A Restaurant Sign So Famous the Governor Got Involved. El Arroyo’s Playbook for Building a Brand.

Ellis Winstanley, co-owner of Austin’s El Arroyo and CEO of Axial Shift, turned a quirky restaurant sign into a cultural phenomenon while also building software to solve operators’ biggest headaches. Watch now to learn about turning a restaurant sign into a media brand, pulling off a statewide April Fool’s prank, and building tech that helps operators stay focused on hospitality. Sponsored by: • TOAST - All-In-1 Restaurant POS: https://bit.ly/3vpeVsc Chapters: [02:12] - The Deal Made in a Hospital Cafeteria [05:18] - Realizing the Power of the El Arroyo Sign [15:27] - How the Yeti April Fool’s Prank Went Statewide [27:50] - Why Restaurant Tech Shouldn’t Be Painful [31:33] - Building Axial Shift to Keep Managers on the Floor SPONSORS: RESTAURANT INFLUENCERS IS PRESENTED BY TOAST — Restaurant Influencers is brought to you by Toast, the powerful restaurant point of sale and management system that helps restaurants improve operations, increase sales and create a better guest experience. • Toast All-In-1 Restaurant POS: https://bit.ly/3vpeVsc Episode Links: Ellis Winstanley LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ellis-winstanley-4a5a978/ Axial Shift: https://axialshift.com/ Axial Shift LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/axial-shift/ Axial Shift Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GetAxialShift El Arroyo: https://elarroyo.com/ Cozumel Publishing Company: https://elarroyo.com/pages/privacy-policy?srsltid=AfmBOorCMJvcw0EyNq_uRfThVi7wP1u33Iuw3lV3Knsi10uuJ8F5nvYd Key Takeaways: A Restaurant Sign Can Become a Brand: What started as a fading marquee at El Arroyo turned into a million-follower media platform, a publishing company, and hundreds of retail products. Creativity Builds Trust and Partnerships: By pulling off a statewide April Fool’s prank with Yeti and the Governor of Texas, Winstanley proved that bold storytelling can lead to authentic collaborations. Operators Build Better Tech: Drawing on scars from running more than a dozen restaurants, Winstanley created Axial Shift to keep managers on the floor and make restaurant technology flexible, practical, and operator-first. *** ABOUT ELLIS WINSTANLEY— Ellis Winstanley is a seasoned restauranteur and business executive with a successful track record of starting up, turning around and growing businesses in the hospitality, software and several other industries. Ellis began turning around historic restaurant brands while in college and has played key roles in dozens of restaurant related operations over the years. It was during this time that Ellis realized there was there was a huge opportunity to improve the experiences of unit level restaurant team members. His passion for solving this problem led him to assemble a team to build Axial Shift, with the core focus of driving great employee experiences through transparency and purpose-driven growth. ABOUT RESTAURANT INFLUENCERS — Restaurant Influencers is a weekly video podcast series presented by Entrepreneur Media and Cali BBQ Media. Every week host and restaurant owner Shawn Walchef (@shawnpwalchef) talks with business leaders like Shaquille O’Neal, Rob Dyrdek, Emeril Lagasse, Mayim Bialik, Jon Taffer, Robert Irvine, Toast co-founder Aman Narang, and more, about their secrets to Smartphone Storytelling, marketing, branding, and how to show up where customers are engaging online. Published by Entrepreneur Media - https://entreprenuer.com Produced by Cali BBQ Media - https://betheshow.media