Jeremy: Welcome back to Shift Happens. here with my co-host Sean Co. And we've got a special guest today, Andy Napic. He's not new to us, but he is new to our audience. but we've been working with him on some different things here. Sean, Andy, great to have you both on the show.
Shaun Coe: Good to see ya. Always good to be back and excited to have Mr. Napic on. so Andy, we'll kinda kick it off right to you. I think just to give some context a little bit, you know, let's give the fans like how you and I got linked up and then we can say how we got linked up with Jeremy as well.
Andy Knapick: Yes. Sure, so we've we've been a Bar Louis franchise for franchisee for roughly 15 years now. And Sean was a was a rock star for the brand back in its heyday when when Barlouis was opening stores all across the country and and I think units were over 150 and and Sean was a VP of operations. and we have two Barlouis, one in Indy, on the north side of Indy in Carmel, Indiana, which is an upscale suburb. and then we also have another one in Granger, Indiana, which is kind of my hometown. and and both Both stores perform very well. the Granger is the number one store in the history of the brand, and Carmel is one of the top performing stores right now. But you know, a lot of times sales don't always mean that things are going well. And and a couple years ago, we ran into some operational issues and and needed to bring Sean's team with HC Resource on and and kind of a bar rescue situation. And I mean, literally, we were we were a couple weeks away from. From closing. That was a store that was out there on an island without ownership touching it on a daily basis like we do in Granger. And we were in dire straits and and Sean and his team came in and really saved the day for us. And since then, you know, Sean of I Sean and I are discovered that we're very like-minded and in kindred spirits and and have kind of struck up a relationship that that's led into a couple different business ventures and and who knows where it it goes from here, but it's it's been a great it's been more than a a work relationship and a professional relationship so we've kind of become friends outside of the Barlouy relationship.
Jeremy: You know, it's interesting. So what you were talking about was literally shift happenings by you. So I want to hear more about this because I haven't heard this. So Sean, what did you come in and do for that store?
Shaun Coe: Yeah. Well, started off as a as a risk mitigation contract. You know, I'm gonna be completely transparent on all this. So it's open book. So it was supposed to be a week to four week contract. full transparency on that as well. Miss Harb landed the contract. So Jen, who was on one of our episodes recently, Jeremy, you've gotten to know. she was actually doing the candidate course, you know, which we'll talk about in Authority Leader. So Jen came into my network taking the candidate course. I was just publishing it at the time, Jeremy. So this is before I got picked up by King's College. And I'm not gonna lie to you, like I picked Jen because I knew she'd be a good student. And I mean Andy will tell you, she's just a beast, you know. So not only is she a beast on the podcast, yeah, she just she'll run through walls. So I knew that she was really gonna take action and also at the same time, Jeremy, you know, go back to taking chances.
Andy Knapick: She's a rock star.
Shaun Coe: during the pandemic, it was first set of like, you know, thousands of colleagues I've seen that were laid off that were struggling to find a job for the first time. You know, we've covered enough episodes on that. But when we landed, it was a true risk mitigation contract. Nature of chaos and shift happens. Mr. Hurricane Milton came, right? So I'm supposed to be up to meet Andy's brother during during Hurricane Milton. Jeremy, I know you you were coaching me from afar on that as well, I think, just as the process. So we had to delay the first week. I'll never forget this to Andy. Your brother called me. He's like, we might not fucking be here, bro, by the time you get here. I was like, well, I have no house right now, so let me let me get this solidified. you know, fast forward, we couldn't have done this work without great owners. Jeremy, you've heard me talk about this forever. we don't rush towards operations management. contracts because it's a marriage, right? So the relationship matters more than anything. I can't tell you how many times we get hired to fix a problem. Ninety nine percent of the time the person that hired us is the problem. This wasn't one of those. You know, so what was awesome for us to not at all. No, I
Jeremy: You're not the problem, Andy.
Andy Knapick: It's good to know, you alright?
Shaun Coe: No, I mean this though. I I mean Andy, you you're in operations enough. Like I d all of us are in operations. Like we don't even have to think about that too hard to understand. You know, usually the pup the person with the pain point sometimes is causing the pain. true nature of everything, risk mitigation went into ops management. Andy and Mike moved fucking mountains for us, and I mean this. So
Andy Knapick: That's right.
Shaun Coe: I think we hit you guys with a sixty thousand dollar repair and maintenance bill. Not not from us, but just what needed to be fixed. And I have never seen owners that cared more about their people, Jeremy. and then just for context with all this, you know, Andy if I'm is it okay for me to say some of the results?
Andy Knapick: I mean go ahead and brag on yourself.
Shaun Coe: We took them from losing about forty-five thousand dollars a month, fast forward six months later, profiting about 130,000 between two units. Wouldn't have been able to do this without these guys though. So again, like what we look for in partnerships, just like Andy said, you know, and we're gonna talk about all these endeavors.
Jeremy: Amazing. That's awesome.
Shaun Coe: 18 years of owning it or 15 years, Barlouy Corporate is not the same store. Sorry to say that to those guys. I'll I'll tell the owners to their face today. And and there's a lot of struggles. So Barlouie was a brand with an edge, Jeremy, and it just lost its vision. Lo and behold, though, here's these two units still doing great, holding on with everything they got. Manpower was great. Just, you know, some some manager tomfoolery, I guess we'd say. But I'll I'll transition back over to Jeremy and just to share this with with all of you guys. Like you know me, Jeremy, and and you and all of us actually are really big on the power of networking. But Jeremy and I also met through a colleague that that worked at my concept. So I I think it's just so cool to see us here on this podcast now, right? Doing this endeavor together. Jeremy and I have been talking about how to, you know, get some kind of project going for two to five years. so I just think it's great to to see us all here and how networking actually kind of plays out for us all.
Andy Knapick: That's right.
Jeremy: Well, and it did. And and and with that, you know, Sean, you and Andy have worked together a lot more and talked a lot more. And Andy, you and I have, you know, been on some Zoom calls together, have been on s some of those calls, but we haven't really gotten to get into kind of the the the the deep background a little bit. Help you know, help our audience, help me understand a little bit about kind of where you came from and and where you are today and and and and kind of your view on that workforce environment that Sean and I are often talking about, but based on your experience and your your POV.
Andy Knapick: Sure. so I'm I just turned fifty. I'm a married father of three. My my oldest just graduated high school this past Monday. So so my wife and I are getting getting set to have a new normal here at the end of the summer with him leaving for college. but I I've had three different careers in my life. Started off with a seven year career in college athletics. I was involved with in sports information and in media relations, which essentially is like PR for sports. So I worked at Illinois State University and the University of Louisville and and essentially was like the liaison between the athletics department and the media. So if you wanted to talk to Coach Patino, you would you would arrange it through me or or my boss. I I dealt mainly with the football team at Louisville, but was the number two on basketball. So as a as a 25-year-old who kind of grew up with with ESPN on on replay just the entire day at your house, it it was kind of like a dream come true of during basketball games sitting literally two rows down from Rick Petino and and pre and post-game hanging out with kind of sports celebrities and and and these personalities on TV that you got to know and and just you know, I I rose to the pinnacle of that profession. A very young age and and didn't really like what I saw at the pinnacle. It was it was a job that you did because you loved it. But when I started to think about, you know, getting married and having a wife and kids in a in a house, that was not the career path that that was gonna make that happen for me. And I'd been bugging my brother ever since I was in college to try and start a business venture. And I had honed in on opening Jimmy Johns. I I loved the the concept in in that time in the early. 2000s, it was very much a college brand. And that's where you know I kind of fell in love with it. Whereas as a Chicago kid, you you went to any university, even a directional school like Illinois State or Southern Illinois, Eastern Illinois, you know, there were Jimmy Johns everywhere, and and you'd go to visit your friends, and they were all on their college campuses too, and then you moved back to Chicago or Indianapolis and there weren't any. And so tried to get my brother to to get on board with it and it Took him a while. I I think one night he was in Kalamazoo going by one of the Jimmy Johns at Western Michigan University and saw a line out the door at two in the morning and called me the next day and said, Okay, let's do it. And so we we we found Notre Dame was the co closest college campus that didn't have one and it was not far from Chicago, not far from him in Kalamazoo. So quit my job at Louisville. we we borrowed
Jeremy: man.
