Marc Cohen (00:01.39) Welcome to Restaurant 365 Presents Behind the Numbers, a show where we talk to restaurant owners, operators, chefs, kitchen managers, CFOs, and everyone in between about what makes successful restaurants tick. Before we get started, quick reminder, like and subscribe to this show. If you're watching or listening, please consider leaving a review. It really does help us to continue to bring you these incredible guests and conversations while growing and supporting our amazing restaurant community. And with that, I'm your host, Mark Cohen. Lance Reynolds (00:11.268) for restaurants to take. Lance Reynolds (00:22.909) away from this problem. Rich Sweeney (00:28.501) and I'm Rich Sweeney and here today with Lance Reynolds. Lance is the director of restaurant operations consulting at US Foods. You know him, you love him. Lance has incredible background, super interesting, tons of different facets and he's seen all sides of hospitality. So he's got a really unique and wonderful perspective that he brings to the role. Lance, well, come on, tell everybody a little bit about yourself. Marc Cohen (00:51.682) think we lost Lance. Rich Sweeney (00:53.295) no. I had the script over. Marc Cohen (00:56.48) Redo our first redo cut. Marc Cohen (01:03.17) Yeah, Rich Sweeney (01:03.512) Wah wah. Marc Cohen (01:08.684) Yup, yup. Rich Sweeney (01:16.66) okay. Lance Reynolds (01:17.739) I am so sorry, my whole thing just glitched out on me. And I lost you guys, I'm so sorry about that. I know what happened, so it won't happen again, I apologize. Fantastic, where the hell do need to go? Marc Cohen (01:20.96) Yeah. Rich Sweeney (01:22.765) Hahaha Marc Cohen (01:26.967) All good. Rich Sweeney (01:27.127) You didn't like my intro. It's okay. Marc Cohen (01:32.022) You gave us our first blooper, Lance, so it's perfect. All right, so I'll just take it from the top again, Stover? All right. Lance Reynolds (01:44.921) I'm still not confident it will not. Marc Cohen (01:50.54) Welcome to Restaurant 365 Presents Behind the Numbers, a show where we talk to restaurant owners, operators, chefs, kitchen managers, CFOs, and everyone in between about what makes successful restaurants tick. Before we get started, quick reminder to like and subscribe to this show wherever you're watching or listening, and please consider leaving a review. It really does help us continue to bring you these incredible guests and conversations and, you know, allows us to grow and support our amazing restaurant community. And with that, I'm your host, Mark Cohen. Rich Sweeney (02:16.555) and I'm Rich Sweeney here today with Lance Reynolds. Lance is the director of restaurant operations consulting at US Foods. You know him, you love him. I mean, they're servicing everybody. But Lance has such an incredible background, so many different sides of the hospitality industry, and he brings a really unique perspective to his role. Lance, welcome to the show. Tell everybody a little bit about yourself. Lance Reynolds (02:36.141) Yeah. Thanks so much for having me. I've really been looking forward to this and stoked. It's actually here. Yeah. We've been talking about this for a minute. Yeah. I've spent my entire life in restaurants. I didn't anticipate this was going to be my life path, but you know, had to get a job at some point and ended up really loving this, this industry. was a restaurant owner and operator for about 10 years. I had four restaurants, a catering company and a commissary built that learned a lot of things, a hard way. You know, Marc Cohen (02:41.805) Yeah. Rich Sweeney (02:42.319) Same. Lance Reynolds (03:05.721) kind of walked the line of failure multiple times before I really figured out, you know, how to become a businessman as opposed to just somebody who loved food and people. Sold that company, opened up another company called Food Biz Today, a chain of restaurant schools with seven schools in three states to teach restaurants how to make money and had an opportunity. Yeah, pretty cool. And again, it was all the things that I learned the hard way, you know, like it's not an intuitive industry and. Rich Sweeney (03:14.895) Mm-hmm. Marc Cohen (03:22.904) Wow. Rich Sweeney (03:25.527) Important skill to have. Marc Cohen (03:33.474) the trial by fire of the restaurant industry for sure. Lance Reynolds (03:35.865) That's right. know, everybody thinks it's just like, you know, make, your, your grandma's secret recipe and go around and, and, you know, shake hands and kiss babies. It's no big deal. So I started that school, built that school, sold it and US Foods had come to me. I had a very close alliance with them. They would send people through my schools. So they asked me to come help them set up this restaurant operations consulting team at US Foods. And I figured that they'd keep me around for a year and then figure out that. Rich Sweeney (03:36.527) Mm-hmm. Marc Cohen (03:39.318) It's easy. Lance Reynolds (04:05.303) Like I'm not really a great employee, I'm more of an entrepreneur and they'd throw me out. But for some reason they kept me around. also I think it's important to note I'm a partner in four restaurants still. So I've got my finger on the pulse of this incredibly challenging industry and I'm experiencing it firsthand how challenging it is, you know, more and more every day. Rich Sweeney (04:08.257) Hahaha Rich Sweeney (04:29.027) Yeah, you're not gonna... Marc Cohen (04:29.036) I think you mentioned two key pillars of the restaurant industry, the trial by fire of it all and the imposter syndrome of it all, right? I don't know if I belong here. What am I doing here? Lance Reynolds (04:38.252) yeah, all the time. Rich Sweeney (04:38.457) And you've still got a finger on the pulse. Lance Reynolds (04:41.569) Yeah, you know, it's a lot of restaurant operators when they first get started, they gauge their success by a very simple metric. You know, is there money in the bank? You know, and there's money in the bank, we must be doing okay. And then all the bills come to and lo and behold, there's no money in the bank. And it's exhausting. And I was very fortunate to have some people help me along the way. Marc Cohen (04:54.668) It's. Marc Cohen (04:58.914) Yeah, you. Marc Cohen (05:02.498) You can still. Marc Cohen (05:06.359) I've seen it, you can still lose money on $20 million in sales a year, it is possible. Yes. Lance Reynolds (05:10.665) Yes, somehow it is possible. Rich Sweeney (05:14.297) Just gotta be an overachiever. Lance, we always like to start the show off with kind of one big question. So for you as an operations consultant, who's talking to folks all over the country and a partner in restaurants, what's one thing that you think is probably the most important thing you do day to day in the operations or that you're coaching restaurant owners and operators to do every single day? Lance Reynolds (05:37.939) one thing, you know, I would say right now we're we're in a very, very interesting time in general in in in business in general, the United States, but truly in the in restaurant industry. You know, I encourage people every day to like adapt. What we