Stephen oversees Baldi Management Group (BMG), an airport concessions and management consulting company that manages restaurants in Reagan National Airport, JFK International Airport and Dulles International Airport.
Established in 2008, BMG operates various food and beverage outlets, including franchises like Dunkin’ Donuts, Potbelly, and Smashburger.
Stephen is an alumnus of Georgetown University, where he was a Community Scholar and student-athlete. He attributes his success to mentorship and now mentors young people, aiming to provide growth opportunities within his company.
As founder-led company, Stephen has formed connections with other DC-based founder-led restaurants like Founding Famers and Timber Pizza as well as with larger national brands.
About 15-20% of BMG’s customers are employees from the airport itself.
Stephen is a strong advocate of mentorship and helping employees grow and advance within an organization, even if it means the employee leaving the organization for a better opportunity.
QUOTES
“My commitment to making meaningful connections with people comes from way back then when I was forced to do it, not only because of who I am but my circumstances and I’ve tried to carry that out through my career and my life.” (Stephen)
“There’s something different about a founder-led company, because you’ve built it.” (Stephen)
“Airports are a wonderful place to work. Once you end up in this ecosystem, it’s hard to walk away.” (Stephen)
“(In airports), the passengers are dynamic. We get to meet and connect with them all. We have the privilege of participating in whatever journey people are on every day and the following day, we get a whole new group of people.” (Stephen)
“The (airport concessions and restaurant industry) is about an $8 billion a year industry nationally but the industry is controlled by about 20 key companies. It’s a small ecosystem.” (Stephen)
“Operating a streetside restaurant versus a restaurant in an airport is a completely different sport. The speed, the requirements, the logistical challenges (of being an in airport), all of our crewmembers have to go through background checks. Unless you’re a serious player, you’re not trying to participate in airports.” (Stephen)
“We encourage our crewmembers just to meet people where they are. It may be the 50th time you’ve welcomed someone to our restaurant but it’s the first time you’ve spoken to the person in front of you. You should be additive to their experience and not add additional stress or complications.” (Stephen)
“We welcome the chaos. When it’s raining and snowing outside and your flights are delayed, we kind of welcome that because that means we get to hang out with you a little bit longer.” (Stephen)
“If I bring in someone as a front line worker who’s pouring coffee, if they’re still pouring coffee in three years, both them and the organization has done something wrong. We want to scale people up.” (Stephen)
TRANSCRIPT
00:01.9900:01.99
vigorbranding
Hey folks, welcome to Fork Tales, and I’m excited. Today’s guest is Stephen Baldi He’s the founder and president of Baldi Management Group. Baldy Management Group is an airport concessions and management consulting company. It’s a mouthful there. ah Manages concessions in Reagan National Airport, JFK International Airport, and Dulles International Airport. Stephen, welcome to Fork Tales, and thank you so much for joining us.
00:25.82
Stephen Baldi
Michael, thank you for having me. I’m looking forward to the conversation.
00:29.01
vigorbranding
So for those that don’t know, all of these are located in the sort of DC Metro, Baltimore or down at DC Metro area, right?
00:36.21
Stephen Baldi
Correct.
00:37.04
vigorbranding
Yeah.
00:37.19
Stephen Baldi
Yeah, even though Philadelphia is my hometown, I’ve been in Washington DC for almost 30 years. um So this is home base for us.
00:46.37
vigorbranding
yeah Well, you you you know, I have a little trick question because that was going to be my first question. Are you still a Philly sports fan? I mean, do you bleed Eagle Green?
00:53.03
Stephen Baldi
if If you cut me, it would be nothing but green. I live in Washington, DC.
00:56.48
vigorbranding
OK, beautiful.
00:57.88
Stephen Baldi
My heart is in Philadelphia.
00:59.81
vigorbranding
Beautiful, beautiful. Wow. There’s, there’s guys, I don’t even know what they call themselves these days. these’s The commanders, the Washington football club.
01:04.91
Stephen Baldi
oh The Washington football team, they’re all.
