Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Veterans Business Radio, brought to you by ATL vets, providing the tools and support that help veteran owned businesses thrive. For more information, go to ATLvets.org. Now here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here another episode of Veterans Business Radio. And this is going to be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor, ATL vets, inspiring veterans to build their foundation of success and empowering them to become the backbone of society after the uniform. For more information, go to ATLvets.org. Today on the show, we have the CEO with Wild Bill’s craft Beverage Company. Michael Quilty. Welcome.

Michael Quilty: Thank you. It’s very nice to be on the show. Thank you for having me.

Lee Kantor: Well, I’m excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us about your company. How are you serving folks?

Michael Quilty: Well, we’re, uh, we’re serving folks in experience and craft soda. So it’s a company that we bought in 2018 solely for the purpose of creating jobs for veterans. And, uh, started out with hiring a bunch of Marines and then eventually some Navy folks, Army and Air Force. And we have, uh, we don’t have Space Force yet, but we have Marines and sailors, airmen all around the country working at our company. We, we travel last year, we did over 500 fairs, festivals, comic-cons anime conventions, and we travel around with mobile wild West saloons that we sell stainless steel, collectible and commemorative mugs, and you get unlimited soda. You bring the mug to another event and pay $10 and get refills. And it’s a company that’s been around. I know it sounds kind of strange. We’ve been around for 24.5 years doing this, and we’re in 30 states with 20 franchisees right now.

Lee Kantor: So what kind of was the vision when it started?

Michael Quilty: So I was actually at a I was at a retreat, this Boulder Crest facility in, in Virginia. And I met a company of Marines who had recently returned from Afghanistan. And I had sold my company years earlier, was kind of quasi retired and looking to help veterans. And at that event, realizing that here are some folks who are real, you know, American heroes, wonderful folks who either had not really good jobs or were unemployed. The idea of, well, I’m going to actually start a company and hire these people. I had been an entrepreneur and started several companies over my career. My wife said, please don’t start a company. Why don’t you get involved in a franchise or buy a company? And so we initially were franchisees of Wild Bill’s opened several markets and then and then later acquired the company. And we’ve just been growing ever since.

Lee Kantor: Now, what was Wild Bill’s kind of origin story?

Michael Quilty: So it started in 2002, regional, seasonal, kind of in the northeast, but a really interesting model which was memorializing these fairs, festivals, events. Think, you know, we do the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, we do the Ohio State Fair, we do San Diego Comic-Con, and the company would get the rights to the Drinkware and put, you know, wonderful commemorative logos on these beautiful stainless steel tumblers. And then you get, uh, you know, unlimited refills of old fashioned craft soda. Um, so it was a neat kind of a neat little business, very operationally intensive, which was great for, you know, kind of what we envisioned with the, the military folks we were working with. Um, it was run very kind of seasonally and very regionally. And it was a company that we could just, you know, expand. So and that’s, that’s what we’ve done over the years. We opened up in Tampa and then in Chicago and then in, um, and then in, um, San Diego. And we’ve just been growing ever since.

Lee Kantor: Now when somebody becomes a franchisee, are they. Is there a brick and mortar kind of version of this, or is it all mobile? Like they just show up and they just deploy out to wherever they have to go, wherever the event is.

Michael Quilty: Exactly. Right. So one of the, one of the things that’s pretty, pretty good about the company is that it’s mobile. So, uh, you know, no fixed location, no, um, kind of no rent. Um, we, you know, we go to where the customers are. So, um, you know, for us to show up, there’s, you know, usually thousands of, of kind of paying customers. Um, and when we’re open, there’s, you know, I know, uh, you know, having been in a business with a fixed location before, sometimes you’re in the in the store kind of waiting for someone to walk through the door. We don’t have that at all. But you know, when we, when we go to I was at the, you know, the Gettysburg motorcycle rally, the second you open up, the crowds are there.

Lee Kantor: And then so is there. I don’t know how beverages work at these kind of festivals. Is there like kind of exclusivity? Do they say, okay, there can only be X number of beverage, um, things in an event or it’s like if you pay, then you can show up.

