Protein Bar & Kitchen:

Jeff Walter (00:05)

Hi, I’m Jeff Walter and welcome back to the training impact podcast. My guest today is Jimmy McPheeters. Jimmy is the vice president of development and franchising at the protein bar and kitchen. He has a deep passion and love for family, friends, sales, racing, skiing, food, and learning. that’s a lot of things to be passionate about, but I like them all. and so Jimmy, welcome to the program. so, so Jim, the first thing I,

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (00:26)

Yeah, thanks for having me.

 

Jeff Walter (00:30)

I’m always interested in it is I believe we’re all accidental tourists in this world. And so how did you end up as a vice president of development and franchising for the protein bar? Tell us about your path.

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (00:40)

Yeah. honestly, it comes down to knowing people and, and, know, being within the industry and always networking. I had a friend, at Fishman PR that was starting to work with protein bar and kitchen. And I happened to be leaving a position at that time. And he, he seemed to think that it was a good fit and introduced me to Jeff Drake. And after all, it was a great fit. Now we’re sitting here two years later and, we’ve got the whole franchise development program.

 

rolling and it’s been pretty exciting.

 

Jeff Walter (01:10)

And have you been in franchise space for a while and this was a natural thing to come over to or?

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (01:14)

Yeah.

 

Yeah, I’d spent the better part of about almost 10 years previous to that. I started with a company called Focus Brands, which is now GoTo Foods. I started with that group, sold all seven of their brands, did a franchise development there as a director of sales and then became a senior director of sales and managed a group of people that sold pretty much west of the Mississippi of all brands and had a wonderful

 

tenure there and ventured out and worked with some good friends in the industry at Wild Works and then went over to Topper’s Pizza in Wisconsin. And then that’s when things came to be with Protein Bar and Kitchen. You you kind of jumped around a little bit and was kind of getting my feel for what was a good fit as far as the brand. And I wanted to grow a brand from the groundwork. And, you know, this was exactly where I ended up in.

 

Jeff Walter (02:09)

Okay.

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (02:13)

and have had that opportunity now. been a lot of fun.

 

Jeff Walter (02:16)

Well, and that’s the reason, one of reasons I wanted to talk to you and have this conversation is I’m really focusing on how to scale without sacrificing and going from that founder that has that great concept that has got a couple of units up. And maybe you’ve got a few of those initial franchisees that are true believers because they know the founder to actually scaling, but maintaining the quality and doing it without sacrificing quality or that and getting into that business.

 

So that’s the primary thing I want to focus on. But before we get into that, interest in love of skiing and racing. What type of racing and what type of skiing?

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (02:53)

Yeah, all forms of racing, honestly. my family runs deep with dirt, small track racing, ⁓ Illinois, my, had a family member that ran a track in Jacksonville, Illinois for many years and ran with the world about laws with sprint cars. So that just, you know, when you’re born into that, the passions there and it runs deep and they always say it kind of gets into your blood, which is true. My kids run, what’s called quarter midgets, which is a small version of a sprint car.

 

Jeff Walter (02:59)

Uh-huh.

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (03:21)

They run for NASCAR youth series. Actually this evening we’ll be in Indianapolis at a banquet. My son got fifth in the nation. So it’s really exciting. We’ll be headed over there tonight and all three of my kids run. I have a five year old, a seven year old and a nine year old. My nine year old is the one that raced competitively this year. My daughter, which is seven, she started, she actually won a national race this year, but she didn’t complete the full season. So she didn’t do the national points, but it’s been a lot of fun. And

 

Jeff Walter (03:27)

congratulations. That’s awesome.

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (03:48)

You know, it is a huge passion of ours. we run pavement and dirt and, yeah, it’s good.

 

Jeff Walter (03:53)

Very cool. Well,

 

hey, we’re right down the road from Michigan International Speedway. So if you’re ever up that way, give me a ring. ⁓

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (03:57)

Yeah.

 

Yeah, I think there’s a big

 

national race at Kalamazoo. So it’s not super close to that, but we’ll be up in Michigan probably this year at some point.

 

Jeff Walter (04:05)

Yeah.

 

And then skiing downhill or water or.

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (04:10)

Both. grew up

 

water skiing and here in Illinois. And my passion took me to college. I was on the water ski team at Southern Illinois University and had a lot of fun with that. And then downhill skiing from the time I was probably in third or fourth grade. You know, didn’t miss a year of hitting the slopes, whether it was, you know, started off in Wisconsin doing some small stuff. But once my group of buddies got old enough, about 16, we started rolling out to Colorado every year, spring break.

 

Jeff Walter (04:21)

wow.

 

Yeah, that’s it.

 

That’s that’s so different. Yeah, I grew up East Coast and I know skiing in the Catskills and then you know and then headed up to Vermont and then I remember like first time I went to to Aspen. It was like, oh, this is completely different and it’s.

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (04:40)

happening. Yeah.

 

Yeah, yeah.

 

Yeah.

 

Yeah, I love it.

 

I take the kids up. know, we’re, me and the family will go up to Wisconsin this year, but we have been out to Colorado as a family and we’ll plan to do that probably next year as well. So always, always something we will have to do.

 

Jeff Walter (05:06)

Well, it’s cool. So I’ve got two adult daughters and we’re going out to Whistler right after the new years. And so it’ll be a bunch of fun. And, one of them is bringing her boyfriend around. yeah, we’ll see how that, we’ll how that goes. Um, but, uh, it should be, it should be a lot of fun. It should be a lot of I have not, I have not been there, so I’m looking forward to it. Uh, it should be a bunch of fun, but it’s really interesting, you know, as, as, uh, the kids have gotten older.

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (05:16)

Dallas.

 

you

 

yeah. I’ve always wanted to with, I haven’t been to Whistler yet.

 

Jeff Walter (05:36)

Yeah, went from, you know, them being like, wow, dad really knows what he’s doing. And as a father really being concerned about my kids going, you know, way too fast, you know, and then skiing too aggressively to, hey, dad, you’re getting, you know, a little older now, you know, you got to get kind of, they’re the ones kind of telling me it’s like, you know, you do really want to attack that black diamond with all the reckless abandonment.

 

doing it for like 45 years. So yeah, I kind of do. But it’s funny. It’s funny. Oh, yeah, I just I love skiing. I absolutely love the downhill. He said, and then Oh, and when I used to live out in Sacramento, I remember some but my buddies there, I never did this, but they would do what they call the California ski day. And they would go water skiing on the Sacramento River in the morning, and then head up to heavenly.

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (06:03)

It’s to stay off the… ⁓

 

Jeff Walter (06:29)

and, uh, and, and go snowsteering in the afternoon. And I was like, yeah, yeah, same here. Same here. You know, I was like, Hey, that sounds good. And then they, you know, then, uh, it never came to fruition, but I like, that’s really cool. So yeah, yeah, well, I’m in Michigan now, so that ain’t happening. You know, yeah, maybe, unless of course you slap on the water skis and go on the ice with us, you know, behind a snowmobile.

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (06:32)

something I’ve always wanted to do. Never done it. I’ve wanted…

 

Being an Illinois guy, that’s hard.

 

you

 

Okay.

 

Jeff Walter (06:59)

But anyway, let’s get back to protein bar and kitchen. So tell me about protein bar and kitchen. What’s the concept? What’s the focus? Where are you guys at? all that, know, help us, help us understand what type of brand this is, type of franchises.

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (07:11)

Yeah, I

 

mean, it’s a beautiful brand that brings better for you a category at a quick cat or quick service restaurant version. So we’ve been around for quite some time. We’ve been around since 2009. you know, we’re not brand new by no means, but we’re also not, you know, one of the brands from the seventies or eighties. But the brand was founded in downtown Chicago. And the idea was that you needed to have fast items. You you had lines out the door.

