How Brandon Became An Authority In The Restaurant Industry In Just 6 Months

Full disclosure: Brandon is my younger brother.

For YEARS he believed he didn't have a niche he could make money in online.

He tried different things, but at the end of the day he just wasn't passionate about them [because he was chasing what he saw other people making their money doing].

Then one day I heard him talking to some of his staff (he had been a server and bartender for years, and was also managing a restaurant).

He explained how if they use upselling techniques and mirroring, not only do they make the restaurant more money, but they also make themselves more money.

I said, "That's your niche!"

He was lost at first, wondering how the heck he could turn that into content.

I said: "Just do exactly what you just did there, but now in front of the camera!"

And the rest is history.

The Restaurant Launch Breakdown

The Restaurant Launch, Brandon's business, teaches servers and bartenders how to make more money, and restaurant owners how to level up their service to not only earn their staff more money but the entire restaurant.

He is the polar opposite of me. He doesn't like writing, he doesn't want funnels and email marketing systems; he wanted short-form video and the simplest form of monetization we could do

So we went all in on TikTok and reposted the videos on IG/FB Reels.

He started January 1st, 2023, and within 6 months he was earning $10,000+ per month.

And recently hit his first 20K month in October.

Here are some highlights:

• Income Highlight: 10k/M within 6 Months using Signature Series
• Other Highlights: First 1M view video in first week.
• TikTok: 53K Followers
• Instagram: 35K Subscribers
• Facebook: 15K Followers

With the use of Brandon's signature series he is able to reach servers and restaurant owners organically and now even leverages that authority he has built with over 100K followers on his platforms to run ads directly to owners and sell packages as high as $20,000!

The Restaurant Launch's Signature Series

Brandon has been able to unlock millions and millions of views and over 100K followers across platforms in under a year by leveraging his signature series.

As I mentioned, he didn't want to write.

He has also helped me build out The Superhero Jacked YouTube Channel (using signature series) and had experience working with me to get millions and millions of views there (and 30K+ subscribers), so he knew he didn't want to get back into long-form video.

The best option was short-form video, doing exactly what he did when he was teaching his own team members at his restaurant.

We went in knowing a few different variations of what he wanted to teach because he had specific lessons he taught his teammates - so it was clear what we were starting with, we just needed to think of a way to teach each less.

Then we would just show each of the lessons in 1000 different ways to give servers and bartenders inspiration for their own examples.

So let's break it down, and then we'll discuss layers that he added to his original content.

 What Is The Restaurant Launch's Signature Series?

Brandon's signature series started as skits teaching you how to do all the methods he teaches to make you more money as a server or bartender.

For example, things like:

1. Upsells
2. Mirroring
3. How To Sell

These could all be shown in a million different ways, which is what Brandon does.

He started with videos like "Easy Drink Upsell", "Mirroring 101" and "How To Sell Shots" and eventually progressed into more and more tests and variations.

 Signature Series Content Deep Dive

Brandon's skits are him running down a scenario where he is both the server AND the customer (he generally wears a hat or different outfit for one or the other), so you can see how he would do something like upselling, selling different items, and mirroring.

So, for example, you may see him doing things like:

• Margarita Upsell Skit
• Easy Taco Upsell Skit
• How To Sell A Specific Drink
• How To Mirror (Parrot Skit)
• How To Sell Shots

Let's break down an Upsell Skit:

Brandon starts on the screen with the background cut and in place is an image of a restaurant (as though he is there).

He immediately goes into "Here's the easiest way to upsell margaritas as a server or bartender" as his hook.

And note, the text is big across the entire top of the screen for people who don't have their sound on.

Within 3 seconds he's standing off to the side holding his book and pen saying "What can I get for you to drink"; as the server in the skit.

Within a second later the video jumps to him wearing a different shirt, and with a hat on, sitting at the opposite side of the screen and looking the opposite direction (towards where he was as the server), saying "Can I get a traditional margarita?" as the customer.

And then boom, instantly back to Server Brandon saying "Traditional margarita, did you want to do that with Casamigos?"

And back and forth we go:

Customer Brandon: "Sure! That's fine."

Server Brandon: "And did you want to do salt or sugar on the rim?"

Customer Brandon: "I'll do salt."

Server Brandon: "Alright, so a Casamigos margarita with salt on the rim." (Writing in his book).

That video has 1.1 MILLION views, 93.3K likes, 1220 comments, and 1529 bookmarks just on TikTok alone.

Lesson On Authority Creator Type:

In the article about how I built Superhero Jacked with my own signature series, I talked about specific Authority Creator Types.

