Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Hey there, Chip Close here, host of the Restaurant Strategy podcast. You know me, right? I host this show. I write books. I'm the founder of the P3 mastermind, which is a group coaching program. And I also host, as part of the Mastermind, I host two live events, two in person events every single year.
[00:00:17] Last week was the P3 profitability summit. So this is our biggest event of the year. We change it to a different city every time we host it. This, this time around, it was in Fort Worth, Texas and it was our best attended best event ever. I want to share with you 12 important takeaways from those three days in Texas. Don't go anywhere.
[00:00:39] 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.
[00:01:10] Hey everyone, thanks for tuning in again. My name is Chip Close. I am your host. This is the Restaurant Strategy podcast. This is, I don't know, episode 497. I want to say we are coming close to 500 and that's, that's going to be a really big accomplishment. You imagine 500 episodes over the course of eight years of a single show. The 500 episode is coming up. You do not want to miss it. I'm glad you're here for this episode because we're going to talk all about the P3 profitability summit. It's the biggest event I host every single year. We change it to a different city this time around. It was in Fort Worth, Texas and it was awesome. Listen, we're going to talk about the event. We're going to talk about the Mastermind. If you are ever curious about the Mastermind, I, I want you to reach out, set up a time to chat with me. There is no pressure. I'm going to get to ask you questions so I learn what's going on at your restaurant. You're going to ask questions of me so you understand more about who I am, what I do and how and how the group helps people. The P3 mastermind. The best way to get started is to go to restaurantstrategypodcast.com schedule. Grab some time on the calendar. As always, you'll find that link in the show notes.
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[00:03:47] Okay, so today I want to share with you 12 important takeaways. Though this is going to be a real shorty episode 12 important takeaways from the P3 profitability summit. The first takeaway, let's just dive right in. Number one, what is P3 and what is the profitability summit? So the P3 mastermind is a group that I founded about five years ago. We launched it in the summer of 2021. The three PS stand for profit Process Progress. Right, that we are targeting profit. We are trying to build successful, profitable restaurants. We put a process into place, a series of playbooks and systems so we can make consistent, predictable profit. And we do not. Right? The world doesn't change overnight. As long as we are making progress, we are getting better and better and better. Being intentional about the evolution and the iterations that we put into play, then I am happy and you should be happy. Those are the three P's Profit process progress. That is what the Mastermind is all about. We work with independent restaurant owners to help them increase the profitability of their restaurants. We meet every single week on Zoom. So it's a group coaching call where we specifically focus on managing expenses and growing revenue. Now how does the Summit fit into that? So every single year we host a series of live in person events and they are meant to be the counterpoint to the work that we do on those weekly calls. So we get together every single week to pound through this stuff. And I know the program works. We put over 350 people through the program. Currently there are about 120, 130 people enrolled in the program.
[00:05:24] We have made a huge impact, but we can only accomplish so much on those weekly calls. And so we do these in person events. Number one is a chance to get us all together and get to know each other a little bit better. So we're not tiny squares on a screen, but we're real people laughing together, sharing drinks together, breaking bread together. That's what the summit was all about. We do two events in 2026. This profitability summit is going to be our big one. So it's going to be held every fall. We're going to continue moving it to different cities every time we host it. Also in the spring, I'm thrilled to announce that we're going to be launching the P3 leadership retreat. So this is something totally different, right? The Profitability Summit is big. We rent out this big event space and we get, you know, a couple hundred people in the room and we've got sponsors and there's like a whole thing. It's a ton of content over the course of the three day event. If you buy a VIP ticket, there's dinner, there's catered lunches, there's all kinds of bonuses you get. For the most part, it's three days altogether pounding you with information. This new leadership Retreat is going to be something totally different. It's much more expensive. It's a niche group. This, this one that's come up is already sold out. It's capped at 16.
[00:06:35] I want to say this really importantly. If this sounds interesting to you, email me chip close.com c h I p k l o s e dot com the leadership retreat is something I'm really excited about and if there's enough interest, I will gladly open up. I'll plan another.
