Pizza King Podcast: Empowering Pizzeria Leadership

Can you tell me what your best-selling pizza costs to make? Keisha Miller from Perfect Crust joins me to talk about cheese portions, team training, supplier relationships, and the customer experience after a pizza leaves the shop. Keisha spent about 16 years with Performance Food Group. We discuss how a food rep can help with cost tools, product comparisons, and questions beyond the weekly order. I also share why a liner was one of the first visible changes we made when we took over our st...

September sales at Westshore Pizza Valrico reached $36,557, up 108.5% from last September. I share the rewards results, Facebook ads, direct mail plan, box toppers, QR stickers, catering, and operational changes behind this month's update. The comparison needs context. Last September included closures and inconsistent hours. September sales also fell 13.3% from August. Sales growth and profit are different measures. Our newest change was a personal introduction in customer emails. Customer...

Someone told me EDGE is the oven for people who cannot make real pizza. I spent nearly 23 years working with deck ovens. Today, my pizzeria runs every pizza through an EDGE conveyor oven. That gives me a clear view of the conveyor oven vs. deck oven debate. This episode breaks down what each commercial pizza oven does well and how your choice affects pizzeria consistency, training, labor costs, production capacity, remakes, and pickup times. I share how our team handled an 88-pizza order w...

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 ...