Matt Plapp [00:00:00]:

The number one customer you are missing out on is the person walking in your restaurant. 92% of the people that walk in restaurants are not greeted in a way that makes them want to give the restaurant their information. So if somebody walks in your restaurant, you're a casual dining restaurant, instead of saying, hey, how are you? Because you don't care. Have you been here before? No, I've not. Well, then you're not a member of our vip program. Did you know that if you scan this QR code, you get a free burger for your next visit? Put your phone out. Let's go ahead and do it like it's not hard. The number one person's information you need is the person that's already taken the hardest step, which is travel, and decide to come to your restaurant, and then at that point, use the data.

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Angelo Esposito [00:00:44]:

Welcome to WISKing it all with your host, Angelo Esposito, co founder of WISK.AI, a food and beverage intelligence platform. We're going to be interviewing hospitality professionals around the world to really understand how they do what they do. Welcome to another episode of WISKing it all. We're here today with Matt Lapp, the CEO of America's Best Restaurants and Dryver, also the author of some really interesting books we'll get into. Like, don't 86 your restaurant sales. Did I get that right? There you go. And I think, was there one more or two more? I can't remember if you were three books or two books.

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Matt Plapp [00:01:23]:

There's three. There's also, which is a variation of don't add 60 restaurant sales. And then I shop marketing. That works.

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Angelo Esposito [00:01:31]:

Okay, let's see. I wasn't sure if there's two or three, so we'll get into those. So no worries. But I just want to, first off, say, welcome to the show, Matt.

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Matt Plapp [00:01:37]:

Hey, thanks. I appreciate you having me.

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Angelo Esposito [00:01:39]:

Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, you have quite the experience when it comes to restaurant marketing in general. And, you know, we'll get into America's best restaurants and the journey of, you know, thousand restaurants and learning from all those people. But to kick things off, I'm curious to know, I think from what I read online, at least you started in tradition, traditional, excuse me, radio ads before transitioning into digital marketing. So I'd love to know, like, what was the turning point that led you to kind of focus on restaurants?

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Matt Plapp [00:02:05]:

Wow. Okay. So, yeah, I started in the nineties in traditional media. And for whatever reason, I always gravitated to restaurants. My dad, as a kid, when I was a child, my dad had an insurance agency and he had a lot of restaurants insured, so we spent a lot of time at his clients restaurants. So I ate out a lot as a kid. I. And then when I was in radio, I was known as the trade king.

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Matt Plapp [00:02:29]:

Like in Cincinnati, where I'm at the area. Yeah, the big advertisers were taken, the car dealerships, the casinos. And so I went out, looked, and nobody's calling on these mom and pop restaurants. And so I went, and I had the ability to do cash and trade, and I knew that restaurants had no issue giving trade because to them, it was free money, like most of it gets lost, especially in our world. And so I became the trade king. I had probably 40 or 50 restaurants that traded food for advertising. I used perks and also as gambling because we had a papa shot in the office. I used to lose to Doug Smith, my coo on papa shot, all the time.

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Matt Plapp [00:03:05]:

But that started it. And then in 2008, when I decided to start this company, I looked at the people who I thought could leverage my expertise the most. And back then, it was my expertise. My focus was Facebook, which was looking back 16 years ago, I still kind of crack up that I had a vision for what it ended up being. I wish I would have actually known the depth of what it was going to become. I just had a hunch and then email marketing. And I said, okay, well, who can use an email over and over? The most? Car dealer, they get it. Once somebody does or doesn't buy a car, they might buy one in five years.

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Matt Plapp [00:03:40]:

Restaurant. They can buy a burrito every week. And so that was the start of the restaurants. But big reason in 2015, when I decided to go from a local company to a national restaurant firm, was I built a profile, an avatar of all of the decision makers I was dealing with, because I had a business coach I talked to who said, Matt, you've got a skillset. You can make money in about five different places from what I can see. We had boat dealers, rv dealers, car dealers. We had golf courses in restaurants. I want you to create the profile.

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Matt Plapp [00:04:12]:

Each one of your clients in that industry, name them. What you hate about it, what you love about them, all this other stuff, right? Give you an example. One of my clients was a guy that I liked that owned 50 or so car dealerships, private jet, owned a professional sports team. Big money. There was nothing on the relatable side. Him and I had no shared interest, no. No hobbies. I'm not hopping on a PJ on the Texas to my rant, where my restaurant clients because at the time, I had about nine.

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Matt Plapp [00:04:41]:

Every one of them were friends. And I could relate with their grind and the blood, sweat, and tears, the elbow grease, to a point where one of my clients, Shaheen, is two offices behind me, the head of. He's a director of our sales now. He was a client for seven years and owner for 28 years. When he the business two years ago, I stalked the hell out of him for a year, and he came and started working here. So that was the big reason why we shifted. The restaurants was number one. I saw the need for restaurants with regards to our skillset, which was capturing the attention of consumers and getting their data and then using it so it's easy to use.

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Matt Plapp [00:05:20]:

And I saw also people that I would go play golf with, that I would have dinner with, that I would go to a pool party with.

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Angelo Esposito [00:05:26]:

That's neat. That's really cool. And then for people listening just to when, we're obviously gonna go deep on both topics, but just to get to set the stage, can you tell them just briefly, what is America's best restaurants and then what is Dryver? And then obviously, we'll dive more into the stories and how you help in this and that. But just to set the stage on what each company is, basically.

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Matt Plapp [00:05:46]:

I got a question for you quickly. Tell me, is WISKing it all a play off of risk it all?

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Angelo Esposito [00:05:51]:

Yeah.

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Matt Plapp [00:05:52]:

Okay.

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Angelo Esposito [00:05:52]:

Yeah.

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Matt Plapp [00:05:53]:

When I originally saw that, my, one of my kids always, like, talks in a lisp, messing around, and I'm like, WISKing it all. There we go.

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Angelo Esposito [00:06:03]:

That's exactly what it is. Yeah. So WISK is obviously the, you know, food and beverage inventory platform. And then we came up with the name WISKing at all. And to be honest, the concept behind it was really, and you kind of mentioned it, too, is people with their blood, sweat, and tears. That was the concept. It was like, really what? I love restaurateurs. I love the passion they have.

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Angelo Esposito [00:06:21]:

I love entrepreneurs, period. But I find, like, restaurateurs are like the entrepreneur of the entrepreneur, because it's like, the hardest of the hard. And so for me, that was where the idea came, is like, okay, they're really risking it all. They're putting everything on the line. Can we help them and try to help them with WISK? And that's, you know, paid software, but can we also just help them with tools like newsletters and. And podcasts? And that's where the idea originated from.

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Matt Plapp [00:06:45]:

I saw the WISK in it all, and I was thinking it's a play on word. I love it. But no. So where America's best restaurant started was. I had started this agency in 2000. 820 15. We transitioned to working basically exclusively with restaurants nationwide. As I would travel, I would constantly run into very intriguing stories about restaurant owners that I had never heard.

