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Slicing Through Challenges: How Home Slice Pizza Built a Pizza Empire on Hospitality | Restaurants & Franchises Series · The Inspired Stories Podcast

0:06
Welcome to another edition of the Inspired Stories podcast
0:10
where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from
0:13
their successes and be inspired by how they've overcome
0:16
adversity. My name is Anthony Cotespotti
0:19
and today's guest is Terry Hanafin Ewas.
0:22
She is the co-owner of Home Slice Pizza, a neighborhood
0:26
pizza joint with three locations in Austin and now one in
0:30
Houston, serving authentic New York style pizza by the slice or
0:35
by the pie. Founded in 2005, Home Slice
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Pizza prides itself on its welcoming atmosphere, fresh
0:42
ingredients, and genuine hospitality.
0:45
Terry brings a remarkable background to this role.
0:48
She successfully operated a curbside donut shop as a third
0:53
grader. She was the supervisor of a
0:55
frozen yogurt shop as a teenager, had a lawn mowing
0:58
business with her best friend in high school, and later gained
1:01
fine dining experience, leaving countless satisfied customers.
1:06
At Home Slice. She mentors employees and stays
1:09
focused on quality and community, guiding the
1:11
restaurant to local acclaim. Over the years, her hands on
1:15
approach and entrepreneurial spirit have helped Home Slice
1:19
become one of Austin's favorite pizza destinations.
1:22
Today, Terry continues to nurture talent and support the
1:25
rapidly growing brand. Now before we get into all that
1:28
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AD back benefitsagency.com. All right now back to our guest
2:01
today, Co founder of Home Slice Pizza.
2:04
Terry, I appreciate you making the time to Share your story
2:06
today. Thank you.
2:08
I'm honored. OK, so Terry, most people that
2:12
I've talked to anyways get their start in the food industry, like
2:16
as a high school or a college student looking to make some
2:19
extra money on the side for you. It started a lot younger than
2:23
that. How old were you exactly when
2:26
you started this curbside donut shop and how did this come
2:28
about? Well, eight years old and it
2:33
came about a week my family got a donut little donut maker for I
2:41
probably for Christmas. And I, I loved Donuts that I
2:46
mean, probably my favorite food, which I'm sure many people can
2:50
relate to. But I thought to myself, my
2:55
classmates are going to really want these Donuts and they're
2:59
really fun to make. I'm going to take pre-orders for
3:04
Donuts and then I'm going to make Donuts for my classmates
3:06
and make money for this because I had three other siblings at
3:12
the time and we would always have to share everything.
3:16
And I, I wanted my own Pringles, for example.
3:21
I wanted my own Bubble Yum, for example.
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I wanted to have my own thing. So, so I was like, I'm going to
3:27
make some money and make people happy.
3:30
And I, so I made a bunch of, I took a bunch of pre-orders and
3:36
super ambitious thinking, yeah, that's going to be great.
3:38
And then when I realized how many pre-orders I had made, I
3:41
thought, OK, I'm going to have to make a lot of doughnuts.
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Luckily my older brother helped me.
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And so we made these doughnuts all different kinds and sold
3:51
them to my classmates and took more orders.
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And it was awesome. It was just awesome.
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I was making people happy and making money and enjoying the
4:05
whole process as it went. So it was like, wow, I love
4:09
this, this is great. And So what were you saying as
4:12
you went up to your classmates, Hey, you know, buy a doughnut
4:16
for a nickel or a, you know, a dime or.
4:18
And And they were just like, OK. Yeah, they're like, yeah.
4:22
And I would say what kind do you want?
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I can make chocolate. I can.
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I do chocolate sprinkles. I do rainbow sprinkles and just
4:30
would ask them what kind they would want.
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And I would just write it down on my list and bring it home and
4:35
make it for them. I I want to say it was $0.25,
4:39
but it was a long time ago. It was and were your.
4:43
Parents buying the raw materials for you?
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Or is that something that they were having you buy on your own?
4:49
They did buy the raw materials for me, which was great, which I
4:52
realized at the time, it was a great realization actually,
4:56
because, you know, I started out with just what we had in the
5:00
pantry and then realized like, oh, I need more.
5:03
And so we would go get more. And anyhow, it was one of those
5:07
things where it was such a great learning lesson for a third
5:11
grade student of all right, It's, you know, when you're 8
5:15
years old, you don't, you don't have that concept of, you know,
5:20
everything is just kind of either there or, or whatever.
5:24
So anyhow, it was no, no, no. So it was, it was great.
5:29
It was just great. It was my first taste of that.
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And my father was an entrepreneur.
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His father was an entrepreneur. And so I also didn't realize at
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that point I just had that in me anyway, so.
5:42
So how long did the donut stand go on?
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I retired in 3rd grade, so it was great.
5:51
It was a lot of work. It was a lot.
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Yes, it was a lot of work. It was super satisfying, but
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that was it. But you knew you had this
6:00
entrepreneurial bug, even if maybe you couldn't pronounce
6:02
entrepreneurial when you were in 3rd grade.
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And So what were some of the other things that came from
6:08
that? We talked about the the lawn
6:10
mowing business that you had with your best friend.
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Well, you know, childhood things like I would start carnivals
6:16
where would create booths with my friends and we would charge
6:21
for tickets and people would come.
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And then in high school, my high school boyfriend at the time had
6:31
challenged my best friend and I and said, I dare you.
6:34
You guys can't have a lawn mowing business.
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We were both women and, and so we did it and we had it for
6:40
three years and it was amazing. And at the same time, I had had
6:46
an opportunity to get a job at a hamburger joint when I was 15
6:50
years old. And I took it.
6:53
I was like, what? Yes, of course.
6:57
So I took the job. It was just a summer job.
7:00
And I couldn't believe my luck. I got to work the French fry
7:05
station and of course, as a 15 year old, you're just like, yes,
7:10
score. I get to do the French fry
7:12
station and I also got to be a cashier.
7:15
And, but really the, the most amazing thing about that job, it
7:20
was in an area of Denver called Five Points.
7:23
It was not, not a super safe neighborhood, but that didn't
7:27
matter to me. This cook who worked the grill,
7:35
he he had to be, he had to be in his 80s.
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But I was blown away by how clean his grill was.
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It was like no burgers had ever been made on this.
7:50
And this place was called Big D's Burgers and they had Big D
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Burger, Double D, Triple D Burgers.
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And so there was a lot of grilling going on and it was so
8:00
clean. And I asked him, how do you do
8:03
that? Like how, how do you keep it so
8:05
clean? And he said, you know, Terry, he
8:07
said, I've worked here for a lot of years, probably 30 years.
8:11
And it took me a long time to be able to work the grill.
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And he said the person who worked there before me, he told
8:20
me, he said how important it is that every burger I make is the
8:26
same for every customer and that the consistency is so important.
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And he said I want to make sure for the next person who works
8:35
the grill after me that the grill is pristine for them.
8:39
I don't want them to have to worry about cleaning anything.
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I want to just make sure that it's great for the next person
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too. And I was blown away at 15, I
8:50
just didn't fully understand all the levels of the restaurant
8:56
business. I was so focused on myself and
8:58
making really good French fries. And.
