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Perry Rogers, CEO and founding father of sports management and company consulting firm PRP, has managed each famous person athletes and Hollywood stars. He additionally constructed a profitable restaurant firm, JRS Hospitality, with many sizzling spots on the Las Vegas Strip.
These experiences ready him to associate together with his client Shaquille O’Neal to create a really larger-than-life restaurant model. Big Chicken is a testomony to collaboration, imaginative and prescient and enjoyable.
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Constructing a legacy for Shaquille O’Neal
The story of Massive Hen started with a query. “Shaquille got here to me in 2017 and stated, ‘You’ve got constructed this large restaurant firm. What have you ever constructed for me?'” Perry Rogers informed Shawn Walchef, host of Restaurant Influencers, on the 2024 Massive Hen franchisee convention in Las Vegas.
O’Neal wasn’t simply in search of an funding—he needed a legacy. Rogers and his workforce started working, creating an idea that actually mirrored O’Neal’s character.
“We considered what suits Shaquille, what displays his values, his persona and got here up with Massive Hen,” Rogers says.
The primary launch was in Las Vegas in 2018. They spent two years refining the idea earlier than increasing additional. Regardless of his in depth expertise, Rogers admits the early days of Massive Hen had been a studying curve.
“Our [other] eating places had been all full-service, big-volume operations. This was completely different,” he explains. Fast-casual dining was a complete new ballgame.
Even with meticulous planning, the primary location was stuffed with sudden challenges. “We received numerous issues fallacious — an excessive amount of area, too many seats, even the design,” Rogers says. However these hurdles grew to become alternatives for development. “When you have a look at life as a steady enchancment journey, it isn’t an enormous danger to fail.”
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Embracing new media
Rogers and his workforce knew from the beginning that Massive Hen was greater than only a restaurant. It was a stage meant for storytelling.
Impressed by O’Neal’s fearless strategy to enterprise and branding, they launched a Fb Watch sequence known as Constructing in Public. Followers might watch the behind-the-scenes means of constructing Massive Hen in real-time.
“Shaquille is all about being genuine and clear,” Rogers says. “If you’re prepared to indicate the ups and downs, it builds belief together with your viewers. Folks can see that you simply’re not afraid to fail, and that creates a powerful connection together with your prospects.”
Spreading your model on each beneficial media platform is a full-time job. The Massive Hen workforce needed to be taught the nuances of a fast-casual idea, together with its dimension, area, theme and product combine. Nonetheless, they remained dedicated to fixed enchancment and iteration.
Constructing in public taught them about themselves and the model, in addition to the way to use social media successfully. By the point they had been able to scale, they felt assured that that they had a product prospects actually liked.
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For Rogers, collaboration is essential to Massive Hen’s success. He credit O’Neal’s daring imaginative and prescient and authenticity because the core of their id. “Shaquille appears to be like at life like, ‘If my intentions are proper, I needn’t fear,'” Rogers stated. Ultimately, issues did fall into place, however they wanted assist.
Hiring Josh Halpern as CEO was an enormous turning level. “We wanted somebody who knew what they had been doing,” Rogers says. Halpern’s experience allowed Massive Hen to scale responsibly, guaranteeing the model stayed true to its mission whereas increasing the enterprise.
Massive Hen has grown considerably since its first location, with home and worldwide expansions on the horizon. “We simply opened our first outlet within the UK, in Manchester, and we’re constructing in Honduras in 2025,” Rogers says.
On the coronary heart of Massive Hen’s success is its deal with hospitality. “The shops that do properly are those the place the house owners are greeting the shoppers,” Rogers says. “If the shoppers do not feel that Shaquille love, there is a disconnect.”
For Rogers, the restaurant industry is about greater than enterprise — it is a calling. “If you do not need the ball of internet hosting individuals, do not get on this trade,” he says. However for many who love creating pleasure via meals and hospitality, the rewards are unmatched.
As Massive Hen continues to develop, Rogers stays centered on honoring O’Neal’s imaginative and prescient and crafting that legacy. “My job is to construct the enterprise that Shaquille desires to have,” he says. With every new restaurant, they are not simply serving meals — they’re creating moments of connection and group.
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