[00:00:01] This just in. You are now listening to episode number 400 of the restaurant Strategy Podcast. I'm your host, Chip Close. Today we are going to talk about how far we've come on this journey. To everybody who's been with me since the beginning or near the beginning, so glad to have you along for the ride. For everyone else out there who's discovered us maybe sometime in the last couple of months or the last year or so, where welcome. This show is almost six years old. I'm incredibly proud of the community we've built and the kind of conversations we're able to have and the impact we've been able to have through this show. Today, I'm sharing our 10 biggest episodes, most downloaded, my five favorite episodes. Even if they aren't the most downloaded, I promise you they are ones you do not want to miss. And I want to share some more of my insights, amusing things I've learned over the last nearly six years running. This show, 400 episodes. That has nothing to do with me. That has everything to do with you guys. Because if you didn't show up, there'd be no reason for me to hit record on this microphone. I appreciate you being here. So much. Great stuff coming at you today on this, the 400th episode of Restaurant Strategy.
[00:01:11] There's an old saying that goes something like this. You'll only find three kinds of people in the world. Those who see, those who will never see, and those who can see when shown. This is Restaurant Strategy, a podcast with answers for anyone who's looking.
[00:01:42] Hey, everyone, thanks for tuning in. My name is Chip Close, and this is episode number 400 of the restaurant Strategy Podcast. For those of you who don't know, we do two new episodes every single week. Monday focuses on operations. Every Thursday focuses on marketing. The exception is this week because we got to mark 400, so it's going to be sort of a grab bag talking about so, so, so much. If you don't know me, I. I run something called the P3 mastermind and the founder of a company called Restaurant Strategy. Yes, the host of the podcast, but also founder of the company. We have an agency, we have a coaching program. We have an online community. There's so much we do to serve this community and you are part of that now. If you ever want to learn more about what we do, then go check out our website, restaurantstrategypodcast.com specifically, if you want to learn more about the coaching program, we run the P3 mastermind on that page, restaurantstrategypodcast.com you click the button that says schedule a call. That's how you learn more about what we do. So specifically that Mastermind is focused on profitability. Got a busy restaurant. You're generating a lot of revenue but not seeing enough of that. Drop to the bottom line. Specifically, a consistent, predictable 20%. Totally cool. That's what we are really good at fixing. We want to chat with you, grab time in the calendar. You talk with me or either someone from my team. We'll get to learn more about you and your restaurant. You'll get to ask questions of us. Let's see if you're a good fit. Call's totally free. You will come out the other end understanding more about each other and let's see, let's see if it makes sense for you to join the program. RestaurantStrategyPodcast.com Click the button that says schedule a call. You'll grab time on the calendar and we'll have conversation. That link, as always, is in the show notes.
[00:03:19] Now I've got a friend. His name's Rev Ciencio. He co hosts the P3 Marketing Summit that we host every January. In fact, the next one is coming up in January 26, 2728 in Salt Lake City, Utah. You're going to hear more about that in a little bit. Not yet. Tickets are going to go on sale very, very soon. They are very limited this year because a bunch of our members have already chewed them up. In any event, Rev Ciencio, I love this guy. He's one of the smartest restaurant marketers I know. He works at hundreds of restaurants all over the country. He's actually an operator himself. He has a place called Handcraft Burgers and Brew in the in the heart of. Just outside. In the heart of Midtown Manhattan, just outside of Bryant Park. I recommend Marquis all the time, but did you know this guy before he works with a customer? Before he works with a client. He insists that every single one of them should use Marquee. Marquee M A R Q I I. With Marquee, you can manage and respond to all of your reviews on Google, Yelp, OpenTable, TripAdvisor, Facebook, Grubhub, Uber eats a easy cater right all in one central place. The program Marquee helps you improve your star ratings with consistent review responses and the system will even respond for you on your behalf if you don't have time. Marquee also makes sure that your listings management is in place, so making sure your hours, menus and all other information is accurate across the Entire Internet. They're like 70 or 80 different places where you are listed. I'm sure you only know like eight of them because I only know like eight of them. Marquis knows them all. Right. By doing that, it places you higher in near me searches, which ultimately helps you get more butts and seats, which is really all we care about. Right. So if you're curious to learn more, visit marquee.com that's M A R Q I I.
