Good Morning, Friends! Here are 5 things I’m up to this week…
What I’m working on – Project planning. Sounds boring AF, doesn’t it? I’ve been actually pretty excited about it. Well, not the actual process of creating a project plan, but attacking our projects differently that we have in the past. As I know you’ve all heard, we’ve taken a short break from external growth (adding new restaurants) and the remainder of this year is all about internal growth, or taking what we have and making sure it’s running optimally. The old way of doing things was unfocused to say the least. Problem + Money = Solution. Now, sometimes that method is just fine, but it’s kind of like driving to a destination, but having no idea how to get there. See, it lacks a plan. No address, gps, nothing. Picture someone telling you to go pick up a Honeybaked Ham. (can you tell I’m hungry right now?) If you drive around long enough, you’ll eventually stumble upon the Honeybaked Ham Store, but an exact address and driving directions would have made this trip way more efficient and way less frustrating to all those hungry people who are relying on you for ham. Attacking issues this new way, with not only a detailed plan, but a budget, timeline, expectations and contingencies is making all the difference in the world. Plus, having an expanded team in place to attack issues when they arise is game-changing too. We’re never going to be the best place in the world to go get pizza if we keep doing things the old way. Onward and upward!
Something I’m Pondering – Our Brand…and how it’s not really ours. I used to think of our brand as just our logo and graphic designs. Our signs, menus, website, etc. In reality, our brand is every single facet of our entire business. A realization I’ve made lately is that we can INFLUENCE our brand, but we can never CONTROL it, nor can we ever OWN it. Our brand is owned and shaped by our fans and we’re just along for the ride. Our Pizzaface’s are in the drivers seat of this Formula 10 race car and we’re in the passenger seat trying the best we can to hang on! The brands of Late Night Slice, Oddfellows and the Sacred Palm are the emotional reactions that exist inside the heads of our consumers that we cannot control. It’s their perceptions of what we are, not ours. It actually doesn’t matter one single bit what we think our brand is, it only matters to our customers. Therefore, everything we do must exemplify our brand. If it’s not ON BRAND, it’s AGAINST OUR BRAND! We must be radically on brand every time in everything we do. Customer service…ON BRAND. Social Media…ON BRAND. Signage, menus, interior design…all ON BRAND. Consistency is the key. People want to feel like they are buying into something bigger than themselves. We must continue to give our fans this opportunity.
What I’m reading or listening to – I’ll be finishing up Business for Punks this week. I didn’t think I’d get as much out of this book as I have. The Brewdog guys are pretty fuckin rad and their approach to building a business in modern times is pretty inspiring. The challenging this for me is to remember that there are no rules for building a business. It’s easy most of the time to simply follow the standard way of doing things, but opportunity exists everywhere to think more creatively or differently or BIGGER!
What I’m watching – Well, I’m one of the zero people in the world who have never seen a single episode of Game of Thrones, so I’m not sure about Sunday. All I know is that I’ve given out my HBO account info to so many people that I’ll probably be blocked from watching anything on that this week. Any Ideas on good shows? What are you into?
An App or technology I’m into lately – What to Expect When You’re Expecting. I actually have a love/hate relationship with this app. In all honesty, I don’t even have it on my phone, but my lovely pregnant wife sure does and she doesn’t hesitate to recite her learnings to me every waking second of our recent lives. It’s actually contains some amazing information about the stages of pregnancy, but I can tell you I’m pretty tired of it telling me my unborn kid is the size of various fruits and vegetables. This week he’s an avocado. I think I’m going to make that a weekly part of this letter.
Have a wonderful week, all!
Like this? Hate this? Please give me feedback.
5 Things to Consider Archive 