Hospitality Insiders: Nadeem Bajwa’s Journey From Pizza Delivery to Franchise Empire

0:00Nadeem Bajwa: Hey everybody, I gotta tell you, we're gonna talk about Built. Built Hospitality. Millions of people use Built every day, that's right, every day to earn rewards on housing and in their neighborhood. But now, now it extends to your restaurant. That's where Built Hospitality comes in. Built Hospitality shapes how guests are recognized and taken care of. Built's restaurant-facing platform is designed specifically for dining operators to drive loyalty with their guests. It combines reservations, guest preferences, VIP management, and payments all into one platform alongside an agentic concierge. That's right, an AI concierge that thoughtfully designs and executes experiences around your guest tastes.

0:47Nadeem Bajwa: Using the latest and greatest in AI technology. When a guest walks in, your team already knows what they like without digging through notes. Built Hospitality works across the entire guest journey. That's right, the entire guest journey from delivering a complimentary course at the right moment, just the right moment, sending a personalized offer that brings them coming back again and again and again. That's right. That's what Built Hospitality is doing. It is allowing you to communicate with your guests and keep them coming back over and over. Make every guest feel like a regular every time, not just their first time, every time.

1:24Nadeem Bajwa: They're a regular. Built Hospitality is available now for restaurant groups everywhere. Learn more at BuiltDining.com backslash hangout. That's BuiltDining.com backslash hangout. And check out what Built Hospitality is going to do for you and your restaurant.

1:46Nadeem Bajwa: Hi, I'm Jimmy Frischling, and for the last several years, Shadzi and I have hosted the Hospitality Hangout. We've had a very good time doing that, and I intend that we will do that for years to come. Hospitality Insiders is about one guest, one chair, no panel, no pitch, just a conversation with two operators, owners, that actually would probably not have the conversation or would have the conversation when the microphones were off. But instead, we're going to talk about capital, about structure, and about really what it costs and what it's like to own the thing. In this case, my guest today is the largest franchise organization in American pizza.

2:29Nadeem Bajwa: And I want us to start off by telling you how his story is usually told, because I think it's wrong. It usually goes something like this. He came to this country from Pakistan in 1991 at 22 years old. He washed dishes. He delivered pizzas in Fort Wayne, Indiana for$4.25. cents. And today he owns more than 270 Papa John restaurants. About one in 10 Papa Johns in America belong to this gentleman. And it's a great store. And I think it's interesting, but it's not the most interesting thing about it because he didn't just buy pizza stores. He built a construction company. He built a technology company.

3:18Nadeem Bajwa: He built a business process organization, a real estate arm. and then he pointed all of these businesses at his own P &F. I had the opportunity to welcome Nadeem Bajwa. He didn't just build a franchise brand. He built a holding company that happens to sell pizzas. And that's what I'd like to talk about today.

3:36Jimmy Frischling: So, Nadeem, welcome to Hospitality Insiders. Thank you so much. Very kind. And humbling to hear every time. And good to be with you.

3:46Nadeem Bajwa: I want to ask you to go somewhat quickly because I want to spend our 30 minutes together doing something that I don't think other interviews, other maybe podcasters had actually done. So maybe in 90 seconds, 1991, you land here. In 2002, you buy your first restaurant.

4:06Jimmy Frischling: Get me from there to here. Well, the intention was, you know, I came here for the school. Graduated with management marketing, the town in super major and started delivering pizzas first dish washing and then started delivering pizzas briefly with the amin and then papa jans came in town in fuga indiana and then we just started delivering you know fell in love with ryan and um after graduating by the time i graduated i was multi-unit and then soon to be operating partner but then my mind still was for college degrees I should be able to get a better job but nobody would hire me and pay me more than what I was making as a pizza guy.

4:57Jimmy Frischling: So I love the brand already so I decided to stay with the brands and then fast forward and then I became operating partner and I got popped up briefly for hard issue systems and I hated burger business with fashion i could write this living pizza business so came back and became franchising with papa john's in 2002 and then fast forward acquired some build some and today is 276 plus units in north america largest franchisee in north america and number two or number three globally and still continuing to grow.

