73. Stan Clark - Eskimo Joe’s - Secrets Behind Oklahoma’s Most Recognized Brand

Stan Clark:

I love the day in and the day out of it. It's a constant challenge, without a question. You never get tired of. It never gets boring to me. I did mention Eskimo Joe's promotional products group. That is a business to business unit that we established actually, after we built that great big production facility waiting for the next toothless in Seattle that we referred to earlier.

Aaron Ackerman:

From Hogan Taylor, I'm Aaron Ackerman, and this is How That Happened, a business and innovation success podcast. On each episode of the show, we sit down with business and community leaders behind thriving organizations to learn how business and innovation success actually happens. Well, thank you for joining another episode of How That Happened. We are so grateful to our listeners who download and listen to the podcast every other Monday. We would love it if you would give us a rating and a review on whatever platform you listen to the show, and if you haven't already, please subscribe to the show. That'll help make sure that you don't miss any new episodes. Well, I'm really excited today. My guest is Stan Clark. Stan. Thank you so much for being here.

Stan Clark:

I'm thrilled to be here. Thank you for having me.

Aaron Ackerman:

So Stan, I think if I've got this right, you are a lifelong Oklahoman. Grew up in Tulsa area, right?

Stan Clark:

That is correct. Born raised in Tulsa.

Aaron Ackerman:

Graduated from Oklahoma State University.

Stan Clark:

Yes, sir.

Aaron Ackerman:

Stan is the founder and owner and CEO of Eskimo Joe's in Stillwater, which opened its doors in July of 1975, right?

Stan Clark:

That is correct.

Aaron Ackerman:

Correct. Well, I've heard you tell the story. You've probably have told it so many times you could do it in your sleep, but I think it's such a cool story. How did Eskimo Joe's get started?

Stan Clark:

Well, it was an absolute wild hair. A friend of mine, whom I met the first day of school in the fifth grade in Tulsa, Oklahoma. His name is Steve File, and I was over at Steve's house. This was two weeks after graduation, and I was laying on the couch, watching reruns a Star Trek, like any, I guess college grad might be doing on Sunday afternoon. File rolls in. He goes, "Hey Clark, I'm going to open a bar." I said, "That's a great idea. I know where there's this neat little, two story building for it. I'll go in partners with you."

We jumped in Steve's 1953 Chevy. So he's driving a 22 year old car and it was about six blocks from his house at 303 South Ramsey up University down [inaudible 00:02:36], turn right on Elm. Boom. There we are. I always say, as fate would have it, the owner of the building was there that Sunday afternoon, because had he not been, I don't know that we'd have ever gone back. This was a total spur of the moment.

Aaron Ackerman:

Yeah.

Stan Clark:

We'd never talked about this, no plans to do this or anything like that. Within about 15 minutes we shook hands with the gentleman and told him take it. It was a very, very complex negotiation that ensued. He said, "Well, boys, if you want it just how you see it, it'll be 350 a month. If you want me to put an air conditioner in, it's going to cost you 400."

"Well, sir, we're definitely going to need air conditioning here in Oklahoma." But literally that is the inception of Eskimo Joe's. It's just a spur of the moment, wild hair deal. So the next day Monday, Steve and I both, we lived right around the corner from one another in Tulsa the whole time we were growing up. We drive back to Tulsa to tell our parents thanks for the education. We're going to open a bar. So I don't know. I guess you could say the rest is history, but it was just that crazy of an idea. I like to say my life, my career, whatever, this history of Eskimo Joe's will be 47 years in July. It's a whole lot more a story of perspiration than it really was inspiration. Tiny idea, but we have worked the heck out of it.

Aaron Ackerman:

Yeah. So that's such a great story because it's almost better than the story that somebody would've made up. It was literally just this Sunday afternoon whim and here we are all these years later with this iconic brand that is known around the globe and everything. So I'm just curious, so what did mom and dad say?

Stan Clark:

Well, my mom was not thrilled, particularly. She just sort of took it in. She's a very positive person. She'd never say anything negative about anybody or anything, so she was just kind of okay. But when my dad got home that evening, he really had no choice but to sort of encourage me or at least not poo poo the idea because he's the one that had been talking to me about thinking entrepreneurial and trying to work for oneself, for myself. So the whole time I was at Oklahoma State, I was always thinking about how it apply the business principles I was learning to my own concern. I really didn't think it was going to happen at age 22 by any stretch.

Aaron Ackerman:

Yeah.

Stan Clark:

But at any rate, he was somewhat encouraging. What he did say is, "You guys need to go back Stillwater, you need to do your homework. You need to prepare some [inaudible 00:05:30]." Because he said, "Your darn are going to have to get somebody to finance you, because I'm not putting any money into that idea."

Aaron Ackerman:

That's right.

Stan Clark:

So anyway, but that was great because, to be honest, had it been given to us, that wouldn't have meant the same.

Aaron Ackerman:

Yeah.

Stan Clark:

Gosh, I remember signing those notes. Webster defines an entrepreneur as one who organizes, manages and assumes the risk of a business or enterprise. And boy, there's no question that debt and having to pay that back, that was motivating and it still is to this day. I still have a lot of debt today.

Aaron Ackerman:

So the Sunday afternoon with you and Steve File was what? That was a May '75.

Stan Clark:

Yeah. So it took us about 60 days to get the place remodeled. We didn't have the money to hire a contractor. We did almost all that work ourselves. We couldn't plumb sink in or something like that, but we certainly didn't look up a general contractor. We didn't have any plans. We drew the plans on the floor.

Aaron Ackerman:

Right. That was amazing. So from the laying on the couch on Sunday to opening the doors was two months, basically.

