#123-Leading by Example with Dan Henry
John (Intro): I have been on a quest to learn everything I can about leadership obsessed with what makes the best leaders so good. After running companies small and large for the last 20 years, today I speak on stages all across the world to audiences who are interested in that same question. My name is John Laurito and I’m your host. I invite you to join me on this journey as we explore this topic: What makes the best leaders so good? Welcome to Tomorrow’s Leader.
John: All right, welcome to today’s episode of Tomorrow’s Leader, where we dive deep on all things leader related, related to leading yourself and leading others. I’m John Laurito your host here with Dan Henry, the owner of Homegrown Pizza, and Holly Springs, my now hometown, right around the corner from a very successful business owner, extremely popular place here in Holly Springs in the surrounding areas. So it is a pleasure to have you on, Dan.
Dan: Thank you very much for having me. It’s my pleasure to be here.
John: Yeah. So there’s a lot that I want to talk about with you today. But, you know, just for the people that are listening, you got all different types of leaders from all different types of walks of life. I think your story is a really cool one in that you’ve built and, you know, grown
this business that’s very successful in no doubt, like super challenging times. But before we get into some of that stuff, why don’t you just tell your story? How did you get to the place you are right now?
Dan: Well, my wife Kimberly and I finished college in 1996 in Delaware, and we were kind of trying to figure out where we were going to go with life. And we both were interested in going to North Carolina and we moved down here and she got a job teaching. I was looking around for jobs and we had bills. So I took a job in a restaurant. I had done restaurant stuff before in
high school, college. And I started out, you know, waiting tables. Bartending was there for a year or so. I got hired at an Italian restaurant out near the airport, kind of built my way up there, was there for a couple of years, became the general manager there. And during that time, I thought to myself, what running my own restaurant is kind of what I want to do. That’s what Kimberly and I decided. That was going to be kind of our future. So we actually bought a sports bar, me and the two owners of the restaurant where I was working. We were there for about a year and a half and our family was growing here in Holly Springs. And the bar life was not exactly the best for family life. So my partners bought me out there. We took those proceeds in November and November 2002 and took over at Homegrown Pizza. So it was November 8, 2002, was my first day there. The restaurant had actually been there for a little over a year when we took it over. Changed a lot to use some of my background and some of the things that they were already doing. And yeah, I went from there.
John: So this is now almost 20 years now that owned Homegrown. I mean, what was it like when you bought it? It was a one year-end. Was it succeeding? Was it failing at that time?
Dan: It was doing pretty well. The owners also had a couple of other restaurants in Raleigh and they realized that, you know, Holly Springs, Raleigh. Now, you might not think all that much. Holly Springs, Raleigh is not that far apart, but in 2002, Holly Springs in Raleigh, we’re
like two different worlds. So they wanted to get out of the Holly Springs, which turned out to be perfect for us because our family had eaten at Homegrown a few times and we loved it. And then after we sold our part of the sports bar, I found out that that whole room was for sale. And I was like, wow, this is like a dream. Like in Holly Springs. I live here. We moved here in 1998 and yeah. Now there’s this really the only sit-down restaurant in town that’s, that’s available. So we took it over like I said, in November 2002. The restaurant was great, the pizza was great, I really didn’t change a lot on the pizza side, I changed pretty much everything else that the rest of the menu I completely redid using my experience that I had had over the years in restaurants.
John: Yeah. So you changed that. You kept the pizza, you changed the rest of the menu. How about the staff and everything? Did you have to rehire everybody now?
Dan: No, most of the staff we had, there were two managers when I took over, one left right away to go with the other owners to their place in Raleigh. And the other one, we had an arrangement for the other manager to stay, which the funny thing is like I had spent a lot of time working in restaurants, but I’d never made a pizza in my life and knew nothing about pizza. So I asked in the negotiations if, you know, for like three months or so I could hire on the manager that was there and keep her there so she can pretty much show me how to make pizza. And actually ended up I think she was there, decided not to leave and go back to them. She stayed with us for a little over a year.
