Jim Tselikis: You’re Never Out of the Trenches

0:00Ladies and gentlemen, this is it. We've hit the end of the road. As we approach the end of the year, I'm hosting my last free AI Marketing Masterclass this month. And so if you're looking to create more money without more work, this is your last chance to get it. I want you and your team to deeply understand how AI can help you make more money today. How to become the most recommended restaurant in your area on ChatGPT. How to engineer your menu to scale your average spend. How to get more press. how to scale corporate catering and private event outreach, and as a result, sales.

0:33Jim Tselikis: And if you don't know how to do these things with AI, or it feels like I'm speaking a foreign language, you need to come to my AI Marketing Masterclass. I'll break this stuff down at a sixth grade level, the things you need to be building inside of tools like Claude and ChatGPT, so that you can hyperscale your restaurant sales with less effort to create more money and more time for yourself. I want to make sure that you set yourself up for success before the end of the year. And so I want you to go to restaurantbusinessschool.com to secure your free seat today. Again, join me for the last session of the AI Marketing Masterclass and secure your free seat by going to restaurantbusinessschool.com.

1:12Jim Tselikis: Now here we go. We always said, hey, we want to be friends with our franchisees. And I bet most business books would tell you not to be friends with your franchisees. But what we found is that built respect. And with respect, when prices of lobster go high or something goes wrong, we can work through it together.

1:35Welcome to Full Calm, a show offering insight into the hospitality industry. Featuring restaurateurs, thought leaders, and innovators. Served up on the house.

1:49What if the hardest part of building a brand starts after you've already made it? Jim co-founded Cousins Mane Lobster in 2012 with his cousin Saban, with one food truck in Los Angeles. A Shark Tank deal later, the brand spans more than 75 trucks and restaurants. His new book, Life and Lobster, puts the near disasters on the record for the first time ever. And in today's conversation, we get into how to protect margin when your core ingredient keeps climbing. Why the franchisees you turn away matter as much as the ones you sign. and when to overrule a mentor that you have come to trust. If you're scaling and still waiting for the day that it's going to get easy, this one's for you.

2:36Jim Tselikis: The one thing I'd take away, whether it's three and a half years or the 15 years of the business, is that some things get easier or just flush themselves out and systems and processes come in. but you're never ever really out of the trenches. You're never not exposed to challenges that feel like they could topple your business. You're never off into the sunset. You're just not. You can have good years, a good month, or feel like you're coming up to breathe a little bit and you're making great progress and overcoming obstacles. But entrepreneurship, restaurants, starting the business, I still feel like you've always got to keep your foot on the gas, your eye on competitors on the marketplace.

3:18Jim Tselikis: Because if you don't, I still think whether we're year 15 here or three and a half years ago, we can still be toppled. So that's one of the things I've certainly learned in the last three and a half years. And what's bitten you in the butt? Is it everything that you worried about, that you guarded against, that kept you up at night? Or have you been just consistently blindsided? No, I think for us, it's a little unique, Potentially because we're in a wild caught, the live animal business, right? We could have wonderful years as the franchisor and franchisee where franchisees are very healthy and strong with their profitability and sales.

3:51Jim Tselikis: In the last year and a half, lobster prices have been very high. Nothing that we shy away from in terms of being transparent about that. But that's a big kind of obstacle for everyone involved. Our own corporate units and franchisees, when lobster price goes up, You can only pass on so much to the customer with wanting to keep that customer base, keep them happy, keep them satisfied at coming back, but also maintain your margin. So I think that's one thing in the last three and a half years, certainly this kind of bit us in the butt. But otherwise, it's the growing pains of saying, hey, you might have a franchisee who is eight years in, 10 years in, and you think they're your rock.

4:28Jim Tselikis: And in so many ways, of course they are. But guess what? They're up for renewal and they need to fix their wrap on their truck or some technology. And I get it. Those are annoying. They're annoying costs. I remember reading about this when we started like the subway franchisees that had to go dump a bunch of money into renovating their store to keep it up to snuff. Those things that you don't think about five years ago because it's a 10 year term, for sure, just the compliance area of it is real deal. How much of it is, you know, if we think back to the Shark Tank days, right? So you're standing there in front of them.

