MBA2674 Must Read: Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara

0:00If you want to build a business that is remembered and not just used, start here. Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Gadara. It's today's must-read episode, and I'm so excited. I found this book to be a compelling read, one of the best books I've read in 2025, and it's for good reason. Will Gadara is the co-founder of 11 Madison Park in New York, the number one restaurant in the world. This isn't just about food. It's about how deliberately going above and beyond can make you unforgettable. Whether you're running a coaching business or a digital product or a service-based business, these lessons are gold.

0:41Today, I'm going to take you through five standout lessons from five chapters from the book. All the chapters are amazing. All 20 chapters are absolutely great. I'm also going to share with you real stories from these lessons, stories that come straight from the restaurant, 11 Madison Park. And each one of these come with a takeaway that you can implement today. So let's dive in.

1:10Welcome back to the$100 MBA show. I'm your host, Omar Zinhome, where I deliver practical business lessons three times a week, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to help you start, grow, and scale your business. Real quick, if these episodes help you in any way, hit the follow button on this podcast app. It helps us to keep bringing you practical business insights three times a week for free. Thanks. I first want to say that this book is incredibly impactful because it's written sort of like a biography, but throughout the stories are incredible lessons that are practical and really smart, like things you haven't heard of before.

1:51It's compelling as a book to read. I highly recommend it. The audiobook is fantastic as well. It's actually narrated by the author, Will Gadara, so you'll absolutely love it. Let's start with one of my favorite lessons and stories from chapter four, Lessons in Enlightened Hospitality. In this chapter, Will invites every team member at the restaurant to notice and anticipate guests' needs, whatever those needs are, down to the tiniest detail. One story or one example is if a guest mentioned they drove and parked at a meter, a staff member would ask them, where did you park? What's your car look like?

2:30And they would tell them and say, yeah, my car's just down the road. It's, you know, a white Saab. And they would quietly feed the meter so that the guests didn't worry. They would say, hey, listen, don't worry about the meter. We're going to take care of it so that you can relax and enjoy the meal. That small thing would cost, what, a dollar or two at the time, but it built an incredible experience and goodwill with the customer. The takeaway here is if you solve minor stresses before they arise, you're going to win with your customers. And that only happens if you pay attention to the details.

3:05If you anticipate the needs of your customers and you want to anticipate them before they even state them, you want to be the person that finds those out. This builds incredible trust and it makes an incredible emotional impact. That story of feeding the meter is going to be told so many times over and over by that guest to their friends, to their family. This story is a good example of what is meant by unreasonable hospitality. Doing something that they're not expecting, the customer that is, and doing something that your competitors are not even thinking about. The next lesson comes from chapter six, pursuing a true partnership.

3:46This chapter has a great story and a great example of how Will shares how EMP, 11 Madison Park, created magical moments by personalizing experiences. A couple that was celebrating their anniversary at the restaurant mentioned that they forgot a bottle of champagne in the freezer and they asked their server, will it explode before we get home? The server said it certainly will, but asked them for their keys and their address and asked if it was okay if a staff member could go and rescue the situation. The couple was shocked and they said, yeah, sure, here's the keys. And now they can relax and enjoy their meal.

4:24But that's not the end of it. When the couple arrived home, they found the champagne in the fridge along with chocolates and even caviar with a handwritten card from EMP. It's a bundle of small surprises that make the guests feel honored. and taken care of. There's so much in this book about we got your back. We're going to take care of you, your family to us, and we're going to go and take that extra step to really wow you. The takeaway here is that personal touches matter more than the grand gifts. The fact that the couple mentioned it was their anniversary and they forgot the bottle of champagne in their freezer, that requires you to be listening and to be thinking on your feet, how can I help this couple have a better time at my restaurant so they're not worrying about the champagne.

5:13Let me solve this problem for them. You can transform a generic interaction into an emotional moment. You know, the server continued to work, but handed over this task to somebody that wasn't busy in the back office. And it took a few moments, but it made a huge impact. Now, before we continue, I want to just address the voice in your head right now saying, Omar, this is going to cost a pretty penny if I'm going to do these crazy grand gifts and surprises. Well, there's going to be more stories talking about how you can do this with very little money if no money. But the point here is that you need to invest in your business and the word of mouth marketing is going to pay dividends.

5:54And if you don't have the money, it's okay. It's about the personal touches and showing that you care. The other thing is that you could budget for this in your P &L. And that leads me to my next lesson that comes from chapter 10, Signature Moments and the 95-5 Rule. The 95-5 Rule, as explained by Will in the book, is that 95 % of the P &L of the budget is tight, is clean, it's efficient, but they leave 5 % to surprise and wow their customers. A budget of 5 % of whatever money or profit they have to make sure that they go above and beyond to wow their customers. just like you have a budget for marketing.

6:35In fact, this could be your budget for marketing because it is marketing. Let me share a story of what I'm talking about about how it doesn't really need to cost a lot for you to make a huge impact. Now, by now in the book, you're realizing that, wow, you know, 11 Madison Park has this incredible culture of creative hospitality. And this is a prime example of doing it on a budget. One guest was joking with her server and saying, you know, I'm trying to raise my last million dollars for my round to start my business. They're raising a round of funding. And the server was saying, hey, is there anything else I could do for you?