9:03
But when he said that, I thought, this is the greatest
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business in the world. You get to make guests happy.
9:11
You get to make your teammates happy and, and, and you get the
9:15
satisfaction. You could see it in this man's
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face. He had he was the proudest
9:19
person I'd ever made. He was the most humble and proud
9:22
person I'd ever met. And it was one of those things
9:25
where I thought, this is what I want to do for the rest of my
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life. So this gentleman, do you
9:31
remember his name? I wish I did.
9:34
I wish I did so. This gentleman had a big impact
9:36
on you because of the way that. He was at work.
9:39
Yeah, yeah, but you you already came in being super excited
9:43
about the job. I mean, I see only jumping out
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of your chair talking about I scored.
9:48
I I'm on fries, I get to be the cashier.
9:51
You know, for not everybody feels that way.
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Some people it's like, you know, literally I got to make the
9:56
Donuts. I got to make the Donuts, right.
9:58
But not not you. Like you.
9:59
There was joy within you that, you know, the first time that
10:02
you stepped in there. OK.
10:04
Oh, yeah. And so and, and So what we're.
10:07
So in that moment, you're like, this is what I want to do.
10:09
This is this is where, you know, I I want to be in this business
10:12
forever. So did you continue to seek out
10:14
more jobs in hospitality and food service?
10:18
Oh yeah, definitely. I went from there to the next
10:24
summer. I worked at this great sandwich
10:27
ice cream shop called Ala Mode. Also got a job at this great
10:30
Jewish deli called Shlomo's. I was a busser at Shlomo's.
10:34
I was making the sandwiches and, and well, I was doing all the
10:41
prep and then also serving ice cream at the other shop while at
10:44
the same time I had a long blowing business with my best
10:46
friend and I, you know, I don't know how you feel about this,
10:51
but as an entrepreneur, I loved the independence that I had.
10:56
And so I guess I was addicted to that, the independence and, and
11:02
just getting to work with so many different types of people,
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getting to make people happy. I mean, it just couldn't be
11:10
better. It, it just was great.
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And then then went on to get a job at a frozen yogurt place.
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And that was wonderful because frozen yogurt was all the rage
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at that time. And was able to be made
11:23
supervisor, which gave me access to the inner workings of a
11:28
business. I had the responsibility of
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reconciling the money I got, had the, I had access to all the
11:36
data from their other businesses.
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And that business there I got to see and was in charge of making
11:46
sure to write down what the business we did that day
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compared to what we did the week before, compared to what we did
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the month before and the year before.
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I, I had special training, you know, to, to learn how to manage
12:01
people and how to keep people motivated.
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And, you know, every opportunity I had going forward from there
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just taught me so much. And you know, I just, I just
12:14
went from from there in college. I got to work at this in New
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York City. I, I went to NYU and had many
12:25
jobs there as well. But one of my restaurant jobs
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there was at this beloved burger joint right near Washington
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Square Park and learned so much there about business.
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And then it coincidentally at NYU, my college roommate, Jen
12:46
Strickland is my business partner now.
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She's she was the original one who wanted to do a pizza joint.
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So anyhow, and just went on I I mean, I could go on and on
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forever about all my different restaurant jobs and what they
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gave me and. So I'm curious to hear, you
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know, you mentioned some of your earlier jobs, you learned how to
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manage people and keep them motivated.
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What were some of those important lessons that you
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learned early on? The The real, the big lesson
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that I learned, there are a few big ones that I learned was one
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you need to challenge first. You need to hire the right
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people that are that want to do it, that get turned on by making
13:30
people happy and that aren't afraid of hard work and that
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actually think hard work is fun. And then you need to keep them
13:37
challenged. You need to give them clear
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goals and you need to push them in a in a good way, not in a
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critical way, but in a way that's like, we can do this, OK,
13:50
This is what we want to reach. And this is what I'm going to
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ask you to do. And I know you're going to think
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this is too much to ask, but it's not.
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I'm going to ask you to do it and we're going to do it
14:00
together and we're going to get this done.
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And, and then one thing that I learned is that you have to
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really, you ask them to do something, you do it and then
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you go back and you see if they did it right.
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And if they didn't, you do it together.
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You show them together how you want it.
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And it's really important to get into the corners and to to say
14:25
no, this is how it's done and to push them, even if you yourself,
14:30
you know that wouldn't be the thing you would do, find
14:34
something to push them to do it further.
14:37
And that people love to feel proud at the end of the day and
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they need guidance sometimes to push themselves beyond what they
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think they can do. So we were talking a little bit
14:51
before we went live here and you mentioned you got 2 seven-year
14:55
olds, right? You got that right.
14:57
I've got two boys that are 8 and 10.
15:00
And, you know, as I hear you talking about how to motivate
15:02
people, you know, how to keep them challenged, you know, of
15:06
course I think about, you know, my, my own business world and my
15:10
employees, but I also think about my kids and like how to
15:13
teach those same kinds of lessons to my kids.
15:16
Does that thought process enter your mind?
15:18
How can I take, you know, I've learned.
15:21
OK, so so how do you introduce this to kids that age?
15:25
That's, that's what's going through my mind right now.
15:27
How? How can I teach some of these
15:28
same things to 78910 year olds? Well, you know, it's funny that
15:33
you say that because so our kids are, you know, we're having them
15:40
set the table for dinner every night and and, you know, showing
15:45
them the proper way to set the table.
15:47
It may seem, you know, unnecessary, you know, just get
15:50
the silverware, the napkins, the glassware.
15:52
But I take the opportunity to say like, OK, here's how you do
15:58
it. I teach them how you do it
15:59
properly and then they do it and they, you know, things aren't
16:04
lined up right. And does it matter at our house?
16:08
Absolutely not. However, I go and say, OK, let's
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go look. Let's go see how we did.
16:13
OK, All right, guys, let's get your fingernails.
16:15
Let's put the let's align the fork right to the fingernail
16:19
edge of the table. And OK, the glass needs to be
16:21
right over here and, and do it in a way that's fun.
16:26
And, and so is it necessary at our house?
16:31
No. But is it?
16:34
Do they teach? Them a life lesson about if
16:37
you're going to do something, do it correctly.
16:40
Pay attention to the details. The details matter.
16:42
Yes, yes. And you know, that's fun, so.
16:48
So you mentioned, you know, the first step is you got to find
16:51
the right employees and roughly how many folks do you employ?
16:57
We have right now we have about 380 employees. 380 employees
17:03
across 4 locations that, that's, that's impressive.
17:07
So how, what, what is your process for kind of identifying
17:11
those people that you think are going to be a good fit?
17:13
You know, with that kind of a staff, Terry can't be involved
17:17
in every single interview, every single hire.
17:20
What is it that you've learned that you've now, you know,
17:22
taught to your team to, hey, here's the questions we ask or
17:26
here's what we look for. How do you find how do you find
17:28
those folks? Well, so it's important in our
17:38
opinion, you, you, you need to look at their resume or the
17:41
application. We ask them, we ask them
17:44
questions that are some are kind of trick questions like we'll
17:49
say what, what did you like or what didn't you like about your
17:52
business? And if the what you didn't like
17:56
about your last employment is filled, filled up with feedback,
18:02
that's we're not going to hire that person.