John: So let me ask you because there’s a lot of people out there, a lot of leaders, and think about just business owners that people are buying into a business that and they’re thinking about, OK, well, I’ve got to buy into something or they’re trying to wonder, do I need to buy into something that I know that business inside and out of the product or service or they’re thinking, OK, well, I need to be a good leader and I need to lead effectively in the build a team of people who knows that business. I mean, what is that? What’s your thought? I mean, do you need to in your case, you did it without knowing how, you know, to make a pizza or that know you didn’t know that business.
Dan: I didn’t know the pizza side of it, but I did have a pretty good background in the restaurant side of it. So everything else that went with it went along with it. I felt really confident that it was just making the pizza that I was kind of lost on at first, but that I’m the hands-on person. So I just jumped right in and figured it out. Kind of like the restaurant business. Everybody goes out to eat, right? So, people, all the time are telling me, you know, I always wanted to own a restaurant. I’ve always wanted to open my own restaurant. I’m always a little nervous for that if they’ve never worked in a restaurant before, so I usually say to him, hey, listen, if this is something you really want to do, you need to get some working knowledge of the restaurant business, because it’s really it’s such a small margin between success and failure. So I tell people you should go to your favorite restaurant, tell the owner that you’ll do everything with them for six months. And after those six months, if you still feel like, hey, a restaurant is something I want to do, then you should take the next step. Or you could just give me a check for $50,000 and I’ll give you a swift kick and we’ll call it even while most business.
John: What percentage of restaurants fail?
Dan: I don’t know the exact number but the vast majority within two years.
John: So when you think about like OK, you succeeded, you’re one of the the the small percentages of businesses that not only succeeded, but you’ve now almost hitting on 20 years of success. And I’m sure, you know, rough times in their different periods of time. But what is the difference? I mean, what’s the difference between you and what you’ve done versus the others that haven’t made it?
Dan: I think it’s a combination of a lot of things, I’m a hard worker bee, in my nature. So part of it was I’m going to do whatever it takes work. You know, I spent many years working 100 hour weeks because that’s what the business needed to succeed. Obviously. Also part of it
is just luck. I mean, we were in a good location at a good time, you know, and things just worked out well. Everything together to me. I’ll take credit and say a lot of it is just I’m a hard worker and I don’t, I wasn’t going to let it fail.
John: Yeah, that’s awesome. And at the same point, you know, you’re right. Some things came together. This is a fantastic area. It’s grown. So we find really great hard work with a great product or service. And then, you know, you get some also benefit from some of the
factors that might not totally be in your control. But that goes into it a little bit. But bottom line is, you know, the hard work is what keeps you going to experience those things, like, you know, the economic growth of the area around yours.
Dan: Right. Right, right. You don’t you can’t get the lucky and the economic growth and all the other advantages if you’re not willing to put the time in to. Yeah, yeah. Do what it takes to succeed. I mean, that’s my biggest thing is people say, what do you do when I do whatever I have to do that day, if I’m going to be washing dishes that night, I’m washing dishes. If I’m working, waiting tables, I’m waiting tables. I’ve done it all. And I kind of expect everyone else to be willing to do it all with me.
John: So do you to do say that, is that kind of an unknown expectation among your team there?
Dan: You know, I really don’t say it. I mean, I say that to the management, I don’t necessarily say it to the hourly staff. I mean, but they see it. And if they’ve ever worked, everybody that’s ever worked with me is like, you know, they know I’m there. When I’m there, I’m working. Yeah. I’m not at that point and tell other people what to do. I’m right in there in the action. Yeah. I wouldn’t want it any other way.
John: And that’s honestly that’s the most important thing. Right. I mean, everybody’s watching what the leader is doing and it’s less about what he or she is saying. And you don’t need to really say much if you are demonstrating all the things you want people to do. I talked to leaders all the time and they’re like, you know, I’ve got so much negativity in my organization or I’ve got people that are not working hard or they’re coming in late or leaving early or whatever. And, you know, my answer is always, well, you know, look in the mirror first, you know, and what are you demonstrating? You know, is your attitude positive or negative? Are you leaving early or coming in late? Because it’s really hard to expect something different of other people if it’s not something that you’re doing. And my guess is in a restaurant like that, that’s really you need everybody that makes all the difference in the world, I would assume. And you’ve got a team of people that are really, you know, have this sense of ownership.
