At dinner at Centro in Boulder, CO on Wednesday night, I whipped out my trusty Flip cam and asked our server if he'd mind saying why he likes Schedulefly. No rehearsal. No time to think. Just say whatever comes out. And here's what Mike had to say...
I've got more of these quick vids to post next week, as well as some fun pics I took while we were working on our upcoming Restaurant Owners Uncorked video series.
I'll say one word about Boulder: AMAZING PLACE (ok, that's two words).
That’s what an old, well known, Fly Fisherman from the Florida Keys told me once as I pondered buying a classic fly rod that is not made any longer. It was used, in great shape and hard to find....yet the last thing I needed was another expensive fly rod. As I held it and felt the action on it, my cousin Mark and I chatted with "Bonefish Bob" (Robert E. Berger) about the old days of bonefishing in Islamorada - he even told me about the fly fishing guide who owned that rod and all the Tarpon that had been caught using it. Who knows if that were true - but I loved hearing about it. Bob was known for his fly fishing passion, his tackle shop (Ye Old Tackle Shop it as called) and the stories he told while you were there. He told us stories for about an hour - stories of his childhood and of leaving his shop every afternoon back in the 60’s and 70's fly fishing with the great Ted Williams and catching 12lb bonefish with him like they were bass fishing in a pond out back. It was mesmerizing to listen to him talk while looking through his amazing eclectic collection of old and new fly fishing tackle and art.
So anyway, maybe he was just a damn fine salesman or maybe what he said to me hit home – either way - this was his plan. He said (as I was putting the fly rod back on the rack and clearly not going to get it)...”Wes, you only come through here once”. At first, I thought he meant his shop. Then I thought he meant Islamorada. Then, after a moment of silence, I realized he meant life. You only come through here once. He was right. And given the scene I was a part of that day – talking to him as if he were a friend – in his fly shop – looking at a classic fly rod not made any longer that had been connected to countless Tarpon....I had to buy it. I had no other choice. It was a perfect cast he made to me...and I ate the fly.
Sadly, Bonefish Bob took his own life the next year (this was 5 or 6 years ago). We found this out as we motored out of the famous Bud and Mary’s marina headed out to find some Tarpon and were reminiscing about our trip last year and a visit to his shop. I was holding the fly rod I bought from Bob, telling our friend and guide about it. He told us he was gone.
I think about that advice he gave me now and then when faced with a decision. It’s so simple, yet so applicable to just about anything in your life. I am so glad I bought that rod and I am glad I got to meet Bob.
I'm heading to the airport in a bit to hop on a flight with Luke Pearson to Boulder, where we're filming the second video in our Restaurant Owners Uncorked video series, plus getting footage for our new home page video.
I'm hauling some Schedulefly check presenters, made by Holly Aiken, the maker of the coolest women's hand bags you can find anywhere. I've also got a couple of Sfly t-shirts, and our handy Flip cam. This is gonna be fun!
When I was interviewing each of the twenty restaurant owners featured in our book, Restaurant Owners Uncorked ("ROU"), I kept thinking how incredible it was to have the opportunity to conduct the interviews. It was awesome to be able to write their words into our book, but hearing them speak them is something entirely different.
Hearing the inflection in their voices, the passion that comes out at certain points, they way to hit home on key points...you can't capture that all in text. So while it's great to read these interviews in the book, listening to them takes the content to another level.
(Of course, watching them speak is better than anything, and that's why I am heading to Boulder today to film the second of the first three episodes of our new Restaurant Owners Uncorked (ROU) video series.)
And then it hit me recently that I still have all of the ROU interviews recorded. They are unedited, and they are awesome. I can't release all of them because some owners requested a few comments be struck from the interviews, but there are a few that we can share. So we'll start here with Jeff Gigante, owner of Ciccio & Tony's restaurant group in Tampa, FL.
While we're at it, we're also going to start re-posting the original interviews that we did for our restaurant owner podcast series in 2010. They are the interviews that inspired the idea for the book, and they are fantastic. Stay tuned for those...
Wil
P.s. My buddy Trip reminded me of how cool it would be to have podcasts of these interviews available. We'll be getting them up on iTunes soon!
My friend recently suggested we do some traditional marketing.
Him: "Why not run some adds to help promote your brand?"
Me: "Well, it's a great idea, but that's not really our style."
Him: "I hear ya, but I was thinking of some really cool, fun ads that match your vibe. You've said yourself there are still hundreds of thousands of restaurants that don't use web-based scheduling yet. Why not let them know you exist?"
That's a good question. And a very fair question. The truth is, the only way I could answer my buddy's question was, "Man, that's just not our style. Not something we would be excited about. Ads are a conventional, standard way to promote your brand, and we just like to do things our own way. We like to be creative. Unconventional. Unique."
Outside of the awesome word-of-mouth we've got going for us, we enjoy doing things like our book and our new video series. We like writing articles like this and this for restaurant industry publications.
And we like being patient and knowing that as thousands upon thousands of restaurants decide to move their scheduling and communication online over the next few years, they'll do so not because they saw a cool ad, but because because they'll be ready to make a change from what they're doing now. They'll do so to solve a problem. To relieve a headache.
When they do, they'll explore their options. They'll see what's out there, and they'll pick the provider they believe will work best for them. And I believe we're positioning ourselves very well to serve a specific portion of those restaurants. I think the people looking for these things will overwhelmingly choose Schedulefly. People looking for other things will choose another provider.
Meanwhile, rather than get caught up doing the things we're "supposed" to do, we're going to do the things we enjoy. So instead of working with a marketing agency to come up with an ad campaign, I'm off to Boulder this week to interview Dave Query about what it takes to be a successful restaurant owner for the Restaurant Owners Uncorked video series. A video series that will cost us perhaps 10% of what a series of ads would cost, while also being a lot more fun, educational, valuable to tons of people and, I believe, will be much more effective at building our brand and creating awareness than the coolest ad campaign we could ever run.
That’s what an old, well known, Fly Fisherman from the Florida Keys told me once as I pondered buying a classic fly rod that is not made any longer. It was used, in great shape and hard to find....yet the last thing I needed was another expensive fly rod. As I held it and felt the action on it, my cousin Mark and I chatted with "Bonefish Bob" (Robert E. Berger) about the old days of bonefishing in Islamorada - he even told me about the fly fishing guide who owned that rod and all the Tarpon that had been caught using it. Who knows if that were true - but I loved hearing about it. Bob was known for his fly fishing passion, his tackle shop (Ye Old Tackle Shop it as called) and the stories he told while you were there. He told us stories for about an hour - stories of his childhood and of leaving his shop every afternoon back in the 60’s and 70's fly fishing with the great Ted Williams and catching 12lb bonefish with him like they were bass fishing in a pond out back. It was mesmerizing to listen to him talk while looking through his amazing eclectic collection of old and new fly fishing tackle and art. 
