Tuesday was my grandfather Mike Petro’s 87th birthday. I called him up and as usual, had a great chat with him. He’s just a happy guy. He’s been retired for over 30 years, but he hasn’t stopped doing stuff and he loves every minute of it. When I called him in the afternoon, he’d already been to daily mass with my grandmother. He followed that up with a couple hours of helping to pull weeds in the church flowerbeds with the Muscle Club, a group of guys who help out with maintenance and upkeep at the church. Keep in mind that my grandparents live in eastern Ohio, which can get pretty humid in the summer, and the high temperature was 91° F.

87 years old and still getting stuff done. At that age, my grandpa is completely entitled to sit on his ass and let the “young kids” take care of things. He’s done plenty of work in his life. Why does he keep volunteering at church, helping out when he’d be justified in taking it easy?

Here’s why: he gets stuff done. It’s what he does, because he learned that’s how you make both big and small things happen. He’s lived through the greatest economic depression this country has ever seen and the greatest war humanity has ever waged. He started hauling 50 lb. bags of flour in a bakery at 14 and then spent 30 years maintaining steel mill equipment. Along the way he’s managed to stay married for 65 years and raise four kids. You don’t do that by slacking off and letting someone else do all the work.

In this age, we have people telling us catchy stuff. Things like being a linchpin of our tribe and crushing it. Grandpa had FDR and Uncle Sam telling him that America needed him to work hard and make sacrifices.

Forget the personalities and slogans. Here’s my lesson from Mike Petro: if you really want to make things happen, just get stuff done.

This morning, I was perusing the latest comments on the Phoenix New Times Chow Bella posts (here and here) regarding the CrazyAmy situation. For a dose of something saner, I followed up my comment reading with today’s post by Jay Baer on his Convince and Convert blog. One of Jay’s points was that the public and immediate nature of being criticized via social media is what makes the criticism hurt more today than private complaints did in the past.

While it may hurt to be a business owner on the receiving end of a negative Yelp review or an angry tweet, the response to the criticism should not be any different than if it were received via a phone call, mail, comment card or in-person complaint. Is it productive to call an unhappy customer names and insult them if they’re standing in front of you? Of course not, and it’s not productive to do that online either. Just because there’s a keyboard and screen between you and the complaining customer doesn’t give you a license to behave badly.

The changes brought about by social media seems to have really confused some business owners, but they shouldn’t. The medium of communication has changed, becoming more public and immediate, but the content hasn’t really changed. People used to talk about businesses privately in person or on the phone. Now they do it publicly on Yelp and Twitter. As a business owner, you should still respond to a bad experience in the same way. Apologize privately, respectfully acknowledge the customer’s complaint and offer to make it better in some way. This isn’t magic or MBA-level business savvy. It’s just good business.

At this point, most readers are probably familiar with the Yelp Pizzapocalypse which occurred between Joel LaTondress (@azhotdish) and Amy Bouzaglo (@bouzagloabc) of Amy’s Baking Company. If you’re just catching up, the Chow Bella post at Phoenix New Times will bring you up to speed. Be sure to read through the comments to see all of the slings and arrows which were exchanged.

Back in February, I wrote about small business owners and their lack of understanding of social media. Most don’t seem to understand how valuable it is for connecting with customers and building your brand within the local community. Many business owners fumble their way through social media use, not getting much benefit from it, but not doing any great harm either. Yesterdays Yelp incident, however demonstrates the destructive power of social media when badly misused.

I created a quick Twitter poll to gauge the public opinion regarding the damage Ms. Bouzaglo had inflicted upon her own business. Granted, this isn’t scientific and is hardly conclusive, but I find it interesting that over 50% of responders think Amy’s Baking Company is now facing certain doom.

If you’d like to cast your vote, click here to head over to Twtpoll.

So, what are some lessons restaurateurs can take away from this ugly incident?

1. Be respectful. Customers are paying you a very high compliment by spending their time and their money to enjoy your work. If you fall short of their expectations or your own, it isn’t their fault.
2. Keep things private. A public disagreement will make you look bad. Period.
3. Learn to use the tools. One thing which really inflamed this storm was Ms. Bouzaglo’s misuse of the Yelp platform in her reply. Not only did she reply publicly, which is frowned upon in the Yelp community, she replied in a review, not in a business owner’s reply. This showed a total failure on her part to understand how Yelp works and her options for replying to a bad review. I only needed about 2 minutes to find the page entitled Responding to Reviews in the Business Owner’s Guide on Yelp. Do your homework before responding to negative or positive feedback on social media platforms.