[00:06:52] It's no big deal for me to spend another week in Tulum, Mexico. Well, these two events work in tandem. The Leadership Retreat, which will happen in the spring, and then the Profitability Summit which happens every fall.
[00:07:04] The Profitability Summit is really meant to be the counterpoint to the work we do in the session. So the three day event, right, the VIPs come in early, they get a dinner with me, they get a, you know, drinks in a rooftop garden. And then what we did Is all day Monday we worked about how do we manage our operations, Meaning how do we manage our expenses? Specifically prime cost, cogs and labor. What are the specific tactics, strategies, playbooks to manage our cost of goods, right? To, to do better inventory pars, to manage theoretical and actual food costs, to, you know, what are the tricks that actually work? And then on the labor side, same thing, right? How do we actually, you know, minimize our schedule? How do we, how do we realign our kitchen and you know, be more intentional with the prep work that's needed and how we cross train people and how we hire, train and up those people, all of that. The first day was really about managing expenses, all about cogs and labor. And then the second day was how do we grow revenue, Right? And we grow revenue from an operational perspective, from my point, it's how do we sell more private events and off site catering and how do we increase our PPA or per person Average, right? That's the guest check on average, how much is each guest worth to us? Right. From an operational perspective, that's how we can increase our top line revenue. And then on the other side, from a marketing perspective, that's how we get more butts in seats, right? So basically two days split into four sections. How do we manage cogs, how do we manage labor? That was day one. And on day two, how do we grow revenue from an operational perspective and how do we use marketing to grow revenue? That was what the event was all about. And the whole idea, right? The promise we had is you will come away with a minimum of 30 to 40 tactics, scripts, playbooks, things that you can go back into your restaurant, put them into place and make a meaningful immediate impact in your restaurant. So the P3 mastermind, the group coaching program, is really interested in strategic sort of big picture thinking. What's the infrastructure we need to put into place to make sure that we can hold our teams accountable? Right. The declining budgets, the forecasting, the budgeting, right? How do we hold people accountable for setting pars and inventory and line checks and making sure we are not over budget on our ordering or on our scheduling? And how do we set targets for our teams and how do we make sure we hit those revenue targets?
[00:09:30] That's what we're interested week after week after week in the group coaching program. And then this is the tactical side of the strategies, right? That's how these two things are meant to be. And I'm overwhelmed every single time I do it. I'm overwhelmed by the, the outpouring of love by the support that we get from our members and from our future members, that's the first thing, right? We got to talk about what those two things are. The second point, my other takeaway, is that our community is incredible. If you are listening to this podcast, you are part of this community. If you are on my email newsletter, there's over 15,000 of you on my email newsletter. You are part of the community. If you follow me on TikTok, on Instagram, on LinkedIn, on Facebook, anywhere on social media, that is part of the community. Again, there's another, I don't know, 30, 40,000 people that follow me just on social media, right? And if you are in the foundations program, if you are in the P3 mastermind, you are also part of this community. This community is incredible. And I am humbled to be at the middle of that party, but I am not that party. You guys are that party. So I just want to say this up front. This community is real. We get together in real rooms. We get together on digital rooms as well. But the real rooms are where it all comes together. And the idea that people would, you know, buy a ticket, book a flight, you know, reserve a hotel room and, and agree to be together for three days is just overwhelming. That was my second big takeaway number three. And this is an important takeaway specifically with the summit. But you can take this and apply it to any conferences, conventions, trade shows you go to. The information is fine, information could be good or great, but the key is in the follow through. So one of the things I did, as I promised, we'd give you all of these ideas and all these tactics and playbooks and specific scripts, liter things to say at a table, things that you teach your bartender or server to say at a table, things you have your managers do, things that you have your catering manager do. And all of that is good. And if you got a notebook of 30, 40, 50 things, the danger is when you go back home and you're like, oh my God, what do I do first?
