Stephen oversees Baldi Management Group (BMG), an airport concessions and management consulting company that manages restaurants in Reagan National Airport, JFK International Airport and Dulles International Airport.
Established in 2008, BMG operates various food and beverage outlets, including franchises like Dunkin’ Donuts, Potbelly, and Smashburger.
Stephen is an alumnus of Georgetown University, where he was a Community Scholar and student-athlete. He attributes his success to mentorship and now mentors young people, aiming to provide growth opportunities within his company.
As founder-led company, Stephen has formed connections with other DC-based founder-led restaurants like Founding Famers and Timber Pizza as well as with larger national brands.
About 15-20% of BMG’s customers are employees from the airport itself.
Stephen is a strong advocate of mentorship and helping employees grow and advance within an organization, even if it means the employee leaving the organization for a better opportunity.
QUOTES
“My commitment to making meaningful connections with people comes from way back then when I was forced to do it, not only because of who I am but my circumstances and I’ve tried to carry that out through my career and my life.” (Stephen)
“There’s something different about a founder-led company, because you’ve built it.” (Stephen)
“Airports are a wonderful place to work. Once you end up in this ecosystem, it’s hard to walk away.” (Stephen)
“(In airports), the passengers are dynamic. We get to meet and connect with them all. We have the privilege of participating in whatever journey people are on every day and the following day, we get a whole new group of people.” (Stephen)
“The (airport concessions and restaurant industry) is about an $8 billion a year industry nationally but the industry is controlled by about 20 key companies. It’s a small ecosystem.” (Stephen)
“Operating a streetside restaurant versus a restaurant in an airport is a completely different sport. The speed, the requirements, the logistical challenges (of being an in airport), all of our crewmembers have to go through background checks. Unless you’re a serious player, you’re not trying to participate in airports.” (Stephen)
“We encourage our crewmembers just to meet people where they are. It may be the 50th time you’ve welcomed someone to our restaurant but it’s the first time you’ve spoken to the person in front of you. You should be additive to their experience and not add additional stress or complications.” (Stephen)
“We welcome the chaos. When it’s raining and snowing outside and your flights are delayed, we kind of welcome that because that means we get to hang out with you a little bit longer.” (Stephen)
“If I bring in someone as a front line worker who’s pouring coffee, if they’re still pouring coffee in three years, both them and the organization has done something wrong. We want to scale people up.” (Stephen)
TRANSCRIPT
00:01.9900:01.99
vigorbranding
Hey folks, welcome to Fork Tales, and I’m excited. Today’s guest is Stephen Baldi He’s the founder and president of Baldi Management Group. Baldy Management Group is an airport concessions and management consulting company. It’s a mouthful there. ah Manages concessions in Reagan National Airport, JFK International Airport, and Dulles International Airport. Stephen, welcome to Fork Tales, and thank you so much for joining us.
00:25.82
Stephen Baldi
Michael, thank you for having me. I’m looking forward to the conversation.
00:29.01
vigorbranding
So for those that don’t know, all of these are located in the sort of DC Metro, Baltimore or down at DC Metro area, right?
00:36.21
Stephen Baldi
Correct.
00:37.04
vigorbranding
Yeah.
00:37.19
Stephen Baldi
Yeah, even though Philadelphia is my hometown, I’ve been in Washington DC for almost 30 years. um So this is home base for us.
00:46.37
vigorbranding
yeah Well, you you you know, I have a little trick question because that was going to be my first question. Are you still a Philly sports fan? I mean, do you bleed Eagle Green?
00:53.03
Stephen Baldi
if If you cut me, it would be nothing but green. I live in Washington, DC.
00:56.48
vigorbranding
OK, beautiful.
00:57.88
Stephen Baldi
My heart is in Philadelphia.
00:59.81
vigorbranding
Beautiful, beautiful. Wow. There’s, there’s guys, I don’t even know what they call themselves these days. these’s The commanders, the Washington football club.
01:04.91
Stephen Baldi
oh The Washington football team, they’re all.
01:05.40
vigorbranding
I mean, they’re just, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Just, it’s irrelevant. It’s irrelevant.
01:10.11
Stephen Baldi
Yeah, Michael, my family would disown me if anything other than my ah zip code changed as far as my hometown affiliation.
01:10.06
vigorbranding
So that’s fantastic. Hey, it’s awesome. You got to bring, I had a gentleman come in, uh, from, uh, Oregon last week to speak to a bunch of advertising agencies from North America. We hosted them in Philadelphia and this guy was so excited. He was, he, he, he came from there, but he was Philly through and through. So everything in his presentation tied back to a Philly icon, something about Philadelphia that was iconic. And, you know, ah in our company, we’re,
01:44.34
vigorbranding
We’re very proud that we’re an independent advertising agencies. We have an agency called Vigor and an agency called Quench. Vigor’s restaurant branding. Quench is food and beverage marketing. And the whole thing was around independence and how it’s how important it is.
01:57.06
vigorbranding
And he had all these great icons from like Nick Foles to, ah you know, ah Mike Schmidt to the Fanatic to, I mean, Will Smith.
02:07.11
vigorbranding
I mean, he just went through all the Philadelphia stuff, you know, the Liberty Bell and everything else. and So it was cool. It was cool.
02:11.77
Stephen Baldi
um I love it. I’ll tell you an interesting story about Nick Foles. So I had a really good feeling about our Super Bowl run, even though you know Carson Wentz, who was leading as the MVP that year, went down. And the Friday before the Super Bowl, something told me to go online and buy a Nick Foles autograph helmet.
02:33.57
vigorbranding
Wow.
02:34.10
Stephen Baldi
And I did. Now, I did not expedite the shipping, Michael. So it was not in my possession on Monday after we had won the Super Bowl. And many of my friends said that helmet’s never going to show up, but it did.
02:47.65
Stephen Baldi
So I bought it for $99.
02:47.77
vigorbranding
That’s awesome.
02:49.77
Stephen Baldi
And I can tell you, it’s it’s worth a lot more than that.
02:51.92
vigorbranding
That’s awesome. Yeah, it’s worth a lot to people in Philadelphia. So it’s fantastic. And the pride of that city runs deep. So alright, so tell us about Baldy enter Management Group and what it does what inspired you to get into the airport concession games. I mean, you started I think in residential property, right?
03:06.90
Stephen Baldi
I did. I started in residential property management in 2002. And I started in airports in 2005. And it was all kind of serendipitous. I had a really ah prickly history before starting in 2002.
03:23.22
Stephen Baldi
at Kettler Management, which managed tax credit properties, but also Class A luxury communities.
03:29.04
vigorbranding
Okay.
03:29.23
Stephen Baldi
And I had a tenant coming to my office. And she said, Steven, I see you engaging with the residents and how you handle issues. And I think you should be doing more. And I thought to myself, like this woman doesn’t know me.
03:39.92
Stephen Baldi
Yeah, I just fixed her fireplace. But who are you to come in my office and tell me what I should be doing? And at the time, I was making $22,000 a year with a Georgetown degree. And the job that they wanted me to interview for paid $85,000 a year.
03:54.21
vigorbranding
wow
03:54.39
Stephen Baldi
So as you can assume, Michael, goal I took the interview, I got the job. And so for three years, I worked in development for Westfield, which most people know as shopping mall developers, they have an airport division.
04:05.82
vigorbranding
Hmm. Ah.
04:07.99
Stephen Baldi
And so I was responsible for the redevelopment of national airport here in Washington, DC from 2005. to 2008. And then I leveraged a relationship with OTG Management, which has a very large presence at Philadelphia International, um into a joint venture relationship and actually launched the company, BMG, in 2008. And two thousand and eight and it’s we’ve not looked back since.
04:31.36
vigorbranding
That’s fantastic. you know It’s funny. I really i don’t know you. we’re We’re really talking for the first time. I can tell right away, like youre you have a positive attitude, and I can tell you’re engaging. And so I could see how someone would see you in action and be like, hey, you know you you could do more. like You can be a part of something bigger. And it’s obviously what’s happened, which is it’s awesome. I’m a big proponent of attitude. I mean, i I love to know where people went to school. I mean, if you if I interview you, I want to see your brains on the table.
04:58.39
vigorbranding
But I really want to know what your personality is like. I want to know about your attitude. I want to know ah how ah how much of a ah person you are that wants to win and be engaging and help people. And it’s ah like it comes through with you right away.
05:09.91
vigorbranding
And that’s ah it’s cool.
05:10.18
Stephen Baldi
I appreciate that.
05:11.03
vigorbranding
now it’s it’s
05:11.32
Stephen Baldi
Yeah, i’ll I’ll take it back if you if you want me to. So ah back in 1988, I was turning 13 and I begged my mom for a pair of Air Jordan sneakers.
05:24.58
Stephen Baldi
And you’ll remember when Gordon’s first came out, ah they were the first shoe over a hundred dollars.
05:25.72
vigorbranding
Oh, yeah.
05:29.85
vigorbranding
Oh, yes, they were.
05:30.36
Stephen Baldi
yeah I grew up in a upper lower class household and it was a stretch for my mom to purchase these shoes.
05:31.49
vigorbranding
Yep.
05:37.09
vigorbranding
Mm hmm.
05:38.21
Stephen Baldi
But I begged her and I begged her and I begged her and and she ended up buying them for me. And she said, you know, I just want you to be safe. Well, you probably can assume where the story goes. Within like a month of getting these sneakers, I was an attempted robbery, and I acted very violently to defend myself, and it resulted in me getting expelled from the school that I was at.
05:59.94
Stephen Baldi
And as a punishment, ah rather than letting me play basketball for the entire summer, my mom forced me to go to the reading math and basketball clinic at Friend Central, which is a very prominent independent school on the main line of Philadelphia.
06:14.39
vigorbranding
Mm hmm.
06:14.96
Stephen Baldi
And that decision changed my life. um I went from living in a predominantly all-Black neighborhood to a private school that I was the only Black male in my class.
06:25.11
vigorbranding
Wow.
06:25.74
Stephen Baldi
And what it did was it changed my perspective of what was accessible. like I had never seen a computer before.
06:31.75
vigorbranding
Right.
06:32.14
Stephen Baldi
And at this school, there was in a computer lab where we could sit down and navigate things.
06:34.40
vigorbranding
Yeah.
06:36.15
Stephen Baldi
And so going to Friends Central, having my mom make that leap of faith changed my trajectory in many ways. I matriculated from there to Georgetown University here in Washington, DC, which is how I got.
06:48.20
Stephen Baldi
to Washington DC. So I am a super Philadelphia sports fan, because not only am I from Philly, but Allen Iverson was my classmate at Georgetown University.
06:51.93
vigorbranding
That’s awesome.
06:55.50
vigorbranding
Is that right?
06:56.61
Stephen Baldi
Yeah, we were the same class.
06:56.89
vigorbranding
Wow.
06:57.61
Stephen Baldi
And so, yeah, very cool.
06:58.33
vigorbranding
That’s so cool. Yeah.
07:00.38
Stephen Baldi
And so maya my commitment to making meaningful connections with people comes from way back then when I was forced to do it, not only because of who I am, but my circumstances.
07:00.74
vigorbranding
AI. It’s legendary.
07:12.75
Stephen Baldi
And I’ve tried to carry that out through my career and my life.
07:15.84
vigorbranding
That’s fantastic. what a great That’s great. That’s a great story. you know it’s like It’s funny that on the Air Jordans, at that time, when they came out, and I can follow you on that. i know you You nailed it. You said the first sneaker that was over $100. My dad had ah this like mom and pop retail sporting store. We sold mostly like hockey stuff. We were from Hershey, Pennsylvania.
07:35.39
vigorbranding
And I was working in a store in in Camp Hill and outside of Hershey. It’s up in the West Shore, they call it. Anyway, long story short, I was in the mall and we sold some sneakers and the Air Jordans came out and we had them on the wall.
07:48.37
vigorbranding
And it was like, it was insane. $100 for a pair of sneakers.
07:52.08
Stephen Baldi
Yeah.
07:52.28
vigorbranding
And I mean, like, whereas I’ll say the average then was probably like on the high end was probably like 50, 55.
07:57.40
Stephen Baldi
Yeah, for sure.
07:58.58
vigorbranding
And this went right to 100. And it was funny, my dad, maybe that’s where I started learning about, and I really did learn a lot about marketing, working in retail, because you have to talk to people, you have to sell. And I think that’s the most important skill a person can learn. Communicating with people and learning how to sell, like, you know, at least present yourself, right? So I put these sneakers at the very top. I said, dad, you know what? ah I said, everybody wants the Air Jordans. Most people can’t afford them.
08:21.42
vigorbranding
but everyone wants to come and look at it. So I always sell them the white, the white, men’s the body they’re like but you know, so for every one Air Jordan, I saw, I used to sell like 30 other pairs of shoes.
08:25.49
Stephen Baldi
ah yeah
08:30.65
vigorbranding
You know what I mean?
08:31.05
Stephen Baldi
It’s been up in the store. It’s like a newspaper. People don’t necessarily want just the newspaper, at least the retailer does it, but they come in to buy the newspaper and then they buy the water, the soda, the candy.
08:33.13
vigorbranding
That’s right.
08:39.73
vigorbranding
That’s right. yeah I lured them in with the Air Jordans. I think we had like five parrot the most. I mean, we couldn’t afford, you know, it’s a little mom pop store.
08:46.41
Stephen Baldi
Probably two sizes.
08:47.56
vigorbranding
Yeah, right. That’s exactly right. So that’s funny. So okay, you talked about sports and and and you know, Philly and all that you you pride yourself on um being a local company and playing in front of the home crowd.
08:58.99
vigorbranding
Talk a little bit about the the local connection in DC that you have.
09:02.34
Stephen Baldi
Yeah, so I’ll tell you, when you fly into most airports, what people don’t automatically see, but being a former developer, I understand that any airport authority, when you land in their airport, they want you to know what city you are in.
09:18.24
Stephen Baldi
So national brands are extremely important. So you’ll have your Dunkin’ Donuts. You’ll have your Pop-Belly’s, which are ah franchises that we operate.
09:22.12
vigorbranding
Mm hmm.
09:25.89
Stephen Baldi
But every airport wants you to have a sense of place. So when you fly into Philadelphia Airport, you’ll have a Jim Stakes, because that’s you know historical to that region.
09:34.38
vigorbranding
Yeah.
09:34.93
Stephen Baldi
When you fly into National Airport here, or Dallas International, you’ll have your South Blocks, which is an ASE base. com concept here in the DC.
09:45.49
Stephen Baldi
You’ll have Ben’s Chili Bowl, which has been around since the 60s.
09:45.90
vigorbranding
Mm hmm. Mm hmm.
09:49.41
Stephen Baldi
And so we’ve prided ourselves from identifying and connecting with other founder-led brands, because I’m a founder. And nothing against a hired gun.
09:56.93
vigorbranding
Mm hmm.
09:58.81
Stephen Baldi
I know they are often effective at their job. But there’s something different about a founder-led company because you’ve built it.
10:06.95
vigorbranding
Yeah.
10:07.27
Stephen Baldi
it probably has more ah meaning to you behind just the bottom line um results that you drive. It’s personal.
10:15.52
vigorbranding
Yeah.
10:15.69
Stephen Baldi
And so we’ve developed very deep relationships with companies like founding farmers, with timber pizza, who are all local based companies here. And we expect to continue to grow it, not just in this region that we’re in, but as we grow into other markets to do the same.
10:30.68
vigorbranding
Yeah, that’s that’s fantastic. And you nailed it. I mean, like, I’m a founder, I’m an entrepreneur. And you know, and ah again, wonderful folks that that work with me, I’m very, very, very lucky. But you know, for for most people, it’s their job, you know, their career, and and hopefully there’s a sense of of a family and a real relationship.
10:49.53
vigorbranding
But for me, it’s my life. I mean, i am I am defined personally by this, which is probably pretty shallow.
10:51.05
Stephen Baldi
right
10:54.86
vigorbranding
I mean, i mean look, um I love my daughters. I’m a dad. I’m ah a husband. I love my family with all my heart, but I feel like I’m defined by my company and the what I’ve built. and and all of that And I just, you know, so again, I don’t know if that’s a bad thing or a good thing or whatever, but it’s just, it’s ah it’s a lot deeper, right?
11:11.93
vigorbranding
When you found something and ah it’s it’s a lot deeper, everyone thinks it has to do with like money and stuff, and it really doesn’t.
11:12.49
Stephen Baldi
Right. For sure.
11:17.73
vigorbranding
It’s a it’s really about, you know, sort of like your life’s life’s work. and You know, you know, I get I get the most excitement out of seeing the growth of the folks in the company. ah It’s great to see the brands grow and the companies grow.
11:30.42
vigorbranding
But I really get a kick out of of seeing the folks that have been here a long time and and all that. So anyway, that’s just that’s me.
11:35.91
Stephen Baldi
right
11:36.26
vigorbranding
But I just I totally I totally concur with what you’re saying as far as the founder led. I mean, that’s that’s fantastic.
11:41.40
Stephen Baldi
Yeah, at some point as a founder, you most likely had to put something at risk that meant something to you.
11:47.14
vigorbranding
Yeah.
11:47.50
Stephen Baldi
Whether it’s personal guaranteeing, first leverage to build the company or, you know, having to bail it out because you run into a pandemic, which we all face back in 2020.
11:47.75
vigorbranding
Oh, yeah. Yeah.
11:55.18
vigorbranding
All right.
11:57.80
Stephen Baldi
um Oftentimes you can’t just walk from that business and matriculate to another W2 position because this is yours. And so I love when I can connect with founders.
12:04.69
vigorbranding
Yeah.
12:07.41
Stephen Baldi
I’ll work with non-founders also, but there’s something unique about the journey we’ve all been on.
12:09.54
vigorbranding
Sure.
12:11.88
vigorbranding
Yeah, absolutely. So let’s let’s talk a little bit. I just so folks know, I mean, what’s really cool about this conversation is I, ah you know, with vigor, we work with restaurant brands, right?
12:22.32
vigorbranding
So we’re very familiar with restaurant brands. And you you have brands like Potbelly, Smashburger. You said founding farmers soon to come. ah Timber Pizza, Dunkin, I mean, some some household names.
12:33.94
vigorbranding
I don’t know if I’m um yeah any ants.
12:34.26
Stephen Baldi
On the end, don’t forget on the end, this is what else we have.
12:35.99
vigorbranding
No, I can’t actually. Yeah, we actually worked on any answers. We have an agency called quench that a branding agency, Food and Beverage, that that actually worked with Auntie Anne’s because they started here in Lancaster.
12:40.96
Stephen Baldi
Okay.
12:45.88
vigorbranding
hu Yeah, and I got to meet Anne Byler in the beginning.
12:45.98
Stephen Baldi
They did.
12:48.81
vigorbranding
So, Auntie Anne is actually a person and she’s a wonderful lady and It was a really really awesome to meet her and and and what a she was so she’s a very philanthropic lady very very ah ah Generous and very successful very so she’s got a phenomenal story as well. But so yeah, I certainly won’t leave the auntie hands out But you so you have all these great brands um Talk a little bit about I mean, you know, you said somewhere founded by they you know the founders and all that what’s it like to to manage all these different brands and
13:18.00
Stephen Baldi
I’ll tell you, it’s a dynamic environment. Airports are a wonderful place to do business. Again, I share with you briefly how I matriculated into them, but once you end up in this kind of ecosystem, it’s hard to walk away.
13:33.35
Stephen Baldi
We get the privilege of serving the traveling public every day. And what’s special about that are the passengers are dynamic. There are people who are going on business trips. There are people who are going on vacations. There are people who are going to be celebrated and there are people who are going to, you know,
13:51.28
Stephen Baldi
usher people off into a transition of life. And we get to meet and connect with them all. And so I tell our crew members that we have the privilege of participating in whatever journey people are on every day.
14:03.68
Stephen Baldi
And then the following day, we get a whole new group of people coming through.
14:06.48
vigorbranding
yeah yeah
14:07.36
Stephen Baldi
So that’s dynamic in the industries are small. I will tell you it’s about a $8 billion industry nationally in the United States, food and beverage and airports.
14:14.57
vigorbranding
Yeah. Yeah.
14:19.40
Stephen Baldi
But the industry is really controlled by about 20 key companies. And within those 20 companies, you probably have 50 total key players.
14:23.32
vigorbranding
yeah
14:27.50
Stephen Baldi
And so we know each other. you know You typically don’t leave the industry. Your business card may change. So you may go from company to company, but it’s a small ecosystem. And so I’ve enjoyed being in the industry now.
14:40.58
Stephen Baldi
18 years. I started when I was two. ah But it’s a buy it’s been an extraordinary 18 years, except for some of the challenges like COVID. But you know for the people who were able and blessed to push through it, I think we have a different perspective on what we can be and what we should be in the businesses that we lead. To your point,
15:00.50
Stephen Baldi
um being defined by your business is not necessarily shallow, but there’s levels, there’s there’s depth to what we do.
15:08.62
vigorbranding
Yeah.
15:08.91
Stephen Baldi
And I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to swim in those depths ah for many years.
15:14.41
vigorbranding
That’s awesome. We’ll get to COVID in a second, but I want to go back to airports. ah I’ll say, fortunately or unfortunately, I’m a customer. I’m in an airport every single week. So when you’re describing the people you see there, it’s like, yeah.
15:21.70
Stephen Baldi
Awesome.
15:24.71
vigorbranding
I mean, you know there’s it’s every single walk of life. Everyone seems to have a higher level of stress.
15:30.65
Stephen Baldi
yeah
15:30.77
vigorbranding
Everyone’s in a hurry, even when they’re not, or even worse, if someone’s really not in a hurry and they’re walking slow in the airport, that can actually be more frustrating and stressful. but ah So how do you how do you deal with that chaos? I mean, you got all these people that are amped up and nervous and they have anxiety or whatever, and then all of a sudden you’ve got to serve them and take them, you know, and represent these great brands and and and actually make the stuff and and in a and a fast time because they’re always running late, even if they’re not, they just think they’re always stressed.
15:56.04
Stephen Baldi
Right.
15:59.20
vigorbranding
Talk about airport concessions. Talk about that chaos.
16:02.08
Stephen Baldi
Yeah, so you meet people where they are. And I will tell you, operating a street-side restaurant versus an airport, it’s a completely different sport.
16:09.79
vigorbranding
I cannot imagine.
16:10.73
Stephen Baldi
I tell ah these founder-led companies when they’re thinking about matriculating in the airports, I tell them you know it’s like playing high school varsity basketball.
16:10.80
vigorbranding
yeah
16:19.70
Stephen Baldi
And then you get drafted to the and NBA, like the speed, the requirements, you know, we have to go through the logistical um challenges of having every box that comes into your restaurant scan.
16:20.40
vigorbranding
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
16:31.21
Stephen Baldi
Like Cisco’s not pulling up to our back door and delivering our ground beef for Smashburger.
16:31.53
vigorbranding
Yeah.
16:34.05
vigorbranding
Right.
16:35.85
Stephen Baldi
Like it’s going through an X-ray, just like your luggage is.
16:38.86
vigorbranding
Yeah.
16:39.39
Stephen Baldi
um All of our crew members have to go through a 10 year federal background check.
16:44.03
vigorbranding
Sure.
16:44.19
Stephen Baldi
um There’s complexities to the business, which are to our challenge. But to me, it’s also kind of to our benefit, Michael, because it reduces my competition. Because unless you’re a serious player, you’re not trying to participate in airports.
16:54.14
vigorbranding
Mhm.
16:56.81
Stephen Baldi
And so for me, understanding those barriers and be able to navigate them are great. But from a day to day operation standpoint, We encourage our crew members just to meet people where they are.
