During our most recent episode of So You Want to Run a Restaurant, hosts Claudia Saric and Spencer Michiel welcomed Shawn Walchef. Shawn is the owner and operator of Cali BBQ, purveyor of the finest slow-smoked brisket and honey habanero wings in the San Diego metro area.
Shawn is also the mastermind behind Cali BBQ Media. Initially, Shawn launched his own media company to create visibility for his struggling restaurant. Today, he credits this strategy for his incredible success. In addition to its flagship location in Spring Valley, Cali BBQ also has highly trafficked stores in two spaces usually reserved for big chain restaurants – the popular San Diego Navy Exchange and Snapdragon Stadium, home of the San Diego State Aztecs.
Today, Cali BBQ’s online customer reviews rave about a restaurant with friendly service, incredible food, and a warm, welcoming vibe. But Shawn says the real reason Cali BBQ is blowing up is because he has learned the art of storytelling. Of course, learning new things isn’t always easy, and Shawn has been through his fair share of ups and downs. [For the whole roller coaster ride, check out the full episode]
Shawn launched his business in 2008, which history buffs will remember as the height of the Great Recession. To put it mildly, it was a tough time to start any new business, let alone a restaurant. “It wasn't barbecue when we started,” says Shawn “It was a breakfast concept. Then we added a sports bar and a dinner service. And the bottom line is, we struggled for the first five years.”
As Shawn points out, he and his business partner (they're best friends from childhood and both grew up in restaurants) had never actually run their own restaurant. So there was a lot of on-the-job learning. “We had to learn how to run a profitable restaurant, learn how to pay our bills, learn how to do marketing, learn how to do inventory, learn how to do menu costing – all of these things we didn't know,” Shawn recalls.
Lucky for us, Shawn now uses his experience, his media company, and his popular digital hospitality show Rising Tides to share everything he has learned on the way to his success. Here are a few valuable nuggets of wisdom.
“I thought if we took over a restaurant, did something cool, added some great food, and added some great service in a community that was underserved, people would flock to the business,” says Shawn. “That just wasn't the case.”
It turns out, there’s a lot more to success than just amazing food. The missing ingredient was effective marketing. Shawn figured out that the best way to source this ingredient was with a combination of technology, ingenuity, and his own personal story. So after five years of struggle, he pivoted to Cali BBQ and launched his own media company. It was a true inflection point for his business.
“We're a very tech-forward restaurant business,” says Shawn. “We lean heavily on storytelling and technology to connect with restaurant owners all over the globe.”
Social media is about seizing the incredible resources you have at your fingertips and using them to tell stories – the story of your restaurant, the story of your favorite dish, the story of your latest trip to the farmers market for fresh produce. But first, says Shawn, you have to get past your own preconceived notions about social media.
“I try to tell other restaurant owners to remove their feelings towards social media,” says Shawn. “We all have a subjective feeling when I say Facebook. Some people love Facebook. Some people hate Facebook.”
The same is true of Instagram, TikTok, and pretty much all of social media, says Shawn. “The platform doesn't matter,” he says. “It's just that's where the attention is.”
So once you're on social media, how do you get that attention? There’s a popular misconception that the objective is to go viral. That may be a way to grab a lot of attention for a short while. But it’s not necessarily the best way to keep that attention in the long run. Besides, you can’t plan a viral moment. It either happens or it doesn’t.
“But what you can do,” says Shawn, “is become a better storyteller online. And every restaurant owner that's listening to this, every single one of you – you have a story. You could not open up your restaurant if you didn't believe in what you were doing. You convinced your significant other, you convinced your family, you convinced your friends, you convinced investors, you convinced vendors, you convinced the people to work for you.”
In other words, you already know what the story is. You’ve been telling it to everybody in your personal life for as long as you can remember. It’s what got you to where you are today. That’s the personal story you need to channel on social media. Your authenticity will come through over time in a way that captures and keeps attention more than any one viral moment ever could.
So much of what makes Cali BBQ great happens in the kitchen and the dining room. But the camera that captures this greatness – that’s what has helped to make Cali BBQ a success. So whatever you’re thinking about doing to promote your restaurant, Shawn says it starts behind the lens of the camera.
“Video answers all of the questions,” he says. “All the platforms reward video, whether it's Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, or Instagram. Get comfortable sharing, in less than 60 seconds, your beliefs, your story of the day, or behind the scenes access.”
Whatever you choose to share, Shawn says that it ultimately comes down to “understanding that you have a medium machine in your pocket. You have the ability to connect.” Use that ability to its fullest potential.
You’re not producing an episode of The Bear. You’re just giving people a window into what you do. Don’t make a big deal out of it. Just start rolling.
“I'm not telling restaurant owners to become content creators,” says Shawn. “I'm telling them, ‘You already are a creator.’ Entrepreneurs are the original creators. Turn on the phone and just talk about the things that you do every single day.”
In fact, people tend to respond a lot more to that real glimpse behind the curtain than something that feels like a slick advertisement for your restaurant. “You don't need to over produce it. You don't need to edit it. You just need to share it. And if you share it and you share more every single day…then you can actually start growing.”
Let’s close with our favorite bit of wisdom from our chat with Shawn. He credits the Bulgarian grandfather who raised him for imparting the three key pillars he lives by:
We’re especially big fans of the third pillar. After all, we are in the business of helping. As Shawn points out, a big part of the social media game is storytelling; the other is tech. Let our in-house experts help you find the best tech to tell your story. Schedule your free, personalized consultation today.