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Album 4 Track 5 – Dan Fachner, President & CEO at J&J Snack Foods Corp (ICEE, Super Pretzel, Whole Fruit, Dogster, etc.)
Hey Brand Nerds! We have a special guest in our virtual house today, one-of-a-kind President and CEO Dan Fachner.
Dan is our first guest who has been with one company throughout his entire career. He joins us with golden nuggets of knowledge that he's learned from his starting days as a service technician all the way through to becoming President and CEO.
A client of BPD who has turned into a great friend of the partners, and when you listen to today's show you'll understand why/how.
Interesting people, insightful points of view and incredible stories on what’s popping and not popping in marketing, tech, and culture you can use to win immediately. Brands, Beats and Bytes boldly stands at the intersection of brand, tech and culture. DC and Larry are fascinated with stories and people behind some of the best marketing in the business. No matter how dope your product, if your marketing sucks your company may suck too. #dontsuck
DC: \What's good Brand Nerds? Back at you. with another Brands, Beats, and Bytes podcast. And this is a super special one to me.
You all know, sometimes we have friends on the podcast and this particular person is a dear friend of mine. He is also not a marketer. He's a CEO. And you all have heard us say, I think a couple of times that a quote near and dear to our hearts is marketing is too important to be left to the marketers and this brother is someone that has an affinity for marketing. He has an appreciation for marketing, but he does a lot more than marketing. So LT, please, please let the audience know who we have in the Brands, Beats, and Bytes virtual building on this auspicious day.
LT: Oh, DC. we have Dan Fachner in the house today. Welcome, Dan.
Dan Fachner: Hey, thank you. Great to be here.
LT: All right, Dan. So, you know, I think you've listened to the show. So, you know, this is how it breaks down. We give you the proper flowers and intro. So just as DC alluded to before, we're so thrilled to have you because you know, you've been a, a great client and more importantly, a friend. So we've got to break this down for our audience here.
So as D alluded to, and we have said before Brands, Beats, and Bytes provides the best forum for us to introduce to our Brand Nerds some of the most amazing people in and around marketing and business and through our consulting work, our team has had the great pleasure of working with Dan and we are really lucky he can join us here today. So Dan, we know you're a real humble guy. You must understand. We have to provide the Brand Nerds, the quick breakdown for who they're hearing from today. So let's start at the beginning.
You got this right then.
Dan Fachner: Okay. Okay. I got it. Yeah.
LT: Here we go.
So Dan earned degrees that Delta College and Universal Technical Institute. Fresh out of school in joins this fledging company called ICEE as a service tech.
Well, Dan has multiple promotions going forward. His first one is to Service Manager, then Regional Service Manager, then District Manager, which is first, his first time out of operations since that job also includes sales. So it includes operations and sales. Then he moves up into the Regional Manager and then he's promoted once again to VP of Operations and eventually earns a new gig as VP of Sales. He is then promoted to VP GM followed by a very big promotion to President/CEO of ICEE. ICEE a wholly owned subsidiary of J&J Snack Foods and in 2020, Dan is elevated to his current position as President/CEO of J&J Snack Foods, which for those who do not know is a billion dollar company, that's publicly traded on NASDAQ and has some great snack brands, including Super Preztel, Luigi's Italian ice, Whole Fruit, Dogsters, and more. So, okay, D, we are now in our fourth year of the podcast, when all the great guests we've had the great fortune to join us. Can you guess what distinction Dan holds as the first of its kind? Can you tell me?
DC: Ooh, LT. You got me stumped on this one, brother.
LT: I'm going to tell you, Dan is our first guest who has spent his entire career with one company.
DC: Oh, got it. Okay. Yeah...
LT: D, as you know, it explains so much about Dan. His amazing business acumen wrapped in a person with very high IQ and EQ. His wonderful, humble leadership style and his great capacity to build high functioning teams and set up others for success. With all that said Brand Nerds, we know you're going to enjoy this one.
Welcome to Brands, Beats, and Bytes, Dan Fachner.
Dan Fachner: Thank you, Larry. Really appreciate, what an introduction. Wow. You know what? Listening to ya, it almost made me feel like the company couldn't find a home for me. Right.
I didn't know if I could service equipment. If I could manage people, if I could sell, if I could do operations, finally, they finally found the spot. Let's stick them over here in an office. Maybe he'll be okay.
DC: Oh, Dan, I love listening to Larry introduce our guests. He does it so well. And in this case, just listening to him, track your career at ICEE and then J&J. It is a remarkable story Brand Nerds, I have, I have to tell a story. Speaking of stories. So Dan and I, me What three and a half years ago, or so roughly...
Dan Fachner: Right in that timeframe.
DC: So Dan and I meet, we meet through a mutual acquaintance, a gentleman by the name of Lynnwood Mallard, who at the time was working at Coca-Cola. And one of his customers Lynwood's customers happened to be J&J and ICEE, and Dan. That's how I became acquainted with with Dan. And Dan and I had what I considered to be some of the most authentic conversations about his business, his brand, and our opinions and what I come to appreciate most about you, Dan, is your open-mindedness on one end, along with your commitment on the other end.
And these sound like diametrically opposed things, but you're able to hold these paradoxical things. At the same time in the same conversation and that was just impressive to me.
LT: Yeah.
Dan Fachner: Thanks for saying that, DC, you know, it's funny now, now, you know what goes on in that crazy mind of mine, right? I've got this argument going all the time.
I would say this, you know, I always feel like I'm open-minded to hear new things, right. At the same time, I got that little thing on my other shoulder who is saying, Hey, you know this product too, and you know what you're doing? Don't go too far, listen, don't go too far and getting sueded into something that maybe, you know better than to do.
Right. But I love hearing about new ideas and new concepts. And, you know, back to even the introduction a little bit around you saying, you know, not really a marketer and as soon as you said that, you know, I kinda, my spine kind of straightened out a little bit. What do you mean I'm not a marketer?
You know, I love listening to marketers. I love hearing about things and ways to stretch our brand. You and I have had a lot of great conversations about that over the years. And I think we even reached out to your recently on a particular item about something that we could do with, and I wasn't sure I should do it, or would I do it or can we go that far?
You know? And so I really love to hear when other people have to say, and then measure that a little bit with that person on the other shoulder saying, be careful, right?
LT: Dan, you have a great sense of who you are.
DC: Yes.
LT: But at the same time being open-minded and I think that's what, that's the Twitter version, what DC said, and that is rare.
Dan Fachner: Yeah. Yeah. It's something that is so important in today's world, more than anything else as we're changing and even over the last couple of years with the COVID environment that we have, and, and just a lot of the world change in right out underneath us, you know, you really have to be open-minded to figure out what the right way to navigate a company like ours is.
LT: And DC, before we go ahead, I want him to say one thing. We, we have the great privilege of attending a recent meeting last fall with you guys. And you had an incredible speaker from Cal and his name is eluding me, but one of the things that stayed with at Brand Positioning Doctors, is that, that came through loud and clear, you got to listen to the minority opinion in the room. You know if the majority thinks one thing, but the minority is saying something else, you still need to hear that minority opinion out. And I think you do beautiful job with that.
