growth path for us going forward is potentially also on the acquisition side, whereby we fold other successful barbecue chains under our umbrella, not to rebrand them, but just to get the benefits of scale

226
00:34:01.150 –> 00:34:10.220
Micha Magid: common ownership while maintaining individually successful brands. So I think that’s and that’s going to be a big value driver, for you know the category, I think going forward.

227
00:34:10.570 –> 00:34:18.030
Anthony Codispoti: And so where does that scale come into play? Is it supply chain? Is it like back office? Administrative stuff? Is it other.

228
00:34:18.600 –> 00:34:46.309
Micha Magid: Supply chain is a big component of that, you know. If you think about barbecue restaurants, we’re buying 80 to 90% of all the same proteins, you know, you’re buying wraps of ribs and chickens and briskets, and so, being able to scale up on those volumes, allows you to get some pricing benefit, but also consistency of supply as as become kind of a bigger player. So that’s so, there’s purchasing synergies. And there’s also, I think, a more subjective best practices, synergy, whereby

229
00:34:46.409 –> 00:34:55.319
Micha Magid: we have a collective playbook of how brands have gone from one to 10 to 20. And I think there’s a lot of learning in that

230
00:34:55.550 –> 00:35:06.949
Micha Magid: history that can be applied to other brands. And so, while we think we can be helpful in maximizing auv. You know the sales of the brand portfolios and minimizing their cost on the purchasing side.

231
00:35:06.950 –> 00:35:29.330
Micha Magid: There’s probably also a lot of things that could be implemented to just improve operational excellence, and by virtue of that all these brands become stronger, you know, can probably grow faster, and maybe that allows them to get to a better kind of valuation for themselves over the long term. And if we can do that under a common ownership umbrella, then I think like that’s where the real opportunity lies.

232
00:35:30.530 –> 00:35:54.439
Anthony Codispoti: So as somebody who’s never been into one of your restaurants, all I can do is, look at your website, listen to your story. And I’m like, Wow, this is really cool. It’s a neat brand. The stores are really interesting. Talk to me about the food side of things. Clearly, that’s been a really important part of your success. What are you guys doing? That’s different from other barbecue restaurants that

233
00:35:54.440 –> 00:36:06.360
Anthony Codispoti: you know. Had you selling out from your you know your 1st food market experience, and then, 3 months after you open, you know, to win the the Academy awards of you know, of of a food review.

234
00:36:06.530 –> 00:36:08.769
Micha Magid: Yeah, no, it’s a good question. I think that

235
00:36:08.790 –> 00:36:11.279
Micha Magid: when we’ve started the franchise business

236
00:36:11.350 –> 00:36:19.878
Micha Magid: we wanted to make as much of as as we’re make as as many of the steps in in food, preparation, and service.

237
00:36:20.790 –> 00:36:30.419
Micha Magid: as possible, to be almost formulaic, right? Just to leave as little room for error on getting an amazing piece of meat out of the pit and onto the plate.

238
00:36:31.250 –> 00:36:46.650
Micha Magid: And I think that by teaching our system you can create an end product that’s probably far superior than just. You know, the the one off chef is kind of eyeballing things, and without him the restaurant fails because there’s no consistency.

239
00:36:46.780 –> 00:36:57.359
Micha Magid: So we really try to set franchises up, for, you know, serving a consistent product, but also giving them the operational tools to, you know, make it a viable business by, you know, minimizing waste.

240
00:36:57.715 –> 00:37:07.940
Micha Magid: knowing what products to purchase and how much to purchase. You know. Really, the whole playbook of why people kind of, you know, sign up with with franchise businesses, because all of that hard work has already been figured out.

241
00:37:08.080 –> 00:37:21.220
Micha Magid: And so, if you look at like, for example, our last new market down in Tampa. You know, these guys are about to hit a 4.7, you know, start rating on Google with, you know, 700 plus reviews. And I think, like it’s slowly becoming like

242
00:37:21.560 –> 00:37:31.729
Micha Magid: the the spot to go to for authentic barbecue as more people discover it and have a similar, you know, amazing experience inside our restaurant. And then that’s the that’s the drafty one that I mentioned.

