How Troy’s Italian Kitchen Is Growing Through Relationships

Neel Vaidya from Troy’s Italian Kitchen joined me for a conversation packed with real lessons for pizza operators. We talked about smart pop-up strategy, local partnerships, vegan positioning, Pizza Expo, leadership, customer service, and how he uses AI and simple video content to grow without losing the human side of the business. This one is practical, personal, and full of ideas you can apply in your shop right away. 

Neel Vaidya is the owner of Troy’s Italian Kitchen in Arlington, Virginia. If you enjoyed this conversation, go follow Troy’s Italian Kitchen and connect with Neel online.

Instagram: @troysitaliankitchen
Facebook: Troy’s Italian Kitchen
Website: Troy’s Italian Kitchen 
Email: info@troysitaliankitchen.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

What's going on, Pizza Fan? Welcome back to another episode of Pizza King Podcast. I'm your host, Tyrell, as always. In this episode, I'm joined by a very special guest, Neil Vadia, from Troy's Italian Kitchen in Arlington, Virginia. Neil's a good friend of mine, and he came on to talk about really how he built his shop doing things his own way, right? From observing a full menu of vegan and glue-free options to building real connections in the community, doing events, killing it on social media, and having top-notch customer service. We talked about really like his journey into Pizza and what he's learned along the way. His lessons from competing at his first expo this year and how he uses simple content and AI tools to really grow his business. This was a real fun episode. Bunch of practical takeaways from an operator who's really trying to grow without losing who they are. We talked about that a lot. So shout out to Neil. Appreciate him for joining me on this one. I think you're really going to enjoy. So let's get into it. Neil Vadius, Choice Italian Kitchen in Arlington, Virginia. And doing all and doing that deal. Because that's different. That's like a different crowd of business.

SPEAKER_00 1:18

It's it's funny because so typically what we what we used to do was we would do like a whole 10-inch pie on the spot and charge$15, 16,$17,$18 a pie. You know, the amount of employees that I had to have, I would have to have at least three to four employees. Right. And then what I did was I was looking at people doing slices, and I'm like, how the hell is this possible? I was like, let's figure it out. Yesterday, we or Saturday we did a pop-up. What we did was we made all the 18-inch cheese pizzas here that morning.

SPEAKER_01 1:57

Right.

SPEAKER_00 1:57

Um, we took 25 pies, and then all I did was I brought all the toppings, and I made it very basic pepperoni sausage, or they can get pepperoni and sausage on on each slice.

SPEAKER_01 2:11

And so like a beach or a combo, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:14

Exactly. And my whole goal was to get rid of all the pizzas. Like that's my ultimate goal. And so we had like what, we did 21 pies, so we had like three or four extra.

SPEAKER_01 2:26

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 2:26

And so the vendors that I could remember that never came to our spot, I was like, here, here's a whole pie for you.

SPEAKER_01 2:33

What are you? So how do you, when you do that, how are you, I'm guessing, and I haven't seen your setup, but I'm guessing you got like a you got your guys and your your your only out there with you to reheat. So you're topping it with the pepperoni sausage, toss it back into the into the oven, reheat, and then serve. How are you serving? You got like, are you doing like a 10-inch box, 12-inch box right on the plate?

SPEAKER_00 2:53

It paper plates, it's funny because so the whole thing was is that I wanted to figure out how A, I could bring my pricing down. Okay. B employee cost to bring that down to, and also make sure that it's not hard, you know?

SPEAKER_01 3:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:09

Um, yeah, the the boxes, they look good, but let's be real, they cost like 25 cents, anywhere from 25 cents to 35 cents. But a paper plate costs four cents.

SPEAKER_01 3:22

Right.

SPEAKER_00 3:22

Or less.

SPEAKER_01 3:23

Come on, don't go to Bartles cheap plates. You gotta get the coated plate at least. I mean I'll just mess. I'll just mess with you.

SPEAKER_00 3:30

Because you know, like it's it's funny because we did a vegan festival a couple years ago, and we did like 386 pies at that place. We had to bring 400 boxes. Now, 400 boxes of 50, so that's eight bundles. Eight bundles, that's a lot.

SPEAKER_01 3:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:52

Versus you can get a box this big of 1200 plates, you know? And and yeah, there are people that say that, oh, I want to take it home. All right, then we'll just put it put another plate home. And let's be real, not everyone's gonna take it home. They're gonna eat it right then and there.

SPEAKER_01 4:08

At an event like that, I imagine people are looking for food to eat on the spot, right?

SPEAKER_00 4:13

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 4:13

In in the moment, which is uh and I'm guessing that's why you wanted to bring the price down so that you can get more more volume, more people through the line. And then and then what still make more money because because of the way you split the pie up and eight, you're doing 18 cutting six.

SPEAKER_00 4:27

Six. So it cost me 30, 30. So let's say the cheese is six. So six times six, thirty-six dollars for a whole 18-inch pie.

SPEAKER_01 4:35

You can't sell an 18 cheese for that.

SPEAKER_00 4:37

No.

