Right About Now with Ryan Alford - How Big Dave’s Cheesesteaks Went from Gas Station Restaurant to Multi-Location Franchise | Derrick Hayes

Episode Date: January 27, 2026

Success rarely looks the way people expect it to — and almost never happens on a straight line. In this episode of Right About Now, Ryan Alford sits down with Derrick Hayes, founder of Big Dave’s Cheesesteaks, for a candid conversation about patience, belief, and the discipline required to build something that lasts. Derrick walks through the early days of entrepreneurship, including failed ideas, long nights, and moments where progress wasn’t visible — even when the work was real. Using powerful analogies and lived experience, Derrick explains why many people confuse movement with momentum, hustle with mastery, and ambition with execution. He shares how learning the business of what you’re building is what separates long-term success from endless grinding. Key Takeaways: Why most people quit before the payoff shows up How patience functions as a competitive advantage The danger of “hobby hustling” Why discipline beats motivation every time How real leaders think about scale and responsibility This episode is for anyone who wants more than quick wins — and is willing to play the long game. Keep up With Ryan and Derrick 🌐 Learn more at https://ryanisright.com 🎧 Subscribe to Right About Now on YouTube & podcast platforms 📸 Follow Ryan Alford on social for clips and insights 🍽️ Discover Big Dave’s Cheesesteaks and Derrick Hayes’ journey nationwide If this conversation resonated, share it with someone building something of their own.

When you throw a hook in the water, you can't see the fish at the bottom. You can't see what's in front of you in business. You just got to believe. It's the same scenario. Both of it worked for me. You just got to believe in what you're doing. And I fish every day, whether I'm fishing in business or I'm fishing in the water. I'm throwing my line out there with my bait on it every day.

And I'm trying to catch a fish. Whether it's a big one or a small one, I'm taking one step at a time. If you don't catch one fish, that's big enough. You can catch a lot of little ones that can add up to that big fish. That's the way business works. This is right about now with Ryan Alford, a Radcast, Net. production. We are the number one business show on the planet with over one million downloads a month.

Taking the BS out of business for over six years and over 400 episodes. You ready to start snapping next and cash in checks? Well, it starts right about now. What's up guys? Welcome to Right About Now. We're always talking about how you get right in business and life. And ultimately, what's happening today. It don't matter what happened last year.

It matters five years from now. We've got to talk about how to make it happen now. That's why we're always talking to legendary people doing legendary things. That's what we got the CEO and the founder of Big Dave's Cheesestake. It's Derek Hayes. What's up, Derek? What's up, man? Thank you for having me, Ryan.

Hey, man, my pleasure. I love seeing a man getting after it, thriving in America, doing the hard things well. And success, it looks good on you, brother. Hey, man, it's a lot of hard work, a lot of sleepless nights. I want to change it for the world, man, because it made me who I am right now battle on all these roller coaster rides and getting it out of the mud. You know, man, I'm a big dude. I'm 6-5, 260 on a good day.

I like to eat, brother. Oh, man, I got it. You know what I would give you? I would give you my 18-inch cheesecake. Oh, okay. I might put that thing down, man. 18-inch cheesecake. I'm going to give you the 18-inch Dave's way.

That got beans, peppers, three cheese, a loaded sandwich. Oh, man. Did I just fall on the floor and pass out or did I get this? You didn't really? You definitely have the 18-inch. For sure. I got a couch over here. If we get there, Derek and I are talking a pre-episode.

They're opening one in G Vegas down the road in Greenville. We might have to do a follow-up when he does it. He's going to bring that in here. We're going to have that on screen. Even if you're on that treadmill, which a lot of our listeners are, you don't want to hop off and run. Hey, listen, listen, run for the Dave's way. Talk to me, man.

Been building this business. I know you bootstrap this thing. It came together because I wanted to honor my father. It passed away in front of my face through the cancer. And for me, it was calling. It was a purpose. When I moved to Atlanta, I tried to figure it out, didn't know what I wanted to do. I'm going to do the thing that I told him I was going to do.

I'm going to open a business. I started out selling Italian ice. Nobody in Atlanta knew what water ice was, so I couldn't get anybody walking the door at that point. I'm like, oh, man, what am I doing? What year are we talking about, roughly? This is 2014. This is early days. This is me as a young entrepreneur that really don't know what the hell he's doing.

