How Social Media is Transforming Restaurants Forever | Jeff Sinelli DSH #851

Carnivore diet or keto or you just want more protein, that's why they're called protein chips.

It's just grass-fed beef and salt or pasture-raised chicken and salt.

It's the cleanest you can eat, and they eat like a potato chip.

It's not a jerky, it's just a product we developed because two years ago, I heard about this carnivore diet, and I'm like, I was eating a lot of steak.

I'm like, you know, it's kind of hard to bring steak on a plane.

So let's create a snack and we ended up with this product.

All right, guys, Chief Vibe Officer Jeff Sinelli here today, someone who's made it in in one of the toughest industries, I'd say, in the world.

Thanks for coming on.

What, the hospitality restaurant industry?

Yeah, I would say it's out there, right?

I wouldn't say it's tough.

I would maybe construe it more as interesting.

You know, we're in the concept development business, and

it's competitive.

Right.

Real competitive.

And you're a competitor.

You play a lot of tennis?

Oh, yeah, from tennis to professional lacrosse.

So we like to compete.

Nice.

You've always been big on sports.

Always, yeah, yeah.

The way I look at sports is, you know, when we were in high school, you usually played an after-school sport.

Well, now, after work, I play a sport and I play tennis.

You know, it's like I spend an hour to two on the tennis court after work almost daily.

And it just allows me that transitional time before I get to the family.

So, you know, when you're kids, you do it.

Why don't we do it when we're adults?

You know, what's the option to go sit and watch Netflix?

You know, like, I'd rather, you know, be active.

And by the way, racket sports right now, you know, it's all over the, you know, the reels.

It'll extend your life up to 10 years.

I saw that.

So

you're in our office and we just put in a pickleball court.

We've got table tennis.

So

I just give me a racket and a court and I'm in business.

I love it.

I wonder why that is.

It must be some neurological connection with the brain.

Yeah, yeah.

I think just the programming and just the activity.

You know, with when you're moving in multi-directions and you have a racket and it's a fast game too.

These balls are firing at 100 plus miles an hour.

Oh, yeah.

Tennis is no joke.

I used used to play a little bit.

Yeah, what about pickle?

Pickle, I play a little.

I like tennis more, though.

Yeah, you know, I got the edge on tennis, but I played a lot of sports growing up, and I realized later in life how it helped my mindset a lot because I was a distance runner.

What about one-handed or two-handed backhand?

I'm a two-hander.

Are you a one-hander?

Two-handed.

Okay.

Yeah, one-hand, not enough power, I feel like.

You can get the whip on it, but yeah, I think...

Yeah, I'm working on the two-hander.

Yeah.

What's your rating?

Do you play ranked?

It's 4-0.

My wife is a college tennis player.

So when we first started dating, she got me into tennis hard.

And COVID really, I picked up tennis as my sport.

So my goal is to beat my wife and beat my wife on the tennis court, you know, not tennis.

Someone might clip that up in their own way.

There we go.

During COVID, though.

hospitality got wrecked.

So what was that like?

Those three years ago?

You know, it was interesting, again, but it was, you were in survival mode, then you were in like, let's figure this out mode.

And I said at the beginning of COVID, you know, there's going to be some people that figure out different ways to do business.

You know, we had to pivot and, you know, use our boxes different.

You saw a lot of ghost kitchens pop up.

You saw, I think it was a real development time for our industry, the hospitality restaurant industry, where we learned how to do delivery better.

We learned how to, you know, just manage.

And you learn how to really deal with your teams too, because you're under a, you know, like in crisis mode.

So you'd wake up every day and, you know, you mentioned being competitive.

You got to compete on a different field.

And the nice thing about whether it's the field non-pandemic or whatever, we all kind of play with the same circumstances and rules.

So, you know, if it's raining outside, we're all subject to that.

We compete with the rain.

So,

you know, just I think business is a game of competition all day long.

I love that.

You mentioned ghost kitchens earlier.

One of the biggest expenses for restaurants is the rent, right?

So is that a model you've considered leaning into?

Yeah, you know, ghost kitchens, I'm not a fan of, and I'll tell you why.

I'm a brander.

And when you brand your product, like say it's Witch Witch or our new company, Supernova, if we were to have an alternative in Witch Witch, like we were running a pizza operation, and all of a sudden maybe the packaging got mixed up, the end guest or consumer that receives that might have a, might lose trust in the brand.