Andy Knapick: money from the only person in our family who who had money. It happened to be like a rich drunk cousin down in in Georgia. And
Shaun Coe: I love this
Jeremy: Ha ha.
Shaun Coe: story.
Andy Knapick: Yeah, started our first Jimmy Johns not far from Notre Dame's campus. And the interesting thing was at that time Jimmy Johns trying to sell like one sandwich at a time. And and coming from the world of college athletics, it was like I was half the time ordering the food for teams, especially at a smaller school like Illinois State. So I I knew that there was something that these teams needed, particularly like if your team is leaving campus and going on a road trip, that it's a getaway meal or or the visiting team coming. Back into town, they need that meal to get away and get back on the road. And at that point, you know, the only thing that you could feed your D1 athlete was here's a half a Papa John's pizza before an eight-hour bus ride. And so we were really instrumental in getting the the Jimmy Johns catering program going. And a year after we opened, we were the number one store in the country. and and started we opened a couple other stores always operated.
Jeremy: Wow.
Andy Knapick: Operationally, we always kind of expected to grow. And so I would always put like the next rock star, whether it was a it could be an 18-year-old, it could be a 25-year-old, you know, our favorite guy was was you know a delivery driver with the saggy pants and the hat on sideways. And you you know, you put somebody like that on your hip who's never been led before. Exactly. And and and you know, now that guy's been the VP of operations for for several different national.
Jeremy: Yeah.
Shaun Coe: Yeah, yeah.
Andy Knapick: brands and so we always put you know a good young person next to my brother or myself and tried to replicate I'm gonna work hip to hip with this guy Orgal for the next two years and then we got to the point where we had enough of those people where it's like we're very top heavy we don't need you here so we branched my best friend off in 2008 to do Bar Louis and then again you know by 2007 2010, we were top heavy again, and that's when we branched my brother and our our best area manager off to do Dunkin' Donuts. and so you know, by 2018, we were up to 14 Jimmy Johns, 12 Dunkin' Donuts. we had won the the Jimmy Johns franchisee of the year in 2008, Barlouy franchisee of the year in 2018, and you know, a lot of what you guys talk about is is just the labor force and and At this time, I didn't know that there were groups like Sean's group out there that you could bring in a third-party group to come in and take over operations for you. And my brother and I were very prideful and always put the customer first and was was always, hey, if if Jimmy John's thing is out the door in less than four, like we want to have that sandwich from the point that you call and you know the sandwich is being made. A lot of times we're having the order done by the time you're done taking the credit card in. information and that sandwich is out the door and you're delivering it to somebody in seven minutes. That was our our niche where it's like you could do pizza in a half hour, Chinese food in 40 minutes, but it's like if I'm that nurse at the hospital and I know that I have a half hour break that if I call Jimmy John's, I'm gonna get that sandwich. And so we always wanted to pride provide that level of service. And by like the late teens, it got to the point where I started to realize that that we went from having applications on
Jeremy: Wow.
Andy Knapick: Hand and people always wanting to work, especially like young high school kids, to the point where now we're paying snag a job and indeed and zip recruiter all thousands of dollars a month to have people not show up. And then to have, you know, if you're doing a lot of catering and you're always short staffed, and and like you you're prideful on hitting that mark. And on any particular day, you need 12 delivery drivers, but you have six, and that sixth one is the stoner who shows up.
Shaun Coe: Yeah.
Andy Knapick: forty five minutes late reeking of pot.
Shaun Coe: Always works that way. Yeah.
Andy Knapick: Reeking of pot, but you've got a five hundred dollar catering order sitting there and it's like I should fire him, but if I don't, this order's gonna be two hours late instead of an hour, and then tomorrow I'm looking to have five drivers when I need twelve. And so when we lost the leverage over firing employees and being able to replace them and just being able to have the morals that we wanted, I knew it was kind of like my time to get out. And so in in twenty eighteen we we sold the Jimmy Johns. Which essentially sold my daytime gig. I mean, we had a full operational team that had been running the Bar Louis for 10 years. Same thing with Dunkin' Donuts. And so I was kind of like a man without a job. And that's that's when I became a commercial real estate broker. It was it was very natural at that point because I had negotiated leases in three different states. you know, opened, I think it was 40 leases I negotiated. We opened 33 stores. and and so for the last Coming up on seven years now, I've been a commercial real estate broker, primarily focusing on like site selection for for me ten years ago. so that's that's me in a nutshell right now.
Shaun Coe: Is it safe to bes to say, Andy, you you kind of became your own consumer a little bit? Or like I know you and I have talked about this on taking chances. Like I I love this story because one hand kind of feeds the other for as far as your development and passions go. But I think we talked on taking chances a bit. Like, did a lot of that skill set you got from operations? I know you said it made it a natural switch, but like I think it also gave you I mean, I think you've got a very keen eye for commercial real estate, better than most people I've seen. and I don't know if you just want to extrapolate that on a bit, because like the path makes sense going forward, but I think if you look back on it, I'm just curious like what your thoughts are on that of like how it all played played together.
Andy Knapick: No no Absolutely, because you know, when you become a franchisee, for the most part, somebody's gonna put you through three to four weeks of corporate training and then when you open a store, they're gonna come and hold your hand for the first two to three weeks. But outside of that, most of the most of the things that you're gonna learn are are by making mistakes. you know, so and s you moving from store one to store two, it was like w we on our first store, we had never heard of tenant improvement allowance. We didn't know what that is. And then on the second store, it's like the landlord's gonna offer you tenant improvement allowance. But then we didn't read it carefully enough and didn't realize, but they weren't providing the demising wall between us and the Sherwin Williams next door. So the tenant improvement allowance essentially went to build what we thought the landlord was already delivering us. You know, and so that that was the lesson on store, lesson on store two. And then, you know, store three, you know, you're going into new development and they show you what they're building next.
Shaun Coe: Yeah. I think
Andy Knapick: But they don't show you what they plan to build in three years later. And now you realize that they're planting a building right in front of your building. and and so you learn these things, you start to learn which side of the road you want to be on, you start to learn the access with the drive-thru, parking situations. And so, yeah, opening all those stores definitely pointed me in the right direction on what I do with commercial real estate. And I don't know that there's another real estate broker out there nationwide who has lived on both sides of the tables of negotiating the lease as the tenant, negotiating the lease as you know, the broker maybe representing the landlord, and then operationally know what what could hurt you, what what drives sales, what can hinder sales. So it's it's been it's a been a wild ride and I I I go ahead, Jeremy.
Jeremy: You've No, please, go ahead, finish that thought.
Andy Knapick: It it has and and just i I look back and and had I known Sean ten years ago, it would have been great to have turned operations over to Sean and go out and still become a real estate broker and be the guy right now who's chasing dirt for my own operations. now it's kind of like they've they've gone on two separate paths, but I always wonder what would have happened had I known Sean ten years earlier.
Jeremy: Well, it's a it's a really interesting roadmap that you kinda laid out. And and it's funny, you know, when Sean and I talk about workforce and what he and I have been doing and and and really what HC Resource was doing when Sean and I met and and what I was doing in staffing was different. You know, I was dealing with the hourly line level people and Sean was, you know, doing these operational redevelopments.
Shaun Coe: Mm-hmm.
Andy Knapick: Sure.