Dan: Yeah. And most of the staff there that, you know, the ones that have been there and people that have been there 15 years. They are I don’t really need to say much because they are the first ones to tell the newer people like this is how it’s done. This is how we do it. And it’s. Pretty straightforward.
John: Well, you know, you can tell that, you know, because I’ve been in there so many times and you get a sense like that, you know, one of the reasons why I wanted to have you on the show is you can tell and that starts right at the top. But everybody in there doesn’t matter if it’s the person behind the register or the person, you know, cleaning up or making the food or whatever. Everybody’s got a great attitude. And you can tell they kind of have this shared sense of ownership of the place, you know.
Dan: And that’s yeah, definitely. It definitely is a very like family kind of feel. You know, a lot of the kids that are working there, you know, I’ve known them since they were little little kids or I mean, there’s a couple of kids at work there now that they’re like the third sibling that’s worked for me over the last five and six years.
John: And that’s awesome. Let’s talk about the team, building that team. How do you find the great people that you have? And how do you, what’s your thought on how you build a great team? Because that’s also a lot of questions, a lot of a big question that a lot of business owners have or leaders have.
Dan: Right? Right. That’s definitely our biggest issue is, you know, staffing, getting people once we get them, they’re great. It’s just, you know, they’re back in the day when there weren’t many places for young kids to work in Holly Springs. It was easier than now when they’re all over the place. But I talked to the staff all the time about, hey, do you have any friends? Because you’re a good worker. There’s a good chance, I mean, not guaranteed, but there’s a good chance that your friends are also going to have that good attitude and want to work hard. So that’s my biggest way that we train recruit staff is, you know, referrals from friends, you know, younger kids. Hey, do you have any you know, if you’re a senior in high school, do you know any sophomores that are hard-working? And, you know, because we could use them for a couple of years, that would be great before a lot of them are heading off to college. And yeah. And it’s been like, you know, almost all of them have some kind of connection to someone else that’s been there before.
John: Yeah, well, I’m thinking of my daughter. She might be great. My son’s a senior, though, going off to college in August. Yeah, that’s a little tougher. But, you know, that’s a great point, because my guess is, as you know, and not unlike a lot of organizations, when you build a great team and people feel great about the place, they naturally you’re going to refer in people. And, you know, it’s not like you have to go on, you know, careerbuilder.com or anything, and one of these websites and find talented people. They probably all get just referred to you and you get them through the people that that are right.
Dan: That’s definitely been our best. The word of mouth and recruiting friends when we’ve used some of the services and ads in the paper and things like that. It hasn’t turned out as well as, you know, just the word of mouth and friends of friends, which and it’s nice, you know, it’s the good and the bad of a small business, a small restaurant like we had. It doesn’t take a lot of staff to keep us going. But also that means we don’t have a lot of staff. So, you know, and a lot of these kids are friends. So, you know, they need the same Tuesday night
off, which sometimes can be a little tough. But, yeah, we 18 years, we always figure out a way, you know, like I’ll do it whatever. I need to come in and wash dishes at night. I’ll do it. Yeah. Know everyone in my family has worked there or worked there currently. My daughter’s getting ready to go in a few minutes to go wash dishes.
John: That’s awesome. So I want to talk about one of these moments which is specifically around what we’re going through right now, covid, but especially early on, were there a lot of times where you were kind of, you know, you had almost like the oh shit moments like, oh, jeez, what do we do? And or the unexpected happened? Or was it smooth sailing for the most part in the first year or two? When you actually first bought in, bought the place. Was it right out of the gates? Was everything going smoothly? I mean, I know it’s a long time ago, but.