18:07
So we, but if the other side is filled up, what did you like?
18:12
We're like, OK, now we're really intrigued.
18:14
And we also look for longevity. If, if somebody is moving from
18:22
job to job to job, that's just a risk that that is hard to take
18:28
cuz we're looking for teammates who are going to be with us for
18:31
a while. We're looking for people who
18:32
love the industry. We're looking for people who who
18:38
want to stay. And of course we realize that
18:41
sometimes you take a job that you shouldn't stay at and it's
18:45
good. It's good for people to make
18:47
their decisions like I don't want to stay here.
18:50
However, just for us, you know, it's a big deal finding a
18:53
partner, finding a teammate. And so we want to find people
18:56
that in general like to stay at a place for a long time.
18:59
And you know, we also try to find people who are
19:03
forward-looking people who so we ask them questions like what do
19:08
you like in your life? What do you love to do?
19:10
And, you know, you can tell if someone starts talking about
19:17
talking passionately about something that they do in their
19:19
life. That's, that's something that we
19:21
want to do too. If they that we want to work
19:24
with, we want to work with people who are interesting and
19:28
fun and positive. And so, you know, you ask about
19:33
them, but mostly you listen a lot to who they are and, and if
19:40
they're the kind of person that you really want to work with,
19:43
you want to get to know more, hire them.
19:48
So OK, that's, that's a pretty good process.
19:50
I can see, you know, you call them trick questions, but you
19:53
know, you're just you're looking for certain patterns and it
19:56
makes a lot of sense. So you've got somebody, they
19:59
come in, they're working out, they're a good team member.
20:02
You want to make sure you hold on to them.
20:03
What kind of strategies do you have on the retention side of
20:06
things? Well, so we want to make to us
20:12
our employees are the most important thing because they
20:16
make the business. So we want to make sure that
20:18
they feel supported. We want them to feel empowered.
20:21
We want them to feel cared for. And like I said before, we want
20:24
to challenge them so that at the end of the day, they feel like
20:29
they've gotten something, they've gotten value from their
20:31
job. We also one of the things that
20:35
we've done that really has paid off not only for I think our
20:41
employees, but also for us as founding owners is we've taken
20:47
our team to New York. We're we're a New York style
20:51
pizzeria. So we're an old school New York
20:53
style pizzeria. So we, we our pizza is simple.
20:56
We you know, it's big pizzas, it's pizza for the people, you
21:02
know, you utilitarian get come get a slice and that could be
21:05
your meal. And so we, we decided earlier
21:10
on, we want to bring our team to New York to see where our
21:12
inspiration was. And, and we're, you know, in
21:16
Texas now. And in Texas, there's not a
21:20
whole lot of Italian culture. And so, you know, you can get a
21:23
Taco on any corner or several tacos on each corner, but you,
21:28
you getting a slice of pizza when we open it was rare.
21:32
So, so we want to show them what it's like, what the Italian
21:35
culture is like in New York City, where it's like, you know,
21:38
you get fed and there's a serious pride in New York about
21:42
your pizza. And it's a career.
21:44
And so early on, we shut down the restaurants to bring our
21:49
team. And then as we've grown, we've
21:51
had to, you know, decide, OK, we bring people who work for us
21:55
full time. We bring people who have, you
21:58
know, not never been on probation and, you know, you
22:02
make certain criteria, but Oh my gosh, it has paid off so much.
22:09
It's it's taught our team that there's a serious pride to what
22:13
they do. And it's and it's amazing.
22:18
You know, people come in the restaurants in Texas and they
22:21
say, Oh, you're New York style. I'm from, I grew up in Brooklyn
22:24
and and for our team to be able to say, Oh yeah, I've been to
22:28
LMBS Bomoni, Oh yeah, Dafara, absolutely.
22:32
I've been there and the college. So you take them to New York,
22:35
you take them on a little tour of some of the the pizza
22:37
hotspots. Yes, yes.
22:39
So we taste pizza in all the Burrows, we go out for Italian
22:43
food for long dinners, and wow, that's fun.
22:47
It's really fun. That's a lot of fun.
22:49
OK, we got some good background. Now how did did the idea to
22:54
start this company come about? You mentioned your your business
22:57
partner you met in college. It was actually her initial idea
23:00
to start a a pizza business. So her her, she is a writer and
23:05
an amazing writer. And she moved to New York in
23:09
1990 with her boyfriend at the time who was going to who was
23:13
going to UT for Graduate School. And she was horrified by the
23:19
pizza in Austin, TX at that time.
23:23
And she loves to cook. And so I had, I'd been in the
23:28
restaurant business, as you know, since I was young.
23:31
And, and she would, she taught herself how to make really good
23:37
New York style pizza in her oven.
23:39
She would put quarry tiles in the base of her oven and really
23:42
work about that. And we would talk.
23:44
And at the time, I was working in fine dining.
23:50
I was running a restaurant called The Fourth Story in
23:53
Denver at the time. And I had already been
23:57
developing my own theories on the restaurant business.
24:00
I was a workaholic, you know, I was working 80 hours a week and
24:06
and I guess I didn't want to be a workaholic anymore.
24:10
So I had been developing theories in my head of how how I
24:13
can stay in the restaurant business without it eating me up
24:17
and ways to make a successful business where you can also have
24:24
weekends and you can also have relationships outside the
24:27
restaurant business. And so I had been developing my
24:31
theory while she was making these pizzas.
24:33
And we were talking and I was saying, Jen, I want you to write
24:35
your movie. And she's like, you know, Terry,
24:38
I don't want to do, I don't want to write for a living.
24:42
It won't be fun to me. And she said, what about what
24:47
about a pizzeria? And, and said, well, you know,
24:51
absolutely you can do that and have that be how you make your
24:56
living, but you have to do it in a certain way.
25:01
You have to do it simply. And I and I, we just started
25:03
batting back and forth about my theories of how, how you could
25:08
do it in a way that would make it so that you can follow your
25:12
passion. And we, she and her husband are
25:17
my two partners. And we were talking and we were
25:20
aligned. You know, as an entrepreneur,
25:22
there are many ways to start a business, but you really need to
25:25
know in the beginning, what is your goal?
25:27
And for example, if your goal is to be a billionaire, well,
25:31
you're going to model your business in a certain way to
25:34
achieve that goal. But luckily for Jen and Joseph
25:38
and I, we all shared the same goal.
25:40
We wanted quality of life. We wanted to have fun every day.
25:45
We wanted to be challenged every day.
25:47
We wanted to work with forward thinking, positive people every
25:51
day. We wanted to make a difference.
25:52
We wanted to make people's lives better.
25:54
In fact, we wanted to make the world better.
25:58
And we knew you could do it by, you know, one person at a time
26:02
making their day better. And we all shared that and, and
26:07
none of us ever wanted to have to worry about money, but it
26:11
never was. Money was never the first thing
26:13
on our mind. So, so we talked about it and
26:17
we, that's how we built our business.
