#16: More Than Marketing: How Christi Christian Helps Restaurants Stand Out | Christi Christian, Eustress and Demeter

Daniel Tsentsiper (00:01.468) Christy, welcome to the show. How are you doing today? Christi Christian (00:03.756) I'm good, Danielle, thank you. Thanks for having me. Daniel Tsentsiper (00:05.714) Thank you so much. No, it is my pleasure. I'm really excited for this conversation. We got a chance to talk maybe about a week ago about your story and the work that you're doing now. I think that from my conversation with some people on your team, I think that you guys have a lot of experience helping out brands, scaling brands especially, and you yourself kind of have done almost kind of every role in a growing company. And now you're... starting a new venture. So I'm just super stoked to have this conversation. I always like to ask my guests about themselves and I'll give you the stage here for a minute or two. Just tell us, how did you get to where you are today? What were some of the first roles that you held and maybe along the way, some of the people you worked with. Christi Christian (00:53.302) Yeah. Well, one of the most exciting role, we'll go to that one, was with her. Well, in the beginning stages was with her Bain Cafe. So as I said, I got to do a lot of roles because it was a newer brand back then. I think I started when it was number four. Daniel Tsentsiper (00:58.318) Let's do it. Christi Christian (01:12.23) And so I remember sitting there with the owner, Tom Holt, and I was like, wait, what are you doing? Why are you looking at those financials so deeply? And so then I got into seeing how managers were able to change things on the point of sale system. Like, wait, wait, that shouldn't happen. So I got involved with the whole point of sale system, and we ended up switching that over into Brink. And so I got all techy on that, and then setting up the stores with their. Daniel Tsentsiper (01:12.442) Okay. Christi Christian (01:36.844) with their POS systems and all of that. And they started calling me the IT girl, the IT girl. But I'm like, wait, wait, wait, no, I'm marketing, I'm marketing. but as we were growing, my hands just were in everything as far as like working, we transferred over into Cisco and working on all of that. And just every role, even just the operations and the stores I started getting into and then the catering and the marketing and all of that, until we got so large that it became like, okay, wait, you have to focus on some thing for us to go. Daniel Tsentsiper (01:49.553) Right. Daniel Tsentsiper (02:05.551) Right. Christi Christian (02:06.818) to that next level. So once it got to be like 20 stores for me, I felt like I had taken the brand as far as I could take it. It was pretty much in its launching phase to start basically cookie cuttering in a sense. And I grew up to 38 stores now. They just opened their 38th one. My daughter still works there. So still very much a family to me. It's in my heart. Daniel Tsentsiper (02:21.027) Right. Christi Christian (02:32.078) But at that point I was ready to kind of grow and I love touching other brands and switching to another. So I have barbeque clients and burger clients and Romaine and I don't know Italian you name it just all the different types and ding and dine. So, which is a great example of how marketing just crosses and it doesn't necessarily have to be food. I forgot cookies and all those stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I love that. And my day is so exciting because I might start with one brand and flip over to another and each hour could be different. I love taking a brand, looking at it and seeing that aesthetically. Daniel Tsentsiper (02:58.5) Hmm. You do it all. Christi Christian (03:19.086) it could be better and that how it transcends the four walls that you have to also look at your digital landscape, everything and all those touchpics where a guest is going to come and see your brand has to match. so visually, the first one of the first things I love to do is when I see a brand, it's like, oh my gosh, we need to get better photos. We need to get the website. We need to get your SEO up. We need to get your Google ads. need to, you know, just everything. And there's so much and that happens. Daniel Tsentsiper (03:47.151) All Christi Christian (03:49.241) whether it's food or other things as well. Daniel Tsentsiper (03:52.632) I love it. I love it. was at this restaurant the other day or last night actually. And I used to, I used to know the owners of the, of the, the previous owners of that same, location and they switch ownership and now it's a new restaurant. And I went in it, I went inside, they just opened two months ago and I have this similar to you. Maybe it's a curse, but whenever I walk into a restaurant that I know needs some work, I analyze, I analyze everything. Christi Christian (04:17.87) Can't turn it off. Yeah. Yeah, I do that too, but am I off? Yeah. Daniel Tsentsiper (04:21.454) I'll like start asking them like, what POS do you guys use? Or I noticed, noticed, yeah, they don't even know. And I look at the lighting and the, for about 20 minutes in that dinner with my friend, we were talking about what can we do if