Stan Clark:

About two months, yeah.

Aaron Ackerman:

Good grief. That's awesome. All right. Well, let's talk. Let me ask you about the logo. So as I understand it, and you correct me if I'm wrong, the logo's never changed since day one.

Stan Clark:

That is correct.

Aaron Ackerman:

Where did the logo come from? How did that happen?

Stan Clark:

Well, Steve wanted to call it Eskimo Joe's and I was like, "File, what is that? Eskimo Joe's in Stillwater, Oklahoma." Steve was just adamant. "We're going to call it Eskimo Joe's." We'd kind of get this chant going amongst our friends. So I knew pretty quickly that was going to be the name, but we didn't know where to get a logo. Never really even thought about an ad agency or a PR firm or anything like that. But Steve's younger brother said, "Hey, I know a guy. He's a freshman commercial art student. I think he could design a logo for you. Well, let's call him." So he shows up, he's driving a VW bus, he's got long blonde hair down to bat to his waist. He looked like an artist to me.

California plates on it.So anyway, his name was Bill Thompson. Very first logo he ever rendered for our name Eskimo Joe's was Eskimo Joe with that great big smile and Buffy the wonder dog as we later called him. Actually, young lady asked us what the dog's name was when we sold her a tee shirt first week we were open, and Steve and I both looked at each other, like we hadn't named it. I think File blurted out Buffy. I don't know where in the world that came from, but it stuck. Again, not a really great story, but a real one.

Aaron Ackerman:

Right.

Stan Clark:

Anyway, but I just fell in love with it. Literally I wasn't that crazy about the name, but I saw that logo and it just drew me in immediately. You think about it, that great big smile. Joe is very inviting, kind of draws you in and then it's a boy in his dog. You don't even have to be able to read the words Eskimo Joe's., I don't know. It's had some appeal, I'll say that. Been a blessing.

Aaron Ackerman:

So that's just amazing that that logo was done like that early on and has never been changed or altered really. So I got a couple more questions about that. So you mentioned he came up with the name Eskimo Joe's, which obviously kind of elicits I guess, the beers cold, whatever. But was there anymore to it? Where did the name come from?

Stan Clark:

Nope. Nothing more than the rhyme. Kind of the mojo sound, which I actually did like even from the get go. Hey, listen, I had three hours of marketing in Oklahoma State. I was kind of a marketing guru, wouldn't you say? But I did know we needed a logo. By golly, the one thing I did think it might do was, it was so unusual that at least it would be memorable.

Aaron Ackerman:

Right.

Stan Clark:

In marketing jargon, maybe it would kind of cut through some clutter, because it is obviously very, what is that.

Aaron Ackerman:

Yeah.

Stan Clark:

So it did create that. Then I just thought the logo gave it some meaning or some pop, and wow. If we only knew what that was going to end up meaning. Yeah. It was just amazing.

Aaron Ackerman:

So, you put the logo. So you had tee shirts that first opening day, July '75.

Stan Clark:

We did.

Aaron Ackerman:

You had two dozen shirts or whatever printed up.

Stan Clark:

Actually six dozen. We had 72 shirts.

Aaron Ackerman:

Okay.

Stan Clark:

I thought it'd take us forever to sell those, and we sold every one of them in the first week and it was just kind of foreshadowing of good things to come. They didn't break the customer by any means. Our initial batch of shirts, $3 and 75 cents for your tee shirt and we gave you free beer with it. So, that was a pretty good deal, I guess. At any rate, we just couldn't believe it.

I will tell you this. When someone bought the shirt, it was just like the biggest honor to me. I thought, man, they really, really liked the place. I knew it was going to conjure up word of mouth advertising. So without a doubt, it was a thrill. It was exciting. We didn't manage it terribly well. We'd sell completely out of shirts and then we'd try to reorder some and that'd take a week or two or three before we got more in. But at any rate, there was at least some demand for them. So that was good.

Aaron Ackerman:

So I'm imagining ... I know it took off pretty well. At what point, and maybe it was right away, but at what point did you and Steve look at each other and say, I think we've got something here. This is a popular place for people to come. They love the name, they're buying shirts, the logo. When did you go, this is my career?

Stan Clark:

Well, I would say this. We didn't have any hardly expenses. We didn't pay ourselves by the hour. We didn't even give ourselves a salary and we were providing most of the labor. So okay, your labor cost is really, really low. Then we had a nice margin on the product itself. So we had good gross margin. We didn't have any receivables. Everything was cash.

Aaron Ackerman:

Right.

Stan Clark:

Everyone paid with cash.

Aaron Ackerman:

Yeah.

Stan Clark:

So we actually were cash flowing within the first 40 days. The bank that gave us our first loan, they required that we had an outside accounting firm at least do compilation statements for us.

Aaron Ackerman:

Right.

Stan Clark:

So at least, we knew right away that we are at least cash flowing. But for the two and a half years we were partners, we were taking everything out of it that it was throwing off for the two of us just to try to live. So it wasn't exactly a get rich quick deal. But hey, cash flow's king. We were doing okay. We were able to meet all of our obligations, make our note payments and pay the rent, et cetera. So it was fine. It wasn't exactly throwing off a fortune.

Aaron Ackerman:

Yeah. So fast forward a few years, it's a real business. It's very popular. Everything's going pretty well, 1984.

Stan Clark:

Whew. So in the fall of 1983 ... Well, first of all, just for a little closure, Steve and I were partners for two and a half years. During that timeframe, he had met the love of his life and gotten engaged and got married and decided that he really needed a change of lifestyle as much as anything.