So I'm a real singular focused brand guy, and I think you start diluting your stuff as you try to.

put more businesses into your original box.

And you can see now that a lot of the ghost kitchens are, you know, just like ghosts.

You can't even see them anymore.

Yeah.

So the name really played out what a ghost kitchen is.

No, there was a big one by my house in Vegas and they're all like out of business.

Oh, yeah.

It was perfect for the time that we were in.

But, you know,

we have a lot of learnings that came out of that.

I think

brands, when they're tied to customers, like that loyalty is huge, right?

It's everything.

I mean, it's like

you're in a brand to get repeat loyal guests.

And if you build it, there's some great companies out there that, you know, I put in gold status, like In-N-Out Burger.

You know, they haven't changed anything, but maybe add hot chocolate for kids in decades of business.

The great ones don't change.

I have a friend, Todd Graves, with Raising Canes.

I mean, he's a chicken billionaire now.

Doesn't change anything.

He has one sauce, you know, one love, one chicken.

So if you're consistent, you build legacy for decades.

The Costco hot dog.

Oh.

$1.50.

I love how they are.

That's the best deal in the in the restaurant industry, the best kept secret.

And I actually, we were working on a little hot dog project.

I bought the Costco hot dogs in bulk and they're bread because they sell it in a store.

And it comes out to like $1.40 something.

And you add the Coke.

They're not making any money on that.

It's a lost leader, but

it's something that builds brand loyalty because you're talking about it.

We're talking about it.

And we know about it.

And millions of other people know about the Costco.

They know what the price is.

They know.

and that's something that Costco's committed to not messing with.

So it's a really, it's a brand staple for them.

Yeah, don't sleep on that Costco Food Corp, man.

I grew up there.

That was a good lunchtime meal.

So pizza is pretty good.

They got sushi now.

Oh, they got sushi.

Yeah, I saw that.

How is it?

I haven't tasted it yet, but they said it's okay.

They use real crab, not imitation crab.

See, that's the thing with crab, man.

What?

They use that fake stuff.

Oh, that fake stuff.

They call it crab.

Yeah.

It serves its purpose.

You know, it has a little bit of protein.

It's made from fish, but

it's not fake.

It's just engineered.

Right.

Do you see the food industry shifting towards health conscious consumers i'd like for it to you know we've got our new company supernova that you know we're all about performance and elevating you know what food products could be or performance products so um personally selfishly i'd love to see it it's just tough we're conditioned in the united states with big agriculture and how to create the most amount of food for the least amount of money so it's it's a little bit of gamesmanship there but you know i tend to eat as clean as possible And, you know, we're looking to, you know, build some companies with that premise as well.

I love it.

Yeah.

I just tried your beef chips.

Yeah, what'd you think?

Phenomenal.

And I love how there's only two ingredients because if you buy a bag of chips right now, there's probably 20 ingredients.

Yeah, whether you're on a carnivore diet or keto or you just want more protein, that's why they're called protein chips.

It's just grass-fed beef and salt or pasture-raised chicken and salt.

It's the cleanest you can eat, and they eat like a potato chip.

It's not a jerky.

It's just a product we developed because two years ago, I heard about this carnivore diet.

And I'm like, I was eating a a lot of steak and I'm like you know it's kind of hard to bring steak on a plane so let's let's create a snack and we ended up with this product it's hard to find healthy snacks that you could go travel with honestly so that's a good product for the for the market thanks I'm glad you liked it yeah I can't wait to try to shake it yeah we got we got a protein ice cream coming out because you know if you're gonna eat ice cream why not get a protein quotient to it and just you know it's our new company Supernova it's premised about anything you put in you or on you will help you perform better.

So it's a performance company.

Nice.

Do you use raw milk and ice cream?

We're playing with it.

There's some regulations with raw products, but we use an A2 milk, which is a derivative of a milk protein, either A1 or A2.

You know, grass-fed, pastured.

So we try to get as clean and as close to the source as possible.

Nice.

And then you throw some lab reports on it so that you can see some of the supply chain or blockchain to it.

These are elevated products for people that if you know, you know.

Absolutely.

You know, if you're, if you, I always say about this brand, if you have to turn it over and try to read the ingredients, you're not our customer.