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Matt Plapp [00:07:07]:

And these are, you know, I would be at a show, for example, speaking. I was in Newport Beach, California, one time, speaking. This guy Joseph invites me back to his restaurant. So I go back, and he's telling me how he started it. I'm like, holy shit, this is so cool. Like, but, Joe, I'm looking at your website. The story's not on there. I'm looking at Facebook.

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Matt Plapp [00:07:25]:

You look like five guys burger joint. Like, this is a differentiator, man. And I realized that a lot of people weren't placing enough value on their personality, their connection to community, how they started this business. You know, I got, like, Nike. I don't. You read the book about Phil Knight with Nike, shoe dog. But we all know what Nike is today. We would never imagine some dude was broke as could be, driving around the high school track meets, selling shoes out of the back of his trunk to pay for dinner that night.

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Matt Plapp [00:07:55]:

Now that we know that, it's hard to connect, because Nike is a billion dollar company. But almost every local restaurant has that exact story. And I remember one restaurant in particular that I came across in one of these conversations, and they're telling me this crazy story, how their mom and dad came over from Italy on this little rinky ding boat. They showed me a picture of it. They're, like, one and two years old. In this picture, they're now 70. And that was three sentences and a blurry picture on their website. I said, so let me get this right.

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Matt Plapp [00:08:25]:

The restaurant was started by your parents. It's named after your parents. The recipes are named after your family. And yet the homage you pay to that is three lame ass sentences and a blurry picture. So that was the start of it was, I was like, okay, somebody's got to tell these stories. And so I started doing them with my phone. I take my iPhone out, put it on a tripod. We'd go live on the restaurant's Facebook page, and I'd say, hey, you don't know who I am.

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Matt Plapp [00:08:48]:

I'm Matt Platt. I'm a restaurant marketing consultant. I've written a few books, but who cares about that? Let's talk about this guy. Have you heard how he started this restaurant? It's crazy, but turn it to him. Tell me. And that was kind of the start. And then at that point, I started to see how well those were working. And I thought, well, my lame video just got all this attention for this restaurant, and they do anything on their Facebook page because all they do is puke their food on people.

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Matt Plapp [00:09:10]:

So then I looked at the next thing. I said, okay, how could I leverage this to build a business? And I said, okay, where's the number one place that has consumers attention? It's Yelp back then. And then number two, what is the other place that has a lot of attention? It was diners drivings and dives and shows like that on cable. Okay, well, cable's dying. Like, I knew that ten years ago.

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Angelo Esposito [00:09:29]:

It's.

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Matt Plapp [00:09:30]:

It's put a fork in it now it's done. If it wasn't for. Wasn't for the pharmaceutical industry and 90 year old people still watching, it'd be done.

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Angelo Esposito [00:09:37]:

Right, right.

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Matt Plapp [00:09:38]:

But then you look at Yelp, and Yelp did not have the friendships with the restaurants because it's not a relationship they liked because they didn't control the reviews, at least get bad ones removed that were wrong or inaccurate, and they couldn't control the narrative of the pictures. And so I said, what if we created a media company that, number one, started with the restaurant owners story and their. Their side of it on display? And then, number two, we didn't take it to cable, but we took it to where people are Facebook. And so I created America's best restaurants. I bought the.net back then. We have any damn money. And I started doing some generic stuff with it. By 2021, I realized that we had to go to a new level since then.

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Matt Plapp [00:10:23]:

Like, the budget right now for next year is 4.5 million. So it's not cheap.

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Angelo Esposito [00:10:27]:

Okay, wow.

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Matt Plapp [00:10:28]:

30 or so employees on that team, and we will film at, ballpark, 800 restaurants next year. And the idea.

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Angelo Esposito [00:10:35]:

In one year?

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Matt Plapp [00:10:36]:

Yeah, one year. Yeah.

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Angelo Esposito [00:10:38]:

Okay, just to repeat that for people listening, 800 restaurants. Because you said that subtly. So 800 restaurants in one year. Wow.

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Matt Plapp [00:10:44]:

We're at four today. Like, if I go to my calendar right now, go to my other screen, I'll go to van one. Van two. We are in the point restaurant in sweet home, Oregon. We are in Dungan store in Monticello, Kentucky. We are in bedrocks on the bay in Winchester Bay organ. I lied. We're at three restaurants today, so we're typically at three to four a day, Monday through Friday, and we're constantly evolving that.

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Matt Plapp [00:11:12]:

But the idea behind that was, I want to do. We've. We personally vet the restaurants it's a paid marketing program. If you're accepted into it, it's not every restaurant, right? Because every restaurant is a place I would eat at every week. That was the ground level of this. I want to highlight restaurants Matt Platt would take his wife and kids to every week. Sometimes that's a badass burger joint. Sometimes that's a high end steakhouse.

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Matt Plapp [00:11:34]:

But if it's locally owned and operated, independently owned, there's no corporation. It's not a big chain or a franchise. That was the basis. And then we built up from there ten points of. They have to check off these ten boxes. And if they check off seven of the ten, that's fine. Five of the ten, we got a problem. But we tell them, hey, we think your restaurants cool, but look at your bathrooms.

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Matt Plapp [00:11:53]:

Like, have you updated that, like, 20 years? My guy. Like, we want. We want to be a place. I would come in if I. If I was a young Matt Platt. My kids were in diapers, and I would still want to come change them in that restroom. And I feel like I was going to get hepatitis. So, you know, we do run across that.

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Matt Plapp [00:12:07]:

But that was the vision. And so we started doing that with five of us. We had myself, my marketing director, my COO, one of my sales guys, and then one of our. My office assistant, and I bought a Mercedes sprinter van. We packed it up, we drove it from Chicago and back. We filmed at five restaurants, and then at that point, took it to Florida, had it wrapped, took it to Naples, Florida, and drove from Naples, Florida, to the up in Michigan, and filmed it, like, 300 restaurants in six months. It was 348 restaurants, and that was in 2021, and that was for free. I.

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Matt Plapp [00:12:38]:

We spent close to $2 million to just figure out. And I was not smart enough to know that we probably shouldn't have done that. But you look back and you don't really watch the account too closely some days, and you look back, oh, man, go figure. We got eight people flying to New York and back. Okay, that cost this much money, but we got to 2022. We analyzed what we did right, what we did wrong, and we've been tweaking it ever since. So my ultimate vision with America's best restaurants. And if you go to Mattplapp Live, VV, you can see our vision, if you've ever seen a vivid vision or not.

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Matt Plapp [00:13:10]:

But Vivid Vision is a book that you write out three years where you're going to be. And so there's vision of our headquarters I want to have in three years. But this is the part of America's best restaurants on what I envision that brand being. And I envision it a mouthpiece for the independent restaurants. And then we debut all of the stuff we do for these restaurants on their Facebook page so that they can get the exposure on their channel, not some cable channel, really, and really quickly. Dryver is a restaurant marketing platform that we have. We've always done really well at Facebook ads and Instagram ads to get somebody to say, I want a free burger. And then we can drive one out of those three people that raise their hand into the restaurant within two weeks.