Dan: I mean, it’s as real as smoothly as the restaurant business can go. It was doing pretty well. I mean, they had a good group of people. They had a good staff. Of course, there were some hiccups. And especially as I redid many things that there were some people there that had been there for a while and had done it the way they had done it and. Know in that in that world, in that changing, you know, there’s always going to be a little bit of hesitancy or pushback. But again, I’ll go back to I just started out by telling everyone. I’m not going to have you do anything that I don’t do myself. And this is the way I want it done and this is the way we’re going to do it. And for the most part, people will buy it. Yeah, yeah, I guess so. You know, there were some rough times, but for the most part, knock on wood. We were lucky then and we continue to be lucky now.
John: That’s great. So what is this, last year and a half, Ben? And, you know, some people might be listening to this episode down the road a bit, but we’re now in February of 2021. Right. Still in the midst. And about a year after this whole covid started. What did that do to the business and how did you pivot and adapt?
Dan: It was rough, obviously, I mean, you know, it’s been rough for everyone. Luckily, the pizza wing model lends itself to takeout. So when dining rooms were shut down, you know, we pivoted and said, OK, the people that were waiting tables, they’re answering the phones now. More people were answering the phones and fewer people were at tables taking orders. So obviously business suffered, but it wasn’t for sure catastrophic. I mean, I have a lot of friends in this business that definitely has had worse experiences than us because of their style of restaurant. Thankfully, as I said, the pizza world lends itself to take out and it definitely the fact that we’ve been here 18, 20 years, people had to have a sense of, you know, trying to help us out as a bit. You know, I have so many I lived in Holly Springs since 1998, so I know tons of people here and they all were, you know, let’s go, let’s go. Take out, take out, take out. So yeah. Yeah. Well, it was rough. It’s I knew this town had our back.
John: Yeah. That’s great. And that seems like that’s this community but that doesn’t happen without you, you know, making, you know, building relationships and developing that following, you know. I mean.
Dan: Right, right. Right. I mean we sponsored teams and, you know, pizza parties for schools and forever. So, you know, we. Built relationships with the community and luckily the community has welcomed us. Yeah, it’s awesome.
John: How about when you go through something, let’s major like this. You know, I know a lot of people didn’t know really and nobody really knew what to expect when this started in March of last year in 2020. What do you tell your team? I mean, what, what is what are the
things that you’re saying when you don’t necessarily, as a leader, know what’s going to happen? Because, you know, that’s a lot of times what people look to a leader for his answers. But what do you do when you don’t have the answers? I mean, what do you what are you telling them?
Dan: A lot of what I told them was we’re just going to take this kind of day by day, week by week, I’m going to help you out as much as I possibly can. And I hope you’re going to do that for me. There were a few of our staff that said, you know, I live at home with my parents. So if you need to cut my hours so, you know, some of the other people who have bills, if they need those hours, then so be it. So that was huge. I mean, everybody kind of came together. Yeah, that’s it. And like you said, there was no answer like and I was very upfront with saying, like, I wish I could tell you what we were going to be doing in six months, but. I don’t know, and I just told them, like I’m going to do. Sometimes to my own detriment, I’m going to do what’s best for you guys, because without, you know, the staff, I can’t do it. So. Hmm, that was a big part of it for me.
John: That’s awesome and that I mean, you just think that if I’m in an organization if I’m one of your employees and I hear you saying that, I mean, that’s got to make me feel comfortable to know that you’ve got my back. It makes me want to have your back and do whatever I can. I think that’s how great teams are built. And that’s how my guess is you don’t lose a ton of people. My guess is your people tend to stay with you relative to other businesses, relative to other restaurants. They probably stay longer.
Dan: And the majority of the staff that comes in, they’re there for a while, you know. Very rarely do they leave for something other than like they’re going away to school or things like that, like make major changes. I don’t really remember the last time that somebody left to go work at another restaurant, but it really just doesn’t happen. So I guess that means we’re doing something right.
John: So one of my hidden dreams was owning a pizzeria because I’m like, pizzas is my favorite food of all time. I could eat pizza three times a day. And I’m thinking, wow, what a cool business to just run a pizza place and eat pizza all day. And then every, you know, every night for dinner. I mean, do you eat a lot of pizza? I mean, are you, like, your biggest fan?
