Pizza King Podcast: Empowering Pizzeria Leadership

Kevin Abbott and his wife Allison own Stoner’s Pizza Joint directly across the street from my shop in Valrico, Florida. On paper, we compete. In real life, we help each other. Kevin shares why he left another industry, spent nearly a year learning inside another operator’s stores, and chose the franchise path. We also talk honestly about building a team you can trust enough to step away from the shop. This conversation covers working with your spouse, training, systems, community, competition...

Last week Tyrell came on and said the shop had its best month, up around 75 percent in sales. Three days later the phones died for the rest of the day. This Takeout Tips is about the number you are actually comparing yourself to. The week finished down about 15 percent from the week before. Against the same week last year it was up 36 percent. Same week, two different stories, and only one of them should change what you do on Monday. Inside: what a dead phone system costs a shop that takes ...

Aaron Keaser runs Teaford's Pizza & Subs in Greenville, Ohio, a town of about 13,000 people packed with national chains and local competition. He refuses to compete on price. Aaron joins Tyrell to explain how quality, consistency, customer service, kitchen flow, and community relationships help an independent pizzeria compete. They also talk about dough, menu decisions, DoorDash, fundraising boundaries, stress, sacrifice, and the reality that nobody is coming to save the owner. In this ep...

August should have been one of our slowest months. Instead, our Westshore Pizza location finished at $42,143 in sales, up 76.22% from last year and ahead of every month we have on record for the store. That result did not come from one promotion. The turnaround started with eight months of operating work. We cleaned the store, trained the team, simplified the menu, removed weak hours, fixed the order process, built the rewards list, mailed every week, and stayed patient while catering gained ...

Jeff Berman has visited more than 500 pizzerias across the country. During one New York trip, he reached 53 shops and tried 70 slices in four and a half days. Jeff is the founder of Pizza Lovers of Florida, a Facebook community that grew from a small Citrus County group to more than 5,000 members. He does not call himself a reviewer or influencer. He calls himself a pizza enthusiast. In Episode 157 of the Pizza King Podcast, Jeff explains how he chooses which shops to visit, why he orders t...