Our customer already knows.

They can trust in what we're making for them.

And I hope we get to the point where the average person can afford stuff like this one day.

Yeah,

it's within range.

Obviously, when you

try to do high quality, there's a price associated with it.

But we're conscious of it because it's not

for just people that have

exorbitant amount of free income, but

it's for the masses.

Absolutely.

So are you on a a carnivore diet right now?

I was.

You know, I got a little, I was going deep.

I started eating Oregon meat and everything.

Liver King.

Yeah, yeah.

I tell you what, you start eating some of that wild stuff.

And my wife will attest.

It makes you a little aggressive.

You start eating.

Too much to saucer.

Yeah, yeah.

So you got to be careful with that carnivore diet.

But I do eat a lot of protein and I drink a lot of coffee too.

So we got a great coffee with Supernova.

Nice.

How has social media changed the restaurant industry and your space in in general?

I mean,

let's just, you know, I'm a little bit older than you.

25 years ago, I'd travel on a plane with a backpack full of magazines.

That's how I'd get my news and information.

Now

it's the Instagram, the Facebooks, the TikToks.

It's changed because the magazines are gone.

And now the magazine's in the palm of your hand.

And not only that, but the advertisers too.

So I would be looking at nobody right now is buying a magazine ad or newspaper ad.

They're placing their dollars on social media or you know electronic media so it's changed our industry because we've had uh you know uh you know which witch one of our older companies is over 20 years old so it didn't exist when we first started so now we had to we had the opportunity to morph with it so um it's it's not so much of a change it's been an evolution for us and we love it you know it's like we've been playing in some of the stuff and A lot of people think you can go viral right away.

And, you know, we're two years in one company and we just have our first multi-million dollar viewer thing.

Nice.

But you just have to stay with it and be consistent with it.

Yeah, Witchwitch has been around for over 20 years, you said?

Yeah, yeah.

How many times did you think there was a possibility would fail along that journey?

Never.

Oh, never?

Yeah, I just, I don't think about failure.

I think about, you know, going forward.

Failure is like going backwards.

And, you know, I have a tough time even driving my car going backwards.

So I just, I'm very forward-focused in everything that I do.

So a problem comes and you're just thinking optimistically.

I'm thinking about the future.

I'm thinking about the next day.

I'm thinking, if you ask me what I'm doing tomorrow, I can tell you.

But if you ask me what I did yesterday,

we'd be here for minutes thinking about it.

Oh, you just forget about it.

Yeah.

Nice.

That's an interesting mindset to have, actually.

Yeah, because a lot of people dwell on the past, right?

You can't, the past is history.

I'm more optimistic about the future.

The future is something I can do something about.

I can't do anything about the past.

It's already etched in stone.

It's gone.

Forget about it.

Let's go forward.

Right.

No, I'm not going to do it.

It gets into like, you know, some of my core philosophies of vibe, energy, forward motion.

You know,

there's a saying that misery loves company.

Not in my companies.

Yeah.

So when you're hiring people, you care a lot about the energy aspect of them.

Yeah, yeah.

I mean, you know, you want them to have a smile, present themselves, you know, be clean.

You know, it's like everything speaks.

Yeah.

Because when I go to like a restaurant, it's a turnoff if the employee's in a bad mood, actually.

Yeah.

Like a Chipotle or whatever.

Well, it's all part of the brand.

You know, the employees are part of the brand.

And when your brand's working right, I like to say that it's a magnet to attract the right employees and it all works in continuity together yeah i think chick-fil-a does a great job of that all their employees are happy yeah yeah it's my pleasure yeah yeah big fan of chick-fil-a but look at you i mean you're your own brand right now you know you're uh you know from nose to toe your your drip is on point um you know your shoes match the sweatshirt you're wearing your brand you are your brand i mean it And the people that I've had an opportunity to meet, they're part of your brand too, and they reflect you.

So hats off.

No, you got to think that way because if someone you bring is a poor representation of you, then that affects you.

So always.

And that's what people don't realize.

Yeah.

You know, I mean, you have the opportunity, and I think you believe in this too.

We're human sandwich boards for our brand.

So, you know, you'll very rarely catch me during the work week and oftentimes on weekend not wearing one of our branded company products because now I have the opportunity to maybe at a Home Depot, someone will come up to me and I'll be wearing a Witch Witch shirt and they're like, I love Witch Witch.