Dan: I mean, I’m really not like when I first got there all the time. All the time. All the time. But, you know. It’s hard when you’re down there just about every day for 18 and a half years now, you kind of start to get tired of pizza and you’re trying to do different things. And but then there are other times I’m like, oh, man, I just made myself a pizza. And that thing was delicious.
John: I remember I used to work years ago at Pizza Hut. That was one of my first jobs. That was I was a cook and they would I would take a pizza home every night. That was part of your, you know, your perks. And I just remember making these enormous pizzas, eating them every night. I was a high schooler, so it wasn’t like I really had to worry about gaining weight. But I imagine if I did that now or you did that, that might be right.
Dan: Yeah. Yeah, probably would be a really bad idea. Exactly. Our bodies, I also run a lot. So I think about like if I eat a pizza right now and I go running tonight, that run is not going to go very well. So. Yeah, right. I’m conscious about that to pressure on.
John: So do you with, with the I mean do you have plans, what’s your vision of the business. Do you have plans, are you expanding. Do you have you just have the one location? Is that right?
Dan: We do. We do. Now we used to have a second location in Morrisville many years ago for a little over a year. And I realized before we open that second location, my thought was I’m going to be this big pizza conglomerate, I’m going to be worldwide or whatever. But then when we open that, I realized that I’m I want to say control, but controlling is not the word I’m very hands-on, and I realized obviously I can’t be two places at once and. It was like eating at me that something would happen here that I didn’t know about, something would be wrong and I couldn’t be at both places and I realized that. Twice the number of restaurants was like 10 times the amount of work, especially being in Morrisville because it’s driving. Holly Springs driving back and forth. And I realized pretty quickly that any advantage. The second restaurant was eaten up by the stress that it was putting on me. I think if I were to do another restaurant now, I think I would be much better at it, because I have kind of realized over, I think that was 10, 12 years ago that we did that and I realized that I can’t do everything. I have to trust the people that I have and that I’ve taught to do it my way and they keep coming up strong all the time and they’re doing things the way that I want them to do it, whether I’m there or not. So, probably it would have been nice if I waited a little while longer before we did the second one and. Got more comfortable with, you know, showing someone else how to do it and then letting them do their job, do what I had taught them to do, and do what I know they can do. Yeah.
John: Yeah. So now, at this point, does it make you think about doing that again now because you’re a little better at that point to be able to do that?
Dan: Yes and no, like the idea of doing another one sounds good, but also the idea of starting over at a new location. That’s a pretty big heap of stress put on me that that I don’t think I really want to get into now, I’m actually a partner in another business here in town, and that’s kind of taken given me some of that, like I’m able to do things at a new place and stuff that I haven’t done before, learning new things. But we also have a bunch of partners there. So it’s not everything on my shoulders.
John: So do you have, what kind of work-life balance do you have now? Are you still working crazy?
Dan: I know, you know, I really I pretty much only work during the days now unless something happens, somebody needs time off, the manager or we’re short-staffed. I don’t really work at night that much anymore. It was quite a few years ago my kids were getting older and getting ready to play sports. And my wife said to me, like, you know, the restaurant’s doing pretty well. We can afford to pay people to work so you can go to your son’s baseball game. So I went, you know, and had people working and went to a couple of games and I was like, wow, you know, this is fun. I played baseball my whole life. Maybe I should do this more. So then I even took the next step and started coaching. So, yes, long story short, I’m pretty much only work during the days now, I don’t work at night, like I said,
unless something comes up and. It took me a long time to be able to fully walk away and know that they’re going to do what they’re supposed to do for a long time, even in the beginning when I wasn’t working 90, 100 hours a week when other people were there, I was thinking, like, I wonder what they’re doing now. I wonder what they’re doing now. But over time, I’ve become more comfortable and realized that they know what they’re doing. If they need something, they’ll ask me, but they know what they’re doing.