SPEAKER_01 4:38

On a whole, but if you split it, then see there there's like a whole lesson in that too. And I and I love that we we started there because that's the kind of adjustment that makes you money, right? Right. So you brought your labor down, you actually increased your your sales, and you were able to get more people, more pizza in the hands of more people, which helps get the name out. And the only reason I asked about the box is just from a branding standpoint, like if people are walking around, were you the only pizza vendor there?

SPEAKER_00 5:03

Yes, I was the only pizza vendor there.

SPEAKER_01 5:05

So there you go. I like I like situations where folks know that it came from me, right? But exactly, but when you're just doing and you're the only one there, then they're gonna find you.

SPEAKER_00 5:14

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 5:14

How do you get people to connect with you outside of the event when you're doing stuff like that?

SPEAKER_00 5:19

So it's funny because um there's a person, we can do shout-outs, right?

SPEAKER_01 5:23

All day long, please. And then whoever it is, invite them on the show so we can talk to them too.

SPEAKER_00 5:28

So so there's there there's a there's a particular person, 550 per pizzeria, Laredo Tes Jeanette. Okay, she is so she is so small business oriented. Like she puts up small businesses. So it's funny because what I did was at this particular event, I went to all the different vendors. And there was one vendor in particular, because, you know, I have twin boys that are two years old, and there was an author who was a twin, two twin sisters, they write books. And I was just talking to them, and you know, they were like, you know, hey, we're a small business and blah, blah, blah, and stuff. And I'm like, I on the spot told them, I was like, what if you came into my store on a Friday evening where I get the most foot traffic and you just tell your story to the customers that walk in? And who cares if you sell two books or no books? Yeah, at least you can get the exposure. And I'm like, on a Friday night, I might do 108 tickets, you know? Um, but of 108 tickets, maybe four or five people will talk to you. That's great. That's less, I mean, that's less than you had before, you know? And and so nowadays, like all events, I want to talk to local businesses and and and reach out to them. Like, there's also this other company. Shout out to um Black Coffee Company. I just met the guy this weekend. He does pop-ups in his front yard nice every Saturday. And he was like, I asked him, I'm like, how many cups of coffee do you sell? He'll probably like 20, 30. Yo, can I bring pizza there? Can I pull up? Like, I'll I'll do a smaller event and stuff, but I'll bring like 10 pies.

SPEAKER_01 7:14

Yeah, just to get it out there, just to get it out there.

SPEAKER_00 7:16

And it's like, it's all about, you know, bonding with other companies, you know, like just bonding with other people because you don't know that person might have only 200 followers, and but those 200 followers, you might get one solid follow to come to your store, and bam, like that's the way I look at it.

SPEAKER_01 7:35

Yeah, it it it all starts there, and and I'm all about like trying to build relationships, build some, build some loyalty, especially when it comes to driving the business. Like, I don't I'll give you as many pizzas as it takes for you to come to our shop, for you to, you know, and see that you enjoy what we do, and ultimately, like, let me get your phone number and your email address so I can so I can stay in contact with you. So that's that's pretty dope. I haven't been to that 550. I've been to a 550. I went to one in uh in Fort Worth or Little Elm, actually, outside of outside.

SPEAKER_00 8:06

Dude, you need to get Jeanette on here. She's she's she is a person that I look up to. I look just look at her Instagrams and I just get inspired by the stuff she does.

SPEAKER_01 8:16

So just put it out there. I'm gonna reach out to her today now, just because you said it. We did hold on, we gotta slow down. I'm eight minutes in, and we haven't even told anybody who you are. For the the folks and and listen, I already know the people listening. They know you because you're you're like a master connector yourself, and you and you reach out to folks and you you make friends too. But tell us who you are and uh where you are, what you do.

SPEAKER_00 8:39

All right, so my name is Neil Vydia, and my wife's name is Ballock Hotel. We own Troy's Italian Kitchen in Arlington, Virginia, right outside of Washington, D.C. Um, me and my wife, so we she comes from an accounting company, uh, she comes from an accounting background. I come in from a gas station business, you know, typical Indian. And we bought this place in 2019. And it's funny because right before I bought this pizza place, I found out about Pizza Expo. And that's where when I went to Pizza Expo, that's where I was like, all right, man, I am so confident about making pizzas, you know? Yeah. And then we bought the place. Used to, we used to, at the beginning, we used to get frozen dough just so that I can get my foot on the door, like figure out how to do everything. I was connected with some great people on what kind of you know, stuff to get and everything. And then finally, you know, about well, even we bought our mixer that first year, and I started making dough, and now we just make our dough in-house. Another thing about us is is that right before COVID, we introduced veganism into our pizzeria. I think it was like two or three weeks before COVID hit, and we started seeing sales go down a little bit, and that's when we just started marketing about veganism, and that's when it just took off.

SPEAKER_01 10:04

So you're you're the go-to pizza spa for vegan options. Yes, in that in that greater DC area.

SPEAKER_00 10:10

Yes, we are. We don't have like the standard, you know, restaurants, they might have like one or two options. I think we have like 40, 40 different options in every category.