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Matt Plapp [00:13:52]:

Well, a year ago, I bought a platform, a software that we could tie into it so we can connect with point of sales and help customers. Restaurants have a better customer journey based on the consumer using or not using the restaurant on a consistent basis.

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Angelo Esposito [00:14:08]:

Okay. Wow. Very, very cool. The whole, by the way, that whole video vision thing is pretty cool. I'm going to look into that after this episode. I love that. Big fan. I mean, I have my little vision board, but, like, that.

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Angelo Esposito [00:14:18]:

That book thing is quite, quite interesting. And so I'm curious to know how, like, definitely going deeper. But I. In terms of the 800 restaurants, it seems like in the past, you were pretty much a big part of filming it, but now, you know, you mentioned there's three going on today, so are you not. So it's not you anymore. Like, you're not physically there. Now it's you have a host. You got someone there.

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Angelo Esposito [00:14:40]:

Like, it's just its own machine kind of thing.

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Matt Plapp [00:14:43]:

Yeah. So early on, it was me, Doug, and Luis, who still all work here. We're all three in the office today that were the hosts, and Luis still is a host one week, a month. Cause he's really damn good.

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Angelo Esposito [00:14:54]:

Okay.

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Matt Plapp [00:14:54]:

Doesn't host anymore, but he's pretty good. I suck, so I'm not a host. We did it early on, not really knowing we wanted the restaurant in order to be the center of it. But then we realized about a year in how bad of actors restaurant owners are, which they should be. And you asked somebody, hey, tell me. Tell me in 60 seconds about your restaurant, and 30 minutes later, you're off camera. And so we started looking around, and we started realizing there was a lot of talent on tv. And so two of our current, actually, three of our current hosts are former tv news anchors and reporters, came from corporate America, one from Arizona, one from the Gulf shores of Alabama, and then one from Nashville, Tennessee.

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Matt Plapp [00:15:32]:

And then we went. We also had a couple of us that were just learning how to use video cameras. And so we went out and bought a bunch of expensive equipment, learned how to use it, and then once we got to a certain point, we're like, well, maybe we should hire better video people. And so those graduated internally to different operations positions, and we hired professional videographers that were people that were out freelance on their own. And that's pretty cool for a lot of video people. Then you realize, like, you don't have a, you don't have a bill next month or a check because you got nothing booked. So it's a steady job over here.

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Angelo Esposito [00:16:02]:

Wow, that's super neat. And I think there's a lesson in there for sure of just the idea of, like, do things before it's, you know, you're fully ready. Like, just figure it out. Take those first steps. Like, in the software world, we, we always talk about the concept of, like, an MVP. You know, like, don't, don't delay. You shouldn't be proud of your product. Just like, you know, like, get that feedback cycle shorter.

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Angelo Esposito [00:16:20]:

So, like, it sounds like you were on top of that from, from that perspective. Like, figuring it out on the go, filming, going to 300 restaurants, looking at the budget after. But it worked out, which is awesome. And one thing that comes to mind is, you know, visiting over a thousand restaurants and, you know, obviously studying their marketing strategies, I'm sure there's no shortage of info you could share. But for our listeners who are listening in, any directional advice you can give when it comes to marketing your restaurants? You know, like, I know that's a loaded question because you visit a thousand restaurants, but if you can maybe point people in the right direction and maybe give, share some of your lessons you've learned.

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Matt Plapp [00:16:58]:

Let me start with what not to do.

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Angelo Esposito [00:17:00]:

Yeah, that's fair.

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Matt Plapp [00:17:02]:

Do not hope and pray. That is, unfortunately what we see most restaurants doing. I went on the road two weeks ago to Iowa, and I went to three of the restaurants. I watched our crew do their things. I talked to the owners. All three of them have majority of what every restaurant has in common. Hope and pray, man. I hope that Matt had a great meal today.

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Matt Plapp [00:17:23]:

I pray he decides to come back at some point in the future. And in our building, we teach our team. We want to help restaurants aim and expect that if somebody walks in your restaurant, be hospitable, have a conversation with them, find a way to get their information. Like, I keep this on my desk, this growler, it's got money in it. I'm like, if I'm a restaurant and I sell beer, growlers I'm gonna have a growler with a QR code in the back. And when people walk in and say, hey, you wanna win $100 cash? Hell, yeah. Do me a favor, scan this QR code. It's gonna take you to a Facebook post.

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Matt Plapp [00:17:54]:

Guess how much money is in that jar. And when you do it, going to ask you some questions in messenger. It'll get you can enter the competition and somebody's going, $100. Well, now you just got them to have a little fun. They went to Facebook, they engaged with your post. If you have it hooked up correctly to messenger, you can now get their email and their phone number, pop them into whatever marketing platform you use. And now you can, you have a database you can aim at, and you can expect an outcome. Because what we have seen is that if you have an offer that is high value, that doesn't suck, so one that they, they say people would feel stupid saying no to.

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Matt Plapp [00:18:27]:

So if you got a Facebook post that says, you know, angelo, do you want a free cheeseburger? Click below to get it. Okay, who doesn't want a cheeseburger?

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Angelo Esposito [00:18:34]:

Click below.

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Matt Plapp [00:18:35]:

One out of three people will walk in your restaurant within a few. Within a few weeks with that promo. So now you've got an audience that you can at least aim at. You know, in the past, when I sent them something really high value, I could expect this outcome. Now, granted, you can't give away free cheeseburgers all the time. You can come up with promotions. And if you are selling growlers at your restaurant, where that Growler promotion came from is one of our clients, Hofperhouse, Pittsburgh and Newport and Columbus, here in the midwest. This is back in 2015, wanted to start selling growlers.

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Matt Plapp [00:19:04]:

They were having no luck. I said, okay, well, we've got this database of these Stein masters between all three stores, like 600 people. Why don't we just call them and make them an offer really good for them to take the beer home their next time here. Like, we were just shotgun. They were wanting to shotgun everybody. I'm like, no, we have an audience of people who pay to be in a beer club here. I can't think of anybody else that might want a growler of beer. Sure enough, we got their emails.

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Matt Plapp [00:19:30]:

We sent out a marketing message, hey, we got a limited availability. You get a free growler when you do this and you come in and get it filled with beer. Have fun. 2500 of them gone in two days.

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Angelo Esposito [00:19:39]:

2500. Wow, that's really neat. Okay, so I like that. So. So don't just hope and pray. I mean, you could do it in addition, but don't just open, pray, aim and expect. We have an expect.

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Matt Plapp [00:19:50]:

We have an acronym we use internally. And I've got a book I want to write on eventually, but I haven't really figured out how to put it together how I want to. It's a attract, build, retain. And yes, it stands for America's best restaurants. That was one of the original plays. But attract, build, retain marketing your marketing plans. Number one thing is to attract attention.

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Angelo Esposito [00:20:09]:

Yeah.