Dan Fachner: Larry that is so true. I love that statement. Right? Number one. And in meetings all the time, I'll try to pause a meeting to make sure that we heard the person who wasn't being heard, because sometimes it's that very soft voice in the room that you hear that has the most powerful thing to say. And you need to hear all sides of an issue before you can make a good decision.
DC: Exactly. Yeah. Great point Larry, I got two things and then we're going to move to the next section Dan, but I'd like to rephrase my comment about marketing and your being a marketer. You are in fact a marketer, what I should have said is that you were not trained as a marketer, but you are a marketer. So I want to rephrase that.
LT: That's what you meant.
Dan Fachner: Thank you. I knew what you meant, but yeah, but still, you know, you always want to be that marketer. That's the one thing I don't have on my title that they haven't shoved me into that corner. Maybe someday I'll get that too.
DC: Oh, Dan. And then the second thing about this point of the paradox of being open-minded, but then also knowing what you know, and Dan and Brand Nerds, this is critical.
You cannot allow any one of those poles to take you too far, right? If you're too open-minded you don't have an opinion. If you're resolute about you know what you know, in that. You become you become stagnant and an unimaginative. And so it's important to balance those two and you one of the best that we've seen do that.
But with that, Dan, we're going to go to, will be called, Get Comfy.
Dan Fachner: Okay.
DC: Larry pointed this out and I knew this was going to be my Get Comfy piece, but I somehow did not connect it to his question of what's the distinction that you hold, Dan, that no other guest on our podcast has had. And that's being at one company.
You started as a service tech, dude. And now you are President and CEO of a publicly traded company. That's a hell of a journey, Dan. How does it feel to be the human being on that journey?
Dan Fachner: Yeah. I got to tell you first, I'm just going to say I'm really grateful, right? I've had an opportunity to be with a company, and Larry pointed this out earlier that has has given me the opportunity to have several different kinds of jobs. So even though I've been here, I always say 20 plus years, these days. So even though I've been here 20 plus years, I've had the opportunity to get involved in a lot of different things.
I was going to college. Right. And my father was a part owner in a trade school in Phoenix, Arizona. And I surprised my dad by saying, hey, I wouldn't mind at the end of this football season, going in and learning a little bit about a technical trade. And he said, what do you want to learn? I said, well, I learn heating/air conditioning/refrigeration.
He said, what are you going to do with that? I said, I don't know, but maybe I can fall back on it someday. Right. In case my other dreams don't work out. Right. So I go to this trade school. I graduate in the middle of summer and I come back to Northern California and I know heating air conditioning refrigeration at summertime.
I might as well get a job for the summer before I go back to school again. And I applied for this company called Western ICEE, and I started off as a service technician and and really have been grateful for the challenges along the way. So you know, as Larry pointed out, I got a chance to, to move into management pretty quick.
And that was really kind of all my style to begin with. I've always been a business manager type person, got a chance to move into management right away, and then just kind of worked my way around the company as the company continued to grow. I remember this is a crazy story, right? So I remember at some point I'm about five years into my career, still a really young guy and, and And we're recruiting. So I go to this school, this trade school that I had graduated from Phoenix, Arizona, with somebody out of our corporate office and at those days we had to share a room at night, you didn't get your own room, right? So we're sharing a room and like you do, when you share a room, you're having conversations with people.
Right? And I remember this guy, this is like five years in the role. And he says, well, what do you want to do when you grow up? Basically, what do you want to do with this company that we're in? And and I tell him I'm going to be President, right. And the room goes quiet. Right. It's dark, but it goes quiet.
He doesn't even know how to respond to that. Finally, after about, you know, what felt like five minutes, he responds to me and says, that sounds a little arrogant. You really think you can be president? I said, absolutely. I'm going to work hard and I'm going to take those things that I've learned. I'm going to work hard.
I'm going to continue to educate myself and I'm gonna shoot for the top, but someday I want to be president of this company because I think ICEE can be a big thing. And at the time, people didn't know what ICEE was. We were a product that was sold in K-Mart really. And when you finally described it to them and a lot of the podcasts listeners probably don't even know what a K-Mart is these days.
Right. It was before Target and Walmart. But we had to describe as, as big lighted cup that sit on top of the machine and their deli. And when you started to say that, that people would say, oh yeah, yeah, I know what that is. Right. And so, you know, kind of circling back to answer your question, I just got to tell you, I felt really grateful that I'm, that I was able to work for a company for the number of years that I've had and had enough different kinds of jobs inside the company to make me feel like I'm always challenged and always learning and always able to grow, whether that be in service or operations or marketing or sales or management, whatever that is.
I've been fortunate enough to have one of those careers that allows you to have. 10 different jobs in the same company. So that's all been great. Yeah. Yeah. And, and one word fortunate, you know, which, and I work hard for that sometimes, you know, you you make your own fortune too, right? We've talked a lot about that over the years.
So, hard work, get yourself in the right spot at the right time and making sure that you're in the right spot at the right time, and then taking advantage of the opportunities that come when they come.
LT: Love it.
DC: Nicely said. Larry, any more before we go to five questions?
LT: Let's do it.
DC: All right, Dan, I'm going to hit you with a question. Larry, we'll hit you with one. We'll go back and forth until we reach five. And we start with this. What was the first experience you had, with a brand that made you fall in love with. To the point where it consumed you, you engaged with it. You didn't, you, you thought you maybe did 15 minutes and it ended up being two hours of engagement with the brand.
You thought about it all the time. It brought your heart joy. What was that first brand love for you?
Dan Fachner: Yeah. You know, I had a little bit of time to think about that. You know, growing up, sometimes you don't even realize a brand is a brand, right? It's something that you buy, you recognize, you buy it, you have it.
So I don't know until I really started my career with ICEE that I thought that much about a brand, something that you knew, but I will tell you this, I'm going to, I'm going to relate this back to ICEE and a little bit of what I just said. ICEE made me fall in love with branding, right? Made me fall in love with marketing to begin with.
We had this special product, it's got to start off with something that tastes good, looks good, you know, but we had this special product, but nobody really knew about, again, it was a product that was just sold in a couple of mass merchandisers out there, but wasn't really sold anywhere else. But you could tell it was special in this red and blue cup, and when you started to describe it to people, they understood it, you know really my experience with ICEE is when I would say I started to become really familiar with what brands are and how powerful brands can be and what you can do with them and, and, and how recognizable brands can be. Then it starts to make you think back on your younger days, and so if I thought back backwards from there, I would say the first brand that I really fell in love with was Gatorade. You know, so playin' sports and my dad was one of those guys who supported us, you know, all through our lives. He was out and about traveling all the time, had a good job, had a big job, covered a big area, but he never missed a sporting event.
And every time that we were done with a sporting event, my dad was that dad who had, you know, his ice chest filled with Gatorade and everybody was thrilled with that product. And so when I look back at my childhood and I think about that, you know, that really one product that stands out to me today, it's still the original green colored Gatorade, you know, in that bottle, that shape of the bottle and the orange cap on top and the color of the product, you know, and what it supposedly did for you too, whether it did or didn't, it didn't really matter.
