Founder's Story - All Things Franchising, Systems and Processes | Ep. 57 with Successful Serial Entrepreneur Tony DiSilvestro

Episode Date: October 18, 2021

Tony DiSilvestro is a successful entrepreneur who owns YNOT Italian, a growing full-service Italian restaurant based in Virginia Beach, Va that is known for its extensive menu of traditional, and homemade Italian entrees. It started from one restaurant in 1993 and it is currently a growing franchise across the Southeast.  Tony also has other businesses in the construction and solar industries. He speaks today about how he has been able to grow multiple successful businesses and the systems and processes he uses to help them grow without him being stuck in the business.  Visit his restaurant website at https://www.ynotitalian.com/ For more info on guests and future episodes visit KateHancock.com --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ibhshow/supportOur Sponsors:* Check out PrizePicks and use my code FOUNDERS for a great deal: www.prizepicks.com* Check out Rosetta Stone and use my code TODAY for a great deal: www.rosettastone.comAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

now as we speak. So we are live here with Tony D. I'm going to hand it to Kate and then I will read his bio and then we're going to jump right in. But Kate, over to you. Yes. Good. Happy Sunday, everyone. Such an honor having Tony here. I can't wait to hear his story. We highlight entrepreneurs that are doing big things and changing the world. So Tony, we're excited to have you. I'm so excited to be here with everybody today for sure. All right, Dan, go ahead. All right. All right. So I'm going to read Tony's bio here and I'm going to give a look. There's two updates I'm going to give in the bio, but Tony D. Silvestro, also known as Tony D., has founded over 31 businesses. Now he's up to 32.

Currently has over 450 employees in his business. An award-winning entrepreneur, successful real estate investor, franchise owner, and an internationally renowned business and leadership trainer. He's also part of the Virginia Beach Vision Board, which includes the top 125 business owners in the area. And a member of EO doing tons of things with that organization. He has vast experience involving the restaurant industry, residential and commercial construction, SAS, training company, manufacturing, global coaching, consulting. He's recognized as entrepreneur of the year by distinction magazine and awarded best concrete houses, 2020 in the world.

And he made sure that it's definitely, it's the world best concrete house, 2020 in the world and he made sure that it's definitely it's the world best concrete house 2020 in the world we are so excited for tony to be here tony welcome oh i'm so good awesome man thank you so much great to be here with everybody and you know um for my life i've never been one to brag or tell people what i do so So, um, but I love sharing with entrepreneurs and helping them be successful. So that's my whole goal in life now. So. All right, everyone, let's open our mic and welcome Tony, you guys. What's up, Kate? Very excited.

Thank you. Thank you. Love it. All right, Tony, I want to know the younger version of Tony. Tony, where did you grow up? Yeah, so my youth was interesting. I grew up in a small town in Jersey on the shore. It was called Wild Crest. It was a seashore resort town. We had a little slogan in our town. It was four months of hairy and eight months of wary. So as a young kid kid my parents they my dad was a cop my they owned my dad owned like rental properties so as a little kid five six years old i'm cleaning trash cans out after the tenants left every week and you know but you know we had to make money in four months so you were out so at a very young age i was blessed to grow up in that environment and you know people always

ask me like how did you do this so early in my life? And, you know, I was just brought up that way. It was easy. You know, I didn't know any better. They brainwashed me very young. Wow, I love it. I think, Tony, I think your earphone, if you can move it a little bit, there's a little bit of noise. I think when you move, there you go.

That's perfect. So, Tony, what moment from your childhood are you most proud of? I don't know. You know, like working as a kid, like I opened my first business at eight years old. But like I said, growing in that town, what was interesting is, you know, you had to make money. So me and this guy, we just went down to the wholesale candy shop and we said, hey, I bet when people come off the beach, they want to buy candy and bubble gum. And it was bubble yum at that day. I'm aging myself. But so we opened up this little table at the ocean and the ocean run.