243
00:37:32.620 –> 00:37:39.890
Anthony Codispoti: Do you guys have been around for several years meaning that you guys were around before Covid.

244
00:37:39.900 –> 00:37:46.120
Anthony Codispoti: during Covid. And thankfully, not all brands were able to say this after Covid.

245
00:37:46.200 –> 00:37:52.249
Anthony Codispoti: what was it like trying to navigate that uncertain time period there in the middle.

246
00:37:53.280 –> 00:37:54.949
Micha Magid: Obviously super challenging.

247
00:37:55.806 –> 00:37:57.350
Micha Magid: You know, I think

248
00:37:57.800 –> 00:38:03.059
Micha Magid: a lot of our decision making was based on sitting back and watching

249
00:38:03.260 –> 00:38:05.070
Micha Magid: the broader restaurant

250
00:38:05.960 –> 00:38:08.279
Micha Magid: market respond to this pandemic.

251
00:38:08.580 –> 00:38:16.880
Micha Magid: No one had a playbook, obviously. And we, you know, you constantly, are sitting there making decisions, often second, guessing decisions.

252
00:38:17.210 –> 00:38:20.279
Micha Magid: But I think at the end of the day, you know, Covid

253
00:38:20.510 –> 00:38:21.740
Micha Magid: made us

254
00:38:22.320 –> 00:38:24.319
Micha Magid: kind of minimize

255
00:38:25.700 –> 00:38:34.270
Micha Magid: the business in terms of really understanding what’s the foundational necessities to to keep Mike wins going. And right, we that that was kind of our new starting point.

256
00:38:34.810 –> 00:38:41.880
Micha Magid: And so there’s a lot of businesses that we had to pull back from a few restaurants that we had to close. But I think, coming out of that.

257
00:38:42.130 –> 00:38:43.950
Micha Magid: we had a kind of

258
00:38:44.450 –> 00:38:47.019
Micha Magid: a more startup mentality in that

259
00:38:47.030 –> 00:38:48.459
Micha Magid: we knew that

260
00:38:48.760 –> 00:38:59.670
Micha Magid: people has to start wearing multiple hats and working collectively, to, you know, for the greater good of the business and not kind of siloed doing specific tasks.

261
00:39:00.040 –> 00:39:07.860
Micha Magid: And so I think, for everyone was a learning curve adapting to that that new reality. But as we sit here, you know, 4 years later, 3 and a half years later.

262
00:39:08.331 –> 00:39:14.659
Micha Magid: I think it’s we’re in a better place with an amazing team, many of whom have been with us since Covid.

263
00:39:15.020 –> 00:39:29.109
Micha Magid: and we’re super excited about the future. You know, the only way restaurant groups can grow is by having, you know, the team in place. That is really the the engine behind that growth, and I think we have a solid crew that’s you know, shared that mission.

264
00:39:29.880 –> 00:39:43.869
Anthony Codispoti: Misha, aside from the covid experience which was truly challenging on its own. What’s what’s another serious challenge, either on a personal or professional side that you had to overcome, and some of the lessons, maybe, that you learned coming through the other side of it.

265
00:39:44.890 –> 00:39:49.310
Micha Magid: Yeah. You know, it’s funny. Coming from a Wall Street background. You know, you’re basically

266
00:39:51.230 –> 00:40:11.629
Micha Magid: staring at the market all day. Right? So from 9, 30 to 4 o’clock. Stocks are trading up, stocks are trading down, and you can kind of measure your success based on your portfolio. Fix doing well or not. Right. So at the end of the day you’re either an idiot or a genius, right? Depending on how your portfolio did. And so for me, coming to the restaurant business. It was a much slower response environment.

267
00:40:11.700 –> 00:40:19.349
Micha Magid: If we launched a new menu item or did some strategic on the marketing side, it wasn’t that instantaneous? Am I right or wrong, you know.

268
00:40:19.400 –> 00:40:28.290
Micha Magid: So teaching myself that patience to let kind of these new initiatives play out and let the market digest them and and get true data points.

269
00:40:28.330 –> 00:40:40.250
Micha Magid: There’s a much longer kind of time horizon than being in the stock market where you’re kind of validated almost immediately, and you could also change your mind immediately, which is very different than the restaurant business.

