Baby Got Backstory

Today’s story features the husband and wife team behind Bonanno Concepts, Frank and Jacqueline Bonanno.

Frank and Jaqueline Bonanno have built a restaurant group in Denver on the values of Pride, Family, and Excellence. If you talk to any of their hundreds of employees they’ll all tell you the exact same thing. Not only with they tell you this but they believe it with all their hearts. They believe they are family. They have tremendous pride in what they do and know that the product they are providing is excellent.  It is clear that these values permeate their business and their culture because this is how they view food and it’s place in our lives.

Frank and Jacqueline Bonanno fell in love over after-shift drinks and romantic conversations centered around deeply flavorful food, nuanced service, and the business of restaurant excellence. In their twenty odd years as a couple, Bonanno Concepts built nine restaurants, two bars, a pie shop and a 16-venue marketplace.

Eighteen of their executive chefs and managers used their experiences with the Bonannos to springboard restaurants of their own, and in a very real sense, the Bonannos have shaped and elevated the culinary landscape in Colorado.

We conducted this interview, sitting in the wine room of their very first restaurant – Mizuna.

In this episode we talked about:

• The history of Mizuna; what Frank was doing prior to being in the restaurant business and what steps led him into owning not only Mizuna, but many other businesses.

Quotes:

[12:31] “We didn’t tell my father I was cooking for about a year and a half until after I decided I really was just going to do this seriously because he wanted me to get into real estate or finance or something, something different.”

[20:11] “It’s more of if you learn the proper way to do something and learn it really well, you’ll be good at it the rest of your life, you’ll be well rounded.”

[23:53] “[Frank] I think that it is just very difficult to find the quality of person who wants to step back and learn and grow in a position because you can go make 50 cents more an hour tomorrow working across the street and the attitude is I can, I just want money and so the passion is not there that was there 20 years ago. [Jacqueline] It’s hard to remain passionate when you have a huge college loan bill you’re trying to pay off.”

[39:13] “The thing to me about pizza is that it is the most artisanal food. It’s just like pasta. You start with flour, water and yeast. You cultivate it and then it goes into a really hot oven. You put fresh cheese that you’ve made. Fresh Mozzarella we’ve made on top of it with some really quality imported Italian tomatoes and fresh basil like I just, the simplicity of pizza is why I love it.”

[58:59] “The hard thing about being a chef is letting go for sure. Because if you’re trying to be too controlling, you’re probably not gonna be successful. If you can’t trust people to do it. And that would be the same thing in running any business.”

[70:48] “We were on a three-month waiting list from the day we opened.”

[97:35] “20-year-old self looking at me now, would probably say, I can’t believe what you’ve accomplished. That would be it, probably. I never thought you’d be here.”

Links Mentioned On Our Show:

“One of my favorite sayings about entrepreneurship is: If you want to understand the entrepreneur, study the juvenile delinquent. The delinquent is saying with his actions, “This sucks. I’m going to do my own thing.” Since I had never wanted to be a businessman, I needed a few good reasons to be one. -Yvon Chouinard

In this episode you’ll hear a story of how a passion for snowboarding, photography, and entrepreneurship positioned Mike Arzt to travel the world, chase snow and become one of the most successful photographers in the snow industry.

The Japanese have a concept “eye-ki-guy”(Ikiagi) that means “a reason for being.” The word “ikigai” is usually used to indicate the source of value in one’s life or the things that make one’s life worthwhile.[1] The word translated to English roughly means “thing that you live for” or “the reason for which you wake up in the morning.”[2] Each individual’s ikigai is personal to them and specific to their lives, values and beliefs. It reflects the inner self of an individual and expresses that faithfully, while simultaneously creating a mental state in which the individual feels at ease…

If that’s not the definition of Mike Arzt, I don’t know what is…

Mike is generous, relaxed, and intense at the same time. He’s been through a lot going through many career journeys. He chases snow like he’s independently wealthy and works at his job like he doesn’t know where the next dollar or meal is coming from.

Mike is a personal dear friend in my life and I am proud to have him as a guest on the Baby Got Backstory.

In this episode we talked about:

• Mike’s Dad being an entrepreneur co-owning a private independent pharmacy in Connecticut, instilling some of the values he had on Mike at a young age.

