Restaurant Influencers: The ROI of Social Media Storytelling with Steven Drulis

1 million subscribers on YouTube, 220,000 subscribers on TikTok, 251,000 on Instagram. What's the ROI? What's the return on investment? Welcome to Restaurant Influencers presented by Entrepreneur. I'm your host, Sean Walcheff. This is a Cali BBQ Media production. We believe that this entire industry is ready for a big shakeup. We started this show back in 2022. This is actually our second podcast. It's called Restaurant Influencers. And our goal with this show was to teach restauranteurs, hospitality professionals

all over the globe, the power of storytelling. In life, in the restaurant business, and in the new creator economy, we learn through lessons and stories. Today's guest is Steven Drulis. He has almost 1 million subscribers on YouTube. He has 220,000 subscribers on TikTok and 251,000 subscribers. on Instagram at the time of this recording. He is the co-owner of Vivaldi Restaurant in West Island of Montreal. Steven, I am so happy that Zach Oates from Ovation You told

me about you. You are the reason we started this show because we believe as much as we love our restaurants, we have three restaurants here in San Diego. We've been operating them for 18 years. We believe that this industry is so much bigger. We believe that we have technology in our pockets that allows us to reach a global audience. We don't have to pay YouTube. We don't have to pay Spotify. We don't have to pay TikTok

or Instagram. We can just be us. We can be us. And by being us, we can create other business opportunities. Running a restaurant is very hard. It is. Being a content creator is very hard. Anyways, I'm happy that you're here. Thank you for being here. We'll start with my favorite random question, which is where in the world is your favorite stadium, stage, or venue? Man, I haven't traveled that much, but I'd love to... I'd love to

check out that dome in Vegas for a show. Okay. As a venue. Let's do it. Yeah. Let's go. Yeah. All right. Let's go to the sphere. We're going to go to the sphere. I'll talk to entrepreneur. I'll talk to toast. Toast is the primary sponsor of the show. They believed in us when no one else did. They invest in our technology that run our restaurants, but I'll talk to toast. I'll talk to entrepreneurs and other sponsors.

I'm going to bring you in the sphere. We're going to sell it out full of hospitality storytellers. And I'm going to give you the mic and I'm going to say, Steven, Tell us the story of when you decided to become a YouTuber. Wow. So, uh, go back just about two years now. Yeah. Yeah. We, we've been running a restaurant for, uh, we're about to start our 28th year. Uh, probably, what's the date today? Yeah. Next week

we're hitting our 28 year anniversary. Amazing. Congratulations. Yeah. So we were just running your basic, uh, Facebook and Instagram posts. Uh, we're coming out of COVID. COVID, I started using the social media a bit more because we had to pivot on everything, right? So when you're rebranding yourself and, you know, we all went to take out and take away and we were shut down. So we started using the socials a lot more to promote the restaurant.

When we came back, the restaurant was just jammed, busier than ever. And I actually, like, I didn't even talk to my social media guys for a year. We were recycling old pictures and doing each, you know, I was transferring them a payment. Whereas during COVID, I was speaking to them daily, A year later, I hadn't spoken to them in like six months. I called them up and said, listen, I'm tired of these pictures. I know the

way to go was reels. However, I'm no genius here because I was fairly certain I was going to lose money on this deal because I don't do any of the editing or any of the filming. So, you know, I come up with the content, the recipes we develop, but then they film, they edit. I don't even know what video they're dropping until they drop it, you know? Amazing. And I chose to put myself in front of

the camera, which was very new in Montreal. I don't think there was anyone doing it before me. For the simple reasons, I told my brother, I said, listen, we're going to be losing money on this. So I go, maybe instead of just building up the brand of the food, we built myself as the brand. And we're able to do that because, you know, I own the restaurant. I'm not just a corporate chef. And people, if they

enjoy the videos, they'll find a restaurant, you know? And again, we were fairly busy before, so I wasn't... desperate or I wasn't trying to, I was just trying to remind everybody I was there once a week. And, uh, I told the guys, opened me a Tik TOK account because you know, maybe it'll help me attract some younger cooks. And the honest to God truth is I didn't even know he, uh, Ty is the guy who does

