What Keeps Employees Loyal For 17+ Years (It's Not Money) | Ft. Trista Vincent

He comes alongside me. He walks alongside you. He doesn't come in and tell you to sweep the floors. He gets a broom and sweeps the floor with you. I never got involved in church. I never really understood the serving aspect of it until God really started to condition my heart on that. And then we have Miguel's Mex-Tex Cafe. So we own both of the ones here in Abilene, Northside and Southside Buffalo.

The relationships and community that that has brought has completely changed our life.

I had plans for my own life. What I wanted, but it wasn't what I needed. And I got consumed with looking at those things. And this book really taught me to— Brand Builders Podcast.

Trista, welcome to the Brand Builders Podcast.

Ah, thank you. Excited to be here.

So glad that you're here today. And I'm excited to dig into kind of some of your story and what that looks like. I know you're heavily involved with Exceptional Brands, LLC.

Yes.

And so just kind of tell us your role in that, how long you've been with them and kind of what that's looked like so far.

Okay. Well, I've been with Exceptional Brands, LLC for— I'll hit my 17th year coming up. Incredible company. I actually started— a lot of people would know Famous Dave's. I started with Famous Dave's. We actually had that barbecue restaurant that's That's kind of what Miguel's was before it became Miguel's. That's what the building was. I started that with that company back in Amarillo. So I was a GM of that restaurant for 7 years, and then they offered me the opportunity to come over here and get involved with Buffalo Wild Wings. So took that opportunity, moved to Abilene, and just started working hand in hand with Miguel's, kind of learning a little bit about that concept while we were building Buffalo Wild Wings. and then I took over as the GM of Buffalo Wild Wings North. Um, so I did that for a couple years. Um, then they asked me to be the support director of the company, which was a role I always wanted. Um, so essentially what that is, is we have a home office. We are based out of Abilene. Our owner is from Abilene. A lot of times people look at us and they're like, oh, Buffalo Wild Wings is corporate. Well, we're a franchise. We are locally owned and operated. Um, and so it's just local, you know. Uh, so once I did that, I started managing the home office, uh, building my job up, you know. I knew I was going to be in charge of marketing. I knew I was gonna kind of be a support— be a support role in the company. I didn't know what all that entailed, so just little by little adding stuff. Um, so with the marketing side of it, I really wanted to grow on that side of it. And never done marketing before, never gone to school for marketing, didn't have a clue what I was doing.

Same.

Okay, cool. Yeah, so that's where it began. Um, so Exceptional Brands LLC, essentially we own, um, Buffalo Wild Wings. We have 6 of those, and then we have Miguel's Mex Tex Cafe. So we own both of the ones here in Abilene, Northside and Southside Buffalo. We also have one in Lawton, Oklahoma, Wichita Falls, San Angelo, and Brownwood. Those are all of ours as well.

So did you grow up in Amarillo?

I grew up in a small town called Dallas Heart, Texas. Dallas Heart, Texas. Yeah. Little town.

I grew up in Denver City, Texas.

Okay.

So we had to play you guys in high school quite a bit.

Yes, we did.

Okay. So what year did you move to Abilene?

I moved to Abilene in 2016.

2016.

Okay.

And you just immediately started being the GM?

Yeah. So I moved— when I moved here, I became the GM of North Buffalo Outlets.

Okay.

Sweet.

That's crazy. I thought you were originally from here.

Nope.

Everybody has said so many great things about you.

No, from Dalhart.

And if you're listening, we were talking about this before. Naomi has been encouraging me for the last 3 or 4 weeks. She's like, you got to have Tristan on, you got to have Tristan on. And I was like, all right, all right. So we met in person. We were doing a project with Miguel's and I was like, this would be a perfect fit.

Yeah.

So again, thank you for coming on. One of the first questions I wanted to ask you and get into A lot of our viewers and the hosts of this show enjoys reading books, listening to podcasts, and just learning about the business world, the spiritual side of things. What have been some books or podcasts that have influenced you heavily within your walk?

Um, so obviously, you know, a lot of times when people ask you what your favorite book is, my go-to is always going to be the Bible. People, you know, probably look at me like, oh, come on, give me a book. And I'm like, that is the book. Um, that is the book.

Actually, 66 books.

Yeah, exactly. Um, that helps you not only in life, um, but through business and everything that we do. Um, everything that we have in this life is from God. When we came in with nothing, we leave with nothing. And so I attest everything that we have in this life to him. Um, so that is the book that I love. Um, but recently, I mean, if you asked me when I was younger, I was not a reader. You know, I read books because we got a free pizza in elementary school if we read so many books. So, uh, I didn't start reading books until recently, um, the last couple years. And I really, you know, if you know Charles Spurgeon, um, A.W. Tozer, uh, you know, really in-depth books but absolutely enjoy their books. C.S. Lewis, it's kind of hard to understand sometimes, but I'm like, okay, yeah, sometimes I get lost. I gotta read it over like 2 or 3 times. I'm like, wait, what did you say? Yeah, okay, I got it. Um, but The Knowledge of the Holy One is one that I'm currently reading from A.W. Tozer, and it really just opens up your mind to really understand the attributes of God, and I've really enjoyed that one. The Pursuit of God is another one, just encouraging us to be responsible in our role, to pursue God. Uh, and you know, it says to seek first the kingdom of righteousness and— or seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all things will be added unto you. And I feel like that book really embodies that, to seek him, get to know him and all that he, he is and what he can do for our lives. And so the other book that I thought of was The Cry for His Presence by Lee Ship. Lee Ship is a pastor at First New Testament Church in Baton Rouge, and that's actually one of my favorite pastors besides my pastor at our church, but one of the ones that I've listened to for a very long time. And there was a season in my life where I went through a really tough time and was really looking at the circumstances around me and everything that had gone wrong. I had plans for my own life. What I wanted, but it wasn't what I needed. And I got consumed with looking at those things. And this book really taught me to praise Him in the midst of my circumstances, that no matter what was going on around me, that if I could just praise God for who He is and what He has done, if He never did anything else for me but die for me on the cross to give me a chance at new life, that that was more than enough. And so just to be able to turn my focus from the things around me and what was happening and even situations I allowed myself to get into and just praise him and put him first, that he would align everything else out. And so that book was a huge encouragement. I actually didn't read it once, I read it 4 times. Wow. And so I really enjoyed that book as well. And then right now I'm reading a book by David Wilkerson, which is also, uh, one of another pastor that I've really enjoyed.