[00:11:40] One of the things I asked everyone to do and I would tell you to do, whether you're coming out to one of my events or somebody else's event, or again, a conference, a trade show, some sort of convention, is when you get to the airport, sit down, look at everything, and make a top 10 list. Here are the top 10 top 10 most actionable or the low hanging fruit, or the most impactful things I can do. This is my list of 10. And just pick three things that you can do in the next two weeks. So maybe that's the lowest hanging fruit, but of all your 30, 40, 50 ideas that you have, you narrow it down to 10. These are the 10 most important, either because they're the most impactful, that they'll move the needle, or because they're low hanging fruit. And then the thing you have to do is come up with your thing, three things, your three priorities that you're going to put into practice and you're going to promise you're going to give yourself a deadline of two weeks. That was the third takeaway. Number four.
[00:12:34] This is really funny. I heard this a lot, right?
[00:12:37] This program.
[00:12:39] So this podcast, the program I Run, the P3 mastermind, the events I run, is not a scam. These are not scams.
[00:12:47] We give so many ideas and tactics and strategies and playbooks. I turn on my microphone and I just give away all of the knowledge I have. And, and I have this program. If you want somebody walking side by side with you and helping you implementing them, like, if you need coaching, that's the thing we do. That's the thing. I know that works more than anything else out there, but some of the things I heard from people who, who were not part of the program but listened to the podcast or were on my list and came out, they said, you know, I was a little nervous that this was going to be like a scam, but, like, this was such incredible information. That's not my words, that's their words. Here's the thing.
[00:13:25] When I run this event, I decided to put on this event because I would go to a lot of conferences, trade shows, conventions, and I would sit in on sessions or panels or whatever and I would get some good information, some great information, and then some blah information where I'd get people up there giving me just enough to like, buy whatever they were selling, but they weren't giving me like the recipe. And so when I threw this event, when I started putting this on, I told everybody in my company, I said, this is the thing where we give it all away.
[00:13:55] Somebody pays us for a ticket, they pay to be in the room, and they book a flight and they reserve a hotel room. They get everything.
[00:14:02] And if at the end of that they are convinced to say, oh, I want to work with you every single week, then cool, then cool. But we give it all away. They are paying to get all of the answers to the test. We are giving all the answers to the test. We are giving them the entire recipe, not holding back any secret ingredients. And I heard from multiple people who again, were either listeners of the podcast or were just on my list, found me through social media and they said I was so. I was so afraid that this was going to be a scam, that I was going to sit here and listen to you guys for two days and you were going to just try and sell us on something else. But like you gave us all this stuff. Now, really, really interestingly, almost everyone in that audience who is not already a P3 member signed up, became a P3 member by the end of that event. And that's not like, that's not me trying to like pressure anybody out there. It's just social proof. You can't help but be in that room because it really is such a love fest.
[00:15:01] One of the, my biggest takeaways is that everybody was like, they thought it was going to be a scam. What's really interesting and let me back this up, right? So when I host this party, because that's what it is, it's a three day party where I, I do end up being the center of attention. I am on stage almost the entire and I hardly have any voice. But one of the things then is that when I go back onto, you know, inquiry calls, when people are trying to learn about the program, the number of people that no show for the call or don't do their homework, I ask them to do just a little bit of due diligence so they understand about the program, they understand the pricing and the layout so that there's no, no surprises, right? Like the program costs what it costs and it is structured the way it's structured. And for example, it's group coaching couple hours every week. If you don't want to sit on a call with a whole bunch of other people, if you really don't see the value in that, then it's not worth your time or my time to sit there and have a conversation about it. So I get people who come on the call and they're like, oh yeah, I can't sit there on a group call. I don't want to listen to other people's problems. Which is something I hear a lot. And it's very much not what the program is. But people say, no, I just want somebody to help me with my problems. I say, great, then you need to hire a consultant who can zero in. But for me, I see the impact in a group coaching dynamic and I wish you had done your homework because you wouldn't have had to, you know, take up time on my calendar or wasted your own time. If this is Something you knew you were never going to do. So it was really interesting is that sort of like the respect that was in that room and then sort of like the disrespect that I see on the other side, man, if you sign up for a call with me or anybody else, please just do your. Do the bare minimum, do your due diligence, understand what you're getting into, do what they ask you to do so you can come prepared for that call so we can make the best use of our limited time together. The biggest thing I heard again was that like everybody was so amazed, so surprised and overwhelmed in a good way that it wasn't a scam, that there was like it was all just tons of value and ideas and scripts and we didn't hold anything back. And that was very, very deliberate. Here's another takeaway. And I didn't know this until we started getting ready for the event because I went and sort of did a bunch of research here. We have P3 members in 45 states plus Washington D.C. and we work with people in eight different countries across the world. That is incredible. It's a testament to this community.