all the filming and editing. Uh, I didn't even know Ty had started me a YouTube channel until he had put the first video out. Uh, and when we, uh, and, but our stuff, like we filmed two days and probably filmed, uh, two Mondays in a row where we, I did probably like 30, 40 videos in those two days. Uh, again, thinking, you know, 20, 30,000 people in my area, we're going to see those videos, right? Very

loose, very relaxed. I was cooking stuff right off my menu that I've been cooking for 30 years. Yeah. Uh, and second video, I mean, it really starts like ticking, you know, like, uh, and I'm, uh, by the end, uh, by the end of the, you know, midway through a couple of days after the second video came out, I turn around and I sent them a message. It says, Hey, can you let me know, uh, I think

all these videos, like on all the platforms combined at the time, I just thought it was Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. I go, I go, can you let me know if we hit a million combined views? It might be something to celebrate. And the next day he sends me a message. He goes, oh yeah, by the way, I started you a YouTube channel. And I'll let you know when we get to 2 million because the first video

he put on YouTube was already at 1.3 million views. Unbelievable. Yeah. And then so we, and that's how I found out I had a YouTube channel. Uh, and you're really going to think I'm a dingbat by the end of this, uh, by the end of this video, like I'm working hard now, but, uh, I was really inexperienced in this. Right. Uh, so we start the YouTube channel and then like, Oh, everything just starts blowing up. The

Insta blows up. The, uh, Facebook blows up. Uh, we get the first hundred thousand YouTube subscribers probably in like 20 days. That's crazy. Yeah. And, uh, you know, our, our third, our second video on, uh, On YouTube, I mean, it was like, it was already at like 20 million views within like a month, you know? Like, so yeah, I was, I was like, but it didn't, you know, hadn't resonated as to what that meant yet. I

didn't understand. I didn't understand. Like, what does that mean for the business? What does that mean for this? I mean, I had no clue. So I'll tell you, I'll tell you this. I go, I didn't even know YouTube had shorts. Okay. Awesome. My idea YouTube was I want to see a Whitney Houston performance from 1992 of the Grammys. I type it in the search bar and I watched the performance. I used to watch those mukbang videos,

you know, where they're shoving food on their faces. And I'm like, I tell my wife, I says, babe, why do they do this to themselves? I didn't understand why. I didn't know they were getting paid for that. You know, like, so anyways, you know, we keep releasing videos and they keep trending upwards. And then within about two months, we had to sit down again and say, okay, well, am I just doing reels from my restaurant or

am I going to become a content creator now? And then I started giving myself a very fast education as to what that was going to entail. And here we are. I mean, we've probably released 300 videos. I'm sure I've filmed over 350 probably by now. We've always got some in the bank. And now we're just trying to pivot... or react to discovering what happens when you get that many views because, I mean, you're in the US,

right? I'll tell you, you know, I love Canada, but when it comes to business, things are just a lot easier, I think, in the US, you know, like, we don't even monetize TikTok in Canada, right? So, like, we do all that for almost, well, pretty much for free, right? So, and I had no one ask. You know, it's something I told Zach, right? I says, you know, like when I have questions, there isn't anybody like I

can't find another like working restaurant owner chef in Canada that I can call up and say, you know, this guy called me up and he offered me this. Would you do it? Would you not do it? You know, when they started coming in with the offers, these weird people were calling me and I didn't know that, you know, they were going through like, you know, they're all brokers, I guess, at this point. And so we're learning

all this as we go. But we're taking our time and we're very tentative as to what we do. But that was it, man. Now I work hard. People have no idea how much work goes into it. It's my day off today. It's almost 5 p.m. Eastern time. And I've been here since 7 o'clock in the morning. Yeah. That's amazing. Did you know that Toast powers over 140,000 restaurants across the United States, Canada, and UK? It's an

incredible company. I'm on the Toast customer advisory board. They are proud sponsors of this show, Restaurant Influencers. We couldn't do it without their support. They power our barbecue restaurants in San Diego. If you have questions about Toast, if you're thinking about bringing Toast on to be your primary technology partner at your restaurants, please reach out to me. I'm happy to get a local Toast representative to take care of you. You can reach me at Sean P.

