Good Morning Friends! Here are my 5 Things to Consider this week.
Culture –Our number one driver of growth is repeat customers and word of mouth. It’s no secret that we don’t advertise or do much traditional marketing. The only time you’ll see us in a newspaper or magazine is when we win an award and say “Thanks” to our voters. Likewise with radio and tv. If we’re on those platforms, we’re usually getting free publicity for doing something cool or impactful, not because we paid to be there. My big problem with most traditional marketing is that it has little to no brand interaction. It’s hard to be different when you’re begging for the same attention that everyone else is begging for. Most traditional marketing sounds something like, “Come try our new special!” or “you’ll love our happy hour! or “we’re open from 9am to 9pm” It’s based on information and people don’t have a connection with information, they have connections with their feelings and emotions. They have connections to experiences and, even stranger, they form emotional connections from someone else’s experiences! As in, they don’t even have had to visit one of our locations, but if they hearit’s great from someone they trust, they’ll evangelize for us too! Word of mouth is hands down the most powerful form of advertising we have, period. Each time a person enters our doors, we have an opportunity to not only impress them, but countless members of their friends and family. On the contrary, if we drop the ball and give just a single person a less-than-great experience, we’ve not only potentially cost ourselves a customer, but countless members of their friends and family. Customers who have great experiences return and tell others to visit us…the exact opposite is true too. Great experiences create endless potential for us. Bad experiences are the fastest means to an end. The sky’s the limit when we devote all of our resources to creating amazing customer and Piesan experiences.
Leadership –The Funk. I’m not talking about Sly and the Family Stone here, I’m talking about that feeling we all get from time to time when we just don’t feel like we’re enough; we’re not capable enough, we’re not doing enough, we’re not supporting our teams enough, whatever. There are times in all of our lives when we just don’t feel like we’re…enough. To be honest, I’m writing about this topic because I’m going through one of those times myself. I call it a “lull” and it sucks. Self-doubt creeps into all of our lives sometimes and plops his fat self down on our mental couches and decides to hang out for a while. Your thoughts can begin to wander to “the dark side” and you can begin to question your abilities. The phrase I keep going back to myself is, “this too shall pass.” I know that this is just part of our reality as humans, and it has nothing to do with how capable we or the work that we’ve done or will do. I try to focus on the things that I’m grateful for in my life, or the things that are going well; my kid, my wife, my job. When you’re in a lull it’s easy to focus on all the shitty things that aren’t going right, but if you put things in perspective and focus on the things that are going well, it’s usually not as bad as you think. I almost welcome the “lull” sometimes because, in my mind, if you can’t stop it from happening, then why not embrace it, knowing that soon it will be gone and things will be back to your version of normal…whatever that might be. Every one of us in a leadership position goes through peaks and valleys. We all have moments of self-doubt and low self-esteem and it’s our perspectiveon those times that will help us get to the other side. Lulls are just valley’s on our journeys to becoming great leaders and when you come out on the other side, you’re further along than when you started.
History – That one time we blew up They Might Be Giants’ social media. Back in 2015 (I think) we made some pies for They Might Be Giant’s after their show at the Newport. They happened to like our pizza box, which was the original “I wanna be inside you!” version at the time, and took a couple pictures of it for their social media accounts. Nobody expected what came next. The pictures they posted starting going viral and comments and “likes” we’re in the thousands! To this day, the pictures of our pizza box are still their most popular posts. In fact, every time they come back to Columbus, they post the same picture as a teaser. It’s pretty cool.
Motivation –“People influence people. Nothing influences people more than a recommendation from a trusted friend. A trusted referral influences people more than the best broadcast message. A trusted referral is the Holy Grail of advertising.” – Mark Zuckerberg
The 5th Thing (something I’m reading, watching or inspired by)– Principals by Ray Dalio. At over 600 pages, this book scares the hell out of me! It’s like a Stephen King novel! Ray Dalio is the famous manager of Bridgewater Associates, the largest and best preforming hedge fund in the world. He wrote two books about the things he’s learned in his career; the first being Principals – Life and Work, and the second, Principals for Success. Usually I can tell within the first couple pages if I’m going to love or “just get through” a book. I have a feeling this one’s going to be a good one…If I ever finish it.
Baby Update – My mother said to me once that, when I was a baby, she thought I was just so “neat.” Now, as the father of a 5+ month-old baby, I can’t help but look at him sometimes and think about now neathe is. Babies are just neat. They’re fun to watch because every day they seem to “get” something new. Their hands work a little better than they did the day before or they notice something new and smile. The differences are subtle but noticeable, and sometimes it just hard not to look at him and think about how far he’s come or how big he’s getting. It’s pretty neat. ☺️
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 