Building the World's Largest Mobile Empire: Tony Lamb's Blueprint for Multi-Brand Success

Tony Lamb, CEO and founder of Kona Ice, reveals how he built the world's largest mobile food empire with 2,200 franchise trucks across three brands: Kona Ice, Traveling Tom's, and Beverly Ann's. In this Fast Casual Nation episode, Lamb breaks down his unconventional flat-fee royalty model ($3,000/year vs. percentage-based), vertical integration strategy that includes in-house truck manufacturing, proprietary technology platform, and event-based business model that has generated over $200 million in community giveback. Learn how this mobile concept achieves $250,000 average unit volumes with 6-8% food costs through complete operational control, from supply chain to insurance, and why Lamb believes the future lies in platform-based multi-brand expansion.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
We are back here on Fast Casual Nation, the podcast
that started it all. Of course, I'm here with my
lovely co host, Michera Chandler. How are you.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
I'm doing great? How are you, Paul?

Speaker 1 (00:10):
Excellent. We're going to be cruising into mobile Fast Casual today,
which is going to be an amazing one because we
got like a triple brand, triple threat mobile concept. You
guys are gonna love it.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
The world's largest mobile empire.

Speaker 1 (00:25):
There you go. I like it for fast Casual. It's
going to be a good one. We will be right back.
Stay tuned. This episode is brought to you by Philadelphia

(00:49):
Cream Cheese. Chefs take the heat all day, every day.
Performing under pressure is what we do. Just like Philadelphia
Cream Cheese, Phillies creamy texture holds up every time, time,
less cracking, more binding. Ask your distributor for the original
Philadelphia Cream Cheese originals. Deserve the original. All right, guys,

(01:11):
we are back here on Fast Casual Nation and Shriff.
First of all, let's hit onto a few things. I
know the summit's coming up, so that's just around the corner.
What is it looking like right now as far as
all the attendees and all that.

Speaker 2 (01:23):
Good stuff is looking great. So the Fast Cousual Executive
Summit October fifty the seventh, and then we have the
Catering Workshop following that October seventh and eighth, both in Austin,
and we are ahead. We are ahead on attendance. Then
we've been since twenty nineteen, so we're excited for that.
We're kicking butt here, so we're ready. Everybody's excited to

(01:44):
be here. This is a blog we wrote about like
why you should it attend Ten reasons why. There's a
lot of great topics that we're going to be talking
about on how to get your catering business up and running.
So even if it's, you know, kind of stagnant, you
can come here and we can give you some tips
and we're going to make a lot of money. Catering

(02:05):
is where it's at right now. I think most restaurant
brands are finally realizing it's time to invest some money
in catering. So we're going to talk about that.

Speaker 3 (02:13):
Well.

Speaker 1 (02:13):
The good thing I think with you know, operations, like,
first of all, kudos to you guys for kind of
extending the summit and moving into these workshops, So I
think that will be really interesting to see how that
works out. What is the what's the total size? Well,
how many people will be at the summit this year.

Speaker 2 (02:31):
So the summit will be about four hundred and that
counts you know, operators and vendors in the workshop. We
only allow one hundred and twenty people in because it's.

Speaker 1 (02:40):
One twenty workshop. Okay, Then you have another workshop coming
what's that?

Speaker 2 (02:46):
Yes, we have the Founderology Workshop coming up in February,
also in Austin, and we've partnered with Kathleen Wood. She
wrote the book Foundrology. She has Kathleen Would consultants and
she's known for working with you know, just of restaurant founders.
I hate that photo by the way. I guess she
caught me saying something really funny. But uh, it's gonna

(03:08):
be Yeah, it's gonna be great. We have you know,
Pinky Cole Hayes, the founder.

Speaker 1 (03:13):
Okay, Pinky, Oh, she'll be fantastic.

Speaker 2 (03:15):
Her husband Derek, who is.

Speaker 3 (03:17):
The founder of Big Days.

Speaker 2 (03:20):
So we're going to have them taking the stage together.
They're going to give the opening keynote together, and then
just a lot of panels with other restaurant founders and
a lot of hands on interaction and it's four founders only.
You can't can't be a CEO, only have to be
a found in something in the restaurant space.

Speaker 1 (03:38):
You mean the real creators.

Speaker 2 (03:41):
Yeah, yeah, I guess you would say that. I mean,
as Kathleen says, it's lonely at the top. A founder
has a different mindset than even a CEO or a
president even sometimes, and so they a lot of times. Yeah,
you get it, you're a founder.

Speaker 1 (03:53):
Yeah, so I get it.

Speaker 3 (03:55):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (03:55):
So this is just a place for them to you know,
commiserate and share stories and share accesses. And we're really
excited about it. Again, it will be small, less than
one hundred and fifty people. So the registration is open.

Speaker 1 (04:08):
So yeah, Well we're going to have a founder on
right now, and that's Tony Lamb, who's the CEO and
founder of kona Ice Traveling Tom's and also Beverly Ann.
So this is a triple threat mobile empire when it
comes to fast casual. Let's bring Tony in and get
right into it. Tony, how are you this morning?

Speaker 3 (04:29):
Guys. I'm fantastic today.

Speaker 4 (04:31):
I am as rested as I've ever been in my
entire life.

Speaker 1 (04:35):
Ooh, I like that. You must had a nice trip
wherever you went.

Speaker 4 (04:39):
Yeah, like I said, yeah, I was been gone for
sixteen days. I've never in the twenty years I've been
running this company been gone for sixteen days.

Speaker 3 (04:46):
So what kudos to you?

Speaker 1 (04:49):
I mean, you've probably earned it there. Let's find out though,
if you have earned it.

Speaker 3 (04:53):
Okay, let's do that.

Speaker 1 (04:56):
Let's get into a little bit about your organization because
this is a little bit of a different concept than
what we normally interview on the show. Most of our
you know, interviewees are and guests are brick and mortar.
You guys are a little bit different. Give us a rundown.

Speaker 3 (05:14):
Well, we are.

Speaker 4 (05:15):
ConA Ice has been around since two thousand and seven,
started franchising and eight we have about twenty two hundred franchises.
Franchise trucks. Ye, a truck is a franchise, So we
do have franchises that have twenty plus trucks and things
like that. So that concept's been running for a long time.

(05:36):
It's a well built out system. We've learned lots of things.

Speaker 3 (05:40):
We are. We did get the title.