Jeremy: Dealing with hourly people, but it was usually internal hourly people. But you have a really unique perspective here. Andy, I I I get the sense of, you know, your roadmap kind of took you through a fulcrum in hospitality where years ago, especially going back to my hotel days, hospitality only used outside help.
Andy Knapick: Yeah.
Jeremy: On those like big events, big things happening, or when something broke. It wasn't like a a a daily necessity. And and modern day, it really is a daily necessity. So I'm curious when you when you are negotiating new real estate deals, you're dealing with I'll put it this way: old you you're you're you're finding new locations for old you, but it's for a for another conglomerate or another franchisee or someone else. And then you know, you're talking with them, you're getting to know them, trying to see what they what they want. what's your lens on workforce nowadays? I mean, obviously you had that experience dealing with the stone or driving up to to to to to want to go drive your catering order out there. But a lot of what you what we talk about here on shift happens is kind of that 360 how do you get the people, how do you retain the people, and and really more about the pain points that that the industries are seeing. So you got a unique perspective to kind of share an outsider's view.
Andy Knapick: Right.
Jeremy: Of what the insiders are telling you that they're seeing out there, some of those pain points they're seeing.
Andy Knapick: Right. Yeah, so it's interesting up up here in in the South Bend areas We're we're adjacent to Elkart, Indiana, which is the R V capital of the world. And and so we have this massive manufacturing base and and and it goes through years of really big booms and then busts. you know, Obama gave his first speech ever as president from Elkart in in nine because it had the highest unemployment rate in the country. And and that was during a down cycle. Yeah, I mean that was back when you had the economic downturn of eight and the RV industry essentially
Shaun Coe: Okay.
Andy Knapick: Died for a couple of years. And so the labor force was just decimated here. And so, but then you get into these boom areas, and it's very interesting, especially for hospitality, because a lot of what happens is your line cooks, your back-of-the-house people, when when they are in a a bus people, you have the best operational back-of-the-house you've ever seen. And then when the RV industry goes into a boom industry, all those
Shaun Coe: The bet.
Andy Knapick: people the the RV industry just it's they're great gigs they pay well and everybody goes to the RV industry and what you're left with is essentially the the people that the RV industry won't hire and and so and when they're when they're in a bust period it's a very robust drug test and screening process and then when they're in a boom period they'll they'll hire anybody and so you you're really getting the bottom of the bottom.
Jeremy: Ha ha ha.
Shaun Coe: Mm-hmm. Fly by Yeah.
Andy Knapick: And and so, you know, I I had a conversation with Sean a little bit ago and and wrote an article on LinkedIn about it where where I I wondered where all the high school workers went. because primarily the first probably ten years we were doing Jimmy Johns, my favorite employees were were just high school employees and and you'd go out and we made a point of going out and hiring like the the cheerleaders or the dance line girls because if you got those girls, then you got the football players and then it became a thing where it
Shaun Coe: Athletes, yeah. Yeah, yep.
Andy Knapick: Was tough to get a job at your place, and then slowly the high school kids started to trickle off, and that's where we went from you. You know, if if somebody quit or we fired them, you had the paper applications that you picked up two or three and you had that position filled. And then it went to this snag of job and indeed and zip recruiter. And I kept wondering where all the high school kids went. And now that I have high school kids, you know, I I have a theory that essentially travel sports might have killed the high school worker because now I have. High school kids, I have restaurants that I own, and I'm like, why can't I get my high school kids to work in the stores? It's because if they're athletes, it's they're they're either practicing, they're training, they're taking private lessons. Like the high school that my kids go to, it's like if you're not if you haven't been taking a private lesson in that sport since second grade, you're not making the team. And so now now witnessing it with my kids and saying, Well, they just don't have time to work, like the the the kids with the work ethic are still there. But now it it's it's th the way that that youth sports travel ball high school sports has elevated to this everybody wants to get NIL or go to the right college. I I feel like it's really decimated the the high school labor market, at least around here.
Jeremy: It's an interesting thing. And Sean, you're you you you and you and Laura are getting ready to have your firstborn, which is which is really exciting. But Andy, I too have the have the high schoolers and the and the teenagers as I shared with you on text. at the same time your your kid was graduating high school, so was mine. I got one more that's older, that's almost almost getting married at this point. but I've got one more who's who's who's gonna be a sophomore. But I agree with you, you know, at thirteen years old myself, I was working
Andy Knapick: wow.
Shaun Coe: Working, yeah.
Jeremy: At a catering company. I was biking to the catering company and I was working weekends and nights and and whatever all through high school. I think my senior year, I had three different jobs. I was working simultaneously. It was different nights that I was doing different things. But like I look at my own kids and we see it at Instawork also, you know, ever since COVID, there's been
Andy Knapick: absolutely.
Jeremy: This environment of optionality where people want to make their own schedules. They don't want to work their normal nine to fives necessarily like what we grew grew up with. And nine to five doesn't necessarily mean nine to five. It's whenever your hours are, but it's that eight-hour shift doing what you do. And and you know, whether it be that they were influenced by an influencer and they think that they can and Sean and I talk about this all the time, they think that they're gonna become some TikTok influencer or or something like that.
Shaun Coe: Yep.
Andy Knapick: Absolutely.
Shaun Coe: Yes.
Andy Knapick: Right.
Jeremy: Or or they have creatively and figure out a way, you know. my son who just graduated high school, he jumped on AI, built himself a website. He's a he's a very, very talented photographer, built himself a website and an app, and he's getting photo gigs. Now that's not what he's gonna do for a career, he's gonna go to law school, that's what he wants to do. But but that's not going to go work for someone. That's not putting in an application, that's not trying to get hired. And part of the challenge
Andy Knapick: Good friend. So sure.
Jeremy: Part of the challenges is while you were a franchiser who had availability to interview people intent. You were going out to these people and these high school students to try and draw them in to come work for you because you saw a method that worked. There is a huge contingent of the hourly population at whatever age, it's not just high school in general, that are just simply tired of putting in their paper application or their digital application into a black hole and never receive an interview. They want to make money, they want to earn. Some people have to earn to to to pay for their families, to pay for their homes. It's not just taking care of themselves, you know, the and what's happening also is the people who have been challenged to get other jobs are actually taking jobs away from teenagers because it's what they can get right now. It it trickles down. And so
Andy Knapick: That's so true. Yeah.
Shaun Coe: Trickles down.
Andy Knapick: Absolutely.
Jeremy: So if if if you're a franchisee and you've got this this 35-year-old who has full availability, they're not hindered by sports or school or anything like that, and they want to work and they have this resume that they're probably overqualified from a previous career, but they're willing to come in and do this job, whether it be bartending at a Bar Louis or making sandwiches or even being an assistant manager at a Jimmy John, they're gonna do that. And now they've taken that spot.
Andy Knapick: Right.
Jeremy: That that student could have worked two and a half days a week. Right. And so, so the environments have shifted greatly over these years. And and it is tough. It's it I think it's tough for the kids to get that experience. You know, one of the things I often say is high school should be teaching resume drafting and interview skills, and they still don't do it. Colleges should be doing the same thing because they don't know how to do it.
Shaun Coe: Yep.
Andy Knapick: That's so true. That's so true.
Shaun Coe: Hundred percent. Yep.
Andy Knapick: Sure.
Jeremy: And now it's gonna just be in AI. They're gonna write their resumes in AI and hopefully they take the time and integrity to go and vet it out and make sure it says what they want it to say. But but that's the reality of where we are today. And I and and and I wish it was better than that. But again, it's why Sean has HC Core and HC Resource is is to be people out there and why Instawork is as successful as it is, because man
Andy Knapick: Sure.
Shaun Coe: Coming up.