We started selling wholesale candy for an entire summer. And it was just fun. And that's just where my entrepreneurial career started. And, you know, but it was definitely growing up in that environment that really kickstarted my career. Do you still remember how much money you made that very first table? I don't. I wish I did. career. Do you still remember how much money you made that very first time you came to the table? I don't. I wish I did, you know, but, you know, this kid and I used to play Monopoly every day after school and like, you know, so, and I used to beat him all the time. And he was like, I had a lot of Jewish friends. He was like my first Jewish friend that I had. And he was so mad. I beat him

in Monopoly every day. And then we started our business together. And so it was fun, I guess, from a young age, you know, just that competitiveness, you know, that we had. Wow. And what kind of kid are you in high school? You know, in high school, you know, it's kind of funny. Like, I don't like in high school, I was like not stimulated at all. And I talk about this all the time. They label all these people today with like ADD and ADHD. And, you know, I'm sure I would have been labeled ADHD, but the thing is, you know, it wasn't until I got to college that I excelled because the professors didn't care if you passed

or not. And that was awesome for me. But in high school, I just needed stimulation and the type of person I am, I need massive stimulation in my life. And it's just the way I've always been. But so high school bored me to death. So, but my, it's by senior year, I kicked the butt. And then I did really well in college and never finished college, though. I actually opened my first restaurant before I finished college and dropped out. Wow. Do you think that ADHD, ADD helps you as an entrepreneur? Yeah, you know, I've never been labeled it.

I focus like nobody else. I don't write anything down ever. I never write anything down. And so I don't have a problem with focusing, but I have a daughter that's an entrepreneur now that was fully labeled ADHD. And, but she, she's killing it. She's 23 years old, has a crazy successful business already. She spelled her name backwards as well. We'll get into that later. But, you know, like, I think the same exact thing with her. I don't think she was stimulated in high school and college.

So that's fun. That's amazing. Now, Tony, any of your family entrepreneurs, parents? My dad was a police officer for 25 years, but he opened up a macrame store. He opened up rental properties. So he always had that entrepreneurial spirit. He never really called himself an entrepreneur. My mother opened up the macrame store. So she was kind of like an entrepreneur,

but you know, I would, they never, entrepreneur wasn't that term that they use. Hey, we're opening a business. It wasn't entrepreneurial, the cliche word today, you know? Wow. Now take me back the very first day you opened your restaurant. You said during college, right? Yeah. In 1991, I mean, I found a location, did a study with the chamber of commerce and very first day you opened your restaurant you said you were in college right yeah in 1991 i mean i i found a location did a study with the chamber of commerce and like found a location actually waited two years for this location before i actually pulled the trigger because i found the location look at traffic counts did a lot of due diligence to find the right location i waited two years and and the landlord finally called me and said hey if you want it i know you've been

waiting two years so then i opened it up i was this cocky kid from New Jersey and I opened in Virginia Beach. And so it was really awesome. I had all these signs on my window on the windows in Virginia Beach. I said, Hey, if you want real pizza, this is the only place you'll find it. And you know, Pizza Hut's been when they won best pizza in Virginia Beach forever. And I won the first year and I've been best pizza, best Italian food for 28 years since then. Wow. What are some of the learnings that very first business? I mean, I could imagine in college and how is that like running the first year? You know, running the first year, I had 10 employees the first year. You know,

my goal was to do $10,000 a week by the end of the first year. The first week I did business, I did $8,000. The second week I did $10,000 and I by the end of the first year. The first week I did business, I did $8,000. The second week I did $10,000. And I was overwhelmed. Everybody was, I mean, I was working 100 hours a week and never took a day off for the first seven years. And, you know, as a young entrepreneur, I didn't know what it was. I was a technician. I wasn't an entrepreneur. And I think a lot of people out there today are technicians and they don't really understand what it is to be an entrepreneur until you perfect delegation. And it took a long time for me to perfect delegation, but I didn't have a coach. I didn't have a mentor. And I think that's probably the one thing that I think as in

