WELCOME BACK TO SOUPFLY!!
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Getting to WOW! Everybody WINS with 5 Star Service
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http://www.christoffjweihman.com/my-book.html
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Thank you and God Bless you all!
Have an enjoyable and safe weekend!
Christoff J. Weihman
ASPIRE Enterprises
Las Vegas, NV
ChristoffJWeihman.com
Soupfly.net
WELCOME BACK TO SOUPFLY!
I want to take a moment and express my thoughts of gratitude with you all.
I am so thankful and appreciative for all the blessings in my life, number one of which is the Love and Support of my Amazing, Beautiful wife, Michelle. Two weeks ago we celebrated our 1 year anniversary. I am so grateful that the Lord has directed our paths to meet and that we share an Amazing life together! This is just the beginning! I thank you, my wife, Michelle for saying yes!
I am thankful for all the wonderful friends that we have here in Las Vegas, in St. Louis as well as in other places in the country and around the world. We love you all! Thank you for being a part of our lives. You know who you are.
I thank God for my two wonderful children, Kimberly and Josiah. They are talented, gifted, beautiful and they make me proud.
I thank God for my family and their support. I”m thankful for Michelle’s family who all have welcomed me with open arms. I am constantly amazed at how close you and your whole family are to each other.
I am thankful for the other part of our family, our puppies-Lilly and Carly. They love us unconditionally and bring such joy and happiness into our lives.
I am very grateful for my health-I don’t feel my age-at all-whatever that’s supposed to feel like.
I am grateful for my wife’s health. I am grateful for all that she has been able to accomplish in her career in her position as a nurse here in Las Vegas, including being nominated for Nurse of the Year for Southern Nevada!
I am thankful that we live in a city-Las Vegas- where the weather is next to perfect year round!
I am so grateful for all the goals that I have been able to accomplish this year- and the year is not even over yet. Some of these remarkable milestones have been;
Connecting with and signing a production deal with an incredible Production company in Los Angeles, who are currently pitching my tv show to major networks.
Finally finishing my book, Getting to WOW! Everybody WINS with 5 Star Service, after 6 plus years of working on it. Yahoo! And it is NOW AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER!
You can go here to pre-order your copy: (Introductory Price is only $20.00)
http://www.christoffjweihman.com/my-book.html
I am so very thankful for ALL OF YOU HAVE PRE-ORDERED Already! Thank you for your Support.
Starting this Blog, after thinking and talking about it forever, I did it. And NOW I have Readers from all over the UNITED STATES AND FROM 53 COUNTRIES AROUND THE WORLD!!
I am so thankful for ALL MY READERS!! Thank you all for your support and encouragement! Please continue Sharing Soupfly on Social Media.
There are so many, many other things that I am grateful for. Being grateful and expressing appreciation is something that I make an effort to do on a daily basis. I encourage you all to do likewise. Let Thanksgiving be your mentality and your way of life and not just your favorite holiday.
I want to close by sharing a thought that I heard from Grant Cardone @GrantCardone, he said you should “always be grateful but never be satisfied”.
If you become satisfied, that’s when you stop moving forward. You stop wanting to do and be and accomplish more. When you are satisfied, then you stop growing. When you stop growing well, we all know what the opposite of growing is. So, be thankful and grateful but don’t allow yourself to become satisfied. You can always do more, give more, be more and have more.
God Bless you all and Happy Thanksgiving to you!
Thank you for Reading. Our next post in a few days will be Part 2 of Soupfly’s Travel Adventures.
Cheers!
Christoff J. Weihman
ASPIRE Enterprises
Las Vegas, NV
ChristoffJWeihman
Soupfly.net
WELCOME BACK TO SOUPFLY! And Welcome back home to Las Vegas for us!
Today’s post is going to be a departure from our norm, as I will be sharing with you about our cross-country trek that I, Christoff and my wife, Michelle and the puppies-Lilly and Carly recently made. We ate and shopped at a number of different restaurants and stores and we experienced some good, some great and some poor service along the way. My main purpose for this blog is to highlight and celebrate the good and great Service & Hospitality Professionals that made our journey an enjoyable experience.
So let’s begin. We set out Tuesday morning from Las Vegas at about 4:15 am, puppies securely snuggled into their new comfortable car seat. I don’t know for a fact that it was comfortable-but Lilly and Carly seemed to really enjoy it. We drove through Utah-absolutely beautiful scenery and into Colorado. The weather was clear and sunny and the drive was-thankfully-a success. What do I mean by a success?