And I get the opportunity to talk to them how to use it.

You know, is there something we can help with your catering?

But by wearing your personal brand or the, I, you know, I do a lot of speaking and oftentimes I look at the audience and you do too.

Yeah.

Very few people are wearing their brand.

Sometimes they're wearing a sports brand.

You know, it's like, are you getting paid by Nike or the Dallas Cowboys to wear that?

But you're getting paid by your brand.

I'm getting paid by my brand.

And I think pros wear uniforms.

Yep.

I only wear my brand.

Yeah.

I threw out everything else.

Like I have this in like 10 different colors.

But so that's how it should be.

Yeah, you never know who's going to come up to you, man.

You're a walking billboard.

Um, so what's next for this company?

Going to start hitting some retail stores?

You know, it's uh, I have a philosophy: every company you start, you ladder up all your experiences, and you have the opportunity to start with something new and take your experiences to make it the best that it can be.

So, uh, we started with a great name.

You know, I didn't drink coffee till my 40s.

I was coming back.

I was coming late.

Yeah, yeah.

I just, I was coming back from from Tony Robbins in Fiji and my buddy says, you look tired.

And I'm like, he's like, have a cup of coffee.

I said, I don't drink that dirty, disgusting stuff.

So he goes, all right, shoot a shot of espresso.

I hit that espresso.

And Sean, I kid you not, I felt like within 30 seconds, the heavens were opening up and, you know, brain fog was gone.

I said I wanted another one.

I felt like.

this is a drug.

Then I found out it's caffeine.

It's a legal drug you can sell.

So we started a coffee company based on energy and vibe.

And we hired some of the best to create our coffees.

And we've got big plans for supernova.

It's part biohacking.

It's part entrepreneurship.

It's part energy.

It's part sports performance.

It's a lot of things that I believe in.

And so I get to wake up every day.

And by the way, it's a choice that we wake up and take a leap to start the day because we're recharged in a biohacking environment through perfect sleep or get the best sleep we can.

And now we get to use products that can better us and be in a community of supernova like-minded people.

Absolutely.

So I'm so stoked about this one.

I could feel the energy off you.

Yeah.

Yeah.

When you have a great product like this where you're helping people, like it must be so fulfilling, right?

Yeah.

And not only personal, like if you got a little low energy, you just hit a little shout of Supernova Espresso and let's go.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

I can see you're invigorated with this brand.

Oh, it's just, I'm totally, but supernova by definition is an explosion of energy.

So we have the opportunity to energize people.

We also have a preneur fund that we're helping entrepreneurs, whether it's through gifts or grants.

It's called a preneur fund.

So I labeled myself, we talked about the chief IBE officer.

In this one, I'm the superpreneur.

Let's go.

What made you come up with these labels?

I guess maybe the creative side.

You know, you get to create your own avatar, your own character.

So, you know, I'm stuck with the name Jeff because that's when my parents gave me.

Actually, my parents named me Damon or Damien for two days and they changed it.

Oh, you could change it after?

They did.

They ended up with Jeff.

So, you know, I'm Jeff by my birth certificate.

But I think we can take our titles and have some fun with them.

I love it.

Speaking of your parents, your dad was a big mentor for you early on, right?

Yeah, yeah.

He was an attorney.

He was an entrepreneur.

He had nightclubs, cellular towers, concrete business.

He was all over the map.

So

he was an entrepreneur.

And I think I asked myself, can entrepreneur be taught or is it part of your DNA?

I have the DNA of being an entrepreneur, so it's real easy for me.

But then I see a lot of people that want to be entrepreneurs,

wantopreneurs.

And I think it can be taught, but you have have to have a risk tolerance and you have to, you know, really have, you know, just the gumption to go for things.

So, but my dad, you know, he taught me a lot.

And

I have two kids right now, daughters, a 12 and a 15-year-old.

And I love taking them to work because what I learned from my father, he took me to work and I got to see his business, how he interacted, you know, how he put me to work, you know, whether it's cleaning a wall or, you know, I had the opportunity to work for, he also had some nightclubs.

And, you know,

my dad wasn't above any job and he taught me that.

If the toilet need to be cleaned,

you do it.