 

Jeff Walter (07:20)

Okay.

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (07:41)

You had a big urban market and we were right across from the Sears tower at that time, now Willis tower. And you know, you’d had to have a quick service time and you wanted to get out food. was something that someone could walk with and also, you know, have a quick lunch and be able to have that lunch and feel good about what they ate and not be miserable for that and why not. So the brand started with just protein shakes for the most part in the location. It’s about 1150 square foot.

 

Jeff Walter (08:06)

Okay.

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (08:10)

And after about a year, they realized, Hey, we need to add to this menu. It’s hard to pay rent with just blended drinks. Um, so they started doing quinoa bowls and salads, uh, base, you know, salad salads with quinoa base, uh, to add that protein. And it took off like rocket. Uh, there was a lot of interest in the brand. It grew fairly fast, but like every brand, there’s a little bit of growing pains about 2013. Uh, the brand got acquired by El Katterton and, uh,

 

Jeff Walter (08:38)

Mm-hmm.

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (08:40)

Once they got the money, they started getting some larger footprints and started making some choices from real estate perspective that probably weren’t best for the brand and not focusing on the menu and the customer. In 2016, that got turned around. A gentleman by the name of Jeff Drake came in and became the CEO. And what he wanted to focus on was the customer and that menu to make sure that it was bringing the brand forward.

 

in keeping it more up to date as the consumer is wanting the new products and better tasting. know, lot of people that want better for food are willing to sacrifice on taste. That’s something we didn’t want to do. You know, brand forward. We wanted it to be for everybody and separating the word everybody, meaning that anybody that wants to eat period wants to eat this food. It just so happens to be better for you. You know, we wanted to have that broad appeal. So he did that. He worked on it. He worked with a chef that, know,

 

Jeff Walter (09:21)

Right.

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (09:37)

brought our simple complexity, you know, from a brand perspective and still was able to keep that simple, simple operation model, but also make that food, you know, be more appealing to the broader group. you know, we had people that would come in and, and say a lot of the food was good, but it tastes the same across the menu. We diversified that made, made things, you know, taste different within the product lines and really from

 

that point on to about 2017, that was 2016, but 2018, 2019, the brand was in a better place than it’s ever been. And of course we all know what kind of happened there and being a brand that was predominantly downtown Chicago, you know, a big hit. hurt the brand significantly closed down about 90, 95 % of the entire brand. We had the one location open in the hospital at Northwestern that kind of kept things afloat in a very small team.

 

furloughed 95 % of the people within the company, but slowly 6, 12, 18 months later, we were starting to open locations. 21, 22 things started really bringing back to life. At that time in 2019, previous to all that happening, the vision of franchising was there. They just hadn’t quite got there. They were getting the FTB ready. They were getting ready to go basically 20 and that all got put on hold.

 

Jeff Walter (10:59)

Okay.

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (11:03)

put on hold. But 2023, that really started getting the ball rolling and they went ahead and opened the prototype in Northbrook, Illinois, which is exactly what we wanted to expand more of a subordinate style that has both, know, daytime population, but rooftops at the same time. And that store has been nothing but a success. You know, here that opened in June of 23, we’re sitting, you know, two and a half years later, almost, and it’s

 

Jeff Walter (11:15)

Uh-huh.

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (11:32)

You know, a great performing store within our system. And we modeled it as if a franchisee was taking over, was going to be opening that store. So when we did our opening, when we did our marketing throughout that first year, the way that we would do that is how we built that structure for any franchisee that’s going to be opening a new new store as well. So we’ve got a really great prototypical build out location and marketing operations model that can go forward.

 

with franchisees. And that’s our brand in a nutshell. we’re excited to be where we’re at right now. And we’ve got a lot of success rolling right now. So it’s fun to talk about.

 

Jeff Walter (12:08)

Yeah. So, so just, uh, make sure I, I understood. So, um, so the, the, uh, current CEO came in around, uh, 2016 at that time it was all corporate owned locations. Um, and it was, you know, it was take, you know, uh, it kind of hit a plateau, but then it started taking off again until COVID and then, you know, COVID did what COVID did.

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (12:18)

Mm-hmm.

 

Correct, yep.

 

You

 

Jeff Walter (12:34)

the shore

 

actually COVID didn’t do it. The shutdowns did what the shutdowns did. They shut things down. and, and, and so there’s a big contraction, but then coming out of it, was, was the plan prior to COVID to it, was it to go to, yeah, to go the franchising route. But then you got to put that on, on hold. And then you came out of COVID and like, okay, let’s go, let’s dust the plans off and, and, and open a model store and rock and roll. Is that

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (12:49)

Yeah, they were working on

 

Yeah, Jeff

 

and Jared Cohen, Jeff Drake and Jared Cohen had, and the team had really put together a great operations model and everything. Like I was saying that Northbrook store was really a, not just, like some places will open a prototype, but they did the prototype as an actual model that would be franchisable. Like everything they did is what a franchisee would do so that we could take down the notes and everything of that entire process. So we have a roadmap for anybody that’s going to be following us.

 

not just the build out. And that was really spectacular the way they did that. And that’s when I came into play. that June, I ended up coming in in September. They thought, hey, we’re ready to go. I’ve got a good sales background and know a lot of franchisees out there. So I got plug and played. I worked with the FTD to get it ready to go. And then we, you know, about…

 

beginning of 2024 is when we really launched the franchise program, but we did it from an organic perspective. We didn’t go out there and spend a ton of money. We more or less wanted to find some brand fans and some of the operators that I know in markets that are kind of surrounded the Chicago market, which is Indianapolis has been one of our big ones right now that we’re growing and, um, and kind of get a foothold on how we’re going to be doing this and not

 

go get over our skis, you know, not to go back to the skiing topic, but we didn’t want to get over our skis. We wanted to make sure that everything we’re doing is building a foundation for the future. you know, finding the right franchisee, finding the right development plan, finding right locations, all of that’s very particular right now because our success now is what, you know, really plans out our future for the brand as a whole.

 

Jeff Walter (14:41)

So, so bad. How many units do you have now and how many are corporate and how many are franchise?

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (14:43)

We have, you know,

 

we have 17 locations and two of them are franchised locations in the non-trad space. So that’s the other thing we didn’t really talk about, but the airport space has been very important for our growth as well. Just this past year, my CEO has deep ties into the non-trad world and he traveled a lot himself and the brand was kind of a fit for.

 

the non-trat space just because we’re so used to fast ticket orders, you know, in the downtown Chicago urban market, this brand really transcended really well into the airport space. So we’ve opened Salt Lake City, Boise, O’Hare, and LaGuardia on this last year and a half or so, and that’s been a huge success. And what’s great about that is the concessionaires that are within those airports have latched onto our brand and they like us so much that they want to put us in their other airports. So

 

Jeff Walter (15:18)

Right.

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (15:39)

really it’s not been much of a sales piece. It’s more of a, hey, we want to put you in our RFP and go out and go find those other airports to put us in.

 

Jeff Walter (15:48)

Yeah. Well, on a side note, was in New York at my daughter’s for Thanksgiving and flew in out of LaGuardia. And I saw you guys there. I saw the brand there and I’m like, hey, I know those guys. And I’ll be talking to Jimmy in a little bit. But delicious food. ⁓ and for folks that are not familiar, you said non-trad space.

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (16:00)

Yep.

 

yeah.

 

Yeah, so non-traditional

 

is what I’m talking about there. That’s typically college campuses, train stations, airports, military bases, things of that sort. know, the airport space has been predominantly where we’re going to, but we are right now, we’ve got a couple of deals that we’ve secured in some college campuses, one in DC that Compass is going to be doing for us. And then we’re looking at other medical centers that actually our franchisees are going to be jumping into in Indianapolis. And then

 

Traditional, you know, we’ve got like as I mentioned, we’ve got locations throughout Indianapolis, Nashville, Jacksonville, Florida, Boston coming soon. So a lot of excitement there around the franchise basis and the franchisees we’re looking for and I’m sure we’ll probably get into this, but this goes into the kind of the training piece. The franchisees we’re looking for are those who have somewhat been there, done it or at least shown the business acumen pieces that.