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Matt Plapp [00:20:09]:

That if you attract enough attention over and over and over, even if you suck at the build and retain, if you attract attention over and over, what always has attention on an expressway? A car wreck. No matter what. You and I have seen a hundred car wrecks. We see one of car burn in, we're still looking at it. You can attract attention over and over. You will win at some level if you can take that attention and use it to build a database. Now you've got one more step. You got one more piece of the puzzle.

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Matt Plapp [00:20:37]:

Because if you have Matplatt's email, cell phone number, messenger subscription, you now have three ways to easily get a hold of me on your own time. And then the last part is retain. Once you get somebody's data, don't use it wrong. We ran across a restaurant recently that was sent in an email Monday through Friday, every week of the year to his entire database. And I said, bro, if my wife emailed me five days a week, I would opt out. If my favorite pizza joint did, I might stop coming out of Spike.

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Angelo Esposito [00:21:08]:

Right, right. No, that's aggressive. Five days a week is really aggressive.

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Matt Plapp [00:21:11]:

And so it's ABR, track builders and track detention with your marketing. Build a database with that attention and then use the database to retain your customers attention and retain their business. Because if. What's your favorite pizza place?

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Angelo Esposito [00:21:24]:

I mean, it's a local place here, but in terms of chains, give me a local place. Yeah, it's called Sagra. Sagra right near my house. I live in Miami. Love italian joint. Great pizza.

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Matt Plapp [00:21:34]:

So if you drove by that restaurant every single day four times and you saw their sign, it's going to influence x amount of visits a year because you're like, oh shit, that sounds good tonight.

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Angelo Esposito [00:21:44]:

True.

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Matt Plapp [00:21:45]:

If you get an email from them every ten to 14 days, that relates to you open it, it's going to influence, if you see a Facebook post, an Instagram post, a tweet, it's gonna influence you. So the goal of marketing is how do I get more attention of yours. And the biggest problem we see this with, my other tip is stop sucking at marketing today. Like, most restaurants have turned their digital marketing into a coupon magazine. I mean, you go on Facebook and all it is is a picture of their food, a picture of their, their drinks, picture of their patio.

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Angelo Esposito [00:22:18]:

It's so true.

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Matt Plapp [00:22:20]:

It's not social media, it's, you didn't, you didn't get a Facebook page to turn into Valpak. Yeah. If you're going to use your social media, use it correctly. Engage your audience. I saw a restaurant yesterday in Philadelphia who highlighted the high school football team and their, their big win. And give me a, give me a hell yeah. Or something below if you love their big win. People are commenting.

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Matt Plapp [00:22:41]:

Another guy had three kids that pulled up on their bikes, and he's like, hey, these little guys come all the time after school. What was your favorite place to go after school to get food? People are commenting, that is social media. It's not advertising pizza. Because if your restaurant's name is, you know, strong's brick oven pizza, I can probably figure out that yourself. I don't need a pitcher of pizza every day.

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Angelo Esposito [00:23:05]:

It's so true. It reminds me of, like, almost like, you know, Instagram version 1.0 when it came out. That's almost how, like, everyone used it. It was just like, very much just photo album, but your public photo album, so to speak. And I think you're right. Restaurants use it like that. And the restaurants that are doing it right, you nailed it, are telling a story. But it seems like there's a lot of restaurants that are still stuck in the version 1.0 of just displaying food and beverage.

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Angelo Esposito [00:23:30]:

That makes sense. And so for people listening. So that's good advice. Definitely aim and expect ABR, love that, too. Attract, build, retain. What are some, like, when you go see a restaurant and they're not telling their story right, you know, like you said, they only put three lines. What's, what's the first thing they can think of? So, like, for people listening, what's the first thing they can maybe act on when they're like, all right, I don't know what I'm doing on my marketing side. What's, like, maybe a first step to, like, at least get, get the ball rolling for them.

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Matt Plapp [00:23:59]:

You got this phone?

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Angelo Esposito [00:24:00]:

Yeah.

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Matt Plapp [00:24:01]:

You got a camera?

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Angelo Esposito [00:24:03]:

Yeah.

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Matt Plapp [00:24:03]:

Put it on video and tell us sincere story. You know, why'd you start the business? Why did you pick pizza? Why'd you pick that neighborhood? I saw a restaurant today. I asked him the same question. Curious. Why did you pick. Why did you become a pizza restaurant in this neighborhood? I'm from here. I'm from here. I didn't think we had any good pizza.

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Matt Plapp [00:24:21]:

I had a skill of pizza. I came back home. I'm going to get back to my community. I connected with them. And so, like, tell that story. The number one, the only reason cable actually had its last leg under it for so long was reality tv. I mean, think of all the reality shows on MTV. I mean, MTV just keeps replaying rob all the time.

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Matt Plapp [00:24:42]:

All reality tv. Big and rob, ridiculousness, fantasy factory, all reality tv. You as a restaurant owner, have the ability to create a reality tv show for free. And here's the part that people get hung up on, is the view counter. So we had an Instagram video that went viral, got, like, 10 million views. One of my camera guys on the other side of the camera right now filming me, and we got stuck for a little bit. I'm like, oh, my God, we got 10 million views. The next one better have 10 million.

‍

Matt Plapp [00:25:07]:

Oh, shit. Next one gets 500. That sucks. We're terrible. We're leaving Instagram. And I'm like, hold on. If 500 restaurant owners walked in our office right now and wanted to talk to me, I'd be pretty happy.

‍

Angelo Esposito [00:25:19]:

Exactly.

‍

Matt Plapp [00:25:20]:

And so, from a restaurant standpoint, quit looking at the view counter. Yes, it might only be your mom and your grandma and your wife watching the video to start, but you'll be amazed how quickly it builds traction, especially if you're sincere and you're not on there spouting your nonsense and trying to sell food. Get on there and say, hey, hopefully, what happened today? Guy pulled his car up, hit the wrong pedal, drove through the front window. Check this shit out. Look at the window. Cost 20 grand. Highlight your employee that just became valedictorian. Tell them, you know, hey, this is my grandma's pizza.

‍

Matt Plapp [00:25:50]:

You want to make pizza at home? Here's what I would do if I was you. I mean, one of the most popular videos back in the nineties for auto repair shops was a video online that taught people how to change their own oil. People watch the video, we're like, okay, filter that wrench. Something my car up on. Yeah, I'm not doing that go get my oil changed thing. Like, show people the magic. Show Matt Platt how to make a pizza. I got a pizza oven for Christmas last year.

‍

Matt Plapp [00:26:18]:

Haven't used it yet.

‍

Angelo Esposito [00:26:19]:

My wife.

‍

Matt Plapp [00:26:22]:

And I'm like, do I want to waste $30 on a shitty pizza that I make that I don't like, eat pizza at somebody like strongs.

‍

Angelo Esposito [00:26:29]:

That's fine.

‍

Matt Plapp [00:26:31]:

Reality. Turn this camera around. Use. This is a media company. It's not a phone. Most of the stuff we do on our phones, I haven't call anybody.