Welcheff on Instagram. Once again, thank you to Toast for believing in the power of technology, the power of storytelling, the power of hospitality. Back to the show. I love the story. You're literally living the thesis that we believe in. We know how hard it is to run restaurants. We love running restaurants. We love taking care of our community. We love putting out great food, great barbecue, great Italian food. But we also know there's a story behind

it. And I think what resonates so much with your story is that you're not creating overly produced videos. You have a team. that's sharing, like you've said, dishes that you've been cooking for decades. These are family recipes that you've been cooking for decades, and this is your point of view, and you're just sharing that point of view with the world, which, you know, thanks to YouTube and TikTok and Instagram, you can build a community all over

the globe. Yeah, it was very much that at the beginning. Now, I'm obviously... like everybody else looking for content. Yeah. And, but I'm, I'm really sticking to my jar. Like I'm not going to do any, I'm not doing comedy. I'm not doing sketches. Yeah. So what I like to do, what I really enjoy doing, cause I'm really, a lot of the stuff I do now is not even, it's not even on my menu. You know, most

of the stuff I film, I like doing like family style recipes and I like to do, I like to try and find approachable recipes that the average Joe is going to be able to attempt. Like I always like to use the beef Wellington example. You know, like, I don't know how the beef prices are in your neck of the woods. I'm sure you buy a hell of a lot of it. But, I mean, you know, if

you're going to buy a center cut of filet mignon to do a Wellington in Canada, it's going to run you about $200 now. And who's trying that at home for the first time with that kind of cut of beef? So, I try to stay away from those videos now. And I try to do something that people can, like, really crack into, you know? And I enjoy doing that. but it's also great for the, it's also great

for the restaurant. Right. So like, uh, you know, uh, people really are getting to know me and, uh, they, uh, I guess you're in my boat too, right? If they, they, they, they have, there's a chance that they might see you. I mean, you've got three restaurants and you're traveling a lot, but I'm pretty much here all the time. So we get a lot of, we got a lot of American tourists now, you know, I had,

uh, so what they own, it's, you know, like one guy I like as far as a chef cook, uh, who does content is, uh, Andy Herdman, Andy cooks in Australia. Uh, But he doesn't have a restaurant, right? So if you go to Australia, you're probably not going to find Andy. But around here, I had someone who came in for a Lady Gaga concert from Rochester, New York. They came to Montreal for a concert. It was actually

tonight, the concert. So they said, you know, we're going to Montreal. Let's go to Rizzo Vivaldi place and see if we can see Steve. And sure enough, yeah. Great. That's been a lot of fun. Can you talk to the restaurant owner that's listening to this, that's watching this video? One of the biggest pushbacks with social media storytelling, all the theses that we have is what's the ROI? What's the return on investment? If I make a commitment

to looking stupid, sounding stupid, because that's in the beginning, I know why restaurant owners don't do it. It's not an ROI argument. It's just they don't want to look stupid in front of their friends, their family, and their community, and they don't think that they're an influencer. Can you talk directly to them and tell them, you know, not just in your own words, but your story? Well, so, look, it's scary, right? You know, like, you have,

like, different kinds of restaurants. You got the new restaurant that's looking to put the word out. I mean, the social media and the reels is there's no better way. Okay. You got the restaurant that might be struggling. It's got a lot of room to grow. And again, the social media stuff done properly. You are going to say, I mean, everyone, there's been a lot of people in Montreal follow my footsteps now. And I know a lot

of them and they've all seen their, no one's regretting what they're spending. Let's put it that way. Everyone's seeing a return on investment. Uh, but it's not only just a dollar amount that, you know, I say like the Tik TOK account doesn't bring me, uh, you know, like I've monetized YouTube and Facebook, which is great. You know, it helps pay for the show, but although the Tik TOK doesn't bring me anything financially, it brings me a

lot of younger customers. You know, we're at a very big boomer clientele, they're getting older and now I'm seeing younger faces in the restaurant. So that's a lot of fun. And now you've got the restaurant owner who's already flying. Right. It was already busy. It's thinking a little, well, I mean, I'm already packed every night and what's the point, you know? Well, I still think there's a return on investment there as well, because I didn't think

