“ORDER FOR KATIE!”
I collected my ham biscuit from the counter of this bougie new place in Wilmington that’s a coffee shop by day and a disco bar by night.
It has the requisite mid century modern decor, a hipster name (The Ibis, cousin establishment to The Starling down the road) and a dedicated DJ booth with turntables and a record stash.
“May I have a fork, please?”
They handed it to me and I went back to my couch.
And tried to eat the biscuit.
There was cheese, too, okay. So I needed a fork.
But the fork wasn’t working. The biscuit was. . . stuck.
It was STUCK ON A NAPKIN.
Friends, countrymen, my biscuit with cheese had been placed on a paper napkin and heated up on top of said napkin.
Now, because of the cheese (and dang near every biscuit in the South has cheese on it) said biscuit was stuck to the napkin.
I started peeling it off. A few small pieces remained.
Reader, I ate the paper. At some point it doesn’t matter.
While munching, I thought to myself, “I bet nobody who works here has ever eaten a ham and cheese biscuit as prepared for their customers.”
They’ve never heated theirs up on a napkin because the presentation didn’t matter. (We ate salads out of mixing bowls for our crew meals when I worked at Dodd’s Townhouse (RIP) in Indianapolis.)
And THAT is how I arrived at today’s topic: TASTE THE SOUP.
If they tasted the soup (ate warmed biscuits off napkins) they would not PUT biscuits on napkins. Because they would have experienced the biscuit-napkin fusion situation.
How do I know this was not a one-off?
My afternoon snack, some kind of pastry (I KNOW. WHERE ARE THE VITAMINS?) was ALSO heated and stuck to the napkin, and it didn’t even have cheese in it. I think the sticky fruit compote was the culprit there.
We might be talking about something else if it was a simple “Oh, ha hah, napkin.” But this booger was WELDED together.
Taste the Soup
I can’t find the actual article I read last week, so this one will have to do. The number one rule of cooking is to taste your food while cooking.
I’m glad I had to find an article to share instead of the one I originally read because this one has all kinds of good nuggets:
“As you’re about to take your fried rice out of the pan, take a bite, or two. And ask yourself, what does it need?”
“But you shouldn’t only taste a completed dish right before serving. You should be tasting each component throughout the cooking process. This gives you more opportunities to make adjustments.
“You have to think about how the dish will come together and the role each component plays.”
TASTE THE SOUP
To stop dragging the Ibis, they clearly tasted SOMETHING because they NAILED pretty much everything else: The decor, the food mix, the coffee, the vibes. When I went it was PACKED with its target audience.
That’s probably what made the cheesy napkin stand out. When most of the rough edges are smooth, that one splinter will harsh your mellow.
“You have to think about how the dish will come together and the role each component plays.”
Soup’s on!
It’s time to. . . you guessed it! Taste the soup!
Before you get busy, look at your business through the eyes of your customers.
Or, for funnsies, especially if you’re a retail establishment (Online or brick-and-mortar) give some friends of yours or friends of your staff a $25 gift card and tell them to come in and shop. (This works best if the people have never been to your place or are infrequently there.)
After they check out, invite them to an area for cookies and punch and debrief them. (Or, for online, send them a survey with another coupon at completion.)
It is WORTH THE MONEY TO DO THIS if you can get their feedback.
Don’t ask for feedback, though.
Ask for advice. (I learned this from Adam Grant’s new book, Hidden Potential.)
Asking for feedback makes people nervous. Asking “What should I do next time?” will get you more responses.
Ingredient List
What are you looking at?
I mean, everything, but here are places to get started:
- Are your marketing emails easy to read? (NO CENTER ALIGNING. IT IS THE YOOL 2024. STOP CENTERING.) Are the emails accessible?
Just because I am SO PASSIONATE ABOUT LEFT ALIGNING I sent a copy of this newsletter to myself with EVERYTHING CENTER ALIGNED to show you why you should never ever ever ever ever ever ever center more than a headline and a subtitle.