‍

Angelo Esposito [00:26:39]:

Right. I love that. No, that makes sense. So for people listening, great first step. Literally pick up your phone, start filming, post insta, post a Facebook post to TikTok, whatever it is, and start telling your story. So I definitely, definitely love that. And then I get, I guess, from there, right? You're building your story. I think.

‍

Angelo Esposito [00:26:56]:

I think there's something to be said about, you know, consistency. It's one thing I learned, you know, the hard way, too, but just the idea of, like, similar to your stories, like, not focusing too much on the views, because sometimes it's. It could be underwhelming. But if you make the goal, the output, it makes it a lot more achievable. So one little mindset that maybe can help, and I think it's helped me, is like, make the goal the output. So if you tell yourself, okay, I want to post three videos a week till the end of the year, if that's your goal, and you focus on that, it, short term, it helps keep your eye on the target, because then you're not sad or happy or emotional. If things are high views, low views, because you're like, hey, my goal was getting three videos a week till the end of the year. So it's a little shift.

‍

Angelo Esposito [00:27:39]:

But I find it works because then when you do that, you get better at doing it because you're doing it consistently. So even if you suck, you just get better. And then, number two, you also just learn because now you have that or 100 videos out and you just see what are people engaging with and what are they liking. So little tidbit that I learned that I just want to share. But curious to know from your perspective, like, how have you gotten better at, like, telling stories?

‍

Matt Plapp [00:28:01]:

Reps. You gotta take the reps. Like, I'll tell you this. My first ever video I did live was at Hofburgh House, Pittsburgh, in their beer garden. Guess how many live viewers I had when I was filming it.

‍

Angelo Esposito [00:28:14]:

20. Okay.

‍

Matt Plapp [00:28:17]:

I remember you can see the view counter on your phone. I'm like, come on, mom, where are you at?

‍

Angelo Esposito [00:28:22]:

Like, give me something.

‍

Matt Plapp [00:28:24]:

Give me something. Yeah, nobody watched it. But here's the cool part. The video was terrible. Like, do I want somebody watching me be terrible? Like, one of my employees wants to shoot some hoops, wants to play one on one, and I'm like, hey, let me get my legs back on. I mean, give me about six months to where I'm not as bad as I am right now, and then at least I'll look. I'll look somewhat like y'all represent a little. But the cool part about video is that, number one, majority of people aren't going to get a whole lot of views.

‍

Angelo Esposito [00:28:49]:

Yeah.

‍

Matt Plapp [00:28:49]:

And two, you get your reps out of way with no views.

‍

Angelo Esposito [00:28:52]:

Yeah.

‍

Matt Plapp [00:28:53]:

And the third part of it is everybody watching you thinks you're doing great because there's no way in hell they're getting on camera. So that's a cool thing, too, that most people you run across have never done a video like that. And so the three things I have seen that put you way above everybody else, get on video. Get on a stage and write a book. So if you're an owner of a restaurant, by getting on video, you've done what nobody else does anyways. I mean, how many. What do you know that get on video every single day that aren't marketing? Not many.

‍

Angelo Esposito [00:29:21]:

Yeah, sure.

‍

Matt Plapp [00:29:22]:

And you get your reps, and then, number two, get out there and speak. That's a big thing. Like a lot of restaurant owners. Sean Walshef, a friend of mine, Avery ward up. Avery ward up at Little Italy in Columbus, Ohio. Like, he's always going to chamber events and to kids, to schools and speaking that hones your craft also gives you some good content. Third part that I see very rarely is writing a book. Think about how if somebody walked in a restaurant.

‍

Matt Plapp [00:29:47]:

I owned XYz pizza restaurant, and I had my book on the counter, even if nobody bought it, it's like, holy shit, that's the guy that owns it. That's the book he wrote on why he. Why he built this pizza restaurant or his history. I think Sean has a book. I want to say it's on his. His family in Bulgaria, something.

‍

Angelo Esposito [00:30:06]:

Yeah, yeah. If I remember crew we had on the show, if I remember correctly. Yeah. His story of how he's basically raised by his grandparents, and so he's very close with. Really cool. No, Sean's a great example of storytelling, and he's that top 1%, but it's something to strive to, and I love the message. And, you know, speaking of books, it's perfect segue because I wanted to get into that. So, like, you've written multiple books on restaurant marketing.

‍

Angelo Esposito [00:30:29]:

So first, I'd love to know what inspired you to write the books. And then we'll get into each book and just kind of what's it about and where people can find it. But tell me a bit about the story behind why you wanted to get your thoughts on paper and share it.

‍

Matt Plapp [00:30:42]:

So I was looking for ideas on marketing restaurants, and there was nothing out there. It was. And the stuff I found was so generic. It was. I'm not a big fan of reach and impressions. Yes, I understand. If I do a Facebook ad right now, I could turn it on tomorrow for a restaurant. In a month, probably reach 30,000 people, have 60,000 impressions.

‍

Matt Plapp [00:31:03]:

Who cares? I want to see engagements. I want to see engagements that led to data. I want to see data that led to sales. And so I was trying to find tools like that to sharpen my own saw, and they weren't out there. And so then I started thinking about it, and I was telling different restaurants, and one of the restaurants, I would point me in the right direction, like, well, there's really nothing. And so I came up the idea of writing a book. And the way it came about was I was at a conference, and I watched a guy at the conference out in San Diego called trafficking conversions on how to write a book. And afterwards, I talked to him and I said, hey, he had this idea put in the middle of the bullseye, write the end goal.

‍

Matt Plapp [00:31:42]:

What do you want this book to help restaurant owners do? Like, number one, who's it helping? Number two, what's it helping them do? Restaurant owners put butts in seats. Okay, how do you do that? I'm like, well, I do this, this, and this. And he's like, okay, let me ask a question. Do you have a, like, a system? Like, it sounds like you have, like, a factory going, like, yeah, we have. We pump hundreds of restaurant marketing campaigns out. And he's like, what do you use to build, Mike? We use a product called Asana that I can hire an employee and go, hey, you're in charge of this. They go to Asana. There's an SOP.

‍

Matt Plapp [00:32:09]:

It's like, do this, do this, do this. He goes, there's your book. Every chapter is your Asana bill. I'm like, holy crap. I pulled up Asana and I'm like, this is what you do. So I wrote it out and said, if I was a restaurant owner, here's what I would do. Here's how you create your ad. Here's how you create your call to action.

‍

Matt Plapp [00:32:25]:

Here's how you create the messenger flow. Here's how you create the email follow up, and it had all the stuff in there. Now, I also did it with kind of a bias here. Maybe. I knew that what I was saying in a book was really, really technical. And so in the book, there was call to actions for people to go online and join a training and get some downloads. And I knew that nine out of ten restaurants should, in their right mind, read the book and then go, I'm not doing that stuff. I don't know how to use that software.

‍

Matt Plapp [00:32:50]:

I don't know how Zapier and Twilio. And so I knew that there was going to be inherent people that took the route differently. So then the second version of that book was sell more slices. I wrote another version of it. I was speaking at a conference in Austin, Texas, for a company called Manychat. It was like the first ever Facebook messenger conference.

