The Charlie Kirk Show - Better Ingredients, Better Pizza, Better Podcasts—A Conversation with Papa John Schnatter

00:00:00.000 Hey everybody, today in the Charlie Kirk show, my conversation with Papa John, the founder of Papa John's Pizza.

00:00:07.000 Great guy.

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00:02:26.000 Hey everybody, welcome to this episode of the Charlie Kirk Show.

00:02:28.000 With us today is a name and a voice you will recognize, and that is the founder of the wonderful company, PAPA John's.

00:02:35.000 With us today is John Schnader.

00:02:37.000 I say that right Schnader, Schnoder.

00:02:40.000 It's close.

00:02:40.000 Well, there you go.

00:02:41.000 Um, we're all within the same region.

00:02:44.000 Uh, thank you for joining us today.

00:02:46.000 Been an admirer of your company for quite some time and uh, look forward to diving into it.

00:02:51.000 So I guess the first question is, a lot of our audience um, remembered some drama or controversy uh, regarding your uh departure from PAPA John's.

00:03:02.000 Walk us through what happened there and kind of some how it ties to some of the trends we're seeing in our country still today.

00:03:08.000 Well, I think you go back to it started in the earnings call Back in November 17, where I criticized leadership, Roger Goodell in particular, about not solving the situation to the owners' employers' satisfaction.

00:03:23.000 And that Roger didn't like us calling him out, telling him to get his act together and fix the problem.

00:03:32.000 So he had a friend that actually, coincidentally, owned an agency that was representing Papa John's, a gentleman named Casey Washerman.

00:03:41.000 Casey was referred to Roger as his big brother.

00:03:45.000 Roger used to watch Casey's kids.

00:03:48.000 So Roger Goodell used Casey Washerman, as kind of one of his hitmen, his cronies, to kind of paint a false narrative in a false light on me being a racist on something that I really didn't say.

00:04:05.000 Yeah.

00:04:05.000 And so then I remember the headlines after that, and we're no fans of Goodell here, trust me.

00:04:10.000 So you're a hero in our book.

00:04:12.000 And they said that you said a racial pejorative, which you didn't say.

00:04:19.000 You were using it in a different context.

00:04:21.000 And then there was all of this kind of backlash that ensued.

00:04:26.000 But then you've come out recently and said you were set up by other members of your board.

00:04:30.000 Is that right?

00:04:32.000 Well, whether the board was actively or passively complicit, it's unequivocal that Laundry Service, the agency that we paid millions of dollars to enhance the reputation of not only the brand, but myself, maliciously tried to get me to say something that could hurt me and set me up.

00:04:55.000 The board of directors of Papa John's, whether they were weak, they panicked, they couldn't take the heat, didn't do a proper investigation, violated Delaware law, and overreacted and did tremendous damage to the board, to the franchisees, to the suppliers, and to the company by not following a proper protocol.

00:05:18.000 So Goodell was the kind of puppet leader here.

00:05:23.000 Washerman, who owned Laundry Service, his CEO, Jason Stein, who's the CEO of Laundry Service, they were kind of the cronies.

00:05:31.000 They were the puppets to do the dirty work.

00:05:33.000 And unfortunately, at the time, I had a very weak board.

00:05:37.000 They went sorry on me, went sorry on the situation, and they overreacted and did a tremendous amount of damage to the employees and to the franchisees.

00:05:46.000 And so then you resigned.

00:05:46.000 Yeah.

00:05:49.000 Do you regret resigning when this coup was kind of posed in front of you?

00:05:54.000 Well, I resigned as the chairman to kind of help the board out and settle the situation down.

00:06:03.000 One of the directors, Sonia Medea, said, Thank God you did what you did because you saved the company.

00:06:09.000 So I was acting in the best interest of the board, the brand, the franchisees, Papa John's International, but I didn't know that we had a few board of directors that were working with Goodell and Washington to try to get rid of me because they wanted to run the company.

00:06:29.000 They wanted me out so they could run the company.

00:06:32.000 Yeah, I appreciate that.

