This Past Weekend with Theo Von - E340 Raising Cane's Founder Todd Graves

00:00:00.000 Today's guest is a business entrepreneur in the food realm and he started his deal right in Baton

00:00:08.080 Rouge his first outlet his first food locale right there in Baton Rouge Louisiana where I was

00:00:15.120 attending school and you know now he's built it into a billion dollar industry I'm grateful for

00:00:23.720 his time today just to learn about what his ride has been like and what he's learned and

00:00:29.840 what we can learn from him today's guest is the chicken finger champ from Raising Cane's it is Mr. Todd Graves

00:00:40.860 Shine that light on me

00:00:44.860 I'll sit and tell you my stories

00:00:50.820 Shine on me

00:00:55.540 Todd Graves how are you man?

00:01:10.620 Man I'm great I'm even better being up here with you

00:01:12.680 yeah thanks man thanks so much for coming in uh I uh so your business now so Raising Cane's is it's a

00:01:19.440 chicken finger company yeah and how big is the business now?

00:01:23.400 now we're pushing 600 locations and almost 25 years of business so it blows me away we're about

00:01:28.400 to start cranking about 100 a year good locations man so it blows me away and do you have like a say

00:01:34.420 on what locations are approved or not or do you have other people that do that? well I have a team

00:01:38.780 a great team that does it they work with local brokers but I approve every site everyone yeah

00:01:42.960 um okay so that's where it's at now so then I want to go back to like so you grew up in

00:01:48.600 Louisiana right? yeah yeah born in New Orleans raised in Baton Rouge oh nice where'd you go to

00:01:52.540 high school at? yeah Episcopal High School in Baton Rouge yeah my kids go there now my wife went there

00:01:57.720 so we're like Episcopal family or alumni huh? yeah alumni um yeah I saw your son came out here with

00:02:03.460 you right now yeah yeah he's he has exams later in the week and so he had some time off so I like to

00:02:08.440 bring him uh when I'm doing business and be around be exposed to it he's just 17 you know but it's

00:02:12.280 good to get that stuff in his head yeah is he a pretty decent kid? oh great kid man great kid

00:02:16.660 you know plays baseball makes A's you know just like it's great his sister's older sister too is

00:02:21.000 at LSU and uh good student too great they like to have a good time but they keep it uh they keep it

00:02:26.020 good and that so it's been easy raising them yeah yeah yeah um was it did you start being a dad like

00:02:31.760 in the middle of we must have started being a dad in the middle of your company growing yeah yeah you

00:02:36.480 know so Cane's for me was a college business plan you know and so I started and opened up like I said

00:02:41.680 almost 25 years ago that first location Northgate's LSU yeah I think I went in there man

00:02:46.320 uh I think I went in there probably I mean I was probably high honestly or under the influence

00:02:51.000 of something which is okay they still serve you well yeah it says that actually you gotta get that

00:02:55.700 chicken man so that's good late night man even hung over on Sunday man it's uh that's our bread and

00:03:00.700 butter yeah yeah it was good man uh yeah so I guess so then take me through that so like um there's

00:03:07.000 like a lot of rumors out there yeah you were a fisherman and you got you were doing fishing and so

00:03:11.540 then what happened like you're yeah take me how you kind of started the first one yeah you know

00:03:17.220 it was college business planning class so I grew up working in restaurants and bars and

00:03:21.740 high school college and I was like the kid that did the lemonade stand in the neighborhood always

00:03:26.400 entrepreneurial right yeah so I wanted to open my own restaurant okay but I'm a college student right

00:03:30.400 so I'm like I want to do something that caters to the students I wanted to hire students because I

00:03:33.920 knew the work environment they wanted uh I knew college kids work hard man they'll bust their ass but

00:03:38.540 they need some somebody that cares about them let's listen to some fun music you know what's

00:03:42.140 what's serve our customers make them feel good about coming in and spending their money with us

00:03:46.500 but let's have a good time when we do it so I was one of the first restaurants that actually had

00:03:49.660 music going on in the background things like that but that was my vision and so for business

00:03:54.200 planning class I had a partner then when I started and we wrote it for his business

00:03:57.480 planning class at LSU got the worst grade in the class oh yeah in there baby been there yeah you

00:04:03.240 know but that's fuel right yeah no that's exciting especially so so if you get that though do you

00:04:07.540 feel like like were you guys deterred was the business so you were the partner at that point

00:04:12.260 yeah so you have a partner I did back then he sold out after the second one he just wasn't a

00:04:16.200 he wasn't a fry cook cashier didn't make him happy you know but I love working drive-thrus I like

00:04:19.820 working fry lines you know it's what I love which is important I tell these students now I'm like

00:04:23.660 whatever you go into making sure it's something you like to do you're passionate about because if not

00:04:28.080 you won't be successful at it right and if you love what you do works comes down to a grind but if you

00:04:32.400 love it then you're always happy doing it it wasn't the right business for him we've stayed dear

00:04:36.360 friends but he sold after the second one but we have those memories together because worst grade

00:04:40.880 in business planning class and it's just a b minus it wasn't a hard grader yeah but it was the worst

00:04:46.760 grade in the class but for me man it's like okay tell me tell me I can't do it let me show you I'm

00:04:51.080 going to okay okay so there you are so you guys get a little bit of neglect there from the grading

00:04:56.120 system and then what happens like um well so then where do you go from there yeah so I thought you

00:05:01.580 we needed money to do a spot right and so I took that business plan look I thought businessmen you

00:05:07.340 know needed to look the parts so bought a cheap suit right oh yeah bought a briefcase from like

00:05:12.200 office depot the one with a little uh brass locks on it you know like to look official right I'd go

00:05:17.540 with like a like a little some of the locks you did never even open dude I had one once it never

00:05:21.720 you couldn't even get in it they were so cheap right yeah I had it on the zero zero zero I'll crank it up

00:05:27.900 bring up the business plan talk to him about this chicken finger dream I had right banks were nice

00:05:32.720 enough but every one of them were like hey man you know you might want to work in the industry for 10

00:05:36.400 years you might want to do this that and the other you're not in a position for us to lend you money

00:05:39.540 once again no no no makes you want to do it that much more but had you had any experience in that

00:05:45.240 line of work at all I mean yeah I've always worked in restaurants and did it and knew it like I knew

00:05:50.000 how much my aprons would cost you know what I mean like I knew it so well but people had a problem

00:05:54.560 back then of just a chicken finger only concept right because quick service this is what happened

00:05:58.660 in the business plan they said you didn't do your research because like McDonald's is adding all this

00:06:02.660 variety and all these different things you're doing the opposite you want to do just one thing

00:06:06.860 these chicken finger meals and it's not where your industry is going but I knew doing one thing

00:06:10.840 and doing better than anybody else would always pay off okay and was there that option out there

00:06:15.060 at the time because I remember growing up they had Popeyes and that's turned more into like a place

00:06:18.980 where people fight I feel like these days it's more like a boxing it's almost like a mini UFC

00:06:23.500 over there sometimes but um was there anything that was serving just that chicken finger yeah

00:06:29.220 Guthrie's they had started Guthrie's chicken fingers just started off in Auburn years but

00:06:33.580 years before and they did uh University of Georgia they did Florida State and so the model was out

00:06:39.080 there just wasn't in Louisiana right and so it's hard for them to see that vision and for me I just

00:06:43.740 knew college kids like good food and if you can do that chicken finger meal like you said and our

00:06:48.780 biggest business was the late night business to start off with and it went into the days

00:06:53.160 so I stayed I stayed true to it I knew I could do it but this to me was like this is my dream right

00:06:57.940 so I'm not gonna I'm not gonna shut down I'm not gonna stop I'm never gonna give up so I got a job

00:07:02.780 through a friend of a friend working as a boiler maker in refineries right to do turnaround shift work

00:07:06.920 to raise money okay so boiler maker what is it well so like when they when a refinery needs one

00:07:12.800 section to be fixed right put into equipment replace old stuff they'll get a group of boiler makers to go in

00:07:18.700 and do all that grunt work okay but they pay you big money because you work long hours during the

00:07:22.700 week and they want that section that refinery come back as soon as possible because with the

00:07:26.760 welding production going everything welding cutting trays out putting in new equipment I mean it's

00:07:32.340 pretty much everything and you have to learn it on the fly but it's like they want that thing open

00:07:35.600 as soon as possible to get the oil production going so you can make a ton of money if you're willing

00:07:38.900 to work hard okay so you got down there so you're working through or refinery so how long after you guys

00:07:43.160 have this business plan that you're able to put it together and kind of get out to full of two years

00:07:47.700 because after my refinery stint I needed more money and I met a guy named wild bill tolar no

00:07:52.100 kidding everybody had nicknames mine was hollywood longer story oh dude we had a guy I remember we

00:07:56.820 used to work at this summer camp and they had a guy who would come down and I shouldn't even work

00:08:01.740 in there man I was dating a girl and she got fired and then I was like they were like oh you can work

00:08:05.720 here right and so then they had a guy would come and take pictures of all the kids swimming and stuff

00:08:10.660 every day and his name was wild bill right so finally wild bill well one day I'm like hey are we ever

00:08:15.620 going to see those pictures from wild bill and they're like who's wild bill I'm like the photographer

00:08:19.460 like we don't have a photographer it was just some guy some random dudes I'm wild bill the photographer

00:08:24.960 yeah taking pictures of kids swimming which was a little not not ideal so wild bills can be interesting

00:08:30.260 it can be this guy was a little wild ass and uh he he earned his nickname but he said look you don't

00:08:35.280 you don't mind working hard and you're trying to raise money for this chicken finger dream these

00:08:39.220 bullet makers were incredibly encouraging to me like man you're going to open your restaurant

00:08:42.520 wild bills in the summers commercial fishing in Alaska so were you running around and saying

00:08:46.500 like chicken fingers chicken fingers I mean you were just chirping about it yes man like you think

00:08:49.840 my passion right I was on chicken finger dream dude you know so it's like everywhere and everything

00:08:54.020 and so people weren't just discouraging but they're more like hey you got a degree you know you should

00:08:59.100 do this you should do that maybe later in life you don't come back but like I'm like no this is

00:09:02.900 what I want to do those bullet makers were the most encouraging people I'd seen along the way

00:09:06.840 really all of them like man you go for your dreams well they saw me working hard next to them

00:09:09.840 every day they're like yeah here for your chicken fingers and uh anyway and so wild bill said look

00:09:14.780 you can you can cut it go work go up to knack neck Alaska and get a job in Bristol Bay gill netting

00:09:20.460 for sockeye if you want to make some real money go up there and I did caught a float plane to king

00:09:24.560 salmon my sister gave me her freaking flyer miles flying to Anchorage got hit king salmon hitchhiked up

00:09:30.060 to knack neck went in tent city took a month to get on a boat talking to captain into it spent that month

00:09:35.160 that summer commercial fishing in Alaska is crazy what uh so what was that time like up there like

00:09:40.100 are the what are you working with like a lot of Inuits are you working with like a lot of just local

00:09:45.160 people like that are kind of hiding out because it's almost like the like the the icy key west I feel

00:09:50.880 like Alaska is almost that strange kind of like place where people can go to kind of get like really

00:09:55.880 get away yeah yeah it's a mix so Inuits and Inuits hold the permits right the original boats so you

00:10:01.120 have the Inuit population but a lot of fishermen from Washington you know Oregon things like that

00:10:06.360 and they go up to spend the summer to make money and uh they're highly motivated because you can make

00:10:10.200 a ton of money most of these people just work that summer but then it was interesting because when I