did yesterday isn't doesn't work anymore. And I don't mean what we did 10 years ago doesn't work anymore. I mean, what we did yesterday doesn't work anymore. And, you know, interestingly enough, I've been Marc Cohen (05:58.04) Mm-hmm. Lance Reynolds (06:07.481) going around the country and speaking to large restaurant events and restaurant groups. And the first question that I ask is how many of you are intentionally utilizing AI to streamline your business, to reduce your costs, to increase your revenues? And I was at a big conference in Florida. There was a couple thousand people in the room. And I would say maybe 20 people raised their hand and Marc Cohen (06:35.246) you Lance Reynolds (06:35.563) at another conference to a number of executives in Houston. There's 33 large organizations, executives that are one and a half hands went up. And so I think that that's where we are as an industry. Restaurants have always been slow to adopt new technology, especially. all live that every day, right? And it's a mistake. It's a mistake to keep doing it the way that you've been doing it because it... Rich Sweeney (06:36.206) Ha Marc Cohen (06:45.368) Wow. Marc Cohen (06:51.426) Yes. We talk about that a lot. It's very true. Yep. Rich Sweeney (06:52.111) Mm-hmm. Lance Reynolds (07:04.215) you know, I hate to sound the alarm, but somebody needs to sound the alarm. You're going to be in trouble. Financially, you're going to be in trouble if you don't adapt technology and especially, artificial intelligence. It's just the most amazing thing I've ever seen in our lives and everybody really should be, you know, jumped in with both feet and learning everything they possibly can. Marc Cohen (07:11.042) Yes. Rich Sweeney (07:11.736) Absolutely. Marc Cohen (07:26.658) It is incredible. I love that. do like embrace the technology, but it's interesting to me because as an industry, we are one of the most adaptable. feel like if we prove nothing else during COVID, like we are a very adaptable industry. So the fact that we're not applying that same sort of logic to what's happening right now with technology and with how people are running their businesses is surprising to me. I would think you would see more hands being raised at this point, especially given the wave that I feel like just hit. Rich Sweeney (07:37.433) Mm-hmm. Marc Cohen (07:56.564) AI everywhere. It's just all everybody's talking about. Lance Reynolds (07:59.937) Yeah, you know, however, it took a global pandemic to get restaurants to adapt, right? Right. Like we're shutting down your business. You can no longer have customers in-house. So what are you going to do? Right. And it was interesting during that period of time, you know, U.S. Foods was really leading the technology restaurant SaaS space. You know, we had developed partnerships with some amazing, amazing Marc Cohen (08:05.326) Right to adapt to adopt technology. Yeah Rich Sweeney (08:06.144) Hahaha Marc Cohen (08:14.861) Right. Lance Reynolds (08:29.409) technology companies that really truly were foundationally helpful in all the ways, raise sales, lower costs, all the things. And, we had to beg them to get on a demo, you know? And, you know, one of the partners early on with us that was very, very successful partnership was a company called ChowNow. So they were an innovator in online ordering, right? And they really truly were kind of a pioneer in that space. And, you know, we beg restaurants, just get on a demo you need. really, you Marc Cohen (08:48.867) Yep. Lance Reynolds (08:59.354) people that wanna call and they wanted nothing to do with it. And in March and April and May of 2020, we couldn't keep up. That all of a sudden the light bulb went off. You know what I mean? Like, okay, I need this desperately. And that really kicked off a boom for restaurant technology. But unfortunately, it took something as catastrophic as COVID to... Marc Cohen (08:59.81) You need this. Marc Cohen (09:09.324) Right? Rich Sweeney (09:11.737) Mm-hmm. Lance Reynolds (09:27.447) to get people to start thinking, okay, I need to do something different, right? And through that as well, not just the operator, but the customer change. Customer behavior changed dramatically. It's like, okay, fine, I'll order off your app. wow, it's just like Amazon. was thinking a bigger deal out of it than I thought. But yeah, I think that you're right. Like as an industry, we're very innovative. Marc Cohen (09:35.491) Yes. Marc Cohen (09:43.372) I don't want to talk to people ever again. Yeah. Rich Sweeney (09:43.726) Hahaha Marc Cohen (09:56.632) Well, I'll refine the statement. Innovative, adaptable, but stubborn. Right? Yeah. Yeah. We'll move when we have to. What was that? Lance Reynolds (10:00.567) Yeah, for sure, for sure, for sure. And also it's intimidating, right? That's right. It's also intimidating. I gotta learn something new, you know, and literally things are on fire, my rest level. Rich Sweeney (10:01.689) Stubborn part. Marc Cohen (10:09.772) Yes, very much so. Yeah. And am I making the right choice? That's always the hard, there's so many options, right? So many variables. Well, we always like to talk some numbers as well. This is behind the numbers. So I wanted to get behind some of the numbers of US Foods. Nearly a $40 billion a year business, which is just incredible. You're serving 250,000 customers nationally, which is a huge number again. 30,000 employees, which I believe you call associates. You have 30,000 associates. And you've been an EDI partner of ours for, I believe almost, Rich Sweeney (10:30.883) You Marc Cohen (10:43.886) You're one of the first vendor groups that worked with us. You did not have to beg us, Dan. We were in day one, like, let's go. We want to automate this invoicing process immediately for our clients. And some deep roots. didn't realize that the corporate US foods, your heritage goes back about 150 years. There's like some legacy tied to supplying wagon trains headed to the Western frontier. Like, that's wild. So some real history there. Lance Reynolds (10:49.581) Mm-hmm. Yeah. Rich Sweeney (10:49.775) Ha Lance Reynolds (11:05.367) yeah. Yes. Rich Sweeney (11:09.839) I'm just picturing like the Chow Cook, you know, sitting there with the clipboard, like, okay, who do I, what do have to order? much, know, playing Oregon Trail in my head is the cartoon that's coming through now. Lance Reynolds (11:19.673) Yeah, man, like just throw all the onions and potatoes on the back of the cart and let's go, you know, and that's, that's, that's truly how that started. Marc Cohen (11:23.438) Let's go. It starts somewhere. Well, what an organization. so let's talk a little bit about your deeper roots. You mentioned you were a former operator and you're still involved in the industry in addition to what you're doing. I always love asking people, like, what was your first job in a restaurant? Lance Reynolds (11:41.789) I think it's pretty typical of most people. I was a dishwasher. That was my very first job in restaurants. I was actually on a golf course. My father worked at a golf course in Utah. I learned how to golf when I was eight and just