we were the operatives to make it a better experience? And, you know, there's this almost like this like tug tug and pull think early on. And maybe you can help me understand this better early on when you're working with a brand. I think the most of the focus goes into like just delivering good food, good quality food and making a presence for yourself. And then there comes a point where you do with investments, you do have to start looking at other channels, right? Like you mentioned SEO. That's one of those things that a lot of restaurant owners just maybe are too scared to even touch themselves. So at what point do you kind of like to step in and you feel like you can add the most value? it? with a brand that's one or two locations or is it a brand that's starting to kind of franchise and develop? Like where do you see yourself kind of loving to? Christi Christian (05:24.078) you That's a great question, Daniel, and we have both and I love both. I've had restaurants like this one, Mangia, it's an Italian restaurant and it opened in Salina, Texas, which is a brand new growing town, which not a lot around it. It's like this old fashioned and they took over a gas station. So they had nothing and it's the father and the son are the primary ones. And they were in the hotel renovation business. like if large hotel needed to be renovated, that's what they did. Daniel Tsentsiper (05:42.571) Wow. Christi Christian (05:54.752) did all that. So they had all the experience to come in and take this gas station and turn it into an amazing Italian restaurant. And then they brought in yeah then they brought in a consulting company to come in and develop the restaurant the recipes and all of that. And so for me I went to come in there was nothing. They didn't have a brand. didn't have a stoop. They had a story but they didn't have it written. There's nothing going through it. So I got to put my hands in all of that and I would Daniel Tsentsiper (06:03.086) pretty cool. Daniel Tsentsiper (06:17.679) Mm. Christi Christian (06:24.796) I just want go back because when somebody is opening one of the main things that they overlook, they think of all the things that they have to do and they think, we don't need marketing. That's just going to happen. Daniel Tsentsiper (06:35.509) Right. What do think that is? What do you think that is? And I would love to continue here, but I'd to know why. What's the psychology around Christi Christian (06:41.982) Two things, I think that the money all gets spent on what they think is important and they think marketing is a fluff. They think that's an extra. And sometimes they find out a really hard way that they should have done marketing. There's an Italian restaurant, I don't like to really work where I play now. So I try not to have once at home because of what you just said, how you go in and it's like constantly, I just shut my brain off somewhere. But there was one in downtown Ventura and it's an Italian restaurant that opened. before COVID and it was killing me because they opened correctly. They gave out like free samples and this and that. The food was amazing. The vibe, the look, everything great. And then I just was watching like they're blowing it, they're blowing it, they're blowing it, they're blowing it. And I had so many ideas and then it turned out my neighbor is the landlord for it so she told them about me. They're like we don't really have the money right now, we don't really have the money right now. my husband and I our biggest joke. look there's two people. no that's the chef sitting down. You know and it's not because of the food, it's not because of the vibe, it's lacking one thing. It's lacking something special that is going to draw people in and that's what I like to do is come in and help you understand. Let's figure out something special that's going to attract people. Or like another example, just, of the calls this morning was with Mickey's. So he's got nuts down in the farmer's market. And he also has Mickey's kitchen where he does handcrafted meats and amazing food. And one of the things I was trying to help him understand was we need something special. And I don't want to give away what I gave him, but I told him, you know, go into the Grove, let's develop this. Let's go into the Grove. This is what kind of market. Daniel Tsentsiper (08:22.847) Now you. Christi Christian (08:30.192) It's like when I say go into the grove when people are hungry, I can't give everything away. the idea is, well, I want to be respectful of him too and the idea I gave him, blah, blah, blah. the idea is I look at marketing as not only just like your traditional marketing. I always like to think outside the box and where are the people and what do they need and what people group can we hit that is going to tell us. Daniel Tsentsiper (08:35.861) Yeah, yeah, yeah, you have to pay top top dollar for that. Christi Christian (09:00.142) everybody else. So you kind of find a group of people that are going to then spread the word for you. So I guess maybe I don't like to work that hard, create something that then tells people, let the people do the marketing for you. And I think that is so key. And I think a lot of times people, like back to your