SPI 420: How the CEO of Everbowl is Radically Growing and Creating an Amazing User Experience for His Customers

SPI 420: How the CEO of Everbowl is Radically Growing and Creating an Amazing User Experience

Pat Flynn:
Hey, have you ever experienced this before where you see a brand-new business pop-up, out of nowhere, whether it's digital or in-person, or online, offline, it doesn't matter, but you see this business come out of nowhere, and they're just skyrocketing? They are having incredible results. In the back of your mind, you're like, "How in the world were they able to do this so quickly? And how are they able to do this in a very competitive space too?"

Pat:
Because oftentimes when we're creating businesses, we're like, "Oh, well, there's people who exist in that space already. There's companies that are already the big A players and the behemoth in that space. How can we even potentially compete with that?" Well, today, I wanted to share an amazing story with you through a good friend of mine. His name is Jeff Fenster, our special guest today. He is the founder of Everbowl.

Pat:
If you are in the Southern California region and this is... they're opening up new locations all over the place. Essentially, they are a super food, not a restaurant, but you walk in, you get greeted with this amazing smile from a team member. And then, you craft your own acai bowl. And it is super food, super coffee, like a mix between Chipotle, but with really healthy stuff, not that Chipotle isn't healthy, although we could have a debate about that obviously.

Pat:
But what I mean is like granola, acai, and these kinds of things aren't necessarily new, but the idea of how Jeff put this altogether in a way was new. And we're going to dive into the story of Everbowl today. And with Jeff... and a fun story about Jeff: He and I actually went to middle school and high school together, and we didn't connect a ton back then, but we've definitely connected now. We're really good friend.

Pat:
And I support everything he does. And I wanted to share the story of Everbowl and how they were able to break into the space some very unique things that he and his business are doing too to break the mold and to create something totally new in a space that seemingly was saturated already. All that and more here on the Smart Passive Income Podcast.

Announcer:
Welcome to the Smart Passive Income Podcast where it's all about working hard now so you can sit back and reap the benefits later. And now your host, his favorite productivity tool is a soft pillow, Pat Flynn.

Pat:
What's up, everybody? Pat Flynn here, and welcome to session 420 of the Smart Passive Income Podcast. My name is Pat Flynn. I'm here to help you make more money, save more time and help more people too. And like I said, we're interviewing and having a conversation with Jeff Fenster, CEO of Everbowl with... I'm looking at how many locations they have now. I mean, there's twenty locations or so. Actually, twenty five at this point in time, mostly in the San Diego area, branching out into Arizona.

Pat:
And they are just taking the world by storm right now, which is really amazing. So, let's chat with Jeff. Here he is. Jeff, welcome to the SPI podcast. Thanks for being here, man.

Jeff Fenster:
Thank you so much, Pat. Honestly, this is probably the most excited I've ever been to be on a podcast due to our past. So, thank you for having me. Love your show, and I'm excited to meet your audience.

Pat:
Yeah. I'm excited too, because out of all the people that we have interviewed here on the show, you're probably the person that I've known the longest. And that's because, as I was saying in the intro, we went to high school together. We went to middle school together. Did we even go to elementary school together?

Jeff:
I don't think so. I went to Jerabek.

Pat:
Okay. No. I was at Walker. So, a long time this relationship has been and we've been friends on and off for a number of years now. And then, we reconnected recently after both getting involved with entrepreneurship and business. And now, you are the CEO and founder of a massively successful brand that I've seen all around the San Diego County now, and I know it's spreading, called Everbowl.

Pat:
And just first of all, congratulations to you on that. And I want to unpack how all that happened and what your plans are for that, but take us back to before you were CEO of Everbowl. When did you know you wanted to be an entrepreneur and what kinds of things were you doing?

Jeff:
So, I actually never thought about being an entrepreneur. I went to college and then I went to law school to be a sports agent and had a job lined up in sports agency with Leigh Steinberg's sports agency and to work for my mentor, David Meltzer. And I thought that was what I was going to do. And while I was in law school and getting a glimpse into that life, I decided that really wasn't what I wanted.

Jeff:
So, when I graduated law school, I had a fiancé and a little baby, and law school debt, and I had to start making money. So, I got a job. I got a job at ADP which was a payroll company, because a friend of mine was there and I was always good in sales. And she said, "Why don't you come? It's an outside sales job while you figure out what you want to do." Since I had zero desire to be a practicing attorney. So, I was in this limbo stage.

Jeff:
So, I went and worked for ADP and was extremely successful right out the gates because of some of the things I learned throughout my teenage years and in college, just on how to sell and utilizing solution-based selling and leveraging relationship capital, which is a very valuable tool. I was the number one sales rep in the country in my first six months there. So, I made a lot of money and I built a big ego, and I thought I was untouchable.

Jeff:
And I earned a pinnacle award which was a $17,000 bonus. And it was January 2008 and I went to my boss and I said, "Hey, I earned this pretty cool bonus, $17,000, and I just bought a house in Mira Mesa, and all my money got sucked into the down payment, and me and my fiancé moved in. And when I went to my boss in January, she said, "Well, you have to wait till the end of the fiscal year because it's an annual goal so you'll get it the third week of July, the fiscal year ends in June."