 

structurally fit with what we are doing. A little bit of development, little bit of management experience from a personnel. We’re wanting to find those people that really can coach and teach, not necessarily manage themselves. We do not look at our brand as an apps team model. No franchise should really be an apps team model because you got to be working on your business. I fully feel there’s a lot of people that are out there promoting the apps and team model, which

 

for me in the franchise space, especially in the restaurant space, there may be some absentee models out there. So I don’t wanna take that away from some of those folks out there and the service industries and whatnot. But in the food space, you gotta have your hand on that business at any time. And you’ve gotta make sure that you’re working on that business, not necessarily working the cash register or the line. So that’s kind of my two cents on that. But with our business,

 

It isn’t a restaurant that is not high complex. And when I say it’s not, it doesn’t have a lot of complexity to it is that we don’t have any open flame. We don’t have any gas, you know, stoves or anything of that sort. Um, everything’s run from blenders and, uh, turbo chef ovens that sit on top of the table top that’s run by electricity. And then we have some CVAP steam units that keep, you know, product to temperature. everything’s pre pre prepped for the line so that

 

Jeff Walter (18:09)

you

 

Mm-hmm.

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (18:26)

everything is ready to go. You’re not cooking to order. You’re not doing a lot of cook prep from raw meats or anything. A lot of our product comes in sous vide and you warm bath cooked. then we, you know, take that and we do our proprietary blend on it. And, and it’s much more simple of a restaurant operation than those who have to actually cook proteins from a raw stage or do a lot of that prep on the raw meats, which a lot of our operators love.

 

Jeff Walter (18:53)

So, so getting back to who the right franchisee is, you know, the model that kind of fleshed out in my mind is you got to find the right people in the right place. And then it’s about processes and systems for marketing sales service. And so what I heard is in terms of the right type of franchisee for y’all, the right one for you is somebody that’s got experience in the, in the space and the quick service restaurant.

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (19:07)

Mm.

 

Jeff Walter (19:18)

And, and, and the folk that, and the type of person that wants to not buy themselves a job, but work on the business, not in the business. And there’s, you know, there’s other models out there where it’s like owner operator and they’re working the cash register, you know, they’re working in the business, not on the business. and, and then, and how, and it’s interesting because for having a handful of locations, there’s a large geography that you’re covering because of the airports.

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (19:34)

Yeah. Yeah.

 

Jeff Walter (19:45)

how are you supporting those or what, what’s the right, beyond having been there, done that, looking for somebody that’s, works, work on the business versus in the business. What other, what makes for a great match beyond, know,

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (20:00)

Yeah, so again, with someone that I hate to use a term again, been there, done that, but like, for instance, our franchisee in Indianapolis is a 10 year franchisee. He’s worked with Jimmy John’s, Nothing But Cakes. He’s developing Crab Cookie and now he’s adding us to the portfolio. He does not have his Jimmy John’s or Nothing But Cakes anymore, ⁓ but he still has his Crab Cookie.

 

Jeff Walter (20:19)

Right.

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (20:21)

He is someone that wants to find a brand that fits him and his wife from their life goals and their personalities and everything. So with Protein Bar & Kitchen, it’s food that they would eat themselves. It’s a product that they themselves would enjoy. That’s why they really wanted to add us to their portfolio. And then the simplicity of our brand. Once they came into our stores and saw the simplicity of operation, they sold. They said they tasted food.

 

Jeff Walter (20:27)

Mm-hmm.

 

Right.

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (20:48)

They saw the simplicity of operation and they said, let’s go. So that really, the way they work and the way they develop, you know, he’s looking to open three, four stores at a time. So, you know, that really fits our model right now to someone that can scale quickly, that has the liquidity to be able to do so. That’s important. Really, you know, going back to the airport spaces can concessionaires, they already have a structure. have employees already. They have.

 

Jeff Walter (20:59)

Mm-hmm.

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (21:15)

You know, their own operational HR program set up their payroll. Everything is already set up. So we’re a brand that comes in and they have to learn our model, learn our intellectual property and the way we do things. But once it’s developed, we just become part of their system, which has been, we’ve been a very good plug and play brand because of our operations being so simple. A lot of times when we’ve gone into those airports, they have eight to 10 other restaurants and then they’re

 

their employees are fighting to be the ones that work at our brand because it’s an enjoyable brand to work for. There’s no hot spaces within the restaurant. You’re not slaving over a grill or a fryer or anything of that sort. And it’s a fun atmosphere. You’re making better for your food. you know, it’s lighter atmosphere. You know, it’s a fast pace, but it also makes your time go by faster when you’re at work. So I would say that’s probably one of the other things is that

 

There’s not, within our brand, there’s not super peak times. Of course, our lunch rush and things of that sort. But we stay pretty consistent throughout the day, because we have a breakfast menu, we have a lunch menu, we cater to the dinner day part too with a lot of our products. And then snack is there all throughout the day as well with our blended drinks, our acai bowls, and our grab and go items. really we stay…

 

Jeff Walter (22:13)

Right.

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (22:35)

consistently busy throughout the day, which helps our AV, helps the brand be able to work in a model that’s a smaller square foot, but be able to keep the capacity throughout the entire day. So there’s all kinds of rewarding aspects to the type of food and the type of locations we go into.

 

Jeff Walter (22:52)

Yeah. So, so, okay. So now we’ve got the right type of person and it sounds like somebody that wants to build a portfolio. They’ve cut their teeth on a different brand. They want to extend their, their portfolio. They understand the, you know, particular geography, you know, they might be big in Indianapolis or they, or they, know, and therefore it’s, or in a given airport and therefore it’s another location within their physical area. and they’re, they’re hands on, but not working the cash registers, as you said.

 

Um, they’re, they’re working on it. You know, it’s not a passive investor, um, type of model. Um, and, uh, and so now we get into the actual, uh, operations and the, the, marketing sales and, and, delivery of the, of the product. And one of the things you’ve said, uh, is, um, it’s simple. So how on, on the, the people in the door, buying the food and getting the food to them, how.

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (23:27)

Mm-hmm.

 

Jeff Walter (23:51)

how have those processes and what, if any, technologies are you putting in place to make that happen?

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (23:58)

Yeah, we lean heavily on loyalty, which you have to build that loyalty, of course. So that’s, that’s a big marketing tactic that we utilize from the get-go. When we are going to market, we try to build up that loyalty ahead of times. We’re going to local gyms, schools, you know, even fire departments, anywhere that, you know, you’ve got a group of people that are probably looking to better themselves in some, you know, some way ⁓ and also like food who doesn’t like food. So you get those.

 

Jeff Walter (24:20)

Right.

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (24:24)

key components and we market directly to those. Uh, you know, there’s a lot of the, the mom groups out there, uh, sports leagues, little, uh, little league, um, sports are crazy right now. So tying into any of those, um, we, have a lot of success with, with targeting those specific kind of groups. Cause once you get with one of those groups, they kind of grows within that group, whether it be catered or different events we do with them. Um,

 

Jeff Walter (24:30)

Mm-hmm.

 

Mm-hmm.

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (24:51)

And then also building that loyalty within those groups and giving back to those groups from a reward loyalty standpoint. We do our VIP grand opening. we, the day before we have our grand opening, we invite a lot of those folks that are specific to those groups that are, whether they’re micro influencers or someone within the local area that has some kind of pull and give them some, some sort of award.