You know, because like,

let me give you an example.

In the nightclub, we used to have some busy nightclubs in Detroit.

And oftentimes, the toilet would clog up.

And there'd be 50, 100 people in line.

And if the toilet's clogged, they can't get to the bar to buy drinks.

So, you know, oftentimes, I kid you not, I would reach my bare hand in a toilet, unplug it.

flush it and say the toilet's open, let's go.

So, you know, I think my dad taught me a lot.

He taught me the importance of education, which is a whole nother topic we can talk about.

But he also, you know, he just taught me that you're not above anything, especially if you're the business owner.

So put your ego to the side, right?

Yeah, it's not about that.

It's about getting things working so that you can conduct business.

And sometimes you just, you're going to get dirty.

Yeah.

I remember when I was in school, they had Bring Your Child to Work Day.

You remember that?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That was my favorite day of the year.

Because like you said, you got to see your parents in action.

And I feel like I learned more that day than the whole year of school.

Oh, my gosh.

My dad had a legal office, and I would just go there and read legal books.

And, you know, you just, I'm a big visual person.

I see it and I learn from visual stuff.

I'm not a big, I don't read a lot of books.

So for me, visual learning is important.

And being around my dad, I can't thank enough.

It's paid huge dividends.

So much so that I want to bring my kids around.

And they're a little resistant.

Do you think the education system should instead be, like you said, reading-based?

They should implement other styles for certain learning styles for kids.

Different people learn different ways.

Some are kinetic that

like to see motion.

Some are text.

You know,

I just think that how we get education should be adapted to how people learn.

You know, some people are absorbers.

And look, I did my MBA in six months.

It was a two-year program, but I just did day, night, weekend, distant learning, and over holidays.

And I got out of there.

It was like, I wanted to get out, but, you know, I just, I, I don't know if I learned a lot during my MBA, but I got out real fast.

I love that honesty, man.

Yeah.

Because a lot of people invest a lot of money, and I think they get disappointed when they enter the real world and they can't get a job or whatever.

Yeah, well, maybe let's talk about college.

It's like for me, college, I think, is a real maturing place where we can go and mature after because it's the first time maybe you leave your home, your nest, and then you're alone.

So it's like an incubator to set you up and maybe you study a certain thing, whether it be medicine or business.

But I'm a believer and, you know, it's like, you know, I have these conversations with my wife.

Is college even necessary now?

Because of the absorption through, you know, what my kids are learning.

I mean they're I

they're my kids but I think they're extremely smart for their age I look at where they are at 12 and 15 I'm like I was nowhere near the vocabulary the you know the words that they throw out they're just they just see so much and I think it's because of the devices and social media oh yeah the access to information I mean they call it YouTube university I'd rather do that than go to actual university yeah and like I'm seeing the schools like you know kind of curtail the use of AI I'm like let's double down on it let's get right you know it's a tool right now that they have the opportunity right now to learn and master.

And the schools are like heismaning it.

So I don't like that.

I'm with you.

Have you been using a lot of AI lately?

Every day.

Yeah, every day.

Yeah.

I just, I go down rabbit holes of creativity.

It's like

you can come up with an idea.

You can flesh it out.

You can just, you can like,

it's like a creative dream.

Like advertising agencies are done.

You know, you just like, you can get a single person really asking the right questions.

And you can, we can create a business in five minutes here that's better than anything we created.

Wow.

At a fraction of just, you know, what's your five minutes worth?

What's my five minutes worth?

We can create a business, you and I, right now, that could trump supernova or something just using AI.

Yeah, dude, it's amazing.

It's incredible.

And it's just getting better.

Yeah.

I use it to find guests whatever city I'm in.

I use it to do email templates.

I use it for researching guests.

It's incredible.

Yeah.

I mean,

I like naming businesses

and

it's a tool that, you know, I ask AI often, you know, I create a business and give me a name.

And

we would spend days or weeks.

It took me three years to name Supernova.

Wow.

No joke.

And I've never had a problem naming anything.

With AI, it would probably take three minutes.

It literally took me three because I was looking for a double alliterative name, like a Witch Witch or a...

Jama Juice, Krispy Kreme, Dunkin' Donuts, because I think alliteration is a powerful way to name something.

Just couldn't find anything.

But then, you know, the name supernova, that's a whole other story, how we got that one.