Jeff:
And I was like, "Wait, wait, wait. That's six months from now. I was counting on it, I'd like my money. Give me another quota. Just give me whatever you need to do. I'll do whatever I need to do. Let me have it." And she basically said, "I'm sorry. This is a big company, that's not just how it works." So, I went higher up. I spoke to supervisors and managers above her. And finally, long story short, I was told, "No, you're not getting it." So, I figured, "Okay, I'm the number one sales rep.

Jeff:
I'm going to use my stature," and I threatened to quit if they didn't give it to me. And they called my bluff and they said, "Well, listen, if you want to quit, you can quit, but we're not giving you the bonus." So, I went home and asked my fiancé if she would support me in the idea that I was going to now quit. And she said, "Yes." So, literally, I quit the very next day. I moved my fiancé and daughter out of my house into my parents' house and started a payroll company with a buddy of mine the very next day.

Jeff:
And that was my being thrusted into entrepreneurship, recognizing that I just wasn't meant for big bureaucratic corporate America; I just wasn't set up for it.

Pat:
Wow, that's incredible. So, first of all, you had mentioned something called... before we get into the payroll company and just what your first steps were with that, because that's really interesting, "leverage relationship capital," something you said was really important for your success as a salesperson. Can you describe what that is and how we might be able to utilize that?

Jeff:
Sure. I genuinely believe it is the number one most important asset entrepreneurs and people in sales have that they don't recognize the power of, and the ones who do find I think immense success. And what it is, is just like money is capital, it's currency, we use it to buy and sell things, relationship capital is can be viewed similarly. And what that is, is the ability to say, "Who do I know who I've earned the right to ask for help?"

Jeff:
They can make that introduction. They can open up their Rolodex. They can avoid me paying a dummy tax. And how do you earn that? And so, luckily, early in my teenage years, I interned a lot. My mom always made me intern, intern, intern, and the concept of learning before you earn really stuck with me. So, I built relationships with people in business that are much older than me while I was a teenager and I never got paid.

Jeff:
And I worked hard for them and I built those relationships. So, I basically was making deposits if you think of it as currency into my relationship ATM machine with them. So, when I got my job at ADP, I needed to meet business owners, and I was only twenty-four years old, I was able to call them and say, "Mr. So-and-so..." or I'll use Dave, Dave Meltzer, he helped me a ton. I called Dave and say, "Dave, I'm selling payroll services. Can you introduce me to business owners?"

Jeff:
And he would open up his Rolodex and give me fifty to seventy-five people at a time that he would make warm introductions to and say, "Please support Jeffrey." Because that's what he called me, "Please support Jeffrey in his endeavor, I trust him. And if you're using a payroll company other than ADP, he's backed by ADP." So, I was getting these warm introductions to where I wasn't cold calling. I wasn't having to learn the tough tranche of sales like all my co-workers.

Jeff:
I was literally getting warm introductions from Dave saying to his buddy, "Use Jeffrey if he can save you money or at least give you better service." And so, leveraging relationship capital to grow made it to where I was working smarter and not harder, and I wasn't smiling and dialing and cold calling, but I was investing in those relationships instead. And so, I'm sure we'll talk about that more as we go, because that's been the foundation of all of my entrepreneurial successes, and my failures are just not related to it.

Pat:
Yeah. Well, thank you for that. And this very much mirrors what a number of people who have come on the show before have said, including Jordan Harbinger who loves to talk about this stuff too. He made an analogy of, "You want to dig your well before you're thirsty." And a lot of entrepreneurs, we tried digging our well when we're thirsty and it's just too late. And the idea of offering value upfront with really no agenda other than to build this relationship capital is what it's about. So, thank you for sharing that personal experience with that.

Pat:
So, you let yourself go, you quit. And then, you start your own company. But you had never done anything like that before. What were some of the big challenges that you had, and what was life like as you were building your business for the first time?

Jeff:
The biggest challenge was my buddy and me, Brian, who we started it together, we're both salesmen. So, neither of us actually knew how to process payroll or run the company, or even what to do. So, it was really that moment like, "Okay, now what?" We know we can sell it. We know we can go out and find customers, which is... that's a scary thing for I think a lot of people who want to be entrepreneurs and want to start their own company, is they are worried about how they're going to generate business.

Jeff:
We didn't have that fear, but we had the fear of, "Well, once we get it, what are we going to do? How do you actually run payroll? How do you provide customer experience? How do you start your own entity?" We knew conceptually but we didn't really understand what we were doing. And then secondly, I just moved into my mom's house after I had just bought a house with my fiancé and daughter.

Jeff:
And so, it was very stressful and scary just in all things happening all at once. It was a weird time. It was a scary time but an exciting time all at the same, which anyone who has made the leap into entrepreneurship probably has felt those rushes of different emotions. So, what we did first really was we spoke, me and my partner, Brian, and we said, "Okay, who should be the one out growing the business and who should be the one operating?"

Jeff:
And we decided I should be out growing and him operating because he's more operationally-minded and probably a better operator than I would be. And I was a little bit better at leveraging relationships, garnering sales and actually growing the brand. And so, that's what happened. We went out and I said, "Okay, let's go get ten customers and figure out what to do with them." So, I did. I went and got ten customers.

