Serial entrepreneur Ben Riegsecker is the Owner and CEO of The Casselman, a historic bed and breakfast outfitted with a memorable restaurant and bakery. Ben’s success comes from maintaining a healthy work-life balance and his background of excellent work ethic across multiple industries. He’s also passionate about working with young leaders to help guide and challenge them in developing their entrepreneurial skills.
Here’s a Glimpse of What You’ll Hear:
- Ben Riegsecker shares his entry to the hospitality industry without any prior experience
- How to improve your team’s atmosphere and environment
- Ben’s insights on mentorship that helped him improve his business
- Hiring strategies for a better team-building experience
In this episode…
In this episode of the SpotOn Series, Bela Musits welcomes Ben Riegsecker, Owner and CEO of The Casselman. They discuss the challenges of entering the hospitality industry without prior experience, managing and scaling a business from the ground up, and understanding the value of hiring the right people. Ben goes on to share practices to build respect in a team environment and what mentoring strategies helped him out in the industry.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
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Episode Transcript
Intro 0:04
Welcome to the Top Business Leaders Show, powered by Rise25 Media, we feature top founders, executives and business leaders from all over the world.
Bela Musits 0:20
Hello, listeners. I’m the host for this episode of the SpotOn podcast where we feature top restaurant tours, investors and business leaders. This is part this is part of our SpotOn Series. SpotOn has the best-in-class payment platform for retail. And they have a flagship solution called SpotOn Restaurant, where they combine marketing software and payments all in one. They have served everyone from large chains like Dairy Queen and Subway to small mom-and-pop restaurants. To learn more, go to spoton.com This episode is brought to you by Rise25. We help b2b businesses get return on investment clients referrals and strategic partnerships through custom done for you podcast. If you have a b2b business and want to build a great relationship with clients, referral partners and thought leaders in your space, there is no better way to do it than through podcast and content marketing. To learn more, go to rise25.com or email us at support@rise25.com. Today’s guests for the show is Ben Riegsecker. Ben is a diverse background. He began his career by starting a residential and commercial construction company. Then after selling the business, he managed a nonprofit for three years. After that, he bought his first restaurant, which was five years ago. Now his company owns two restaurants, a motel, a historic in two grocery stores, and a hardware store. Ben is most passionate about working with and mentoring young leaders. His guiding principle is to provide a safe place for people to be challenged and to reach their full potential. Welcome to the podcast, Ben.
Ben Riegsecker 2:11
Thank you. Thanks for having me.
Bela Musits 2:13
Sure. It’s wonderful to have you as a guest. So you’ve had quite a journey here. Can you talk a little bit about the beginning and how it all started?
Ben Riegsecker 2:22
Yeah, really what started was, I mean, if you’d take your whole way back to my high school years, and I didn’t know what my problem was, but I couldn’t learn in school. I was terrible at it. And looking back, I definitely have a bad case of dyslexia. So what I ended up doing is I was terrible at it. I don’t tell a lot of people this, but I just dropped out of school and I started working in construction. And, and but I didn’t know how to work I work really hard. I was I was a good worker, and 18 years old, I was the foreman of the crew and things to keep going and 2008 Hit obviously, the construction kind of stopped. So I bought equipment from my, where I worked at the employer, started my own business, and just kind of took off. And I we grew into a lot of different things. We did Commercial Roofing, we did residential housing, and several different crews going and it was a good, it was a journey. I really enjoyed that. But what the thing that I think that I identified in those early years was, I was out there trying to prove to the world that I was successful. I failed at school. So I had this drive that wasn’t very healthy. It affected my family and my it just you it’s not fun when you’re trying to prove that I’m somebody. And so that was kind of the early years. And through that process of finding my identity, I ended up selling the business and refocus for three years on a nonprofit mission. And so that’s, that’s kind of what, what got me going there. I guess the first, my first 10-12 years. Yeah, yeah.
Bela Musits 4:12
Well, you know, owning your own business clearly takes a lot of drive. But it also takes a ton of time. Right. And, and we only have so much time in every day. So you got to make sacrifices someplace and finding that right, right. Balance is a real challenge. And it sounds like you found it.