Would you say you're more of the visionary of the business?

Yeah, I think vision is important.

You have the opportunity to share your vision, and that's

important if you're going to scale and grow businesses.

You got to get people to buy into what you're jamming on.

So did you have to partner with an operator or could you handle both?

I'm really the creative kind of founder.

Operations are my strength.

Got it.

You know, I can stick my hand in a toilet and, you know, fix it and run teams.

I can do it.

But, you know, I think I really shine on the creative concept visionary standpoint.

And that's important advice for people because there's a lot of great visionaries, but they think they could do everything.

Yeah.

So that's kind of their downfall, too.

Yeah.

You know, it's like

business is a game, you know, and I'm happily married.

I've been married, you know, 18 years, 22 years time served.

But you find a partner that my wife Courtney is great at things I'm not great at.

And it's just, you know, it's a balancing.

And I think whether it's your life or your business, you've got to surround yourself with people that complement your skills.

100%.

My partner is a big part of my success, man.

Like, people don't realize that.

Yeah.

That your partner is huge.

Huge.

Like, I got a lot of single friends and I just see them hurting, honestly.

Yeah.

Because they don't have people to talk to.

Yeah, it's kind of lonely talking to AI.

So

for now, I'm sure they'll make it really good down the road, but I'd rather have the real thing.

What's your vision?

This podcast, dude.

Yeah.

Yeah, I'm going to change a lot of lives.

I mean, just this episode is going to inspire people and just the snowball effect of all the episodes combined.

It's going to be powerful.

And the community I'm building with the podcast.

Yeah.

So you're already forward-looking.

Yeah, it's going to change the world.

It's already starting, but I'm really excited, man.

I'm getting goosebumps.

I always say, follow the goosebumps.

You just gave me goosebumps.

That's that's a compliment, right?

I appreciate it.

I'm goosey.

Yeah, let's try these chips, honestly.

Yeah.

Are the chicken ones here?

Yeah, chicken's right here.

You want to break some bird together?

Yeah.

So again,

it's like eating a potato chip.

It's just, they're perfectly round wafers.

Two ingredients.

Two ingredients.

Chicken and salt.

Chicken and salt.

Here we go.

Cheers, brother.

Cheers.

Love it.

I'm thinking about just living on supernova chips for 30 days in water.

That'd be a viral video.

You got any suggestions?

I would document that to make a video and then take your blood test before and after, see if there's positive changes.

Yeah.

I think it's a sustainable, you know, obviously it's a carnivore thing, but one bag of the five-ounce chips is rendered down from a pound of meat.

So you're getting a pound of meat in each bag.

And

I think you could sustain 30 days.

And I'd be real interested at the result of, you know, 30.

I've seen a guy that owns a dog food company that ate his dog food, human grade, for 30 days.

You know, and he got on every talk show and everything.

I think there's something here.

I will say I've switched my dog food to raw dog food.

Yes.

They look way better.

What kind of dogs do you have?

Australian Shepherd and a Golden Retriever.

They used to have dry skin, itchy allergies.

I switched them to this company called MAVE.

Have you heard of them?

No.

M-E-E-V.

It's way more expensive, but dude, they look phenomenal.

Yeah, dogs are man's best friend.

We've got great Pyrenees now, and they're healthy because they eat a raw, natural diet.

And

something to be said about it.

One of the things that I don't know if we're going to get there, but to create a supernova dog food because

what you do for your dog can help the dog perform better and live longer.

They're living a third of what they used to live, dogs.

A third longer.

A third.

So they're living on average, I think, seven years.

They used to live like 15 to 20 years.

Oh, right, right now, because of what the food.

In our grandparents' generation, they were living to 15 to 20.

Yeah.

I'm into longevity.

You know, I think I'm in my 50s now.

I'm not so sure I'm even at halftime.

Wow.

I love that mindset.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I think you have to, you have, you have to have something to look forward to.

So, you know, I mentioned I look forward to beating my wife on the tennis court, but I also look forward to playing tennis when I'm 100.

I love it, man.

The fact you're playing at 50 is already impressive.

So

keep it on, man.

Thanks for coming on.

Hey, hey, thanks for hanging today.

Absolutely.

We'll link everything below, guys.

Check out the protein chips, and I'll see you guys next time.

Be super.