Aaron Ackerman:

Right.

Stan Clark:

So he was wanting to sell his half interest and I was wanting to buy it. So in January of 1978, I did buy Steve's half interest to become the sole proprietor. That was obviously a major step for me, just because I really did have a passion for the business, for hospitality in general. And I did feel like it was showing enough momentum that I felt like I could work it and grow it. Steve just was actually a lot more entrepreneurial than I am, frankly.

He was wanting to go ahead and do other things, hire people to run this and let's go do this and let's go do this and let's go do this. So anyway, I think it was natural evolution. Like I said, more perspiration, less inspiration if you will. But I really felt like I had something there that I could build on and was more than willing to work it very, very hard. So I did that. After buying Steve's half interest out, my note payment was a heck of a lot less per month than what Steve had been drawing out to support his lifestyle. So I finally actually had some free cash flow. At that point, I was able to reinvest more in business and kind of make it more appealing to more people.

So the next five years or so we're really, really good. We did grow the business. By then, it was a great business, although it was still just 13 of us, still just a beer joint and pretty much a self-service model where people pretty much came up to the bar. We'd go out and take your order. If you want us to bring you a picture beer, we'd do that. But certainly not full service as in full service restaurant.

Aaron Ackerman:

Right.

Stan Clark:

In the fall of '83, they changed the drinking age here in Oklahoma from 18 to 21. So that really was the watershed event. I just had to try to figure out some way to ... basically that just pulls the rug out from under this concept I've got going, which is basically selling three two beer to OSU students, most of whom are 18, 19, 20, 21. That's kind of the ages you are in your four years of undergrad. It was going to take the majority of that target market out. So at any rate, thought long and hard on it.

Aaron Ackerman:

So at that point, your options are try to keep doing what you're doing and only sell to people over 21, which dramatically limits what your customer base.

Stan Clark:

Right. Didn't seem like that was going to be viable.

Aaron Ackerman:

Two, what you did end up doing with the food, which I'll let you talk about. Or three, just sell t-shirts or close it down. That had to be part of one option too, that wasn't a good option.

Stan Clark:

No, I certainly believed in the brand name enough that I felt like somehow or another, we were going to make a go of it. But it really just became obvious to me, the only way to leverage the same facility, the same trade name and everything was just to add a kitchen and just to add to the product mix and increase the hours. Because up until fall of '83, we didn't open until two o'clock in the afternoon every afternoon.

Aaron Ackerman:

Yeah.

Stan Clark:

So when we added a kitchen, very, very simple menu, we went from 13 employees to 45 overnight.

Aaron Ackerman:

Oh, wow.

Stan Clark:

Just to do, like I said, a very limited menu, but full service. So that was a huge change and it was exciting. We didn't get the kitchen open until the spring of '84, but I was thrilled to find out in 1984 that more people actually eat every day than drink every day. Wow. How about that? So at any rate, so it turned out to be the best thing that ever happened.

Aaron Ackerman:

Yeah. I mean, everybody's been there. So you couldn't just throw some peanuts out on the table. I'm sure there was some rules. You had to have, is it more than 50% back then?

Stan Clark:

Pardon me.

Aaron Ackerman:

No, you're good. I'm just going to make a note of the time here.

Stan Clark:

Yeah. I had to cough. Sorry.

Aaron Ackerman:

Okay. You're good.

Stan Clark:

I was about to choke.

Aaron Ackerman:

You need more water or anything?

Stan Clark:

Well, I might as well while we're kind of having a little pause here. Very good.

So when we opened our kitchen, we had this six month window that the state allowed during which we had to derive more than half of our revenues from non-alcoholic based products or we would have to post the place as 21 and over only. Basically be a bar and not be a bar restaurant.

Aaron Ackerman:

Mm.

Stan Clark:

So at any rate, at the end of our six months with all the tee shirts we could sell and our gaming revenue, we still had pool and foos ball, and anything and everything, but of course food sales, we were just barely over 50% with food and tee shirts and everything else versus three two beer. So we did make the threshold and that was obviously hugely significant. Then really since 1984, the food side of the business has been the growth component.

Like I said, just thrilled that so many more people actually would come and enjoy our hospitality to have a meal than we'd ever been able to reach as just a bar, even though we had rabid fans, thankfully, for our bar concept. But in fact, people call. "Can we bring our kids there?" Is this an all age place? Cause it had a reputation. It was Stillwater's jumping little juke joint to say the least.

Aaron Ackerman:

That's right.

Stan Clark:

But at any rate, it was just very exciting time. It just kind of changed everything really. Then for a couple of decades, we're really able to manage it as a restaurant all day and still remained a very viable and hot late night college bar scene come all the way to today. Not as much. It's much more a family restaurant today.

Aaron Ackerman:

Right.

Stan Clark:

I'm proud of that legacy, and we have some great events and we'll have concerts outside in our parking lots and celebrate our anniversaries, et cetera. But by and large, it's mostly a restaurant today. We do still have a pretty, pretty strong following for Wednesday nights at Eskimo Joe's. It's called spend the wheel night, and we just have this wheel. Every 30 minutes we spend it and it's a different beer special. One thing hadn't changed much is kids really respond to cheap beer.

Aaron Ackerman:

One of those universal truths.

Stan Clark:

Yes, sir.

Aaron Ackerman:

So I've probably got this a little bit wrong, so set me straight, Stan. But I've read or heard over the years that the Eskimo Joe kind of that classic tee shirt is like first or second or third, most sold restaurant shirt in the world or something like that. What's the truth about that?

