Tropical Smoothie Cafe’s CMO on Building Awareness, Joy and Purpose

0:00Hey 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.

0:47Using 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.

1:24They'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. What are you thinking about alcohol with tropical smoothies? Is that not in the, does that no one ever think about that? Tropical smoothie after hours? Totally.

1:49Deborah von Kutzleben: happy if you want to do that on your own. I'm not sure she wants her brand necessarily associated with Nelphic N.E. Oh, let's see you. I'm just, as you said, do that on your own.

2:02I got to say, we are back. The Hospitality Hangout is back. Live from Prosper, beautiful Grand Lakes, Florida, also known as Orlando. Jimmy, I'm still going to say I haven't seen a lot of lakes. I saw one lake that looked man-made, so I don't know why they call it Grand Lakes. It was a grand. Yeah, I didn't look that grand. It was Grand Lake. Honestly, the pool's bigger. This portion of the hospitality hangout, Jimmy, is sponsored by No Kid Hungry. That's right, Jimmy. Change of sponsor, mid-podcast. It's never been done before. We just pulled it off, and we've got an amazing guest. Let's jump into it.

2:34I was going to say Debra's name, but it's too hard to pronounce the last part. I'm going to try Debra von Kutzleben. Kutzleben. Good, good. There you go. I'm the DVK, Chief Marketing Officer of Tropical Smoothie, and Debra gave me full permission to use DVK. DVK. Well, and since we're going to be calling Debra Van Kutzleben DVK, then this segment of the Hospitality Hangout is powered by NKH. No Kid Hungry? Boom. There it is. So, DVK, NKH. NKH doesn't roll off the tongue. We'll call it No Kid Hungry. You know, every marketer that I've ever met says they want their brand to stand for something bigger than the menu.

3:16Okay? And we have a guest. We have a chief marketing officer that's actually not just talking the talk, but walking the walk. I have a brand. Yes. This is a brand. They're bringing wraps to a smoothie concept. Okay? They're sending fans and customers of Smoothie King to the movies to check out Moana with a smoothie in hand. They just want more than you nobody like Moana 5 We're on one now. We just went from the animation to the lives of the live access to the live action Oh, by the way, my daughter love both. You know, Chachi, I have a nine-year-old daughter Jimmy's daughter by the way has been nine like seven years.

3:55She's like 18 now. He's like yeah, she's nine Okay They've also partnered with banana ball and by the way Chachi, I went to see banana ball. You know what with my nine-year-old daughter What are you talking about? Savannah Bananas? Yeah. The banana. The banana bowl. So this is a brand that has had nine consecutive years of same-store growth. So there's a lot going on. We have with us Chief Marketing Officer, Tropical Smoothie Cafe, DVK. Welcome to the show.

4:26Deborah von Kutzleben: Thank you. Thanks for having me. You didn't get permission to do DVK. Oh, the Debra. Yeah, you've got to say the full name. Debra Kuzleben. Yeah, thank you. Very good, very good. Jimmy, you got to say Debra Vaughn Kutzleven. I get to say DBK. There you go. So you grew up in Tennessee. I did, yes. Why did you hesitate on that? It's just, I grew up in New Jersey, okay? So you want the hesitation. I'm from New Jersey. There's a big hesitation there. Tennessee, I mean, nobody ever, you say you're from Tennessee, nobody's like, oh, right? I don't know. They don't. You don't know, I'm telling you. I mean, okay.

5:01Deborah von Kutzleben: I'm from East Tennessee. So an area of the state that not many people are familiar with. So it's not Nashville. It's not Memphis. It's the opposite end. But you went to the University of Georgia. I did. Right? Journalism. Yeah. 93, class 93. Oh, gosh, yes. We spoke to some of your professors. They said you were very, very, they all thought that you were going to be a novelist or journalist in like a big newspaper or something like that when we did our research. Okay. But you went to Ayer and Son as an account manager working on the 18T brand. I did. And you didn't like it. You hated it. I didn't?

5:40No. Okay. And you went to BB Dino, which stands for, like, you know, they merged a whole bunch of advertising agencies, right? And you were the big star. It says it's Belle Viv DeVote. You were the big star over there, and you rose to fame, winning awards, many awards, Effies, Oscars, Grammys, Tonys, Can Lion Things, Lion Awards, right? You went to Arby's.