17:07.93
Stephen Baldi
um It may be the 50th time you’ve welcomed someone to our restaurant, but it’s the first time you’ve spoken to the person that’s in front of you. And again, you don’t know if they’re going on vacation or they’re going to a celebration of life to send a family member home.
17:16.31
vigorbranding
right
17:22.96
Stephen Baldi
Regardless, you should be additive to their experience and not adding additional stress or complications. Just try to deliver them fast, friendly, exceptional,
17:34.09
Stephen Baldi
service because that’s our standard. That is our vision for the company, which is being exceptional is our standard. It’s not something that happens intermittently.
17:42.84
vigorbranding
All right.
17:44.59
Stephen Baldi
It happens all the time. And so we welcome the chaos.
17:45.78
vigorbranding
Yeah.
17:48.05
Stephen Baldi
You know, when it’s raining and snowing outside, even though your flights are delayed, we kind of welcome that because that means you get to hang out with you a little bit longer.
17:54.78
vigorbranding
Yeah. Yeah.
17:55.63
Stephen Baldi
So as long as we’re not canceling flights, if they’re just delayed, that’s kind of our sweet spot.
18:00.01
vigorbranding
There you go.
18:00.65
Stephen Baldi
So we welcome it all.
18:02.58
vigorbranding
That’s awesome. You know, you you said something really interesting. So as I mentioned, Vigor is our agency that that does branding and marketing for restaurants. I know, and it’s not, you know, it’s common knowledge that turnover and and employees in the restaurant industry is like the biggest hassle, right? and Everyone’s dealing with that that turnover. But you just said something. they They have to go through this long, arduous process to get through. So do you find that you have, I’ll say, maybe better better qualified, better quality,
18:32.38
vigorbranding
ah team members in your restaurants?
18:34.64
Stephen Baldi
I would tell you that our hourly and even our salary leadership ah on some levels, they’re more committed because it is a personal investment to get through the process.
18:39.98
vigorbranding
Mm-hmm.
18:45.54
Stephen Baldi
And so, you know, typical food and beverage turnover is anywhere from 100 to 150%. And only ours is closer to like 30.
18:51.64
vigorbranding
Right.
18:54.91
vigorbranding
that’s hey That’s fantastic. I never thought that that would have never dawned on me that that would be ah an unfair advantage. you know It’s funny, like yeah I was telling someone the other day, you know the higher the barrier to entry in business, actually the better the business is because you don’t have just everybody and anybody competing.
19:12.66
vigorbranding
So you you have a higher barrier of entry.
19:13.25
Stephen Baldi
Correct.
19:15.58
vigorbranding
um And with that, you have you sort of have ah have a capture to a degree ah group of people, right? ah But the one thing that is interesting, I think if I remember correctly, I think there’s like 30%, I’ll say of ah if it’s a Dunkin Donuts on the street corner, 30% of their their ah customers will probably repeat, right?
19:35.43
vigorbranding
ah you You are not, I mean, you know you might have the same business guy that flies every Thursday out to you know wherever,
19:37.58
Stephen Baldi
No?
19:40.80
Stephen Baldi
we have We’ll have our Michaels.
19:41.81
vigorbranding
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
19:42.16
Stephen Baldi
We have our Michaels.
19:43.59
vigorbranding
I’ll hit your place and at the airport get a coffee on the way out, but that’s it. Yeah, that’s it. So that’s.
19:48.43
Stephen Baldi
I will tell you, though, we do have outside of the the traveling public, we do have recurring customers who are the people who work at the airport. I mean, at National and Dulles Airport, you get anywhere from five thousand to ten thousand employees that are there every day.
19:56.97
vigorbranding
No, that makes sense. Sure.
20:03.65
Stephen Baldi
And so ah they are also extremely important to us.
20:03.75
vigorbranding
Mm hmm. Hey, they got to eat and drink, right?
20:07.86
Stephen Baldi
They got to eat and drink and they have to do it fast.
20:09.70
vigorbranding
Right. That’s right.
20:10.84
Stephen Baldi
Well, we have different incentives to get them in and out, but they are our recurring customers and they’re about 15 to 20 percent of our business.
20:15.10
vigorbranding
Yeah, that makes sense. Hey, going back to the old mall days that I was talking about the sneakers, I sold a lot of sneakers to people that worked in the mall, not many Air Jordans, but a lot of the, you know, a lot of the lower end sneakers.
20:22.26
Stephen Baldi
Yeah, for sure.
20:27.36
vigorbranding
So, we talked to you hit on earlier and I know we, we inevitably, hopefully one day we, we don’t, and we don’t have to talk about, we always go back and talking about COVID and, uh, you know,
20:35.54
Stephen Baldi
Oh, yeah.
20:37.21
vigorbranding
One of our companies and our holding company is a company called Varsity. And Varsity does retirement communities around the country, we market retirement companies. Well, that that industry shut down. I mean, no one was going, no one was visiting, and people were sick. It was bad. Restaurants, another one of our our agencies, right? We marketed restaurants. No one was going. It was basically shut down. you know Your hospitality Uh, and your restaurants, I mean, and your travel, I mean, you’re, you’re combining it all and how, talk about that a little bit.
21:06.75
vigorbranding
I mean, you were hit from both ends.
21:07.11
Stephen Baldi
Oh, I had the privilege of double dipping.
21:11.81
vigorbranding
Yeah.
21:11.93
Stephen Baldi
So we were in hospitality beverage, but we were also in travel.
21:12.41
vigorbranding
In turmoil.
21:15.47
vigorbranding
Yeah.
21:16.03
Stephen Baldi
And so I remember very specifically on March 11th, 2020, President Trump came on television and he announced a 30-day travel ban to Europe.
21:27.16
vigorbranding
Mm-hmm.
21:28.65
Stephen Baldi
And at the time, ah most people only thought about the impact of air traffic travel to Europe, places like London, Paris.
21:37.58
vigorbranding
right
21:38.31
Stephen Baldi
But I anticipated that this was really the big moment for our industry.
21:43.00
vigorbranding
Right.
21:43.21
Stephen Baldi
I know a lot of people associate kind of their aha moment with COVID becoming a significant thing when the NBA shut down and more importantly, when the NCAA tournament shut down.
21:53.85
Stephen Baldi
But that announcement on March 11th signified for me that things were about to change for my business.
21:58.60
vigorbranding
Yeah.
21:58.72
Stephen Baldi
Now, I didn’t know it was going to be 18 months.
22:02.21
vigorbranding
Right.
22:02.55
Stephen Baldi
um But within about two weeks, we lost 85% of our top line revenue. And so on March 18, we shut the company down for 18 months. um And it was a challenge to what we talked about earlier, where a lot of my identity was tied up in this company that I built.
22:20.39
Stephen Baldi
Well, there was no company to have an identity he tied to. And so for me as a leader, It really pushed me during that time to redefine who I was in that moment and who I was going to aspire to be if we were privileged enough to come out of it. And we did. We’ve come out very strong, stronger than actually we went in. um We actually sold 35% of the business last year to some strategic, but then also some individual investors. And so I’ve had the privilege of surrounding myself where before I was the only voice in the room and now there are many.
22:55.69
vigorbranding
Right.
22:55.77
Stephen Baldi
And it presents some unique challenges, but also some extraordinary opportunities for me to low to learn and grow from other individuals and institutions that have built companies to scale, not all in food and beverage, many not.
23:10.17
Stephen Baldi
um But it’s really given me the opportunity to become a better leader um and to take our company into the next five to 10 years of what we will be.
23:20.35
vigorbranding
That’s fantastic. you know i the the The COVID obviously affected everybody. It affected everybody in different ways. and like For us for a business, it was and it was really interesting in that you know because we have several different agencies in our holding company, it was sort of a little bit of a like a mutual fund where one or two stocks could be really down, but then others can be up. Our CPG agency, Quench,
23:40.72
vigorbranding
you know we’ We’re doing we’re doing brands national brands like you know Sunmade Raise and Stark Institute. To me, COVID, to to that to that company and those brands, COVID was like the greatest sampling program in the history of Earth. i mean If you put it in a package back then, it was on a shelf. People bought it. They stuck it in their pantries. They ate it. They bought more of it. i mean They couldn’t get enough of it. i mean It was just ah an insane time.
24:01.94
vigorbranding
for those companies. and then the other the The negative side obviously was the restaurants and everything else. i mean It’s a really interesting time. and and you know You said about how you it can define things. the other thing One of the other things we did was we took adversity. We had all these CEOs that were like, what is everyone doing? i mean like you you know This just happened. It was unprecedented. What is everybody else doing? so We thought, well,
24:23.89
vigorbranding
All right, we’re not making i mean and and again it’s not we’re not making revenue businesses down, but we still have these relationships. They’re our clients. So what can we do? So it wasn’t my idea, but one of our guys said, hey, let’s create sort of a round table. of that And our agency is called Varsity. So we called it the Varsity Round Table. So we got all these CEOs that were just like,
24:41.34
vigorbranding
What’s everyone doing? And they were able to talk and it was so successful that we did it the next week. And then they talked more and then more and more CEOs jumped in. They weren’t even our clients and became this open source sharing that has now been, we are on about, I think it’s like 250th.
24:58.49
vigorbranding
roundt We’ve been doing them every week since the first month of COVID.
25:04.38
Stephen Baldi
Wow, impressive.
25:05.19
vigorbranding
And what’s done for a company, for us, i mean again we don’t make any money from it. And it wasn’t about that. It was just a place for people to really vent and help. And now we have speakers come in and talk, and everyone’s obviously well beyond COVID.
25:16.71
vigorbranding
But it’s really allowed us to be a thought leader and assist these folks. And you know at the end of the day, it’s what it’s all about. And I know a big thing for you is is mentorship, right? I mean, you know talk about giving back. you want you Do you want to talk a little bit about that?
25:27.81
Stephen Baldi
Yeah, I’ll talk about that but I’ll also talk similarly to your roundtable so in February of 2020 I had the privilege of joining the organization YPO, which is Young President Organization, which is very similar to what you define there’s 35.
25:42.82
Stephen Baldi
1,000 YPO members globally. And it’s really for business leaders who have decided that they want to walk towards betterment as a person, as a leader, as a family member, as someone contributing to their community in partnership with other leaders.
25:58.55
Stephen Baldi
And so I am in the Washington DC Baltimore chapter here ah in the region.
25:58.93
vigorbranding
Mm hmm.
26:04.18
Stephen Baldi
And I’m in leadership. And I can tell you that organization was really critical in me navigating everything that I had to go through ah during COVID.
26:14.98
Stephen Baldi
Now, we didn’t we didn’t meet weekly, um but we do meet monthly in a small group of seven to 10 people, and we have forum.
26:15.26
vigorbranding
Sure.
26:19.82
vigorbranding
Monthly forum.
26:22.81
Stephen Baldi
And, oh, there you go.
26:22.85
vigorbranding
I didn’t know I’m i’m YPO, too. I didn’t know your IPO. Yeah, I’ve been.
26:25.92
Stephen Baldi
Yeah!
26:26.21
vigorbranding
Yeah.
26:27.01
Stephen Baldi
So YDO is really what sustained me during COVID.
26:27.03
vigorbranding
So Oh.
26:29.86
Stephen Baldi
um And I’m privileged to be on the ladder now in leadership.
26:32.72
vigorbranding
Do for you.
26:35.01
Stephen Baldi
And so, yeah, as far as mentorship, when I started the company, you know it was a priority for me to give opportunity to underrepresented populations. um Now, as I started to grow the company, my focus started to turn inward, Michael, if I’m being honest. And you know the beginning of 2020, it was difficult for anybody to tell me that I wasn’t the shit. I built this company from zero to something much larger than I had ever aspired to as a young person.
27:04.34
vigorbranding
Right.
27:06.68
Stephen Baldi
um But COVID took all of that away.
27:08.81
vigorbranding
Yeah.
27:09.14
Stephen Baldi
And so what it reminded me of is that there was a mission that I started this company with. And it was something that I needed to recommit to when we reopened.
27:19.90
Stephen Baldi
And so now um we’re really pouring into our crew members um When I hire someone, specifically, let’s take Dunkin Donuts.
27:30.76
Stephen Baldi
If I bring in someone as a frontline worker that’s pouring coffee, if they’re still pouring coffee for us in three years, both them and the organization has done something wrong.
27:34.59
vigorbranding
Mmhmm.
27:41.17
Stephen Baldi
um We want to scale people up. It is not cost effective for us to have people in the same position for multiple years. So if we’re not scaling someone up to take on additional responsibility inside our company and sometimes even outside of our company, then we’ve done something wrong. you know My mentor told me a good leader ah expects or wants people to leave. A great leader expects them to.
28:08.64
vigorbranding
Yeah.
28:09.01
Stephen Baldi
And so either they’re leaving the position that we’re hiring them for or they’re leaving to go to another organization. But either way, we have to invest in our hourly crew members because we can’t afford not to.
28:20.86
vigorbranding
Yeah.
28:21.76
Stephen Baldi
And so that’s something that we really communicate out and share out. to our community and our organization and people know that we’re gonna invest in them in ways that other companies might not to and we feel like that gives us a competitive advantage and as a leader it makes me feel a good about not only our bottom line results but also the success that we can feel. I have a manager who’s been with us for eight years.
28:46.57
Stephen Baldi
Her name is Marta. And she started as a single unit manager. And now she’s a multi-airport director.
28:53.24
vigorbranding
awesome.
28:53.39
Stephen Baldi
And to see her growth and to understand the impact that that has has had on her family is tremendous. And I want to do that a hundred times over.
29:00.50
vigorbranding
Sure.
29:00.79
Stephen Baldi
And I have the privilege of being able to do that as a leader of our company.
29:01.01
vigorbranding
Yeah.
29:04.70
vigorbranding
and And think of it this way, I mean, and that’s what’s so great about this country, I’ll say is like, you were making whatever $22,000 a year, I think you had free room or board or whatever you were managing, right?
29:12.60
Stephen Baldi
I did.
29:13.65
vigorbranding
So you you’re probably like, I’m getting by, this is okay. And look, you and you know, obviously, you’re you’re very well educated, you have a great drive and personality, but you you created a a huge company. And that’s, that’s, that’s really super cool, really super cool.
29:25.90
Stephen Baldi
Well, Michael, I can tell you specifically in that first year, 2002, I made $19,117 and 43 cents. I can tell you that specifically because that W2 still sits on my desk.
29:36.80
Stephen Baldi
I have it framed.
29:36.84
vigorbranding
Yeah, yeah.
29:37.68
Stephen Baldi
I look at it every day just to remind me of where all of this started and where now we’ve grown the company to I’m, I’m extremely proud.
29:45.15
vigorbranding
Yeah. And you know, you mentioned YPO and I’ve been very privileged to be in that organization for, gosh, I think at least 20 some years.
29:53.06
Stephen Baldi
So you joined when you were 17.
29:54.45
vigorbranding
Yeah, no, but yeah, it’s one of those things, is we you know, it used to kick you out when you’re 50. In fact, I did, I got the rocking chair and showed up at the front door.
30:02.59
Stephen Baldi
Oh, there you go.
30:03.68
vigorbranding
Yeah, that was the thing. And then they decided to have YPO Gold, WPO and all that. stuff So I stayed in and now we’re like a forum for life. So my guys, we meet once a month and we are together. ah we A lot of it’s virtual because these guys, a lot of it, we’re retired and stuff.
30:15.91
vigorbranding
So um I’m old. I mean, the it’s YPO o Gold, but I always say it’s Silent G, you know, YPO old. So, but it’s a, it was the greatest thing I’ve ever done for me.
30:26.29
vigorbranding
Maybe a better husband, better father, better businessman, a better employer, better ah a friend. I mean, and I i mean that.
30:32.27
Stephen Baldi
and human
30:33.29
vigorbranding
Yeah. It’s just a better human. And I think a lot of people see it from the outside and think it’s all, it’s a bunch of guys didn’t talk about how many cars they have and where they want vacation. It’s not that at all.
30:40.24
Stephen Baldi
It’s not that it’s a transformational community, you know, having a high trust network is invaluable.
30:40.92
vigorbranding
You know, it’s, you know, it’s a, it is, it is.
30:47.41
vigorbranding
Yep. Yeah. Someone’s got your back, right? You can always pick up that phone and call your, one of your folks and just, they got your back. No, that’s yeah.
30:54.39
Stephen Baldi
And it’s nobody, and it’s nobody, nothing, never. And to have that level of confidentiality is special.
30:57.03
vigorbranding
That’s right. Yep. Yeah. Yeah, that’s that’s awesome. That’s all good for you. I had no idea. That’s fantastic. um So, but now I’m going to do a little ploy here. You got to go and you should go to Austin this year to the food and beverage round table.
31:10.60
vigorbranding
I mean, if you can check it out, it’ll be, I think it’s in in January, you know, I’ll probably be speaking there, but you should go.
31:14.55
Stephen Baldi
OK.
31:16.84
vigorbranding
I mean, you know, I’d love to meet you in person. It’d be fantastic.
31:18.67
Stephen Baldi
Yeah, I’d love that.
31:18.88
vigorbranding
Anyway, so could we do,
31:20.42
Stephen Baldi
Maybe we’ll be celebrating a Phillies World Series by then.
31:22.74
vigorbranding
Oh man, you’re making me nervous. um I hope so. I hope you’re right. I hope you’re right. But our company, we do it we do an annual food and beverage trends report every year. We’ve been doing them for like, jeez, 15, 16 years. And so a lot of times we launched it at the food and beverage round table. So it’s always really cool stuff.
31:40.96
Stephen Baldi
Awesome, send me an invite and I’ll be there.
31:41.00
vigorbranding
um Yeah. All right. Well, definitely. I’ll make sure you get it after this, after our conversation here. So, okay. When you go to a restaurant, you you have a choice between human interaction or self ordering kiosks. I know that, you know, you guys need to be really ah high speed, efficient and all that. What what do you, what do you prefer?
31:58.57
Stephen Baldi
Well, it depends, right? Deploying technology is a strategy that ah should be done with intention and asking the question, and then what, right?
32:12.55
Stephen Baldi
um I will tell you a story. So the first time we experimented with self ordering technology was in 2008 at JFK airport terminal five.
32:24.65
Stephen Baldi
And we deployed at the time iPads um at our Dunkin Donuts because we thought, you know, technology is moving in this way and it’s fun and it’s cool, but nobody wants to walk up to a counter and order a coffee by pressing buttons.
32:29.75
vigorbranding
Mm-hmm. Yep.
32:39.85
vigorbranding
Mm-hmm.
32:44.46
Stephen Baldi
You know, communicating to a cashier, ah medium cream and sugar takes about 15 seconds. When you are forcing someone to press hot coffee, then medium, then sugar, then extra sugar, like that’s just, we found that that was a ah strategy that wasn’t ah successfully deployed at that time.
32:58.57
vigorbranding
who
33:05.34
Stephen Baldi
now That was back in 2008. I will say trends have matured since then and so there is an opportunity to have self ordering technology at a place like Dunkin Donuts and people have learned to navigate it quickly. um You have hot buttons for certain high usage items and so I say to people all the time because my friends question me, whenever they see an iPad, they assume that that means that that technology has taken someone’s job. And what I try to educate people on is that you know if you deploy technology in a intentional way, in a smart way, it allows you to redirect
33:45.29
Stephen Baldi
what you would have otherwise spent on front of house and the back of house.
33:46.57
vigorbranding
Mm
33:49.72
Stephen Baldi
Or maybe you’re deploying it at a ah leadership level that’s multi-unit capable.
33:49.78
vigorbranding
hmm.
33:55.24
Stephen Baldi
And so it’s not necessarily ah replacing jobs, but allowing savvy business leaders to take that investment and redeploy it in other ways. I will tell you that the benefit is you know technology doesn’t call out. Sometimes you have to reboot the system, but it always upsells. It always asks you if you want a dessert and always ask you if you want to package your burger with fries. And so to be able to grow your top line ticket, ah that’s only going to drive bottom line outcomes, which allows a business owner like me to look at expansion, to go into other cities, to be able to bring other people along with us because the business is growing. And so there’s opportunity beyond just taking someone’s order. And so
34:40.31
Stephen Baldi
Technology is something you have to look at in parallel kind of decision making. But I enjoy it. There’s some concepts that it resonates more significantly than others. But I think there’s a balance and there needs to be a balance of both going forward. I don’t think we’re ever going to have an industry that is exclusively technology or self ordering driven. um And I think you go in with a bunch of assumptions, you understand how your customers respond to it, and then you be agile enough to adjust appropriately.
35:08.96
vigorbranding
Yeah, I mean, it makes a lot of sense. And i I concur. I mean, you know, I don’t want to wait in a massive line, especially from an airport. But, you know, just ordering, pre-ordering and all that kind of stuff isn’t all that funny either.
35:19.32
vigorbranding
So it’s just you with that happy balance. You know, I do like talking to somebody and, you know, because I talk a lot, I guess. But plus, I always ask for some ice in my coffee just a little bit. I don’t want nice coffee.
35:27.30
Stephen Baldi
There you go.
35:27.67
vigorbranding
So it’s a little tough to explain to an iPad, you know, so very soft.
35:31.57
Stephen Baldi
To drop it into a couple of cubes, yeah.
35:32.20
vigorbranding
Whoops. Yeah. Yeah. I don’t want to burn my, burn my mouth. So now I know you have at least one daughter, correct?
35:38.70
Stephen Baldi
I’d have two daughters and a son.
35:39.87
vigorbranding
Two daughters. right All right. Sorry. There we go.
35:41.61
Stephen Baldi
26, 25, and eight.
35:41.75
vigorbranding
This will be great then. Wow. Wow.
35:45.67
Stephen Baldi
I started over, Michael.
35:45.74
vigorbranding
A little gap here.
35:46.59
Stephen Baldi
I started over.
35:47.16
vigorbranding
You had a little gap here.
35:48.55
Stephen Baldi
had I had a couple of gap years.
35:48.93
vigorbranding
A couple of gap years. i well so I have two daughters, 26 as of last week and coming coming up on 29. The reason I bring up these families is you know we all know we love all our kids the same.
36:01.78
Stephen Baldi
No, we don’t.
36:01.79
vigorbranding
But on any but okay but on any given day on any given day, depending on the phone call, depending on the visit, there’s certainly ones that we like other better than others.
36:02.97
Stephen Baldi
No, we don’t.
36:09.94
vigorbranding
Michael Alex, it happens it back and forth all the time, just in case you’re listening. Those are my daughters. um
36:14.34
Stephen Baldi
Love it.
36:15.04
vigorbranding
so you know, we talked about pot belly, we talked about smash burger, we talked about dunking, we talked about timber, we talked about founding farmers, am I missing any any ends?
36:25.21
Stephen Baldi
There you go.
36:27.03
vigorbranding
Which one?
36:27.28
Stephen Baldi
It’s the end. Yeah.
36:27.84
vigorbranding
Which one’s your favorite? What’s your favorite kid there?
36:29.64
Stephen Baldi
My favorite. Wow. You’re going to force me to say that.
36:33.77
vigorbranding
Yeah, yeah.
36:34.15
Stephen Baldi
Well, I will tell you, because I don’t know if any of our franchisors are going to listen to this part. I love them all equally, and I am privileged to be able to operate them. I will tell you the one that probably um sits deeply in my soul as a person ah is probably Dunkin’ Donuts.
36:55.45
vigorbranding
Nice.
36:55.85
Stephen Baldi
and And I’ll tell you Dunkin’ Donuts because when I was growing up ah in Southwest Philadelphia off of Cobbs Creek Parkway, I had family that lived out by the airport. And in order to get into that area of the city, you have to travel on Cobbs Creek Parkway.