Business owners need to remember that viral works in both ways. Do something really great and potential customers all over the community will hear about it immediately. But do something incredibly unwise, and individuals will change from potential fans to haters in seconds.

Your business may be your passion and life’s work, but regular patronage from customers is what allows you to live your passion daily. Don’t forget that.

Thursday night, the first Light Rail Dine Around took place in central Phoenix and despite SB1070 protests and crazy monsoon weather, it was a tremendous success! Hanny’s, St. Francis, Smeeks, Tracy Dempsey and Cartel Coffee Lab were all on top of their game and served up fabulous food. Many attendees were introduced to the light rail and discovered that things are happening in central Phoenix.

Image by Fred von Graf

This event was months in the making, as the idea progressed from CenPhoCamp to discussions to actual implementation. I want to extend huge thanks to Susie Timm and her fantastic team at Foodies Like Us. Without their work and handling of the logistics, this event wouldn’t have been nearly as high in quality as it was. Thanks also to Locals Only: Phoenix for featuring the light rail dine around during their broadcast from Smeeks.

Additionally, I want to thank my food-loving fellow light rail riders, Tony Arranaga of Light Rail Blogger and David Bickford of PHX Rail Food for joining forces and lending their opinions, advice and expertise to bring this event to fruition. And finally, the biggest thanks go to the foodies who attended and made the whole event worthwhile! I loved meeting new people and having a hand in introducing them to the fine food which can be found along the light rail.

Great things are happening. Let’s keep getting better, Phoenix!

Image by kevindooley on Flickr

There’s a lot of urban development happening around the Valley. Downtown areas are being built up and the sprawl into the desert seems to have slowed down, albeit temporarily. It’s good for the denser urban cores to build up and become livable areas where people can work, play and live all within a small radius. But for all the development smaller cities like Chandler and Mesa are pursuing, the Valley tends to center around three main downtown areas: Tempe, Phoenix and Scottsdale. Before you Scottsdale haters start flaming this post, do me a favor and finish reading.

For better or worse, these are the three most centrally located and important urban areas in this metropolis. Tempe has had ASU and Mill Avenue for a long time. It’s been through its ups and downs, but downtown Tempe continues to be a nexus of urban activity. Scottsdale long ago established Old Town as a shopping destination and has continued to build its cred as an urban area with the growth of high-end residential buildings, the nightclub scene and increased dining choices. Downtown Phoenix however, is important to the Valley because it’s, well, Phoenix. It’s the center city of the metropolis, the city and county governments are located there and so are two sports arenas. But Phoenix hasn’t been able to establish downtown and the central corridor to the north as a true urban core. Sure, it has light rail, but it doesn’t have the walkability and density of Old Town Scottsdale or Mill Avenue.

I’d really like to see Phoenix step it up and grow into a truly great urban area, and to see Tempe and Scottsdale keep doing what they’re doing. Could all three city governments do more to encourage that? Sure. But I don’t want to debate specific policies here. What I do want to point out is that central Phoenix, Old Town Scottsdale and downtown Tempe/Mill Avenue form an “urban triangle”. Instead of one huge downtown area, we have three distinct areas, all with their own character and vibe. Old Town has the shopping and nightlife, Tempe has the collegiate bohemian feel and Phoenix has…um, something. Phoenix hasn’t quite established what it will be.

Downtown Phoenix needs to work towards finding identity and continuing to grow as a urban center. The urban triangle concept is great, and I’d really like Phoenix to be a part. But cities like Chandler are putting a lot of effort into developing quickly. If Phoenix fails to take advantage of opportunities, Chandler could surpass Phoenix and replace it as the third member of the urban triangle. Regardless, the rise of an urban triangle will be good for the Valley as a whole, but Phoenix is the name which the rest of the world uses to refer to this whole metropolis. It would be a shame for the city itself to be only a minor player in the Valley of the future.

A few days ago, my pal Brian Clemens asked me why I am passionate about social media and what motivates me to want to make a career in it. There are a lot of ways I can talk about this, but it all really comes down to two simple things:

I like connecting people and I like technology.