loved being around that. I got a job at the restaurant when I was 12 as the cart boy. Marc Cohen (11:45.41) Yep, that's the correct answer. Rich Sweeney (11:46.724) Mm-hmm. Marc Cohen (12:08.334) Okay. Lance Reynolds (12:09.401) and also a dishwasher, right? So child labor laws be damned. No, no, no, and they actually give me a check, you know, how they got away with that. I really did. But, you know, I think I made two bucks an hour and I was stoked, but I played golf for free every day. I was playing 1827 holes of golf every day as a little kid. Rich Sweeney (12:13.903) Those don't mean anything, it's fine. At least back then, they didn't care about them for us. Marc Cohen (12:14.19) Non-existent. Marc Cohen (12:33.058) living the dream. Lance Reynolds (12:34.061) But I really loved the restaurant side. really, really, you my dad wanted me to go into golf course management and I just really loved the restaurant side of things. And then, you know, at my first job waiting tables and could not believe how much money I was making, you know, and then a job bartending. was like, you know, all this nonsense about getting a real job from people that are making half as much as I am. Four nights a week and I'm making twice as much as you and you're grinding your nine to five and hate your boss. Rich Sweeney (12:48.995) Haha! Marc Cohen (12:57.089) You Lance Reynolds (13:04.395) I just really understood early on that I belonged. I really belonged in the restaurant industry. I loved the social aspect of it. I loved the fact that for someone with ADD, and I didn't figure that out until much later in life, but for somebody with ADD, restaurants are so good. know what I mean? You're just in plates. And I just love being around so many interesting people. Marc Cohen (13:24.8) You Lance Reynolds (13:31.481) inside and outside of work. It becomes your social group. then once I got into restaurant ownership, I was at a place in my life where I had matured, I had a family, I had young daughters. so the social aspect really kind of transferred into more of like a mentorship. I really looking at some of these young kids that were coming into my restaurants and also adults that Marc Cohen (13:52.866) Mmm. Rich Sweeney (13:53.369) You Lance Reynolds (14:00.779) we're also raising families that were organization. I kind of took that responsibility to mentor them and to help them think through, hey, this is a real job. So let's stop the BS. This is a real career. dismiss the noise and just embrace it. You can make a lot of money and retire in this industry if you do the right things the right way. Marc Cohen (14:02.178) So important. Marc Cohen (14:11.704) Yeah. Rich Sweeney (14:11.971) Mm-hmm. Lance Reynolds (14:25.751) I just have always tried to get out so many times, can't even tell you how many times I tried to get out. Yeah, it just sucks you back in, you know? And it's because I love it, not for any other reason. Marc Cohen (14:29.857) You Rich Sweeney (14:31.885) You can't, you can't escape it. Marc Cohen (14:33.058) No, they keep pulling you back in. That's how it works. Yep. Rich Sweeney (14:41.155) Yeah, and you had mentioned something in there, you know, you can it's a real career, right? You know, this is not just a little job kind of thing. You can make really solid money. I know one of the businesses that you had was Food Biz Today, right? That was your restaurant training ground school, like for teaching people how to be profitable. guess tell us a little bit about that, because I know it started with one. It grew multi-state like sounds like an awesome taking what you've done in the field, you know, kind of putting it out into use. Lance Reynolds (15:06.349) Yeah, you when I sold the restaurants, for anybody who has ever owned restaurants and sold them, it takes you a year to decompress. You know, like I couldn't, I was just so hyperactive and I was still worrying about things, you know, and like, this going to get paid? Is that going to get taken care of? And know, they need a new roof. I don't know if they're really working on putting that new roof on like that kind of stuff. It's I, Marc Cohen (15:26.658) You Rich Sweeney (15:31.715) Ha ha ha. Marc Cohen (15:32.526) All Lance Reynolds (15:33.869) You know, I was golfing and I didn't make enough money to retire, retire, but I made enough money to take a year off and not have to do anything. And there was just this nagging thing in the back of my head that like, I should write a book about my experiences. You know what I mean? So people could understand. And through that process of trying to write a book, you've ever written a book before, it's lot harder than it sounds. But going through that process, I built a school. Marc Cohen (15:47.917) Yes. Lance Reynolds (15:59.733) I, on accident, built a curriculum for a school and thought, I'm going to try this, partnered with Art Institute in Arizona and said, hey, look, your students can come to my school for free if I can just use your space. I'm going to try, see if I can sell this, and it turned into a thing. We expanded into Art Institutes, like I said, in three different states with seven different locations. It was one of the most gratifying things I've ever done because people are coming through the school that are really struggling and suffering and they come in and I'm, just basically sharing with them here, all of the mistakes that I made. And here's the, let me tell you about the story when I almost lost everything and how I turned that around slowly, but surely. And, and you know, the first book I actually wrote and put it out there. I'm not sure what the. Marc Cohen (16:38.316) Right? Rich Sweeney (16:43.599) Ha. Lance Reynolds (16:53.815) the language barriers are on this show, but it's the title is it's not about the effing food. I'll clean it up for you. It's not about the effing food. And it's really about that whole experience of like, thought it was about the food, you know, and I thought it was about glad handing customers. And that is absolutely important. You can't succeed in this industry without that, but that's not why people succeed. People succeed because they focus on the business acumen and they really have, you know, run a tight ship. And that's what I was teaching people in the school. Hey, there is a pathway forward, but I think it's important for you to understand that I failed a lot and almost had to move in with my in-laws. But I turned it around and here are some of the simple things that I did over a period of time and then became successful and successful enough to where I could. Marc Cohen (17:32.27) And here's how not to fail a lot. Yes. Rich Sweeney (17:35.055) Ha ha. Lance Reynolds (17:47.479) take a vacation with my family a couple times a year and pay for it and don't worry about it and put it on credit cards. And then eventually got to the point where it was successful to the point where it had valuation and it was time to sell. that's the other thing that I think in my journey that I've learned is that your exit strategy is critically important. People think that they can do this forever and they can't. And that may