Michael Quilty: Yeah, it’s more if you can, if you pay, you can sell. We do position ourselves differently, which is, um, you know, we’re selling a more expensive commemorative collectible mug. We’re not at the price point of a single serve. Um, certainly, you know, events that are out in fairs and festivals outdoors are usually pretty easy. Over the last nine years we’ve, we’ve opened up over 100 now convention centers. And in the convention centers, sometimes we we have to collaborate with Coke or Pepsi because they might have a, you know, a contract in the venue. So we do, uh, you know, buyouts. Sometimes we have to pour some of their flavors. But, um, for the most part, if it’s a show, we want to, you know, if it’s a show that we think is good, we work really hard to get in.

Lee Kantor: And then are you as the franchisor, helping, you know, get those deals for the franchisee and the local market? Or is that part of the responsibility the franchisee is to find those events?

Michael Quilty: Well, it’s kind of a it’s a partnership model. So, um, the, the piece, because we have these nine years of doing these events and all the data, we do a pretty good job of prospecting. And then we do help like one of our, um, this year we started a new role called the franchise Success Manager. And that person’s job is specifically to help on the revenue generating side, which is applying to events. Um, you know, how to do the outreach. You’re talking to an event promoter sometimes a venue like this weekend, we were in the Javits Center in New York City. You know, that involves working with the venue, working with the event promoter. And a lot of times there’s concessions companies. So all that stuff that we have to, you know, train and teach and help the franchisees, particularly in the first year. And then, you know, usually by year two, they’re, you know, comfortable and competent and can kind of leverage those relationships and open more venues, you know, get into more events. Um, I will say that because we’re national and we’ve done, you know, operated in 30 states, a lot of the event promoters and concessions companies are also national companies. So we have the advantage of, you know, they just even if we’re opening a new market, we just had a West Point graduate join us in Salt Lake City. And, um, you know, we had relationships to bring to bear. So for his first couple of meetings were with people that we already knew from working with in other markets. So, um, so it’s, it’s a, you know, corporate help and then, you know, being an entrepreneur, getting up to speed and building those relationships locally as well.

Lee Kantor: Now in a given year, how, how many events are there for a franchisee?

Michael Quilty: Well, it, it totally, it totally depends on how, how many events they want to do. And we have, uh, you know, franchisees on the, on the lower end and franchisees on the higher end. But the way to think about it is, um, it’s almost always weekends. There’s, you know, the 52 weekends a year. Um, many of them are holidays. So those are ones you don’t do. And then most of our franchisees, except for our franchisees in Southern California, everyone else is kind of seasonal. So, you know, in Arizona, you got you got, you know, 6 to 8 weekends where it’s too hot. And then the northeast, you got, you know, 8 to 10 weekends that are too cold. So, um, it’s really about, um, you know, those, those really great weekends in the summer and fall, um, you know, maximizing, you know, putting your stand. And most of our franchisees have more than, more than one stand. Um, and several of them have four. That’s kind of the upper limit right now, but, um, you know, you want to get your, your stands out doing great events during the show season. Um, but it is, um, you know, it’s seasonal for everybody. So, um, you know, you’re not working all year round and, and of course, it’s, it’s weekend work. So you got, you got to like doing that and at least not mind working on weekends.

Lee Kantor: Right. Yeah. That’s built in. Like you wouldn’t even consider it if that was. No. Right.

Michael Quilty: No.

Lee Kantor: Now is um, like what’s kind of an event, like a, like, what is your profile of? Okay, this is a wild bill event that we like to go to like what’s like the number of people I know outside makes more sense, but is it a X number of people? Make it a it’s worth my time to go. Or is this like, can you go to a farmer’s market?