Love it. Um, so you mentioned this wasn't really the route, or there were some things along the way that you didn't really plan on. And we can get into more some of that here in a little bit, but did you ever see yourself playing such an in-depth and heavy role within a company like you are with now?

No, absolutely not. I really never thought that one, I would ever be promoted within a company. Never did I think that I actually earned it or deserved it. Um, but you know, the owner saw something in me that I didn't even see in myself. And so no, I thought I'd probably manage, um, probably a restaurant for the rest of my life. I didn't think that I would be able to get so heavily involved in supporting all the restaurants that we have and supporting even the owners of the company and the vice president of the company and the area directors. Like, playing a role and just being able to help them to push our employees, um, appreciate our employees, encourage our employees the way that I'm able to do, um, at, at this location. No, I never thought it would be possible.

So what is your role like on a daily basis kind of look like?

Um, so I'm heavily involved with all of the concepts. So, you know, with Miguel's, I do all the marketing for Miguel's, which we are so incredibly thankful for Howdy Media because we have been for somebody to help us out. And, uh, again, I'm new to this. I didn't get a degree in this. And a lot of times I think that's one of the things that, uh, small companies do is we try to take something on ourselves thinking that we can do a really good job in it. And I'm not saying that you can't. It takes a lot of time and effort. There's a lot of things that go into marketing that you don't even realize, um, from the algorithm to the demographic to a lot of things that we don't know. I didn't know, um, how to do things organically. Not a clue. Not a clue. And so just kind of going, uh, willy-nilly through it and kind of getting lost almost. And so, um, it's just been nice having somebody be able to come in and walk alongside us with that. I don't know if that answered the question.

Yeah. No, yeah. So how long have you been participating in the marketing side of things?

Uh, since I started. So when I first started, there wasn't really a whole lot of marketing going on. It was just So Buffalo Wild Wings corporate, they do a lot of it for us. So like, you'll see, you know, Hank on the commercials, like a lot of that we don't have to do. But the local store marketing is what I do. And the same thing with Miguel's. So anything that we can do local within our communities, that's what I'm going to hit up. And at first I started, you know, doing radio. And again, not discrediting radio, I think radio has its benefits, but it wasn't something that we— I felt we should do. So I started trying to evaluate our process in marketing and what we needed as a company, but really what the community needed from us. And that's really where everything began, was me evaluating what can we do for the community. And I started thinking about our community. What is our community? What makes our community thrive? Well, we need teachers, we need our firefighters, we need our police, policemen, we need our healthcare workers. And so I was like, those are the things that I wanted to focus on. So several years ago, I had come up with a plan of how can I do this? Like, I want to support the things that support us in the community. And so I started coming up with plans to reach those organizations, partner with those organizations, joined a bunch of boards. At one time I was on 5 different boards, which was way too many. I don't encourage being on that many boards. But just getting involved with the people that help us thrive was initially what I wanted to do. Supporting those who support us. Those people come into our restaurants, they eat. Without our guests, we are nothing. We don't have anything. We depend on our guests. We love our guests. I don't— we don't view our guests just as a check number. We don't view our guests just as a tab that's paid. We view them as part of our family. Without you, we wouldn't have what we have. And so finding those things inside our community to me was very important. And so that's kind of where that started as far as the marketing goes.

Got it. No, yeah. I'm trying to think. So whenever you say marketing, are you talking about like just social media or is there other, like, do you all do billboards? Do you all do?

Yeah. So with the marketing, we don't do, yeah, we do billboards. We mainly with the billboards, we don't really put products up, promotions up. We really just want people to know where we're at when it comes to billboards. When you're driving past on a billboard, you don't have time to be like, oh, buy one, get one bonus. You know, you don't have time to figure that out, but you do look to see what's coming up on your exit. So that is one thing that we've really done with our billboards. The other stuff is going to be community. I partner with— so I am partnered with Arrow Ford for the teachers with the ISD. So that's one thing that we do. And we don't— we award teachers within the community. The students write in letters about their teachers and they tell us what their teachers what they've done to impact their life, how they've encouraged them. And then we go out to that, we go through— I don't even know how many letters, Darren, to be honest with you, that we read this year, but it was probably a stack this big of kids that said, my teacher's the best because— and we go through that, we pick 12. And so, I mean, you're looking at hundreds of letters, and we go out to the schools and we award the student and the teacher, um, because we need our teachers. This is the next generation. The things that they learn are important. And so that was one of the things that we do, uh, as far as like the police department, making sure that I'm involved in any events that they need. One of the things that we do is the Clay Pot Shoot. Um, we make sure that we go out and we just feed them and take care of them for a day. Firefighters, I normally partner with State Farm on a lot of the things that we do with them. Um, but just sending them gift cards to say thank you, like come in, feed the entire fire station, and sometimes drop food. Um, because we want them to know that we care about them and what they do inside this community to protect us is, is very important to us.

Yeah.