the beginning of me being an entrepreneur, I wish I would have had that coach. I wish I would have had a mentor to say, somebody to say to me, hey, you need to speak with this guy. He needs to coach you through this business. I love it. So knowing what you know now, what would you do differently aside from hiring a mentor or having a coach? Uh, you know, I don't, I don't know that I would do anything that people ask me this question all the time. Like, what do you, what would you change? What do you regret? I said, I don't regret a day of my life because I wouldn't be the person I am today without those things that happened to me, the failures I've had in my life. I would be a totally different person if I didn't have that. Wow. And if you could share me, Tony, what are some of the most challenging experience

while running a business that you've had to overcome? Obviously, cashflow is definitely one of the biggest problems in businesses. You know, you have to know your numbers. So cashflow, we've had some times where I've taken multiple risks and, you know, I, I, I believed in people, put partners in the business with me and I believed them and they failed. They started doing crazy stuff like drugs and, and, you know, doing crazy stuff and I lost the business, but I made an emotional decision with these people because I cared about them, and I put them in business. But when you lose a half a million dollars twice in your life,

you start to get a little bit tougher skin and start to make a little more clear decisions. And not that I'm not a risk taker. I mean, I'm a crazy risk taker. But I definitely look at the individual as I surround myself a little bit closer now. Wow, that's awesome. And you founded 31 businesses, six active businesses.

How do you make it happen? A lot of people are struggling running one business. Tony can't even lift that, that parachute right there. I'm like, I'm like, I hate to say this, but I always tell everybody that I'm crazy and my daughter, that's an entrepreneur. She's like, dad, you have to stop saying that I'm crazy and my daughter is an entrepreneur. She's like, Dad, you have to stop saying you're crazy to start telling people you're blessed. I just have a crazy knack and ability to just really process and keep everything together and understand. It's like wearing multiple hats, but I wear multiple hats with businesses.

So in one hour, I put my construction hat on, the next hat I put my franchise hat on, the next hat I put my building hat on. And I'm able to just take a hat off and clearly see everything I need to do for that business that day and that hour and whatever I'm doing. I love how you're still doing the food industry, is that correct? And that's like the hardest business to dive into because of the low margin i think pizza is different but go ahead you're right you're right i'm pizza the food business is crazy like i'm in a military town these people get out of the military after 20 years and they're like i want they want to open a restaurant like why would you want to do that you know i was brainwashed into the restaurant business i started at 15 years old making pizza and I was kind of brainwashed and didn't know any better.

You know, I always wanted to be on Wall Street running a Fortune 500 company. And I probably would have been in some in economics. Economics was my favorite class in school. And I think I would have been in Wall Street or doing something like that. But I ended up in the pizza business. And, you know, but what I realized is the reason I was in the pizza business, I didn't realize this for a long time, but I was in the food business because I love people. And the food business is a people business. And I know all businesses are people business, but you really get intimate with your employees and a different level employee in the restaurant

industry. And you can really create upper mobility with your employees. And that's who I am. Yeah. Well, I think, I think what I love about the pizza business is it's so simple. You can, you can automate it with just two employees and keep it four different offering with a pepperoni. Do you sell Hawaiian? Is that, what is that a top? I do not like fruit on my, no fruit on my pizza. I can't stand it. But I mean, my restaurants have 60 to 70 employees per restaurant. So we're full scale Italian restaurants. Pizza is about 30% of our business. So we have very big restaurants, but we're just opening up an express concept as well. Wow. Awesome. So Tony, what is the profit margin for a regular pizza store?

