Espresso: Soho House Founder Life Changing One Page Rule

0:00Yes, yes, people. So, The Hungry Reading List is here. right if you listen to the podcast regularly you know i love reading i think books are the most beautiful thing in the world as stephen king said they're teleportable magic or something like that these books i whittled down my gargantuan bookshelf into 46 absolute 30 bangers the link is in the show notes to get the list whatever and it'll also make you a subscriber to our weekly newsletter which i think is sick so yeah get your fucking books buddy i always say to people when they write to me or want to send me something i say just do it on one piece of paper if you do it on two pieces of paper i won't read the second piece of paper what's been the best piece of feedback you've ever because i know you say like the obsession with the customer what's the best bit of feedback you've had that's kind of changed changed the way you view hospitality it could be across anything a lot of where i come from comes from that i'm severely dyslexic so what i have to do all the time is simplify everything to understand it and to to to get through the day and i also think there's a whole gang of people out there who loves over complicating everything yeah yeah yeah and and and so i spend a lot of time simplifying things and and understanding why can't you just do it like that why is that so difficult so i think i i apply that to everything I do.

1:30So I think staying in a hotel, eating in a restaurant, drinking in the bar. For instance, when you go to the bar, I know the bar, Bobby's bar we're doing, there's no cocktail list, for instance. There's no list because I sort of want to attract people who know what they're going to drink. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, most people go to a bar and probably can figure out what they want to drink without looking at a list. Yes. and so that simplifies it I think and to make sure that you hire people behind your bar who it's not about them it's about the customer so they're not constantly shaking at the shaker trying to be the attention yes hey look at me I'm doing it and I'm going to do it a bit noisier and I'm over here yes well please just make me a quick strong lovely drink yes So that's simplifying it.

2:27Simplifying. Food should be simplified, shouldn't it? If there's more than three ingredients on a plate, there should be a steward's inquiry for the fourth and the fifth. It doesn't mean there shouldn't be a fourth or a fifth ingredient. So I'll say that again. There should be a... A steward's inquiry. Like when you're over cricket or over tennis and there's a steward's inquiry. Right, okay, sorry. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So I just think everything can be simplified. And I think that makes – life is complicated enough not to go away and stay in a hotel or eat in a restaurant or drink in a bar where they try and overcomplicate it.

3:08And so I'm always about simplifying everything. I can't remember who it was. Someone says from the podcast, it's simple. Sorry, complex is easy. Simple is hard. And it's like actually simplifying things down is a really hard thing to do. I know you've talked about having like one sheet of paper or like just eight, like everything should be on one sheet of paper. And I love that because there's, you know, I'm actually quite complicated things. I overthink stuff and just get into that vortex of like. um so i'm asking this selfishly like what how how do you get all the information across say with saint saint clement on one sheet of paper how do you how do you cut away the bullshit basically what's the stuff you need to know well a i hate writing so that helps yeah yeah yeah and i can't spell so that helps so simplifying everything is much more user-friendly for me and i i always say to people when they write to me or want to send me something I say just do it on one piece of paper if you do it on two pieces of paper I won't read the second piece of paper I'm only going to read one piece of paper and it makes people think and it makes what are the four or five points I really want to put across and be much more clear about what you're trying to achieve so the one piece of paper and the simplification is a lot about where I come from when I look, going back to your original, original question about when I went into the building and how did I start figuring about out how Sir Clement would look and feel at the end of it.

4:51It was very much through those eyes and also the eyes of how can you make all the things that we want i talked about like butler service room service steaming housekeeping all those those services how can they appear to be delivered with without too much hassle yes yes people we're trying to make hungry into the most valuable food and drink business podcast on planet earth but i really need your help i want to make this podcast so valuable for you to help you grow your business faster, stronger, better, have way more fun. We've got a super short customer feedback, sorry, consumer survey, audience survey thing on Google Forms.

5:32There's a link at the top of the show notes. If you could fill that out, it would be so helpful. We make this podcast way better for you.