00:10:14.060 got on the boat I realized how motivated they are right so there's like you can go out and during

00:10:18.340 the peak of the season salmon are born in a stream right they swim out to the ocean they're these

00:10:23.140 beautiful silver fish all of them have a cycle between four and like seven years okay then they know to

00:10:28.300 come back to the original river up the same river they spawn and they die and it's the cycle it's

00:10:33.100 crazy yeah so when they're coming in during the summer man it's droves of fish and so it's like a

00:10:37.720 boomerang almost yeah man boom and boom and so then we were fishing for sockeye salmon the Japanese were

00:10:43.160 buying like 95 percent of it paying top dollar oh yeah and you can't keep going out into the ocean

00:10:48.000 intercept these fish right you have a Loran line you couldn't cross so if you set your net on that line

00:10:53.100 in front of another net you just made like 10 times more money right so but is there a lot of

00:10:57.720 jockeying for position out there total jockeying man you picked it you nailed it man so it's like

00:11:02.100 you will play chicken with other boats because you want that better set for your net and these

00:11:06.160 captains are motivated man we ram boats boats rammed us my partner went out with me then his boat

00:11:11.300 ram his captain rammed another boat and sunk it out there man so crazy stuff man people were dying out

00:11:17.140 there all this stuff because you're working 20 hour days during the peak right and it's not just four

00:11:21.320 hours of sleep it's like an hour here and there go take a nap you're working so hard so people get

00:11:25.240 tired and then they they get lazy they get not careful and they get thrown out with the nets or

00:11:30.520 whatever's going on so imagine a kid on a chicken finger dream on the back of this 36 foot boat

00:11:35.900 national geographics going over to film the madness medical helicopters are taking people out you're

00:11:40.820 hearing so and so boat just had a death and all this and you're filling up the boat with fish

00:11:44.720 waves are crashing over the side you're scared you're gonna you're gonna you're gonna crash you're

00:11:48.540 gonna you're gonna either get hit or you're gonna sink when i was out there for that chicken finger

00:11:52.260 drinking dang it's almost like that's almost like the ufc out there it sounds like the ultimate

00:11:57.160 fishing champ championship or something like yeah i can't even imagine people jocking and and the the

00:12:03.320 the hours that you're on those boats like what's that kind of time like the hours that you're on

00:12:07.240 those you just stay out and so like you know time's money so if you have to go into the dock you know

00:12:12.440 i mean you're missing money so they have tender boats that you drop your fish off too so you just live

00:12:15.880 up there you're staying on the boat oh so you're out there now and then the little boats come by and you

00:12:19.100 guys fill and you guys will just fill them up with fish fill them up fish yeah you take the tender

00:12:22.580 boat take your nets off boom put it back in and you go right back at it now was there any drug use or

00:12:26.860 anything like that on the boats because i could imagine some people would be adderalled up or

00:12:30.020 something during it you know back then you know adderall hadn't hit its hit its stride you know so

00:12:34.720 you just you just work and your body just gets conditioned to it man you become so hard like

00:12:39.500 when i came back it was hard to get back into society a little bit because you're just like you have to

00:12:44.180 just constantly work then it gets cold and it gets bad you get beat up and then like i came back

00:12:49.080 i was kind of like man i don't know i don't know if i fit in just that a couple weeks later i got

00:12:53.540 soft again you know yeah but uh start using soap again yeah exactly now so that's interesting so

00:12:59.080 what do you think about like because that takes a certain type of person you know to go and do

00:13:04.500 that type of work that type of grueling environment where it's almost like a testament of your will

00:13:10.340 in addition to you having to be employed at the same time like you're doing a job but you're also

00:13:16.600 have to have this internal kind of thing going on where you were going to hold the line you are

00:13:21.240 going to keep going do you think that that was something that was always with you even as a child

00:13:26.500 like were you always just kind of like a not a sucker for punishment but were you always somebody

00:13:33.740 that wanted to be like in the fire or when you look back on your youth do you see moments where

00:13:38.440 you kind of understand your behaviors then and you still see them in yourself now yeah you know a lot

00:13:46.080 of it and so i'll use sports as an example right and so just playing something like football right

00:13:51.660 well what's on the football team i was i mean look i went to 2a private school so i've been like

00:13:55.340 thought like everybody plays not like yeah everybody plays so it's not like i'm saying we're some great

00:13:58.880 athlete right but like i wanted to be the leader on the team right like i wanted to be the leader so i

00:14:02.640 could have played receiver or running back or whatever but i wanted to be quarterback because i wanted to

00:14:05.960 man the offensive 2a football also played on the defensive side went to defensive end but i wanted

00:14:10.580 to be in charge and then i knew i could pull the most out of everybody right and so the best thing

00:14:14.400 about playing 2a private ball is everybody plays you gotta get the most out of them so i knew how to

00:14:18.700 motivate them versus chewing their ass it was like in their face was we're gonna do this man we're gonna

00:14:23.320 do good and i think those leadership things and that hard work because i left everything on the field

00:14:27.980 also want to do well in school you know and things like that so that determination was always there

00:14:33.000 and really paid off later in a big way when i wanted to start this dream right you know right

00:14:38.220 because yeah yeah i guess now that's something you notice in some people some people are just

00:14:41.340 good motivators you know you feel like that's probably one of your strongest suits yeah because

00:14:44.860 look man you know when i went and worked in high school and college and restaurants it was more of a

00:14:48.960 you're doing wrong yell at you you know and it's negative reinforcement doesn't work in my business

00:14:53.800 if you go through raising canes you'll see a bunch of happy smiling people but they're going to crank out

00:14:57.300 your food as quick as they can good quality but it comes from positive motivational management look

00:15:02.080 like i go through my kitchens go see my crews all over the country right but i go through the

00:15:06.020 kitchen hey that's nice toast right and you think telling the college kid they're like yeah i'm just

00:15:09.680 grilling toast big deal they're like hey thanks hey thanks for the hard work y'all appreciate it

00:15:14.020 hearing good things you're doing here the community loves you positive positive positive because look

00:15:18.280 it comes down to it's hard it's hard to work long shifts in a restaurant right but they know i care

00:15:21.960 about them then they work even harder right we got a question that came in right here actually um

00:15:26.640 here we go right here for you and this isn't live just so you know okay and you know what i'm gonna pour

00:15:30.900 my liquid death in a canes cup for you today you want to do that with me bro i don't know drinking

00:15:36.180 something called liquid death but i trust you yeah it's just water man i mean unless you don't make

00:15:42.700 it through this it's a good water man they it's actually a really good water but uh it's good

00:15:48.180 that's delicious it really is man i don't know how they did it but they did it somehow yeah that's

00:15:52.720 delicious i'm a big water guy by the way so that's good stuff you too well cheers brother cheers

00:15:56.560 um yeah let's get to this question right here here we go hey todd hey theo i just wanted to come and

00:16:04.060 ask a quick question i'm out of raising cane 61 in munro and i wanted to share my favorite story with

00:16:09.380 todd was one time he came through uh and bought a whole bunch of cookies for everybody on staff and

00:16:14.320 i always thought that was such a nice thing to do so i wanted to ask todd what is your favorite memory

00:16:18.900 from raising canes would it be your first store would it be somewhere else would it be your time before

00:16:23.960 as like a boiler maker sockeye salmon fishing uh what you got gang gang boom boom gang baby that's

00:16:31.320 a good question and and so yeah do you have a favorite moment you have any there could be many

00:16:34.860 but do you have one that kind of stands out to you or a sentimental moment something that happened along

00:16:38.180 the way man you know i have so many of them and here's the thing when it's so hard to start something

00:16:43.480 you build a culture of appreciation like every restaurant matters to me every crew member matters to me

00:16:49.260 every box that goes out to every customer matters to me and so when you have this appreciation

00:16:53.760 all these moments so like going through there and seeing a crew working hard i'm like hey go get

00:16:58.700 them some cookies they're working hard do this thing is and seeing them care well he remembers that it's

00:17:03.260 just interesting i mean we you know we just ask for any for submissions of thoughts or questions so that

00:17:07.260 you know like uh it's just interesting that that's what someone would send yeah you know he remembered

00:17:11.060 that moment right and look he's going to carry that other things he does throughout his life and say

00:17:15.380 look treat people well and when you do that it comes back so everything is just the evolution of it

00:17:20.940 and where we're going now and now be able to do hundreds of locations a year and things like that

00:17:24.880 they're all special but i tell you the thing that means the most to me is is now having we you know

00:17:30.360 we do well and financially and then be able to do the things on behalf of my crew that help out people

00:17:36.240 right you know like helping people that aren't as unfortunate as us and i involve my crew when we do that

00:17:41.580 but i'm the representative i'm like it's off y'all's hard work i'd have to say those moments

00:17:45.200 are the most priceless to me because it's me and my team doing that and we can help out some people

00:17:49.620 that need it is there one that kind of stands out because or just one you'd like to cite even

00:17:53.400 to kind of like well so like so so here's a good example so uh batner's has a big buddy program

00:17:58.540 right and so it was the first thing got involved with their offices right down from the mothership

00:18:02.260 our first location but gay and i she's a wonderful woman she's devoted her life to help out these

00:18:06.840 these kids that just don't have the same opportunities i did growing up uh do what now gay who you're

00:18:12.140 gay back she's she's in charge of the big buddy program the director there

00:18:15.060 okay but seeing these kids go through and helping them when they're kids and exposing other things

00:18:19.320 and then be successful later in life they all come back they'll send letters and get these letters

00:18:23.260 back hey you influenced me here you did these things and now hey i got my law degree or hey i went into

00:18:28.720 entertainment or i did i went for my dreams and you didn't give up so i did i'd have to say that's the

00:18:33.220 best also just getting from our crew members man like the biggest moment recently is you know last

00:18:38.660 couple years my crew is as breaking me as a top 100 ceo in the country it's this glass door deal in all

00:18:43.540 categories only a couple of restaurants in this deal but that's them voting for that and so that

00:18:48.800 was the biggest recognition personally for me is i'm like my crew just said you know that i'm a good

00:18:53.140 leader i got almost 40 000 crew members i can't see them i don't know them all by name and things like

00:18:58.360 that but because of that leadership right that their leader treats them right and does that man you

00:19:02.940 talk about it what an honor right that's amazing man congratulations well it's quite an honor where does

00:19:08.000 it come from so like uh what was your dad like when you were young yeah just uh he was just a just

00:19:13.040 always exposed me to business kind of like i'm doing now and just always about hard work and then

00:19:17.860 always about be polite to people things like that those values and so i do the same things with my

00:19:22.660 kids now you know i'm like taking them through it's like like you met charlie earlier he's a good

00:19:27.000 young man you can tell he just has a good uh he's a yeah you can just tell he's a kind guy right when

00:19:32.880 you meet him yeah and that's what's the most important thing in life right i tell them the most

00:19:35.660 important thing you could ever do is be kind be kind be kind be kind to people man and no matter

00:19:39.760 where and look we they've grown up they've always had they're around money and nice things and this

00:19:44.360 amazing stuff like he gets to come here with you and he meets all the we went from kane brown's today

00:19:48.860 with the kane's food truck he gets to meet all these people oh cool yeah kane was on a couple of

00:19:52.100 months ago what a great dude but you know i mean like but but he gets it like hey and so what i'm

00:19:57.360 trying to teach these kids is we're in a great position yeah and for us we need to help other people out

00:20:01.160 amen yeah you know it's interesting i find um i five five it's tough because like i find it tough

00:20:07.600 whenever i get stressed not to carry that on to who people that i'm working with or in my work