SPEAKER_01 10:22

So you you can offer almost your whole menu as a as a vegan option.

SPEAKER_00 10:28

Yes, vegan and gluten-free options, yes. But we at the same time, we also we push everything. Our meats, vegan, gluten-free. We have everything. So it's a place where, you know, a whole family can come and everyone can enjoy the exact same thing, but in a little bit of different form, but still it's pizza. Yeah, it's cow's own, you know, everyone enjoys it.

SPEAKER_01 10:52

Take me back to 2019, that that first trip to Expo. You said you came out feeling very confident that you could open or you could acquire this place and be successful, you could make pizza. What was it about that first experience that gave you all that confidence?

SPEAKER_00 11:06

So I'll tell you the actual real story. I actually came two days before Expo started and I snuck in and I went to different vendors and asked them that, hey, do you want some free help setting up? And I think there was like one or two people that said yes. And I was just like, you know, I think I was mixed, I was, it was a, I don't even remember what company it was, but it was a mixing company for the mixers. And I was just setting up a mixer, like just putting the bar on their logo, blah, blah, blah, whatever. And like he was just telling me about how long he's been coming and stuff. And like, I was like, okay, you know, like this is cool. I'm making a contact. And then, you know, I did it with another guy, and then, you know, like I went to all the classes, and that's where the classes helped me out so much because in the crowd, there was a lot of people that were either first timers in the in the you know, five years or 20 years or 30 years, whatever. So, and it was it was like I was talking to people who were above me, but could relate to what I was doing. And it was just like, you know, like they were they were able to say that whatever they were we were talking about and everything, but it was just amazing to join a brotherhood or sisterhood of what these people have done, you know? Yeah, and then I actually had to stop well. I went for two or three years, and then I had to stop because my wife gave birth to our kids and stuff, so I had to help out over there, and then finally I went back this year to Pizza Expo, and the amount of people that I met, it was just outrageous. Like, I got to meet a person from China who did not know any English, yeah, but we still talked about pizza. Yeah, you got the universal language in front of you, like exactly, and like it was it was just crazy on the amount of connections that I made. Even local people that I never even knew that had a pizza place that was like Franklin's pizza and pasta. That's another person you need to interview because he's a legend. Um he, you know, yeah, on Instagram and in all social medias, he looks so big. And like I was so scared to go up to him and talk to him, but like he was a cool dude.

SPEAKER_01 13:34

Like, yeah, I love that.

SPEAKER_00 13:36

So chill. Like, there was there were so many people that I've never met, and it was just a blessing. Like now I'm like so pumped up, even though expo is done a month ago, almost a month ago, I'm still pumped up, you know.

SPEAKER_01 13:50

Like, I think I think that to me is some of is one of the best parts of the experience is the energy that you bring back to your shop and that you bring back to your team. Even even if you can't take your whole team with you, when you come back fired up because you met somebody or you learned something new or you, you know, tried a new product, or whatever whatever the experience brings you, and you can do it so many different ways.

SPEAKER_00 14:12

Right.

SPEAKER_01 14:13

The energy that you bring back, man, just carries you. It just carries you. And people like, what you still go to expo? You like, are you learning anything? Are you meeting any? Like, I know a lot of folks, and I've met a lot of people, and I'm still meeting new people, but it's the energy that you get out of that you get to bring back.

SPEAKER_00 14:28

It's actually funny um that you say that. So there's another pizzeria. So what I like to do is I like to talk, call other pizzeria. I try to hit up one pizzeria a week. If I can talk to the owner just to just say hi, hello. Like I hit up a pizzeria in Florida last week and happened, the owner picked up, and we just connected, you know? Like it's just like a connection that, hey, if ever I have any issues, can I hit you up? You know? And it's funny because I called up one pizzeria and he was like, no, man, I don't go to Pizza Expo anymore. Like, I feel like it's a waste of time. And I'm like, let me ask you a question. What do you do there? Like, do you just walk the expo or do you go to the classes or do you participate in the events? And he's like, No, I just walk the floor. And I'm like, Yeah, that's I mean, great, it's great. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 15:21

It's not even half the experience, though.

SPEAKER_00 15:23

It's not half the experience.

SPEAKER_01 15:25

Not even half the experience.

SPEAKER_00 15:26

Nothing. It's not even 1% of the experience. And I was like, that's why. Like, that's why you feel like it's boring because you do the same thing over and over again and you don't see anything new. What you need to do is you need to go to the classes, you need to start um um going to the um the what is it called? The competitions. That's where you need to go.

unknown 15:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:52

That was a game changer for me. And you you actually competed this year for the first time. Congratulations on that.

SPEAKER_00 15:58

Bro, I was so blessed.

SPEAKER_01 16:01

It's a it's a whole new world when you go behind that curtain, right? And you're you're there amongst what I consider to be the best pizza makers on the planet, right?

SPEAKER_00 16:09

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 16:10

And you get to see their processes and you get to talk about their products and you get to just learn about who they are and their businesses. That becomes a whole different experience in itself.

