That's how Chef Sedrick Crawley from Black Sicilian opened our conversation this week. He says if the dough formula isn't built for your specific environment — your climate, your water, your kitchen — everything else is secondary. Do you agree? Are you building your own dough formula or still running someone else's recipe? Drop it in the comments https://youtu.be/lXMubUpmyGI

You get offered a 40-pizza order, but it requires delivery support and extra coordination that does not fit how your shop normally runs. Do you take it or turn it down? Why? I talked about this on a recent Takeout Tip, and I think this is a real leadership question for operators. At what point does extra revenue stop being worth the disruption?

You get offered a 40-pizza order, but it requires delivery support and extra coordination that does not fit how your shop normally runs. Do you take it or turn it down? Why? I talked about this on the latest Takeout Tip, and I think this is a real leadership question for operators. At what point does extra revenue stop being worth the disruption?

Just because you put money into a business does not mean the team will automatically respect you. Ownership may give you authority on paper. That is not the same as earning trust from the people doing the work every day. Your staff does not care much about what you own if they do not see how you show up. They watch things like: How you talk to people. How you carry yourself. Whether you understand the business. Whether you respect the work they do. Whether you make their job harder or better. Whether you are consistent. If you do not work in the business, you have to be even more careful. You cannot expect frontline employees to respect a title they never see in action. They are much more likely to respect a leader who listens, learns, supports the team, and honors the people who are in the fight every day. Respect comes from contribution. It comes from being steady. It comes from treating people right. It comes from making good decisions. It comes from backing up the operators instead of dropping in and throwing weight around. A lot of owners get this wrong. They think ownership should create loyalty. In reality, behavior creates loyalty. If you want respect from your staff, earn it the same way anyone else would. Show humility. Show consistency. Show real care for the people and the business. Money may buy your seat at the table. It does not buy the room. That part, you still have to earn.

- Be respectful. No trash talk, no drama. - Be real. Share numbers when you want real feedback. - One problem per post. Make your ask clear. - No spam. No pitching services, products, or links without permission. - Keep it practical. Share what you tried, what happened, what you’ll do next. - Protect privacy. No customer names. No team member names. No screenshots of private messages. - Give back. If you ask for help, help someone else in the comments. - Follow up. If you get advice, report back within 7 days. - No vendor wars. Tools are fine. Bashing brands is not. - Have fun. We’re here to run better shops and enjoy the work.