Speaker 4 (05:42):
I don't know if it was it was from some
of our investors that came back and did all the
due diligence and said, you're the largest mobile concept in
the in the world.

Speaker 3 (05:52):
And I'm like, I'll take it.

Speaker 4 (05:54):
I don't know who's keeping score with that, but they're
the ones that did all the research. But then we
launched another brand and under COVID, which is called Traveling Tom's. Yep,
it is a coffee truck, same concept as Kona, except
a different a different product, so a much more adult product.
Tom's has got a full line of coffees and chilled

(06:16):
coffees and coffee adjacent beverages, energy drinks, things like that.
You've got lemonades and refreshers and teas and it's just
this crazy good beverage truck.

Speaker 3 (06:27):
Actually putting some some food.

Speaker 4 (06:29):
Concepts on it right now as we speak, doing some
waffles and some different things like that, some really cool
gourmet things and that. We've got over three hundred of
those on the road right now and they are monetizing
extremely well. We're having a lot of success for that brand.
And then and then this year actually we launched a

(06:50):
third brand called Beverly Ann's. By the way, Tom's is
named after my mother Beverly Ann's or my father Beverly
An's is named after my mother. She made the best
chocolate chip cookie I've never tasted, and so we it's
a warm chocolate chip cookie with is this your recipe,
it's it's.

Speaker 3 (07:08):
Let me let me take the fifth on that for
right now.

Speaker 4 (07:13):
It is all that it is a very good recipe
cookie right now. But anyway, we're we're working, We're constantly
working on things, so it is a it is a
really cool concept. We put twelve of those. We've got
about a total of fifteen of those on the road
right now.

Speaker 3 (07:28):
Uh, and they're doing well, they're doing.

Speaker 2 (07:33):
Are those company owned or are you franchising those as well?

Speaker 4 (07:35):
Those we franchise them inside this system. So we franchise
it to ConA people into Tom's peapouch. But but we
also we also run here at corporate in the northern
Kentucky market, we run ConA Trucks, Tom's Trucks, and Beverly Instructs.

Speaker 1 (07:50):
Okay, so well, okay, so let's talk about that because
obviously the infrastructure you've built almost a duplicate concept throughout
each so it's it's kind of a reskin rebuilding out
the system with you know, different menu, different marketing, all
that good stuff. Is that how you guys have been
able to scale is you know, from the sense of

(08:14):
just the I guess the functionality of doing the trucks themselves.
Probably the tech stack. I'm assuming all that kind of
stuff explain the process of how you've grown so fast.

Speaker 3 (08:24):
Well, you know, I'm being brutally honest, Paul.

Speaker 4 (08:27):
When we started this, I don't think I decided at
that moment I would the idea of survival. You know,
if you're a founder, the idea, let's just figure out
how to survive. I charged a very low fixed royalty,
still charge a very low fixed royalty, and so you've
got to make it up in volume. It's an interesting concept.

(08:48):
But as the concept was growing and all the education,
all the learnings that came inside of Kona was was
then it became obvious we can do this with other things.
So it wasn't to start out to put a platform
out there to roll out different brands. The idea came
from the fact that ConA was so strong and the

(09:09):
learnings were so good, and we were so different from
every other mobile concept out there, and we were doing
things at a different level. Then we started into the
tech stack. We started doing that I think at the
most unbelievable level. And it's all done in house. We're
all doing it proprietary us. We're not We're not taking
anything off the shelf and redoing it. We are custom

(09:32):
coding this whole thing.

Speaker 3 (09:34):
From top to bottom. And it is.

Speaker 4 (09:36):
It has been a game changer for our company. It
took our ConA people to another level interesting. And then
you know, then you drop Tom's in there and it
works in Tom's and and now we just think, okay,
now what's the next concept.

Speaker 3 (09:49):
What's that we can put on top of this platform?

Speaker 2 (09:52):
Since it is proprietary? Would you ever sell it to
other mobile truck companies or restaurants? Was that something you're
interested in or just inside?

Speaker 3 (10:00):
No, we've been approached.

Speaker 4 (10:02):
We have a we have a couple of franchises that
also have other systems, and those systems have reached out
and asked if we could, if we would be interested
in white space or white labeling it there. But we're
just not there just yet, because I feel like, you know,
you try to keep a hold of the and again
I want to be you know, share that not everyone's

(10:24):
doing the business the way we do it. I mean,
everyone seems to be doing business as you know, finding
a good location to.

Speaker 3 (10:30):
Park, and that's not.

Speaker 4 (10:32):
We're event based and and so that's what we do,
and so the software is built for that. It's not
the software is not built for trying to figure out how.

Speaker 3 (10:42):
To get to a good parking spot. Yep, yeah, it's not.

Speaker 1 (10:44):
Us well, and I think when you look at mobile
brands like this, it goes all the way back to
the Kogi truck. I visited in La probably twenty years ago,
and that was their deal. They of course tied everything
to social media. They you know, centered around the location
where they were going to land for the day, and
you know they would get ridiculous lines and all that.

(11:06):
But the event concept is a bit more unique. It also,
I think trends into the potential catering component. Do you
guys have a catering component within this, Well, I think
that's kind of built in. So when you say a
catering component, like we'll get weddings.

Speaker 3 (11:22):
Like weddings, I guess your truck is a catering we are.

Speaker 4 (11:26):
We're not bringing the food prepared at the at the
commissary to them, We're bringing the truck the kitchen to them.
And preparing the product as we speak. So all the
events that we come to, I mean even the the
beverly anstrucks. At that level, the cookies are being warmed,
the ice creams being chilled. You know, everything is fresh
off the truck. So say what with the coffee?

Speaker 1 (11:47):
What's an ATV for this average truck volume? Wow? We
want a new term here.

Speaker 3 (11:55):
For Yeah, they probably already call it that. Yeah, we
use the industry things, but we talk about it all
the time.

Speaker 4 (12:01):
So if you look at and if you try to
break we're trying to do an item nineteen really because
I don't collect data from the franchise e's because it's
a one it's a cash business.

Speaker 1 (12:11):
We started to explain, Okay, you just brought up something
really important. Okay, item nineteen, that's a completely different model.
Explain that, well, item nineteen's in your FDD and that's.

Speaker 4 (12:25):
I'm trying to think of the word. It's revenue claims
and what you do is your take. And the first
thing that that came out. So I'm new to the
franchise world. I started this, you know, back in two
thousand and seven, right around those times they started talking
about mandating an item nineteen in your FDD.