SPEAKER_00 16:19

Yep. It was, it was, I think it was a life-changing thing that I had to do. Um, can I tell you about it?

SPEAKER_01 16:26

Please.

SPEAKER_00 16:27

Okay. I was there.

SPEAKER_01 16:28

I was there with you, but you could tell all of us about it.

SPEAKER_00 16:33

So it was it was it was funny. One of the guys, Sanctuary Pizza, Ryan, last year, he was like, bro, you need to sign up for one of the challenges. I don't care if you lose or win. You need to do it. And I was like, Ryan, I can't do it. I'm too afraid. He's like, dude, if you don't do it, I'm gonna buy you a placement. Okay. So then, fast forward, I went behind his back and I and I registered for World's Best Cheese Pizza. Okay. And then I was like, you know what? Let me let me put my energy into it. So every single day I made a pizza, I put it up on Instagram, and you know what? I was getting bashed. I was getting bashed. I was people, all these haters and stuff. But guess what? Those haters motive me even more and more and more. So I was like, hell yeah, I can do this, I can do this. And then I found out, you know, like when we got to Expo, um, I was so, so nervous because all these legends, like you have a 20-time world's best cheese pizza maker there. You have, you know, you just have so many people that are above you, and everyone's like cheering me on about it.

SPEAKER_01 17:46

Yeah, no one, no one treats you like that at Expo.

SPEAKER_00 17:48

There's no, no one treats you, and everyone, I remember the day before I tried out my dough, and I had a bunch of people that came up to me and was like, dude, your pizza's really good. Your pizza's really good. And I was like, all right, you know what? I'm not gonna try to improve anything because the pizza that I made there, that's the pizza that you're gonna get at my store. So I was like, I'm just gonna make a plain whatever I do, my normal way. I don't want to do anything fancy and nothing. So we give the pizza, we give the pizzas to the judges. You know, we had to wait a day. Then we had people in the audience got to try it out. And so many people were like, dude, this is a solid pizza. This is a solid pizza. And so at 12 o'clock midnight, I could not sleep. But I was in my hotel room and I got the email. And bro, I got a hundred and one place out of 110. Yeah, everyone's gonna say, dude, that's bad. No, it's not.

SPEAKER_01 18:48

That's a top 100 slice in the world.

SPEAKER_00 18:51

In the world, not in, you know, the DC area or the northeast in the freaking world.

SPEAKER_01 18:59

Competitors from all over the world.

SPEAKER_00 19:02

You know, it's it's crazy on how many phone calls I got from other pizza guys, and they were like, dude, just remember, this is your first one. Keep going, keep going. Next next year, you're gonna get 100th place. Next year after that, you might get 75. Whatever. Just keep going, you know? And you know what the crazy thing is? After I came back, I started making pizzas in my in my um in my shop. I actually started getting better at it.

SPEAKER_01 19:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:33

So I'm like, dude, this is.

SPEAKER_01 19:34

Were you able to even even you know, being there and being behind the curtain, were you able to learn from the the guys around you? The guys and girls around you?

SPEAKER_00 19:43

Yes, I learned so much. The first thing was I feel like my energy level was too much over there. I mean, I was a happy person, you know? Like everyone's in the zone, you know, like concentrating. And yeah, I was concentrating, but all like it just it just opened up my doors to see what other things I can do over there, you know? So it was life-changing thing that I did, and I was so happy I did it.

SPEAKER_01 20:10

So competing going forward now, every every always.

SPEAKER_00 20:13

And and you're gonna come, you remember?

SPEAKER_01 20:16

We we talked about it in we're gonna do it no matter what, but we're gonna push to get the subs up to 10,000.

SPEAKER_00 20:23

But no, even regardless in Ohio this year, yeah, or next year, we're gonna, or yeah, this year, we're gonna. This year in Ohio.

SPEAKER_01 20:30

We're gonna do it.

SPEAKER_00 20:31

Yeah, you're gonna compete with us.

SPEAKER_01 20:32

I'm gonna I'm gonna do it. So I'll I'll enter.

SPEAKER_00 20:34

I'll actually I'll I'll record yours.

SPEAKER_01 20:39

There we go. I don't know if I want to put mine on on camera my first time. You're so brave. And I got to I have so much respect for you because you stepped all the way outside of your comfort zone and you're you're brave enough to share the entire journey, you know, publicly with us all. And and you you just own it, you just live in it, man. And and you you may say your energy was too much, but you were the happiest person on the competition floor. I I could I could see it, I was there, I watched it, I witnessed it, you made so many friends. You there wasn't anybody that you didn't go and have a conversation with or say, hey, did you want to try try my pizza? So for that, that experience in itself for me to witness was was a joy. So thank you. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 21:21

No problem, no problem.

SPEAKER_01 21:23

We got to talk a little bit and uh, you know, at the expo, just about your your time in pizza and and the journey to get to this point starting in 2019, your seven years in the game. I know you you've learned uh just a a a ton just about business and and you know things in general, what to do, what not to do. We had we had touched a tad bit on ice cream. I remember you kind of took a little bit of a of a detour into the into the frozen world. Yes. What did you learn from that experience? Because I don't think because you're not doing it anymore, right?