00:06:34.000 I just wish you wouldn't have resigned.

00:06:36.000 You did nothing wrong.

00:06:38.000 And the report that came out last year showed you did nothing wrong, right?

00:06:41.000 That shows that you had no racial, you know, and I know you have your own dynamics you have to deal with.

00:06:45.000 I just, I'm afraid it just made these cancel culture people more powerful.

00:06:49.000 Yes.

00:06:49.000 You always have to fight.

00:06:51.000 You always have to fight for what's right.

00:06:55.000 And you look at the position they put me in.

00:06:57.000 You have a board of directors, of which two, the CEO, Steve Ritchie, and the head of governance, Mark Shapiro, they wanted to run Papa John's.

00:07:06.000 And at the time, Papa John's EBITDA was over $200 million a year.

00:07:10.000 Wow.

00:07:10.000 But when you're making that kind of money, people get greedy.

00:07:13.000 And Shapiro and Stephen Ritchie work hand in glove with Jason Stein, the CEO of Laundry Service, per Washerman's direction to find a way to get me to say something or to do anything.

00:07:29.000 They really couldn't find anything in the tape that I said because everything I said, the tape was anti-racist.

00:07:36.000 It was the way I was raised: that you treat everybody with respect and kindness.

00:07:41.000 Problem is, they taped it, reversed the meaning and the intent, took it out of context, took it out of contrast, and went to Forbes.

00:07:50.000 Forbes wrote part of what I said, but not the whole thing.

00:07:54.000 Again, they took it out of context.

00:07:56.000 And the rest of the media, as you know, they did a media frenzy.

00:07:58.000 They didn't do their homework.

00:08:00.000 And this exploded into a false narrative that did a lot of damage to me and Papa John's and the franchisees.

00:08:09.000 I believe in being healthy and staying active, whether that means working out or playing sports.

00:08:13.000 The last thing I want to be held back in any way, I'm sure you feel the same.

00:08:17.000 So when aches and pains start to creep in, what do you have to keep them from taking you out of the game?

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00:08:31.000 That seems a worthy try to me.

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00:09:13.000 Yeah, I remember it.

00:09:14.000 And there was a lot of people that were ready to defend you in that.

00:09:20.000 And so is there any chance you could try to come back into the company you founded?

00:09:24.000 Because this is your baby, right?

00:09:25.000 You started this and then you get ousted from what you started.

00:09:29.000 Is there any vectors of that or is that ship sailed?

00:09:34.000 Well, the three things in life: the sun's going to come up, the sun's going to go down, and the truth's going to come out.

00:09:39.000 So we've been very patient.

00:09:40.000 It's been three years.

00:09:42.000 Karma is a real thing.

00:09:44.000 It's good or bad.

00:09:45.000 And fortunately for me, I have the truth.

00:09:50.000 They left the tape running after I hung up.

00:09:53.000 And after that, they told on themselves what their true motives were.

00:09:56.000 They said things like, he won't have a job by Sunday.

00:10:00.000 He'll be effing out the pasture before you know it.

00:10:02.000 So their intent, which was ill intent, became obvious.

00:10:07.000 But fortunately for me, I have the truth.

00:10:09.000 I have a tape.

00:10:10.000 And I feel very lucky that we had somebody turn in that tape so that we have evidence and proof that, in fact, Roger Goodell with his henchman, his crony, Casey Washman, set me up and painted me in a false light as a racist.

00:10:27.000 What's amazing is we paid Washman millions of dollars to do just the opposite of what they did.

00:10:33.000 Can you imagine hiring an agency, a purveyor, a supplier, and you're paying them millions of dollars and they're kind of going behind the scenes to undermine the face, the namesake, you know, that's synonymous with the success in the brand, not only in NFL, but, you know, throughout the country.

00:10:52.000 As far as coming back, the first 20 months, I wanted to come back because the product quality had gotten so bad.

00:11:01.000 And running the business on the fundamentals every day is like working out.

00:11:08.000 It's very difficult, very arduous, very hard work.