Jeremy: Andy, had you and I linked up when when you were having those problems, we would have had you fully staffed as well, you know, with with the variable schedules. so I wanna pivot here, Sean, a little bit because another big thing that that Andy has played a vital role in, I'd like to kind of hand this over to you, is something we have been talking about, which is authority leader. So I I don't know if you want to lead that off and kind of talk about how that that got started with you and Andy.
Andy Knapick: Sure. Rightly.
Shaun Coe: Yeah. Well, a hundred percent the catalyst. And you know, Jeremy, as we've talked, I guess just to give quick context as we go through this, Andy's still doing that today, right? Just to mean this. Like people are literally I just want to give some context about those two locations before we go into Authority Leader, because we were talking about those when Authority Leader came out. In so Granger and Cormel are about three hours apart and they're worlds difference, right? Granger has always been a druggernaut. It is one of the most challenging staffing markets, probably in the United States, Jeremy, besides for Andy's store at Barlouy. That store was already killing it before we got here. So ha had great ownership presence. Because there's, you know, those busts and booms. I never knew that, Andy. This is so helpful for even me now, right? Two years into the Cendevro, that makes a lot more sense for some of the things we've seen from recruitment. But we have kids fighting to get onto the onto the field there.
Andy Knapick: Sure.
Shaun Coe: For context, Andy was the first store with HC Corps, was also the first store with opspitality and the hourly recruiting. Just to give some context, how we deployed that, right? All those case studies I was telling you about, 90% of them were Barlouy, right? They were these two stores that were getting the most bandwidth out of Just to see what Andy's still done from that tutelage, though, in Granger, they're fighting it on. I mean, I go to other locations and I say that I run that, and people are like, How did you get a job there? I'm like, Well, I own a company that runs it. I'm not really saying that to the hourlies, but but that's the that's the culture that Andy has built in South Bend before we got.
Andy Knapick: Yeah, I mean, y you know, i it's one thing to have your your resume or your LinkedIn page out there, but y you know, what I've been realizing that having transferred brokerages in in real estate, you you know, even if you're flying under one flag or another that it all essentially comes down to your personal branding and and your your brand is is yourself. And and and and I coming from, you know, back in the day, the the sports information or media relations background or you know, you know, essentially PR, I realized that I wasn't doing a good enough job of promoting myself out there and and and what I could do. And and would often get frustrated knowing that I had this unique skill set of being on both sides of the table, but kind of watching other brokers come in and finding the sites for Chipotle or or five guys and and and started thinking like well there's nobody better than me and and I'm I'm kind of toiling here renting the strip mall with the leaky roof and and the HVAC does that doesn't work to the landlord who's wondering why he doesn't have Chipotle and and so just kind of felt stuck a little bit and reached out to Sean and said, you know you're you're recruiting and and you're out there placing people in these positions that that maybe I might like to have someday. I mean I always thought my skill set would be best suited to be working as a real estate manager at a large national chain helping franchisees find their next locations. And so Sean and I kind of got together and and started talking about how do we best position myself and and he took a look and helped me refine my resume and and showed me how to to go out and and build my network. And I I think when when Sean and I started this probably you know a year ago I think I had just over a thousand connections on LinkedIn and and and most of those were people that I I knew personally, but you know since I I enrolled in Sean's course, and and and he's kind of helped me grow my network and and position messaging out there to these people that I'm trying to attract. the idea was that you know if you are looking for another job or you are trying to develop your own brand, that The best way to do it is to tell your stories. And and I've I've I've always been a confident person, but I've never been real confident in talking about myself and and not only describing my wins, but describing them in a way that engages and and encourages people to interact with that type of stuff. And and and frankly, I also didn't have the bandwidth to sit there and post regularly and come up with content. And so when Sean said hey I I'm doing this thing where you know you know you and I are gonna sit down for a half hour interview we're just gonna have a conversation like you and I are sitting across from each other at the bar and it's gonna give you a month worth of LinkedIn content a a Monday Wednesday Friday post and it's gonna be in your language and and and okay sure let's kick the tires on it and Sean and I did that and I get a month's worth worth of like the stories that I told and it sounded Like I was talking rather than it being something that that AI regurgitated or that it was just a transcript from our conversation. And I I kind of said to Sean, I'm like, I'm like, dude, that this is something that people would pay for. I mean I as as a real estate broker, I have twenty different tools that I'm paying anywhere from $25 a month to $200 a month for services that give me certain accesses or privileges or data sets that I might need. And when Sean Provided me this and and I I I felt like there was a platform there instantly and and and Sean was like, really? You think that people would pay money for this? I said, I would pay money for this. And it's just amazing to see w what where it's gone f from that from that conversation. Not too long ago.
Jeremy: And you're and you're using it regularly now, right, Andy?
Andy Knapick: Absolutely. It I I mean it it it came to the point where i if I made a LinkedIn post in the past, I would get, you know, a courtesy ten to twelve people who liked it. Nobody would comment on it. And I think one of my first posts, it went viral. It w it was amazing. It it was talking about our Barlouie move from the mall to our new location. And it was I I think just from that post, I think it had s somewhere like twelve hundred interactions, it had over a hundred comments. I think I picked up fifty new connections from it and and it blew me away. I mean it it it made me feel like a social media influencer and and fired me up to say I actually I do have great stories to tell. I I do you know, if I'm gonna build my brand, it's telling these stories I have and and just like you guys have shift happens, I mean we could sit here and trade war stories from from all of us being in operations or or doing something over the last thirty years that we had as professionals and it's just it's this thing is a content generator, but it's using your stories and your words in a way that I'm I'm not capable, I don't have the bandwidth to do it and and I don't s like I don't speak or I don't write as as good as I speak even though I didn't speak very well there. Yeah. Hundred percent.
Jeremy: No, what I think is really interesting and and I think I've said it on the last three episodes, bringing it back down to the lobby here. You know, authority leader is is something and and Andy, I don't know that I could have described it as well as you, and and you're somebody living it. You're using it, and and and we've been talking about it a little bit recently, to our audience, and and and and I really think this episode is going to land with them because they've got you know, that one of the first people that ever really utilized this and is utilizing it and seeing that growth and and and and folks listening out there, you know, authority leader and getting your voice out there, getting your war stories out there, getting your thought leadership out there is part of that workforce 360 solution. It's going to draw people in. It's gonna help you take your past stories and apply them to your current environment or maybe other people learn from you and be able to apply, you know, to to s similar circumstances that they're dealing with. So as Sean and I have been talking about since the since the beginning of of of Shift Happens, we talk a lot about automation. We talk about this new world and this evolution that's going on in the workforce with with AI and new systems and new platforms and things like that. But something that those things will never be able to replace is The clawing and the growing and the learning and like the things we talked to Jen about, but on the ground in operations and fixing a problem with people right here, right now, fixing AI cannot replace a sandwich maker at Jimmy John's. That's not a thing. Okay. You gotta have somebody there to help them. Now, you know, there may be things in the future. Sean, you and I have talked about this since Dwerk is jumping into robotics and training.
Andy Knapick: Right.
Jeremy: humanoids and and there are kitchens out there that that are starting to build some of these things. But at the end of the day, it's there to serve people. And you're gonna need people to serve people. And and and and so this all ties together. So you know we announced on the last episode that authority leader is is is really bringing shift happens and taking chances and and itself forward into the mainstream of workforce. And and it's really because all these things tie together. So
Andy Knapick: jeez.
Jeremy: You know, this has been really great, Andy. We appreciate you being on the show. Sean, always, always a pleasure to be on here. And and and and folks, if you have any questions for Andy or if you want to learn more, or if you are looking for real estate for your next franchise location, you know, reach out to us so we can get you Andy's number and he can help find find a new new spot for your new shop to get set up here. But don't forget to like, subscribe, hit that follow button, share. about shift happens. subscribe and follow us. We got more to come. Some exciting shows coming up ahead of us and we'll see you next time. Thanks all.