[00:17:15] Next takeaway, right? There are so many great things coming in 2026. One of the things that we did on Stage at the P3 profitability summit is we announced a lot of the things that were coming. So up until this point, the P3 mastermind is a two hour weekly call. And next year we're turning that two hour weekly call into an operations call and we're adding a whole other call, one hour every week, just focused on marketing. I cannot be more excited. I'm bringing three new coaches into the fold to help me. A guy named Sal Rotolo. You've heard him here. He's been a guest on this show. He has an incredible resume, way better than mine. He has so much insights and wisdom to share. A guy named Chris Hughes, who is one of my mentors. We've known each other for 18 years. He and I worked together for the better part of a decade. I'm thrilled to be bringing him into the fold. And then a guy named Rev Ciancio. He's been on this show, I don't know, three or four times. He is my co host for the P3 Marketing Summit and he is gonna co host those marketing call for one hour every single week. So new members in the new year get not one but two calls. A one hour marketing call every week and a two hour operations call every week. In addition to office hours, in addition to all the online resources, the videos, the playbooks, the online course, the templates, the spreadsheets, all of that stuff. I'm also doing a two hour monthly ask me anything session. So the first Monday of every month I'm doing an ask me anything session where literally I go on to Zoom. Anybody who wants to can come on that and just ask me whatever they want to ask me.
[00:18:46] Coming. The other thing that we announced at the P3 profitability summit was the new ways to work with us, right? So the new, really the new products we're going to start to offer, number one is on site coaching. I haven't done it up until now for a variety of reasons, but now I have the bandwidth to execute this. So on site coaching, you get me on site working with you and your team for four days.
[00:19:09] At the time of this recording, we only have two of those slots left. We sold out all of the others on stage. In Fort Worth, we're also offering sort of an upgraded version of the P3 mastermind. We're calling it P3 Plus. So it's a way for you to not only be in the group coaching zoom rooms, but also to get a private hour long coaching call with me every other week and get me on site for four, for four days sometime throughout the year. Plus you get two VIP tickets for the P3 profitability summit. So two VIP tickets to the Profitability Summit next October.
[00:19:48] All of that is another thing we did. And again, we also announced the leadership retreat, which also sold out in, I don't know, 90 minutes, something like that. So that was another big takeaway is like all the changes in how this program is expanding in the new year. Another takeaway we had, and it came up over and over and over again, is the importance to have a trusted team around you. So, so bookkeepers and accountants who know what they're doing, know your business and give you what you need to succeed. Vendors, meaning distributors, partners, importers, purveyors, you know, smallware companies, other software companies, they need to be on your team helping you, your managers, your staff, they all need to be trusted, reliable collaborators. That was something that I didn't just hammer home, but it seemed like everybody who took the stage hammered home.
[00:20:37] One of the things that I felt really, I felt was really important that we had to get across was this idea of leadership and then hiring, training and development of teams. And I think we can all be more deliberate in the ways that we find new talent, train that talent, teach them what we need, set expectations for what they're supposed to be doing, how they're supposed to conduct themselves and how we can continue to develop them to get better and better and better so that they stay for longer and longer and longer. That was something that came up up on both days.
[00:21:10] One of the things I always say is profit first, then growth.