270
00:40:40.250 –> 00:40:42.970
Anthony Codispoti: It’s a totally different pace of feedback.

271
00:40:42.970 –> 00:40:46.670
Micha Magid: Exactly. The feedback loop is much longer, and

272
00:40:47.040 –> 00:40:53.019
Micha Magid: you know, when you’re kind of in the public markets, you always know that if you’re wrong. You can just sell something.

273
00:40:53.580 –> 00:40:58.320
Micha Magid: And in the restaurant business it’s like, make that real estate decision. It’s a 10 year lease.

274
00:40:58.390 –> 00:41:02.199
Micha Magid: There’s a lot more work that goes involved into making sure that that’s the correct decision.

275
00:41:02.310 –> 00:41:04.520
Micha Magid: I guess there’s not always right.

276
00:41:04.950 –> 00:41:20.369
Anthony Codispoti: Is there still a part of you that is having trouble with that transition from instant feedback, you know. Sell it. If it’s not working to man. We gotta think long term. You’re making a long term commitment, a long term decision. And it’s gonna take a little while before you get some feedback on if it’s working.

277
00:41:20.520 –> 00:41:31.306
Micha Magid: I think I’ve been conditioned enough now over the past 10 years to to know that things are not instantaneous, and being patient is often kind of the best recipe to figure out if you’re right or wrong.

278
00:41:32.930 –> 00:41:57.429
Anthony Codispoti: You know, as business owners, we’re we’re always got our eye on the the bottom line right? And there’s there’s sort of 2 ways that we can kind of make that number move right? We can. We can pull this lever up and we can increase sales. We can pull this lever down, and we can, you know, decrease expenses. I’m curious if you’ve got any examples of maybe some creative ideas that you’ve tried to move either one of those levers.

279
00:41:59.810 –> 00:42:09.319
Micha Magid: Yeah, you know, goes back to what I was talking about with the restaurant industry always being a dynamic market. It’s always changing, I think as we’re coming into a slowing economy, people are much more value conscious.

280
00:42:09.670 –> 00:42:17.269
Micha Magid: And so they want to make sure they’re getting great value for their money. And so for a few of our locations, we’re actually not testing out dinner and lunch specials.

281
00:42:17.740 –> 00:42:25.670
Micha Magid: So we’re very, you know, traffic is a huge Kpi to us. We want always to see that the people coming in the door, growing faster than than it was the prior year

282
00:42:25.870 –> 00:42:29.339
Micha Magid: versus other things like, you know, check average or check size.

283
00:42:29.740 –> 00:42:39.450
Micha Magid: So you know, offering something that we think is very competitive on the value side is is interesting. So we just launched this test. It’s in week 2, you know. So far, there’s some interesting

284
00:42:39.710 –> 00:42:47.370
Micha Magid: Tvs that are presenting themselves. But again, that’ll take, you know, another 4 to 6 weeks to really understand the impact of doing something like that.

285
00:42:48.270 –> 00:42:53.719
Anthony Codispoti: Interesting. And you’ve got some sort of a data tracking system on the back end that’s

286
00:42:53.900 –> 00:42:58.660
Anthony Codispoti: feeding into a bigger decision engine to help you guys understand what it is that’s going on.

287
00:42:58.830 –> 00:43:15.420
Micha Magid: Yeah, the tech stack and the restaurant industry is super important. So we have, you know, our pos system which feeds into our Erp, which is our kind of broad accounting and operations management platform. So through the reporting function of that, we can see, you know by day you know what items are selling at what locations.

288
00:43:15.890 –> 00:43:18.780
Micha Magid: And that’s that’s that’s in essence, the data tracking tool.

289
00:43:20.000 –> 00:43:35.360
Anthony Codispoti: You know, Misha, in a competitive job market like we have right now. Recruiting and retaining good folks is is really challenging. I’m curious, if you’ve tried anything creative or different, that you found particularly effective in there.

290
00:43:37.630 –> 00:43:47.050
Micha Magid: Yeah, so not something I’m directly responsible for. But our operations team has definitely been leaning into some AI filters that have helped them on the hiring side.