Speaker 3 (12:41):
Yes, And I was a proponent not to do that.

Speaker 4 (12:44):
Because I did, I couldn't even get it because I
wasn't asking for my franchise's financial data because my royalty
was fixed. Right, So everybody wants those financials because because
they want the percentage. I don't care about the percentage
I want. My franchise needs to do amazing, but I'm
going to get the same amount of money no matter what.

Speaker 3 (13:05):
So it's that was the parody of that.

Speaker 4 (13:07):
And then what I'll be honest, what I didn't love
was was how much everybody talked, here's the way to
manipulate your if your item nineteen and I was like, ah,
I don't want to manipulate.

Speaker 3 (13:17):
I don't want to have that.

Speaker 4 (13:18):
I don't want to run through that area. So because
you take you can take your death siles or core tiles.
You can take your top tier people. You can give
their financial numbers. If I would do that, the AUVs
on a Coda truck are probably a quarter of a
million a year, with a food cost of six to
seven to eight percent, labor cost of probably ten to

(13:40):
twelve percent.

Speaker 3 (13:41):
You know, so I'm throwing all the economics.

Speaker 1 (13:43):
Upside down, you know average because you look at that
because obviously real estate being the biggest charge and costline
in terms of how operations are run. You just hit
on some things there in terms of food costs and labor.
You take out the potential there. What does a truck
cast to build one out?

Speaker 3 (14:01):
I think we're selling right now one.

Speaker 2 (14:04):
Guys do you guys, are you guys where you're doing
that yourselves too? Or do you partner? Do you buy
like a truck company that builds them for you? We do?

Speaker 4 (14:11):
We have a uh I say it's we're very close.
We build two or three hundred a year there, We're
very close.

Speaker 1 (14:19):
Afore you get vertical, vertically integrated sounds like me.

Speaker 3 (14:22):
That's that's what we are.

Speaker 4 (14:23):
So okay, we'll just go all the way soup to nuts,
all the way top to bottom. And it didn't start
that way. We needed partners in the beginning. But then
when you become the largest, the largest customer by ten times, yeah,
you start you understand.

Speaker 1 (14:37):
Yeah, well, hey, listen, that's good business. Because vertical integration
is something that I tell all operators and you know,
friends in the systems that are out there building franchises.
At some point if you can get to vertical integration. Oh,
it just makes so much sense, whether it's commissary concepts
or you know, what you guys are doing around actual art,

(15:00):
you know, equipment.

Speaker 4 (15:01):
Cost control, yeah, cost controls, and and and system wide
quality assurance and all the different things that you can
economies of scale, all the things that you can do,
and that space is important.

Speaker 3 (15:12):
To to go into there.

Speaker 4 (15:13):
So you know, because you become you become held hostage
by your supplier base, right, Yeah, and that's in the
bigger you get. And this is what they don't realize.
The bigger you get, the more people want a bigger
the worse it is. Yeah, the worse it is you
You think you're going to turn the tables on them,
and reality is they've got the tables on you. So
so that's why we just kind of push our way
in back into the vertical chain.

Speaker 1 (15:35):
Well, I like that you're smooth operator in the sense
of being able to spin around and do those kinds
of things. Talk to us a little bit about because obviously,
when I look at the marketing, very slick but has
a lot of similarities between each brands. Obviously I'm assuming apps,
social media, how you guys are going to market. What

(15:57):
is what do you provide to the franchise e as
a marketing kit or what do they get, as you know,
from a market because I feel like that's probably the
most powerful thing you can do.

Speaker 4 (16:08):
Yeah, we do a full uh, we take care of
the marketing period.

Speaker 3 (16:12):
That's what that we do.

Speaker 4 (16:13):
So we have full staff of graphic designers, videographers, social
media people, all the different things, so we all do that.

Speaker 3 (16:22):
We do that all in house for them.

Speaker 4 (16:24):
We set up their my Google Business pages, we set
up all their social media accounts, all the different things,
and then provide all the content for them to use
so they have some autonomy where they can pick and
choose what kind of graphics they want to use or
they can do these different things. But at the end
of the day, we're the ones that are just driving

(16:45):
website activity for them, so we'll do it. We collect
an advertising fund, we spend it all on Google Ads
and Facebook advertising and Instagram and all the different platforms,
and we do that.

Speaker 3 (16:58):
And collectively it's not even a lot.

Speaker 4 (17:00):
Collectively, it's probably close to a million dollars that we
spread across all the franchisees, which is not a lot.
Of money, but we don't. We don't collect a lot
of money, so it's not like we're subsidizing it.

Speaker 3 (17:12):
We just we just collected.

Speaker 4 (17:13):
Now, we do have an offering where we allow our
franchisees to go deeper. They can come in and we
call it what do we call E lead plus, so
electronical lead plus where they can we'll set it up
all for them and then they can attach their credit
card and buy more Google by.

Speaker 1 (17:29):
Fear as far as they add systems.

Speaker 4 (17:31):
Yeah, and that way, if we can control it, we're
not competing against each other.

Speaker 3 (17:36):
Yeah, you know, so as soon as our ad the budget.

Speaker 4 (17:38):
Runs out in Dallas, Texas for the day, you know,
they're they're at credit card can pick up from there on.
So but we we really own the space. The thing is,
especially in shaved ice Cone Ice the brand alone. I
mean probably we get seven eight million visitors to a website,
so probably fifty percent of that they're googling Cone of

(17:58):
Ice because we're the brand as well recognized. Tom's is
a whole different animal because coffee trucks not ubiquitous. No
one's looking for coffee trucks, So we're having to create
our own space and that and it's took taking a
lot more time. But our early franchisees were ConA people,
so we already had the databases of all the event

(18:19):
coordination and all the different things that we already had.
So for the first two or three years we were
able to kind of piggyback on that great knowledge and
that things that we had. Then we just just last
October we opened up Tom's for the general public.

Speaker 1 (18:32):
How do you sell a region a city or how's
the process work?

Speaker 4 (18:38):
It's one hundred thousand people based on population postal zip
codes contiguous. So you know, we started off with those
same companies that everybody else does. When you do all
these demographics and then the local people will tell you, oh, no,
you don't no one wants that zip code, and you're like,
I didn't know what the computers say they do, So
we just we just turned it back over to the

(19:00):
franchise e. So we've got good software that allows them
to kind of pick and choose in jigsaw puzzle their
territory out. We sell it film for that and then
that's where they mark. We mark it into that space
specifically for them.