Jeff:
And then, together we figured out, "Okay, we can use this technology to process payroll. We're going to use these banking relationships." And we just reverse engineered what we needed to do. I mean, it was 2008, so it wasn't as, I don't want to say easy, because the word easy is a terrible descriptor for what it is. But it wasn't as easy as it is today to learn new things with YouTube and all of the different learning platforms that are out there, and the access to information at your fingertips.

Jeff:
But it was much easier than it was probably ten years prior, because access to information was accessible. So, there was an opportunity for us to learn things that we would just have no idea what to do or how to do it. So, we started reading blogs. We started following anyone who was on the internet that was writing about startups or how to start a company or payroll companies and payroll processing. And we became truly just inundated with information.

Jeff:
We just got as much as we could and tried to sift through it and figure out how to drive our track as we were going.

Pat:
And in terms of getting started with the investments required, obviously, a lot of time and research, what about capital investment? And was that necessary or how did you bootstrap this? Or did you get outside investment?

Jeff:
So, we did bootstrap it to start. I did get my bonus when I quit and I got paid out from my payroll company, and I moved out of my house, so I had no bills. And then, luckily, my mother and father made a $20,000 investment into our company. So, we had a little bit of working capital which was necessary just to do some basic stuff, and we started.

Jeff:
And we bootstrapped it for about nine months. We had rapid growth because once again leveraged... once we had our systems in place and we were ready to scale, we scaled really quickly. We leveraged all of our relationships. And it's amazing what happens when you tell your sphere, your relationship sphere, what you're doing. If it's for you, they get behind you.

Jeff:
And so many opportunities started to open up for us that just weren't there when I was an employee at ADP. But once everyone was like, "Oh, this is your company now?" They truly got behind us. And so, we had rapid growth. And then, we ended up raising some private equity capital nine months in which allowed us to then truly scale. That was that turning point where we were like, "Okay, we're now funded. We now have money. And now, we can really go hit this thing."

Pat:
How does one gracefully ask for help? I think a lot of people might feel worried about, "I don't want to feel like I'm begging or, I don't want to cause too much trouble and have this person go out of their way." I can imagine those thoughts in one person's head when asking for favors in such a case. How do you approach that in a way where they can get behind you?

Jeff:
Well, I think it depends on the relationship. So, obviously, if they're very close personal relationships, you can just ask. You've probably built up enough deposits in the relationship capital ATM machine of things you've done for them to where I can just call my best friend and say, "Hey, can you help me out?" Right? We've done enough for each other without any underlying purpose or reason behind it, unselfishly, so I can just ask.

Jeff:
But then, the other ones, what can I do for you? If you think about it from that perspective, all of a sudden, it shifts. So, I had a good friend of mine who introduced me to a mutual acquaintance who was a CPA. And I wanted to meet the CPA because a CPA meets so many business owners who come in every year to get their business taxes done and all of that. So, it was a great opportunity to meet a bunch of customers without having to smile and dial and hopefully get a warm introduction.

Jeff:
So, when we met, the first question I said is, "How can I bring you more business?" And I listened. And then, I looked at my customer base and I said, "Okay, let me make warm introductions to my existing customers to the CPA first, before I ask them for business." So, I'm giving him or... it was a him but it could be a her, him or her value first before I asked. So, I went through my customers and wrote a nice email, and said, "Listen, I'm working with so and so.

Jeff:
And if you don't have a current CPA to do your business taxes or your on the fence, or you're looking to meet someone who I trust, let me make an introduction." And I did. And so, all of a sudden, because I did that first, when it came time to me asking, I've already given. And I've earned the right to ask for a little help, and they want to help because I already gave them business. They want to get more business for me because it was a mutually symbiotic relationship.

Jeff:
I don't know if anyone is... I like the ocean and I like scuba diving and stuff. But there's places in the ocean where predators aren't predators, they actually help each other. And there's cleaning stations where sharks will go and little fish, who they would normally eat, will actually clean and eats stuff off of them in this one moment because it's symbiotic and it's mutually helpful.

Jeff:
It's the same thing. I mean, we're not sharks and fish, but it's just how I always look at it where if I can pay it forward, if I can give value first, I've earned the right to ask for help later. And sometimes you can't, right? I mean, that's a perfect scenario. Sometimes, it just doesn't work. You might just be someone and I just want to gain help. But it could be, how can I help you? Is there anything I can do with my relationships to add value to you?

Jeff:
If not, can I give you my time? Can I volunteer at your charity? Can I make a donation to your event, to your cause? What can I do to help? Because I'm not asking for favors for free, I'm asking for mutual help. And if it's truly just one-sided, sometimes, they want to help you anyway because they're probably at a different level in life where they don't need what anything you have right now.

Jeff:
But I think everyone gets to that point when you reach a certain level of success, helping others. Although, it feels... It's a good thing to do. It feels so good that a lot of people really love it. And I'm at a point in my life where I love helping other people. I'm a mentor now and working with young entrepreneurs at the Lavin School of Entrepreneurship and doing a lot of things. And I can tell you, I've never really experienced this level of personal satisfaction from helping and inspiring others, and watching them grow and develop.

Jeff:
And then, them just thanking me with just words. It truly feels incredible. So, I think people want to help. And I think you shouldn't be too shy or scared to ask for it. Just remember that if you're always asking, your ATM machine is going to run out. So, you have to think about making deposits as well. Even if you don't know, and like what you said Jordan said on your show, digging your well before you're thirsty, is critical.