I could get busier. I did. And then there's different opportunities that present themselves. You got to have an open heart for that. Right. You know, you gotta, you gotta keep an open mind and an open heart and you'll meet people, have meetings, have conversations, but at the same time, you're, you're going to get a different kind of clientele. You're going to get fresh faces. But also I think the real thing is, is like, it doesn't always

have to be like, I'm putting out three, four shorts a week and different recipes that I got to constantly be working on. There's a, there's a different bag, a different formula. There's different ways to approach this. And that's where you probably need a good team or a good plan. You know, you don't, you don't always have to be the face in front of the camera, but is it, you know, people want to get, you know, when

people get to know you, they feel more connected to the restaurant. And it's like, don't get me wrong. I'm still, I'm sure you're trying just as hard to make sure your food is always top tier. I'm always trying hard, but it's almost as if like, man, I feel like I can do wrong. Sometimes it's like, like they're, they're so excited to come in. It's like, uh, you know, the, the, their experience is heightened, you know? So,

I mean, there's, for me, it's nothing but good. You just gotta be, you gotta have a good plan and a good idea. It's a, what you want to do. And I didn't, you know, like I told you my story is remind people I'm here a couple of times a week and now I'm a content creator. Right. Uh, but I'm, you know, but that was, I'm, I'm very, I'm like, people tell me I'm unique because of the

speed it happened at. Right. Uh, so, but when I counsel, some of my friends have started after me, other friends of restaurants, they've all started putting out their own content. I said, look, it's a mixed bag. You can, you know, put out a video of stuff on your menu once a week, put out some pictures, get to know the staff, you know, like there's so much stuff you can do or some guys want to get into

like the trends and doing all the comedy stuff. But at the end of the day, man, it's, you know, like, I mean, Sean, I don't know how old you are. Mind if I ask? I'm 44 years old. I'm a fringe mom. Okay. So we're ballpark. I'm 47. Okay. Yeah. I mean, so I've been doing this twice. I mean, when we opened this restaurant, no Facebook. I know. There was no iPhones. There was no nothing. So we

were putting out expensive stuff. uh, expensive newspaper ads that had no return on investment. It took forever to get anyone to try your restaurant. I, you know, now to start the restaurant is going to cost you a lot more money. Everything's more expensive, but I can almost guarantee that you'll have butts in chairs on the first day. If you do a bit of social media and if you have the experience to keep them and to hang

on to your clients, it's, I mean, you're, you're never going to find a cheaper form of advertising. You know, I don't care how much you spend. You know, because those newspaper ads 20 years ago in a lousy paper over here, you know, a bottom of a little banner at the bottom of a page was a thousand bucks. You know, I mean, you know what I could do with a thousand bucks on an iPhone? So I think

one of the things, at least from watching your channel and seeing your content that I think restaurant owners need to take into consideration is my mentor teaches me the truth vibrates the fastest, meaning that The toughest things that we talk about are always what resonates with the audience the most. Recently, you put out a video about meal prepping, about letting your weight get a little bit out of control. Most people wouldn't make that video, and that's

why most people aren't succeeding the way that you are succeeding. Because of your relatability and your honesty with the audience, with yourself, with the fact that you're cooking these meals with your wife, I'm in a place where I'm trying to eat healthier and I'm thinking about meal prep and immediately the video resonated with me. So can you talk about having the courage to make those types of videos? Yeah, I mean, yeah, I mean, it's look, everything's

better with a story, right? You know, like, and like you said, the truth, the truth is always best. And that's how you connect with people, right? I mean, uh, if when restaurant guys get together and trade battle stories, uh, there's always one thing we always say is like, you don't know till you're in the owner's shoes. Okay. You, you, you think you do, you know, you could like, you could be the best friend of a restaurant

owner. You could be his general manager. You could be everything, but the sheer fact that the owner can never walk away and has to deal with every, and there's things people wouldn't even think about, you know, like, I mean, uh, And it can be nothing to do with the realm of restaurant business at all. You know, you'll have an employee that comes to you and says, you know, like, uh, I got a drug problem and I

don't know what to do. Yeah. Or, uh, they walk into your office and say, uh, I'm being evicted. I don't know what to do. You know? And it's like, and it piles and it piles and piles and you work closely with these people and you're empathetic and, you know, it's these little things. And then nevermind, like, you know, I've had a car drive through my restaurant. I've dealt with, power outages where I've been close for a

week, you know? So like, and so, but at the same time, that's what happens when we get together, that's the main thing until you've been in the owner's shoes. So when you tell those stories, people do resonate with them, you know, like when, when I'm doing a video that some people might think is simplistic, like I've done some videos where like they've done great in views and, but I read the comments of, I mean, don't get

