prided myself that, that,

you know, I build really, you know, strong teams and I know that, that I am not, you know, I know my deficiencies and I, I, I like to, you know, surround myself with, with strong leaders that, that only make, you know, the organization stronger and then that fill my deficiencies.

And so I really do thrive with healthy debate.

And, you know, knowing that, you know, in those, you know, senior leadership teams, you know, we're going to have healthy debate, you know, and it's team together, team apart, right? When those, you know, when those doors are open, those proverbial doors that, you know, we do need to have alignment, but it is important to have those debates and to have those conversations.

And, you know, when we do have a project, you know, we need to know, okay, well, What do we have to pull back on? How are we going to budget this item? Where are those problems going to occur throughout the particular new initiative that might be out there? And so I do know that having a team and really being able to lean in on that team is so important these days.

And I think admitting that, I am a marketer at heart.

I knew that having a successful and a great CFO standing side by side with me was the first position that I hired coming in this organization because that's a person within an organization that when you've got an idea generator, you need to have someone that's going to pull you back a little bit.

So talk to me a little bit about the culture at SNOOZE and what really excites you about it and how you think it's going to push you forward.

How are things going now at the chain? yeah

i mean it's it's in better shape um we inherited a mess uh and certainly we had to kind of take it down to the studs in terms of you know all those things that i've talked about you know with you today is you know even in a drive-through there's a degree of hospitality and and so that that guest experience really wasn't working out too well so you know we we put us some new uh team members that are you know really driving the brand i've got an amazing leader in Amanda Hyde, who, you know, from an operations standpoint, you know, she, she leads with, with tough love, right? She, there's, you know, you've got to put your arms around people sometimes and, and, and, and really build them up.

But at the same time, you've got to hold people accountable to, you know, the expectations that we have.

And it's a, you know, that's a, fierce fierce category to be in and you know everyone from you know from mcdonald's to white castle to you know to to locals that are in the marketplace it's tough so we we concentrated on the basics you know you know getting that you know about 83 through the drive-through so um you know anyone can say oh well let's focus on the drive-through so we really have tried to make that the best experience possible investing a little bit kind of those digital menu boards and getting that experience a little better to help, quite frankly, not only the guests that are coming to those drive-thrus, but our team members that, you know, have better headsets, have better ways to get those systems in, get that food out hot and fresh.

And so, you know, how to concentrate on those elements.

But at the same time, couldn't fix everything at once, right? I mean, there's, you know, you can see 20 things that need to be addressed, but there's only a few that you really can focus on.

So over the past two years, you know, we've really, you know, focused on on the basics and now we're evolving in in terms of a little bit more innovation getting into the fun nature that you know that crystal has been afforded i mean it's a funky brand it's been around 90 i think it celebrates its 94th birthday next month um and so it's it's had some fun in its history and i think it got away from that that it was just very transactional it got full of itself.

And what are you seeing from the U S consumer across your brands, uh, and has this year and has anything surprised you? I mean, I