37:11.63
Stephen Baldi
And there’s a Dunkin Donuts on the corner of Cobbs Creek Parkway and I can’t remember the cross street, but it’s been there for close to probably 30 or 40 years. I’m 48 and I can’t remember a time when it wasn’t there. And I remember seeing that Dunkin Donuts and thinking how rich that franchisee must be to have that score.
37:30.65
Stephen Baldi
Now I know that owning a single franchise is not necessarily a path to generational wealth, but it did, that Dunkin Donuts did put in my mind like what was possible.
37:40.22
vigorbranding
Yeah, that’s cool.
37:40.70
Stephen Baldi
um And so to be able to be now a 14 year franchisee of that brand, um which is our longest franchise relationship, it’s pretty special.
37:46.48
vigorbranding
Super.
37:50.20
vigorbranding
That’s cool. And you know, I’ll say this from the, from the branding side of the world. Uh, what a phenomenal job. I mean, Duncan’s been around forever. I mean, at one point time it was getting a little tired. It was sort of just fading in the woodwork.
38:01.35
vigorbranding
And we know, I mean, all these brands, I mean, they come on strong. They’re, they’re always started somewhere. There’s this regional thing. And then they become these big brands and is they, they struggle to stay relevant.
38:10.04
Stephen Baldi
Right?
38:12.62
vigorbranding
Right. And I think Duncan has just done a remarkable job.
38:16.08
Stephen Baldi
We have, yeah.
38:16.24
vigorbranding
of staying relevant i mean from their graphic design from their marketing their branding to their advertising and all the cool stuff they’ve done that you did you did they blew it away they they absolutely did and yep
38:22.42
Stephen Baldi
I mean, we had the best Super Bowl commercial in my opinion. I mean, Ben Affleck and J.Lo, they did their thing. And Mark Wahlberg, it like it was it was a beautiful commercial.
38:33.65
vigorbranding
Yeah, and you know, it just shows like when you have passion for something, and those guys certainly have passion for for for that part of the world and ah from the Boston area. I just think it’s it was exceptional. In fact, ironically, we have at at our holding company level, Pavone Group, we have the longest running, okay, this is no kidding, the longest running Super Bowl commercial voting mechanism called spotbowl.com.
38:56.66
vigorbranding
So every year we get
38:57.28
Stephen Baldi
OK.
38:59.26
vigorbranding
you know, thousands and thousands and thousands of votes from around the world, and people vote for their favorite Super Bowl commercial as it’s being played, as the game is being played. And then the the national media outlets reach out to us, and then we tell them the results.
39:13.08
vigorbranding
And Dunkin Donuts was was certainly a stellar winner.
39:13.26
Stephen Baldi
OK.
39:16.02
Stephen Baldi
It was and had to be at the top.
39:17.26
vigorbranding
Yeah, it was awesome.
39:17.88
Stephen Baldi
Come on out. Tell me Michael it was at the top.
39:19.04
vigorbranding
Yeah, yeah. It was, well, I’m looking over here at my guy that runs it. it was It was the top one. Yeah, it was, it definitely was.
39:24.42
Stephen Baldi
It was, it I thought it was.
39:25.10
vigorbranding
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
39:25.89
Stephen Baldi
There you go. Thank you for, thank you for phoning your friend and getting confirmation.
39:26.59
vigorbranding
It was it was awesome.
39:29.55
Stephen Baldi
It was a pretty special advertising.
39:31.41
vigorbranding
Yeah.
39:31.85
Stephen Baldi
And yeah, I didn’t get a chance to order my Duncan jumpsuit, but I’m sure it’s in the mail somewhere.
39:36.72
vigorbranding
Yeah, there you go. there That’s that that everything.
39:38.41
Stephen Baldi
Maybe Duncan corporate will see this and they’ll send me one.
39:38.96
vigorbranding
Although. yeah Yeah, all the merch, everything they did around that was super cool. and the take the outtakes from the
39:43.99
Stephen Baldi
Super cool.
39:46.35
vigorbranding
you know It’s funny too because when it comes to this marketing stuff, like it used to be just a TV spot. and The reason I looked over to ask Dave, Dave’s the guy you spoke to. He’s the one that that kind of heads up this podcast. He’s also the one that really runs Spopple. We’ve been doing this so long that In the beginning, we didn’t know anything.
40:03.48
vigorbranding
In other words, they would the game it was all about the game. The game was played. And then people realized, well, people love the commercials. So we never knew, like like you and everybody else, we just sit there and watch the game, cut the commercial. Oh, it’s a commercial for fill in the blank.
40:15.61
vigorbranding
Now, they release the commercials to us ahead of time.
40:15.73
Stephen Baldi
Yeah.
40:18.45
vigorbranding
They tell us what it’s about. They send us outtakes. They give us information. Because they realize it, because it’s a couple million dollars for 30 seconds, that they need to get as much juice out of the you know squeeze as much juice out of this as possible so they want to know they put stuff online they do teasers and it’s it’s turned into a an event unto itself and uh we’re really proud to have been a part of it so it’s kind of funny that you brought that up that’s cool stuff all
40:39.58
Stephen Baldi
Yeah. Now I will tell you my all time favorite Super Bowl commercial.
40:44.35
vigorbranding
right uh
40:45.67
Stephen Baldi
Now I remember the star, but I don’t even remember the brand.
40:49.95
vigorbranding
-oh
40:50.06
Stephen Baldi
Remember the the commercial with the kid and the Star Wars mask and he was going around zapping things and he went and he zapped the car and the car started.
40:55.24
vigorbranding
Volkswagen. Yeah. Yeah.
40:58.28
Stephen Baldi
That was my all-time favorite more commercial.
40:58.46
vigorbranding
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That’s great. Yeah. That was ah that was a Volkswagen spot. That was a fantastic spot.
41:03.91
Stephen Baldi
Fantastic commercial.
41:03.93
vigorbranding
It was a fantastic. You know, I’ll i’ll tell you mine next. i’m I’m a simp and I, you know, ah the Budweiser commercials and
41:11.83
Stephen Baldi
Oh yeah.
41:13.17
vigorbranding
There was one though in particular where the guy, you know, he raises these horses and it goes on to be a Clydesdale and it it takes off and the horse leaves and there’s a parade. And I almost get choked up thinking about it.
41:24.28
vigorbranding
It was so well done. There’s a parade, the guy standing there to parade and the horse sees him, breaks away, chases him down on the road. Oh my gosh. It was, it was, I had to do a live TV commercial. I had to do a live segment on the news about the the best TV spot and and they they, you know, they played it and I wasn’t expecting them to play it.
41:40.60
vigorbranding
I’m like, I had tears going down my face.
41:42.56
Stephen Baldi
Oh, you got emotional.
41:42.51
vigorbranding
I’m like, That’s my favorite.
41:43.64
Stephen Baldi
Oh, look at you.
41:45.41
vigorbranding
I still get emotional. i think but i think it I think it was the best all-time i mean story. It was just cute. so anyway That’s right, man.
41:50.70
Stephen Baldi
And the best story always wins, Michael. Best story always wins.
41:53.25
vigorbranding
That’s right. right yeah Yeah, you know, we always tell people a brand is a promise, ah but you have to tell a story. You have to draw a motion, make them laugh, make them cry, make them feel something about your brand. And that’s how you break through. And it’s always important, you know, a lot of times clients will say stuff, um you know, hey we just want to sell more, we got to do this, we got to do that. And and really it comes down to ah the fact that you’ve you got to do great creative to break through to get people’s attention.
42:19.09
vigorbranding
So, well, I have a couple more questions for you and I want to hit them for sure.
42:21.03
Stephen Baldi
Okay.
42:22.25
vigorbranding
So now look, ah we talked about the airports you’re in, in the in the in the greater DC area, some of the most, I mean, they’re they’re busy, they’re they’re important, they’re huge. Other airports, I mean, you have great concessions in those airports.
42:34.37
vigorbranding
Other airports that you think have great concessions in the country?
42:37.16
Stephen Baldi
Yeah, I will tell you, Atlanta, one of the busiest airports in the world, definitely in this country.
42:42.95
vigorbranding
Oh yeah, oh yeah. yeah
42:45.86
Stephen Baldi
um And then Houston, Orlando, Chicago, Charlotte, these are all markets that we kind of look at.
42:49.80
vigorbranding
Mm hmm. Oh yeah.
42:54.54
vigorbranding
Massive hubs.
42:56.51
Stephen Baldi
um It’s important for us to be in high demand airport systems, because you never know how the world’s going to,
43:02.80
vigorbranding
Yeah.
43:05.21
Stephen Baldi
respond. And Morgan Hausl is one of the people who I look to for kind of strategic direction.
43:12.04
vigorbranding
Mm hmm.
43:13.49
Stephen Baldi
I’m thinking about my business. And one thing he always says is that as a business leader, if you’re only planning for the risk and threats that you can predict, you’re probably missing the biggest one.
43:24.90
vigorbranding
Oh, yeah.
43:25.41
Stephen Baldi
um And so how we kind of shelter ourselves from that is we go into high demand markets. So even if an airline, a legacy airline like an American or United or a Delta or a Southwest ah decides that they no longer want to operate in that market, there’ll be another legacy carrier chomping at the bit together.
43:44.09
vigorbranding
Sure.
43:44.40
Stephen Baldi
And so that’s one of our strategy when we’re looking to grow nationally is to look at high demand airport markets.
43:44.77
vigorbranding
Sure. Mm hmm.
43:51.29
Stephen Baldi
And those are just a few that I named.
43:53.58
vigorbranding
I’m a big fan of Morgan has effect. We have him speaking at our, at our YPO. He’s, he’s one of, I think he might even be next month’s speaker. So I’m really, really, are you really, that’s all his book.
44:00.64
Stephen Baldi
ah We’re bringing them in on the 13th of November. Yeah.
44:04.00
vigorbranding
His book’s incredible. Incredible. I made my daughter’s read it. So, um, what’s next for balding management group. And mean we talked about in other airports. What’s, what’s next for you? What’s what’s your vision? Where are you were are you hoping to go?
44:13.26
Stephen Baldi
my My vision is to grow the tent and plant trees that I may never even know their shade, um because that’s when I think a community and when a business is thriving is when you’re willing to do things that you might not be able to see to fruition. And so we’re trying to build a company, not trying, we are building a company that will rise the tide for all the boats. I want to create another 20, 25 stories just like mine.
44:41.46
vigorbranding
Yeah.
44:41.62
Stephen Baldi
um I can invest and grow my company so that it’s beneficial and creates generational wealth for me, but I also have the opportunity to listen to the individuals whose stories might not necessarily be taken to the top because they’re not fully formed or well articulated.
44:59.34
Stephen Baldi
I try to look for those people, because I was once that person.
45:00.66
vigorbranding
yeah
45:02.15
Stephen Baldi
I was the property manager in the office, and Cynthia Garber came and tapped me on the shoulder, which she did not have to do.
45:02.50
vigorbranding
yep
45:08.96
Stephen Baldi
And so I’m trying to identify those voices in our companies, the people in leadership, but also the people who we don’t necessarily identify with immediately, because a lot of our workforce our ESL where English is a second language.
45:24.24
Stephen Baldi
And so verbal communication is a challenge, but I don’t want that to get in the way of us knowing or identifying the next star in our organization.
45:24.69
vigorbranding
Yeah. Yep.
45:33.22
Stephen Baldi
So we’re doing things to kind of bridge the gap between ah those verbal communication kind of challenges so that every voice that’s in our organization can be heard because listen.
45:44.32
Stephen Baldi
I won’t pour a cup of coffee or flip a burger or roll a pretzel today, but that’s how our business runs. And so I want to give opportunity and visibility to those individuals in a very intentional way.
45:53.22
vigorbranding
Sure.
45:59.67
Stephen Baldi
So that’s what’s next ah for the company. And I think if you know you pay attention to the pennies and the nickels, the dollars make sense. And I believe if you focus on organizationally, the people who may be at the bottom of the ladder, you’ll grow the tent and the business in a way where there’s more opportunity created for everyone who’s valuable.
46:20.08
Stephen Baldi
And so that’s what I’m committed to, Michael.
46:21.72
vigorbranding
Fantastic. a Question. Have you ever, have you ever spoke to the woman who tapped you on the shoulder? Have you ever told her?
46:27.38
Stephen Baldi
i I mention Cynthia Garber every time I get the yeah opportunity to share how she interceded in my life.
46:30.01
vigorbranding
Yeah.
46:33.70
Stephen Baldi
And we text probably once or twice a year, but she knows how important she is to me.
46:36.60
vigorbranding
Oh, good. That’s awesome.
46:39.09
Stephen Baldi
um We haven’t seen each other in person probably 10 years, but I tell her story every time I speak about my journey because it was instrumental.
46:44.19
vigorbranding
That’s awesome.
46:47.22
Stephen Baldi
So she’s aware.
46:47.33
vigorbranding
Hey, that’s got to get you to pay yeah pay it forward, pay it back. And you got to make sure that you yeah you acknowledge the folks that helped you get there.
46:51.02
Stephen Baldi
and of pay for
46:54.07
vigorbranding
That’s, that’s huge.
46:54.84
Stephen Baldi
And you know what’s remarkable, Michael, over the 18 years that I’ve been in the business, 16 years leading this company, every now and then I’ll get a text message or I’ll get a direct ah message on LinkedIn of someone who worked for our organization and matriculated somewhere else.
47:11.24
Stephen Baldi
And I’ve lost contact with, and they’ve done the same for me.
47:12.80
vigorbranding
here
47:14.06
Stephen Baldi
So I know how special it is.
47:15.49
vigorbranding
That’s cool.
47:15.94
Stephen Baldi
And so whenever I get the opportunity, I try to tell people how they’ve impacted my life.
47:16.98
vigorbranding
Yeah.
47:19.90
vigorbranding
Very cool. well Stephen, I have one one last question. You’ve been phenomenal by the way. I can talk for you for hours. You’re you’re awesome. ah One last question. All right. And can’t you can’t pick pot belly or one of your, you can’t pick one of your brands, but if you had one final meal, what would you eat and why?
47:35.33
Stephen Baldi
Oh, this is the easy, this is the easy.
47:36.24
vigorbranding
Oh, good. All right. Sometimes people struggle with this. so
47:38.51
Stephen Baldi
No, it’s not a struggle. Michael, I’m from Philadelphia. If I gave any answer other than a gym steak with whizzing American, with fried onions, hot peppers, pickles, and ketchup, I would be doing my city a disservice.
47:42.03
vigorbranding
Yeah. Okay. Oh, nice.
47:52.46
vigorbranding
There you go. That’s good.
47:53.31
Stephen Baldi
So that’s what it would be.
47:53.56
vigorbranding
Good. Great. ah Great answer. Great answer. It’s funny, you know, I, yeah, come on, man.
47:56.67
Stephen Baldi
North and South, if you haven’t been, you should go the next time you’re in Philadelphia.
48:00.24
vigorbranding
I’ve been, I had a gym.
48:01.51
Stephen Baldi
I’m not talking to you, I’m talking to your audience.
48:02.84
vigorbranding
and Okay. I was going to say, I had a gym stick last week and I’m not making that up. We had, I don’t know if I mentioned, but we had, uh, brought in agencies, independent agencies, all from all around North America, i guys from Puerto Rico, Mexico, Canada, all over the continental U S come to Philadelphia.
48:19.70
vigorbranding
and during happy. We took them to dinners. We took them. We treated them right. We showed them the city independence and all that stuff. But when we had the happy hour at my offices, I had pats and I had gyms and we had little little forks and we did a cheesesteak sampling program.
48:32.46
vigorbranding
You know, yeah, they you you do know who won.
48:32.82
Stephen Baldi
Oh, and I know who won.
48:35.35
vigorbranding
So I know, you know, I know, you know, hey, I’ll throw another one out there.
48:36.36
Stephen Baldi
I won’t make you name it, but I know, I know who won.
48:41.02
vigorbranding
Pat or Tony Luke’s down on Oregon Avenue.
48:42.86
Stephen Baldi
Oh, he looks great.
48:43.85
vigorbranding
The original.
48:44.04
Stephen Baldi
De La Sandro’s Mama’s Pizzeria on Belmont Avenue.
48:44.87
vigorbranding
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. tell sound good You know, you you know.
48:48.67
Stephen Baldi
I haven’t lived in the city before the years, but it’s still, I know where to go.
48:48.76
vigorbranding
Yeah, man. Yeah, you know, those, those, those are legacy places, you know, and and yeah, it’s all good, all good.
48:54.82
Stephen Baldi
For sure.
48:56.68
vigorbranding
In fact, you know what, that’ll be my happy meal. The Phillies will be in the playoffs and I do, I slide down into and get a cheesesteak before the game. It’s a, it’s a part of the whole shtick. So I’m excited about it.
49:04.48
Stephen Baldi
And you also have to get a wild, wild fruit punch. Come on now.
49:06.31
vigorbranding
Oh, there you go.
49:07.00
Stephen Baldi
You gotta round it out.
49:07.01
vigorbranding
There you go. Yeah, that’s, that’s that’s funny. Well, Steven, it was fantastic. I really appreciate your time. Uh, and it was wonderful talking to you.
49:14.87
Stephen Baldi
I appreciate the invitation. And listen, good luck with the rest of your forktails going forward. It seems like you’ve had an incredible run with the amount of episodes that you’ve already had. And I hope you you know multiply that by 10, if that is your intention and desire.
49:27.00
vigorbranding
Thanks. That’s awesome. Appreciate you.
vigorbrandin00:01.99
vigorbranding
Hey folks, welcome to Fork Tales, and I’m excited. Today’s guest is Stephen Baldy. He’s the founder and president of Baldy Management Group. Baldy Management Group is an airport concessions and management consulting company. It’s a mouthful there. ah Manages concessions in Reagan National Airport, JFK International Airport, and Dulles International Airport. ah Stephen, welcome to Fork Tales, and thank you so much for joining us.
00:25.82
Stephen Baldi
Michael, thank you for having me. I’m looking forward to the conversation.
00:29.01
vigorbranding
So for those that don’t know, all of these are located in the sort of DC Metro, Baltimore or down at DC Metro area, right?
00:36.21
Stephen Baldi
Correct.
00:37.04
vigorbranding
Yeah.
00:37.19
Stephen Baldi
Yeah, even though Philadelphia is my hometown, I’ve been in Washington DC for almost 30 years. um So this is home base for us.
00:46.37
vigorbranding
yeah Well, you you you know, I have a little trick question because that was going to be my first question. Are you still a Philly sports fan? I mean, do you bleed Eagle Green?
00:53.03
Stephen Baldi
if If you cut me, it would be nothing but green. I live in Washington, DC.
00:56.48
vigorbranding
OK, beautiful.
00:57.88
Stephen Baldi
My heart is in Philadelphia.
00:59.81
vigorbranding
Beautiful, beautiful. Wow. There’s, there’s guys, I don’t even know what they call themselves these days. these’s The commanders, the Washington football club.
01:04.91
Stephen Baldi
oh The Washington football team, they’re all.
01:05.40
vigorbranding
I mean, they’re just, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Just, it’s irrelevant. It’s irrelevant.
01:10.11
Stephen Baldi
Yeah, Michael, my family would disown me if anything other than my ah zip code changed as far as my hometown affiliation.
01:10.06
vigorbranding
So that’s fantastic. Hey, it’s awesome. You got to bring, I had a gentleman come in, uh, from, uh, Oregon last week to speak to a bunch of advertising agencies from North America. We hosted them in Philadelphia and this guy was so excited. He was, he, he, he came from there, but he was Philly through and through. So everything in his presentation tied back to a Philly icon, something about Philadelphia that was iconic. And, you know, ah in our company, we’re,
01:44.34
vigorbranding
We’re very proud that we’re an independent advertising agencies. We have an agency called Vigor and an agency called Quench. Vigor’s restaurant branding. Quench is food and beverage marketing. And the whole thing was around independence and how it’s how important it is.
01:57.06
vigorbranding
And he had all these great icons from like Nick Foles to, ah you know, ah Mike Schmidt to the Fanatic to, I mean, Will Smith.
02:07.11
vigorbranding
I mean, he just went through all the Philadelphia stuff, you know, the Liberty Bell and everything else. and So it was cool. It was cool.
02:11.77
Stephen Baldi
um I love it. I’ll tell you an interesting story about Nick Foles. So I had a really good feeling about our Super Bowl run, even though you know Carson Wentz, who was leading as the MVP that year, went down. And the Friday before the Super Bowl, something told me to go online and buy a Nick Foles autograph helmet.
02:33.57
vigorbranding
Wow.
02:34.10
Stephen Baldi
And I did. Now, I did not expedite the shipping, Michael. So it was not in my possession on Monday after we had won the Super Bowl. And many of my friends said that helmet’s never going to show up, but it did.
02:47.65
Stephen Baldi
So I bought it for $99.
02:47.77
vigorbranding
That’s awesome.
02:49.77
Stephen Baldi
And I can tell you, it’s it’s worth a lot more than that.
02:51.92
vigorbranding
That’s awesome. Yeah, it’s worth a lot to people in Philadelphia. So it’s fantastic. And the pride of that city runs deep. So alright, so tell us about Baldy enter Management Group and what it does what inspired you to get into the airport concession games. I mean, you started I think in residential property, right?
03:06.90
Stephen Baldi
I did. I started in residential property management in 2002. And I started in airports in 2005. And it was all kind of serendipitous. I had a really ah prickly history before starting in 2002.
03:23.22
Stephen Baldi
at Kettler Management, which managed tax credit properties, but also Class A luxury communities.
03:29.04
vigorbranding
Okay.
03:29.23
Stephen Baldi
And I had a tenant coming to my office. And she said, Steven, I see you engaging with the residents and how you handle issues. And I think you should be doing more. And I thought to myself, like this woman doesn’t know me.
03:39.92
Stephen Baldi
Yeah, I just fixed her fireplace. But who are you to come in my office and tell me what I should be doing? And at the time, I was making $22,000 a year with a Georgetown degree. And the job that they wanted me to interview for paid $85,000 a year.
03:54.21
vigorbranding
wow
03:54.39
Stephen Baldi
So as you can assume, Michael, goal I took the interview, I got the job. And so for three years, I worked in development for Westfield, which most people know as shopping mall developers, they have an airport division.
04:05.82
vigorbranding
Hmm. Ah.
04:07.99
Stephen Baldi
And so I was responsible for the redevelopment of national airport here in Washington, DC from 2005. to 2008. And then I leveraged a relationship with OTG Management, which has a very large presence at Philadelphia International, um into a joint venture relationship and actually launched the company, BMG, in 2008. And two thousand and eight and it’s we’ve not looked back since.
04:31.36
vigorbranding
That’s fantastic. you know It’s funny. I really i don’t know you. we’re We’re really talking for the first time. I can tell right away, like youre you have a positive attitude, and I can tell you’re engaging. And so I could see how someone would see you in action and be like, hey, you know you you could do more. like You can be a part of something bigger. And it’s obviously what’s happened, which is it’s awesome. I’m a big proponent of attitude. I mean, i I love to know where people went to school. I mean, if you if I interview you, I want to see your brains on the table.
04:58.39
vigorbranding
But I really want to know what your personality is like. I want to know about your attitude. I want to know ah how ah how much of a ah person you are that wants to win and be engaging and help people. And it’s ah like it comes through with you right away.
05:09.91
vigorbranding
And that’s ah it’s cool.
05:10.18
Stephen Baldi
I appreciate that.
05:11.03
vigorbranding
now it’s it’s
05:11.32
Stephen Baldi
Yeah, i’ll I’ll take it back if you if you want me to. So ah back in 1988, I was turning 13 and I begged my mom for a pair of Air Jordan sneakers.
05:24.58
Stephen Baldi
And you’ll remember when Gordon’s first came out, ah they were the first shoe over a hundred dollars.