6:08Deborah von Kutzleben: I did, yeah. You were responsible for We Have the Meats, right? Not solely responsible, but yes. But on this podcast, you were responsible for We. Yes. They wanted to say we like the meat and you were like no no no right You said no, it's not like and you went so yeah, I give you full time and now You're the CMO tropical smoothie and like you said it's five years Which is that's a long time to be over there and you're and you're knocking it out of the park as Jimmy said You're growing like crazy. So what are you doing? Yeah, that's a gal from East Tennessee do all this, huh? Yeah, really focusing on brand awareness.

6:53Deborah von Kutzleben: That's our big opportunity. We have a huge, pretty large footprint relative to our brand awareness. How many stores do you have? How many stores do you have? We have over 1 ,700. I mean, that's a lot. That's a lot of stores, right? Exactly. So for many years, we were really focused on development and building cafes across the country. and when I joined the brand, I said, there's a huge opportunity here to get awareness to kind of catch up to the footprint of the brand. And so that's what we've really been focused on the last five years. So what was like the, I mean, what was the first thing that you, that you, that you, the big initiative that you first kicked off with?

7:31Deborah von Kutzleben: Do you remember that? Yes, I do. One of the biggest things we did was change the way the marketing fund was organized, right? What does that mean? That means we went from our franchisees paying into a local marketing fund. Right. Where those funds could only be spent in that local market. Oh, yeah. And then contributing to a national fund. And we basically merged those into one marketing budget. Yeah. That we could then. Do these big things like Jimmy was talking about. The banana ball, the Moana. Because that's big stuff. That's big time. That's how you grow brand awareness. And it also made our media buy much more efficient because instead of buying Facebook over 130 DMAs.

8:20Deborah von Kutzleben: So that was your idea. That was your idea. Yep. It was my idea. I can take credit for that. Yeah. You see, Jimmy? Taking full credit for that. I like that. You know what, Chatsy? That's how winning is done. That's right. Right. That was my idea. I'm sticking with it. I like it. All right. DVK, you've been on both sides. I have, yes. Of the business. over two decades on the agency side at BBDO, building campaigns, as Shatsy said, for some major, major brands, and then going in-house with First Arby's. It's a little closer to the mic, buddy. Sorry about that. First Arby's and now Tropical Smoothie or on this show, TSC.

8:59Deborah von Kutzleben: Yeah. All the acronyms. What did being on both sides or what did being on the agency side, let's say, help you or teach you, make you more informed as it comes to working in-house and um and what is it like being being in-house yeah you know as opposed you know and really executing and living with those decisions in real time versus somewhat being that third party yeah there's a question coming i got to it okay i got to it just making sure all right should i try not to answer it seriously Seriously. No, answer. Yeah, I think it's made me a much better client, right? I think I have so much more of an appreciation of what an amazing creative idea can do for a business, right?

9:49Deborah von Kutzleben: I think the agency world is very competitive, and you need to stay on top of what your client's needs are, grow with them. And so inherently, I feel like that's kind of made me a much more competitive person at heart, which you need to be in this business. Attention to all the details, like growing up in the agency business, especially on the account side, all the little things mattered. So I think that was just a great upbringing for that. And culture is critical at agencies. when I went to move to the client side I wanted to go to a place that embraced marketing and really knew what it could do for a brand that loved creative ideas and was fun to work at and not all clients are like that so that was sort of some big belchers for me even when you say it it kind of makes you smile it's a happy it's totally happy You're not going in and getting a smoothie and being unhappy.

10:57Exactly. You're like, ooh, this is happy, right, Jimmy? Joy. You know what they're selling there, Jimmy? I know. What are they selling? Love. They're selling love there, you know? We are. But Tropical Smoothie, it's certainly not, like, when was food? It didn't always have food.

11:12Deborah von Kutzleben: It pretty much always had food. It did always have food. Yeah. But the whole wrap thing seems like, at least from my perspective, it seems like a very new initiative. No. It's not a very old initiative. Wraps seem like they've been around for hundreds of years. That seems really new. No, it's not, Jasmine. It is not new. So, like, I've always had wraps. As long as I can remember, Traveling to Smoothie is wraps. We have had a food menu for a very long time. It's one of the challenges as a marketing team that we have to overcome is the fact that people know us primarily for smoothies. We're really trying to change that.

11:40But what about the Tiki Torch Wrap?