00:20:13.480 environment it's been tough for me sometimes just personally just to like you know to it's been tough

00:20:20.720 for me to manage some of that sometimes yeah i think and i don't know if it's because i don't take

00:20:24.280 proper maybe enough care of myself or like invest in enough of my self-care kind of yeah to make sure

00:20:30.120 that i'm comfortable you know yeah sometimes i have this thing where i always want to struggle

00:20:34.440 yeah but that keeps you that probably keeps you keeps you driven right yeah it keeps me driven but

00:20:38.980 also it keeps me a little bit stressed out sometimes i think you know and so especially now

00:20:43.260 as my as my life has gotten bigger in the past couple years it's like so figuring that out for

00:20:48.020 myself has been kind of tough you know because yeah i'd love to be more in that space where i'm

00:20:52.380 leading through kindness all the time you know well you know i wish i could give you some some

00:20:56.460 advice on that and so the people that are closest to me working all the time they see the stressed

00:21:01.400 out todd they see because man you know how it goes stacked and you're a detailed guy like me and you

00:21:05.460 have to all the details and we need to be driving i hate inefficiency of time it's like we need to be

00:21:09.860 cranking so the people as close see kind of see that other todd it's like zip zip zip zip zip and

00:21:14.380 like we're supposed to be on this in 10 minutes but they understand and then i'll tell them look

00:21:18.320 sorry distressed and so they know this and then i'll take the times when i can get a breath

00:21:22.460 i appreciate you i do but i make sure when i go see my restaurants or i go see the big offices

00:21:28.360 and do those things i make sure they just feel nothing but love right because if they're not

00:21:33.940 around me enough they don't understand like todd's just stressed right now i need to be there they're

00:21:37.940 busting their butt every day all the things are doing so even if i see something that's not right

00:21:42.440 where it should be you know and they do a great job always but i'm not gonna go in and tell them

00:21:46.160 anything negative now i'll talk to the district manager later and people say hey we probably need to get

00:21:49.740 this better and i saw this but motivational but i'm the same way around your tight group and they

00:21:54.660 just know you and they love you and they know you've got all the pressure on you you know i think

00:21:58.040 it's hard for that to that to leave but uh we'll figure it out someday yeah or i guess i should just

00:22:02.780 do a better job sometimes i communicate with people when i am stressed to say hey look i'm i'm not i'm not

00:22:06.880 i'm a little stressed right now just to let you know if i act stressed it's because i am it's not

00:22:11.660 personal yeah and that's what i do but you always have to be on for everybody everybody wants theo you

00:22:15.880 know and the theo and that's a lot of pressure man that's a lot that's a lot to have

00:22:19.600 but yeah them understanding hey i'm tired i didn't sleep last night hey i'm gonna be stressed

00:22:23.240 right now just and they know you they know you they love you and i only got one chicken finger

00:22:26.480 i'm the chicken finger so you know the chicken finger and the batter's been all chewed off i feel

00:22:31.660 like sometimes man that's for sure um we got a question right here that came in for you man

00:22:37.340 what up todd what up theo this is uh barrett from sulfur louisiana what's up brother uh first of all

00:22:44.040 theo i want to say it's real fucked up that you announced the tour schedule and there's no dates in

00:22:49.240 louisiana i think you're big time now bouncing back and forth between la and nashville and you

00:22:53.720 forgot where you came from okay show some love man i will give us some shows alexandria i'm coming

00:22:58.380 to alexandria um todd i want to say uh personally thank you so much for um opening up the the cane

00:23:08.040 store here in sulfur uh right after the hurricanes whenever our area was affected by hurricane laura

00:23:13.500 uh hurricane delta y'all one of the first companies if not the first company that was uh you know

00:23:19.840 serving food giving people jobs like giving people stuff to eat man like just giving us some semblance

00:23:24.900 of life being back to normal so we really appreciate that honestly uh my question is you've already

00:23:31.240 conquered the chicken tender game so what's next you know i mean you got people like like chick-fil-a

00:23:38.020 they got all the sauces y'all gonna start messing with some new sauces uh you're gonna start doing

00:23:43.080 like bone-in chicken uh the real question when are we getting spicy tenders all right so let me know

00:23:49.720 what's next in the pipeline gang gang baby that's a good question yeah have there been uh is there

00:23:55.340 anything kind of new on the horizon or there have been items answer his question first i'm sorry go on

00:23:59.660 no it was a great question um but no i mean i've always believed in doing one thing and do it better

00:24:05.060 than anybody else and uh that's why we have raisin king's chicken our tagline is one love and i have

00:24:09.160 one love it says quality chicken finger meals and so if you do what you do well and consistently do

00:24:15.040 it great your customers will come back and let me give you a a reason let me tell you this like

00:24:20.120 it's us and chick-fil-a are one and two and quick service averaging volumes like mcdonald's sales are

00:24:24.900 like a million less than mine right it's my repetitive customers that come back because they're

00:24:29.160 gonna get that quality every time with a smiling face and so if i added different things right

00:24:34.360 added spicy i've added these one i wouldn't be as quick in the drive-thru right because the choices

00:24:39.260 go down i wouldn't be able to cook it cook to order like if you come through our line we have a cook

00:24:43.420 to order system that literally goes through i have that whole fry line set up to deliver that quality

00:24:47.740 meal right with the best quality you can get but if i added all these different things bone-in chicken

00:24:52.320 takes different times i'd have whole times my quality would go down my speed would go down

00:24:55.900 and it wouldn't be our concept our concept is quality food spurred with fast food speed and convenience

00:25:00.720 and adding different things and losing focus would lose while we're special so when you even say the

00:25:06.040 choices so you're even talking to the minutiae of the fact that somebody then at a drive-thru

00:25:10.980 is having to make choices and that's going to take more time that's going to take more time right

00:25:15.040 wow it's interesting i've never thought of the time it takes not only on the time on my side of the

00:25:19.680 counter as the as the as the company but the time it takes the other like managing the time of the

00:25:26.540 person showing up without even real without them even really realizing it yeah i mean we're over

00:25:30.660 60 percent drive-thru people want to come through and they want to get it quick right people know

00:25:34.240 their order of canes box no salt extra toast extra sauce boom sweet tea you're out the door or you're

00:25:38.920 out through the drive-thru and so we want to keep that time to a meal so i mean even like not distracting

00:25:44.080 things you know that are going on like so even we have like right now i did this restaurant recovery

00:25:48.280 show but i got a you know picture of me and snoop helping this one restaurant out even that makes

00:25:52.340 people stop for a little bit and go do to do maybe ask a question in the window then we're like hey we need to

00:25:56.120 rethink this right i want them getting through because i got 20 cars behind them yeah you know

00:26:01.120 wow wow that's interesting man uh was there now was there ever a moment along the way where somebody's

00:26:07.060 like hey man you know you guys need to do uh always always huh always the the experts are always like hey

00:26:15.160 you know you guys really need to add a chicken finger salad you know the health trends on the da da da

00:26:21.020 this that and the other and when i was younger i listened a little more because i'm like wait maybe

00:26:25.400 these people are smarter than me maybe they know more than me and i'm look i'm always constantly

00:26:29.140 learning but my gut said no because if i do that chicken finger salad chicken finger salad the

00:26:33.900 quality is not not really there you know it's not the same thing it won't be craveable and they want

00:26:38.960 to come back and so the people told me but they scared me they were like well you're gonna get the

00:26:42.640 cancel vote like if one person in the car one of the parents wants it they're not gonna go to you

00:26:47.400 go somewhere else i'm like no if the kids are gonna push them because they want that quality right

00:26:51.700 staying true to what i've done not listening i know who i am and i'm not trying to be all things

00:26:58.300 to all people right because if you try to be that man you're gonna you're gonna not not be anything to

00:27:02.300 anybody right i want that craveable customer we call them caniacs and uh it's paid off brother yeah

00:27:08.100 and i thought it was cocaine at first man trust me because i remember the first time i ever did cocaine

00:27:12.180 was down at lsu man and i took a run i thought it was performance enhancing drug i didn't know that it

00:27:16.820 was like a drug for just night use or whatever so i went on a run down by blue bonnet down by the

00:27:22.080 railroad tracks dude i probably ran almost 15 miles oh jesus yeah it was not good dude that was a bad

00:27:26.600 that was a not good for the heart yeah good for the heart bro i still sometimes i can still feel my

00:27:31.160 heart feels like it has a a horse hoof in it man every now and then it gets a little trotty um

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00:28:18.420 richardson and celebrity cameos as some of your favorite marvel heroes marvel's modok series premiere

00:28:25.180 may 21st only on hulu the most joy i had in my career was before people knew that i was funny

00:28:32.920 i mean some people knew but before like a decent amount of people knew uh man because then you had

00:28:38.400 the element of surprise you know there was something nice about the element of surprise like

00:28:44.060 you're gonna be surprised you know you can be surprised when i like this joke but yeah things

00:28:48.320 right right yeah and now people probably expect it right yeah now people expect it which is great but

00:28:52.960 it it's you can you can't really replicate that when you when they didn't know yeah yeah yeah you know

00:29:00.420 was there moments like i noticed in my business as my career goes on that there are times where it's

00:29:05.560 like my career feels like it's on a little bit of like a you know on elon musk's golf cart like it's

00:29:11.920 really cruising you know and then there's times where it kind of has lulls and i start to wonder

00:29:15.660 what's going on take me through some of the trajectory of how you guys got out of one location

00:29:20.560 and then what started to happen and if there were times where you felt like okay this is where we've

00:29:26.320 kind of maximized um did you get into the business like how do you have to transition from being at

00:29:32.800 the place to then getting more into the business side of it and uh just take me through some of

00:29:37.400 that please well except for me you know the whole business has been one series of getting uh getting

00:29:42.300 your butt kicked and learning from those mistakes right so if you're not making mistakes you're not

00:29:46.160 getting out in the middle of things right and so you know one restaurant to the second was the

00:29:50.320 hardest growth we ever had you know i grew too quick you know it was other side of campus the one

00:29:54.420 on lee drive you probably went to that one too i probably fried your chicken late night there

00:29:58.020 and but but i wasn't i didn't have my staff ready i didn't have all my people together and like

00:30:02.660 all some people wouldn't show up on shifts i'm like wait i can't be at both restaurants and then

00:30:06.140 getting butt kicked there that's actually when my my partner ended up saying hey man this just isn't

00:30:10.460 for me oh wow so it really rattled the cage a little well he just was like look you're okay coming

00:30:14.960 back all the time and like when i have time when you have time off you'll go work on schedules and

00:30:18.840 doing learning better training programs he's like i want to go back read the wall street journal he was

00:30:22.220 just more of that business side of it you know but like going from there then i grew

00:30:25.700 five restaurants in five months these old drive-through double drive-throughs and baton

00:30:29.340 ruse were going once again i stretched us too much we did a good job opening up in lafayette

00:30:34.200 which is the first one lafayette louisiana first one out of the market uh crushed it there but then

00:30:37.880 i'm like i gotta hit dallas and houston there's lsu grads there but i grew in both those markets i

00:30:42.460 didn't set them up properly i grew too quick i'm a butt kicked in both of them lost a bunch of money

00:30:46.720 till i could bring it back up series of things like that and now what so if there was suggest so how how would

00:30:51.940 you have done it differently looking back on it a little bit if you could have done it differently well

00:30:55.160 just so people can learn yeah yeah so for me personally it uh and now with the scale of

00:31:00.140 business is it was actually good for me to go and make those mistakes because now like i know it