05:25.72
vigorbranding
Oh, yeah.
05:29.85
vigorbranding
Oh, yes, they were.
05:30.36
Stephen Baldi
yeah I grew up in a upper lower class household and it was a stretch for my mom to purchase these shoes.
05:31.49
vigorbranding
Yep.
05:37.09
vigorbranding
Mm hmm.
05:38.21
Stephen Baldi
But I begged her and I begged her and I begged her and and she ended up buying them for me. And she said, you know, I just want you to be safe. Well, you probably can assume where the story goes. Within like a month of getting these sneakers, I was an attempted robbery, and I acted very violently to defend myself, and it resulted in me getting expelled from the school that I was at.
05:59.94
Stephen Baldi
And as a punishment, ah rather than letting me play basketball for the entire summer, my mom forced me to go to the reading math and basketball clinic at Friend Central, which is a very prominent independent school on the main line of Philadelphia.
06:14.39
vigorbranding
Mm hmm.
06:14.96
Stephen Baldi
And that decision changed my life. um I went from living in a predominantly all-Black neighborhood to a private school that I was the only Black male in my class.
06:25.11
vigorbranding
Wow.
06:25.74
Stephen Baldi
And what it did was it changed my perspective of what was accessible. like I had never seen a computer before.
06:31.75
vigorbranding
Right.
06:32.14
Stephen Baldi
And at this school, there was in a computer lab where we could sit down and navigate things.
06:34.40
vigorbranding
Yeah.
06:36.15
Stephen Baldi
And so going to Friends Central, having my mom make that leap of faith changed my trajectory in many ways. I matriculated from there to Georgetown University here in Washington, DC, which is how I got.
06:48.20
Stephen Baldi
to Washington DC. So I am a super Philadelphia sports fan, because not only am I from Philly, but Allen Iverson was my classmate at Georgetown University.
06:51.93
vigorbranding
That’s awesome.
06:55.50
vigorbranding
Is that right?
06:56.61
Stephen Baldi
Yeah, we were the same class.
06:56.89
vigorbranding
Wow.
06:57.61
Stephen Baldi
And so, yeah, very cool.
06:58.33
vigorbranding
That’s so cool. Yeah.
07:00.38
Stephen Baldi
And so maya my commitment to making meaningful connections with people comes from way back then when I was forced to do it, not only because of who I am, but my circumstances.
07:00.74
vigorbranding
AI. It’s legendary.
07:12.75
Stephen Baldi
And I’ve tried to carry that out through my career and my life.
07:15.84
vigorbranding
That’s fantastic. what a great That’s great. That’s a great story. you know it’s like It’s funny that on the Air Jordans, at that time, when they came out, and I can follow you on that. i know you You nailed it. You said the first sneaker that was over $100. My dad had ah this like mom and pop retail sporting store. We sold mostly like hockey stuff. We were from Hershey, Pennsylvania.
07:35.39
vigorbranding
And I was working in a store in in Camp Hill and outside of Hershey. It’s up in the West Shore, they call it. Anyway, long story short, I was in the mall and we sold some sneakers and the Air Jordans came out and we had them on the wall.
07:48.37
vigorbranding
And it was like, it was insane. $100 for a pair of sneakers.
07:52.08
Stephen Baldi
Yeah.
07:52.28
vigorbranding
And I mean, like, whereas I’ll say the average then was probably like on the high end was probably like 50, 55.
07:57.40
Stephen Baldi
Yeah, for sure.
07:58.58
vigorbranding
And this went right to 100. And it was funny, my dad, maybe that’s where I started learning about, and I really did learn a lot about marketing, working in retail, because you have to talk to people, you have to sell. And I think that’s the most important skill a person can learn. Communicating with people and learning how to sell, like, you know, at least present yourself, right? So I put these sneakers at the very top. I said, dad, you know what? ah I said, everybody wants the Air Jordans. Most people can’t afford them.
08:21.42
vigorbranding
but everyone wants to come and look at it. So I always sell them the white, the white, men’s the body they’re like but you know, so for every one Air Jordan, I saw, I used to sell like 30 other pairs of shoes.
08:25.49
Stephen Baldi
ah yeah
08:30.65
vigorbranding
You know what I mean?
08:31.05
Stephen Baldi
It’s been up in the store. It’s like a newspaper. People don’t necessarily want just the newspaper, at least the retailer does it, but they come in to buy the newspaper and then they buy the water, the soda, the candy.
08:33.13
vigorbranding
That’s right.
08:39.73
vigorbranding
That’s right. yeah I lured them in with the Air Jordans. I think we had like five parrot the most. I mean, we couldn’t afford, you know, it’s a little mom pop store.
08:46.41
Stephen Baldi
Probably two sizes.
08:47.56
vigorbranding
Yeah, right. That’s exactly right. So that’s funny. So okay, you talked about sports and and and you know, Philly and all that you you pride yourself on um being a local company and playing in front of the home crowd.
08:58.99
vigorbranding
Talk a little bit about the the local connection in DC that you have.
09:02.34
Stephen Baldi
Yeah, so I’ll tell you, when you fly into most airports, what people don’t automatically see, but being a former developer, I understand that any airport authority, when you land in their airport, they want you to know what city you are in.
09:18.24
Stephen Baldi
So national brands are extremely important. So you’ll have your Dunkin’ Donuts. You’ll have your Pop-Belly’s, which are ah franchises that we operate.
09:22.12
vigorbranding
Mm hmm.
09:25.89
Stephen Baldi
But every airport wants you to have a sense of place. So when you fly into Philadelphia Airport, you’ll have a Jim Stakes, because that’s you know historical to that region.
09:34.38
vigorbranding
Yeah.
09:34.93
Stephen Baldi
When you fly into National Airport here, or Dallas International, you’ll have your South Blocks, which is an ASE base. com concept here in the DC.
09:45.49
Stephen Baldi
You’ll have Ben’s Chili Bowl, which has been around since the 60s.
09:45.90
vigorbranding
Mm hmm. Mm hmm.
09:49.41
Stephen Baldi
And so we’ve prided ourselves from identifying and connecting with other founder-led brands, because I’m a founder. And nothing against a hired gun.
09:56.93
vigorbranding
Mm hmm.
09:58.81
Stephen Baldi
I know they are often effective at their job. But there’s something different about a founder-led company because you’ve built it.
10:06.95
vigorbranding
Yeah.
10:07.27
Stephen Baldi
it probably has more ah meaning to you behind just the bottom line um results that you drive. It’s personal.
10:15.52
vigorbranding
Yeah.
10:15.69
Stephen Baldi
And so we’ve developed very deep relationships with companies like founding farmers, with timber pizza, who are all local based companies here. And we expect to continue to grow it, not just in this region that we’re in, but as we grow into other markets to do the same.
10:30.68
vigorbranding
Yeah, that’s that’s fantastic. And you nailed it. I mean, like, I’m a founder, I’m an entrepreneur. And you know, and ah again, wonderful folks that that work with me, I’m very, very, very lucky. But you know, for for most people, it’s their job, you know, their career, and and hopefully there’s a sense of of a family and a real relationship.
10:49.53
vigorbranding
But for me, it’s my life. I mean, i am I am defined personally by this, which is probably pretty shallow.
10:51.05
Stephen Baldi
right
10:54.86
vigorbranding
I mean, i mean look, um I love my daughters. I’m a dad. I’m ah a husband. I love my family with all my heart, but I feel like I’m defined by my company and the what I’ve built. and and all of that And I just, you know, so again, I don’t know if that’s a bad thing or a good thing or whatever, but it’s just, it’s ah it’s a lot deeper, right?
11:11.93
vigorbranding
When you found something and ah it’s it’s a lot deeper, everyone thinks it has to do with like money and stuff, and it really doesn’t.
11:12.49
Stephen Baldi
Right. For sure.
11:17.73
vigorbranding
It’s a it’s really about, you know, sort of like your life’s life’s work. and You know, you know, I get I get the most excitement out of seeing the growth of the folks in the company. ah It’s great to see the brands grow and the companies grow.
11:30.42
vigorbranding
But I really get a kick out of of seeing the folks that have been here a long time and and all that. So anyway, that’s just that’s me.
11:35.91
Stephen Baldi
right
11:36.26
vigorbranding
But I just I totally I totally concur with what you’re saying as far as the founder led. I mean, that’s that’s fantastic.
11:41.40
Stephen Baldi
Yeah, at some point as a founder, you most likely had to put something at risk that meant something to you.
11:47.14
vigorbranding
Yeah.
11:47.50
Stephen Baldi
Whether it’s personal guaranteeing, first leverage to build the company or, you know, having to bail it out because you run into a pandemic, which we all face back in 2020.
11:47.75
vigorbranding
Oh, yeah. Yeah.
11:55.18
vigorbranding
All right.
11:57.80
Stephen Baldi
um Oftentimes you can’t just walk from that business and matriculate to another W2 position because this is yours. And so I love when I can connect with founders.
12:04.69
vigorbranding
Yeah.
12:07.41
Stephen Baldi
I’ll work with non-founders also, but there’s something unique about the journey we’ve all been on.
12:09.54
vigorbranding
Sure.
12:11.88
vigorbranding
Yeah, absolutely. So let’s let’s talk a little bit. I just so folks know, I mean, what’s really cool about this conversation is I, ah you know, with vigor, we work with restaurant brands, right?
12:22.32
vigorbranding
So we’re very familiar with restaurant brands. And you you have brands like Potbelly, Smashburger. You said founding farmers soon to come. ah Timber Pizza, Dunkin, I mean, some some household names.
12:33.94
vigorbranding
I don’t know if I’m um yeah any ants.
12:34.26
Stephen Baldi
On the end, don’t forget on the end, this is what else we have.
12:35.99
vigorbranding
No, I can’t actually. Yeah, we actually worked on any answers. We have an agency called quench that a branding agency, Food and Beverage, that that actually worked with Auntie Anne’s because they started here in Lancaster.
12:40.96
Stephen Baldi
Okay.
12:45.88
vigorbranding
hu Yeah, and I got to meet Anne Byler in the beginning.
12:45.98
Stephen Baldi
They did.
12:48.81
vigorbranding
So, Auntie Anne is actually a person and she’s a wonderful lady and It was a really really awesome to meet her and and and what a she was so she’s a very philanthropic lady very very ah ah Generous and very successful very so she’s got a phenomenal story as well. But so yeah, I certainly won’t leave the auntie hands out But you so you have all these great brands um Talk a little bit about I mean, you know, you said somewhere founded by they you know the founders and all that what’s it like to to manage all these different brands and
13:18.00
Stephen Baldi
I’ll tell you, it’s a dynamic environment. Airports are a wonderful place to do business. Again, I share with you briefly how I matriculated into them, but once you end up in this kind of ecosystem, it’s hard to walk away.
13:33.35
Stephen Baldi
We get the privilege of serving the traveling public every day. And what’s special about that are the passengers are dynamic. There are people who are going on business trips. There are people who are going on vacations. There are people who are going to be celebrated and there are people who are going to, you know,
13:51.28
Stephen Baldi
usher people off into a transition of life. And we get to meet and connect with them all. And so I tell our crew members that we have the privilege of participating in whatever journey people are on every day.
14:03.68
Stephen Baldi
And then the following day, we get a whole new group of people coming through.
14:06.48
vigorbranding
yeah yeah
14:07.36
Stephen Baldi
So that’s dynamic in the industries are small. I will tell you it’s about a $8 billion industry nationally in the United States, food and beverage and airports.
14:14.57
vigorbranding
Yeah. Yeah.
14:19.40
Stephen Baldi
But the industry is really controlled by about 20 key companies. And within those 20 companies, you probably have 50 total key players.
14:23.32
vigorbranding
yeah
14:27.50
Stephen Baldi
And so we know each other. you know You typically don’t leave the industry. Your business card may change. So you may go from company to company, but it’s a small ecosystem. And so I’ve enjoyed being in the industry now.
14:40.58
Stephen Baldi
18 years. I started when I was two. ah But it’s a buy it’s been an extraordinary 18 years, except for some of the challenges like COVID. But you know for the people who were able and blessed to push through it, I think we have a different perspective on what we can be and what we should be in the businesses that we lead. To your point,
15:00.50
Stephen Baldi
um being defined by your business is not necessarily shallow, but there’s levels, there’s there’s depth to what we do.
15:08.62
vigorbranding
Yeah.
15:08.91
Stephen Baldi
And I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to swim in those depths ah for many years.
15:14.41
vigorbranding
That’s awesome. We’ll get to COVID in a second, but I want to go back to airports. ah I’ll say, fortunately or unfortunately, I’m a customer. I’m in an airport every single week. So when you’re describing the people you see there, it’s like, yeah.
15:21.70
Stephen Baldi
Awesome.
15:24.71
vigorbranding
I mean, you know there’s it’s every single walk of life. Everyone seems to have a higher level of stress.
15:30.65
Stephen Baldi
yeah
15:30.77
vigorbranding
Everyone’s in a hurry, even when they’re not, or even worse, if someone’s really not in a hurry and they’re walking slow in the airport, that can actually be more frustrating and stressful. but ah So how do you how do you deal with that chaos? I mean, you got all these people that are amped up and nervous and they have anxiety or whatever, and then all of a sudden you’ve got to serve them and take them, you know, and represent these great brands and and and actually make the stuff and and in a and a fast time because they’re always running late, even if they’re not, they just think they’re always stressed.
15:56.04
Stephen Baldi
Right.
15:59.20
vigorbranding
Talk about airport concessions. Talk about that chaos.
16:02.08
Stephen Baldi
Yeah, so you meet people where they are. And I will tell you, operating a street-side restaurant versus an airport, it’s a completely different sport.
16:09.79
vigorbranding
I cannot imagine.
16:10.73
Stephen Baldi
I tell ah these founder-led companies when they’re thinking about matriculating in the airports, I tell them you know it’s like playing high school varsity basketball.
16:10.80
vigorbranding
yeah
16:19.70
Stephen Baldi
And then you get drafted to the and NBA, like the speed, the requirements, you know, we have to go through the logistical um challenges of having every box that comes into your restaurant scan.
16:20.40
vigorbranding
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
16:31.21
Stephen Baldi
Like Cisco’s not pulling up to our back door and delivering our ground beef for Smashburger.
16:31.53
vigorbranding
Yeah.
16:34.05
vigorbranding
Right.
16:35.85
Stephen Baldi
Like it’s going through an X-ray, just like your luggage is.
16:38.86
vigorbranding
Yeah.
16:39.39
Stephen Baldi
um All of our crew members have to go through a 10 year federal background check.
16:44.03
vigorbranding
Sure.
16:44.19
Stephen Baldi
um There’s complexities to the business, which are to our challenge. But to me, it’s also kind of to our benefit, Michael, because it reduces my competition. Because unless you’re a serious player, you’re not trying to participate in airports.
16:54.14
vigorbranding
Mhm.
16:56.81
Stephen Baldi
And so for me, understanding those barriers and be able to navigate them are great. But from a day to day operation standpoint, We encourage our crew members just to meet people where they are.
17:07.93
Stephen Baldi
um It may be the 50th time you’ve welcomed someone to our restaurant, but it’s the first time you’ve spoken to the person that’s in front of you. And again, you don’t know if they’re going on vacation or they’re going to a celebration of life to send a family member home.
17:16.31
vigorbranding
right
17:22.96
Stephen Baldi
Regardless, you should be additive to their experience and not adding additional stress or complications. Just try to deliver them fast, friendly, exceptional,
17:34.09
Stephen Baldi
service because that’s our standard. That is our vision for the company, which is being exceptional is our standard. It’s not something that happens intermittently.
17:42.84
vigorbranding
All right.
17:44.59
Stephen Baldi
It happens all the time. And so we welcome the chaos.
17:45.78
vigorbranding
Yeah.
17:48.05
Stephen Baldi
You know, when it’s raining and snowing outside, even though your flights are delayed, we kind of welcome that because that means you get to hang out with you a little bit longer.
17:54.78
vigorbranding
Yeah. Yeah.
17:55.63
Stephen Baldi
So as long as we’re not canceling flights, if they’re just delayed, that’s kind of our sweet spot.
18:00.01
vigorbranding
There you go.
18:00.65
Stephen Baldi
So we welcome it all.
18:02.58
vigorbranding
That’s awesome. You know, you you said something really interesting. So as I mentioned, Vigor is our agency that that does branding and marketing for restaurants. I know, and it’s not, you know, it’s common knowledge that turnover and and employees in the restaurant industry is like the biggest hassle, right? and Everyone’s dealing with that that turnover. But you just said something. they They have to go through this long, arduous process to get through. So do you find that you have, I’ll say, maybe better better qualified, better quality,
18:32.38
vigorbranding
ah team members in your restaurants?
18:34.64
Stephen Baldi
I would tell you that our hourly and even our salary leadership ah on some levels, they’re more committed because it is a personal investment to get through the process.
18:39.98
vigorbranding
Mm-hmm.
18:45.54
Stephen Baldi
And so, you know, typical food and beverage turnover is anywhere from 100 to 150%. And only ours is closer to like 30.
18:51.64
vigorbranding
Right.
18:54.91
vigorbranding
that’s hey That’s fantastic. I never thought that that would have never dawned on me that that would be ah an unfair advantage. you know It’s funny, like yeah I was telling someone the other day, you know the higher the barrier to entry in business, actually the better the business is because you don’t have just everybody and anybody competing.
19:12.66
vigorbranding
So you you have a higher barrier of entry.
19:13.25
Stephen Baldi
Correct.
19:15.58
vigorbranding
um And with that, you have you sort of have ah have a capture to a degree ah group of people, right? ah But the one thing that is interesting, I think if I remember correctly, I think there’s like 30%, I’ll say of ah if it’s a Dunkin Donuts on the street corner, 30% of their their ah customers will probably repeat, right?
19:35.43
vigorbranding
ah you You are not, I mean, you know you might have the same business guy that flies every Thursday out to you know wherever,
19:37.58
Stephen Baldi
No?
19:40.80
Stephen Baldi
we have We’ll have our Michaels.
19:41.81
vigorbranding
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
19:42.16
Stephen Baldi
We have our Michaels.
19:43.59
vigorbranding
I’ll hit your place and at the airport get a coffee on the way out, but that’s it. Yeah, that’s it. So that’s.
19:48.43
Stephen Baldi
I will tell you, though, we do have outside of the the traveling public, we do have recurring customers who are the people who work at the airport. I mean, at National and Dulles Airport, you get anywhere from five thousand to ten thousand employees that are there every day.
19:56.97
vigorbranding
No, that makes sense. Sure.
20:03.65
Stephen Baldi
And so ah they are also extremely important to us.
20:03.75
vigorbranding
Mm hmm. Hey, they got to eat and drink, right?
20:07.86
Stephen Baldi
They got to eat and drink and they have to do it fast.
20:09.70
vigorbranding
Right. That’s right.
20:10.84
Stephen Baldi
Well, we have different incentives to get them in and out, but they are our recurring customers and they’re about 15 to 20 percent of our business.
20:15.10
vigorbranding
Yeah, that makes sense. Hey, going back to the old mall days that I was talking about the sneakers, I sold a lot of sneakers to people that worked in the mall, not many Air Jordans, but a lot of the, you know, a lot of the lower end sneakers.
20:22.26
Stephen Baldi
Yeah, for sure.
20:27.36
vigorbranding
So, we talked to you hit on earlier and I know we, we inevitably, hopefully one day we, we don’t, and we don’t have to talk about, we always go back and talking about COVID and, uh, you know,
20:35.54
Stephen Baldi
Oh, yeah.
20:37.21
vigorbranding
One of our companies and our holding company is a company called Varsity. And Varsity does retirement communities around the country, we market retirement companies. Well, that that industry shut down. I mean, no one was going, no one was visiting, and people were sick. It was bad. Restaurants, another one of our our agencies, right? We marketed restaurants. No one was going. It was basically shut down. you know Your hospitality Uh, and your restaurants, I mean, and your travel, I mean, you’re, you’re combining it all and how, talk about that a little bit.
21:06.75
vigorbranding
I mean, you were hit from both ends.
21:07.11
Stephen Baldi
Oh, I had the privilege of double dipping.
21:11.81
vigorbranding
Yeah.
21:11.93
Stephen Baldi
So we were in hospitality beverage, but we were also in travel.
21:12.41
vigorbranding
In turmoil.
21:15.47
vigorbranding
Yeah.
21:16.03
Stephen Baldi
And so I remember very specifically on March 11th, 2020, President Trump came on television and he announced a 30-day travel ban to Europe.
21:27.16
vigorbranding
Mm-hmm.
21:28.65
Stephen Baldi
And at the time, ah most people only thought about the impact of air traffic travel to Europe, places like London, Paris.
21:37.58
vigorbranding
right
21:38.31
Stephen Baldi
But I anticipated that this was really the big moment for our industry.
21:43.00
vigorbranding
Right.
21:43.21
Stephen Baldi
I know a lot of people associate kind of their aha moment with COVID becoming a significant thing when the NBA shut down and more importantly, when the NCAA tournament shut down.
21:53.85
Stephen Baldi
But that announcement on March 11th signified for me that things were about to change for my business.
21:58.60
vigorbranding
Yeah.
21:58.72
Stephen Baldi
Now, I didn’t know it was going to be 18 months.
22:02.21
vigorbranding
Right.
22:02.55
Stephen Baldi
um But within about two weeks, we lost 85% of our top line revenue. And so on March 18, we shut the company down for 18 months. um And it was a challenge to what we talked about earlier, where a lot of my identity was tied up in this company that I built.
22:20.39
Stephen Baldi
Well, there was no company to have an identity he tied to. And so for me as a leader, It really pushed me during that time to redefine who I was in that moment and who I was going to aspire to be if we were privileged enough to come out of it. And we did. We’ve come out very strong, stronger than actually we went in. um We actually sold 35% of the business last year to some strategic, but then also some individual investors. And so I’ve had the privilege of surrounding myself where before I was the only voice in the room and now there are many.
22:55.69
vigorbranding
Right.
22:55.77
Stephen Baldi
And it presents some unique challenges, but also some extraordinary opportunities for me to low to learn and grow from other individuals and institutions that have built companies to scale, not all in food and beverage, many not.
23:10.17
Stephen Baldi
um But it’s really given me the opportunity to become a better leader um and to take our company into the next five to 10 years of what we will be.
23:20.35
vigorbranding
That’s fantastic. you know i the the The COVID obviously affected everybody. It affected everybody in different ways. and like For us for a business, it was and it was really interesting in that you know because we have several different agencies in our holding company, it was sort of a little bit of a like a mutual fund where one or two stocks could be really down, but then others can be up. Our CPG agency, Quench,
23:40.72
vigorbranding
you know we’ We’re doing we’re doing brands national brands like you know Sunmade Raise and Stark Institute. To me, COVID, to to that to that company and those brands, COVID was like the greatest sampling program in the history of Earth. i mean If you put it in a package back then, it was on a shelf. People bought it. They stuck it in their pantries. They ate it. They bought more of it. i mean They couldn’t get enough of it. i mean It was just ah an insane time.
24:01.94
vigorbranding
for those companies. and then the other the The negative side obviously was the restaurants and everything else. i mean It’s a really interesting time. and and you know You said about how you it can define things. the other thing One of the other things we did was we took adversity. We had all these CEOs that were like, what is everyone doing? i mean like you you know This just happened. It was unprecedented. What is everybody else doing? so We thought, well,
24:23.89
vigorbranding
All right, we’re not making i mean and and again it’s not we’re not making revenue businesses down, but we still have these relationships. They’re our clients. So what can we do? So it wasn’t my idea, but one of our guys said, hey, let’s create sort of a round table. of that And our agency is called Varsity. So we called it the Varsity Round Table. So we got all these CEOs that were just like,
24:41.34
vigorbranding
What’s everyone doing? And they were able to talk and it was so successful that we did it the next week. And then they talked more and then more and more CEOs jumped in. They weren’t even our clients and became this open source sharing that has now been, we are on about, I think it’s like 250th.