You know, you're looking at so i'll talk ebitda so earnings before depreciation if you don't know what ebit is you definitely want to know that if you're in business uh so we're looking for anywhere from 15 to 20 margin on ebitda and that's after royalties pretty good yeah i'm if i can hit 15 after royalties you know our royalties at five percent in our franchise world so i mean I can hit 15%, then you're doing really well. Yeah, that's amazing. Knowing that 11% is about the national average of profit margin across industry. So you're hitting towards 15 and 20. I go for 20.

I don't open a business under 20% because you have to. You need to have more leg room. Now, Tony, can you name a person who has had a tremendous impact on you as a leader? Wow. I don't think about that that much, but probably my grandfather. My grandfather, when I was 21 years old, I had asked for a loan to open my restaurant. I needed $60,000. He owned a hotel. He's my step-grandfather, only for three years. My father and my mother, none of them would lend me any money. Nobody believed in me. My step-grandfather came to me the one afternoon and put a $60,000 check on my

table. Without him, I would never have accomplished anything I did today. I owe him my life, God rest his soul. He was an amazing man, lived in 96 and just a pure entrepreneur. And just, he believed in me. I had a passion. He loved it and saw it. I love it. Now think of someone who cares deeply for you. What would they say your purpose is? To help others, for sure. I am, my whole passion in life is to help and especially entrepreneurs and that's what drove me to coaching 20 years ago um i have a crazy passion to help entrepreneurs and i can get further into that like how i came home a lot about six years ago and didn't understand the purpose of life at all and i was coming home every day to my wife and

i didn't know why i was on the earth i'm'm like, gosh, I can do everything. Why am I here? What is that? Like I wasn't, I guess this is a simulation thing. And I went to a university and I taught entrepreneurship for an entire semester, took 20 kids through an entire business plan, actually put three of them in business. These young kids are still in business today. And I came home after the first class and I told my wife, I truly found my purpose in life.

And my purpose in life is to help people succeed and become amazing entrepreneurs i love it now tony i know you're in a forum how is the forum or being in a mastermind help you as as an entrepreneur and as a person yeah so we're talking about eo if nobody knows what we're talking about so we're talking about eo eo's entrepreneur organization it's all the world. And the best thing about a forum is if you don't understand EO, EO is not coaching, right? So it's just being with your peers. And I tell everybody, and just one thing, you definitely need to have a coach in your business.

I think it's the most valuable thing you can do. But the second piece is EO, being part of organizations. I'm on a bunch of boards, but EO is like you're with your peers. You can talk about anything. And nobody has an attitude or an ego in there and really, really helps you. So surrounding yourself in different boards and, you know, surrounding yourself with people that are smarter than you is probably the most critical thing that I teach everybody. So, and that's what EO does for you. Thank you, Tony. And Tony, one last question before I'm going to hand it to Dan for the Q&A. How do you want to be remembered? I want to be remembered as the person all over the world. I want to speak all over the world.

And I want to be the person that really helped entrepreneurs succeed, because that's for me, when I drive past the business that closed, everybody was like oh johnny's closed and i'm like oh johnny that just spent four hundred thousand dollars of his livelihood just lost everything and johnny's gonna take 20 years to recuperate get back on his feet and i it drives me crazy when i see businesses close and if i can do anything in this world i want to help others also being a great father and a great husband but you know but in the business definitely, I want to see if I can help every entrepreneur be more successful. Thank you so much, Dan. All right. Thank you, Tony. This is incredible. I just want to make sure everyone knows because I know some people popped in, but this is Tony DeSilvestro. TonyDesilvestro.com. That's D-I-S-I-L-V-E-S-T-R-O.com.

If you want to check out more as we're talking here. So make sure you check him out on social media. You can follow him here, follow him there. Tony D. Silvestro. He has over now 32 businesses, over 450 employees. He had the number one home in 2020. That's incredible. In the world. Concrete.