SPEAKER_00 21:52

No, no. So it's it was funny because when I had this my pizzeria, um, there was an ice cream shop that went up for Sale and I bought it. I was like, you know what? I want to learn something else. But going into ice cream, I didn't really enjoy it. It was it was a good experience. You know, like a lot of business owners when they have a little bit of cash sitting up, they're like, okay, you know what? Let me go explore other things, you know? And with my experience of having it for I think one year, we had it for, and then we got rid of it. Pizza, I mean, ice cream is not for me. Like, I am just sticking to pizza, and that's it. Like, pizza makes everyone happy year round. No matter when there's, you know, it's cold, it's hot, whatever. It's raining, whatever. Like, pizza will always sell. And I and I just really enjoy pizza.

SPEAKER_01 22:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:43

And that's what I'm gonna stick to.

SPEAKER_01 22:44

That's what you're sticking to. You even got it tattooed on your arm, right?

SPEAKER_00 22:47

Yes, I do. Let me show you pizza.

SPEAKER_01 22:48

Let's see it.

SPEAKER_00 22:50

So, so a little bit about this tattoo. As you can see, we're love pizza. The six olives, there's six olives on here. So that represents um my me and my wife. Well, my wife went through IVF, and we've we only had six eggs, embryos. Um, and so those represent the six embryos that we had. And then the basil leaves, if you look at it, so we only have there's three basil leaves. So after we did IVF, we we lost three eggs. And out of three eggs, we had one more. And we we we did the science and we put it in her and stuff. And by a miracle, we had that one egg turned into two twin boys. That's that's a great it has been a blessing.

SPEAKER_01 23:36

That's incredible.

SPEAKER_00 23:37

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 23:38

I mean, even that journey in itself, because it's that's not an easy process when you're talking about the the ups and downs emotionally, you know, trying to go through that process while running a business at the same time. How are you, you know, how are you guys managing, you know, home and work and still be in a team throughout all of that?

SPEAKER_00 23:57

So when my wife was down, when she was sad, I would bring her a pizza and it would make her happy. I'm telling you, pizza makes everyone happy.

SPEAKER_01 24:06

What's her what's her what's her go-to pizza? What's her favorite?

SPEAKER_00 24:09

Plain cheese pizza. She's just cheese pizza or it'd be a lote pizza that we have. Those are her two go-to's. Um, but that journey was very, very rough, especially for her. She is, so it's funny because in my phone, I have her named as Superwoman.

SPEAKER_01 24:26

I saw that.

SPEAKER_00 24:28

She has dedicated her life or her time here, you know, to help me, help me build this business. She was literally working at the shop when she was an accountant. She was working at the shop when we couldn't afford employees. So she would work her eight-hour shift, and then she would, you know, in between customers, whatever, she would help me out and stuff. And then unfortunately, she got laid off. So then I slipped in application to her and I said, Yo, Troy's Italian Kitchen is hiring, you know? Like, fill it out, I will hire right away. So, no, she she joined the company and stuff. She takes care of all the back end. And now with the kids and stuff, she definitely just takes care of the back ends. She'll come once every six months to the pizza shop. And, you know, but like the communication that me and her have, yes, it's ups and downs and stuff, but I feel like we're we're the best team because she knows what I want and I know what she wants. And it's like we just don't, we don't step on each other's toes. Like, for example, we're redoing our website, right? I told her, I said, look, once it's completely done, let me know and I will look at it. And if anything's bad or anything needs to update, I'll let you know and you take care of it. And that's it, you know? And we just go with that. Like, if it's just easier that way, you know? So we we make a really, really good team.

SPEAKER_01 25:51

Yeah, you guys, you it sounds like you both have your own lanes, and you know, when you need to give some input, you give it, but otherwise you let her do her thing and she lets you do yours.

SPEAKER_00 25:59

Yeah, cool.

SPEAKER_01 26:00

And, you know, like I said before, you know, appreciate you for just letting me be there with you through that because I was also able to witness how much not just her, but your entire family supported you as a competitor. And they they watched, we would put them live on your phone on FaceTime, and every everybody was just, I mean, even the kids, everyone was just so excited to see you excited to do that. I thought that was super cool.

SPEAKER_00 26:25

That that was hold on, let me see if I can find that video where where you took it. Actually, I no, I don't even know where it is. Maybe we can put that clip up, you know?

SPEAKER_01 26:34

Yeah, send it, send it to me. I'll add the I'll add the clip.

SPEAKER_00 26:36

That that was an amazing moment where when when literally I asked the kids, I was like, How did daddy do? And they just yelled. They're like, Great, yeah. And then I was like, you give daddy a 10 out of 10, and they're like, Yeah. I'm like, bro, like that was this is why I'm so pumped up because I want to see my kids like I want my kids to see that, hey, like their dad is working hard, and and who knows, maybe one day they'll take over their pizza, this pizza shop and make it even bigger, you know.

