Jimmy John Liautaud, CEO and founder of Jimmy John’s Gourmet Sandwiches, offered a tasty combination of irreverence and inspiration as the featured speaker at the Youth Entrepreneurs Business for Breakfast on Wednesday.

The “freaky fast” sandwich-making guru was greeted with enthusiastic applause from an audience of about 200 at The Gallery in Kansas City’s Power & Light District. The breakfast was a fund-raiser for Youth Entrepreneurs of Kansas & Missouri, which provides entrepreneurism training to high-school students.

Following a 15-minute, rock-star-style video showing his rise from opening his first sandwich shop at age 19 in 1983 to franchising 1,780 stores today, Liautaud hit the stage in a Jimmy John’s-logoed short-sleeve shirt over a Jimmy John’s-logoed T-shirt—and didn’t waste time telling his wild and crazy success story in a freewheeling 45-minute talk.

‘Have No Fear’

Liautaud explained how he started Jimmy John’s with a $25,000 loan from his father, which allowed him to open his first shop and hire employees that he scheduled so he could have weekends off.

“I smoked pot and drank beer Friday, Saturday and Sunday—that was my start,” Liautaud said, getting laughs. “That was for about four weeks. It was a hell of a four weeks.”

When his employees abruptly quit and he had to operate the business entirely by himself, opening and closing seven days a week, Liautaud admitted he was “freaked out.” But after a few weeks of flying solo, he discovered that he could “really do this.”

Liautaud said he grew the business by opening one new store at a time and then replacing himself before opening another. He also liked showing rather than telling his employees how he wanted things done.

“I learned to take the toughest jobs for myself,” Liautaud said, “and everybody will do what I do and not what I say.”

By continuing to jump in and “have no fear,” Liautaud said he became his early company’s accountant, legal mind, marketer and more—“I did it all,” he said.

‘Fire All the (Butt) Kissers’

By 1994, Liautaud had licensed 160 Jimmy John’s franchises, but 60 were failing. After a reorganization of the company, he decided to turn away potential franchisees who could only offer him “a check and a pulse,” and to seriously “screen the people before I let them into my system.”

“I will take youth, no money and enthusiasm over a big bankroll every day … ” Liautaud said, adding that the average age of Jimmy John’s franchisees is 32 years old. “If the excitement and enthusiasm is greater than the cash, the cash will come.”

Hard workers, not politicians, are the folks who Liautaud is looking for in leadership roles at Jimmy John’s. “We fire all the (butt) kissers,” he said.

Liautaud detailed his disciplined style of micromanagement and how it continues to benefit the Jimmy John’s system, in which “we count the pennies, and let the dollars take care of themselves.” And, he said, because of his overarching fiscal and organizational oversight, Jimmy John’s franchisees have “virtually a zero failure rate in SBA loans.”

Liautaud used such words as “fanatical” and “maniacal” to describe his attention to detail and focus on preventing waste, including his yearly practice of having employees empty their desks of hoarded office supplies and “put them in a big pile that lasts everyone about six months.”

‘If You Lie, You Die’

He reflected on how TV and radio advertising for Jimmy John’s has taken something of a back seat to the importance of making a positive impression on people via social media.

“Today the medium for marketing is people,” he said. “And kids today … if they go in and find out you’re full of (garbage), you’re history. You can exponentially expect returns if you deliver what you promise. Just make sure you are who you say you are, because if you lie, you die.”

Another 1,000 Jimmy John’s stores are “in the pipeline,” Liautaud said. “We are the hottest, most attractive, desired franchise in the country.”

During a question-and-answer period, the plain-speaking Liautaud told why Jimmy John’s sandwiches aren’t toasted (“It stinks up the store and slows up the line”), why he eschews selling soups and salads (“I just want to be the fast-sandwich guy, I don’t want to be the everything-to-everybody guy”) and the simplicity of his business model (“If you play Legos and you can add and subtract, you can do this (stuff)”).

Liautaud also touched on his politics.

“I was a big supporter of Mitt Romney, and I took a lot of heat … ” he said. “I just want free enterprise.”