00:11:11.000 And once those fundamentals slip, it takes a year, year and a half to get the system to get back in shape.

00:11:19.000 But those that timeframe has passed.

00:11:23.000 They did do one thing that was really beneficial to the company, and they fired Steve Ritchie, who was the interim CEO in 1718 when the stock went back to, I think, as low as $28.

00:11:37.000 So when I left in 2016, the stock was almost 90.

00:11:45.000 Mr. Ritchie and his team took it down to below 40.

00:11:49.000 And then COVID came along first of 19 and really saved that company with people being trapped at home with a captive audience and also people having free money to spend and stay at home and order online and Amazon and Papa John's and you know Grubhub, et cetera.

00:12:09.000 So right now, to answer your question, franchisees are doing well.

00:12:14.000 They're making a lot of money.

00:12:15.000 Their sales are good.

00:12:18.000 Things are really good for the franchisees.

00:12:21.000 And until sales turn negative and cheese goes to, say, 230 or 240 a pound, Papa John's franchisees will be in good shape.

00:12:31.000 But that hasn't happened yet.

00:12:33.000 So God bless them.

00:12:34.000 And I talked with franchisees lately and I said, hey, just enjoy the ride.

00:12:38.000 Enjoy the ride while you got it because all commodities are up except cheese is right at a 10-year normal.

00:12:45.000 I mean, that's lucky, but hey, it is what it is.

00:12:49.000 Yeah, well, you've built an amazing company.

00:12:51.000 Let's talk about that.

00:12:52.000 So you started this from nothing, right?

00:12:54.000 So you're, you are, Papa John.

00:12:57.000 Tell us the story.

00:12:59.000 Something with your father's tavern and selling your car.

00:13:02.000 You know, tell us about your Oni in America story.

00:13:05.000 I always loved making pizzas since I was 15 because I graduated from washing dishes to making pizza at Rocky Subpub in 1978, 77.

00:13:17.000 And then I made pizzas up in college at Greeks Pizzeria.

00:13:20.000 So I had a love for pizza early on, and I liked everything about it.

00:13:24.000 I liked the fact that it was a high-priced ticket, you know, nine, $10 to pie.

00:13:29.000 You could run really good food costs below $30,000.

00:13:33.000 It brought friends and families together.

00:13:35.000 You could build at the time a Papa John's restaurant for $100,000.

00:13:40.000 So you had a cheap LA of capital.

00:13:42.000 You could do high volume of sales and make good margins and bring friends and family together.

00:13:47.000 So I felt really good about the pizza business, and it was, you know, my first love.

00:13:51.000 Yeah, so tell us kind of just the story of scaling, though, right?

00:13:55.000 Outside of starting with one location and a couple, you know, when did you decide to either take outside money, invest your money, borrow money, or did you never?

00:14:03.000 Were you just always cash flow positive and you had more money than you knew what to do with?

00:14:07.000 Every entrepreneur has that moment where you had to decide: do I want to be a local phenomenon or do I want to really grow?

00:14:12.000 Tell us about that.

00:14:13.000 Well, the Lexington, Columbus, Ohio, Louisville corridor is all about franchising.

00:14:19.000 If you look at the magnitude of franchise that was the genesis was in that part of the country, Long John Silver's rallies, Chi Chi's, Donatos, White Castle, Bob Evans, Texas Roadhouse, Papa John, Kentucky Fried Chicken, the list, Jerry's restaurants.

00:14:39.000 The list goes on and on.

00:14:40.000 So that is really a great place to start a franchise restaurant.

00:14:44.000 So we had our eyes on franchising early on.

00:14:48.000 Founded the company in 84, first restaurant in 85.

00:14:52.000 And by 87, we were franchised and franchised in the business.

00:14:56.000 So that was part of our DNA from the get-go.

00:14:59.000 We never really had a capital issue until after 93.

00:15:04.000 Up until 93, we did have capital constraints.

00:15:07.000 We took Republic in 1993, some 250 restaurants.

00:15:12.000 And after that, capital was no longer an issue.