SPEAKER_01 27:10

Are you are you looking to, you know, expand the brand at all?

SPEAKER_00 27:14

I would love to, but to be honest with you, I get a lot of people that hey, we will invest in with you. We'll invest with you. But you know what? I don't need investors, I need people who want to take time and grow something with me. You know, like that is the hardest thing. Like, yeah, people tell me that, oh, you should open up, you know, a pizza shop here. You should, you know, you'll you'll do great and stuff. And frankly, I'll be like, look, if you can help me find someone who wants to manage, you know, like the people is the hardest part. People is the hardest part. And and honestly, like, I'm a chill guy. Like, I just I love to make everyone happy. I, you know, my previous stuff where I was, I was, I got, you know, mentally abused, the business that I was. I don't want to treat people. Like, I want to treat people like human beings, not robots, you know? And, you know, like for example, every every federal holiday, I give my employees off. I give Sundays off. You know, like people, other restaurants, they don't do that because that's the biggest time where they can make money. But the way I look at it is Sundays were closed. Guess what? That's family day. And and my employees, they need to spend time with their families, and I need to spend time with their families. And so that's why we decided, yeah, we lose three, four thousand dollars, but guess what? My employees work, they understand, and then you know what? Six days a week, they'll work even harder.

SPEAKER_01 28:45

Yeah, we go hard, we go hard for the time that we're here, knowing that we have a break, a built-in break.

SPEAKER_00 28:50

And then like Christmas and Thanksgiving and all these big holidays, we're closed because we want to spend time with just like our customers want to spend time with their families, you know?

SPEAKER_01 28:59

So that's a that's a and that's a tough decision for an operator because when you start to you know look at the numbers, you're like, oh wow, but you can't you can't make all your decisions based on on finances, right?

SPEAKER_00 29:11

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 29:12

You can't do this alone. And I appreciate that approach because you know, to your point, there's a lot of folks out there willing to give money and a lot of folks willing to make an investment because they want return on investment. But how many folks are willing to invest their time and energy because it takes more than money to be successful in the pizza business?

SPEAKER_00 29:29

Right, right. Yeah, that's true.

SPEAKER_01 29:31

Takes more than money. What has been, you know, one of the best lessons that you've learned over the seven years you've been open and been around? And I know it was open before that, but the seven the seven years you've been there.

SPEAKER_00 29:44

So the the biggest thing is that customer service. You can have the nastiest pizzas, but if your customer service is the best, and in very, very small little things, like as soon as a customer walks in, we will ask you, How are you doing today? How is you know, how has your week been? Anything exciting happening? And then we will start talking about what you would like to order and stuff. And another thing is is that when the customer leaves, you know, when they say thank you so much, you cannot say thank you. You have to say my pleasure.

SPEAKER_01 30:18

There's another brand that does that.

SPEAKER_00 30:20

Yes, that's where I got it from.

SPEAKER_01 30:22

There's another brand. It's crazy, they're like the biggest brand in the world.

SPEAKER_00 30:27

Exactly. And I'm like, it's actually funny. My manager told me about that. He will stop me whenever I say thank you to a customer, and he's like, No, Neil, you can't say that. You have to say my pleasure. Because and a lot of times I'll see customers turn around and look at me and they'll have a bigger smile.

SPEAKER_01 30:44

It makes the pizza better, too.

SPEAKER_00 30:46

It makes the pizza better. And you know, now, now, now we have an amazing pizza. Um, you know, like my whole thing is that, you know, we'll have people that come in that are scared to try things. You know, it was a funny story. So we on Saturday, we had a couple that came in, and you know, one of them was vegan and one of them was not vegan. She wanted wings and the other guy wanted vegan wings. And I told them, I said, Look, why don't you just try it out? If you don't like it, that's it. You tried it. You can check it out for books. She actually tried it and she was like, Wow. She tried the vegan wings. The vegan wings. She was like, Wow, that is really amazing. But but you know what? It's the biggest thing is that other other customers, they have bad days and they'll come here to a pizzeria because pizza makes everyone happy. And so I feel like anyone, when they walk into this door, even if they're having a bad day or a miserable day or a happy day, you should always, always treat people with respect. And, you know, even if we're having issues, leave that to the side. Because people are coming to us. They want to get, they want to get better, they want to get happier. And so that's why I treat people with 10 times better customer service as you know, any other Joe Schmouth place.

SPEAKER_01 32:10

Yeah, I love that. I mean, I was gonna ask, like, as an operator, what we're, you know, what have you learned about just leadership? But it sounds like you really leaned into really just catering to the guest experience and making sure that, you know, the folks who actually pay the bills are are enjoying their experience here.

SPEAKER_00 32:28

So leadership, it's funny because I I also listen to what my employees are saying. A lot of places they're gonna say, no, Neil, I'm the boss. Like, I would be like, no, I'm the boss. We're gonna do it this way. Okay. One of my employees, they came out with he he sent me something on Instagram or something like that. And he was like, Oh, look, this place is doing like a uh cherry blossom smoothie. Why don't we do a cherry blossom pizza? I was like, oh man, all right, let me tap it into ChatGPT. Can you make me a cherry blossom pizza? Okay, within 10 seconds, it said put uh garlic butter, cheese, spinach, cherry tomatoes, and then bake it. And then after it's done, put balsamic glaze on it. I'm like, dude, chat GPT just created a new pizza for me. You know?

