6 Questions with Wayback President Patrick Conlin

Growing up one of my first jobs was parking cars as a valet at a friend of mine’s family-owned restaurant and catering hall. That’s what got me interested in the restaurant business to start, and it hasn’t ended. Seeing people coming into the restaurant with friends and family excited to have a great meal and experience inspired me to get into this industry.

While I never jumped into the full-service restaurant side, partly based on what my friend’s father told me about having to know how to cook for hundreds of people at a time, knowing how to bartend, and the complexities of running a full-service kitchen. I have been in QSR and fast casual segments since I graduated from Rutgers University.

I’ve been with Wayback Franchising LLC, the parent company for Wayback Burgers, a fast casual burger franchise, for nine years, and time goes quick when you’re having fun. We have franchise restaurants in over thirty states. This year we’re opening in four new states, Kentucky, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana along with new restaurants in areas we currently have a presence.

Wayback started as Jake’s Hamburgers back in 1991 in Delaware really as a local roadside burger joint. Quality burgers cooked fresh on a flat top griddle, fries, and awesome hand dipped, thick milkshakes, with great service. We’ve elevated our appearance over the years for sure from that roadside “shack” but never forgot the roots of great food, excellent service and a sense of nostalgia at the heart of everything we do.

Our success and growth as a franchise company comes from our franchisees. These are people that have that entrepreneurial spirit but want to ensure their success with a brand and systems that are in place for them to excel.

That’s the responsibility for the team at the support center, to continue to develop great products, improve our systems and support our franchisees so that they can execute at the restaurant level and provide exceptional experiences for their guests. It’s not easy to run restaurants, but we can train anyone to drop fries, make milkshakes and make a great burger. We can’t train people to be friendly and smile. It’s the only item in our business that costs nothing but has a high ROI.

I enjoy coming to the office watching the growth of the brand, the team and our franchisees. Many of our corporate team members have been with us for over ten years, some of them their first job out of college. That’s unusual in the franchising business and can be directly attributed to the culture that we try to foster.

Younger people that read this are not going to believe there was a time when newspapers were delivered to homes, but my first job was a paperboy. When I was 12 or 13 years old, I started delivering The Star Ledger newspaper to houses in the neighborhood on my bike before school in the mornings. It was fun and taught me different business practices early on.

The most efficient way to make the delivery route, quality control, sometimes papers were torn when they were delivered, accounting and collections, resolving issues and growing my business. The Sunday paper had many parts and inserts that you had to put together on Saturdays and then add to the Sunday paper. Balancing the Sunday papers on the bike might’ve been the biggest challenge and many a time the bike fell over and the papers went flying. It was a great learning experience at an early age.

That’s a tough choice. Depends on what I’m in the mood for, but what I order the most is a Cheeeesy Burger with bacon. Two beef patties, four, yes, FOUR, slices of American cheese on an inverted, grilled butter bun. It’s like having a grilled cheese with a burger in the middle of it, gooey, delicious, decadent, but simple. Naturally, I’d order an Oreo Milkshake with whipped cream. I’m not counting calories that day.

Favorite cuisine aside from Wayback Burgers?

That’s easy, Italian food. I’m not a good cook; I can do basic things in the kitchen without hurting anyone. There are so many different things you can get at an Italian restaurant from pasta, seafood, chicken, veal, great apps, salads. I could go for Italian food multiple times in a week, not even counting in pizza.

I have two people that I think of as leaders: one in sports, one in music. I’m a big sports fan and there are a lot of similarities to being successful in sports and successful in business. My leader from the sports world is Magic Johnson. The consummate team player as a point guard, but big enough to play various positions and he did so when called upon for his team to succeed.

He also played with his famous smile all the time. He wasn’t working out on the basketball court; he was having fun. He’s taken that approach since he retired and has become a highly successful businessman in many different ventures. That will and desire to succeed on the court has translated into a successful business empire.

In the music space I take inspiration from the late Jimmy Buffet. As a musician, he created a whole genre of music and followers, called Parrotheads. He created songs, he wrote, he performed. Like Magic Johnson, when he performed, he wasn’t working, he was having fun. He also built a business empire off his music and Margaritaville.

I’m being a bit facetious when I say they didn’t work, they had fun. They worked hard for sure, but they looked like they had fun doing it. That’s the kind of leader I get inspiration from. Don’t take yourself so seriously. Work hard but enjoy what you do. The people around you will pick up that vibe too.

I would say stay true to your beliefs in business; you can’t send mixed signals that confuses your team. But be flexible enough to change on a dime when the situation dictates. We all have plans, timetables and deadlines, but when situations outside your control arise, you better be able to adapt or you’ll get flattened. Mike Tyson has a famous line I like to use, “everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.”

Spending time with family and friends is important and fun for me. It’s great seeing the next generation of your family growing up and seeing how little kids solve problems. Many times, they’re a lot smarter than adults. I also have a group of about six close friends that all grew up together and have known each other for over forty years. It’s a group that often gets together for golf or sporting event trips. I think bond this strong over all these years is a special one.