me wrong. Most of the comments are always fantastic, but then they'll be like, well, You know, that's just like minced meat, onions and macaroni. I said, yeah, but when I started the video, I told you like, this is something that my, my kids and my, my brother's kids and my friends, like it's a recipe that all kids tend to like. And that's why I put out the video, you know? And, and when people hear that, you

know, like, and someone who's got a lot, you know, a fussy kid trying to find a meal and they're looking for an idea, you know, the, the, the, the stories do, whenever you've got a good story behind a video, especially an honest one, it does tend to do a lot better. So, you know, I'm basically agreeing with what you said at the start of the, at the question. It's, uh, it's, uh, it's great. You know, I

mean, I'm not a thousand percent courageous to do everything I want to do. Like the one thing they've always been asking me to do is they want me to do a live feed on a Saturday night. Uh, and I'm like, I, I, I, I don't know about that one. You know, I think I've scratched my nose like three times in this video and I'm like. I think you'd be great on a live feed. Yeah. I think

you would be great on a live feed. 100%. Do you remember the oh shit moment where it was like you started to get the views obviously, but when I go and I talk to restaurant owners and why we created this show was they want to know, well, how is it going to get, how is it going to translate to someone coming into my restaurant and having done content for as long as I have, I don't have

nearly as many views as you do. We do more B2B content. So we're looking more at like restaurant owners following our stuff. But I have restaurant owners that come to San Diego and instead of going to La Jolla or Gaslamp, they drive all the way out to Spring Valley. We're off the beaten path and they come to see our restaurant and they send me a DM. Hey, Sean, I'm in town. I brought my family. I want

to try some barbecue. It's like, for me, those are the oh shit moments where somebody from another side of the world is coming to our restaurant specifically because of storytelling. I mean, there's been so many. I mean, there's been so many. Like, I'm in the suburbs, so where we are, we're about 40 minutes from the... Well, no traffic. We're about 30 minutes from downtown Montreal. Yeah. All right. I mean, Keith Urban's band was in town for

a concert on a Friday night last summer. Yeah. I wasn't... It was Thursday. It was the night before the concert, Thursday night. I wasn't working. My brother calls me up. He says, hey, Steve, you got time for a FaceTime? I go, yeah, what's up? He goes, Keith Urban's band is here. You know, they follow you on YouTube and they had you circled on the calendar. Stop it. So these 20-year-old rock stars. And Montreal's a really happening

city, like great nightlife, right? These guys are in Montreal Thursday night before the concert and they're driving out to the suburbs. I love it. You know, like, so like, and, you know, and then when I traveled for the first time, I went to Nashville last fall with my wife. And when I started, I was recognized as much in Nashville as I do get in Montreal. So like, it's still humbling. Like it's, you know, but in the

summer, I would say I had at least every night, at least five, six different tables from all over the world, but more often than not from the US. You know, they don't always directly come from me, but it's like one of those things, like it's like when people go to New York or they get near New York and they want to go to Kat's Deli. Yeah. Right. uh, they're, uh, in town for like, so we have

a grand Prix in Montreal, right? F1. Yep. 27 years. I've never had one customer come to my restaurant because of the grand Prix, right? We've, we've already got, I don't know how many bookings for that week of Americans that are coming in for the race. And they're going to leave the downtown core, take an Uber probably all the way up here. And, uh, So yeah, it was that. And the first time I got recognized in the

street, first time someone asked me for a picture, I go home and tell my wife. She's almost laughing at me, you know. Then she finally came out with me. And now it's like, I mean, there probably isn't a day that doesn't go by where I'm stopped multiple times a day and I get to meet some new people. So it's great, you know. But yeah, I mean, yeah, that was, I mean, the first time I had a

tourist tour. from out of country at the restaurant. I think it was a guy he had flown in. He was one of the first ones who came from far. He was from Tampa, Florida. He was on his way to a business trip in Calgary. He changed his lawyer over from Toronto to Montreal, drove from, took an Uber from the airport, came to eat, went back to the airport, caught his connection to go back to Calgary. And