question, they think, we don't need marketing because they think of just traditional marketing. They don't think of what makes us unique, what makes us special, and how do we let Daniel Tsentsiper (09:01.325) Hmm. Daniel Tsentsiper (09:07.436) Right. Evangelists. Yeah. Daniel Tsentsiper (09:15.467) Bye. Christi Christian (09:30.102) the world know about it. And then even if you're doing well, because there are brands that do well, but then I look at it like, okay, well, let's do better. Let's get more customers. Maybe, yeah, maybe you could franchise down the road. Maybe you could duplicate this concept, even if it's just two or three locations and you want to hold on to them. Daniel Tsentsiper (09:32.0) Got it. Daniel Tsentsiper (09:41.408) Right. Let's grow. Christi Christian (09:52.33) So it's just like creating something special and sharing it with the world. And that's what I love to do. I love also building and giving back to me that is so important. it's brands, sometimes they see it as like, that's all the marketing we need, but that's not what it's about. It's about just, it's like, don't tell your kids to just be good people, to be good people. them to be good, tell them to go help that person. Tell them to go be nice and help that one because they need it. Daniel Tsentsiper (10:02.263) Mm-hmm. Daniel Tsentsiper (10:19.318) Right. Christi Christian (10:22.314) and keep the focus on that and don't worry about what that does for you. But I love how restaurants can do that for others. Daniel Tsentsiper (10:26.528) Yeah, it's a very... I think that's you brought up a really, I was, as you were talking, I was just thinking, I went to a store opening on Thursday, this past Thursday. And, you know, it seems like they did everything right. They, you know, brought people in, they did a giveaway, they brought the news, they did the whole ribbon cutting ceremony. They, you know, they, put a lot of money into the grand opening, but the key is it doesn't, it, it, marketing is something that's always ongoing. You can't just do a big push and hope that you can capture that lightning in a bottle. You have to always be trying something new. Like you said, build a loyal fan base that it's like a positive flywheel. They just keep telling more and more and more. And those people tell more people. And so you're constantly bringing new customers and you have a very strong loyal fan base. So if we had to use Urbane Cafe as one of your case studies, what was you talk about having something unique beyond just food, something that brings people back? What was that for Urbane Cafe? Christi Christian (11:30.798) Well, there's a lot of things for Bain, but the thing that just stuck out of my mind, so we'll just take the one. Okay, I'm proclaimed cookie snob. So what that means is I don't want that cookie unless it's hot and fresh out of the oven. Daniel Tsentsiper (11:38.027) Let's do that. Christi Christian (11:46.382) So when I first, well, I was a customer of Urbane way back in the day when my kids were young and they would have these big giant cookies and kids would want a cookie and I was like, I'm not going to give you like this big giant cookie, right? And it looks old and wrapped in saran wrap. So when I started there, my thing was like, wait, we need to get like smaller cookies first of all, so that they'll buy them for their kids. And then, so we were working and I realized they got them from a local bakery and then we had a slow store. Daniel Tsentsiper (12:08.204) Mm hmm. Right. Christi Christian (12:16.336) at the Luis Obispo store and they asked me if I could pick up the cookies and take them up there and they did and then they're marking the dates on the back. I'm like wait why are we marking the dates? Oh because we don't keep them longer than three days. I'm like, ooh. playing cookie snob in me just became a little like, ugh, you. So anyways, back to your thing. What I thought was like, what if we had hot fresh cookies at Urbane Cafe? And little ones, because who doesn't want like a hot fresh cookie after they've eaten? And like, that's really hard to resist. And then to me, like the kids you bring are gonna determine where you go half the time. And if you have hot fresh cookies that they're getting at the end, they're gonna always wanna go to Urbane. So got a little resist. Daniel Tsentsiper (12:30.677) Right. Daniel Tsentsiper (12:41.195) Mm-hmm. Christi Christian (12:59.16) in the beginning, but then I worked with Cisco for one of the marketing openings and we passed out hot fresh cookies and then made the cookies that were remaining left and convinced him to actually let that location, the Northridge I think was location number eight, sell these hot fresh cookies. And then they came up with the idea of getting a heating pad thing to put them on. So the cookies are on the heating stone. And so now you can go to a bank cafe anytime and get a hot fresh cookie. And there's sales, yeah, there's sales like quadrupled on cookie sales. And then of course it brought more sales and more sales. So now every single store beyond that test store that he let me play with has hot fresh cookies now. Daniel Tsentsiper (13:28.971) That's really smart. Daniel Tsentsiper (13:34.918) Absolutely, absolutely. Daniel Tsentsiper (13:42.091) Amazing. Congrats. Yeah, absolutely. It's something unique about Urbain Cafe that you don't, you know, you don't really see with other restaurants. So I see your point now. It needs to be something special. It needs to be something unique. It can't be no pun intended. It cannot be cookie cutter. needs to be something that makes the brand, needs to make the brand stand out and show that, you know, they care about the quality. They care about putting out a good product. If you Christi Christian (13:56.845) Yeah. Christi Christian (14:00.364) Right, there you go. Yeah. Christi Christian (14:11.084) Yeah, one other thing. Can I just add this one other thing? Daniel Tsentsiper (14:11.859) If you ha- Yeah, absolutely. Christi Christian (14:15.982) Because when people think of marketing, like I said, they just think of that outward thing. One of the biggest things of marketing and near and dear to my heart is hospitality. Because I don't care how good the food is, I don't care how good those cookies are, I don't care how bad you crave that food every single day. If you go in and they are rude to you and they could care less that you walked through that door, they do not make you feel special. You don't want to go back. So to me, that was like the heart of marketing. there's a difference between like service and hospitality to me, like service are the thing. that you train somebody to do, the day in day out tasks, and can teach anyone that. And hospitality is who you are and how you make people feel. So you take that as a brand. Who are you as a brand? And how do you make people feel? So to me that is the highest arch of marketing. Daniel Tsentsiper (14:47.784) Right, right, right. Daniel Tsentsiper (14:59.306) Mm-hmm. Daniel Tsentsiper (15:03.115) Right. And to understand that, you work with operators and founders through an exercise to kind of explore that? What is the process of figuring that out? Christi Christian (15:12.192) I guess. So that is one of the offerings that we do love to offer. Unfortunately, not very many brands these days take you up on that because they're in a rush and in a hurry. But we do offer that, the hospitality training and the ongoing. And it starts with the top because the top... And that's one of the beautiful things about Dink and Dine, because we just had this conversation. That's one of the things I'm going to be putting together as a whole orientation plan, because I've been going through the orientation with some new team members. And so now we're going to put it in a presentation for them. But that is, it's like you, as the top team members, they have to learn it first. So I just had a meeting with two of the top. brand new chefs being hired for Disney 9 and I went through all of that and they have to get it because if you only, if you don't treat your team well, they're not gonna treat your guests well. They can't, they don't feel good and it's like if you just got yelled at behind the scenes and then you come up front to go help the guests, it's a fake phony smile, they're gonna feel that. Daniel Tsentsiper (15:58.121) OK. Daniel Tsentsiper (16:19.369) Absolutely. If you had to think of a, you know, I want something actionable here for some of the operators that are thinking about improving their marketing. If you had to advise an operator on some of the basics that they should at least have down for their restaurant, what would it be? Would it be like SEO? Would it be having a social media page? Like the basics, like what needs to be there? Christi Christian (16:40.782) Yeah. Daniel Tsentsiper (16:47.624) And if it's not there, he would go crazy. Christi Christian (16:47.79) The basics in this world because we are such a digital world and because people are always looking at you on Instagram or Facebook or a website or Google or somewhere, the first thing is some great pictures, which I work with a photographer and he always gets the first call because to me, if you don't have great pictures, then And it can be as simple as like we work with a cookie concept. I'm like, okay, those are good pictures, but they're not great pictures. They don't make me want to grab that cookie and eat it. There's brands that'll say, well, we have good pictures. And this is what kills me when they're like, my brother-in-law has a camera and he takes great pictures. Or my sister's a photographer. She's gonna come in and take pictures. Daniel Tsentsiper (17:37.565) Right. Christi Christian (17:38.318) Food photography is so different than regular. And there was a burger concept we had to kind go through this with where they go, yeah, we can take some pictures here and there, blah, blah, blah. And it's like, uh-huh, you see how your bun looks dirty? You see how, you know, there's just, a food photographer knows how to do the right lighting so it doesn't cast shadows in the right way. So getting the right photography, and then I usually love to just go in and just create graphics and the website and all those. fun things. But you gotta have, you got, yes, a good logo, but you know, I've dealt with an okay logo and you can get around an okay logo, but yeah. Daniel Tsentsiper (18:09.713) Yeah, good