01:05.40
vigorbranding
I mean, they’re just, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Just, it’s irrelevant. It’s irrelevant.
01:10.11
Stephen Baldi
Yeah, Michael, my family would disown me if anything other than my ah zip code changed as far as my hometown affiliation.
01:10.06
vigorbranding
So that’s fantastic. Hey, it’s awesome. You got to bring, I had a gentleman come in, uh, from, uh, Oregon last week to speak to a bunch of advertising agencies from North America. We hosted them in Philadelphia and this guy was so excited. He was, he, he, he came from there, but he was Philly through and through. So everything in his presentation tied back to a Philly icon, something about Philadelphia that was iconic. And, you know, ah in our company, we’re,
01:44.34
vigorbranding
We’re very proud that we’re an independent advertising agencies. We have an agency called Vigor and an agency called Quench. Vigor’s restaurant branding. Quench is food and beverage marketing. And the whole thing was around independence and how it’s how important it is.
01:57.06
vigorbranding
And he had all these great icons from like Nick Foles to, ah you know, ah Mike Schmidt to the Fanatic to, I mean, Will Smith.
02:07.11
vigorbranding
I mean, he just went through all the Philadelphia stuff, you know, the Liberty Bell and everything else. and So it was cool. It was cool.
02:11.77
Stephen Baldi
um I love it. I’ll tell you an interesting story about Nick Foles. So I had a really good feeling about our Super Bowl run, even though you know Carson Wentz, who was leading as the MVP that year, went down. And the Friday before the Super Bowl, something told me to go online and buy a Nick Foles autograph helmet.
02:33.57
vigorbranding
Wow.
02:34.10
Stephen Baldi
And I did. Now, I did not expedite the shipping, Michael. So it was not in my possession on Monday after we had won the Super Bowl. And many of my friends said that helmet’s never going to show up, but it did.
02:47.65
Stephen Baldi
So I bought it for $99.
02:47.77
vigorbranding
That’s awesome.
02:49.77
Stephen Baldi
And I can tell you, it’s it’s worth a lot more than that.
02:51.92
vigorbranding
That’s awesome. Yeah, it’s worth a lot to people in Philadelphia. So it’s fantastic. And the pride of that city runs deep. So alright, so tell us about Baldy enter Management Group and what it does what inspired you to get into the airport concession games. I mean, you started I think in residential property, right?
03:06.90
Stephen Baldi
I did. I started in residential property management in 2002. And I started in airports in 2005. And it was all kind of serendipitous. I had a really ah prickly history before starting in 2002.
03:23.22
Stephen Baldi
at Kettler Management, which managed tax credit properties, but also Class A luxury communities.
03:29.04
vigorbranding
Okay.
03:29.23
Stephen Baldi
And I had a tenant coming to my office. And she said, Steven, I see you engaging with the residents and how you handle issues. And I think you should be doing more. And I thought to myself, like this woman doesn’t know me.
03:39.92
Stephen Baldi
Yeah, I just fixed her fireplace. But who are you to come in my office and tell me what I should be doing? And at the time, I was making $22,000 a year with a Georgetown degree. And the job that they wanted me to interview for paid $85,000 a year.
03:54.21
vigorbranding
wow
03:54.39
Stephen Baldi
So as you can assume, Michael, goal I took the interview, I got the job. And so for three years, I worked in development for Westfield, which most people know as shopping mall developers, they have an airport division.
04:05.82
vigorbranding
Hmm. Ah.
04:07.99
Stephen Baldi
And so I was responsible for the redevelopment of national airport here in Washington, DC from 2005. to 2008. And then I leveraged a relationship with OTG Management, which has a very large presence at Philadelphia International, um into a joint venture relationship and actually launched the company, BMG, in 2008. And two thousand and eight and it’s we’ve not looked back since.