Stan Clark:

Well, I hope all your listeners are writing that down, and you're certainly welcome to repeat it, but I've got to be forthright. November 28th, 1988, the Tulsa world wrote a story about Eskimo Joe's tee shirts. One of the cut lines was ... well, I forget. Eskimo Joe's shirts, collectible or something like that. But bottom line, they said that we were one of the most collectible tee shirts in the country behind Hard Rock London and Hard Rock New York. Now that's the way it was published in the world. Oklahoma's immediately limped Hard Rock, and the urban myth that came from that was that we're the second most soul tee shirt in the United States.

Aaron Ackerman:

Okay.

Stan Clark:

That lives till this day. I promise you, if you sat in Joe's clothes today, you would hear somebody tell another friend that story. So, that one does live on. The world's credible source. I can't tell you where they got that. I didn't provide that, but that's what they came up with, and I'm sure they did their research on it.

Aaron Ackerman:

Yeah.

Stan Clark:

I'll tell you one thing, it's kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy. Once that article published, the rest of 1988, from November 29th, through 12/24, the kind of the holiday or Christmas season, wow, our sales just went through the roof. I like to say it didn't just go up on the demand curve. There was a shift in demand because we were rated. And it really was, it was quite a phenomenon. People came from far and wide.

Aaron Ackerman:

Where are places you've been where you're like, there's a Joe's shirt?

Stan Clark:

Well, with how easy it is to share photos now with the internet, it's just amazing. We get people submit their pictures all the time. We have what we call the wall of fame on our website and literally the Great Wall of China, Vatican City, Red Square in Moscow. You just kind of name just about any place in the world.

Aaron Ackerman:

Everywhere.

Stan Clark:

We got a picture of a guest wearing a Joe's shirt there. So it's pretty special.

Aaron Ackerman:

So cool. Well, I know Joe's has a brand that's recognizable, like we're talking about beyond Stillwater, Oklahoma. Even though Joe's is so closely associated with Stillwater and with OSU, I'm guessing over the years, you've given consideration to opportunities to expand or franchise or do things in other markets, maybe other college towns. So maybe talk a little bit about that. Seems like, you have expanded, you've got the Mexico Joe's concept and Joe Seppe and other things, But you've kind of stuck to your geographical footprint there.

Stan Clark:

Yeah. I did look at several options, looked carefully at Fayetteville, Arkansas, for example, and Lawrence, Kansas. As we really thought about it, we thought, you know, we're not going to be the home team anywhere else, but Stillwater, Oklahoma. I just decided that, while without a doubt, the concept's strong enough, and I do think that it could be successful other places, we just decided, you know what, that's not going to be our deal. We're just going to try to remain in Stillwater. Hopefully be a very significant part of that community. Obviously, we love Oklahoma State University. It's the whole reason I went there in the first place. Oklahoma State University really honored me about ... I think it's been about 13 years ago now. They actually approached me about co-branding with the university.

They asked if we would like to co-brand Eskimo Joe and Buffy with Pistol Pete. I was like, oh my gosh. That was the biggest honor I could even imagine. So to this day, a local brand Eskimo Joe's and then branding with a D one institution like Oklahoma State University, it's the only thing like it in the whole United States of America. This comes back from the branding people at Oklahoma State. They've told this story at the national level and there's just nothing else even like it. So again, I never cared about being the biggest. I just wanted to be special. It's just an honor, every time somebody chooses us and they come there, and that's just really how we look at it. So, our mission is to delight every guest by giving my best.

As long as we can do that, it's provided a wonderful career for me. Gosh, John Killam, our president's been with me for 37 years. Our director of restaurant ops has been with me. Robert Williams has been with me for 38 years. Our buyer at Eskimo Joe's clothes has been with us for 37 years. I had had two guys that have already hit a 40 year mark.

Aaron Ackerman:

Wow.

Stan Clark:

So it's just been a wonderful ride and we just feel so incredibly blessed. At any rate, we just kind of opted not to do that. Could have done it without a doubt, but in what we chose to do. Today, Mexico Joe's just last week we celebrated our 35th anniversary there. We started that concept in 1987 and very, very proud of that.

I've tried three other full service restaurant concepts. The first of which was Stillwater Bay. We operated for almost 21 years, but closed it. It just wasn't really throwing off any economic profit. Then Joe Sepees came along in 2000. We operated that for about 13 years, but never really made any money at it, frankly. So we reconcepted it and we tried Mojo's Rock and Bull Grill for a couple of years. Again, just couldn't make it economic. So I guess I've got two out of five. I'm bating 400. Puts you in the hall of fame in baseball.

Aaron Ackerman:

Exactly. Yeah. All star hall of fame, right there.

Stan Clark:

Lose you millions in the restaurant business.

Aaron Ackerman:

No, I think that's really smart. It's hard, I think for any business that experiences a lot of success to not sort of branch out too far too quick. I love it. You've stuck with this because it is. You said you wanted to be special and it's special. Like you said, that partnership with the branding is pretty unique. Now I know you do ... maybe with that sort of co-branding with Pistol Pete, you do a lot of event driven kind of special edition tee shirts. I'm thinking back to, I don't know, when I was in grade school or high school. I remember the Seattle final four.

Stan Clark:

The toothless in Seattle tee shirt.

Aaron Ackerman:

I remember that one.

Stan Clark:

That was the first time we really tried to kind of celebrate OSU athletic success. There was just nothing like it we'd ever experienced. Oklahoma State University was fortunate enough to beat UMass in the grade eight game. Was on a Sunday and OSU certainly was not favored. UMass had this great big guy in the middle by the name of Marcus Camby. He only had about a 22 year career in the NBA after that, but in the final minutes of that game, Marcus Camby elbowed Scott Pierce, one of our senior forward at the time and just knocked his front tooth out. So anyway, that was just something that happened near the end of the game. So the next morning is we're gathering at the office, our president says, boy, I saw on television they're printing shirts like crazy down in Oklahoma City.

