Three and a half decades on the operations side. Fourteen years on the digital side. One person you can talk to about both.

Thirty-five years in food service. I worked every position there is.

I started in food service when I was a teenager. I stayed for thirty-five years.

In that time I worked every position there is: line, counter, cash, prep, kitchen lead, manager, owner. I opened, ran, and turned around food operations for myself and for other people. I made every mistake a small business owner can make, and I learned what every one of them costs.

That's the part most marketers never see. They write the campaign, they don't run the register. They see the funnel, they don't see the freezer. I've done both.

I watched up close what separates the businesses that survive from the ones that don't.

When COVID hit, I spent a lot of time supporting food truck operators trying to stay alive. I documented their work, helped them with their digital footprint, and watched up close what happens when an entire industry has to rebuild its operating model in real time.

That experience is the reason I think and talk about strategy and systems the way I do. It is not a framework I read in a book. It is what I watched separate the businesses that survived from the ones that didn't.