Jeff:
I mean, I think you should really treat every single relationship you meet, regardless of if they are above you or lower than you in the stature of your profession, like they are gold. Because you never know who they know. You never know how they can help you, and you never know how you can help them. And if you just treat it that way, you're going to build this big, big, big sphere of relationships that are going to allow you to exponentially grow your business. And personally, just your overall happiness.

Pat:
Well, thank you Jeff for that, and I love your shark analogy. You're such a nerd—it sounds like, with the oceans—but also there's a reason why they call it the Shark Tank and it's not just because sharks are scary, but I like that analogy. Also, for those of you in the audience listening who might have young ones, I think I would encourage you to, like what Jeff is talking about, to share the importance of providing value to others first and building these relationships.

Pat:
A good book that I want to recommend for those with kids that is along the same lines, it's not an entrepreneurial book, but it really obviously covers the same themes, is called, How Full is Your Bucket. And this is a book that my kids had read in school. They go to an entrepreneurial-themed school, if you will. And when they brought home this book and they were telling me about it, it's exactly this.

Pat:
You can either deposit into other people's buckets and make them feel great, or when you say something negative, or you're just always asking for things, you're taking away from their bucket. And eventually, you could have it be depleted and that's not good. So, providing value to others, I love that. Let's move on in the story. You have this payroll company. Things are going well. When does Everbowl come into play here or are we still far from it?

Jeff:
We're quite far from it. So, my biggest weakness—at least that's what everyone who love me told me—was I had, not ADD, like traditional ADD, but this interest ADD where I would get really into something, and then a few years later, I'm into something else. And I didn't really have anything that was going to keep me captivated for thirty, forty years, like a career. So, that was the biggest fear.

Jeff:
My parents always said to me, "Jeff, you've got to find something that you can do and build a long-term career over it." Well, I came to realize I have entrepreneurial ADD and I love startups. I love starting companies. I like breaking into new industries and learning new things so much that I have started many companies over the last twelve years since the payroll company.

Jeff:
I started a digital marketing agency. I started a company to legalize equity-based crowdfunding. I started a company called WeCreate, which the idea was to partner budding entrepreneurs with either money or services, or an infrastructure that they may or may not have. I started a sports-based investing company called sportsinvestingsystems.com. I started a construction company. I started Everbowl, a restaurant chain.

Jeff:
I started a CPG line. So, I've navigated through lots of different industries. Yeah, some of them were successful and some of them weren't. But I've come to realize that I actually have a lane called serial entrepreneurship, which the word entrepreneur is so important. It's a sexy word today, which it wasn't back when we were younger. It was almost like, "Well, maybe you should get a job." But that was the overarching feel of the word.

Jeff:
But I think it deserves more dedication, like more focus and more investigation. It's like saying you're a doctor, but what doctor are you? You don't go to a heart surgeon to have your broken bone fixed and you don't go to a podiatrist to have heart surgery. So, when you say, "I'm entrepreneur," I think that's great and I love entrepreneurship. It's my favorite industry. But there's so many different types of entrepreneurs.

Jeff:
The person who's a CPA working in a CPA firm that wants to start their own CPA firm, that's an entrepreneur. There's a number two at a startup. That's an entrepreneurial-minded individual who provides value but might not be the person who has the vision or starts the actual company. There's someone like me who's a three- to five- to six-year guy at a company that I start before I pass it off to someone else who can take it to the next level so I can go start another company. So, I think that there's a lot of different types of entrepreneurs.

Jeff:
And I think I just found over my career that I'm a serial entrepreneur, so I look for opportunity. And I'm industry-agnostic; it doesn't matter what industry it is. And I look for ways to come in with fresh eyes and disruption, and start and scale a sustainable business inside of that into that marketplace. And if I can, I want to do it. And I want to surround myself with rock stars who can enable us to grow and use... I have a saying: I like to be the dumbest guy in the room.

Jeff:
And I surround myself with incredible people who are better at each task than me. And when I have built the entire team of people better than me, I'm ready to move on to my next venture, and I love that. That's my biggest passion. So, yeah, there's a lot of companies between the payroll company and Everbowl. But Everbowl is unique, because besides my family and entrepreneurship, healthy living is my third biggest passion in life.

Jeff:
So, mirroring two of my biggest passions has been... Everbowl has been my favorite company, for sure.

Pat:
So, tell all of us what is Everbowl in case we hadn't heard about it yet.

Jeff:
So, Everbowl is a craft superfood restaurant chain. So, the idea behind Everbowl was trying to help everyone eat better, because looking at what's killing us in America today is, as educated as a country we are, we're getting inundated with health issues, from cancer, obesity, heart disease, stroke. And when you look at the science behind it, over 80 percent of them are lifestyle-related. Meaning, it's our habits. It's what we're doing.

Jeff:
It's our lack of movement and what we're consuming, we're eating. And the average American eats fast-food over three times a week. So, when you look at that and you say, "Why? We're so smart. We know this is bad for us, why are we doing it?" So, I looked at what excuses we're making as to why we choose to eat unhealthy. I narrowed it down to four basic overarching excuses. And Everbowl was built to solve those four excuses and provide people with good nutrition that's going to make them thrive and be their best self.

