When the sugarcane opened a new restaurant in Miami, it hired the local affected people to promote it. It included the city’s two best names – Hannah and Haley Cawinders, twins who got up for fame playing basketball for the Miami storm, and cofounded the tworting fitness app and the Hustle Beauty brand for athletes.
Recently, we asked Twins to talk with which entrepreneur they would like to talk. They returned to that chicken restaurant – and said that they would prefer to grow the billionaire founder of Cain, Todd Graves. He had seen his business from outside, but he wanted to understand it from inside. And graves, who believe that partnership is the key to success, was also eager to meet and learn from them.
So we brought all three of them together for talks. In turn, he attracted a game plan for development – in business and in sports.
This conversation was part of a new chain we call Playbook, which is manufactured in partnership Sports IllustratedWe combine entrepreneurs with entrepreneurship athletes for career-afflicted conversations. Here is an edited version of his conversation; You can watch the full video here.
Related: 5 work moral text entrepreneurs can learn from elite athletes
Haley cavander: When you started raising the cane, did people understand what you want to make?
Todd Graves: I turned down by every bank in the city, because it was a strange concept: Now! Chicken-fetus food. Other restaurants were adding more items to add more sales. The only model I could think was in-n-out burger-mainly the Hamburger sells-but no one in Louisiana, where I started where I started.
But I only believed in myself. I said, “If you can serve food continuously, frequently, a ‘cravable’ food, it is going to be a success.”
So I knew that I had to take it into my hands. I worked in oil refineries, I worked as a boilmaker, I worked in commercial fishing in Alaska – all to earn money for this business. Fishermen in Alaska could see me working so hard for this chicken-ugly dream, and they will tell me, “You are going to make it.” This was my first encouraging group.
Image Credit: Jeffrey A. Courtesy of Salter. Sports Illustrated
Haley: Once you were leaving, what was the most difficult part?
Todd: When we started, we really didn’t know what we were doing. We were open seven days a week – and we are still. But then, I hired college students, it would not be seen to do the work. So I call friends, call the family: “I need to help you cover this shift.” I did not sleep much. We were open every night till 3:30 pm
By the time we came out, it would be 5:30, and then we had to come back every morning at 8:30 am.
Haley: Jeez.
Todd: There is no balance of life in a startup. You have to add 100% to it. That is why I started Kane when I was of Y’Al’s age. I opened at the age of 24, and at that time I could dedicate everything. This was the drive, that passion. See, I took advantage of my first month $ 30, and I was thrilled. Because it meant that I can pay my people, I can pay my vendors, I can pay rent. When I knew it was going to succeed.
The next hard phase was going from a restaurant to two. I did not know how to build teams. I got as much advice as I could, but it was more about learning through tests and error. I was burnt through people. I felt bad about him, don’t know what I was doing. Then I learned to get people the most and were able to ‘coach and lead’ them, where they became the manager.
We now have 75,000 crew members, and I have a platform to teach them. For most of them, raising cane is their first task. So I tell them: “Work hard. Have fun. Let’s distribute quality products. Let’s earn our money.”
Related: Smart entrepreneurs do not jump without looking – here is mentioned how to start a business strategically
Haley: Dar, you also make a good coach!
Hannah Kaverner: You played football, right? It seems to me that the athlete started with the mentality.
Todd: 100 percent. I learned leadership through the game. For example, when someone does something wrong in business, the leaders can think, Oh, I will talk to them in a couple of daysBut coaches do not do this! They are curriculum-right right then,
Haley: I am waiting for your reply
Todd: And there is culture: Everyone always tries to be better. Mistakes do not mean that you are bad. We have a culture where mistakes are okay – but we need to learn them.
How did you help you start and grow your businesses?
Hannah: We learned continuity and discipline. You have to show every single day regardless of high and climbing.
Haley: We also learned how to get the most from a group of people. When all of you have a normal goal, it does not matter what is someone’s past, or where they come from. You just ask: How can we all complete it? Also, recognize that we all have different strengths and weaknesses. This is also true for Hannah and I, but we have a goal: To be successful. And you can’t fake it. If you feel that your coach is just saying empty things to you, then you do not want to show for them. You need to think people, I want to show this and do it because they really care me.
Todd: This is true. Happy crew. They are doing better. This affects quality. It affects everything.
Hannah: In addition, we learned how to respond to things outside our control. This is so, “Okay, the coach didn’t play me. I can’t control it. So what can I control and still success?”
Related: Why should every athlete think like a startup founder
Image Credit: Jeffrey A. Courtesy of Salter. Sports Illustrated
Todd: You are ahead of your time. I really tried to control everything and make everything so right. One of the biggest lessons
I learned: focus on progress rather than perfection. For example, I will not release my first training manual because I kept thinking, I got it to improve it. But people were like, “Hey, just one version one. Then work on it. “It was a good advice.
You have created a great community for your businesses. What is your secret sauce to bring people together?
Haley: When we started our health and fitness business, we thought a lot about being a purpose. And this purpose is to help young girls. This allows us to be happy and stay in a good mindset.
Hannah: It also helps us through difficult times.
For example, both of us had a food disease – but we were able to convert it into positive for other people by creating an app to help it better. It was so, “We are going to impress a little girl, or someone who is struggling in life, and this is a win in itself.”
Todd: it aims.
Haley: This is the passion that continues you.
Todd: See, if you love what you do, you will do it by the day you die. In business, people often give importance to more wealth and money for aim. This is why so many great entrepreneurs sell quickly. His company is then purchased by private equity, and does not have the same value. You lose that special founder deal.
People ask me, “Hey, what is your endgeam?” I am going to get old and die with this business, and the children are going to take it and continue those values, and then hope that they will have children, and we will simply maintain those values forever.
Hannah: There is never an endgeam.
Todd: I like that.