00:31:04.560 sounds like 100 locations down is a lot but look i'm 25 years in the business right we're at that

00:31:08.100 point i can open quality locations so if i didn't learn the hard way that's the way i learn you know

00:31:13.080 but if i if i didn't have to learn the hard way when i moved to dallas and houston to put those

00:31:17.540 restaurants in there i would have slowed down made sure i had the right team and that they were

00:31:22.780 properly supported i mean these people more people didn't have the right support for me

00:31:26.120 they worked themselves to the bone that didn't feel good right you know i would have gone the

00:31:30.220 right way taking my time done it right now still quick you know and got open and did the things

00:31:35.320 this but i would take a lot more time setting it up plus the branding in those areas i thought you

00:31:38.740 just opened the doors and everybody knew you and came in no no it's like a ghost town now i'm back

00:31:43.820 on the streets trying to get people in and so i would have taken my time built a more strategic plan

00:31:48.400 and then grew from there but that helped because when i went in a new market still to today look i'm

00:31:52.740 coming into nashville now i got the food truck here it's going around to see people like seeding

00:31:56.940 the location i'm here personally people getting to know me things like that those things have stayed

00:32:01.480 with me and our openings since those times have been a lot more successful you know it's interesting

00:32:05.660 to hear some of that like uh jimmy john uh john liato you know he came he's been on the podcast and

00:32:10.160 he stopped by this morning to say hey to you which i thought was really nice well again and um

00:32:13.940 he talked about whenever they first started franchising how it just got away from him and

00:32:19.400 the stores weren't how he needed them to be and he had to go on like a cross-country tour to all of

00:32:25.100 the locations yeah and this and and either buy them back from the people if they felt like it wasn't

00:32:30.480 really the right fit or to keep them you know to inspire them and kind of you know give actually put

00:32:35.980 his stamp on on the way it should be done right and to help them you know and uh i thought that was

00:32:41.160 pretty fascinating that that seemed like a moment where he really had to get back out there and almost

00:32:45.220 do more work than he had to do in the beginning absolutely because you know entrepreneurs you're

00:32:49.340 excitable and you want to grow and you want to build you create look that's our art our art is our

00:32:54.220 business is growing right and spreading it we get happy when new people become raving fans of our

00:32:58.920 brands it's it's it's what our gift of the world is and uh but you get you get sucked in and you grow

00:33:04.260 too quick and then you gotta go back and fix it it's way harder to fix it than to go in the right way

00:33:08.300 yeah and so the right way would be what just a little bit just be a little more patient you think

00:33:13.260 like let things take longer than you think they're going to yeah look go in with the right team and so

00:33:18.480 look so my growth i'm i'm just about all company restaurants in the united states i got the franchise

00:33:22.760 what does that mean sorry just so we know well so like so most people like quick service are

00:33:26.700 franchise models right you know so you have corporate they have you know all the intellectual

00:33:30.560 properties the name like mcdonald's is a franchise model franchise model right subways franchise model

00:33:36.200 taco bell and so they have the systems and processes then you go with local franchisees who

00:33:41.660 basically license or franchise your concept and then they go run those restaurants so they do it

00:33:46.220 you lose a lot of control when you do that you have to have a real good franchisees and so for me i would

00:33:51.860 rather open company restaurants because i can control them i mean i want these things run exceptionally

00:33:56.460 well it's all personal to me and so i have more control and i choose to partner with the restaurant

00:34:01.640 partner i have at that restaurant who he or she is like working their butt off they're the todd graves

00:34:07.140 in their trade area where they live and so for me it's a lot more debt you know people from

00:34:12.000 corporations will franchise because the local franchisees will have to put in the debt on the

00:34:15.800 building and you know all the startup money and things like that i'd rather take that on with my

00:34:20.780 credit facility partner with my internal people let them become wealthy and and their family get to enjoy

00:34:26.780 that and to do it but so but taking your time is setting it up getting the right people during your

00:34:32.740 restaurant whether it's a franchisee or it's company you need to set those people up for success

00:34:37.160 you need to train train over train you need to have so much support going in to get them started because

00:34:41.820 it's hard to get get that cash flow going it's hard to get that buzz going in your community so

00:34:46.280 slowing down being strategic with growth and i'm glad you're bringing this up because this is someone

00:34:50.680 might be listing right now that's going to grow or something and they're going to go too quick and it's

00:34:54.840 like you will have to come back and fix it and then you'll slow down your growth so much set it up

00:35:00.220 with the right people train properly then give them support i want to let you guys know that tickets

00:35:04.940 are now available at theovan.com slash tour we have uh added shows in st louis and durham

00:35:14.920 as well as albany new york and we are adding another one in columbus as well they're on sale for

00:35:22.100 charlotte cincinnati chattanooga knoxville wilmington wilkes-buyer minneapolis charleston

00:35:29.100 richmond baltimore buffalo thank you very much check it out theovan.com slash tour and thank

00:35:36.520 you so much for letting me live out my dream i'm excited to see you there um i look good here

00:35:41.400 yeah you look great your hair looks great by the way oh thank you very much man amazing yeah it's

00:35:45.560 coming in well man i've had hair transplants too i've had hair taken out of the back and put in the

00:35:49.660 front oh no shit yeah it's thick man thanks man it's pretty cool i like getting surgery so it's

00:35:54.220 like for me because i like just you wake up there and there's people around like everybody cares about

00:35:59.940 you you know i feel like so cared about when i'm at the surgery place but um well i've had the same

00:36:04.500 haircut since i've been three have you you know what i could almost see that man i'm old hair that's

00:36:09.720 was it a did you go to church with that cut or no oh yeah they used to put a bowl around the head

00:36:13.460 and cut it now i'm not that thick anymore so i can't use the bowl technique dude my mom used to take

00:36:18.140 me to this lady named miss bobby well first of all our our our bus driver would cut our hair in

00:36:23.040 covington so mr this dude mr nat every like two weeks he would park the bus on the way home for a

00:36:27.940 dollar fifty he would cut your hair dude he literally would just go around the bus everybody

00:36:32.060 got the same cut there you go like literally we all looked like we were part of some cult without

00:36:37.020 kool-aid right like just everybody was just you show up you just have hair all over your mom i was

00:36:41.760 like what happened the bus driver i love it i got my hair cut by a guy named rl it was this place

00:36:46.240 called headquarters and remember back then like the barbers like they were family like they got

00:36:51.280 it and we got in high school so all my friends went to rl we were like hey can you do this cool

00:36:55.380 cut this thing like he'd listen yeah yeah yeah finally had to leave rl you know and we all did

00:37:01.840 and he took it personal he hadn't talked to me to this day damn i believe that man i remember those

00:37:06.860 days they always had the combs in that little cup oh yeah remember that blue liquid or whatever

00:37:11.180 sitting in there it always felt like it was for your dad you know yeah oh god that shit was crazy

00:37:16.600 man and they would get that other thing with that kind of like smoke in it or whatever and put it on

00:37:20.860 your neck yeah yeah what was that i don't know it's got that dust yeah it's that powder it made me all

00:37:24.940 chalky man i'm like what is this they thought that was like the nice touch in the end yeah yeah it was

00:37:29.280 a little bit old school yeah it was a little bit i always left out of there looking like benjamin

00:37:32.960 franklin a little bit i feel like um we got a question that came up right here for you uh let's get into it

00:37:38.360 hi todd and theo this is ethan from long beach california todd i'm a huge fan of your company

00:37:45.280 everyone at your stores is always in such a good mood and is so friendly um i would love to hear

00:37:50.360 more about this restaurant recovery project you're doing it sounds like an awesome cause to support

00:37:55.220 small businesses and yeah i really think it's going to be a great thing for especially during

00:38:00.000 this time have a great day thanks brother hey thank you yeah so when the pandemic started

00:38:06.120 our business sales actually went up okay okay so we have drive-thru format so that became a thing

00:38:11.860 i don't know if you remember when it when it started of course you do but it was like essential

00:38:15.800 business and like people couldn't go to restaurants but they could go through drive-thrus oh wow so

00:38:19.420 drive-thru was suddenly just the luckiest thing on earth dude exactly and so man like our sales go up

00:38:24.740 but we're up like 10 even up to 20 right it didn't feel good because where we're getting that

00:38:29.480 business from was these family-owned independent restaurants that predominantly dine-in

00:38:33.660 as i thought what we could do and i mean i got on social media and stuff like support small

00:38:37.420 business think about going to them they're suffering us chains are fine you know and it's

00:38:41.400 like what can i do i've done tv before i understand the the power of it and i said well you know what

00:38:46.240 being an entrepreneur i said look i went hired a production company started restaurant recovery

00:38:49.960 i knew i could do it during that time my team was good so i picked 10 markets where canes

00:38:54.580 markets are so i could use our help with our people pick these legendary restaurants these family

00:39:01.040 restaurants are just really going through a hard time took in a team kind of like an extreme home

00:39:04.540 makeover deal got them exposure involved a lot of my celeb friends to come help out too which was

00:39:09.220 really special and neat yeah i saw rob schneider did one yeah yeah schneider was nice enough to come

00:39:13.400 out and do uh the phoenix episode and like just this family she's a pakistani lady and does the business

00:39:18.920 with her son omar and i mean look they they serve just really really good food but they're in tempe

00:39:24.340 and the university shut down no classes oh yeah they're just gone you know overnight and so i brought

00:39:30.820 rob in uh also deandre hopkins came in oh that's cool dude he came in the monday after the catch and

00:39:36.300 he's famous catch in the end zone yeah and so i got him to come out and these are just community guys

00:39:40.160 right so uh rob's like yes i'll help out deandre's like yes i'll come out so deandre fired up my team

00:39:45.960 we had to get this thing done in 48 hours so he started off they were like wow work production even

00:39:50.640 went higher than i could think this group works real hard and then rob came in with a family like

00:39:54.820 look there you could see the stress on their face but him coming in funny guy caring they're laughing

00:39:59.000 like look what's what's we're gonna get through this together really great man and basically the

00:40:03.760 thing i was able to see more than anything else is they're all pretty predominantly dining room

00:40:08.320 business that was gone taken away so i needed to put them into like make them a to-go machine right

00:40:13.160 which sounds easy but it's not like to do it right you gotta have mobile ordering you gotta have

00:40:18.180 curbside delivery takes a lot of technology right right it's not something a restaurant owner is

00:40:22.320 just trying to keep the business open every day doing racking up credit card debt keeping their

00:40:27.240 people employed yeah but you could do that right especially if it's not a man like a you know you

00:40:31.420 think of a small business guy he shows up he puts the pot on the stove in the morning and starts making

00:40:35.900 the gazpacho or whatever it is like so yeah that person isn't going to go from that to having that app

00:40:40.800 or that ability to uh to make things mobile they don't have the resources for that right so i could go in

00:40:46.060 and help them do that and then preserve these places right i mean look you know i'm a chain

00:40:51.340 and i like getting business obviously right we do a good job and we work hard for it but

00:40:56.220 we have all the advantages i got a huge marketing budget right i got big shiny buildings right in

00:41:01.880 the best locations and people see that and it's that constant state of mind so what i try to tell

00:41:05.820 people is hey i'm glad you came to canes but look think about that neighborhood restaurant that you

00:41:10.340 love like they need your business they don't make that much money and when they're gone

00:41:14.260 they get replaced by a high rise or a chain and we don't need more of those we need those

00:41:18.820 legendary restaurants diversity of thoughts small business go to that small hardware store

00:41:22.700 you got to go to the big box to get some stuff go that little hardware shop go go support that