Ben Riegsecker 4:30
Yeah, I so that’s been a journey for me and I’ve been so. So getting getting through that process of life is was painful is hard on the marriage, my family, but I feel like I’ve really, really got my priorities in check. And to be honest, I’m having a whole lot more fun now. Focusing focusing on people making a difference in my community. And yeah, and it’s under stressful. If you know, it’s not about me, at the end of the day. I mean, I’m gonna do the best I possibly can. But So your identity is not in my work. And if you can separate that it’s been very healthy for us.
Bela Musits 5:06
That’s wonderful. That’s those are some some great thoughts there. And you said that very well. So you’ve worked in like several very diverse industries, right? I mean, construction, versus versus a restaurant versus historic in. So what are the was there like a master plan for that? Or were you just sort of opportunistic as those things came along?
Ben Riegsecker 5:31
Yeah, I think it was, to be honest, I never really was intrigued with the restaurant business I would we work construction. So I’d got eat all the time. And I’d count all these people in the bag. And I’m like, How in the world can you make any money doing restaurant? And I had these people call me and I was when I was when we’re involved in our mission. And they said, Hey, we got this restaurant is I said, I’m not interested. Obviously, I just didn’t, it didn’t interest me. But after them pursuing method, well, we’ll check it out. So I got some friends at new hot new restaurants and said, Hey, I’m willing to give this a try. And they gave me some advice on what to offer, you know, to get this thing started. And, and I couldn’t believe we, we made the deal happen. And it seemed like it was a long shot. And I just remember, when I found out I was buying a restaurant, I just was like, What am I doing? Like, I have no experience, right? Absolutely. I don’t cook.
Bela Musits 6:24
Right. Right. The experience you have is eating in a restaurant,
Ben Riegsecker 6:28
right? So it was interesting, what I did was, what do you do? You know, I was shoot, I’m pro I was probably 33-34 years old. Yeah, five years, you’re 34 years old. And I walk in here one day, and you own a restaurant. And it’s like, everybody’s looking at you. So I, the first day, what I did, I literally went down and I watched it. I just thought I’m gonna just start down here at the bottom of the ladder. Yeah, cleaning. And then we had some meetings with all the team and we got everybody. And just start that you just got to start at the bottom and you got to work. I’m the first one to dig in. I mean, I’m not going to be afraid to get my hands dirty. And they know that and I think that was a big, how do you win the respect of the team when you’re brand new. And I believe it’s hard work and just leading with an example. And so it didn’t take too long there to get the support. I mean, I had vision walking into new place had price 60-70 employees, and I’m like, we’re gonna lose half of them. What am I going to do? It actually worked out. Worst, we have a bakery, we bake all our stuff from scratch down in the down in the lower level of the restaurant. And it’s been it’s been a journey, while learning how to make it work.
Bela Musits 7:51
And now you also have an inn, and it’s a hotel. So how did you get into that business?
Ben Riegsecker 7:58
Well, the we have a hotel, and that’s like, across the street from the restaurant. And then the building that the restaurant is in was built in 1840s. So that we have historic rooms up above with the clawfoot tub fireplace. And wow, people like that historic feeling. So we kind of had that a lot of that wasn’t placed when I bought it. We just are making it better with whether it’s motel, remodeling the rooms and keeping things, keeping things. But that wasn’t I would say the motel was probably the easiest part of the whole. The whole thing, it’s easier to manage. You just got you know, eat up the cleaning staff and the basic stuff with the restaurant industry when it comes to your food cost and your labor and trying to figure out how to when they’ve been doing it. Like just an example the people that had it before us. The staff could eat whatever they wanted, was. And I remember the one I just kept tracking the one kid he’s a dishwasher is four hour shifts 840 $8. So it was like it was like it was just not managed that well. So there’s all this stuff going on, and just going in there and say, Hey, guys, I really appreciate it. But you’re gonna have to pay 50% of your food. Yeah. And just putting some guidelines in place just because it was, you know, it wasn’t making any money obviously when we bought it.
Bela Musits 9:24
Yeah. Yeah. And a couple of hardware stores now too.