Quotes:

[20:50] “I think this is that part of, you know, do you even call snowboarding a sport or I mean people are as passionate about hunting or are so many things right, that are hard to explain to other people how it drives you that much.”

[38:54] “That was one thing my parents did push me on. I think I was down in one last class and I heard a lot of like, could you please just get that diploma and be saying like hasn’t really gotten my way yet that I don’t have it.”

[45:39] “I love that there’s just certain people and random things that happen in life that completely change your course.”

[74:21] “I just did everything I could to hustle and try to make the commitment at that point that I wasn’t going to go chase an in house job again. I was going to try to do it all on my own.”

[77:33] “Hellbrook has never been about a place. It is about a feeling, a philosophy, a goal, a friendship, new friendships, passion, fear, excitement, new challenges, failures that result in a desire to do better, a dream. It is about life and what we want out of it. Hellbrook is different to everyone, but our goal is to create an environment that helps everyone find his or her own “Hellbrook”. If Hellbrook is the same experience each time you go there, we have failed. Hellbrook cannot be static. Hellbrook is about getting up earlier, hiking harder and faster to get their first. You could wait for someone else to come down to tell you it sucked, but you would never hit the major score. If you get up first, hike faster only to find out it’s not good, what should you do next time? Get up first, hike harder and drop in first. There are many people along the way that help you find Hellbrook. Some may play only a small part, but you would never find it on your own. Welcome to our Hellbrook.”

[100:22] “You’re surrounded by good people and people that believe in you and tenants that want it to work and you figure it out and a lot of people along the way teach you and you make mistakes and you just keep pushing through it. But sometimes if you don’t know how far in over your head you are, maybe got a better, better chance of getting back out.”

[108:31] “You know, it’s cool to have photos of the pyramids in Egypt or you know, other famous landmarks or beautiful scenes but, what really stands out is it’s the shots of the people and some of the other stuff that was happening that are those super super memories.”

Links Mentioned On Our Show:

• The Public Works

Barney oversees all aspects of K-Swiss, the global sneaker brand, having taken over as President at the beginning of 2016 with a goal to bring the 50 year old brand back to prominence and profitability. Barney has driven fast change both internally and externally, and created a breakthrough brand position around entrepreneurship and brand transparency. Barney has also been Vice President of Marketing for heritage boot brand Palladium, overseeing the brand’s global re-launch and all aspects of brand communication. Prior to Palladium Barney was based in Boston as Vice President of Marketing for PUMA North America during the brands explosive growth period. Now based in new offices in DTLA, Barney is originally from London, England and has been in the footwear industry for over 15 years.

In this episode we talked about:

• What sort of fashion Barney was into growing up when it came to clothes, shoes, and music.

Quotes:

[03:48] “I just love the fact that you’re actually sort of the chess player. You’re the one who’s sort of scheming and calculating and trying to read the market and put together the plan, and I like that.”

[17:29] “I could have told a great story about how we’re the number one best running shoes for marathons, but if that wasn’t what the market was buying, then I have a great story that’s irrelevant in terms of selling shoes.”

[22:50] “…look, product sales and marketing have to be aligned. In other words, if marketing creates an amazing campaign and gets a ton of eyeballs and then that consumer goes to the mall at the weekend, but there’s no case wishings in the stores, then that brand awareness cannot be converted to a sale.”

[23:09] “…you’ve got to be careful that you’re not, marketing isn’t generating demand. That can’t be fulfilled because sales, hasn’t been aligned on the plan.”

[25:38] “I mean, that’s probably one of the things about having an older brand is the good news is that people really like and trust in the longevity of a brand,  that the downside is, you’ve got this baggage because it’s hard to change the perception of that brand because that perception of the brand resides in somebody else’s mind, not in yours.”

[38:20] “I think these days branding is becoming much more important for companies. I just feel like we always pick our presidents or CEOs from the commercial side, either the CFO or the head of sales and brand is probably the most important thing now because, there’s parity in features and functions.”

[39:09] “I feel like branding has raised an importance. If you’re not a company that is solidifying what your brand stands for and building what your brand stands for and then communicating that, then you’re going to be in trouble.”