5:02I would argue you got everything you wanted. You built this massive business. You've been able to work with best-in-class entrepreneurs to get it done. This is the dream scenario. As you wrote this latest book, which I want to delve into, I would assume that there was a lot of self-reflection. What was as good as advertised? And what are the things where you're like, that's what I wanted, but that's not really what I wanted?

5:30Jim Tselikis: Yeah, great question. I think looking back, ironically, I was just recording the audio portion of our book the last two days. And so it was an opportunity to read these pages from, again, 13 years ago, moving to Los Angeles, quitting my job and my security and money and my family and friends in Boston, going on a whim, meeting the girl who's now my wife, you know, how do you balance those two things when you're starting a business? So it was really, it was a great opportunity to reflect on those past 15 years. The one thing I say that was certainly is advertised, but we didn't know going in was Shark Tank.

6:04Jim Tselikis: Barbara, Corcoran, and Shark Tank. You go in there thinking it's a reality show. What's going to come on this? Did we give up too much percent of our business out the gate for three months into business for only$55 ,000 in sales? Well, now, hindsight 2020, Shark Tank is a platform that allowed us to tell our story, to expose our brand to millions of Americans that otherwise we may not have been able to. We would have been one truck in Southern California and that might be it. And it could have been great. But this allowed us to say, hey, this is what we're doing. This is our goal. We're going to franchise and bring Maine Lobster and be the name and face behind it throughout the country.

6:41Jim Tselikis: And Barbara simultaneously, when she came on as a partner, just poured fuel on that fire. Sounds cheesy, but it's real. And I think that's one of the things going back. People are like, hey, well, 55 grand for 15 % could have got that from maybe an uncle or a friend or someone else. But what they couldn't have done was unlock that real strategic kind of partnership and ability to get the word out there when we're so small and so young that this is who we are. This is what we're doing. Jump on board if you're a franchisee. Come if you're a customer. We feel strong about our product quality. So that was certainly as advertised, but obviously unknown when we started.

7:20Jim Tselikis: and I think what has kind of been like not as advertised for me it's not as advertised so much as it is it's hard starting a business is hard and just because you go on a reality show doesn't mean you make millions of bucks if anything it puts the target on your back and it makes it harder because people have expectations right so if someone came to our truck and we weren't on a reality show maybe they'd sit there and go uh I didn't love this or the person wasn't that nice in the window. So I'm not going to leave a bad review. Well, now that you're in front and center, oh, they're coming in, which puts you on heightened guard to make sure you are controlling the integrity, reputation, and hospitality kind of area of your business and brand, of course, the food.

8:01Jim Tselikis: So to me, that's kind of what I said earlier. It just never ends. And I think that's the one piece that unless you cut the cord from your corporate America job, start a business, start a restaurant, you will probably never have a true appreciation for how hard it is out the gate, how hard it is to make it survive, you know, to get through those first years and then to make it last. Like sustainability is no joke. And that's what becomes front and center. Well, and I mean, you see the headlines everywhere talking about, you know, labor's never been higher. Cost of goods has never been higher. And there are a few businesses out there, dude, where this is more blatantly obvious than in yours.

8:39Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that the price of a roll went from$12 to$27, right?

8:48Jim Tselikis: Yeah. So in 2012, when we started, it was either$12.50 or$13. You're right. And the reason we did that in Los Angeles, just me and Saban, was because we said, listen, there was a lobster roll truck out there. We don't think they competed with us in terms of product quality or brand, but we understood that we were new to the market. And so we said, Hey, you know what? If Josh is a customer in Venice beach and he's had the other competitor, the other truck, let him come and spend the same dollars on our food, just so he tastes it and understands it. And then he'll never go back to the other one.

9:21Jim Tselikis: That was our hope and goal, right? Taste the quality. So I think we undercut ourselves on the product quality there, but we were new, we were young. We didn't know any better. It's kind of like, I always make this analogy. Like I love sushi. If I went into a sushi restaurant and I'm like, can I have a tuna roll for, and they're like, yeah,$3. I'd be like, what's wrong with this? And looking back on it, that's what I would have said in 2012, if I was a customer about our$12 or$13 lobster, what is this? This can't be real lobster me. It was, and it was the best, but we were just trying to get people to taste our food, understand that there's something best in brand out there.

