Vol. 26 · Cincinnati
CEO of America's Best Restaurants. Three-time author. Speaker. Podcaster. Documentary creator. I've spent 25+ years helping restaurants find more frequent customers, and not from behind a desk. I've personally visited more than a thousand of them to figure out what actually works.
I started in 1999 selling radio ads at WGRR 103.5. By 2008, I'd become an accidental expert in digital marketing and turned my attention to consulting. Fast forward to 2015, a restaurant client told me "You Can't Deposit Likes In The Bank," and that one sentence changed everything. I built an online marketing strategy that helped restaurants finally see real ROI, and it's the same foundation we use today.
Since then I've traveled to over 1,000 restaurants to see what works, written three books on restaurant marketing, launched a daily podcast, and co-created a documentary series with David Scott Peters called Heroes of Hospitality. My company, America's Best Restaurants, has helped thousands of owners across the country drive sales, build their brand, and finally see the returns their hard work deserves.
Outside of the work: 25 years married to Christy, dad to Paige and Cole, avid CrossFitter, and yes, a 99.9% chance I'll be wearing an orange shirt and orange kicks every time we meet. I exist to help restaurant owners WIN.
The foundation. Build the system that keeps customers coming back.
The playbook I wish every restaurant owner had on day one. It breaks down how to stop treating marketing like a guessing game and start running it like the revenue engine it should be.
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Built specifically for independent pizza shops.
Marketing strategies, campaigns, and customer-database tactics engineered for pizzerias. Battle-tested inside the thousands of shops we've worked with.
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Before, during & after the pandemic.
Written in the middle of the storm and sharpened by what came after. The strategies that kept independents alive, and the ones that are driving growth today.
Buy on Amazon"When I think back to my biggest mistakes as an adult, it's not reading to improve my skills and mindset from college until I was ~42. The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago. The second best time is today."
Easily the best book I've ever read. The story of how Phil Knight started Nike is beyond insane, and Phil's writing is next level. I never wanted to put it down.
Restaurant OpsDSP is the best. The only person you need to listen to when building your restaurant's operating systems. Period.
Marketing FundamentalsAn OG in online marketing. Whether you're new or a veteran, you'll finish this book with pages of notes.
Sales + MarketingAlex studied under Russell Brunson and took the teachings to a whole new level. A game-changer. Just read it.
MindsetThis book is deep and will mess with your mind. Multi-tasking doesn't exist, and constant distraction is crushing your business.
The GrindProof that we're all capable of so much more. Jesse Itzler's story runs through it too. Stay hard.
Restaurant NumbersMy second-favorite restaurant mind behind DSP. All the math and science you need to lock in before you start marketing.
AmbitionLove him or hate him, he's right. We all underestimate what we're capable of. Want $100K? Aim for $1M.
StrategyGold. The VP of marketing for the NJ Nets who drove ticket sales by advertising that Michael Jordan was coming to town. Tough to find, worth every page.
VisionA game-changer. It taught me to turn vague goals into a navigable map. I wrote our first Vivid Vision in 2019 and we hit 75% of it.
EntrepreneurshipA great reminder of what we can become and the journey it takes. Built for anyone on an entrepreneurial climb.
FoundersThe Netflix movie "The Founder" was based on this, but the book goes 10x deeper. Blown away by the McDonald's story and how it mirrors the climb every founder knows.