00:00.00 vigorbranding Everyone today I am joined by Sam Sanovich you might know him as Chicago sam he is the senior vice president of franchise leadership of a newer concept called big chicken and we're going to talk all about chicken today. We're gonna have a lot of talks about the industry because Sam is. Um, I would say beyond veteran he's an icon so ah Sam say hello and why don't you give a little bit of backstory for those who don't know. 00:24.20 Sam Well thanks Joseph for having me today on your show I am super excited to be with you talk big chicken talk about the background. Let's talk about the industry. There's so much great stuff going on. Um I wish I could say we were in the post covid era but we're still dealing with it across the country. 00:38.70 vigorbranding Case. 00:42.46 Sam But we're we're learning how to adapt to the new norms and continue to push forward. So I'm super excited to be here with you today and thanks for having me a little bit about my background I've been in the industry north of twenty plus years. Um, a johnson of wales graduate out of the providence rhode island campus and upon graduation left and worked for Marriott which at that point in time was my dream job and had the opportunity to be within Marriott open hotels do some exciting projects with Marriott. And because of networking and and a lot of the foundation that I learned over the years I was on some boards early in my career and had great mentors and people who really looked out for me and. Ah, created a situation where I got to be an early Ceo of a convention visitor bureau in the state of Illinois where I represented 4 counties and 33 communities to do their destination tours of marketing from there I got recruited into the national restaurant association educational foundation. And the national restaurant association itself. Um, prior to leaving the association I was head of product partnerships and strategic alliances for the association where I had a unique position to help the form the and Nra's fast casual and pizzeria councils create the tech tour. Do some really unique things that combined my experience in industry my passion for hospitality and then because I was blessed so much in my career at the association to really be able to leverage and give back and create programming to help others. With that I met some again. Great people some great mentors and had and had the opportunity with Don Fox to join the firehouse subs brand um as an area developer in a franchisee here in Chicago and got to grow with the brand for 6 years and one day got a call from a longtime friend who was interviewing for the Ceo O role of beer big chicken and beer park and we were talking and saw the opportunity at hand and said you know we've always wanted to work together and. Said if you know there's a role in an opportunity I'd I'd love to do it. You know, continue that passion because this is a relationship industry. Ah the hospitality industry is and he said let's do it and he got the role and I was his first hire and for the last seven months we 03:19.98 Sam We we all know that this industry is a marathon and not a sprint but we came out of the blocks and we've been sprinting for the last seven months and working with our partner shaquiel and and the great team at big chicken to help develop and grow the brand. So it's ah. 03:23.58 vigorbranding A. 03:36.34 Sam The 20 years seems like a flash and it's been a great ride and I've met thousands of great people and and the whole Chicago Sam Thing came about with a kind of a funny story because as the internet was emerging. You know everybody was looking for that cool Twitter handle and when I was at the association I always talk about Chicago. So people just coined me Chicago sand because I was the unofficial brand ambassador for the great city of Chicago and it just stuck and I rolled with it and I love my city. Although at the time of recording. Um. Here in Ja