 

for coming out and visiting the location and trying the food. know once you’re in there and you try the food, we’re going to win you over. So that’s, that’s, you know, a key component of, of our product is that we just have great tasting better for you items. our promise is delicious, nutritious protein packed. So, you know, when we deliver on that promise, once someone tries us, usually they’re going to talk about us within those groups. And, and that’s really helped us, with specifically like our Northbrook store that didn’t have a lot of brand equity.

 

considering it was outside of the urban market of Chicago. It is a suburb of Chicago and there were people in that market that knew the brand because, you know, I do, you know, a lot of people do travel or did travel, you know, to downtown to work and then back. But there was a lot of people that didn’t know the brand. you know, growing that location was a very organic way to, to show how we would go to market. You know, there’s some traditional marketing that we did like,

 

door hangers and things of that sort that you know, you may seem like it’s out of date, but it really did work for us. Making sure that those households really understood that there was a brand in the market that is, you know, something that you could go have and feel good about. You’re going to, you’re going to feed your whole family. And it’s not going to be something that, you know, just because you ate out, you got to have that, you know, we all have that night where I’ve got little kids and everything. You’re like, you know what, let’s just order pizza tonight. Let’s get it done. We got it.

 

Jeff Walter (26:12)

Good.

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (26:39)

We’ve all been at practice, know, wrestling practice, practice. We got to eat. This is a place where you can go order that food and everyone feels good about it and happy about it at end of the day. And the parents feel good about it that their kids ate that product. So.

 

Jeff Walter (26:41)

Yeah.

 

So, so, um, so let’s, let’s play a scenario. Uh, let’s assume that I, that I had a couple of, um, quick service restaurants or cafes or other things here in the Ann Arbor area. And I wanted to open up, um, uh, a protein bar and kitchen say in downtown Ann Arbor. You know, we got a nice big university there. Um, but maybe not on the university grounds, but you know, a lot of student population, a lot of the, you know, like a good demographic for, uh, what you’re looking for.

 

in terms of and you know, and it’s a very kind of health conscious type of town. And you go, yeah, Jeff, you’re just the type of guy we want. So what what does life look like? What happens next?

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (27:34)

What do you say that actually

 

have a gentleman in the Western Detroit suburbs that has locations in Ammon Arbor and whatnot that I’m working with right now, but it beats you to the punch. But ⁓ yeah, no, if you were and you had that, you just basically, you can reach out to me directly. You can find me on LinkedIn. You can go to protein bar and kitchens website, the protein bar.com and fill out a franchise, you know, inquiry.

 

Jeff Walter (27:42)

Okay, he beat, well then, he needed a punch.

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (28:00)

and just say, you want to add this brand to my portfolio? I’m in this market. We will, I reach out personally. That’s the other thing is that it’s because I’m building the foundation of franchisees. I’m very specific on, on being able to touch every point of what’s going on right now. I know at some point I’ll probably have to step back and do a little bit different on how I process this. But right now I’m making sure that I’m the one that gets in contact with.

 

the individual and obviously when I see the information come in, you know, knowing that you have portfolio brands or at least another brand does pique my interest. Um, because I know you’ve been there, done that you’ve hired people, you’ve fired people, you’ve, you know, coached the team, you’ve, you’ve done the things that, know, it’s a, it’s a big box to be checked. Now it doesn’t mean that I won’t go with someone that doesn’t have franchise experience. I want to make sure I do say that during this podcast, because there are a lot of folks out there that in my past.

 

Jeff Walter (28:41)

Mm-hmm.

 

Right.

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (28:55)

that have been the best franchisees that I’ve ever had that came from a corporate background. There’s a lot of structure within corporate backgrounds that are perfect to franchising because you have the ability to follow and execute on a plan. And that’s ideally what we’re looking for is that person that can take this playbook, go and open the playbook and follow the playbook. That’s franchising in a nutshell is being able to do that. But that’s what we’re looking for.

 

And those folks that have the liquid capability and that are looking to better themselves, what a better opportunity to go open a brand that not only is a brand that is better for you personally, but it’s better for the community. And it’s a, you know, we’re in a brand category that’s popping right now. Protein is huge. The word proteins being used by multiple brands, which has been absolutely wonderful for us. Everyone’s saying protein, saying it because

 

Um, it’s, uh, it’s the first word in our name. So it’s, uh, it’s been a really wonderful year. Our comp cells are in a year where a lot of brands are slipping in comps. Um, we are the opposite. We, you know, we’ve been doing a fantastic job. I think of our 17 stores are our lowest comp cells around 16%. So we’ve got stores that go all the way up to 40 % comping over last year. So it’s been a fat, absolutely fantastic year for us. And we only see it getting better because of the trends and.

 

Jeff Walter (29:51)

That’s right.

 

Mm-hmm.

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (30:18)

the need for protein. you know, there’s a lot of people that are trying to better themselves. There’s a lot of people on GLP-1s that specifically, you know, are requiring higher protein. We give that promise, so.

 

Jeff Walter (30:29)

Yeah, so a new franchisee, you go through the selection process, they get vetted, they’re in. What happens next?

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (30:41)

Yeah, the day you sign your franchise room, we’re looking for real estate. have wonderful real estate partnership with, Dina Zimmerman. she’s at a bomb realty in Chicago. She is a national player. She has brokers, a broker network throughout the entire country, that I have taken advantage of over my past 10 year of franchising and every brand pretty much that I’ve worked with. ⁓ and, and we, we use QSR specialty realtors in every market that

 

Jeff Walter (31:03)

Mm-hmm.

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (31:10)

know where the bodies are buried, what they say in the real estate world, where the locations that aren’t on the market are coming to the market or locations where a brand is struggling and maybe it fits our perfect square footage requirements and everything. And we can actually be putting in an LOI on a brand that’s opening operating right now, but know that there is a situation where that’s going to come available. So we’re first in the door. Is it easy? No.

 

Real estate is never easy in the restaurant space, especially as competitive it’s gotten. rents are going up and things of that sort. But we have been attacking the market in a meaningful manner that we’re prepping ourselves for 27, 28, and 29 right now, whether it be new developments or those locations that are going to be transitioning in that time.

 

Jeff Walter (31:56)

All right, so we find the right real estate and then the buildup starts. then how do I and my folks get to understand the protein bar way?

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (32:09)

Yeah. So a lot of times the groups we do work with, fortunately do have development experience. They’ve built restaurants, you know, they’ve, they’ve had that capability, but if you don’t, we do have a wonderful team. Myself, I not only do the franchise side, I do the real estate and the development portion of it. And we have a stair step process that steps you through the, the, and painful development schedule. you know, sometimes it’s easy, sometimes it’s not. And, we’ve got a group, out of

 

Chicago Cresco Co that, um, you know, she is her Joanna. She’s, she used to actually work for protein bar in the 2013 to 2016 range when we were developing on opening a lot of restaurants. has a lot of experience. She’s opened her own practice. We use her as a third party development, um, management team. She’s, know, she’s an architect as well. So we plug and play her where needed, you know, if the franchisee needs that handholding, she’s a great capability, you know,

 

the cost of hiring that third party, which we build into our FDD configuration, it really helps save money at the end of the day. You may pay 15, 20, $30,000 for the construction management development portion of that, but really, at the end of the day, when you’re doing development, there’s sometimes costs that can be occurred through the process that are 70, 80, 90, $100,000.

 

She really manages that so that you feel confident about going through that without having that experience. Myself, I’ve done enough development where I can be dangerous, but I’m not the expert in the category, so I really do rely on her. But then our franchisees that have that development experience, a lot of times they have the GC already set up in their market that they’ve dealt with and worked with. They know that process, which is why it’s intriguing to us to work with those kind of franchisees.

 

Jeff Walter (33:44)

Right.

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (33:57)

It’s a whole bin there, done that kind of mentality where the development’s not the scary part of it, like it is sometimes for a new franchisee.