5:41Nadeem Bajwa: Under your company, Batchco Group, as I mentioned in my intro, there's a construction company, technology company, a BPO, a real estate arm. Most people, when they hit your kind of socks, they cut checks and outsource those types of services and otherwise. You dope them. Yeah. And walk me through maybe the first one. Which was it? How did the math, math, like what was your thinking behind it? And maybe, you know, tell me a little about that first opportunity

6:16Jimmy Frischling: where that first time you built something instead of outsourcing it. Sure. Well, I'll tell you, from day one, what I learned is that, you know, QSR, when I started, when I opened my first test run, our EBITDA margins were like 15%, 20%. And then over the years, I saw every year goes by and margins are trading and you have to, the only way to survive and do well is to bring efficiency to the table. So it all started with people and it started with all F2D. So all those other things were never planned, part of the plan. It was all to make things affordable and make pizza business a success. So, and everything happened in sequence that became business of its own, but it was to support the current post-soudening.

7:17Jimmy Frischling: The first thing that happened was call centering. around COVID time, you know, labor shortage and Papa John's first started outsourcing the company for call center because of labor shortage of Waknar. And I cost us for very hard. What I can do myself can do much better, much more efficient. so normally franchisors don't like franchisees to go into their separate business different things so what i you know obviously went back and forth in papa john and what i love about this business service sort of relationship you know i signed franchise agreement i believe in this business's collaboration franchise so you sign franchise agreement you hope to put that on a shelf and then work with relationship.

8:12Jimmy Frischling: So went back and forth with Papa John. There was some resistance, but obviously the track record, he allowed me to test my own stores. And I did. One thing I learned is, you know, you want to find people, you want to add people around you who are smarter than you. If you're smarter, if you're the smartest one in the room, from the wrong room. I love that. And I learned that you know very early so you know one other thing that I feel blessed that you know working it's not pizza business it's people and working with people it's a people business and that you know just the chemistry that you need to have with your team there's trust factor and there's a culture that you build so my In my team, in call center, we built call center POS in-house.

9:08Jimmy Frischling: We tried to build more efficient way and we built AI based POS system that I did not even know what AI is. I got education from my teams and we built AI based POS system that large competitor public company did not have at that time. You built that out of your own technology company. We built that actually in-house. In-house. I did not even have technology company at that time.

9:35Nadeem Bajwa: Okay, sorry. I got ahead of myself. I got ahead of the story.

9:38Jimmy Frischling: So I challenged my team, we want, how do we build most efficient and we cut costs. We came up with, after test, we had the same KTIs and other companies, which have public company. And we, our cost was about 60 to 70 percent local. I was born and raised in Pakistan. and Houston, Pakistan. So we built call center in Pakistan. We built POS system in Pakistan. And when Papa Jens saw what we were able to build, the other companies matched the price also. So Papa Jens had two vendors, and then I was blessed, and I was grateful that Papa Jens allowed me not to only serve my students, but become Papa Jens' friend.

10:28Jimmy Frischling: So right now on Papagen's call center and we're not only in this large fair charity, we are servicing both coastal peace-holded Papagen restaurants in North Merida, taking costs from overseas with our PSTF system, everything is in -house. Now, here's the funny guy. So dealing with public company is more tricky than dealing with private company. So you have to go through compliance and everything and they monitor you well. Papajaj is pretty strict because obviously they have to watch everything, all the regulations and everything and guidelines. So I kept hiring smart people. and by the time I was done building this I look back when I had about close to 60 70 smart and then when you have that bill wouldn't do anything I said hey well what do we do and then I started thinking about bringing more efficiency tech-wise and I would go into that little bit And that's when I started thinking about having old technology firm.

11:45Jimmy Frischling: And the thought was that the technology company was. So what happened is you franchise business. Every franchise mandate some technology, like PUSDs, some of the things. And some of the things they did not mandate. And it is like in my career management. It is your scheduling. These are things they do not maintain. They do not maintain. And then HR. That's where HR, because they do not want to get into joint employment issues. Right. Because as a franchise, it has independent business folks. So what I thought, what do we do? And that's where you started building other stuff. The technology company was used.