291
00:43:47.230 –> 00:43:53.929
Micha Magid: And so these filters in essence allowed us to look at the job candidate pool

292
00:43:54.010 –> 00:43:55.200
Micha Magid: and

293
00:43:55.320 –> 00:44:07.890
Micha Magid: make it a much more efficient hiring process by increasing the show raise for interviews, and also just the caliber of employee that they’re talking to is far superior. So this is kind of a new technology. But so far I think they’ve had positive results with it.

294
00:44:08.230 –> 00:44:21.819
Anthony Codispoti: Oh, that’s fascinating. I haven’t heard people talk about that yet, and so it’s it’s sort of putting an AI layer over top of resumes or applications that that you’re reviewing, and somehow it’s supposed to help

295
00:44:22.130 –> 00:44:27.899
Anthony Codispoti: determine if these folks are more likely to show up more likely to be, you know good good workers.

296
00:44:27.900 –> 00:44:37.039
Micha Magid: Yeah. And it’s not. It’s not solely just like a data analytic platform where it’s where it’s reading, reading, resume resume data. It’s also, I think, doing some pre screening for us.

297
00:44:37.600 –> 00:44:42.889
Micha Magid: which is, you know, automatically filtering out people who are maybe not that interested in the position.

298
00:44:43.010 –> 00:44:48.459
Micha Magid: And so, you know it’s a very time intensive thing to find the right person and hire them. So

299
00:44:48.510 –> 00:45:07.420
Micha Magid: we’re able to reduce the applicant pool by 50% of those 50%. There are people that maybe weren’t going to be showing up for the interview or give us a very high no show rate. And restaurant interviews, or just didn’t have the right experience for the job. That saves us a ton of time. And so it makes the hiring process much more efficient.

300
00:45:08.340 –> 00:45:17.300
Anthony Codispoti: Any numbers that you’re aware of off the top of your head in terms of turnovers reduced by this much or number of no shows, interviews. This much.

301
00:45:17.300 –> 00:45:25.739
Micha Magid: Yeah. Well, I can’t say that’s solely a function of our new hiring process. But you know our turnover is down by about 30 year over year.

302
00:45:26.410 –> 00:45:34.840
Micha Magid: And so that’s super important. I think that’s also just a factor of you know us promoting from within and people staying on longer with the company.

303
00:45:36.190 –> 00:45:37.659
Anthony Codispoti: That’s a significant number.

304
00:45:37.900 –> 00:45:38.630
Micha Magid: Yeah, covered.

305
00:45:38.630 –> 00:45:49.609
Anthony Codispoti: That’s quite an improvement, Misha. What’s something you wish you could teach a younger version of yourself something that seems so obvious now that if you knew this 1520 years ago, life would been an easier.

306
00:45:51.000 –> 00:45:53.220
Micha Magid: Just put all your money in apple stock and go to the beach.

307
00:45:54.310 –> 00:45:55.570
Micha Magid: The best advice

308
00:45:58.470 –> 00:46:07.799
Micha Magid: I don’t even know I kind of was, I never thought that, you know, graduating from, you know, undergrad business school and working on Wall Street would lead me to the restaurant industry.

309
00:46:08.320 –> 00:46:30.190
Micha Magid: But I think it’s important just to when you know in in any job that you’re in kind of, it’s a job. But it’s also your your next iteration of education, and you’re always learning things and just having kind of an open mind to understand. There may be things you discover that pull you away from your your preconceived plans. You know that roadmap of your life often has many forks in it, and I think.

310
00:46:30.190 –> 00:46:39.950
Micha Magid: as as we’re all you know, younger people, we think it’s just a straight shot to our goal, to our dream. But there’s a lot of veering and turning, and I think, you know, if you’re if you’re more

311
00:46:40.020 –> 00:46:48.620
Micha Magid: open eye to that phenomenon, I think you’ll be ready to make those important decisions when those you know changing opportunities present themselves.