Want more about text alignment? Nerd out.
- Is your cart/checkout easy to find online or in person?
- How’s your front entrance? Clean? Inviting? Good signage? Is it obvious where to go once you walk in? (For websites, is your home page all of these things?)
- Where is your seating? Next to a trash can? Move it. Within eye sight of a trash can? Leave it!
- Are you selling a subscription? Is there a page on your website that spells out exactly how it works? How to sign up? How to choose items? How to cancel?
- Do you do workshops? Is there a page on your website that spells out exactly how those work? How to sign up? How to cancel? What the finished product will look like (as close as you can get)? It’s easier to sell workshops if people can see EXACTLY what they’re going to make.
- Do you offer food service? Can people find it? Can they FIND THE HOURS ON YOUR WEBSITE AND SOCIALS? (IT IS THE YOOL 2024. PLEASE POST YOUR HOURS.) Do you heat things on napkins? Stop. (LOL)
- Do you sell clothes? What’s the return policy? Where’s the fitting room. YOU DON’T HAVE A FITTING ROOM?
Cooking Instructions
- Assemble your list of things to review.
- Assemble your list of “taste testers.”
- Send some instructions. Please go online and sign up for a free trial. Make one sign. Tell us how it went.
Please come shop and pick out one houseplant and everything you need to grow it. Tell us show it went. - Debrief. “What should we do next time?”, “Where did you get stuck?”
- Make changes!
- Do all this again in 6 months.
Are you a super taster?
I’d LOVE to know how you do this in your business. Write back and share!
Let’s Get Together, yeah yeah yeah!
Here’s where I’ll be in the next THREE WEEKS!
MANTS: Baltimore
TPIE: Ft. Lauderdale
Great Lakes Trade Expo: Grand Rapids
I’m speaking at GLTE. Here are the deets.
Online Opportunities
Catch up with AI basics. Watch my free IGC Webinar for Proven Winners here.
Dig deeper into AI with our AmericanHort Industry Insider Webinar (Free for AmericanHort members).
Streamline your business with AI this year. Sign up for one or all of our AmericanHort AI Mastery Series classes.
Handy Links
Each newsletter always has a mix of fun and functional links. Here they are! Have a link to share? Send it to me!
Get the buZZ!
It always surprises me the number of people I meet in the green industry who DON’T get this one. Sign up! It’s free!
Tech Connection
Guyyyyysssssss! My new every-other-month tech column in Green Profit is out now! This month it is literally about connecting your tech for higher repeat visit counts. Read it here
Keyboard shortcuts for Mac, Windows, etc. – Re-sharing this because it’s so useful
Not your usual podscast about burnout
No time to listen? Here was the best part for me: The guest (a researcher) gave the most compelling and succinct case for not checking email on nights and weekends (or on break). She said, “We have to psychologically check OUT of work so that we’re excited to check back IN.”
DMARC Changes Regarding Email Deliverability
If you do ANY email marketing please read this. ALSO repeating this. YOU HAVE TO MAKE THESE UPDATES, GUYS!
My new favorite dogs of Instagram
Friggin bing bong
Friggin bye
Book for historical fiction people
Book for mystery people (It’s pretty dark)
Book for business owners
Housekeeping
I’ll be traveling a lot in January, so Tami & Tracy will be managing my inbox. The whole team will be working collaboratively to get your deliverables to you (including me, but you might not talk to me a lot this month!).
Reminder: The Garden of Words is closed all federal holidays and 95% of our team works Monday-Thursday.
Last: Happy New Year! Can’t wait to see you at the shows!
Art P.S.: This and That – I am starting to sketch the historic houses in downtown Wilmington, so this is one of those. I went to my friend’s child’s FOUR HOUR SWIM MEET so I sketched a bunch of the swimmers on postcards for their parents. And I’m also trying to draw more “ordinary things” like random plants in my garden.
