YouSaid · the spoken record

Shelli Taylor

lines on the record: 50
first: 2020-12-01
most recent: 2020-12-01
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“I think this is a hard one. But I think there's a couple, you know, first of all, I do think the announcement of the vaccine gives me incredible hope. What's not being talked about a lot are that therapeuticals. And I think that is huge. So combination of vaccine, therapeuticals, and then a coordinated government approach, that kind of from a macro perspective is what we need. And then from an industry perspective, we need to have the slate come back in totality, meaning, you know, we need a coordinated slate again and it's not one movie pulls out, but rather the whole thing moves. If it needs to move out till April, it all moves out to April, but they don't. One studio doesn't leave another studio hanging or whatever. Like that, that can't continue. So when those two things happen, you know, I will, we will have a ton more confidence of moving forward.”
2020-12-01 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Alamo Drafthouse CEO Shelli Taylor on going back to the movies · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, you know, so it's always a cost issue of how do you do that? And so I think the way you do it is you know what your secret sauce is. You stay focused on that. And then you scale the hell out of your back of the house, you know, your accounting functions, your supply chain, you know, all of that stuff. You bring technology in and make it as effective and efficient as possible so that you have the money, the time, the mindshare, the resources to create those individual experiences so that when you do go to Alamo and LA versus Alamo and Dallas or Winchester, Virginia, you have like that local feeling. And that's what we, you know, that was our goal and will continue to be.”
2020-12-01 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Alamo Drafthouse CEO Shelli Taylor on going back to the movies · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I mean, right now, when you go to an Alamo, in fact, it cracks me up, people have no idea that we have more than a couple. They're like, what do you mean there's 41 Alamos? That's my community theater. That's where I go and I see my friends and everybody knows me and, you know. So that experience, you know, and finding the economy of scale, that's hard, like, you know, to scale and keep that soul where everyone thinks there's only one Alamo. And that's what we want to do. And I believe that you can do that.”
2020-12-01 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Alamo Drafthouse CEO Shelli Taylor on going back to the movies · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, you know, our goal was to continue to expand and grow and to do it in a way that we never lose our soul. You know, because a lot of times size and scale means that you have to give up that specialness or make it a commodity. And so the goal was like to really scale snowflakes and to continue to provide the most incredible cinematic experience possible and continue to evolve it and really give voice to as many films and filmmakers as we possibly can. And I don't think that goes away. I think it's just going to change, you know, or maybe take a little bit longer before we get solely back to that. But that's still, you know, the goal.”
2020-12-01 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Alamo Drafthouse CEO Shelli Taylor on going back to the movies · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, my local drive in was definitely being run off of a MacBook. Like we saw the desktop and we saw the mask over and double click on the movie. And I was like, I don't know about your licensing situation. That doesn't seem right, but everyone was happy. So it was a thing. So we only have a few minutes left. I want to ask, basically ask questions about crisis. But you started you were recruited before the pandemic hit. You came in, you had a plan. What was the vision before the pandemic, before you entered crisis mode? What was it that you wanted to accomplish in your role as CEO of Alma Traft?”
2020-12-01 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Alamo Drafthouse CEO Shelli Taylor on going back to the movies · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, that's a good question. You know, there's a lot about creating a really good screen and sound experience at a drive-in.”
2020-12-01 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Alamo Drafthouse CEO Shelli Taylor on going back to the movies · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, it's a mix, right? Like, I mean, you have people in the region who know that audience best and are creating experiences in our road shows are a great example. You know, we've done things like, you know, jaws on the water where, you know, you do an outside screening of jaws and everybody's sitting on a lake on the water. I personally am terrified thinking about being on the water, watching jaws. I don't know how people do it. But, you know, we've done all sorts of things like that, you know. And so that is something that we've always leaned into. Again, it really goes back to the origins and the vision of Tim of Know creating experiences and really being the best damn cinematic experience possible. So we've always leaned into it. We always will, you know, and it will continue to evolve as our guest desires and needs evolve.”