Jeff:
And those four excuses are: it costs too much to eat healthy; it doesn't taste good; it doesn't fill me up and leave me satisfied, or I just can't get it. It's just I have a half an hour or an hour for lunch. This is the shopping center I have to go to and there's nothing there. So, I realized that if I could make food affordable, filling, delicious and accessible, all made from stuff that's been around forever, which is our tagline, I knew that I could get everyone to eat healthy most of the time.

Jeff:
And so, we reverse engineered what it was. I'm not a chef, so I actually made the recipes two weeks before we opened and always knew I could adjust those. The idea was I wanted to recreate healthy eating and make it accessible for everyone just like the fast-food industry did with unhealthy eating and make it affordable at the same price as fast-food. And then, we had to build a lot of stores, which is why we've opened twenty-five stores in the first three years and continue to try to... hopefully continue that rapid growth.

Jeff:
And then, we did that by vertical integration of multiple startups, which is using my "weakness" of entrepreneurial ADD. But my strength now of startups, to create startups, to empower and solidify what we're doing. And so, I started a construction arm called WeBuild where we actually build our own stores so we're able to build them faster and cheaper than we could if we were using a third-party construction arm, and it's self-sustaining.

Jeff:
It's self-sustaining by our own growth. I mean, that's allowed us to really grow. And then, I started an import business where I import my own superfoods so I could drive my cost down, so I could pass it to the consumer and compete against the subsidized burger industry that I just don't have because I'm providing superfoods. And we sell acai bowls, pitaya bowls, and all different types of fun superfood bowls, but we let you create it your way.

Jeff:
So, it's a create-your-own-style system where you come in and you get to pick every ingredient you want. We give you a very big portion, all for one price. We don't nickel-and-dime you or charge you for extras if you want more of this or you want a substitute. It's one price all-in and we're opening a lot of them. So, hopefully, we can make them available to everybody all the time.

Pat:
That's amazing. I mean, thank you for telling us the thought process behind that. When you have this inspiration to create a business similar to this one or to create Everbowl, where do you even start? Because this seems like a giant feat to try and tackle. How do you even compete with the fast-food industry? And I think a lot of us listening may have giant aspirations such as this. Where do we even begin to understand where to start? How do you start?

Jeff:
So, I start with two things. First, I always start with the end. Because if I don't know where I'm going, I don't know how to get there. So I think, too often, we're not laser-focused on what our Why is; like, "Where are we truly going? What is that end point?" And my Why was basically to create an "unevolve" lifestyle. And it's a word we created and trademarked, and it means to move and eat the way we were meant to.

Jeff:
Live actively and eat stuff that's been around forever. Just find ways to unevolveevery day and move your body and eat real food. So, I said, "Okay, that's my Why. How am I going to get there?" And I want to have a nationwide chain. That's where I want to go. So, I looked at the big screen and I'm like, "Okay, I'm obviously competing with so many big businesses. What strengths do I have that they don't?" I mean, the strengths that they have are obviously endless with money and resources, and brand recognition and all the things that would keep me from achieving my goal.

Jeff:
Well, my biggest strengths in any startup or small company, you have to realize your biggest strengths against the big guys, is speed and agility. They move slower. They have more resources than you, and they're much bigger, but you have speed and agility. You're on a little motorboat while they're in a big cruise ship or aircraft carrier.

Jeff:
So, I can navigate the waters by making quick decisions that have meaningful impact on a daily basis. And if I don't use those strengths, I'm going to get killed. I can't compete with them. So, I really start with speed and agility. So, when I started, I opened one, and I gained as much learnings as I could. I fail fast. What are the things that are working? What are the things that aren't? And the things that are working, I don't focus on, I focus on what's not.

Jeff:
I focused all of my energy and effort on what are the things that are not working the way I want them to and how can I make changes? And I make changes really quickly. And we adjust and we adjust, and we keep adjusting our sale until we find a track of our cadence. And then, once you find your wins, throw as much lighter fluid as you can on them. So, we realized, "Okay, people liked our brand. They liked our food, but we didn't have enough stores."

Jeff:
So, I said, "Okay, what makes me open stores faster?" I mean, the restaurant space. Well, I could build a restaurant from scratch or I can find restaurants that have turned over and might be available for me. Okay, let's think about that. What are the big chains that are turning over? And I identified Subway. Because I was reading... following my industry and reading everything I could and learning as much as I could. And I realized, Subway announced that they were closing 900 stores in 2018. And Subway is same size as me, similar demographic. They are on every street corner. It's the largest restaurant chain in the world, 43,000 units across the world; 22,000 franchisees. Subway is the perfect brand that I wanted to either grow into or follow along. And since they were closing stores, I took over Subway. We turned it over into an Everbowl for very inexpensive and did it in forty-five days.

Jeff:
And then, my growth strategy was, "Well, let's just find more Subways that are turning over." So, I did. I scoured San Diego and I found four Subways that it turned over that met our real estate criteria. So, I signed leases right away. I got in there, and they already get the same customer base because they're looking for that consumer who doesn't have a lot of time for food. They already have the same price point as us, and people know to go to them on a regular basis. So, they are in pretty well-populated centers.

Jeff:
So, they did all my real-estate for me. So, I didn't need to do much real-estate thinking. I was following the Subway model. And I was taking over Subways because they already had the infrastructure. So, I was able to turn them over cheaper and faster and get open. And then, luckily, customers are already coming, so they were going to get introduced to my brand just by coming to the center. And so, we really used that as our launch point in 2018 when we started to really open a lot of stores.