Michael Quilty: Yeah, it’s a, it’s a combination of the number of attendees and the capture rate and the capture rate really changes by genre. So I’ll, I’ll go through examples like really, really good genres for us, uh, Comic-Con. And if you haven’t been, it’s worth going to see that’s, that’s like our number one anime. So we were just at anime NYC, uh, this past weekend. Anime is a great one. Uh, Renaissance fairs, steampunk festivals, state fairs, county fairs, motorcycle rallies, car shows, those are kind of examples of really, really good, uh, good genres for us. So, um, you know, in every market we’re in, we’re, we’re trying to do the state fair and at least we’re doing the county fairs. Almost all of our franchisees have a motorcycle rally or two, and they’re they’re usually really good. Um, and, uh, you know, the comic con anime. Oh, gaming is the other one I mentioned. So our largest show is up in Boston. It’s called, uh, Pax East. Um, but there’s gaming conventions almost everywhere. Um, we also do tattoo conventions and we have franchisees who do knife and gun shows, uh, which can do good. And then, uh, recently, this year was our first year of really hitting the airshow circuit. So, uh, we do the Miramar Air show. I think this year we’ll do 12 air shows. Um, and those are, you know, those are really, they draw a big crowd and, and, um, you know, the, our military mission fits really well. A lot of these air shows are on military bases. So, um, that’s been a great genre for us over the last couple of years and really expanded it this year.

Lee Kantor: So they’re not all outside. Some of them are inside.

Michael Quilty: Yep, yep. So we have about north of 100 convention centers that we operate in. So from New Orleans to Chicago to San Diego, New York City, um, uh, down in Dallas. Um, and, uh, you know, the benefit of these, these, um, the indoor ones tend to be larger. They have kind of bigger crowds. But the best part for us is, you know, you’re never getting canceled because of the rain. So we have had, um, you know, it just happens where you have a really great festival. We’ve done it every, every year for many years. It’s outdoors and then it rains. So and of course, that impacts, you know, impacts sales. So, uh, to the extent that we can get in a venue and they have good, good, um, good shows. We love being indoors.

Lee Kantor: And then I noticed there weren’t like kind of like Lollapalooza in Chicago. That’s not appropriate for this or you don’t do music events.

Michael Quilty: Oh, interesting. So we, we, um, you know, we’ve been at this for a long time doing music festivals. Um, any event that’s really, really heavy alcohol, you know, a lot of times is challenging. Um, for that reason we have done our sweet spot are these Christian music festivals where it’s like not a drinking scene. Um, so, you know, we’ll, we’ll work with promoters who have these, um, have those festivals, some of the kind of more alcohol focused ones, you know, they can be okay, but we have to be really careful. And so, you know, particularly any event, that’s a first year event where, um, you know, we, we try to negotiate a very low fee. We don’t do any sponsorship, we really test it out before. And you certainly only want to bring one stand in the first year until you really know what you’re doing.

Lee Kantor: Sure. And, um, when you decided to franchise, was that in uh, to enable the veteran to kind of have that sense of ownership that it’s their show. It was that kind of at the heart of it.

Michael Quilty: Oh, it also so interesting story at times around Covid. So when we, when we initially bought the company, the model was we hired the veterans, they became event staff, then event manager, then general managers. And so, uh, going into Covid, we were doing most of the events corporately. When we bought the company, there were six original franchisees, but it kind of wasn’t the focus, um, coming out of Covid. And we did, thankfully, everybody, you know, all of our franchisees made it through Covid. Everyone, the whole team made it through Covid. You know, our revenue went to zero. So it was, you know, it was pretty much Armageddon. Um, but when we came out of Covid, we said to our, uh, general managers, hey, you know, let’s, let’s take this opportunity to kind of reimagine the company. Uh, one is you can be a general manager. Uh, second is you could be a franchisee. And all of them opted to be become franchisees. So, um, you know, that was, that was a, and it was for the, for exactly the reason you mentioned like the being their own boss, um, having the control, um, we had to do a lot of training on QuickBooks and finance and, you know, um, a little more, there were some services that we had corporately provided really on the finance, um, that we had to kind of get them up to speed on, but, um, you know, so far they’ve all, you know, all loved being, uh, their own small business owner and, um, and growing. It’s been great.