SPEAKER_01 33:20

I've never I've never used chat for a recipe. That's that's pretty dope.

SPEAKER_00 33:24

And another thing is is that you can actually take a picture of the pizza and ask Chat GPT, how does this pizza look? Do I need to add anything to it? And then one time it told me, yes, add parmesan cheese to it, and it'll look better, or it might taste better. So I'm like, dude, I have I have like a you know a go-to person now, Chad GPT, to make pizzas. So it's it's all about listening to everyone in my in my store. Yes, I am the owner, but guess what? I don't act like an owner. I am a team member. We're all one team. My manager, he sometimes tells me, yo, go, can you go wash the dishes? No problem, I'll do it. I have no problems of doing anything, I'll clean the bathroom. I have no problems at all. So I feel like if you guys, if owners bring it down to the level of one, your business will work 10 times better. 100% agree.

SPEAKER_01 34:19

100% agree. And I and I gotta go kind of touch on some of the like Chat GPT and AI because I think there's this stigma that if you're using AI, then it's it's not, you know, you're not gonna get something authentic or you're not using it. People use it in ways that I I guess waters down the product or the the output or the content when you see chat created images or chat wrote this or chat did that. But you found different ways to use, you know, AI as a thought partner and and someone that can, you know, answer your questions and help you work through some of your some of the things that you're you're planning and doing. What are some of the other ways you like to use, you know, AI tools like ChatGPT or Cloud or whatever, whatever you use?

SPEAKER_00 35:03

So another thing, what I did was I literally asked them, okay, I want to gain more followers on social medias. What should I do? It gave me a whole plan on what things to do. And then I asked it, I said, okay, I have a pizzeria. What are some things I should do? It gave me the ideas. And then what I did was I said, okay, let's take this idea and this idea now, put it together, and it made my what I wanted to do. And that's what I continue to do. Literally, what we started doing was we started interviewing customers who would order pizzas from us. I see that. And because a lot of people want to see, people are tired of seeing my face all the time. So what I started doing was asking, hey, would you like to be on a video? Okay. If they said yes, all right, what kind of pizza did you order? A medium? Okay, I'm gonna upgrade it to a large for free. You just have to talk for 10 seconds, and that's it.

SPEAKER_01 36:02

Just give me a reaction. Any review, honest review.

SPEAKER_00 36:05

Honest review. And I started recording, and you know, like I think I got around 20 different posts that I can put about it, you know.

SPEAKER_01 36:14

You just and you're just with your phone right there in the moment.

SPEAKER_00 36:17

That's it. Just my phone and my microphone, and that's it. Nothing crazy, nothing crazy. I think that's everything everything can fit in my pocket.

SPEAKER_01 36:26

I think that's the lesson where you know, I think people are using AI tools the wrong way when you're trying to make AI do the work for you. Because what I just got out of what you said was AI helped you plan and think through the work, but then you had to actually go do it.

SPEAKER_00 36:40

See that yes. It's it's you know, you can you can put up on there, hey, make me a poster saying five dollars a slice and put a picture.

SPEAKER_01 36:50

It'll do it, right?

SPEAKER_00 36:51

It's it's gonna do it, and then you're gonna post it and you might get 10 customers. But if you actually do a 30 second to a minute video, you could get 10 customers, 20 customers. It's funny, so when before I started posting about the pizza expo um a month and a half ago, we had 3,000 followers. And now we have we have hold on, we have 4,353 followers exactly. And literally, it was because I was posting of who I am making the pizzas, making, you know, using. I mean, there's another program that I use is Cap Cut, but you know, everyone says it's hard, but it's not hard. Learning pizza is hard, it's hard. There's so much science in it, but Cap Cut, shout out to CapCut.

SPEAKER_01 37:50

I love CapCut, I use it a lot.

SPEAKER_00 37:52

Yes, and within half an hour I can make a 30-second to a minute video, and then you go back to Chat GPT and ask them, hey, this is what my video is about. Give me a nice caption, give me the hashtags, give me all that stuff, and it gives it to you. If you don't like it, tell them you want to rewrite it, and that's it. Like, you know, it's it's not hard.

SPEAKER_01 38:13

Yeah, and it doesn't, and it doesn't have to be as generic as people make it seem.

SPEAKER_00 38:17

You can you can you know uh another thing is a lot of times when I watch my videos, I hate my videos. Okay, I hate my videos so much, and I'm like, dude, I could have done this better, I could have done this better, but then you look at the views, like some of my views are like at 10,000 views, 20,000 views, 4,000 views. The thing is, is that people just want to see who the owner is and how genuinely they are.

SPEAKER_01 38:43

I want to I want to see videos of you bossing people around in the shop.