logo. Daniel Tsentsiper (18:17.832) Interesting. I'm also seeing that this kind of takes us away from the small, you know, small restaurants. A good example, like Burger King recently did a logo rebrand or just actually an entire rebrand of its mission, its vision, its approach to customer service, its logo, its fonts. And I was just thinking in my head, how much did that cost like for them? Like that must have been Christi Christian (18:31.468) Bye. Daniel Tsentsiper (18:47.771) a tremendous expenditure to kind of revamp themselves. You say what? Right. Right. Christi Christian (18:50.442) worth it though. Yeah, it's worth it though. needed that. They needed that. They were getting old and tired and passed up and yeah. Daniel Tsentsiper (18:58.766) Yeah. What'd you think about that rebrand? Because from the people I talked to, I think their first reaction was like, I don't really know. I think people are a little bit resistant to change at the beginning. But to me, it also seems this nostalgic. Christi Christian (19:10.466) I don't really... Yeah, I don't really know. not... which tells me they didn't do a good enough job in the re-read, but the idea was right. But I don't think it's a good impactful one. I'm trying to think of one that did it that was good. yeah, mean, sometimes you don't, and that would be the thing, like, okay, so McGee's, I'll go back to them. So he's like, should I change my logo? I'm like, no, you've been around since 1917. You do not change that logo. but we created a whole nut line for him and he didn't have packaging. So I respected the history of it. I wish I could show you what it looks like now. What if you go on mcgisnuts.com, you can see it. So if you listen to this podcast, it's worth it because the packaging, designed that from scratch, but we did a whole nod, kept his logo, but did a whole nod to the history. So there's like cylinders that the nuts go in and I did all the timeline of McGee's on the cylinders. Daniel Tsentsiper (19:41.895) Hmm. Daniel Tsentsiper (19:45.927) Okay. Christi Christian (20:11.758) And then I took the picture that he gave me of his great grandparents that started it in 1917. And it was the old nut. I don't even know what you call it. was like nut or something. And I faded it in the background around the cylinder. You should love it. But that to me is like you respect a brand that's been around for a while. And you find a way to bring it into modern today, something that people will love. And you don't have to un... Daniel Tsentsiper (20:17.937) That's pretty cool. Right. Right. That's pretty cool. That's pretty cool. Christi Christian (20:40.738) you know, take it into like the Jetsons. Daniel Tsentsiper (20:44.183) Yeah. I love this conversation because I can already tell that our minds, while we are very similar, we also talked about some of our uncanny similarities, martial arts and growing up in Los Angeles, we have a lot of similarities. where our minds kind of differ is you are such a creative. All the things that you're bringing up, it would never come to my mind that it's, I can see the value in it, but I would never actually dream of these concepts. But Christi Christian (20:55.37) for art. Daniel Tsentsiper (21:14.096) for you, is where you get your creativity. This is where you get your flow. Let me ask you, have you had a hard time working with certain operators? People that just, they know they need a change, but they're just so resistant to this experimentation. Christi Christian (21:17.198) Yeah. Christi Christian (21:32.13) Yeah, absolutely. I mean, there's all sorts of people and that's it's you work gently with them and you I'm patient with them and then I then I help them and I also look at okay What is important to you today? And then let's work around that because there's always something you can do and then once they see that works then it's like Okay, would you like to try this? So, yeah, I mean, absolutely There's some that just want to jump in all the way and you got to say, okay, here's a lot of great ideas We have to scale that down. Let's pick two and let's make that our focus for this quarter, then next quarter. So then you build them out a whole marketing plan with different focuses of it. So yeah, I love to just kind of come up with like a ton of ideas too, because I don't know if you can tell, but I get a lot of ideas. But I love to come up with a ton of ideas and then kind of say, okay, here's some of my favorites, but what resonates with you? What would you like me to build on? And then I'll take those out and build upon them. Daniel Tsentsiper (22:07.783) I I see this. Daniel Tsentsiper (22:16.433) Yeah. Daniel Tsentsiper (22:27.93) Have you experimented with helping out brands that are non-restaurant, other hospitality brands or other franchise brands? Christi Christian (22:35.79) Yes, so in kind of the skincare line, we did some stuff with them, just finished a brand. Probably shouldn't say the name yet because it's not out yet, but it's coming. And it was, yeah, definitely in that space. Daniel Tsentsiper (22:54.446) And would the same lessons apply? Christi Christian (22:57.58) Yeah, I don't even think the difference between food and it just it and I get my I wrap myself