Andy Knapick: Thanks, guys. Yeah.
Shaun Coe: Good to see ya. Always good to be back and excited to have Mr. Napic on. so Andy, we'll kinda kick it off right to you. I think just to give some context a little bit, you know, let's give the fans like how you and I got linked up and then we can say how we got linked up with Jeremy as well.
Andy Knapick: Yes. Sure, so we've we've been a Bar Louis franchise for franchisee for roughly 15 years now. And Sean was a was a rock star for the brand back in its heyday when when Barlouis was opening stores all across the country and and I think units were over 150 and and Sean was a VP of operations. and we have two Barlouis, one in Indy, on the north side of Indy in Carmel, Indiana, which is an upscale suburb. and then we also have another one in Granger, Indiana, which is kind of my hometown. and and both Both stores perform very well. the Granger is the number one store in the history of the brand, and Carmel is one of the top performing stores right now. But you know, a lot of times sales don't always mean that things are going well. And and a couple years ago, we ran into some operational issues and and needed to bring Sean's team with HC Resource on and and kind of a bar rescue situation. And I mean, literally, we were we were a couple weeks away from. From closing. That was a store that was out there on an island without ownership touching it on a daily basis like we do in Granger. And we were in dire straits and and Sean and his team came in and really saved the day for us. And since then, you know, Sean of I Sean and I are discovered that we're very like-minded and in kindred spirits and and have kind of struck up a relationship that that's led into a couple different business ventures and and who knows where it it goes from here, but it's it's been a great it's been more than a a work relationship and a professional relationship so we've kind of become friends outside of the Barlouy relationship.
Jeremy: You know, it's interesting. So what you were talking about was literally shift happenings by you. So I want to hear more about this because I haven't heard this. So Sean, what did you come in and do for that store?
Shaun Coe: Yeah. Well, started off as a as a risk mitigation contract. You know, I'm gonna be completely transparent on all this. So it's open book. So it was supposed to be a week to four week contract. full transparency on that as well. Miss Harb landed the contract. So Jen, who was on one of our episodes recently, Jeremy, you've gotten to know. she was actually doing the candidate course, you know, which we'll talk about in Authority Leader. So Jen came into my network taking the candidate course. I was just publishing it at the time, Jeremy. So this is before I got picked up by King's College. And I'm not gonna lie to you, like I picked Jen because I knew she'd be a good student. And I mean Andy will tell you, she's just a beast, you know. So not only is she a beast on the podcast, yeah, she just she'll run through walls. So I knew that she was really gonna take action and also at the same time, Jeremy, you know, go back to taking chances.
Andy Knapick: She's a rock star.
Shaun Coe: during the pandemic, it was first set of like, you know, thousands of colleagues I've seen that were laid off that were struggling to find a job for the first time. You know, we've covered enough episodes on that. But when we landed, it was a true risk mitigation contract. Nature of chaos and shift happens. Mr. Hurricane Milton came, right? So I'm supposed to be up to meet Andy's brother during during Hurricane Milton. Jeremy, I know you you were coaching me from afar on that as well, I think, just as the process. So we had to delay the first week. I'll never forget this to Andy. Your brother called me. He's like, we might not fucking be here, bro, by the time you get here. I was like, well, I have no house right now, so let me let me get this solidified. you know, fast forward, we couldn't have done this work without great owners. Jeremy, you've heard me talk about this forever. we don't rush towards operations management. contracts because it's a marriage, right? So the relationship matters more than anything. I can't tell you how many times we get hired to fix a problem. Ninety nine percent of the time the person that hired us is the problem. This wasn't one of those. You know, so what was awesome for us to not at all. No, I
Jeremy: You're not the problem, Andy.
Andy Knapick: It's good to know, you alright?
Shaun Coe: No, I mean this though. I I mean Andy, you you're in operations enough. Like I d all of us are in operations. Like we don't even have to think about that too hard to understand. You know, usually the pup the person with the pain point sometimes is causing the pain. true nature of everything, risk mitigation went into ops management. Andy and Mike moved fucking mountains for us, and I mean this. So
Andy Knapick: That's right.
Shaun Coe: I think we hit you guys with a sixty thousand dollar repair and maintenance bill. Not not from us, but just what needed to be fixed. And I have never seen owners that cared more about their people, Jeremy. and then just for context with all this, you know, Andy if I'm is it okay for me to say some of the results?
Andy Knapick: I mean go ahead and brag on yourself.
Shaun Coe: We took them from losing about forty-five thousand dollars a month, fast forward six months later, profiting about 130,000 between two units. Wouldn't have been able to do this without these guys though. So again, like what we look for in partnerships, just like Andy said, you know, and we're gonna talk about all these endeavors.
Jeremy: Amazing. That's awesome.
Shaun Coe: 18 years of owning it or 15 years, Barlouy Corporate is not the same store. Sorry to say that to those guys. I'll I'll tell the owners to their face today. And and there's a lot of struggles. So Barlouie was a brand with an edge, Jeremy, and it just lost its vision. Lo and behold, though, here's these two units still doing great, holding on with everything they got. Manpower was great. Just, you know, some some manager tomfoolery, I guess we'd say. But I'll I'll transition back over to Jeremy and just to share this with with all of you guys. Like you know me, Jeremy, and and you and all of us actually are really big on the power of networking. But Jeremy and I also met through a colleague that that worked at my concept. So I I think it's just so cool to see us here on this podcast now, right? Doing this endeavor together. Jeremy and I have been talking about how to, you know, get some kind of project going for two to five years. so I just think it's great to to see us all here and how networking actually kind of plays out for us all.
Andy Knapick: That's right.
Jeremy: Well, and it did. And and and with that, you know, Sean, you and Andy have worked together a lot more and talked a lot more. And Andy, you and I have, you know, been on some Zoom calls together, have been on s some of those calls, but we haven't really gotten to get into kind of the the the the deep background a little bit. Help you know, help our audience, help me understand a little bit about kind of where you came from and and where you are today and and and and kind of your view on that workforce environment that Sean and I are often talking about, but based on your experience and your your POV.
Andy Knapick: Sure. so I'm I just turned fifty. I'm a married father of three. My my oldest just graduated high school this past Monday. So so my wife and I are getting getting set to have a new normal here at the end of the summer with him leaving for college. but I I've had three different careers in my life. Started off with a seven year career in college athletics. I was involved with in sports information and in media relations, which essentially is like PR for sports. So I worked at Illinois State University and the University of Louisville and and essentially was like the liaison between the athletics department and the media. So if you wanted to talk to Coach Patino, you would you would arrange it through me or or my boss. I I dealt mainly with the football team at Louisville, but was the number two on basketball. So as a as a 25-year-old who kind of grew up with with ESPN on on replay just the entire day at your house, it it was kind of like a dream come true of during basketball games sitting literally two rows down from Rick Petino and and pre and post-game hanging out with kind of sports celebrities and and and these personalities on TV that you got to know and and just you know, I I rose to the pinnacle of that profession. A very young age and and didn't really like what I saw at the pinnacle. It was it was a job that you did because you loved it. But when I started to think about, you know, getting married and having a wife and kids in a in a house, that was not the career path that that was gonna make that happen for me. And I'd been bugging my brother ever since I was in college to try and start a business venture. And I had honed in on opening Jimmy Johns. I I loved the the concept in in that time in the early. 2000s, it was very much a college brand. And that's where you know I kind of fell in love with it. Whereas as a Chicago kid, you you went to any university, even a directional school like Illinois State or Southern Illinois, Eastern Illinois, you know, there were Jimmy Johns everywhere, and and you'd go to visit your friends, and they were all on their college campuses too, and then you moved back to Chicago or Indianapolis and there weren't any. And so tried to get my brother to to get on board with it and it Took him a while. I I think one night he was in Kalamazoo going by one of the Jimmy Johns at Western Michigan University and saw a line out the door at two in the morning and called me the next day and said, Okay, let's do it. And so we we we found Notre Dame was the co closest college campus that didn't have one and it was not far from Chicago, not far from him in Kalamazoo. So quit my job at Louisville. we we borrowed
Jeremy: man.