I was like, holy moly. Wow. You know, like, uh, you know, I got great food. I put my heart into it, but I'm not a Michelin star restaurant, you know, like, uh, it's, uh, we're, we're doing like, you know, hearty, wholesome, good cooking. I don't take shortcuts, but I'm not, I'm not a tweezer chef by any means, you know, like, uh, you know, so I was, uh, that was like, okay. But now there's so many stories

like that. I mean, it was like four of them on the past Saturday we had, uh, gentleman from Philadelphia same kind of deal coming back from a cruise they took a layover in Montreal one from Rochester New York won a Gaga concert and someone from Plattsburgh New York well that's not too far from here so yeah it was yeah I still can't believe it to be honest I really can't you know like It's still shocking. I'm

going to ask you a hard question that I really can't ask many people on this earth. I believe there will be more people like you and me that have media companies and have restaurants. Are you planning on growing your media more or your restaurants more in the future? It's tough to answer that one now. It really depends on the person. Take my situation. The restaurant's still my bread and butter. Yep. Okay. I couldn't retire off the

media stuff, like not as it stands right now. But I'm excited about it. Right now, my plan when I talk about it with my brother and even my social media guys is that we're exploring all options and taking our time with it. We're trying to put out steady, consistent work, even through slow weeks and... and a bad slow weeks and great weeks. But it's also like my kids are really young, you know, like I got an

11 and a nine year old girl. So it's like, do I really want to rock the boat right now? Because I've had a lot of offers to go here, to go there, to open another store. And I'm like, do I really have the time right now? You know, do I really want to right now? Cause I don't want to be gone that much with my kids young. I also don't want to miss out on what could

be a good opportunity. Yeah. Uh, so I'm exploring all options, but I mean, yeah, down the line, you know, the, the, the, the restaurant stuff is very physical. It's very demanding. Uh, and you know, if you figure out how to do the media stuff properly, there could be some fun traveling, some fun experiences. I mean, what's more fun for restaurant guys, meeting other, meeting other restaurant people, trying different restaurants, try going to different cities, talk and

shop. I mean, that's what we live for. And, you know, like, uh, and that, I don't care if you're in Canada, us, Greece, Turkey, I mean, this is what we do, you know? So yeah, the, the media aspect of it, uh, again, it's just not as, it's not as obvious over here in Canada, you know, like, uh, I, uh, you know, I'm, I'm always trying to reach out to other creators, just ask for advice and stuff

like that. Uh, because, uh, I'm very, like, I'm probably not aware of all the operators that could be out there. I could, I could be chasing more of them maybe, but right now I'm kind of, like I said, because of, time issues, I'm like, okay, like, let's see what comes to me and if we want to do it or not, you know? But down the line, yeah, I might, you know, we might start hustling a bit

more and see, see, see what comes of it. But I, I'm still not fully aware of the opportunities that are out there, you know, like, like I'm really not, you know, like people talk about brand deals and they talk about this and they talk about that. And I'm like, yeah, I mean, I've had a few that didn't seem, you didn't really seem like something I wanted to attach my name to, you know, uh, you know, uh,

I think I've done one brand deal and I think I did it more as of, uh, I wanted to see the process. Yeah. You know, and that's how I found out that there was a, like, you know, a broker between me and the brand and, uh, how it worked and where they wanted us to put the ad in and how, you know, so we did it as kind of like a, as a test run. We haven't

done one since I'm kind of like, I remember I tell the story quite a bit, but, uh, I remember seeing that movie about Facebook, the Mark Zuckerberg social something, whatever, when the Facebook movie came out. Yeah. When the venture capitalists, yeah, when the venture capitalists were after Mark Zuckerberg to start monetizing the page. Yep. And he was fighting them tooth and nail. And in the movie, I don't know if it's a true story or not, but

it wasn't a movie. He goes, once we start charging, we're not cool anymore. Yep. You know? So... I didn't want, I don't want to attach myself to too many little brands that I don't really have a connection to. Yep. I'd rather wait out. I'd rather wait and see that if there was a good brand deal that feels right, you know, uh, and do it once in a while. Cause I don't want my, my channel to be

a walk in commercial either, you know, like, cause I think viewers will be turned off by that. And, uh, so, but I could be right. I could be wrong. I really don't know. You know, like, uh, Like I said, I'm very tentative. When I'm not sure what to do, I kind of pump the brakes a bit. And I'd rather maybe it's the wrong attitude, but sometimes I'd rather not do anything than make the wrong decision. I

couldn't agree more. I will give you some free advice for you and for the audience, at least from our own experience, what we've learned. That right now, what I would consider the creator economy is is a next wave is business creators. So most creators that are big on YouTube, big on Tik TOK, big podcasters, they don't also own businesses. They have the storytelling platform first, and then they try to build a business on top of it.