Speaker 3 (19:13):
But then we have.

Speaker 4 (19:15):
We have a lot of especially in toms. We have
a lot of blank space and toms. So our franchisees
are collecting that and then they'll decide how they want
to grow. Like, if you have an adjacent zip code
that's doing one hundred thousand dollars a year, you're a
fool not to go ahead and get another franchise because
if you put emphasis in.

Speaker 3 (19:31):
There, And that's the way ConA grew.

Speaker 4 (19:33):
ConA was just people were just you know, oh my god,
the neighboring zip code that I don't own, I'm doing
fifty thousand dollars a year there.

Speaker 3 (19:40):
I better wrap that up.

Speaker 4 (19:42):
So that's why I've got eight hundred ConA franchisees and
twenty two hundred franchises.

Speaker 1 (19:47):
Right yeah, okay, so obviously logistics not a big deal.
But do they manage their own supply chain or do
you guys do it?

Speaker 3 (19:57):
We do it all.

Speaker 4 (19:58):
So we have all the vendors set up and coffee.
We do it with the third party logistics that all
the suppliers are going into a central distribution hub ConA.
We're still everything's here, everything's coming here, and we're shipping it.

Speaker 3 (20:11):
We have two districts.

Speaker 1 (20:12):
That's worth the franchise fee.

Speaker 4 (20:14):
Right there, brother, listen, I'm not I am a you
said smooth operator before, and but I will tell you
my weaknesses is the fact that I never charged enough
for the same because I look and see some of
the money that my franchisees are making, and I'm like
making a little tiny percentage of that.

Speaker 2 (20:35):
Do you think you'll ever go back to doing like
a percentage of profit? Are you going to stick with
the flat fees?

Speaker 3 (20:41):
I'm going to stick with the flat feet flat fee.

Speaker 1 (20:43):
What does the flat fee cost me for a ConA
ice truck.

Speaker 4 (20:46):
I'm almost embarrassed to tell you three thousand dollars a year.
Oh my gosh, yeah, oh wow, Yeah, all right, we
got to raise our price people, especially today, people are
getting a truck before they even start their motor. As
soon as we turn the website onto them, here come
the bookings. Yeah, and the bookings are just rolling in

(21:07):
and they're paying three that. I mean, I probably you're
almos on it.

Speaker 1 (21:12):
Do you have any open.

Speaker 2 (21:14):
Missouri?

Speaker 3 (21:15):
Yeah? Yeah, it's it's Here's where we're kind of at
in our system.

Speaker 4 (21:19):
Though. We've had a lot of great franchisees for a
long time, and they're now starting to look to retire
and we're selling these and that's where the software has
really come in and helped us tremendously because some of
the some of the transfers. Five years ago, before software,
it was just you know, hey, here's my legal pads
and my post it notes and my.

Speaker 1 (21:41):
Super calendar and take a little different.

Speaker 3 (21:44):
Now yeah, now it's all completely automated and it's cool.
You say, hey, I'm going to sell this zip code.

Speaker 4 (21:49):
Well, last year you did one hundred and seventy two
thousand in this zip code, so you know, now we
got data, we got all the contact points in the
software does all the marketing for us too.

Speaker 1 (21:59):
By the way, how do you so obviously I'm assuming
most of this is going to be cashless in terms
of the uh or do you take a lot of
cash or no?

Speaker 4 (22:08):
Well that's what started this fixed royalty is I just
didn't want to be in competition with or you know,
not competition. I don't want to be in a situation
where my franchise is, you know, an eighty percent cash
business are telling them, oh, we didn't do very well,
and I'm like, well, you bought a lot of supplies.
So if I'm doing my math right, you know.

Speaker 3 (22:25):
Then that incentivized them to not buy my supplies.

Speaker 4 (22:28):
You know, it just the whole thing starts breaking down
when you put people in that situation.

Speaker 3 (22:33):
So so we've been we've been lucky in that respect.

Speaker 4 (22:37):
The software, and I wanted to touch on this, Paul,
because I think part of one of the because we
were talking about marketing first, our software that has all
every event that's ever been done in ConA for the
past five years is in the software Wow. And we
have all the email addresses, the contact people, the driving directions,
the weather conditions, the money that we made, how everything went,

(22:59):
the give back, own it, everything. But then we every
two weeks, the software comes in automatically harvest every email
address and there's millions, and then we remark it to
those people.

Speaker 1 (23:09):
Okay, so and imagine they're probably having other events that
are either not in the same area but adjacent, you know,
so you can flip a lead to a you know,
a franchise e.

Speaker 2 (23:19):
Yeahtly, Hey, you mentioned the give back part, and I
thought that was really interesting. I think I read that
you're like at one hundred and fifty million dollars in
gift backs or something like that, and you'll talk about
how that works.

Speaker 3 (23:30):
Well, it started in eight when when I started.

Speaker 4 (23:33):
I started a truck in two thousand and seven, and
schools are calling me and I'm and the PTA's paying me,
and I'm going over there and serving all the kids
at the end of the school year. And then two
thousand and eight comes on. I don't know if you
guys were old enough to live through to where we
were there.

Speaker 1 (23:47):
That was not a good time.

Speaker 4 (23:48):
The PTA stopped calling. So I called the PTA and said, listen,
why don't I just bring the trucks to the school.
Let the kids bring a couple bucks. I'll give the
PTA back a huge percentage of the proceeds bingo, and
we'll raise money in that way. So all of a sudden,
that just exploded for us and use sports programs and
all the different things. So you're revenue sharing because we've
got these amazing economics with six seven percent food costs,

(24:11):
product costs out the window, ten percent labor, you know.
So you've got these amazing economics. Well, so we can
afford to give back twenty percent or whatever to the school.
So the school's making one thousand dollars, we're making plenty
of money, and so you keep track of that, and we.

Speaker 3 (24:27):
We didn't do a great job of the early years.

Speaker 4 (24:29):
And I'll just be honest, let's face it, every founder
in America would say the same thing. I didn't think
I was going to be alive seven years after I
started the Code of Business. You know, I'm just trying
to survive, brother. So but you know, we started tracking
it your three or four and just you know, very
ledger like or whatever. And we're over two hundred million.

Speaker 2 (24:50):
Now.

Speaker 4 (24:50):
We do a really good calculation with that as far
as how many people give back and everyone's got you know,
everyone's on books. Now you whatt your give back component? Right,
that numbers ratcheting up very very fast.