11:41Deborah von Kutzleben: Oh, it's so good. That's new. It is new. Well, that's what I meant. That's what I meant. That's what I was talking about. Well, that's a limited time offer. Well, that's what I meant, a limited time offer. Okay, okay, yes. Now, are you coming up with these LTOs? My team is. Really? Yeah. So what is the Tiki Torch Wrap? And why do we do that? It's so good. So we listen to our guests. We talk to them all the time. They love spice. We have a couple things on the core menu that have a little heat to them. Right. We said, let's lean in. Let's go all the way. Because everyone likes spicy now, right?

12:13Well, more and more people. No pun intended. Pun intended, I don't even know.

12:17Deborah von Kutzleben: And think about it. This is what's so smart about it. People know us for smoothies, right? Yes. You give them something hot to eat, what are they going to want to do? A smoothie. A smoothie to cool it down, right? Yeah. So really trying to drive that. I always thought hot wings at a restaurant would have been eating some more beer. Where they used to put the spicy or the salty peanuts and stuff. That was Jimmy's strategy. Right? Plus, I just like salty food. I like salty things. Yeah. You do? Yeah. I'm more salty than sweet. Okay. And what about the whole Savannah banana thing? How'd that come about?

12:50Deborah von Kutzleben: So they just launched two new teams this past year. One of them was the Loco Beach Coconuts. So what could be more perfect than Tropical Smoothie Cafe partnering with the Loco Beach Coconuts? And so it's been a great, really fun sponsorship. We do sampling of smoothies before the games. There's a lot of social content we share between the two brands, and it's been a lot of fun. What's the best-flavored smoothie? What's the best-selling smoothie at Tropical Smoothie? What is it? the bahama mama what's the bahama mama it's got strawberries it has white chocolate oh really it's an indulgent smoothie yeah because i feel like everyone does like strawberry strawberry and chocolate goes really good together doesn't it why is that i don't know you know what goes good together with chocolate peanut butter we have one of those two i would imagine you'd do it yeah i like it i like it yeah now what about these disney tie-ins you're doing yeah is that because we're in Orlando?

13:50No. It's got nothing to do with this.

13:53Deborah von Kutzleben: No, we figured that out before this convention. So Lilo and Stitch. Yeah. Lilo and Stitch or Lilo? Lilo. It's Lilo? It's Lilo. So Lilo and Stitch and Moana. Is Moana Disney also, isn't it? It is, yeah. Two in a row. So is that like a thing? Do you have to go make a deal with Disney? You do, yes. So what else are we seeing with you and Disney? Nothing on the horizon right now but I do think you know as a brand that's trying to grow you're trying to capitalize on other properties that have a following right that can lend credibility to your brand that brings some fun so we had some skits stickers along with the smoothie and cafe this year and we got a good smoothie and then you're getting a whole mother like I just building up the audience Yeah.

14:43The whole family's going.

14:45Deborah von Kutzleben: Lilo and Stitch was great because it was multi-generational. You had, like, the parents who were familiar with it and the kids, right? You knew that? Yeah. We loved Stitch. Exactly. I really do like these things. I got to tell you, DVK, I love it. I might know what I'm doing. Is that what you're saying? I don't think you might. I know you do. I know you do. I think Debra knows a thing or two about a thing or two. Yeah, yeah, 100%. No question. I want to ask you about tropical smoothie and purpose. We are working with our friends at No Kid Hungry. You are the co-chair of the Dine Advisory Board.

15:22Tropical Smoothie has been one of the brands that has been all in on No Kid Hungry. So when Tropical Smoothie and your work is supporting No Kid Hungry, what does that actually look like? Is it funding? Is it promotions? Is it employee engagement? I mean, how is Tropical Smoothies, you know, involved in engagement with No Kid Hungry? That's a good question, Jimmy. Am I right?

15:47Deborah von Kutzleben: It's a great question. Great question. Thank you. Yes, it's all the things. Primarily fundraising. They're doing such great work. We've been partners with them for over four and a half years. So right after I came on board. Oh, wait a minute. Whoa, whoa, whoa. So was that your idea? It might have been. So you connected this. I did. I had experience working with No Kid Hungry when I was at Arby's. And they knew what a great organization, a great cause it was. So wanted to be able to contribute all of Tropical Smoothie Cafe's resources on the cause. So yeah, we have Roundup in our app all the time.