But what it supposedly did for you internally after you had worked out really hard. That's probably my first love of a brand, right.
LT: That's great. And for those who don't know, Dan played football which was a big part of his life growing up right Dan, and so that Gatorade for a lot of us, young jocks growing up, you know, really was ours. And, and this comes from the guy who launched Powerade for Coca-Cola, but it really was. I mean, Gatorade did a phenomenal job in really putting forth a brand that really connected with athletes and they, and they obviously still do a great job.
Dan Fachner: They own the market, they had a special bottle, they had a special color of a cap on top, you know, they, they made you feel like when you were drinking it, that you were drinking something really good for you, you know.
LT: And that was going to help get you better.
Dan Fachner: Yeah, yeah. Ready to go do more things. So. Yeah.
LT: And, and so they were so powerful and then I'll shut up the Brand Nerds have heard me say this. When I walked into my office to do the national launch of Powerade. Gatorade, national share, I'll never forget this number was 97.2.
Dan Fachner: Wow. That's where I want to get.
DC: I'll have a 97.2, four 1,000 please.
Dan Fachner: Yes, exactly. Right. Yeah. Powerful brand, right?
LT: Yup.
Dan Fachner: Yeah.
DC: Cool. Larry.
LT: Okay. Should we go to the next question, D?
DC: Let's do it.
LT: All right, Dan. So who has had or is having the most influence on your career?
Dan Fachner: You know I'm, I've been fortunate to be around a lot of people who really have had influences on my career over the years.
You know, just the generic answer. A lot of people would say, I already mentioned him. My dad was a really hard worker, taught me the value of hard work. And you know, he taught me how to get up early in the morning and work late at night. Right. And not the complain and how to still make family an important part of that, even though you were working a lot of hours a week.
And so I, I give him a lot of credit for, you know, getting me started on the right foot. Right. And then our founder of J&J Snack Foods, Gerry Shreiber, as I started to identify with him, and this goes all the way back to when he bought the ICEE company, he saw me up in Northern California, kind of a, kind of a funny story.
He had asked the company to do something that I didn't feel was right. And so, you know, he wanted me to ask a service technician to go pull a piece of equipment that we probably shouldn't have been out there pulling. And I just didn't feel good about it. Right. And yet I was going to follow what he had asked us to do.
So the next morning, when it came time to do that, I showed up and my coveralls, you know, and I said, I'll do it. We're going to do it because he wants it done. But give me the keys to the truck and, and I'll go pull out to the location and I'll pull this piece of equipment myself. I'm not going to ask you to do that.
Cause I don't know that I think that's right, but the boss wants it done and I'm going to do it. Right. And so we met that way. He and I did, and that impressed him because he said, you know, that's true leadership. You know, when you're, when you're going to follow what the direction is of the company and what needs to be done.
But if you don't feel it's right, you're not going to make somebody else do that for you. And that's how we started to get to know each other shortly after that is when I moved down to Southern California and I started having a lot of interaction with him directly. He's been a great mentor for me, really all throughout my career, tremendous businessman, great with customers understands numbers like nobody you ever met before. And at one time in his life could never forget a thing. Right. So if anything bad happened, he could remember the date that it happened and what had happened. And but it really taught me a lot about business and and how to manage through circumstances.
And so he's probably been another really big influence. And then I, you know, I'd just be amissed, my wife, right. I'm fortunate enough to been married for 20 plus years now, too. And she's had a big influence in my life. She, she really has been that person. You hear about it lots of times, but she's been that person that has kept me centered and allowed me to be able to be out there, traveling, doing the things that I need to do well.
She took care of things at home. So I've really been fortunate to have a lot of great influences in my life. I really have. And, and DC, I would say this, about you. As we met three and a half years ago, you've had an influence on my life. You've been able to make me see things differently and, and open up to seeing that, you know, you, you mentioned earlier in our conversation, we met about three and a half years ago and we are in the midst of a meeting and there's 20 people around the table.
And all of a sudden it got a little touchy and it was like, everybody else faded out, but it was just me and you looking at each other.
DC: I remember the moment, Dan.
Dan Fachner: It was a bit of a gun down, you know, which one of us were going to go for our guns first, you know? But you've stretched it and I've just been fortunate to meet lots of different folks along the line that have really have had influences on my career.
So, yeah.
LT: That's awesome. D, before you go I just want to make sure we do we really try and do this on the show. Can you please shout out your wife's name and your dad as well? If, if he's still with us or not. And because we, we really like to really make sure that that connection happens.
Dan Fachner: Yeah, sure. My dad's name's Tony Fachner. He's no longer with us, unfortunately, but you know, he still lives there like he does with all of us. Right. You can still hear your dad talking to you at times. In fact, sometimes the older you get, I had this conversation with my sister last weekend, I looked in the mirror and in the mirror would look back at me, it was my dad, right. I had called her and said, you're not going to believe who I just saw in the mirror. I know exactly who you saw.
And then my wife, Julie, and she's been on my better half for a long time. I'm one of those guys that was fortunate enough to marry up and she's put up with me for a long time. So yeah, her name's Julie.
LT: Awesome.
DC: I want to go back to the decision ban that you made to pull the equipment yourself. What was the process that led you to deciding if you, if this was going to be done? And it was a direct request from the head of the company and the owner of the company, who purchased the company. How did you arrive at I'm going to go do it?
Dan Fachner: Yeah, it really is a good story. I'm trying to short the story so that I would get myself in trouble here a little bit, but I'm going to tell it anyhow.
So when they bought J&J bought ICEE back in 1987, it was a public company and it was a little bit, although this sounds more glamorous than it is a little bit of like a hostile takeover, right. They bought up shares and and came in and let a few people go. The former owner of the company of ICEE decided I'm going to go compete with you.
And he came up with some other brand. I can't even remember what it is now. And he put his machines in a few locations and our founder said, Hey, let's go aggravate him. Let's pull his machine out. Let's just walk in there. Like we're servicing the machine. We unhooked the machine and we put it on our truck and we bring it back.
We're just going to make his life a little bit miserable, as he tries to compete with us. So here I am trying to say this to at the time, Vice-president of Operations, and I've got a service technician who I'm trying to tell this to, and while I'm in the midst of telling it, I'm thinking to myself, I can't put this guy in this, you know, it doesn't feel right to me.
I get it. I know why we're doing it. I understand it. But it just doesn't feel right. So I paused, this was in the afternoon. I said, you know what, I'll just meet you here in the morning. And so I met him at the location early in the morning, and I went out that night, bought a set of coveralls so that, you know, I looked like I was a service technician and I said, I'll just handle it from here and went out and, and took the machine out and put it in our back room and waited for him to call.
And it did, it aggravated him. It did exactly what we're supposed to do. We aggravated him. So kind of a funny story. One of those things that I learned from Gerry Shreiber, who was the CEO at the time on how to compete with people, right? And so there's lots of different ways. Yeah, we gave him this machine back.
We made it all right. We didn't steal from him, but we sure aggravated him along the way and I, I just didn't feel good about asking one of my people to do that.