24:58.49
vigorbranding
roundt We’ve been doing them every week since the first month of COVID.
25:04.38
Stephen Baldi
Wow, impressive.
25:05.19
vigorbranding
And what’s done for a company, for us, i mean again we don’t make any money from it. And it wasn’t about that. It was just a place for people to really vent and help. And now we have speakers come in and talk, and everyone’s obviously well beyond COVID.
25:16.71
vigorbranding
But it’s really allowed us to be a thought leader and assist these folks. And you know at the end of the day, it’s what it’s all about. And I know a big thing for you is is mentorship, right? I mean, you know talk about giving back. you want you Do you want to talk a little bit about that?
25:27.81
Stephen Baldi
Yeah, I’ll talk about that but I’ll also talk similarly to your roundtable so in February of 2020 I had the privilege of joining the organization YPO, which is Young President Organization, which is very similar to what you define there’s 35.
25:42.82
Stephen Baldi
1,000 YPO members globally. And it’s really for business leaders who have decided that they want to walk towards betterment as a person, as a leader, as a family member, as someone contributing to their community in partnership with other leaders.
25:58.55
Stephen Baldi
And so I am in the Washington DC Baltimore chapter here ah in the region.
25:58.93
vigorbranding
Mm hmm.
26:04.18
Stephen Baldi
And I’m in leadership. And I can tell you that organization was really critical in me navigating everything that I had to go through ah during COVID.
26:14.98
Stephen Baldi
Now, we didn’t we didn’t meet weekly, um but we do meet monthly in a small group of seven to 10 people, and we have forum.
26:15.26
vigorbranding
Sure.
26:19.82
vigorbranding
Monthly forum.
26:22.81
Stephen Baldi
And, oh, there you go.
26:22.85
vigorbranding
I didn’t know I’m i’m YPO, too. I didn’t know your IPO. Yeah, I’ve been.
26:25.92
Stephen Baldi
Yeah!
26:26.21
vigorbranding
Yeah.
26:27.01
Stephen Baldi
So YDO is really what sustained me during COVID.
26:27.03
vigorbranding
So Oh.
26:29.86
Stephen Baldi
um And I’m privileged to be on the ladder now in leadership.
26:32.72
vigorbranding
Do for you.
26:35.01
Stephen Baldi
And so, yeah, as far as mentorship, when I started the company, you know it was a priority for me to give opportunity to underrepresented populations. um Now, as I started to grow the company, my focus started to turn inward, Michael, if I’m being honest. And you know the beginning of 2020, it was difficult for anybody to tell me that I wasn’t the shit. I built this company from zero to something much larger than I had ever aspired to as a young person.
27:04.34
vigorbranding
Right.
27:06.68
Stephen Baldi
um But COVID took all of that away.
27:08.81
vigorbranding
Yeah.
27:09.14
Stephen Baldi
And so what it reminded me of is that there was a mission that I started this company with. And it was something that I needed to recommit to when we reopened.
27:19.90
Stephen Baldi
And so now um we’re really pouring into our crew members um When I hire someone, specifically, let’s take Dunkin Donuts.
27:30.76
Stephen Baldi
If I bring in someone as a frontline worker that’s pouring coffee, if they’re still pouring coffee for us in three years, both them and the organization has done something wrong.
27:34.59
vigorbranding
Mmhmm.
27:41.17
Stephen Baldi
um We want to scale people up. It is not cost effective for us to have people in the same position for multiple years. So if we’re not scaling someone up to take on additional responsibility inside our company and sometimes even outside of our company, then we’ve done something wrong. you know My mentor told me a good leader ah expects or wants people to leave. A great leader expects them to.
28:08.64
vigorbranding
Yeah.
28:09.01
Stephen Baldi
And so either they’re leaving the position that we’re hiring them for or they’re leaving to go to another organization. But either way, we have to invest in our hourly crew members because we can’t afford not to.
28:20.86
vigorbranding
Yeah.
28:21.76
Stephen Baldi
And so that’s something that we really communicate out and share out. to our community and our organization and people know that we’re gonna invest in them in ways that other companies might not to and we feel like that gives us a competitive advantage and as a leader it makes me feel a good about not only our bottom line results but also the success that we can feel. I have a manager who’s been with us for eight years.
28:46.57
Stephen Baldi
Her name is Marta. And she started as a single unit manager. And now she’s a multi-airport director.
28:53.24
vigorbranding
awesome.
28:53.39
Stephen Baldi
And to see her growth and to understand the impact that that has has had on her family is tremendous. And I want to do that a hundred times over.
29:00.50
vigorbranding
Sure.
29:00.79
Stephen Baldi
And I have the privilege of being able to do that as a leader of our company.
29:01.01
vigorbranding
Yeah.
29:04.70
vigorbranding
and And think of it this way, I mean, and that’s what’s so great about this country, I’ll say is like, you were making whatever $22,000 a year, I think you had free room or board or whatever you were managing, right?
29:12.60
Stephen Baldi
I did.
29:13.65
vigorbranding
So you you’re probably like, I’m getting by, this is okay. And look, you and you know, obviously, you’re you’re very well educated, you have a great drive and personality, but you you created a a huge company. And that’s, that’s, that’s really super cool, really super cool.
29:25.90
Stephen Baldi
Well, Michael, I can tell you specifically in that first year, 2002, I made $19,117 and 43 cents. I can tell you that specifically because that W2 still sits on my desk.
29:36.80
Stephen Baldi
I have it framed.
29:36.84
vigorbranding
Yeah, yeah.
29:37.68
Stephen Baldi
I look at it every day just to remind me of where all of this started and where now we’ve grown the company to I’m, I’m extremely proud.
29:45.15
vigorbranding
Yeah. And you know, you mentioned YPO and I’ve been very privileged to be in that organization for, gosh, I think at least 20 some years.
29:53.06
Stephen Baldi
So you joined when you were 17.
29:54.45
vigorbranding
Yeah, no, but yeah, it’s one of those things, is we you know, it used to kick you out when you’re 50. In fact, I did, I got the rocking chair and showed up at the front door.
30:02.59
Stephen Baldi
Oh, there you go.
30:03.68
vigorbranding
Yeah, that was the thing. And then they decided to have YPO Gold, WPO and all that. stuff So I stayed in and now we’re like a forum for life. So my guys, we meet once a month and we are together. ah we A lot of it’s virtual because these guys, a lot of it, we’re retired and stuff.
30:15.91
vigorbranding
So um I’m old. I mean, the it’s YPO o Gold, but I always say it’s Silent G, you know, YPO old. So, but it’s a, it was the greatest thing I’ve ever done for me.
30:26.29
vigorbranding
Maybe a better husband, better father, better businessman, a better employer, better ah a friend. I mean, and I i mean that.
30:32.27
Stephen Baldi
and human
30:33.29
vigorbranding
Yeah. It’s just a better human. And I think a lot of people see it from the outside and think it’s all, it’s a bunch of guys didn’t talk about how many cars they have and where they want vacation. It’s not that at all.
30:40.24
Stephen Baldi
It’s not that it’s a transformational community, you know, having a high trust network is invaluable.
30:40.92
vigorbranding
You know, it’s, you know, it’s a, it is, it is.
30:47.41
vigorbranding
Yep. Yeah. Someone’s got your back, right? You can always pick up that phone and call your, one of your folks and just, they got your back. No, that’s yeah.
30:54.39
Stephen Baldi
And it’s nobody, and it’s nobody, nothing, never. And to have that level of confidentiality is special.
30:57.03
vigorbranding
That’s right. Yep. Yeah. Yeah, that’s that’s awesome. That’s all good for you. I had no idea. That’s fantastic. um So, but now I’m going to do a little ploy here. You got to go and you should go to Austin this year to the food and beverage round table.
31:10.60
vigorbranding
I mean, if you can check it out, it’ll be, I think it’s in in January, you know, I’ll probably be speaking there, but you should go.
31:14.55
Stephen Baldi
OK.
31:16.84
vigorbranding
I mean, you know, I’d love to meet you in person. It’d be fantastic.
31:18.67
Stephen Baldi
Yeah, I’d love that.
31:18.88
vigorbranding
Anyway, so could we do,
31:20.42
Stephen Baldi
Maybe we’ll be celebrating a Phillies World Series by then.
31:22.74
vigorbranding
Oh man, you’re making me nervous. um I hope so. I hope you’re right. I hope you’re right. But our company, we do it we do an annual food and beverage trends report every year. We’ve been doing them for like, jeez, 15, 16 years. And so a lot of times we launched it at the food and beverage round table. So it’s always really cool stuff.
31:40.96
Stephen Baldi
Awesome, send me an invite and I’ll be there.
31:41.00
vigorbranding
um Yeah. All right. Well, definitely. I’ll make sure you get it after this, after our conversation here. So, okay. When you go to a restaurant, you you have a choice between human interaction or self ordering kiosks. I know that, you know, you guys need to be really ah high speed, efficient and all that. What what do you, what do you prefer?
31:58.57
Stephen Baldi
Well, it depends, right? Deploying technology is a strategy that ah should be done with intention and asking the question, and then what, right?
32:12.55
Stephen Baldi
um I will tell you a story. So the first time we experimented with self ordering technology was in 2008 at JFK airport terminal five.
32:24.65
Stephen Baldi
And we deployed at the time iPads um at our Dunkin Donuts because we thought, you know, technology is moving in this way and it’s fun and it’s cool, but nobody wants to walk up to a counter and order a coffee by pressing buttons.
32:29.75
vigorbranding
Mm-hmm. Yep.
32:39.85
vigorbranding
Mm-hmm.
32:44.46
Stephen Baldi
You know, communicating to a cashier, ah medium cream and sugar takes about 15 seconds. When you are forcing someone to press hot coffee, then medium, then sugar, then extra sugar, like that’s just, we found that that was a ah strategy that wasn’t ah successfully deployed at that time.
32:58.57
vigorbranding
who
33:05.34
Stephen Baldi
now That was back in 2008. I will say trends have matured since then and so there is an opportunity to have self ordering technology at a place like Dunkin Donuts and people have learned to navigate it quickly. um You have hot buttons for certain high usage items and so I say to people all the time because my friends question me, whenever they see an iPad, they assume that that means that that technology has taken someone’s job. And what I try to educate people on is that you know if you deploy technology in a intentional way, in a smart way, it allows you to redirect
33:45.29
Stephen Baldi
what you would have otherwise spent on front of house and the back of house.
33:46.57
vigorbranding
Mm
33:49.72
Stephen Baldi
Or maybe you’re deploying it at a ah leadership level that’s multi-unit capable.
33:49.78
vigorbranding
hmm.
33:55.24
Stephen Baldi
And so it’s not necessarily ah replacing jobs, but allowing savvy business leaders to take that investment and redeploy it in other ways. I will tell you that the benefit is you know technology doesn’t call out. Sometimes you have to reboot the system, but it always upsells. It always asks you if you want a dessert and always ask you if you want to package your burger with fries. And so to be able to grow your top line ticket, ah that’s only going to drive bottom line outcomes, which allows a business owner like me to look at expansion, to go into other cities, to be able to bring other people along with us because the business is growing. And so there’s opportunity beyond just taking someone’s order. And so
34:40.31
Stephen Baldi
Technology is something you have to look at in parallel kind of decision making. But I enjoy it. There’s some concepts that it resonates more significantly than others. But I think there’s a balance and there needs to be a balance of both going forward. I don’t think we’re ever going to have an industry that is exclusively technology or self ordering driven. um And I think you go in with a bunch of assumptions, you understand how your customers respond to it, and then you be agile enough to adjust appropriately.
35:08.96
vigorbranding
Yeah, I mean, it makes a lot of sense. And i I concur. I mean, you know, I don’t want to wait in a massive line, especially from an airport. But, you know, just ordering, pre-ordering and all that kind of stuff isn’t all that funny either.
35:19.32
vigorbranding
So it’s just you with that happy balance. You know, I do like talking to somebody and, you know, because I talk a lot, I guess. But plus, I always ask for some ice in my coffee just a little bit. I don’t want nice coffee.
35:27.30
Stephen Baldi
There you go.
35:27.67
vigorbranding
So it’s a little tough to explain to an iPad, you know, so very soft.
35:31.57
Stephen Baldi
To drop it into a couple of cubes, yeah.
35:32.20
vigorbranding
Whoops. Yeah. Yeah. I don’t want to burn my, burn my mouth. So now I know you have at least one daughter, correct?
35:38.70
Stephen Baldi
I’d have two daughters and a son.
35:39.87
vigorbranding
Two daughters. right All right. Sorry. There we go.
35:41.61
Stephen Baldi
26, 25, and eight.
35:41.75
vigorbranding
This will be great then. Wow. Wow.
35:45.67
Stephen Baldi
I started over, Michael.
35:45.74
vigorbranding
A little gap here.
35:46.59
Stephen Baldi
I started over.
35:47.16
vigorbranding
You had a little gap here.
35:48.55
Stephen Baldi
had I had a couple of gap years.
35:48.93
vigorbranding
A couple of gap years. i well so I have two daughters, 26 as of last week and coming coming up on 29. The reason I bring up these families is you know we all know we love all our kids the same.
36:01.78
Stephen Baldi
No, we don’t.
36:01.79
vigorbranding
But on any but okay but on any given day on any given day, depending on the phone call, depending on the visit, there’s certainly ones that we like other better than others.
36:02.97
Stephen Baldi
No, we don’t.
36:09.94
vigorbranding
Michael Alex, it happens it back and forth all the time, just in case you’re listening. Those are my daughters. um
36:14.34
Stephen Baldi
Love it.
36:15.04
vigorbranding
so you know, we talked about pot belly, we talked about smash burger, we talked about dunking, we talked about timber, we talked about founding farmers, am I missing any any ends?
36:25.21
Stephen Baldi
There you go.
36:27.03
vigorbranding
Which one?
36:27.28
Stephen Baldi
It’s the end. Yeah.
36:27.84
vigorbranding
Which one’s your favorite? What’s your favorite kid there?
36:29.64
Stephen Baldi
My favorite. Wow. You’re going to force me to say that.
36:33.77
vigorbranding
Yeah, yeah.
36:34.15
Stephen Baldi
Well, I will tell you, because I don’t know if any of our franchisors are going to listen to this part. I love them all equally, and I am privileged to be able to operate them. I will tell you the one that probably um sits deeply in my soul as a person ah is probably Dunkin’ Donuts.
36:55.45
vigorbranding
Nice.
36:55.85
Stephen Baldi
and And I’ll tell you Dunkin’ Donuts because when I was growing up ah in Southwest Philadelphia off of Cobbs Creek Parkway, I had family that lived out by the airport. And in order to get into that area of the city, you have to travel on Cobbs Creek Parkway.
37:11.63
Stephen Baldi
And there’s a Dunkin Donuts on the corner of Cobbs Creek Parkway and I can’t remember the cross street, but it’s been there for close to probably 30 or 40 years. I’m 48 and I can’t remember a time when it wasn’t there. And I remember seeing that Dunkin Donuts and thinking how rich that franchisee must be to have that score.
37:30.65
Stephen Baldi
Now I know that owning a single franchise is not necessarily a path to generational wealth, but it did, that Dunkin Donuts did put in my mind like what was possible.
37:40.22
vigorbranding
Yeah, that’s cool.
37:40.70
Stephen Baldi
um And so to be able to be now a 14 year franchisee of that brand, um which is our longest franchise relationship, it’s pretty special.
37:46.48
vigorbranding
Super.
37:50.20
vigorbranding
That’s cool. And you know, I’ll say this from the, from the branding side of the world. Uh, what a phenomenal job. I mean, Duncan’s been around forever. I mean, at one point time it was getting a little tired. It was sort of just fading in the woodwork.
38:01.35
vigorbranding
And we know, I mean, all these brands, I mean, they come on strong. They’re, they’re always started somewhere. There’s this regional thing. And then they become these big brands and is they, they struggle to stay relevant.
38:10.04
Stephen Baldi
Right?
38:12.62
vigorbranding
Right. And I think Duncan has just done a remarkable job.
38:16.08
Stephen Baldi
We have, yeah.
38:16.24
vigorbranding
of staying relevant i mean from their graphic design from their marketing their branding to their advertising and all the cool stuff they’ve done that you did you did they blew it away they they absolutely did and yep
38:22.42
Stephen Baldi
I mean, we had the best Super Bowl commercial in my opinion. I mean, Ben Affleck and J.Lo, they did their thing. And Mark Wahlberg, it like it was it was a beautiful commercial.
38:33.65
vigorbranding
Yeah, and you know, it just shows like when you have passion for something, and those guys certainly have passion for for for that part of the world and ah from the Boston area. I just think it’s it was exceptional. In fact, ironically, we have at at our holding company level, Pavone Group, we have the longest running, okay, this is no kidding, the longest running Super Bowl commercial voting mechanism called spotbowl.com.
38:56.66
vigorbranding
So every year we get
38:57.28
Stephen Baldi
OK.
38:59.26
vigorbranding
you know, thousands and thousands and thousands of votes from around the world, and people vote for their favorite Super Bowl commercial as it’s being played, as the game is being played. And then the the national media outlets reach out to us, and then we tell them the results.
39:13.08
vigorbranding
And Dunkin Donuts was was certainly a stellar winner.
39:13.26
Stephen Baldi
OK.
39:16.02
Stephen Baldi
It was and had to be at the top.
39:17.26
vigorbranding
Yeah, it was awesome.
39:17.88
Stephen Baldi
Come on out. Tell me Michael it was at the top.
39:19.04
vigorbranding
Yeah, yeah. It was, well, I’m looking over here at my guy that runs it. it was It was the top one. Yeah, it was, it definitely was.
39:24.42
Stephen Baldi
It was, it I thought it was.
39:25.10
vigorbranding
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
39:25.89
Stephen Baldi
There you go. Thank you for, thank you for phoning your friend and getting confirmation.
39:26.59
vigorbranding
It was it was awesome.
39:29.55
Stephen Baldi
It was a pretty special advertising.
39:31.41
vigorbranding
Yeah.
39:31.85
Stephen Baldi
And yeah, I didn’t get a chance to order my Duncan jumpsuit, but I’m sure it’s in the mail somewhere.
39:36.72
vigorbranding
Yeah, there you go. there That’s that that everything.
39:38.41
Stephen Baldi
Maybe Duncan corporate will see this and they’ll send me one.
39:38.96
vigorbranding
Although. yeah Yeah, all the merch, everything they did around that was super cool. and the take the outtakes from the
39:43.99
Stephen Baldi
Super cool.
39:46.35
vigorbranding
you know It’s funny too because when it comes to this marketing stuff, like it used to be just a TV spot. and The reason I looked over to ask Dave, Dave’s the guy you spoke to. He’s the one that that kind of heads up this podcast. He’s also the one that really runs Spopple. We’ve been doing this so long that In the beginning, we didn’t know anything.
40:03.48
vigorbranding
In other words, they would the game it was all about the game. The game was played. And then people realized, well, people love the commercials. So we never knew, like like you and everybody else, we just sit there and watch the game, cut the commercial. Oh, it’s a commercial for fill in the blank.
40:15.61
vigorbranding
Now, they release the commercials to us ahead of time.
40:15.73
Stephen Baldi
Yeah.
40:18.45
vigorbranding
They tell us what it’s about. They send us outtakes. They give us information. Because they realize it, because it’s a couple million dollars for 30 seconds, that they need to get as much juice out of the you know squeeze as much juice out of this as possible so they want to know they put stuff online they do teasers and it’s it’s turned into a an event unto itself and uh we’re really proud to have been a part of it so it’s kind of funny that you brought that up that’s cool stuff all
40:39.58
Stephen Baldi
Yeah. Now I will tell you my all time favorite Super Bowl commercial.
40:44.35
vigorbranding
right uh
40:45.67
Stephen Baldi
Now I remember the star, but I don’t even remember the brand.
40:49.95
vigorbranding
-oh
40:50.06
Stephen Baldi
Remember the the commercial with the kid and the Star Wars mask and he was going around zapping things and he went and he zapped the car and the car started.
40:55.24
vigorbranding
Volkswagen. Yeah. Yeah.
40:58.28
Stephen Baldi
That was my all-time favorite more commercial.
40:58.46
vigorbranding
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That’s great. Yeah. That was ah that was a Volkswagen spot. That was a fantastic spot.
41:03.91
Stephen Baldi
Fantastic commercial.
41:03.93
vigorbranding
It was a fantastic. You know, I’ll i’ll tell you mine next. i’m I’m a simp and I, you know, ah the Budweiser commercials and
41:11.83
Stephen Baldi
Oh yeah.
41:13.17
vigorbranding
There was one though in particular where the guy, you know, he raises these horses and it goes on to be a Clydesdale and it it takes off and the horse leaves and there’s a parade. And I almost get choked up thinking about it.
41:24.28
vigorbranding
It was so well done. There’s a parade, the guy standing there to parade and the horse sees him, breaks away, chases him down on the road. Oh my gosh. It was, it was, I had to do a live TV commercial. I had to do a live segment on the news about the the best TV spot and and they they, you know, they played it and I wasn’t expecting them to play it.
41:40.60
vigorbranding
I’m like, I had tears going down my face.
41:42.56
Stephen Baldi
Oh, you got emotional.
41:42.51
vigorbranding
I’m like, That’s my favorite.
41:43.64
Stephen Baldi
Oh, look at you.
41:45.41
vigorbranding
I still get emotional. i think but i think it I think it was the best all-time i mean story. It was just cute. so anyway That’s right, man.
41:50.70
Stephen Baldi
And the best story always wins, Michael. Best story always wins.
41:53.25
vigorbranding
That’s right. right yeah Yeah, you know, we always tell people a brand is a promise, ah but you have to tell a story. You have to draw a motion, make them laugh, make them cry, make them feel something about your brand. And that’s how you break through. And it’s always important, you know, a lot of times clients will say stuff, um you know, hey we just want to sell more, we got to do this, we got to do that. And and really it comes down to ah the fact that you’ve you got to do great creative to break through to get people’s attention.
42:19.09
vigorbranding
So, well, I have a couple more questions for you and I want to hit them for sure.
42:21.03
Stephen Baldi
Okay.
42:22.25
vigorbranding
So now look, ah we talked about the airports you’re in, in the in the in the greater DC area, some of the most, I mean, they’re they’re busy, they’re they’re important, they’re huge. Other airports, I mean, you have great concessions in those airports.
42:34.37
vigorbranding
Other airports that you think have great concessions in the country?
42:37.16
Stephen Baldi
Yeah, I will tell you, Atlanta, one of the busiest airports in the world, definitely in this country.
42:42.95
vigorbranding
Oh yeah, oh yeah. yeah
42:45.86
Stephen Baldi
um And then Houston, Orlando, Chicago, Charlotte, these are all markets that we kind of look at.
42:49.80
vigorbranding
Mm hmm. Oh yeah.
42:54.54
vigorbranding
Massive hubs.
42:56.51
Stephen Baldi
um It’s important for us to be in high demand airport systems, because you never know how the world’s going to,
43:02.80
vigorbranding
Yeah.
43:05.21
Stephen Baldi
respond. And Morgan Hausl is one of the people who I look to for kind of strategic direction.
43:12.04
vigorbranding
Mm hmm.
43:13.49
Stephen Baldi
I’m thinking about my business. And one thing he always says is that as a business leader, if you’re only planning for the risk and threats that you can predict, you’re probably missing the biggest one.