be selling and that may be Rich Sweeney (18:10.639) Mm-hmm. Marc Cohen (18:10.894) Great point. Lance Reynolds (18:16.789) identifying talented people in your organization that you're going to mentor and give them a piece of it so that you can retire, but the business keeps going and you can retire that way. So yeah, that journey has been really, really important. I became a businessman by listening to people much smarter than me. And then I turned that into an opportunity to help people. Marc Cohen (18:38.326) You paid it forward. I love it. Yeah. So first attempt at book becomes business plan becomes second successful business. How does this then funnel into this ROC program at US Foods where you're consulting with restaurants? What's what is that transition? Where does that happen? How does that happen? Lance Reynolds (18:53.271) Yeah, yeah, so we had, we had inadvertently, we'd helped a couple of big customers, big restaurants that had come through our school. And somebody from US Foods reached out to me and said, hey, you know, we've been chasing them, like, our accounts receivable has been on a, a bad relationship with them for couple years. And yeah, right. And they are, now they're paying the bill and they are Marc Cohen (19:11.182) So you were in collections, not consulting. Rich Sweeney (19:11.939) Yeah. Lance Reynolds (19:21.497) Crediting their experience in your school and we're just curious what what's going on, you know and so I had met with the area president vice president local sales here in Arizona where I was based in Phoenix and built a friendship with them they started paying people to come to my come to the school and You know, so for them it was an AR play, you know, like like we're a lot of money chasing checks we'd rather them just be successful and and Rich Sweeney (19:45.231) Ha Marc Cohen (19:46.154) Right. Go teach them how to pay their bills. Lance Reynolds (19:51.161) That's right. And as well, it was a retention play for US Foods. US Foods is like, hey, man, we helped them. We didn't spend a lot of money, but we really helped them, and they're not leaving us now. And so when I sold the company in 2013, I had a credit card processing company that we had been working with, and they wanted to buy the company and grow it. So I sold to them, and a couple of weeks later, the area president from US Foods said, hey, let's have lunch. Marc Cohen (19:55.799) Absolutely. Rich Sweeney (20:00.207) Mm-hmm. Marc Cohen (20:00.779) Smart. Lance Reynolds (20:20.771) The US food sees a big opportunity nationally for this and they're already talking about building a restaurant operations consulting group. We're going to call them the rocks and that's all it took. They told me was a team of rocks. was like, I'm all in. They're like, well, do you want to see your compensation? Sure. Show me what I'm going to get paid. That'll be great. Rich Sweeney (20:31.043) Huh, I like it. Marc Cohen (20:32.045) You're like, I'm in. Marc Cohen (20:46.104) But this is transformative for a company like yours, right? This is now moving from just being a vendor to becoming a partner, right, with your clientele. So what does that look like today? Are you still rocking? What's the program evolved into? Lance Reynolds (20:59.001) Yeah, so it is an incredibly successful program and it took a lot of guts really for a company like that to make that investment. one point we had 80 consultants, COVID, we dropped that down and then kind of rebuilt and right-sized the team. In October of last year, we actually absorbed. So that team was heavily involved in bringing on new business. So they would go in and consult with prospects. Marc Cohen (21:08.493) Yeah. Rich Sweeney (21:09.155) Mm-hmm. Lance Reynolds (21:27.667) and teach them how we're going to help them make money and they were bringing on a new business. And so we ended up absorbing that team into our new business structure. So they're still out there rocking, doing the same thing that they always do. But now they actually have their name attached to a prospect and a metric and a paycheck that is significantly higher than they were getting before. Marc Cohen (21:52.643) Right. Rich Sweeney (21:53.357) We love that. Lance Reynolds (21:54.605) They were helping win all this business, but because of the way the role is structured, they were unable to enjoy the commissions or the benefit of helping bring on new business. we absorbed them in and that team is really, really rocking. I mean, they're doing a great job in their new role and succeeding wildly. And that brings me a lot of joy. Marc Cohen (22:12.331) you Marc Cohen (22:17.912) We'll be adding a lot of guitar riffs and stuff to the final edit of this, don't worry. Yeah, I can see it now. I should have put on my kiss makeup. So enter Restaurant 365. When did you first learn about Restaurant 365 and what we were doing and working with you as? Lance Reynolds (22:20.057) pleased to have some. That would be great. Rich Sweeney (22:22.607) You Lance Reynolds (22:26.637) Thank Rich Sweeney (22:26.985) We'll put that in post. We'll put that in post. Lance Reynolds (22:29.881) Great. Lance Reynolds (22:36.697) Yeah, so I was actually at a toast kickoff. And for any of you who have ever attended a toast kickoff, they do it right. And you all were there. And I'd heard about Restaurant 365, but I really wasn't super familiar with it. And so I went over and spent a lot of time with you all. In fact, I was in your booth for so long that people thought I worked there. People were walking by. Marc Cohen (22:41.07) Okay. Marc Cohen (23:03.563) You Rich Sweeney (23:03.958) Hahaha Lance Reynolds (23:05.581) But I was really, really impressed with just how you all were thinking about it. Having a great technology tool is fine. But there are a lot, and I don't want to get in trouble here, but there are a lot of restaurant technology solutions that are built by brilliant MIT grads with no restaurant experience. And they fall down. Rich Sweeney (23:29.721) Mm-hmm. Lance Reynolds (23:31.319) You know, and they fall down because a busy, overwhelmed operator needs something that makes sense that I, can explain it to me in like 10 words and you can explain the benefits to me in even fewer words. Right. And, and many of the, the, the technology solutions that you see out there are very complicated, over-engineered. And, and, and it's hard for an operator to really truly understand, you know, what it is that how are you going to help me? You all did a really good job. I was very, very impressed with just how you all were explaining your solution, how you were approaching it, the fact that you were so restaurant forward, not just in name, but really truly in the way that you thought about the industry. I was very impressed and I left that. There was another gentleman that ran the CHECK program at the time and I called him. Marc Cohen (24:16.397) Right? Lance Reynolds (24:28.993) like during the show and said, hey man, we need to take a closer look at these guys. Like they're doing some really cool, really cool stuff. Rich Sweeney (24:37.303) Absolutely, I love the idea of, know, explain