LT: That's so Dan, isn't it D?
DC: Totally Dan. That's totally Dan.
LT: And we mean that in the best way, Dan.
DC: Completely consistent with the Dan we know.
LT: Exactly.
DC: All right, Larry. Next question, brother.
LT: You're up.
DC: All right, here we go. You don't get to become President and CEO without having a lineage of successes that have other people point to that as forensic evidence as to why one deserves to be President or CEO. It's hard to fail up. Right? However, you have had some mistakes in your life and your business life.
And so what we'd like you to share with the Brand Nerds, are two things. What's your biggest F-Up and what'd you learn from it?
Yeah, I
Dan Fachner: might have two of them, but let's start with one first. So somewhere down the line and DC and Larry, you know, this about me, I moved to Michigan for about 10 years, right?
Somewhere down the line, we bought a company out in Michigan and it was in the same kind of business that we were in. And Gerry Shreiber, again, kind of my mentor over the years says, Hey, you want to go out there and become General Manager and run that piece of the business and kind of open up the Eastern half of the country.
So I say, sure although I'm at the ripe old age of 29 years old at this time, right. And I go out there and this is a company that has been in place for a long time. And has a lot of people in there who have been with the business for a long time. And to them, I look like a guy from the west, right.
Not a Midwesterner. I look, I got a guy from the west and I look like I'm way too young to be in the role that I'm in. Right. And we worked through some of those issues, not easy, but we worked through some of those issues, and for those of you that have ever lived in that part of the country, you'll relate to this.
So along comes opening day of deer season. Okay. And here we are in Michigan and I'm starting to get to know the technical side of the business. Cause I'm an operations guy at heart. I love that side of the business. I've gotten to know him and a few of the guys come up and say, Hey, you know Monday is opening day of deer season and we're planning on going hunting.
You guys, you can't go hunt. We've got a business to do you, you can't take the day off, to go opening up for deer season. And they said, you know, that's just part of our tradition. We do that. And I'm guy out west who doesn't really understand that. And not saying you can't do it, you can't have the day off.
Everybody's got to show up to work. We got a lot of business to do it. We've got, people are expecting us. You can't do it. And so I show up Monday, right? And guess who's there?
DC: You.
Dan Fachner: Me alone. I'm alone. Nobody. And, and what I learned from that lesson is how to listen to people. Right. This group of guys weren't really asking me for Monday off.
DC: They were not.
Dan Fachner: This group of guys were kind of warning me. They were, they had become friends in the business, I at the time, thought how could you do this to me? But they didn't do anything to me. They were, they were in their way telling me what was going to happen Monday. Correct. And, and in my way, instead of listening and understanding the situation, I was going to take control of it because I was thinking about what I was going to say back to them while they were still talking.
Right. And so I would tell you this, that I remember this to this day, that when people talk, you got to listen. And sometimes what they're saying, isn't as clear as what they think they're saying that to, you said, you really got to understand it, which means you've got to be listening. You know, that old story, about two ears at one mouth.
And that whole thing, there's a lot of truth to that. And people will tell you things that you really need to hear about this business, right? And you mentioned earlier in the conversation about me being open-minded on one side and maybe a little close minded on the other side, and that, that kind of friction that you can have inside internally.
What I learned that day is that I got to listen to people and as I listened to people, I'll be a much better manager. I'll be able to hear what their needs are, explain to them why or why not that may work and come out with a much better outcome. Taught me a really valuable lesson that I remember every time I've told this story, a bunch of times it's been, it's been really impactful.
DC: Valuable. Valueable.
Dan Fachner: Number two, because we can go on with this forever, but you want number two?
DC: Well, I do want number two, we do want number two, but I want to make a comment on your opening day of a deer hunting season. What they were also saying to you, Dan, is either there's going to be one type of beer opening season. That's going to get shot or two, the second deer was you Dan.
Dan Fachner: I clearly saw that then. Right.
LT: Also, I just want to make one quick comment. You know, Dan, not just saying this to you, but our interactions, you can feel you listening and that clearly from whatever year that was in the eighties, that's so stuck with you and that you can recap that story so well, you're one of the most active listeners and, and when people talk, whomever's talking to you, you could see how, how dialed in you are to that, that those people who are like.
Dan Fachner: Well, you know, I, again, I'm fortunate you know, some of the, some of the fortune we make ourselves, right. But I'm fortunate to be able to learn from mistakes that I've made, and and it's so important that we do that because, you know, I say this all the time in my new role. Said it this week about something, it really isn't about how we stumble and fall. It's really about how we pick ourselves back up and start again, you know, and learning from those mistakes that you made and then exercising that to get better, is so valuable. And listening is one of those things that I've really tried to fine tune over the years.
Yeah.
DC: Cool. Your second example.
Dan Fachner: The second example. Yeah, this is a little bit awkward one too. So we're in the midst of one of the biggest negotiations that I ever did. Still young guy, I'm out in Michigan in the midst of a big negotiation. I can't really give you all the details, but the CFO at the time from California calls me, and he's telling me about where we're at in this negotiation and then, and I'm saying to him, cause I know that he's frustrated by these people and I'm trying to make light of the moment. Right. And so I'm laughing with them a little bit and try to get him a little light up so we can get through the issue. Finally, I said, Hey, why don't you just get them on the line?
Right. Let's just have a three-way conversation. So he tries to make the call and get them on a three-way conversation. They don't answer. So he comes back to me and says ,they didn't answer, so we continue to talk a little bit and, and I continue to egg him on a little bit. And these guys are really gotten under nerves.
Tell me, how did you really feel about it? Right. And, and we kind of talked about that and I said, okay, now that I got to loosen up, let's just talk about kind of our negotiation tactics and what we need to get done. Some we're about 30 minutes into this conversation. I hear this, "beep."
I say to Ken, he's the CFO at the time, I said, what was that? And I don't know. I said, let me ask you a question when you called them and then came back to me, did you hang up on them or did you just come back to me? And I couldn't see him, but I can tell you he just turned white, right? So we had just left our complete negotiation tactics and what we're going to do and how we were going to do it on their voice message, not only did we leave that, but I was egging him on, about how he really thought about this guy. And, and he used a few explicits along the way. So here's the valuable lesson I learned there. When you're talking about confidential information, make sure you really are confidential, right? Double Check. Triple check. Make sure that you understand what you're doing, who you're talking to, how you're talking about it, and maybe you know, don't egg people on at the wrong time, right?
LT: So you have to tell us the net net of that Dan.
Dan Fachner: We got the business. Got the business. That's the end of the story, but I will tell you. I hung up. I called another friend inside this company and said, Hey, I want to tell you something that just happened. I just gotta be honest with you. And there's some things on there that I'm not sure this guy should hear.
Right. And so I want you to, I want you to get to him first. I wanted to tell them, this is what we did. I want you to give him my apologies. I want you to let them know that I'd like to talk to him and apologize myself for some of the things that were said and how we said it. And then however you want to use the information you got you go ahead and do, but you know, I did the right thing by making sure that we covered that, I guess.