So that's another one that we do. So yeah, billboards, but it's going to be a lot of hands-on getting inside the community, talking to people, reaching out to people. I was involved with the Special Olympics for several years, really enjoyed being involved in that organization, still involved as far as special needs go. That one's near and dear to our heart. Arts. So we're still involved in that. A new one that we're starting— and we do this in every area, so we— I don't just say when we're talking about Abilene, I look at our company in all the other cities that we're in. So we are partnered with the ISDs, we're looking at kicking off partnerships with the police department, the fire station, the healthcare workers. We're kind of with different programs. We have special packets for the teachers that can order at a specific price for teams that come in. So again, things that make our community thrive, we're giving them promotions to come in and see us because we understand schools are on budgets, teachers are on budgets, people are on budgets, especially now more than ever. So, and then another one we've just started doing is we're about to partner with the Salvation Army, which is one that is— I am super excited about. Teresa, the lady that's over the cafeteria, actually reached out for us. To partner with them. And, uh, this one's different because she didn't call me to ask me to give them food. She called and asked me to give whatever I had left over. And it really kind of struck me because it's, you know, we cater to a lot of companies, we cater to a lot of people, but we don't cater to the less fortunate and those who you think they can't come in, you know. And, and we want to give back We want to be able to help them, to provide them with a hot, fresh meal. And so I'm super excited about that. And not only that, providing food is great, but being able to serve in the community and display the love of Christ is way more important than any food we could ever give them. And that is what I am most excited about.

Wow. So you've been with this company for 17 years? Yes, sir. What would you say has been the biggest key factor? Because there's a lot of people who watch this show who are part of businesses, who are leading businesses, and every single one of those businesses, in order to grow, needs a great team and people supporting them. And so what has kept you around for 17 years? What is so special that you haven't left? If you're a business owner and you know that you need to be putting out content and videos, but you don't have the time or the strategy to do it well. Well, that's exactly what we help with here at Howdy Media. We offer content strategy, turnkey podcast production, monthly professional video and content services, and access to our state-of-the-art content studio right here in Abilene, Texas. More importantly, we help you create content that gets actual views builds real trust and turns attention into clients and customers. Because at the end of the day, that's why we make the content. So if you're ready to stop guessing and start using content to actually grow your business, go to www.howdy-media.com or send us a DM. Hope to talk to you soon.

Well, I'll speak, you know, 17 years with me, but if I had— I have a 10-year list of our company, and, um, we— next year we'll have— we'll have 7 managers that hit 10 years. So, um, we have, uh, the VP of our company is going on 30 years. We just had our leanest guy hit 27. We have 2 other guys that are at 17 and 18 years. We have an hourly employee at one of our locations that's been with us for 18 years. Um, so So to speak on that, I would say, um, as in the owner— the owner, um, has a huge part in that, um, and he— if he was sitting here today with us, he would tell you, uh, all glory to God in that, and who he is, who he was, and who he is today is because of the Lord. I get to work alongside a man that is incredibly humble, who puts God first in everything. Who I believe does his best every day to exemplify the qualities that we should as a Christian. Um, and it's, you know, it's not even just that. It's not what he says. Um, he gives great advice. He's been a, a huge spiritual mentor in my life. But it's what he does. Um, you know, when you go into a company— and, and I can't speak for every company— I've worked for companies where owners come in and they kind of tell you what to do. He comes alongside you. He walks alongside you. He doesn't come in and tell you to sweep the floors. He gets a broom and sweeps the floor with you. He gets a towel and wipes the windows with you. I think it's the way he leads, and ultimately I think that's going to be his heart condition and what the Lord has done in his life. He's not only a leader, a great leader, He is my brother. We just had an annual meeting where we get to come together and award our amazing staff on all their accomplishments that they've done, from financially to what they've done with the atmosphere with their team. But I spoke on the fact that I have a blood brother, but the brother that I got through Christ is something I've always wanted. And so not only do I get to have a boss, but I get to have a brother through Christ that has been such an influence on me. Um, and I think that's really what it comes down to. And we have great owners. Um, there's another owner who has just been such— so kind and loving to me, um, who loves this company, who created this company, um, who is willing to just help us whenever we need it. And so I think it really attests to the leadership that we have. Your team is only as good as who's leading you. And if you don't have a leader who values the team and values the community, you really don't have anything at the end of the day. If it's about them, then there's nothing in it. But when they put their team first and they value the people that are coming in to support us, to keep us open, it makes a whole different atmosphere.

Yeah. So it sounds like to me leadership and culture.

Absolutely.

Keep people around.

Absolutely.

What would you say the culture is like working with all these amazing people?

So I'll speak, you know, I go into Buffalo some, but I'm going to really pull Miguel's on this. Miguel's is a family. And I think if you went in there and you talked to almost any of the staff, we have a lady who's been with us since we've been open, who makes our tortillas, and that's all she does. She makes masa and tortillas.

What's her name?

Her name is Miss Ruth.

Shout out, Miss Ruth.

Shout out to Miss Ruth. Wonderful, lovely lady. She'll hug you, she doesn't even have to know you, but she loves what she does. And we're family. It's— yeah, we come to work, it's a job, we need a job, we need to make money. But when you get to go to your job and it be your family, it's a whole different atmosphere. Uh, they love one another. They love spending time with one another. Like, when I go up there and we hang out in the office, we just talk, you know, we're just hanging out. Um, we talk about the Lord, we talk about business, we talk about what we're doing in the community. Uh, it's a culture of family, and I think that's what separates it from any other place that you could potentially go. For me, uh, people are always like, what's your favorite restaurant? I'm like, Miguel's. And they're like, uh, no, really, what's your favorite restaurant where you don't work? And I'm Miguel's. Like, really, I don't have an answer because it is. I love the staff. When you walk in there, they're excited to see you, not for anything that you can give them, even just because they just are excited to see you because they're happy you're there. There is not a single time that I don't walk into Miguel's where I don't hear either from across the restaurant, at the front, right next to me, hey, Trista, you know, they're just happy. And, and when people love their job and love where they get to go to work, work, it makes it so much better for our guests too.

So yeah, that, that's awesome. And if you're leading something and you're the leader of an organization, a business, like, this is just a testimony of how powerful the culture of the organization is and the leadership that is involved. Um, so I want to go into kind of the COVID era, uh, for restaurants. I know that was a very different, hard, interesting time. So I usually ask what were some of the hard times, but I feel like COVID would probably be at the top of the iceberg. So let's kind of talk about that. How did it impact you all in the restaurant industry? What were some of the challenges you all faced and how did you overcome them?