The number one concrete home in the world in 2020 that's incredible in the world concrete so the number one concrete home in the world in 2020 i definitely want to dig in here on that i want to talk a little bit about the franchising and then we're going to open it up here uh for people that have questions so please get your questions ready we're going to open them up but tony d he's been doing business for quite some time uh i don't want to say he's like an OG, but he's an OG in business. He's done all different types of businesses, many different industries. So I'm sure he can help answer your questions. But Tony, can you start by telling us, share us about what is this house and how did you get the number one concrete house in the world?

And what does that mean to you? You know, I've been building for like 20 years and I had this ICF concept house. Um, it's all concrete insulated concrete forms. And I, um, I, you know, I studied it for 10 years. And then when I went to build my own house, I said, I'm building an ICF house and I've never built them before. So I said, heck, I'm going to do it. So I built this house and end up getting in, entered into a reward award ceremony in Vegas. I was like, it was like a thousand people in there. And all these builders been building ICF homes for like 30 years. And my house gets nominated. I'm like, there's no way in hell I'm winning. And all of a sudden I win the best house in the world. And the house last year, previous year was from Germany. And I'm like, there's no way I got all

emotional and start crying. And the guy next to me is like, how the hell did you do that? You've never built one before. So it was just fun. fun i'm just a i'm a detailed process and procedure person so you know that's what building is and and that's what business is so i love it um construction's my love it's like doing yoga for me uh so my construction business is yoga it's just i don't have to think when i do it so i love that thank you so make sure that you are pressing that plus symbol. Let's get more people in this room. So invite them in, get some friends in here. We got live across social. So Tony, a lot of people don't go into business when they don't understand it. It sounds like you, you run a little bit differently and it's worked. So how do you go into business when you don't really know too much about that business like you just mentioned

you were not the expert in these homes but you became the expert and you have all these people that are experts and yet you were still able to accomplish uh something even better so how do you do that yeah you know this is i love what you just brought up because it's one of my things in business when people think they could be entrepreneurs like i said i'm in a military town and they unfortunately these people get out of the military and the military trains them that they can be entrepreneurs. They think they're all going to be entrepreneurs when they come out of the military to train people in the world. I went to a four-star general and I said to him, I said, hey, general, I said, you know, I sat there for 45 minutes to a meeting and he said to me, he goes,

yeah, every one of my men are going to be great entrepreneurs. I sat there for 45 minutes. I said, you know what, general, let me ask you a question. I said, I'm going to join the military next week. And I said, in two months, I want to fly an F-18. And he goes, oh, son, that takes an immense amount of training. I said, then stop telling people they can be entrepreneurs when they come out of the military. Because entrepreneurship is something you have to learn. When you open a business, you're too vulnerable. You'll lose your livelihood that quick. So I tell everybody, you want to open a restaurant? Go wash dishes for six months. You want to be a contractor, go pick up nails, go sweep the floors. And I said, I don't care if you're the, you think you're the best person in

the world. You need to learn from that. I ran 25 different restaurants before I opened my first one. You know, and in construction, I did the same thing. I used to take nails out of two by fours with my dad when he was building when I was a kid, you know, so that's where I study everything I do and make sure because, you know, when you lose your first business, you'll learn that you have to be very diligent on the process and procedure. Would you say that's why you have gone into many different industries? It doesn't sound like you, I know you were successful restaurants, and then you decide to open up 10 more different types of restaurants. It sounds like you really span multiple industries. What do you say to people that have really stuck with only one thing? Do you suggest or do you recommend that people go to

different types of revenue, different types of businesses? I think what you're saying is critical. I think some people go from the original business they start and they jump too soon. I think you have to master the business you're in, at least get it to 95%. I mean, I never want to master any business because I'm always going to grow. But the thing is, I think you need to get to that 90, 95% making sure you're delegating until you can work on your business instead of in it. If you're still a technician, you need to really realize what you need to learn how to delegate, stop being a technician. Become an entrepreneur. Once you become an entrepreneur in the business you're in, now you can go invest in another business.