Andy Knapick: money from the only person in our family who who had money. It happened to be like a rich drunk cousin down in in Georgia. And
Shaun Coe: I love this
Jeremy: Ha ha.
Shaun Coe: story.
Andy Knapick: Yeah, started our first Jimmy Johns not far from Notre Dame's campus. And the interesting thing was at that time Jimmy Johns trying to sell like one sandwich at a time. And and coming from the world of college athletics, it was like I was half the time ordering the food for teams, especially at a smaller school like Illinois State. So I I knew that there was something that these teams needed, particularly like if your team is leaving campus and going on a road trip, that it's a getaway meal or or the visiting team coming. Back into town, they need that meal to get away and get back on the road. And at that point, you know, the only thing that you could feed your D1 athlete was here's a half a Papa John's pizza before an eight-hour bus ride. And so we were really instrumental in getting the the Jimmy Johns catering program going. And a year after we opened, we were the number one store in the country. and and started we opened a couple other stores always operated.
Jeremy: Wow.
Andy Knapick: Operationally, we always kind of expected to grow. And so I would always put like the next rock star, whether it was a it could be an 18-year-old, it could be a 25-year-old, you know, our favorite guy was was you know a delivery driver with the saggy pants and the hat on sideways. And you you know, you put somebody like that on your hip who's never been led before. Exactly. And and and you know, now that guy's been the VP of operations for for several different national.
Jeremy: Yeah.
Shaun Coe: Yeah, yeah.
Andy Knapick: brands and so we always put you know a good young person next to my brother or myself and tried to replicate I'm gonna work hip to hip with this guy Orgal for the next two years and then we got to the point where we had enough of those people where it's like we're very top heavy we don't need you here so we branched my best friend off in 2008 to do Bar Louis and then again you know by 2007 2010, we were top heavy again, and that's when we branched my brother and our our best area manager off to do Dunkin' Donuts. and so you know, by 2018, we were up to 14 Jimmy Johns, 12 Dunkin' Donuts. we had won the the Jimmy Johns franchisee of the year in 2008, Barlouy franchisee of the year in 2018, and you know, a lot of what you guys talk about is is just the labor force and and At this time, I didn't know that there were groups like Sean's group out there that you could bring in a third-party group to come in and take over operations for you. And my brother and I were very prideful and always put the customer first and was was always, hey, if if Jimmy John's thing is out the door in less than four, like we want to have that sandwich from the point that you call and you know the sandwich is being made. A lot of times we're having the order done by the time you're done taking the credit card in. information and that sandwich is out the door and you're delivering it to somebody in seven minutes. That was our our niche where it's like you could do pizza in a half hour, Chinese food in 40 minutes, but it's like if I'm that nurse at the hospital and I know that I have a half hour break that if I call Jimmy John's, I'm gonna get that sandwich. And so we always wanted to pride provide that level of service. And by like the late teens, it got to the point where I started to realize that that we went from having applications on
Jeremy: Wow.
Andy Knapick: Hand and people always wanting to work, especially like young high school kids, to the point where now we're paying snag a job and indeed and zip recruiter all thousands of dollars a month to have people not show up. And then to have, you know, if you're doing a lot of catering and you're always short staffed, and and like you you're prideful on hitting that mark. And on any particular day, you need 12 delivery drivers, but you have six, and that sixth one is the stoner who shows up.
Shaun Coe: Yeah.
Andy Knapick: forty five minutes late reeking of pot.
Shaun Coe: Always works that way. Yeah.
Andy Knapick: Reeking of pot, but you've got a five hundred dollar catering order sitting there and it's like I should fire him, but if I don't, this order's gonna be two hours late instead of an hour, and then tomorrow I'm looking to have five drivers when I need twelve. And so when we lost the leverage over firing employees and being able to replace them and just being able to have the morals that we wanted, I knew it was kind of like my time to get out. And so in in twenty eighteen we we sold the Jimmy Johns. Which essentially sold my daytime gig. I mean, we had a full operational team that had been running the Bar Louis for 10 years. Same thing with Dunkin' Donuts. And so I was kind of like a man without a job. And that's that's when I became a commercial real estate broker. It was it was very natural at that point because I had negotiated leases in three different states. you know, opened, I think it was 40 leases I negotiated. We opened 33 stores. and and so for the last Coming up on seven years now, I've been a commercial real estate broker, primarily focusing on like site selection for for me ten years ago. so that's that's me in a nutshell right now.
Shaun Coe: Is it safe to bes to say, Andy, you you kind of became your own consumer a little bit? Or like I know you and I have talked about this on taking chances. Like I I love this story because one hand kind of feeds the other for as far as your development and passions go. But I think we talked on taking chances a bit. Like, did a lot of that skill set you got from operations? I know you said it made it a natural switch, but like I think it also gave you I mean, I think you've got a very keen eye for commercial real estate, better than most people I've seen. and I don't know if you just want to extrapolate that on a bit, because like the path makes sense going forward, but I think if you look back on it, I'm just curious like what your thoughts are on that of like how it all played played together.
Andy Knapick: No no Absolutely, because you know, when you become a franchisee, for the most part, somebody's gonna put you through three to four weeks of corporate training and then when you open a store, they're gonna come and hold your hand for the first two to three weeks. But outside of that, most of the most of the things that you're gonna learn are are by making mistakes. you know, so and s you moving from store one to store two, it was like w we on our first store, we had never heard of tenant improvement allowance. We didn't know what that is. And then on the second store, it's like the landlord's gonna offer you tenant improvement allowance. But then we didn't read it carefully enough and didn't realize, but they weren't providing the demising wall between us and the Sherwin Williams next door. So the tenant improvement allowance essentially went to build what we thought the landlord was already delivering us. You know, and so that that was the lesson on store, lesson on store two. And then, you know, store three, you know, you're going into new development and they show you what they're building next.
Shaun Coe: Yeah. I think
Andy Knapick: But they don't show you what they plan to build in three years later. And now you realize that they're planting a building right in front of your building. and and so you learn these things, you start to learn which side of the road you want to be on, you start to learn the access with the drive-thru, parking situations. And so, yeah, opening all those stores definitely pointed me in the right direction on what I do with commercial real estate. And I don't know that there's another real estate broker out there nationwide who has lived on both sides of the tables of negotiating the lease as the tenant, negotiating the lease as you know, the broker maybe representing the landlord, and then operationally know what what could hurt you, what what drives sales, what can hinder sales. So it's it's been it's a been a wild ride and I I I go ahead, Jeremy.
Jeremy: You've No, please, go ahead, finish that thought.
Andy Knapick: It it has and and just i I look back and and had I known Sean ten years ago, it would have been great to have turned operations over to Sean and go out and still become a real estate broker and be the guy right now who's chasing dirt for my own operations. now it's kind of like they've they've gone on two separate paths, but I always wonder what would have happened had I known Sean ten years earlier.
Jeremy: Well, it's a it's a really interesting roadmap that you kinda laid out. And and it's funny, you know, when Sean and I talk about workforce and what he and I have been doing and and and really what HC Resource was doing when Sean and I met and and what I was doing in staffing was different. You know, I was dealing with the hourly line level people and Sean was, you know, doing these operational redevelopments.
Shaun Coe: Mm-hmm.
Andy Knapick: Sure.