26:20
We wanted to make, let's keep it simple.
26:22
We're not going to be something for everybody.
26:25
And let's make it make a place where people want to come to
26:29
work. And let's make it fun for us.
26:33
And because we believe that if we hire people that love taking
26:37
care of people, we can make the world a better place.
26:40
And Oh my gosh, the journey has just been amazing.
26:43
We've had the most incredible people who really just care and
26:49
they put it into our food. They, they, they have the, the
26:55
most incredible connections. It's it's just great.
26:59
So the idea is hatched. You talk about what the the long
27:02
term goals are. Money is somewhere further down
27:05
the list. It's more about quality of life.
27:08
We want to have fun, we want to challenge ourselves, we want to
27:11
make the world a better place. What does it actually look like
27:15
to open that first location? Where does the money come from?
27:18
How did you pick the spot? What were the bumps in the road
27:22
kind of in those early days to get the doors open and the first
27:25
customers? So in in Austin, I don't know if
27:33
you've ever been to Austin, but it's such a great town.
27:35
There's an area called South Congress that had at that time
27:39
had a lot of grit and it had two really great neighborhoods on
27:45
either side, families, artists, and it it was a mile from the
27:53
capital of Texas. So just a really special spot.
27:58
And Jen and Joseph, at the time I was living in Colorado,
28:01
running a restaurant in Colorado.
28:03
And they are, I think I was director of operations of a
28:07
restaurant group at the time. They were in Austin and in one
28:13
of these neighborhoods and they were like Terry, come, come,
28:16
see, come look and come look at these spots.
28:19
And there was this wonderful man's, his name is Steve
28:23
Wertheimer. He has a lot of businesses.
28:25
He has one of Austin's most iconic business, the continental
28:29
club music venue there. And he helped us find our
28:35
location and it, it had not been a restaurant before, but it was
28:42
in a great location. We loved it.
28:44
It was an old school brick building and had flavor.
28:47
And so we got the lease on that spot.
28:53
And we, you know, Joseph had put himself through accounting
28:57
school, He was a film maker to learn the accounting of the
29:01
business, put together a business plan, made a lot of
29:05
pizza for a lot of people to get them to invest in our business.
29:10
And we of course, but we had it down, got all the everything
29:17
that we thought it was going to cost.
29:18
We thought it would cost $300,000 or probably $250,000 at
29:22
that time, met with a banker and then got the banker behind us.
29:29
Everybody was excited and, and then we got our first bids back
29:33
from the contractor and it was double what we thought it would
29:36
be. And it was crushing.
29:39
You know, we're, we're all so excited and young and, and we're
29:44
crushed. But then for me, because I'd
29:48
been in the business for so long, all I could see were the
29:52
good things. Like we've got this banker, he's
29:55
excited. We have all these investors,
29:56
they're excited. Who cares that it's more than we
29:58
thought it would be? We can do this.
30:00
Like, let's do it. And and so we, Jen and Joseph,
30:06
were buoyed by that too. And they were like, OK, let's do
30:09
it. And even though we, you know,
30:12
we're all just, you know, wanting to vomit every single
30:15
second with the pressure. And but they're around every
30:19
turn, even there were, there were people that would come and,
30:23
and buoy us up like we were. I remember we were at the health
30:26
department and meeting with the health department.
30:29
And of course, they were making so many changes to our plans,
30:32
which were going to cost so much money.
30:33
And we were just on the verge of being discouraged.
30:36
And a stranger came up and said, excuse me, I, I couldn't help
30:41
but overhear that you're home Slice and, and I've seen your
30:45
sign in the window. I live in the neighborhood and
30:48
I'm so excited for you guys to come.
30:50
I love pizza. I love New York pizza.
30:52
And I just want you to know we're all pulling for you.
30:55
And you know, those moments that keep you going when you're just
30:59
like, thank you. It's like water in the desert.
31:02
It's like just what you needed at that moment to to pick
31:05
yourselves back up. Around every turn, there were
31:08
things like that that kept us going despite the challenges
31:12
and. So you had investors, you had,
31:15
you had a banker that was willing to also offer support.
31:19
You're running into a lot of roadblocks, which is very common
31:23
when you're opening up a, a new physical business, a business
31:27
with a physical location, especially when it's your very
31:29
first one. A lot of times there's, there's
31:32
so many things that you don't know that you don't know, but
31:35
eventually you get to the point where you open the doors.
31:38
And what were those first days like?
31:42
Way beyond our imagination. We got pummeled.
31:45
We were so pummeled with business, which was fantastic.
31:53
And people would wait. We'd have to put them on a wait
31:57
for two hours to get a table and then they would wait 45 minutes
32:02
to an hour to get their pizza. And they would.
32:06
They would do it. And we trained our staff to
32:15
there's a great story that motivated me about creative
32:18
thinking That was a story about it's, we don't have time for
32:23
this story. But anyhow, it, it was the
32:26
basically the gist of it was how can you distract people from the
32:33
time it takes so that they don't get impatient?
32:36
And so we, we're, we were just so grateful that we had all
32:40
these people come in. So we started this thing where
32:43
we would give it 10% discount. We had a theme of the month.
32:46
If you participated in the theme of the month, we're going to
32:50
give you 10% off your ticket. And the themes of the month
32:53
would be things like if you get up in the middle of the dining
32:58
room and bust a move, a dance move in front of everybody in
33:01
the restaurant, we're going to give you 10% off.
33:03
Or if you do truth or dare with your server, you're we're gonna.
33:09
And so that would distract that. It would create an experience
33:13
and distract the guests from the amount of time it would take
33:15
from when they ordered to when they got their pizza.
33:17
So they didn't even notice that it took that long.
33:20
And it was fun for everybody. It was fun for our staff.
33:24
It was fun for the guests. It was fun for us.
33:26
It was fun for the other guests watching the people.
33:29
People would get up and sing a song in front of everybody in
33:32
the restaurant. And, and so that's what it was
33:37
like. And then we finally learned how
33:40
to actually work our oven. So pizzas started taking 10
33:43
minutes instead of 45 minutes and.
33:47
Wait, what was that? What what?
33:49
What was that difference? You just.
33:50
OK, well I'll tell you had. The heat turned up enough.
33:53
No, we had the heat turned up. In fact, we kept turning up the
33:56
heat, which was the problem. We kept turning up the heat and
34:00
we would try to fill the ovens, the decks, we had deck ovens and
34:04
we would fill them up with pizzas and, and gosh, they were
34:08
just taking forever. Little did we know at the time,
34:10
we were killing the decks, killing the heat with the amount
34:14
of pizzas we were putting in. So we learned from a someone who
34:19
I still to this day believe was in the witness protection
34:21
program, who was one of our purveyors, but he would come in,
34:26
he was an old pizzeria person. And he said no, no, don't put 6
34:31
pizzas in the oven. Just put four.
34:34
And you have to rotate them around the deck so you don't
34:37
kill the decks, you don't kill the heat.