 

Jeff Walter (34:06)

And so now once we’ve got that, our handle on that, how do I learn the protein bar way, protein bar and kitchen way in terms of all that delicious food that I’m going to be preparing and working that marketing that you talked about earlier to get that traffic in there. there’s a, how do I get educated on that? How does that happen? How do I get my people educated on that?

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (34:23)

Yeah.

 

Yeah.

 

Marie Crawford from our team’s super tenure. She’s around 12 years with protein bar and kitchen. She, she heads up the entire training and operation side of the brand. And you will work at, know, once you sign your franchise agreement, you’re going through development. have timeline processes to the grand, the grand opening that you’ll be working with our training team. ⁓ you come to go for a four to six week period of time, depending on.

 

Jeff Walter (34:37)

Mm-hmm.

 

Right.

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (34:57)

your level of experience. Sometimes we have folks that come in and knock it out in two weeks. Sometimes it’s four weeks. If you very new to it and we feel like you’re struggling, you know, if it takes six weeks, great. Typically it’s not going to take the six weeks though, but, and we’ll train you, your manager that you’re going to hire. That’s the other thing that’s wonderful about our FDD that I love to mention is a lot of other brands don’t put in that manage manager and salary in the FDD. You know, the total.

 

Jeff Walter (35:23)

Right.

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (35:26)

portion of that FDD. We have that in there. you know, there’s a $70,000, $65,000 paid in manager that’s already built in the FDD. So that when you see those final numbers, that’s already taken. That’s not, so if you go work in there, that is built in there that, you you’re paid as a manager if that’s the case, you’re not just taking what’s off the top. So always like to mention that. But yeah, Marie does a fantastic job with the training and

 

we have a team that Carlos Rodriguez, once you get to the point where you’re having your grand opening, we come out a week ahead. We train your staff that you’ve hired to that point. And we have a process to help you get to that point. you know, once you’ve trained, your management and then we have our grand opening and then you have a layer of support that is going to be there for us, especially right now as, as we’re building the foundation of a franchisees, you know, we’re going to be doing PNL meetings, making sure.

 

your food costs, your label costs are all in par with what we feel like the branch should be operating. And then we’re going to talk about best practices at all times. just like I would say every franchisee out there or franchisor out there wants their franchisees to be better because when they’re better, everyone is rewarded from that. So we are going to be definitely making sure that our franchisees have a good footing.

 

and a good understanding of what they’ll be expected.

 

Jeff Walter (36:46)

Okay. And, and, and to maintain that consistency, well, I guess another, I got a couple of questions pop in my head, but you know, one is with, and we kind of touched on a little earlier, but with the, with the airport focus, you know, know a lot of franchise ors like to cluster geographically because it becomes easier to support, right?

 

Uh, and then when you have this satellite, that’s, know, 600 miles away, you know, there’s, know, that’s, know, out an outpost way out there. It, you know, it’s just, it’s just harder to support. You know, there’s nobody that can stop by. There’s no other franchisee that you could say, Hey, Mary, can you, can you slide by there? having problems with this and just, like, so with what I find interesting is how do you, how have you guys addressed that? Cause with the airport approach, the non-trad approach,

 

It sounds to me like you’re more spread out for the number of units you have than you would traditionally see. I mean, you got the cluster in Chicago and Indianapolis, but.

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (37:47)

Yeah.

 

Yeah, we have

 

a great supply chain system right now. We have some different main suppliers that we use in different regions that really help us with that. we, you know, as important as our product is in our proprietary skews, we make sure that we have a backup plan for each one of those skews in some of these other markets so that the product is never limited or unavailable in these markets. And then we’ve got, you know, some of our proteins that are direct shipped. So

 

It’s not as big of an issue. you know, shipping powder is not, is, is, is pretty simple and we don’t have to worry about the, the distributors worrying about, you know, developing or delivering those. but we have a really smooth process. We’ve been doing it for a long time and we’ve got a fantastic team that has, has mastered the, distribution of this. And from a support level from us, because they’re in the airport space, it’s easy for us to get to them. We, you you fly in, you go to them.

 

Jeff Walter (38:43)

Hahaha!

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (38:45)

in the day and those are larger concessionaires that we don’t have to babysit. know, that’s, that’s the thing when you’re working with those concessionaires, they’re working, they’re operating eight restaurants within that airport most of time or more. So, you know, when, when we’re working with them, they’re a high level. can come in, we can, you know, make sure we audit them like we would traditionally and make sure the products, but you know, we, keep, you know,

 

Jeff Walter (38:51)

Right.

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (39:09)

An understanding of the reviews that are coming through to we were very big on customer feedback. So we know traditionally if there’s an issue in a restaurant, we know that there’s something going on pretty much immediately because the product, you know, we, soon as we get a bad review, we’re on top of it. We’re, know, and a lot of times our views are very thorough so we can know exactly who the employee was that gave the bad experience or the product, you know, exactly when that was handed out. That’s.

 

The wonderful thing about our technology these days is we can pinpoint the problem and execute on fixing that problem right away. So we’re very keen on that. Jared Cohen is our COO and he wears multiple hats in our company. He’s a technology guru. is a marketing guru and a financial guru. I love to tell the story is that he is a Jeopardy two-time champion.

 

that tells you anything, uh, and a guy is, and, and, uh, we absolutely love him for that. And, uh, he is a strategic thinker and, has come up with a lot of plans. He’s a secret weapon within our team that, you know, I don’t think a lot of brands have, uh, and, and, uh, he has mastered the ability to do a lot of these things that some of the big brands that I’ve worked with Cinnabon, Indians and Macalester’s, know, the focus brands go to foods group that

 

Jeff Walter (40:04)

1. Yeah, yeah.

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (40:31)

they never did figure out at the times that I was with them. So it’s pretty impressive. And that comes down to just the leadership that Jeff Drake gives to us from a, you know, a team leader and a, that we can all look up to and creates the, the just atmosphere within our brand that everyone wants to do better. So

 

Jeff Walter (40:54)

You know, it’s, really interesting as, as you were mentioning that with the, the non-trads and the, especially the airports, it’s like, well, yeah, you’re in Chicago. You got O’Hare, you got United Airlines. And I, and I, you know, I’m, I’m listening and I’m like, Oh, the, the, the game plan is anywhere United can fly direct from Chicago, which is pretty much anywhere.

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (41:05)

Yeah.

 

It’s funny,

 

we’ve landed a lot of delta terminals, so it’s funny you say that. But yeah, is interesting how we can just, out of Chicago, it’s pretty simple to get anywhere you want to direct. Yeah.

 

Jeff Walter (41:20)

Yeah. Yes.

 

Yeah. Well, and the LaGuardia one is in the Delta terminal. I’m here

 

in Michigan. I’m here in the Detroit area. We fly, I fly out of Metro, which is a Delta hub. And I was like, and it’s a beautiful restaurant by the way. It’s in the new Delta terminal there. It’s gorgeous. It’s, it’s, it’s up, it’s up on top of the escalator looking down. It’s just really nice, but

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (41:35)

yeah.

 

Yeah, we’re excited if you have.

 

Yep.

 

O’Hare location is absolutely beautiful as well. They’re all beautiful, but we’re really proud of all of those locations. And we’ve got Houston coming up in 2026, which is going to be an absolutely beautiful restaurant as well.

 

Jeff Walter (42:00)

But it’s kind of cool, I guess, from a growing the network. Yeah, that’s a, that’s a, that’s a kind of different strategy. And I think it goes to the uniqueness of your brand. because I would only imagine then, well, you know, once you’ve planted the flag, say at the Salt Lake city or airport, well then getting, you know, on campus, it is not a big. Well, Hey, it’s easy to, it’s easy to get to cause of the hub and spoke.