Yeah, we did get the business and it was a big piece of business.
LT: Thats a great story.
Dan Fachner: That's really what started our service business. You know, we've started a service business about 15 years ago that is turned into a pretty large piece of business, 80 plus million dollars, and that is the catalyst of what started that.
LT: Wow. We know how important that is. That's cool that's the impetus to it.
Dan Fachner: I still feel that company passes that tape around to say, these are the people that you're dealing with. Hey, when, when you start to talk to them, this is who you're talking to.
DC: This is who you're dealing with.
Dan Fachner: This is a training session on what not to do, right.
DC: Wow. Larry, any more from you brother?
LT: No. Should we go to the next question?
DC: You got the rock.
LT: All right. So Dan, you know, technology has just become such an important component to all of our lives and business personal and everything. So regarding technology and marketing sitting in your CEO suite, can you tell us where you think marketers should lean in or best leverage tech versus areas that they should be leary?
Dan Fachner: Yeah. You know, I think I think technology is so important today and the world that we live in. And, and especially as we've gone through this COVID experience that we've been living through the pandemic over the last two years, technology to me has doubled down. And the way that you stay in touch with your customers, the way that you get data, to be able to drive your business, today we enlist in three or four different kinds of companies where we can pull data from.
And I would say we're even sales driven data, right? And, and that's awkward for some salespeople who have been out there for a long time who, you know, are all about relationships. I'm a relationship guy too. And I think that's really important, but, but as the world turns, we have to turn with it and the technology today and the way that we manage our pieces of business, the way that we understand where we're at, where, where our business is compared to others in our same arena, How do we compare where we need to be, you know, what channels we need to be focused on, what channels we, don't, how we communicate with one another, you know?
And then, and then just all the way down to how we might be working from home today, as opposed to working inside an office and that flexibility that you're going to have to have in the new world. Right. Right. To me, technology plays such an important role in that. And, and we as a company, J&J Snack Foods are continuing to really double down on that more so than ever before.
I think, you know, having the right technology, having the right people who understand it, that can make it work for your business is extremely important. And, and look for that to continue to grow actually, and in my role and in our company over the next couple of years.
LT: Awesome. D, you got any follow up?
DC: I do not, brotha'.
LT: Let's do the next question.
DC: Okay. What are you most proud of Dan?
Dan Fachner: You know, that's not an easy question for me.
That's just not what I love to talk about. So if I could rattle off a few of them right on what are most proud of know without sounding prideful. Right. First, I'm going to just say, you know, beyond family and the way that my kids have matured in my relationship at home and how I've been able to balance a big job and still be a good father beyond that kind of stuff.
I am so proud of the ICEE brand and it's 81% unaided awareness. That's kind of getting under the hood and be being a little bit boastful with it. But I am so proud of that because I can remember the day when I put the ICEE cup on my card. At that time, we didn't even have a dome lid, but I put the ICEE cup on my business card so that when I was calling on new customers, I could remind them of who we were because people just didn't know it.
And you had to start to describe it, you know, the red and blue cup, the dome lid on top, the light that you might see in a mass merchandiser, the kind of airy type drink, a frozen drink, but you had to describe it and people didn't know what it was today, if I talk to my neighbor and I say, you know, this is who I am, and I mention ICEE, you know, it's almost like you're a superstar of, so, you know, it's like, I'm a world class athlete and I'm not, right. But I'm so proud that the ICEE brand brings that kind of field to people. I'll remember the first time I had this experience, honestly we had moved from Michigan back to Southern California and I'm signing up at that time, you know, they had the, the video places where you went and rented videos from for the weekend and I'm signing up and, you know, they want everything that they want their social security number just to rent a video. Right. So I'm giving them everything. And I put down who I am and at the time I'm President of ICEE, you know, and it doesn't mean all that much to me, but now this person behind the counter reads President of ICEE, do you mean the frozen drink, ICEE? And I said, yeah. And she starts screaming it to everybody who works and that place it, the video store is Blockbuster, but inside the Blockbuster, the next thing you know, I'm beet red because I don't think much of it, but I'm still proud of how that ICEE brand today means so much for people. Right. And and it reminds me a little bit about where we started off here, a little bit like the whole Gatorade experience.
Right. I remember Gatorade and when I was at a certain age that somebody said, this is the President and CEO of Gatorade. I would've thought, you know, the sunset and rose on them, right. Because of this particular brand that they, and ICEE brings that ICEE brings even this personal feel about it.
If I, if I ask the neighbor, what do you think of ICEE? They'd say, you know, I remember, and it's always this, I remember it brings up this great reflection of a good time in their life when they got this drink. Either it was my grandpa, my aunt, my sister, my brother, the group of us stopped off at the convenience store.
But it builds this personal emotion with people. And honestly, I'm really proud of that. Yeah. I don't like to talk about what I'm proud of, but I'm really proud of that because I got a chance to be a part of an organization that build it from something that people didn't know to today might even sound bigger than it is at times, you know, Yeah.
LT: Well, Dan, we've had the great fortune of being able to work with you in the ICEE team. And we really have really gotten to understand the emotive energy that the brand has with people. Right. And then as you said, tapping into, and there's not a lot of brands out there that truly had that emotional connection that, that ICEE does.
Would you mind sharing, you and others have said to us when you wear an ICEE shirt, like if you're flying in you know, just flying for business, what happens?
Dan Fachner: You can't do it. You really can't do it. Larry. I'm one of those kinds of guys that the plane is like my quiet space and I'm on a plane almost every week, but that's my quiet space.
And either loved to read thing that could be business stuff, even, but stuff that I need to concentrate on, or I always carry a book cause I'm always reading a book of some sort. Right. So during that time, I just like to kind of hide in my corner and have nobody talked to me and usually people will respect that.
You know, you can feel that. Yeah. But not if you have an ICEE shirt on you, you have an ICEE shirt on from the time that you check in. Somebody says to me, I remember when you know the same story or what do you do with ICEE, you know? And then, then if you lead in the who you are with the ICEE company, then you've got to follow it all the way down the road.
You can't back out from that point, be the jerk in the corner who doesn't want to talk to anybody. Now you've got to be the life of the party, right? But it starts from the time you check in to the I've had, I've had pilots stopped me and asked me, what do you do with ICEE? And then the person who's serving you the drinks will ask you what you do as ICEE.
And then that person wants to tell you their story about ICEE. And it just goes on and on. And we're really fortunate. That's what I was talking about earlier. That's the kind of stuff that I'm really proud of. I'm, I'm proud that there's this brand, that when I started meant nothing, but I was able to be a part of a group of people who really turned this brand into something that people really recognized today and have stories around it.
Not just I recognize the brand, but I got to tell you my story about this brand, right.
LT: And the story that's near and dear to them, that's a motive.
Dan Fachner: Right. And it usually brings up some emotion with them to you know? Thankfully. It's usually a smile, right? Because it's just a good time. Hey, we won the game. Dad took me to get an ICEE. You know, everybody got an ICEE. We, you know, we, we did some kind of something and this was our reward. I remember when my mom used to take me to Target and if I was good on the way to Target, she'd buy me an ICEE, you know, if I was good in Target, she'd buy me one on the way out. You know, you hear those kinds of stories and and that makes you feel really proud to be part of a company that was able to build a brand.