34:39
And, and we're like, what are you talking about?
34:41
You have no idea. We have, we need, we have so
34:43
many customers. We have to, you know, make so
34:46
many pizzas. He's like, trust me.
34:48
And turn your ovens down. You're turning them too high and
34:52
we're like, that doesn't make any sense.
34:54
But we trusted him and we did it.
34:57
Very counter intuitive and it worked.
34:59
So instead of putting 6 pizzas in the deck, we'd picked 4 and
35:03
we could make more pizzas in less time.
35:06
So couple things I want to peel back there.
35:09
So I, I love the idea that you guys had the 10% off for the
35:13
theme of the month. It's, it's creative and it's
35:15
brilliant and it's simple and it's, it's all those things
35:19
wrapped together. And it reminds me of people
35:22
often will cite Disney theme parks as examples of this,
35:27
right. And we took our kids to Disney
35:29
last summer for the first time. And you know, the lines are long
35:33
and kids are impatient and it's hot.
35:37
And so, you know, like one of the things that they do is
35:39
they're, you can't see most of the line, right?
35:42
It, it whines, it turns, they take you through, they take you
35:46
by something that talks and they take you by something else
35:49
that's animated and, and just little things along the way so
35:54
that, you know, by the time the kids get there, they don't even
35:56
realize that they've been waiting 45 minutes to get on
35:58
this ride. And so that, that made me think
36:02
of your story there. But then we just sort of glossed
36:05
over the gentleman who helped you with the pizza ovens there,
36:08
who was, you're convinced was in the witness protection program.
36:12
That that sounds like a little fun tangent for us to go into
36:15
for just a second. Why were you convinced about?
36:17
That well, it might be because I love stories of the Mafia,
36:27
however, and Jen and I always thought like maybe our pizzeria
36:32
in Austin, we can mafia will come and sit in the front little
36:36
Bistro table in the front of the restaurant and, you know, do
36:39
their thing. But that was always a hope of
36:42
ours. But this guy, he was a
36:46
distributor and he would come in and eat our pizza and he'd sit
36:50
at our counter and he'd, you know, super friendly in that old
36:53
school way. He had the New York accent and,
36:56
you know, a talker and, and he said, let you know, I miss it.
37:02
Let me come in and work for you one day a week.
37:04
And we're like, Are you sure? And he's like, yeah, let me come
37:07
in and work for you. And he would, you know, just
37:12
work with the guys. And you could tell he had, he
37:14
had done this before, come to find out.
37:19
And he helped us. He gave us this clue with the
37:23
with the oven, which was invaluable.
37:25
But he kept trying to make us change our pizza dough recipe to
37:28
add sugar. And we just were like, no,
37:29
that's not what we do. Anyhow, he flashed forward.
37:34
He he opened his own place in Austin and he tried to recruit
37:42
our guys and he got our phone number.
37:45
His phone number was one number off of our phone number.
37:48
He was telling, we found out through our hair stylist, his
37:51
wife was telling her hair stylist that he was the one who
37:54
gave us our recipes, which is not true.
37:56
And anyhow, so the way he went about things kind of made us
38:02
even more convinced. OK, he's, he's this underhanded
38:05
New York. Yeah, we're, we're all about
38:08
like sharing information and booing up other businesses.
38:10
But he was trying to, you know, he was shady.
38:15
And anyhow, he he motivated us to even be better for sure.
38:23
And he, he, he, my, one of my stories about him, I, I got my
38:30
hackles up when he did this. And I was telling, I was doing a
38:33
line up for our staff and I was saying, OK, guys, we, you know,
38:37
he thinks he can beat us. I got competitive, we can beat
38:41
him. We're going to even be better.
38:42
We're going to be this. And one of our pizza cooks at
38:45
the time, he said, well, you know, Terry, he said, what
38:48
motivates me is not trying to beat somebody else, But what
38:53
motivates me is that I know that this pizza I'm making might be
38:58
the one meal out for a family that's coming in, might be the
39:02
one chance they get to go out and eat.
39:04
And I want that pizza to be the very best it can be for that
39:07
family. And I just started crying.
39:11
I was like, yes, what he said, absolutely what he said.
39:15
The motivation is something positive rather than, you know,
39:18
you're trying to beat this other guy over here.
39:20
It's like, let's just focus on our thing and let's let's make
39:22
it the best experience for our customers that we can.
39:25
So. Yeah, right out of the gate, you
39:27
guys were slammed. Why?
39:29
What was so special or different about what you guys were doing
39:34
versus other pizza that available there in Austin?
39:37
Well, I think it was a combination of things.
39:39
I think it was true. There wasn't a lot of
39:41
competition in in Austin at that time.
39:45
I think pizza is something that everybody loves.
39:48
And I think because of the amount of care and attention Jen
39:53
took to make sure the dough was perfect And, and, and we, Oh my
39:58
gosh, we tried so many different cheeses.
40:00
We tried so many. Everything needed to be just
40:03
right. We spent so much even just on
40:05
our dressing or salad dressing. We.
40:08
I can't even tell you how many vinegars we tasted to make sure
40:11
this is has to taste like the old school New York style salad
40:14
that we want. We at the time the we, we were
40:19
making Subs and there was no place to get the right bread to
40:22
get the bread just right. And so we had modeled our Subs
40:26
after this place in Western New York called Aunt Cookies.
40:29
And we just couldn't find the bread in Texas.
40:34
And so we Fedexed the bread from Petrillo's Bakery in in Western
40:39
New York. And so we didn't make money on
40:42
our Subs forever, but we just wanted to have them, right.
40:44
We wanted to turn Austinites on to the sub.
40:48
And so the attention to detail that we took for all of our
40:51
ingredients and, and the people we hired, our vibe, you know, we
40:58
were just, we just wanted to make a great experience for
41:03
everybody. I, I think it was a combination
41:06
of all those things. And I don't know, we, yeah, we
41:12
heard great people who really cared.
41:13
And I don't know. Tell me that you're not still
41:16
Fedexing bread in from. New York every day.
41:19
You got a a local way to make this happen now?
41:21
We did. We worked with a chef and with
41:24
our kitchen manager at the time and we reverse engineered their
41:27
bread. And our our bread is excellent.
41:30
We make it fresh every day. People order our bread
41:33
wholesale, so we really worked hard on it to get it right.
41:38
So that's made in house now. And are you able to supply the
41:41
new Houston location as well from Austin?
41:44
With that bread they make it in house too.
41:46
We we make it in each of our shops.
41:49
We make the bread fresh. So how quickly after you had
41:54
opened that first location did you open the second one?
41:58
Five years and we were, we were, we got the lease four years that
42:04
had the, the, the owner of that building, they've been the owner
42:09
for generations. And there had, there was a
42:12
sewing machine repair shop and a dry cleaner in it.
42:16
And they, they were raising the rent.
42:20
I, I want to say they were raising the rent from $18.00 a
42:24
square foot to $25 a square foot or something like that.
42:27
And the, the current businesses were like, this is outrageous.
42:33
We can't pay that. And so the landlord came to us
42:36
and said, would you have any interest?
42:37
And we at that time, as I told you, we were saying no to people
42:43
who are calling for 10 pizzas. We are having to say no and send
42:46
them to other pizzerias. And also coincidentally at that
42:51
time, we had so many employees who were just growing, you know,
42:57
they had become managers. We had, and we just had so many
43:01
that were just ready for more responsibility.
43:03
And so it just was perfect timing.
43:06
We said yes, please, yes. And so we took the lease and we
43:13
we built that restaurant and I think we opened in 2010 and that
43:20
was a great. Was it dine in as well or just
43:22
curious? It was take out, just take out
43:24
and yeah. And little did we know what a
43:28
great compliment to one another they would be.
43:32
So our waits were still very long to get a table at our dine
43:36
in location. And so we had that to offer.
43:39
We could say you're welcome to order take out next door.
43:44
And so these and it just. The second location was right
43:46
next door to the first one. It was across the like.
43:49
Different part of town. You guys were so overloaded with
43:52
demand in that one spot, you're like, yeah, we could support
43:56
opening a second location. OK, got it.
43:58
Yeah. And we and we did and it was
44:00
great and it was a great learning experience for us.
44:05
Wildly different businesses take out and dine in and you know
44:09
full service versus take out and was just great and we had all
44:15
these leaders that who were ready, who helped U.S.
44:17
Open that location just worked out great.
44:23
And when did #3 come? How much later was that?
44:26
2018 We opened in 2018 and that we, my, my business partners and
44:34
I, we were not looking to expand.
44:37
We were, you know, quality of life was our goal.
44:41
We were not, we were not those ambitious like let's, you know,
44:45
get hundreds of businesses and we were like, this is a lot.
44:50
My business partners had two kids.
44:52
You know, we were we're all, you know, we were enjoying what we
44:55
had. However, we kept building
44:58
employees that were ready for more responsibility.
45:01
I mean, itching for more responsibility.
45:03
And so our our first employees, Nana Whitman and Phil Korchek
45:12
and we had brought on other employees that were just natural
45:15
leaders and Jeff Mettler helped U.S.
45:18
Open more home sites and Adam Cooper came, everybody just came
45:22
in and and we just kept building leaders, building leaders.
45:25
So really, they were what pushed us organically into opening
45:30
another. It's so interesting for every
45:33
other growth story I've heard is there was demand for it.
45:36
There was, you know, right, we wanted to grow the business.
45:39
We either we wanted a franchise or we've got investors that are
45:42
looking for better growth. Is the first time I've heard a a
45:45
growth story that was really pushed along by we had employees
45:50
who were looking for bigger challenges.
45:52
We needed to open another location so they could keep
45:55
growing in, you know, their own personal development.
45:58
That's fascinating to me. Yeah.
46:01
I mean, that was really it. That was and, and the same with
46:05
our Houston location. It was the same thing.
46:08
Our leaders were ready for more and we our our original Stewart,
46:13
the Heimer who is one of our investors, our biggest investor
46:20
who helped us install lights and you know, he's just phenomenal.
46:23
But he kept saying, come to Houston, come to Houston.
46:27
I've got the great location. It's really great.
46:29
You guys will love it. And we just kept saying, no, no,
46:32
thank you, thank you so much. Nope, we've got our hands full.
46:38
No thank you. And he, he brought Joseph, my
46:41
other business partner down, I think for a baseball game or
46:43
something, an Astra's game and showed Joseph the building.
46:47
And Joseph called Jen and I and he said, I think you guys need
46:52
to come see this building. And we were like, Oh no.
46:55
He said just come, just come look at it.
46:57
We're like, we really don't want to.
46:59
He's like, just do. So we came down and it was a
47:04
two-story plain brick building that is old school looking, just
47:10
the era that we love. And it had someone had painted
47:15
Lionel Richie on the side of the building and it said, is it me
47:21
you're looking for? And Jen and I, you know, we went
47:26
to, we graduated high school in 86.
47:28
We, you know, went to College in New York in the 80s.
47:32
Yeah. We were just like, oh, no, we
47:35
were done for. So we said yes, sign.
47:38
Yeah, it's a sign. And it was tough because we
47:41
opened it. We got the lease and then COVID
47:45
hit and it was our first business outside of our city.
47:51
And you know, one of the best things about being an
47:55
entrepreneur is that you don't know what you don't know, right?
47:57
And so you're like, we can do this.
47:59
There's not that great a pizza in Houston.
48:01
We'll we'll be a slam dunk. And and then you then you open
48:08
it and you're like, oh, all these other factors that we
48:11
didn't anticipate. And we certainly didn't
48:15
anticipate COVID. We certainly didn't anticipate
48:18
what was going to happen to all of our Austin restaurants during
48:21
that time. And man, it was an incredible
48:25
challenge. And so we simplified what we
48:30
were going to do down there. And one of our business
48:32
partners, we had brought on these junior business partners
48:36
who just were ready for more to be partners in the restaurant.
48:39
And he moved to Houston to open that location.
48:42
And you know, we just took one thing at a time and got through
48:48
and eventually opened it, and it's been so great.
48:51
Houston is such a great town. We've loved it.
48:57
So when did you actually open the doors?
48:59
What point in COVID were we? We opened the doors 2, two years
49:05
ago and three months. So we kind of shut down the
49:10
process during the height of COVID, so.
49:16
Like end of 2022. Yeah.
49:20
And we, we, yeah, because Austin, it was, you know, we
49:27
were in Texas during COVID. And So what that means is there
49:33
were a lot of challenges. I don't know what other states
49:38
had, but we would have customers come in and spit at our staff
49:44
because they were wearing masks and we, it was, you know, just
49:49
get in their face and it, it was really challenging.
49:53
We lost, we had up until that point kept people for, you know,
49:59
12 years that that left because the restaurant business wasn't
50:03
fun anymore because it was a fight every day.
50:05
And, and that was a real blow for us.
50:12
It was just a blow all all the way around.
50:14
It was you're not going to meet a restaurateur, any business
50:17
person that wouldn't say it was the hardest.
50:19
It was just the hardest time in my career.
50:23
So we, we really had to focus on Austin and keeping our staff
50:27
safe and making it, you know, trying to hire people in the
50:32
middle of COVID and you know, it was just a major challenge.
50:36
So, so we didn't do a lot in Houston and then and then when
50:41
things started opening up, we focused and were able to open
50:46
and, and it's, it's just been really another, I feel like I'm
50:54
going through a master's class of being a restaurateur right
50:58
now, so. Who, who or what were you able
51:01
to lean on during those difficult COVID times?
51:04
Right? It's not fun anymore.
51:06
There's all these rules. Things are changing.
51:08
People are being rude to the staff folks, folks that have
51:11
been with you a long time are leaving.
51:13
Like how? How do you and your partners get
51:15
through a difficult time like that?
51:20
Well, we, we had to lean on each other, our, our, our main people
51:29
and remind ourselves over and over again what our core goals
51:34
were and, and what our concept is.
51:36
And of course, we, at that time, we had to turn all of our dining
51:41
rooms into Expo stations because everything was curbside.
