The Ask: When and How - A Petrus Development Show Episode on Solicitation Considerations
Fundraising professionals often ask Petrus about the nuances of soliciting donations. Join Andrew and Rhen as they tackle two of the most frequently asked questions that every development professional faces:
How many donor visits should happen before making the ask? There's no magic number, but timing and relationship-building are crucial. Andrew breaks down the factors that determine when you're ready to make your move.
Is it acceptable to solicit major gifts over Zoom? The pandemic changed everything about donor engagement, but does virtual fundraising actually work for significant asks?
While these questions might seem straightforward, the answers involve complex considerations about relationship cultivation and strategic timing. Andrew provides practical insights and real-world examples that will help you approach your next solicitation with confidence.
INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT
Host Well, howdy everybody. Welcome back to the Petrus Development Show. I am Rhen Hoehn from Petrus. Joining me today, Andrew Robison. How's it going, Andrew?
01:35.58 AROB Going good. How about yourself, Rhen?
01:37.52 Host It's in the middle of summer. It's been in the 80s and that's way too hot for the UP.
01:41.70 AROB Yeah, that sounds rough.
01:42.91 Host I know.
01:43.64 AROB That sounds real bad.
01:45.74 Host Yeah.
01:46.22 AROB But I do understand that. So we get much hotter here in Texas. I mean, we're in the triple digits pretty much consistently through July and August. But we have air conditioning. We have pools.
01:56.58 Host Yeah.
01:58.56 AROB We have a lot of ways to cool off, which I do recognize that you guys don't have central air in a lot of homes up North.
02:09.29 AROB And that's just not a thing.
02:09.67 Host Nobody. Yeah.
02:11.98 AROB So your air conditioning goes out in your car and you're like, yeah, what do I need air conditioning for? Run on the window. So we, you can't survive here in Texas without AC in your car. So,
02:20.61 Host Yeah. It's a happy day when we've passed the longest day of the year and it's on the slide toward earlier nights and cooler days.
02:28.50 AROB There you go.
02:30.55 Host I hear you've been staying out of the heat with some high technology. This could be something to do indoors.
02:36.36 AROB Yes. Yeah. So at the beginning of the summer, we were preparing for how to entertain the kids and not just entertain the kids, but like how to engineer good family time.
02:48.35 AROB And so we went to the video game resale store.
02:53.95 Host Oh,
02:53.97 AROB My, yeah. So my daughter had some money and she wanted to buy some new Switch games. And while we were there, we saw one of these Meta VR headsets that was significantly discounted.
03:04.10 Host Nice.
03:07.04 AROB And so we thought, that sounds fun. So we got it. So we play. It's fun. There's some pretty fun games on there. And then you can only see. So it's only the player that sees what they see through the headset.
03:21.60 AROB But there's an app on your phone that you can sort of watch what they're seeing.
03:21.77 Host OK.
03:27.63 AROB And then you can even cast that onto the TV so that everybody could see.
03:28.62 Host Ah.
03:30.79 AROB So it's pretty fun. We've had some good fun family game afternoons playing the games on the headsets.
03:39.76 Host Excellent. Do you find it discombobulating? Does it kind of throw you off your balance?
03:43.24 AROB Some games, after you play you definitely have to sit down for a while because your head is a little bit swimming. So there's the games that we play mostly is the oh blanking on the name now. It's the saber beat or Beat Saber. So if you've ever been to like a lot of arcades will have them like when you walk in and so you stand in this thing so you hold the two hand—
03:43.60 Host Okay.
04:08.24 AROB You hold the two sabers in your hand, like the devices, the hand controllers. And then it's like Guitar Hero, except you're sort of slicing up the boxes as they come towards you with your lightsabers.
04:24.11 Host Okay.
04:25.24 AROB They've got good music. It comes preloaded with a lot of music, a lot of which is like techno. But then you could—we bought the packs for Imagine Dragons and
04:36.04 Host Oh.
04:36.70 AROB We bought a Green Day pack of songs, and then my wife was like, ooh, Britney Spears. So it's a lot of fun. So that game is not too discombobulating.
04:49.58 AROB It's dark, and there's a lot of light. So afterwards, your eyes are like, ah, I can't see.
04:54.22 Host Oh, yeah.