Well, in the past, Carly-the brown one-half Yorkie, had a tendency to have anxiety while traveling. This usually meant that eventually, on almost every trip, she would have an upset stomach that would express itself with her throwing up. This would then make the drive a stressful event for me as I would be wondering when is she going to do it. This time, however, she only did slightly and that within the first hour of our trip. The rest of the way she was calm and peaceful. As was Lilly. If you have little puppies that tend toward car anxiety-I highly recommend getting a car seat similar to the one we got for them. You will be so happy that you did.
Our destination goal for day one was Loveland, Colorado. There, we would visit my brother, Mark and his wife Kellie and our friend Jim Edwards, owner of Next Door Food & Drink. We arrived in Loveland after nearly 13 hours of travel. We checked into our room, got Lilly and Carly fed and settled, quickly changed into non-travel clothes and headed out to Next Door. We had happened upon Next Door Food & Drink when we were in Loveland in July, earlier this year. We ate lunch there at that time and we were so impressed with the food-all locally sourced, natural, much of it organic and wonderfully, creatively prepared AND the outstanding service.
We met Jim back in July and our server was Sydney Nelson. Sydney’s style of service is so refreshing. She has a positive upbeat attitude, a warm and friendly personality And she is very knowledgeable about everything regarding the restaurant-the food sourcing, the preparation, the wine and cocktails, the materials used in the decor of the restaurant-much of it reclaimed and re-purposed. She absolutely knows her stuff! There are some servers (we’ve all met) who have wonderful, pleasant personalities and they seem to think that that excuses them from actually having service skills and being knowledgeable. Not so, with Sydney. She is a true Hospitality professional in every sense of the word.
I was so impressed with our experience that the following day I suggested to Michelle that we return to eat at Next Door again to see if they are consistent. So we did, and they were. We had a different server that day, Jim Edwards, the owner was not in but everything was excellent, AGAIN. To me, this is a testament to Jim’s leadership There are many servers who excel at what they do but they work at restaurants where the leadership is either lacking or non-existent. When one goes to those places-it’s really a hit and miss situation. There is no consistency-because no standards are set, management is not engaged and little thought is put into who is hired. Jim Edwards has done a wonderful job at creating a culture of caring Service and Hospitality Professionals. And the food is great as well.
This experience led me to ask both Sydney and Jim if I could interview them for my book-that was all back in July. Of course, I did interview them both for my book, Getting to WOW! Everybody WINS with 5 Star Service. It was such a pleasure getting their take on what constitutes “WOW!” service and how to achieve it. So, I was eager to connect with them again, since now the book is finally nearing a release date.
This time our server was Andy Stephenson, who had been our server the 2nd day back in July. He, too, was outstanding in his affable manner, his knowledge and recommendations and overall excellence in service. And guess what? Unlike Sydney, who says she’ll probably always be in the industry in some capacity because she loves it so much, Andy is planning on pursuing other career paths, however, there is no “I’m just doing this til I get a real job” attitude or mentality with him. Andy truly seems to care about his guests and endeavors to give them a great dining experience. Just as the subtitle of my book states-“Everybody WINS with 5 Star Service”, Next Door Food and Drink in Loveland, Colorado, while NOT a fine dining establishment-it’s a semi casual place, they prove that 5 Star Service does not necessarily mean white table cloths, tuxedoed servers and fine china. Because they have none of that. What they do have though, is a team of people that pursue excellence on a daily basis and they create WOW! dining experiences for their guests.
Thanks, Jim, Sydney, Andy and the rest of the staff at Next Door Food & Drink! What a great start to our cross country journey.
After an overnight in Loveland, Colorado-we headed North and East to Minnesota to visit my daughter, Kimberly and her husband, Jesse. A long 13 hour drive through Wyoming, Nebraska, South Dakota and finally arriving in chilly-ok, actually, COLD- Minneapolis, Minnesota at 3:30 am. Although it was COLD, the days were sunny and there was no snow until the day after we left Minnesota. Thank you, Lord!
When in Minneapolis, one place that is an absolute Must Visit- is the Mall of America. It is HUGE. It has an actual Theme Park inside with numerous roller coasters, theme rides and an aquarium. There are over 400 stores and the Mall employs over 12,000 people. If you’ve never been-I encourage you to do so. It’s pretty amazing.
