Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] On today's episode, I want to talk about mission, vision and core values. They're three sort of like bastardized corporate words that we totally mess up. Certainly the big companies have totally messed up. They make word salad, they throw a bunch of things on. A website means nothing and so doesn't influence or impact the day to day operation. But I want to talk to you about how you do that differently. I want to illustrate that point through a couple of examples of P3 members who I've worked with over the last few years. All of that mission, vision values, how you can create your own and actually use them to make better restaurants, to drive more stories. All of that on today's episode of Restaurant Strategy.
[00:00:37] 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.
[00:01:03] Foreign.
[00:01:09] Thanks for tuning in. My name is Chip Close. This is the Restaurant Strategy podcast. We are almost at 600 episodes of this thing. We've been running this show for over seven years impacting independent restaurant owners from all over the world. We're in something like 52 countries. Like, it's incredible what has happened from this show. I know there are tens of thousands of you out there. We're a small but mighty group and I appreciate you making this show part of your week. Did you know I also run a coaching program so you can get the little insights and ideas and stuff from this show. But if you are not yet where you want to be, I have a feeling it has to do with objectivity, perspective and mostly accountability. If you're ready to have a different restaurant, a more profitable restaurant that provides more for you, your family and your people, then I want to chat. The best way I know how to help people is through the P3 mastermind. It's my group coaching program. It's executive coaching for owners of growing restaurant groups. So if you got 1, 2, 3 restaurants you're looking to go to 5, 10, 15. This is the group for you. You're going to be surrounded by an incredible community of people who are dialing in their restaurant profitability so that they can gear up to grow. The best way to do that is to click the link in the show notes. Go to actually can go to RSProfit.com can learn more about the program or you'll find the link in the show notes. Watch a quick video if that sounds good. Sign up For a call with me or someone from my team. There is zero pressure really. It's just asking us, asking each other a bunch of questions to see if you're a good fit. If you are a good fit, we'll talk about what the next steps are. Go R s profit dot com. You'll also find that link in the show notes.
[00:02:48] What's the food cost for your third best selling entree? You don't know. But with Margin Edge you could know instantly. Margin Edge is a complete restaurant management software that we recommend to every single P3 member, anyone looking to improve their profitability. With Margin Edge you just get the snap pictures of your invoices and you get real time data for every area of your business. You get to see plate costs in real time. You get a daily P and L. You know, I love that your inventory count sheets are automatically updated. What happens is that Margin Edge saves you a ton of time and it lets you make better informed decisions. I got a client, Gather brewing. They were P3 member for a better part of a year. They started using Margin Edge last year and within one month, I'm telling you, 30 days, their food costs went from 38 to 28%. Massive savings that those 10 points dropped straight to the bottom line. Trust me, there's a reason I recommend Margin Edge to so many my clients, so many listeners, so many P3 mastermind members. It's because it works. I know it works. If you've been listening for a while, you know I talk about it. If you're interested in learning more or you want to see how Gather brewing went from 38 to 28%, they put together an incredible video. Video. Head over to Margin Edge.com/Chip again, Margin Edge.com/Chip. As always, you'll find that link in the show notes.
[00:04:07] So we're talking, we're talking about stories. This whole stretch of 20 episodes we've dubbed story time. Right? The power of stories. Stories is how humans connect with each other. It's certainly how we, the best brands, the best products get talked about. And it's how the best restaurants in the world get talked about. We know the power of word of mouth. So I'm not inventing this. I'm not telling you anything you don't already know. What I'm hoping you see now is that you need these, you need stories. You need to give people a way to talk about you. You need the comma. But. Right? Yeah, we love that restaurant. But you'll never believe what they did.
[00:04:42] Right? Yeah. We had a Great time. But you wouldn't believe what they do with this one dish, right? Well, I can't even describe how cool this one thing was. You need a comma. But one of the things I want to talk about, and I certainly am going to spend the time talking about today, is this idea of mission, vision, values. Right? Mission, vision, values, mvv A mission. Right. And so, and I think if you don't have them for your restaurant, this is a great way to do them. If you already have them, I think this is going to inspire you to revise them.
[00:05:12] Big corporations all have these. You can go find them on their website. It's like corporate, like gobbledygook. It doesn't mean anything.
[00:05:19] Most of these should be really short, tight, to the point, like no more than a sentence. Core values should be 3 or 4 max.