Jeremy: Dealing with hourly people, but it was usually internal hourly people. But you have a really unique perspective here. Andy, I I I get the sense of, you know, your roadmap kind of took you through a fulcrum in hospitality where years ago, especially going back to my hotel days, hospitality only used outside help.
Andy Knapick: Yeah.
Jeremy: On those like big events, big things happening, or when something broke. It wasn't like a a a daily necessity. And and modern day, it really is a daily necessity. So I'm curious when you when you are negotiating new real estate deals, you're dealing with I'll put it this way: old you you're you're you're finding new locations for old you, but it's for a for another conglomerate or another franchisee or someone else. And then you know, you're talking with them, you're getting to know them, trying to see what they what they want. what's your lens on workforce nowadays? I mean, obviously you had that experience dealing with the stone or driving up to to to to to want to go drive your catering order out there. But a lot of what you what we talk about here on shift happens is kind of that 360 how do you get the people, how do you retain the people, and and really more about the pain points that that the industries are seeing. So you got a unique perspective to kind of share an outsider's view.
Andy Knapick: Right.
Jeremy: Of what the insiders are telling you that they're seeing out there, some of those pain points they're seeing.
Andy Knapick: Right. Yeah, so it's interesting up up here in in the South Bend areas We're we're adjacent to Elkart, Indiana, which is the R V capital of the world. And and so we have this massive manufacturing base and and and it goes through years of really big booms and then busts. you know, Obama gave his first speech ever as president from Elkart in in nine because it had the highest unemployment rate in the country. And and that was during a down cycle. Yeah, I mean that was back when you had the economic downturn of eight and the RV industry essentially
Shaun Coe: Okay.
Andy Knapick: Died for a couple of years. And so the labor force was just decimated here. And so, but then you get into these boom areas, and it's very interesting, especially for hospitality, because a lot of what happens is your line cooks, your back-of-the-house people, when when they are in a a bus people, you have the best operational back-of-the-house you've ever seen. And then when the RV industry goes into a boom industry, all those
Shaun Coe: The bet.
Andy Knapick: people the the RV industry just it's they're great gigs they pay well and everybody goes to the RV industry and what you're left with is essentially the the people that the RV industry won't hire and and so and when they're when they're in a bust period it's a very robust drug test and screening process and then when they're in a boom period they'll they'll hire anybody and so you you're really getting the bottom of the bottom.
Jeremy: Ha ha ha.
Shaun Coe: Mm-hmm. Fly by Yeah.
Andy Knapick: And and so, you know, I I had a conversation with Sean a little bit ago and and wrote an article on LinkedIn about it where where I I wondered where all the high school workers went. because primarily the first probably ten years we were doing Jimmy Johns, my favorite employees were were just high school employees and and you'd go out and we made a point of going out and hiring like the the cheerleaders or the dance line girls because if you got those girls, then you got the football players and then it became a thing where it
Shaun Coe: Athletes, yeah. Yeah, yep.
Andy Knapick: Was tough to get a job at your place, and then slowly the high school kids started to trickle off, and that's where we went from you. You know, if if somebody quit or we fired them, you had the paper applications that you picked up two or three and you had that position filled. And then it went to this snag of job and indeed and zip recruiter. And I kept wondering where all the high school kids went. And now that I have high school kids, you know, I I have a theory that essentially travel sports might have killed the high school worker because now I have. High school kids, I have restaurants that I own, and I'm like, why can't I get my high school kids to work in the stores? It's because if they're athletes, it's they're they're either practicing, they're training, they're taking private lessons. Like the high school that my kids go to, it's like if you're not if you haven't been taking a private lesson in that sport since second grade, you're not making the team. And so now now witnessing it with my kids and saying, Well, they just don't have time to work, like the the the kids with the work ethic are still there. But now it it's it's th the way that that youth sports travel ball high school sports has elevated to this everybody wants to get NIL or go to the right college. I I feel like it's really decimated the the high school labor market, at least around here.
Jeremy: It's an interesting thing. And Sean, you're you you you and you and Laura are getting ready to have your firstborn, which is which is really exciting. But Andy, I too have the have the high schoolers and the and the teenagers as I shared with you on text. at the same time your your kid was graduating high school, so was mine. I got one more that's older, that's almost almost getting married at this point. but I've got one more who's who's who's gonna be a sophomore. But I agree with you, you know, at thirteen years old myself, I was working
Andy Knapick: wow.
Shaun Coe: Working, yeah.
Jeremy: At a catering company. I was biking to the catering company and I was working weekends and nights and and whatever all through high school. I think my senior year, I had three different jobs. I was working simultaneously. It was different nights that I was doing different things. But like I look at my own kids and we see it at Instawork also, you know, ever since COVID, there's been
Andy Knapick: absolutely.
Jeremy: This environment of optionality where people want to make their own schedules. They don't want to work their normal nine to fives necessarily like what we grew grew up with. And nine to five doesn't necessarily mean nine to five. It's whenever your hours are, but it's that eight-hour shift doing what you do. And and you know, whether it be that they were influenced by an influencer and they think that they can and Sean and I talk about this all the time, they think that they're gonna become some TikTok influencer or or something like that.
Shaun Coe: Yep.
Andy Knapick: Absolutely.
Shaun Coe: Yes.
Andy Knapick: Right.
Jeremy: Or or they have creatively and figure out a way, you know. my son who just graduated high school, he jumped on AI, built himself a website. He's a he's a very, very talented photographer, built himself a website and an app, and he's getting photo gigs. Now that's not what he's gonna do for a career, he's gonna go to law school, that's what he wants to do. But but that's not going to go work for someone. That's not putting in an application, that's not trying to get hired. And part of the challenge
Andy Knapick: Good friend. So sure.
Jeremy: Part of the challenges is while you were a franchiser who had availability to interview people intent. You were going out to these people and these high school students to try and draw them in to come work for you because you saw a method that worked. There is a huge contingent of the hourly population at whatever age, it's not just high school in general, that are just simply tired of putting in their paper application or their digital application into a black hole and never receive an interview. They want to make money, they want to earn. Some people have to earn to to to pay for their families, to pay for their homes. It's not just taking care of themselves, you know, the and what's happening also is the people who have been challenged to get other jobs are actually taking jobs away from teenagers because it's what they can get right now. It it trickles down. And so
Andy Knapick: That's so true. Yeah.
Shaun Coe: Trickles down.
Andy Knapick: Absolutely.
Jeremy: So if if if you're a franchisee and you've got this this 35-year-old who has full availability, they're not hindered by sports or school or anything like that, and they want to work and they have this resume that they're probably overqualified from a previous career, but they're willing to come in and do this job, whether it be bartending at a Bar Louis or making sandwiches or even being an assistant manager at a Jimmy John, they're gonna do that. And now they've taken that spot.
Andy Knapick: Right.
Jeremy: That that student could have worked two and a half days a week. Right. And so, so the environments have shifted greatly over these years. And and it is tough. It's it I think it's tough for the kids to get that experience. You know, one of the things I often say is high school should be teaching resume drafting and interview skills, and they still don't do it. Colleges should be doing the same thing because they don't know how to do it.
Shaun Coe: Yep.
Andy Knapick: That's so true. That's so true.
Shaun Coe: Hundred percent. Yep.
Andy Knapick: Sure.
Jeremy: And now it's gonna just be in AI. They're gonna write their resumes in AI and hopefully they take the time and integrity to go and vet it out and make sure it says what they want it to say. But but that's the reality of where we are today. And I and and and I wish it was better than that. But again, it's why Sean has HC Core and HC Resource is is to be people out there and why Instawork is as successful as it is, because man
Andy Knapick: Sure.
Shaun Coe: Coming up.
Jeremy: Andy, had you and I linked up when when you were having those problems, we would have had you fully staffed as well, you know, with with the variable schedules. so I wanna pivot here, Sean, a little bit because another big thing that that Andy has played a vital role in, I'd like to kind of hand this over to you, is something we have been talking about, which is authority leader. So I I don't know if you want to lead that off and kind of talk about how that that got started with you and Andy.