9:57Jim Tselikis: Then we rose a little bit to call it 14, 15, 16 over the years to come. And that was a little bit price increase from lobster, but more so just saying, hey, understand the value of your product. This is high quality stuff and we're going for the best and we need to have that kind of reputation behind it. Then when you're talking about now where we're at 10 years later from there, I think our system average is 25.50. There are some at 26 above, there are some at 24. But 25.50 is a big jump. That is because the price of lobster to us over the course of those 10 years has followed that so it's no joke the beauty of our business is that you're not eating a lobster all every day like you might a chicken sandwich or a salad or you know whatever it is it's that delicacy it's an experience a celebratory so if it's 26 or 24 like that's its home we're a food truck that's its home back in maine this summer rolls of 38 to 42 dollars all day long sure you know so like that's and we fight the we're a food truck right you don't sit down and get this white linen cloth and champagne.

10:58Jim Tselikis: It's a quick interaction. So we have to focus on the service and the quality. Let's talk about that really quick because it is definitely a food truck concept today, but you've also flirted with brick and mortar over the years. And I think one brick and mortar is just a real pain in the ass in general. Not that any of it isn't a pain in the ass, but the thing that a brick and mortar gives you is it can give you more of an experience, right? It's more of a cocoon, which gives you the ability to insulate the price because they're not eating it on the earth, right? They're eating it within the four walls of a business that like they know you pay rent for, right?

11:34They're sitting at a table in a chair. That's not easy to replicate in a food truck. And so I'm interested to get your perspective on there are all these benefits to a food truck, right? The mobility, the fact that you can go chase your audience and all of this, but there are all these experiential drawbacks to it, especially when you're serving. I would argue, I mean, it's an ultra premium sandwich. Let's say that anything above$25 for a sandwich is an ultra premium sandwich. And the model for you that is proven out over time isn't the brick and mortar. It is the food truck. How do you square that circle?

12:10How have you reconciled that in your mind?

12:13Jim Tselikis: Yeah. You know what? Early on, Barbara told us, she's like, stay focused on what you're doing that's working, which was the trucks, because we had had these dreams of a restaurant, right? Everyone does, right? You want to be in your own four walls and retail space and lots of other dreams too. She said, just stay laser focused. It's working. So I think the beauty of the truck is that to your point, it's mobile. It can go to the market. You go find people, you'll do sales. It's a lower investment cost out the gate. If you have a bad day, you can adjust and go find a good day and make up for that bad day.

12:43Jim Tselikis: But I think the other part of the truck that's really interesting is that they might start out of a bigger city, right? Or a bigger town. It doesn't need to be New York or San Francisco. It can be Cincinnati or it can be Pittsburgh or Austin. But then they can venture half hour this way or three hours that way or two hours that way and go to a small little town that will never have that restaurant because there's 6 ,000 people in it. But guess what? That town will show up for that event with the truck because we come once every three months. And so that allows us to get strong sales, serve customers that otherwise can't access this.

13:18Jim Tselikis: And it makes them really happy. and it makes us happy. So I think that's kind of been the beauty of the model. In terms of the restaurants, we do have two and they do phenomenal. Asbury Park in New Jersey, Pier 41 in San Francisco. To your point, we have more menu items. There is more of that experience of ordering, sitting down, being inside a place, two beautiful places right on the ocean. So I think that is actually, it's been on the top of the minds of a lot of franchisees because there are a lot of places you are now where you can't take the trucks, right? Mostly coastline and waterfront where it's just impossible to get permitted for trucks that don't allow it.

13:53Jim Tselikis: So there's that upside there. And then operationally, it is still small. It's not like this 5 ,000 square foot restaurant with a million things on the menu. So it is still able to be controlled and have good quality of not just food, but the operation itself. So it's about finding those A plus locations. And I think that's kind of next in our mind of saying, when we continue to expand, where do we go? How do you know that that's an opportunity and not a distraction, though? Because you already have this thing that works. Is this not the hardest thing in the world? For sure. Can I just 10x my focus on this thing that I know works, and then it'll bear fruit?

14:30Or I tried this other thing that could 100x, but maybe not?

14:34Jim Tselikis: Yeah. I mean, great question as well. I mean, when we look at the geographies where our trucks are, if you have five trucks in Ohio, maybe you'll get six or seven, but you're not going to get to 12 because they need places to roam and they can't go to that small town every other day, like I said. But there are pockets of those of the state of Ohio. There is the coastline in all of California where I can't physically get a truck. The coastline of, you know, whatever, Outer Banks and the Carolinas. I mean, you name it. Like, If you just looked at the entire coast of the country where trucks can't go, there's opportunity.

