We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Dennis Byrd. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Dennis below.

Dennis, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear from you about what you think Corporate America gets wrong in your industry and why it matters.

As many companies grow, they oftentimes become hyperfocused on cost controls and their bottom line, forgetting how their growth began. Our growth began by putting people first, and our core focus revolves around taking care of our team, guests, and community. We lead our decision-making process with compassion and a people-first mentality. We believe that profitability and growth will follow if we genuinely take care of our team, guests, and community.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I paid for college by working as a fry cook. Upon graduation, I negotiated a lease with an option to buy the restaurant, which put me through college. I had $10,000 remaining on an interest-free student loan and used $8,825.49 of it to pay the first lease payment. So, BAM, I’m a business owner! Well, sort of. The restaurant had lost $365,000 in the trailing 12-month period, and I had a lot of work to do. I threw a mattress on the floor of an office, installed a small stand-up shower, and proceeded to live there until I figured it out. We took it to break even in our first 12 months, and I worked the first 4.5 years without taking a day off, reinvesting every dollar back into the business for the first eight years. I missed weddings, funerals, and family events but don’t regret it. We have expanded the footprint of this restaurant and have been recognized as one of the Top 100 Highest Grossing Independent restaurants in America. We’ve opened two hotels and three more restaurants and I owe our success to the incredible team that I am surrounded by. We now employ 500+ team members and we are committed to growing the company so our team has the opportunity to grow with us.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

COVID was the biggest challenge of my career. We opened a new hotel 90 days before COVID hit, and when it hit, our restaurant and hotel revenues decreased 95%- 100%. We had to furlough 200+ team members, which was the most emotional and difficult decision I’ve ever made. As the company’s leader, I knew that I had to lead with positivity, be agile, and make decisions very quickly, with little information. When the first round of stimulus checks were deposited into accounts, we saw an immediate 10% sales increase in our restaurant. While our sales were still down 85%, it was a sign of optimism. We were applying for PPP relief but were unsure if we would successfully obtain it. We took a calculated risk based on the boost in sales due to the stimulus checks. We decided to pay all of our team members $15 per hour. Once the community heard about what we were doing for our team, they supported us, and we doubled down and did more. For those with longer tenure, we paid $20 per hour. For those who were elderly, we paid them $20 per hour and guaranteed them 40 hours per week, to stay home. For our graduates, we gave them graduation bonuses. We were ultimately able to bring 100% of our team back to work and paid out more than $750,000, which was the best decision we have ever made.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Our largest audience is our Facebook page @thespotgalveston, which has over 77,000 followers. We’ve built this audience by being authentic and transparent. On social media, our goal is to build a community of people who want to be part of something bigger than just selling food and drinks. We accomplish this by telling stories and being completely transparent. I’m a terrible salesman; it’s just not what I do. We have seven core values, one for each day of the week. We lead our week by leading with compassion on Mondays. Our guests appreciate that that we put our people first and overwhelmingly support us.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.islandfamous.com
• Instagram: @islandfamous
• Facebook: @thespotgalveston
• Linkedin: linkedin.com/company/island-famous
• TikTok: @islandfamous