So of course, shutting down was the first step that actually happened. And when that happened, I think it was terrifying for everybody. It was terrifying for us at the office. It was terrifying for the people that had to come in to make money every single week. So one of the things that we did is we found things for them to do. We didn't lay people off. We didn't let people go at all. We found ways. If it was coming up and cleaning, if it was— we had to put chalk on the window and put open for delivery only, curbside. You know, we were able to do that, which was one of that actually helped us in regards to being able to continue on doing what we did. But we found ways to keep our staff on our team, find ways to keep them busy. And it really boiled down to delivery, curbside, anything that we could do to continue to keep our doors open. It was difficult because not ever— because a lot of people wouldn't leave their houses. There was a lot of fear inside that that was instilled and And so it was even hard during that. But I think the biggest thing is don't give up. Like, even when the tough times come, don't give up. Keep doing the main thing, whatever that is, whatever your culture is, whatever you're providing, whatever that service is. Don't give up. That sometimes business in restaurants, it's ebbs and flows like it goes up, it comes down. There's hills, there's valleys to it, but don't give up. Keep the main thing the main thing. And obviously I think the main thing is our staff first. We've gotta take care of our team, uh, and then we've gotta take care of our guests. And if that is your focus, just keep that your focus. Don't give up. The business will come back. Um, do the right thing. And I think if you just keep whatever it is that your goal is, whatever that is, just keep doing it.

Okay. So I'm curious, let's go back to 2020.

Okay.

I think it was like March, spring break time is whenever everybody was like, pause, we're going to close everything. Those first couple of weeks, what did the meetings and like, what were the conversations that were being had with y'all? Were y'all thinking that it was going to last as long as it did? Or were y'all like, oh, this will probably go away? When was the moment that y'all kind of realized like, oh, we're going to have to pivot and figure something out?

Um, I couldn't tell you the exact moment that— I just know that there, whenever they said that we had to close our doors, it— that was the moment that we were like, uh-oh. And then whenever they were— I think we thought it was going to go longer than it was, but then when it let up, there was just so much— there was so much relief. I honestly couldn't tell you like where the actual pivotal moment was. Uh, it all seems like a blur. It was all— I'm just being honest, like it really it happened so fast and it was so intense, uh, and I think it actually felt longer than it probably was, uh, but when we were able to come back in, and even though you had to have your table so far apart, you couldn't sit here, like we had tables with big X's on it, we had arrows where you could walk and stand, even though that happened, once we were able to open the doors back to the general public, I think that's when we just felt so much weight come off of us knowing that that was was where we were headed, you know. And then little by little, it just got better from there. So, you know, to say an actual moment, um, I couldn't tell you one. But as far as the meetings, they were very hopeful.

Yeah.

Um, I think again, putting God first in everything, knowing that God has a plan in everything, uh, I think having our leader have that at the forefront of it, and no matter what was going to happen, knowing that God has a plan for not only us personally but for our company, I think there was always hope. I I don't think there was ever like a dread moment where we were like, uh-oh, we're going to not come back from this. No, I think trusting God in it with our company, I think gave us all the hope we needed to continue serving the community and taking care of our staff.

Yeah, that's good. So it sounds like the relationships you have at this company is really what has kept you around.

Absolutely.

And for really anybody, a part of a business or an organization or somebody, um, walking through their career that they chose, even if they didn't start it or they're a big part of it like you, um, relationships not only in the office but outside of the office.

Yes.

I feel like are crucial and play a big role with how the outcome is. And so So kind of walk us through that, maybe some friendships, some spouse relationships, like kind of talk us through how those have impacted your journey alongside.

Well, so I think being involved in the community is really important to me. And so initially I wanted to— I didn't know how to network. Again, I didn't know what I was doing. I could talk to anybody, I'll hug anybody, I'll strike up a conversation. But when it comes to business, I kind of didn't know what what I was doing. So I started out trying to build, um, relationships by joining different boards and seeing if I could just plug in somewhere and be used as a resource to help. And so that's really where it started. And so I started with the Special Olympics, was one of the first ones partnering with Arrow Ford Teachers Tribute. I joined the board with Eastern Little League to be involved with that, and so just started making connections there. And again, it wasn't just a board. It was trying to make a friend, getting to know who they are. What is their story? What are their struggles? What have they done that didn't work that may not, you know, may be something I'm going through or could potentially come across one day. Uh, and so really just, it wasn't just joining a board or finding people inside the community. It was making a friendship, making a connection, and then not just being like one time, hey, like, okay, we've made this contact, but continuing on those. Hey, I noticed you needed this. Is there anything I can do to help? Today I reached out to a partnership. Hey, I haven't heard from you. Is there anything that I can do to help with any upcoming events? And they're so busy they don't even think about it. So don't let those things go. Stay connected. And I'm not saying every single person you meet, you need to keep a contact and a phone number with. But I think it's important that locals support locals, that we continue helping each other. No matter what season, whether we're super busy right now, whether we're super slow, whether they are, it doesn't matter. We've got to continue to support each other. Um, uh, with Special Olympics, you know, I was partnered with, uh, Moi Apitosi Live and Chuck with Muyah. And so a lot of the events, we were able to pull our resources in and help one another. Uh, there's a, a thing called, uh, with the Special Olympics where we get to— it's called the— it was the ch— Breakfast for the Champions, uh, where we were able to come in and raise money for the Special Olympics. We all pulled our resources together, we all came together to support that. And so to me, making connections is great, but making friendships that we can invest in, intentionally invest in, for the better outcome of the community, and keeping those, I think, is really, really important. It. Um, what else was that?

No, yeah, so have you found any of those relationships like in a church community?