15:07Jim Tselikis: If you look at places where there are people in markets where the truck travels too much further away and they just want that place with the same address, the same hours to go to delivery or pickup or eat it, that's an opportunity too. But to the point about not getting distracted, it's a real deal. And I think the way that we tackle that is saying, are we ready with our infrastructure and our team? Do we have enough people to execute this where the other people that have been focused on our baby, the truck, be it ourselves or our staff and team, make sure they're not inundated or getting pulled from here to go there?

15:40Jim Tselikis: So it's really about the continued growth of saying we need to be able to support it, be the biggest asset to the franchisees and make sure we choose right locations, right spots, right people, and support it by backfilling with the people. We've always been a group that has said, before we do something, we need to make sure we have the team, specifically the team in place. So that means more payroll when revenue isn't coming in with the hopes that if that takes off, it justifies having him on board and trained well beforehand. Your restaurant's next growth opportunity may already be sitting in your dining room.

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16:59So if you run 10, 20, 50, 100 restaurant locations, you need Guestology. And for Full Comp listeners, Guestology is offering a complimentary invisible guest assessment to show you how much opportunity exists inside of your existing guest base. Go to guestology.com slash full comp to redeem this offer. That's guestology.com slash full comp. Stop chasing every new guest and start recognizing the valuable ones you already have. Let's talk about the book. Really excited to talk about the book. First, I want to talk about like approach and intention because there are a bunch of great books out there, you know, and I think that one of the hurdles is, you know, what am I going to say that hasn't already been said potentially more eloquently than I could say it myself?

17:48And so like assuming that you and your family, right, you had a song that needed to be sung in your heart. What was the message? Like what was the intention behind the book that you wanted to share that you felt like hadn't already been said high level?

18:03Jim Tselikis: Yeah, you know, I think it's, For us, it was, it's almost like spinning the thing on its head in the way of, you reference polished. I think it's not polished. It's Saban's voice and my voice every other chapter. And when you relive these last 15 years, it's not a business book. Do this, do this, do that. It's read about our journey in an unpolished way because we're just talking back and forth and we're swearing or, you know, whatever it is. We're talking like I do on the phone or to my buddies or to Saban. and when I realized it was published you know when it came through I'm like oh maybe this doesn't sound right but the first kind of feedback from people reading is like this is genuinely authentic like it sounds like you but from the business side of things and if there's something people can glean from this whether you're wanting to start a business have started a business are looking to avoid pitfalls I think a lot of that can come through it is at its heart as unscripted and genuine as possible and I think what I look from that is what do you as a person reading want to take out of that?

19:03Jim Tselikis: Is it about how, like I said, I was dating this girl, but I knew I had a business that I had to get off the ground because I'd never have money to buy a ring or support a family? Or is it something about the way that Barbara acted to us to say, avoid all these things. I've done them. Save yourself time and headaches and money. Well, we had that. Not everyone does. So if they read this book, they're going to read a million examples like that in real time of when we were dealing with it, that they go, oh boy. And they say, this is starting to sound like something I'm about to dip my toes into, I better not.

19:34Jim Tselikis: Or this is something that I can avoid when I see it coming down at me later in the future. And those to me are the little lessons. It's not like chapter one, hire the right people. Chapter two, do sales. It is more about life that was happening and layered throughout the fabric of growing Cousins Mane Lobster that I think the person will take from it. And then eventually really how it's this family business. And that's how we ran it. And we followed our gut and intuition. We always said, hey, we want to be friends with our franchisees and be friendly with our staff and build that rapport. But early on, was that right?

20:09Jim Tselikis: Could you do that? Would they take advantage of you? Is it a disaster of an idea? Well, it proved to work out. And we just kind of followed our gut. And I bet most business books would tell you not to be friends with your franchisees. but what we found is that built respect and with respect when prices of lobster go high or something goes wrong we can work through it together versus button heads and arguing and fighting so a lot of those little intangible things and we had no rhyme or reason for doing them outside of gut and talking back and forth and for the most part it's work so i think what people could get is hey this will be entertaining there could be emotion in there there'd be some disasters in there and some wins and successes.

