The Difference Between Ownership and Influence

In this Takeout Tip episode, Tyrell Reed breaks down a hard truth that every pizzeria owner, partner, and investor needs to hear. Respect from your team does not come from ownership. It comes from leadership. If you think putting money into the business should automatically earn loyalty, trust, or influence, this episode will challenge that fast. Tyrell shares why staff respond to consistency, humility, support, and real value, not titles, ego, or ownership percentages. This is a strong message for pizza shop owners, restaurant operators, and leaders who want to build trust, lead better, and create a stronger team culture inside their store. 

Streamline Your Inventory Process!
📝 Track stock levels: No more guesswork! Discover the future of restaurant management: WookAI

Join the SPM Pro Owner Group
SPM Pro is a curated group of independent pizzeria owners. Monthly call and private group access.

Get 3 Months Free With ThrivePOS
Pizza Driven Point of Sale. Schedule your free demo today! Tell em' the Pizza King sent you.

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Don't confuse ownership with influence. Don't confuse investment with leadership. And don't assume the team owes you something you have not worked to earn. Respect is not part of the deal. It's just not. It's just not. It's built over time. It's earned through action. And if you want more of it from your team, start by asking whether your presence deserves it. What's going on, Pizza Fan? Welcome back to the Pizza King Podcast. I'm your host, Tyrail Reid, back with another takeout tip. And uh just excited to be back here at the house, be back in the office and here talking to all of you folks. Dallas and I went up to New York last weekend to speak at the New York restaurant show, and that was a really good experience. We had a lot of fun. We explored the city. We had some pizza, of course, but mostly we just we just enjoyed, enjoyed our time together. He had a whole list of things that he wanted to check off, and I was I was so happy to see him doing those things that he wanted to do. But today I got a quick takeout tip. Um I know we've been doing store updates with this, but I I really came across something this week that I wanted to share here, and I thought, you know, this was the best platform and best forum for that. So something that that came up in in my over the course of my week for someone that I was working with, and I wanted to talk about it here on the show. It's probably something that comes up more often than people are willing to admit. But the idea that ownership is something that automatically comes with respect. Respect is earned, not invested. You know what I mean? Just to put it plainly, just because you invested money in a business does not mean that the staff owes you respect. You may own a part of the company, you may have put money into the deal, and you you might have your name on the paperwork, but that still does not make you a leader in the eyes of the team. And I think that is where some owners or partners or investors really get sideways, right? They start believing that because they help fund the business, that the staff should naturally look at them with a certain level of admiration or loyalty. And, you know, that's just not how it works. That's just not how it works. Your team is not giving out respect based on, you know, you know, cap tables or ownership percentages or, you know, any of that. You know, they're responding to what they see. They're watching how you act, they're paying attention to how you treat people, and then they notice whether your presence helps the business or creates tension or chaos, right? This is what earnest respect. You got to remember that the people working in the shops day-to-day are living the reality of the business, right? They're dealing with the lunch rushes, the dinner rushes, the customer complaints, the call-offs, the preps, the mistakes, like the pressure, all of it in the pace of the business is all on their hands. So when someone who isn't in the day-to-day operations or in the day-to-day flow of things is expecting to be respected just because they have money in a deal, that usually don't land pretty well. Like it usually don't land the way that they thought, right? It usually does not come off the right way. And I think we all know why, right? Because our staff can tell the difference between ownership and leadership. You know what I mean? Ownership is a legal term. It's it's handled through documents and through filings and and things like that. Leadership is more personal. Leadership is is is what is is built by relationships, right? Ownership says that you have a stake in this business. But leadership says that you've earned the trust of the team. You know what I mean? These are not the same thing. They're not the same thing. I've seen this happen when when absentee owners or or a partner walks into a store and starts, you know, trying to talk to everybody like they should stop and listen to them, or they start making comments that don't make any sense, or they're they're trying to change directions or make changes on things. They start questioning people in the middle of the rush. And, you know, you could just tell that they have no idea what they're doing. You could, you can, you could tell that they assume that they're coming from a place of authority, right? And they really don't have any credibility. And the staff doesn't respond well to that because to them you're just a customer. You know what I mean? And it's a quick, quick way to lose the room. It's real quick. So, like, people don't respect titles, you know, the way that owners think that they should, right? They respect consistency, they respect competence, they respect a little bit of humility, they respect somebody who knows how to carry themselves and treat other people the right way. You know what I mean? This is what your team is gonna respond to. They're asking questions like, hey, does this guy even know like what