Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Hey there, Chip Close here, host of the Restaurant Strategy podcast. Today's episode's gonna be a little bit different, but I think it's right in keeping with the discussions that we've been having over the past few months on this show.
[00:00:13] Two weeks ago, I hosted the very first ever P3 leadership retreat. I rented a compound in Tulum, Mexico. I took 17 restaurant owners away for an entire week long getaway. So 17 members of my program, the P3 mastermind again this massive comp pound three villas where the backyards spilled out into one enormous pool. We hired a private chef to cook breakfast and lunch every day. We did workouts every morning. We did a welcome dinner, a closing dinner at Heartwood. If you know Tulum, you know what a big deal Heartwood is. We organized two different excursions. One to the to the ruins. The other one was a sunset catamaran cruise. It was an extraordinary week away. And I want to share with you four key takeaways. These aren't necessarily even my takeaways. These are the members. You're going to hear some of their own words. I want to talk to you about the importance of doing things like this, about how you can organize your own getaway like this. And I want to share with you what I learned. And finally, I want to talk to you about how you can come along on this trip next year because it was such a big hit. And I'm going to talk to you in just a minute about how I know it was such a big hit, but we're already in the process of organizing next year's event. It will be in Costa Rica the last week of.
[00:01:31] I want to talk to you about all of that and more on today's episode of Restaurant Strategy.
[00:01:36] 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.
[00:02:07] Hey everyone, thanks for tuning in. My name is Chip Close. This is the Restaurant Strategy podcast again. Two episodes every single week to help you level up and build a more profitable restaurant. You know, I write books, I give talks. I host two live events every single year, P3 Profitability Summit, which you're going to hear more about in the very near future. The the upcoming one will be in October in Minneapolis. Tickets will go on sale now. It's October 18th, 19th and 20th. Consider this your save the date announcement. And I also host a leadership retreat every week that's what we're going to talk about on this show. But the majority of the way that I work with restaurant owners is through my P3 masterminds, a group coaching program where we help dial in profits so that you are ready to grow.
[00:02:53] Majority of the members of our program are multi unit operators. 2, 3, 4, 5 locations that are looking to get to 10, 20, 50 locations.
[00:03:03] You can't grow unless profits are dialed in. That's how you get access to good, cheap capital. That's how you know you've got a business that is worth growing. If you're at all interested, I want you to click the link in the show notes. It is RSProfit.com that link is in the show Notes make it really easy. But RSProphit.com to learn more about the program, you grab time on the calendar. You set up a time to chat with me or someone from my team. Let's start that conversation about how we can make you more money so that you can work less and ultimately grow this business that you've built. As always, you'll find that link in the show notes.
[00:03:38] All right, so one of the coaches who works with me is a guy named Rev Cncio. I think he is hands down the smartest restaurant marketer I know.
[00:03:46] He works at hundreds of restaurants all over the country and he's an operator himself. He's a restaurant owner. He works with the P3 members, he teaches the weekly marketing call that we do in the program and then again, he acts as like a fractional CMO for hundreds of restaurants all over the country. Did you know every time he works with a new restaurant, he insists that they use marquee, right? We recommend marquee all the time, but he insists on it. It helps with listings management, SEO and reputation management. With Marquee, you get to manage and respond to all of your reviews right From Google, Yelp, OpenTable, TripAdvisor, Facebook, Grubhub, on and on and on in one central place. Because of that, they help you improve your star ratings with consistent review responses and they will even respond for you if you don't have time.
[00:04:31] Marquee also makes sure that all your hours, menus and information matches across the entire Internet, which places you higher in near me searches, which ultimately helps you get more butts in seats. If you're curious to learn more, visit marquee.com that's M A R Q I-I.com as always, you'll find that link in the Show Notes.
[00:04:54] Pop Menu has reimagined the restaurant. They're breaking the mold of the menu, taking the kitchen doors off the hinges and serving up their most comprehensive technology solution yet. It's called Pop Menu Max. It comes with all the previous ingredients that we've mentioned here on the podcast. Right? So websites designed with SEO marketing tools to keep you top of mind with guests, and of course the patented interactive menu technology.
[00:05:16] But this new recipe brings automated phone answering to the table, third party online ordering, aggregation, wait listing and more.
[00:05:24] Pop Menu's phone answering, for example. That technology has your ringing phones covered. It uses AI, right? So artificial intelligence and makes the simple questions that keep your phone line tied up normally now can be handled by the computer without pulling a staff member from your in person hospitality. So no more missed reservations, no more people asking for your hours or missing out on revenue. And that's just the beginning. You have a passion for food. Pop Menu has a passion for technology.
[00:05:52] Together it's a recipe for restaurant success. And now even more digital ingredients are in that technology pantry. And Pop Menu is helping restaurants attract, engage, remarket and transact with their guests on a whole new level. Trust me, if you're a restaurant owner, you need Pop Menu to take your business to the next level. And for a limited time only get a hundred bucks off your first month. Plus you get to lock in one flat unchanging monthly rate. Go to popmenu.com/restaurantstrategy to claim the offer. Again, that's $100 off your first month by visiting P O P M E N U.com RestaurantStrategy as always, you'll find that link in the show notes.