Yeah.
DC: Beautiful, beautiful, Larry. Any more before we hit the, the next section?
LT: No, I think we can go move it forward. What do you think?
DC: Let's do it, brother.
LT: Yo, D, what's popping? What's popping.
DC: What's popping.
LT: Hey Dan, this is our chance to shout out, shout down, or simply air something happening in and around marketing today that we think is good fodder for discussion. So D, you want to go first or shall I?
DC: I'd like to take this one first.
LT: Please do.
DC: Hearkening back to the story you just shared. Dan you started working for a brand that virtually no one knew, right? To now sitting at 81% unaided awareness. And my what's popping is ICEE was and in some way still is a challenger brand.
Right? I want to talk about challenger brands. That's what's popping for me. Doesn't matter the category. There are some similarities, but I'm going to give a couple of examples of brands that are challenger brands, and that grew up to take on the number one brand in their category in premium headphones, bose was the big dog, B O S E.
Dan Fachner: Yup.
DC: The challenger brand was Beats and they overtook Bose. You talked about being on a plane, your quiet space, the big dog brand, at least in the states, Delta, but Southwest came in and said, hey, we have a different way of approaching this market. And we think we can become big and they did.
They did. And another example in the auto industry is Ford, who happened to be the original car maker at scale here and around the world. And then you've got this, this upstart electric EV brand called Tesla. And now they are the world leader in V production. Also challenger brand. What do those brands have in common?
Number one? They are all abundantly clear of their brand lovers. This is some nomenclature, Dan, you know, that we use in our business, not just who their target audience is, but they know the lovers of each of their brands. And ICEE has a very distinct group of brand lovers. And I love the word, Dan, that you said, the words you say does that when they tell a story, "I remember" fill in the blank moment with ICEE, okay.
These are lovers of the brand. Number two is they are narrowly focused, narrowly focused. Gatorade, wasn't trying to go get everyone to love Gatorade, they were trying to get you, Dan, as an athlete, and you Larry, as an athlete, to love the Gatorade. And they said, if we narrowly focused here, we will get the rest of the folks.
So that was the number two. And the third one, you all have both talked about, Dan and Larry, is each of these challenger brands and I'm including ICEE amongst them have emotional resonance. Emotional resonance. You feel these brands. You feel needs being met. You feel the experiences of these brands and the stories around these brands.
So that's, what's popping for me today. Is the power of challenger brands.
Dan Fachner: Yes. Yeah. I love that. I love some of the brands that you've talked about. I wrote down as you're writing these and I wrote down my just initial thoughts about those three brands and thinking about Southwest and Tesla, and immediately I wrote down personal connection.
I have a personal connection to each one of them and they were able to make a personal connection to me. I'm going to start off really. And Larry, you just interrupt me if I'm taking over and you want to go. I started off with, in my mind Southwest, cause I'm a flyer I've been flying for a long time. I have the fortunate opportunity to fly any airline that I really want to fly today, right? As CEO, I'm able to fly, which airline I want to fly. I still love Southwest. And you know why I love Southwest, they feel like family to me. I know the routine. They're funny. They talked a little bit, I might've even heard the jokes 10 times, but I think it's still funny.
They make you feel comfortable when you sit down, you get what you expect, too. So you know what to expect when you're fly on Southwest and you expect to get there and stand in a line somewhere between one to 90 or whatever it is, and you know, that's going to happen. And when you're going on the plane, you expect to be able to pick the seat that you want to pick, and you're able to pick the seat that you want to pick. Get exactly what you expect from them, and then make it fun and happy at the same time. Right. And it's a good experience at kind of a moment when it couldn't be a really anxious, you're going to have a lot of anxiety about flying. You can not want to sit next to people.
You get to pick what you want to do and then make you feel good about it. Right. And I think of Beats to Bose, right? If I'm comparing that I own a pair of Beats, I bought Beats right off the bat because I bought in. Right. They made you feel kind of cool. You were able to put on these and everybody said, Hey, look at him.
He's really got it goin' on. Right. I wouldn't have guessed that from Dan, I would have expected that he would have had the old style, you know, but he's got Beats on. It made you feel like you were a part of a group of people, that we're changing. That understood what the world stood for today. In fact, to almost like a family, like you were united a little bit with it, and then the same thing with Tesla, you go out and you get a EV today and everybody else owns an EV and a Tesla is your friend.
Right. You have some connection with them and you feel like you're doing something good for the world, too. Right? So it gives you this feeling that, hey, by having this, I'm doing something good. Right. And it brings kind of a smile to your face when the guy next to you is pulling over into the gas station and having to fill up gas.
And you think about all that goes on with that. And you get to just plug it in when you get home. That's right. I love each one of those examples. And what I love about them is the personal connection of the brand that they're able to make with people.
LT: So Dan, the guy who wasn't trained as a marketer, just pulled out all the incredible salient points. Dan loved everything you just said, and I'm just going to put one small addition to what you just talked about. Notice nothing is uttered about price,
Dan Fachner: Right.
LT: Southwest used to be seen as the cheap carrier, but they've taken their brand way further. And I'm also, it's funny, D, though the two airlines I find the most are Delta and Southwest personally, and Southwest doesn't talk about cheap fares anymore.
DC: Nope.
LT: They used to, they don't anymore because they don't have to because they built a great brand for all the reasons that Dan talked about. So that's something else that we talk about a lot in our practice, Dan as soon as you go to price, anyone can go to price, right?
Dan Fachner: You know, the other thing about all three of those brands too in the, what what's popping here is section the other thing about those three brands is each one of them know how to make the customer happy.
Yes, it was just kind of back to the Southwest example. You can't make the flights, you can't be there for whatever reason you can bank it. You can get a credit back. It's no big deal. It just is what it is. That's okay, come tomorrow if you want to, here's how you do it. And you can get right online. You can use technology today, right at your fingertips and boom, boom.
And it's done, and they want to make you happy. Wait, we still want you as a customer. We understand that things pop up and you can't do that. Right. Tesla, Tesla is all over that problem. They don't give you a hard time, well got to take it here and you got to sit for 20 minutes and then that the 20 minutes you've got to go over here and you've got to talk to this person.
They want to take care of your problem, and they're really customer centric and I love that about them. I really do same thing with Beats. All three of them were really customer center companies.
DC: So now Brand Nerds, do you understand why when I referred to being is not a marketer, why his spine got, he was in the chiropractic office.
Like you thought you can't see his chair Brand Nerds, I sat in his office and he's there right now. That's spine got straight there.
Dan Fachner: See, ever since that, I can't get comfortable.
DC: That's good. That's good. All right, Larry, what's popping for you brother.
LT: Okay. So Dan, I thought I'd share something for you and the headline for my what's popping is fundamentals and curiosity. And so I hope this doesn't sound self-serving. It may, but I want to share a story from back in the day when I was a brand guy and I think you'll find this interesting Dan, because sometimes making a real difference as a marketer is not sexy, but it can help transform your brand and help help you as a, as a marketer, really add value.