04:54.28 AROB But then there's another game that my daughter got that she wanted. And it's, you basically are a cat in this old lady's house. And so you kind of like walk around just like the cat does and you can knock things over. You can interact with like everything in the room.
05:08.22 AROB And it's pretty fun. But then afterwards, you're like, I need to sit down because this is—either my stomach's upset or head swimming or you're just kind of like, so, yeah.
05:21.68 Host Man, that's yeah.
05:23.85 AROB It's entertaining.
05:23.87 Host A whole new world of entertainment, yeah.
05:25.70 AROB Yeah, it's fun. The other game that we play is there's a rock climbing game, which is a lot of fun. And it's actually like really, after you play it, you're kind of like, oh, my arms are a little bit sore.
05:38.63 AROB Like that's weird. I don't understand it. But like you're literally climbing and they have all these different, you know, you can do it in the Swiss Alps. You can do it like in a climbing gym. They have challenges and it's pretty crazy.
05:48.95 AROB It's like, it's a mad world, man.
05:50.91 Host Wow, we still have the Nintendo 64 in our house. I think it's almost 30 years old. If that thing goes out, it's over.
06:00.11 AROB Yeah, this is about the newest thing that we have in our house. It's fun.
06:06.53 Host Excellent. So that kind of leads us a little bit, in some ways, into some questions that we got that we're going to cover in today's episode. So some questions came in about a couple of different considerations around making solicitations and some different circumstances.
06:20.96 Host And so one of them is about making solicitations over Zoom, which, you know, that kind of virtual world where we're all seem to be heading. So we'll talk about that. Let's start with kind of two questions that are related, but not necessarily the same. So let's start with this question that came in asking, right, I want to make an ask of this particular donor.
06:41.79 Host How many times should I visit them before I make an ask? You know, should I make an ask on the first visit? Should I meet them? You know how many—then how many—if not, how many times is too many times?
06:53.19 Host What are some of the considerations about that question? How many times to meet somebody before making an ask?
06:59.58 AROB Yeah, great. This is a very common question. And some of it is born out of like actual, I want to do the right thing. Some of it is born out of fear. Like, oh, if I have one more visit where I don't have to ask, then that's great. I love it.
07:13.51 AROB Whatever the kind of history reason for asking a question like this, there's a couple of ways to answer it. And I like to think of your donors as being in for the, just for simplicity in two different sets, right?
07:29.10 AROB Your first set would be your major gift prospects.
07:29.28 Host Yeah.
07:31.66 AROB And these are people that you've gotten to know, you know, that there is significant capacity, you know, that LAI score, which I think we've talked about linkage, interest, and ability,
07:43.15 Host Yeah.
07:43.17 AROB they have a strong linkage they're very interested in the work that you're doing and the ability is there meaning they can make a significant gift and so major gift donors would be one set the other set though are your annual fund general donors and these are people who maybe they have a linkage maybe they do have an interest but the ability is not there and so multiple meetings is not going to lead to significantly larger gifts.
08:13.37 AROB Deeper relationship is good, but it's not going to lead to significantly larger gifts. Okay. So when you're evaluating or when you're answering this question, how many times should I visit a donor before I make an ask?
08:24.84 AROB The major gift set, it's more than one in most cases, right? There are exceptions to this.
08:29.33 Host Yeah.
08:31.22 AROB There's exceptions to everything. Occasionally you get a meeting with somebody who you know is very prominent, very busy, very difficult to get in front of. This may be literally the only time you're going to be able to sit down in front of this donor for two years. You know—think like president of the university. Think CEO of the hospital. Think US congressman, whatever that is.
08:54.73 AROB And so sometimes you got your one shot and you got to ask them. And that's just the way that the situation is outside of those exceptions. The more you can, the more times you can meet with a donor, the deeper that relationship and, and it's the deeper relationship as part of it, but also just like the better understanding of what, what they want to, what kind of an impact they want to make with their dollars on your organization.
09:19.82 AROB And so a lot of times with major gift donors, they know that the ask is coming because you've kind of led them there and set that up through meetings, through conversations.
09:32.47 AROB And they're not surprised by, oh well, yeah, I knew that this is you were going to ask me for this because we've been talking about it for six months. You know? So more meetings is going to lead to a better response on that major gift set.
09:39.89 Host Yeah.
09:47.29 Host That probably goes up to a certain point, right? There's probably an upper limit where it's like, well what's the point of these meetings at some point, huh?