[00:05:06] As always, I put that link in the show notes.
[00:05:09] Okay, so this. This is the 400th episode of the Restaurant strategy podcast. I'm incredibly proud of what we've accomplished over the last six years. Nearly six years. Famously, I said, I'm just going to start off with like 30 episodes, try and do one episode every, every week. See if I get 30 of them, see if it takes off, see if anybody cares. See how I like doing it. See if I felt like I had more to say at the end of those 30 episodes to my very real sur. It. It caught on pretty quickly. It built a following. We've now grown up to thousands and thousands of unique listeners every single week. It's. It's a really rich, robust community. It's how I connect with people who will mostly then become part of my mastermind. So we get to work close more closely.
[00:05:56] I've grown this from one episode a week to two episodes a week. We shuffle some interviews in there so that we can get some industry experts in there to help us be better at what we do. I'm incredibly proud of this, of what we've accomplished. And I really mean we.
[00:06:12] It's fine. I can turn on the microphone a couple of times a week and tell you things, tell you what I've learned, but it doesn't matter if there's not people on the other end.
[00:06:21] I know what you do is hard. I know it's never been harder than it has been this year. I will say that I went on record back in 20, 2020 and 2021. And I said, as hard as it is now, I believe the next year and a half are going to be even harder.
[00:06:35] Sadly, I was. I was absolutely right. I couldn't have predicted all that happened, but I knew labor would eng and I knew that would be a challenge. I knew we were gonna have some sort of residual inflation. I knew goods were gonna. Were gonna continue to raise.
[00:06:49] I couldn't have imagined. Imagined the slowdown. I obviously we were going into an election year. We always slow down during an election year. I think this was Particularly, particularly bad, I think, because it was combined with so many other areas. The interest rates increasing, people's, you know, housing costs going up. They had less discretionary income.
[00:07:09] So it affects us and it affect the customers we. We serve, which then in turn affects us. I went on record and I said I thought it was going to be. It was going to be worse than during the pandemic. And I sort of think it was. I think during the pandemic, we did what we had to do to get through a crisis.
[00:07:26] But then this. Everybody, I think, felt we returned to normal. And I know those of us who were in the industry kept saying, this is anything but normal. It's. This is way out of whack. And I think. I think we all know that. So I appreciate you guys tuning in every single week to try to get better at what you do, to try to run a better, more profitable, more sustainable business. That is what I do. That's why I do. For those of you who are relatively new to the show, if you don't know me, my name is Chip Close. I live here just outside of New York City. I was in New York City for 20 years. I've been in this industry for 25 years. I've done just about everything you can do in front of house.
[00:08:03] Don't ask me to cook anything. I don't think you'll. I don't think you'll. I don't think you want to pay for it. But I've done just about everything you can do front of house and then back office.
[00:08:12] Mostly I worked in fine dining restaurants in New York City.
[00:08:16] Mostly I made my career opening restaurants, running restaurants. Then I'd move to the next one, open it run it, move to the next one, open it run. And I got really, really good at that before I got into consultant consulting, before I start my own marketing agency to help restaurants better market themselves. Then, of course, the pandemic came. I went back to school, got my mba, so now I had all that operational experience and then the academic knowledge and sort of mash that together to do what I do now. So I have this podcast, two new episodes every single week. I wrote a book. It's called the Restaurant Marketing Mindset. I'm incredibly proud of that. You can get that anywhere you get your books. Go grab it on Amazon, get it on Barnes and Noble. You can go to my website, the Restaurant Marketing mindset dot com. You can get your copy there directly from me. If you get it directly from me, you get it signed. You get a cool Little sticker. I always throw that in there so you can show your support. For the restaurant strategy podcast.