Uh, absolutely. Uh, so I'm actually— my— the church that I attend is called Church at the Cross. Um, and I, you know, I never— I always grew up in church, I never got involved in church. I never really understood the serving aspect of it until God really started to condition my heart on and what it meant to serve the body of Christ, and how when we come together as believers, how important it is— never forsake the assembling of gathering together, you know— and how important that was. And so being able to serve inside that and find ways— we have an impact ministry that we do things with inside our church, things that can help our, uh, the community. We have, um, our small groups. We have our Wednesday night studies, you know, anything that we can do together to edify the body. I think when we are as a church edified, we go back out and are able to pour out into the community. And so I think being a part of a church body has been huge in my life because I, I grew up and went to church, um, but I didn't— and I profess to be a Christian, but my heart was unchanged. Um, I wasn't saved until 2020, and so I didn't really understand a lot of the stuff that went behind being a Christian and a follower of Christ, a true believer in Christ. And serving was just not one of the things I ever really understood until I was saved. And so making those connections within the church, I think, has been huge for me because I'm able to pour into them, then pour into me, and then let's go back out and pour into the community, which has been great as well.

Yeah, I like to talk about that kind of stuff because for us, at least me and Katie, being so involved in a church, like we've been serving together at the church for the last, well, since I met her 7 years ago, and we've been leading worship and serving in other capacities. But the relationships and community that that has brought has completely changed our lives.

My life.

Yeah, like in the, the best ways.

Yeah.

Um, we're now connected. I wasn't from here. I, I didn't grow up here, so like I had no connections here when I moved here. Um, the university that I went to, uh, that was a big part of the journey. And then the church community. So if you're listening to this and you don't have a church community, um, find a church community. If you live around here, DM me, I'll get you hooked up. Um, but I think it is absolutely crucial, and supporting other believers.

Absolutely.

I think that is important.

Yeah, well, I think, you know, that's one of the biggest things that's helped me is in times where I've struggled, um, gone through hard things, being able to call upon my pastor or somebody within the body to pray for me, um, to be there for me, to give me advice when I couldn't see because all the things surrounding me were distracting me or consuming me, because life is hard. Let's be honest, there are difficult things that happen, um, things that are, you know, completely out of our control. And it's— it is so wonderful to be a part of a community of believers that when they say they're praying for you, you absolutely know without a shadow of a doubt that they are going to battle for you. Um, there have been times where I've gone through difficult things, and I've asked for prayer, and I can literally feel that the body is fighting with me in that. And so I agree with you 100%. If you, uh, don't have a church family, there are some wonderful churches in Abilene, um, and just, just go. Just, just check it out. See what God has in store for you.

Absolutely. Um, I know this is a complete shift of topic, but we got to talk about it because I'm Gen Z. Oh no.

Uh-oh.

Okay. In the world of artificial intelligence.

Okay.

Do you all use AI for anything?

Yeah, there is some stuff I do use it on. And mainly I would say it'd be graphics. Other than that, here and there, no. Okay.

I always like to—

Do you use it a lot?

I use it so much.

Do you?

I can have a team of 2 or 3 people and we can get the work done of like, yeah, 5 or 10.

Yeah, it's actually scary insane how good it is, um, how accurate it can be. But then there's also that catch, because sometimes I'm like, but what did you just say? Yeah, it can't do everything. No, it cannot do everything.

And there is some caveats to it, uh, once you learn how to talk to it and understand what it needs. Complete game changer. But like, there's other platforms. Obviously, there's like ChatGPT. There's a platform called Claude. Yeah, we use one. It's an AI video editor platform. It's called Opus Clips. And basically what it does, it just, it'll take this long podcast and go, it'll, it'll cut it up into clips for TikTok and Instagram.

That's crazy.

Captions. It will follow our face.

Yeah, I know.

That alone saves us so much time.

Does it mess it up sometimes or is it pretty?

I mean, I would say 9 times out of— 8 times out of 10.

9 times? No, 8.

8 times out of 10 it's usable. But there is ways you can go on and like tweak little things. Yeah, it is helpful, but that's just a few. I could go on literally for hours on other things.

I think everyone is starting to branch towards that and I probably should. I think, um, I, I don't know. I think it's great. I think it's wonderful to a point. Um, but I want to— for me personally, coming from my generation, um, not that it's that old, um, I just— something about doing it myself, um, the work that goes behind that. And I can totally understand for everything that you do, which, guys, if you haven't seen the studio, it's awesome. All the stuff that you do, I can imagine it is super beneficial. I am far from a scale of that. So there's just something about it for me that, you know, putting the time and the effort behind the things that I do and knowing that I created it, that puts a little bit more love to it. Again, I have used it 100%. I'm not gonna lie to you. But for me, I try to do a lot of it myself. Itself. It is great though, and very helpful.

I want to talk about— so I feel like there's a difference. We really don't use it creatively, like for creative things.

It's more like the editing side.

Well, it's more of like, my personally, as an example, like I'll upload all of my financial sheets into it, and it basically breaks down everything. You can create a plan custom to you and your business, like it'll act as a CFO in a way when it comes to, like, I'm trying to think of an example. Yesterday I was like, okay, I want to create a 6-video course over the foundation of everything I teach and believe. And good news is I've written an ebook and the original copy is in my Google Drive. It's just on a Google Doc. So I have it all written out completely, just words that I've written. And then I have transcripts of all of my YouTube videos.

That's awesome.

On a Google Doc. So I'm able to upload these Google Docs and then it knows how I talk. It knows.

Is it kind of scary?

I mean, there's an element that I feel like is kind of weird, but at the At the same time, it is so helpful to me that I'm like, yeah, I don't know. But it's just like those types of things. And I will just have conversations with it. I'll have it do market research to help me find like potential clients and like kind of the more boring stuff.

Do you feel like it's pretty accurate when it comes to finding me? It's getting better.