He just wants to do something good. I'm going to slings some ice and then go out. I remember it was people thought that I was selling just cups of ice and it was like, what kind of concept is this? Shots out to my mother. She's like, it's time for you to put the kitchen in and do the cheesecake thing that you really wanted to do. I decided to change the name to Big Dave Cheesesteaks.

And that's where it all started. 2016, that year was like the year for me where I went from not having any customers to start transitioning to customers start transitioning to a community, start understanding that it's a good sandwich and done with it, Georgia, which is still not in Atlanta. you're still about 35 minutes from the city, you got to be damn good for somebody to drive that far out. But after Eve came, she came in 2015, I started to get the hype built up. But 2016, I like to call it, was my transition in a year letting people know who I am. 2018, I represented Georgia in a sandwich competition where I ranked number seven in the world in sandwiches.

When I came home, it was almost like a kid won the scholarship in college. The community was proud. They were happy. I can remember that moment. And then we just started getting so big that the gas station wasn't working for us anymore because we couldn't get the orders out fast enough. I only had a three-foot grill, one broken friar. And, I mean, we're doing 800 tickets in some days.

It's just, wow, sometimes a thousand on the weekends. But I was able to now spread my wings and go downtown to 57 Forsyth Street, where I think the real magic happened for not just my life, but for my career in the community, because this became a staple to the community of landmark. People would fly into Atlanta. First thing they do is they going downtown to go get a cheese stick from Big Dave. So we started to have that. I'm flying to go get a cheesecake or I'm flying in town.

Big Dave's is there. I'm going to go get one. I see it on Instagram. It's a destination. Yeah, it started being that. And then through over the years, we just started to grow. I was able to get food trucks. I was able to go into different arenas, Mercedes Ben Stadium.

You name it, it goes on. So we was able to pit more brick and waters in the city of Atlanta. And now over the last 10 years almost, we became this from a lot of the mud type of business to a national chain. And I think a lot of people, they love it because they've never seen nothing like it before. They hear stories about how McDonald's was built or how Chick-fil-A was built. But now, they ain't just hearing the story how Big Dave's is built. They're watching it. That's true. It's all out there, man. It's all out there. This is social media. Exactly. How many stores do we have? I have 12 right now operating. I got more in the works that

I'm about to announce. I got a franchise, a new franchise I'm announcing soon. I know. Is it with big days? I'm just waiting at now. So you'll be officially franchised? Yeah, I'm franchised now. 15 paper right now. And then the new deal I just signed. It's going pretty good. This is moving fast, brother. I mean, it moves slow and then fast. That's how it happens. Well, that's the way long goes. I mean, think about it. I look at business like this. When you meet someone, say you in high school and you're going to college and you meet your first love, you may holler at her, say, hey, can I take you out?

You take her out. Then you say, damn, I want to date her. Start dating her. And then you're realize it started costing you, but you love it. Right? And after you figure it out, is this person for you, then they start helping you and y'all build this empire. And that's the way I look at business. I feel like you got to give you a business something and your business got to give you something back because either or you're going to drain out or the business is going to drain out. But I think if y'all do it together, you went together. That's why the iron sharp and iron thing is so important. Your business is the other side of the knife. You could be a marriage counselor too, man. I hate it. We're talking with Derek Hayes. He is the founder and CEO of Big Dave's Cheatakes. We got 12 and growing stores. These are, I guess, own stores by you and the business.

Yeah. And now we're expanding. We're growing that franchise. You talked about it. You moved it into the new location. And that's when kind of that trigger went off of you were in a place where you had built up the demand. It sounded like you'd outgrown it. And then you could really take off.

But did you know in the moment, like as you've gone through this when it was happening, did you go, oh boy, rocket ship initiated? To be honest, I felt like I was working so hard. And it was almost, I wasn't getting a recognition I thought I deserved. Sometimes you could want to deserve something because you want to deserve it because you know how hard you're working. It takes time. Anything in life takes time. I fish a lot, right?

And I think fishing helped me out with business because it's patience. Sometimes you can throw something in the water and you, you never catch anything. Or you throw something in the water and you get a bite. And that's how business is. You might get some success to go, ha, then it goes back. Ha!