[00:09:07] I got the podcast, I got the book. I travel the world. I go to conventions and trade shows. I get up in front of rooms filled with restaurant owners and talk to them about how to do what they do better.
[00:09:18] I host two live events every single year. But mostly what I do, three things I have my membership community, it's called Restaurant foundations, right? So it's $97 a month, gets you incredible access to online resources. So a whole online course and then templates, spreadsheets, ebooks, all of that.
[00:09:37] We have the agency. So we currently work with about 25 different restaurants all over the country specifically focused on customer acquisition, helping them run Google search ads and meta ads. We've gotten really good at it, so we do that. And then mostly what I do is I run my coaching program, the P3 mastermind. So for the people that want a little bit more hand holding, that want the network, that want to be surrounded by other sort of like minded individuals, we meet two hours every single week. That's what we do to pound through the profitability issues that plague us. Right? That's what I do. This podcast, podcast is really at the center of that entire ecosystem. Again, we're up to episode number 400. This show's been going on for almost six years. And over the course, over the course of this episode, I want to share with you a little bit about what I've learned mostly by sharing with you the top 10 episodes. It's a question I get all the time, right? 400 episodes, where do I start? Do I go all the way back to the beginning? Of course you could. But I think what you want to do, I think is you want to cherry pick and you want to start with the very best episodes. So determined not by me, but by you, by the episodes that have been most downloaded over the last six years. I want to share those with you so that if you want to cherry pick, you can just make notes and, and go find these episodes after that. Then I'm going to share my favorites, the five favorites that didn't make the top 10 list because a lot in the top 10 that I really do love, but the five that I love that didn't make the top 10. I think it's worth pointing out to you and I'll explain why as we get there. So without any further ado, the number most downloaded episode is episode number 161, the 10 mistakes that keep Restaurants from Max Profitability and I share one after one after one. The best part is I share all 10 mistakes and I share the 10 fixes that will help you correct that mistake. That's episode number 161. The second most downloaded episode of all time is episode 147, a system for everything in your restaurant. You know my love of systems and goals. If we can set a system, a system is just a repeatable set of actions, right? If it's repeatable, it's replicable. If it's replicable, it's scalable. Meaning we could teach other people how to do it and we can grow our business. That becomes. That becomes a really crucial pivot point in the success of our business and in our journey. Right? So that's the second most downloaded episode is 147, a system for everything in your restaurant. Number three. This was sort of surprising to me and then not surprising at all. Episode number 224, creating better restaurant managers. I think as owners, we, we are sort of dissatisfied with the quality of our manager. And something. A point that I make here is that you're not going to find great managers. You have to be committed to making them. We create them. That's why I said creating better restaurant managers. We have to get better at taking someone who has the capacity to learn and the capacity to be great and then we have to show them how to be great. So that's the number three most downloaded episode. Number four, episode 188, two things all restaurants need to survive. I don't want to give that one away. It's counterintuitive. It's not what you think, but worth listening to.
[00:12:43] The fifth most downloaded episode, number 200. It's sort of like this. It was a retrospective, right? So when we hit 200, that felt like a huge milestone in the Same way that 400 now feels like a huge milestone. But it was everything I believe about running profitable restaurants. I'm proud of that episode. It's sort of everything I had learned up to that point. It's a. It's a great refresher. Everything's sort of condensed into one power packed episode. Well worth your time. Number six, episode 264 for the psychology of Price. It has to do with a book I read called Priceless. It was written by a guy named William Poundstone. I'm really fascinated by this area, by this topic. You should be too. This idea, the Psychology of Price, right? All throughout that book talks about sort of the quirks of humans, right? And the fact that we're relatively bad at affixing value to a given item, but we're very good at drawing comparisons. So this is worth more than that. I like this one better than that one. I share some of the best lessons I learned from that book and from interviewing the book's author, William Poundstone, and that's in that episode because it has a lot to do with price anchoring, how we use price as a leverage point on our menus to generate more revenue and ultimately to create better guest experiences for our people. That episode's really great. I love that one.
