Lessons - Million-Dollar Secrets of Restaurant Empire Building | Mychel "Snoop" Dillard - Entrepreneur & Business Owner

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All listeners can save 30% off their first order. Just head to cornbreadhamp.com slash success and use code success at checkout. That's cornbreadhamp.com slash success code success for 30% off your first order of these amazing gummies. In this lessons episode, discover the entrepreneurial journey of turning setbacks into success in the hospitality industry. Learn how to create a winning formula for restaurants, build lasting partnerships, and balance hands-on management with strategic growth. Explore the importance of vibe, location, and systems in building a thriving business. Now you're moving you're starting to move into nightlife and hospitality. So you've jumped into like newspaper, you jumped into real estate, nothing newspapers. I don't even know where I would start if I had to figure out like how to go to hospitality. So what are the steps that you figured out that you could actually be successful at this? Now why ended up getting into it? Scott is, remember I told you about that news that that calendar that I did. And you know, like I said, as Juvenile as it may sound, you know, it was a calendar where I featured 12 different women. Well, after that, I started a model management company. You know, so for me, it was always how to get to the top and how to make the most money. All right, so it was producing a calendar and selling a calendar. Then okay, well, I'm going to manage these models and I'm going to get them other geeks and make other money from that. All right, then it's like, okay, what's selling this calendar? How can I really get this calendar off? So I decided to have the models host nights at various different restaurants and lounges and nightclubs and they would sell the calendar to two different guys, you know, they would come out, you know, to these bars and well, as I'm in here, as I'm in the lounges and clubs and restaurants watching this being Dylan, you know, I'm seeing how busy, you know, these venues aren't. I'm like, hey, I want to be a bar owner. I want to be a club owner. I want to be a restaurant owner. This is where the money is. I'm just selling these little rinky dink calendars. Yeah, go ahead with a few hundred dollars. Man, I wonder what this guy is making because it's 50 people in here. It's 100 people in here. So that is what inspired me to want to open up my own spot. And I actually opened up my own spot at the age of 24 and that's so y'all, you know, yeah, no shit. It was a huge bus. I was relying on other people to kind of teach me the game. They didn't. I didn't get the right permits when the head and opened up anyway, grand opening, grand closing within two months lost my whole entire investment. Yep. So, um, so when I moved to Atlanta, my thought was, man, I'm not getting back into that. That was such a nightmare. Um, I did so terrible, but I always thought, but it was fun, you know, for the foot of a few months that was open. But, um, man, I was terrible at this. I lost all this money. Didn't know what I was doing. Um, but once I moved here and after I started that party bus company, I, I got back into, I get into promoting. Um, and just, you know, throwing parties that, you know, various lounges and things of that nature. And so then right again, I'm right back in these, these lounges and these restaurants. And it's like making me curious. Yeah. Would it would be like to be a owner? And so eventually said, you know what? I'm going to try this again. You know, I was yelling. I did it wrong the first time. Um, I learned some lessons from it. Let me try to, try to take what I learned, um, and turn that into something else. And so I ended up opening my first spot here in Atlanta. It was called the hookahide away. And it was wildly successful. Can I ask why though? Look, why was that one? Why was that one wildly successful? Like, why did, why did there's so many damn restaurants and they're all, they're all probably tough and the margins are tough. Like, what makes that one successful? What was the secret? Uh, that one. I think number one, I mean, I gave that that spot my heart and soul. I was there every single day for the first two years. You know, so I think when you have an owner that's dedicated like that, nobody is going to run your business the way that you would want it. Um, so I think that that played a big part of it to the location. It was just a really good location. Um, it was a super small spot. When I tell you, Scott, this place was not even bigger than then then 1200 square feet. That's small. But the big, the good thing about it is that it allowed everybody to get to know everybody. So it was kind of like a cheers neighborhood bar. It would definitely put you in the mind of it. Like, you didn't even have to know anybody to go there. You were going to meet tons of people. Um, we were able to kind of create a patio. And I mean, literally in the summertime, this place was just like a block party every single weekend. Um, we were able to stay open after hours. We weren't necessarily supposed to, but we did. And we got away with it for five years. Um, but, um, and we had some great food. You know, I brought some stuff from some concepts from Nashville as far as, you know, Nashville has its hot chicken at the time. That had nine quarter one nationally, like it has nail. And so we were someone hot chicken there. And that was a big hit. Um, and I think also just, you know, the hands and one that I had with that location, I hired every single person myself. Um, and, you know, you just can't beat that when you have a owner that is running the spot themselves and willing to put in, you know, that grit in that time. And I want to say, I think I was probably about 28 when I opened that spot up. A huge shout out to federated computer for supporting today's episode. Let me explain why I love federated computer, why they are friends of success story. They are changing the way businesses buy software because we all need software to run our businesses. I don't care what kind of business you're building, but the best business software doesn't have to cost thousands of dollars each month. So federated computer replaces a lot of the software that you're using right now. 