to me what you do. And now we just tell people like, we're a profitability platform, right? Every restaurant owner, that's the one word that they care about, right? Is profitability. That's what we do. We help people find that profitability. Lance Reynolds (24:51.671) Yes, indeed. We have one of our really successful partners here at US Foods called Spot Hopper. And they tell people, we make restaurants busy. Marc Cohen (25:05.976) Love that. Drive some sales. Let's go. Top line sales. Yeah. You're going to generate revenue. So let's go. Lance Reynolds (25:07.193) Great. How do you do it? cares? Yeah, a lot of it, you know? And so I think that's helpful for operators. And it's also really helpful for us foods associates, you know, to be able to explain it very, very simply. They're a restaurant profitability tool. Um, let's get on a demo, you know? Rich Sweeney (25:09.828) Yeah. Marc Cohen (25:25.762) Well, and to your point, right, it doesn't have to be super complicated. It doesn't have to be bills and lists. like one of our core fundamentals is controlling food costs, right? And that's a big part of our partnership with you. So we've been automating the AP side of things, getting the invoices in, automating pricing, flowing through the recipes and inventory, right? Keeping your eye on the price. We're making sure your costs are in line, your margins are in line. Now we're sort of bringing that next level to it. We're going full circle with you and we're fully partnering and now we're tapped right into your ordering plan. So now orders are coming directly at a restaurant 365 directly into US foods. And there's no more middle man. There's no more disconnect there. We sort of close the circle, which we're super excited about. go ahead. No, no, go, go. Lance Reynolds (26:07.705) Yeah, know, go ahead. I'm sorry. I was going to say, you know, from a US food standpoint, right, that is so incredibly important because it's sticky, right? Like having, having solutions that come together that are helping the operator are very, very sticky. also is helpful in that we're streamlining that process for a lot of, a lot of people. And again, you know, in 2020 people stopped wanting to call in their Marc Cohen (26:19.597) Yes. Lance Reynolds (26:36.631) take out order and they want to use their phone. We're seeing that at US Foods, Like you utilize your territory manager to help you with your business, you know? Don't use them to take your order. You know, we've got an app for that, a very robust app for that, like industry leading application for helping you, you know, products. So. Marc Cohen (26:38.104) want to talk to people. Rich Sweeney (26:39.225) Hahaha Lance Reynolds (27:00.707) You know, it's really good for US foods. It's clearly good for restaurant 365 to have that integration, right? Because it's sticky for you all as well. But I think most importantly, it's helpful for the operator. know, you know, people are a little exhausted by having 27 solutions, you know, and they're starting to, you know, resent some of it. And especially when none of them talk. Marc Cohen (27:09.271) Absolutely. Marc Cohen (27:22.411) Absolutely. Lance Reynolds (27:30.157) You know, it's frustrating and I, you know, experienced that with the, the, restaurants that I, I'm still involved with here in Flagstaff, know, like when, when everything is so separate and nothing is integrated, it's very, very frustrating. And when are we great at these things talked, you know I mean? And when they do talk, they're helping us make really, really good business decisions on the fly and helping us keep an eye on the most important. Rich Sweeney (27:30.223) Mm-hmm. Marc Cohen (27:52.513) Absolutely. Lance Reynolds (27:56.729) financial metrics in the operation so that we don't end up without any money in the bank. I'll also say we see a lot of operators that come to us that are like literally tears in their eyes after a workshop or a presentation and they say like, man, I'm really, really struggling right now. We do our best to try to take a moment and say, hey, can you meet with me in 20 minutes? Let's just go grab a cup coffee and talk. And without fail, those operators that are really, really on the verge of losing everything have not onboarded any technology and they're working in the kitchen or they're a food server in their restaurant. It's a philosophical change that's important for everybody to make and truly there's no pathway forward without it. I truly believe that. Rich Sweeney (28:28.015) Mm-hmm. Marc Cohen (28:36.344) Right. They're blind. They're flying blind. Right. Marc Cohen (28:50.848) Yes. And so that's the evolution of the program. This is the CHECK program. us, how does this work? Rich Sweeney (28:51.439) Preach it, preach it. Lance Reynolds (29:00.759) Yeah. So the check business tools program was, started not long after I came on board. So my, my former, direct report and I, we actually sat down one day to kind of imagine what all this would look like. And we created this like diagram of how they would connect and how things could integrate. And it ended up looking like the human genome by the time we got it. And we were nerding out hard and. Marc Cohen (29:25.87) spaghetti theory. Yeah. Rich Sweeney (29:26.349) Hahaha Lance Reynolds (29:30.393) Um, you know, through that process, we brought, brought on a couple of partners initially, uh, just to test it and to pilot it. And we had no budget and, we really wanted to just see if it was important and if it was impactful. And it really was, you know, we, we had a lot of success there and it, you know, it helped us foods and all of the important ways. Customers weren't leaving. They were buying more product, um, more cases on the trucks. but it was really impactful for the operators. know, we, at that time we had an opportunity to speak with them one-on-one and just understand how, how is this working? You know, third party solution that we didn't own. just decided to bring them into the ecosystem. And, you know, the operators were just blown away by how effective these things were, you know, in big aha light bulb moments for them. And so that we decided at that point to expand. the program and we made it hard. I think that's one of the things that's different about US Foods than other operators is with some of our competition, it's a link on a website. At US Foods, as you all went through, it is a two-year vetting process and then a full year in a pilot. most of the partners don't make it through that process. It's very, very difficult to get in because we want to make sure that, that, you know, restaurant 365 is going to do what they say they do, that they're going to answer the phone when things break, you know, and like we break all the time, like literally trucks break down and can't deliver groceries every single day. Right. And so, but, but how do you respond to that, you know, and how do you make sure that you're still serving your, your customer? Rich Sweeney (30:51.054) Mm-hmm. Rich Sweeney (31:02.319) Mm-hmm. Lance Reynolds (31:15.185) And so, you know, we put everybody through the ringer to make sure that if