09:50.94 AROB Agreed.
09:53.88 AROB Yeah, totally. And so, so I'll give you an example. There was a donor who, when I was at the medical school and they were very passionate about the medical school, they were part of the first class.
10:07.66 AROB And they were part of this society that we had that met a couple times a year. And I had gotten to know them and, and I knew that they had deep interest in making a significant gift to the organization.
10:22.76 AROB Million dollars was their goal. And we had to figure out the purpose, the mechanism, the vehicle, how that was going to happen. So once we kind of honed in on that was their goal, I think we had one meeting.
10:35.96 AROB And then the next meeting, it was like, hey, I know that this is of interest to you. We've talked about it on our end, this is what would make sense from us. This is how you could make the greatest impact. Would you consider making a gift in this way?
10:48.74 AROB So in that case, it was not just two meetings because I had this relationship, but it was once we figured out that was the impact they wanted to make, there was no reason to just continue to meet and say, well, we'd like to do this. I mean, it was time.
11:01.69 AROB We sat down with them. I asked them and then, you know, and then they considered it. We talked about it a couple of times afterwards, but you're right. Too many, if you kind of keep belaboring that point of, well, we got to meet and talk about this, then they're going to get frustrated and that's not good for anybody.
11:16.23 Host Yeah, I mean, the practice that I kind of have mostly used in my own experience fundraising was, I would try to go meet a donor for the first time myself and then invite them for a second meeting to meet our director. And that was kind of a good reason to go back for a second meeting.
11:32.80 Host And then oftentimes we'd either invite them to come visit our building or to come to an event we were hosting that's kind of a third meeting. And by that point, if we hadn't made an ask already, that's kind of like, okay,
11:43.80 Host If we're having a fourth meeting, it's probably going to be an ask unless there's some specific reason not to at that point. But that was kind of the trajectory that we went with most of our donors. And that seemed to work really well. Kind of like what you said, there's exceptions, especially when it comes to—I had kind of what you said, we had a big, I think I've told the story recently, but a minor celebrity that we were meeting with, and we'd planned that we're not going to ask him in the first meeting, then this was an ask from the person who made the introduction.
12:13.64 Host And he kept asking us to make an ask, basically, at the first meeting. Like, oh, no, no, I just wanted to meet you. And never got to the second meeting. So kind of missed the opportunity there. I had another couple that they asked me not to ask them for gifts as we sat down to the first meeting. And in the course of the meeting, we found some common ground. They found out about a project we were doing. Like, oh, you do that?
12:33.72 Host Can we give toward that? And basically had the opportunity to, I didn't even really make an ask. I presented what the opportunity was. And they made a pledge to give to that. And so it's, yeah, some of the best advice I've gotten is don't go into any one meeting, a hundred percent committed to one plan of action.
12:51.41 Host Because sometimes things come up and yeah, be ready to make the ask, but sometimes you got to wait a little while, but don't wait too long.
12:51.58 AROB Yeah.
12:57.89 Host There's an art form in this part of fundraising, right?
12:58.21 AROB There is.
13:01.60 AROB Yeah, and there's also the idea that a solicitation can be a form of cultivation for certain donors.
13:09.29 Host Hmm. Yeah.
13:09.43 AROB Right? So there was a donor who was very interested in making a big gift, or let's just say, was very passionate about the ministry that I worked at when I was at St. Mary's at Texas A&M.
13:22.27 AROB And we knew that they had, my boss was working with them. We knew they had significant capacity, right? Just a lot of indications that they could give seven figures easily, not easily, but seven figures.
13:34.66 AROB But the relationship wasn't there to ask for that. And the project wasn't ready to ask for that. And so my boss was strategic and asking them first presented them with an invitation, you know, an opportunity for a $5,000 gift.
13:48.97 AROB And they said, yeah, this is great. And then the next gift was, $25,000 and they loved that project. And then the next ask was $125,000. They just kept getting more and more involved.
14:01.50 AROB And so by the time we had the right project for them, the million dollars, like, I don't even think my boss asked them for that. They were so ready at that point. So there is an opportunity for a solicitation for a lower amount than is actually the sort of ultimate intended solicitation point to be part of that cultivation.
14:27.26 Host That makes sense. It's a long game.