7:09And they're like, oh, you can give me a million bucks so I can complete my round. And they kind of chuckled about it. But later on, the team went to the drugstore and came back before the end of the meal and served him 10 hundred grand candy bars. There's a candy bar in the US called the 100 grand and 10 hundred grands make a million. Now, how much would that cost? you know, 10 candy bars, 10,$15 at the time. The crazy thing is, is that at the end of the meal, when he saw these candy bars, he was shocked the customer. He was joking about how he actually fulfilled his request of getting him a million dollars, so to speak.

7:47It became a signature story and nothing shows personality like lighthearted generosity and a little bit of like, hey, I'm listening and I'm doing what I can to try to fulfill your request. The takeaway here is don't underestimate the power of humor and surprise. The right gesture, funny, sincere, unexpected, can create a massive word of mouth campaign for you without costing much. Forget about$10 or$15. What about$2? Okay, this next lesson will show you it's about the thoughtfulness that you provide to your customers and not the actual amount of money you spend. This lesson comes from chapter 18, improvisational hospitality.

8:33A group of tourists from Europe who were dining at EMP admitted that they had one regret after seeing everything in New York and going to all the different shows and going to different restaurants. The one thing they didn't try was a classic New City hot dog. So instead of ignoring it, Will ran outside and bought what's called a dirty water hot dog in New York, where you just go to the hot dog stand, get that$2 hot dog from a street car, and then went back to his kitchen and asked the chef to plate it with mustard, relish, sauerkraut, and brought it to the table, cut it into four pieces. That spontaneous action became the signature story and defined unreasonable hospitality.

9:17It actually became a news piece because it was a$2 hot dog, but it was because they were listening to their customers and now every wish they had in their trip to New York was fulfilled. That shows you that if you care, if you're listening and you take action to wow your customers in ways that show that not only are you generous, but you're creative with your generosity. The takeaway here is that sometimes the boldest, simplest gesture can create the biggest memories. Don't dismiss being playful or going off script a bit. It's your business. You can do what you want. Deliver that surprise beautifully when you can.

10:00The lessons keep coming. And I'm just scratching the surface, by the way. There's so many great lessons and stories in this book. I absolutely love it. Chapter 19, I want to share with you one more. Scaling a culture and dream weavers. What's that all about? In this chapter, Will shares how he was able to scale this type of culture in his team at the restaurant and build a category of people or helpers on the team called dream weavers, people that are fulfilling dreams for their customers. Remember, this is a restaurant. But again, if they want to be more than a restaurant, if they want to be the best experience anybody's had, they have to create these experiences and go above and beyond.

10:40In winter, a family that was enjoying dinner at EMP was watching snowfall. And the staff noticed that and had a little conversation. They discovered that they're from Spain and never saw snow before. So guess what? EMP went off and grabbed a couple of sleds. And after the dinner was over, they chauffeured the family to Central park and let their kids play in the snow. Listen, it's not required to do this. And again, it wasn't cheap. They had to go to the toy store, get a couple of sleds. But guess what? They could use those sleds again if they wanted to. But it was human. It was showing that you are not a customer to me.

11:20You are somebody I care about. You're somebody that I want to create a memory for. You're a family member. Now, the takeaway here is that it wasn't Will, the co-owner of the restaurant that came up with this idea. It was somebody from the team. Culture is more than values. It's action. It's having the freedom to fulfill those values. So you want to train your team to spot moments and make them extraordinary when they can really impress their customers, even if it doesn't scale perfectly. Friends, I got to tell you that this book was inspiring. It was really pushing me to think bigger about how I serve my own customers.

11:59Across all these stories, I saw a clear pattern. And those patterns are be present. Notice the small things. Be creative. Surprise in human ways, in human connection. Right. Be generous with time, with heart, with thought, which means try harder. Do better. okay if you want to be the number one in anything then you have to do things differently you have to do things way better and way different than your competition if your competition is not willing to do that you got to be willing to do that okay and that's how you rise above and a lot of times in this book he shares that they were kind of punching above their weight a lot of times they were spending a bit more than they wanted to and performing like a much more expensive restaurant than they were.

12:49But those things, being present, being creative, being generous, that's unreasonable hospitality. And it sets brands apart. In your business, every touchpoint is an opportunity. A sign-up email, a support call, a deliverable, even a canceled meeting is a chance to exceed expectations. Most businesses meet expectations, not beat them. So if you're in real estate, For example, most real estate agents as a gift for a new home after closing the deal with that house, they put a bottle of bubbles in the fridge and they say congrats on the new house. But something that is less expensive and more thoughtful would be listening to your actual customer.

13:33Maybe they mentioned they loved yoga and they would love to do yoga in the sun in their new home. So having a rolled out yoga mat as a gift in the sunroom would be much more impactful and memorable and heartfelt than just a standard drink in the fridge. To stand out, you got to be willing to feel unreasonable sometimes. That's today's lesson. That's today's must read episode. I highly recommend Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Goddara. One of my favorite reads of the year. It was compelling. It was fun. It was hard to put down, honestly. It was just great storytelling and really practical, honestly.

14:13It was a business book that really allowed you to learn while you were just enjoying yourself. All right, before I go, I want to leave you with this. Legendary service and leadership beats average every time. You want to serve beyond. You want to surprise often. You want to build a business people talk about and not just buy from. So keep that in mind in everything you do in your business. Be creative, push yourself, regardless of your budget. Until next time, go unreasonable. If you found today's episode helpful and you want more practical business lessons to help you start, grow, and scale your business, the best thing you could do is subscribe to this podcast.

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