So that was the start. Our PR director at the time said, we got to do something to celebrate this. And when our art director finally rolls in, his name is Mike Stavis. By the way, Mike's done all this crazy Joe's work since 1983. He brought Joe and Buffy out of the circle, out of the logo and brought them to life. Thankfully they were characters. So all these shirts that we do these days. Anyway, Mike's been the guy behind all that, but he walks in. He says, "I bought every newspaper I can get my hands on, but this one writer said something about Scott Pierce be toothless in Seattle." And I go, boom, that's our hook. So Mike did this drawing of Eskimo Joe doing reverse slam dunk with one of his great big front teeth knocked out. It was the hottest selling item we had ever even imagined.

We had screen printers all over the state helping us print them. We had people standing in line at the time. We had a store at Penn square mall and we had a store at Woodland Hills mall in Tulsa and of course Stillwater. We literally had people standing in line to buy shirts that hadn't been printed yet.

Aaron Ackerman:

That is unbelievable.

Stan Clark:

That went on for a week. So anyway, that was a huge home run for our company. Frankly, thankfully we were already doing our own screen printing work. We started that in 1990.

Aaron Ackerman:

Yeah.

Stan Clark:

But I did build a much larger production facility that opened in 1998 to try and be ready for the next toothless in Seattle, which by the way never happened.

Aaron Ackerman:

But you're ready.

Stan Clark:

Oh yeah. But we were ready.

Aaron Ackerman:

Oh man. Well, that's such a great story because it sort of ... I don't know. Maybe a lesson would be just that strike when the iron's hot mentality. Be ready to jump on an opportunity because you turn that around in a couple of days or whatever.

Stan Clark:

Well we were very, very fortunate that we were positioned to do it. The brand was strong. It was just a timing deal. I'm so glad Mike had bought that one newspaper because what an idea it was. That was just a couple years after that movie Sleepless in Seattle had been introduced.

Aaron Ackerman:

Yeah, sure.

Stan Clark:

So it was a good hook. Wasn't any question about it. Cute shirt and yeah, fun.

Aaron Ackerman:

Well, hanks for sharing all of that. I love the story of Joe's and, from the couch after you graduated to where you are today, it's just remarkable. I want to ask you a little bit about leadership. Joe's has a real distinctive culture. I know you're very enthusiastic about providing great experience for your customers. I know you're the same way with your employees. Obviously you've got some of your key team members have been with you decades. How did you build the culture? What was the most important thing to you as you kind of went from being that little corner bar to this major restaurant that people come from all over the state to come enjoy?

Stan Clark:

Well, first of all, it really started at home when I was a ki. My dad always encouraged me to think entrepreneurial, and he modeled that in that he started his own company when I was probably in fourth grade, maybe fifth when that company got off the ground. So I just watched my dad really ... I didn't know that he was mentoring me at the time. I was just growing up.

Aaron Ackerman:

Sure.

Stan Clark:

But I was just overwhelmed with how much he cared about his people, the way he treated the other partners in his company and the way that he and my mother entertained and treated all of his customers. So he was in the distribution pipeline business, which is like if he had done work in Oklahoma, which they never did interestingly, although they were based in Tulsa, but like ONG would've been their customer.

Aaron Ackerman:

Okay.

Stan Clark:

So when there's a new area built, they would install the gas line that comes off the main that's under the street and goes to each house.

Aaron Ackerman:

Right.

Stan Clark:

So that's distribution pipeline. I was just inundated with it. That's who he was. He cared so much about people and I saw that. He preached to me, no company is any better than it's people. So when that's your orientation, the way you're raised, when all of a sudden I'm going to be in business for myself at age 22, that's what I was thinking. I knew our people were going to be the most important thing. We hired our first team member out of the first night's crowd. Really cute gal walks in. I'm kind of punching Steve, "Hey, this might be an employee."

She got up to the bar and I kind of mustered up the courage say, "Hey, how would you like to maybe come to work here?" She just sort of stood back very coy, very, I don't know, just calm, cool collected, kind of a character. She said, "Well, I might think about working for Steve and you, Stan." I was like ... so come to find out, she was the younger sister of a guy I played basketball with in eighth grade and her father had been our coach. So, it's a small state.

Aaron Ackerman:

Yeah.

Stan Clark:

It's a small state, but I just thought that was so neat. I'd love to tell the story. She worked for us for more than two years. So I think that just speaks to the fact that we understood how important people were going to be to our business and that we needed to treat our people very, very well if we wanted them to treat our guests very well.

So anyway, but really it all goes back to my folks, to be honest. So basically I ran the company on the principles and the values I was raised on. Then in 1990, we actually formalized everything. We went out to Meridian Technology Center in Stillwater, Oklahoma, part of the state career tech system here. We created our vision of greatness and it was a wonderful process. We talked about what values did we hold highest and how would we want to play those out in our company. So we chose our team members as most important. So that was a constituency that we wanted to address, and how we were going to interact with our customers was obviously very important. Then also how we would interact with our supplier partners.

So, our vision of greatness addresses how we will work together, how we expect to interact with our guests, and then how we work with our supplier partners. It's just been our gold standard now for what is it, 2022 for 32 years. But I always tell people at smiles 101, which is the orientation, everybody we hire gets an hour and 15 minutes of me and our vision and our video history of our company and everything. But it's just like, really, it's the same as it was even for the first 15 years, because it's basically all based on the same principles.