16:24Deborah von Kutzleben: We sell a smoothie called the Sunshine Smoothie. What's that? It's a delicious mix of mango, pineapple. I'm not going to remember it off the top of my head. But a portion of the proceeds of that smoothie go to No Kid Hungry. Yeah. Very delicious. I feel like mango, everyone likes mango. Like mango frozen, it's good. It is good. You know, you take tequila and put that, a frozen mango margarita, people are happy. They are. So you take this mango, what was it called? The sunshine smoothie. You take a little sunshine smoothie. Do you guys do any, what are you thinking about alcoholic tropical smoothies?

17:06Is that not, does that no one ever think about that? Like a tropical smoothie after hours?

17:12Deborah von Kutzleben: Are we dropping CMO gold? Totally happy if you want to do that on your own. That's not something you guys think of? It is not something. I'm the finance person, finance guy, and we're sitting next to the marketing gal. I'm not sure she wants her brand necessarily associated with. Oh, listen to you. I'm just, as you said, do that on your own. Right. Take our fantastic mocktail. Reframe the question. Reframe the question. Debra, have you ever taken one of these and thrown a little vodka in it? Maybe. No, for like, this is, what is it called? The R &D. Exactly. R &D. Because I would think it would be very delicious.

17:52Deborah von Kutzleben: Yes. Jimmy. I'm not saying. Mr. Puritan pilgrim over there. I was only saying, I think the brand, I believe this is not about changing. This is about bringing more awareness is what Deborah is focusing on. I thought we were in a safe place and we were openly sharing ideas. That's what I thought this whole show was about. There'll be like some tweet that says, Chief Marketing Officer of Taco Smoothie wants to partner with Southern Glazier wine and spirits. No, Casamigos would be a good one, I'm just thinking. You're telling me Tito's wouldn't be good in that. Listen, I think I'm on to something here.

18:30You might be. I respect what you're saying is go get the tropical smoothie, right? And then bring it home and pour your favorite mixer in there. We can take a quick break, all right? DBK, CMO Tropical Smoothie, 1 ,750 locations, growing gangbusters, five years. She's a gal from East Tennessee and now marketing one of the biggest, fastest growing, QSR, fast casual, food oriented smoothie place in the entire world. Did I capture it all? I think you caught it all. We'll be right back with some Hot or Not. And by the way, this portion of the Hospitality Hangout is sponsored by No Kid Hungry. The NKH.

19:17Isn't Tropical Smoothie a big deal there?

19:20Deborah von Kutzleben: We are a big sponsor of No Can't Lumber. You're a big deal, right? We are. We have raised our$5 million. I'd like you to find a place where tropical smoothies is not a big deal. Find that, Shatsy. I think they're always a big deal. They're always a big deal. All right, we'll be right back to Hot or Not and Brandy Quickfire and a lot of other fun stuff. Hey, everybody. I got to tell you, we're going to talk about Bilt. Bilt hospitality. Millions of people use Bilt every day. That's right, every day to earn rewards on housing and in their neighborhood. But now, now it extends to your restaurant.

19:52That'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, using the latest and greatest in AI technology. When a guest walks in, your team already knows what they like without digging through notes.

20:33Built 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 they're a regular. Built Hospitality is available now for restaurant groups everywhere. Learn more at BuiltDining.com backslash hangout.

21:10That's builtdining.com backslash hangout. And check out what Built Hospitality is going to do for you and your restaurant.

21:20All right, and we are back. We're back. We are back right now. And I got to tell you, Debra. Big crowd out there. Big crowd watching. Debra had to take a break. We got fans. But we're back. And here we go. We're going to go with a little the headlines. Okay? All right. I think you're really going to enjoy this. This is the Hospitality headline. This is our award-winning newsletter.

21:38Deborah von Kutzleben: Okay. And we have three headlines. Two are real, one is fake. Okay. Your job, if you should decide to take this job, it would be to identify the fake headline. Are you ready? I'm ready. All right, Jimmy, you can play too, but don't cheat. No cheating. All right, here we go. Michelin star French restaurant in New York City adds hot dogs to the menu. A Michelin star French chef, French restaurant in New York, hot dogs to the menu. A sushi restaurant in Santa Monica is displaying a five-foot raw tuna spine on the bar as a centerpiece. Okay. What is that a big deal? Who cares? That's a headline? The word?

22:25They just fired that person. A fast food chain quietly added a 50 cent ketchup packet fee to to-go orders. A fast food chain has now charging Jimmy for ketchup. The little ketchup packets, I think they call those PC packets, right?