04:31.36
vigorbranding
That’s fantastic. you know It’s funny. I really i don’t know you. we’re We’re really talking for the first time. I can tell right away, like youre you have a positive attitude, and I can tell you’re engaging. And so I could see how someone would see you in action and be like, hey, you know you you could do more. like You can be a part of something bigger. And it’s obviously what’s happened, which is it’s awesome. I’m a big proponent of attitude. I mean, i I love to know where people went to school. I mean, if you if I interview you, I want to see your brains on the table.
04:58.39
vigorbranding
But I really want to know what your personality is like. I want to know about your attitude. I want to know ah how ah how much of a ah person you are that wants to win and be engaging and help people. And it’s ah like it comes through with you right away.
05:09.91
vigorbranding
And that’s ah it’s cool.
05:10.18
Stephen Baldi
I appreciate that.
05:11.03
vigorbranding
now it’s it’s
05:11.32
Stephen Baldi
Yeah, i’ll I’ll take it back if you if you want me to. So ah back in 1988, I was turning 13 and I begged my mom for a pair of Air Jordan sneakers.
05:24.58
Stephen Baldi
And you’ll remember when Gordon’s first came out, ah they were the first shoe over a hundred dollars.
05:25.72
vigorbranding
Oh, yeah.
05:29.85
vigorbranding
Oh, yes, they were.
05:30.36
Stephen Baldi
yeah I grew up in a upper lower class household and it was a stretch for my mom to purchase these shoes.
05:31.49
vigorbranding
Yep.
05:37.09
vigorbranding
Mm hmm.
05:38.21
Stephen Baldi
But I begged her and I begged her and I begged her and and she ended up buying them for me. And she said, you know, I just want you to be safe. Well, you probably can assume where the story goes. Within like a month of getting these sneakers, I was an attempted robbery, and I acted very violently to defend myself, and it resulted in me getting expelled from the school that I was at.
05:59.94
Stephen Baldi
And as a punishment, ah rather than letting me play basketball for the entire summer, my mom forced me to go to the reading math and basketball clinic at Friend Central, which is a very prominent independent school on the main line of Philadelphia.
06:14.39
vigorbranding
Mm hmm.
06:14.96
Stephen Baldi
And that decision changed my life. um I went from living in a predominantly all-Black neighborhood to a private school that I was the only Black male in my class.
06:25.11
vigorbranding
Wow.
06:25.74
Stephen Baldi
And what it did was it changed my perspective of what was accessible. like I had never seen a computer before.
06:31.75
vigorbranding
Right.
06:32.14
Stephen Baldi
And at this school, there was in a computer lab where we could sit down and navigate things.
06:34.40
vigorbranding
Yeah.
06:36.15
Stephen Baldi
And so going to Friends Central, having my mom make that leap of faith changed my trajectory in many ways. I matriculated from there to Georgetown University here in Washington, DC, which is how I got.
06:48.20
Stephen Baldi
to Washington DC. So I am a super Philadelphia sports fan, because not only am I from Philly, but Allen Iverson was my classmate at Georgetown University.
06:51.93
vigorbranding
That’s awesome.
06:55.50
vigorbranding
Is that right?
06:56.61
Stephen Baldi
Yeah, we were the same class.
06:56.89
vigorbranding
Wow.
06:57.61
Stephen Baldi
And so, yeah, very cool.
06:58.33
vigorbranding
That’s so cool. Yeah.
07:00.38
Stephen Baldi
And so maya my commitment to making meaningful connections with people comes from way back then when I was forced to do it, not only because of who I am, but my circumstances.
07:00.74
vigorbranding
AI. It’s legendary.
07:12.75
Stephen Baldi
And I’ve tried to carry that out through my career and my life.
07:15.84
vigorbranding
That’s fantastic. what a great That’s great. That’s a great story. you know it’s like It’s funny that on the Air Jordans, at that time, when they came out, and I can follow you on that. i know you You nailed it. You said the first sneaker that was over $100. My dad had ah this like mom and pop retail sporting store. We sold mostly like hockey stuff. We were from Hershey, Pennsylvania.
07:35.39
vigorbranding
And I was working in a store in in Camp Hill and outside of Hershey. It’s up in the West Shore, they call it. Anyway, long story short, I was in the mall and we sold some sneakers and the Air Jordans came out and we had them on the wall.