Pat:
That's incredible, and I have so many questions. How are you able to... Wait, when it comes to opening more stores, it sounds like with every store comes that much more to worry about, and how is this all managed? Are you working with partners or franchisees, or how is this being done?

Jeff:
So, we've yet to sell any franchises. They're currently all corporate. But we did just announce literally last two weeks ago that we are franchising now in 2020. It's done by, again, me being the dumbest guy in the room and bringing on incredible people. I pride myself on being smart and learn everything I can. But I brought on a guy, Brian Augustine, he's our chief development officer, and he's responsible for basically taking the culture that we have in Everbowl. And there's two rules, I'll just share it with your audience. There are two rules to work in an Everbowl. It's make friends and have fun. And if you do those two things, you can work with us. And if you don't, well then, we're not a good fit. So, we're all about making friends and having fun. And he created Everbowl University where we're able to train our staff and really grow the internal team. That allows us to grow and scale because we are opening stores so fast.

Jeff:
So, without him, we wouldn't have been able to grow nearly as quickly. And then, our Chief Operating Officer, Eric Hanson, he's brilliant at creating systems and processes, and utilizing technology so we can work smarter, not harder, and we can disrupt the restaurant industry that's a little bit archaic. The restaurant industry has a lot of restaurateur, minus the big huge brands. But a lot of the smaller mom and pops, they're restaurateur.

Jeff:
They're chefs, they're culinary experts, but they are not necessarily business experts, so they are not using all of the technologies that could allow them to be much more efficient in 2020 or 2019. So, we really wanted to pride ourselves on saying, "Okay, let's not make the same mistakes." And I'm sorry, I'm a cheesy quotes guy, but I have a lot of little things. But I think one of my quotes is I think, "Experience is one of the most overrated prerequisites to start a company."

Jeff:
Because if you do things like everyone else in the industry because you learn from everyone else in the industry, then you're going to be just like everyone else in the industry, and I'm trying to be an outlier. So, we come in with fresh eyes, not knowing what restaurateurs do, and just use our business acumen and what we've learned just being in the world today and using what's available. So, we did it. I'll give you a great example.

Jeff:
When we started, everyone in the inventory does inventory with certain ways in the restaurant space. I had no idea what we were doing. So, we took a free off-the-shelf app from our phone that was meant to basically manage the stuff in your closet at home and used it to do inventory. And from that, we've now... obviously, it's extrapolated twenty-five versions later that we've bolt on and created ourselves, but we've built this real-time inventory system for our restaurant.

Jeff:
Most restaurants do inventory once a week or once a month, because it takes a long, long time and it's not really sophisticated. So, you never have real-time access to what inventory you have—we do. And we have this power. And then, when I talk to big restaurant tours that own thousands of units or even our private equity group that owns 18,000 franchises around the world, they don't even have a system like this.

Jeff:
And it didn't cost us a lot of money. It just required us to think differently and recognize that what our strengths were was not to be like everyone else. Our strength was to say, "You know what, the beauty is—unless you're in a very unique niche industry where no one... you're building nuclear fusion or something very specific—most industries have so much experience available that if you hit a roadblock and you need information, you can get it."

Jeff:
So, try without first just with your own business acumen and learn on your own using what you know, because you might find a better way to do it that the industry just didn't think about simply because they've been doing it the same way for so long. And so, we really leverage—I know that's a long-winded answer to your question—but it's really leverage, the fact that we built an incredible team. We have an incredible team of people and that's allowed us to scale and grow.

Pat:
I know the customer experience is also very important to you. We've talked about this during lunch a couple times. Tell us a little bit about your thinking behind the customer experience and how you get people to keep coming back into the store.

Jeff:
So, it starts with making friends and having fun, and what that means. And it's funny because we hire a lot of young adults, sixteen to twenty-two year olds. And so, they think making friends and having fun means, "Oh, we're just here to have a party." And I have to explain to them, "No, making friends means you're genuinely smiling at everyone who walks through the door. You're genuinely more interested than interesting. You care about their day regardless if they buy something and regardless if they ask about you. You're trying to understand what their needs are and wants are. And then, what you do with a friend, right? You're accountable to your friends. If you say you're going to show up on time, you show up on time. You're going to be honest. You're not going to let them leave with a bad experience. If you see someone not enjoying their bowl, make them a new one."

Jeff:
I don't care about making money on an individual bowl. I care about truly the customer experience and understanding that food and music are the two things we as humans do at pretty much every life event, from birth to death, and everything in between. A child is born, there's usually music and food, a ceremony for passing, similar thing, and then weddings and sweet-sixteens, and birthdays, and everything in between, food and music. So, humanize it.

Jeff:
Especially in 2020 when technology and people's eyes tend to only be staring at devices, when you go back to humanizing the eating experience, the food tastes better. And I tell every employee that. We have over 450 employees currently at Everbowl. And I tell them all, I'll bet any of them money that I could walk down the street and get anyone to smile without saying a word. And the way is, you smile at them.

Jeff:
You make eye contact with a stranger and smile, 99 percent of the time, they're going to smile back. It's almost like when I yawn, you're going to yawn. It's almost a subconscious reactive behavior. Similarly, if I frown at someone, they're going to probably frown at me or give me a squinty eye. And so, we can change someone's behavior immediately with just a warm genuine smile.