Speaker 1 (25:03):
Well, listen, not only does that give goodwill to the community,
it also is a great line item for you know, financials.
Then it's also just the element of the brand continuity.
I think that it delivers. In other words, it just
creates just a solid brand. I think because people then
look beyond just what you did there and into so

(25:24):
many other ways. So yeah, that's cool. I mean there's
so many benefits for that. That is huge. Let's go
into a little bit about you know this the brick
and mortar conundrum, challenge question. I'm sure everybody always asks
should you open up a retail location? All those kind
of things. We've been following the Jeremiah Ice openings here

(25:47):
in South Florida and they've started to open a few
more locations. I visited one with my kids this weekend,
and I've been pre impressed with the small footprint that
they've been able to do this with, which means, you know,
lower real estate to a certain extent. What is your
thought on brick and mortar right now?

Speaker 4 (26:07):
Well, listen, I think at the end of the day,
you just got to know who you are, and a
lot of us try to be all things to all people.
And I love the space that I'm in and I'm
very good at it, and we've got a team built
around it, our software is built around it, and so
I'm going to stay in the mobile space and I'm
not going to And I've had a handful of franchise's

(26:27):
over the years go out and ask me they can
do a brick and mortar.

Speaker 3 (26:31):
I've got one out of in all these years.

Speaker 4 (26:33):
I've got one franchise e that's very successful in their
brick and mortar, but they took over a seventy five
year old snowball stand and they rebranded it to cheating.
It's just cheating to some degree, but it's they're perfection. Yeah,
great people and they do really really well. But that's
that's pretty much the is not the only one.

Speaker 3 (26:54):
Yeah, really, I mean when.

Speaker 1 (26:56):
You think about it, I mean the cost that you're diverting.
You have no real estate department right now. Granted you
have a logistics department to go build trucks, but you
have no real estate department. In most cases, you probably
don't have all that research that has to come in
from real estate. You guys are building your own research database.
Have you guys started using any AI to kind of

(27:17):
analyze the data that you're digesting right now.

Speaker 3 (27:20):
The AI space that we're using, and we're real excited
about this because we've got a lot invested in this
is when someone calls the book a ConA truck or
a Toms truck, there's usually a lot of back and forth. Yeah,
and all those answers are and it's just nummy basic. Yeah,
it's just so basic.

Speaker 4 (27:36):
And that's the AI space that we're using is is
now the AI bought is talking to that customer for
the first five emails while they're asking the most redundant
questions in the world. And then when it's when it's
when you're almost ready to book, we can insert a
human at that point and lock it all in so
you get you can Now I've got a franchise e

(27:56):
that has you know, five or six coordinators. Now they
can go down to they can go down to two
event run you know, they're running twenty trucks. They've got
six event coordinators. They're doing literally thousands and tens of
thousands of.

Speaker 3 (28:11):
Events and things like that.

Speaker 4 (28:13):
And now that all these things are cut down and
their costs, their fixed cost go.

Speaker 3 (28:19):
In half because of the AI piece, right, So that's you.

Speaker 1 (28:22):
Know when you okay, so lots of events. You're saying
about a quarter of a million on a truck per year,
so someone's probably going to do four or five units,
you know, group together. Do you have a problem with
this many franchise system. I guess the layered product is
now with the Tom's coffee. But do you have a
problem with getting open territory to sell into.

Speaker 4 (28:44):
Oh yeah, Kona is tough right now because it's a
lot of the spaces taken twenty two. So if you
one hundred thousand people times twenty two hundred, there's two
hundred and twenty million.

Speaker 1 (28:55):
People and they're almost fully covered.

Speaker 3 (28:57):
In the US.

Speaker 4 (28:58):
Yeah, I'm a probably I'm probably seventy seventy five percent
saturated because there's there's big markets that you can't get it.

Speaker 2 (29:05):
Are you guys global at all? Do you have any
outside the US or will you?

Speaker 4 (29:09):
We have Canada and it's a it's interesting. I mean,
they're doing fine, but it's we we sold it to
a event area coordinator and and he wasn't as good
as what we'd hoped he would be. And and then
you you're you're extending yourself into Now he's you in
Canada and he's not.

Speaker 3 (29:31):
He's not US.

Speaker 4 (29:32):
And uh so we've had some inquiries, you know, in
the in the GCC, and we've had inquiries in Europe
and things like that. It's just nothing. I'm I got
to take my attention away from that. I think if
someone shows up at my door and says, hey, I
just want to take the whole concept to GCC, and
I want to you know, I'll manufacture it, I'll do this.
You just give me the guidance the business model. I'm like, Okay,

(29:55):
a couple hundred bucks, I'll do it. You know, this
is kind of thing, but I don't you know, we
can't build trucks for the rest of the world. We
can't provide everything. We had a fairly interesting contingent in Brazil,
but Brazil, Uh, they don't do the health departments. The moment,
you got to under the radar, and that's what most
food truck and that's that's the point. Really you haven't covered,

(30:18):
or I think it's the big elephant in the room.
Is a lot of food truck is just wild, wild West.

Speaker 1 (30:25):
Yeah, I mean there is, there is, Well, you're right,
there's no, there's not much in the in terms of
regulation and you know.

Speaker 2 (30:31):
Quality county by county that that has to be frustrating.
But they're never the same.

Speaker 1 (30:36):
The Feds are working on it since you find them. Yeah,
that's the problem is they're always moving, you know. Yeah,
an inspector would be almost impossible unless they had to say, okay,
you have to come in and inspect your truck. But
then it goes without saying. It's like you know, telling
a restaurant when you're going to come in and inspect them,
you know it's tough.

Speaker 4 (30:55):
Yeah, I mean it's that's and then the insurance situation
is in California, I would say less than fifty percent
of the trucks have insurance. I would I would say
more them, so much more than that. There's no they're required.
They just there's no there's no company, and it's extensive,
and they're just they don't the industry and they're all

(31:16):
calling me, hey, because we have a captive insurance company
that that insures probably ninety eight percent of all our franchisees.
And but we've been doing that for years, so we've
got this nice, good track record, We've got this great
relationship with the national company. And everyone's trying to figure
out how to get it because, I mean, all the
major carriers pulled out of California and now you've got

(31:37):
a quarter of a million dollar food truck or more
sometimes and you're like, I can't ensure it because one
no company will pay it, and then the rates are
ungodly right and so and then you so if you
don't have insurance, you can't do government contracts, you can't
do you can't be on because almost every big event
you show up, they.