20:49Jim Tselikis: And what you can pull from that based on where you're at as a reader, I think is the value. I've got a question as it relates to the challenges, because it was sadly, you know, everyone likes looking at, you know, slowing down at a car wreck. One of the things I was excited about as it relates to the book is like you tease near disaster, right on the cover of the book. And here's what I thought was really interesting. And I even like I went back and I did deep research to see whether it was just my perception or whether it was reality. And in past interviews, you, your brother, and Barbara all spoke to how difficult the business was to grow.

21:27All of these challenges, all of these things, but always in the abstract, never in the concrete, never did it come out. Even when being pushed in interviews, it didn't come out, but it did come out in the book. So I'm curious about that. Why open the kimono now? And why didn't you guys do it before?

21:47Jim Tselikis: As owners or leaders, as you read in the book, there, like as an example, one time Thanksgiving in California, my parents had come out from Maine and we're having this just absolute battle with these guys that were building our trucks that were frauds and took everyone's money and didn't deliver the trucks. And we go from getting mother effed on the phone to sitting there wanting to do the same to them, doing the same to them, but ultimately trying to get franchisees money back and the truck so that we can do business, right? Six minutes later, we're sitting down for turkey dinner with my parents who just flew 3 ,000 miles and being like, hey mom, how are you?

22:23Jim Tselikis: I love you, like putting on that face. So I think that mentality is like how business owners, if you're running it right, like you don't want, it's like a coach, You don't want your team to see any cracks. You don't want your team to feel that you can't handle this, right? Like you're the leader. You give this message top down, being like, we're going to get through this. There's some stuff going on. We're going to get through it. And so will you and the rest of the team. And we did. Why does it come out now? I think because 15 years later, you know, if you're pushed on a three or four minute interview on day show or Fox business, whatever it may be, it may not be the right time.

22:56Jim Tselikis: You know, I don't have enough time to talk about it. But in the book, it was kind of saying, you know what? here's the other reality shark tank millions of people 100 trucks a billion dollar business seems sexy seems amazing seems like the american dream and in so many ways it is it's like i'd never do life differently but take a look behind the curtain nothing is perfect and that's the truth mark cuban's a billionaire may be hard to relate to right i always say this like barbara we can relate to because we know her people can relate to us because we did it we have a couple trucks and you so they can connect with us cuban oh my god how did he become a billionaire just woke up one day and it was like that no he did all the same stuff and had all these same concerns throughout the process maybe a little bit different whatever but that's the reality so i think opening the doors to that a little bit can give people just that perspective more than anything to say dude this wasn't just an easy road like it wasn't it wasn't like i didn't get lobster one day no it far worse than that.

23:54Jim Tselikis: Let's talk about that. So there's this bias towards success, I think, especially in our industry, but generally in entrepreneurship. Everyone says, well, you know, Elon slept on the floor of Tesla. Now he's the richest man in the world, right? And so it makes it really easy to forget the tens of thousands of people that head into bankruptcy court every day, right? So there's this bias towards success. Your business, my business, everybody's business, It's just a series of incessant successes and failures throughout time. How have you managed to learn to make sure that you don't repeat the same mistakes again and again?

24:30Because I'm curious to know when you wrote the book, right, you then had to reflect. And I would assume you picked up on patterns. Whenever we do this, we eat shit. Whenever we do this, we have a tendency to do well. And so talk to me about that.

24:44Jim Tselikis: Yeah. you know i think it's it's really the ability to say just what you said like how did you learn we you've got to be accepting your mind that you are someone that can learn not so hard-nosed stubborn that you'll be like no my way is the right way every single time even though i have proof in history that it didn't work so i think if you're open-minded to say hey we're still me Saban, our president, Sean, we still need to be coachable, trainable, right? To learning from those experiences or even franchisees talking to us about things. So as a real example, out the gate, we awarded 10 franchisees.

25:24Jim Tselikis: We thought we'd keep it small, learn about the profile of franchisees in terms of what they bring, who they are, their attitude, their market, how they run a business or don't. And we learned a lot. So then we started growing a little bit. And then for the last like eight or nine years, it's very simple for us, hard in the beginning, but we learned when we're vetting a new prospect, could have a lot of money, could be a great market, could be a lot of money for our business in revenue and royalty and them growing. But it's very simple to know. This man or woman, they remind me of that guy or that girl, right?