It's getting better. Definitely a year ago. Wasn't as helpful as it is now. Like now, I mean, it can do some crazy stuff. It can control your computer. Like, oh, I know it's getting wild out here, Trista. But I was just curious to see if y'all use it. And with the restaurant industry, I feel like, I mean, it's a tangible product that you're making. Like there's no AI that can make the food. There's no AI that can take— I mean, well, Taco Bell's doing Yeah. Have you all seen that? What do you all think about that?

I don't really know what to think about it. I mean, it's honestly, it's just crazy to me and it's just so advanced that to watch everybody jump in the boat and start using it, I'm just nervous, you know, I guess I'm just nervous about it. But I think again, there's some benefits to it and hopefully it works out for them. I think, you know, I was just curious. Yeah, no, there is some. And a lot of restaurants do. I've noticed. I've noticed. Well, I guess I wouldn't know that, the backgrounds of a lot of the restaurants, but I've noticed a lot of AI-generated stuff.

Yeah.

Um, being put out there. I could name a few, but we won't.

Now, the writing that it produces, the pictures that it produces, you can tell.

Just so you know, AI, yes, on that side, not stepping up the game because like everybody, when you go to create a photo image, everybody's image kind of look, you know, right off the bat that it's AI created. Yeah, there's like zero hiding it.

You can definitely tell right now. What I'm worried about is in 12 months from now. That means in the video, I don't know if you've seen, like, if you scroll on any social media platform, you start, you're starting to see a lot of what they call AI slop. It's just like a bunch of AI-generated videos. Nothing is real, especially with like the wars going on. There's so much propaganda that people put out there. And so I think as, as much as I feel like it's helpful and a good tool and a resource for business owners specifically to utilize, it's also equally as like being used for bad.

Yeah, I agree. I was watching—

just like anything.

Yeah, I was watching a show the other day and you know how like back in the day they would just blur the face if you couldn't see it. Now they're changing the faces. And I heard that was one of the things that has been happening a lot. And so it's like hard to believe what you're even watching anymore. Like, is this real? Like, there is times like I've had to— I've literally watched something, I'd be like, okay, I just watched this video, is this made by AI? Like, I'm having to double-check myself because it looks so real that I'm like, okay, so it is. It's— that's where I get into like, it's kind of scary how advanced it is. And in 12 months will be—

it's completely different.

Yeah.

Every month now we're seeing a new development and it's, I literally come into the studio daily and I'm, and I tell Naomi, I'm like, Naomi, you will never believe what we can do now with this tool or whatever.

Well, it's good cuz I think it makes it easier and like for like companies like us that, you know, we want to partner with you on stuff going forward. Like I think it's helpful for us. One, it helps you be able to execute what you need to, but also make it professional for what we're looking for it to and what people are wanting to see. I'm sure it tells you that, like, what are the people wanting to see? What kind of videos are people scrolling through? What content are they wanting? How long are they watching? You know, I think it's probably going to give you all of that information, things that us as people who are inside the business are needing help with. Um, it's going to help you have more time.

Yeah. Yeah. And, and, and just like a really cool last example, and then I'll get off my soapbox about AI.

No, you're fine. Go ahead.

So recently I've started working with, I'll just say a company and they're like a home service type of company and we're utilizing AI in some pretty cool ways to keep track of things. So like I was able to train a voice agent. So like I assigned it a phone number and if somebody calls the phone number, the voice agent, the AI agent answers and it knows context and knows how to respond to questions custom to that conversation like a receptionist would or like a salesperson would. So it's kind of like when you like pull up a chat and it's like chatting with AI, it's kind of like that, but it's a voice and it sounds I'm not going to say it sounds 100% like a human, like you'll know. But in the call, I'm like, hey, just letting you know, I'm an AI assistant. Like, I can talk like a normal conversation and then I'll go into it. But I trained it to basically ask, I need your full name, phone number, and the reason you're calling. And then it transfers it to the owner of the company directly to his phone. What I have AI do, I'll have it do that and then I'll have it track everything on the back end, put it in a Google Sheet, send me a text, all automated. And so I think automating things that you don't necessarily need a human to do is going to be where some of the bigger—

Yeah. You know, I'm not one though. When it happens, I'm like, operator, operator, operator.

Yeah.

And I lose my patience completely within the first first few seconds of trying to talk. That's me. I'm like, no, I'm done.

So I, I'm the same way. Like, I would hate talking to robots. Um, I had an experience with a company one day. It was, it was a flawless experience, and it felt like I was talking to a genuine person. And they logged my info, they scheduled somebody to come out and look at my— I was trying to get my trees trimmed, and they're like, okay, we'll send out this person at this time. Like, they'll see you and it was completely an AI-generated call. They didn't—

that's crazy.

And unfortunately, like, that position that somebody had, like, is no longer needed to answer the phone. So either they can move to, like, a more high-level position and just eliminate all those little tasks, or they just don't need them.

They don't need them anymore. That's sad.

Sucks. That's super sad.

So my question is, was it accurate?

Yeah.

So when they showed up, the person that they said were going to show up, I mean, you said it was flawless. So I just—

yeah.

So did they have like a scheduling app that was like, took that call and then like it dispatched out?

They probably had on the back end. So we're like, if this happens, do this. If this happens, make a logical decision on where to send them. It was like like, in my mind, it would take the information I gave it. Hey, I'll be home this day, this time, like, I'll be available. And like, okay. And then it looks at all their people's calendars, decides, okay, this person doesn't have anything here, so I'll place it on their calendar.

Yeah.

And then it, and then it'll come back and be like, okay, I found somebody to go at this time. Like, they'll be there tomorrow or whatever. And, um, and then it sends me an email, text, like, hey, thanks for booking.

Whatever.

It's just a crazy world. And every industry uses it differently. And I'm still exploring and trying to figure out.

You definitely know more about AI than what I do. So I've been leery to use it. I have used it on some stuff, but maybe I need to study it more.