22:46Deborah von Kutzleben: I don't know. It's like personal, you know. Condiment? Yeah, there you go. There you go. I like it. If it's not, I remember. It should be. It's like a PC mayo, PC. So you got the Michelin star French restaurant adds hot dogs to the menu. And by the way, hot dogs are a sandwich. It's in the sandwich section of the menu. A sushi restaurant in Santa Monica has a five-foot raw tuna spine at the bar. Don't know anyone cares. Or this whole ketchup pack fee. What is fake? I'm going to go with the third one is fake. The third one is fake. So you don't believe that anybody's charging in this day and age for ketchup?

23:23Deborah von Kutzleben: I don't know. Maybe they are. It's expensive. Jimmy Guglieland ketchup he takes, he opened his drawer in his kitchen, it's got hundreds and hundreds of packs of ketchup. You're saying I got a secondary market for all my PCs. All my personal packages. What do you think, Jimbo? The marketing guru here has went with, there's no way that she would let you charge. I'm not challenging the marketing expert here. Because that would be a marketing disaster. I mean, the words matter. I mean, had you said, you know, it's like five cents a PC. This is 50 cents. But you said 50 cents. That's too much. And I just say, I'm going to say no.

23:59Five dollars for a packet of cash. And if it's a real headline, that person should be fired. But I think I'm agreeing with the marketing gal. Debra is the DVK, is the marketing genius, and she knows that would have been a marketing nightmare for her and the team. Absolutely, that was the fake story. The other ones were absolutely, I guess the hot dog was the sushi thing. I don't know. That was definitely Julie getting out of chat sheet PT. because that was just ridiculous altogether. All right, hot or not? Hot or not? Are you ready for a little hot or not? Sure. Okay, this is what you've been waiting for, okay?

24:32So let's dig into it. I'll try. She didn't know she was waiting for it. She knows. Ketchup on hot dogs. Is that hot or not?

24:40Deborah von Kutzleben: Yeah, it's always hot. It's not always hot. It's always hot. I thought mustard on hot dogs is what everybody does. It's always hot until it all feels good. But is ketchup having a moment right now on hot dogs? Yes. Are mocktails hot? Mocktails are hot, yes. Tequila in smoothies. Is that hot or not? I think it's hot. Ah, you see? The truth comes out. Protein everything, is that hot or not? It's still hot. Protein smoothies. Hot. Extra protein in my smoothie. Hot. Pickle flavored everything. I feel like it's losing it. It's losing it. It's about time. It's on the downward. It's on the down. Move it out.

25:24Deborah von Kutzleben: Let's move that one out. Sriracha everything. What are you looking here? I mean, I know. I'm like cheating. I'm looking. It's hot by definition. How about that? I'm okay with that. I'm okay with that. Drone delivery. Is that hot? Is it getting hot? Is it going to be hot? I think it is. Yes. I think it's coming. Is Tropical Smoothie thinking about that? Not quite yet. Not yet. But we're going to let some other brands figure it out first, and then we'll jump on. Influencer marketing, is that hot or not? Influencer marketing, using influencers, like Jimmy, for example. Maybe not Jimmy, for example, but yes, it's hot.

26:08You can find someone better than me. Influencer marketing is still hot.

26:11Deborah von Kutzleben: It is. It is. For sure. Jimmy, what would you like to opine on there if you want to opine on anything? Well, DVK and I are having an agreement. You can't even say DVK? I was talking about going with Debra or DVK, but we're in agreement on the pickle craze has reached its peak. And I believe these whole... Pickles have been around since like the 1800s, Jimmy. Don't get me wrong. I don't know what it meant. Wait a minute. Pickles around 1 ,000. They were pickling everything. You couldn't get the refrigerators. I love pickles. Pickling has reached its... I just don't want pickles on everything. But here's my question on the last one that you were asked about.

26:50The drones? About the influencers. Oh, influencers. And it seems like it's like a Yogi Berra comment. It's so crowded, no one goes there. That space seems to me so incredibly crowded that it's creating a lot of noise. And to me, it's hard to sift through. But maybe you're not seeing it. You're saying, no. Jimmy, there are still voices that are absolutely not only listened to, but they make things happen. Absolutely. Okay. I'm learning on this podcast, too. I didn't know you were really such a pickle hater. I love pickles. No, you really don't. I just don't want pickles like in all this stuff. Pickle flavors, whatever.

