819: Clay Dover President, CEO, taco maker at Velvet Taco

With excitement, allow me to introduce to you today's guest: CEO, President, and taco maker at Velvet Taco, Clay Dover.

Joining Velvet Taco as president in early 2017 Clay Dover has helped scale the brand from four restaurants to 29 locations by the time of this episode aired. Graduate of Brigham Young University where he studied Sales and Marketing, Dover got straight to work leveraging his degree in Chili's Corporate Offices. He'd continue to focus on marketing working with Houlihans, and Apex Restaurant Group before cutting his teeth as CEO while with Metromedia Restaurant Group. After 10 months of CEO, he put his marketing hat back on and went to work with Raising Canes then Pei Wei as Chief Marketing/President.

Check out episode 690 with Chris Schultz as mentioned in today's episode.

Check out this RUNetwork workshop with Chris Schultz about knowing when it's time to scale!

Show notes…

Calls to ACTION!!!

• Join Restaurant Unstoppable Network and get your first 30 days on me!  Connect with my past guest and a community of superfans.
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• Join the email list! (Scroll Down to get the Vendor List!)

Favorite success quote or mantra:

• "The harder I work, the luckier I get."

In today's episode with Clay Dover we will discuss:

• Working for Chili's when it was at its height
• Heading up a marketing campaign with Chili's
• The importance of ops feedback
• P and L's
• "Volunteer for everything."
• Franchising models
• Sharing the numbers with your team
• Growing and scaling during 2020-2021

Today's sponsor:

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7shifts is a modern labor management platform, designed by restaurateurs, for restaurateurs. Effectively labor management is more important than ever to ensure profitability and restaurant success. Trusted by over 400,000 restaurant professionals, 7shifts gives you the tools you need to streamline labor operations, communicate with your team, and retain your talent. Best of all 7shifts integrates with the POS and Payroll systems you already use and trust (like Toast!) turning labor into a competitive advantage for your business. Restaurant Unstoppable members get 3 months, absolutely free.

PlateIQ- the leading AP automation platform in the hospitality industry. Since 2014, Plate IQ has been saving time and money for companies like Cava, Tender Greens, and more. Just upload your invoices into Plate IQ and our proprietary technology will code each line item to your chart of accounts — automatically. For Bill Pay, virtual cards, and end-to-end invoice automation, head to plateiq.com.

Knowledge bombs

1. Which "it factor" habit, trait, or characteristic you believe most contributes to your success?
   • Hard work
2. What is your biggest weakness?
   • Hard work
3. What's one question you ask or thing you look for during an interview?
   • Desire
4. What's a current challenge? How are you dealing with it?
   • People AND purchasing
5. Share one code of conduct or behavior you teach your team.
   • Be relentless
6. What is one uncommon standard of service you teach your staff?
   • Kick ass and take names. We pride ourselves on winning.
7. What's one book we must read to become a better person or restaurant owner?
   •  Oh, The Places You'll Go!
   • GET THIS BOOK FOR FREE AT AUDIBLE.COM 
8. What's one thing you feel restaurateurs don't know well enough or do often enough?
   • Visit the restaurants, work a shift, talk to customers
9. Name one service you've hired
   • Consolidated Concepts
10. What's one piece of technology you've adopted within your restaurant walls and how has it influence operations?
    • KDS with Toast
11. If you got the news that you'd be leaving this world tomorrow and all memories of you, your work, and your restaurants would be lost with your departure with the exception of 3 pieces of wisdom you could leave behind for the good of humanity, what would they be?
    • Being a father and a husband is the most important
    • Creating a phenomenal company that empowers others
    • Creating companies that improve the community

Contact info:

Velvet Taco website

Instagram: @velvettaco

Thanks for listening!

Thanks so much for joining today! Have some feedback you’d like to share? Leave a note in the comment section below!

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Huge thanks to Clay Dover for joining me for another awesome episode. Until next time!

 

Restaurant Unstoppable is a free podcast. One of the ways I'm able to make it free is by earning a commission when sharing certain products with you. I've made it a core value to only share tools, resources, and services my guest mentors have recommend, first. If you're finding value in my podcast, please use my links!