07:48.37
vigorbranding
And it was like, it was insane. $100 for a pair of sneakers.
07:52.08
Stephen Baldi
Yeah.
07:52.28
vigorbranding
And I mean, like, whereas I’ll say the average then was probably like on the high end was probably like 50, 55.
07:57.40
Stephen Baldi
Yeah, for sure.
07:58.58
vigorbranding
And this went right to 100. And it was funny, my dad, maybe that’s where I started learning about, and I really did learn a lot about marketing, working in retail, because you have to talk to people, you have to sell. And I think that’s the most important skill a person can learn. Communicating with people and learning how to sell, like, you know, at least present yourself, right? So I put these sneakers at the very top. I said, dad, you know what? ah I said, everybody wants the Air Jordans. Most people can’t afford them.
08:21.42
vigorbranding
but everyone wants to come and look at it. So I always sell them the white, the white, men’s the body they’re like but you know, so for every one Air Jordan, I saw, I used to sell like 30 other pairs of shoes.
08:25.49
Stephen Baldi
ah yeah
08:30.65
vigorbranding
You know what I mean?
08:31.05
Stephen Baldi
It’s been up in the store. It’s like a newspaper. People don’t necessarily want just the newspaper, at least the retailer does it, but they come in to buy the newspaper and then they buy the water, the soda, the candy.
08:33.13
vigorbranding
That’s right.
08:39.73
vigorbranding
That’s right. yeah I lured them in with the Air Jordans. I think we had like five parrot the most. I mean, we couldn’t afford, you know, it’s a little mom pop store.
08:46.41
Stephen Baldi
Probably two sizes.
08:47.56
vigorbranding
Yeah, right. That’s exactly right. So that’s funny. So okay, you talked about sports and and and you know, Philly and all that you you pride yourself on um being a local company and playing in front of the home crowd.
08:58.99
vigorbranding
Talk a little bit about the the local connection in DC that you have.
09:02.34
Stephen Baldi
Yeah, so I’ll tell you, when you fly into most airports, what people don’t automatically see, but being a former developer, I understand that any airport authority, when you land in their airport, they want you to know what city you are in.
09:18.24
Stephen Baldi
So national brands are extremely important. So you’ll have your Dunkin’ Donuts. You’ll have your Pop-Belly’s, which are ah franchises that we operate.
09:22.12
vigorbranding
Mm hmm.
09:25.89
Stephen Baldi
But every airport wants you to have a sense of place. So when you fly into Philadelphia Airport, you’ll have a Jim Stakes, because that’s you know historical to that region.
09:34.38
vigorbranding
Yeah.
09:34.93
Stephen Baldi
When you fly into National Airport here, or Dallas International, you’ll have your South Blocks, which is an ASE base. com concept here in the DC.
09:45.49
Stephen Baldi
You’ll have Ben’s Chili Bowl, which has been around since the 60s.
09:45.90
vigorbranding
Mm hmm. Mm hmm.
09:49.41
Stephen Baldi
And so we’ve prided ourselves from identifying and connecting with other founder-led brands, because I’m a founder. And nothing against a hired gun.
09:56.93
vigorbranding
Mm hmm.
09:58.81
Stephen Baldi
I know they are often effective at their job. But there’s something different about a founder-led company because you’ve built it.
10:06.95
vigorbranding
Yeah.
10:07.27
Stephen Baldi
it probably has more ah meaning to you behind just the bottom line um results that you drive. It’s personal.
10:15.52
vigorbranding
Yeah.
10:15.69
Stephen Baldi
And so we’ve developed very deep relationships with companies like founding farmers, with timber pizza, who are all local based companies here. And we expect to continue to grow it, not just in this region that we’re in, but as we grow into other markets to do the same.