26:00Jim Tselikis: Saban and Sean? What do you mean? Well, this person that came across in the honeymoon phase is really organized, but couldn't book or schedule the truck. Or ego, ego, ego. Might be speaking pretty good right now, but the ego is going to take over. There are going to be a pain in the ass to be in bed with. Those type of things are like, boom, immediately, you're right. see you later. And it's not worth it. It's not worth it for one truck or two trucks now, because it'll do more damage and derailment of other franchisees or markets around us if you bring a bad egg. So that's an example of learning from the past that is very prevalent current day of who and how do we expand with.

26:42I want to talk about mentorship as well as we wrap up, because I think that Barbara Corcoran, probably an amazing resource, amazing. But the problem is that she's not omniscient. She's not infallible. She gives you her opinion based on her life experience. And maybe she's right. Maybe she isn't. It's a best guess. And then what you're trying to do is compress time. The goal is that she's probably already made this mistake, so we'll make a new one. And so through the process, I'm sure that it's been a cheat code being able to take her advice so that you make new mistakes. There have certainly been times where you haven't taken her advice.

27:18I would ask you about that. How do you reconcile? I would assume that like, that would be a really nauseating feeling, right? To choose to go a route that resonates with you, that you think is the right choice, but you've got all of this experience wrapped up in this woman across multiple businesses, across multiple industries. And you're like, yeah, how do you do that?

27:41Jim Tselikis: Well, I tell you what, the thing that she kind of unlocked for us in the many things for us. But one of the things she said to us that resonated was, I'm going to give you my advice, my thoughts, what I think are good, bad, and different, what you should do, what you shouldn't do. At the end of the day, you make your own decision. And there's really no better kind of mindset to have as entrepreneurs. They're like, whoa, you've got Barbara Corkin on your team. What a goldmine. But she's also kind of smart enough and has the humility to go, I might not know everything about your specific industry as it grows, or I might be right, I might be wrong.

28:20Jim Tselikis: So yes, in general, we avoided so many missteps from learning from her. But I think that for any entrepreneur listening, you don't need Barbara Corcoran to learn a million things from. Before her and after her, whether it be insurance people or accounting people or salespeople that we knew in our space, if we weren't the experts, we'd go to them, right? How do we get the P &L done? What is a P &L? How does this work? Insurance? We need insurance. Tell me everything about insurance. And we'd ask a million questions to those experts. Good little buddy. But they know more about me in that thing. But that thing, insurance, profitability, applies to a company that I'm starting to grow.

29:01Jim Tselikis: So you don't need Barbara Corkin. You just need to start somewhere. And then eventually you can get bigger and bigger minds. I think when it comes to not choosing or going the direction she says, to me it's refreshing. and know she feels that way. And it's also a real learning curve for us, like I said earlier, to say, you know what, some things we've tried that she said, no, no, don't do. She's been 100 % right on. Her idea was franchising. We did it. She was 100 % right on. When we came to her recently and said, you know, in the last six months, we've been getting into big box stores. We'll be going into retail, grocery stores.

29:34Jim Tselikis: And we've had a great success. She said, why are you doing that? Like, yeah, focus on what you're doing. But for Saban and I, we love the challenge. We want to bring Cousins Made Lobster to all those markets and people where we don't have trucks. So it's that entrepreneur go, go, go. And so we chose to do it. And she said no. But it's been wildly successful so far. Doesn't mean it will be in three years. But so far, hey, so we're happy we did it. And we sit around. We were just with her in New York last week. And we laugh about it. And that's kind of the beauty of a relationship. Which if you have a partner in any business relationship, you've got to want that.

30:07Jim Tselikis: You don't want the push, the pull, challenging people, but not being the naysayers all the time or someone that's going to drive you down. So it's actually worked out pretty well. But, yeah, originally it was daunting to be like, did we just say we don't want to do a Barbara Corbin said? Let's talk about Sean Higgins for a second, if you don't mind. Of course. Just because you start a business doesn't mean you're the most qualified person to run that business. And it's, you know, in the earliest stages, right? And even in the interim, you do find yourself in a place where because you have more context than everyone else, you probably are the most qualified at this stage, at least to carry the torch forward, to set the direction and the trajectory.

30:48At what point did you and Sabin sit down and say, I think that there's probably somebody better that isn't blood related to us that could run this company better than we can? In terms of Sean?