[00:14:10] Number seven, episode number 186. What makes great hospitality. Hint, hint. It has everything to do with exceeding the guest expectations. Right? In order to exceed the guest expectations, though, number one, we've got to figure out what they expect to begin with. If we know what they expect or if we tell them what to expect, then we can go about the task of exceeding those expectations. But we have to do the first part first, which is something that we often Skip over.
[00:14:37] Number eight, then the eighth most downloaded episode ever is episode 221, Mastering Operations with Rick Mack. It's an interview with a guy that I've gotten to know pretty well over the last couple of years. Rick was a very accomplished restaurant owner and an operator. Now he's a consultant and an educator. And he was really talking about how he thinks about profitability, how he approaches lease negotiations and sort of like manager development and all of that. All of that. We really get into it and we talk about obviously, you know, through his journey of opening, you know, really popular, really hot restaurants in New York City. Really smart guy. It's a really great conversation.
[00:15:14] Number 9, Episode 21412 Stupid Simple Marketing Hacks. If you're looking for just a couple of things you can put into practice today, it's well worth revisiting that episode. They are stupid simple. That combined will make a pretty big difference in your marketing efforts. And then the 10th most downloaded episode of all time is episode number 238. It's the Sister. It's the companion piece to the manager episode. This is how to get better Waiters. And guess what? The secret is the same as with managers. We don't get them, we don't find them, we create them. And you've got to be committed not to waiting for the great waiter to walk in the front door, but saying, I got to look for someone who has the capacity to be great and I know then I can be really good at teaching them how to do what I need them to do right. So that's the secret. Same thing with managers, same thing with servers. Those are our 10 most downloaded episodes of all time, if you can believe it. And again, we've been at this almost six years. Those are really great. But we're missing five of my favorites. I'm going to share my five favorite episodes, the five that didn't make this list in just a minute after a word from another one of our sponsors.
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[00:17:56] Okay, so now we're talking, right? It's episode number 400. Nearly six years in the making. 400 episodes is in an undertaking.
[00:18:04] It's taken a lot on my end. It's taken a lot on your end to sit here and tune in every single week, some of you guys twice a week. But I appreciate it and this community is the better for it, I think.
[00:18:14] I believe I shared with you the ten most downloaded episodes over the last six years. I want to share with you my five favorites that didn't make that didn't make the list. Four of them are interviews. They're great interviews. And then the fifth one is is another monologue style episode that's relatively recent that I think think that I think will really resonate with you. It's feel like I'm talking about those topics over and over. So here we go. Without any further ado, my probably my favorite episode that didn't make the top 10 is episode number 331. It's an interview with Kevin Boe. Kevin Boehm, of course is the co, CEO, co founder of Boca Restaurant Group. So Boca Restaurant, Laser, Wolf Girl and the Goat, and I don't know, over a dozen other restaurants. He is a very accomplished, very passionate, very skilled restaurant owner and operator. And in that interview he just lets loose. He's incredibly transparent. He shares, he shares really intimate details about his journey. He shares details about how he thinks about profitability, how he thinks about benchmarking and his P and L and all of that. It is an incredible interview and he just supports so much of what I believe and so much of what I teach. But you hear it from a different perspective and it's articulated differently. So maybe that will help this stuff stuff click in a different way. Episode 331, the interview with Kevin Boehm is absolutely worth your time. My second most favorite episode of all time that didn't make the top 10 is episode 241. It's my interview with Bar Taco president Anthony Valletta. So Anthony Valletta most notably has shepherded Bar Taco from through this, these choppy waters of being a full service restaurant to a technology first table ordering concept. It's somewhere between fast casual and full service. And they've done it to great, to great effect. They've taken five points off their labor. They've done, they've increased revenue. But I think he says on the interview like 10 to 15% depending on the store. It has helped with their profitability in incredible ways. And I know this is what's coming for a lot of restaurants. And he literally just shares the blueprint, he shares the playbook. He's been really open about it, not just on my podcast, but lots of other podcasts, lots of other interviews, but he is really, really direct and open on that interview. So again, episode 241 of this show, episode 382. Relatively recently I had the pleasure of sitting down and chatting with John Taffer. John Taffer, we all know from Bar Rescue. He's a very accomplished owner, operator, he's a TV personality, a consultant. He talked. What I loved most about that conversation is he spent a lot of time talking this post pandemic world and he spent a lot of time talking about Taffer's Tavern, which is his restaurant. Two different locations and how they worked it in reverse. They reverse engineered the restaurant to be profitable, to be able to run at 50 to 52% prime cost, which anybody out there knows how hard that is. And again, he's really forthright, really open with what they did to accomplish that. That episode is absolutely worth listening to.