Speaker 1 (31:55):
Want you've got to have a COI.

Speaker 4 (31:57):
Yeah, and they don't have that, and that's so it's affecting.
So it's it's one of those things that we saw
back in twenty twelve twenty thirteen and got very progressive
with it that we knew would be a problem one day.
And it's really put us farther ahead of the game
because now we have very progressive affordable insurance.

Speaker 1 (32:15):
So you've got your own insurance, your own truck, manufacturing,
your own chain, supply chain.

Speaker 3 (32:22):
And then well you don't need to do software.

Speaker 1 (32:25):
You can fit now I see why you do fixed
you know royalties, I mean because the vertical integration is
pretty dense, so there's a lot of opportunity there. Yeah,
what would be the ability for you to scale this
into ten brands?

Speaker 3 (32:41):
I'll tell you in about five years. I mean that's
weeks ago.

Speaker 4 (32:46):
Well, we have a we have a and we haven't
ever publicly announced it. It's called role Brands Roll Role Brands.
We have logos and all this stuff worked out for it.
We're talking to our investors about putting this platform out
there and then just dropping the concepts in underneath role brand.
The software is all contiguous all the way through all brands.

(33:07):
The marketing will be because now we can control the manufacturing,
the training, and that's what we talk about. We have
unbelievable training and our education piece of that is is
really really important.

Speaker 2 (33:19):
I get to get the new brands. Do you think
you will just keep creating them or will you be
kind of like a crave Worthy or a Savory and
start to buy some some smaller brands and growing from there.

Speaker 3 (33:28):
I haven't seen anything worth buying.

Speaker 4 (33:30):
I don't want to be pretentious, but I mean I've
looked out there, I've got I've got my eye on
a couple ideas and concepts, but nobody's really getting to
scale enough the where I've got to buy them because
they're not bringing anything to the table.

Speaker 1 (33:40):
It's like, what about going in on the vintage brands,
because there's a lot of those for sale that are
dead and you might be able to revive them. I
have a friend of mine that is doing some of
those right now. He's invested in a couple of vintage brands.
They're trying to revive but they're but they're brick and mortar,
they're not you know, but I would. I'm just thinking,
if you can and if you could bring in a

(34:01):
vintage brand, yeah and revive it in a mobile platform.

Speaker 3 (34:06):
Yeah, that'd be the only thing I pay for.

Speaker 4 (34:08):
To be honest, I mean, because I've had conversations with big,
big pe guys that have they have the vintage brands.
I want you to think about who owns all the
mall brands because they are struggling. So we've had conversations
with people that own a lot of the mall brands
and like, can you take this thing? And can you
take our brands mobile? And I'm like, absolutely, I could,

(34:30):
and I would love to the problem is they want
too much of the money, and you're like, I don't
think you bring enough to the table too.

Speaker 3 (34:39):
I mean, for because we're the only one.

Speaker 4 (34:40):
And I don't want to be gosh, it sounds so
pretentious to say that we're the only ones that can
do it, but I kind of think we're the only
ones that.

Speaker 2 (34:46):
Can do it.

Speaker 1 (34:48):
I mean, at the end of the day, you get
the right You definitely have the right tool set that's
already integrated.

Speaker 2 (34:54):
You know.

Speaker 1 (34:54):
I think the scale and the marketing seems to be there.
Your tech stacks. I haven't seen it, but it sounds
like it's it's on point. I think the Yeah, I
thank you right now. I haven't had to share. Have
you seen anything like this?

Speaker 2 (35:07):
No, not at all. Not. I mean I've seen brains
that have some own tech stack, like Dickies or whatever.
But I feel like you guys are completely vertically integrated.

Speaker 1 (35:15):
Yeah, yeah, and that was listen.

Speaker 4 (35:18):
I don't I don't think I started out wanting to
be vertically integrated. I had, I did it, I do
it out on this there was I would love to have.

Speaker 1 (35:26):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (35:26):
I mean like, right now we're looking at we have
Square for all of our digital and I'm like, and
we're doing hundreds of millions of dollars worth of digital
interchange and I'm like, but there's been real no. I mean,
and we've got we've got companies we're investigating and talking
to and because we're paying to our franchises are paying
way too much for that, and we've got to get

(35:47):
involved in that.

Speaker 3 (35:48):
So that's the next one of the things on the
tables to get this nice.

Speaker 4 (35:52):
Integrated POS system or whatever that that can do all
the digital at a at a normalized rate and not
this ridiculous Square rate that we're paying.

Speaker 2 (36:01):
So watch out Square Tony's coming to create a POS play.

Speaker 1 (36:06):
Yeah, well, you know, Square is getting uh, I'm getting
a lot of more a lot more complaints around this share.
I don't know if you've seen it, but we're talking
to a lot of brands, you know, for investment, and
that's one of the big complaints right now, is is
the the fees that are being charged by the you know,

(36:26):
kind of these cloud pos companies that are going in
that direction. So hey, everybody, it cycles through, But I
think we're going to see such a shift into payment
architecture coming down the pipeline that it's it could start
to change things around kind of just out of the blue, Tony.
Have you guys ever thought about going and doing any

(36:48):
kind of digital payments like crypto?

Speaker 2 (36:51):
I knew what was coming. I knew that was Paul's
next question.

Speaker 1 (36:54):
You got you got steak in Shake pulled it off
with bitcoin. Chipotle's got it in there right now with
with FLEXA and AMP where you can pay with digital assets.
Have you guys ever considered that?

Speaker 4 (37:06):
We haven't because of our customer base on our main
line brand is so Is so you know, it's an
eight year old boy, so they're not a crypto savvy
as you think they are probably going to.

Speaker 3 (37:16):
Be you know who, I don't know, Yeah, probably, I
don't know.

Speaker 4 (37:21):
It's such a good question. It's a great question. It's
just you know, what do we have on our plate
right now that we can handle? And you know, I've
got a great team. We've got about one hundred and
fifty people here at corporate. We we push as hard
as we can. We're brand developing, we're you know, supply chain.

Speaker 1 (37:37):
Just keep that on the back of your of your
mind because I have an eight year old boy that
is a shrewd crypto investor.

Speaker 3 (37:47):
He's all over it, and he's going to.

Speaker 1 (37:49):
Understand gaming, so they understand digital assets.

Speaker 3 (37:52):
Yeah, they're gonna He's gonna run the world one day exactly. Yeah. Yeah,
that's fun.