we're going to make a recommendation, that they're going to make us all look good. but ultimately they're going to help the restaurant operator succeed. And, know, in this case, you guys came through a flying colors. Marc Cohen (31:31.822) Nailed it. Well, but the restaurant operator is a very unique customer, right? And I think the thing people lose track of is the sense of urgency that restaurants require, right? It is very much we are in the moment in the restaurant. I can't wait a day, two days, a week for any sort of resolution. Like we've got to solve the problem today. Because as we talked about at the beginning, tomorrow there's going to be 18 more problems that pop up that I'm going to need addressed. Yes. Rich Sweeney (31:32.537) Take it. Lance Reynolds (31:32.568) Nailed it. Rich Sweeney (31:57.519) At least. Marc Cohen (32:00.248) So that sense of urgency has always been critical to our DNA as a company, like the way we support our clients. It's at the forefront of everything we do. Lance Reynolds (32:09.337) Yeah, and it shows up, you know, it shows up in those support, those really, really important support challenges where something goes haywire and needs to be fixed or they need, you know, real time support, but it also shows up in your onboarding, you know, and that's another piece that's really important to a busy operator. Like I love what you do. Now I gotta go spend a year onboarding your product. Like, like, Marc Cohen (32:26.019) Yep. Rich Sweeney (32:26.468) Mm-hmm. Marc Cohen (32:34.254) No. No, we're going to get you done in 45 days. Let's go. Yeah. Rich Sweeney (32:35.021) Hahaha. Lance Reynolds (32:39.883) Right, let's go. And there's a lot of support there too. And so that's a big piece of it as well. And in fact, I think it's gotta be top one or two for us because we do understand that the operator is too busy. They don't have the bandwidth or they don't have the technical acumen to be able to pull it off. Rich Sweeney (32:52.116) yeah. Rich Sweeney (32:58.317) I mean, that's such a big part that we hear from people. They don't have a techie staff, know? So how do they learn how to use it? How do they do it? And I think one thing where we kind of step apart from so many others is we don't just give you a login and tell you to go figure it out, right? Like you're actually getting taught how to use the software because we understand at the end of the day, if it's garbage data coming in, all of the reporting is going to be a mess anyway. So we want to make sure we get people set up, like you said, set up on the right foot, make sure that they can do it quickly. and efficiently start getting the most out of Lance Reynolds (33:29.677) Yeah, for sure. And you know, to your earlier point, Mark, operators are adaptable. Once they get in and start playing with it, they get it quick, you know? Marc Cohen (33:40.024) Some are Luddites, but most of them are adaptable. Rich Sweeney (33:41.935) I'm sitting right here. Lance Reynolds (33:42.393) For sure. There's that one guy, right? For sure. But you know, there's also a very, one of the things I loved about restaurants and why I think that they are good once they get in and start playing is there are a lot of musicians that are restaurant operators. There are a lot of artists that are restaurant operators. There are a lot of punkers and rockers and, you know, rappers and Marc Cohen (33:47.511) Yeah. Lance Reynolds (34:11.821) You know, people that like they had to go figure things out, you know, like I taught myself how to play guitar. can certainly teach my, how myself, myself how to, you know, on right. That's exactly right. You know, however, just like anything else, they need to sit with somebody and play for a minute. And then once they got it, it's like, yeah, I don't need lessons anymore. I'm just obsessed now. I'm just going to do it, you know, but they need that first initial kickstart and Marc Cohen (34:16.312) Right? Rich Sweeney (34:17.209) Mm-hmm. Marc Cohen (34:22.616) how to control my food cost. Rich Sweeney (34:24.719) Exactly. Lance Reynolds (34:41.733) you know, we see a lot of SaaS companies make a big mistake and we've got a library of videos. That is really helpful. One time in right now, I want to go deeper and I want to broaden my, my relationship with, with the technology and my understanding of how to utilize it fully. but man, I need a little hand holding, holding upfront, you know, and I consider myself pretty tech savvy, but you know, I, I actually hired somebody on fiber to help me. figure out Zapier, know, to connect and create some automations in my life. And I'm pretty tech savvy, but I was in there screwing it up so bad. finally hired somebody on Zapier, a consultant, help me figure it out. And, know, after 45 minutes, was okay, I got it. You know, but I needed that handholding and you guys do a really good job. Rich Sweeney (35:12.964) Ha Marc Cohen (35:13.774) love it. Rich Sweeney (35:23.449) Ha. Marc Cohen (35:23.484) you Marc Cohen (35:33.644) And that's sort of the fundamental of this check program, sounds like. You guys are vetting these solutions so that the operators don't need to have, they get the right solution day one, they're not stuck without somebody holding their hand a little bit. So obviously that's been a big reason behind this renewed partnership with US Foods and Restaurant 365. What's sort of the big focus for the coming year for you and the check program and everything you're working on? Lance Reynolds (35:59.947) There's a lot, you know, I, I also lead the new business manager. we have 230 NBMs and 24 directors of that program. And I lead that team as well. And, and, you know, I, you know, I hate to sound like I'm just like riding a trend here, like AI, AI, AI, AI, like I, and I'm even professing that at U S foods heavily. you know, we're a co-pilot. Marc Cohen (36:04.258) You Rich Sweeney (36:04.729) Yeah. Marc Cohen (36:24.758) Okay. Lance Reynolds (36:32.633) Uh, that's, that's kind of our infrastructure here. Yeah. Um, and I was a chat, chat GPT guy for two years. I've since, you know, um, migrated it over to Claude, but you know, at the end of every year you get your YouTube ranking and you get your, Spotify. What'd you listen to? I got a report from chat GPT and I was in the top 3 % of all users globally. I'm 25. Like I'm really into it. Like that's my five to nine. Marc Cohen (36:34.958) Internal solution, yep, yep. Rich Sweeney (36:35.673) Mm-hmm. Marc Cohen (36:49.612) Mm-hmm. Rich Sweeney (36:50.435) Mm-hmm. Marc Cohen (36:57.326) What? Lance Reynolds (37:00.215) You know, I stopped to take break and have dinner with my family, but I'm out here learning about AI all the time. And, we've never seen anything like this. You know, lot of people are the mistake of thinking this is the internet and eventually I'll build a website or they think it's a smartphone and eventually I'll download a couple of apps. It's not that. And it is a foundationally, massive game changer. It doesn't matter. Marc Cohen (37:10.67) I agree. Rich Sweeney (37:11.204) Mm-hmm. Marc Cohen (37:13.984) Nope, it is not. Marc Cohen (37:28.706) Transformative. Yep. Lance