But when you get people aligned and going in the same direction and you've got something like this vision of greatness as a guiding light for 32 years, it really makes a difference.

Aaron Ackerman:

Yeah.

Stan Clark:

So I heard it said, I'm sure it was a Tom Peters quote, probably back in the eighties, but leadership is all about emotion, not administration. So I need people around me that are A types and that think differently than I do. I'm kind of a microburst of creativity and I got all kinds of energy, but I'm not a ducks in a row guy, but I know that. So I've been able to put people around me that compliment me, that are loyal, that are dedicated, that are just wonderful. So just appreciating the differences and then it can create a good team. I just continue to think that the CEO or the leader's role is just to continue to remind everybody, who are we? What do we stand for? What's important to us. What's our true north? In our case, that's our vision of greatness.

Aaron Ackerman:

Yeah. That is so good. So you've got your kind of your professional back office folks that have been with you for a long, long time. I'm going to guess, your servers and managers in the restaurant, things like that, you've probably had hundreds of students work for you over the years.

Stan Clark:

Tens of thousands.

Aaron Ackerman:

There you go.

Stan Clark:

Literally.

Aaron Ackerman:

What'd you say with the year, since whatever, the last 32 years.

Stan Clark:

Right.

Aaron Ackerman:

You've talked to every single one of them about the importance of what you guys have built, the culture, enthusiasm, fun. I know you guys are all about a fun experience.

Stan Clark:

Absolutely. Well, yes, you're right. It is-

Aaron Ackerman:

That's a big investment on the part of the CEO to spend that time, right?

Stan Clark:

We started this interview at 1:30. I've got smiles 101 tonight at five o'clock in Stillwater.

Aaron Ackerman:

Yeah. Okay.

Stan Clark:

And I'll be there. I have to be. I'm the guy. But it's a ton of fun. It is my job. I keep telling him, every time. Hey look, the reason I'm still doing this at my age is because you ... I'm speaking to our employees now, are the most important thing we have.

Aaron Ackerman:

Mm.

Stan Clark:

Every time a team member interacts with one of our customers, it's like this moment of truth and we're either building our brand or we're basically tearing it down. There's kind of no in between.

Aaron Ackerman:

Yeah.

Stan Clark:

There was a huge white house study done back in the eighties that indicated about 70% of people say they quit a business if they encounter an attitude of indifference on the part of a team member. So I always say we can't afford to have a bad day. You can have this, this stream of consciousness going with a guest that come in every week, every week. One negative experience can stop that. My dad, oh, he was so persnickety about the way he was served food in restaurants. So I also had that paranoia to go along with all my other energy. But I just realized how important every single interaction was. It is. It's just critical. So I'm just begging them. I'm saying, look, our mission is to delight every guest by giving our best. We actually wrote it in first person, my best because when they read it, I want them to own it.

That's what I tell them. I want you to act like you own the place.

Aaron Ackerman:

Yeah.

Stan Clark:

It's so easy for me. I do own the place.

Aaron Ackerman:

Right.

Stan Clark:

But if you'll act like you own it and treat people like you would if it were your place, we're going to be famous.

Aaron Ackerman:

Brilliant.

Stan Clark:

And you will be very, very successful here. There's no question, young people learn a lot being a part of a successful organization. I'm not saying this in a boastful way or anything else. It's in all humility because we're only as good as our guests think we are. We can't stand up there and beat our chest and say were great.

Aaron Ackerman:

Sure.

Stan Clark:

That doesn't mean anything to anybody. What are you doing? Gosh, I was reading something just yesterday about planning and it's like, the best plan, it's 10% plan and it's 90% execution.

Aaron Ackerman:

Right.

Stan Clark:

I believe that forever. It's just, what are we doing for you today? We're only as good as the last meal we served, the last experience that the guest had. If we don't make that a great impression, we can lose it in a heartbeat.

Aaron Ackerman:

Oh, that's great stuff. I'm thinking about, you said your dad sort of was kind of picky about that kind of stuff. I have those conversations with my kids. I won't mention any names of places, but we go through a drive through and they hand the drink to us and it's got liquid dripping down the side. I'm telling my kids, look at this. This is pitiful. You got to take pride and do a good job, whether you're the CEO of the company or you're digging a ditch. It matters.

Stan Clark:

It does matter. Every single piece of that puzzle matters. If you're not serving the customer, you're serving someone who is serving the customer. So the way we interact with each other is just as important as the way we interact with the customer.

Aaron Ackerman:

Oh, I love that because, if you're not serving ... say that again.

Stan Clark:

Well, if you're not serving the customer directly, you're serving someone who is.

Aaron Ackerman:

Yeah. So good.

Stan Clark:

So it's just very important. So our people in our production facility, they're printing the logo on the shirt. Hey, it's not only got to be well printed and well cured so that it's not going to go anywhere. It's got to be printed right in the middle of the shirt too.

Aaron Ackerman:

Yeah.

Stan Clark:

Or it's basically created zero value. In fact, we've got to reject it.

Aaron Ackerman:

Right. Wow.

Stan Clark:

Everything we sell every single day, unconditionally guaranteed to the customer's complete satisfaction. Backed that up for decades now. It's interesting. It's one thing to, I'd be willing to stand behind a $10 hamburger or a $20 meal, whatever that might look like. When we got into the promotional products business 20 years ago, and now we're standing behind a $15,000 order.

Aaron Ackerman:

Yep.

Stan Clark:

That's a little bit different deal.

Aaron Ackerman:

Sure.