 

But then, but then starting to, you know, it’s almost like you plant the seed at the, then, and then you can go to another non-trad place, which is also, and you, like you said, you’re dealing with folks that have been there, done that. And so they don’t need as much of that operational hand holding or, or, or, or, know, and then once you get that going, it’s like, okay, now I can start building out the, the traditional locations within that geography. Like it’s a, it’s a really interesting approach.

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (42:52)

Yeah.

 

It’s funny because our, what’s wonderful about our non-trad locations is that a high volume, know, we get, do heavy, heavy volumes. So it gives us a foothold in those markets with distribution from the get-go where a traditional location, may take you three or four to get the volumes up to be able to support that market. Our airport space actually fulfills that need from the get-go. So we could go to a local city and support, you know, two, two, three stores.

 

Jeff Walter (43:17)

Right.

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (43:21)

Very easy right now from a distribution standpoint where other brands would not have that capability. likewise in the Northeast, we’re in LaGuardia, anywhere in the Northeast right now, we have product. can go in seed right now. We’re, probably in first quarter. We’re working on a deal in Boston, which is going to be a multi-unit deal with a multi-unit operator. We’ll be able to open up multiple stores at a quick time. And then they’ll also benefit from the distribution that’s already within that market. So it’s, it’s a.

 

Jeff Walter (43:24)

Exactly.

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (43:49)

a very interesting and a very successful way to do it, we believe. know, only time will tell, but we are, you know, very bullish on this working and the type of franchisees we’re working with. It also is the piece of that puzzle.

 

Jeff Walter (43:54)

Yeah.

 

Yeah, that’s really interesting because one thing I per, you know, that is just me personally did not appreciate until I’ve started the podcast and started interviewing a number of folks in the franchise restaurant space is, you know, usually I’m, uh, and the nature of what we do for a living here is we’re usually on the, on the distribution side, on the channel distribution, right? The downstream and, um, and, and, and, and any type of supply chain.

 

is usually there’s not a, um, a shelf life, when you’re, but when, you know, with a lot of the tradition, with a lot of the companies that we’ve worked with in on the training side. And one of things, uh, you know, and you just mentioned it in another restaurant tour, uh, mentioned it. It’s like, oh yeah, that’s right. The whole supply chain on the restaurant side is perishable. And so, you know, you can’t just go, you know, put up a restaurant and Anchorage.

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (44:37)

Yeah.

 

Mm-hmm.

 

Jeff Walter (45:02)

you got, you got, because you know, if you’re going to maintain brand consistency, you got to make sure that your supply chain can get there. And that gets into the things you were talking about. And so I just, like, I’m just thinking about your, your, your growth plan. And that’s like, that’s just freaking genius, you know, and, but, but it goes into, well, you have a certain type of product that has a certain type of, dimension to it. Like you were saying, you don’t have the hot, you know, you don’t have gas, you don’t have ovens, you don’t have.

 

this, so there’s a kind of a simplified operation. You know, you’ve got a bunch of stuff that’s non-perishable. I mean, everything’s perishable, but that has a longer shelf life that you can do through the central shipping, like the powders and stuff like that. But then the proteins and other more perishable things, you plant that seed and then poof, can expand off of that seed. it’s something I didn’t appreciate in terms of growing the network. So I think it’s just, I just think it’s brilliant. It’s really cool. So.

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (45:51)

Yep.

 

Yeah,

 

that’s a, that Jeff and Jared, my leadership is really, you know, thought deep into and really understand. then Laura Kramer, she’s, she’s the one that handles our distribution. She is absolutely amazing. She’s, she handles multiple projects within our, our, you know, our business from facilities management and then also culinary. So she’s, she’s quite amazing. Our team.

 

Jeff Walter (45:59)

That’s tip of the hat.

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (46:25)

I, that’s one of the big reasons why I landed there is that, you know, once I met the team, I was really impressed with what they were doing in the 10 year. And then the heart, you know, the passion for the brand that, runs through the team. know, you, you hear a lot about founder led teams that are very passionate. Well, we are, we are a private equity team, but it has a very personal feel to it. It’s not like some of the brands I’ve worked for in my past.

 

Jeff Walter (46:52)

Yeah. Well, you know, it’s interesting that you mentioned that, cause I’ve had that conversation with some other folks too, about private equity versus, you know, self-funded or founder self-funded or something, you know, or other forms of, of that. And it’s interesting because I think, private equity, you know, it it can, I think it has a bad rep, it can have a negative reputation and, and it’s, it’s like, I think they come in as many flavors as people come in. You know,

 

you know, there are the buy and hold type of got type of firms that they’re in it for the long haul and they want to build long-term value and like a founder, right?

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (47:28)

Yep. Yep. Well, El Catarazón

 

has us since 2013. So that means something right there.

 

Jeff Walter (47:34)

Right. And then, and then I think, I think it, what gets a lot of the press and I think it’s actually a, a, a, a minority of the, of the firms, but it gets the most sensational stories are the firms that come in and they want to flip something in three years. Right. And there’s a bunch of them out there. Don’t get me wrong, but I think the, you know, it, you know, it doesn’t make the news, you know, PE buys firm.

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (47:49)

Yep, absolutely.

 

.

 

Jeff Walter (48:00)

holds them for 20 years, grows them by 5,000%. Right? Like that, that doesn’t make the news, right? You know? ⁓ so that’s it. And so it’s good to hear that because as I’ve been talking to folks and, that you kind of can get this, well we’re, founder owned and therefore we don’t have, you know, we, you know, we don’t have that, you know, grow, you know, that short-term grower parish type of mentality. And,

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (48:04)

Yep.

 

Yeah.

 

Jeff Walter (48:26)

And it’s, and it’s important to note that, it’s the, it’s that hyper growth, grow at all costs, short-term mentality is it’s really a, it’s, it’s, it’s really a subset of firms are really focused on flipping and,

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (48:39)

It’s

 

felt within those organizations all the way down to people working at the counter. I can promise you that. You know, that’s, that’s, think a detriment to a lot of brands. You know, that’s why I’m very happy to see what we’re doing and know that our brand is going to grow the right way. We’re going to do things the right way for the franchisees and our franchisees are going to be like a family. You know, we’ve talked about, even though we only have a few franchisees.

 

Jeff Walter (48:50)

Yeah.

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (49:03)

We want to get them together so they know each other so they can have conversations about good, the bad, the ugly, and really be able to help each other as much as we’re helping them. So I think that’s very important.

 

Jeff Walter (49:10)

Mm-hmm.

 

Yeah. And like I said, that’s not the type of thing that, makes the journal, right? It’s like, yeah, it’s like firm buys storied brand destroys it in three short years. That makes the journal, right? They, you know, the, you know, firm buys brand keeps it for 15, 20 years and grows it to, you know, quadruples its size and everybody’s happy. That just doesn’t make the front page, you know, but

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (49:19)

Yeah.

 

Yeah, unfortunately.

 

Yeah. Yeah. Well, yeah. when,

 

yeah, we won’t.

 

Jeff Walter (49:43)

But that’s, think, more the norm. I think that’s more the norm and I think people forget that because there’s a huge benefit there of tapping into not only the resources, financial, but also executive and senior level in terms of how to navigate a couple of things, especially as you grow. anyway, it’s interesting, kind of outside the purview of what we’ve been talking about. But I think it’s interesting and I’d like to…

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (49:45)

Yeah, absolutely.

 

Mm-hmm.