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You created a vibe like I feel like where a lot of people miss the mark on hospitality is they feel like they can copy and paste that but then the copy and paste version is shit and then it's about the same and it's a different crowd different but you've done it like repeatedly now. So what's what's the formula you used to open the next one and the next one after that? You know what it's you know you say something that's so important of by you know creating a bit by you know good music good decor. You know people love spots with patios you know making sure that the food is good the food has to be good the customer service has to be good and you know first and foremost you've got to have a good location you know because you can have all of those things but if you've got a shitty location that's hard to find or hard to get to or doesn't have any walk up traffic or it's got terrible parking you know because I've made those mistakes before even after that you know in open and locations and and picking a bad location or just being so excited to do something and just picking a location that you know did not have those things so that's really a big thing and they you know having those systems in place you know hiring good people treating those people right pan and whale and making sure that you stay on top of them and so now for me because of what I did learn working with Jeff with that newspaper you know I just never turn over any of my businesses and put them in someone's hands there's always something that has to go through me you know and I never really just totally take my hands off of everything I'm always looking at every single thing all the numbers all the bank accounts and the more businesses I have the more time consume and it is and you know but I've learned now the difference in now of of me in that first restaurant and being there every single day at that point I was working in the business now I've learned to heavily work on the business versus working in the business they're just smart but then how do you find those people you can trust to work in the business for you you know what um with trust you know that's something that's built and earned and you know I don't think anybody has the formula to be able to find people that you trust you know you just hire people and you know you give them the opportunity to to cut their own next you know what I'm saying and when they do that you get a move on you've got to believe people when they show you who they are yeah no I think the one thing that I've seen like that sort of a common thread like you know you've been screwed multiple times because it's never fun but I think that the fact that you were screwed earlier on and you were like stolen from earlier on that's probably what led to your success because then when you if you had one success and now the the the risk is much bigger right the money you can lose is not just in the the tens of thousands and the hundred thousands and the millions when people can screw you over yeah virtually now they're here you know what I mean like you you're looking at people different it's smart though it's it's smart so now so what I've always what I actually found very interesting is you do so many different things so like you're in hospitality but you also and tell me if you're still working on these things well so you have like a DHG university credit repair at one point in your life you built an app I think it's only 15 you built an app called girl talk yeah you have an impact foundation you have a spa like you do everything when all these things are like quite successful so you like you're like you have like an entrepreneurial lie and you go into something and it works but I think a lot of it is like divide it's like the it's a unique experience that you create so as you're building out these things um talk to me even like it's interesting you work with two chains on on members only why work with two chains when you're already successful why do you need the star power what's the what's the play there is that something that you think would be useful or is that you see that a lot with brands but I've never seen it with like a restaurant I actually met two chains um about uh maybe about seven years ago now at this point and I met him when I had the hookahide away and so as I was telling you the hookahide away was this super little small spot 12 to 1300 1300 square feet nobody would even have guessed the amount of money that I was making a hookahide away because it was so small and that's a difference too you know when you are not already rich you know when you're like the underdog everybody wants you to be successful you know everybody wants to support you know once you're already on top it's just like people are trying to knock you down you know and take you off of that throne but um anyways long story short after the hookahide away or while doing the hookahide away I was probably in like the third year and it was like hey okay I've got this formula down this is working well let's duplicate this and I want to do another location and and looking for another location I ended up meeting two chains and we decided to do escobar together um escobar has by far um been my most successful business um to date and um that just ended up being a great partnership because um I had the hospitality experience um and you know was willing to operate and run the sick the stressful ass restaurants um while he's you know was able to you know go out there and be two chains etc but um the notoriety that he had on a national worldwide scale um also attracted you know um uh some clientele for us you know um and some publicity you know for us that I would not have been able to get on my own um so I ended up just being a good partnership in that aspect you know we've gone on to actually open four restaurants together you know we currently have so we've got two escobar locations um we do have members only that we're actually um members only as currently closed and under renovation we're actually renovating that and turning that into escop pizza um and then we have a concept caught escosi food um and so um we have you know been able to open up four restaurants you know over the past six years um and we recently just franchise uh we just franchise um escobar as well so um and working with somebody like to change you know it just was a no brainer because he could bring something to the table that I could not at the time and it was that star power thanks for tuning in if you found this valuable don't forget to hit that subscribe button so you never miss an episode and if you want to dive deeper into this conversation check out the links in the description to watch the full episode see you in the next one you