Stan Clark:

And people looked at me like I was insane when I said, well, that's the same guarantee. The principle here is you can't buy my principles for any price.

Aaron Ackerman:

Right.

Stan Clark:

So if we have a supplier that won't back us up, well, then their opportunity with us going forward will be very much diminished. If they're our only option, maybe. But if they're not, probably we're not going to be able to go back there. So it's just critical to get with people that align with you and what you stand for, but we've stood behind countless orders of that magnitude and greater. I tell you what, your clients never forget it.

Aaron Ackerman:

Hmm. For sure.

Stan Clark:

They never forget it.

Aaron Ackerman:

Well, I know COVID fatigue is in full force and at some point we probably won't talk as much about it, but I am always interested in hearing from business leaders about the challenges they faced. That could be with business disruption, like in a restaurant, staffing challenges. Now we're in supply chain and inflation. Talk just a little bit, how did Joe's navigate the last couple of years? I know that there was probably a lot of curve balls you had to deal with.

Stan Clark:

There certainly were. Of course nobody saw it coming. We had had the best year in our history by a long ways in 2019. 2020 just started out house on fire. Things were just great in January and February, and we were just anticipating just unbelievable success and growth and continued prosperity, frankly. Then in March of 2020, just the whole world changed. I remember where I was the night they canceled that Thunder game. That's the night everything changed.

Aaron Ackerman:

Yeah. It was a Wednesday night.

Stan Clark:

I was in Phoenix, Arizona, Scottsdale, Arizona with some other restaurateurs. We were on little golf outing and we'd come in and we watched OSU played the only game that was played in the big 12 conference tournament that year. We made a layup with one second left. We won that game. That was exciting. Then we're going to watch the Thunder game. Of course the game didn't happen and phones started blowing up and life changed as we knew it. But at any rate, fast forward another week or so, and we closed completely, and we closed for five weeks and five days, which felt like an eternity to me.

Aaron Ackerman:

Yeah.

Stan Clark:

We never closed. We're closed on Thanksgiving day and We're closed on Christmas day. Other than that, 363 days a year. It was just haunting. If you're familiar with Stillwater Elm Street that Joe's is on, Duck Street, the campus on the west. There wasn't a car in sight for days. No activity. It was like, I don't know what, an atomic bomb had gone off or something. It was just haunting.

At any rate, we did a lot of things that we would've never dreamt about doing. We were helping people figure out how to file for unemployment. The federal benefit on top of the state unemployment benefit. We had a lot of people that actually were doing very, very well and we wanted them to be in the best possible place they could be. As soon as we had work available, we did expect them to come back. If they didn't, then we would report them, because it's not fair. We did the right thing.

Aaron Ackerman:

Right.

Stan Clark:

Not only for our people, but we just did the right thing, period. But at any rate, I'm just so thrilled to say that we did at least survive it. We did come through it and tried to do the best we possibly could for all of our people.Gosh, it was just crazy.

Aaron Ackerman:

Just survive. Yeah.

Stan Clark:

Just survive. Yeah.

Aaron Ackerman:

No, that is crazy. Is it basically pre pandemic feeling now at Joe's?

Stan Clark:

Well, thankfully the good news is demand is strong.

Aaron Ackerman:

Yep.

Stan Clark:

So business is back. Our biggest challenge today is getting back to full employment.

Aaron Ackerman:

Yeah.

Stan Clark:

Finding enough people that are willing to come back to work. We're still not there yet.

Aaron Ackerman:

Sure.

Stan Clark:

So we're operating at less than a hundred percent of our capacity, just because we don't have enough folks. But again, very, very thankful demand's strong and we're doing well. We could be doing a little better if we could just get a few more people back.

Aaron Ackerman:

Yeah. Well, I know everything you guys do is fun. You provide a great experience. What's next for Joe's, other than keep being the jumping little juke joint.

Stan Clark:

Well, we certainly will intend to try to keep the joint jumping. That's a fact. To be really honest, that's kind of what it's all about. I'm an operator. I love the day in and the day out of it. It's a constant challenge without a question. You never get tired of. It never gets boring to me. I did mention Eskimo Joe's promotional products group. That is a business to business unit that we established actually, after we built that great big production facility waiting for the next toothless in Seattle that we referred to earlier.

One of the reasons I got into promotional products business was to leverage that investment. So we have a lot more production capacity out there than what we could create demand for at retail, with our brand. So in 2002, we started Eskimo Joe's promotional products group, and we sell logoed merchandise of all types to basically anybody and everybody. Oklahoma State University is a huge client. Bank First is a client.

You name it, anybody, everybody uses promotional products at some level. Pins, tee shirts, anything you name it. So it's been a blast. It was not as easy as I thought it might be. Took me a decade to actually get my very first little dab of black ink. So, that's a struggle, but I wasn't going to quit printing for Eskimo Joe's clothes anyway. So I was very invested in that. So I really say that kind of kidding myself a little bit, but it was just more challenging than I would've ever thought. Candidly, is by far the thinnest margin business I've ever been involved in. Everything else I do is retail,

Aaron Ackerman:

Right.

Stan Clark:

This is a wholesale business, and margins are about half. So it was tough. It also just takes a really highly professional sales team to interact directly with business clients.

Aaron Ackerman:

Sure.

Stan Clark:

So those aren't those aren't minimum wage jobs, by any stretch, but I'm very, very proud to say it's become the largest grossing company we have. I see that really as my growth vehicle going forward.

Aaron Ackerman:

Okay. Very cool. Well, if, if listeners want to learn more about any of your businesses under kind of the Stan Clark company's umbrella, where can they go find you?