Lee Kantor: What now? Why did you, were you, was there any decision around should I franchise versus license and that way I don’t have kind of the legal headache that franchising offers.

Michael Quilty: Yeah. You know, the, um, so when we, when we bought the company, there were some licensees and franchisees and the, the, the and particularly in a lot in several states, they’re like whether you’re, if you have a license deal, it’s really operate, you’re operating as a franchise without a franchise agreement. So we worked really hard quickly to convert them. That’s kind of the gold standard on, on kind of how you set up these relationships. And it’s interesting. It’s, it’s really to protect the franchisee. So they have many more rights as a franchisee than as a licensee. And there’s just a lot of like, if you go to the bank, uh, you know, if you go to the bank, they understand the bank understands, uh, franchising. If you go to, uh, sell your business, um, buyers and, and, you know, the SBA for loans, they all recognize and understand franchising. So we, and that’s kind of what everyone, you know, that was the, the kind of the, the direction that we went. And, uh, you know, we’re up to 20 now and, you know, adding, uh, you know, goal is to add add ten more next year.

Lee Kantor: So, um, is there a story you can share maybe with a veteran that kind of, um. Illustrates the impact it can make on their life and their family and their community’s life. Is there a kind of a success story of a happy, um, uh, franchisee that’s kind of making an impact that you’re proud of that, that kind of validates your, your thinking in the mission.

Michael Quilty: Yeah, I’m proud of, you know, of all of them, I would say I’m, I’m, uh, you know, not to have favorites, but, um, I’m probably most proud of, uh, our franchisee out in San Diego. He was our general manager out there and also served, ran our operations as an employee. And when we, uh, decided to, um, to move to a franchise model, he actually opted not to accept. He at the time, he’s like, I don’t know. You know, it’s it’s a little much. He actually left the company for two years and got like a regular job at a kind of a corporate job at a regular company. And then, uh, you know, kind of over the time of being outside of the company came back and said, you know what? I made a big mistake. Like I didn’t realize the, I didn’t realize the opportunity here. I didn’t understand the franchise, you know, and his friends had all, um, and fellow coworkers here at Wild Bill’s did become franchises, franchisees. So, um, you know, he came back and said, I, I, I made a mistake. I really want to do this. And, um, and for him, it was a big piece was bringing his family into the company. So his wife works in his franchise, his daughter works in his, in the franchise. And, um, you know, he’s going to be able to, you know, he, he’s been very, very successful and, uh, you know, growing the business really, you know, really well. And, um, and I guess, you know, having the, having an opportunity, not quite understanding it going out into the, we’ll say the real world of a corporation and then realizing kind of the family and the, all the support he had here, having him come back and be successful is like something to be really proud of.

Lee Kantor: And is there any advice you can give the veteran out there that’s listening, that may be kind of having have that same mindset of, you know, look, I like showing up, getting paid, you know, being your own boss has some trade offs. But and a franchise, like you said, is kind of a, a way to do this in a relatively safe, managed way with a lot of structure and proven processes. Can you can you share some advice about why veteran should consider at least franchising as a path forward?

Michael Quilty: Um, the it’s all the, you know, all the reasons that we know with, um, with, you know, veterans being leaders with integrity and knowing how to manage people and taking responsibility. Um, the franchising by nature is very training heavy. It’s kind of, um, you know, it’s kind of following a playbook and it’s execution oriented. So, so most of the, you know, most of the veterans I know, and certainly the ones we’ve hired are all kind of a natural fit. Now what I would say is, um, you have to be, you know, what, what’s distinguished our veterans over, you know, folks who either don’t do this or, you know, you hear of people doing franchising somewhere else and not succeeding. You do have to want you do have to be a real collaborator. And the way to think about it is, you know, we have we have so many resources and so many training aids. And we have people in our, you know, we have a finance department, we have a sales, we have we have all these resources for folks, but we’re really looking for the person who’s going to take advantage of that and actually really collaborate with us. Um, also, every small business, you’re a salesman or salesman or woman and it’s a very, um, you know, you have to be kind of people forward.