00:15:17.000 Our Achilles heel was management capability, management competence.

00:15:22.000 So we could only grow the mothership, the corporate restaurants, as fast as we could manage them in a confident way.

00:15:31.000 And when I left, we had like 600 U.S. stores and 50 stores abroad.

00:15:37.000 So even after 30-something years into it, we only had the capabilities to run about 600 corporate restaurants.

00:15:44.000 Wow.

00:15:44.000 So talk about, you know, the franchising model is an interesting one, right?

00:15:48.000 Starbucks has stayed away from it.

00:15:49.000 Other companies have done really well with it.

00:15:51.000 How are you able to maintain high quality while also wanting to grow aggressively and recruit new franchisees?

00:15:58.000 Yes, that's the current CEO, Rob Lynch.

00:16:05.000 At times, I gave him a hard way to go, but that's my way of motivating the guy.

00:16:10.000 He's, you know, he doesn't like to be challenged and he doesn't like to be questioned.

00:16:15.000 He's got a little bit of a kind of a little guy complex.

00:16:19.000 And so he gets angry.

00:16:20.000 So the way I motivate him is I kind of get him a little angry.

00:16:23.000 Two years ago, the product quality was really bad.

00:16:26.000 And the way to get his Napoleon complex to kick in is to challenge him and point that out.

00:16:31.000 Now, the last six months, the product quality has actually gotten a little bit better than it was, but it's not consistent.

00:16:42.000 And incongruity in our business breeds mistrust.

00:16:46.000 As Ray Croc said, your quality is only as good as your consistency.

00:16:50.000 So moving forward, I think Rob Lynch's two biggest issues are: if that cheese goes to 230, 240 a pound, and those comp sales go to negative, he knows, A, I'm going to be breathing down his back.

00:17:06.000 And C, that's going to be $100 stock, which got to understand in 2016, we're at 89.

00:17:12.000 So, what, 11% increase in almost five, five and a half years?

00:17:17.000 And the second issue he's got is the franchisees at Papa John's, love them to death.

00:17:22.000 Very difficult to work with.

00:17:23.000 Yeah, it's kind of like trying to manage a wolf holding its ears.

00:17:30.000 It's, you know, you can kind of do it from time to time a little bit, but just the slightest little mistake and they will turn around and bite you.

00:17:39.000 So he's got a very, very tough job ahead.

00:17:41.000 I'm a shareholder.

00:17:42.000 I've bought stock in the last six months.

00:17:45.000 It's done quite well.

00:17:47.000 He's made a lot of people a lot of money.

00:17:51.000 So I hope Robbie Lynch and his team continue to do well, but they're going over some incredibly difficult numbers.

00:17:59.000 And so far, everything that's been out of his control, our control as a franchise has been to our benefit.

00:18:06.000 And sooner or later, you know, things don't always go your way.

00:18:13.000 Look, everyone out there has been asking me, Charlie, how do I get more pillows?

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00:18:25.000 And part of them being canceled, they want to give you the lowest price yet.

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00:19:18.000 Well, so you're still investing in the company, and you're right.

00:19:21.000 I think COVID and people staying at home basically saved the company.

00:19:25.000 It was an unintended bailout.

00:19:27.000 Um, and the stock price, I think, is near record highs, if not if not there.

00:19:32.000 So, we were in, we were in default of our loans December of 18.

00:19:37.000 That's how bad, that's how close this was to me getting back in charge and getting a hold of it.

00:19:42.000 That's why Jeff Smith got such a sweet deal.

00:19:46.000 But in all fairness, um, you know, I can handle three capacities right now, really four.

00:19:51.000 I mean, I can be Papa John anytime I want to be Papa John because I'm Papa John right now at 130 bucks a share with a really tough labor market, supply chain issues, the political divide in our country.

00:20:05.000 I don't want to be Papa John right now.

00:20:07.000 I want to be a bystander.

00:20:08.000 I could be a employee, I could be a Rob Lynch.

00:20:13.000 I don't want to have to wake up and deal with what he's dealing with every day.