00:41:26.540 small business a background backbone of our country plus different thoughts it makes things

00:41:30.880 crazy they're the cultural centers of our neighborhood we need to support them yeah do you

00:41:34.720 worry about i know like minimum wage increase and stuff like that do you worry about that affecting

00:41:38.400 businesses like i i hear stuff about like that do you worry about that affecting small

00:41:42.300 businesses yeah i worry about the people that just don't have enough sales to support it and might

00:41:47.080 not have as sophisticated pricing strategies okay so for me you know quick service restaurants

00:41:53.460 might make between five and ten percent bottom line okay so everybody that comes in you're doing

00:41:58.720 good if you made five cents on a dollar 10 10 cents on a dollar you're doing great and so that

00:42:03.400 means if somebody spends a dollar you make 10 cents you make doing well it's usually five between

00:42:07.540 five cents and ten cents so there's just not much margin there right wow and between that five and

00:42:12.240 ten cents and for every dollar spent there when you have commodity pressures and things like that

00:42:16.700 which price of chicken goes up then it just goes down and so you just got slim margins that's for

00:42:20.980 before taxes that's five cents to ten cents a dollar before then you go get the taxes so if i

00:42:25.340 spend ten dollars at a raising canes or at a at a what's the quick service you talk yeah quick

00:42:30.280 service fast food okay so if i spend ten dollars at a quick service restaurant

00:42:33.620 then if they're making ten cents of that so if they're making a dollar out of ten dollars that

00:42:39.160 i spend then they're doing well doing well wow that's ten percent doing well then that's before

00:42:42.980 taxes right wow and that's real numbers huh that's real numbers and so when you think about it

00:42:46.760 we don't have margin to share right because um if labor prices go up right and you got to do it

00:42:55.460 you have to pass it on to the customer there's no way that you can supply it because if it goes below

00:43:00.080 five percent and gets lower you can't lose money well and then you can't go you're not going to go

00:43:04.140 put the uh investment into build and grow and create more jobs and do it right so in the next

00:43:08.820 location the roa is not there and so you one you wouldn't spend the money and two the banks are

00:43:12.640 gonna be like hey you're not making return on investment like we're not gonna continue to lend

00:43:15.640 you money and so just the margins are that small but so for me it doesn't it doesn't hurt

00:43:20.660 canes because you're gonna eventually pass it on right wages go up then you're gonna raise the

00:43:25.920 price of the chicken finger box right it's just gonna go up and we have and you can't do that

00:43:29.780 overnight you have to stage into it and so we're we just have a lot of resources man i mean like i

00:43:34.440 have a strategy for pricing the tough artists for small business that don't think about that pricing

00:43:39.580 and then they don't want to do it the next thing you know their their margins go too small but

00:43:43.480 look it's going there fifteen dollars uh uh an hour minimum wage we're going there i just i give

00:43:49.460 advice to small business i'm like you have to pass it on and we're going to go up but plan your

00:43:53.720 pricing strategies ease into it and let your customers know hey look just it's it's labor

00:43:58.680 labor prices and so it goes up so it doesn't really concern me it's a pricing strategies for

00:44:03.880 small business that right because you have such a broad such a breadth of of information you can

00:44:08.720 pull in you can look at it and you can like plan on a big scale but for someone who's just kind of

00:44:13.380 like made their menu and it's very basic and they're not thinking like oh well if the cost of

00:44:17.840 this goes up 50 cents then i don't even make any money until probably six months down the line when

00:44:22.640 they look at their books and like what happened what happened that's exactly what happens and they

00:44:25.980 don't these all these small business owners they are so reluctant to take price increases they don't

00:44:29.720 want their customers to pay i'm like i know you have to or you're going to be out of business you

00:44:32.980 know isn't that interesting about that about that about sometimes about people don't want to charge

00:44:38.100 like i get that way sometimes like i don't want to make my tickets real expensive you know i don't want

00:44:42.840 to even though sometimes i'll see other people i'm like holy smokes you know that guy's tickets

00:44:48.200 that price that's crazy you know but i'll get nervous about that i don't know if it's nervous i don't

00:44:54.200 want to bother i don't want to i don't know what it is i know i think i'm gonna take a crack at it

00:44:59.700 you started from nothing and you appreciate every fan and it means something to you so it's you take

00:45:06.000 it personal right and so you generally hold back same with small business right they started from

00:45:10.340 nothing they've scratched it called and now they have a living and they don't want to pass that on

00:45:14.940 they're like i don't want to do that to my customers i would imagine you're probably the same way

00:45:17.980 yeah and it's exact opposite in big corporate america especially in restaurants like those cfo types are

00:45:23.000 like they are have their pricing it's not a personal decision it's all a financial decision

00:45:27.560 that they're doing it's different for people that that care you know is it interesting at a certain

00:45:33.160 point as you grow and as things turn more from like sit like manning a fryer to um

00:45:39.560 to like business like i noticed with business the more business i start doing the more business i have

00:45:48.120 to do yeah you know and so it's tough because you want to grow and you want to make things bigger and

00:45:55.220 give other people opportunities but it also like it's it's tough to be like how much is enough

00:46:02.660 business you know how much is enough revenue like how much is enough you know have there been moments

00:46:08.500 in your world where you've kind of battled with that kind of stuff or yeah absolutely you know all on

00:46:13.300 the way and so what i had to set for myself was my personal goals and what ultimately i see happiness

00:46:21.920 being for me okay and so i set the vision for raising canes and this is our vision statement

00:46:27.280 is to have locations all over the world be known as the brand for quality chicken finger meals okay

00:46:32.960 great crew cool culture and active community involvement okay so that's me happiness right and so

00:46:39.700 look i believe god made me good at this for a reason and that's to be able to help people right

00:46:43.900 but when i set that vision you think about it's not just i want to have locations all the world

00:46:47.480 there's nothing about i want to make a bunch of money i don't have all these things in there

00:46:50.100 it's literally wow went to canes great food then oh wow friendly crew cool culture and then they

00:46:57.760 give money back and they work in the communities so that's guided me right and so when i know i i know

00:47:02.280 i need to do that then i'm going to grow it and so mine's an infinite vision like i i won't see it all

00:47:07.640 over the world you know i mean i'm gonna we're starting to grow but i can't develop the whole

00:47:11.040 world you know i mean by the time i'm you know god willing i'll live a long life but you know those

00:47:16.320 things are going so that's helped to guide me right and so i passed up my financial goals really

00:47:21.560 early on and so for me is when time hits the grind hits and it always hits it kept me motivated when i

00:47:29.320 didn't have the team around me that helped support me always had people that worked hard and did but i

00:47:32.820 couldn't afford the teams i do now right i knew i'd get to this point and look by the grace of god

00:47:38.580 right now i got really really solid teams very much more smarter than i am in the respective things

00:47:43.500 they do so we're a stronger team and i feel like now just now and i'm pushing 50 i'm 49 now almost

00:47:49.920 25 years in business just now that i'm not like waking up every morning with that thing in my belly

00:47:54.140 but i'm i'm hitting that vision so uh wow anyway but different times it hit i'm like oh my god todd you

00:47:59.740 know you're so stressed out you know you haven't you haven't relaxed or you haven't done time family

00:48:05.520 and things like that and then i was like but look that vision puts me through ultimately it's going

00:48:09.640 to really help people and and you just got to stick with it and go you know and so that was just my

00:48:14.240 personal thing and so that's paid off by setting real goals like people need to set real goals and

00:48:18.560 real vision because then you know what you're working for some people get beyond that and look they

00:48:22.620 don't want to grow like me all over the world they want to do certain things and in all walks of life

00:48:25.720 and then they get lost in wait a minute this isn't what i really wanted to do and it wasn't what i

00:48:29.620 wanted to do to be happy right so now they're bigger they're this but they're not happy right

00:48:33.440 and that it's kind of a heartbreaker you know at times you know so i think people need to think

00:48:36.720 strategically where am i going you know it's interesting man yeah i think about that sometimes

00:48:41.460 like i think one of our original goals with podcasting was just to kind of share what we're

00:48:44.880 thinking and feeling and then to we started getting into like helping and like giving back

00:48:49.060 we do some stuff for single moms and things like that where we try to we haven't gotten it like

00:48:53.060 incorporated yet so we could make it like a real non-profit you know that that arm of it

00:48:57.700 but i certainly hope to at some point um but sometimes i have to remember that that's what's

00:49:02.340 kind of important you know yeah that's leaving something positive you know it almost feels so

00:49:07.240 stale to make money if there's not some positive part of it in a way there's got to be something

00:49:13.520 greater than us to go do it right and look man i'm at a point now where i can do a lot of things

00:49:18.720 and with the scale of business and do it giving you get so much more back right and then it just gives

00:49:24.620 your life purpose right so giving comes another way it's not just charity just giving money to

00:49:29.400 these things it's inspiring people you know it's it's it's someone saying hey i have this dream and

00:49:34.620 like look this chicken finger guy did it even commercial fish in alaska reconstructed the first

00:49:38.960 place but he's working hard and i can do it you know what i mean those things are gifts that

00:49:43.220 you can give people look how much have we learned from people on the way you know i mean people

00:49:47.160 say hey you're a self-made man i'm like no i'm not man i'm a collection of what i wanted to do

00:49:52.100 but help but people along the way right you know so we're giving back parts really cool

00:49:56.560 what were some um was it was there an item so don't forget was there a uh

00:50:01.300 was there a menu item you guys ever tried like a banana pudding was there something you guys ever

00:50:07.980 came out with or tried or that was the closest one even early on man no i just stick stuck with

00:50:13.420 that one love brother same menu since day one man and just knowing that but that's been a big key to

00:50:19.400 my success is is just like i said knowing that's what i do stay focused eclair in there and nothing

00:50:25.060 man i'd never even had a dessert and i'm not anti-dessert i'm not anti-dessert it just would

00:50:29.320 take focus off of what we're doing you know and so yeah look so here's an interesting thing in san

00:50:34.220 antonio airport we went in there they have city mandates and so you had to have a healthy item you

00:50:39.240 had to add uh breakfast and then they even wanted dessert when it well-rounded so we added a chicken

00:50:44.420 finger salad for them right it started off 20 of sales of chicken finger salad and then it slowly

00:50:49.700 drifted back then it went rapid and became one percent of sales because people are like once

00:50:53.900 they tried the chicken fingers it just shows you like right it's it's a non-item for me right we

00:50:58.780 have these great cookies all this stuff is people need dessert canes you finish that man you're good

00:51:02.640 to go so then but but for those locations you had to have that city mandates right they just need

00:51:08.900 yeah they just the city council says hey we need healthy we need we need these things to make it

00:51:13.320 well-rounded because like sometimes it scares them to a concept like mine going in because it's just

00:51:17.940 that one thing right we don't have that problem anymore now what uh dessert did y'all put in that

00:51:21.920 airport it's cookies they have these great chocolate cookies you know and i could get the pucks and i mean

00:51:26.400 i tried thousands of cookies and all that but like in the end you know people got in the beginning but

00:51:30.440 that meal's so flavorful and good that cookie couldn't match that chicken i was i'm not a cookie guy i can't

00:51:35.220 make that same kind of dessert so look everything on my menu has to be exceptional right freshly

00:51:40.320 brewed tea look i sourced my tea from three different countries and like i know the tea

00:51:44.400 leaves are coming in freshly squeezed lemonade i can do it on crushed ice so it's like laser focus

00:51:49.700 on these items being good and then keeping that what's hard is when you scale like i have so many

00:51:54.600 different procurements across the country to get these products i'm constantly trying our food we have