Michael Quilty: You’re out talking to promoters, you’re out talking to, to the concessions companies. So you have to be willing to collaborate. You have to be a people person. And you do have to be like, you know, every small business is also it’s all around individual customers and you have to kind of enjoy being, I would say all of our franchisees just actually enjoy going out to the events. They enjoy being with customers and, and they love the event. So, um, you know, most franchisees have their already set up to be successful, but they have to want to kind of really want to play in the system. You can be an introvert, but still have a sales orientation because we have, we have several of them. Um, and you got to like the actual, I do think, I do believe you have to like, you know, I wouldn’t be a good Crumbl cookie franchisee and I wouldn’t be a good, you know, duct cleaning franchisee. Like there’s, there’s, there’s millions of franchises, but it’s, you know, the common with us is that people really like, you know, going to the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, going to San Diego Comic-Con this weekend. You know, it’s kind of, we really enjoyed what we do. And we try to find people that feel the same, you know?

Lee Kantor: Right. And if they don’t like it, then you’re kind of everything’s a struggle and it shouldn’t be a struggle. Like this should all be aligned with your values and your interests.

Michael Quilty: Exactly, exactly. And the good news is, you know, we, we always bring folks out to events and they get to see it firsthand. And then we have, um, you know, to have them talk to a lot of franchisees and really make sure they know what they’re getting into.

Lee Kantor: Right. And I mean, it seems like it’s such a fun and rewarding, uh, you know, way to spend your weekend is, you know, because people aren’t leaving with their mug of wild Bill craft beverage mad, you know. Everybody’s happy.

Michael Quilty: Exactly. And the best part is, um, seeing. So I was just at this show in New York City this weekend, and, you know, 5 to 10% of the people were returning with other mugs from other events. Uh, one was a gentleman came with a mug from Rose city Comic-Con in Oregon. And, and he came up to the stand, uh, paid his $10, got his free refills. But just saying to him, that’s a really cool mug that he got, you know, 11 years ago and him telling the story of that mug and that day in Rose City Comic Con like it is, it’s you really are kind of memorializing a memory and, uh, and the old fashioned, there is something to, you know, the smell and taste of some old fashioned craft soda. It almost most people say it reminds me of my grandfather. Like that’s the common. I remember my grandfather and drinking soda like this. And I remember buying this mug with my family at this, you know, at this wonderful event. So it’s, it’s very cool. It’s about making memories.

Lee Kantor: And it’s wholesome. It’s like there’s, it’s, it’s only good. Like there’s no kind of negative that comes along with this.

Michael Quilty: Well, a little bit of it is pure cane sugar, but there’s a lot of it’s a lot of sugar and a lot of calories. But everyone’s, you know, as our customers say, they’re indulging and it’s a special, it’s a special treat.

Lee Kantor: Right? And that’s the thing you’re bringing a smile to their face. I mean, that’s the thing. It’s the impact is real.

Michael Quilty: Exactly.

Lee Kantor: Now, if somebody wants to learn more as a potential franchisee or just check you out at one of these events, what’s the website? What’s the best way to connect and join the community?

Michael Quilty: Well, we’re at drinkwildbills.com and, um, and we’re also of course on, on social media, we, we post, uh, uh, at our events every, every weekend. Um, so there’s, there’s lots to see and we have, um, you know, we had, we were on Fox and friends, we’ve been in the military times. All the articles about the company are on the website, uh, and about our, our veteran mission.

Lee Kantor: Yeah. It’s, uh, what a, what a great gift. You’re giving these veterans a path forward in a way that just bringing smiles to people’s faces that must feel good for you.

Michael Quilty: Yeah. And it’s, it’s really enjoyable working with other veterans in a company with a kind of, with a focus on veterans. So, um, it’s, it’s a lot of fun every day.

Lee Kantor: Yeah. Well, Michael, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Michael Quilty: Thank you so much.

Lee Kantor: All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on Veterans Business Radio.