Good Morning Friends! Here are my 5 Things to Consider this week!
Culture – Who is your Datty, and what does he do? We deal in the world’s two favorite things, Pizza and Booze. We’re pretty lucky in that respect. There is zero learning curve to what we sell. As in, we really don’t have to teach our customers practically anything about our products. My buddy used to tell a hilarious story about selling crepes at the Ohio State Fair. Curious (albeit ignorant) customers would come up and ask, “What’s a creepy?” “It’s like a French burrito” he would respond. That’s what you call a learning curve! Educating the customer on what our product is before they even pull out their wallets. We don’t have that. What we do have though, is a shit-load of other people selling the same products we offer. I always say, you can walk out any door you’re ever at, and within a 10 minute walk, you can find someone selling pizza or booze. I hesitate to use the word “competition” because I truly don’t think most pizza joints or bars arecompetition. That’s why we decided to separate ourselves from the rest of the crowd by being DIFFERENT. By focusing, not just on our pizza, but on every aspect of the experience of going to one of our restaurants or bars. That’s why the DETAILS are so important. Experience is EVERYTHING to our guests because without it, we’re just another pizza shop or bar.
Leadership – Internalizing Purpose. Knowing when a new Piesans or bartender finally “gets it” is a special thing to notice when it happens. Our goal is not to have our new people just memorize our Mission, Vision, Values and the Piesan Pledge, but for them to internalize it and for those values to come out naturally, and almost unconsciously. As Piesans work their way up the Pierarchy Chart, from bottom to top, they will go though, as Nick Sarillo puts it in his book, A Slice of the Pie, four stages of competence; Unconscious Incompetence, Piesans don’t know what their purpose is or the purpose of LNS or OF. Conscious Incompetence, when a Piesan knows their failing to execute a task based on our values. Conscious Competence, when a Piesan is aware of the values but have to apply themselves to do it. AndUnconscious Competence, The highest stage, when a Piesan naturally and intuitively executes a task based on our values, without needing to think about it. I feel the best way to know if a Piesan, or manager for that matter has reached the highest stage is by noticing how they work under pressure. Pay attention during a busy shift to whether a new Piesan has reverted to bad habits or is displaying our values. Or what middle stage they might be at. When your whole team “gets it” and they’re FLOWING, it’s a beautiful thing. We’ve all been there.
History – The Office. The office was arguably the start of Late Night Slice. I moved in with Dylan in March of 2005 and for the first four-plus years, it was just an amazing apartment. The room was so big, and we had so little furniture, we bought an outdoor trampoline just to take up one corner! The trampoline may have been the most “infamous” piece of furniture we ever bought for that place because of all the people that jumped on it over the years. It was pretty easy to convince people to come up and party in our huge loft with a trampoline…and boy did we have a lot of parties. Dylan would eventually move out and my buddy Chris moved in. Then Crizzle, Then Jason. Then Rachael. The Big Room, as we creatively called it, eventually became more office than apartment and Rachael and I finally moved out in the fall of 2014. It’s been just our office ever since. It’s never been the prettiest or the most air conditioned office in the world, but it’s definitely the most unique, especially in the Short North. And that’s why I still love it.
Motivation – “The best things in life make you sweaty.” ― Edgar Allan Poe
What I’m Reading or Watching – Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me. For those of you NPR fans, you’re probably very aware of this radio show. In my opinion it’s the funniest hour of radio on radio. It’s a topical quiz show hosted by four to five comedians and various guests. It’s always funny and always relevant. You can catch it on any podcast app or wherever you get your audio.
Baby Update – Will IV (pronounced Will-eye-vee) is 33 weeks this week. He’s currently trying out his new rap name (…obviously) and has a Youtube channel with over 2.5 million subscribers. When he’s not working on his Youtube rap career, he is making reactions videos of himself watching other people watching reaction videos.
Thanks for reading! Like or hate any part of this? Let me know! I really value your feedback.
Have a great week!
5 Things to Consider Archive 