 

Jeff Walter (50:07)

mention that because I think that I think they’ve done tremendous amount of good things in the economy and helped a lot of organizations. So, you know, it’s it and it’s funny because it goes back to how we started the conversation. It’s all about fit, right? It’s all about fit and it’s getting the right set of funny, you know, owners in there. And now they focused on the long term or they focused on a short term. And Lord knows there’s plenty of, you know, there are plenty of owners that are not

 

P E’s that are focused on the short term, right. And, and that’s so, but I’m, I’ve always been a long-term guy. So that’s just, it’s good to, it warms my heart because I think it’s a, it’s a, it’s a, you know, I like, I like building long-term value. So, and I like, I like firms that do that and take that long-term perspective. And I think that’s at the end of the day where you really get value. think everything else is, is trading on short term. The short-term stuff doesn’t get you.

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (50:34)

Yeah, absolutely.

 

Jeff Walter (51:00)

the long term. Yeah, it’s all got to be in the long term. enough philosophy. ⁓

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (51:04)

It’s relationship driven.

 

Jeff Walter (51:07)

Yeah.

 

Well, it’s like, you know, you know, most of us want to be, you know, when we’re looking at mates for ourselves personally, it’s like, yeah, there are people that would like to, you know, cycle through, you know, a different partner every, every three weeks. Most of us would rather, you know, go the distance with one partner, you know? Yeah. Exactly. And I think that that leads, you know, and I think that that that’s the more soul fulfilling.

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (51:23)

I’m with my high school sweetheart, so I like the long-term play too. ⁓

 

Jeff Walter (51:34)

And I think that translates to business as well. So it’s really cool. So what’s coming down the pipe for you guys? We kind of talked about the as is and where you’re at right now and the strategy to go, what’s the future look like?

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (51:34)

Yep. ⁓

 

Yeah, it’s slow and steady and building the pillars of our future success. Right now, we’re always moving forward on growth. However, when we are doing it right now, we’re making sure that we’re standing still a little bit to make sure we look back and make sure that everything is in line, how we want it to be with who we’re choosing as a franchisee and where we’re going as a

 

a brand and the locations, not only the markets, but the location within those markets. We got to build those flagships in those markets. Indianapolis, you know, it’s exciting. We’re going to 6 West Washington right off Circle Center. I don’t know if you know Indianapolis very well, but it’s it’s right there across from where the old Circle Center Mall used to be. But it’s there’s a lot of exciting things coming in. There’s the new casino. There’s a bunch of residential coming in. They’re doing a really

 

rebuild on basically a quarter of the entire circle portion of the downtown area. ⁓ We went with someone that’s a franchisee there, as I mentioned, has experience with other brands, grew up in Zinesville, knows the market, has a huge deep draw to the market as well. It’s Cody Selman and Jamie Fisher are my franchisees there. Jamie is a NASCAR sports broadcast analyst. ⁓ Funny because my background

 

Jeff Walter (52:44)

while.

 

There you go.

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (53:05)

It has nothing to do with why I chose them. Yeah, nothing to do with

 

Jeff Walter (53:05)

It’s just coincidence.

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (53:09)

why chose them. It’s just a personal benefit, I guess, that Jamie is with the NASCAR space. you know, they have deep roots in the community. They have amazing marketing capabilities. They’ve got experience with franchising and they are full speed ahead on growing brands. You know, we’ve got

 

Jeff Walter (53:13)

Yeah.

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (53:28)

that like I said, six West Washington and downtown locked up. We’re looking at locations in Carmel, Fishers, Broad Ripple, and the medical center in downtown as well. So, you know, a lot of stuff going there. I’ve got a wonderful group in the Chicago market. They are looking at the Naperville, Downers Grove, Aurora market. We’ve got a lease sign in Downers Grove. It’s right near Maine and Ogden.

 

Uh, we were really excited about that store opening in 2026, uh, in the spring of 2026. Um, so we’ve got that location coming open, um, with many more coming behind it. And then, uh, we’re working with a group in Nashville, uh, to grow in Nashville. We’re, as I mentioned, Jacksonville, Florida, which is an interesting one because of where it’s at, but the ties to the community that this gentleman has and his family and the brand, he’s also opening potbelly locations, another Chicago brand.

 

Jeff Walter (54:23)

Thank

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (54:24)

So he’s working, you know, that the, the synergy behind that is that when he goes to look for real estate, there’s a possibility that he can, you know, find a larger space, which there’s a lot of 4,000, 3,500 square foot spaces that are on in caps that he can demise and actually work out for both brands as a complete clean, you know, pot belly on its own, our, our location protein, bar and kitchen on its own, but have the capability of, you know,

 

sharing employees, kind of a non-traditional space kind of feel to it because of the employee base when you start creating in that market, it’s simple for them to work at both locations and cross utilize. Those are the kinds of things we’re wanting to do is to simplify things for our franchisees. We’re looking for other brands that are convenient for us to be working with, like a Crave Cookie or Crumble Cookie, or Nothin’ Bunk Cakes, because they’re not competitive in that.

 

that space, also work very well in an area that both brands will be flourishing in. So we’re looking for all those synergies and, you know, obviously growing in the airport space, we’ve got multiple airport RFPs out. As I mentioned earlier, coming to Houston, most likely coming to Atlanta. There’s about five others I’d love to pitch out there right now that we’re coming to, but we’re too close and I don’t want to jinx it. So yeah.

 

Jeff Walter (55:44)

That’s, that’s, ⁓

 

well, like I said, I think that that’s a, I think that’s a really interesting strategy for growth from a developmental standpoint. And then as you were talking and you mentioned the woman that, you know, is also involved in racing, I sat there and huh, the first major metropolitan area they went for outside of Chicago is Indianapolis, home of the Indy 500.

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (55:47)

Sorry.

 

Yeah. Yep. It’s funny how that works out. I guess that’s not speaking to us, right?

 

Jeff Walter (56:11)

Jimmy likes racing. Coincidence? I think not. I like, I like,

 

is the next one in Talladega. You know, but ⁓

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (56:22)

Probably not. not. I’ll take us out in middle of nowhere. But, now, absolutely.

 

I, it’s, it’s kind of funny that way that worked out. It’s, it’s, it’s story behind. That’s actually funny. Cause I, the way that I reached out to Jamie, because of a post that she made to Twitter about, you know, wanting to have a conversation about some different stuff. So that was really funny, but Cody, her husband has become a great friend of mine and, and, he’s the kind of relationship I’m looking for, for all of my franchisees.

 

Because you know we communicate very well with each other we look at each other’s friends I think now then then just business courts and and You know look at the path of when I look for other franchisees, know He’s kind of that grouping of you know, he’s he’s someone that I would use as a reference to say hey What do you feel if you met this person? What would you think of you know of them growing with our group and we know at end of the day it’s gonna be a big family of franchisees and

 

And we want to keep things all in the family. We want to keep the family happy too. So what we want to do.

 

Jeff Walter (57:20)

Yeah, that’s that’s cool.

 

All right. So Talladega is out for now, but maybe maybe Daytona. You know, and then you mentioned Detroit, you know, Motor City. So, you know.

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (57:26)

Maybe, maybe they, hey, not too far from there, so.

 

yeah. Yeah, like I mentioned, we’ve got a group

 

up there I’m working with and pretty excited about that as well.

 

Jeff Walter (57:41)

So, so wrapping up. So when you’re not working, what do you like to learn about? You got a lot of interesting interests there from racing to skiing. What do you like learning about?

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (57:51)

Yeah, you real,

 

yeah, real estate in my past real estate’s always been kind of a pleasure, a piece of like what I do. I like to dabble in real estate, but now it’s become more of my focus. You know, I used to sell the franchises and I let my real estate guys deal with that. Now I’m dealing with real estate myself. So I, I, it’s still a passion of mine, but still now it’s more of a working tool that I use. I, know, honestly, just fun with the family. That’s anything we can go to.

 

Jeff Walter (58:13)

Mm-hmm.