27:25I'll eat raw pickles. Are you thinking about pickles or pickling? There's a difference. I love pickles. I like eating pickles. But what about like pickled onions? No. What do you mean no? I don't like pickled onions. What? I don't like pickled juice. I like pickles. No, but what about pickling things? No. Like I went to the pickle guy down in the When I stutter Chatsy did I stutter? No I said no. They were pickling Pineapple.

27:52Deborah von Kutzleben: No. Really? Pickled pineapple There's pickled like watermelon Brussels sprout. Watermelon wine. Watermelon Yes. I don't want it I don't know Jimmy but you know what I can tell you Something else. Debra. Does anyone call you Deb? No. Alright I won't then. I spoke that we had something Going here and then like we were close enough Because I think we both agreed that we could gang up on Jimmy Together so I was like you know what Deb I want to give you another thing. In terms of first names, then I feel people are on one camp or the other. Yeah. I believe if you're a Deborah, you're a Deborah. How do you know?

28:23Because I have a few friends. And if you're a Deb, you're a Deb.

28:26Deborah von Kutzleben: You're a Deb, yeah. So Debbers don't go Debbie? Deb is like when I was young. You are? Yeah, I was when I was young. What about what's your mom say? What would my mom say? Yeah, what does your mom call you? Debbie I guess oh you see thank you yeah so all right well I feel like I can call you Debbie no no no so your mom calls you Debbie yeah I'm just saying I think people go to different these camps Deborah proper yeah I think you're right you're right and all the Debbies I knew are now either Deborah or Deb there's no Debbies in my world yeah no all right well listen on that note I'm going on to the quickfire the quickfire please let's play the quickfire no this is what I wanted to say, I don't want to click for you.

29:10I just got to say, Jimmy doesn't believe in two meats on a burger, so he can't have bacon on a burger. He doesn't do two meats.

29:21Deborah von Kutzleben: Even if it's two of the same, like two patties? A double patty? No, no, no, I'm okay with double patty. Oh, two different meats. For example, today they ordered me a club sandwich, and I took the bacon off. Or I could have taken the turkey off, but I didn't want the turkey and the bacon. You don't think that's a little weird? Yes. That's weird, Jimmy. Totally weird. Shanti, you see, you got to double up on me. You double up on me. I told you. It's heavy, huh? Go ahead. Did I tell you we got them? It's like a corned beef, and a charme sandwich? No, no, no, double me. Yeah, see, like, no, that, that.

29:50Deborah von Kutzleben: I have, everyone has a weird thing like that, though. Mine is like I can't have non-breakfast food at breakfast. Like, it has to be breakfast food. I can't have the chicken in the morning. I get that. You know what I mean? Then what about breakfast for dinner? I can do that. You can do that. Totally. But chicken and waffles, no way. No. Doesn't work. Doesn't work for me. By the way, Shatsy, when my nine-year-old daughter wants me not to touch her burger. She's not nine anymore, Jimmy. She wants me not to touch her burger. She'll order a bacon cheeseburger. There you go. She's smart. She'll laugh because now she's daddy won't want any of my burgers.

30:20That's good. I got to tell you, you know, something Sylvie really has caught on. She's really smart. I order bacon on my dad's not touching. But bacon on your dad won't touch you. Let me have a bite of that. Absolutely not. Dad has bacon on it. Smart kid, I got to tell you. All right, we got to go on to the branded quick. I just wanted to talk about that double meat thing that Jimmy has a little bit. Double meat. Like no turkey and ham.

30:39Deborah von Kutzleben: Yeah, you're missing out. That's wrong. Those are good flavors. I want to have a turkey sandwich, or I want to have a ham sandwich. I don't want a turkey ham sandwich. It's like you're five years old or something. Yeah, like little kids eat like that. Something happened. Those Italian heroes, that totally messes me up. It's like three meats. Yeah, those are my favorite. Oh, that's so confusing to me. Oh my gosh, okay. All right, Debra Von Kutzlund. Ben, DVK. When you go to Tropical Smoothie, and you must go to a lot, how many stores do you visit a year? Oh, God, I don't know. A lot, right? You're always going around, checking them out, right?

31:14What do you get? What's your go-to order?