Ben Riegsecker 9:29
Yeah. So what we ended up doing is we bought a grocery store. Just a couple years ago, we use that that worked out really well because we started buying all our stuff for the restaurants from our from herself if you could say so we do two deliveries a week that come in here. Yeah, and then and then somewhere in the middle of that we bought this. There was a shopping center kit and rundown just up the road from us. So it’s just kind of god thing how that all worked out. But we ended up buying the shopping center. And it had a hardware in there and the guy was going out of business and I didn’t want to lose the store. I’m not I’m familiar with that. Obviously, from the construction side, it wasn’t a big deal. But like, so we ended up buying this 17,000 square foot hardware store. Just to keep it I just didn’t want to lose it. And then it had a, like a supermarket at the one end of the of the plot shopping center. So we put a noose, another grocery store in there. So it’s just kind of I don’t know, it’s weird opportunity. I don’t really go looking for this stuff. It just stuff comes up. Yeah. And and taking advantage of that and figuring out how to do it with getting the right people.
Bela Musits 10:48
Yeah. So have you had sort of a mentor or someone who’s sort of been guiding you through this? Or you know, someone that you look up to that books you read? Or? Or how do you how do you sort of get that knowledge, right and guidance to help you make these decisions?
Ben Riegsecker 11:06
Yeah, so when I first came here, I used it as a brand. My wife was grew up in this area, but it was brand new area. So here you are brand new guy had no idea you just moved in within two days you own I mean, we moved in two days before we purchased this place. And so after about six months, eight months, I was like, it’s it’s a lonely job. Obviously, you’re at the top who you talk to even trust. Yeah, exactly. So I found, I found a mentor group, it’s called convene. They started in California, but it’s just a group of guys that get together once a month. And then the leader comes out here, and has an hour session with you every month, I feel like that was a pretty big, pretty big deal. Just to have a safe environment where you can, let’s say I’m ready to make a business deal. I’ll take it to this team of and there might be a doctor, and there might be me just a vast variety of leaders. And I’ll say, Hey, guys, this is the situation I’m dealing with this month, what do you think, and having that kind of that’s just powerful. Yeah, have that have that kind of in the just to have them guys around the table and saying, Ben, this is the direction I think I would go. So that’s probably been the biggest thing, I obviously I do a lot of reading. And I’m doing a lot of I mean, I do a lot of stuff like that just to see what’s going on out there. But a lot of it is just my passion is I, my passion is I want to make a difference in my community and work and make leaders with these guys that don’t have a chance. There’s a lot of needs out there. So I look at these businesses as a way as a tool to get invest in people. And most leaders I talked to, they are like, man, it’s such a pain we can’t hire we can’t you know, and it is it’s tough. Let’s be real. But that is what energizes me, because that is what I want to do. I want to be in there. I guess you can say in the weeds with these people. Because that’s what I’m passionate about. So that makes it a lot easier for me because to start a new restaurant, or to start a new market. We just opened it may hired I think it was like 30 Some people. How do you find them people but we had 180 applicants were in a small town. So like I felt like it was people are and then we invest in them to serve building the reputation of like, these guys aren’t all that bad to work for.
Bela Musits 13:27
Yeah, yeah. So where are you located?
Ben Riegsecker 13:30
Yeah, Western Maryland. It’s called Grantsville. Maryland. It’s right along 68. Interstate 68. Maryland has a little strip in between West Virginia and PA, we’re right in that in that in the mountains in the mountains of Maryland? Yeah, so that’s pretty rural. Yeah, it really is. Yeah. Yeah.
Bela Musits 13:50
Yeah. So this kind of leadership group that you talked about, that you get together with, you know, they take a lot of different forms, and there’s many of them around the country. And if you’re not the first person that has has really talked greatly about the wonderful guidance that you’ve received from one of those, so that’s, that’s really a good recommendation from you as well that people should check those things.
Ben Riegsecker 14:16
And I feel like so I actually put a board over my CPA and another good mentor over top of the business and I feel like you put these guys in place, but then you got they don’t do any good if you don’t listen to him, right. You know, it’s easy for me just to go do stuff. But I have learned I don’t do it unless we’re all on the same. Yeah. Even if it’s me as the owner, I can do whatever I wanted. But to be successful. It’s so important to have these guys, but then the key is to actually listen to their advice.
Bela Musits 14:46
Yeah. So I think what just to make sure I understood, so you also have sort of a board of directors that you put in place for your business.
Ben Riegsecker 14:53
Yeah, yeah. Two good guys and my wife. Yeah, that’s great. All right. It really helps.