And it goes back. But if you're willing to keep throwing that in the water, you're bait to go keep fishing. And I think that you're believing in yourself, no matter if it's just a little bite or as if a fish keep taking it off, keep taking it off and you keep losing. And nothing is coming out of the water

that teaches you the same thing in business. But the one day, you're going to catch a fish. When you catch that fish, don't nothing feel like it. When I hit that rod, you're reeling it in. That's how success feel when you just continually working on something. And I'm going to tell you why they're so similar. Because when you throw a hook in the water, you can't see the fish at the bottom. You can't see what's in front of you in business. You just got to

believe. It's the same scenario. Both of it worked for me. You just got to believe in what you're doing. And I fish every day, whether I'm fishing in business or I'm fishing in the water. I'm throwing my line out there with my bait on it every day. And I'm trying to catch a fish. Whether it's a big on or a small one, I'm taking one step at a time. If you don't catch one fish, that's big enough. You can catch a lot of little ones that can add up to that big fish. That's the way business works. Derek, where'd you get your wisdom from, man? Because that's smart.

I say all the time. This is why everybody's not successful. You have to keep going without proof of success. And that's the difference between people that make it and people that don't. A lot of people need proof all the time. And those people do okay, but they don't really ever get to the, let's call the pinnacle. And I'm not just saying money, but like even the bigger things in life because they need that validation. I need proof.

I need proof. And you nailed it. You said it. That hook at the bottom, there's fish all around it. but you don't necessarily know it. Yeah, you don't even know it. And sometimes you don't want that certain fish too bite it because you don't want it. That's right.

You know, so sometimes you could say that, oh, life is happening for me. I got this person investing me. I got this partner. But what if it's a bad fish. Yeah. Well, that's what a lot of people would say. I don't know if you're religious or not. They'd say that's when God's working for you, you know.

Hey, look, I'm very religious and I definitely believe that. And I also believe that God is not going to pitch you on anything you can't handle it. That's true. Derek, where's your wisdom come from? man. I'm from the city of Brotherly Love, but it's a lot of hustle and grit there you got to get or you won't make it out. Even at 38 years old, I've already lived a life of a 50, 60 year old person because I've been around so much stuff ever as a young age. I've seen things that the normal human being may not have saw. I've seen things that when you're young,

you've got to hustle to be able to make it, you know, yourself. When I was 12, 13 years old or a little younger, I was selling bean pies and newspapers and shoveling snow. I always been an entrepreneur, I always been a hustler. But I realize one thing, if you hustle with no knowledge, you just always going to hustle. Being a hustler is good. But if all you got is to keep hustling without being able to reciprocate the ROI of hustling, you just hustling the hustle. And that don't feel good because you look up 10, 20 years later, and you're like, yeah, man, I've been hustling for a long time. And then just like you said, where's the pinnacle? What do you have to show? Where did you get to in that career? And the only way you can do that is if you learn the business of anything you're doing. When people

say to a hustler, you know, I say that's good, but are you learning your hustle? Did you master your craft? Do you come an expert in it? Because if you didn't, you're just a hustler. That's a hobby. You're a hobby hustler. That's what that is. And I didn't want to be that. I wanted to grow. I wanted to be respected. And I want to be respected in rooms that don't look like me. I want to be respected in rooms that shock them when their hair just come out of my mouth because they can't believe it. Because you know why? That's going to allow them to see a broader eyesight on generations of kids around the world that have good ideas, that have businesses, and they look broader at it as a whole. I got 40-something tattoos on my body. I don't look like the average CEO

and fast casual. I come from a very dangerous place, but I'm dangerous hair, you know? So me knowing that, knowing that I can sit with anybody and make it work, create a partnership. That's powerful, though, because they say if you want to really get somebody, they need to not anticipate that you're coming. And I think you probably can walk into places now and be very, real dangerous. You probably always have been, but now with both wisdom, knowledge, and running, you know. You know, sometimes I'm sitting around, honestly, humbly speaking, and I could be in certain rooms and there's conversations in fast casual or anything. And I'd be like, they just don't know. I'm about to be the face of fast casual. This is about to be my world. Hey, we need to be. I know what I have.