I can show you some tips. It's crazy. Okay. Anyways, let's continue the conversation.

Okay.

I like to talk about vision a lot. With no vision, the people perish. It's literally scripture. And so what is the vision for the next year or even 5 years with the company that you work with? What is y'all's vision? Do you know the vision? And how do y'all come to the conclusion of like, okay, this is where we're going as a company.

Okay, so I can speak on what for me personally, uh, I, I don't want to speak abroad, you know. I think the owner would be able to give more insight on where he sees the company going. But as far as on the my side of things, I'll speak. Um, I think now more than ever, uh, we want to put God first. In this company, recognizing that this company is not ours. Everything that we have is the Lord's. So keeping that vision at the forefront, I think, is going to be extremely important for us. And then exemplifying the traits and qualities that God wants us to, to impact not only our team, but in the community as well, and serving. So I think that needs to be at the forefront of everything that we do. Is knowing that God has to be first above this business, inside the business, in everything that we do. As far as like the vision, what I see, especially with when it comes to growth, I will go back to community time and time again, that without taking care of our team and without taking care of our guests, we don't have anything. Paying attention to what our guests are saying, paying attention to what our team is saying, As far as, um, staying involved in the community, growing sales, it's what every company wants to do. We want to grow sales.

We—

that's definitely something that we look, look at doing, but not so much like, yeah, we want people to come to our restaurants, please come to our restaurants. I think, you know, we have exceptional restaurants, we have exceptional food, we have an exceptional team, exceptional brands. Um, but I think more than anything, um going out into the community is going to be the vision that I see. It's not waiting for it to come in. Let's go to them. That was one of the things that I said a long time ago, that if it's not coming in, then let's go out. Let's find why are they not coming and where are they going? What are they looking for? What are we missing? If it's time, you know, we're just not able to break away at lunch. If it's budget, you know, what can we do to help you. So as far as going forward, I would, you know, a lot of the things that we're starting to do are offsite. We're heavily involved at the AI plant at DPR. We go out and we cater there. We've started catering out at the QUIT plant. We are involved in the schools. We do a lot of drops, a lot of things, you know, what can we do to take care of them, to to where they don't have to take time away to come out to us. And so really it's going to be focused on going out to the guests, finding ways to take care of them, not just inside the restaurant. I think that when you come to our restaurants, I mean, uh, Buffalo Wild Wings, I think you all understand, with sports and wings you get a great experience. Yes, it's loud in there, so you're definitely going for that more high energy. Miguel's is more of that casual relax, enjoy yourself, especially if you go out into the courtyard. Um, so you get that experience that we can provide when you go inside the restaurant, but we want to also be able to provide an experience outside of the restaurant at whatever capacity we can and whatever the community is wanting from us.

So y'all are wanting to do more catering?

Yeah, I would definitely say that is definitely where we're headed as far as going forward.

So is there like a minimum number of like people that you cater for? Like, is it like a 10 or like how small?

No, there's no— I mean, obviously you don't normally have people who are like 10 people are like, hey, come cater at my house. You don't have that on a regular basis. Um, uh, no, we don't really have a number that we've set. We're willing to do whatever, you know, somebody's like, hey, I want Miguel's at our party or our event. Event, you know, just reach out to us. Uh, right now we have a, an event coming up where they've reserved the entire courtyard and indoor patio, and we close that off for them and we cater that entire party, which provides an awesome experience within itself. So no, there's not really a number too low or high that we wouldn't be willing to look at and try to accommodate at any time.

I'm gonna text you one day and I'll be like, hey, I have, uh, 3 people here the studio. I need catering.

Trista, I'm going to need you to drop those.

I would— at that point it's just delivery.

Yeah, yeah, it is delivery. It's not considered catering. Yeah, let's make sure that's clear. Yeah, it's definitely delivery. Uh, catering would be where we come out and do the full service thing, you know. But, uh, I mean, I guess I could do that for you, Dan. I'd show up with the chafing dishes and—

do y'all— okay, do y'all do delivery?

Yes, we do.

Okay.

Um, we normally use DoorDash, um, for all of our delivery. Um, so that's a lot of what we do, but there are times that we will, um, if it's something that we can help accommodate, we actually will try to find a way to get you what you guys need.

So do you all have like delivery drivers of your own?

No, we do not do that. We specifically do use DoorDash, okay, for that. So any of the delivery, that's really what— where we try to streamline everybody to go. Um, there are times right now we have a— we're building a marketing team. So before I did a lot of the marketing, so I would go out into the community. But I've been so blessed, uh, this last year I started— I developed a team, um, to where they could go out to the community for me. And right now we have some incredible people who actually go do that for me. So any of the events I come up with, any of the partnerships I come up with, they just literally tackle it and go out and do it now. And it's been super awesome. And so there are specific people that would be designated to come out and do, you know, delivery if it is something that they wanted to do. That's awesome.

Yeah, I never think about that stuff. I, I don't know that I would be able to make a restaurant go.

It's tough.

There's a lot that goes into it.

There's a lot.

And I mean, just the overhead. Yeah, alone, like keeping that much food.

Yeah.

And then the waste. So like, okay, so So this is just like a selfish personal question. So like if somebody, somebody orders a plate and takes one bite of an enchilada and they just leave it, are y'all required to throw it all away?

Absolutely. We are.

So like, do y'all ever feed it to like the cats or anything outside? No, absolutely not. Or they just go straight to the dumpster?

They go straight in the trash. No, hopefully we don't have any cats on the, on the, in the dumpster area. Hopefully that's not a thing. Um, but yeah, unfortunately, so if you serve it, you can't— yeah, you cannot— no, you cannot reserve it. Uh, definitely frowned upon by the health inspector, which I understand, and I'm glad.

Yeah, I'm glad people aren't reusing plates. Yeah, but like you were talking about the example of the Salvation Army asking for scraps. Um, so is that just like what they use in the kitchen that they don't actually ever send out? I guess, would that be considered scraps?