00:20:16.000 I could sit on the board of directors of other companies.

00:20:19.000 If I had enough stock, I could sit back on the board of Papa John's.

00:20:23.000 I don't want to sit on a board right now, it's too much exposure.

00:20:26.000 Or three, I could be a shareholder.

00:20:27.000 Well, we'll talk more about this, but with the government printing money, that system makes the super rich super richer.

00:20:38.000 That's right, two trillion or three trillion or four trillion to get ready to pump into the market.

00:20:43.000 It's just going to help the ultra-rich get richer.

00:20:46.000 And it breaks my heart because it hurts the middle class.

00:20:49.000 So, the place you want to be right now is be a shareholder and enjoy that ride, let the dust settle with the supply chain, the labor market, and then we'll see down the road if and when I want to get back involved with the mothership, Papa John's.

00:21:03.000 Well, there's a uh, I think they're going to need you at some point because you have just pinpointed some of the big issues regarding the Papa John model.

00:21:12.000 So, I'm curious: in Papa John's, what percentage are corporate-owned versus franchise?

00:21:16.000 Are you just all franchised?

00:21:17.000 You have like maybe five or six restaurants that are owned by corporate, yeah, give or take a little bit.

00:21:22.000 We have a corporate corporate restaurant of about 600.

00:21:25.000 Okay, so my math wasn't totally right at 2,000 international, and we have right at 5,600 total.

00:21:33.000 So, that's 3,000 U.S. franchisees.

00:21:36.000 So, that's the portfolio.

00:21:38.000 Yeah, and so therefore, you're very dependent on all these different personalities, geographic changes, and shifts.

00:21:46.000 How many of your franchisees own multiple locations?

00:21:50.000 Well, that was one of the reasons I called Goodell out is Papa John's at the time was a company of small business owners, and they were giving me a lot of heat that hey, you know, the NFL is our biggest spend, and they're actually hurting our sales.

00:22:05.000 When NFL season started up back in 16 and 17, we expected sales to go up, it actually went backwards.

00:22:12.000 And so, the NFL property, which was once a great asset, the Papa John small business owner became a liability.

00:22:21.000 I.e., that's why I had to call Goodell out and get it resolved.

00:22:26.000 Now, a couple of the owners called me.

00:22:28.000 They wanted to get rid of Goodell for other reasons.

00:22:32.000 And I refused to get in the middle of that situation because Goodell didn't work for me.

00:22:38.000 If they want to fire him, they're the owners.

00:22:40.000 They can get rid of Goodell.

00:22:42.000 I just wanted the situation resolved to the owners' and players' satisfaction.

00:22:47.000 Yeah, and that makes sense.

00:22:48.000 So, the NFL is a mess, and a lot of people are upset at them right now for a variety of reasons.

00:22:54.000 But the NFL used to be a stimulus for you, right?

00:22:57.000 When I grew up, you know, better ingredients, better pizza, Papa John's.

00:23:01.000 It was everywhere, every other commercial.

00:23:03.000 And yet, what you're saying, though, is that the NFL is not giving the same ROI for advertisers it once was.

00:23:09.000 I think that is correct.

00:23:11.000 And again, I think Goodell has been on the hit list for several of the owners for some time.

00:23:20.000 When the two of the owners called me, Jerry Jones with the Cowboys and Dan Snyder with the Redskins, the night before the earnings call, they said, you know, Goodell's got to go.

00:23:30.000 You got to help us get rid of Roger Goodell. 0.99

00:23:32.000 Snyder said he's a moron. 1.00

00:23:35.000 You know, I could get into some of the Snyder's comments. 1.00

00:23:37.000 He's pretty derogatory towards Roger.

00:23:40.000 And I said, hey, listen, fellas, the guy works for you.

00:23:43.000 I don't really want to get in the middle of your all's little personal battle.

00:23:47.000 I just want the problem resolved to the owners and players' satisfaction.

00:23:51.000 Unbeknownst to me, to your question, is Papa John's was the number one sponsor by far with revealance, likability, association.