[00:21:23] Episode number 355 is Chef Katie Button. Katie obviously has her restaurant curate down in Asheville, North Carolina. She, like so many of us, she took the back door into this industry and yet has worked at the very highest levels. I'm talking about Jose Andres and. And at El Buli. And really, really accomplished quite a bit before she opened her own restaurant.
[00:21:47] She thinks differently about our industry than, I think, a lot of people, and I think that's a worthwhile perspective.
[00:21:54] She's thoughtful. She's down to earth. She's gracious. And I think she really cares deeply about the people she serves, both in her community and her employees. And I think she cares deeply about the. The listeners of the show, helping them be better and do better at what they're. At what they're building.
[00:22:11] That interview, episode 355, is absolutely worth listening to. And then the last one, I told you, four interviews and then a monologue, episode number 377. So again, more recent. I did an episode about the key differences between leadership and management, because there are different skills. And I outlined the differences.
[00:22:30] What makes a great leader? Right. Leader is about vision. Right. And the management is about execution. Right. Leader says, this is where we're going. Manager says, well, let me figure out how to get us there. Right. And obviously, it gets much more granular over that episode. And I think this is a topic that's come up over and over and over, and I think it's really worth. Worth. I think it's worth another listen. If you recently listened to it, I think it's worth going back and checking it out again. I'm really proud of that episode. I think it's. I think it's really well done. I think it's a conversation we just. We're just starting to have as an industry, and I think it's worthwhile. That's it, guys, right? Our 10 most downloaded episodes. My five favorite episodes that didn't make the list.
[00:23:08] I have to say again, one more time. You are this show.
[00:23:12] It's my pleasure to turn on the microphone a couple times a week and just tell you the things that I've learned and help you get better at what you're doing. I hope you've gotten some value out of it.
[00:23:21] The last thing I will ask is this Number one, if you have gotten any sort of value out of this show, this is the episode to forward on to colleagues, to friends, to partners, to, to your managers, right? Because if they want a way to cherry pick this podcast, say, hey, start here, start with these 15 episodes and just listen to a couple. It really doesn't matter which of these 15. So the first thing I'm going to ask you to do is forward this episode on to somebody or a couple of people who you think would get a lot of value from it. That's how we grow the community and I'd appreciate your help in doing that. The second thing is that if you've gotten any sort of value from this, from this episode or from this show, just take two minutes, go to Apple Podcasts, leave us a five star rating and review. That more than just about anything helps us to continue to grow and to be successful in what we're building. Right. What I'm building is really just, just out there to try to help independent restaurant owners and operators. Because I think what we do extraordinary and I think if we can do it profitably, it makes what we do a lot, a lot sweeter. Listen, I appreciate you guys being here each and every week. Thank you so much for being part of this community. Do those two things right for the episode and go leave a review and I will see you next time.
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