2020-12-01 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Alamo Drafthouse CEO Shelli Taylor on going back to the movies · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“About all of those to the unit economics. And again, without hurting your quality, there's a lot of lessons to be learned in that. And we certainly are learning them and we'll move forward with those lessons. And probably everybody has to. I can speak to the big chains and what they're going to do or not do.”
2020-12-01 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Alamo Drafthouse CEO Shelli Taylor on going back to the movies · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I mean everybody wants that crystal ball, right? You know, I think that everyone will have to evolve and change to some degree. And I think as much as this sucks, the pandemic, and there's very few, if any, silver linings, because the damage is done to people. And I don't want to undervalue that at any way. But at the same time, as much as this sucks, it is a microscope on our business. And for each of us to look back and say, you know, everything from how do I, you know, select real estate and how do I build out and what are those costs involved and are there ways to be more effective and efficient? Can I think about the size and type of footprint for a theater differently? Think about how big an auditorium should be. In some places, we're probably overscreened. In other parts of the nation, we're probably underscreened.”
2020-12-01 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Alamo Drafthouse CEO Shelli Taylor on going back to the movies · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“When you say we need theaters, you said it a few times in the post-pandemic landscape, it feels like one potential outcome is there's theaters like Alamo, which are curated, which are more cultural events, and there's big chains that show Marvel movies and little else on 45 screens. Does that seem like the most likely outcome, or do you think the big chains will have to change even more?”
2020-12-01 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Alamo Drafthouse CEO Shelli Taylor on going back to the movies · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Be both, and people are still going to come to the theater. I mean, that's just, I can't imagine a world without a theater. I really can't.”
2020-12-01 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Alamo Drafthouse CEO Shelli Taylor on going back to the movies · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“What are the best ways that we can serve our guests and create incredible experiences for storytelling? And so, yes, we may be different, but we also do not want our fellow theaters going out of business. We need them, we need theaters and we don't want to be the lone survivor that doesn't make sense. But I think it really is unifying around how do we serve our guests. And, you know, for us, the secret sauce is incredible experience experience. We take every little, we sweat every little detail. We think about the napkin. We think about how clean our theaters are. We think about the popcorn. I mean, we think about the quality of the sound we do an incredible amount around our screens and sound so that that experience is always perfect. And then we're going to continue to innovate of, you know, whether it's in the theater or whether it's at home, but it's going to.”
2020-12-01 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Alamo Drafthouse CEO Shelli Taylor on going back to the movies · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think there's a couple things. I think, first of all, if theaters and studios think that the battle is between us, then we've lost, all of us. The battle is with COVID and the battle, you know, ultimately is how to best serve your guest. And so, you know, first, like coming together to fight COVID and then get into this new world, I think is going to be important. And when we get into it, to me it's silly to think that there is streaming or theater. There's this or that. Content is coming at us faster than ever. No one knew that YouTube would be huge. I mean, just take whatever innovation over the last 10 years with content. And people are consuming more content than they've ever consumed. So I think the question is, how do studios and theaters continue to”
2020-12-01 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Alamo Drafthouse CEO Shelli Taylor on going back to the movies · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, you know, so first of all, we take a lot of hope in watching the fact that more and more blockbusters are being held and waiting for theatrical. If that were the case, there's a whole bunch of movies that could have easily been put on a streaming immediately. And I'd like to think it's the studios understand, the filmmakers understand. There's a lot of lost revenue if you skip theatrical. And there's a way to probably do both, have incredible theatrical, and then go on to streaming and to shortchange that process probably doesn't make sense.”
2020-12-01 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Alamo Drafthouse CEO Shelli Taylor on going back to the movies · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“See that too because it's great at home, but it is not the same at home as it is in a big theater, you know, so I think it's both. I think the private theater will easily carry into the future. We think there's something there. You know, we're going to continue to work with that product and see how it evolves and grows. But we need both. And that will be probably one of the changes for the industry as it evolves. It won't be either or it won't be ors both.”