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (58:19)

You know, go do our kids are still young, so we’re always looking to go to a fun event. You know, I’m not sure if you probably ever, you don’t have super young kids, but there’s a group called Ninja Kids out of Utah that do all these fun events. And my kids like to do kind of like the American Ninja Warrior type stuff. So yeah, we go to the

 

Jeff Walter (58:38)

yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I love,

 

by the way, I love that. Well, my kids are older, but they were always athletic. then after they got out of school, they’ve been marathoners. ⁓ And the three of us just finished our first half Ironman. ⁓ So, and the Ninja Warriors, that’s cool. That’s some cool stuff.

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (58:51)

cool.

 

man.

 

Yeah, they are

 

kids love it. And then this group, they do these shows and they’re really entertaining and fun. It’s family, family, fun, friendly. So those things are a key component of us. Wrestling is a huge thing in our family. My daughter wrestles, girl wrestling is growing exponentially right now across the country. She’s only seven. This is our first real year. She started last year. I’ve got a five year old and a nine year old. They all wrestle and I coach. So we have about 150 kids.

 

that are in our community, Bloomington, Normal, Illinois. And we got a club called the Guanas and it’s a huge passion of mine. I helped coach high school wrestling for several years when I was younger. And now that my kids are in it, it’s fun to coach them. I try to let, we have 20 coaches because we have 150 kids. But I try to help them as much as possible. But the atmosphere of that many kids and when we go to tournaments on the weekend, it’s absolutely insane.

 

Kids are running everywhere and we’ve got, at any given time, we’ve got kids on all these mats. So you’re always looking out for our wrestling singlets and where you need to go and who you’re gonna coach and it’s just so much fun, so.

 

Jeff Walter (1:00:06)

I didn’t realize that wrestling at the junior level went down to a year old.

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (1:00:13)

Yeah,

 

I have a niece that’s three years old that’s starting this year. if that tells you, yeah, she I mean, you know, she’s having fun in the room for the most part, but it’s under, know, the understanding the sport and being athletic period is the most important thing. You know, we call it wrestling athletic club because, you know, we don’t just want to key in on the wrestling piece. These kids are young. We want to teach them how to be nimble and be able to run around and be playful.

 

Jeff Walter (1:00:17)

my lord.

 

Uh-huh.

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (1:00:39)

And really teach them at that level. And it goes all the way up to like 14 year olds with our club. go to eighth grade. So, you we have different levels of classes. So, you know, at any given week, I have six different, you know, practices that I’m at. When I’m not traveling, a good thing is that we do have 20 guys that help coach. So, you know, kind of share responsibility and when one guy’s traveling and others not, and we really do a good job of working through that. And then when we got tournaments, we got so many kids that

 

Jeff Walter (1:00:58)

Yeah.

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (1:01:08)

A lot of times the tournaments that we go to fill up. So half of our kids are, you know, in Chicago, half of them are near St. Louis and we’re all split in different areas to go and make sure that our coach coverage is good at those tournaments. but it’s, it’s just another fun thing that we do. So.

 

Jeff Walter (1:01:23)

That’s,

 

well, that’s really cool. And it I mean, honestly, this is first time I’ve heard of youth wrestling club. I mean, of course. And, uh, is it a growing, um, pastime or is it a growing, uh, activity?

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (1:01:31)

yeah.

 

Yeah, well, the fastest

 

growing sport in America right now is female wrestling. Girls wrestling is exploding throughout high schools and whatnot. Because there really wasn’t that program. So now that’s why it’s exploding. Wrestling is dependent upon the area. I think it’s been big for a very long time. You go to Iowa, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Ohio. Those states are going to be very strong in wrestling. Up in the Northeast, the New Jersey’s and New York’s.

 

I have really great wrestling programs. California has some great wrestling programs. As you get in the South, it’s more football focused and wrestling’s think kind of like an extra that you can do. But I wrestled since I was four. So I was in a kids club when I was young. My grandfather was a coach. So that passion was kind of brought to me through family and same my my grandfather raced too. So that’s that’s where that that all came from. So I blame him for all my passions.

 

Jeff Walter (1:02:09)

Mm-hmm.

 

Right.

 

Ha ha ha ha ha!

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (1:02:30)

whether good or bad racing can get expensive. So sometimes I I’m happy with them. And sometimes I’m like, are we doing this? But we love it.

 

Jeff Walter (1:02:33)

Yeah.

 

Well, it’s a good thing. I think the interesting thing, and if I find this with just kids in general and that it’s like, you know, like something like that, you teach them at a young age and they become that much more responsible when they get to being of age, because it’s not a new toy to play with and exploit. It’s like, I know what I’m doing, right? It’s like,

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (1:02:51)

Yeah.

 

Yeah.

 

My

 

wrestling is what I love about wrestling is the discipline created within it. Now we like to have fun with these kids. mean, some of these kids are young, so little bit of games, a little bit of activities, but we’re teaching the structure. And then we’re also teaching them the responsibility of listening, you know, when you’re coached to and, you know, to take a, take a knee or, or, you know, looking at the coach and I kind of just like the little traits that I think a lot of times have been lost in our, you know, past couple generations of

 

Jeff Walter (1:03:00)

And wrestling is yeah,

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (1:03:27)

of growth of youth I think that’s very important and I think because we have fun while we do that I think it makes it a little bit more easy for

 

the parents to have the conversation with their kids at home or, hey, what coach say they kind of use this. I’ve had several parents say, since they started wrestling, we can tell a difference from them at home because we mentioned something that you guys said in the room and that makes all of us coaches proud. It’s so a fun thing to hear and a rewarding thing to hear.

 

Jeff Walter (1:03:56)

Well, it’s, it’s, I’m a, especially with kids, but also as an adult, a true big believer in, that kind of fitness and the discipline that sport brings And, and what’s amazing is the research that shows that

 

No, it’s a symbiotic relationship, right? It’s like, you can’t really fully develop the mental capacity unless you’re taking care of your body. Like they work hand in hand. And, know, and I remember hearing that you’re reading about that many, many moons ago. And then, and then just recently the cool, and this kind of ties back to what you’re talking about on on the kids sport. I was interviewing a woman that does a Lego serious play.

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (1:04:20)

Yeah.

 

Jeff Walter (1:04:37)

And, and, and basically you use Legos in training sessions or problem solving sessions to model what you’re thinking of. Anyway, that’s going into the really interesting thing. Cause it ties into this mind body thing is the research shows, and it’s just fascinating that, cause it’s the physical beings that we are that when you are

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (1:04:52)

Yeah, absolutely.

 

Jeff Walter (1:05:03)

constructing something or doing something tactically with your, with your hands, it actually opens up the right brain to learning because you’re exploring the world tactically, tactically. and it, and actually changes the physiology of your body to open up the learning on the right side.

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (1:05:14)

Yeah.

 

Jeff Walter (1:05:25)

so that’s fantastic. thank you for sharing that with me.

 

And so before we go, anything else you want to say to the folks out there or how can they get a hold of you if they’re interested?

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (1:05:32)

Yeah, can

 

feel free to email me at jmcfeeters at the protein bar.com or go to the protein bar.com. If you go to the franchising page and you hit learn more, you fill out the information. That’s me. You’re going to get an information back from you’ll get an email that schedules a call with me through Calenderly. And, honestly, I, you know, you I’m easy to find. If you find me on LinkedIn, Jimmy McPheeters, I would say those are the best places to find me.

 

Jeff Walter (1:06:00)

All right. Well, thank you. Well, my guest today was Jimmy McPeters. Jimmy, thank you so much for being here. Jimmy’s the vice president of development and franchising at the protein bar and kitchen. We learned all about them, how they’re growing and how you can grow your network in a way that keeps the quality high. And it’s all about that long term focus. So, Jimmy, thank you so much for your time today. And to everybody out there, thanks for listening. We’ll catch you next time.

 

Jimmy McFeeters of Protein Bar & Kitchen (1:06:22)

Thanks, Jeff. Appreciate it.