43:24.90
vigorbranding
Oh, yeah.
43:25.41
Stephen Baldi
um And so how we kind of shelter ourselves from that is we go into high demand markets. So even if an airline, a legacy airline like an American or United or a Delta or a Southwest ah decides that they no longer want to operate in that market, there’ll be another legacy carrier chomping at the bit together.
43:44.09
vigorbranding
Sure.
43:44.40
Stephen Baldi
And so that’s one of our strategy when we’re looking to grow nationally is to look at high demand airport markets.
43:44.77
vigorbranding
Sure. Mm hmm.
43:51.29
Stephen Baldi
And those are just a few that I named.
43:53.58
vigorbranding
I’m a big fan of Morgan has effect. We have him speaking at our, at our YPO. He’s, he’s one of, I think he might even be next month’s speaker. So I’m really, really, are you really, that’s all his book.
44:00.64
Stephen Baldi
ah We’re bringing them in on the 13th of November. Yeah.
44:04.00
vigorbranding
His book’s incredible. Incredible. I made my daughter’s read it. So, um, what’s next for balding management group. And mean we talked about in other airports. What’s, what’s next for you? What’s what’s your vision? Where are you were are you hoping to go?
44:13.26
Stephen Baldi
my My vision is to grow the tent and plant trees that I may never even know their shade, um because that’s when I think a community and when a business is thriving is when you’re willing to do things that you might not be able to see to fruition. And so we’re trying to build a company, not trying, we are building a company that will rise the tide for all the boats. I want to create another 20, 25 stories just like mine.
44:41.46
vigorbranding
Yeah.
44:41.62
Stephen Baldi
um I can invest and grow my company so that it’s beneficial and creates generational wealth for me, but I also have the opportunity to listen to the individuals whose stories might not necessarily be taken to the top because they’re not fully formed or well articulated.
44:59.34
Stephen Baldi
I try to look for those people, because I was once that person.
45:00.66
vigorbranding
yeah
45:02.15
Stephen Baldi
I was the property manager in the office, and Cynthia Garber came and tapped me on the shoulder, which she did not have to do.
45:02.50
vigorbranding
yep
45:08.96
Stephen Baldi
And so I’m trying to identify those voices in our companies, the people in leadership, but also the people who we don’t necessarily identify with immediately, because a lot of our workforce our ESL where English is a second language.
45:24.24
Stephen Baldi
And so verbal communication is a challenge, but I don’t want that to get in the way of us knowing or identifying the next star in our organization.
45:24.69
vigorbranding
Yeah. Yep.
45:33.22
Stephen Baldi
So we’re doing things to kind of bridge the gap between ah those verbal communication kind of challenges so that every voice that’s in our organization can be heard because listen.
45:44.32
Stephen Baldi
I won’t pour a cup of coffee or flip a burger or roll a pretzel today, but that’s how our business runs. And so I want to give opportunity and visibility to those individuals in a very intentional way.
45:53.22
vigorbranding
Sure.
45:59.67
Stephen Baldi
So that’s what’s next ah for the company. And I think if you know you pay attention to the pennies and the nickels, the dollars make sense. And I believe if you focus on organizationally, the people who may be at the bottom of the ladder, you’ll grow the tent and the business in a way where there’s more opportunity created for everyone who’s valuable.
46:20.08
Stephen Baldi
And so that’s what I’m committed to, Michael.
46:21.72
vigorbranding
Fantastic. a Question. Have you ever, have you ever spoke to the woman who tapped you on the shoulder? Have you ever told her?
46:27.38
Stephen Baldi
i I mention Cynthia Garber every time I get the yeah opportunity to share how she interceded in my life.
46:30.01
vigorbranding
Yeah.
46:33.70
Stephen Baldi
And we text probably once or twice a year, but she knows how important she is to me.
46:36.60
vigorbranding
Oh, good. That’s awesome.
46:39.09
Stephen Baldi
um We haven’t seen each other in person probably 10 years, but I tell her story every time I speak about my journey because it was instrumental.
46:44.19
vigorbranding
That’s awesome.
46:47.22
Stephen Baldi
So she’s aware.
46:47.33
vigorbranding
Hey, that’s got to get you to pay yeah pay it forward, pay it back. And you got to make sure that you yeah you acknowledge the folks that helped you get there.
46:51.02
Stephen Baldi
and of pay for
46:54.07
vigorbranding
That’s, that’s huge.
46:54.84
Stephen Baldi
And you know what’s remarkable, Michael, over the 18 years that I’ve been in the business, 16 years leading this company, every now and then I’ll get a text message or I’ll get a direct ah message on LinkedIn of someone who worked for our organization and matriculated somewhere else.
47:11.24
Stephen Baldi
And I’ve lost contact with, and they’ve done the same for me.
47:12.80
vigorbranding
here
47:14.06
Stephen Baldi
So I know how special it is.
47:15.49
vigorbranding
That’s cool.
47:15.94
Stephen Baldi
And so whenever I get the opportunity, I try to tell people how they’ve impacted my life.
47:16.98
vigorbranding
Yeah.
47:19.90
vigorbranding
Very cool. well Stephen, I have one one last question. You’ve been phenomenal by the way. I can talk for you for hours. You’re you’re awesome. ah One last question. All right. And can’t you can’t pick pot belly or one of your, you can’t pick one of your brands, but if you had one final meal, what would you eat and why?
47:35.33
Stephen Baldi
Oh, this is the easy, this is the easy.
47:36.24
vigorbranding
Oh, good. All right. Sometimes people struggle with this. so
47:38.51
Stephen Baldi
No, it’s not a struggle. Michael, I’m from Philadelphia. If I gave any answer other than a gym steak with whizzing American, with fried onions, hot peppers, pickles, and ketchup, I would be doing my city a disservice.
47:42.03
vigorbranding
Yeah. Okay. Oh, nice.
47:52.46
vigorbranding
There you go. That’s good.
47:53.31
Stephen Baldi
So that’s what it would be.
47:53.56
vigorbranding
Good. Great. ah Great answer. Great answer. It’s funny, you know, I, yeah, come on, man.
47:56.67
Stephen Baldi
North and South, if you haven’t been, you should go the next time you’re in Philadelphia.
48:00.24
vigorbranding
I’ve been, I had a gym.
48:01.51
Stephen Baldi
I’m not talking to you, I’m talking to your audience.
48:02.84
vigorbranding
and Okay. I was going to say, I had a gym stick last week and I’m not making that up. We had, I don’t know if I mentioned, but we had, uh, brought in agencies, independent agencies, all from all around North America, i guys from Puerto Rico, Mexico, Canada, all over the continental U S come to Philadelphia.
48:19.70
vigorbranding
and during happy. We took them to dinners. We took them. We treated them right. We showed them the city independence and all that stuff. But when we had the happy hour at my offices, I had pats and I had gyms and we had little little forks and we did a cheesesteak sampling program.
48:32.46
vigorbranding
You know, yeah, they you you do know who won.
48:32.82
Stephen Baldi
Oh, and I know who won.
48:35.35
vigorbranding
So I know, you know, I know, you know, hey, I’ll throw another one out there.
48:36.36
Stephen Baldi
I won’t make you name it, but I know, I know who won.
48:41.02
vigorbranding
Pat or Tony Luke’s down on Oregon Avenue.
48:42.86
Stephen Baldi
Oh, he looks great.
48:43.85
vigorbranding
The original.
48:44.04
Stephen Baldi
De La Sandro’s Mama’s Pizzeria on Belmont Avenue.
48:44.87
vigorbranding
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. tell sound good You know, you you know.
48:48.67
Stephen Baldi
I haven’t lived in the city before the years, but it’s still, I know where to go.
48:48.76
vigorbranding
Yeah, man. Yeah, you know, those, those, those are legacy places, you know, and and yeah, it’s all good, all good.
48:54.82
Stephen Baldi
For sure.
48:56.68
vigorbranding
In fact, you know what, that’ll be my happy meal. The Phillies will be in the playoffs and I do, I slide down into and get a cheesesteak before the game. It’s a, it’s a part of the whole shtick. So I’m excited about it.
49:04.48
Stephen Baldi
And you also have to get a wild, wild fruit punch. Come on now.
49:06.31
vigorbranding
Oh, there you go.
49:07.00
Stephen Baldi
You gotta round it out.
49:07.01
vigorbranding
There you go. Yeah, that’s, that’s that’s funny. Well, Steven, it was fantastic. I really appreciate your time. Uh, and it was wonderful talking to you.
49:14.87
Stephen Baldi
I appreciate the invitation. And listen, good luck with the rest of your forktails going forward. It seems like you’ve had an incredible run with the amount of episodes that you’ve already had. And I hope you you know multiply that by 10, if that is your intention and desire.
49:27.00
vigorbranding
Thanks. That’s awesome. Appreciate you.
g
Hey folks, welcome to Fork Tales, and I’m excited. Today’s guest is Stephen Baldy. He’s the founder and president of Baldy Management Group. Baldy Management Group is an airport concessions and management consulting company. It’s a mouthful there. ah Manages concessions in Reagan National Airport, JFK International Airport, and Dulles International Airport. ah Stephen, welcome to Fork Tales, and thank you so much for joining us.
00:25.82
Stephen Baldi
Michael, thank you for having me. I’m looking forward to the conversation.
00:29.01
vigorbranding
So for those that don’t know, all of these are located in the sort of DC Metro, Baltimore or down at DC Metro area, right?
00:36.21
Stephen Baldi
Correct.
00:37.04
vigorbranding
Yeah.
00:37.19
Stephen Baldi
Yeah, even though Philadelphia is my hometown, I’ve been in Washington DC for almost 30 years. um So this is home base for us.
00:46.37
vigorbranding
yeah Well, you you you know, I have a little trick question because that was going to be my first question. Are you still a Philly sports fan? I mean, do you bleed Eagle Green?
00:53.03
Stephen Baldi
if If you cut me, it would be nothing but green. I live in Washington, DC.
00:56.48
vigorbranding
OK, beautiful.
00:57.88
Stephen Baldi
My heart is in Philadelphia.
00:59.81
vigorbranding
Beautiful, beautiful. Wow. There’s, there’s guys, I don’t even know what they call themselves these days. these’s The commanders, the Washington football club.
01:04.91
Stephen Baldi
oh The Washington football team, they’re all.
01:05.40
vigorbranding
I mean, they’re just, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Just, it’s irrelevant. It’s irrelevant.
01:10.11
Stephen Baldi
Yeah, Michael, my family would disown me if anything other than my ah zip code changed as far as my hometown affiliation.
01:10.06
vigorbranding
So that’s fantastic. Hey, it’s awesome. You got to bring, I had a gentleman come in, uh, from, uh, Oregon last week to speak to a bunch of advertising agencies from North America. We hosted them in Philadelphia and this guy was so excited. He was, he, he, he came from there, but he was Philly through and through. So everything in his presentation tied back to a Philly icon, something about Philadelphia that was iconic. And, you know, ah in our company, we’re,
01:44.34
vigorbranding
We’re very proud that we’re an independent advertising agencies. We have an agency called Vigor and an agency called Quench. Vigor’s restaurant branding. Quench is food and beverage marketing. And the whole thing was around independence and how it’s how important it is.
01:57.06
vigorbranding
And he had all these great icons from like Nick Foles to, ah you know, ah Mike Schmidt to the Fanatic to, I mean, Will Smith.
02:07.11
vigorbranding
I mean, he just went through all the Philadelphia stuff, you know, the Liberty Bell and everything else. and So it was cool. It was cool.
02:11.77
Stephen Baldi
um I love it. I’ll tell you an interesting story about Nick Foles. So I had a really good feeling about our Super Bowl run, even though you know Carson Wentz, who was leading as the MVP that year, went down. And the Friday before the Super Bowl, something told me to go online and buy a Nick Foles autograph helmet.
02:33.57
vigorbranding
Wow.
02:34.10
Stephen Baldi
And I did. Now, I did not expedite the shipping, Michael. So it was not in my possession on Monday after we had won the Super Bowl. And many of my friends said that helmet’s never going to show up, but it did.
02:47.65
Stephen Baldi
So I bought it for $99.
02:47.77
vigorbranding
That’s awesome.
02:49.77
Stephen Baldi
And I can tell you, it’s it’s worth a lot more than that.
02:51.92
vigorbranding
That’s awesome. Yeah, it’s worth a lot to people in Philadelphia. So it’s fantastic. And the pride of that city runs deep. So alright, so tell us about Baldy enter Management Group and what it does what inspired you to get into the airport concession games. I mean, you started I think in residential property, right?
03:06.90
Stephen Baldi
I did. I started in residential property management in 2002. And I started in airports in 2005. And it was all kind of serendipitous. I had a really ah prickly history before starting in 2002.
03:23.22
Stephen Baldi
at Kettler Management, which managed tax credit properties, but also Class A luxury communities.
03:29.04
vigorbranding
Okay.
03:29.23
Stephen Baldi
And I had a tenant coming to my office. And she said, Steven, I see you engaging with the residents and how you handle issues. And I think you should be doing more. And I thought to myself, like this woman doesn’t know me.
03:39.92
Stephen Baldi
Yeah, I just fixed her fireplace. But who are you to come in my office and tell me what I should be doing? And at the time, I was making $22,000 a year with a Georgetown degree. And the job that they wanted me to interview for paid $85,000 a year.
03:54.21
vigorbranding
wow
03:54.39
Stephen Baldi
So as you can assume, Michael, goal I took the interview, I got the job. And so for three years, I worked in development for Westfield, which most people know as shopping mall developers, they have an airport division.
04:05.82
vigorbranding
Hmm. Ah.
04:07.99
Stephen Baldi
And so I was responsible for the redevelopment of national airport here in Washington, DC from 2005. to 2008. And then I leveraged a relationship with OTG Management, which has a very large presence at Philadelphia International, um into a joint venture relationship and actually launched the company, BMG, in 2008. And two thousand and eight and it’s we’ve not looked back since.
04:31.36
vigorbranding
That’s fantastic. you know It’s funny. I really i don’t know you. we’re We’re really talking for the first time. I can tell right away, like youre you have a positive attitude, and I can tell you’re engaging. And so I could see how someone would see you in action and be like, hey, you know you you could do more. like You can be a part of something bigger. And it’s obviously what’s happened, which is it’s awesome. I’m a big proponent of attitude. I mean, i I love to know where people went to school. I mean, if you if I interview you, I want to see your brains on the table.
04:58.39
vigorbranding
But I really want to know what your personality is like. I want to know about your attitude. I want to know ah how ah how much of a ah person you are that wants to win and be engaging and help people. And it’s ah like it comes through with you right away.
05:09.91
vigorbranding
And that’s ah it’s cool.
05:10.18
Stephen Baldi
I appreciate that.
05:11.03
vigorbranding
now it’s it’s
05:11.32
Stephen Baldi
Yeah, i’ll I’ll take it back if you if you want me to. So ah back in 1988, I was turning 13 and I begged my mom for a pair of Air Jordan sneakers.
05:24.58
Stephen Baldi
And you’ll remember when Gordon’s first came out, ah they were the first shoe over a hundred dollars.
05:25.72
vigorbranding
Oh, yeah.
05:29.85
vigorbranding
Oh, yes, they were.
05:30.36
Stephen Baldi
yeah I grew up in a upper lower class household and it was a stretch for my mom to purchase these shoes.
05:31.49
vigorbranding
Yep.
05:37.09
vigorbranding
Mm hmm.
05:38.21
Stephen Baldi
But I begged her and I begged her and I begged her and and she ended up buying them for me. And she said, you know, I just want you to be safe. Well, you probably can assume where the story goes. Within like a month of getting these sneakers, I was an attempted robbery, and I acted very violently to defend myself, and it resulted in me getting expelled from the school that I was at.
05:59.94
Stephen Baldi
And as a punishment, ah rather than letting me play basketball for the entire summer, my mom forced me to go to the reading math and basketball clinic at Friend Central, which is a very prominent independent school on the main line of Philadelphia.
06:14.39
vigorbranding
Mm hmm.
06:14.96
Stephen Baldi
And that decision changed my life. um I went from living in a predominantly all-Black neighborhood to a private school that I was the only Black male in my class.
06:25.11
vigorbranding
Wow.
06:25.74
Stephen Baldi
And what it did was it changed my perspective of what was accessible. like I had never seen a computer before.
06:31.75
vigorbranding
Right.
06:32.14
Stephen Baldi
And at this school, there was in a computer lab where we could sit down and navigate things.
06:34.40
vigorbranding
Yeah.
06:36.15
Stephen Baldi
And so going to Friends Central, having my mom make that leap of faith changed my trajectory in many ways. I matriculated from there to Georgetown University here in Washington, DC, which is how I got.
06:48.20
Stephen Baldi
to Washington DC. So I am a super Philadelphia sports fan, because not only am I from Philly, but Allen Iverson was my classmate at Georgetown University.
06:51.93
vigorbranding
That’s awesome.
06:55.50
vigorbranding
Is that right?
06:56.61
Stephen Baldi
Yeah, we were the same class.
06:56.89
vigorbranding
Wow.
06:57.61
Stephen Baldi
And so, yeah, very cool.
06:58.33
vigorbranding
That’s so cool. Yeah.
07:00.38
Stephen Baldi
And so maya my commitment to making meaningful connections with people comes from way back then when I was forced to do it, not only because of who I am, but my circumstances.
07:00.74
vigorbranding
AI. It’s legendary.
07:12.75
Stephen Baldi
And I’ve tried to carry that out through my career and my life.
07:15.84
vigorbranding
That’s fantastic. what a great That’s great. That’s a great story. you know it’s like It’s funny that on the Air Jordans, at that time, when they came out, and I can follow you on that. i know you You nailed it. You said the first sneaker that was over $100. My dad had ah this like mom and pop retail sporting store. We sold mostly like hockey stuff. We were from Hershey, Pennsylvania.
07:35.39
vigorbranding
And I was working in a store in in Camp Hill and outside of Hershey. It’s up in the West Shore, they call it. Anyway, long story short, I was in the mall and we sold some sneakers and the Air Jordans came out and we had them on the wall.
07:48.37
vigorbranding
And it was like, it was insane. $100 for a pair of sneakers.
07:52.08
Stephen Baldi
Yeah.
07:52.28
vigorbranding
And I mean, like, whereas I’ll say the average then was probably like on the high end was probably like 50, 55.
07:57.40
Stephen Baldi
Yeah, for sure.
07:58.58
vigorbranding
And this went right to 100. And it was funny, my dad, maybe that’s where I started learning about, and I really did learn a lot about marketing, working in retail, because you have to talk to people, you have to sell. And I think that’s the most important skill a person can learn. Communicating with people and learning how to sell, like, you know, at least present yourself, right? So I put these sneakers at the very top. I said, dad, you know what? ah I said, everybody wants the Air Jordans. Most people can’t afford them.
08:21.42
vigorbranding
but everyone wants to come and look at it. So I always sell them the white, the white, men’s the body they’re like but you know, so for every one Air Jordan, I saw, I used to sell like 30 other pairs of shoes.
08:25.49
Stephen Baldi
ah yeah
08:30.65
vigorbranding
You know what I mean?
08:31.05
Stephen Baldi
It’s been up in the store. It’s like a newspaper. People don’t necessarily want just the newspaper, at least the retailer does it, but they come in to buy the newspaper and then they buy the water, the soda, the candy.
08:33.13
vigorbranding
That’s right.
08:39.73
vigorbranding
That’s right. yeah I lured them in with the Air Jordans. I think we had like five parrot the most. I mean, we couldn’t afford, you know, it’s a little mom pop store.
08:46.41
Stephen Baldi
Probably two sizes.
08:47.56
vigorbranding
Yeah, right. That’s exactly right. So that’s funny. So okay, you talked about sports and and and you know, Philly and all that you you pride yourself on um being a local company and playing in front of the home crowd.
08:58.99
vigorbranding
Talk a little bit about the the local connection in DC that you have.
09:02.34
Stephen Baldi
Yeah, so I’ll tell you, when you fly into most airports, what people don’t automatically see, but being a former developer, I understand that any airport authority, when you land in their airport, they want you to know what city you are in.
09:18.24
Stephen Baldi
So national brands are extremely important. So you’ll have your Dunkin’ Donuts. You’ll have your Pop-Belly’s, which are ah franchises that we operate.
09:22.12
vigorbranding
Mm hmm.
09:25.89
Stephen Baldi
But every airport wants you to have a sense of place. So when you fly into Philadelphia Airport, you’ll have a Jim Stakes, because that’s you know historical to that region.
09:34.38
vigorbranding
Yeah.
09:34.93
Stephen Baldi
When you fly into National Airport here, or Dallas International, you’ll have your South Blocks, which is an ASE base. com concept here in the DC.
09:45.49
Stephen Baldi
You’ll have Ben’s Chili Bowl, which has been around since the 60s.
09:45.90
vigorbranding
Mm hmm. Mm hmm.
09:49.41
Stephen Baldi
And so we’ve prided ourselves from identifying and connecting with other founder-led brands, because I’m a founder. And nothing against a hired gun.
09:56.93
vigorbranding
Mm hmm.
09:58.81
Stephen Baldi
I know they are often effective at their job. But there’s something different about a founder-led company because you’ve built it.
10:06.95
vigorbranding
Yeah.
10:07.27
Stephen Baldi
it probably has more ah meaning to you behind just the bottom line um results that you drive. It’s personal.
10:15.52
vigorbranding
Yeah.
10:15.69
Stephen Baldi
And so we’ve developed very deep relationships with companies like founding farmers, with timber pizza, who are all local based companies here. And we expect to continue to grow it, not just in this region that we’re in, but as we grow into other markets to do the same.
10:30.68
vigorbranding
Yeah, that’s that’s fantastic. And you nailed it. I mean, like, I’m a founder, I’m an entrepreneur. And you know, and ah again, wonderful folks that that work with me, I’m very, very, very lucky. But you know, for for most people, it’s their job, you know, their career, and and hopefully there’s a sense of of a family and a real relationship.
10:49.53
vigorbranding
But for me, it’s my life. I mean, i am I am defined personally by this, which is probably pretty shallow.
10:51.05
Stephen Baldi
right
10:54.86
vigorbranding
I mean, i mean look, um I love my daughters. I’m a dad. I’m ah a husband. I love my family with all my heart, but I feel like I’m defined by my company and the what I’ve built. and and all of that And I just, you know, so again, I don’t know if that’s a bad thing or a good thing or whatever, but it’s just, it’s ah it’s a lot deeper, right?
11:11.93
vigorbranding
When you found something and ah it’s it’s a lot deeper, everyone thinks it has to do with like money and stuff, and it really doesn’t.
11:12.49
Stephen Baldi
Right. For sure.
11:17.73
vigorbranding
It’s a it’s really about, you know, sort of like your life’s life’s work. and You know, you know, I get I get the most excitement out of seeing the growth of the folks in the company. ah It’s great to see the brands grow and the companies grow.
11:30.42
vigorbranding
But I really get a kick out of of seeing the folks that have been here a long time and and all that. So anyway, that’s just that’s me.
11:35.91
Stephen Baldi
right
11:36.26
vigorbranding
But I just I totally I totally concur with what you’re saying as far as the founder led. I mean, that’s that’s fantastic.
11:41.40
Stephen Baldi
Yeah, at some point as a founder, you most likely had to put something at risk that meant something to you.
11:47.14
vigorbranding
Yeah.
11:47.50
Stephen Baldi
Whether it’s personal guaranteeing, first leverage to build the company or, you know, having to bail it out because you run into a pandemic, which we all face back in 2020.
11:47.75
vigorbranding
Oh, yeah. Yeah.
11:55.18
vigorbranding
All right.