Speaker 1 (37:59):
All right. So when you look at the challenges that
you are facing right now in terms of whether it's
getting new franchisees, brand growth, opening up new locations, or
building these brands themselves, what is the big focus right
now for you? Say, Hey, these are our biggest problems
that we got to solve.

Speaker 4 (38:15):
Well, we've got some proprietary problems like aging, equipment and
things like that. You've got franchisees out there with fifteen
year old trucks.

Speaker 3 (38:22):
They've got too many miles on it.

Speaker 4 (38:23):
You know, we do a referb every seven years, but
now they've got to put way too much money on
a truck with two hundred thousand miles. You know.

Speaker 3 (38:29):
Yeah, that kind of stuff that.

Speaker 4 (38:32):
You but but at the end of the day, the
franchisees are making money handover fists, and they've got to
just reinvest in the in the equipment and do the things.
They don't understand. You got to under my biggest problem, Paul,
is my franchise ese. God love them, but they're most
of the time their first generation business people. Yeah, not
only that, they have no franchising experience. So if but

(38:55):
the franchises that I have to have franchise experience, think
I have think I'm a Gawa because of how we
treat everybody. But if you don't have any other experience
and you come into this, well you don't know, Yeah,
you don't know, and you're like, well, I don't want
to buy a new truck. I know this truck's only
got three hundred thousand miles on it, and there's blue
smoke's rolling off the back.

Speaker 3 (39:15):
Of it, and you're like, no, you're killing the brand.

Speaker 4 (39:16):
And I'm having to start putting implementing policies now that
are you know, we got to keep the brand where
it's at. And so those are the So my problems
are somewhat proprietary, but man, everything else. I was talking
to my COEO the other day and we're, you know,
obsessing over a couple of these problems, and he goes,
it's so weird because ninety two percent of the business

(39:38):
is just unfreaking believable. Everything is going in the right direction.
Product development and the food product development. Oh my gosh,
I made the greatest hire there and just that is
going so good. I've got these brand strategists, I've got
corporate strategists that are just laying these I'm the luckiest
guy in the world.

Speaker 1 (39:58):
Where is the food being integrated right now into Tom's?

Speaker 4 (40:01):
And then the toppings are into Konahs. So we have
this topping now that you can put on top of
a ConA. My franchisees pay about eleven cents of serving
and they're getting a dollar for it. And I have
probably twenty percent adoption, And I'm like, what is happening
out there twenty adoption and I'm like, I'm putting tens

(40:22):
of thousands of dollars in your pocket and I can't
even get it done. And it's just well, we don't
want you know. I'm like, Okay, I'm done. You know,
you lead by benevolence for a long time. And then
I'm kind of at the point twenty years in. I'm
kind of a little sassy right now, and I'm like,
I'm done letting the brand new person tell me how
they want to run their business. And I'm like, Okay,

(40:44):
here's the way the business is going to run, and
you're going to do it because we're spending all this time,
energy and money developing products that can make you more money,
but we can't get the economies of scale because you
won't adopt, right, And I'm like, and I've always made
my FDD to be it's where it's very hey, if
you want to do this, if you want to, and
I'm like, you know, I'm kind of.

Speaker 3 (41:04):
Done with that. So I hope my franchisees don't see
this podcast.

Speaker 2 (41:07):
So guy in Canada to see it.

Speaker 3 (41:11):
Yeah, I don't care if he does. I hope he does.

Speaker 1 (41:19):
I like it. Yeah, And by the waiting is is
definitely spot on with this. I'm kind of curious because
truck is such a big deal. Have you have you
converted a cyber truck yet?

Speaker 3 (41:29):
We haven't because it's just not economical really yet. But
it'll it'll be not a cyber truck.

Speaker 4 (41:36):
But I mean, the GM's got this uh new electric
yeah six hundred platform, but it just doesn't work for
us yet. I mean everyone's asking us because we have fleet,
but we're just not ready yet. I mean, you'd have
to be you know, Amazon can do it, but they've
got Amazon money exactly, and you know they're not.

Speaker 3 (41:52):
I've got to be.

Speaker 4 (41:53):
Responsible with my franchise. Is my franchisees be able to
have to make money?

Speaker 1 (41:57):
What if what if a franchise he came to you
and said, I want to convert a cyber truck. I'm
okay with the price, just the.

Speaker 3 (42:04):
R and D that I'd have to go through all
that to get it done.

Speaker 4 (42:08):
Here's what we did five years ago, which is crazy
good and it is such a great point. All food
trucks have these massive generators on them that just pollute
like nothing you've ever seen. These big diesel generators and
that's what you've got to do to create this kind
of power to run the kind of equipments on there. Well,
when the coffee truck came out, we have all these
electrical requirements. The generators we had to put on are huge.

(42:28):
They're having all kinds of problems because it was COVID
with supply chain. So we switched over to lithium ion
phosphate battery system and we started using the battery system
done on these big mega yachts. And so the expense,
you know, I can buy a generator for ten thousand,
or I can put a battery system in for thirty
but it's zero maintenance and a big generator you're changing
the oil every one hundred and fifty hours, so zero maintenance.

(42:52):
My cost of my truck went up. But I've also
been able to put monitors on the side of the truck,
lit menus all kinds of more product than this truck.
There's no noise, no pollution, no anything. And now the
monitors we've got, We've got clients coming in wanting to
advertise nationally on our thousand monitors that we have out there,
because we're in thirty eight thousand schools and They're like,

(43:13):
how do we get advertising into schools. I'm like, well,
there's no better time to advertise than when you're when
you've got a line of one hundred kids. Yeah, and
as long as the advertisement's good and and catchy. But
you know, we're working on that. So that's another revenue
stream for my franchise ees. Is is I've got advertisements
you can pull on the monitors, on the trucks and
things like that. So so, Paul, the more I talk

(43:35):
to you, the more I'm aggravated at my franchise e.
No we got I mean, I'm at that moment where
we're working really hard, trying, trying a lot, and then
I've got to ask them to make some just some
basic moves and some changes of their philosophies, and I
just I get frustrated at at at the process.

Speaker 1 (43:55):
Well, the real world is out there, guys. So yeah,
it's interesting. I noticed that you have with ConA. You
have kind of the I have a great idea for you. Okay, good, good,
All right, let me let me throw some up here
on screen. You got to do it before before this
gets out too fast. So you guys have this interesting character,

(44:15):
ye right, what is that what is that guy?