[00:21:13] So profit really is about managing the expenses. So how do we set revenue targets, hit those targets, and then manage the key controllables? In our business, mostly that's cogs and labor. So we have to do that first. Right? I'm the one who says revenue does not necessarily cure all sins. And once we do that, though, then we can focus on growth. And that was the structure of the event. Event, right. Day one, focusing all about expenses. Day two is all about growing revenue. And we can grow revenue from an operations perspective. So through catering and private dining and through increasing check average. And then from a marketing standpoint, how do we get more butts in seats? That's ultimately what marketing is interested in. How do we attract new people? How do we retain our people, increase the frequency of visits? How do we make sure that everyone's spreading the word about how great we are? Right. So that in that order, profit first, then growth is crucial. That was an important takeaway that I wanted to make sure all of the attendees got.
[00:22:09] Next takeaway was, when it comes to revenue, there's really only three ways to increase revenue, right? You can sell more of your thing, you can sell your thing for more money, or you can sell a variety of different things. That's it. You can sell more of your thing, you can increase the price of your thing or sell your thing for more money, or you can sell a variety of different things. And in the restaurant industry, that means we can sell more of the thing, meaning we get more covers in the front door. We can increase the price of the thing, or for us, it's about increasing check average. Making sure that each guest consumes more while they're there means gets that other drink, gets a side dish, gets a dessert, gets a cappuccino. Right? And then the third thing is we sell a variety of different products. So breakfast, lunch, and dinner are all different products. Just because somebody comes in for breakfast doesn't mean they can't come in for lunch. They can. They can come in for dinner. They can buy merchandise. They can. They can get our catering over to their office. They're all different products. We can sell people. And if we're not diversifying our revenue streams, we're missing out on something really key, second to last Second to last takeaway here is that you have to measure, right? What gets measured gets managed. We have to measure to know if our efforts are working. And you must hold people accountable. That means providing oversight on the key KPIs, key performance indicators, the key metrics that you're tracking that lead to the success of your business. Right. That becomes crucial.
[00:23:26] That was something that I tried to hammer home. And again, a lot of other people who took the stage said, listen, if you're trying to do X, Y and Z, you got to measure X, Y and Z.
[00:23:34] Finally, then my last takeaway is that Fort Worth is awesome. This is the third time I've been to Texas in the last year. So in November, I was speaking at an event in San Antonio. In April, I was away with my Mastermind group as part of our retreat in Austin and just outside of Austin. And then obviously just last week, I was in Fort Worth, Texas and I think Fort Worth might be my favorite of the bunch. I went in a couple days early, went golfing in Frisco, then went held the event in Fort Worth. We threw a party over in Dallas. So I feel like I was all over the area and the entire area is awesome. I had a blast. The hospitality coming out of that place was, was truly, was truly clutch. That's it. The P3 profitability summit happens every year and I hope this gets you excited to be a part of it next year. As you hear sort of the, the details of the P3 mastermind and what's coming, I hope this also gets you excited to reach out there because these two really do work in tandem. If you are curious about the P3 mastermind, again, I strongly urge you to just reach out, get in touch, grab some time on the calendar, and let's get to know each other. I'm going to ask you questions about your business, see if we can even help you. You're going to ask questions of me so you understand my business, you understand sort of what we do as part of the P3 mastermind and let's see if we can work together. Let's see if we can help you. We are in the of helping restaurant owners make more money and free up their time. That's the entire point of it. That is why we continue to be more and more and more successful. It started with one group, 10 members, back in 2021. We have now grown this to over 120 members spread across four groups. We've already put over 350 people through the program.
[00:25:16] That program, this program doesn't grow. The community doesn't grow because it doesn't work. It's growing because. Because it very much does work. You go to restaurantstrategypodcast.com schedule, grab some time on the calendar. You will be chatting with me or someone from my team. Let's just get to know each other. That's it. Guys. Thank you for tuning in. I appreciate you guys being here every single week. If you are ready to level up, make more money from your business, free up your time, that's why you get in touch and learn more about the P3 mastermind. Thanks very much and I will see you next time.