12:30Jimmy Frischling: And now, you know, we have built, you know, the app called Meal Dynamics, which the brilliant thing and the most beautiful thing about my organization is, unlike all others, is that I have the test platform in-house. Yes. I control. 300 restaurants. I can test anything I want to. As long as I do not, there's no conflict with Papajan Ranch 10. Sure. And this is our. So the new thing that we are bringing, that we have been working on, is called meal dynamics. Yup. And that is, that is something that what that is going to do when we are testing it. So that, what I saw was missing. So mandated stuff by French ads.

13:19Jimmy Frischling: Yup. And the non-mandated stuff that in-house, that every franchisee use, that is not late. There is a gap. So the idea was to build an app, build a platform that has everything in one. Just like with HR, we did not go to HR. I didn't want to go to HR on purpose. And that's where I partnered with the Workstream at HR.

13:45Nadeem Bajwa: I do want to say our meet to you, Goldman Gear, we are down in Atlanta at the Workstream, the OTC, the On The Clock Summit. Yes, sir. Nadeem has been an advisor. Yeah, Board of Advisor. Board of Advisor to Desmond, our friend Desmond. Brandon has done some work with the team at Workstream, and it's the OTC, the On the Glock Summit, that brought us both down here and created this opportunity. But please continue, because I'm going to hit Desmond up in a little bit to say, you should be getting involved with this hospitality insider episode.

14:18Jimmy Frischling: The benefit that I have is, so there are a lot of smart solutions out there for everything, back of the house, non-minted stuff. But they're built by very smart people. And the tough part is, and I don't know how it will sound, like I told Desmond once also, I said, you guys are too smart. You guys don't need to be as smart in technology because you are not the user. So they build very complicated platform that does not sit well with the user. So this is the advantage we have. So we built that in-house. And then, so that was, that's where the technology communicated.

15:01Nadeem Bajwa: I love the in-house expertise that you guys have. In fact, one of our biggest observations in the industry is the friction between technologists and operators. And the idea that, unfortunately, a lot of technology is built and put upon operators. We work very closely with operators. In fact, you'd say we're an operator centric investor and we don't want to invest in technology that isn't actually embraced by the operators themselves. So you actually have that in house. The construction company was was was a wow to me. Does having a construction company allow you to look at deals and opportunities that maybe those without would not empty?

15:43Nadeem Bajwa: We did not change. There's no AI here that changed the the backdrop. we were asked to relocate. Nadeem was drawing a crowd in the venue we were sitting at, so they gave us a private room. So I'll call it an upgrade, and hopefully our editors can figure out how to put some fun BadgeCo and branded stuff behind us. But we were talking about the construction property and how that creates a competitive advantage. And I think you talked about saving, if I've heard you correctly, like 100 ,000 builds.

16:13Jimmy Frischling: Yeah, immediately we did, because what happened is, you know it's just you know a lot of people when you have in-house we have in we had in-house engineers in-house architect because when we started doing that last year we built 15 restaurants and then two strip plazas because what happens is when you start something as long as you can keep people busy it's like one of those like airplane theories right airplanes as long as it's up in the air, he'll keep making money. Yes. So you start a company as long as you keep your, you know, lay people, your team busy, he'll make money. Yes, absolutely. There was a lot of saving.

16:55Nadeem Bajwa: Yes. So I want to talk a little bit about, in my desktop diligence, your badge code is growing into what appears to be a most challenging environment and market. I saw some quotes of yours. One of them was that every five, six, seven years, you're going to experience a downturn. And actually, that creates opportunities, I believe. And I subscribe to that theory as well. I don't know if it's Nietzsche, but through chaos comes opportunity. I'm not calling this chaos, but I am going to say there is a downturn. And the franchisor is closing roughly 300 stores and guiding North America comps, you know, are somewhat are down.

17:43Nadeem Bajwa: Sure. And your company's building 50. Yeah. And I thought that was such an interesting when you put those two factoids next to each other, that really creates something of an interesting story. tell me about you know as Papa John's is closing the stores and you're opening what is it that and I think if I'm not mistaken they're looking to close franchisees that are 10 years old have less than 600 ,000 of AUV so what is it that those operators maybe are looking at in terms of the closings and you're seeing this as an opportunity to expand so maybe share a little bit

18:23Jimmy Frischling: Sometimes in all brands, closings do happen. Yep. Because, you know, when at the time demographics change, relocations happens, you know, people, cities change, you know what I mean? The demographics change or whatnot. But, you know, I think current environment is like, you know, every few years we go through this cycle where every brand sort of take a hit and then come back. This time, it's just unique because everybody is, you know, sort of taking hit at the same time. But if you see there are some brands winning there too. So sometimes it is good to reset. And then also what sometimes brands do also end up making mistakes by, you know, every brand pretty much does that.