Speaker 3 (44:20):
That's Conah the Penguin.

Speaker 1 (44:21):
Conah the Penguin. Have you ever heard of the concept
called pengu no pingu? I want you to go research it,
and I want you to research this name with it.

Speaker 3 (44:31):
How do you spelling pingu p e n g u
g u okay yep.

Speaker 1 (44:37):
And then research the founder of it. His name is
Luca nets any t z any t z yep.

Speaker 3 (44:46):
Right now.

Speaker 1 (44:47):
What this guy has done is he created a brand
that was originally an n f T brand in the
blockchain space. It was a penguin yep.

Speaker 3 (44:58):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (45:00):
He started it out there, it's a collectible now he
got into Walmart. Walmart is just absolutely blowing up with it.
And this guy does brand placements with the biggest rappers.
It's very youth driven, so it's just very unique. He's
got a game that just launched not too long ago,
but it's called Pudgy Penguins, and that is an interesting

(45:24):
alignment with what you guys are doing. I don't know
if there's anything there, but you never know, you never know.

Speaker 3 (45:30):
I got a penguin, he's got a penguin. We should
put our penguins together, a penguin marriage they do.

Speaker 1 (45:40):
There's an episode that opinion and there's some crazy things
going on there. Collectibles, I mean, you could do a series.
I'm thinking Pudgy Penguin's collectible cups for you, because the
kids would love that, you know, our big Pudgy Penguin collectors.

Speaker 3 (45:57):
Wow, we did a Shark Week collab with Discovery. There
you go.

Speaker 4 (46:00):
It went off the charts, and I mean so much
bigger than we thought. And Discovery is very excited about
the next time. But that's one week a year and
you're like, well, you know, we thought about merch and but.

Speaker 1 (46:13):
A hold of Luca.

Speaker 3 (46:14):
All right, we'll blow this up. Do you know Luca?

Speaker 1 (46:17):
Can you I do know Luca. We make a personal
to give you an introduction.

Speaker 2 (46:21):
Yeahgas, he was like homeless before all of this, and
Luca has got a great story.

Speaker 1 (46:27):
I mean, he is one of the best hustlers I've seen.
Young guy. He's the next mister Beast. Oh, he's the
next mister Beast. Yeah, that's how fast he's moving in
the space. I've interviewed him a couple of times, and
he does some fantastic things, but he's a he's a
marketing whiz, you know. The kid is is just yeah,

(46:48):
he's out there anyway. I'll get you connected to Luca Net's.
I just see something there with it. I think is
a good connection with pengu and what Pudgie Penguins is doing. Yeah,
it'd be a good brand collab. Yeah for sure for
on ice. This has been fun share. Do you have
any more questions?

Speaker 2 (47:05):
I've had a great.

Speaker 3 (47:06):
Time learning all about it. Right now, yeah, right now.

Speaker 2 (47:12):
Are you doing any pumpkin spice?

Speaker 3 (47:15):
Yes, we are doing. We do pumpkin spice.

Speaker 4 (47:17):
We do this honey lavender, cappuccinos or not cappuccinos, but frappies. Yeah,
it's our big, big cellar in the fall. So it's nice,
good products.

Speaker 1 (47:27):
So I got to get one of these toms and
find this coffee truck you have. Do you have any
in Florida?

Speaker 2 (47:33):
We do.

Speaker 4 (47:33):
We got two or three in Florida right now. So
there's they're selling out in the west or the north.
So our franchise is that that. You know, they shut
down ConA in October September October when the weather turns
and they have all this capacity, and so now you're
turning franchisees into full time people because now you've got
a brand that does great in the winter, and so

(47:55):
this is where so the heavy Heavy Tom sails are
all North Forest right now even now for sure.

Speaker 3 (48:02):
Yet Yes, Saint Louis.

Speaker 4 (48:05):
Yeah, Bob, Bob DeLeo and Richie Kingry, two of our
best franchisees.

Speaker 3 (48:11):
Are in Saint Louis and doing really well.

Speaker 4 (48:13):
Multiple ConA trucks, multiple Tom's trucks, and I think I
think one of them has a Beverly instructs to interesting.

Speaker 1 (48:21):
Uh listen, this has been great Tony Lamb, the CEO
and founder over at ConA Ice and of course Tom Traveling,
Tom's and Beverly, AND's been great to have you on here.
We're going to get you back as you start to
grow these brands, because I have a feeling we're going
to see some more come out.

Speaker 2 (48:38):
And I would love to have you at Phondrology.

Speaker 3 (48:41):
So yeah, well I was listening to that. That sounds
really good.

Speaker 4 (48:44):
I apologize I've been so disconnected.

Speaker 3 (48:47):
Right now I got you.

Speaker 2 (48:48):
You're in the family now so here.

Speaker 1 (48:50):
Now you're connected. Great, You're in the right crew. Thank you,
it's been great having you Tony. Thank you so much
for stopping in today. We appreciate it.

Speaker 4 (48:57):
Great interview, guys, Thank you so much for the professional
It just really good.

Speaker 1 (49:01):
You bet all right, let's get it going. Of course,
share a lot happening here in a few weeks. We've
got Fast Casual front Runners. We at our first we're
getting ready to drop another of the two top videos
out so the competition is heated up. We'll be announcing
the full list also next week. Uh, and then the winners,

(49:21):
of course, will be announced at the Fast Casual Summit.
If you guys don't know about Fast Casual front Runners,
visit saver dot fm. You can visit there. It is
basically some of the best fast casual operators that are
out there building in the space, and we're creating kind
of a storyline around it, and we're going to be
airing it and the winner at the Fast Casual Executive Summit.

(49:44):
And then best of all is we're going to be
selecting the winner out of perfect Pitch to be one
of the front runners for twenty twenty six. So exciting times.

Speaker 2 (49:56):
Yeah, we have eight restaurant brands pitching at the Fast
Casual the Summit to try to be on front Runners.

Speaker 1 (50:02):
Oh man, that's going to be good because hey, it's
a big price. You get a little bit of money,
you get a big consulting agreement. You guys are ready
to rock and roll. If you need it, and if
you're a brand new fast casual concept that's building out there,
the first place you got to go is to fastcasual
dot com. Start reading and understanding what's happening in the space.
Visit the Fast Casual Executive Summit. It will change your life.

(50:25):
So get out there and do that. Sharew is good
seeing you, and we'll catch you guys next week right
here on Fast Casual Nation.