Will Guidara’s book, Unreasonable Hospitality, has quickly become a national bestseller and taken our industry by storm. The tagline, “The remarkable power of giving people more than they expect”, teases the philosophy that helped him build one of the world’s best restaurants at Eleven Madison Park in New York City.

Last week we hosted our second annual MIBE Summit. Our goal for this event is to create a space each year for heart leaders to come together to be inspired, share wisdom with one another, and set intentions for how they will lead moving forward.

This week we hosted our annual Core Value Awards Party at Footers Catering. This tradition is our opportunity to celebrate what we accomplished the previous year and acknowledge the individuals who made a significant impact on Footers Catering.

Happy New Year! Each year as an executive team at Footers, we select a theme for the year to come. This serves as the overarching guide for where we want our focus to be and a mantra for our team to rally around.

I am enjoying some time off this week, and I hope you are able to celebrate with friends and family as 2023 comes to an end. Instead of a traditional MIBE Message, I want to share a video with you that I first saw a few years ago and it popped up again this holiday season during a presentation I attended.

On Monday evening, we held our annual Footers Catering Lip Sync battle! After our last busy weekend in December, this tradition started in 2016 and has become one of our most celebrated and looked forward to events of the year.

Last week our executive team at Footers Catering had our annual two-day strategic planning session. It’s something I look forward to each year as the six of us gather to discuss what we learned from the previous year and make decisions on what needs to be prioritized in the year to come.

It’s no secret that I love sports. Last week I was in Las Vegas for a speaking engagement that happened to be two days before the Pac 12 Football Championship Game.

December marks one of the busiest times of the year for caterers around the world. There are company parties, year-end celebrations, and hosts who invite friends and family to gather in their homes.

“Thanksgiving Thankfuls” has become an annual tradition at Footers. It has had such a big impact on our team that it is now included in our non-traditional benefits for those who qualify. Managers are asked to write one to two sentences about every other person on our management team.

I recently led a discussion for the Leading Caterers of America about “leading with purpose”. Among an impressive group of leaders in our industry, we shared the things that great leaders do and the behaviors common among not-so-great leaders.