14:28.94 AROB And we're also talking about, so that's the first set, the major gift. The annual fund set, there's, and these are people—think like, you know, maybe they're younger.
14:39.49 AROB They haven't made major gifts to the organization. You know, whatever that looks like, they don't have the capacity for right now, the ability to make those major gifts.
14:50.98 AROB But they love the organization. They want to see it succeed. You go and see them. A lot of those times you're asking them on that first visit, right? And oftentimes that ask is to join our monthly giving program or, a thousand dollars for this program or a $2,500 three-year pledge, for a total gift of $7,500.
14:59.15 Host Mm-hmm.
15:11.17 AROB A lot of times you don't have, it doesn't make sense in their mind. Because they're not like, you know they haven't experienced this, you know—oh, I'm a big donor. This organization is like cultivating me and building this relationship. You know, having somebody from an organization, nonprofit, call them and want to sit down for coffee is really confusing to them.
15:31.53 AROB And they agree to it because they're like, yeah, that's great.
15:32.10 Host Right.
15:33.57 AROB And then if you're not asking them for a gift, they're kind of like, well, I don't understand what that was intended to do. And so a lot of times it's you know with people that are earlier in their philanthropic journey, you're asking them on the first visit because that just is what makes sense to them and multiple visits isn't going to sort of build up to a significantly higher amount.
15:57.50 Host Excellent.
15:58.61 AROB Yep.
15:58.75 Host Good. Let's switch gears here a little bit to our other question, which is about making asks over Zoom.
16:04.45 AROB Mm-hmm.
16:04.83 Host Where should we start here? I guess, would you ever make an ask over Zoom to begin with?
16:10.81 AROB So before 2020, I would say this was possible, but not really common. After 2020, this is common and very possible and almost preferred in certain situations.
16:18.38 Host Right.
16:25.96 Host Right.
16:26.10 AROB So the world changed and people's mentality towards use of technology and particularly video conferencing changed dramatically during COVID and after COVID. And so it's almost kind of like you don't need to come fly out to see me.
16:41.90 AROB Let's just do a Zoom and whatever you want to talk about, we can talk about it there. And so the answer to your question is yes, asking over Zoom is appropriate.
16:52.59 AROB I will say, though, that there is a different vibe with sitting down with somebody in person than sitting down with somebody over a video call.
17:02.55 Host Definitely. Yeah.
17:03.16 AROB So when you sit down with somebody in person, so think about, you know, you meet your buddy to go, you know, have a drink after work. You sit down and there's just, there's like time to let the conversation breathe, right?
17:17.52 AROB You can...
17:17.81 Host Yeah.
17:18.22 AROB You can ask about their family. You can talk about sports. You can just sort of let the conversation meander. And then you know in a meeting and drinks with your buddy, you're not going to ask him for a gift, right? But you know kind of put that into a donor visit and it's similar. You can let the conversation marinate.
17:37.92 AROB Over the course of that, you know, 20 minutes, 30 minutes, an hour. And then you can kind of steer it in the direction of, well, this is the, this is what I'd like to visit with you about today. In a Zoom meeting, there's just not that, it can work, but there's just generally not that.
17:56.93 AROB Ability to let like, oh, let's just sit and like hang out for a few minutes before we get to the meat of it. You sit down on a Zoom meeting and it's like, okay, great. We're here. What do you want to talk about?
18:06.83 Host Exactly.
18:06.88 AROB And so it definitely changes the vibe. And so you have to be aware of that, but being aware of that and still utilizing the technology to make an ask if that's the intent, totally appropriate. You just have to recognize the change in landscape.
18:26.43 Host Yeah. And it definitely, that was the biggest adjustment for me in switching to doing some donor Zoom calls was that, yeah, they're—we're conditioned to show up to the Zoom meeting. It feels like a meeting more than a relationship building or having coffee.
18:43.68 Host Like, all right, down to business. What are we here for? What are we talking about? But it can be done. One of the clients I work with, Father John Paul, just made a big ask over Zoom for somebody who he just wasn't going to be able to meet this person in person far away and got a matching gift from them, challenge gift.
19:01.15 Host Very exciting. I was actually just asked for a gift over Zoom by an organization that I know and the guy was convincing. I was like, let's do it. And he was, yeah, he did a great job on it.
19:10.17 AROB Great.