Our first day in Minnesota, Michelle and I toured the mall and ate lunch at Tucci Benucch. Our server, Laslo, from Hungary did a good job. He made some great drink suggestions for us. Michelle had a white peach bellini made with all natural, fresh peach puree and I had a blood orange Negroni. I only started drinking Negronis recently. I think it was my friend, Greg DaLuz, that turned me on to them. A Negroni is typically made with equal parts gin, sweet vermouth and campari. What I love is that every place has their own take on a Negroni. The blood orange one at Tucci Benucch was a wonderful new rendition of the classic.
While at Mall of America, we experienced great service and hospitality at some of the stores like–Callisters Christmas, where we were warmly welcomed and greeted by the staff and manager. They were very friendly and helpful, assisting us in finding the perfect Christmas ornaments for some family members.
http://www.shopchristmasonline.com/
Also, at Marbles-The Brain Store, the retail staff were very pleasant. They exhibited the right balance of offering assistance yet not being overbearing or stalking as is often the case at some retail establishments.
Then there was the woman at a baby store where we shopped. It is probably more properly called a baby clothing store-as they don’t actually sell babies there. This retail saleswoman was not very friendly, was marginally helpful and acted as though she didn’t like people. Although she was not very pleasant, we didn’t allow that to damper our excitement as we were shopping for clothes for our first grandbaby-to arrive in May of 2015! (Blessings to my daughter Kimberly and her husband, Jesse)
One would think that someone who works in such a place might actually have a joy for life because their customers are all people who either are expecting a child, have a baby or have a family member that does. That, to me, should shout positivity, upbeatness, joy, happiness, etc. Instead, we were met by someone who should maybe be working at a dill pickle factory.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again-if you are in the service and hospitality industry-(and guess what? retail is included in that) it is imperative that you have a positive upbeat attitude. Just as people eat out at a restaurant for reasons other than just to consume food-they want an experience. So, too, when someone is shopping in your store they may be there to purchase an item that they want or need but they also would like to have it be a pleasant experience. You, the service professional, the hospitality professional, the customer service professional, the retail professional, the sales professional-whatever category you happen to be in-you are there for your guest, customer, client. Your job is much more than just ringing people up and bagging their purchase item.
As we are entering the holiday season, I encourage you to stop and pause for a moment and put yourself in your customers’ shoes. Think to yourself-“What can I do to make this a pleasant and enjoyable experience for them?” One suggestion-you might start with a smile and a genuine “Good afternoon, welcome to ABC company.” If you say, “Hi, welcome to ABC company” but you never look up and actually make eye contact with your guest, what’s the point of mouthing the words? You are not actually welcoming your customers. You have no heart in it. If instead, you come to work with a positive attitude and a sincere desire to provide great service-it will come back to you, manifold. You reap what you sow. Sow some kindness, some happiness and some cheer. And watch it return to you in abundance.
Soupfly Travel Adventures will continue in our next post. We still have 3000 miles to cover and many experiences to share with you!
Thank you for reading. I am truly grateful for all my readers. I want to welcome new readers from Lithuania!! How very exciting that Soupfly continues to travel the globe!
I want to thank all of you who have pre-ordered my book-
Gettting to WOW! Everybody WINS with 5 Star Service.
I invite the rest of you to go to my website and pre-order your copy today at the introductory price of only $20.00. I am only able to accept domestic (United States) pre-orders at this time.
Go here to order your copy of Getting to WOW! Everybody WINS with 5 Star Service :
http://www.christoffjweihman.com/my-book.html
As always, I encourage you to share Soupfly on Social Media. Please LIKE Soupfly on Facebook.
I welcome and look forward to your comments. If you want to Follow Soupfly and receive an email alert when a fresh Soupfly is being served please hit the Follow button.
Cheers and God Bless you all!
Christoff J. Weihman
ASPIRE Enterprises
Las Vegas, NV
ChristoffJWeihman.com
WELCOME BACK TO SOUPFLY!!
Today I want to talk about the 3 Ps that are absolutely vital for one to be successful and effective in the Service and Hospitality Industry.
I, personally love this business. I have always enjoyed serving my guests. I knew that I would give them an exceptional dining experience. I love seeing the look of satisfaction on their faces as they are enjoying an amazing meal. Sometimes I didn’t even have to ask. I would just look them in the eye and see the smile on their face. There’s a great feeling of pride that comes with that for me.