he's doing? Is this guy even is this guy even listening to us? You know, or do are you gonna make things better when you come here or are you gonna are you gonna drive us crazy? You know, are you showing up full of ego? Are you showing up calm and ready to help? Like, do does this person care about me or do they just care about the numbers? That's that's the kind of stuff that's going on internally in your in the team's mind, right? You know, talking to the owners out there, to the to the investors, to the partners, to the people who are, you know, important to the process, right? Because, you know, we needed, we need that money, or we needed that that that support or whatever it was, you know, if you had a building or like however you got into it, right? We we needed that. And and it matters, but you gotta understand something else. If you're not in the business every day, day to day, working shoulder-shoulder with the team, shoulder to shoulder with the team, your words are gonna carry less weight unless you have the character that can fill the gap. You know what I mean? You can still get respect, but you gotta get it in a different way that's built with character. That's and that's what people gotta realize, right? You can't expect the same level of respect as somebody who's coming in and opening the store every day or closing the store every day, somebody who's coaching the team, somebody who's solving the problems and carrying the standards every day. If all you're doing is showing up once in a while and reminding people that you own part of the business, that's not leadership. It's not, it ain't. It's just not. Leadership is earned in small amounts and in small moments. Like it's earned when you listen before you talk. Leadership is earned when you have somebody's back during the shift, when you ask good questions, when you when you solve problems, when you work close with people and you help them get through the things that they're going through. That's where leadership is earned and that's where you build trust. And what trust is what respect grows from. That's what you gotta understand. So I think a lot of people want the result without the responsibility, right? They want respect without doing the work that earns it. They want the title to do the heavy lifting. I'm the owner. I'm the owner. I don't mean shit. The team is smarter than that. You know what I mean? They they know what's real, they know who, you know, who's there for the business or who's just there, you know, who's there for the people, who's just there, you know, for the numbers. You know what I mean? They know who who just wants to have their ego strong and who just wants to feel important. So to my people out there, if you're an owner, if you're a partner, you're an investor, and you're listening to this, here's the question that I would ask you. When your staff sees you, what do they feel? Do they feel supported? Do they feel judged? Do they feel calm or do they feel pressure? Do they see someone who understands the business, or do they see someone who just wants who just wants to have their ego stroked or just want some respect? The answer to that matters, like, because money may buy you a seat at the table, but it can't buy the wrong. I'm gonna say it again. Money, money might buy you a seat at the table, but money can't buy you the wrong. You still gotta earn that. You still gotta earn it. You still earn it through being humble, being consistent, respecting the people who are doing the work, supporting the leadership that is already in place, not bucking the leadership. You gotta support the leadership. You earn it by showing up in a way that helps the business move forward, not in a way that supports only your own, your own missions. You know what I mean? The best leaders don't walk in demanding respect. They walk in and bring value. And really, that's the whole lesson right there. Respect comes from adding value. The best leaders listen, they learn, they support, they set the tone, and they make people better. That's what leadership is. You know what I mean? Like, and and your team will respect you in a way that you won't believe. Like, so that's today's takeaway. Don't confuse ownership with influence. Don't confuse investment with leadership. And don't assume the team owes you something you have not worked to earn. Respect is not part of the deal. It's just not. It's just not. It's built over time, it's earned through action. And if you want more of it from your team, start by asking whether your presence deserves it. And that's today's takeout tip. Hey, listen, we started the school group. Go join it. Link is in the show notes. We're throwing all of the lessons, all of the, you know, all of the courses, all of the books. We're engaging there every single day. I'm back off my trip, so we'll get back to engaging there every single day. Come on in and join us on school. This is like where we get the back room for the Pizza King podcast listeners. So I appreciate each one of you. Also, what what else have I been doing? We just did, we just did New York, so we got Pizza Expo coming up in Vegas from the 23rd through the 25th. Come see me on the show floor. Um, I also joined another group. I joined SPN Pro. Fantastic group. I did miss the call because I was traveling this week, but monthly calls. You got some of the best owners and operators in the pizza game, all in one, all in one community. Very, very solid. Lots of marketing stuff. We're talking social media, we're talking text and email marketing, we're talking about, we're talking about POS systems, we're just talking about all the things that we do to help move our business forward. You're talking about you want to talk about leadership, come come join us on SPM Pro. I'll drop a link for that as well. But that's all I got for you this week. I'm Tyreel Reed. You got a very special episode coming up next week with Mike Petera from Pizza Mono Mio. And, you know, just excited to drop that one. Holler at y'all, man. Have a great weekend. Peace.