‍

Angelo Esposito [00:33:10]:

Yeah, manychats. We use them.

‍

Matt Plapp [00:33:13]:

Yeah. And so I spoke there at that conference. We were the first ever person to use it, like, for restaurants at a high level, hundreds of restaurant owners. And so I redid the book called Sell more slices. It was geared around pizza restaurants, because at that point, we had probably worked with about 100 pizza restaurants. We had case studies, like, now, there's no, no doubting this. And then the last book I wrote was, I was writing it the year before the pandemic hit. I was almost gonna be done in April of 2020, and it was called restaurant marketing that works back to the basics.

‍

Matt Plapp [00:33:41]:

And the idea was around everything I preach. Well, then the pandemic came. We ended up publishing it that August, I think. And my publisher called me and said, hey, should we change the name of this? Because Covid hit the pandemic. What changed with your marketing? I said, nothing. And so we changed the subtitle from back to the basics to before, during, and after the pandemic, because everything in the book is what worked before. It worked, worked during. It's work worked after.

‍

Matt Plapp [00:34:10]:

There was no solution. The only thing that anybody changed during the pandemic that probably helped them was online ordering. Everything else was the basics of, you know, how to run a marketing campaign.

‍

Angelo Esposito [00:34:20]:

Yeah. Online ordering and QR codes made a comeback.

‍

Matt Plapp [00:34:25]:

Comeback is this company with these growlers. Back in the day, I had QR. I'm not, like, back in 20, 1314, I had QR codes on every tabletopper, and you had to download an app to use. And I think back, like, was I a dumbass? Like, who's gonna download an app just to scan that code to go to a page? Like, put the URL on there? But, like, I'm. Like, I'm making QR codes work.

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Angelo Esposito [00:34:47]:

That's that's awesome. That's great. And for people, what you will do a full plug at the end for everything, but just real quick, for people who want to catch those books, where's the best place they can go?

‍

Matt Plapp [00:34:57]:

Matplot calm. And there's tab on there for the books, and there's a link.

‍

Angelo Esposito [00:35:02]:

Perfect. Okay. Love it. Love it. And then, you know, jumping a bit into kind of the. The rise of these digital platforms and just, you know, online ordering in general, you know, especially post Covid world, you know, I mean, it was always there, but probably accelerated the hell out of it. How has that kind of affected restaurant marketing? Like, what are some trends you've seen since online ordering obviously really took off and now, you know, things have obviously been evolving. Have you seen certain trends change in the marketing landscape when it comes to restaurant marketing?

‍

Matt Plapp [00:35:33]:

Something that I don't like, that I'm hoping to change with Dryver is I don't. I think everybody's went to a Frankenstein approach. They've got data in their point of sale, data on these third party sites, data inside their online ordering, data inside this app. I talked to restaurants that have five or six platforms that have customer data, and, like, none of them are communicating, none of them being used. I think I talked to you yesterday. He's got 80,000 people in a database on his website that they rarely use because it's. He's not sure. Like, you go to their website and you opt into this vip program, but it's not connected to their point of sale, and it's not connected to their loyalty, and it's not connected to this.

‍

Matt Plapp [00:36:18]:

And I'm like, no wonder you're not using it. It's a Frankenstein. So what I've seen happen is restaurants are typically, from what I've seen, ten to 15 years behind what's happening. The stuff that preach right now with Facebook lives, that's you. You could have been doing that ten years ago. And so they're now starting to get it. So with regards to data, a lot of these restaurants with the pandemic, I remember my favorite smoothie shop, a place called Betterblende, didn't have online ordering before the COVID Before the pandemic. I used to always say stuff to my.

‍

Matt Plapp [00:36:46]:

Another guy, Covid hits, oh, shit, I better get online ordering. Next day, he's got his toast online order, and something turned on. He's good to go. And now it's like every order I place, I order from his place five days a week, always online ordered online, drive up, pick it up and leave. And so a lot of guys like that came around quicker than they normally would have. Two things that they didn't do. And when that happened, they've got a lot of one off solution, sitting places. So they've got a Frankenstein marketing plan.

‍

Matt Plapp [00:37:15]:

So it's now time to kind of corral it and go, okay, I've got data in these five places. How do I get it to one place?

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Angelo Esposito [00:37:21]:

Right, right.

‍

Matt Plapp [00:37:22]:

How do I use it consistently? Correctly?

‍

Angelo Esposito [00:37:24]:

Right. Yeah. What can you consolidate? And we've seen that, too. It's funny because, like, for the longest time, WISK is starting 2014. And so when we started, it was a bit hard to not convince. But, like, inventory was like, it was obviously a core part of the operations, but it was, like, maybe a bit more of a backseat. But, like, you know, post Covid, it was like, people, you know, I mean, during COVID people had to take care of their supplies and not over order. And, you know, they really started paying attention to these things.

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Angelo Esposito [00:37:49]:

And so we saw that, too, that adoption. And I agree with you. I think restaurants are definitely, like, 1015 years behind, but Covid probably got them to accelerate adoption of certain techs, but certain technology. But out of curiosity, why do you think that restaurants. Because I was thinking about this. Why do you think restaurants are, like, 1015 years behind when it comes to adopting technology?

‍

Matt Plapp [00:38:08]:

Because I think that restaurants. I'll put restaurants and gym owners in the same bucket. I owned a gym, a business partner that ran it, and he reminded me a lot of restaurants because very hands on, very hands on, very involved in running the business. Now, the difference was Casey only had six classes a day, so he had 4 hours in between to do other stuff. You're a restaurant owner, and, you know, you get up, you out of bed, 607:00 in the morning, you go to the office, you the restaurant, you got us food showing up. You got to inventory your food. You're making sure somebody closed it correctly. Next thing you know, you turn around, something's wrong.

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Matt Plapp [00:38:45]:

The restaurant opens up, somebody is sick, they didn't show up. Now you're waiting tables. Now you're doing them. Now you're busing tables. Now you're doing the, you know, whatever. You're making the food, and you turn around at 06:00 at night, and you're beat down, you're going to your kids soccer game. You get home, you go to sleep, you repeat. So I think, number one is that I believe restaurant owners, and I've worked my business from 2000 820 15, we served 31 verticals.

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Matt Plapp [00:39:12]:

I had every vertical you can imagine. Auto repair, car dealerships, home builders, window companies. The ones that I saw that were in the trenches the most were the restaurant owners and the gyms. I had a few gems, too, and they reminded me a lot of it. Except they had downtime to screw around the restaurants. There ain't much downtime. Cause when you show up, it's open up. And when you open up, it's run and gun.

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Matt Plapp [00:39:32]:

And then 02:00, the PFG food truck pulls up and you gotta unload it. And then 05:00, you're hitting the dinner rush and your wife's calling you, and you can't be the soccer game because somebody didn't show up. I mean, it's a nonstop. I think that's the key element. Number two, I take this from the tech to the marketing side, is they've been burned a lot. Marketing. Nine out of ten people that I run across in restaurant marketing, not to be mean, but are morons. And I was probably that moron 20 years ago, to be quite honest with you.