19:11.88 Host So yeah, it definitely can be done, but you just got to be aware that there's not going to be that small talk rapport building like you would expect. You kind of avoid the dance of who's paying for coffee, who's paying for dinner, I guess. And maybe there's a benefit to that. But yeah, it's a different vibe altogether.
19:28.24 AROB So a lot of times in a major gift ask, I'm using, and not every time, but a lot of times if it's a project that we're sort of laying out or they're involved in a project, I'll actually have a written proposal.
19:40.81 AROB Right. And, you know, I had this, I used to do this all the time where I would sit down and I would, that was kind of like how I shifted gears into, there's something I'd like to visit with you about. And I'd reach down and I'd pull out that, the one sheet proposal.
19:53.20 AROB And I'd turn it around and then I'd kind of like start pointing on it. And but you can't do that on a Zoom call. Have you, you know, in your experiences you're talking about with your client or with the other, was there any kind of tool that they used to serve in that way?
20:11.02 Host You got to be ready to share your screen and, you know, just kind of zoom around like, hey, this is what we're considering. Would you—that would you consider joining us at this level? That type of thing. That's kind of the best workaround that I've found and I've seen.
20:26.46 AROB Yeah, and I agree. I think that, you know, depending on the situation, depending on what you're asking for, that can make it very helpful to share the screen and walk through what you're showing them.
20:39.37 AROB But it can also lead to, you know, technology interruptions if like it's not working properly or that.
20:44.98 Host Yes. Yeah.
20:46.94 AROB That's another thing that I think you have to be more mindful of with Zoom or Google Meet or Microsoft Teams or whatever. FaceTime is sometimes the technology just isn't going to cooperate.
20:58.43 AROB And so there are now—you can be late to your meeting and, you know, or you can get there and the restaurant's closed. I mean, there's things like that that can disrupt it in person. But you have to be ready for technology interruptions when you're meeting over Zoom as well.
21:15.82 Host Or you get on the call and the donor won't turn on their camera. So you're just kind of talking into a black screen that happened to me one time. I guess I'm going to treat this like a phone call, but they can see me. It's a very strange dynamic.
21:26.58 AROB Brutal.
21:26.65 Host You got to be ready for everything when it comes to technology.
21:28.05 AROB Yeah.
21:30.56 AROB Yeah. It happens though. You know, it's like I said, it's a mad world, you know, we're changing, you got to adapt, but there are challenges and there are limitations.
21:42.27 AROB But you know, given that, if that's the best way to get—like, like Father John Paul, right. If it's just not going to work to go visit somebody, you know, going back to your example from previously, you know, you had your one meeting and then you never got a second meeting, right?
21:58.68 AROB Like if your option is never meet with them again or hit them up on Zoom and you guys do that, then,
21:58.97 Host Right.
22:07.62 AROB You know that it's better than not meeting ever again and never getting that ask. One thing is funny to me and so you know in meeting with somebody in person
22:12.79 Host Definitely.
22:20.66 AROB I would never make a habit of this, but if I was running five minutes late, then it's no big deal for me to call or text and say, go ahead and get coffee.
22:28.10 Host Okay.
22:29.65 AROB I'll be there in five minutes. Right. Or, you know, traffic is really backed up. I'm going to be about 10 minutes late. No worries. That's fine. I'll hang out here. I'm getting my coffee. No big deal. Try being five or 10 minutes late to a Zoom appointment.
22:42.74 Host They're gone.
22:45.35 AROB It's like, this was supposed to start 12 seconds ago. I don't know where you're at, but I'm out. Yeah, it's just a very different vibe.
22:50.67 Host And yeah, once you're on there, you got to keep it kind of snappy too. I always say when you're, if you're meeting somebody to make an ask at a restaurant, avoid a restaurant with TVs. And that's kind of what the vibe is on Zoom.
23:00.27 AROB Hmm.
23:02.26 Host Like if they're bored, they're looking at something else, somebody else on their screen whatever and they're scrolling Facebook, not really listening to you. So you got to be snappy and keep their attention somehow.
23:10.41 AROB Yeah.
23:13.47 Host Let's wrap with this. Are there any situations where it's not appropriate to make an ask over Zoom? Anything that comes to mind there?
23:21.43 AROB I would say...