2020-12-01 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Alamo Drafthouse CEO Shelli Taylor on going back to the movies · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, it goes back, I think we need both, right? I don't think it's an either or, but I do think that it speaks to the fact that people are looking for experiences and that we truly have been for a while. And I think into the future or an experiential economy. And so the fact that people can come and find their favorite movies, they can create their own parties and dress up, you know, or do something fun around it is critical. First run movies and blockbusters are still going to be important. People want new content and they want to come and see that huge film, you know, think about the filmmakers. They're putting their life into telling these amazing stories, spending a ton of money and they want that to be on a big screen, big sound, you know, with a large audience. And people want.”
2020-12-01 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Alamo Drafthouse CEO Shelli Taylor on going back to the movies · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“By the way, when I was in high school, one of my friends, her dad was the manager of the local theater, she had a birthday party, and it was the coolest thing. So you're right. I mean, that's, it's one of those things that everybody dreams about. It's cool that you can do it. But you're not getting first run movies such as they are anymore. That's Jurassic Park and the Goonies and older movies in that experience. What does that tell you about the value of the experience of going to the movies versus the novelty of the Blockbuster movie coming out?”
2020-12-01 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Alamo Drafthouse CEO Shelli Taylor on going back to the movies · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I mean, you think about it. You pick the movie, you create your own community, and you come together and get to have this great event for shockingly a pretty affordable price prior to working at Alamo. I would have never thought it was possible I could rent a theater route. Like that just felt beyond anyone's means. So we've proven we can do that and create this great experience. We still have a lot of just general showings and people coming. And I've been asked this a lot. And we haven't put a ton of energy around it, but anecdotally, I can see a wide variety of people. You've got the Alamo fans, you've got a pretty wide age range. It's not just millennials or whatever. So I think it's just movie lovers and people who, you know, are wearing masks, have found a way to be safe and are picking a few things they want to do and movies are one of them.”
2020-12-01 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Alamo Drafthouse CEO Shelli Taylor on going back to the movies · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, the private theater is the first of all super proud, right? Like again, stood that up really quickly on with no budget and a small resources. So huge kudos to my team and all the people that did it. And the private theater is super fun. It's turning out to be about 55% of our revenue.”
2020-12-01 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Alamo Drafthouse CEO Shelli Taylor on going back to the movies · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“What kind of audiences are you seeing come in now? I know you've been doing some private rentals to families and groups and so on. I know that's been a success. Are you seeing just sort of the day-to-day traffic to the movie theater that you were expecting?”
2020-12-01 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Alamo Drafthouse CEO Shelli Taylor on going back to the movies · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Little dry. Like, we're safe because of Professor telling you versus come back to the theater. We've been super smart, but you're going to have fun, you know. So we've got to get better at that. And then, you know, no movie is going to stand on its own. It's kind of like you don't want to be the only restaurant on a block. You want several. And it's the same with the movie slate. You've got to have a number of movies out at one time to draw an audiences. And so again, Warner Brother was huge in taking that first step. And shame on everybody else who pulled their movies out at the last minute and didn't follow through. You know, and so we, you know, for the studios, we've got to have a coordinated movie slate again and a coordinated message of we're open and not just Alamo, but all movie, all movie theaters. It's really hard on the industry when you hear that certain chains are shutting down and not open. It sounds like we're all closed. Well, we're not.”