312
00:46:49.200 –> 00:46:57.040
Anthony Codispoti: Was there any sort of an identity? I don’t know. Crisis might be a strong word. But confusion when you’re this, you know

313
00:46:57.140 –> 00:47:02.789
Anthony Codispoti: Wall street guy, and now you’re going into, you know. Slow cooked meats was there like a

314
00:47:02.800 –> 00:47:09.569
Anthony Codispoti: wait a minute. That’s not who I am. That’s not who I was. That’s not who I thought it was going to be. It kind of seems like a little bit of what you’re touching on.

315
00:47:09.820 –> 00:47:17.579
Micha Magid: Not really. I never thought about. It is like that transition. It’s more, you know, going from one business which is investing to another business which is brand building.

316
00:47:17.930 –> 00:47:26.090
Micha Magid: So you know, you know, obviously, what would you know? Day to day is meaningfully different. And you know in one version you have customers, and the other version you don’t.

317
00:47:26.250 –> 00:47:29.500
Micha Magid: But no, it’s it’s it hasn’t been that

318
00:47:30.170 –> 00:47:41.829
Micha Magid: that black and white for me where it’s like this jarring change. And I think that having the right people around us, you know, especially me coming into the industry with partners who’ve already had the experience. It wasn’t such a crazy thing.

319
00:47:42.780 –> 00:47:54.500
Anthony Codispoti: Nisha, as you think about your own personal development or professional development. I’m curious. If there were specific mentors or books or learning experiences that were particularly formative for you.

320
00:47:56.160 –> 00:47:59.639
Micha Magid: Yeah, I would say, the best business books

321
00:47:59.780 –> 00:48:02.180
Micha Magid: are the ones that are not business books.

322
00:48:02.380 –> 00:48:06.110
Micha Magid: and I’ll give you an example. I think the last one I read was

323
00:48:06.800 –> 00:48:23.429
Micha Magid: by Rick Rubin, the record producer, I think it was called. I think it’s called a creative act, or a way of being something like that. And in the book he just talks about the way that his artists have been influenced, and where they get their inspiration from, and also the creative process.

324
00:48:23.490 –> 00:48:31.649
Micha Magid: and how that process has to be has to be nurtured in a certain way to get the output which is the best selling song right?

325
00:48:31.660 –> 00:48:47.699
Micha Magid: And so when I read this book, it’s just like business accolade after business accolade, you know, understanding the source of your inspiration, you know. Why are you doing this? How is it going to be successful? How is what you’re doing? Gonna talk to somebody in a way that they’re gonna tell their friends about it.

326
00:48:48.000 –> 00:49:11.449
Micha Magid: And so for me, those type of books, I think, are invaluable. You know. Rick Rubin was one there was another book that I read about I’ve got bloking on. The author is an Irish guy there was a story about. There’s a little bit science fiction there’s a story about. There’s a dinner party and at the dinner party everyone’s giving the cover of a newspaper from the future, with the story about their life specifically.

327
00:49:11.820 –> 00:49:18.029
Micha Magid: and they each see an opportunity to take advantage of that data point a year in advance.

328
00:49:18.240 –> 00:49:33.910
Micha Magid: And like, for example, one talks about, you know, a stock that’s quadrupled. One talks about. You know, a ship that went down, and maybe that person was supposed to be on that ship, and in each case they fail to have any benefit from knowing that story in advance.

329
00:49:33.940 –> 00:49:44.710
Micha Magid: Right? So through through all these different convoluted things that happen, you know, the thing that they thought was gonna either save their life or make them rich. It it didn’t work out that way. So

330
00:49:45.070 –> 00:50:03.320
Micha Magid: you know the takeaway from the story like that is, we think that we can identify the endpoint. And so we know the road to get to that endpoint. But oftentimes so many things happen that kind of knock you off your path, and I think being mindful of those things is super important. So I love those books that are not necessarily business books. But you get a lot of kind of business wisdom from.

331
00:50:04.120 –> 00:50:08.089
Anthony Codispoti: It’s interesting listening to you sort of describe those. It’s like.

332
00:50:08.685 –> 00:50:14.600
Anthony Codispoti: I’m trying to think of how to sort of frame both of them together, because it’s it’s almost like

333
00:50:15.020 –> 00:50:25.690
Anthony Codispoti: there. There’s 1 lesson over here, but the way your brain works, you’re able to then twist it and and apply it to the specific business challenges that you’re working through at the moment.