[00:06:33] Okay, so on today's episode, I want to talk a little bit about the P3 leadership retreat. This is something I've wanted to do for a very long time. I just didn't have the bandwidth. I wasn't sure exactly how to do it. But I went away on my retreat with my mastermind group, right? The coaching program that I am a part of to me continue to grow my business. So P.S. i don't just host these things. I don't just run a program, but I am parts of these as well because I see the value of it. But I learned something when I was on mine over a year ago where I went, oh, I get it. Now I know what to do. So I figured out a way to do this leadership retreat. Just so you know, the P3 mastermind, that's my group coaching program. We've got, I don't know, maybe 115 or 120 people in that program.
[00:07:20] 95% of the people are in just the, the base level, like the signature version of the program. It's called the P3 mastermind. Two group calls every single week, a marketing call and an ops call. You get access to office hours.
[00:07:33] It's an incredible community and we, that's how we know how to make a really big impact. But for those people that have come through that program and are ready for more, right? Or for people who are just in the place where they're looking to grow, to work on their own personal development and their professional development so that they can continue to expand their business. We have what's called P3 Plus. So the P3 plus members, and there are 10 of them this year in 2026.
[00:08:00] And that factors in very, very prominently. Just as you're listening to this conversation about the retreat, right? So give or take about 120 people in my program, 10 of them are part of this elevated version of the program called P3 Plus. So the P3 plus members get everything P3 members get, right? So all the group calls, the office hours, all of that. But they private 60 minute coaching calls with me every other week. They get two VIP tickets to our big summit that we host every October.
[00:08:32] They also get me on site for four days of on site coaching, working with them, their leadership teams, their servers. It's an incredible opportunity.
[00:08:42] And then they also get, get a bedroom, get to come out to the P3 leadership retreat.
[00:08:49] That's the one we just hosted two weeks ago in Tulum, Mexico. It's an entire week where just about everything is provided for you. And it's an even balance of deep work, deep personal and professional work and relaxation. So pretty much we work every morning and then every afternoon you got to yourself. So you can go to the beach, you can sit by the pool, you can go into town, you can go do excursions. Certainly people spent the day, you know, going to the cenotes or going snorkeling, things like that. You can do whatever you want when you come. But what we've tried to do, at least in this past one, we're trying to keep that for the next one, is have a nice balance of deep connection and relaxation. Right. I want to talk to you today again about the four takeaways that we had from this event. I want to talk to you about why I think you should run an event like this on your own. And if that feels like too overwhelming, I want to talk to you about how you can be a part of mine. For next year because it was such a hit that we are already organizing the next one. For the last week of April 2020 in Costa Rica. We've already reserved an entire resort, 25 bedrooms, so we can fit a lot of people on the next one. And I can't wait for that. The reason I know we're going to keep doing this, the reason I know we're going to do this next year is because this one was such a big hit. How big of a hit? So I've got 10 P3 plus members.
[00:10:09] Three of them had other stuff going on so they couldn't make it. So we had seven of them, right? And you know, spouses, sometimes team members, things like that. Seven of them came down to this event, to the leadership retreat in Tulum. All seven of them came home. And the Monday right afterwards, we all, you know, came home on Saturday.
[00:10:30] Sunday they reconnected with their family. Monday I met with almost each and every one of them. And every single one of the people who was on the trip has already re upped for 2027. They've already, you know, paid up. They're locked in for 2027. I tell you that. So you understand the impact of the program that I run, specifically the impact of the P3PL and the weight, the sort of the. The impact of this week long getaway. So we did this getaway a week long and I and I purposely made it an entire week. So everyone came in Sunday and flew out on Saturday.
[00:11:08] Every single morning. We started with a workout, then we did breakfast together. Then we had work sessions from either 9 to 12 or 9 to 1. Then the chef cooked us lunch and then everybody had the rest of the day totally free. We did a welcome dinner on the first night. We did a closing dinner on the last night. Otherwise everybod defend it for themselves. So people started pairing off. They went to different restaurants. We coordinated a taco crawl through downtown Tulum one day. There was all kinds of great things and sometimes people hung out with me, sometimes people just hung out with each other. It was very, very cool to see. And again, like I said a minute ago, what we really wanted to do is we wanted to get to the place where people had a lot of deep work every single morning. Very, very deep work. And then we also sort of wanted you to like be able to relax, switch off and all of that.
[00:11:53] And people were so moved by the experience that they all signed up for not, you know, they had to commit for all of 2026. They have now committed through the end of 2027. I tell you that so you understand the importance of the event like this and the reason that we're doing it next year. So pretty much all 10 now at this point now in over the last couple weeks, all 10 of my members for the P3 plus have re upped and they will be joining again for 2027. We are opening up another 10 spots for 2027. Four of them are in the process of being filled. So that means, give or take, about six spots remain. I tell you all that so you understand that there is real desire to be part of this program and to go on this retreat again. We're going to move it to a new place every single year. We're going to do this every single spring. This is, this is something that will be key to this event. Four things, right? Four biggest takeaways from this event I want to share with you. Number one, I insisted that everybody switch off while, yes, you could check in with work, you could check in with restaurants and your teams. You couldn't really manage the place. You couldn't do it. From Tulum, there was spotty service. We had enough events set and scheduled that it was hard to work around.