00:24:04.000 So now you've got two of the most powerful owners hammering on Goodell to get rid of him, and you got the number one sponsor hammering on Goodell to fix the problem.

00:24:13.000 So, you know, Rogers, I'm always when you disagree with him or you come at him, he destroys you.

00:24:19.000 He did it with trying to do with John Gruden, did it with Jerry Richardson.

00:24:23.000 That's just his pattern that you can't question what he's doing.

00:24:25.000 And if you call him out, and in this case, he used Casey Washerman as the hitman to hurt me and to set me up.

00:24:32.000 And unfortunately, I had a weak board and went along with it.

00:24:35.000 Yeah.

00:24:35.000 And so let's just talk more broadly.

00:24:38.000 You mentioned this, some of the dynamics of growing and scaling the company.

00:24:42.000 The good news is Papa John's is already established and it's already a brand and it already has many generations of brand trust and of infrastructure and all sorts of different things.

00:24:56.000 Would you be able to start Papa John's in the current economic climate that we see today?

00:25:01.000 I don't think so.

00:25:02.000 And when I left in 16 or 17, we had 5,200 restaurants.

00:25:08.000 Over, what, 30 years?

00:25:09.000 That's 170 restaurants a year.

00:25:13.000 Since 2012, we're up to 5,600.

00:25:16.000 So in what, four or five years, six years, we've grown 400 restaurants.

00:25:21.000 So the momentum and the product quality and the point of differentiation and the better ingredients, better pizza promise, they've diluted that a lot.

00:25:30.000 And it's showing up and they lost the ACSI two years in a row.

00:25:34.000 We haven't, that's never happened since when I was running the company.

00:25:38.000 It didn't happen at all, but since we founded the company, we're not growing restaurants.

00:25:43.000 Last quarter, with all the goodness with COVID lockdowns and stem list packages and cheese being cheap, we closed 48 restaurants last quarter.

00:25:52.000 48.

00:25:52.000 Wow.

00:25:53.000 I mean, we closed 48 restaurants.

00:25:55.000 And those are all franchisees or corporate?

00:25:57.000 Franchisees, maybe one or two corporate, but mostly franchisees.

00:26:00.000 And the entrepreneur, you know, he walks with his pocketbook.

00:26:04.000 So I think what you have at Papa John's, you have a group that are real successful, a group that are hanging on, and you've got a big part of the franchise system that's very unhealthy that's kind of getting hidden or not getting called out because of the law of averages.

00:26:20.000 The comp sales look good on averages because the really good ones are doing well and the really poor ones are not doing so well.

00:26:28.000 And if this does take a turn, i.e., comps turn negative and cheese goes to 250 a pound, the dynamics of this whole thing changes.

00:26:36.000 And we're hoping that doesn't happen.

00:26:38.000 But, you know, sooner or later, what goes up comes down.

00:26:44.000 Internet privacy is extremely important.

00:26:46.000 New news out shows that Google has been colluding with the federal government to hand over your data.

00:26:54.000 If you might have searched something wrong into the search bar.

00:26:57.000 So what are you doing to protect your search history?

00:27:00.000 Well, this is why you need Express VPN.

00:27:03.000 Using the internet without ExpressVPN is like going to the bathroom and not closing the door.

00:27:09.000 It's in fact even worse than that.

00:27:10.000 It's inviting someone into the bathroom, which is really weird and creepy.

00:27:13.000 Internet service providers know every single website you visit.

00:27:17.000 ISPs can sell this data and information to ad companies and tech giants who then use your data to target you.

00:27:24.000 ExpressVPN creates a secure, encrypted tunnel between your device and the internet.

00:27:30.000 So your online activity cannot be seen by anyone.

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00:28:01.000 Express VPN for me has been a game changer to be able to know that the tech companies or the government have to go through a whole other barrier to try to spy on us.

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00:28:18.000 Secure your online activity by visiting expressvpn.com/slash Charlie today.

00:28:23.000 That's expressvpn.com/slash Charlie.

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00:28:37.000 Talk a little bit about how inflationary pressures actually can help the richest people.