[00:05:28] When we talk about mission, it's what you're trying to accomplish, right? What are you trying to do accomplish on the day to day? Right. So I worked with a restaurant in South Carolina. They said, we strive to be the best restaurant in Columbia, South Carolina. Great. That's very, very clear.
[00:05:44] We have to come up with parameters for what we mean by best, how we determine quality.
[00:05:49] But understanding that we are eventually going to become the best restaurant in Columbia, South Carolina, that's very clear. Vision then is what happens at a global level. That's the way I want you to think about it. So mission, our mission is to become the best restaurant in Columbia, South Carolina.
[00:06:06] If we accomplish our mission, then that leads to our vision. Right then.
[00:06:12] So if this restaurant becomes the best restaurant in Columbia, South Carolina, then we believe that will help put Colombia on the map as a dining mecca, like New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Nashville, other cities like that.
[00:06:27] Our mission is to become the best restaurant in the city.
[00:06:31] If we do that, then we will put this city on the map will be. Which will do nothing except elevate the city, the market, the region.
[00:06:40] And then your core values are the things you hold more dear than anything else. And I always say it shouldn't be more than three or four. And they can't just be bs. If you say sustainability, then I need to know how your menus are sustainable, how your service is sustainable, that you compost, that you know, how you source, what you do with the, the extra scraps and the trash and the, and the, and the waste from when you break down fish and, and beef. And things like sustainability has got to be woven into everything you do, how you source your spirits and your wines and all of that. So if you're going to do sustainability, you got to lean into it and like full force, full tilt.
[00:07:16] One of the themes we come back to on this show certainly is that profitability is not just one big move, but rather it's a series of better decisions made consistently. And one of the biggest places those decisions show up is in labor force. Rightwork helps restaurants stop treating labor as a guessing game. Their platform helps operators forecast demand, build smarter labor models, schedule more efficiently, and you get to see where labor is helping or hurting profitability. For restaurant strategy listeners, Right Work is offering free onboarding, which includes a free labor model build out. Plus you get three months free of Right Work usage. Go to Right Work chip. That's wrp. And yes, you'll find that link in the show notes.
[00:08:01] I was working with another. So the sister restaurant of that restaurant down in Columbia, South Carolina. It was a much more casual brand and I was working with the team and I said, so what are the core values? You know, what do you guys. And they like all broke up into different groups and they broke up into three different groups. And two of the three groups actually turned to me and said, I don't think we can find three. I think it's really just one.
[00:08:20] And guess what? Both groups said the same word. So the idea is it's a word. It's sustainability, it's integrity, it's compassion, it's collaboration, it's quality, it's, you know, they're big, lofty words like that, family status, whatever. And they said, we think our word is fun.
[00:08:40] This restaurant was fun. It was energetic, great music playing. They'd live music every single night. They had sort of a, like a cool, like a hip bowling alley in the back. They had a speakeasy downstairs at a game room. They hosted tons of birthdays. It was a fun place. Big TVs around the bar. It was fun.
[00:08:57] But I challenged them. I said, okay, great, I'll buy that.
[00:09:00] But how is it fun for me as a diner to call the restaurant, make a reservation? That experience isn't fun.
[00:09:08] They say, hi, thank you for calling the restaurant. How can I help you? And I say, yeah, I'd like to make a reservation for Friday night. And they say, great, how many in your party? Like, they do the thing that everyone else does. So I challenge you to make that fun. How is it fun when I open the door? How is it fun when I get seated at the table, right? And they came up with all kinds of crazy things. Like every time somebody walked in the door, we should do, like, one of those, like. Like, poppers that, like, shoot streamers.
[00:09:31] So they pop and say, hey, welcome. Good to see you.
[00:09:34] I was like, great. That's gonna be a lot of cleanup. But that's the right idea. Ultimately, we didn't put that into practice because it doesn't scale. It's too difficult, too dirty. We would scare people. But it was the right idea.
[00:09:46] One idea that did stick is they said, you know, again, they reminded me we. We host a lot of birthdays here. I said, okay, so what do we do? They say, you know, we think it's really weird. We don't say happy birthday to people when they arrive. We said, really? Well, what do you do? He said, well, at the end, we just put a candle in whatever dessert they order and bring that out and sing Happy Birthday. I say, yeah, it doesn't sound like fun. That sounds like what every other restaurant does. And to be clear, I think you should still do that, because I think that's what your people expect, and I think it is a way to honor the birthday girl.