2020-12-01 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Alamo Drafthouse CEO Shelli Taylor on going back to the movies · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“First of all, just a huge thank you to Jeff Goldstein and to Warner Brothers for a studio to take a chance, right? And I think it wasn't, I think there's a couple things that were happening. One is there's a lot of noise in the marketplace even today where people do not know if movie theaters are open or not. So not even if they're safe, they just don't even know it's a possibility and trying to cut through that noise has been really difficult. And so when I look at it, I don't see it as there was a message in it. I see it as the industry works in a certain way and we just didn't have some of those key elements. One is enough and not because of Warner Brothers, but because there's just so much noise, but a clear message out there to people that theaters were open and that they're open in a really safe way and in a fun way, you know, like the messaging that we did come out with as an industry was a”
2020-12-01 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Alamo Drafthouse CEO Shelli Taylor on going back to the movies · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And it's a good thing you said that my first week on the job, I'm all, you're calling NATO? Give me a break. Yes, and now it's part of my lingo. But yeah, so they've taken a huge leadership role. But we too have, you know, been talking, you know, Tim talked to was on the phone with Nancy Pelosi's office. I'll be on the phone with the city council in San Francisco. You know, I've talked to local lawmakers here in Texas. You know, we are having those conversations because, again, and when we have these conversations, it's not just about Alamo and we matter and we care about Alamo. It's really trying to help everyone think about the broader business community and how do we move forward together. Like that is critical right now.”
2020-12-01 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Alamo Drafthouse CEO Shelli Taylor on going back to the movies · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So I would really leave NATO and John Fithian and they are doing a lot of that heavy lifting and we are thankful for their leadership in that lobbying and having.”
2020-12-01 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Alamo Drafthouse CEO Shelli Taylor on going back to the movies · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“But if we can survive eighteen to twenty four months, the economy will come back. We know that like we are resilient as a nation, but we do have to find that path.”
2020-12-01 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Alamo Drafthouse CEO Shelli Taylor on going back to the movies · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Of your real estate assets or assets. And that's not necessarily the case. And so the way that we're going to change our economy or jump started again when we come out of this and elements, you know, aspects of the economy. Some, you know, tech is thriving, right? Or some tech. But for service industry and those that are impacted by people physically walking in the door, it has to be burden sharing from all everyone, from the banks, your debt, you know, your debtor, your creditors to your landlords, to your vendors, but you as the business have to burden share too. And right now we do have people that think it should be all about the business. It's an impossible scenario. And so I think for everyone, you know, to look out and say, how do we, again, this isn't about win-lose, because if it's a win-lose, the nation loses. It needs to be a win-win for everybody right now. And it's just not going to be a great win-win for a while.”
2020-12-01 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Alamo Drafthouse CEO Shelli Taylor on going back to the movies · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, so first of all, it is a huge range. We have some landlords who are amazing and get the fact that there's burden sharing throughout the supply chain for any business. I mean, you know, these are different times than normal. And then we have some landlords, quite frankly, who they just don't care and they just want the terms as they are today and are very difficult. So we've got the gamut and everyone does. The conversation that we're having, whether it's with landlords, whether it's with banks, vendors, this isn't like a poorly run business. And I speak for thousands of businesses across the United States right now, not just Alamo, but there are many businesses like us that were super healthy until March. And now all of a sudden, we're in a crisis situation and bankruptcy is not the solution. Like bankruptcy is the solution for needing to shed off a bunch of”
2020-12-01 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Alamo Drafthouse CEO Shelli Taylor on going back to the movies · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So, tell me about negotiating those contracts in reading before the interview, it sounds like your landlords are working with you. They're developing new cost structures. Do you think that that is a, well, tell me what some of those are and then do you think that that will last through the pandemic that landlords are working with theaters because we know these are important to the community or do you think it will shift back to your standard lease agreements?”
2020-12-01 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Alamo Drafthouse CEO Shelli Taylor on going back to the movies · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, no, that's not our goal. I think there are places where we can improve our P&L and we are finding those and making improvements across the board, but it won't be in the experience and it won't be how we treat people, whether it's our teammates or our guests. That's not where you save money. You save money on how you negotiate contracts and all the costs behind the scenes that don't touch people. That's where we need to be more disciplined and where we haven't had to focus. And quite frankly, now we are, like the spotlight's there, but it will not ever be on quality.”