‍

Matt Plapp [00:40:00]:

Because I.

‍

Angelo Esposito [00:40:01]:

You.

‍

Matt Plapp [00:40:01]:

You think you have an idea and you run and gun and you spout it to everybody you have and that you have no proof. Hey, I mean, a guy the other day reached out to us, wants to integrate with our platform. And I'm like, well, how many clients do you guys work with? We have three. Like, we have like, three.

‍

Angelo Esposito [00:40:14]:

Like.

‍

Matt Plapp [00:40:17]:

Come back when you got. I want to be a jerk. Like, come back when you got a hundred because, yeah, 100 versus my first three. I kill I brewery. I had a QR code app on a tabletopper thinking people are going to download. I'm a dumbass. Like, nobody's downloading app to get a QR code just to go, like, I was stupid as can be back then. So I think that they've been burned so many times.

‍

Matt Plapp [00:40:40]:

And then also you go to the food shows and it's not hard to get a booth. It's not hard to make your booth look bigger than it is. And then it turns out that you bought this piece of tech that has not really been around long and doesn't really do what you want it to do. The point of sales are some of the worst. I mean, we've got really good integrations with, you know, arrow point of sale, for example. Those guys are legit. They're restaurant owners. They built an amazing point of sale.

‍

Matt Plapp [00:41:02]:

But then you go to another place and you hear from this guy and he's like, well, it turns out he's just a credit card salesman that has a white labeled point of sale that doesn't actually, you can't make a pizza on it. And these people buy this because it's cheap, it's quick. That gets promised. That guy makes a commission and rolls out. So I think it's a combination of probably 75% no time to figure it out and 25% frustration from the past. And, like, you know what? I'm just going to stick to a pen and a piece of paper. Like, yeah, Corey. The number of restaurants I see doing inventory manually still, and I'm like, what is going on here? Like, what's zero again?

‍

Angelo Esposito [00:41:37]:

Yeah, it's true. It's true. It's. People always ask, who. Who's your big competitor? I'm like, look, we have a couple of people in the space, but honestly, it's still pen and paper or excel. Like, people are still just majority doing pen and paper in excel.

‍

Matt Plapp [00:41:48]:

I'll give you an inventory story you'll laugh at.

‍

Angelo Esposito [00:41:50]:

Yeah, please.

‍

Matt Plapp [00:41:51]:

So one of our clients had three restaurants. It was a fast casual restaurant, and he was complaining to his food provider, his distributor, about the prices of steaks recently. He's like, what are you talking about, man? He's like, this. This is going back. I think it's probably when this happened with Bob. And I remember yesterday, Bob was the guy's name. And I want to say it was like 20 1314. And the guy.

‍

Matt Plapp [00:42:14]:

And I was there, like, I witnessed the whole thing, and I had no clue what was going on. Like, I didn't really know. I knew that this was their mainline distributor. I didn't understand, like, the conversation of inventory. And he's like, yeah, man. I'm looking at our p and L, like, our food costs, and especially our steaks is through the roof. And he's like, Bob, the price of steaks has not changed in, like, three months. So, like, I don't know what you're talking about.

‍

Matt Plapp [00:42:33]:

So Bob's like, okay, so he, he's doing inventory on a clipboard, right?

‍

Angelo Esposito [00:42:36]:

Yeah.

‍

Matt Plapp [00:42:37]:

So he's still doing old school inventory. And that's probably back then. It's all there was.

‍

Angelo Esposito [00:42:40]:

Yeah.

‍

Matt Plapp [00:42:40]:

And he's sitting there and he watches. After about a month of trying to figure it out, he's watching the one cook, kitchen worker walk out back with a garbage bag and throws it next to the dumpster. It's like that lazy ass. Like, why did he not just throw that garbage in the dumpster? So he walks out, he goes to grab the bag, and it's heavy. It's the steaks. And so then he starts watching this guy every week, go in the things. Steak delivery, show up 15 garbage bag, put it next to the dumpster. Later on, come back, grab it, and leave.

‍

Matt Plapp [00:43:16]:

And it wasn't his food price went up. It's that he didn't have inventory control in place to know that his stakes were going to the dumpster, not at a table. And so, like, I cracked up because Bob was like, man, I was so. I was such a jerk to my rep. And here it was. And Bob, I knew what brought the whole conversation up. We always used to give Bob a hard time because Bob was a smoker, and he went back and forth, had some cancer issues, and still would quit. Wouldn't quit smoking.

‍

Matt Plapp [00:43:41]:

It was going back and forth. And he's like, well, I guess the smoking did something good. I was outside smoking and watched him not throw the garbage away. And had I not been back there, I would have never noticed that he didn't put the garbage in the dumpster off. He's like, so at least. At least we can.

‍

Angelo Esposito [00:43:53]:

Silver lining. Yeah.

‍

Matt Plapp [00:43:54]:

Smoking did something right this week.

‍

Angelo Esposito [00:43:56]:

That's funny. That's crazy. But it's true. It's true. And that's. That's the thing is, like, I always tell people, it's like restaurants are. They'll be the first to tell you how much they made revenue wise. Like, oh, we made 20,000 this week.

‍

Angelo Esposito [00:44:07]:

But when you tell them, heck, how much profit did you make in terms of, you know, cost of goods? Like, subtract the cost. It's like they have no idea. And that's why it's like, you know, it's 2024. Like, I always encourage people, like, the two biggest costs in your restaurant are gonna be your labor and your cost of goods sold. Invest in something, whether it's a person, a person and a software. But, like, investing in those two spaces is usually a good idea because it's. It's the majority of your. Your.

‍

Angelo Esposito [00:44:30]:

Your costs, right? So your prime costs, basically. That's awesome. And then, you know, one last question, and we'll probably start wrapping things up. But I know, you know, you emphasize, like, the idea of. And you've done it today, but of building a strong customer database. So, like, for the smaller, independent restaurants listening, how can they capitalize on and maybe compete with the larger restaurants? Like, what recommendations can you give to them to perhaps start thinking about building that customer database?

‍

Matt Plapp [00:44:58]:

So, number one, I keep this book on my desk for this reason.

‍

Angelo Esposito [00:45:02]:

I love that book. I got one. Where's my. I got marketing. Oh, no, sorry. Hold on. Sorry. Now I know where I keep mine.

‍

Matt Plapp [00:45:12]:

Well, here, you'll love this. We were one of the early clients of her mozzie at gym launch. I knew him like, my gym that I owned. We were a client of his, like, 2016.

‍

Angelo Esposito [00:45:21]:

Okay, so when he was. So when he talks about gym launch and going out and the irresistible offer. You're one of those gyms that took that offer.

‍

Matt Plapp [00:45:28]:

Yeah. So it was. So first, I'll say this. Restaurants how to make an offer so good people feel stupid saying no to.

‍

Angelo Esposito [00:45:35]:

Yeah.