19:12Jimmy Frischling: They push development. And sometimes, you know, your franchise enter who are not fit for the system or you find brand finds out later that heart and soul is not into the system. But it is definitely overall, you know, environment also for me. I live and breathe this brand. I know, you know, when there were good times also, the company is built on very, very strict disciplines. financial also and otherwise also, you know, operationally also. So I believe the turnaround. I believe brand coming back. So it does not scare me to continue to build because goal has not changed. You know, sometime when we are driving, you feel bummed.

20:04You can

20:05Jimmy Frischling: slow down, but you can still continue to drive. So it does not, it does not scare me what brand is going to, I know it's going to come back. It's going, you know, obviously it needs to, you take a hit for the time being and you know, you just, yeah, but I have seen this will be probably my third time going through this downturn and I have full faith in brand turning it off.

20:33Nadeem Bajwa: Hey everybody, I got to tell you, we're going to talk about Built, Built Hospitality. Millions of people use Built every day. That's right, every day to earn rewards on housing and in their neighborhood. But now, now it extends to your restaurant. That's where Built Hospitality comes in. Built Hospitality shapes how guests are recognized and taken care of. Built's restaurant facing platform is designed specifically for dining operators to drive loyalty with their guests. It combines reservations, guest preferences, VIP management, and payments all into one platform alongside an agentic concierge.

21:12Nadeem Bajwa: That's right, an AI concierge that thoughtfully designs and executes experiences around your guest tastes, using the latest and greatest in AI technology. When a guest walks in, your team already knows what they like without digging through notes. Built Hospitality works across the entire guest journey. That's right, the entire guest journey from delivering a complimentary course at the right moment, just the right moment, sending a personalized offer that brings them coming back again and again and again. That's right. That's what Built Hospitality is doing. It is allowing you to communicate with your guests and keep them coming back over and over.

21:52Nadeem Bajwa: Make every guest feel like a regular every time, not just their first time, every time. They're a regular. Built Hospitality is available now for restaurant groups everywhere. Learn more at builtdining.com backslash hangout. That's builtdining.com backslash hangout. And check out what Built Hospitality is going to do for you and your restaurant. I do want to spend some time talking about the people. Because it is clear to me from, I was going to say, for the Hospitality Hangout, I wear a hat all the time. I was going to say, for the hospitality insiders, I leave a hat on the table. Because it's very clear to me that the people are a huge part of your company, your strategy, your vision, your DNA.

22:41Nadeem Bajwa: And I do want to talk about that. But just one question before I jump into the people. I think I know the answer. Would BadgeCo take on another brand?

22:50Jimmy Frischling: BadgeCo has... I've looked at other brands. I've looked at other brands, but it's just absolutely there are some good brands out there. I would love to be, you know, part of it, take franchise. But I have looked at some also, but it has not clicked. Okay, so you're open. So you're not saying never. I'm not saying never, but I will tell you, Papa Jams feel home. I will not go in any brand just because I want to be franchisee. I just have to love it. Yes.

23:19Nadeem Bajwa: our mutual friend Mr. Brian Maroney brought us together our co-founder and CEO of Drive Awesome so I want to be actually for the benefit of my friend our friend Brian third party delivery you have your own drivers you have your own aggregators

23:40Jimmy Frischling: I have a hybrid model I have my own drivers also and I use aggregators too

23:45Nadeem Bajwa: so talk to me about How do you look at delivery? And maybe how do you look at the relationship with your drivers? Because I know, again, and I promise we're going to go into people because I thought it was one of the most fascinating parts, not just of your story, but of something that's in your company's DNA. But talk a little bit if you can. Pizza is one of the most off-prentice, I guess, verticals of our industry. It's the OG of the delivery. Absolutely.

24:15Jimmy Frischling: Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, I'll tell you, if I would have preference, I would have all first party art, which means our own drivers. And I would use Drivacity, which I currently use online, because it's a great tool. It's not that, you know, I became friends with Brian and his team after starting using Drivacity. There you go. First you were a client. Yeah, first I was a client. So, you know, there is nothing better. Because we are better. Our slogan is better. When you don't have control on your people, you're not better. Yes. So, in today's world, aggregators have grown. And I just hope aggregators won't hate me for that.