John: Well, it’s such a common problem. Like I talked to so many different leaders. And, you know, the on one end, your stress is incredibly high because you’re working like crazy and you’re working like crazy because you feel like, you know, you’re too stressed if you’re not there, that things aren’t happening the right way. But what you found is what great leaders figure out is that, hey, you know, as long as I develop great people and I develop the right culture and people have a sense of ownership of the place, and then I give them the room to actually do the job, they actually do really well. And, you know, I know a lot of people that believe the best sign of a great leader is the fact that when they’re not there, the place runs as well. And sometimes even better. I mean, who knows? Give people enough room. They really totally own it and run it. It’s amazing what people can do when they realize, OK, it’s just me. And if it’s not, it’s not like Nancy or anybody else is here, it’s me. I’m going to do this. So I’m sure that’s cool. And then you get obviously more time and you need your life back a little bit.
Dan: Yeah. And there was no like aha moment. But there was just, you know, I thought like one day like, well if I hadn’t been at work since five o’clock and it’s nine o’clock and yeah. I didn’t, I wasn’t thinking, what are they doing now, what are they doing now. I just trusted that they know what they’re doing and they’re going to do what they’re supposed to do.
John: Well, it’s funny. And I remember I had a really good lesson that I learned. I remember, you know, four years in financial services. I was running organizations. And I would if I took a week’s vacation, I’d be checking email throughout the whole day. I’d be calling the office every day, talking to them, finding out what’s going on. And part of it was, you know, just force of habit. I wanted to stay close to the business. And I had one of my leaders tell me they’re like, listen, you’re sending a message that you probably don’t even want to send. You’re telling us because you’re checking in so much, you’re sending the message that you don’t have confidence in us and you don’t trust us to run the place. And I’m like, wow. Yeah. All right. I guess I never that’s not what I’m intending. And I never realized that. But you’re right. So then I started, like, totally detaching and it was phenomenal. I felt great. I could actually enjoy the vacation. And they felt better because it’s said to them that I trust them. And the results were even better when I was gone. You know, it was.
Dan: Yeah, like a perfect example of something along those lines is we went on a cruise, a week-long cruise, and I’m on a cruise. I don’t I can’t call you and I can’t check in on you. And I came back and, you know, I still I had some five star Google reviews while we were gone and came back and everything was still there. And I was like, OK, yeah, we can do this. Yeah, yeah. That’s I still don’t do it as often as my wife would like for us to do. But yeah, yeah, I can do it. I can, I can walk away and, and I can be confident that they know what they’re doing and they can handle it. And if something comes up they can’t handle, they can ask me.
John: Yeah, exactly. And that’s such an important thing. I mean, honestly, there are so many people that are just tied to their business and they have other people that they can give more responsibility to. They just don’t you know, they’re not willing to. And then that person ends up leaving in reality, the people that are in that organization, because they’re not getting the growth opportunities, you know, they want to have more responsibility. So, yeah. Well, I’m a huge fan of your place. I love your restaurant. My first time at your place, I didn’t live here, so I just moved down to North Carolina back in July. So I was up in Boston. But my sister you may know my twin sister, Julie Draper, and her husband Jeff and Gavin and Lily, their kids. I came down here probably two or three times a year. And one of the times they came down, it was Thanksgiving probably three years ago, maybe four years ago. And I was surprising them so they didn’t know I was coming. And I’m like, wow, I’d be kind of a cool thing to just show up. Nobody knows I’m coming. My parents are down here, too. And I’m like, but if I’m going to do that, I get to really do this up and kind of make it a funny, goofy thing. So I decided to dress up in disguise. So I flew here like, you know, not dressed up because that probably wouldn’t be good to dress up in a disguise on a plane going through an airport.
Dan: But it kind of depends on what the disguise is.