Seriously, I do. Maybe it’s because I grew up in Phoenix, which historically has lacked the community that defines many other big cities and left me wanting that community connection. Maybe it’s just because my brain is just wired that way. Regardless, using technology to connect people and build real, vibrant communities is what gets me excited. Building a really great city by helping local businesses connect with customers is what I want to see happen in Phoenix, and I want to help make that happen.

In a way, this also relates to my well-known passion for coffee. Coffee and coffeehouse culture are amazing vehicles for bringing people together. While I enjoy drinking coffee, I also really love the vibe of great coffee shops around town. For me, the gatherings which happen over coffee are the face-to-face counterparts to social media interactions. To really create a great community in Phoenix, we need to create synergy between the physical and the virtual.

That’s what I want to make happen.

Back in January, I presented a session at CenPhoCamp entitled From Suburban to Returning Customers (view the video and read followup thoughts here). A couple of the themes which emerged were:

• the existence of outdated opinions amongst suburban residents regarding downtown Phoenix
• the need to have events downtown which feature several of the great local business

In an effort to bring action to these themes, Tony Arranaga from Light Rail Blogger, David Bickford of PHX Rail Food and I have partnered with Foodies Like Us to create the first Light Rail Dine Around! This event is coming on Thursday, July 29 and will feature courses at three great destinations along the light rail route: appetizers at Hanny’s, a main course at St. Francis and dessert at Smeeks. To add to the deliciousness of the evening, Tracy Dempsey of Cowboy Ciao, Digestif and Kazimierz fame will be providing ice cream to be topped with candy at Smeeks, and Cartel Coffee Lab will bring some of their delicious brew to pair with the sweets.

Since all destinations for the evening are along the METRO light rail route, we’ll be using it to travel between each restaurant. Attendees are also encouraged to park at one of the many Park & Ride locations and use the light rail to travel to Hanny’s to begin the evening.

You don’t have to be a downtown resident or hardcore foodie to enjoy this evening of culinary delights. If you haven’t been to central Phoenix lately, I encourage you to come and join us for what’s certain to be a fantastic evening. Space is limited, so head over to the Light Rail Dine Around page to purchase your ticket. The cost is $60, which includes all three courses. Light rail passes are not included in the cost, but can be purchased for only $3.50 at any light rail station.

Buy your ticket now and join us for this fabulous evening of food and fun!

There’s nothing I can say to make this story any better than it already is. Just read it.

For love of the game

A couple of days ago, I was having dinner at my parents house with out-of-town family members who were visiting. While we were there, my mother showed us a daily ledger book which my grandfather kept when he owned a Chicago-area Texaco service station.

The ledger was a large soft-bound book which covered most of the year 1950. It had daily records of expenses, charges and sales. It was an amazing experience to have a physical artifact from my family’s history, to read and interact with the ledger. It had my grandfather’s writing in pencil on nearly every page, and most pages were smudged with motor oil and other car substances. Being able to see not only each day’s financial activity, but seeing a small amount of the station’s minutia recorded in the writing, the smudges and the wrinkles in the page was wonderful and emotional.

Contrast that to a spreadsheet or an accounting program which would be used today. The data is there, but there’s none of the context, the reality of handwriting and motor oil, the texture of the paper, the smell of old book.

So what is real? Are all the tweets, Facebook updates, blog posts and Yelp reviews we create real? Maybe we can archive them and pass them down to our children and grandchildren, but all that’s there are fleeting thoughts and commentary, given context only by the moment in which they’re created.

I suppose we’ve become very good at capturing instants. The ubiquity of connectivity and social media have made it very easy to record and share our momentary thoughts. But we can’t capture all of the other details which a physical artifact convey. What will I hand down to my children and grandchildren? I have no ledger book, not even a journal with my own handwriting for my descendants to hold, touch and experience.

I must create something which my child can one day hold in their hands and say, “My dad made this.”

We often hear career advice like “Find a niche that no one is filling and fill it.” That’s great, but what if you find a niche you’re not really passionate or excited about? Should you fill it just because it offers opportunity?

I say no. Doing something you’re not passionate about just because it makes you unique isn’t any great benefit. Keep looking for the niche you’re excited about filling.