What you and I are doing. And so many of the guests that I've had on this show is that we are business owners first, and then we learn how to tell a story. And because we learn how to tell a story, another business emerges. which is the media business on top of our original business. We say, be the show, not the commercial. You know, I have a six year old girl. I have an eight year old

boy. The first button that they learned how to hit digitally was skip because they didn't want their cartoon interrupted. So back to your point, if you don't believe in the product, if you don't believe in the ad, you're, doing a one-off deal doesn't make any sense. But this goes to you and any other business owner out there that's listening. Look at the things that you're already spending money on because you believe in the product. So look

at your expenses, anything that you have equipment in your restaurant, any knives that you use, any poultry that like wherever you're buying things, we pick that for a reason. We believe in that thing. Have you or your team reach out to those people and and say, hey, all of these companies, all of those companies, they need to sell to more restaurant owners. And who can tell a story better than you can? You can obviously tell an

amazing story. You've built a phenomenal platform. Look for those to be your brand deals. And to be honest with you, anybody that's watching this, listening to this, I believed in Toast. I told Toast that I'm a storyteller. I made content about Toast. I made technology content. All of our tech partners, that's how we got our brand deals, is that we just believe in it. If we believe in it, I have no problem talking about it because

I use it in my restaurants. So if you use it in your restaurants, it's not forced. I'm not pretending to use something that I don't believe in because then my word goes nowhere, right? People don't trust me. Yeah. Completely agree. Yeah. Let's see. Let's go to my favorite part of the interview, which is your personal tech stack. So I need to know... Are you an Android or an iPhone user? iPhone. Which version? Man, I'd have to.

It's about two years old. Two or three years old. Which carrier do you use? Over here, it's called Rogers. Is it good? It's one of the best. It's one of the best. Okay. Do you prefer phone calls or text messages? Me. Phone calls on a personal level. text often for work because I like to have a record. Okay. Do you leave voicemails? Not as much anymore. Sometimes I just find people don't really check them. Do you

listen to voicemails when people leave them for you? I still do, but I don't get a lot anymore. There's not a lot. How many emails do you get a day? In the hundred or so. Yeah. How many of those do you enjoy reading? 5%. Do you like taking photos or videos more? Uh, me, like me being in front of the camera or actually taking it? You actually, uh, me actually taking it. Uh, I prefer, I think,

uh, photos. Yeah. Photos. Okay. Um, I'm really bad at it. That's why Apple maps or Google maps, Google maps, teams, zoom, or Google meets. I've been using Google meets more lately, but again, this is all very new to me. This might be my, uh, fourth or fifth, uh, zoom call probably my life or not, not, not telecom, not zoom call, but yeah, this is on a different app. Yeah. Yeah. Riverside. Yeah. Let's see. ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini,

or Perplexity? I haven't even touched one of those yet. Not yet. No. I'm actually looking for a recipe app that's got AI, and I'm researching that right now. Okay. And that'll be my first foray into the AI for work purposes. Okay. Yeah. Fair enough. Yeah, I would 100% check out chat gpt or gemini um or claude actually all three of them yeah um yeah they they'll do a phenomenal job it'll it'll be more helpful if you

have what do you have an inventory tech tech that you use for your restaurants uh or is it on you know what where where are you where are you keeping your recipes uh bro you're gonna laugh me now and uh It's a scruffy notebook. Hey, scruffy notebook. You've got to start somewhere. It's a scruffy notebook. You can take pictures of the scruffy notebook and have one of those AI tools, turn it into all of those things

digitally. It'll do it for you. I know all this too, right? And I'm just like, it's just been a whole time thing to sit down and teach myself this, you know? I totally get it. How do you listen to music? Uh, I use a lot of Spotify. Spotify. And, but I actually do, I do more listening to podcasts and books while I'm working. Awesome. Yeah. Um, when we come to visit your restaurant, what do we have