And that's the key part. So what I've learned over my 38 years in business is that I know now what it is to become an entrepreneur, but not just a technician. Yeah, that's great. We were just talking through this as well that, hey, you don't have to be an entrepreneur. You could just be a technician and that's okay with that, right? It's okay. How would somebody know? Because I know you've done coaching all around the world. You've spoken all around the world. And you talked about people coming out of the military and everyone wants to be an entrepreneur as well. How does somebody know or when should they decide to actually go all in and take that risk? You know, I, when I teach entrepreneurship in the universities, I tell the students, I said, there's two things that I'm not sure you have to be able to fail and take a

risk. So I make them raise their hands and everybody says, who in here likes to take a risk? Everybody raised their hand. I said, who in here likes to fail? And you'll get two hands up. I'm like, everybody else leave the room. So I there's, you have to have that in you. You have to be that risk taker. You have to have it in your soul to take that risk. I know so many people that I think would be phenomenal entrepreneurs, but they don't get to the edge of the cliff and they'll never jump off. And you have to be able to jump. And I tell everybody the best thing about taking a risk and failure is when we fail as entrepreneurs, it excites me. Oh, hell, I learned a lot today.

I'm going to get back up off my feet. I'm going to be better tomorrow. I live my life. I want to be better than yesterday every single day of my life. So failure is an opportunity to me. Opportunities are solutions. Opportunities create solutions. Solutions create results.

Results create ROI. So that's how I live my life every day. Wow, incredible. I've been at the cliff five times and I couldn't jump. Kate here is way better at jumping than I am. I definitely have that problem. So I can totally relate. And this is incredible. And I wanted to shift gears a little bit because I know you mentioned how processes and procedures is something that you're really big into. And I think not everyone really gets those dialed in. Hence, they can't, like you mentioned, work above the business.

They're always stuck in the business. They're always stuck in the kitchen, in the restaurant. They can never get out of the actual restaurant, right? Just using that as an example. But talk to us through how do you build those systems and processes? And how did you figure out one day like this is something i need in order to scale because obviously with the franchise uh you need those right that's you know that's a big reason why they're getting your franchise so can you walk us through i know i

threw a lot at you no no i understand systemize your system that's basically what you said systemizing your system right so if you want to scale a business that is where i start every time okay let's talk about your system. How are we doing this? So even in the restaurant industry, right, I have to know when I garnish a plate, what does that cost? How are we doing this? When you sweep a floor on a construction site, why and how are you sweeping that floor? What is the purpose of it? So I teach with the why. So my companies are why not a lot of midst Tony backwards. So I'm like, what is the why? What is the why in what you're doing? So explaining that why to every single person.

But it's also SOPs, documentation, everything, and your training. Training is critical, right? So if you want to create a system enfranchisable, your training systems have to be phenomenal. So why do you think then that people think it's really sexy when they talk about marketing and sales, but they don't really – like you open up a room about operations and two people will show up. Everyone wants to go talk about marketing and sales and social media,

but they don't really want to talk about this. But it seems like this is one of the most important things you can do to really build up your business. Why do you think that is? Here, so where I'll go with there. So I developed my own training company. So it's called Employee Launch, right? So i build a training company out of frustration right because i want to

get my employees i'm systemizing my companies right but the thing is you need the proper training systems to be able to create that so with marketing marketing is interesting right so i drive my people crazy so i work on branding and i develop my brand so my brand my restaurant company is family, quality, and community. And every piece of my marketing, I have to have two of my three pillars in every piece of marketing I do. But here's the piece in marketing most people don't realize. I'm ROI marketing, right? I need to know the ROI before I do any marketing, but I never do any marketing before training. Training is first, then marketing. Most people do marketing, then training.

I never do that. I've dealt with agencies from Canada to California to everywhere, and every marketing company wants to build you a campaign and they don't worry about the operational piece and that's why businesses fail. They waste so much money on marketing. And when I walk into a business and I'm coaching the business, that's the first place I go because that's the easiest way to get more revenue in your business because you define the brand, you develop the training system and then you market your business and then you create the sale. Wow. It seems so simple, but it makes sense.