John: Well, it’s funny. I got a picture of it. I’ll show you in a sec. And so I ended up going at getting into an Uber. I had this whole, like, disguise with long hair. I had a fake nose. I had, like, I these sunglasses on. And I was like, OK, I’m going to get dressed as a pizza delivery
guy and get pizzas and just show up at their door. And so I didn’t know any pizzas or pizzerias around and I found Homegrown. So, I went in and I actually ordered the pizzas, I walked in to pick them up and this was what I don’t know if you can see that. So I literally looked like nothing like and I know people are listening, they’re not watching. But, you know, I looked like, you know, I looked like a freak, you know. That was this guy you didn’t want to mess with. So I walked in there. It was the funniest thing because there was it must have been, you know, maybe a 16-year-old girl that was at the register, right. When you walk in. And she looked at me and I had my glasses on my hat. Clearly, I was a fake nose looking at me. And I just saw this look of terror in her eye and she wouldn’t look at me again. She down and she was like, can I help you, sir? She was really nervous. And everybody looked at me and like, did this like what? Like, I just scared the crap out of everybody in the place and got my pizza and left. So it’s so funny to me. And then when and surprised my sister with to, you know, the family with two pizzas and they’re like, oh my God, it was really cool.
Dan: I would have liked to have seen everyone’s reaction both in the restaurant and when you got to your sister’s house. Oh yeah.
John: I think some people in the restaurant were thinking, OK, we maybe we need to get out of here fast like something’s going to go.
Dan: We need to mark this time for the cameras. Just, you know, just in case something happens.
John: I said go back in there and like, I’m sure the person wasn’t was may not be there, but it was so funny. I love the reaction. I wish I could have gotten a picture of it. Yeah. So but yeah. Congrats on all the stuff. Honestly, Dan, you got you you run a great, great place. I’ll
give you my plug. I think anybody that hasn’t gone to your restaurant definitely needs to. And it’s a fantastic place. What’s the best thing on the menu?
Dan: Myself, I would go with the wings. I love our wings and the blue cheese dressing. I mean, that’s all right. That’s probably the blue cheese is probably what we’re most known for.
John: Yeah, I’m a big wing guy, so I’ll do that for sure.
Dan: Our biggest wing, our biggest wing day of the year. Coming up on Sunday, I’ll spend like four straight hours before the Super Bowl is doing nothing but cooking wings.
John: Wow. All right. Well, I will be a customer for sure. Got to load up a lot of wings. Well, this has been awesome. And honestly, I really appreciate you sharing all your great advice and everything. Anything else? I mean, in terms of final words, of wisdom from two leaders and you got people that are listening that are, you know, business owners, restaurant
owners, but coaches like your wife, Kimberley teaches, you got corporate executives, CEOs or people that just want to learn to lead in general better. What words of wisdom that you leave them with?
Dan: I think for me, I just always go back to be a worker bee, be the hardest worker every day, and lead by example, people will follow you if you’re going. With everything you have. Into whatever it is you’re doing, coaching, working family life. That’s like my you know since I was a kid, my parents told me, you know, when you go to work, be the hardest worker. Make sure every person that ever works with you for you thinks that you’re the hardest worker they know. And that just is my mantra pretty much just work hard.
John: That’s great, you’re not a guy who does things halfway.
Dan: No, no, really not. If I’m doing it, I’m going to do it the best I might. I might do it wrong. I might screw it up. But it’s never going to be from lack of effort. Yeah, never.
John: That’s awesome. Well, awesome words of wisdom. That’s a great, great message to leave everybody with. And for those of those listening that haven’t gone to the restaurant, it’s right in Holly Springs. Right on is that Holly Springs Road or what?
Dan: Corner of Holly Springs Road and Links Land Drive.
John: Got it. And it’s and what’s the website if they want to connect online? Dan: Homegrownpizza.com.
John: Easy enough. we’ll put it in the show notes. Awesome. Well, thanks again, Dan. Greatly appreciate you being here. And hopefully, we’ll get you back another time.
Dan: Sounds good. Thank you very much for having me. I appreciate it.
John: Yeah. And thanks to everybody for listening to today’s episode of Tomorrow’s Leader. Make sure you like, subscribe, share, comment, and go down below. Give five-star reviews.
Of course, always love your ideas for future shows, topics, and also future guests. Thanks for joining us today. We’ll look forward to seeing you next time. Take care.
John (Closing): Thanks for joining us on today’s episode of Tomorrow’s Leader. For suggestions, or inquiries, about having me at your next event, or personal coaching, reach me at john@lauritogroup.com Once again, that’s john@lauritogroup.com. Thanks! Lead on!