31:00Jim Tselikis: yeah well the way the sean joined the team was in too early on 2013 or 14 when we started to come up with the idea of franchising it barbara saban i were getting our one 20 minute workout that we had in like a month throwing a frisbee which wasn't even a workout in california and he's like dude i'm gonna call my buddy sean his best buddy from college and he's gonna come out and help start the franchise team i go what a guy from new york is gonna leave new york like that's like a Mainer. It's like me leaving Main. Come on. And as not even an owner. Sure enough, he did it. He was out six months later or so.

31:36Jim Tselikis: And it's just on a wimp. Just like the idea of the lobster truck that we started. We're going to sell some rolls and maybe it'll go. Maybe we'll quit our jobs and maybe Sean will move out and maybe franchising will grow. But I think at the end of the day, what Saban chose, which I knew Sean, but not like obviously Saban. He's his best friend. The guy is the most trustworthy, ethical, hardworking, just kindest human of a planet. So those are some good starting characteristics to say, who do you want inside the huddle? And then it comes to me that he's former professional soccer player and then turned, you know, obviously in the coaching world.

32:18Jim Tselikis: What better attributes would you want for someone that's a president in your company now, but at the time was running all the franchise than a coach, a teacher. That's what he is. So he coached and taught our entire franchisees or how the compliance team would come together to be and work in harmony with the franchisees, not as a weapon, but as a tool or ultimately profitability, inventories, hands on the pulse of everything. And so to me, that grit, that hard work, same thing as me and Saban, the approachability, the ability to teach and coach others like that's his wheelhouse and then when you add that with like the kid won't go to sleep until we figure something out you couldn't script another shot and then as years go by and like wow this guy is starting to know more than we do about certain things right and that's the nature because we're starting to work on other things and he's usually involved but he's it's how it works and as it grows they'll kind of the web i mean he could run the company tomorrow by himself.

33:18Last question for you. What did you learn about yourself when you wrote the book? I'm sure that you had these frameworks, these concepts around like, this is what it's going to be. And this is what I'm going to sell. And this is how I'm going to be viewed. I don't think that we spend a ton of time thinking about the things that we think about.

33:36Jim Tselikis: Or that when you actually have to put pen to paper, the narrative that you've told year after year for five or 10 years, 15 years. It doesn't hold as true because you're a different person holding the pen. So what did you learn about yourself through the process? Yeah, again, perfect timing because again, I just read the whole thing the last two days, but I learned that I am an extremely lucky person surrounded by phenomenal people in our business family. I live a great life in this business. And I mean that in the way of like, it's easy as an entrepreneur go, I took the chance. I cut the cord.

34:13Jim Tselikis: I had to live off my savings. I did all the hard work. And then everyone now that's earning a salary is just a byproduct of that. Right. But I don't look at it like that. I look at it like, holy shit, those were hard years and they still are. But I am very, very lucky. I've got an end. And I'm so lucky through the business, like the business moved me to Los Angeles. So I've got 10 years of my life on the other side of the country. I never would have done otherwise. It exposed me to people and places and things. And now I'm back in Boston. And the business got me to where my wife was. And that helped start our family.

34:50Jim Tselikis: My two daughters that now eat lobster and love to go to the food truck events. And there's nothing more special than that. And they can coexist in the most beautiful way. Because the kids can go to the truck. It's not like going to a private equity firm in downtown Manhattan where I probably couldn't bring my four-year-old or six-year-old. I can go there as family friendly. Just everything works. Our corporate team, our franchisees, like it's one big family. I'm a family guy. So my work family is just like the way I grew up as family. Like I look at it and go, yeah, blood, sweat and tears wouldn't have changed a thing.

35:21Jim Tselikis: The biggest outcome thus far is that I'm extremely fortunate and lucky in all regards. And thankful for that. That's Jim from Cousins Maine Lobster. To learn more about their business in his new book, Life in Lobster, visit CousinsMainLobster.com. Hey, it's Josh. I wanted to take a hot minute to thank you for listening to today's episode and to ask that if you are getting value from Full Comp, please like and subscribe and be sure to leave a review. Those reviews matter and they help other independent owners and operators find the show. Also, if you want to take the stuff that we're talking about in these episodes from idea to execution, head to joshcopal.com.

36:05There you will find a ton of free templates and tools and all of the details on upcoming learning events so you can keep building momentum. I know you're busy, and so I don't take your time for granted. Thank you again for listening, and I'll see you on the next episode.