[00:13:11] It was hard to work around that.
[00:13:14] So number one was switching off. Number two was about deep work, both personal and professional, right?
[00:13:22] So much of what we do, right, our professional life exists to support our personal life. It was about getting really clear, really set on what we want to accomplish personally so we can make sure our professional goals are going to support our personal goals. Next one was connecting with peers. I can't tell you what a relief it is, how impactful it is to be around a bunch of people. Some people are not where you're at, some people are way ahead of where you're at. But the thing that everyone has in common is that they are trying to grow their business, they're trying to build their business in. It's not just trying to open the pizza shop and run the pizza shop until I sell it to my nephew and then I retire. No, everybody on this trip is trying to build something meaningful. And you're with people who have 10, $15 million operations. You got people who have $40 million operations. There was a couple there that has a 300 plus million dollar operation, right? Big, big business.
[00:14:17] And you get to rub elbows with them. You get to sit at lunch and breakfast and at dinner with them. So number one, pick their brain. You know, formally in the work sessions and then informally when you, you know, when you go to dinner it was incredible to be able to connect with peers again, some who are at your level and some who are way beyond you. But that's how you learned when you figure out who has already achieved so much more than you.
[00:14:41] The last thing, my biggest takeaway is that we helped people get really clear on how they set goals. So we talked a lot about the macro and the micro. Macro is what do we want to accomplish at the end of the year or three years, or five years? And then micro was, what are the habits that we need to institute today? What are the little things that we need to accomplish every single day to be able to accomplish the big goals that we set for ourself over the course of a year, three years, five years, right? So really getting dialed in on the micro and the macro. And we did that very deliberately through hot seats, through work sessions, through breakout groups, all of that, every single day. And then all kinds of work also happened in sort of like the cracks of the day, as we say. So, you know, over lunch and, you know, after, you know, the workout and while we were sitting around, you know, after, after dinner, just sort of relaxing at night, like, like really deep, important stuff happened. If you've never done this, if you've never switched off and gone away with colleagues, with other peers, you know, two other couples, three other couples just so you could switch off, get off the grid, and it's not a vacation, but it's like a working vacation where you spend part of your day working and then the rest of your day really switching off and relaxing. If you've never done that, I strongly urge you to do that. The two things I would say is that, number one, make sure to give it structure. Number two, make sure you know what you want to come out of the week having, you know, clarity on. So what am I hoping to get clear on by the end of the week so that everybody's got a set goal going into that? It's one of the things that we made everyone come prepared with.
[00:16:11] Then the last thing, and I told you, right? So we're running the P3 plus program. It's an extension of the P3 Mastermind. It's elevated. It's certainly more expensive because everything you get for this, right, in addition to the group coaching calls, you get private coaching calls every other week. You get four days of me on site. You get two VIP tickets to the summit, you get four, I'm sorry, an entire week at this retreat again next year is going to be in Costa Rica, and everything is included. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner, all your excursions, you know, everything. It's only if you drink.
[00:16:48] Everybody pays for whatever they drink and you just gotta fly yourself there. We're even handling all the transportation from the airport to the resort, if you are interested. The only way to do this is by being a part of the P3 plus program. The only way to do this is to open a conversation is to email me directly chipclose.com c h I p k l o s e.com email me and we're going to start a conversation. We'll probably set up a call for us to be able to talk through things so we understand where your business is at, what you're looking to do over the Next, let's say 18 months.
[00:17:24] There is no pressure, I promise you. We do not do the hard sell.
[00:17:29] It's really just about understanding what your goals are and whether we can help you achieve your goals.
[00:17:34] If you are at all interested in this, if you're interested in this retreat, the only way to do that is to be a part of my broader coaching program called the P3 plus program, chipclose.com, email me. I can't tell you how cool it was, how emotional everybody got over the course of their week. And now everybody's on a group text chain. Everybody's organizing trips to each other's cities to go check out each other's restaurants. It's extraordinary getting really close to your peers, people that you can learn from, grow with all of that, it cannot be replicated any other way. The way to start that conversation is to email me chipclose.com the P3 leadership retreat is one of the coolest things I've ever done. This year is in Tulum, again, next year will be in Costa Rica. Beyond that, who knows? And eventually we are going to cap the number of people because we just can only serve so many people in this program again. This year it's capped at 10. Next year it's capped at 20. We've also already filled about 14 spots, so that leaves, give or take, about six spots left. It is first come, first serve. And yes, we are already starting to fill them now. I appreciate you guys listening to this podcast. I appreciate you making this part of your week. Thank you. And I will see you next one.