00:51:58.360 actually a big r&d culinary team just to make sure it stays consistent right wow man i uh

00:52:06.760 was there at certain points did you have to get help like one thing i struggle with sometimes is

00:52:12.420 asking for help you know or sourcing out work you know that sort of thing like knowing that it's not

00:52:19.160 going to be done how i want it to be done that sort of thing you know some control issues probably just

00:52:23.280 things that i use as a child that would help me control my world you know but that is now as an adult

00:52:29.480 aren't really as helpful not to just like trust my employees that i that i trust you know i don't have a

00:52:33.560 bunch of employees but just like i noticed that even in all in all walks of my life even in

00:52:37.100 relationships like to trust somebody to care about me all that kind of stuff did you notice in in your

00:52:42.440 in your business were there moments where it was like okay i'm not doing like was it tough to go

00:52:48.800 into that space because obviously you you can't do all this alone what was some of that experience

00:52:52.280 like was it hard for you as a person to do some of that oh man it was so hard right so i was a person

00:52:57.580 frying everybody's chicken you know every piece of equipment like the first location you used to go to

00:53:02.520 man like i put in every board i mean i like literally that's my baby so i was used to doing

00:53:07.020 all of it was about serrano's oh yeah yeah yeah yeah right there on that right the court varsity

00:53:11.620 the serrano's and canes right oh yeah my ex-girlfriend used to work at serrano's good margarita yeah they

00:53:17.320 had i mean they had everything in there dude everything was good good margarita it's uh it's

00:53:21.100 something else now unfortunately it's gone but chimes are still there yeah and they just added a

00:53:24.840 rooftop at chimes you see that oh man i live a minute from there man oh wow there and have beers all

00:53:29.380 the time man okay this time of year was nice and this is lsu this is lsu campus for listeners that

00:53:34.020 don't know this is all right off of the uh north gates of lsu campus and it's nice being part of

00:53:37.780 that community because you have all the ones louis you know the breakfast spot you know yeah me and

00:53:41.420 my mother went there a couple weeks ago actually there you go and like frenchie's always in there

00:53:44.660 cooking your food and clark has highland coffees and you have you have chimes you have the varsity

00:53:49.040 you have raising canes original mothership and that whole community is great i actually have the

00:53:52.760 raising canes i have i got i've lived in the apartment behind the first canes and so literally

00:53:57.720 that's where i started construction did everything there that's why my dog was out there cane and a

00:54:02.440 friend said you ought to name it raising canes after your dog like oh nice all happened because

00:54:06.500 it was right there it's nice being part of the community yeah you guys built that dog park too

00:54:10.180 over there yeah yeah yeah i love that yeah dude i took my nephew there so i didn't know where to take

00:54:14.120 him we didn't even have a dog so i took him over there my brother let me watch him for a couple hours

00:54:18.460 dude i took him over there he was literally tackling basset hounds out there it was unbelievable man

00:54:23.560 and then something nipped at him i think a little ibu shiba inu or something nipped at him and so

00:54:28.140 we had to take him home but yeah man that kid could catch a ball in his mouth dude no doubt man

00:54:32.540 my nephew's a wildcat yeah i took him right there it's cool i love it you didn't have a dog but you're

00:54:37.300 like i'll bring you there'll be dogs you can play oh i took him there too yeah he was really dangerous

00:54:40.960 man but he did upgrade there but uh at the dog park with new sections it got used so much we couldn't

00:54:46.180 even keep grass and stuff so uh it's nice over there thank you guys for doing that um but just look back

00:54:50.580 to your deal on the on the being able to like the control so i did the control deal and i'm extremely

00:54:55.180 detailed and this is my baby and so over time it really hindered me it really did it hurt our growth

00:55:01.800 it hurt our creative thinking because i was just overly overly controlling and then i learned it's

00:55:07.760 kind of a maturity thing right over time then you say hey you look at a series of getting screwed up

00:55:13.440 and getting beat up and getting tired and all those things along the way you're like look i need to bring

00:55:17.400 in people and this the biggest strength as you build your teams is bring in people that are

00:55:20.960 smarter than you you know wow not a threat bring in people that are good at their own respective ways

00:55:25.160 and then you do it but it doesn't mean not being a detailed oriented it doesn't mean you're not into

00:55:29.540 the details and you're not helping people to like oh just delegate like just delegate like what kind of

00:55:34.340 word is that no it's it's work with great leaders but still be in the details but it helps to

00:55:38.980 scale you so i had to learn that way and i tell you it's the best of my workload thinking about right now

00:55:44.540 600 locations we'll do 100 next year but my workload's better than it ever has been and my

00:55:48.780 balance of life because i've trusted my teams i'm into the details right i'm still doing that

00:55:53.820 but i've trusted people to come in that are better than me and grow so that was a big big maturity

00:55:59.000 learning for me man it's hard it's hard is it hard and then you screw up again and then you run

00:56:04.240 people off because they're like i don't hear about things and so i finally and like i said now i'm

00:56:09.360 pushing 50 i've really kind of matured into that doing but it's interesting interesting too it's like

00:56:14.000 and it's really important it's not details you should be in the details so people used to tell

00:56:18.740 me the experts again like you just won't know what these things are going on you can't do these things

00:56:23.100 when you get big right well i'm bigger than all of them now right and so but like i do know this like

00:56:28.160 my co-ceo aj kumaron they said you can't keep writing notes to people he wrote a thousand notes the

00:56:33.980 other day right he's like i'm going to take my time and do the things because i'm going to scale

00:56:38.320 you know um uh edison swest swest is the boating company off of uh louisiana

00:56:43.560 well anyway he built various west he built these boats you know crew boats all this stuff to support

00:56:48.640 huge company multi-billion dollar company he even got down to the details in his business

00:56:52.860 to know how much the bottled waters they were spending because there was just this rampant

00:56:57.200 spending on bottled waters no one was looking at he said look it's not just the bottled waters

00:57:01.180 our company makes billions of dollars but that carries over to everything else him staying in the

00:57:05.920 details like most successful people people i know stay in the details but they trust people

00:57:09.940 interesting balance it's hard it's hard man it is hard and then you get your butt kicked so many

00:57:15.820 times and finally you kind of settle into it and see the see the strength of it almost out of

00:57:20.360 exhaustion huh yeah were you surprised whenever you started to trust people how things flourish

00:57:24.820 were you almost shocked absolutely and it was also trial and error me getting used to it and also

00:57:29.100 trusted some people that weren't as great as they should have been and we fall back but look it's just

00:57:33.980 more mistakes and you learn from them i've gotten really good at understanding talented people but

00:57:39.680 at canes if you're gonna work at canes you can be the smartest person in the world and good at what

00:57:43.140 you do if you don't have heart or align with the values of our company or this vision you don't work

00:57:48.220 out and it's really interesting so what i used to do to do serious interviews which i thought was

00:57:53.620 is about five times as long now i mean like for people's positions like we spend so much more time

00:57:58.860 because i don't want them to come in and not be successful this is these people's lives and

00:58:02.560 important as mine but taking that extra time then it's then it's people you can trust better right

00:58:07.440 and you go through that process what type of person does it take to run a uh run a store to be a

00:58:14.040 partner in that business what type of you know you must know by now what type of person it takes

00:58:19.320 yeah first off it takes someone that loves the food business right it's it's interesting business

00:58:24.140 it's a hard business you got to love it so look on my sleeve at raisin canes it says fry cook

00:58:28.560 cashier my business card says founder chairman ceo fry cook cashier it's like you got to be a

00:58:34.860 fry cook cashier you got to love it i like working fry lines i like working drive through i love the

00:58:38.580 pace of the business i like cooking you know all these things and so you have to get someone that

00:58:43.120 just loves that business you have to get somebody that's positive like like we talked about that

00:58:48.280 positive motivational management people that want to encourage people through because you get so much

00:58:52.540 more with honey than you try more flies with honey than uh than whatever else vinegar i think

00:58:57.360 scotch yeah or scotch yeah yeah so anyway so it's like you got to have someone that's aligned to

00:59:02.780 those values and somebody that knows the purpose is bigger than them right it's about helping people

00:59:08.020 because when you're someone does you know five people get sick or couldn't come in and you got

00:59:12.480 to cover those shifts and do these things also there's sacrifice you know i mean like we value family

00:59:17.840 like you see me with my kids and so do this stuff but sometimes something's going wrong you have to

00:59:21.920 miss that t-ball game now we want you to make the next one you know what i mean but it's that

00:59:25.380 commitment to say and to be a community leader you know that those are the things that resonate

00:59:29.760 and man we get people that are really great from other concepts that come into canes and it's like

00:59:34.120 this is my last stop and i'm here forever and then we can partner and then they become like the todd

00:59:38.220 graves in their community wow so pretty cool that's interesting man and uh and sometimes you need help

00:59:44.220 and a person or group or place that is not even a place actually that can help you is better help

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01:00:14.640 counselors if needed you know i was having a tough day i was driving to see my friend i pulled over on

01:00:19.720 the side of the road next thing you know i'm better help facetiming with this dimey little blonde uh

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01:00:53.420 help.com slash theo show me got a good question that came up was that one you pulled up or yeah there

01:00:57.840 we go that's it yeah yo yo it's geo palermo from akron ohio what's up mr raisin cane um i had a

01:01:06.540 question for you today uh i'm a big fan of your establishment your chicken establishment your buns

01:01:12.340 your coleslaw all the the chicken the fries big fan of that but i was wondering you know you're in a

01:01:18.220 very competitive market against a lot of good chicken um chicken establishments and i was wondering

01:01:23.740 who do you fear the most in the chicken gang yeah do you fear you know the zaxby's chicken

01:01:28.820 the bojangs the chicky filet the popeyes the churches you know um let me know who's your who

01:01:37.360 are you scared of who you fear the most yeah gang gang who's that foul valdemort man who's the dark

01:01:43.900 yeah who's that who's the competition foul valdemort so fortunately we are very symbiotic with all those

01:01:51.720 concepts right so we're next to every chick-fil-a you know i mean in the in the trade areas we're

01:01:57.140 doing business in we're next to chick-fil-a we're next to popeyes we're next to zaxby's we're next to

01:02:01.640 all those and what we see is since we've stayed true to our one love our chicken finger meal someone

01:02:07.280 will go to chick-fil-a on a tuesday but then on thursday they're coming to get our chicken finger

01:02:11.820 meals right they know what we're about they might go to zaxby's has a really expanded menu so

01:02:16.280 which is works for them and it's good so that someone might get a salad from there they might go

01:02:20.340 somewhere else and get bone chicken you know at popeyes but we don't see like our competitors can

01:02:26.060 run some kind of like special like we get a bunch of competitors but they might run a special on

01:02:30.260 chicken fingers like we don't lose a cent of business they know they're coming for our quality

01:02:34.520 our sauce our things so we do well with all the national players um we actually shoot we do better

01:02:41.820 than most of them the thing that gets me is the young person that has the fire of ty graves going that

01:02:49.620 wants to come and compete directly right and you know says hey i'm gonna go head to head with canes

01:02:55.120 i'm gonna do the same thing they do and do it and we get it all the time now what it does is once again

01:03:00.980 that entrepreneur instance is so personal to me and my team you better get up early in the morning you

01:03:05.440 better work late at night man because this is what we do this is my it's part of my dna man it's

01:03:10.560 representation my family so you bet you better come with all your guns because i love young

01:03:14.580 entrepreneurs and everybody takes ideas from everybody right i mean guthrie started the whole phenomenon

01:03:18.440 but like you better bring it if you're gonna compete compete with raising canes because this