10:30.68
vigorbranding
Yeah, that’s that’s fantastic. And you nailed it. I mean, like, I’m a founder, I’m an entrepreneur. And you know, and ah again, wonderful folks that that work with me, I’m very, very, very lucky. But you know, for for most people, it’s their job, you know, their career, and and hopefully there’s a sense of of a family and a real relationship.
10:49.53
vigorbranding
But for me, it’s my life. I mean, i am I am defined personally by this, which is probably pretty shallow.
10:51.05
Stephen Baldi
right
10:54.86
vigorbranding
I mean, i mean look, um I love my daughters. I’m a dad. I’m ah a husband. I love my family with all my heart, but I feel like I’m defined by my company and the what I’ve built. and and all of that And I just, you know, so again, I don’t know if that’s a bad thing or a good thing or whatever, but it’s just, it’s ah it’s a lot deeper, right?
11:11.93
vigorbranding
When you found something and ah it’s it’s a lot deeper, everyone thinks it has to do with like money and stuff, and it really doesn’t.
11:12.49
Stephen Baldi
Right. For sure.
11:17.73
vigorbranding
It’s a it’s really about, you know, sort of like your life’s life’s work. and You know, you know, I get I get the most excitement out of seeing the growth of the folks in the company. ah It’s great to see the brands grow and the companies grow.
11:30.42
vigorbranding
But I really get a kick out of of seeing the folks that have been here a long time and and all that. So anyway, that’s just that’s me.
11:35.91
Stephen Baldi
right
11:36.26
vigorbranding
But I just I totally I totally concur with what you’re saying as far as the founder led. I mean, that’s that’s fantastic.
11:41.40
Stephen Baldi
Yeah, at some point as a founder, you most likely had to put something at risk that meant something to you.
11:47.14
vigorbranding
Yeah.
11:47.50
Stephen Baldi
Whether it’s personal guaranteeing, first leverage to build the company or, you know, having to bail it out because you run into a pandemic, which we all face back in 2020.
11:47.75
vigorbranding
Oh, yeah. Yeah.
11:55.18
vigorbranding
All right.
11:57.80
Stephen Baldi
um Oftentimes you can’t just walk from that business and matriculate to another W2 position because this is yours. And so I love when I can connect with founders.
12:04.69
vigorbranding
Yeah.
12:07.41
Stephen Baldi
I’ll work with non-founders also, but there’s something unique about the journey we’ve all been on.
12:09.54
vigorbranding
Sure.
12:11.88
vigorbranding
Yeah, absolutely. So let’s let’s talk a little bit. I just so folks know, I mean, what’s really cool about this conversation is I, ah you know, with vigor, we work with restaurant brands, right?
12:22.32
vigorbranding
So we’re very familiar with restaurant brands. And you you have brands like Potbelly, Smashburger. You said founding farmers soon to come. ah Timber Pizza, Dunkin, I mean, some some household names.
12:33.94
vigorbranding
I don’t know if I’m um yeah any ants.
12:34.26
Stephen Baldi
On the end, don’t forget on the end, this is what else we have.
12:35.99
vigorbranding
No, I can’t actually. Yeah, we actually worked on any answers. We have an agency called quench that a branding agency, Food and Beverage, that that actually worked with Auntie Anne’s because they started here in Lancaster.
12:40.96
Stephen Baldi
Okay.
12:45.88
vigorbranding
hu Yeah, and I got to meet Anne Byler in the beginning.
12:45.98
Stephen Baldi
They did.
12:48.81
vigorbranding
So, Auntie Anne is actually a person and she’s a wonderful lady and It was a really really awesome to meet her and and and what a she was so she’s a very philanthropic lady very very ah ah Generous and very successful very so she’s got a phenomenal story as well. But so yeah, I certainly won’t leave the auntie hands out But you so you have all these great brands um Talk a little bit about I mean, you know, you said somewhere founded by they you know the founders and all that what’s it like to to manage all these different brands and
13:18.00
Stephen Baldi
I’ll tell you, it’s a dynamic environment. Airports are a wonderful place to do business. Again, I share with you briefly how I matriculated into them, but once you end up in this kind of ecosystem, it’s hard to walk away.