Well, I think when she was asking for like leftovers, so like at the— like at Buffalo Wild Wings her prime example, we, you know, make boneless. And if we had any boneless left at the end of the night, or traditional that didn't sell, she was willing to take that, you know. As far as like waste goes, I think that's really— I think any, anybody that's in the restaurant business is really trying to prepare for what your influx is in your guests and really trying not to over-prepare. I think it could always be a struggle because I think there's times where you don't expect to be busy and all of a sudden you're busy, um, and then there's times you expect to be busy and you're not. And so you can definitely run into those times where you have overprepared or underprepared. But I think the goal is to try to find that medium where you're not even trying to cook to order or, you know, you learn as your sales go what to base your prep off of. And so really trying to eliminate so there's not much waste, I think, is a goal for every restaurant.

So do you happen to know what the top seller is at Miguel's?

Oh my gosh, the top seller. I probably, you know, I probably, I could tell you what my top seller is. Um, I would say one of our top-selling appetizers is going to be our jalapeño bacon bites, hands down number one. Uh, as far as like my personal preference, I'll share that, but I think, um, as far as like top items on the menu, I would say the, uh Chile relleno is probably up there for a lot of people, um, gonna be our fajitas. If you haven't had our birria burnt ends, um, the birria quesadilla, anything with that, those are definitely— but the, the brisket tips, um, probably some of the people's favorite. We have a really good cheeseburger, um, and then Tacos. Everybody loves tacos. But then hands down, I literally can say this because I've tried bread pudding in a lot of places, but our fried bread pudding is amazing. And then we also have Caramel Field Churros, and we take those out to ACU. That's one of our other partners. We take those out to ACU. And I'll tell you what, I thought kids went crazy for boneless wings, which they do. Don't get me wrong, they love the sauce, they love the boneless this means, but you bring out a caramel-filled churro and they come running. And I'm like, this is nuts. Like, so really good, really good items, a little bit different. You know, we're not Tex-Mex, we're Mex-Tex. And so I think a lot of times people come in, they're thinking—

wait, hold on, hold on. Mex-Tex, not Tex-Mex.

Yeah. And so there's a difference. Yeah, there is a difference. And so a lot of times people come in thinking they're going to get the flavors that they're used to here, but it's more south of the border. And so it's a little bit different. Different seasonings, different recipes. And so a lot of times people come in there thinking they're gonna get that, and it's just a little bit different. And not, you know, everyone has their restaurants that they love. Obviously Miguel's is like my number one. I think we have great food. I think if there's something you've tried that you're not a fan of, come back, try something different, you know, let us know, you know, hey, this wasn't something I particularly liked. We understand, like I don't eat certain items because they're not something that I particularly like. But I guarantee that if you give us the opportunity, that we will find something that you will like.

Yeah. Wow.

So, and you are a fan of Miguel's, and I think your wife is too. What are, what are your favorite items?

Uh, the chili relleno I usually get. Um, there's a new bowl that my wife has not stopped talking about.

So she's had it?

Yeah, multiple times.

So it's the Cafe Cocino Bowl, and it's literally got cilantro lime rice It's got a protein of your choice, uh, a caviar beans, avocado, pico cheese. Oh my goodness, it's literally like a protein bowl, uh, and bacon, which you can't go wrong. You put bacon on anything, come on everybody. Um, so it's delicious. It's one of my favorites right now.

She likes that. Um, I've been a fan of the— just, I'll get a taco salad with a big taco bowl thing. Um, and I'll put steak on it instead of ground beef.

I haven't seen anybody do that yet.

Oh man, it's good.

That thing is huge, by the way. Every time it comes out, I'm like, how do you even begin to tackle this? Like, where do you start? Do you start at the back? You start at the front? Like, do you just crush it all together?

Usually I usually kind of break off pieces of the tortilla and then just kind of mix it in. Yeah, but I love some steak.

But Buffalo Wild Wings, you know, you can't go wrong with wings. Wings, uh, I mean, I don't think you can go wrong.

No, no, never.

Uh, I love the traditional there. Um, the boneless I love, but the traditional I just feel like—

yeah.

So do you have a favorite sauce at Buffalo Wild Wings?

Um, I'm a big buffalo guy. I'm buffalo and I guess honey barbecue.

Yeah, that's the number one.

Yeah, it just depends on the mood I'm in, honestly, what sauce I get. Get?

Well, we have the new sliders. Have you tried those? You gotta go try the sliders. They're— yeah, they're on a little Hawaiian roll. Okay, they're super soft, super delicious.

Fantastic. Okay. All right, Trista, well, it's been a pleasure having you on the podcast today. Um, for those wanting to connect with you, how can they do that?

Um, so if you're wanting anything with like community involvement, partner with our restaurants Brands, if you just want to reach out, I have an email. It's, uh, I always wish we could have made the ending different because when I literally have to spell it, I'm not going to spell it for everybody, but it's marketing@exbrandstx.com. You can always reach me there. You can also contact me at our home office at 698-2600. I'd be more than happy to talk with anybody about partnerships, anything that we can do. If there's a nonprofit you're looking at, we will always look at something that we can do. Whether it's a school or even if it's just something you're trying to get up and going. Like right now we're talking to a Little League football team that's trying to start up in Abilene and trying to find ways that we can help them grow a little bit.

Thank you. Well, thanks for coming on. Make sure you give Miguel's a follow on IG and Facebook and all the platforms as well. And go try it if you haven't. If you live in Abilene, if you don't, then come on, fly down. Yeah, I'll let you stay. I'll buy you a hotel room.

You heard it. He said he will buy you a hotel room. Everybody, Naomi, get ready.

Phone's about to blow up. Anyways, yeah, hope you gained some value out of today's story. There's tons of great wisdom and advice that I think was covered today. And so make sure to stick around for the next episode. Go check out some of the other episodes if you haven't already. We'll see you next time. Peace.

Thanks.