Bela Musits 15:00
Yeah. So what sort of if you reflect back? Oh, well, I know one thing I want to talk about, like restaurants and motels have sort of what’s often called the front of the house and the back of the house. Yeah, they did. Right. And, you know, they take different personalities to work in them and stuff. And so when you’re interviewing someone and looking for someone, how do you sort of think about, oh, this would be a wonderful person for the front of the house, or this would be a great for the back of the house?
Ben Riegsecker 15:31
Yeah. So one thing I do that’s probably a little different is, I do a lot of the interviews, but I don’t hire anybody without, like, the other couple of weeks ago, I had a dishwasher. And he didn’t seem like a great, you know, didn’t have a job. He’s 21, you know, the whole. But so I got two of the cooks. And I said, Hey, I’m bringing this guy, and you guys are going to interview him. And I wasn’t even in on the interview, and you let me know, if you want to hire him. So a lot of the times I tried to get them pretty involved. So it’s not me just bringing in amazing what that does. Because now they it’s not me just bringing some dude in that they’re like, why did you hire this guy? Right? They’re also invested in it. Yeah. So I never hire, unless it’s a top tier employee. Unless they give me the Go ahead. And I feel like that, so then they’ll say, Ben, I don’t think they’re gonna be good. And I probably knew that. But I’ll let them say, hey, they might be really good as a waitress, or as a, you know, as a food runner. So a lot of it’s, I kind of lead the team build itself. So that that makes it so it’s not, it’s not just me saying, hey, is this gonna be a good fit for the front of the house? So creating that atmosphere, and part of the reason I do that is I want them to learn what it’s like on the other side. And sometimes it’s the funniest little thing, but these, they, they think that’s the coolest thing. They got to sit in an interview. And so that’s going back to trying to create it later. And then with talk a little bit about customer service, like how do you handle that? Like, how do we be exceptional? How do we try to make it the best experience? I try to have my waitresses, they’re supposed to give a dessert away just to whoever they want to on a shift. So like, I’m trying to teach them how it feels to make somebody’s day to bless somebody. So that’s, and a lot of them have never experienced them. So it’s like, no, I want you to make sure that somebody I don’t care who it is, maybe cheer somebody up today. Yeah. And that has been a big, big thing.
Bela Musits 17:34
And in those two examples you gave with the cooks, interviewing someone, and with the waitresses, being able to make a decision, you’re empowering them to make decisions, right? It’s very powerful, because normally they’re they have they have jobs where they get to make no decision.
Ben Riegsecker 17:51
And it is a little scary. Like when we had a snowstorm, and there’s people here that one of the hostesses, she, she led them and it was fine. She knows I would do this. But she she did something that I was like, she had a bunch of people in here and we were closed because it gave him all the food and just said, Hey, don’t worry about paying anything. Take care of it, which I do that. But part of me in my mind, I’m like, you know, that seemed like a lot. But I don’t say anything. Because I don’t want him to not do it. There’s times I’ll coach them and say, Hey, next time, just, you know, this might be something to think about. But that’s a big thing as a leader is let them make some mistakes. Let them have that. Because as long as the numbers at the end of the month are okay, then who cares? Yeah. That’s been that’s been interesting. So
Bela Musits 18:40
if you look out, you know, if you look into your crystal ball, if you have one, and look out three to five years in the future, what what do you see for yourself then?
Ben Riegsecker 18:51
I don’t know. I always say like, I, I don’t know what God has. For me. I look at opportunities that come up. And I didn’t expect to buy a shopping center, you know, but like, I can’t really say I have some big plan that I want to have five, six restaurants. I don’t I have a lot of people that want us to put different restaurants in Morgantown, West Virginia, it’s like an hour away and different things. But unless the opportunity comes, it’s hard. I’m the kind of guy that I kind of as the doors open, I go through them. Yeah, like, it’s hard for me to say, hey, we’re gonna have a goal, we’re gonna do X amount of restaurants and that’s just not how I work. I look at the opportunities that come and then we analyze this as they come and then decide so it’s just not easy for me to say hey, this is what the five year plan looks like. Yeah, yeah, but But I do think we continue to grow I’m firm believer for not growing and we’re not, you know, for just maintaining it’s not healthy. So we’re gonna be growing. I just don’t know exactly what.