Reynolds (37:29.589) It's transformative and we can't just throw people at it anymore. Minimum wage is $18.35 here in Flagstaff. It's one of the highest in the nation. You just can't throw people at it anymore. You cannot afford to have a full-time HR director, a full-time marketing director, a full-time, you you really have to streamline, you know, every aspect of your business no matter what industry you're in. And I would say with restaurants, restaurants feel like there's a big disconnect there because it's so food and human beings sitting in front of me and so they don't understand the power. Marc Cohen (38:07.374) Mm-hmm. Lance Reynolds (38:11.161) that they literally have in the palm of their hands to transform their business and dramatically increase their revenue, like dramatically increase their revenue and the opportunities that are available to them and dramatically decrease their costs. And if you do both of those things, like we've pinched profitability, inflation and minimum wage and insurance, real estate, we've pinched Rich Sweeney (38:21.615) Mm-hmm. Lance Reynolds (38:40.281) our profitability, but you can expand that back to pre-COVID levels pretty quickly if you just dedicate yourself to it. And it's not easy. I turned 60 in July, so I am not the demographic that is diving into this stuff. But if I can do it, literally anybody can do it. And I'm teaching my daughters, who are 30 and 32, I'm teaching them, like, hey. Rich Sweeney (39:03.428) Haha. Marc Cohen (39:03.544) Smart. Lance Reynolds (39:06.009) Like don't wait, like this is a really important time in human history. And the people that really adapt are gonna benefit from it greatly and the people that don't are gonna look up one day and it's gonna be too late. This is not okay, fine, it's gonna be too late. Because your competition is gonna be just light years ahead of you and you're not gonna be able to catch up. Marc Cohen (39:20.642) Right, it is. Rich Sweeney (39:21.644) You Marc Cohen (39:26.018) That productivity bump you're talking about is massive, right? And that directly equates to profitability in a restaurant, right? Productivity equals profitability. Rich Sweeney (39:27.821) Yeah. Lance Reynolds (39:29.773) Yes. Lance Reynolds (39:34.667) No doubt about Rich Sweeney (39:35.075) I mean, it goes beyond the old school idea of like, you know, just the adaptation from like, you know, handwritten checks and cash register to POS, right? Everybody was kind of like, I'll do it later. I'll do it later. Then they realized, okay, I'm getting a little bit more efficient. But with AI now, the improvements, like you said, that are happening, if you don't get on to using it early, you're going to just not even be left behind. You're just going to be off to the wayside somewhere as a relic. Marc Cohen (39:59.352) Dap or die. Lance Reynolds (40:00.907) adaptive. I actually, I actually am finishing a book. It's actually being edited right now called learn AI or lose. It was, it was, it was going to be AI or die, but that's copyrighted. So you're welcome to whoever owns that copyright. So I changed it to learn AI or lose. And it's all about this, right? Like no matter what industry you're in, you know, like 2026. Rich Sweeney (40:07.192) Is that the title? Marc Cohen (40:08.566) Yeah. laughs Rich Sweeney (40:13.245) Hahaha Marc Cohen (40:17.175) Mm-hmm. Lance Reynolds (40:27.917) will be remembered as the year that everything changed. And so I wrote that book similarly to kind of opposite of how I wrote or how I started the school. I was building courseware to teach people about this. And as I was documenting all of that, I ended up accidentally writing a book and sent it off to the editors. It'll be launched here in a couple of weeks. But again, I think it's that. Like it's such an important time in any industry, but for the restaurant industry, it's such a cool, fun thing to use if you just dig in and play with it, you know, and get. Marc Cohen (41:04.705) Yeah, yeah. Rich Sweeney (41:05.487) Mm-hmm. Marc Cohen (41:07.714) I got the, I think I got the title for this episode. It's not about the effing food. It's about the effing AI. We've come full circle. Well, hey, as an operator, I just want to ask you a couple of quick questions. What, do you remember any sort of like a small improvement you made that maybe made a big difference in your business? Something that moved the needle dramatically that you didn't think was going to have a profound effect. Lance Reynolds (41:13.273) It's about the FMA. I like it a lot. Rich Sweeney (41:14.083) Ha ha! Lance Reynolds (41:31.245) Yeah, and this is going to sound way oversimplified, but I just gave a talk. I was in Seattle last week and I give a talk up there and the title of the talk was trained or retained. But I tell a story in this speech around, you know, I had this woman who worked for me who was like the perfect employee. She was always early. She never called out sick. She would train people without us asking. She would calm the kitchen down when they were panicking. She just was so good. And she did not want to get into management. She'd like die hard, I'd make a lot of money, I like my life, I like my flexible schedule. But she took on a lot of those roles. Well, at one point, she had voiced a little bit of frustration, but then one day she just left. She left me a note, I'm done. And you have become so obsessed with... with pinching pennies and cutting people to save money and all of these horrible behaviors that I look back on and I'm a little ashamed of and embarrassed by, to be honest with you, but I was so obsessed with saving money that I wasn't developing people anymore. And I kind of lost my way out of sheer panic. I was worried about losing my home and losing my businesses. And her leaving. was one of the most transformational opportunities of my life. I eventually convinced her to come back and she ended up being my business partner with Foodboost today. And when I brought her back, I said, I'm gonna bring you back, you've got the job that you had before, the only caveat is I'm going to actually pay you as a consultant to mentor me. Marc Cohen (43:12.046) You Rich Sweeney (43:12.259) Hahaha Lance Reynolds (43:27.351) Right? So she, in addition to her normal job as a server, I paid her a weekly consultation fee to mentor me through the process of, of why did you feel the way that you felt? Who else feels that way? And what do we got to do to change it? And everything shifted for me. Everything shifted. you know, we, ended up creating. Rich Sweeney (43:46.787) Mm-hmm. Lance Reynolds (43:53.977) this philosophy of three-legged stool in the restaurants. it was number one, protect three stools, protect the employee experience, protect the guest experience and protect the bottom line in that order. you know, the protecting the employee experience became foundational and our, our employee turnover was like in the 170 to 200 % range every year. And we're in a college town. I just, I wrote it off to that, you know, Marc Cohen (44:19.246) Thank Lance Reynolds (44:24.121) But with her help, we got that down to 