2020-12-01 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Alamo Drafthouse CEO Shelli Taylor on going back to the movies · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You've never, I'm so focused on the light bulb thing because it's such a good stat, right? Like we spend more money on light bulbs because we care, but there's never been an instinct to say, hey, we're in a crisis. We could save a ton of money if we just run our projector bulbs longer.”
2020-12-01 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Alamo Drafthouse CEO Shelli Taylor on going back to the movies · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, yeah, I mean, I'm super curious, right? I was like, I want to see, you know, even if we're not showing films, like take me up and show me the projector who wouldn't geek out and say, you know, show me all this stuff. So I've spent time in theaters. I've worked a few shifts, not enough, but I'll get out and do more and trying to learn it rapidly, you know. Our focus really is on survival. It's working with our banks. It's working with our landlords, you know, all of that. And then quite frankly, trying to take care of our people in this situation, that's a lot to do.”
2020-12-01 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Alamo Drafthouse CEO Shelli Taylor on going back to the movies · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Expertise. Just to be clear, you're the CEO, it's April 30th. You start, you're like, okay, show me the PLs. And someone's like, well, we got this COVID problem. Also, here's our light bulb cost. That's a real. And you're like, this is higher than the industry and we're good with it.”
2020-12-01 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Alamo Drafthouse CEO Shelli Taylor on going back to the movies · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, well, this is not my area of expertise yet, but I'll tell you our projectors are amazing. I mean, they've come a long way. They're very expensive piece of equipment. What we do do differently than most of our competitors is that we're changing our bulbs out regularly. And we don't wait for them to get to the end of life. And that seems like, and it's very expensive. They're thousands of dollars for one of the bulbs, but it makes a huge difference in the quality of the screen and that film that you see. So we do a lot of things like that and it is technical, you know, and we have some of the best people in the industry who work for us that guide us in that and stay on top of it. Definitely not where I can speak fluently yet.”
2020-12-01 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Alamo Drafthouse CEO Shelli Taylor on going back to the movies · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“How do you think about the technical side of just showing a movie, right? That's changed a lot over the past decade. You were talking about sound and screen. There are audio formats and speakers. How much of a tech operation are you actually running just to hit play and make sure it all sounds good and looks good?”
2020-12-01 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Alamo Drafthouse CEO Shelli Taylor on going back to the movies · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“But we think about all those things because we're like, if you're going to spend the money, I mean, if you're going to go out of your house, come to the theater, all that and spend the money, like what do you want? You want something where someone who loves movies has curated it and thought about all that. And it's like our preach, you know, our pre-show and no texting and no talking. Like, hey, you spent a lot of money. We know you don't want to hear all your neighbors next to you. It's all those little details that Tim has spent, you know, and the company, but Tim is the visionary, has put into, you know, creating this experience. And, you know, even in COVID, we've thought a lot about that. Like, how do we, you know, we're not, we're still making our pizza from scratch, quite frankly. We haven't changed what makes our great quality great.”
2020-12-01 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Alamo Drafthouse CEO Shelli Taylor on going back to the movies · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, so Tim Ligar founder, I don't think he went to competitors and said, I mean, you know, some degree, what are they doing? I mean, he's created kind of the, you know, cinema eatery experience. But, you know, what he does is like he's such a huge super fan, right? And he's like, how do I want to experience this? And one simple detail that you wouldn't necessarily notice is the space between the screen and the first row. Like I think we have eight to ten feet on any other theater, meaning like we go back. So we could have squeezed in another row or two, but we said no. Like we want to make sure that even if you're in the front row, that is a seat worth having. You know, when we look at beer on tap, and again, it's just, you know, all these details, but when we look at beer on tap, we go to the local market. We're like, what is important for this community? And we buy local beers. We still have, you know, some of the traditional beers that you would expect.”