Jeff:
And I'm hoping—and I'm seeing it now—that this culture is teaching these young adults that when they go out beyond Everbowl and they go to college or beyond college, or wherever they choose to do if they don't go to college, that they can change the vibe and the tone of any conversation or relationship with a simple smile, I'm doing my job. I'm doing what means a lot to me.

Pat:
That's incredible. And I do have personal experience going into an Everbowl and receiving one of those warm smiles. So, thank you for that, Jeff. And kudos to you and your team for doing what they need to do to make the world a better place. I really love that. I have questions about sourcing. I saw a picture of you on your Instagram where you were in some remote location holding some superfood of some kind.

Pat:
And it was just like, wow, like you're going there and doing that and dealing with other countries. And tell me a little bit about that experience for you because I'm imagining it's a little bit different than the payroll company.

Jeff:
Yes. So, we source superfoods at Everbowl. We bring in acai from Brazil and graviola and acerola from Brazil. And it was very important to me to totally understand my entire supply chain. I didn't want to just be a guy in San Diego buying superfoods from some vendor and then repackaging them and selling them, because that's not sustainable to me. That's not building the kind of company that means the most to me.

Jeff:
And also, the way you build in my opinion, the strongest company is you know your business. And how could I know my business if I didn't go down to Brazil and see where this ingredient was being sourced from, how it was being sourced? Who are the players? Is it done in a sustainable way, or is it done in a sweatshop? And am I supporting that? There are so many layers to it that was critical for me to go down there. So, I did.

Jeff:
And we started buying more and more acai and it got to the point where it's like, "Okay, I have to go down to Brazil." So, I did. And I actually used my supplier who was providing me the acai, I said, "Listen, I need to go down there. I'm going down there. If you go with me and introduce me to the factories, I would appreciate it. If not, I'm going to go without you." But it's critical to my business. And he brought me down there.

Jeff:
We went down there together. He introduced me to factories. I ended up partnering with a factory directly, and I still pay him for that relationship. So, he's still part of it, but he makes less, but he doesn't have anything to do. So, he protected his investment into our growth by doing that. And we now work directly with the factories down there. And we know it's being done in a sustainable way, both for the environment as well as for the workers.

Jeff:
I'm proud to say we use organic high-quality acai that's not done on some farm, and it's truly picked right out of the Amazon. I got to climb a tree myself and pick it myself and eat it fresh. So, my understanding of what we're doing from the base level is so deep now that I can speak so much more passionately and authentically to my team. And I also hope my customers understand that we genuinely care. What's the difference between us and the next company that just pops up? We go down there.

Jeff:
We understand what we're doing, and we've uncovered so many cool things. So, we sell in our stores acai seeds that are turned into bracelets. We call them Everseeds. And when we were down there, this was the most touching thing that's happened in my just over three years at Everbowl, they speak Portuguese, I don't. So, I had an interpreter. But we were working with a local family that was making these bracelets for us.

Jeff:
And one of the guys who was making it must have been nineteen, twenty years old, and he's talking to me in Portuguese with a tear literally, like his eyes are tearing up. And my interpreter said he basically wanted to thank me that we spent $3,000 with him, which is not a lot of money, but it is for him. And us spending $3,000 allowed his eight-year-old sister to go to school—by us turning what they throw out, because they were just throwing out acai seeds.

Jeff:
There's literally millions of seeds like just... There's a garbage truck in Castanhal that drives around just to pick up acai seeds to take it to the dump. That's all that they pick up. We have a compost. They have an acai seed garbage delivery system; and we're turning their trash into jewelry, and now providing resources and means to these very, very poor families, because the level of poverty down there is unlike any place I've ever been.

Jeff:
I went into a grocery store, and everything from expensive items to even toothpaste has two prices. It has a one price that it'll be say $2 or 2 RS, which is their money. And then next to it, it will say 4 X 55 cents. And I didn't understand. But apparently, people can finance toothpaste federally. Just the government will take it right out of your bank account and you don't need to get credit. So, families that can't afford toothpaste can finance it.

Jeff:
And when you're in a level where you have to finance toothpaste and basic necessity goods, the poverty is so low. So, to see it and experience it, now like my heart, it's like, "Now, I have another investment." I'm so much more invested in their culture, and I didn't want... and I'm so glad we're not just taking— that we're finding ways to give back and creating other revenue lines and business offshoots both for us but also for them, and how the saying, "A rising tide lifts all boats."

Jeff:
How we together can grow the acai industry to help them and help us, and hopefully help consumers in America and around the world.

Pat:
That's really incredible, Jeff. Thank you for sharing that. The last question I have for you, because I know we could talk for days about this, and I definitely will want to do a follow-up with you, especially as Everbowl continues to grow and gain massive momentum. I mean, I've seen sponsorships at Petco Park—the baseball stadium here, and so many other things.

Pat:
And every week, I see a new picture with you having just signed a new lease, and just the expansion; and what you're doing, and how you're doing it, and how it's affecting others, is just incredibly inspiring. I'm curious about what life is like as an entrepreneur who is also a parent and a husband, and trying to balance all that, because you just seem to be going very sky high. But how does that come down to home life? How do you stay grounded? How do you stay present, all those things?