around it all the way. I did one for like it on the name of it, but it's a medical foods, medical foods. So medical foods is a grade that is it's approved by the FDA. So it's not like supplements because you have this FDA approval. But Daniel Tsentsiper (23:13.006) Okay, medical fits. Daniel Tsentsiper (23:23.493) Okay. I see. I see. And so you took you took that brand and what did you do with them? Christi Christian (23:31.086) did podcasts, did a whole web redesign for them. What else did we do? Events. So they were very focused on doing the different events. So created all the materials for the shows and the events and things like that. Daniel Tsentsiper (23:51.526) Very cool. What would you say are some of the up and coming, like the new age of marketing? You brought up the social media, good photos. Are there other, let's just say, up and coming marketing strategies that you've seen that have been exploding in popularity and that you would advise operators to take a look at? Christi Christian (24:10.734) So you see it and you don't always know it, but it's like the fusion of food. So when you think of the Gen Zs, they grew up with a computer and they grew up going to China and Japan and Malaysia and Belize and all these places. where they see the food with their eyes or they're on TikTok and they're seeing it all. So nowadays chefs have to be a little bit more forward in the fusion of food and becoming creative. can't just be Italian or it can't just be, you you're getting like the berria tacos or you're getting, you know, ramen places making tacos or, you know, just using, fusing the food. So there's a huge trend towards that. Plus the other thing is, you know, back in the... know 70s or 80s you went out to dinner you just went out to dinner it was about eating now you go out dinner it's about the experience what is that experience you cannot just have good food i mean there's a couple dives that you'll go to but then you call them the dives so that that's trendy that's okay but people want to be entertained more they want to feel good we have to pay more for our food now so you expect more Daniel Tsentsiper (25:03.717) experience here. Daniel Tsentsiper (25:21.925) All right. Totally. Christi Christian (25:22.924) for it. So that has to be at the forefront. There's also going to be this whole like everybody has their phones. So everybody you want to create like Instagramable moments because then that's free marketing for you. So creating those moments versus just like, a pretty down starts with a pretty plate with colors and foods. But what other things can you do? So like for dink and dine, we're doing this thing where we want to have like whatever the chef's creating kind of some behind the scenes. Daniel Tsentsiper (25:37.027) Absolutely. Christi Christian (25:52.8) things and then have those like maybe out on screens where you know people can you know a lot of that digital interaction. Daniel Tsentsiper (25:53.253) Right. Daniel Tsentsiper (26:00.994) Yeah, absolutely. Hopefully we'll be speaking to one of the former CEOs of Shake Shack and they had a really cool concept at the beginning where they had a camera of the line. So customers can see if it was worth it for them to wait in line because usually the lines were like an hour long looping around the block. But one idea I have is maybe have a camera or something or maybe just like spotlight. Christi Christian (26:22.126) Yeah. Daniel Tsentsiper (26:30.181) moments of the chef cooking so they can actually, you know, see how the food is prepared. And then, and then another, another point there is I'm also seeing that customers, guests really do care who's actually preparing the food and the story behind the restaurant. One of the reasons I started this podcast is because everywhere you see on TikTok, on Instagram, you have this content creator come in and they order food and then they go. Christi Christian (26:33.614) All right. Daniel Tsentsiper (26:59.308) behind the scenes and actually talk to the owner and get to know them. And I do believe that for the modern operator, they need to put themselves out there. We've kind of moved away from this era of like celebrity chefs. there's only a couple of people that were able to kind of dominate a market using their name and their recognition. But now the everyday mom and pop pizzeria can have a really cool owner working behind the scenes that gets publicity and can Christi Christian (27:06.69) Dutch. Yes. Yes, absolutely. Christi Christian (27:23.832) Yeah. Yes. Daniel Tsentsiper (27:28.286) blow up. I think that's also important too. Christi Christian (27:29.386) Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, that's what he was going in and just seeing the mom and pops and going behind the scenes with them. And people absolutely love that. They really love to see the story. In fact, that was one of the things I pushed Tom Holt, the owner of our vain cafe with back day of telling his story. So I did a whole storyboard, put it up in the restaurant. And I believe still to this day that he still puts those points up. Yeah. At least if not, they're still in the first 20. Daniel Tsentsiper (27:36.674) Right. Exactly. Daniel Tsentsiper (27:53.497) Nice. Daniel Tsentsiper (27:57.699) So there. Daniel Tsentsiper (28:02.731) Amazing. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I love it. I always ask my guests, who is someone in the industry that you take inspiration from? Who inspires you? Christi Christian (28:03.212) Does he still use the storyboards? But usually when I go in, I'm always like, I did that, I did that, I did that, I did that. And she's like, yeah, we didn't really change much. Christi Christian (28:21.518) Gosh, there's a lot of people that inspire me. Yeah, well, obviously, like, Never Eat Alone, what's his name? Blanking on him. But yeah, I mean, he's definitely an inspiration. I'm flanking. Daniel Tsentsiper (28:23.467) It's always a tough question. Daniel Tsentsiper (28:33.506) Never eat alone. Let me get it. Never eat alone. Keith Ferozzi. Keith Ferozzi. Christi Christian (28:40.811) It's exclusive. Yeah, Danny Meyer, definitely, the whole story, his whole story. Guy Friari inspires me because he's found a new way to, and you know, I just saw, where was I? think it was in, oh, it in the airport when I was in Arizona. And it says it's coming. His whole restaurant, he's got his own restaurant. Like, of course, why not, right? I mean, yeah, and then down in Las Vegas and stuff like that. Daniel Tsentsiper (28:46.605) Was that it? Daniel Tsentsiper (29:03.66) It's coming. Right, right. No, for sure. For sure. Las Vegas, he has a bunch too. And he also has a fast casual. He has a fast casual restaurant called Chicken Guy. And they just recently started franchising. And I met one of the franchisees. It's amazing what he was able to do. Christi Christian (29:13.671) Yeah, he's had it. Yeah. Christi Christian (29:21.76) Okay. Christi Christian (29:27.278) Yeah, yeah, he inspires me because he found a different way of doing something. And I love that. And it's like marketing at its best. Yeah, he's also a good guy. heard him speak once and that was he's a good family guy. And I told the story of his sister being sick. I don't know. Anyways, he's a good guy. So he inspired to Daniel Tsentsiper (29:35.712) Absolutely. Daniel Tsentsiper (29:48.149) I love it. Last question here. You guys have some exciting things coming up with Dink and Dine. You know, my audience has just had Monica on the show and she told us a little bit about what they're working on. What are you most excited about this concept? And maybe tease us a little bit. What's to come? Christi Christian (29:55.715) Yes. Christi Christian (30:07.406) I'm so excited of the fusion of food and entertainment. I for one love pickleball. To me, Dink and Dine has everything. It has, it's bringing people together. I mean, what better way to spend your day than to go with people you love, get a little bit of exercise and then celebrate over great food. What I especially love about it is it's not just food like, let's do pickleball and let's throw some food in there. These are like chefs, we're restaurant people, all restaurant people that are putting this together and have a love for pickleball. So it's two of my favorite, very favorite things. The only thing that I don't like about being this busy is that I don't get to play pickleball as Daniel Tsentsiper (30:36.544) Right, right. Christi Christian (30:52.112) But this will give me a reason to. I have to get back out. yeah, so there's a lot of exciting fun things and also I love parties and entertainment and all of that and all of that is in this park. So we've got amazing venues. Daniel Tsentsiper (30:52.702) Yeah. Christi Christian (31:09.622) could do a wedding there. There's two pickleball courts on one side that are removable so it could be a complete dance floor and then it's got the event rooms over there and then the great food like everything is here. And then the other thing is I absolutely love baseball which, baseball, Arizona baseball, there you go. And so Daniel Tsentsiper (31:11.414) Yeah. wow. Christi Christian (31:29.846) I grew my son, we went to Arizona all the time for all the games and the different things and the stadium, Cub Stadium is right there. So that makes my job just so much fun to like be able to go to the Cub Stadium and say, hey, look, we got a great place for spring training, for your events and for your things. And just being right next to the baseball park is amazing too. Daniel Tsentsiper (31:52.897) Well, I better, I better get an invite and I'm willing to make the drive. thank you so much, Chrissy. There was a ton, tons and tons of gold nuggets in this episode that I think, I'm very happy that you joined because I don't get a chance to, talk to someone like you. So I really appreciate you coming on and sharing with us your, your wisdom and experience. And for anyone that's, that's watching that needs help. Christi Christian (31:55.636) Right, no you're definitely gonna get an invite, yeah. Daniel Tsentsiper (32:19.954) You know from a marketing standpoint from an IT standpoint, you got to give Chrissy a shot. So thank you Thank you so much for for joining the show Christi Christian (32:25.23) Daniel, thank you so much for having me on. I really appreciate it. And this was fun. Thank you. You too. Daniel Tsentsiper (32:30.421) My pleasure. Have a good one.