13:33.35
Stephen Baldi
We get the privilege of serving the traveling public every day. And what’s special about that are the passengers are dynamic. There are people who are going on business trips. There are people who are going on vacations. There are people who are going to be celebrated and there are people who are going to, you know,
13:51.28
Stephen Baldi
usher people off into a transition of life. And we get to meet and connect with them all. And so I tell our crew members that we have the privilege of participating in whatever journey people are on every day.
14:03.68
Stephen Baldi
And then the following day, we get a whole new group of people coming through.
14:06.48
vigorbranding
yeah yeah
14:07.36
Stephen Baldi
So that’s dynamic in the industries are small. I will tell you it’s about a $8 billion industry nationally in the United States, food and beverage and airports.
14:14.57
vigorbranding
Yeah. Yeah.
14:19.40
Stephen Baldi
But the industry is really controlled by about 20 key companies. And within those 20 companies, you probably have 50 total key players.
14:23.32
vigorbranding
yeah
14:27.50
Stephen Baldi
And so we know each other. you know You typically don’t leave the industry. Your business card may change. So you may go from company to company, but it’s a small ecosystem. And so I’ve enjoyed being in the industry now.
14:40.58
Stephen Baldi
18 years. I started when I was two. ah But it’s a buy it’s been an extraordinary 18 years, except for some of the challenges like COVID. But you know for the people who were able and blessed to push through it, I think we have a different perspective on what we can be and what we should be in the businesses that we lead. To your point,
15:00.50
Stephen Baldi
um being defined by your business is not necessarily shallow, but there’s levels, there’s there’s depth to what we do.
15:08.62
vigorbranding
Yeah.
15:08.91
Stephen Baldi
And I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to swim in those depths ah for many years.
15:14.41
vigorbranding
That’s awesome. We’ll get to COVID in a second, but I want to go back to airports. ah I’ll say, fortunately or unfortunately, I’m a customer. I’m in an airport every single week. So when you’re describing the people you see there, it’s like, yeah.
15:21.70
Stephen Baldi
Awesome.
15:24.71
vigorbranding
I mean, you know there’s it’s every single walk of life. Everyone seems to have a higher level of stress.
15:30.65
Stephen Baldi
yeah
15:30.77
vigorbranding
Everyone’s in a hurry, even when they’re not, or even worse, if someone’s really not in a hurry and they’re walking slow in the airport, that can actually be more frustrating and stressful. but ah So how do you how do you deal with that chaos? I mean, you got all these people that are amped up and nervous and they have anxiety or whatever, and then all of a sudden you’ve got to serve them and take them, you know, and represent these great brands and and and actually make the stuff and and in a and a fast time because they’re always running late, even if they’re not, they just think they’re always stressed.
15:56.04
Stephen Baldi
Right.
15:59.20
vigorbranding
Talk about airport concessions. Talk about that chaos.
16:02.08
Stephen Baldi
Yeah, so you meet people where they are. And I will tell you, operating a street-side restaurant versus an airport, it’s a completely different sport.
16:09.79
vigorbranding
I cannot imagine.
16:10.73
Stephen Baldi
I tell ah these founder-led companies when they’re thinking about matriculating in the airports, I tell them you know it’s like playing high school varsity basketball.
16:10.80
vigorbranding
yeah
16:19.70
Stephen Baldi
And then you get drafted to the and NBA, like the speed, the requirements, you know, we have to go through the logistical um challenges of having every box that comes into your restaurant scan.
16:20.40
vigorbranding
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
16:31.21
Stephen Baldi
Like Cisco’s not pulling up to our back door and delivering our ground beef for Smashburger.
16:31.53
vigorbranding
Yeah.
16:34.05
vigorbranding
Right.
16:35.85
Stephen Baldi
Like it’s going through an X-ray, just like your luggage is.
16:38.86
vigorbranding
Yeah.
16:39.39
Stephen Baldi
um All of our crew members have to go through a 10 year federal background check.
16:44.03
vigorbranding
Sure.