2020-12-01 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Alamo Drafthouse CEO Shelli Taylor on going back to the movies · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And sometimes that food ties to the film, which is really fun. And all the different experiences that we do create. And so that won't go out of style. I do think what's accelerating and things that were on our list is we wanted to do the mobile food ordering in advance where if people wanted to figure out what they want to eat and order that with their tickets and not have to do that in the theater, we wanted to do that. So we brought it forward. And, you know, Alamo on demand, that was something that was in our Hopper of a great idea of how do we curate really different streaming opportunities for our audiences that the big streamers aren't and probably will never do. So we have brought things forward. And I think as we move into the future, there'll be some other things that we think about. But the core won't change, you know, that community, that experience and creating something that you can't get at home. That won't change.”
2020-12-01 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Alamo Drafthouse CEO Shelli Taylor on going back to the movies · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, I mean, so yes, the world is accelerating in many ways. What won't go out of style is community and social experiences. And so I think while the industry was ripe for disruption and we're seeing that, Alamo's secret sauce really, right, is creating these communal experiences for people, bringing the community together to laugh, cry, gasp, whatever, but have fun together. And that won't go out of style. And so for us, it will be going back to the secret sauce of what makes us special. And it is, you know, coming into, you know, we show over 2,000 films a year. It's more than double what other chains show because we bring in a really thoughtful, you know, slate to our audiences and that's what they want. They want more than just the big blockbusters, you know, and then we do create great food.”
2020-12-01 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Alamo Drafthouse CEO Shelli Taylor on going back to the movies · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, you know, there's a new administration. We'll see how it goes One of the things about the pandemic that I've heard from many CEOs, executives, is that this has accelerated trends that we already saw coming. In some cases, those trends are positive. We've seen a massive acceleration in e-commerce. Everyone already saw that coming. We just turned the knob up. There's been a pretty loud conversation for years about the future of movie theaters. And some of that has played out in different ways. Like rom-coms don't really get made by Hollywood, but every other Netflix show is like basically a rom-com. And so we've just seen the dynamics of the industry change. I've always thought of Alama Draft House as being slightly different than your average gigantic chain movie theater. You have food. It is an experience. You're running old movies. People come there as a social event. Do you see it as this is accelerating the trend that was already coming? Or you started by saying, well, just get back to work when it's over. Do you see this as an aberration on the plan that you already had for your company?”
2020-12-01 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Alamo Drafthouse CEO Shelli Taylor on going back to the movies · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Just small examples in some cities we're not allowed to open or we can open but we can't serve food yet the restaurant next door can serve food that just doesn't make sense you know in how you operate you know what what's the logic and you know set a simple clear set of criteria that everyone operates off of because part of the problem is this the noise and the confusion that goes out to the to our customers and our guests you know it's safe here but it's not safe with you and people can't discern that you know so it really should be agnostic to the business what what is safe and what's not to the best that we know today right yeah asking for a lot probably”
2020-12-01 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Alamo Drafthouse CEO Shelli Taylor on going back to the movies · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We do have a really great source of a lot of people who are willing to help us, whether it's our PE firm, Ultimate Capital gives us a ton of information and advice, whether it's our insurance and brokers on that side bring in a ton of advice. And then we've got strong relationships with University of Texas UT. And the information that you can get publicly. So, you know, we've probably done with a lot of people. We don't have a ton of money right now. Our resources are very skinny. So we've had to kind of do it yourself as best as possible. And, you know, we'll continue to probably operate in that method. But it comes back to that need for a coordinated government approach to this. And the government really could be doing a better job at providing clear guidance that does not consistently change to businesses.”
2020-12-01 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Alamo Drafthouse CEO Shelli Taylor on going back to the movies · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That's a set of advisors and team members you needed to build. I feel like most movie theater chains didn't have a lot of epidemiologists on staff before COVID. But now all of us are, you know, we're all looking for that expertise. We're all looking for those guidelines. How have you built that muscle and that skill to evaluate those decisions?”
