Right About Now - Legendary Business Advice
How Big Dave’s Cheesesteaks Went from Gas Station Restaurant to Multi-Location Franchise | Derrick Hayes
27 Jan 2026
Chapter 1: What inspired Derrick Hayes to start Big Dave's Cheesesteaks?
When you throw a hook in the water, you can't see the fish at the bottom. You can't see what's in front of you in business. You just got to believe. It's the same scenario. Both of it worked for me. You just got to believe in what you're doing. And I fish every day, whether I'm fishing in business or I'm fishing in the water.
I'm throwing my line out there with my bait on it every day and I'm trying to catch a fish, whether it's a big one or a small one. I'm taking one step at a time. If you don't catch one fish that's big enough, you can catch a lot of little ones that can add up to that big fish. That's the way business works.
This is Right About Now with Ryan Alford, a Radcast Network production. We are the number one business show on the planet with over one million downloads a month. Taking the BS out of business for over six years and over 400 episodes. You ready to start snapping next and cashing checks? Well, it starts right about now.
What's up, guys? Welcome to Right About Now. We're always talking about how you get right in business and life and ultimately what's happening today. It don't matter what happened last year. What matters five years from now, we've got to talk about how to make it happen now. That's why we're always talking to legendary people, doing legendary things.
That's why we got the CEO and the founder of Big Dave's Cheesesteak. It's Derek Hayes. What's up, Derek? What's up, man? Thank you for having me, Ryan. Hey, man. My pleasure. I love seeing a man getting after it, thriving in America, doing the hard things well, and success. It looks good on you, brother.
Hey, man. It's a lot of hard work, a lot of sleepless nights. I want to change it for the world, man, because it made me who I am right now, battling all these roller coaster rides and getting it out the mud.
You know, man, I'm a big dude. I'm 6'5", 260 on a good day. I like to eat, brother. Oh, man, I got it.
You know what I would give you? I would give you my 18-inch cheesesteak.
That's what I would give you.
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Chapter 2: What challenges did Derrick face in the early days of his business?
I'm like, oh, man, what am I doing?
What year are we talking about, roughly?
This is 2014. This is early days. This is me as a young entrepreneur that really don't know what the hell he's doing. He just wants to do something good. Trying to sling some ice. It ain't going well. I remember it was people who thought that I was selling just cups of ice. And it was like, what kind of concept is this? Shouts out to my mother.
She's like, it's time for you to put the kitchen in and do the cheesesteak thing that you really wanted to do. I decided to change the name to Big Dave Cheesesteaks. And that's where it all started.
2016, that year was like the year for me where I went from not having any customers to starting transitioning to customers, start transitioning to a community, start understanding that it's a good sandwich in Dunwoody, Georgia, which is Still not in Atlanta. You're still about 35 minutes from the city. It got to be damn good for somebody to drive that far out. Dunwoody. Dunwoody.
But after Eve came, she came in 2015, I started to get the hype built up. But 2016, I like to call it, was my transition in the year, letting people know. who I am. 2018, I represented Georgia in a sandwich competition where I ranked number seven in the world in sandwiches. When I came home, it was almost like a kid won the scholarship in college. The community was proud. They were happy.
I can remember that moment. And then we just started getting so big that the gas station wasn't working for us anymore because we couldn't get the orders out fast enough. I only had a three-foot grill, one broken fryer. And I mean, we done 800 tickets in some days. It's just It's wild. Sometimes a thousand on the weekends.
But I was able to now spread my wings and go downtown to 57 Forsyth Street, where I think the real magic happened for not just my life, but for my career in the community, because this became a staple to the community, a landmark. People would fly into Atlanta. First thing they do is they go downtown to go get a cheesesteak from Big Dave. So we started to have that.
I'm flying to go get a cheesesteak or I'm flying in town. Big Dave's is there. I'm going to go get one. I see it on Instagram. It's a destination. Yeah, it started being that. And then through over the years, we just started to grow. I was able to get food trucks. I was able to go into different arenas, Mercedes-Benz Stadium, you name it, it goes on.
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Chapter 3: How did Derrick transition from a gas station restaurant to a franchise?
It's the same scenario. Both of it worked for me. You just got to believe in what you're doing. And I fish every day, whether I'm fishing in business or I'm fishing in the water. I'm throwing my line out there with my bait on it every day. And I'm trying to catch a fish, whether it's a big one or a small one. I'm taking one step at a time. If you don't catch one fish, That's big enough.
You can catch a lot of little ones that can add up to that big fish. That's the way business works.
Derek, where'd you get your wisdom from, man? Because that's smart. I say all the time, this is why everybody's not successful. You have to keep going without proof of success. And that's the difference between people that make it and people that don't. A lot of people need proof all the time. And those people do okay, but they don't really ever get to the, let's call it the pinnacle.
And I'm not just saying money, but like even the bigger things in life because they need that validation. I need proof. I need proof. I need proof. And you nailed it. You said it. That hook at the bottom, there's fish all around it, but you don't necessarily know it.
Yeah, you don't even know it. And sometimes you don't want that certain fish to bite it because you don't want it.
That's right.
You know, sometimes you could say that, oh, life has happened to me. I got this person to invest in me. I got this partner. But what if it's a bad fish?
Yeah. Well, that's what a lot of people would say. I don't know if you're religious or not. They'd say that's when God's working for you, you know.
Hey, look, I'm very religious and I definitely believe that. And I also believe that God is not going to pitch you on anything you can't handle either.
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Chapter 4: What role does patience play in achieving business success?
And that's your advisors. That's your team.
And that's people you trust and believe in. A lot of people have family. They get involved in business. Dave's Cheesecake. It's huge. Derek Hayes has done this. Have you learned anything about working or not working with family when building this?
Respectfully, it can be difficult at times when you bring somebody in that you have to pay more that now becomes their boss. And it's always, hey, I'm cuz or I'm brother or whatever the situation may be. That is the most difficult thing in business, not just for me as a whole, for people to hire family members.
When you open up a fast casual in a market, you really do have community impact. You have it where it's obvious, which is another great place to eat, especially if it's reputable and good like yours. But then it's you're hiring, you're supporting the community, you're buying in the community, you're selling in the community. There's so many things that go into it. Talk to me about that.
I invest in the communities that we build Big Dave's in. We like to hire within because when you bring a multimillion dollar business in a growing community, it can help the community significantly. You're helping people gain employment. You're helping people gain careers. It could be a young kid that was maybe going down the wrong road.
What I'll do is we have something called a Blue Apron Program inside of Big Dave Cheesesteaks. And if you learn to work all the stations, you can graduate. And what that does is that gives them some insight on the business and makes them feel good. I come in there and I graduate them just like they graduate and get a certificate of a master's degree or undergrad, whatever.
Hey, brother, I loved it. I can't wait to have you in Greenville and right down the road from us. And we'll have a follow up. We'll see how things are going. Where can everybody keep up with Big Dave's and Derek Hayes?
Big Dave Cheesesteaks is my Instagram. My personal page is OfficialDHayes. I'm always uplifting. I'm always teaching. I'm even always learning. So let's connect. Let's build. And if you're around Atlanta, if you're around South Carolina, North Carolina, Florida, get you a Big Dave Cheesesteak.
I love it, brother. Thank you so much for coming on. All right, thank you. Hey, guys, you know where to find us, ryanisright.com. We're always bringing you what's right, man. What's more right than this brother? Making it happen. He is the new face of Fast Casual. We need some new faces. I'm telling you what, I'm tired of the same old, same old. Hey, man, we're still here to stay. I know, man.
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