This book was not what I expected. I initially saw it at the National Restaurant Association where OpenTable was showcasing it in their booth. I also saw it being referenced in The Bear. So honestly, I thought it would be a book that was very restaurant focused. An employee of mine wanted to do a book club with this book so I joined and read it. It was so much more than the story of the restaurant world and I was so impressed. It really talks about creating processes, culture, and how to work with people. It was a fantastic book that revenue leaders and the corporate world would find very useful. The author did a great job on showing the same common themes in the restaurant world that apply to sales and go-to-market teams. I would recommend this book for any one in sales for sure and any leader trying to build culture. It helps individual contributors on how to truly go above and beyond in various ways as well as how to think about your customer. And at the same time, it helps leaders think about their culture and work environment they create.

Here are some of my nuggets:

• Seismic shift if all industries focused on hospitality; create a culture of hospitality
• Hospitality is selfless pleasure
• Let your energy impact the people you are talking to
• Coining phrases and then repeated over and over
• Be the swan that people see
• Make the charitable assumption
• Shared language for the organization
• Focus on the why instead of what in meetings
• Give more ownership to people and they tend to do better work
• Always allocate for surprise and delight
• Connected team was important
• Impeccable training allows you to not think when you are executing at a high level
• Potential and traits over experience
• Hire in a pack to help feed off of each other; others won’t impact them negatively
• Passion as a value
• You give your team more responsibility and they become more responsible
• A lot of good comes from empowering your most junior staff
• There’s always a great idea behind a bad idea so listen to all ideas
• Excellence is the culmination of 1000 details combined
• Criticize the behavior, not the person when you’re giving tough love
• Cristiscim is investment
• There is tremendous power in vulnerability
• People you work with will never be your family but that doesn’t mean you cant treat them like family
• Need to be willing to fail in order to be great
• Take care of you in order to take care of others
• Vulnerability leads to vulnerability
• Plus one experiences – be proactive with items already ready
• Culture depends on the people that bring it to life everyday