We recently had the opportunity to sit down with Oakland Raiders Safety Marcus Gilchrist. Marcus is the owner of Zaxby’s at 101 Grand Hill Place at Towne Center in Holly Springs, and is opening another location at 1171 Pine Plaza Drive in Apex, next to Academy Sports. He was in town to take in some basketball, and we jumped on the opportunity to sit with him and his business manager, Travis Kelley, to ask them some questions.
SL: Where were you born and raised?
MG: Right on down the road in High Point.
SL: You went to school at Clemson, then into the NFL draft.
MG: Yup – Drafted by San Diego, and I spent four years with them.
SL: How long have you been in the league?
MG: I’ve been playing now for nine years.
SL: How long do you think you’ll be playing in the league?
MG: That’s a tough question. It depends on your body and how you feel, in combination with if teams want to sign you, and if they feel you can play anymore, and if you can be beneficial to their team.
If I had my choice, I’d like to get to twelve years. Once I get to twelve, just see how I feel and gauge it from there.
SL: So many athletes seem to get caught up in the moment with spending money frivolously and not really planning for the future. You’ve taken a different path. Did someone approach you along the way to help you get started in the right direction?
MG: For me, it’s always been about an exit strategy. Growing up, my parents sent me to a lot of different camps. I was just telling my wife, I remember going to a camp called First Team Camp, where all the top players went. It was me, Derek Rose, Eric Gordon, O.J. Mayo.
This was back when we were still in high school. Usually when you go to a basketball camp, you just go and play basketball. This was more grooming you for when you’re getting ready to start being recruited. They taught things like etiquette, having an exit strategy, how to manage your money, and things that go along with it.
When I met Travis [Kelley], he was already doing what I wanted to do, but with a different restaurant. I’ve always been a big fan of Zaxby’s, I used to eat there all the time growing up. When he came to me with the idea, I was on board right away. There was nothing else to talk about. We hit the ground running.
SL: Where was the first location you opened?
MG: Holly Springs was my first location. The Apex location will be number four for me. Apex could be number five, since I have another location getting ready to open in Virginia. It really depends on which contractor finishes first.
SL: Have you set any limits as to how many locations you’d like to have?
MG: Definitely not. As big as it can go.
TK: You have to realize, this store has been open for five years, but we started talking about this eight years ago, when it was his first year in the league. At that time, the decision was to do all of Wake County and what was remaining in Durham County. It was a ten store agreement. Some changes took place, and we ended up doing three in Wake County, and purchased the rights to Chesterfield County up near Richmond [VA], for another eight stores. The plan was to open five stores in five years, and that would give us the scalability to use those profits to open more stores.
He is very entrepreneurial. “Gilly” [Marcus] owns a real estate holding company that owns and manages the property in Apex, Richmond, and Midlothian, VA, and leases it out to his operating companies.
SL: So the Holly Springs location wasn’t a specific choice, that’s just what was available?
MG: When we decided to do Holly Springs, there was nothing else around us [in Holly Springs]. That’s kinda the fun part about it, too. Even now, bringing my wife back, she made the comment, “I don’t remember all of this being around here.” To come back and see the growth is amazing. Travis is a big part of the thought process.
S.L. How did you find out about this area?
MG: I played a lot of travel basketball growing up, so we would have tournaments in this area, as well as other parts of North Carolina. I really didn’t know much about Holly Springs. That was all Travis, being from this area. He came to me and said, “There’s a new highway being built. There’s a new Target going in, and the area is really growing.”
SL: How often do you make it to the area?
MG: I try to make it home two or three times a year, and when I do, I try to make it over this way. The season is a gruesome time, for about six months, so it’s tough to get here more than that.
SL: What skill-set have you gained by being a professional athlete? Do you think it helps you as an entrepreneur?
MG: I think it’s more than just being a professional athlete. I think anybody who’s in sports, or anything that involves camaraderie, a team, or environment, there’s always teamwork, people striving for one goal, and different characters.
Everybody is so different. It’s funny to me because I’m 30 now, so I’m considered the old guy, and I’m playing with a guy that was born in 1997. Then you get another teammate that’s from California, and lives on the other side of the country and grew up a totally different way. You have to find a way to connect to each other. I think that’s the great part about being part of a team.
SL: Is there anything that you’re doing as a company to give back the community?
TK: We’ve just brought on a full-time community outreach professional. Karen Shore will serve as our Director of Local Marketing and Community Outreach. We host the “Eye Openers” for the Chamber of Commerce, we help host fundraisers to raise money for local schools & sports teams, and we also do a back-to-school drive. That’s something that Marcus does back home, and we brought it over here. We partner with Target and some of the other local businesses. We have 100 backpacks that we fill. If you need the backpack, just come get one. If you have something to donate, just come by and drop it off and we’ll add it to the bags. We’re looking to do it again this July.
SL: Will you be looking at other opportunities other than real estate and Zaxby’s?
MG: Absolutely.
TK: Marcus recently applied for an Amazon delivery service partner program, which they unveiled last summer. It’s a very competitive program, and he was selected for it. In a few weeks, we’ll be traveling to Seattle to talk to them about him getting his own fleet. It got us thinking about the logistics industry, and other ways we can get involved.
MG: My goal is, by the time I get off the field, to be making the same amount of money as I was on the field, and offering opportunities for others to be financially successful as well.