01:03:22.260 is my world dang that's it baby now have you ever thought about do you guys go to like china is there

01:03:27.580 like an asian like has there ever been like a like a rising canes or like sometimes i remember one time

01:03:33.060 i remember being in um i think i was in singapore and the kfc the colonel on the sign there is an asian

01:03:42.040 colonel like i'd never thought about that before i'd always just thought it looked like the same kind of

01:03:46.700 like basic caucasian guy right so has there been um do you guys are you guys a global brand right now

01:03:52.700 no we're in the middle east so i went to the middle east first for a couple reasons one partner

01:03:57.480 muhammad al-shaya we resonate with each other on values right so he's like one of the large players

01:04:03.940 there does all kind of franchisees puts puts the right people behind it he cares and we're aligned

01:04:09.000 value wise right so he's like some of his values are like getting the middle eastern people in the

01:04:13.120 workforce right because oil's gonna dry up one day right you know what i mean like working women

01:04:18.260 you know like these countries man like we had one of the first women drivers come through our drive

01:04:22.680 through in saudi in the kingdom and that felt good right wow seeing what things change over time right

01:04:27.760 like getting to play music in saudi like they're all no music you can't do these things it's like

01:04:32.780 let's play some instrumental saudi music like i gotta have music when you're going somewhere

01:04:36.220 not crazy let's don't play some wild music instrumental music now you can play this classic music in the

01:04:42.400 restaurants things like that so he and i were committed and we knew i knew if there was a

01:04:47.100 problem we could work through it together so one was partner then two the middle east they accept

01:04:50.920 american concepts like don't have to change it don't have to do other things because like i haven't

01:04:55.420 changed the menu my whole adult life right so i want to go somewhere and prove that it's working

01:05:00.080 well it's doing well we got like 30 in the whole area um they're crazy about it um we don't have the

01:05:05.960 international celebrity like everybody knows us so we build the business and so i'm real excited

01:05:11.500 next step asia and like i said i don't really want to change what i do i might consider something

01:05:16.740 with the slaw because i'm not a i'm not a slaw fan like people always like do you like your slaw

01:05:20.320 i'm like no man don't like the slaw that's why you can trade it out for extra toast or sauce

01:05:24.920 um but maybe we'll play with some things like their local produce they like slaw too but maybe

01:05:29.820 something like that but like i'm not changing what i do you know what i mean and if i had to change

01:05:32.860 what i do to go in somewhere then i just don't need to go there right do y'all cook the toast

01:05:37.080 extra if people ask for it do we do what now we all cook the toast extra if people ask for it

01:05:41.320 like like longer yeah yeah we'll give the customer what they want now it drives me crazy because it's

01:05:45.680 like it uh you look we have underground menus and they get some different stuff and it's like

01:05:48.920 it slows down the line but i'm not gonna tell the customer no you know i want to give them what they

01:05:52.600 want yeah i like a little bit extra even if i get pancakes i ask them to cook them extra crispy

01:05:57.460 yeah it's like a more crisped out a little bit for some reason um sean do we have another

01:06:01.540 question that came in what up theo it's nate from iowa just thought i'd call into the show see if

01:06:10.220 this works you know ask a question for mr graves uh first of all theo i love your show it's such a

01:06:17.080 huge encouragement to me man and uh thanks brother mr graves i just want to ask you um when you're

01:06:24.220 cooking it up in the kitchen you know at home are there any songs that you like to listen to or

01:06:30.520 artists you like to listen to me personally i like to listen to a little frank sinatra you know

01:06:35.140 what i'm saying you ever think about getting in the spaghetti business because i'm making some

01:06:39.400 meatballs tonight baby oh gang oh wow he's got some beautiful balls saying anyway thank you mr graves

01:06:47.140 thank you theo gang gang bro thank you for the question man yeah do you like a little bit of

01:06:53.540 background what do you enjoy todd music wise yeah everything man everything i'm a big fan of music

01:06:59.620 love music and that's why in restaurants when i started my restaurants man we're listening to

01:07:02.960 music in the kitchen it's crazy people used to not do that and i'm like we're listening to music i like

01:07:06.840 it all man so i like it i like my country i like my national country i like my old school red dirt

01:07:12.680 country from uh from texas i love my boys like clint black well clint black really wouldn't i guess

01:07:18.260 just say more of a robber rule king you know and all these young guys come at ko wetzel and

01:07:23.020 those guys man they just got they got a good sound and they're pure to the art i mean i love the old

01:07:27.860 great ultra wall that guy's great willie nelson's so good oh he's great and he likes canes and he's

01:07:32.840 such a nice guy my chicken finger ventures i got to meet all these really cool people billy

01:07:36.100 givens last night i got to meet i mean how cool but um and they're all canes fans which is crazy

01:07:39.580 we can get into that later but uh i like that down to like a dean martin i play when i cook it

01:07:44.540 depends on the mood i like travis scott i mean like uh post malone i just like all forms of music

01:07:49.500 and for me is staying relevant right i got a young fan base right a young young fan base

01:07:54.920 and so not becoming a dinosaur and just listen to your old stuff so it's good having kids and go

01:08:00.160 through this but it's fun because i'm friends with these artists so like travis scott gave me

01:08:05.040 these shoes right okay but he grew up in missouri city and he went to the canes and they were crazy

01:08:09.580 about it and then he grows and he hears a story this guy started this and then they want to meet

01:08:14.040 post he's like i got to become friends and and these are brilliant guys but they're cool as hell right

01:08:19.040 and it's like but so so listen their music means means more to me right right it's like you're staying

01:08:24.000 in touch with something yeah you're staying in touch with something and you know they're out

01:08:27.220 there working hard you know they got good hearts you know snoop dog's a great friend and so he was

01:08:31.220 in baton rouge years ago he used to drive through the original canes right he was down there with

01:08:34.320 master p oh yeah oh man that was like town when he came in it was great bro that was a crazy time

01:08:39.820 so i remember i used to go to the rec center right yeah and master p this is when this is before

01:08:45.040 c murder had gone to jail and silk the shocker they would all yep they would be in there and they

01:08:50.620 used to fly like nba players would fly in and play at the lsu rec center i know i used to go man watch

01:08:55.720 these guys ball they could play too it was crazy yeah and they would have i remember they had these

01:08:59.080 guys who would stand on the side of the court holding like their clothes they were going to wear

01:09:02.640 after literally the guy's job was to stand there with his arms straight out it was almost like they

01:09:06.820 were clothing racks and they would have all their clothes draped over that they were going to wear

01:09:10.080 after the after they played and we'd go sit in there and watch them uh yeah just play in the rec

01:09:14.780 it was crazy time wasn't it man it was great and so so dog snoop dog would drive through canes

01:09:20.200 afterwards and they'd always have that extra box and he's like who's the box for for p you know

01:09:24.760 because p always went back i guess he was the one changing doing he had a great business going then

01:09:28.720 but it's nice to resonate with these guys and so like with snoop and he helped me out with the the

01:09:33.140 restaurant recovery episode in la because he's got a big heart but like when we get together we go to

01:09:37.960 his compound we talk about kids we talk about what we're doing charity talking about friends like

01:09:42.860 people know as an entertainer all these guys look like good heart good soul and so this is what

01:09:47.460 gives me hope for the future is these younger ones too they got heart they're good people just like

01:09:52.180 you you got good values and these younger people look up to y'all right they look up to you but when

01:09:56.540 you keep showing these good values then people go okay the people i think are coolest in this world

01:10:00.740 are the ones that are working hard and they have good values right i don't know many successful people

01:10:06.080 that don't that aren't good people you know jalen ramsey's here in town he's a superstar in his deal

01:10:11.760 but i'm meeting with his dad later tonight he and his dad were having dinner things like that

01:10:15.440 one of the best backs and then on the other end michael thomas one of the best receivers of all

01:10:19.420 times right we talk about family stuff good stuff we have a good time too now you know what i mean but

01:10:23.860 it's all about that stuff and so it makes me feel good about our country because when

01:10:27.500 you have i like supporting celebrities and their kind of charity because it gets amplified and that

01:10:32.640 mean when people say if these superstars have this humility and they got these values then i want to be

01:10:38.340 i want to be like them right role models just like you you will not believe your influence

01:10:42.500 that goes through to other people and the things you're doing just like our man nate just said

01:10:46.280 he really appreciates you and an inspiration to him and i think all of us whether you're chicken

01:10:51.360 finger famous or here are in your world we need to be good examples these things that matter man

01:10:58.140 some of these things that don't matter they don't matter in those people's lives we need we need

01:11:01.480 inspiration yeah it's uh especially these days it's tough because a lot of mainstream media seems like

01:11:06.360 it battles against that they don't you know it's not like and that could just be not even true i

01:11:11.300 mean but it seems like there's a lot of dark arts that are more out there at play yeah so it almost

01:11:15.660 seems like a time better to kind of lean into the good and uh and just try our best more than ever

01:11:20.600 right now leaning to the good leaning to the positive support each other be cool to each other

01:11:25.060 you're like me you've got friends from all walks of life right we're doing these things let's don't let

01:11:30.020 people think that we don't care now we got a long way to go yeah as a society but like pitting people

01:11:35.240 against each other and making sensationalism out of it making money off people being against each

01:11:39.520 other wrong move for our country wrong move it's gonna get so bad that they don't have to cycle back

01:11:46.420 because people are stuck they're they're not listening as much to the to the negative and

01:11:51.280 the sensationalism they're starting to figure it out yeah yeah i think that's pretty cool to see

01:11:55.120 um when so when you look to your horizon of life like uh was there a moment where you realized okay

01:12:01.020 i i can not take a break but i've achieved i've achieved you know i think there's a thing inside

01:12:09.000 of entrepreneurs like some girl asked me the other day she goes how is your life like now you know you

01:12:13.600 kind of have some of the things that you want or you've achieved some of your successes some of your

01:12:16.980 goals and i was like man it's not really that different the gas pedal that's always kind of had me be

01:12:23.560 like i want to do stuff has never really the foot never really comes off it i don't think it's always

01:12:30.880 kind of this now what kind of thing like not always in a bigger way but now what maybe in a more

01:12:37.620 important way or now what um in more of a human way you know it might have it has evolved some but um

01:12:44.700 was there a moment where you kind of realized okay ah you know a little bit yeah yeah so uh financially

01:12:51.400 right so we hit on this earlier but like growing it meeting my wife then go through now i got kids

01:12:59.020 i'm highly leveraged i don't want to go and have things now i'm not talking rolls royces and stuff

01:13:05.780 but like education decent house you know things like this and so that was a big one because i was

01:13:11.800 levering the business too much and the big lesson to me is i had 28 locations when hurricane katrina hit

01:13:17.140 all south louisiana okay mostly south louisiana 21 to 28 those went down i had levered the business

01:13:23.460 what i was doing is banking back then was was was a lot more lenient and what i would do is i'd go

01:13:29.860 into community find a community bank then i'd have a sub debt investor meaning subordinated debt to the

01:13:35.620 bank i could go raise 100 200 000 and give them a subordinated note to the bank means the bank gets

01:13:42.620 their money first and but i'm gonna pay you a 15 return this is just kind of my entrepreneurial

01:13:47.640 financing what i did and the banks would actually kind of use that as equity saying what you got

01:13:52.020 200 000 it's like an equity thing terrible thing you're just totally leveraging yourself yeah it's

01:13:56.460 a lot it's a lot but i was able to do all these locations and ding ding ding and i didn't want to

01:14:00.280 sell i didn't want private equity partners i wanted i wanted to own it and control it and but when it