I am creating something that's bigger than food that's never existed. And as an African American where we own less than 8% of franchises, now I can actually. show the world that you don't have to have a college degree. You don't have to have these certain certifications that they say you have to have. You got to be smart enough to use this and people around you that's smarter than you to be able to scale the brand. You're in the early phase of scale, but you clearly are going to one to 12 and now franchises and that thing's about to take off like a firecracker. So what's the biggest thing you've learned that even if you're in the early stages, you seem to have the vision for it. What's been

the learning lesson to help you scale? Being humble and being. smart enough to know that you can't do it alone, you got to create a team. And that's the most important thing because as you grow, you have to learn. And you have to get challenged. If you're not getting challenged, it's like working out, right? If I'm sitting there, I'm lifting weights that's not really tiring me out. Then I'm not getting stronger. But if I put the right team around me that's going to challenge me to be a better me, challenge me to the decisions I want to make, challenge me to the scale I want to get to, then that requires pure dignity and education and soaking it all up and knowing that you just don't know it all.

And you got to be okay with that. Because here's the thing. A lot of people say, oh, I got a mentor. This person helps me out. But for me, I could look at anybody on Instagram that intrigues me, that works hard, that keeps my engine going, no matter what field it is. But when I'm looking at the expertise of my business, I'm leaning on my advisors, I'm leaning on my team. Because it's like this. A bicycle is a kickstand.

It can't stand up on his own, but it can keep going with somebody pedaling. I can pedal on my bike, but, you know, I wanted to sit there. I need a kickstand. So that's the way I look at life. I need somebody now until when I'm tired or I want to stop my bike, I need somebody I can lean on. And those are the kickstands you need around you for life. And that's your advisors.

That's your team. And that's people you trust and believe in. A lot of people have family that get involved in business. Dave's Cheesecake. It's huge. Derek Hayes has done this. Have you learned anything about working or not working with family when building this? Respectfully, it can be difficult at times when you bring somebody in that you have to pay more.

that now becomes their boss. And as always, hey, I'm Cuzz or I'm brother or whatever the situation may be. That is the most difficult thing in business, not just for me as a whole for people to hire family members. When you open up a fast casual in a market, you really do have community impact. You have it where it's obvious, which is another great place to eat, especially if it's reputable and good like yours. But then it's you're hiring, you're supporting the community, you're buying in the community, you're selling in the community.

There's so many things that go into it. Talk to me about that. I invest in the communities that we build Big Dave's in. We like to hire within because when you bring a multi-million dollar business in a growing community, it can help the community significantly. We're helping people gain employment. You're helping people gain careers. It could be a young kid that was maybe going down the wrong road.

What I'll do is we have something called a blue apron program inside of Big Dave Cheatisdix. And if you learn to work all the stations, you can graduate. And what that does is that give them some insight on the business and makes them feel good. I come in there and I graduate them just like they graduate and getting a certificate of a master's degree or undergrad, whatever. Hey, brother, I love it. I can't wait to have you in Greenville and right down the road from us. And we'll have a follow up. We'll see how things are going. Where can everybody keep up with Big Dave's and Derek Hayes? Big Dave Cheatisakes is my Instagram. My personal page is official D. Hayes. I'm always uplifting. I'm always teaching. I'm even always

learning. So let's connect. Let's build. And if you're around Atlanta, if you're on, South Carolina, North Carolina, Florida. Get you a big Dave cheese steak. I love it, brother. Thank you so much for coming on. All right. Thank you. Hey, guys, you know to find us.

Ryan is right.com. We're always bringing you what's right, man. What's more right in this brother? Getting, making it happen. He is the new face of fast casual. We need some new faces. I'm telling you what. I'm tired of the same old.

Hey, man, what is still here to stay? I know, man. I'm tired of it. Man, I'm ready for a damn cheese steak. I'm tired of the same old, same old. Like that is, there's never been a better time for something different. So I love it. And you'll find all the highlight clips, the full episode, and all the links to Big Dave's and D.

Hayes. We'll see you next time on Right About Now. This has been right about now with Ryan Alford, a Radcast Network production. Visit Ryanisright.com for full audio and video versions of the show or to inquire about sponsorship opportunities. Thanks for listening.