25:06Jimmy Frischling: But I call aggregators frenemies. You know what I mean? I understand. Yeah, they're competitive also, but they have good enough market share where partnership makes sense. And that's why, so if I had a choice, I would go lean completed towards third party because of the control. Absolutely. I think what aggregators, that partnership can work well if they figure out the control on their staff. Because, you know, they grew so fast, there's the lack of control on their part. And then plus, you know, when you're delivering pizza for Papa John's, one other thing that really, really, you know, concerns me is also our image.

26:02Jimmy Frischling: Papa John's known for better. sometime with the aggregators. When it leaves your store, you lose control. We lose control. We don't know. And you get the black eye if something goes wrong. Because it's Papa John's. It's Papa John's. Absolutely. You get the black eye. So this is what they have built is phenomenal too. The challenge that this, and I think with the time, it will also get better. The challenge that we are facing right now in the industry is there used to be only pizza delivery yeah now with aggregators it's every delivery and you know the pool is driver's pool in the country probably is the same but there's more demand if that makes sense sure and then also you know with them they're like you know from driver's perspective their schedules are more flexible they're easier so it's getting harder for us to hire recruit drivers.

27:01Nadeem Bajwa: Sure.

27:02Jimmy Frischling: And that is the challenge.

27:03Nadeem Bajwa: I understand. So I want to, I want to zoom all the way out and, um, and to be clear, I'm going to ask about the industry and, um, and not about any particular company, but I was thinking a lot about the franchise, the franchisor model. And knowing we were going to speak, I was thinking about your company, um, in relationship to the franchisor model. And I think when the franchise model was formed, there was an agreement or almost a bargain reach the franchisor would bring the brand they bring the capital they bring expertise and the franchisee would bring local knowledge and a lot of sweat and and in the stores and then you have 5 000 employees now and you are in 12 states and you've built companies to support your to support your papa john units and others it's almost like the agreement of the bargain And it's, it's, it's, and I'm not, there's no negativity here, but it doesn't describe the relationship you as a franchisee have with the franchisor.

28:09Nadeem Bajwa: And it's clearly a very good relationship, but you're, you've brought a lot more to the table than let's say the original, as I, as I interpret the original model, which was the local knowledge and the sweat and the hustle. So it does this, it almost gets to the point where, you know, is the model, does the model still work? And as it was originally set up, or is it really a question of the most successful franchisees will really think about how to do more and be accretive to the franchisor? I mean, you might be the anomaly in terms of how much you've done. But it's clear that the relationship between the franchisor and the franchisee is changing.

28:50Nadeem Bajwa: Because as we're consolidating and there's, let's say, franchisees taking on larger territories, this relationship to me seems like it could be improved upon. I'm just curious to how you think of it.

29:01Jimmy Frischling: No, absolutely. I'll tell you, in the beginning, so first thing other than pizza we had done was we had our own back-of-the-house accounting, which we did for us for many years. We started with five stores, and then we have grown to now not only Papa John's. A couple of years ago, we started taking external clients, and the majority of them were Papa John's because of the relationship. so what I am so blessed to have that credibility that just try not to do anything that we are not going to do good that you're not going to get better so in the beginning there was concern from franchisor side because your franchisor one thing your franchisor don't want is for you to lose focus that's why as a small franchisee if you want to go to multiple brands yes there is always push back.

29:52Jimmy Frischling: Sure. Because the franchise, exactly focus because every franchise, every brand want to be special by the franchisees, right? So that, that accounting that we did back on the house accounting today, we are, we have about 1500 restaurants we're serving in 15 different brands.

30:10Nadeem Bajwa: Amazing.

30:10Jimmy Frischling: And for the accounting, outsourcing over a hundred accountants and they are either CPA or mba we are outsourcing from pakistan and that has brought so much trust now anything we do and that brings more burden on me credibility is more important that's why when i was talking to you that about meal dynamics yes that app has been built for a couple of years but we have not put it out there because we are testing it over and over and over perfect absolutely yeah absolutely so at the beginning it was challenging it was tough they worked some conversation that they were uncomfortable but I am so blessed and glad I I I call myself relationship guy yes because I have not and everything can be the dialogue conversation and candidness that is what helped so over the years with time you know nothing was done with script all this happened to bring efficiency on the table and discussions that I want to try this.