2020-12-01 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Alamo Drafthouse CEO Shelli Taylor on going back to the movies · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, that's a great question, and I appreciate, and I really want to reemphasize the lack of coordinated government approach is like crippling the nation. And if there's a message, and I know lots of people are saying this, but if there is a message to our government right now, you know, it is critical that they have a coordinated approach. And the way that we're approaching it is, you know, one, you know, just my own prior experience living and working in China and seeing how this has been approached in the past helps watching countries that are, you know, and businesses and countries that are making good decisions helps. And then we have just been just trying to take a very steady approach. And that is with the information that we do now and that is not constantly changing. And some of that is, but there are a few constants out there, you know.”
2020-12-01 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Alamo Drafthouse CEO Shelli Taylor on going back to the movies · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The reason I ask that question is because right now you're managing in a crisis where there is a flood of data, you have a very physical plant kind of business people go to a movie theater and sit down and stay there for a while. How are you managing the influx of COVID information? There's a massively disjointed federal and state response. There's people who are refusing to wear masks. Right before we came on, New York City closed its schools again. It feels like there's just a flow of information about the pandemic and how it's going and how we're handling it. You're saying there's like add a lot of data, but the data is messy. The points of view are messy. How are you just managing that?”
2020-12-01 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Alamo Drafthouse CEO Shelli Taylor on going back to the movies · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Pretty simple, and obviously, depending on the complexity of what you bring in or don't bring in, but it really is values and people and direction.”
2020-12-01 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Alamo Drafthouse CEO Shelli Taylor on going back to the movies · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You know, I think it's a couple of things. One is just knowing who and what you are, it's the beauty of everywhere I've worked has had a really clear sense of their purpose and values and the problems that they're trying to solve in this world. So always starting with that framework and driving from there. I think that one of the things that I took from Starbucks and have valued over the years is that you always put people into that equation. So when you're looking at a decision, it's the stakeholders, it's your customers, it's the people on your team, you know, having all those points of view. And then sometimes it's the broader community depending on what the product is. And so I think if you start there and then you put in a good dose of data and a good dose of your gut, usually that's a great way to go. I mean, it's.”
2020-12-01 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Alamo Drafthouse CEO Shelli Taylor on going back to the movies · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So I always try to ask everybody to begin about decision making frameworks. Before Alama Draft House, you were the CEO of a large group of Planet Fitness locations. You were at Disney before that. Tell me about your general way of making decisions. How do you think about evaluating your choices and then actually make coming to a decision?”
2020-12-01 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Alamo Drafthouse CEO Shelli Taylor on going back to the movies · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“A little of both, right? I mean, you do talk about like just really wanting to listen and to get to know people. You don't have the advantage of the water cooler in the office and that proximity. But at the same time, there is nothing like a crisis to create a need for connection and speed to trust. And really fortunate that the company and the teammates have been so welcoming and willing to just assume good intent and want to move forward versus having to do some of that initial stuff. So it was pretty fast. And no one's kicked me out. We're seven months in and I'm still here and things are going pretty well considering.”
2020-12-01 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Alamo Drafthouse CEO Shelli Taylor on going back to the movies · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Was just the first day, April 30th you show up, you got to introduce yourself to everyone. There's usually a script, right? The new CEO follows. You say something like, first, I just want to listen. There's the usual stuff. Was it very different this time? Or did you just come up running?”
2020-12-01 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Alamo Drafthouse CEO Shelli Taylor on going back to the movies · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, it is, it does feel wild, but it was in the works at Christmas Wintim and I met and started talking and, you know, it's just drawn to this incredible brand and this opportunity to, you know, help take something iconic and grow it even larger, right? And then all of a sudden the pandemic hit and here we are. So we've got this little issue to get through that we can go back to the original plans.”
2020-12-01 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Alamo Drafthouse CEO Shelli Taylor on going back to the movies · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT