Why Relationships Still Matter in the Pizza Business

I just got back from Pizza Expo in Las Vegas, and before I do a full recap on next week’s feature episode, I wanted to share one quick takeaway that stood out to me right away. Relationships still matter.

In this short Takeout Tip episode, I talk about what I saw and felt on the show floor. The pizza business is still built on people. Real relationships, generosity, and showing up for others still open doors. I share a few thoughts on the people who helped make this trip possible, from Westshore Franchising covering the travel to Perfect Crust making room for us to record and connect at their booth. Moments like that remind me that some of the best opportunities in this business come from serving people well and building real trust over time.

If you own a pizzeria, lead a team, or want to grow in this business, I think this episode will remind you that leadership, networking, and long-term growth all start with how you treat people.

Transcript

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I did also just want to give a quick takeout tip for this week, kind of expo edition takeout tip as we lead up to the full recap, which I'll do on Tuesday's episode. The tip this week is simple. Relationships still matter. Relationships still matter. Don't, don't, don't, don't overthink it. Like in pizza and business and life and in general, taking care of people and being a good person is still highly appreciated and highly valued. Like, you know, the people that come into things that for the sole purpose of adding value for somebody else is still very, very, very important. I'm recording. Just got back from Expo literally hours ago. And we're here in the shop. I can't wait to do a full recap of the expo, but we're gonna save that for Tuesday's full feature episode. You know, we drop a full feature every Tuesday. Speaking of that, if you haven't already, go listen to this week's episode, which is Jake Johnson from Patriot Woodfire Pizza in Jefferson City, Tennessee. I didn't get a chance to do a whole lot of promo because I was on the road, but I'll put some stuff out on social. But if you haven't already, go check out that episode. We had a really good conversation. I did also just want to give a quick takeout tip for this week, kind of expo edition takeout tip as we lead up to the full recap, which I'll do on Tuesday's episode. The tip this week is simple. Relationships still matter. Relationships still matter. Don't, don't, don't, don't overthink it. Like in pizza and business and life and in general, taking care of people and being a good person is still highly appreciated and highly valued. Like, you know, the people that come into things that for the sole purpose of adding value for somebody else is still very, very, very important. And I say that because there's so many people I need to thank for my expo experience. First and foremost, West Shore franchising, Paul Sanson, Keith Kohler, Bob, the whole team. They they took care of my travel and made it possible for me to get to Vegas and uh and get out there. Eric Vam, Greg Bell, the perfect crust team created space for me for us to come near and record and and have somewhere for people to meet and engage on the show floor. They were so gracious. Uh, you know, I really appreciate them. Came away with some with some nice gifts from them. I really appreciate my buddy Neil Vidia from Troy's Italian kitchen in DC or in in Maryland. I think it's uh Arlington, Virginia, from Arlington. I say DC, but he's really Arlington, for you know, tapping on my shoulder and asking me to help him, you know, help capture his first expo competition experience. And he competed in the Chief Slice Division and in the the you know the competition. So really uh appreciate him for giving me the opportunity to just to get a uh a different point of view on that part of the show, which if you if you know me, you know I love the competition floor, sure all the pizza makers are that all the best pizza makers are. Um and it's just it's just experience when it comes to expo. So we'll get all into all of that during recap, but I did just want to come on and say, listen, value your relationships, take care of people. Don't don't go into things always thinking about transactions, right? Everything doesn't have to be transactional. Sometimes you just do things for the sake of doing good, doing good by people. You know what I mean? And and that will take you so far. That will take you so far. I really appreciate appreciate everyone that looked out for me, made this week possible. There's so many more people that that I can list right now. David DeSantis, Matt Platt, uh man, Bruce Irving, Elyr. Like so many people just look out for me and and and you know, what we're doing so well and appreciate it that I have to show so much love back to them. Expo is great. Expo is great. So that's my tip this week. You know, just take care of folks. Look out for people, value your relationships and and see how far that takes you. That's all I got. I'm your boy Tyrrell. That's our takeout tip. I think we looked, we even made it under five minutes for the first time in a long time. Appreciate you guys. Come back on Tuesday, check out our full-length episode on Expo Recap. I'm gonna record that this weekend. Go check out Jake's episode, join us in the school community. Talk to a lot of folks over, you know, over the course of you know, the Expo week, where we're talking about how do I implement systems? What do I do if the store is slow? What do how do I how do I train a manager? All the all these things. We got all of that stuff inside the school community, and it's all free. All you gotta do is click the link and join us. But that's all we got. I will see y'all four minutes, 40 seconds. I'll see y'all next week. Peace.