11:57.80
Stephen Baldi
um Oftentimes you can’t just walk from that business and matriculate to another W2 position because this is yours. And so I love when I can connect with founders.
12:04.69
vigorbranding
Yeah.
12:07.41
Stephen Baldi
I’ll work with non-founders also, but there’s something unique about the journey we’ve all been on.
12:09.54
vigorbranding
Sure.
12:11.88
vigorbranding
Yeah, absolutely. So let’s let’s talk a little bit. I just so folks know, I mean, what’s really cool about this conversation is I, ah you know, with vigor, we work with restaurant brands, right?
12:22.32
vigorbranding
So we’re very familiar with restaurant brands. And you you have brands like Potbelly, Smashburger. You said founding farmers soon to come. ah Timber Pizza, Dunkin, I mean, some some household names.
12:33.94
vigorbranding
I don’t know if I’m um yeah any ants.
12:34.26
Stephen Baldi
On the end, don’t forget on the end, this is what else we have.
12:35.99
vigorbranding
No, I can’t actually. Yeah, we actually worked on any answers. We have an agency called quench that a branding agency, Food and Beverage, that that actually worked with Auntie Anne’s because they started here in Lancaster.
12:40.96
Stephen Baldi
Okay.
12:45.88
vigorbranding
hu Yeah, and I got to meet Anne Byler in the beginning.
12:45.98
Stephen Baldi
They did.
12:48.81
vigorbranding
So, Auntie Anne is actually a person and she’s a wonderful lady and It was a really really awesome to meet her and and and what a she was so she’s a very philanthropic lady very very ah ah Generous and very successful very so she’s got a phenomenal story as well. But so yeah, I certainly won’t leave the auntie hands out But you so you have all these great brands um Talk a little bit about I mean, you know, you said somewhere founded by they you know the founders and all that what’s it like to to manage all these different brands and
13:18.00
Stephen Baldi
I’ll tell you, it’s a dynamic environment. Airports are a wonderful place to do business. Again, I share with you briefly how I matriculated into them, but once you end up in this kind of ecosystem, it’s hard to walk away.
13:33.35
Stephen Baldi
We get the privilege of serving the traveling public every day. And what’s special about that are the passengers are dynamic. There are people who are going on business trips. There are people who are going on vacations. There are people who are going to be celebrated and there are people who are going to, you know,
13:51.28
Stephen Baldi
usher people off into a transition of life. And we get to meet and connect with them all. And so I tell our crew members that we have the privilege of participating in whatever journey people are on every day.
14:03.68
Stephen Baldi
And then the following day, we get a whole new group of people coming through.
14:06.48
vigorbranding
yeah yeah
14:07.36
Stephen Baldi
So that’s dynamic in the industries are small. I will tell you it’s about a $8 billion industry nationally in the United States, food and beverage and airports.
14:14.57
vigorbranding
Yeah. Yeah.
14:19.40
Stephen Baldi
But the industry is really controlled by about 20 key companies. And within those 20 companies, you probably have 50 total key players.
14:23.32
vigorbranding
yeah
14:27.50
Stephen Baldi
And so we know each other. you know You typically don’t leave the industry. Your business card may change. So you may go from company to company, but it’s a small ecosystem. And so I’ve enjoyed being in the industry now.
14:40.58
Stephen Baldi
18 years. I started when I was two. ah But it’s a buy it’s been an extraordinary 18 years, except for some of the challenges like COVID. But you know for the people who were able and blessed to push through it, I think we have a different perspective on what we can be and what we should be in the businesses that we lead. To your point,
15:00.50
Stephen Baldi
um being defined by your business is not necessarily shallow, but there’s levels, there’s there’s depth to what we do.
15:08.62
vigorbranding
Yeah.
15:08.91
Stephen Baldi
And I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to swim in those depths ah for many years.
15:14.41
vigorbranding
That’s awesome. We’ll get to COVID in a second, but I want to go back to airports. ah I’ll say, fortunately or unfortunately, I’m a customer. I’m in an airport every single week. So when you’re describing the people you see there, it’s like, yeah.
15:21.70
Stephen Baldi
Awesome.
15:24.71
vigorbranding
I mean, you know there’s it’s every single walk of life. Everyone seems to have a higher level of stress.
15:30.65
Stephen Baldi
yeah
15:30.77
vigorbranding
Everyone’s in a hurry, even when they’re not, or even worse, if someone’s really not in a hurry and they’re walking slow in the airport, that can actually be more frustrating and stressful. but ah So how do you how do you deal with that chaos? I mean, you got all these people that are amped up and nervous and they have anxiety or whatever, and then all of a sudden you’ve got to serve them and take them, you know, and represent these great brands and and and actually make the stuff and and in a and a fast time because they’re always running late, even if they’re not, they just think they’re always stressed.
15:56.04
Stephen Baldi
Right.
15:59.20
vigorbranding
Talk about airport concessions. Talk about that chaos.
16:02.08
Stephen Baldi
Yeah, so you meet people where they are. And I will tell you, operating a street-side restaurant versus an airport, it’s a completely different sport.
16:09.79
vigorbranding
I cannot imagine.
16:10.73
Stephen Baldi
I tell ah these founder-led companies when they’re thinking about matriculating in the airports, I tell them you know it’s like playing high school varsity basketball.
16:10.80
vigorbranding
yeah
16:19.70
Stephen Baldi
And then you get drafted to the and NBA, like the speed, the requirements, you know, we have to go through the logistical um challenges of having every box that comes into your restaurant scan.
16:20.40
vigorbranding
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
16:31.21
Stephen Baldi
Like Cisco’s not pulling up to our back door and delivering our ground beef for Smashburger.
16:31.53
vigorbranding
Yeah.
16:34.05
vigorbranding
Right.
16:35.85
Stephen Baldi
Like it’s going through an X-ray, just like your luggage is.
16:38.86
vigorbranding
Yeah.
16:39.39
Stephen Baldi
um All of our crew members have to go through a 10 year federal background check.
16:44.03
vigorbranding
Sure.
16:44.19
Stephen Baldi
um There’s complexities to the business, which are to our challenge. But to me, it’s also kind of to our benefit, Michael, because it reduces my competition. Because unless you’re a serious player, you’re not trying to participate in airports.
16:54.14
vigorbranding
Mhm.
16:56.81
Stephen Baldi
And so for me, understanding those barriers and be able to navigate them are great. But from a day to day operation standpoint, We encourage our crew members just to meet people where they are.
17:07.93
Stephen Baldi
um It may be the 50th time you’ve welcomed someone to our restaurant, but it’s the first time you’ve spoken to the person that’s in front of you. And again, you don’t know if they’re going on vacation or they’re going to a celebration of life to send a family member home.
17:16.31
vigorbranding
right
17:22.96
Stephen Baldi
Regardless, you should be additive to their experience and not adding additional stress or complications. Just try to deliver them fast, friendly, exceptional,
17:34.09
Stephen Baldi
service because that’s our standard. That is our vision for the company, which is being exceptional is our standard. It’s not something that happens intermittently.
17:42.84
vigorbranding
All right.
17:44.59
Stephen Baldi
It happens all the time. And so we welcome the chaos.
17:45.78
vigorbranding
Yeah.
17:48.05
Stephen Baldi
You know, when it’s raining and snowing outside, even though your flights are delayed, we kind of welcome that because that means you get to hang out with you a little bit longer.
17:54.78
vigorbranding
Yeah. Yeah.
17:55.63
Stephen Baldi
So as long as we’re not canceling flights, if they’re just delayed, that’s kind of our sweet spot.
18:00.01
vigorbranding
There you go.
18:00.65
Stephen Baldi
So we welcome it all.
18:02.58
vigorbranding
That’s awesome. You know, you you said something really interesting. So as I mentioned, Vigor is our agency that that does branding and marketing for restaurants. I know, and it’s not, you know, it’s common knowledge that turnover and and employees in the restaurant industry is like the biggest hassle, right? and Everyone’s dealing with that that turnover. But you just said something. they They have to go through this long, arduous process to get through. So do you find that you have, I’ll say, maybe better better qualified, better quality,
18:32.38
vigorbranding
ah team members in your restaurants?
18:34.64
Stephen Baldi
I would tell you that our hourly and even our salary leadership ah on some levels, they’re more committed because it is a personal investment to get through the process.
18:39.98
vigorbranding
Mm-hmm.
18:45.54
Stephen Baldi
And so, you know, typical food and beverage turnover is anywhere from 100 to 150%. And only ours is closer to like 30.
18:51.64
vigorbranding
Right.
18:54.91
vigorbranding
that’s hey That’s fantastic. I never thought that that would have never dawned on me that that would be ah an unfair advantage. you know It’s funny, like yeah I was telling someone the other day, you know the higher the barrier to entry in business, actually the better the business is because you don’t have just everybody and anybody competing.
19:12.66
vigorbranding
So you you have a higher barrier of entry.
19:13.25
Stephen Baldi
Correct.
19:15.58
vigorbranding
um And with that, you have you sort of have ah have a capture to a degree ah group of people, right? ah But the one thing that is interesting, I think if I remember correctly, I think there’s like 30%, I’ll say of ah if it’s a Dunkin Donuts on the street corner, 30% of their their ah customers will probably repeat, right?
19:35.43
vigorbranding
ah you You are not, I mean, you know you might have the same business guy that flies every Thursday out to you know wherever,
19:37.58
Stephen Baldi
No?
19:40.80
Stephen Baldi
we have We’ll have our Michaels.
19:41.81
vigorbranding
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
19:42.16
Stephen Baldi
We have our Michaels.
19:43.59
vigorbranding
I’ll hit your place and at the airport get a coffee on the way out, but that’s it. Yeah, that’s it. So that’s.
19:48.43
Stephen Baldi
I will tell you, though, we do have outside of the the traveling public, we do have recurring customers who are the people who work at the airport. I mean, at National and Dulles Airport, you get anywhere from five thousand to ten thousand employees that are there every day.
19:56.97
vigorbranding
No, that makes sense. Sure.
20:03.65
Stephen Baldi
And so ah they are also extremely important to us.
20:03.75
vigorbranding
Mm hmm. Hey, they got to eat and drink, right?
20:07.86
Stephen Baldi
They got to eat and drink and they have to do it fast.
20:09.70
vigorbranding
Right. That’s right.
20:10.84
Stephen Baldi
Well, we have different incentives to get them in and out, but they are our recurring customers and they’re about 15 to 20 percent of our business.
20:15.10
vigorbranding
Yeah, that makes sense. Hey, going back to the old mall days that I was talking about the sneakers, I sold a lot of sneakers to people that worked in the mall, not many Air Jordans, but a lot of the, you know, a lot of the lower end sneakers.
20:22.26
Stephen Baldi
Yeah, for sure.
20:27.36
vigorbranding
So, we talked to you hit on earlier and I know we, we inevitably, hopefully one day we, we don’t, and we don’t have to talk about, we always go back and talking about COVID and, uh, you know,
20:35.54
Stephen Baldi
Oh, yeah.
20:37.21
vigorbranding
One of our companies and our holding company is a company called Varsity. And Varsity does retirement communities around the country, we market retirement companies. Well, that that industry shut down. I mean, no one was going, no one was visiting, and people were sick. It was bad. Restaurants, another one of our our agencies, right? We marketed restaurants. No one was going. It was basically shut down. you know Your hospitality Uh, and your restaurants, I mean, and your travel, I mean, you’re, you’re combining it all and how, talk about that a little bit.
21:06.75
vigorbranding
I mean, you were hit from both ends.
21:07.11
Stephen Baldi
Oh, I had the privilege of double dipping.
21:11.81
vigorbranding
Yeah.
21:11.93
Stephen Baldi
So we were in hospitality beverage, but we were also in travel.
21:12.41
vigorbranding
In turmoil.
21:15.47
vigorbranding
Yeah.
21:16.03
Stephen Baldi
And so I remember very specifically on March 11th, 2020, President Trump came on television and he announced a 30-day travel ban to Europe.
21:27.16
vigorbranding
Mm-hmm.
21:28.65
Stephen Baldi
And at the time, ah most people only thought about the impact of air traffic travel to Europe, places like London, Paris.
21:37.58
vigorbranding
right
21:38.31
Stephen Baldi
But I anticipated that this was really the big moment for our industry.
21:43.00
vigorbranding
Right.
21:43.21
Stephen Baldi
I know a lot of people associate kind of their aha moment with COVID becoming a significant thing when the NBA shut down and more importantly, when the NCAA tournament shut down.
21:53.85
Stephen Baldi
But that announcement on March 11th signified for me that things were about to change for my business.
21:58.60
vigorbranding
Yeah.
21:58.72
Stephen Baldi
Now, I didn’t know it was going to be 18 months.
22:02.21
vigorbranding
Right.
22:02.55
Stephen Baldi
um But within about two weeks, we lost 85% of our top line revenue. And so on March 18, we shut the company down for 18 months. um And it was a challenge to what we talked about earlier, where a lot of my identity was tied up in this company that I built.
22:20.39
Stephen Baldi
Well, there was no company to have an identity he tied to. And so for me as a leader, It really pushed me during that time to redefine who I was in that moment and who I was going to aspire to be if we were privileged enough to come out of it. And we did. We’ve come out very strong, stronger than actually we went in. um We actually sold 35% of the business last year to some strategic, but then also some individual investors. And so I’ve had the privilege of surrounding myself where before I was the only voice in the room and now there are many.
22:55.69
vigorbranding
Right.
22:55.77
Stephen Baldi
And it presents some unique challenges, but also some extraordinary opportunities for me to low to learn and grow from other individuals and institutions that have built companies to scale, not all in food and beverage, many not.
23:10.17
Stephen Baldi
um But it’s really given me the opportunity to become a better leader um and to take our company into the next five to 10 years of what we will be.
23:20.35
vigorbranding
That’s fantastic. you know i the the The COVID obviously affected everybody. It affected everybody in different ways. and like For us for a business, it was and it was really interesting in that you know because we have several different agencies in our holding company, it was sort of a little bit of a like a mutual fund where one or two stocks could be really down, but then others can be up. Our CPG agency, Quench,
23:40.72
vigorbranding
you know we’ We’re doing we’re doing brands national brands like you know Sunmade Raise and Stark Institute. To me, COVID, to to that to that company and those brands, COVID was like the greatest sampling program in the history of Earth. i mean If you put it in a package back then, it was on a shelf. People bought it. They stuck it in their pantries. They ate it. They bought more of it. i mean They couldn’t get enough of it. i mean It was just ah an insane time.
24:01.94
vigorbranding
for those companies. and then the other the The negative side obviously was the restaurants and everything else. i mean It’s a really interesting time. and and you know You said about how you it can define things. the other thing One of the other things we did was we took adversity. We had all these CEOs that were like, what is everyone doing? i mean like you you know This just happened. It was unprecedented. What is everybody else doing? so We thought, well,
24:23.89
vigorbranding
All right, we’re not making i mean and and again it’s not we’re not making revenue businesses down, but we still have these relationships. They’re our clients. So what can we do? So it wasn’t my idea, but one of our guys said, hey, let’s create sort of a round table. of that And our agency is called Varsity. So we called it the Varsity Round Table. So we got all these CEOs that were just like,
24:41.34
vigorbranding
What’s everyone doing? And they were able to talk and it was so successful that we did it the next week. And then they talked more and then more and more CEOs jumped in. They weren’t even our clients and became this open source sharing that has now been, we are on about, I think it’s like 250th.
24:58.49
vigorbranding
roundt We’ve been doing them every week since the first month of COVID.
25:04.38
Stephen Baldi
Wow, impressive.
25:05.19
vigorbranding
And what’s done for a company, for us, i mean again we don’t make any money from it. And it wasn’t about that. It was just a place for people to really vent and help. And now we have speakers come in and talk, and everyone’s obviously well beyond COVID.
25:16.71
vigorbranding
But it’s really allowed us to be a thought leader and assist these folks. And you know at the end of the day, it’s what it’s all about. And I know a big thing for you is is mentorship, right? I mean, you know talk about giving back. you want you Do you want to talk a little bit about that?
25:27.81
Stephen Baldi
Yeah, I’ll talk about that but I’ll also talk similarly to your roundtable so in February of 2020 I had the privilege of joining the organization YPO, which is Young President Organization, which is very similar to what you define there’s 35.
25:42.82
Stephen Baldi
1,000 YPO members globally. And it’s really for business leaders who have decided that they want to walk towards betterment as a person, as a leader, as a family member, as someone contributing to their community in partnership with other leaders.
25:58.55
Stephen Baldi
And so I am in the Washington DC Baltimore chapter here ah in the region.
25:58.93
vigorbranding
Mm hmm.
26:04.18
Stephen Baldi
And I’m in leadership. And I can tell you that organization was really critical in me navigating everything that I had to go through ah during COVID.
26:14.98
Stephen Baldi
Now, we didn’t we didn’t meet weekly, um but we do meet monthly in a small group of seven to 10 people, and we have forum.
26:15.26
vigorbranding
Sure.
26:19.82
vigorbranding
Monthly forum.
26:22.81
Stephen Baldi
And, oh, there you go.
26:22.85
vigorbranding
I didn’t know I’m i’m YPO, too. I didn’t know your IPO. Yeah, I’ve been.
26:25.92
Stephen Baldi
Yeah!
26:26.21
vigorbranding
Yeah.
26:27.01
Stephen Baldi
So YDO is really what sustained me during COVID.
26:27.03
vigorbranding
So Oh.
26:29.86
Stephen Baldi
um And I’m privileged to be on the ladder now in leadership.
26:32.72
vigorbranding
Do for you.
26:35.01
Stephen Baldi
And so, yeah, as far as mentorship, when I started the company, you know it was a priority for me to give opportunity to underrepresented populations. um Now, as I started to grow the company, my focus started to turn inward, Michael, if I’m being honest. And you know the beginning of 2020, it was difficult for anybody to tell me that I wasn’t the shit. I built this company from zero to something much larger than I had ever aspired to as a young person.
27:04.34
vigorbranding
Right.
27:06.68
Stephen Baldi
um But COVID took all of that away.
27:08.81
vigorbranding
Yeah.
27:09.14
Stephen Baldi
And so what it reminded me of is that there was a mission that I started this company with. And it was something that I needed to recommit to when we reopened.
27:19.90
Stephen Baldi
And so now um we’re really pouring into our crew members um When I hire someone, specifically, let’s take Dunkin Donuts.
27:30.76
Stephen Baldi
If I bring in someone as a frontline worker that’s pouring coffee, if they’re still pouring coffee for us in three years, both them and the organization has done something wrong.
27:34.59
vigorbranding
Mmhmm.
27:41.17
Stephen Baldi
um We want to scale people up. It is not cost effective for us to have people in the same position for multiple years. So if we’re not scaling someone up to take on additional responsibility inside our company and sometimes even outside of our company, then we’ve done something wrong. you know My mentor told me a good leader ah expects or wants people to leave. A great leader expects them to.
28:08.64
vigorbranding
Yeah.
28:09.01
Stephen Baldi
And so either they’re leaving the position that we’re hiring them for or they’re leaving to go to another organization. But either way, we have to invest in our hourly crew members because we can’t afford not to.
28:20.86
vigorbranding
Yeah.
28:21.76
Stephen Baldi
And so that’s something that we really communicate out and share out. to our community and our organization and people know that we’re gonna invest in them in ways that other companies might not to and we feel like that gives us a competitive advantage and as a leader it makes me feel a good about not only our bottom line results but also the success that we can feel. I have a manager who’s been with us for eight years.
28:46.57
Stephen Baldi
Her name is Marta. And she started as a single unit manager. And now she’s a multi-airport director.
28:53.24
vigorbranding
awesome.
28:53.39
Stephen Baldi
And to see her growth and to understand the impact that that has has had on her family is tremendous. And I want to do that a hundred times over.
29:00.50
vigorbranding
Sure.
29:00.79
Stephen Baldi
And I have the privilege of being able to do that as a leader of our company.
29:01.01
vigorbranding
Yeah.
29:04.70
vigorbranding
and And think of it this way, I mean, and that’s what’s so great about this country, I’ll say is like, you were making whatever $22,000 a year, I think you had free room or board or whatever you were managing, right?
29:12.60
Stephen Baldi
I did.
29:13.65
vigorbranding
So you you’re probably like, I’m getting by, this is okay. And look, you and you know, obviously, you’re you’re very well educated, you have a great drive and personality, but you you created a a huge company. And that’s, that’s, that’s really super cool, really super cool.
29:25.90
Stephen Baldi
Well, Michael, I can tell you specifically in that first year, 2002, I made $19,117 and 43 cents. I can tell you that specifically because that W2 still sits on my desk.
29:36.80
Stephen Baldi
I have it framed.
29:36.84
vigorbranding
Yeah, yeah.
29:37.68
Stephen Baldi
I look at it every day just to remind me of where all of this started and where now we’ve grown the company to I’m, I’m extremely proud.
29:45.15
vigorbranding
Yeah. And you know, you mentioned YPO and I’ve been very privileged to be in that organization for, gosh, I think at least 20 some years.
29:53.06
Stephen Baldi
So you joined when you were 17.
29:54.45
vigorbranding
Yeah, no, but yeah, it’s one of those things, is we you know, it used to kick you out when you’re 50. In fact, I did, I got the rocking chair and showed up at the front door.
30:02.59
Stephen Baldi
Oh, there you go.
30:03.68
vigorbranding
Yeah, that was the thing. And then they decided to have YPO Gold, WPO and all that. stuff So I stayed in and now we’re like a forum for life. So my guys, we meet once a month and we are together. ah we A lot of it’s virtual because these guys, a lot of it, we’re retired and stuff.
30:15.91
vigorbranding
So um I’m old. I mean, the it’s YPO o Gold, but I always say it’s Silent G, you know, YPO old. So, but it’s a, it was the greatest thing I’ve ever done for me.
30:26.29
vigorbranding
Maybe a better husband, better father, better businessman, a better employer, better ah a friend. I mean, and I i mean that.
30:32.27
Stephen Baldi
and human
30:33.29
vigorbranding
Yeah. It’s just a better human. And I think a lot of people see it from the outside and think it’s all, it’s a bunch of guys didn’t talk about how many cars they have and where they want vacation. It’s not that at all.
30:40.24
Stephen Baldi
It’s not that it’s a transformational community, you know, having a high trust network is invaluable.
30:40.92
vigorbranding
You know, it’s, you know, it’s a, it is, it is.
30:47.41
vigorbranding
Yep. Yeah. Someone’s got your back, right? You can always pick up that phone and call your, one of your folks and just, they got your back. No, that’s yeah.
30:54.39
Stephen Baldi
And it’s nobody, and it’s nobody, nothing, never. And to have that level of confidentiality is special.
30:57.03
vigorbranding
That’s right. Yep. Yeah. Yeah, that’s that’s awesome. That’s all good for you. I had no idea. That’s fantastic. um So, but now I’m going to do a little ploy here. You got to go and you should go to Austin this year to the food and beverage round table.
31:10.60
vigorbranding
I mean, if you can check it out, it’ll be, I think it’s in in January, you know, I’ll probably be speaking there, but you should go.
31:14.55
Stephen Baldi
OK.
31:16.84
vigorbranding
I mean, you know, I’d love to meet you in person. It’d be fantastic.
31:18.67
Stephen Baldi
Yeah, I’d love that.
31:18.88
vigorbranding
Anyway, so could we do,
31:20.42
Stephen Baldi
Maybe we’ll be celebrating a Phillies World Series by then.
31:22.74
vigorbranding
Oh man, you’re making me nervous. um I hope so. I hope you’re right. I hope you’re right. But our company, we do it we do an annual food and beverage trends report every year. We’ve been doing them for like, jeez, 15, 16 years. And so a lot of times we launched it at the food and beverage round table. So it’s always really cool stuff.