So, first, marketers need to understand that everybody needs to understand, that the true fundamentals of marketing start with creating awareness ..Again, Dan was talking about the unaided awareness of ICEE and continues through every single part of the purchase cycle and repurchase. So sometimes many marketers in the companies they work for.
I believe, leave a lot of dollars on the table because in my opinion, they're not curious enough to find out what's happening with their brand from awareness, through all points of that purchase cycle, and then not paying attention to the blocking and tackling details to fix it. So let me share something with you when I was a brand manager of Seagram Coolers and yes, I'm dating myself younger Brand Nerds think, think hard seltzer.
We had 10 or more flavors in the portfolio and truth be told us in our main competitor, Bartels and Jaymes were using flavors to really drive interest in the category consumption of our respective brand. So in multiple store visits all across the country, I noticed that our number one flavor, which was Wildberry was out of stock virtually everywhere. And in markets, this happened in markets all over the country. You'd see a hole on the shelf where wildberry was, and many of the other flavors that we'd launched in the last year or two, they were languishing on the shelf. So I brought this up to to my bosses and they said, you know what?
We need to study this. So we did, I led an in-depth study about the situation, and what we found was profound. We learned that when wildberry was out of stock, many of our consumers were not simply trading out one flavor for another. In our Seagrum Coolers portfolio, we found they were either not buying us, or worse, they were just buying a similar flavor from our main competitor Bartles and Jaymes. So we went to work with two major actions. Number one, we de-listed a number of flavors that were no longer performing cause they were just sitting on the shelf, taking up valuable real estate. And perhaps most importantly, we completely changed our recommended shelf set to have Wildberry hold a large majority of the shelf space with the rest of those flavors, really splitting the difference. We immediately saw a spike in sales of Wildberry and the entire brand. And while I know there's supply chain issues currently right now, and they really create real problems, that we as consumers don't know, I see this all the time with different brands I consume where you'll see certain flavors that just sit there and others that are really popular out.
Can I say Powerade, Lemon Lime, what I'm talking about? So the main point as a marketer for CPG or any industry, when you see something that appears wrong with your brand, even if it seems very mundane, be curious and find out the cause, and you may have a direct, positive impact than the business, which is ultimately great for everyone, including yourself.
You guys have a similar example to share. You want to care to comment on that example that I shared,
DC: Dan?
Dan Fachner: Yeah. I'd love to. At first I love the word curious, right? I preach around here all the time about ask the question right. And ask the question, applies all over the place. And one of the things is getting out, out behind your desk, getting out and seeing what consumers are doing and how our products being sold and ask them the question, what sells here, right?
How does this work? What do people say? What flavors do they like? So I love curiosity. Curiosity is one of the most key ingredients in business today, right. And always has been and then the touching on flavors a little bit, you know, ICEE is kind of an interesting, and you, you talked about knowing your product line, right.
And knowing who your customers are and what consumers like. So I talk about this at ICEE all the time. There's like a wheelhouse, you know, if you're playing baseball, you got this wheelhouse, somebody sends you a pitch and it's right in your wheelhouse and you can hit that ball out of the park, right. Or you shouldn't be going for the low ball cause you can never hit it. Or the ball that's up above your eyes. Cause you could never hit it. That's just not the kind of hitter you are. You can't take it the right field, whatever that scenario is, ICEE has a wheelhouse in which we can sell. And we've learned are our customer and consumer over the years, people will say all the time, why don't you sell something more special?
Like, I'll give you a great example. When açaí was really, really popular, we decided to do an açaí ICEE. Right. Sounds good. Sounds like it would be good, but people don't buy ICEE to be health conscious, no matter what they tell you, that's not what the buy it as a treat or a reward. Right? We have this wheelhouse in which the right flavors need to be sold, understanding your consumers and what they like, understanding your customers, being curious about why they buy it and why they don't buy it is so important and understanding and how to drive your product.
Hey, one last thing. Did you know California Coolers when you were in that business? Bartles and Jaymes?
LT: Of course they were the first one.
Dan Fachner: They were the first ones. It was a neighbor. I lived in the country in Northern California. It was a neighbor who used to have parties at the bottom of the wine barrel that his dad used to give on me, take the bottom of the wine barrel and mix that with seven up.
And that's how they invented the California Coolers. Two young guys that were about 25/26 years just exploded this product. And it all started from having these big parties in their barn.
DC: Wow, great. They ended up selling it, the Bartles and Jaymes. For a bunch of money, guys that were way more money than they needed at 25/26 years old. But back to your point Larry loved, loved the curiosity side of it. And curiosity is just getting out and seeing what you do, understanding your customers. Don't doing that from, from behind the desk, right. And ask them questions and listening back to what we talked about earlier, not asking the questions was something you're going to say back to them right away.
Ask them the questions was something that you're going to hear and then take some action on. Yeah.
Good one. Good one, Larry. And I love the analysis Dan. A few things are rising in my brain and traveling across my synapses right now. So Larry, you saw something that no doubt. Many other saw, and that is an SKU was out.
LT: Right.
DC: And Dan, we, we, you know, we, we love quotes in our business and one of the quotes, which I, I'm not going to get precise here, but I'll get close enough is that the, the specialness is not to see things that no one else has seen, but to see what everybody else has seen and having a different thought about that.
Larry that's what you did. You saw the same thing that your compadres saw, but you had a different thought about that. And the reason why you all were able to make that shift, I believe is because of the following. Largely, the American education system is predicated on a teacher putting things into our minds so that we can say yes, teacher.
I know the answer to that question. I know that I know that math equation. I know that that, that verb. I know that, that on the biology, I know the charts. I know that. So, because we are taught to know things, what we don't do naturally is find comfort in these three words. "I don't know." We don't find comfort in, I don't know.
And this is where the curiosity comes in. So what's popping for me. Larry, Dan, and Brand Nerds is: do not run away from saying, "I don't know," because I don't know, could be the door opening to something entirely new. That's my take away from your what's popping Larry.
Dan Fachner: But I love that too, DC. Cause I think that's where you learned the most, we started off this whole podcast, just, you know, talking about being willing to listen to that other side.
Right. And often when you don't know something and you ask the questions about it, that's where you really learn. That's where you really start to stretch yourself and understand what you're doing and the brand that you're presenting and how you're presenting it and what people see from it. It's in that, in that blank space of, I don't know.
DC: Yeah, correct, Dan. I wanna, I want to just build on that, Dan. In the conversations that you and I have had over the course of this three and a half year period where we've known one another, I find myself now retrospectively thinking, engaging in, you know, I didn't know that conversations. And then you will then pour into me knowledge so that it increases my knowing, and sometimes Dan you'll say to me, DC, you know, I didn't know that. I didn't think about it like that. And then I am doing that to you. It's a, it's a very powerful thing. When we liberate our minds and our egos and lay them down to the, to the, to the thrown of, "I don't know."
Dan Fachner: And to learn from others, right? What others people may have experienced over the years, that help you grow with you. You need to grow and not be closed minded. I love that. That's a great point.
