We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Missy Tadehara a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Missy, appreciate you joining us today. What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?
To be successful, I think you need to define what success means to you, not what someone else tells you it is.
My personal definition of success is to fill as many cups as possible.
Now you might be thinking, she serves BBQ. What’s she doing? Free refills?
In a sense, yes.
I have been gifted with the ability to learn, both first hand & vicariously through others. Knowing that not everyone has access to education, I try to share what I can. Sometimes it’s through hands on experiences, other times it might be leading by example.
At the end of the day, as long as someone’s day is better, mind is expanded or hope is sparked, I will call it a success.
Bettering someone’s life, sharing something that is free for me to give, paying it forward.
Success.
Missy, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
Whenever I’m asked how I got to where I am, or where someone perceives me to be, I ponder how ‘real’ of an answer I should provide. As with most things in life there are multiple versions of the truth. Some including more detail than others.
The short story is, I received my first $100 tip at 13 years old. It left me feeling rich! And for anyone that has ever had, or been a teenager, you know there is no telling a teen that their perception is skewed. So I carried that ‘rich’ feeling with me & ended up working at 3 additional restaurants, where the only common denominator was that they were all family owned.
I was able to see a mother & daughter thrive. I saw an immigrant not only provide for his own family, but set up his entire staff for success upon his retirement. And the 3rd place, I got to experience the darker side of business where work ethic & character meant nothing if you didn’t ‘fit in’.
All 3 locations taught me different pieces of the food industry. But what I really learned was that positive customer service was key & how damaging the impact of negative service could be.
As a small business owner you have to understand that your customer isn’t just the person placing an order, but it’s also your employees, your vendors & your partners within the community. Everyone is your customer.
This mindset helps me when I’m preparing a quote, answering the phone, or greeting someone at the window. People reach out for all types of reasons: birthday’s, graduations, memorial services, class reunions, fundraisers. food for the family or even a quick lunch on the go.
Remembering that my “customer” is not just the person placing the order, but all those involved in making it happen, lets me balance out the requests.
I know we all want to thrive, but if we are sinking in the process, nobody is going to be successful. So instead of going for 15 minutes of fame, I’m striving for longevity. I want our reputation to be positive amongst all of our “customers” not just the ones that pay us.
As for what I’m most proud of, I don’t know if it’s really pride, or if it’s what makes me the most excited. Either way, our motto is “Expect the Unexpected.”
These 3 little words have enabled me to be creative & share experiences through taste buds. If I’m in the mood for soup because it’s Fall, it becomes soup season. If I’m feeling like comfort food because the rain just won’t stop, those homestyle dishes come out and give warm hugs. If I’m reminiscing about flavors I grew up with, all of a sudden we have Japanese infused BBQ.
If it wasn’t for the diversity of our customer base & the support of our crew, none of the “unexpected” would be possible.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
I think there were a couple factors that helped us grow within our market. The first one being strong community ties. The locals were already aware of my family’s reputation and genuine authenticity.
It really helped to build our initial customer base, which led to word of mouth marketing. In my perspective, this is the best kind of marketing possible.
It became so powerful, we had people stopping by, asking for our cards because they were going somewhere & wanted to pass them out.
That small town passion to help others flourish, essentially making the whole town better, well it’s heart warming.
The second factor would be my husbands process when it comes to smoking. People quickly realized that our BBQ was different from what they had previously experienced in Colorado, but they were not quite sure why. His process gave us an edge, and once we fused it with some other cultural flavors, we developed a niche.
He has an ability to study a fire, distribute its heat effectively & ensure that different cuts of meat get just what they need.
He puts his own twist on flavors he grew up loving & those he has grown to love.
He looks at each new smoker as an opportunity to diversify & create a different texture, improve the presentation, or enhance a flavor. He will take the strengths of one smoker to start a cook & switch to a different smoker to achieve the desired outcome.
His understanding of the different woods & how certain temperatures will alter everything, well, it’s almost like chemistry.
His contributions don’t stop there. His care for the meat is like an art form. The way he trims a piece of meat will depend on customer requests, the smoker of the day, the temperature outside, the type of fuel & the expected result. He makes it look easy to anyone watching, but I promise everything going on in the background is making us & our BBQ stand out.
Reputation plus quality, combined with personality and passion, has set us up for a whirlwind of a ride.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
This one’s funny. When I was about 4 years old I told my Dad I learned to drive & I could take him to town.
Now I see you wondering how a 4 year old could drive, let alone be convinced it was possible. Well, there was a field fire & my Papa put me on his lap & let me steer the truck around the outside line of fire engines.
Not only did I not crash the truck, I also avoided the flames and firefighters all together.
I had never felt such a rush!
This lesson taught me that anything was possible. I had gone through life believing that “Sky’s the Limit!“ What I didn’t realize was that Sky’s the Limit, but only with the proper set up and assistance.
At 4 years old I didn’t realize I had no control over the gas pedal, or the brakes. I wasn’t even really in control of the steering wheel…but I felt like I was.
Everyone on scene at the fire had congratulated me. The hi-fives from the firemen had me on cloud 9. But my Dad would still not let me drive him into town.
As a 4 year old, I was frustrated, but decided my Dad was just being mean.
I chose to keep my motivation alive. Which is how the initial lesson of “Sky’s the Limit!” became engrained in my being. Some may also call this stubborn, but I digress…
Having to unlearn something so powerful, and accept that everyone needs help along the way, took some time. Trusting others to be genuine in their efforts, actions and words versus trying to set me up for failure, has been nothing short of a steep mountain climb.
My Papa, even though he taught me confidence and optimism, my Dad had to teach me discipline & realistic expectations. Trying to blend the lessons together into something productive took a lot of balance, patience, faith & falling flat on my face trial & error.
At the end of the day, being able to experience so much of life with a 4 year olds idea of what’s possible, while slowly understanding the reality of my world, well, I wouldn’t give up the initial lesson, or the relearning and adaption of a new one.
These lessons helped to develop my goals of helping people feel like “sky’s the limit” while giving them tools along the way, to ensure the feeling becomes their reality.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Www.5280fsbbq.com
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