If you drive people to a phone call and you can't close them on the phone call, you don't know how to do any of that. I mean, really you just wasted a lot of your time. So it's not always like you drive all this traffic, but your team can't handle the traffic. And then that's when it ruins the whole branding and experience. So what is the point of you spending on marketing?

You don't have the team that can accommodate the demand. Yes. And so many businesses don't even realize it though. They start blaming it on the marketing company, but it's really the operational piece that's where they're losing. And that's what it is. Yes. Thank you. Thank you, Kate. I've got two more minutes of questions and we're going to open up maybe one minute. But before I do that, I want to know, can you tell us the story behind Why Not?

The name Why Not? Yes. The name. Yeah. behind why not the name why not yes the name yeah yeah so my name why not so i came home like as a kid when we were in school when they actually taught handwriting um i had to put my name on the right side of the paper to address a letter so i put t-o-m-y on the left side then when i had to switch to the right i put the t on the edge of the paper like I put the T on the edge of the paper. Like, okay, put the T on the edge of the paper and write Tony. So I put the T on the edge of the paper and wrote Y-N-O-T backwards. So I come home. My mom was like, what the heck is why not? And I did it for like a week.

And then it stuck with me the rest of my life. So when I went to go open a restaurant, I was 19 years old. I remember like it was yesterday. And I had like 15 names. And, you know, the boss that I was with that day. And he goes, what the heck is Why Not Pizza? And he goes, I'm like, oh, that's my name backwards. He goes, you have to do it. So, you know, and it just turned out.

And I, Why Not Build? I, Why Not Bakery? I've opened so many different Why Not things. But the funny part of the story is my daughter opened up a jewelry company. And her name is Victoria. And all of a sudden, she comes home one day. And she's like, hey, Dad. She's like, I'm going to open my jewelry company.

And I'm like, what's the name of it? She goes, it's a Ratsit. I'm like, wow. I said, that's a beautiful name. I said, it sounds French. She's like, what's wrong with you, dad? It's my name backwards. I was like, I should have known this.

It's like, it's part of what we do in our family. But she's cool. And like, you know, the name Why Not. You know, the best part about Why Not is the kids love it in my business. And the kids are like, where are we going? Why not? And half the people don't even know it's Tony and the kids know if the kids can see it. It's, and what I've learned from teachers, it's a thing called mirroring where kids can see backwards and it's pretty interesting, but, um, I don't know. So I don't know. I'll probably open up another 10 businesses named why not, you know? So, I mean, if it's, why not? Why not? I mean, if it's, why not you know so i mean it fits why not why not i mean it fits why

not hey where are we going to dinner tonight why not why not i want pizza tonight i have to say why not name like put a special place so dan and i there's a there's a bar in florida but it's not a good experience but it's very hilarious so i'll never forget about why not i don't want to ruin your branding in there you're not running my brand there you go i love it don't worry they sold many years ago so they changed the name from why not but uh but i probably made them change the names maybe cease and desist they changed the name um yeah so i just want to dive in real quick i know we're about 24 minutes so So and we'll open it up here. I know some people have some questions. And there might be somebody here that's actually known you from when you were a kid. Really? We'll get into that in a second. Yeah. Why did you want to franchise? I mean, franchise always sounds incredible. And then you hear the great stories.

And then you hear the nightmare stories. So I'd love to hear from you though. Why did you want to franchise and what do you think that's done for your business? So, right. So there's like 3,800 franchises in Northern America and you know, there's like 400 that open a year and 400 to close a year. Right.

So, but the failure rate in franchising is a lot lower. So I didn't even plan on franchise and open my business. I was 23 years old, my restaurant and I trademarked the name right away. I had logo shirts. So from the beginning, everybody asked me if it was a franchise. But then about 10 years, 15 years in, I said, hey, I went to a conference, which I recommend for everybody doing your industry.