DC: Cool, Larry,
LT: What it showed in like, oh, we knew this would be amazing, Dan. And I hope you've enjoyed it as much as we have. This has been fantastic.
Dan Fachner: Yeah. I've absolutely loved it.
I'm so grateful for you guys having me on it and giving me the opportunity to, to speak to your people. What a great time.
LT: Yeah, no, it needs to be here before we, we like to close with just some learnings we've had that we've had and, and hopefully you've you've, you know, more than just enjoyed the conversation, but taking something away.
So DC and I posit our learnings and and you're free to do the same. D do you want me to go or shall you go first?
DC: Would you do the honors, bro?
LT: Yes, I'd be happy to. Okay. So I have, I have five, really distinct ones, Dan. There's a ton, but I'm thinking of distill it down. Okay. So here's the five.
The first one and it's first on purpose. Brand nerds set big intentions like that. Dan did in his twenties when he said he's going to be President of ICEE someday that wasn't a goal. That was an intention. He knew it in his bones, right away. Don't let anyone convince you otherwise. That's number one. So like Dan has, number two, figure out for you that real balance of hard work and family, and it's always difficult, but what's that for you personally?
That's number two. Number three, make sure, you know, you're being confidential when you need to be. Great story about being on voicemail .
DC: Larry, I have a sound effect that I'm going to remind Dan of now, "beep."
Dan Fachner: Did you see me straighten up again? It's almost like that marketer thing.
DC: That was, that was pavlovian okay.
LT: And by the way, Dan, I had a similar thing when I was at Seagram, when we were an NFL sponsor and NFL dudes left, they didn't know same thing happened. They left me a voicemail and while they said some, some crazy stuff, it wasn't too bad, but they didn't know. So this stuff happens.
DC: It does happen. It does happen.
LT: And then I have just two more. Number four. Just like we talked about a lot, listen, and think of first day of deer season that the story that Dan told. And the last one is, it's just what we were ending this conversation with, don't be afraid to say, I don't know. It can take you to some grand places. Those are mine.
DC: Excellent. Larry, excellent. Dan, the Brand Nerds have heard me say this many times when we began this podcast odyssey, I would go through and at this portion of talking about what we learned, I'll give to two or three points and I don't know what happened. And at what point this occurred, Larry. But somehow as I began to absorb the souls and connect with the souls of the podcast, guests, something would speak to me about who is this person. And then at this point I would, I would share my assessment of the person behind the business, the person behind the successes.
And so I'm going to attempt to do that here with you as well. Dan, after Larry introduced you, and I asked the question about going from service tech to a President/CEO of a public trading publicly traded company, the first thing that came out of your mouth was grateful. You're grateful .At the show close, larry says, okay, wow, we've come to the end of the show. And the last thing you said, or the first thing you said at that part of the close? No, he said I'm so grateful. So this word grateful is important to you. And so I've broken this word grateful down into an acrostic that I'm going to share with you that I think summarizes Dan for me. Okay,
LT: Before he goes Dan, this is DC getting deep now.
Dan Fachner: I know this should be good. I am now sitting back in my seat.
DC: The "G". Grit, grit. You're not going from a service tech to a President and CEO, unless you've got some grit, Dan and Brand Nerds, right? You, you were a young person, elevating quickly, at a company that was growing quickly. Gerry gave you opportunities and responsibilities that many probably thought should have gone to a more seasoned person, but he gave them to you. You earned them.
Dan Fachner: It's really true.
DC: You had to have grit to deal with that.
The "R"- respectful. Your examples here and all of our work that we've done with you. You are respectful to others. You are respectful to the business. You are respectful to the resources that you have
"A" authentic. You're a bit like Popeye. Some of our brand nerves may not know Popeye, but I am what I am. We know what we're getting from you. And there's a congruency to your authenticity. People know what they're going to get from you. They're not going to be surprised by what Dan may or may not do because you're authentic.
The "T" trustworthy you're trustworthy. Trust and trustworthy. I see you, Larry, Jeff, Jade, we see you as trustworthy. We have trust in you. Your team sees you as being trustworthy. You trust them and they trust you.
"E" excellence, excellence. You expect excellence. You measure for excellence. You hold people accountable to excellence and you support them in doing so.
"F" fortunate, fortunate, you know, you're fortunate. You believe those that are working on the business also are fortunate and you treat the business and the people in that fashion, that we are fortunate to be occupying the seats that we are occupying.
The V value. You run your business and your personal life. According to values that situations may change your values, do not. They are your barometer and your north star that helps you make decisions.
And finally, the "L" Larry covered this, listen and learn, listen, and learn this, this we're grateful and this acrostic, is what I believe you are and it's a gift. The to give to others. So thank you, my brother. It my dear friend, Dan.
Dan Fachner: Thank you. Thanks for having me on the show today. What a great show to be a part of really you guys do such a wonderful job with this and DC, I just say, you know, I'm humbled by your, your description there.
I'm grateful, right? So many golden nuggets. I was called us when I come, when I do a meeting, no matter what meeting it is at the end of the meeting, I always ask for golden nuggets, what did you learn? Right. Because I don't want to have a meeting for three hours and nobody learned anything.
What'd you learn? How are we going to follow up? Why did we get better? And so many of what you're saying in these golden nuggets are so true to the, how I try to be true to the business. Right? So part of that is being a good listener. We talked about that part of that is being open. So open and consistent, I would say so that people will, will feel comfortable to come to talk to you each and every day and not have to guess what kind of Dan am I talking through today?
Can I go into his office or can I not go into his office? I want them to feel like they can come in at any time and be authentic with me. Right. Because that's how you learn. Right. So I, I appreciate that. I do in my own way, demand excellence each and every day. So the word that I use and replace of excellence is I want us to get better every day.
We're a 50 year old company at J&J Snack Foods. We're a 53 year old company at the ICEE brand. And I say to my people all the time, we've got to find a way to be better each and every day. Right? So wherever we're at today, tomorrow's gotta be a better day. And you know, we started off with the listen and learn.
It's so true. There's so many people out there that you can learn from. Don't let your ego get in the way. I've learned from you guys. I'll learn from Jade. I love talking to Jeff, you know, that people out there help you mold. What your brand is. By listening to them, not thinking that, you know, everything and being humble enough to, to maybe adapt and change is just so important.
And that, and that's really just reminded of that today. Larry, about, you know, how important it is to get out there, hear people, ask questions, and then learn from them and then drive that into your brand and your business. So thank you guys. Really appreciate being a part of it.
LT: This has been awesome and thank you for sharing your golden nuggets there that you always do.
You do this anyway. So you did it for the Brand Nerds. So a Jade that's a great close that Dan just gave us. So brand nerds, thanks for listening to the Brands, Beats and Bytes recorded virtually on zoom and a production of KZSU Stanford, 90.1 FM radio worldwide at kzsu.org. The executive producers are Jeff Shirley, Darryl "DC" Cobbin, myself, Larry Taman, Joseph Anderson, Jade Tate, Hailey Cobbin, and Tom Dioro.
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