16:44.19
Stephen Baldi
um There’s complexities to the business, which are to our challenge. But to me, it’s also kind of to our benefit, Michael, because it reduces my competition. Because unless you’re a serious player, you’re not trying to participate in airports.
16:54.14
vigorbranding
Mhm.
16:56.81
Stephen Baldi
And so for me, understanding those barriers and be able to navigate them are great. But from a day to day operation standpoint, We encourage our crew members just to meet people where they are.
17:07.93
Stephen Baldi
um It may be the 50th time you’ve welcomed someone to our restaurant, but it’s the first time you’ve spoken to the person that’s in front of you. And again, you don’t know if they’re going on vacation or they’re going to a celebration of life to send a family member home.
17:16.31
vigorbranding
right
17:22.96
Stephen Baldi
Regardless, you should be additive to their experience and not adding additional stress or complications. Just try to deliver them fast, friendly, exceptional,
17:34.09
Stephen Baldi
service because that’s our standard. That is our vision for the company, which is being exceptional is our standard. It’s not something that happens intermittently.
17:42.84
vigorbranding
All right.
17:44.59
Stephen Baldi
It happens all the time. And so we welcome the chaos.
17:45.78
vigorbranding
Yeah.
17:48.05
Stephen Baldi
You know, when it’s raining and snowing outside, even though your flights are delayed, we kind of welcome that because that means you get to hang out with you a little bit longer.
17:54.78
vigorbranding
Yeah. Yeah.
17:55.63
Stephen Baldi
So as long as we’re not canceling flights, if they’re just delayed, that’s kind of our sweet spot.
18:00.01
vigorbranding
There you go.
18:00.65
Stephen Baldi
So we welcome it all.
18:02.58
vigorbranding
That’s awesome. You know, you you said something really interesting. So as I mentioned, Vigor is our agency that that does branding and marketing for restaurants. I know, and it’s not, you know, it’s common knowledge that turnover and and employees in the restaurant industry is like the biggest hassle, right? and Everyone’s dealing with that that turnover. But you just said something. they They have to go through this long, arduous process to get through. So do you find that you have, I’ll say, maybe better better qualified, better quality,
18:32.38
vigorbranding
ah team members in your restaurants?
18:34.64
Stephen Baldi
I would tell you that our hourly and even our salary leadership ah on some levels, they’re more committed because it is a personal investment to get through the process.
18:39.98
vigorbranding
Mm-hmm.
18:45.54
Stephen Baldi
And so, you know, typical food and beverage turnover is anywhere from 100 to 150%. And only ours is closer to like 30.
18:51.64
vigorbranding
Right.
18:54.91
vigorbranding
that’s hey That’s fantastic. I never thought that that would have never dawned on me that that would be ah an unfair advantage. you know It’s funny, like yeah I was telling someone the other day, you know the higher the barrier to entry in business, actually the better the business is because you don’t have just everybody and anybody competing.
19:12.66
vigorbranding
So you you have a higher barrier of entry.
19:13.25
Stephen Baldi
Correct.
19:15.58
vigorbranding
um And with that, you have you sort of have ah have a capture to a degree ah group of people, right? ah But the one thing that is interesting, I think if I remember correctly, I think there’s like 30%, I’ll say of ah if it’s a Dunkin Donuts on the street corner, 30% of their their ah customers will probably repeat, right?
19:35.43
vigorbranding
ah you You are not, I mean, you know you might have the same business guy that flies every Thursday out to you know wherever,
19:37.58
Stephen Baldi
No?
19:40.80
Stephen Baldi
we have We’ll have our Michaels.
19:41.81
vigorbranding
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
19:42.16
Stephen Baldi
We have our Michaels.
19:43.59
vigorbranding
I’ll hit your place and at the airport get a coffee on the way out, but that’s it. Yeah, that’s it. So that’s.
19:48.43
Stephen Baldi
I will tell you, though, we do have outside of the the traveling public, we do have recurring customers who are the people who work at the airport. I mean, at National and Dulles Airport, you get anywhere from five thousand to ten thousand employees that are there every day.