334
00:50:26.390 –> 00:50:36.849
Micha Magid: 100, you know. So there’s those book. But there’s also I just love. Also there’s there’s just pure straight out business by autobiographies, you know Bret Brad Jacobs, you know the rollup expert just put out a book

335
00:50:36.890 –> 00:50:42.150
Micha Magid: something like, I think was called you know how to make your 1 billion dollars. Some kind of, you know, kind of like a

336
00:50:42.460 –> 00:50:51.829
Micha Magid: a, you know, kind of cheesy on purpose title, but just an amazing story about how he built all the various businesses he was a part of. Again and again and again.

337
00:50:51.940 –> 00:51:05.320
Micha Magid: It kind of takes away that. Oh, you know right place, right time. Thesis of people being successful when you see someone can do it. You know, you know, 6 consecutive times. Right? So the you know the the straight up. You know business stories. I also enjoy reading about.

338
00:51:06.180 –> 00:51:29.029
Anthony Codispoti: If you think of the name of that sci-fi book, let me know, and we’ll put it in the show notes for everybody. Misha, I just have one more question for you. But before I ask it, I want to do 2 things. 1st of all, if you’re listening today and you like today’s content. Please hit the subscribe like or share button on your favorite podcast app, also misha. I want to let everybody know the best way to get in touch with you. What would that be?

339
00:51:30.065 –> 00:51:32.269
Micha Magid: I guess it’s easiest to find me on Linkedin.

340
00:51:32.990 –> 00:51:35.960
Micha Magid: Just my name, Misha. Magic. Only wanna make

341
00:51:36.670 –> 00:51:37.270
Micha Magid: yeah. And.

342
00:51:37.270 –> 00:51:47.790
Anthony Codispoti: Misha for everybody who’s listening and doesn’t have access to the show notes, where we will include a link to his Linkedin profile. Misha is MICH. A. And magic is MAGI, d.

343
00:51:48.210 –> 00:51:57.349
Anthony Codispoti: Okay, so last question for you, Misha, I’m curious. How do you see your business evolving in, say, the next 5 to 10 years. What do you think the big changes are that are coming.

344
00:51:59.470 –> 00:52:02.870
Micha Magid: So for us. If we’re executing correctly, I think we’ll be

345
00:52:03.020 –> 00:52:09.489
Micha Magid: open in a few new markets that we’re already talking about and hopefully expanding into those markets.

346
00:52:09.740 –> 00:52:18.899
Micha Magid: and then we would also have been successful in maybe acquiring some other brands that are kind of doing their own thing and noncompetitive areas that you know, we can

347
00:52:19.420 –> 00:52:24.360
Micha Magid: execute that mission of scaling up to success. And you know, through acquisition.

348
00:52:24.830 –> 00:52:31.319
Anthony Codispoti: And so the acquisition play for you may be very well outside of the barbecue space.

349
00:52:31.950 –> 00:52:55.550
Micha Magid: No, I think we’re gonna stick within the category, because to really get the benefits of scale, we need to have all the things that we already talked about. You know the purchasing benefits. The operational skill experience being transferred, the knowledge transfer. So all of those components, I think, need to, you know, be in place for this to work, and and that just by virtue of that it means that we’re all in the same, you know, category.

350
00:52:55.690 –> 00:52:58.980
Anthony Codispoti: And so when you say noncompetitive, you mean not in the same geography, then.

351
00:52:58.980 –> 00:53:03.229
Micha Magid: Yeah, we’re not gonna look at a portfolio of restaurants that compete with something else that we already own.

352
00:53:03.510 –> 00:53:10.589
Anthony Codispoti: Makes a lot of sense. But hey, Misha, I want to be the 1st one to thank you for sharing both your time and your story today. I really appreciate it.

353
00:53:10.590 –> 00:53:14.400
Micha Magid: Absolutely thanks for having me. Great questions. I I enjoy the conversation.

354
00:53:14.880 –> 00:53:20.889
Anthony Codispoti: Appreciate that folks. That’s a wrap on another episode of the inspired stories. Podcast thanks for learning with us today.