As time has passed, I’ve found that another passion of mine regarding the Service and Hospitality industry is writing and teaching about it. I enjoy sharing with others a perspective or insight that might help them up their game. I also have a passion for shining a light on this industry and helping the public understand what exactly it is that we do. Many people think that a restaurant server’s job is to come to the table, take an order and bring the food from the kitchen to the table. But you and I both know that there is SO MUCH MORE involved in this job. And not just anybody can do it. But I digress.
So, now, ask yourself, first-Do you love this business? If so, then ask yourself, What do you love about it? Some of you will easily be able to answer this question. Others, maybe you know you love it but you’re still trying to put your finger on what aspect of it exactly. If you pose the question-the answer will come to you. But you must find your passion. And it has to be something besides the money.
Restaurant servers are usually, people with big personalities. Larger than life personalities. And these personalities run the gamut from over the top flamboyant, to flirtatious to loud and boisterous to comedians, entertainers and actors. The service industry has always attracted those with a creative flair.
However, we have all met servers who seem absolutely put off that they actually have to engage the public. I find it surprising that there are some who’ve found their way into this business who truly lack any semblance of a personality whatsoever. And of course, I’m in no way referring to you who are reading this blog. No, this is for your co-worker.
You know the ones-that never seem to be having a good day, or for whatever reason can’t seem to find a smile. Or the ones that are so dull, quiet and boring that they really should be working in an office cubicle where they won’t be compelled to interact with live human beings. (Please, no offense-wonderful office working people)
Hey, the service industry is not for everybody but please, if you are here, now-please, I beg of you-I implore you-I encourage you-find a way to be interested, interesting and engaging. If you really don’t like your job, if you are not thrilled to deal with, communicate with-let alone to serve the public-then, maybe this is not the industry or profession for you (yes, I did say ‘profession’)
But most of you, you use your gifts to really shine. That’s what guests like. Two ladies come in for a quick lunch and they’re stressed because of something that is going on back at the office. You, just by being you, brighten up their day and you may think that all you did was bring them their soup and sandwiches and refill their iced tea a couple times.
Use that sense of humor, that charm, that charisma to engage and entertain your guests. You probably don’t even realize how many times in a day or a week, that you, being your own wonderful self, using your God-given personality, that you have blessed, uplifted, encouraged, cheered up a customer/patron. By being interested and interesting you make your guests day more often than you’re even aware.
This business is for people with personality and people who are people persons. If that’s you, then Smile and be thankful because not everybody was blessed with such a wonderful, upbeat, pleasant personality. Let it Shine.
Thank you for reading. I truly appreciate all of your support. Soupfly is growing, thanks to all of you!! We now have readers in 54 countries!! We just added Croatia and Hong Kong!!
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Cheers and God Bless you all!!!
Christoff J. Weihman
ASPIRE Enterprises
Las Vegas, NV
WELCOME BACK TO SOUPFLY!
I, Christoff, am traveling with my wife, Michelle and our two adorable puppies (see pictures below and tell me they’re not the cutest) cross country to visit family and friends.
So, I have the great pleasure of bringing to you, once again, my good friend Shaun the Bartender as my guest blogger.
But before we get to Shaun-I want to welcome readers from the following new countries: Croatia and Hong Kong!!
My Blog is Growing! We’re now connecting with readers from 54 countries! Thank you all so much for reading. Please keep sharing. Let’s get Soupfly.net to crisscross the globe.
One of our new favorite bartenders is Brian from Bonefish Grill in Summerlin, Las Vegas, Nevada.
He is very accommodating, friendly and professional. The first time we met him he created a drink for me with Basil and Gin. It was very good. This last time, he went above and beyond and created a drink using Sage. Yes, Sage. It was ab solutely perfect. From only serving me one other time and a very short conversation with me-he quickly understood and remembered the flavor profiles that I enjoy and he created this wonderful new drink. It may become my new favorite. At least when we go to Bonefish Grill. If you’d like to know what’s in this Sage creation you can Tweet him @BrianCstandsup
If you live in Las Vegas- I highly recommend that you check out Bonefish Grill. They do an excellent job there. The staff at Bonefish Grill really get Service and Hospitality and quality. Ok, that’s my two cents.
NOW here’s Shaun the Bartender. Take it away, Shaun!