Jeff:
Yeah. So, that's been tough. I finally figured out a cadence for me and my family. But there was definitely a period before Everbowl in my last company before that, the digital marketing agency, where I didn't have a good handle on it. And it's probably just youth and trying to figure that out. But what a mentor of mine taught me, and it really changed everything for me, was the power of four minutes.

Jeff:
And what I mean by that or what he meant by that which I now use is, if you wake up four minutes earlier, just four minutes a day for 365 days, you get an entire extra day of productivity. And so, being that I want to be there for my kids in the morning when they have breakfast, because I have a fourteen-year-old and an eight year old, I wake up earlier. And I do my emails and I do stuff that would have consumed me during that time earlier.

Jeff:
And when you realize that four minutes equals an entire day, imagine what two hours a day does. So, I wake up two hours earlier than them. It's easier for me, I'm a morning person. But two hours a day means I get thirteen months a year had I not done that, because two hours a day is an extra thirty days of productivity a year. So, I get so much done between the hours of 4:30 and 6:30 when my daughter wakes up, that when she wakes up and it's time for breakfast, I've already been working for almost two hours.

Jeff:
And so, I'm at a position now where I can do that. And then, I can be present with her, and then go hit my day. And that extra month that I'm getting allows me to do it. Because without it, there just wasn't enough hours in the day. I always felt like I wasn't giving my kids or my business or my friends, or my family, or my health enough of me. And once I understand... So, what I would say to your audience is, if you're feeling like you don't have time, just wake up four minutes earlier.

Jeff:
And give those four minutes of true productivity to whatever it is you need and you're going to pick up an entire extra day. And everyone can do four minutes, maybe not two hours because that's aggressive, but it started with just four minutes. And then, it can go to eight minutes. Because eight minutes a day is two full days a year. And so, think about that. If you're wasting four minutes hitting snooze, those eight minutes snooze button, you're literally wasting.

Jeff:
If you snooze every day for eight minutes, you're wasting two full calendar days a year snoozing. And as much as that eight minutes feels good when you hit the snooze button, it doesn't feel good when you have to wake up in eight more minutes. So, you won't miss it, but you will gain that extra productivity. And finding those little ways to maximize your time and be a slave to your calendar or student of your calendar, and find those extra opportunities to write that extra email, make that extra call, read that extra book, watch that extra learning on YouTube or one of those learning platforms, listen to the SPI podcast and understand more things...

Jeff:
Whatever it is you're doing for those extra eight minutes, it's going to truly change your life over the course of the next ten years. Because two days a year is twenty days over ten years. And that's how you're going to find those little hacks, which I have found allowed me to become extra productive and extra efficient at what I'm doing and do things that I wasn't able to do before.

Pat:
Super tactical. Thank you, Jeff. That's amazing. I haven't heard it put that way before. Jeff, where can people go to learn more about you? Obviously go and look for an Everbowl in your local area if there is one, or there will be one, most likely. But Jeff, where should people go to find out more?

Jeff:
Yeah, they can go to everbowl.com. We also have our coffee line which is asai infused Superfuel Coffee, and get it on Amazon if we don't have a store yet with you. Find me on Instagram @fensterjeff or LinkedIn or Facebook. I love to communicate with entrepreneurs. And I can't wait to meet anyone who's interested in getting healthy. And obviously, any fan of yours, Pat, is a friend I want to meet.

Jeff:
So, thank you for this opportunity to come on your show. Big fan of yours and everything that you're doing. And I've learned so much from all your past guests. So, it's truly an honor to have the opportunity to be on today.

Pat:
Well, it's an honor to have you on, and thanks for filling us in on how everything has gone down. And I think we're just getting started with Everbowl, and it's a brand name that I'm sure many of you are going to hear more and more about in the future. So, good luck to you, Jeff. Good luck to your team, and keep rocking it, man. We'll talk soon.

Jeff:
Thank you so much.

Pat:
All right. I hope you enjoyed that interview with Jeff Fenster, old high school friend of mine, now CEO of Everbowl. You can check him out at everbowl.com, and he's got a lot of great things going on on his Instagram. And just, Jeff, you're amazing. Thank you so much for coming on. I appreciate you. We'll have more information in the show notes and different things that you can check out that we mentioned here on the show today.

Pat:
If you want to check out the show notes, just go to smartpassiveincome.com/session420. One more time, smartpassiveincome.com/session420. And I'll tell you on my Facebook page, which is just for me, my own personal Facebook account, I see Jeff pop up every once in a while, because we've stayed connected over the years just on Facebook.

Pat:
And every time I see him, he's signing a new deal, shaking hands with somebody incredible, and he's just expanding this business in a way that just... and the crazy thing is just he had no experience in this leading into it. And I think his first-principles mindset, very similar to Elon Musk in how he's built this, how he's managing the entire supply chain, including the constructions of his places, just very incredible. Thank you so much, Jeff, for your inspiration.

Pat:
For anybody out there who's listening who's still here, thank you so much. If you wouldn't mind taking a quick moment leaving a quick review on Apple, that would be really helpful for the show. And as always, just keep up the great work. Subscribe so you can get the next and upcoming shows directly to you in whatever podcast platform you want and that's most convenient for you.

Pat:
I'm looking forward to serving you in the next upcoming episodes. We got some good stuff coming your way. Until then, as always, #TeamFlynn for the win. Peace.

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