Here are some of the examples I discussed:

• The Authority: Leveraging past experiences to teach as the authority within a niche. (I do this with my own personal brand. Also, think of Alex Hormozi.)
• The Researcher: Leveraging other authorities via case studies and research. (Like Superhero Jacked, for example)
• The Teacher: Similar to The Authority and Researcher, but teaching as you learn, or teaching under a specific brand.
• The Entertainer: Leading with comedy, stories, and specific niche entertainment.
• The Media Brand: Leveraging other professionals with their entertainment or authority. (Think Barstool Sports)
• The Mix and Match: The most effective type is going to be when you pull multiple aspects together! (You'll notice Superhero Jacked does this when we get into the SS Layers)

In this case, Brandon is coming in as The Authority, leveraging his experience to teach servers, bartenders, and even restaurant owners how they can make more money using the tactics he teaches.

There are times that he leverages other authorities, similar to The Teacher or Researcher when he name-drops things like the book "Never Split The Difference" which is one of the places he learned the impact of mirroring; but for the most part, he comes in as the Authority.

It's important to know which Authority Creator Type you can leverage as you begin planning out your signature series and tests to nail it.

As you'll see in the SS Layers below, Brandon even throws in some entertainment SS Layers to reach a wider audience and bring them into the main conversion signature series points.

Signature Series Layers

As I mentioned above: we went in knowing specific lessons Brandon wanted to teach, so we built his original signature series around the skits that would allow him to repeat the same lessons over and over in unique ways that help all different scenarios, while also telling a story.

This allowed him to jump in and out of different scenes and keep the content engaging.

From there we tested little tweaks on the hook.

Sometimes it would be funny, sometimes it was 2 seconds, sometimes 3, and sometimes even 4-5 seconds.

Little tweaks are best, regardless of your signature series, because they allow you to see which little changes make the biggest impact.

Once we nailed it and had 3-5 lessons he could repeat over and over on repeat, we began testing new layers.

 SS Layer One: Memes, Story Time and Scenario Lessons 

Brandon has more layers than just these, but these are some of the big ones that he has used throughout his content.

He has had nearly 200 server and bartender memes now, with millions and millions of views.

These are similar to how I use SS Layers like "Top Ten Most Powerful Superhero" which leads to the Superhero Inspired Workouts, which are the thing that REALLY hooks the viewer and gets the follow (or in my case, an email lead).

These are easy, yet effective.

There was also a time when the TikTok algorithm was rewarding people going for a bit longer content, and "rants" were working really well; so Brandon was telling stories of restaurant industry moments he has encountered.

Things like diffusing situations, or even just funny moments.

These resonated with his audience, allowed him to show a bit more of his personality and background, and also took advantage of the timing of the algorithm.

Win. Win. Win.

And last on our list (though, there are other layers as well you can see if you scroll through his feed), are Scenario Lessons.

Similar to Upsells, Mirroring, and specific "How To Sell" video skits, Scenarios are skits, but are usually there to help servers get better at their overall service.

This leads to better tips, but it's also good to show now that Brandon and The Restaurant Launch are also selling to restaurant owners.

He's showing he can increase the quality of your team's service, and it also resonates and grows his following because it's still helping his main audience.

 SS Layer Two: Reposting Your Content

I know a lot of people hate reposting and repurposing content because it feels like a time-suck, but there is no reason to not be reposting short-form video content.

This is one of the first times ever that platform's algorithms allow you to take advantage of four different platforms at the same time, with the same exact content.

I broke down how Slater Kodish grew 4.5M followers and 500M views across platforms with reposting content, and I used that as a reason for forcing Brandon to do it as well.

Now he has an extra 30K+ followers on Instagram and 10K+ on Facebook that he wouldn't have had if he didn't take the extra 5 minutes a day to repost the videos he was already making anyway.

How To Replicate Brandon's Success

There are a few takeaways from The Restaurant Launch that I want to highlight.

There are more things you can learn from this breakdown, including hopefully some motivation for your signature series - but I love giving some very clear lessons each time I do a Creator Case Study and Case Study Video Intensive within The Accelerator.

That said, here are some clear takeaways from The Restaurant Launch's Creator Case Study:

1. Tell Stories Whenever Possible
2. Choose The Best Media Type For YOU
3. Repost Content When It's Simple and Easy
4. Know When to Leverage Your Past Authority
5. Everyone Loves Memes (Make Them Unique)

I can't stress enough how important choosing the right media type is for YOU specifically.

If Brandon had started a blog, trying to replicate the success of Superhero Jacked, he would have NEVER made it.

But, because we specifically made it a focus to revolve our content type around him, he was able to wake up excited to create every single day.

So remember: Build a business you wake up excited about, to live the life you dream about.