51:46
And so we, we had to reinvent our restaurant every three
51:51
months. And thank God, we had really
51:58
resilient people working for us that were up for pivoting and
52:03
they were up for the challenges. I mean, it was really, we relied
52:10
on ourselves and just reminding each other why we're in this
52:13
business, why we got in and in the 1st place, what our goal is.
52:17
We still believe in our goal. We want to make people happy.
52:20
We want to make the world a better place.
52:21
And yes, it looks different now. How to make people happy.
52:25
And yes, we're reinvent inventing ourselves every
52:30
second, but so long as we keep that at the center of what we
52:34
do, we'll get through this. And we did.
52:37
And in so many ways, we're stronger than we've ever been
52:40
so. You know, you had to endure that
52:43
together. Sometimes those hardships, yeah,
52:46
bring you guys closer together because it, it pulls you back to
52:49
that foundation of those core values and the goals that were
52:52
the the whole reason for starting everything in the 1st
52:54
place. So you're up to four locations
52:58
now, almost 400 employees. What's the future look like?
53:04
You guys got another location or two up your sleeves?
53:08
You know, we think about it because we do feel like we do
53:14
believe in our product and we believe in our hospitality and
53:18
we, we know it's, it's a winning recipe, you know, and so we do
53:25
think about that. Where would our next locations
53:27
be? But we also, we don't want to do
53:32
it in a hurry. You know, we need, we want to do
53:35
it the we want to have leaders who are ready because it's so
53:39
hard. It's so hard if you don't have
53:43
someone who believes in the mission, you know who, who
53:48
totally believes in hospitality in every corner of our business,
53:53
whether you're it's the dishwasher or the, or the host
53:57
or you know, no matter where they are in the business.
53:59
It's if, if, if, if you don't buy into that and into the
54:04
details of yes, we are doing 3 day proofs on our dough.
54:10
And yes, that requires you to move the dough boxes into
54:14
different areas of the walk in. And yes, that is hard, but this
54:19
is what the job is. And we, you know, the details
54:21
matter. You, you really need people who
54:24
believe that to, to do it. Otherwise it's just too hard.
54:28
And so that's our that's our biggest challenge, making sure
54:34
that we have enough people that want to grow and that want to
54:37
move to do it because otherwise, but.
54:39
It sounds like each of your locations is almost like a
54:42
little incubator for developing this talent than to help with
54:46
the the next location or locations.
54:50
It's true, although I don't know if we have time, but I will say
54:54
after COVID changed everything. So whereas before our staff, our
54:59
employees ate out, ate out with full service.
55:04
And so they understood the kind of hospitality that we're
55:07
talking about because even if we have a takeout location, we
55:10
still want people to feel the kind of care that you might feel
55:13
in a fine dining restaurant. And now most of our employees do
55:21
third party take out. They don't, they don't have a
55:24
lot of human connection. So it's we're, we're learning to
55:30
teach that type of hospitality to people who have just an
55:34
entirely different perspective than than we've ever had.
55:37
So that's, that's our newest biggest challenge is how can we
55:44
turn people on to that type of quality human connection and how
55:49
can we learn that how to do that digitally to, to, to make
55:55
hospitality through our website and through some of these third
55:59
party delivery places. So it's.
56:01
Because there's a lot of Times Now where it's DoorDash or Uber
56:05
Eats or somebody that's coming to get the order.
56:07
You never see the customer, you never talk to the customer, You
56:10
don't have any direct interaction with them.
56:12
Yeah. So have you come up with some
56:14
ideas that you're you're, you've either done or you're
56:17
experimenting with to create a little bit of that through a
56:21
digital space? Well, we're constantly trying to
56:26
put ourselves in the customer's shoes.
56:27
What's it like when you're when you're wanting to order from a
56:31
Uber Eats or DoorDash? What is their experience?
56:33
What is the DoorDash, the actual delivery person's experience
56:37
with their job? What is their job like?
56:39
How can we make their job easier so they're motivated to put our
56:43
orders first, so that they're motivated to get our pizza in
56:47
front of the guest's hands quickly while it's still fresh
56:50
and hot. So we're just educating
56:55
ourselves a lot and trying to tweak the process as best we can
57:00
and trying to learn about the different platforms and, and,
57:05
and just, you know, that's mostly what we're doing, talking
57:09
to our employees. Like tell me about, tell me
57:12
about the experience, this interaction.
57:14
Tell me about what, what from your experience, when the guest
57:21
is really turned on, what turned them on?
57:24
So it's, it's hard. It's hard when it's not us in
57:29
the restaurant anymore. I don't know.
57:33
It's, it's a challenge, but we're, we, we love it so.
57:39
Yeah, Terry, sometimes I find that things that in the moment
57:43
seem like a mistake later on I look back at and I'm like, oh,
57:46
I'm actually really glad that happened.
57:49
It caused me to change direction or it taught me such an
57:52
important lesson, it fueled me to do something else.
57:54
Can you think back to something where in the moment you're like,
57:58
this is a disaster. What a huge goof up on our part.
58:02
But now you look back on it and you're like, man, it was the
58:04
best thing that ever happened to us.
58:08
That's a good question. Well, I mean, I could, I would
58:13
say we made a lot of mistakes during COVID when we were
58:20
reinventing ourselves. We had a super clunky order
58:23
system. We we put a lot of challenges on
58:27
our guests in in the process of trying to pivot and trying to
58:34
trying to keep our teams safe and our guests safe.
58:39
I there is an one of a restaurateur who hired me to be
58:44
director of operations for his restaurants in Denver, John
58:47
Hickenlooper. He's was governor of Colorado, a
58:51
senator, really fascinating person.
58:54
But he used to say, if I knew then what I know now, what a
58:58
shame it would be to your point. But I love that saying, yeah,
59:05
if, if, if we knew now, if, if we had, if we had known what we
59:12
were doing at that time, it would have been a shame because
59:15
we had to make these mistakes. We made so many.
59:20
And had we not make those mistakes, we wouldn't be as
59:23
strong as we are right now. We wouldn't have the people that
59:26
we have right now. We wouldn't, you know, when
59:31
you're when you're working with human motivation or that's the
59:36
thing that motivates you to make people happy.
59:38
You have to make mistakes. You have to see both sides.
59:42
You can't just keep making people happy because then you
59:45
don't really know how to recover when you don't so.
59:50
Yeah, maybe COVID is your answer to this, but I always like to
59:57
ask my guests, excuse me, about a serious challenge that they've
1:00:01
overcome in their lives. Maybe it has to do with work,
1:00:04
maybe it's something personal, maybe the the two of them come
1:00:07
together. Kind of curious to hear what
1:00:09
that is for you, how you got through it and some lessons that
1:00:14
you learned. Well, I will say my answer is
1:00:19
still going on. I haven't gotten through it.
1:00:22
It's a work in progress. But my biggest challenge for me
1:00:28
is because we've grown so much. We have 4 restaurants, we have
1:00:36
380 employees, we have some 45 managers.
1:00:40
I don't get to be in the day-to-day.
1:00:43
I don't get to interact with the customers every day.