Links Mentioned On Our Show:

Gary Vee Dark Cloud Shoes

Clouds and Dirt Gary Vee shoes

88 Knit-Clouds and Dirt Shoes

CEOs Wear Sneakers Podcast

KSWISS

Puma

Palladium

Gary Vee (Vaynerchuck)

Maxine Clark is one of the true innovators in the retail industry. During her career, her ability to spot emerging retail and merchandising trends and her insight into the desires of the American consumer have generated growth for retail leaders, including department store, discount and specialty stores. In 1997, she founded Build-A-Bear Workshop®, a teddy-bear themed retail-entertainment experience. Today there are more than 400 Build-A-Bear Workshop stores worldwide.

Maxine Clark is the founder of Build-A-Bear Workshop & Chief Executive Officer of Clark-Fox Family Foundation. She’s made many impressions with her skills and abilities to have the vision of the consumer and her unique strategies when it comes to branding. While working her way up the chain in her career path, Maxine, at age 48, successfully managed to structure, build, and grow her billion-dollar company based on hugs and love…

In this episode we talked about:

• Maxine’s loss of “Teddy”, her teddy bear, that had left her devastated as a child. She shared many experiences and secrets with Teddy and losing him was a traumatic event for her.
  

Quotes:

[16:22] “The journey is far better than the destination.”

[17:03] “So I just really was able to know pretty firsthand what the customer was looking for. I had good instincts about that.”

[25:37] “You have to constantly be innovating and that’s what made retailing so successful.”

[26:37] “We do need to do a better job of connecting young people with talent and ideas to people who can execute it.”

[29:56] “Curiosity is really what made the world what it is today. Somebody thought there could be something better and they invented that better, and that’s what we’re all prospering from.”

[30:55] “If you don’t put your ideas out there, other people can’t add value to them. They also maybe can’t steal them, but more importantly they can’t add value to them…people can’t steal what’s in your heart.”

[55:49] “I look for the Bentley and then I figure out how to do it on a Ford-budget.”

Links Mentioned On Our Show:

Build-A-Bear

The Bear Necessities of Business

Delmar Divine

Clark-Fox Foundation

May Company

PayLess

Over the course of a decade, Luis Benitez has quietly emerged amongst a growing field of climbers as one of the more experienced, respected and busiest professional guides and leadership development consultants in the world. Throughout his career, Luis has summited the top of the famed “Seven Summits” a cumulative 32 times, including being a six-time summiteer of Mt. Everest.

Between managing expeditions on some of the most remote peaks in the world, while consulting with a deep and varied group of clientele, Benitez works to tie the lessons available from the outdoors and carry them back to the everyday challenges of life and business during his keynote presentations and seminars.

In this episode we talked about:

• What Luis’ current title Director of the Outdoor Recreation Industry Office for the State of Colorado means and the kind of difficulties he faces.

Quotes:

[13:58] “I remember dragging that magazine into my parents’ bedroom, pointing at Jim Whittaker saying, “This guy has what I have. This is exactly what I want to do. I want to be a mountain guide, I want to climb mount Everest.”

[26:12] “That expedition [Cho Oyu] really changed the trajectory of my life personally and professionally.”

[27:27] “These soldiers can’t follow us up the hill, so let’s leave for our summit push. Let’s get a move on. By the time we come down, the world is going to know…and I just never had such heavy feet moving up the hill.”

[38:56] “The director for ICT (International Communicator for Tibet) laughing, saying, “ok Luis pop quiz, when the Dali lama special envoy calls you and says that his holiness wants to meet you, what do you say?”

[40:55] “He [Dalai lama] said, “You know, sometimes you don’t get to choose your path, sometimes your path chooses you. And now it’s going to be up to you to decide how you want to show up.”

[51:52] “He’s [John Hickenlooper] one of the few people that if he said, “Jump off that ledge [or] walk through that window.”, I wouldn’t even think twice to follow him.”

[55:11] [Politics] “Now what I think what we’re going to see is a shift and understanding how cohesive social justice can and should be in relation to our natural resources and relation to our economy and industry and what we do and how we do it.”

[59:19] “Did you have fun? Was it hard? Was it Worth it?”

Links Mentioned On Our Show:

Luis Benitez

John Hickenlooper

Dalai Lama

Jim Whittaker

Outdoor Recreation Industry Office

Mount Rainier

Mount Everest

Seven Summits

About Luis moving on to his new role at VF Corp:

https://www.outsideonline.com/2391627/luis-benitez-outdoor-industry-colorado

https://www.denverpost.com/2019/03/06/luis-benitez-colorado-outdoors-vf-corp/