31:17Jimmy Frischling: I want to do this. And why I want to do this objective was how to bring efficiency and make things easier for our employees because employees input will drive customer output. And that was always, it was always basically keeping in mind customer experience. And that cannot be done until you bring happy employees. Happy employees come with, if you can come good tool and good tools do not come cheaper unless you build them.

31:48Nadeem Bajwa: That's excellent. I like that a lot. And you've had some very good, as I seen some of your quotes and you and I share some philosophies. We're going to dive into the people business right now. Everything I've read about the people business that's been attributed to you is that you would say you're not really in the people. You're not in the pizza business. You're in the people business. And I recently said at a conference that when we look at investing in restaurants, we're really investing in a human capital manufacturing system. They can't outgrow. Restaurants can't outgrow. They can't scale faster than they are developing talent.

32:26Nadeem Bajwa: I think that is where there's a recipe for disaster. You also your team members are figuratively and literally your family. And that is a whole different ballgame. And I think when people talk about people, I'm sorry, when owners talk about their employees and their team and they talk about, they use the word family, it's either the truest thing that is in their soul or it's a great line to use at a conference. And as I've read about you, I know that's a true thing. What does it cost you to actually run a business when this is your family? Because this is not the norm. You are, I think, the exception.

33:10Nadeem Bajwa: So I imagine there's some benefits, quite a few. I would expect the word trust probably. Mutual trust and respect is part of it. What does it cost you to actually live and breathe running your business with your family and treating your employees like family?

33:28Jimmy Frischling: I'm going to tell you in 30 seconds one small story that will tell you that it's not something, you know, obviously I was born and raised to stay humble, to stay good to people. But why it is in my DNA is, so I opened second location. I thought I was great. I opened third location. When I got to fourth or fifth location, I was managing. I said, oh crap, this is, can't do that myself. So every, it's hard now. Then the challenge came, I cannot find anybody who will be as passionate, will be as driven as me. So then I started looking for from within, anybody I touched, that person can be good. The first question people will ask, what is my future?

34:27Jimmy Frischling: So I personally, the whole idea was, like I said, my family, my partner in this original plan was to go from 10 to 10 restaurants. That's it. We're going to be fine.

34:40Nadeem Bajwa: Yeah. You didn't hit that.

34:42Jimmy Frischling: No, you didn't hit that. You kind of want to bump out a little bit. Exactly. By the time I got to five, six restaurants, I started thinking, I cannot do it on my own. But if I bring somebody who's not good, that defeats the whole purpose. My business won't be successful. But if I bring people who share the same passion, who have the same desire, same appetite to grow. If I use them, they'll be around me for a little bit. But after that, they don't want to stop. So I cannot only think about my growth. I have to think about you also. So, you know, my leadership that in field, I have five people who want operations, five leaders.

35:36Jimmy Frischling: Their tenure with the organization is minimum is 15 years.

35:43Nadeem Bajwa: I was going to say, I read 15 years plus. 15 years plus. And in an industry that is famous, unfortunately, for having very high turnover, you have rewritten the way you've rewritten it. And as you said, use the word, I know it was intentional. You could use people and they'll be with you for a moment. Yeah. You can invest and develop and care about their growth, their career, and you have people for 15 plus years in your leadership.

36:15Jimmy Frischling: You know, a lot of times, you know, business owners, the expectation is for team members to be loyal. But loyalty is not one way, it's three. Two way, it's three. Because you cannot grow. I mean, it cannot be solo. When we build an organization, even if one or two people lead, organizations are built by people. And when they're built, there needs to be a succession plan. You know, after I'm gone, I want Bajku to continue to grow. And these are the people who are going to run. So we all don't live forever, but the organizations we build should be built to last forever. And who's going to run?

36:59Nadeem Bajwa: It's so interesting. I was going to ask your brothers run the finance and operations. Yeah. The next generation is running technology and construction.

37:10Jimmy Frischling: Yeah.