00:28:43.000 If I were to venture a guess, Papa John's expanded their balance sheet last year.

00:28:46.000 You guys probably borrowed money, not because of any issues, but because money was so cheap.

00:28:51.000 Almost corporate borrowing went up by $600 billion last year.

00:28:55.000 And because corporations aren't dumb, if there's 7% to 8% inflation, the money's almost free.

00:29:01.000 Is that if the inflation rate is above the interest rate of your previously agreed upon note, then you're playing with house money.

00:29:08.000 Talk about how the government creating money actually benefits the wealthiest people and crushes your franchisees or middle-class workers.

00:29:16.000 Well, it doesn't hurt the big franchisees at first, or at least not yet.

00:29:21.000 It does hurt the small business owner.

00:29:22.000 And as you know, we have an administration that is anti-small business.

00:29:26.000 Yes.

00:29:27.000 Papa John's, and this is not to my liking, and I disagree with this.

00:29:31.000 They want to get rid of all their small franchisees.

00:29:35.000 And they, you know, you take the Hinkle, who was, you know, the top first five franchisees, Cox, Roloffs, Willoughby, all the good operators that have been here 25, 30 plus years, they're getting out because the company is anti-friendly to small franchisees.

00:29:57.000 My concern with the big franchisees is if they're not successful, or if any of the franchisees aren't successful, the mothership's not going to be successful.

00:30:06.000 And right now, they don't communicate with the franchisees.

00:30:10.000 We're not transparent.

00:30:13.000 You know, this new logo they introduced, you know, there's been no test markets on that, no censor analysis on that.

00:30:20.000 You know, they just kind of knee-jerk.

00:30:23.000 And, you know, we'll take Texas, they just sold the state of Texas to a potentially new franchisee, which is problematic in several ways.

00:30:31.000 One is the guy signed up for 100 stores by 2029.

00:30:36.000 If you just run the math, that's a store a month for the next eight years.

00:30:40.000 A store a month.

00:30:41.000 And this guy has no pizza experience and never run a Papa John's and has never been in the pizza business.

00:30:49.000 To open a store a month, you got to have 20 stores in the pipeline.

00:30:54.000 Three getting ready to get it open, four or five in the middle, four or five to start construction, another six or seven leases signed.

00:31:02.000 You know, and so it's a fictitious number.

00:31:05.000 You know, the number they put out for Philadelphia, I think, two years ago, 49 stores in seven years or whatever.

00:31:11.000 And that franchisee won't make 20 stores in 10 years.

00:31:16.000 So it's again, it's a PR maneuver to make things look better than they are.

00:31:21.000 But the franchisees, large or small, right now, have really no say in the business.

00:31:26.000 You know, there's no transparency.

00:31:29.000 Things are hidden.

00:31:30.000 The numbers aren't shared.

00:31:32.000 So I think we can get along with get away with that as long as the sales and the profits are good.

00:31:40.000 But as soon as things turn south, I think you've got the analogy with the wolf by the ears.

00:31:47.000 Yeah.

00:31:47.000 And so also you have to deal with rising rents, right?

00:31:51.000 Because you have more dollars, therefore, real estate is going up.

00:31:54.000 So you have all these different dynamics at play.

00:31:57.000 Let me ask you in the couple minutes we have remaining.

00:31:59.000 We have a lot of young entrepreneurs watching.

00:32:01.000 What's your advice to a young entrepreneur?

00:32:03.000 What did you learn along the way?

00:32:05.000 I mean, you've created one of the most amazing companies, a multi-billion dollar company from nothing.

00:32:09.000 What would your advice be to a young entrepreneur listening to this right now?

00:32:13.000 Well, you got to find something you love to do, and you got to find something you're good at.

00:32:17.000 And you got to have a good team around you.

00:32:20.000 You got people you can trust that are loyal.

00:32:22.000 You take care of them.

00:32:23.000 And loyalty is a two-way street.

00:32:25.000 They take care of you.