42%. And the amount of money that we were saving and not training and onboarding people and hiring new people was staggering. so then like, I'm getting both. I have a bank account that has money in it and I have really happy employees. And she was so just really, really one of most important people that I had in my career. But I would say like that moment, her quitting, Marc Cohen (44:34.795) Absolutely. Lance Reynolds (44:53.911) and leaving me a very short and sweet note. And then her coming back and agreeing to mentor me, I'm the owner of the restaurant and she's a server. And she was mentoring me, really changed the way that I looked at everything. And a lot of these things came natural to me. Like I've always been a people person. I've always loved people. I've always believed philosophically that people should come first. Marc Cohen (45:02.734) course correction. Yeah, amazing. Lance Reynolds (45:19.351) But I lost my way because I was panicking over the dollars and cents. And then because of that, people were leaving and I was hurting, actually hurting myself, you know? yeah, I think that was one of the most transformational parts of my, parts of my career. And I did not intend for this podcast to turn into me promoting my book. But I wrote another book called Tomorrow I Am Giving a S. Marc Cohen (45:22.158) Mm-hmm. Marc Cohen (45:36.844) Love it. No, it was great, great story. That's a great story. Rich Sweeney (45:40.291) Yeah. Marc Cohen (45:45.71) There's a theme. Rich Sweeney (45:46.095) Hahaha Lance Reynolds (45:46.841) And it's all about that journey, you know, of like, did it wrong for a long time, but then I eventually, I made the people in my restaurants foundationally important, the most important piece. And they took care of the guest experience and they took care of helping me watch the bottom line and they didn't steal wine from me anymore. You know I mean? Lo and behold, they cared. Marc Cohen (45:51.554) Yeah. Rich Sweeney (45:57.401) Mm-hmm. Rich Sweeney (46:05.263) Because sometimes when you worry too much about the dollars that you just don't make sense anymore, right? Like you're just so focused on that side of it that you lose common sense, that piece of the equation. And so it's awesome to hear that you were able to like take that experience, turn it back around and turn it into a not just a positive, but like a whole other business positive and several books out of it, too. I like that idea. I think that kind of feeds it to the next question that I got for you. What's harder, hiring great staff or keeping them? Lance Reynolds (46:41.389) You know, Keeping them is the answer. Yeah, keeping them is definitely the answer, but also through that journey, I realized I was hiring the wrong people. I was hiring based on experience and I wasn't hiring based on the gut feeling I had when they came and sat down for the interview. Because somebody come up and like, all my spidey sensors were saying, stay away, avoid this. And then I get through the... Marc Cohen (46:47.214) would say based on your story, would say keep it. Rich Sweeney (46:48.931) Hahaha Rich Sweeney (47:02.339) Mm-hmm. Lance Reynolds (47:10.005) Interview and I'm looking at the resume. I'm like gotta be an idiot not to hire this person Then I was regretting it three months later and people left because this person was so chaotic So yeah keeping them retaining staff is Really really hard because it requires a ton of discipline you you have to walk this line of making sure that they They understand how important they are but also holding them accountable at a very high level. You can't let them, you know, just Rich Sweeney (47:16.035) Mm-hmm. Rich Sweeney (47:37.039) Mm-hmm. Lance Reynolds (47:38.849) you know, get away with underperformance, that's not okay either. So that part is way, way harder and way trickier, but foundationally easier if you hire right, you know? Marc Cohen (47:51.042) The right, yeah, absolutely. Well, we normally end with a hot take, Lance, but I feel like you've already given us your hot take, which is like, this is the year. This is gonna be a world-changing year because of AI. That feels like the hot take, but any other hot takes on the industry you wanna share with us? Lance Reynolds (48:08.505) Yeah, man, go see a band at the Sphere. That's my hot take. If you have not seen a band at the Sphere yet, man, pay what you gotta pay. Like, just stop going to Starbucks for a couple months to sack some cash. Do what you gotta do. Like, that is, that is, that's my hot take. That is one of the coolest experiences I've ever had. I don't know, have either of you been to the Sphere yet? Marc Cohen (48:11.438) I love it. Yes. Rich Sweeney (48:12.067) Ha ha ha ha ha! Marc Cohen (48:22.178) Yes. Marc Cohen (48:33.494) No major f***ing way that I missed you two when they were there. I was like bucket list. Ugh. Rich Sweeney (48:33.977) Not yet. Lance Reynolds (48:35.993) I saw you too. So now you too. spent like the tickets were outrageously expensive and I was like, you know until like literally five minutes after sitting in the chair going Oh my god, I would have spent double. That's why I have to go see a band with Marc Cohen (48:42.356) I know. Marc Cohen (48:48.024) worth it. worth it. OK. Rich Sweeney (48:52.109) I've heard some rumors of who is potentially going to be taking up some residencies there and I have already been squirreling money aside just in case that those rumors are true. yeah, excited for it. Lance Reynolds (49:05.325) Yeah, man, do it. Like if you like the band even remotely, go see a band's this year. That's my hot take. Marc Cohen (49:13.422) great hot take. Rich Sweeney (49:13.539) I love it. That's getting added to the top list of hot takes that we've had so far. It's a fun one. Lance, thank you so much for joining us today. You can find Lance Reynolds on LinkedIn. And of course you could find US foods all across the country. I mean, there's probably a truck pulling up to your favorite restaurant right about now. Lance Reynolds (49:17.817) Great. Marc Cohen (49:18.018) Mm-hmm. Marc Cohen (49:30.382) Yes. And of course, thank you for joining us. We hope you have a great day, great shift, a profitable Wednesday wherever you are. And don't forget to like and subscribe to the show everywhere. It's no small ask, but we really appreciate it. And you can find us on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, basically wherever you listen. And you can follow us on all social media, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, and always visit us at restaurant365.com. And Lance, I'm sure we can find your books on Amazon.com as well. Go looking for them. Let's yeah, let's. Lance Reynolds (49:56.953) You can, yeah, you can find them. Please follow me on LinkedIn. You can also find them at LanceRuddles.com. That's kind of easy. They're all listed. Marc Cohen (50:04.696) Well, this was a great conversation. appreciate your time and your insights, Lance. Lance Reynolds (50:07.865) Appreciate you very, very much and thanks for your partnership. Marc Cohen (50:10.86) Thank you, US Foods. Rich Sweeney (50:11.619) Thank you.