23:25.21 AROB So you know I'm thinking about like if it's you and your director right—two people meeting with one person is going to be more complicated. But again possible sometimes you're—you know the president of your school can't travel this is the one way for you to do it. It's not ideal because it adds more technology kind of opportunity for interruptions but
23:30.66 Host Yeah.
23:49.37 Host Yeah.
23:49.61 AROB It's possible. And then I think that if you, you know, the Zoom solicitation is for kind of to our point earlier. You're getting on the call, you're doing a little bit of small talk and then you're moving right into the business.
24:04.16 AROB If you're not at that point with the donor, then, and you need a couple more opportunities to build a relationship and just sort of have those conversations, get to know them, build a little bit of trust, then, and you're not ready to move right into the business of asking, then yeah, Zoom, it's going to force you into that position.
24:22.41 AROB And if that's not where you're at, then it's not going to be helpful for the relationship.
24:27.72 Host Yeah, I mean, I guess to kind of wrap this up, the one thing that sticks out in my mind is I think back of all of the in-person donor meetings that I've had versus the Zoom ones.
24:39.23 Host And the relationships are just so much stronger when you meet in person. You just can't replicate it. So Zoom is a good tool if you need something to resort to. But I would go to every length possible to meet in person if that's a possibility.
24:54.76 AROB Yep. A hundred percent.
24:56.20 Host It's worth it over time. It'll pay off over time. Yeah, it's just great. Excellent. Any last thoughts on these kinds of solicitation considerations?
25:04.66 AROB I've seen a trend among a lot of nonprofits, especially once they grow a little bit and they have a slice of their donor pool, prospect pool, who fits in this annual fund set where they are hiring staff members - that's the majority of what they spend their time doing.
25:23.28 AROB Phone calls, Zoom meetings, and solicitations because it's a volume situation. They're asking a lot of people for not small, but modest gifts.
25:36.45 AROB And they've seen a lot of success with that. So there is something that I think we're going to see more of - major gift officers and then donor engagement officers or junior development officers, junior major gift officers.
25:50.21 AROB They're using Zoom a lot more to make a lot of asks because there's no travel, they can meet more people. So I think that's something to look for and be aware of over time.
26:05.45 Host Excellent. Well, before we go, do you want to wrap up with the game?
26:08.99 AROB Always.
26:09.75 Host Oh good, good. So you may remember, I think a couple episodes ago, we did a keep three and cut three. You remember this game?
26:17.04 AROB Yes, I do remember that, yeah.
26:18.86 Host I have a little bit of one set up here because we've been talking about Zoom donor meetings. I feel like we should come back to the real world a little bit, some face-to-face meetings.
26:28.45 Host And I've got six restaurants where you might meet a donor. I want you to keep three of them and cut three of them.
26:34.71 AROB This game made me very anxious the last time I played. So I have a feeling that it's going to do the same thing again. But let's roll.
26:41.66 Host That's the goal.
26:43.03 Host I tried to pick restaurants that are pretty ubiquitous across the U.S.
26:43.38 AROB Perfect.
26:46.29 Host I don't know how I did.
26:48.19 Host We'll see.
26:50.47 Host So you're not going to know what's coming next. You got to vote to keep three of these and cut three of these. We're going to start with Olive Garden.
26:57.81 AROB Ooh, Olive Garden, keep it.
26:59.92 AROB It's quiet enough. The waiters are ready to let you have your space and not interrupt you. There's no birthday songs in the background.
27:12.32 AROB Yeah, I'd say keep it.
27:13.85 Host I love it. One of my best asks ever that I ever had came in Olive Garden. So it's got a soft spot in my heart.
27:21.18 Host How about Texas Roadhouse?
27:22.91 AROB Ooh, what does it - keep it or chuck it?
27:26.32 Host Yeah, keep it or cut it, I guess.
27:27.64 AROB Cut it. Yeah, cutting it. No.
27:29.43 AROB It's like prime for your ask, as you're saying, "Mr. and Mrs. Donor, would you prayerfully consider?" And then two tables over, the crew comes out with the saddle and starts singing happy birthday.
27:44.98 AROB Yeah, that would be epic, but disastrous potentially.
27:49.44 AROB So yeah, cut it.
27:50.66 Host I feel like they have kind of weird hours too. You and I were supposed to meet somebody at Texas Roadhouse a few months ago and then got canceled - it's like, oh, they're actually closed for lunch. And what? Okay, I don't know. So yeah, I agree with you there. Let's cut that. Next one: Buffalo Wild Wings.