00:32:27.000 But really, I don't care if you're a dentist, architect, you do podcasts, do media, if you do pizza, just find something you love to do and work it to the bone.

00:32:35.000 You'll be good at it.

00:32:36.000 You'll have all the success you want.

00:32:38.000 Well, and a lot of young people say, well, should I find what I love or what I'm good at?

00:32:43.000 What's your balance?

00:32:44.000 Follow the skill or follow your heart.

00:32:46.000 I hear that.

00:32:49.000 I just don't know how you're not good at something if you don't love it.

00:32:53.000 And I just don't know if you love something, how you're not good at it.

00:32:56.000 It's kind of the chicken and the egg.

00:32:58.000 But I think I had to pick, I find something I love.

00:33:03.000 I find something I love and I'd start from there.

00:33:06.000 I wouldn't, the reason I don't want to jump back in the pizza business right now is I'm not sure I want to be in the processed food business.

00:33:12.000 You know, I'm working on some organic farms and some really fresh stuff that's really healthy, you know, that betters people's lives and betters their health.

00:33:22.000 I get more enjoyment out of the gardens and exploring organic farms and the nutrients and the science and how we got away from the farm and the health of the farm and the communities of the farm and got into the centralized farming kind of structure that we have.

00:33:39.000 But I'm really enjoying the organic farm and making people better, making people healthy.

00:33:44.000 Well, that's terrific.

00:33:46.000 In closing, the country's going in a terrible direction.

00:33:50.000 Just talk openly about that.

00:33:52.000 What do you think needs to be done to get the country back that you grew up in?

00:33:57.000 I think Lincoln hit it on the nail.

00:33:59.000 I mean, the house divided cannot stand.

00:34:03.000 The biggest problem we got is we're divided.

00:34:06.000 And, you know, the right has to own their part in this, but the left, mainstream media, and the elitists who are running the country with the media, they'll scorch the planet.

00:34:18.000 They'll scorch the earth for power and control.

00:34:21.000 The things they do to humanity are, you know, they're just horrid.

00:34:27.000 And when the electorate sees this negativity in this division, they get scared.

00:34:36.000 There's fear.

00:34:36.000 There's hate.

00:34:37.000 There's animosity.

00:34:38.000 There's jealousy.

00:34:40.000 And once you get your consciousness from a place of kindness and love and respect and mutual respect and kindness, and you pull that down to bitter shame, guilt, hate, you're going to look at the world completely different from this lens down here versus this lens up here.

00:34:56.000 This lens up here is collaborative.

00:34:58.000 This is where you want your conscious.

00:35:00.000 So if you're operating from up here, you're going to see a situation like this.

00:35:04.000 And if you're scared and fearful and jealous, you're going to look at it from down here.

00:35:09.000 I don't like the way the mainstream media is pulling people's level of consciousness down to where they see the world in a way that it's, you know, it's bickering, it's hatred, it's attacked the other person.

00:35:22.000 It's tear things up.

00:35:23.000 So it's the division that the left mainstream media is doing that is creating a terrible dynamic with the hearts and souls of the American public, which I think are, you know, when you get down to it, are just good, hardworking, loving people.

00:35:40.000 Well, I agree with that.

00:35:41.000 Well, Papa John, thank you so much for joining us today.

00:35:43.000 And we'd love to meet you in person sometime soon.

00:35:46.000 Deeply appreciate it.

00:35:47.000 Thank you.

00:35:47.000 Talk to you soon.

00:35:48.000 Thanks.

00:35:51.000 Thanks so much for listening, everybody.

00:35:52.000 Email us your thoughts, freedom at charliekirk.com.

00:35:55.000 And if you want to get involved with AmericaFest, it's tpusa.com/slash A-M-F-E-S-T.

00:36:00.000 God bless you guys.

00:36:01.000 Speak to you soon.

00:36:04.000 For more on many of these stories and news you can trust, go to CharlieKirk. com.

The Charlie Kirk Show - December 03, 2021

Better Ingredients, Better Pizza, Better Podcasts—A Conversation with Papa John Schnatter

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