to order? Uh, fried zucchinis, grilled octopus. Ooh. Uh, after that, uh, you know, yucky, uh, I don't want to tell any American to come try a steak because you guys are like, you know, I've got some of the, you know, I got a pretty good steak, but I'm not a steakhouse. You know, if you haven't had a Montreal style pizza, got to try pizza too. If you're from out of town. So, yeah. Is your team posting

on LinkedIn for you? Sorry? LinkedIn. No, we're not on LinkedIn. Not yet. Not yet. Soon to be. I, I, uh, I feel like you're a tech guru. A year ago, I used to call it... LinkedIn? LinkedIn? Didn't realize what the... I didn't really know what it was for. I've been working for myself for 27 years. Yeah. And I never... Don't get me wrong. My restaurant recipes, I have all on computer. The other... I have them backed

up. The recipes I have in the notebook are stuff I work on for social media and I'm getting tired of those notebooks. That's what I'm looking for to clean them up. But yeah, man, I've been, I'm a university grad too, but at the same time, I graduated an economics major in 2002. Yeah. and I was not taught any of this stuff. And you know what? Another thing you'll be very surprised, Montreal is very slow. We still

have a lot of mom and pop purveyor companies, and most of these guys are not online. We're still phoning in orders with a lot of them, or their ordering software is pretty slow. I mean, I'm way ahead of them. You know, like, you also... Uh, I mean, I don't like dealing with Cisco. I probably, well, I don't tell the truth. I don't, uh, they, they weren't big companies. Uh, they weren't great companies for us over here

compared to the guys I was dealing with. I mean, I had the phone numbers of the owners of all the companies and I'm getting better prices and better products and everything else. And, you know, you know, if they mess up, like, you know, a company like Cisco, they would forget something in your order and tell you, yeah, well, we're not coming back till Thursday. Yeah. I ain't the one who forgot it. I even emailed you the

order and tower or whatever. And, and they just didn't care. Whereas when I was dealing with the mom and pop companies, if I really needed it, I'm going with them. I will make them go out of the way. But if I wasn't a pickle, yeah, they're going to get in there. They're going to get in their car and drive it over, you know, and, and, or their truck or whatever, you know, depending on if it needs

to be a refrigerator or not. But, and that's why we're, we're, we, you know, we're not, I mean, we have great reservation softwares. I mean, we use open table, the restaurant, there's a lot of, uh, a lot of great techs out here, but as far as how we put together our orders and stuff like that, I find we're still a bit behind the eight ball over here, uh, compared to probably you guys in the States. There's

a recipe software. It's called Mies M E E Z, uh, Joshua Sharkey. He's the CEO. He also has a podcast. I'm going to make an intro to Josh, uh, cause you'd be a phenomenal guest on his show, but, uh, I would definitely check out Mies and that's anybody looking for recipe costing, um, software. Uh, Steven, this has been an absolute pleasure. Um, Seriously, you're the thesis. You're the reason why we started this show. I believe deeply

that you're connecting with amazing people all over the globe. I believe this is just the beginning of your journey. Congrats to you. Congrats to your team, to your brother, to your wife, to your family. It's super, really super cool to have you on the show. Oh, man, it's a lot of fun. I love talking about this stuff. Honestly. And then if you guys are watching, if you're listening, you're the reason that we do this show. So

please subscribe to the show. Please share Steve's episode. Please go and visit Steve. Please follow him on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram. We'll put links there in the bio. You can connect with me. I'm at Sean P. Walcheff on Instagram is the fastest. So give me a follow there. I'll follow you back. I'll follow your restaurant back. We believe a rising tide lifts all ships. We know how hard it is to run restaurants. We love running restaurants, but

we also love telling stories. So we're Wherever you are, wherever you're listening, we appreciate you. We're grateful to you. As always, stay curious, get involved, and don't be afraid to ask for help. We'll catch you guys next episode. Thanks, Steve. Thank you so much. Thank you for watching. Thank you for listening. If you've made it this long, You are part of the community. You're part of the tribe. We can't do this alone. We started, no one

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us, go to BeTheShow.media. We show up all over the United States, some international countries. We would love to work with you and your growing brand on digital storytelling. You can reach out to me anytime at Sean P. Welchef on Instagram. I'm weirdly available. available. Stay curious, get involved, don't be afraid to ask for help. We'll catch you next episode.