31:16Deborah von Kutzleben: Oh, my gosh, it's different every time. So I eat Tropical Smoothie Cafe probably three or four times a week. Right. Is there one near your house that you go to that you prefer? A little near the office. Is there one on the way to the office? Yeah. And I literally, I'm not lying, I get something different every time. Is that so you can just always be trying different things? No, because I'm in a different mood and there's plenty to choose from. Yeah. So morning is more of a what? Morning, we have a chia oatmeal pudding bowl. Okay. That is amazing. Is there protein in that? Probably some. You could add a little extra if you want?

31:54You could add some. Okay, good. And then if you go in the afternoon, what is it?

31:57Deborah von Kutzleben: Afternoon, I get a detox island green. I like that. I like that. Kale, spinach, pineapple. Yeah, I need that. It's got ginger. Are you guys ginger fans? You know what? Jennifer Dodd has really got me into these shots of like. Oh, yeah. Turmeric? Turmeric? Turmeric. Yeah. And ginger. It's good for your digestion. Yeah, supposedly. Yeah. So I gotta tell you, after I do it, I know it's good for my digestion, but I feel like I got indigestion from the very thing that was supposed to help my digestion. I'm sure Jennifer appreciates you linking her brand. I don't know if I'm a target audience over there, the ginger shot, turmeric.

32:31You know anyway, all right, let me ask you this so it's a basically it varies and then you ever go What time do they close or does that vary 9 p.m. 9 p.m. So is there like when you look like an after six kind of thing you get yeah a chicken pesto wrap Or a chicken pesto flatbread, sorry. Oh, that's like is that like a dinner or I like that. I like that and what's your uber rating traveler of all over the world.

32:54Deborah von Kutzleben: Um I, what's the highest? High. I think I'm about a 4.85 or something. That's nice. It's not. You didn't go. A lot of people come on and just go 4.9, whatever. Yeah. I'm saying Debra's higher. I think there's probably been a few. Like, I've canceled at the last minute. I don't know. Wait, what? There's probably a few things. See, I cancel all the time. If it's three, four minutes, there's no way I'm waiting. You do? Yeah. Yeah, I try not to do that. I end up getting the same driver anyway. So what's your rating? 4.76. Terrible. Oh, okay. I'm telling you why. It's, it's, it's, I can't even believe I feel like they try and ban me from, from Uber.

33:32I feel like they don't want me. So I will say I did something interesting. I've never done this before. My back was killing me when I first got here and I was like, Oh, I'll Uber to CBS. I'll go get some Aleve. Right.

33:44Deborah von Kutzleben: Yeah. Then I'm like, wait a minute. Well, I just went on the Uber app and they just brought me the Aleve. It was beautiful. Yeah. It was a literally a seamless thing. Dropped it right off with the concierge. Even got the CVS discount. It was like, get a second bottle for like 50 % off. I'm like, you know what? I know eventually I'll burn through all these leaves playing golf next week or this week. You know? Well, welcome to 2026. You mean the Uber? Honestly? You could have actually had it delivered by drone. You could have had CVS. So I was interested in, you know, in New York City, I don't go to CVS.

34:19I just, Amazon just brings me everything. Yeah. So that's why I thought it was like, yes. But thank you welcome to 2026. I was impressed and you know what else it was like a person goes and see this and shopped for me

34:31Deborah von Kutzleben: Yes, yes Well, it wasn't a person at CVS that went and got it in pretty big And the uber driver came in like the uber person got into the parking lot out of the car and went and shop Because they even asked me if they don't have that a leave would you would I take something else just in case? Yeah, yeah, I'm like yeah, they get six pack of Guinness yeah got that too how fabulous we get we get a lot of orders through um double dash on door dash so the guest orders their primary meal right but they also want a smoothie so the driver will swing by tropical smoothie cafe oh right and bring them a smoothie too so do you know you don't know where they're getting their food from right you just I can find it you can yeah we can find out interesting yeah we got the because we can turn them into rap lovers there you go right Right?

35:19Yeah. Uh-huh. See what we're doing over here. All right. How do you take a bagel? How do you eat a bagel? Like, what is your favorite bagel? Interesting. What do you put on the bagel? Do you toast it?