Bela Musits 19:56
Yeah. So if you reflect now by going back to You know, your construction company to where you are today? Where there was, was there one or several kind of big turning points in your life that sort of, you know, you talked a little bit about it earlier about, you know, the delight come on and say, Gee, I need to change things or, you know, the here, here’s something I want to do. Now, what was there a particular incident that triggered that? Or was it just sort of a gradual sort of progression?
Ben Riegsecker 20:30
I knew I was, I knew I wasn’t happy. In the early years, I just I was living the American dream, I had a lot of projects going and in you look, you read and it’s all about, you know, growing, and but it just wasn’t fulfilling. So I had that hole. And I was just like, why am I doing this every morning, I’m just pushing, pushing, pushing. And then obviously, my wife I was, you know, it was tough. She was I was stressing her out, I was stressing the family because I was feeding this ego thing that I was trying to fulfill and is impossible. So I got to that point where I like, I had this opportunity, they had some guys call me and say, Hey, we, we want you to run this organization for us. And, and I was like, You know what, it was the hardest thing to do is the worst financial business decision I could have done. But I knew it was now or never, I it was just, I just had this feeling if I don’t get out of this, and really focus. And obviously looking back, if people were at that point it it seemed foolish, I had some of my sales guys banned. This is a worst decision you could make. And it was I’m gonna be honest, if when you look at the numbers, it was crazy. But here I am. Enjoying life. It was a foolish decision. But it’s what I had to do. And looking back, I wouldn’t change a thing.
Bela Musits 21:54
So so this was what you’re talking about is selling the construction company and then going to run this not for profit. Yeah. It was a mission-driven not for profit. Yes.
Ben Riegsecker 22:02
So it was a just a mix of my. So I went from construction, this was healthcare. So running, running a big nursing home, oh, like, wow, they were 160 170 employees to and then we would run all the money we we we would send overseas to different organizations. And it was awesome. Because I got to travel. I was in India and Pakistan and all these places that I got to go see where our money and we were. So that was it was definitely a it was a big stretching experience for me as well. But that’s what I went from the construction to that the
Bela Musits 22:39
wow, wow. So that the money that the profits from that went overseas, yeah. Help other people in other countries?
Ben Riegsecker 22:46
Yes. So we were very instrumental on it. We’d start whatever the needs were mission schools. Were pretty involved in that kind of thing.
Bela Musits 22:55
That’s great. That’s great. So Ben, I want to start wrapping this up. Is there something that I have not asked you that that you’d like to share with the audience and our listeners?
Ben Riegsecker 23:05
I don’t think so. I mean, I think my, I think you’re hearing this is just like, I look at her at the country. And there’s a lot of things that we can talk about negatively. But I believe it’s up to us as leaders. And if we don’t step up to the plate, and it’s what I hear it all the time these kids don’t not at work, they just are on their phones. And I’m like, Yeah, but that’s what we got to work with. And if we’re not going to embrace it and say, How are we going to make a difference? It’s we, it looks bleak. But if guys, if we can say hey, you know what, God’s given us gifts, this is one of mine in leadership, I’m going to take it, and we’re going to do everything we can to help these youth, these people that need need help. And that’s the difference. I just, I just had one of my I have a one-to-one with my staff. And I had a kid he’s 20 his his first job is two years. He’s been on here for two years. And he says, Ben, this has been the best two years of my life. And we’re giving these guys purpose. You know, like, that is a secret, I believe, and, and we use our businesses as tools to make a difference in our community. And that’s, that’s my passion. I know, there’s a lot of people out there doing it. But instead of sticking their head in the sand saying, You know what, this is the worst two years. And it has been I mean, I’ve faced everything everyone else has, and it’s been brutal. But at the end of the day, you know, we’re here because of these people, we care about him. That puts a whole new attitude on your face. And I think it makes the difference in my opinion.
Bela Musits 24:32
Yeah. Yeah. Well, very well said. That’s a great way to wrap this. Wrap this up. And hey, Ben, thank you very much for being on the show. You’ve been a wonderful, wonderful guest. I’ve really enjoyed our conversation.
Ben Riegsecker 24:42
Okay, well, thanks for having me. I really enjoyed it.
Bela Musits 24:45
Take care.
Ben Riegsecker 24:45
Yeah, you too.
Outro 24:47
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