Stan Clark:

Well, EskimoJoe's.com will get you just about anything you want to learn about us, because there's ways into all of it.

Aaron Ackerman:

Sure.

Stan Clark:

But today the operating companies are Eskimo Joe's Eskimo Joe's clothes, Mexico Joe's and Eskimo Joe's promotional products groups. So all of those operating entities have their own websites. The management company and the company from which I draw a paycheck is called Stan Clark companies. We just provide strategic direction and resources and just council, accounting services, art, PR, everything except operations.

Aaron Ackerman:

Right.

Stan Clark:

HR, all that comes out of the Stan Clark company. So that's how we're structured and it's a fun place to go to work every day.

Aaron Ackerman:

That's awesome. Well, Hey, congrats on all the success. I didn't go to OSU. Didn't grow up in Stillwater, but I'm just as proud that Joe's is in Oklahoma. I love to tell people about Eskimo Joe's and just impressive. So congrats on everything.

Stan Clark:

Well, thank you for that. We are very humbled and Oklahoma's been very, very, very supportive of us. That's certain.

Aaron Ackerman:

Well, Stan, I think you know, I've got five questions we hit our guests with. If you're ready, I'm going to give those to you now. So what was the very first way you ever made money?

Stan Clark:

Love this story. Love this question. My original partner and I took a summer job. First job I ever had at a place in Tulsa called Stringer Brothers Nursery. Our job was we shoveled rocks into bag for a nickel of bag. Mr. Stringer's favorite expression, and I still use it to this day was, "Well, heck that worked out like a shirt on a pocket."

Aaron Ackerman:

That's great.

Stan Clark:

Anyway, I'll never forget it.

Aaron Ackerman:

So you and Steve were in business long before Joe's.

Stan Clark:

Long before Joe's, that's right.

Aaron Ackerman:

You were shoveling rocks into bags. Love it. Well, you've spent your entire adult life doing this thing. What would you be doing if you'd gone a completely ... If Steve never came in and got you off the couch and said, let's open a bar, what would Stan Clark have been doing?

Stan Clark:

Well, interestingly, because I always wanted to be an entrepreneur, when I interviewed in the spring of my senior year, I did go to campus and take some interviews. Nobody even thought about offering me a job, because all I talked about was how well, I really hope to work for myself someday type deal. But I did have an assistantship lined up with the College of Business. So I would've pursued a master of business administration and I would've been a grad assistant. The only other thing I really ever thought I might enjoy doing other than trying to work for myself was to teach. I did love the College of Business and the whole process, matriculating at Oklahoma State and the college of business. I really did enjoy it. I really thrived in it. So actually, I thought I might teach at college level.

Aaron Ackerman:

Okay, cool. Well, what would you like to go back and tell your 20 year old self?

Stan Clark:

Oh my gosh. 20, that's still in college. I don't know. I was pretty much a goofball, but the one thing that I was willing to do was to go to class. I figured out real quickly that if I would go to class and listen, that I could do fine.

Aaron Ackerman:

Yeah.

Stan Clark:

I'm not the guy that wants to go read the book and do all that on my own. I'm very much an auditory learner, so I enjoyed that aspect of it. So I am pleased that I at least did that much, but I could have been a whole lot more productive than I was.

Aaron Ackerman:

So what's the title of your book?

Stan Clark:

Wow. Title of my book. Hmm.

Stan Clark:

I knew this question was coming, but I just don't really have an answer for it. I have been encouraged actually to write a book and I've actually thought a lot about it, but I never got all the way down to the title. I don't know. I don't know. I think it'd have to be something about hospitality obviously, and just delighting in serving others. I really do enjoy the hospitality business and really it's funny. People talk about what a great experience it is to work for oneself and all that. That is true, but I really believe that it is my responsibility to all 400 plus of our team members.

I really feel like I work for all of them. So it's just really an interesting deal. That's just my view of it. I've always felt that way. So I don't know what it'd be, but it'd be something about serving others.

Aaron Ackerman:

Yeah. I love it. You've got enough great stories to fill the book up. That's the hard part. Someone else can help us come up with the final title.

Stan Clark:

Right.

Aaron Ackerman:

So what's the best advice you've ever received.

Stan Clark:

Wow. I think I go all the way back to my father when I was a kid and just his talking about how no business is any better than it's people. I just so, so much believe that and just take so much pride really in the way we treat each other within our organization. That's just always kind of been paramount for me. Yeah, that's absolutely it. And to think entrepreneurial, that was great.

Aaron Ackerman:

Yeah.

Stan Clark:

Because it really gave me a sense of purpose. I enjoyed learning about all the principles of business, but there was always that, how would I apply that? It wasn't so much just thinking about being able to go get a job.

Aaron Ackerman:

Yeah. That's great. Well, Stan, thanks so much. I really appreciate you taking the time. I know you've got a smiles class you got to get to tonight. You got other stuff to do. So I'm really grateful. Thanks for sharing, being open and transparent. Hey, look forward to seeing yet Joe's soon.

Stan Clark:

I look forward to it as well. All the best.

Aaron Ackerman:

Thanks.

Stan Clark:

Thank you.

Aaron Ackerman:

That's all for this episode of How That Happened. Thank you for listening. Be sure to visit HowThatHappened.com for show notes and additional episodes. You can also subscribe to our show on iTunes, Spotify, Google podcast, or Stitcher. Thanks for listening. This content is for information purposes only and does not constitute professional advice. Copyright 2022 Hogan Taylor LLP, all rights reserved. To view the Hogan Taylor general terms and conditions, visit www.hogantaylor.com.