I went to a conference, and I'm like, hey, I want to do partnerships. And I was at a booth, and the guy's like, why don't you franchise your company? I said, well, I don't have any interest in franchising. And I said, but I want to systemize my company because franchising is the best way you can do it. And I'll tell you, I mean, it's $100,000 when I first did it. It was the best thing I ever did. And about six years ago, I said, hey, we're just going to start selling these and get ramped up. And I took a bit about two years ago.

I took a step back and I said, hey, I want to develop my, my training system and my inventory systems, right. To make that happen. I have a really quick story. I don't want to get off on tangent, but like the other day I saw, heard a stat from Apple and Starbucks. I don't think most people realize they've been in business. Like Apple has been in business 45 years and Starbucks is 50 years. And I don't think people realize it. And Apple, Steve jobs would say like, yeah, I love being that startup that just took off right away. We were so successful from day one. I don't think people realize how much work it takes to develop a franchise in a major company. These companies just don't start overnight.

I mean, the amount of work that we put into our systems is an immense amount of work. But it's the most rewarding thing because you cannot duplicate a business without those systems. And that's what franchising does. And that it forces you to do that. Yeah, that's incredible. I think it might've been from EO where they show this, they show the trajectory of like Apple, Starbucks,

and like you're saying it was like 30, 40 years and all of a sudden it was like an explosion of stores. But it took so long for them to get to that point. And it was a pretty small, conservatively company that it was just that huge upswing. No doubt. No doubt. It's a pretty cool stat. If you should read the story, it's amazing. But I look at myself and my restaurant franchise businesses in business 28 years, and we're getting ready to explode. I hired a whole C-suite during COVID and, uh, just pivoted hard and, you know, we're, we've been prepared and we're ready to go. Love that. I love that. So we'll open it up now to Q and A, and we're actually going to end the live here, Tony, uh, as we go to Q and A. Silvestro, T-O-N-Y, that's Tony, D-I-S-I-L-V-E-S-T-R-O.com.

If you go to TonyDSilvestro.com, in case you want to hear more, find out more as we are going. I think you might have some of your family in the audience as well, by the way. Oh, I think they're listening, for sure. So that's cool. That's awesome. I don't know if we've had family in the room before. They're entrepreneurs. They're all entrepreneurs. That's great. That's awesome. I don't know if we've had family in the room before. They're entrepreneurs. They're all entrepreneurs.

That's great. I love that. This is really a fantastic conversation, Tony. You've done so many incredible things. We're going to open up to Q&A, but over 32 businesses had the top construction house in the world, 2020, in the world. So many great things that you've done and you weren't even i guess consider yourself an expert in that field yet but you still did it and you were successful so i think you really inspired a lot of people out there uh to just take the leap and go in once they're ready once they're ready i want you to take that leap get to that edge again hey dan before we're gonna go tony where can they find you what's your your social site to go to if they wanted to business with you? Have questions for you. Tell us where can they find you?

Yeah, TonyDSilvestro.com. I'm right there. They can DM me. They can go to my Instagram, Tony Detox. I'm on Instagram. Never was on Instagram a lot, but I'm all over Instagram. Clubhouse has really helped me with that. So Tony Detox is cool. And then I'm on LinkedIn as well as Tony DeSilvestro. So I'm all over Instagram. Clubhouse has really helped me with that. Tony D Talks is cool. Then I'm on

LinkedIn as well as Tony D Silvestro. I'm all over the place. I'm pretty easy to find. Look for the ball guy. Thank you so much. Awesome. Thank you, Tony. If you're interested in why not franchise, go to Tony D Silvestro. Go to his social media. Check him out.

I know he's got training, mentoring, coaching as well as many other things that he's doing. So definitely send him a message. I'm sure that he will respond. And we're going to open up now to Q&A. And as we're doing that, make sure that you