Bartending is a very unique occupation, where it is not uncommon dealing with different walks of life, everyday, at the same time. Not one day is the same, nor is anyone like the person sitting next to them. Yet, here we are, in a position where we need to ensure every person in the room is completely satisfied with not only you, they must have comfort with their surroundings and the people who are part of them.
You, as a bartender, need to be even-keeled and have a keen understanding of the human element, because this is what will make or break you in this occupation. You must be able to tolerate the personalities that surround you as you work the room and even throw in some stories from time to time, discuss interesting topics that were on the news today, and maybe even have some good and healthy arguments on your favorite sports teams. Most important, these patrons are more than a person filling up one of the seats, they are your friend and you are always happy to see them. Just this will make you a success in the bar that you work and make your place of business a busy and exciting place to be.
How do you go about doing this?
One mindset is to understand that people are there for a reason. Though some may act like they really don’t want to be part of the experience, they probably do. You didn’t make them come have a drink at your bar. They came in on their own. They are there to meet people and be part of the overall experience. There will be several different types of personalities, from the one who is the social butterfly that wants to be part of everyone’s conversation, to those who need to get some lessons on social etiquette. If you are doing your job and touching (talking to) each and every person at the bar, you are getting to know what type of personality fits each individual you have seated in front of you. While doing this, you should have a better idea on how to make everyone’s stay better while imbibing on a couple pops. Because it’s much more than that. If it wasn’t, they could have found a cheaper way by buying a six pack on their way home. We, as humans, are social creatures. Like it or not, even if one seems to be somewhat introverted when entering your establishment, they want to meet new people and be part of the camaraderie. You, as the captain of the ship, must take strides in making one feel the comfort of belonging. It is up to the bartender to give them that sense of being part of something much more than that happy hour beer after work.
Conversation is key. To know who you are dealing with, you will have to change your motions with each and every person:
a Chameleon.
Being able to do that takes some skill. When mastering this, it will become second nature. Then you will want to introduce them with people who they will feel comfortable with. This brings people coming back because they feel they are part of something much more than a place to whet their whistle. They have come to a place that has welcomed them and has made them feel like they are part of the experience with everyone else who has found their way in.
A chameleon changes with each hue so it can fit in with it’s surroundings at one given time. A bartender has to do that with each barstool. Is this an easy task? Not always. But it sure makes life a lot more interesting, trying to figure out the room. Sure sounds much more exciting than just pouring a beer and walking away until they need their next one, doesn’t it?
One great part of being in the bar business is that you can have the richest guy in the neighborhood no better than the poorest guy sitting right next to him. Our job is to break the ice so that each on of these individuals can talk about that day’s events with one another, then look forward to seeing each other the next time they find themselves sitting next to each other. You see, it’s not only about the right now. If you are hitting the right tone, the people that came to patronize your business today will be the people that will frequent you place, and invite their friends to join them tomorrow.
You don’t even need to look far to know which bartenders understand this philosophy. They are the one’s who always have a full bar when they are working. They are also the ones with the biggest smiles on their face due to this success. Don’t let the bar owners full you.
Bartenders, at least the ones who I would label as such, are not a dime a dozen. These fine folks love what they do, enjoy each and every individual who walks into their establishment, and introduces friends to one another. You will know when you are good with the skill of changing your personality with each and every person when you see your business start to get busier by the week.
If you are still trying to figure out how to build your regular business, I highly suggest that you find a successful bartender and watch them for the night to see what they do to attract people in their bar. Find out what they do to make their business thrive. Heck, go see several. You will learn a little something from all of them and it will prepare you for the road ahead if you play your cards right.
Here’s to doing just that….CHEERS!
Thanks, Shaun!!
And BREAKING NEWS-BREAKING NEWS -My Book-
Getting to WOW! Everybody WINS with 5 Star Service is NOW Available to Pre-Order!
Click here to Pre-Order Your Copy Today
http://www.christoffjweihman.com/my-book.html
Note-this is the original cover design which is presently being redesigned. All who Pre-Order
Getting to WOW! Everybody WINS with 5 Star Service, will receive a signed copy of the book. And prior to it’s release, you will be receiving a special sneak peek preview in a couple of days!
Thank you so much for reading, for your support, your prayers and encouragement.
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God Bless you all and Cheers!
Christoff J. Weihman
ASPIRE Enterprises
Las Vegas, NV
Soupfly 