[00:10:16] But you're right. I don't. I don't think that's. That's very much fun. So what they did is they said, when somebody comes in, hi. Checking in for our reservation, it's under Jones. When we look at the reservation book and we see Jones celebrating a birthday, I say, amazing. Welcome. Who is our. Who's celebrating the birthday? And then what happens? They all turn and they point to the person celebrating the birthday and said, what's your name? My name's Ellen. Ellen. Happy birthday. I'm so glad that we could be part of the celebration. Great. Follow Amy. Amy's going to show you right over your table. They're right there, right? Just like when I welcome my mom into my house. When we throw a birthday party for my mom when she walks in. The first time I say happy birthday is not when I bring out the cake with the candles. It is when she walks in the door. Hi, Mom. Happy birthday. How are you today? What can I get you to drink? Sit down, relax.
[00:11:00] Everybody. Then who walks into my party for my mom says, happy birthday to my mom.
[00:11:05] And so that's what we said we should do. Everybody goes over to the table. When we know it's a birthday, they should say, happy birthday. So when the server came over, they would say, hi, how's everyone doing? I understand it's a birthday. Who's celebrating? They all, again point to Ellen. What these people did at this restaurant is they said, we should make the first Approach fun. So how do you make it fun?
[00:11:25] They said sparklers. So that's what we did for two weeks. I will tell you after two weeks just became untenable. It was too clunky. It was. It was too difficult. But they went over, they got menus from the service hutch, a little sparkler, and they greet at the table and they say, hi, I understand. We're celebrating birthday. And they all point to Ellen. And then we would hand Ellen the sparkler. And then everybody guess what, Everybody takes up their phones and they take photos and videos and all of that. It's a blast.
[00:11:55] We couldn't do it. That didn't scale.
[00:11:58] But what did stay is we would wish them happy birthday at the front door. We would wish them a happy birthday. On first approach, when the runners came to deliver the first course of food, they would also wish a happy birthday. It's the same thing that happens when everybody comes over to my house to celebrate my mom's birthday. I say happy birthday. My brother, my sister in law, my other brother, my, you know, her friends. Like, they all say happy birthday.
[00:12:22] So that's what we did. We should do that. And they found other little ways to make sure that everything was fun. Everything was dialed in.
[00:12:29] When we call the.
[00:12:31] When people called the restaurant, when on and on and on. First approach all the way through, we found all different ways to make it fun. And if there was anything ever, anything that wasn't fun, the challenge was then to make it fun.
[00:12:46] Mission, vision, values.
[00:12:50] These are the things that are woven in. And if you weave in the values into what you do, it becomes a talking point. It becomes very clear what you're all about, what you're trying to accomplish, what it means for the community, the city, the market, the region at large.
[00:13:06] And they have a better idea. The context, the values gives people context to understand what's really important to you.
[00:13:12] Right? Talked about Olmsted just a little while ago, this place in Brooklyn. What was really important to Chef Backstrom is that everybody knew that there was a personal connection to everything he was serving. It was stuff that he was insanely passionate about, excited about things that had inspired him on his travels, things that continue to inspire him and that he just wanted to share.
[00:13:33] It's like when you're having a dinner party and you're like, oh, I know exactly what we'll make. Everybody loves it when I make this. I'm eager to share this with my friends and my family.
[00:13:42] It's the same thing. Mission, vision, values. It's another way to help tell your stories, to give people a way to talk about you.
[00:13:51] And that's what I wanted to talk about with you today.
[00:13:55] Again. You've heard me say it a lot. But the best way I know how to impact restaurants to make a difference is through the P3 mastermind. We will get you to 20% operating profit every single month, within six months. That's our guarantee. It's right there. When you, when you join the program, it's part of the agreement you sign. Six month guarantee, we will get you to 20% profits. Now, you got to do everything we show you how to do.
[00:14:18] Because what we do works. We know it works. If you do everything we show you how to do, you will get there. The way you do that is to go to RSprophet.com, learn more about the program, watch a video, I talk more about the program, grab time on the calendar and let's have a conversation again. We just ask each other a bunch of questions to see if you're a good fit. If you are a good fit, we talk about how it works, we talk about next steps. That's what I want you to do. Go to rsprophate.com and yes, the link is in the show notes. Appreciate you guys very much. Thank you for making time for this show. Thank you. I hope this stuff is helping. I hope it's inspiring. You have a great day and I will see you next time.