31:40.96
Stephen Baldi
Awesome, send me an invite and I’ll be there.
31:41.00
vigorbranding
um Yeah. All right. Well, definitely. I’ll make sure you get it after this, after our conversation here. So, okay. When you go to a restaurant, you you have a choice between human interaction or self ordering kiosks. I know that, you know, you guys need to be really ah high speed, efficient and all that. What what do you, what do you prefer?
31:58.57
Stephen Baldi
Well, it depends, right? Deploying technology is a strategy that ah should be done with intention and asking the question, and then what, right?
32:12.55
Stephen Baldi
um I will tell you a story. So the first time we experimented with self ordering technology was in 2008 at JFK airport terminal five.
32:24.65
Stephen Baldi
And we deployed at the time iPads um at our Dunkin Donuts because we thought, you know, technology is moving in this way and it’s fun and it’s cool, but nobody wants to walk up to a counter and order a coffee by pressing buttons.
32:29.75
vigorbranding
Mm-hmm. Yep.
32:39.85
vigorbranding
Mm-hmm.
32:44.46
Stephen Baldi
You know, communicating to a cashier, ah medium cream and sugar takes about 15 seconds. When you are forcing someone to press hot coffee, then medium, then sugar, then extra sugar, like that’s just, we found that that was a ah strategy that wasn’t ah successfully deployed at that time.
32:58.57
vigorbranding
who
33:05.34
Stephen Baldi
now That was back in 2008. I will say trends have matured since then and so there is an opportunity to have self ordering technology at a place like Dunkin Donuts and people have learned to navigate it quickly. um You have hot buttons for certain high usage items and so I say to people all the time because my friends question me, whenever they see an iPad, they assume that that means that that technology has taken someone’s job. And what I try to educate people on is that you know if you deploy technology in a intentional way, in a smart way, it allows you to redirect
33:45.29
Stephen Baldi
what you would have otherwise spent on front of house and the back of house.
33:46.57
vigorbranding
Mm
33:49.72
Stephen Baldi
Or maybe you’re deploying it at a ah leadership level that’s multi-unit capable.
33:49.78
vigorbranding
hmm.
33:55.24
Stephen Baldi
And so it’s not necessarily ah replacing jobs, but allowing savvy business leaders to take that investment and redeploy it in other ways. I will tell you that the benefit is you know technology doesn’t call out. Sometimes you have to reboot the system, but it always upsells. It always asks you if you want a dessert and always ask you if you want to package your burger with fries. And so to be able to grow your top line ticket, ah that’s only going to drive bottom line outcomes, which allows a business owner like me to look at expansion, to go into other cities, to be able to bring other people along with us because the business is growing. And so there’s opportunity beyond just taking someone’s order. And so
34:40.31
Stephen Baldi
Technology is something you have to look at in parallel kind of decision making. But I enjoy it. There’s some concepts that it resonates more significantly than others. But I think there’s a balance and there needs to be a balance of both going forward. I don’t think we’re ever going to have an industry that is exclusively technology or self ordering driven. um And I think you go in with a bunch of assumptions, you understand how your customers respond to it, and then you be agile enough to adjust appropriately.
35:08.96
vigorbranding
Yeah, I mean, it makes a lot of sense. And i I concur. I mean, you know, I don’t want to wait in a massive line, especially from an airport. But, you know, just ordering, pre-ordering and all that kind of stuff isn’t all that funny either.
35:19.32
vigorbranding
So it’s just you with that happy balance. You know, I do like talking to somebody and, you know, because I talk a lot, I guess. But plus, I always ask for some ice in my coffee just a little bit. I don’t want nice coffee.
35:27.30
Stephen Baldi
There you go.
35:27.67
vigorbranding
So it’s a little tough to explain to an iPad, you know, so very soft.
35:31.57
Stephen Baldi
To drop it into a couple of cubes, yeah.
35:32.20
vigorbranding
Whoops. Yeah. Yeah. I don’t want to burn my, burn my mouth. So now I know you have at least one daughter, correct?
35:38.70
Stephen Baldi
I’d have two daughters and a son.
35:39.87
vigorbranding
Two daughters. right All right. Sorry. There we go.
35:41.61
Stephen Baldi
26, 25, and eight.
35:41.75
vigorbranding
This will be great then. Wow. Wow.
35:45.67
Stephen Baldi
I started over, Michael.
35:45.74
vigorbranding
A little gap here.
35:46.59
Stephen Baldi
I started over.
35:47.16
vigorbranding
You had a little gap here.
35:48.55
Stephen Baldi
had I had a couple of gap years.
35:48.93
vigorbranding
A couple of gap years. i well so I have two daughters, 26 as of last week and coming coming up on 29. The reason I bring up these families is you know we all know we love all our kids the same.
36:01.78
Stephen Baldi
No, we don’t.
36:01.79
vigorbranding
But on any but okay but on any given day on any given day, depending on the phone call, depending on the visit, there’s certainly ones that we like other better than others.
36:02.97
Stephen Baldi
No, we don’t.
36:09.94
vigorbranding
Michael Alex, it happens it back and forth all the time, just in case you’re listening. Those are my daughters. um
36:14.34
Stephen Baldi
Love it.
36:15.04
vigorbranding
so you know, we talked about pot belly, we talked about smash burger, we talked about dunking, we talked about timber, we talked about founding farmers, am I missing any any ends?
36:25.21
Stephen Baldi
There you go.
36:27.03
vigorbranding
Which one?
36:27.28
Stephen Baldi
It’s the end. Yeah.
36:27.84
vigorbranding
Which one’s your favorite? What’s your favorite kid there?
36:29.64
Stephen Baldi
My favorite. Wow. You’re going to force me to say that.
36:33.77
vigorbranding
Yeah, yeah.
36:34.15
Stephen Baldi
Well, I will tell you, because I don’t know if any of our franchisors are going to listen to this part. I love them all equally, and I am privileged to be able to operate them. I will tell you the one that probably um sits deeply in my soul as a person ah is probably Dunkin’ Donuts.
36:55.45
vigorbranding
Nice.
36:55.85
Stephen Baldi
and And I’ll tell you Dunkin’ Donuts because when I was growing up ah in Southwest Philadelphia off of Cobbs Creek Parkway, I had family that lived out by the airport. And in order to get into that area of the city, you have to travel on Cobbs Creek Parkway.
37:11.63
Stephen Baldi
And there’s a Dunkin Donuts on the corner of Cobbs Creek Parkway and I can’t remember the cross street, but it’s been there for close to probably 30 or 40 years. I’m 48 and I can’t remember a time when it wasn’t there. And I remember seeing that Dunkin Donuts and thinking how rich that franchisee must be to have that score.
37:30.65
Stephen Baldi
Now I know that owning a single franchise is not necessarily a path to generational wealth, but it did, that Dunkin Donuts did put in my mind like what was possible.
37:40.22
vigorbranding
Yeah, that’s cool.
37:40.70
Stephen Baldi
um And so to be able to be now a 14 year franchisee of that brand, um which is our longest franchise relationship, it’s pretty special.
37:46.48
vigorbranding
Super.
37:50.20
vigorbranding
That’s cool. And you know, I’ll say this from the, from the branding side of the world. Uh, what a phenomenal job. I mean, Duncan’s been around forever. I mean, at one point time it was getting a little tired. It was sort of just fading in the woodwork.
38:01.35
vigorbranding
And we know, I mean, all these brands, I mean, they come on strong. They’re, they’re always started somewhere. There’s this regional thing. And then they become these big brands and is they, they struggle to stay relevant.
38:10.04
Stephen Baldi
Right?
38:12.62
vigorbranding
Right. And I think Duncan has just done a remarkable job.
38:16.08
Stephen Baldi
We have, yeah.
38:16.24
vigorbranding
of staying relevant i mean from their graphic design from their marketing their branding to their advertising and all the cool stuff they’ve done that you did you did they blew it away they they absolutely did and yep
38:22.42
Stephen Baldi
I mean, we had the best Super Bowl commercial in my opinion. I mean, Ben Affleck and J.Lo, they did their thing. And Mark Wahlberg, it like it was it was a beautiful commercial.
38:33.65
vigorbranding
Yeah, and you know, it just shows like when you have passion for something, and those guys certainly have passion for for for that part of the world and ah from the Boston area. I just think it’s it was exceptional. In fact, ironically, we have at at our holding company level, Pavone Group, we have the longest running, okay, this is no kidding, the longest running Super Bowl commercial voting mechanism called spotbowl.com.
38:56.66
vigorbranding
So every year we get
38:57.28
Stephen Baldi
OK.
38:59.26
vigorbranding
you know, thousands and thousands and thousands of votes from around the world, and people vote for their favorite Super Bowl commercial as it’s being played, as the game is being played. And then the the national media outlets reach out to us, and then we tell them the results.
39:13.08
vigorbranding
And Dunkin Donuts was was certainly a stellar winner.
39:13.26
Stephen Baldi
OK.
39:16.02
Stephen Baldi
It was and had to be at the top.
39:17.26
vigorbranding
Yeah, it was awesome.
39:17.88
Stephen Baldi
Come on out. Tell me Michael it was at the top.
39:19.04
vigorbranding
Yeah, yeah. It was, well, I’m looking over here at my guy that runs it. it was It was the top one. Yeah, it was, it definitely was.
39:24.42
Stephen Baldi
It was, it I thought it was.
39:25.10
vigorbranding
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
39:25.89
Stephen Baldi
There you go. Thank you for, thank you for phoning your friend and getting confirmation.
39:26.59
vigorbranding
It was it was awesome.
39:29.55
Stephen Baldi
It was a pretty special advertising.
39:31.41
vigorbranding
Yeah.
39:31.85
Stephen Baldi
And yeah, I didn’t get a chance to order my Duncan jumpsuit, but I’m sure it’s in the mail somewhere.
39:36.72
vigorbranding
Yeah, there you go. there That’s that that everything.
39:38.41
Stephen Baldi
Maybe Duncan corporate will see this and they’ll send me one.
39:38.96
vigorbranding
Although. yeah Yeah, all the merch, everything they did around that was super cool. and the take the outtakes from the
39:43.99
Stephen Baldi
Super cool.
39:46.35
vigorbranding
you know It’s funny too because when it comes to this marketing stuff, like it used to be just a TV spot. and The reason I looked over to ask Dave, Dave’s the guy you spoke to. He’s the one that that kind of heads up this podcast. He’s also the one that really runs Spopple. We’ve been doing this so long that In the beginning, we didn’t know anything.
40:03.48
vigorbranding
In other words, they would the game it was all about the game. The game was played. And then people realized, well, people love the commercials. So we never knew, like like you and everybody else, we just sit there and watch the game, cut the commercial. Oh, it’s a commercial for fill in the blank.
40:15.61
vigorbranding
Now, they release the commercials to us ahead of time.
40:15.73
Stephen Baldi
Yeah.
40:18.45
vigorbranding
They tell us what it’s about. They send us outtakes. They give us information. Because they realize it, because it’s a couple million dollars for 30 seconds, that they need to get as much juice out of the you know squeeze as much juice out of this as possible so they want to know they put stuff online they do teasers and it’s it’s turned into a an event unto itself and uh we’re really proud to have been a part of it so it’s kind of funny that you brought that up that’s cool stuff all
40:39.58
Stephen Baldi
Yeah. Now I will tell you my all time favorite Super Bowl commercial.
40:44.35
vigorbranding
right uh
40:45.67
Stephen Baldi
Now I remember the star, but I don’t even remember the brand.
40:49.95
vigorbranding
-oh
40:50.06
Stephen Baldi
Remember the the commercial with the kid and the Star Wars mask and he was going around zapping things and he went and he zapped the car and the car started.
40:55.24
vigorbranding
Volkswagen. Yeah. Yeah.
40:58.28
Stephen Baldi
That was my all-time favorite more commercial.
40:58.46
vigorbranding
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That’s great. Yeah. That was ah that was a Volkswagen spot. That was a fantastic spot.
41:03.91
Stephen Baldi
Fantastic commercial.
41:03.93
vigorbranding
It was a fantastic. You know, I’ll i’ll tell you mine next. i’m I’m a simp and I, you know, ah the Budweiser commercials and
41:11.83
Stephen Baldi
Oh yeah.
41:13.17
vigorbranding
There was one though in particular where the guy, you know, he raises these horses and it goes on to be a Clydesdale and it it takes off and the horse leaves and there’s a parade. And I almost get choked up thinking about it.
41:24.28
vigorbranding
It was so well done. There’s a parade, the guy standing there to parade and the horse sees him, breaks away, chases him down on the road. Oh my gosh. It was, it was, I had to do a live TV commercial. I had to do a live segment on the news about the the best TV spot and and they they, you know, they played it and I wasn’t expecting them to play it.
41:40.60
vigorbranding
I’m like, I had tears going down my face.
41:42.56
Stephen Baldi
Oh, you got emotional.
41:42.51
vigorbranding
I’m like, That’s my favorite.
41:43.64
Stephen Baldi
Oh, look at you.
41:45.41
vigorbranding
I still get emotional. i think but i think it I think it was the best all-time i mean story. It was just cute. so anyway That’s right, man.
41:50.70
Stephen Baldi
And the best story always wins, Michael. Best story always wins.
41:53.25
vigorbranding
That’s right. right yeah Yeah, you know, we always tell people a brand is a promise, ah but you have to tell a story. You have to draw a motion, make them laugh, make them cry, make them feel something about your brand. And that’s how you break through. And it’s always important, you know, a lot of times clients will say stuff, um you know, hey we just want to sell more, we got to do this, we got to do that. And and really it comes down to ah the fact that you’ve you got to do great creative to break through to get people’s attention.
42:19.09
vigorbranding
So, well, I have a couple more questions for you and I want to hit them for sure.
42:21.03
Stephen Baldi
Okay.
42:22.25
vigorbranding
So now look, ah we talked about the airports you’re in, in the in the in the greater DC area, some of the most, I mean, they’re they’re busy, they’re they’re important, they’re huge. Other airports, I mean, you have great concessions in those airports.
42:34.37
vigorbranding
Other airports that you think have great concessions in the country?
42:37.16
Stephen Baldi
Yeah, I will tell you, Atlanta, one of the busiest airports in the world, definitely in this country.
42:42.95
vigorbranding
Oh yeah, oh yeah. yeah
42:45.86
Stephen Baldi
um And then Houston, Orlando, Chicago, Charlotte, these are all markets that we kind of look at.
42:49.80
vigorbranding
Mm hmm. Oh yeah.
42:54.54
vigorbranding
Massive hubs.
42:56.51
Stephen Baldi
um It’s important for us to be in high demand airport systems, because you never know how the world’s going to,
43:02.80
vigorbranding
Yeah.
43:05.21
Stephen Baldi
respond. And Morgan Hausl is one of the people who I look to for kind of strategic direction.
43:12.04
vigorbranding
Mm hmm.
43:13.49
Stephen Baldi
I’m thinking about my business. And one thing he always says is that as a business leader, if you’re only planning for the risk and threats that you can predict, you’re probably missing the biggest one.
43:24.90
vigorbranding
Oh, yeah.
43:25.41
Stephen Baldi
um And so how we kind of shelter ourselves from that is we go into high demand markets. So even if an airline, a legacy airline like an American or United or a Delta or a Southwest ah decides that they no longer want to operate in that market, there’ll be another legacy carrier chomping at the bit together.
43:44.09
vigorbranding
Sure.
43:44.40
Stephen Baldi
And so that’s one of our strategy when we’re looking to grow nationally is to look at high demand airport markets.
43:44.77
vigorbranding
Sure. Mm hmm.
43:51.29
Stephen Baldi
And those are just a few that I named.
43:53.58
vigorbranding
I’m a big fan of Morgan has effect. We have him speaking at our, at our YPO. He’s, he’s one of, I think he might even be next month’s speaker. So I’m really, really, are you really, that’s all his book.
44:00.64
Stephen Baldi
ah We’re bringing them in on the 13th of November. Yeah.
44:04.00
vigorbranding
His book’s incredible. Incredible. I made my daughter’s read it. So, um, what’s next for balding management group. And mean we talked about in other airports. What’s, what’s next for you? What’s what’s your vision? Where are you were are you hoping to go?
44:13.26
Stephen Baldi
my My vision is to grow the tent and plant trees that I may never even know their shade, um because that’s when I think a community and when a business is thriving is when you’re willing to do things that you might not be able to see to fruition. And so we’re trying to build a company, not trying, we are building a company that will rise the tide for all the boats. I want to create another 20, 25 stories just like mine.
44:41.46
vigorbranding
Yeah.
44:41.62
Stephen Baldi
um I can invest and grow my company so that it’s beneficial and creates generational wealth for me, but I also have the opportunity to listen to the individuals whose stories might not necessarily be taken to the top because they’re not fully formed or well articulated.
44:59.34
Stephen Baldi
I try to look for those people, because I was once that person.
45:00.66
vigorbranding
yeah
45:02.15
Stephen Baldi
I was the property manager in the office, and Cynthia Garber came and tapped me on the shoulder, which she did not have to do.
45:02.50
vigorbranding
yep
45:08.96
Stephen Baldi
And so I’m trying to identify those voices in our companies, the people in leadership, but also the people who we don’t necessarily identify with immediately, because a lot of our workforce our ESL where English is a second language.
45:24.24
Stephen Baldi
And so verbal communication is a challenge, but I don’t want that to get in the way of us knowing or identifying the next star in our organization.
45:24.69
vigorbranding
Yeah. Yep.
45:33.22
Stephen Baldi
So we’re doing things to kind of bridge the gap between ah those verbal communication kind of challenges so that every voice that’s in our organization can be heard because listen.
45:44.32
Stephen Baldi
I won’t pour a cup of coffee or flip a burger or roll a pretzel today, but that’s how our business runs. And so I want to give opportunity and visibility to those individuals in a very intentional way.
45:53.22
vigorbranding
Sure.
45:59.67
Stephen Baldi
So that’s what’s next ah for the company. And I think if you know you pay attention to the pennies and the nickels, the dollars make sense. And I believe if you focus on organizationally, the people who may be at the bottom of the ladder, you’ll grow the tent and the business in a way where there’s more opportunity created for everyone who’s valuable.
46:20.08
Stephen Baldi
And so that’s what I’m committed to, Michael.
46:21.72
vigorbranding
Fantastic. a Question. Have you ever, have you ever spoke to the woman who tapped you on the shoulder? Have you ever told her?
46:27.38
Stephen Baldi
i I mention Cynthia Garber every time I get the yeah opportunity to share how she interceded in my life.
46:30.01
vigorbranding
Yeah.
46:33.70
Stephen Baldi
And we text probably once or twice a year, but she knows how important she is to me.
46:36.60
vigorbranding
Oh, good. That’s awesome.
46:39.09
Stephen Baldi
um We haven’t seen each other in person probably 10 years, but I tell her story every time I speak about my journey because it was instrumental.
46:44.19
vigorbranding
That’s awesome.
46:47.22
Stephen Baldi
So she’s aware.
46:47.33
vigorbranding
Hey, that’s got to get you to pay yeah pay it forward, pay it back. And you got to make sure that you yeah you acknowledge the folks that helped you get there.
46:51.02
Stephen Baldi
and of pay for
46:54.07
vigorbranding
That’s, that’s huge.
46:54.84
Stephen Baldi
And you know what’s remarkable, Michael, over the 18 years that I’ve been in the business, 16 years leading this company, every now and then I’ll get a text message or I’ll get a direct ah message on LinkedIn of someone who worked for our organization and matriculated somewhere else.
47:11.24
Stephen Baldi
And I’ve lost contact with, and they’ve done the same for me.
47:12.80
vigorbranding
here
47:14.06
Stephen Baldi
So I know how special it is.
47:15.49
vigorbranding
That’s cool.
47:15.94
Stephen Baldi
And so whenever I get the opportunity, I try to tell people how they’ve impacted my life.
47:16.98
vigorbranding
Yeah.
47:19.90
vigorbranding
Very cool. well Stephen, I have one one last question. You’ve been phenomenal by the way. I can talk for you for hours. You’re you’re awesome. ah One last question. All right. And can’t you can’t pick pot belly or one of your, you can’t pick one of your brands, but if you had one final meal, what would you eat and why?
47:35.33
Stephen Baldi
Oh, this is the easy, this is the easy.
47:36.24
vigorbranding
Oh, good. All right. Sometimes people struggle with this. so
47:38.51
Stephen Baldi
No, it’s not a struggle. Michael, I’m from Philadelphia. If I gave any answer other than a gym steak with whizzing American, with fried onions, hot peppers, pickles, and ketchup, I would be doing my city a disservice.
47:42.03
vigorbranding
Yeah. Okay. Oh, nice.
47:52.46
vigorbranding
There you go. That’s good.
47:53.31
Stephen Baldi
So that’s what it would be.
47:53.56
vigorbranding
Good. Great. ah Great answer. Great answer. It’s funny, you know, I, yeah, come on, man.
47:56.67
Stephen Baldi
North and South, if you haven’t been, you should go the next time you’re in Philadelphia.
48:00.24
vigorbranding
I’ve been, I had a gym.
48:01.51
Stephen Baldi
I’m not talking to you, I’m talking to your audience.
48:02.84
vigorbranding
and Okay. I was going to say, I had a gym stick last week and I’m not making that up. We had, I don’t know if I mentioned, but we had, uh, brought in agencies, independent agencies, all from all around North America, i guys from Puerto Rico, Mexico, Canada, all over the continental U S come to Philadelphia.
48:19.70
vigorbranding
and during happy. We took them to dinners. We took them. We treated them right. We showed them the city independence and all that stuff. But when we had the happy hour at my offices, I had pats and I had gyms and we had little little forks and we did a cheesesteak sampling program.
48:32.46
vigorbranding
You know, yeah, they you you do know who won.
48:32.82
Stephen Baldi
Oh, and I know who won.
48:35.35
vigorbranding
So I know, you know, I know, you know, hey, I’ll throw another one out there.
48:36.36
Stephen Baldi
I won’t make you name it, but I know, I know who won.
48:41.02
vigorbranding
Pat or Tony Luke’s down on Oregon Avenue.
48:42.86
Stephen Baldi
Oh, he looks great.
48:43.85
vigorbranding
The original.
48:44.04
Stephen Baldi
De La Sandro’s Mama’s Pizzeria on Belmont Avenue.
48:44.87
vigorbranding
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. tell sound good You know, you you know.
48:48.67
Stephen Baldi
I haven’t lived in the city before the years, but it’s still, I know where to go.
48:48.76
vigorbranding
Yeah, man. Yeah, you know, those, those, those are legacy places, you know, and and yeah, it’s all good, all good.
48:54.82
Stephen Baldi
For sure.
48:56.68
vigorbranding
In fact, you know what, that’ll be my happy meal. The Phillies will be in the playoffs and I do, I slide down into and get a cheesesteak before the game. It’s a, it’s a part of the whole shtick. So I’m excited about it.
49:04.48
Stephen Baldi
And you also have to get a wild, wild fruit punch. Come on now.
49:06.31
vigorbranding
Oh, there you go.
49:07.00
Stephen Baldi
You gotta round it out.
49:07.01
vigorbranding
There you go. Yeah, that’s, that’s that’s funny. Well, Steven, it was fantastic. I really appreciate your time. Uh, and it was wonderful talking to you.
49:14.87
Stephen Baldi
I appreciate the invitation. And listen, good luck with the rest of your forktails going forward. It seems like you’ve had an incredible run with the amount of episodes that you’ve already had. And I hope you you know multiply that by 10, if that is your intention and desire.
49:27.00
vigorbranding
Thanks. That’s awesome. Appreciate you.