1:00:47
I don't get to work side by side with my team every day.
1:00:51
And that's my favorite part of the business.
1:00:56
And so my biggest challenge is how do I find joy?
1:01:00
And I am in meetings a lot when, when my job is so distant from
1:01:08
the core of our business, How do I find my joy?
1:01:13
How do I feel? How do I offer value?
1:01:16
How do I support my team in the best way I can when, when I'm
1:01:24
not with them all the time? And, and I'm so wide open to
1:01:34
people's advice on this, on how do you grow and still and still
1:01:43
love what you do every day? And how, how when you were a
1:01:46
person who got in the restaurant business because you never
1:01:49
wanted to work in an office and you never wanted to have
1:01:52
meetings all day, That was your nightmare.
1:01:53
And now you're in meetings all day and that's what you do.
1:01:56
And you're on the computer all the time and you're not having
1:02:00
face to face interactions all the time.
1:02:04
That is by far and away my personal biggest challenge.
1:02:08
And I'm I'm still in it. I'm still trying to find that
1:02:11
the answer to that. It's tough, right?
1:02:14
Because just to kind of, you know, reiterate what you're
1:02:17
saying, like you got into this line of work, you started this
1:02:21
business because you love being in the front line, right?
1:02:24
You were the woman who was clicking her heels because she
1:02:27
got to work the fry station. She got to be the cashier and
1:02:31
she got to learn from this guy about how, you know, why he kept
1:02:34
the the grill so clean and, you know, because you were so
1:02:38
excited and thrilled about all those details and taught that to
1:02:42
your team. It's fueled your growth, which
1:02:44
is great. That's a wonderful thing.
1:02:46
You can share this, you know, beautiful product with so many
1:02:48
more people and you're helping all of your employees with their
1:02:51
personal development and their own career trajectory.
1:02:55
But the by product is that the business has grown to the point
1:02:59
where you're not needed on the front line.
1:03:02
You're needed in these meetings to help continue to fuel this
1:03:05
growth. You know, is there the
1:03:07
opportunity for you to, hey, one day a week, I, I'm going to go,
1:03:12
yeah, I'm going to go work in one of the, the restaurants and
1:03:14
I'm just, I'm going to put myself right back there in the
1:03:16
front line. Or, or is there just not even
1:03:18
the, the time and the headspace to think about doing something
1:03:21
like that? You know, I love it, being in
1:03:26
the restaurant. It's an interesting thing
1:03:29
because we've grown so much. I'm still and being a founding
1:03:37
owner holds a weight that I can't relate to because I'm just
1:03:41
me. And I, you know, I'm like just
1:03:45
feel so lucky and happy all the time and grateful.
1:03:48
But I walk in the restaurants and Oh my gosh, the pressure is
1:03:52
on. And any comment I make is taken
1:03:59
from a perspective that that isn't always where it's where it
1:04:09
comes from. So if I, if I say, oh, that's
1:04:13
amazing that I'd, I'd noticed how, let's just make an example.
1:04:19
I noticed how clean the, the prep area was way to go.
1:04:26
That can be taken as well. You didn't mention anything
1:04:30
about how clean the line was. Obviously you're critical about
1:04:35
the line or, or you know, I'll, I'll say something about one
1:04:41
person. I'll say like, gosh, I'm so I
1:04:43
watched how that customer reacted to you.
1:04:45
That was really inspiring. That was great.
1:04:49
It will be like, well, it just gets turned around.
1:04:52
What I did? Yeah, yeah, or a terrible.
1:04:55
Job. Yeah, or yeah, just in in so
1:04:59
many ways that I, I, I still because I'm just me and I, you
1:05:05
know, I think of me as, you know, the one who gets down on
1:05:10
her knees to clean the corners under the dishwasher.
1:05:12
You know, they don't know me as that person who, you know, of
1:05:17
course I'm going to take out the trash.
1:05:19
But I at this point, like if I did, that would make them feel
1:05:22
like they weren't doing their job.
1:05:25
And so it's a different experience.
1:05:28
And I'm, it's hard for me to remember.
1:05:34
It's hard for me to know exactly with each person how they're
1:05:38
going to take what I say. And so I'm having to really
1:05:41
learn on a whole other level communication skills that I've
1:05:45
never learned. And so it's it, it seems like,
1:05:49
yeah, it's your restaurant, get in there and do it.
1:05:52
But honestly, I have, I don't know the POS system.
1:05:56
And as I've gotten older, my eyes are not very good.
1:05:59
And so it's hard for me to read the tickets to run the food.
1:06:02
You know, there's all kinds of challenges now that that I
1:06:06
didn't have. And I kind of get in their way
1:06:08
and I make them nervous. And I really, you know,
1:06:12
everybody wants to please the founding owner.
1:06:14
And so it's just different. It's a challenge that I face and
1:06:20
which is good, you know. Yeah, just got one more question
1:06:25
for you, Terry, But before I ask it, I want to do 2 things for
1:06:28
everyone listening today. I know that you love this show
1:06:30
because Terry's been an amazing guest, lots of wonderful advice
1:06:34
and great stories. Please hit the follow or
1:06:36
subscribe button on your favorite podcast app so you can
1:06:39
continue to get access to more great episodes like this.
1:06:43
And if you want to get in touch with Terry or follow her story,
1:06:46
you can find their website online@homeslicepizza.com.
1:06:51
Terry, any other ways that are good for folks to connect with
1:06:53
you or with the business? Yes, you can connect with us on
1:06:58
Instagram. Home Slice.
1:07:02
There's a Home Slice pizza. Connect with us on Instagram.
1:07:05
We have Facebook, but you can get to all those things from our
1:07:10
website. Great.
1:07:13
So last question, as you look to the future, what exciting
1:07:16
changes do you see coming to your industry that you are
1:07:21
really looking forward to? Can't wait to see how they
1:07:23
unfold. Well, certainly the changes in
1:07:30
the way people eat out and and how people eat out, they get
1:07:35
take out more. They just, they, they, that just
1:07:39
is something that is happening. It's full service isn't as
1:07:45
dominant as it as it once was. So and especially in the pizza
1:07:50
business. So it's really interesting for
1:07:53
me to see how that's going to unfold and how hospitality
1:07:57
changes. And kind of like the, you know,
1:08:00
the Disney story that you shared and, and the story that I shared
1:08:03
about how we were, we were needing to create an experience
1:08:08
for guests when, you know, they had to wait for their pizza or,
1:08:13
or, you know, you're not face to face with someone, you're
1:08:16
relying on a middle person to get you, your, your food.
1:08:20
How can we, how can we turn that into a wonderful experience and
1:08:26
how, how the industry itself is going to start to evolve in that
1:08:29
way. So I'm looking forward to that.
1:08:33
Well, Terry, I want to be the first one to thank you for
1:08:35
sharing both your time and your story with us today.
1:08:38
I really appreciate it. Thank you so much, it was a
1:08:41
pleasure. Folks, that's a wrap on another
1:08:44
episode of the Inspired Stories podcast.
1:08:47
Thanks for learning with us today.