‍

Matt Plapp [00:45:36]:

The number one customer you are missing out on is the person walking in your restaurant. 92% of the people that walk in restaurants are not greeted in a way that makes them want to give the restaurant their information. So if somebody walks in your restaurant, you're a casual dining restaurant. Instead of saying, hey, how are you? Because you don't care. Have you been here before? No, I've not. Well, then you're not a member of our vip program. Did you know that if you scan this QR code, you get a free burger for your next visit? Put your phone out. Let's go ahead and do it.

‍

Matt Plapp [00:46:07]:

Like, it's not hard. The number one person's information you need is the person that's already taken the hardest step, which is travel and decide to come to your restaurant.

‍

Angelo Esposito [00:46:15]:

Yeah.

‍

Matt Plapp [00:46:16]:

And then at that point, use the data. Give them an irresistible reason to come back. Like a free burger their next visit. And then after that, get them with like a free dessert or an appetizer. Because if I come to your restaurant and have a great dessert, I'm going to have it again in the future. I went to a restaurant called Casanos in Dayton, Ohio, the other day at 33 locations. They had this appetizer, like, folded over cheese bread. I've never tasting like it.

‍

Matt Plapp [00:46:38]:

There is. I would never. I would. There's zero chance I would not order it every time. That as to a consumer and said they want to raise their average check. Because the easiest way to increase your sales is to get the people who already know, like and trust you to buy more money. Or I buy more or buy more often from you. Well, if you have my information and you know, I'm a loyal customer, it's not real hard to get me to come back with that information in a bribe or even just a reminder.

‍

Matt Plapp [00:47:02]:

And then if you have my information and you want me to spend more money, send me a free dessert. I come in, you got a badass dessert. I get it for free one time now. I've eaten it 20 times since then at $10 a pop. So that's a big element. That's the biggest, easiest, lowest hanging fruit. And then from there, you take that online. The second most important place is your website.

‍

Matt Plapp [00:47:22]:

People ordering there. People don't. If I go to your website, there should be a pop up that comes up and says, like, get a free burger, click here. Like, everybody's website only gathers information when somebody's spending money. There are a lot of consumers kicking the tire. They're looking at someplace to eat at. They pop over there. Oh, here's this restaurant.

‍

Matt Plapp [00:47:38]:

You need to be able to capture information. And then the third place is social media engagement. If you can get people to engage in and take them to a place where they give you their information, it all revolves around data. We had a restaurant recently who increased his online data from his website from 30 people to 130 each month over twelve months in our system and Dryver, his sales inside the system went up 32%.

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Angelo Esposito [00:48:04]:

Wow. Okay.

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Matt Plapp [00:48:05]:

His database grew by 300, like 50%. His sales went by 32 because one out of three to four customers that get their data came in from his website, came to the restaurant, and then they come back. Why? Well, I looked near one particular guy. He was a brand new customer a year ago, 19 times since then. I promise, if we. If we wouldn't have gotten his email and a cell phone number and his birthday, we probably wouldn't have driven half those visits.

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Angelo Esposito [00:48:28]:

Wow, that's awesome. That's really awesome. I love it. Honestly, I could talk to you for hours and it's so cool that you were one of the first Hermosi customers. I was an early Hermozy fan, like, always learning from him. I was on a podcast, actually, a few weeks ago. I think at this point I was talking about how generally I tried to read a few new books every year. But this year I found myself rereading this and $100 million marking leads.

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Angelo Esposito [00:48:51]:

Because it's like you're always picking up something new. And then I'll zoom in on one chapter and it's really interesting to just apply because if you're reading to read, then it's just entertainment. But if you're reading to implement stuff and it's education.

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Matt Plapp [00:49:02]:

What's even more depressing, though, is when you were part of the journey. Like, when we became a gym launch client, it was Mayenne, one of, say, of 2016 or 17. It was 17.

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Angelo Esposito [00:49:11]:

Okay.

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Matt Plapp [00:49:12]:

And it was a high. Was $16,000 to sign up. But it was like, hey, if in a month you do not have your money back, we'll give it back to you. Pay us eight grand now. Eight grand. Then we did 40 grand in sales with his, with his stuff in a month. And I was a marketing professor. That's my job.

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Matt Plapp [00:49:27]:

Gym. I was a restaurant guy.

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Angelo Esposito [00:49:28]:

So. So that really stuck with you right there. Irresistible offer. Not only did you read it, but it worked on you.

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Matt Plapp [00:49:33]:

So we were already doing it with restaurants. But it was funny was the way he was building his company was different than any marketing company I'd ever seen. He's all, do it yourself. Like, there was no help. You paid 16 grand to get access to his website to learn how to do all this marketing crap. Thank goodness I knew how to do it. It was easy, but it was like, oh, that's pretty cool. Oh, I like what he did there.

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Matt Plapp [00:49:52]:

And I'm not a gym guy, so I don't know how to sell crap in the gym. He was, and that really stuck with me. And it was even funnier was years later is we were client for like two years. And then I got out of the gym business. My partner, I think, eventually canceled the program because it was a heavy lift to put his stuff in place. But it's funny, you turn around a couple years later, and here he is selling his companies for $80 million. You're like, I was. I mean, I was on Zoom calls with him.

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Matt Plapp [00:50:14]:

I was all the time where he would get on every couple weeks and he would review stuff. And then I talked to him a year and a half ago about his acquisition@dot.com. about investing in us possibly, and, you know, didn't take it anywhere because I'm time. Wasn't really interested in it. Plus I don't think we were a good fit for them.

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Angelo Esposito [00:50:29]:

Yeah, that's really cool. And so the wrapping, though, is great. I had a fun conversation. We'll definitely have you back on the show and just catch up on updates. But just to wrap up, I'm sure people want to find you. I know you got newsletter, you got books, you got your own podcast. So just a chance to plug away your website, your books, your newsletter, your whatever socials you want to share. So that way people listening can check you out.

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Matt Plapp [00:50:49]:

It's really to go to mattplatt.com, matt, lapp.com. there's a link on there. I do a daily podcast every single day. I record a podcast and launch it every single day. The land that's been going on for two and a half years. The last five months I've been doing a daily blog. So I just finished writing to tomorrow's blog this morning and there's links on there for our company. You know, get Dryver.com and then America's best Restaurants.com and you know, we're sincerely in it for a reason to help restaurants just sell more food.

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Matt Plapp [00:51:19]:

And I'm a hardcore believer. It comes in sales, happens from marketing and if you've got your customers data and you use it correctly and you give them no b's reasons to do business with you and you talk to them more often in a manner they like, they'll come eat more food.

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Angelo Esposito [00:51:34]:

Love that. I love that. Well you heard here guys, once again, Matt Platt, CEO of America's best restaurants and Dryver, thanks for joining the WISKing at all podcast.

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Matt Plapp [00:51:44]:

Thank you. Appreciate me on if you want to.

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Angelo Esposito [00:51:46]:

Learn more about WISK, head to WISK.AI and book a demo.

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