Andy Knapick: Sure. Rightly.
Shaun Coe: Yeah. Well, a hundred percent the catalyst. And you know, Jeremy, as we've talked, I guess just to give quick context as we go through this, Andy's still doing that today, right? Just to mean this. Like people are literally I just want to give some context about those two locations before we go into Authority Leader, because we were talking about those when Authority Leader came out. In so Granger and Cormel are about three hours apart and they're worlds difference, right? Granger has always been a druggernaut. It is one of the most challenging staffing markets, probably in the United States, Jeremy, besides for Andy's store at Barlouy. That store was already killing it before we got here. So ha had great ownership presence. Because there's, you know, those busts and booms. I never knew that, Andy. This is so helpful for even me now, right? Two years into the Cendevro, that makes a lot more sense for some of the things we've seen from recruitment. But we have kids fighting to get onto the onto the field there.
Andy Knapick: Sure.
Shaun Coe: For context, Andy was the first store with HC Corps, was also the first store with opspitality and the hourly recruiting. Just to give some context, how we deployed that, right? All those case studies I was telling you about, 90% of them were Barlouy, right? They were these two stores that were getting the most bandwidth out of Just to see what Andy's still done from that tutelage, though, in Granger, they're fighting it on. I mean, I go to other locations and I say that I run that, and people are like, How did you get a job there? I'm like, Well, I own a company that runs it. I'm not really saying that to the hourlies, but but that's the that's the culture that Andy has built in South Bend before we got.
Andy Knapick: Yeah, I mean, y you know, i it's one thing to have your your resume or your LinkedIn page out there, but y you know, what I've been realizing that having transferred brokerages in in real estate, you you know, even if you're flying under one flag or another that it all essentially comes down to your personal branding and and your your brand is is yourself. And and and and I coming from, you know, back in the day, the the sports information or media relations background or you know, you know, essentially PR, I realized that I wasn't doing a good enough job of promoting myself out there and and and what I could do. And and would often get frustrated knowing that I had this unique skill set of being on both sides of the table, but kind of watching other brokers come in and finding the sites for Chipotle or or five guys and and and started thinking like well there's nobody better than me and and I'm I'm kind of toiling here renting the strip mall with the leaky roof and and the HVAC does that doesn't work to the landlord who's wondering why he doesn't have Chipotle and and so just kind of felt stuck a little bit and reached out to Sean and said, you know you're you're recruiting and and you're out there placing people in these positions that that maybe I might like to have someday. I mean I always thought my skill set would be best suited to be working as a real estate manager at a large national chain helping franchisees find their next locations. And so Sean and I kind of got together and and started talking about how do we best position myself and and he took a look and helped me refine my resume and and showed me how to to go out and and build my network. And I I think when when Sean and I started this probably you know a year ago I think I had just over a thousand connections on LinkedIn and and and most of those were people that I I knew personally, but you know since I I enrolled in Sean's course, and and and he's kind of helped me grow my network and and position messaging out there to these people that I'm trying to attract. the idea was that you know if you are looking for another job or you are trying to develop your own brand, that The best way to do it is to tell your stories. And and I've I've I've always been a confident person, but I've never been real confident in talking about myself and and not only describing my wins, but describing them in a way that engages and and encourages people to interact with that type of stuff. And and and frankly, I also didn't have the bandwidth to sit there and post regularly and come up with content. And so when Sean said hey I I'm doing this thing where you know you know you and I are gonna sit down for a half hour interview we're just gonna have a conversation like you and I are sitting across from each other at the bar and it's gonna give you a month worth of LinkedIn content a a Monday Wednesday Friday post and it's gonna be in your language and and and okay sure let's kick the tires on it and Sean and I did that and I get a month's worth worth of like the stories that I told and it sounded Like I was talking rather than it being something that that AI regurgitated or that it was just a transcript from our conversation. And I I kind of said to Sean, I'm like, I'm like, dude, that this is something that people would pay for. I mean I as as a real estate broker, I have twenty different tools that I'm paying anywhere from $25 a month to $200 a month for services that give me certain accesses or privileges or data sets that I might need. And when Sean Provided me this and and I I I felt like there was a platform there instantly and and and Sean was like, really? You think that people would pay money for this? I said, I would pay money for this. And it's just amazing to see w what where it's gone f from that from that conversation. Not too long ago.
Jeremy: And you're and you're using it regularly now, right, Andy?
Andy Knapick: Absolutely. It I I mean it it it came to the point where i if I made a LinkedIn post in the past, I would get, you know, a courtesy ten to twelve people who liked it. Nobody would comment on it. And I think one of my first posts, it went viral. It w it was amazing. It it was talking about our Barlouie move from the mall to our new location. And it was I I think just from that post, I think it had s somewhere like twelve hundred interactions, it had over a hundred comments. I think I picked up fifty new connections from it and and it blew me away. I mean it it it made me feel like a social media influencer and and fired me up to say I actually I do have great stories to tell. I I do you know, if I'm gonna build my brand, it's telling these stories I have and and just like you guys have shift happens, I mean we could sit here and trade war stories from from all of us being in operations or or doing something over the last thirty years that we had as professionals and it's just it's this thing is a content generator, but it's using your stories and your words in a way that I'm I'm not capable, I don't have the bandwidth to do it and and I don't s like I don't speak or I don't write as as good as I speak even though I didn't speak very well there. Yeah. Hundred percent.
Jeremy: No, what I think is really interesting and and I think I've said it on the last three episodes, bringing it back down to the lobby here. You know, authority leader is is something and and Andy, I don't know that I could have described it as well as you, and and you're somebody living it. You're using it, and and and we've been talking about it a little bit recently, to our audience, and and and and I really think this episode is going to land with them because they've got you know, that one of the first people that ever really utilized this and is utilizing it and seeing that growth and and and and folks listening out there, you know, authority leader and getting your voice out there, getting your war stories out there, getting your thought leadership out there is part of that workforce 360 solution. It's going to draw people in. It's gonna help you take your past stories and apply them to your current environment or maybe other people learn from you and be able to apply, you know, to to s similar circumstances that they're dealing with. So as Sean and I have been talking about since the since the beginning of of of Shift Happens, we talk a lot about automation. We talk about this new world and this evolution that's going on in the workforce with with AI and new systems and new platforms and things like that. But something that those things will never be able to replace is The clawing and the growing and the learning and like the things we talked to Jen about, but on the ground in operations and fixing a problem with people right here, right now, fixing AI cannot replace a sandwich maker at Jimmy John's. That's not a thing. Okay. You gotta have somebody there to help them. Now, you know, there may be things in the future. Sean, you and I have talked about this since Dwerk is jumping into robotics and training.
Andy Knapick: Right.
Jeremy: humanoids and and there are kitchens out there that that are starting to build some of these things. But at the end of the day, it's there to serve people. And you're gonna need people to serve people. And and and and so this all ties together. So you know we announced on the last episode that authority leader is is is really bringing shift happens and taking chances and and itself forward into the mainstream of workforce. And and it's really because all these things tie together. So
Andy Knapick: jeez.
Jeremy: You know, this has been really great, Andy. We appreciate you being on the show. Sean, always, always a pleasure to be on here. And and and and folks, if you have any questions for Andy or if you want to learn more, or if you are looking for real estate for your next franchise location, you know, reach out to us so we can get you Andy's number and he can help find find a new new spot for your new shop to get set up here. But don't forget to like, subscribe, hit that follow button, share. about shift happens. subscribe and follow us. We got more to come. Some exciting shows coming up ahead of us and we'll see you next time. Thanks all.
Andy Knapick: Thanks, guys. Yeah.