27:54.84 AROB That's right. Yeah.
28:07.03 AROB Oh, well, I say cut it based on your comment earlier. Avoid restaurants with screens because I've never been in any restaurant with more screens than Buffalo Wild Wings.
28:18.55 Host Yeah, I'd agree with you there. If I have every restaurant on this list, if I had to pick one to go to for dinner tonight, it'd be B-Dubs. But for a donor meeting, it's not so good.
28:28.20 AROB Yeah. All right, so what - I got two cuts and one keep. Oh man, I could get stuck with a real bummer here, right? Let's see.
28:29.34 Host All right. Yeah, yep. You've got to keep two of these next three and cut one of them.
28:38.63 Host It's possible. Next one. I'm going to make this a little bit vague because I don't know what region - I don't know these real. Let's go with IHOP or Waffle House or whichever one you've got in Texas. I don't know, or maybe you have all of them. I don't know.
28:52.66 AROB Oh, we have all of them, sir.
28:53.70 Host Okay. We don't have any of them around here.
28:55.74 Host I've been to some on trips, but I don't know.
28:57.03 AROB This is SEC country, so you know we got to have a Waffle House.
29:00.39 AROB And, yeah, we have IHOP and then Denny's. Oh, definitely keep it. Yeah.
29:05.99 AROB No, I'm a big fan, and this gives you the opportunity for those before-work business breakfast meetings. Yeah, definitely keep it.
29:14.46 Host Oh yeah. I've had some good ones of those too.
29:17.53 AROB Or you can go at dinner time, and you'll literally be the only person in the restaurant. So that's nice. Yeah.
29:24.70 Host All right. You've got one keep and one cut left of these next two.
29:28.40 Host Number five, Red Lobster.
29:30.82 AROB Red Lobster. Huh. Interesting. I'm going to go keep it because I don't know what your last one is. And I feel like you're setting me up for a Wendy's at the end. So I'm going to go keep it.
29:43.48 AROB And I put it probably in the same bucket as Olive Garden, maybe a little bit, maybe like one step down from Olive Garden in terms of classy, you know, quiet, but it's still in that same zone. So keep it.
29:59.79 Host Yeah, and up at Red Lobster is like the nice restaurant.
30:02.84 Host That's where we go and I'm with different priests and such in Marquette.
30:05.90 AROB Yeah, that's where all the wedding receptions are held at the Red Lobster.
30:08.94 Host I guess so. But it is - it's a pretty good situation in terms of making asks. You're going to have a waiter come by a couple times, but there's no TVs, there's no loud music. It's not too bad.
30:19.55 Host All right, last one, which you are cutting because that's just where we are left, is one place I've never actually been to living way up here, Cracker Barrel.
30:28.83 AROB Oh, yeah. I would cut it anyways, just because there's a lot of kids.
30:33.63 AROB It's a lot of fun - it's a little bit louder than your IHOP. Now, again, you give me any six of these, where am I going? Cracker Barrel is probably one or two.
30:44.35 AROB So definitely a fan, but not for - if there's the other ones I would keep over this one.
30:50.58 Host That makes sense. So it ended up being a good list for you.
30:52.72 AROB Yeah, it's great.
30:53.67 Host Yeah. You're keeping Olive Garden, Red Lobster and IHOP. These are all, you know - like I said, we're going for ubiquitous across the country more so than fancy.
31:01.96 AROB Yeah, I will say that there is a vast difference between a Waffle House and an IHOP just based on not menu, but clientele.
31:14.43 AROB So you're getting a different vibe at a Waffle House than an IHOP. They're both great places.
31:20.86 Host Gotcha. Yeah, we just don't have that up here. I would have said Culver's or something further up in the north.
31:23.39 AROB You're missing out, sir. Go first.
31:26.57 Host I've actually had a really good ask at a Culver's before too.
31:28.81 Host So over burgers, you just, you never know yet.
31:30.12 AROB Yeah. Over fish sandwiches? Yeah. All right, go.
31:33.48 Host All right. Well that's what we got for today. We went a lot longer than we planned to.
31:36.64 Host So I think we'll wrap it up there, but thank you, Andrew, and have a great weekend.
31:42.38 AROB All right, right on.
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