01:14:04.040 went down so like our restaurants had opened a restaurant so first paycheck to crew members is two

01:14:10.140 weeks i got sales coming in pay the vendors 30 days right pay rent in 30 days so i was creating

01:14:16.960 cash right like i didn't have to do my expenses sales are coming in so when i kept opening these

01:14:21.720 locations i kept creating cash for the company and kept growing highly levered it totally stupid by the

01:14:26.320 way because all of a sudden katrina comes in you got cash flow stops and you're like whoa like i almost

01:14:32.300 just screwed up the whole thing man i mean and i would have bounced back and came back but it wouldn't be

01:14:36.920 what we are today wow but we were able to rally our troops we were the first ones to open our

01:14:41.700 business survived and did well but i'll never forget that deal and then it stayed with me that ache in

01:14:46.660 my belly like because i'm putting everything towards canes i'm everything's leveraged i'm in

01:14:50.520 monstrous debt and i just didn't have that nest egg for my family you know what if something happened

01:14:55.240 to me you know what i mean what happened to mom or whatever especially when the last time was

01:14:58.620 graves you're freaking halfway there you're already halfway there right the reaper's already freaking you

01:15:02.700 know he's already got a tattoo on you yeah so it that felt good when i was able to put money aside

01:15:08.060 and do that and put it away but you know and and so that was like a but with that vision and what i

01:15:13.280 want to do like to me is i keep working hard for that vision because i know it's my purpose right

01:15:18.260 right and i believe with people like us okay like when you create and do you're never going to stop

01:15:25.060 creating and doing because it's part of what you are it's part of your dna and i do i do firmly believe

01:15:29.660 this if you're not going ahead it doesn't need to be this but if you're not moving forward on things

01:15:34.360 if you're not creating if you're not working you're not doing things then you're sliding behind

01:15:38.940 there's no coast like in all my life's experience is you always got to kind of do if we're this way

01:15:44.860 whether it's this or this we have to keep going like if you stop you slip back yeah and look at

01:15:49.860 people that which i think is retirement you know if some people want to retire i think that's when

01:15:53.040 they're hey i'm gonna go fishing more i'm gonna do all those things is but if you're staying in the

01:15:56.260 game you're always gonna go never being satisfied and that's a terrible saying right but like always

01:16:02.380 wanting more is a better way and that's how you said it is is a good thing because you want to

01:16:07.580 push yourself if you're satisfied and you say this is perfect this thing we've achieved it you know

01:16:11.720 like that's the second you think you made it is a time to be shown the door right you know you got

01:16:16.260 to push and do because you don't want to go back and you want to keep creating and doing good things

01:16:21.200 and it keeps you sharp and it keeps you going but it's important to celebrate your successes

01:16:25.120 and what we won't do is we'll do all these great things with our business but we won't stop and

01:16:29.300 say hey we'll celebrate i mean it's for an hour i feel like nick saban after after damn alabama wins

01:16:34.940 again he's like we're starting recruiting in the morning but he's a champ and i look like i respect

01:16:38.740 the heck out of you know but i'm like we have to celebrate so celebrating success i think is important

01:16:42.120 even if it's just one night you know you're right man somebody told me that the other day said man

01:16:46.500 sometimes you got to look you you always want to do more for other people and want to make people feel

01:16:51.080 good and you don't even look and realize you're doing that you know and it like and you have

01:16:57.320 then it makes you gives you winning your sales right if you can realize that then you'll go do more

01:17:01.720 yeah you know i thought it was really interesting how you said where your vision meets your

01:17:05.420 vision and purpose and how they kind of can interchange and how i think it'd be really interesting to just

01:17:10.900 kind of have that in people's minds and hearts like as almost like a a chart or something where

01:17:16.980 it's like yeah well your vision and your purpose because those are two different things but they're

01:17:21.280 very this they're similar but they're one is almost more of a divine and one is almost more of a will

01:17:28.180 yeah and i think it's interesting um that's well well said if you can tangle those up almost braid

01:17:35.020 them in a way yeah i braid them just by i know what my purpose is and the vision with the business is

01:17:41.300 going to get us there yeah right then setting setting goals right so we're canes is going to

01:17:46.600 be 25 in august and they're like how you want to celebrate i want to do 25 million dollars the

01:17:50.660 communities we do business in you turn 50 in february i want to do 50 million dollars back in

01:17:54.980 the business like but setting those personal goals too then then you get a plan behind it what can we do

01:17:59.260 with these things right so that's that vision strategy the will other side the purpose is more

01:18:04.940 divine why are you here what is your purpose yeah and ask ourselves that and answer it honestly

01:18:10.400 to ourselves too you know yeah i think sometimes it can be scary even to hear what the answer is

01:18:14.460 you know it can seem like hard work um but i think yeah once it's scary too because you have to when

01:18:19.580 you lock into something and you do it you becomes your life work you know what i mean like i better

01:18:24.480 make a good decision this is what it is my purpose because look there's no backing out of that you know

01:18:28.880 when i make promises to people uh what's your daily routine like todd and then we'll get you on your way

01:18:33.120 here oh man it's it's kind of everywhere like like a is it sporadic or do you have like are you like a

01:18:38.920 this is you know it's a little both so um we have so being in the details of my business there's so

01:18:44.320 many different committees we have set up right so like i approve every uh location i was looking at

01:18:49.180 some in nashville earlier today um every design of every restaurant every local cultural graphic that

01:18:54.840 goes into the restaurants now i have incredible people and teams they pull it all together i get to

01:18:59.040 review maybe make a couple of points on things but then it goes to hr issues we call it crew resources i

01:19:04.040 created a a division called cane's love it's about appreciating recognizing respecting rewarding

01:19:10.100 crew members on and on on purchasing supply chain culinary trying the chicken i mean you name it

01:19:16.060 it's every part of the business financials reviews all that stuff so we have regular committee meetings

01:19:20.660 set up because a lot of people that come in and do it i can work my schedule around that then it's

01:19:24.260 getting out to the market seeing my people seeing you personally do those things you know are is

01:19:28.880 important they're out pandemic i mean i didn't stop i went to our markets i went and saw our people

01:19:32.960 they're in a restaurants working so i need to get out and about a lot of things too is going to see

01:19:37.600 um some of these famous caniacs too seeing them i appreciate them right so they like to spend time

01:19:43.320 but then they also they'll go back and post you know and like i appreciate that right they post

01:19:47.720 eating canes things like that so i want to look i appreciate that you know 100 million people saw that

01:19:51.460 or whatever crazy stuff like that so it's kind of that whole crazy mix you know what i mean catch my

01:19:56.000 son's baseball games uh do fun stuff with my daughter and stuff like that and just kind of

01:20:01.120 keep it going i think you know entrepreneurs have a high energy level so you're able to do a

01:20:05.700 lot of capacity uh but that's just kind of how uh how i roll every week i'll get my mom asked me

01:20:10.600 where you going next week i'm like i don't even think about it yeah yeah it's yeah it's almost too

01:20:15.240 much sometimes when you rattle up that when you really stack the future onto today you know it can

01:20:18.940 get to be a lot sean any other question that you wanted to get answered on the videos

01:20:22.320 okay cool man uh tall graves thank you so much man for coming in today oh one last question i had

01:20:28.100 so jimmy john before whenever he was in he talked about sometimes how time went on with work that

01:20:33.900 one of the things that ended up leading to him not wanting to sell but one of the things that wasn't as

01:20:38.980 much joy was that uh a lot of there became like a lot of lawsuits and legal issues the bigger his company

01:20:45.060 got is that um do you notice that you have to spend more time like the bigger you get the the more

01:20:51.820 time you have to spend almost doing yeah stuff like that not fun stuff yeah the not fun stuff

01:20:57.680 yeah yeah i mean look works work and sometimes the grind but when you have these litigious lawsuits

01:21:03.880 that come that's not real look like we screw up always back us but like setups and these things

01:21:10.740 come in that are not true yeah you gotta spend the time snakes and you gotta spend your time

01:21:14.980 and your money and you have to go back and defend this stuff and you're really defending your

01:21:20.380 honor your values and your things and it's like i have a crew that go we're not this way we're not

01:21:25.860 this all the time the bigger you get the bigger target you are the system is set up to go in and

01:21:32.400 do that and to settle so it just comes constantly man that's the stuff that just like it just takes

01:21:37.720 it out of you and you know what but but being aj my co-co say look look we have to we have to be we

01:21:44.680 have to be stronger than them we're not gonna let that hurt the good things we're doing for people is

01:21:49.500 and you just gotta dig deep and say if you're coming we're coming right back at you and we're

01:21:53.960 not an easy target and you just have this part of the business unfortunately yeah no i like the way

01:21:59.580 that you think about handling that though that yeah it's like you just have to rise above it you know

01:22:04.400 you just have to believe in what your purpose is what your goal is you know yeah man and then what

01:22:08.780 you're doing is putting more good out there than you know then uh than these other systems that are

01:22:13.560 kind of set up not really to that are just set up for financial gain really that's right and then

01:22:18.000 then you gotta have a good legal team and tell them go right back at them and do it you know it's

01:22:21.820 like but anyway unfortunately that's kind of goes with the territory we can't let them get us down

01:22:25.720 we're just gonna keep doing and we're gonna keep creating good things for people look for me is

01:22:29.100 just anybody in life you know whatever you do and we were talking a lot about entrepreneurship and all

01:22:34.020 this big stuff and all this stuff is but whether you're a teacher whether you're a welder whether

01:22:39.160 you're whatever you're doing in life you know you matter and you matter to people and you're an

01:22:43.900 example to people like like you know my high school coach and my high school teachers are like

01:22:48.460 some of my biggest heroes to today right yeah influence me in such a way and they cared you

01:22:53.620 know what i mean it doesn't matter what you do but doing it and saying let's believe the world in a

01:22:57.560 better place you know if everybody thinks that way rather than get ahead and i really think that's

01:23:01.700 what america's all about i think we are that way you know i think we are but people remembering that

01:23:05.740 and keeping that whatever you do just do it good for other people too amen lean into the good

01:23:12.480 todd graves thank you so much for joining us man and you know this was a blast i had a great time

01:23:17.340 this is cool yeah thanks for introducing me your son it was a pleasure to meet him and uh and i'll

01:23:20.700 make uh i'll look forward to getting uh one of the best chicken finger meals here soon

01:23:24.860 that might be outside right outside in front of your pad here oh really okay okay i got the truck

01:23:30.360 out here right here for you i wanted to get it hot and fresh after we got to have a good talk

01:23:33.880 and okay let's go have some chicken that sounds good thanks todd thank you man

01:23:37.480 now i'm just floating on the breeze and i feel i'm falling like these leaves i must be

01:23:44.200 cornerstone

01:23:46.420 oh but when i reach that ground i'll share this peace of mind i found i can feel it in my bones

01:23:57.300 but it's gonna take a little time for me to set that parking brake and let myself

01:24:08.480 unwind shine that light on me i'll sit and tell you my stories

01:24:19.300 shine on me and i will find a song i will sing it just for you

01:24:31.980 and now i've been moving way too fast on the runaway train with a heavy load of my

01:24:42.620 hands

01:24:44.300 and these rails that i've been riding on they're worn so thin that they're damn near gone

01:24:52.680 ladies and gentlemen i'm jonathan kite and welcome to kite club a podcast where i'll be

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01:25:36.080 hi i'll take a quarter pounder with cheese and a mcflurry

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This Past Weekend with Theo Von - May 18, 2021

E340 Raising Cane's Founder Todd Graves

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