SPEAKER_00 38:47

I don't ever do that. I don't, I don't see here here's another thing. If my employees are acting, if if my employees are busy in the shop, right? And something I need to get done, I'll go and do it myself because they're busy doing other stuff. Like I'm not gonna stop them. And if they're not busy and I'm free and they're just chilling, and if it's not a big deal to do, I'm still gonna go do it because let them relax.

SPEAKER_01 39:12

Get your break. Yeah, because dinner's coming.

SPEAKER_00 39:16

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 39:16

You gave me some some good advice on video too, because you're like, dude, you you posted that video, you didn't tag anybody, you didn't, you didn't do that. You know, you understand those platforms and you know what to do and how to use them because you put the time and the effort in into doing it and you openly share, share that advice. How do you, how do you, you know, you know, what advice would you give to somebody who's got a pizzeria, they're just getting started, they want to grow on social, they want to do those things, and there's so much to learn, but where do you start?

SPEAKER_00 39:44

So, what what I would do is the first very simple stuff. If you make a cheese pizza, you already have three people that you can tag. The dough company or sorry, the flour company. Actually, no, you have a bunch. So you can tag the flower company, the yeast company, the water company if there is a special water that you use, then you have the cheese company and then the sauce company. So right there you have six people that six people that you can tag. And then what I would start doing is start tagging other pizzarias. Because, for example, when people tag me another pizzeria, I straight up put it on my story. Because not all 4,000 followers are in like my area, they're all over the world. So let's say if one day 550 tags me in a post, right? One of my 4,000 followers might be in Loreto, Texas, and I post it up. Well, guess what? We just made the connection to that one customer to go try it out. So it's it's it's important to make sure that you tag, tag, tag the the people, different companies. And then listen, I've I've had people DM me and say, can you please stop tagging me? That's not a problem. Listen, I'll find there's gonna be other people out there that wants them to be tagged. Like, you know, like it's okay. One door closes, another five doors are gonna open up.

SPEAKER_01 41:11

It's not a big deal.

SPEAKER_00 41:12

It's not a big deal.

SPEAKER_01 41:13

I love to see it when I get tagged in a post because it's like, whoa, somebody, you know, somebody thought on my page or somebody thought on my me or my account, and you know, they wanted me to see it, or maybe I'm involved in it somewhere, but I love it too. And I try to share that uh, I need to get better about tagging folks. I never do that, and I don't even do hashtags. I gotta get better about that. I'm so lazy.

SPEAKER_00 41:33

I do want to say, if anyone on here who's listening who wants help on making videos or hashtagging or anything like that, I am willing to share everything what I do and literally like show you legitly how to do everything, you know? Because at the end of the day, we're all here. We all want to learn. And I'm okay of teaching people.

SPEAKER_01 41:57

I love that. We'll make sure we'll we'll drop your email address and your you know, the pages, all that in there. Neil, we could I could talk to you all day, but I know you have a business to open and run. I can I can already see people like walking by. They got questions. Yes. So, real quick before you go, we just talked about social a little bit. Tell people where to find you, your best platform to connect.

SPEAKER_00 42:16

So the all the platforms you can do Instagram, which is Troy's Italian Kitchen, also on TikTok in YouTube. Um, and then if you want to email me, you can email me at infotroy'sitalian kitchen.com and shoot me an email, shoot me a DM, um, and and I'll get back to you. And then I will just share you my phone number and you can give me a call. You know, can I can I tell you one thing? Okay, with with with posting a lot now, I've actually started talking to people in London. They hit me up in Australia. We use WhatsApp. They would call me and they're like, Neil, can you show us how like inspire us, inspire me? Like, I'm inspired by you because, first of all, you're you're Indian. Not everyone can see that I'm Indian. Um, but dude, like there's not a lot of Indians in the pizza industry. Like, what inspire you to do it and stuff. So don't be afraid to contact me. And you know what? Since I brought it up, so the dot, the line, the two orange lines, the meaning of it is God's feet. And the dot means devotion to God's feet. So it is a reminder for me to make sure that I follow God's feet and to do the right thing. Ordered steps. You know, this is mainly a reminder for me on who I am. But you know what? People love it. And you know, you can't miss it, you know? Like, you can't miss it.

SPEAKER_01 43:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 43:43

So, but yeah.

SPEAKER_01 43:45

Thank you for sharing that. I appreciate you, Neil. You're you're a good dude. You're you're a friend of mine. You know, you you and I, you know, you can call me, you can text me. Yes, we're we're gonna do this again. This is actually this is actually our second time interviewing, but we're gonna we're gonna get a little series going because you know a lot of folks and you you you're a great you got a great story. There's even more layers to you than we could dig into today. Yep. But thank you for your time, my friend.

SPEAKER_00 44:08

Not a problem.

SPEAKER_01 44:09

We'll we'll talk soon and thanks for sharing your story. We'll make sure everybody goes goes follow, goes to connect with you. And uh we'll we'll talk soon.

SPEAKER_00 44:17

Yes. See you later.

SPEAKER_01 44:18

Yes sir.