19:56.97
vigorbranding
No, that makes sense. Sure.
20:03.65
Stephen Baldi
And so ah they are also extremely important to us.
20:03.75
vigorbranding
Mm hmm. Hey, they got to eat and drink, right?
20:07.86
Stephen Baldi
They got to eat and drink and they have to do it fast.
20:09.70
vigorbranding
Right. That’s right.
20:10.84
Stephen Baldi
Well, we have different incentives to get them in and out, but they are our recurring customers and they’re about 15 to 20 percent of our business.
20:15.10
vigorbranding
Yeah, that makes sense. Hey, going back to the old mall days that I was talking about the sneakers, I sold a lot of sneakers to people that worked in the mall, not many Air Jordans, but a lot of the, you know, a lot of the lower end sneakers.
20:22.26
Stephen Baldi
Yeah, for sure.
20:27.36
vigorbranding
So, we talked to you hit on earlier and I know we, we inevitably, hopefully one day we, we don’t, and we don’t have to talk about, we always go back and talking about COVID and, uh, you know,
20:35.54
Stephen Baldi
Oh, yeah.
20:37.21
vigorbranding
One of our companies and our holding company is a company called Varsity. And Varsity does retirement communities around the country, we market retirement companies. Well, that that industry shut down. I mean, no one was going, no one was visiting, and people were sick. It was bad. Restaurants, another one of our our agencies, right? We marketed restaurants. No one was going. It was basically shut down. you know Your hospitality Uh, and your restaurants, I mean, and your travel, I mean, you’re, you’re combining it all and how, talk about that a little bit.
21:06.75
vigorbranding
I mean, you were hit from both ends.
21:07.11
Stephen Baldi
Oh, I had the privilege of double dipping.
21:11.81
vigorbranding
Yeah.
21:11.93
Stephen Baldi
So we were in hospitality beverage, but we were also in travel.
21:12.41
vigorbranding
In turmoil.
21:15.47
vigorbranding
Yeah.
21:16.03
Stephen Baldi
And so I remember very specifically on March 11th, 2020, President Trump came on television and he announced a 30-day travel ban to Europe.
21:27.16
vigorbranding
Mm-hmm.
21:28.65
Stephen Baldi
And at the time, ah most people only thought about the impact of air traffic travel to Europe, places like London, Paris.
21:37.58
vigorbranding
right
21:38.31
Stephen Baldi
But I anticipated that this was really the big moment for our industry.
21:43.00
vigorbranding
Right.
21:43.21
Stephen Baldi
I know a lot of people associate kind of their aha moment with COVID becoming a significant thing when the NBA shut down and more importantly, when the NCAA tournament shut down.
21:53.85
Stephen Baldi
But that announcement on March 11th signified for me that things were about to change for my business.
21:58.60
vigorbranding
Yeah.
21:58.72
Stephen Baldi
Now, I didn’t know it was going to be 18 months.
22:02.21
vigorbranding
Right.
22:02.55
Stephen Baldi
um But within about two weeks, we lost 85% of our top line revenue. And so on March 18, we shut the company down for 18 months. um And it was a challenge to what we talked about earlier, where a lot of my identity was tied up in this company that I built.
22:20.39
Stephen Baldi
Well, there was no company to have an identity he tied to. And so for me as a leader, It really pushed me during that time to redefine who I was in that moment and who I was going to aspire to be if we were privileged enough to come out of it. And we did. We’ve come out very strong, stronger than actually we went in. um We actually sold 35% of the business last year to some strategic, but then also some individual investors. And so I’ve had the privilege of surrounding myself where before I was the only voice in the room and now there are many.
22:55.69
vigorbranding
Right.
22:55.77
Stephen Baldi
And it presents some unique challenges, but also some extraordinary opportunities for me to low to learn and grow from other individuals and institutions that have built companies to scale, not all in food and beverage, many not.
23:10.17
Stephen Baldi
um But it’s really given me the
Das könnte dir gefallen