37:11Nadeem Bajwa: And you have been explicit that, you know, this is so different than, let's say, a non-family business. You talked about Badge Co. continuing. and that was one of my questions. When you're no longer the person, let's keep you living a long time. When you're no longer the person, let's say running the business, what is it that you want to see badge go? What do you want to be true about the company you've created as it gets passed to the next generation and the next set of leaders who are going to run your company?

37:48Jimmy Frischling: Well, I just want, I don't want one thing one thing that I do not want change a lot of things will change with time one thing I do not want change is that is the best ingredients we have focus on people that is the part because no matter you know what AI is going to do no matter what anybody is going to do the personal touch the human like that's why when we onboard people also we have AI tools and you have software your standardized video training or whatnot. But what I push for is 30, 60 days, 90 days follow-up and follow-through should be critical when even robots are running their business.

38:33Jimmy Frischling: So people, the best ingredients is people and that should never change. As long as we are focused on that and main focus is winning and everybody's aligned and we are taking care of each other, business will take care of itself.

38:46Nadeem Bajwa: For the Hospitality Insiders, we've got the insider five.

38:50Jimmy Frischling: Okay.

38:51Nadeem Bajwa: Five questions you can answer. They're pretty quick. What's the first number you look at in the morning before you look at anything when it comes to your business?

39:00Jimmy Frischling: I look at sales. The first thing is revenue.

39:04Nadeem Bajwa: What is the most expensive lesson you've ever paid for?

39:10Jimmy Frischling: Oh, boy. Most expensive lesson I paid for or I regret. I would have paid for it. But I promoted a couple of people too early. They were good people, and I ended up losing them because I promoted them too early. I felt under pressure because they were very good at what they did, but they needed a little bit more time. They have more question. So that I still regret.

39:38Nadeem Bajwa: Name a piece of technology that you acquired, you bought, you brought in, didn't develop a show, that didn't work. And you don't have to pick on it. You can pick. As you like. What's the technology you brought in that didn't work and what did it cost you? What did it cost the company?

39:55Jimmy Frischling: Well, technology, I'll tell you, I am, I relied for the most part on Papa John's. I was not very tech savvy. If I have to go back and build something, I would build something that was missing. I would build something that report that can be generated in 30 seconds, one-pager report that summarized my last test performance. And that I'm still missing. The technology I adopted and I still do not like and we are using it is that is because mandated that is a scheduling, you know, scheduling software. I feel it could be better.

40:36Nadeem Bajwa: It could be better. Okay. There's an operator right now that's listening. Yeah. And he or she has five units.

40:43Jimmy Frischling: Yeah.

40:44Nadeem Bajwa: what would you tell them that you think maybe no one else has told them?

40:49Jimmy Frischling: I would say don't run five units. Run one unit five times. Because a lot of times this is where mistakes happen. You know, when we go through a health zone, around five units, when you cannot afford to have help with your GNA, but five units are too many, then you need to start developing people. If you cannot hire a full-time deal, you have to start developing people and focus on each unit running each time. I still today, I think and I say that I do not run 276 restaurants. We run one restaurant 276 times. 10 years from now, are there more franchisees in this country or fewer? I would say there would be more because it's a blessing to have a model because I did not know anything about business.

41:47Jimmy Frischling: I wanted to be a businessman, not because I had a passion because the majority of my family is bankrupt for doctors and I never thought I was smart enough. And I would do just, just tell you the truth. That's what it was. And franchising, even if you're not business, that provides you business model. And then from there, you take it. It's your passion, how far you want to take it. So I would actually, I would want to be more franchisees.

42:14Nadeem Bajwa: Nadim, thank you so much. This is the conversation I wanted to have. This episode of the Hospitality Insiders, I'm going to bring it to a close. As I said at the start, it's one guest, one chair, 30 minutes. And the stuff that usually is spoken off the record, I appreciate you chatting with me on camera. If you own boxes, if you own the units, if you sign the leases and you carry your payroll, I think and I hope this show and this episode with Nadeem is something you'll have a lot of takeaways from. We have new episodes dropping in partnership with Branded Media alongside our hospitality. Hang on, of course, and our newsletter, The Hospitality Headline.

43:01Nadeem Bajwa: Subscribe wherever you're watching this. I'll see you the next time and as always It takes a village Nadine thank you so much Appreciate you