35:29Deborah von Kutzleben: Oh, my gosh. I love me a bagel. So, I guess, yeah, I'm on everything, lightly toasted. I usually am, like, open face, plain cream cheese. But have you heard of Pop-Up Bagel? They have it in the city, right? Yes, of course. They're in, yes. So, that's like a tear and dip situation. I've been tearing and ripping for a long time. You have? Yes, I mean. Yeah, I mean, who does it? I'd be tearing and dipping it. And I'm okay with that. I'm kind of adopting to that. I don't mind it. It's a different experience. Yeah, it is. Because you really can't tear and do and put, like, smoked salmon. No, exactly.

36:00You can't do that, you know? So there's no toppings. You can't do tomato and onion.

36:04Deborah von Kutzleben: Right. And you can't do an egg and cheese, right? So that's the only one. Is the pop-up bagel going to be, is that going to be, like, is that? It's supposedly kind of, I guess, one of the few bagel places that actually has potential to franchise or grow across the country. This is what I've heard. I don't know. This is not an ad for Pop-Up Bagel. You just said you like it open-faced. I do. So then this isn't going to be for you. I mean, you know what I like about Pop-Up is the bagels are a little smaller. A little smaller. So it's a little bit better proportioned for me. Sometimes I can't finish my whole bagel.

36:38Deborah von Kutzleben: A big one, like a normal. Yeah, no, in New York City, they have like a pick-a-bagel. Jimmy, pick-a-bagel is gigantic. Yeah. That's a big bagel. That's a big bagel. Yeah. All right, listen. This is where things get a little dicey. Heated, if I may. Jimmy gets upset. I'll get upset. You're a marketing genius, if I dare say, from East Tennessee. Is a hot dog a sandwich?

37:06The whole room, by the way, got very quiet. DBK got very quiet, by the way. The whole room got very quiet, I got to tell you. When DBK speaks, people listen. It's like EF Hut right now. The whole room got quiet.

37:17Deborah von Kutzleben: I think that it is a sandwich. Oh! Not that I'm mind. Because my definition of a sandwich is primarily meat. Guess it doesn't have to be, but in my world, meat in between some bread. So if that's the pure definition, then I would say yes, it is. Cheese between bread? Sure. There's some cheese. You could put some cheese on a hot dog. Fried eggplant between bread? Sure, yes. It's still a sandwich. So anything between bread? I think so. So a hot dog is a sandwich. I want to be very clear. Thank you. Okay. I respect. Okay, that's done. DBK's answer completely. I do not agree. You just said she's a marketing genius.

37:57I said I respect her answer. I do not agree with the answer. It doesn't mean I don't respect the answer. Disney or Universal for you? I mean, you have to go Disney, right? I mean, all the LTOs you're doing. Oh, you're fucking hard. If somebody hears you say universal, I feel like that could ruin your relationship. You're right.

38:13Deborah von Kutzleben: You're right. What do you want to say? But for me personally and my family, I'd say universal. My kids are a little older. A little older? Okay, so it was Disney, but now they're more rollercoaster-y, a little more thrill. And I am too. Marvel kind of a... No, Marvel's Disney. It's DC is universal. Right? Yes, I think. Yeah, I know. Spider-Man is Disney. Hulk is universal. Hulk is DC. Superman is DC. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. All right. What's your last thing you Googled? The last thing I googled? Yes. I don't know. I wasn't ready for this. You don't even have your phone on you, so just make it up and we'll believe it.

38:46Deborah von Kutzleben: No, I don't. I don't. Jimmy, what's the last thing you googled? We don't care. I don't know, honestly. Jimmy, wrap it up. I'm getting the Yank sign. DVK, thank you so much for the car. Now you've got to wrap it up. You've got to say the full name, Jimmy. Debra von Kutzleben. There you go. Kutzleben. He's got it. He's got it. I'm not Kutzleben. Debra von Kutzleben. 20-year veteran of the agency. Oh, God. jumped into the client side and making magic happen at Tropical Smoothie. Culturally plugged in, wraps, banana ball, Disney protein, and a real commitment to our good friends at No Kid Hungry. So thank you for everything you're doing.

39:26Ladies and gentlemen, Debra, and good play-thing. See you all at Tropical Smoothie. If people want to find Tropical Smoothie, TropicalSmoothie.com. And if you want to get in touch with Debra directly, email the podcast team podcast at brandon.myc and just this is just hot off the presses thank you for this by the way use promo code DBK and you get 20 % for everything at Tropical there it is DBK coupon code tell them Debra say it's okay Debra I'm gonna give you Shaggy's personal credit card take care of that 20 % discount thank you cheers everybody thank you