We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Laurie Gehrt a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Laurie, appreciate you joining us today. Do you manage your own social media?

currently, I manage our social media about 90% by myself. The great choice that I made was to hire Amy Stewart PR in the beginning to help us get started while I could focus on building the business. I think outsourcing what is not your strength isn’t appropriate strategy. I am still learning the ends and ounce but gaining traction every day. I love that we have AI tools that can support us with images and content. I always edit, however. I think it’s important to understand which channels are for which, and measure what’s getting traction and change if not.

Laurie, 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?

I think what I most proud of is that we are a family run, community bar that have become a destination for those outside the community for certain things like our prime rib special on Friday night. We have great feedback from locals, as well as non-locals on our food, our staff and our bars atmosphere. I was very proud that we renamed the KC Business Journal This is one of the top 19 happy hour spots in the Kansas City area.

We try to treat our staff like family as well as our customers. We take seriously our reviews. , If I could offer any customers of any business, one piece of advice, and that is to give the business a chance to respond appropriately before blasting on social media reviews. I think it’s easy to stand behind platforms, anonymously, but we want to learn and be consistent to do our best .

I am very grateful to a community of local artist who have graced us, and our bar with their talent. We have had some remarkable events as a result. Our karaoke and music bingo nights are also very big hits.

Our chef produces some of the finest bar food that I’ve ever tasted. Of course, I am biased, as he is my youngest si, Jon. His experience as country clubs sous chef, as well as other restaurants has really served us and our customers well.

Our oldest son, Nick, is the general manager, and he’s always trying to stay on top what’s not. He and his significant other, Kristie, or a great deal about the atmosphere, the entertainment, and the vibe..

Of course we have great staff like my daughter-in-law, Kitty and my granddaughter, Alexis. Along with Lexi, Chris, Andrea, Deb, Crystal, and Michelle. The rest of the staff, like Jimmy, Joe, Tre, and Dillon are the foundation that keeps us all together..

And I would be remiss to not mention our fearless other co-owner, Paul, who keeps us all grounded. Plus, he makes the salsa..

We look forward to hosting our fabulous customers in whatever capacity we can. Ensuring that they have fabulous food, good drinks, and a great time every time..

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

probably one of the most impactful books that I have read leading up to my management style is The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni, where he talks about the common challenges teams face in working together effectively. Here’s a quick rundown of these dysfunctions with my spin on them:

1. Trust Shadows: This is about the hesitation to be vulnerable within the team. Imagine a scenario where team members are like islands, isolated by water. They’re hesitant to build bridges to others because they fear their weaknesses or mistakes will be exposed. This lack of openness prevents the foundation of trust necessary for a strong, unified team.
2. Conflict Caution: Here, teams dodge the healthy, constructive debates that are essential for growth. Picture a group of adventurers on a quest, avoiding the challenging paths that could lead to the greatest treasures. By sidestepping these difficult conversations, teams miss out on opportunities to strengthen their decisions and directions.
3. Commitment Cracks: When team members don’t fully buy into decisions, it’s often because they haven’t been part of a genuine, inclusive dialogue. Think of it as a ship’s crew setting sail without agreeing on the destination. Without everyone’s full commitment, the journey can be aimless and lack the cohesion needed to reach any meaningful goals.
4. Accountability Avoidance: This dysfunction arises when people shy away from holding each other responsible. Imagine a group of builders constructing a house, but no one points out the crooked nails or the uneven foundation because they don’t want to step on toes. This avoidance can lead to subpar performance and prevent the team from achieving its full potential.
5. Results Rift: Teams fall into this pitfall when individuals or subgroups focus more on their own success rather than the collective goals. Envision a team of scientists each pursuing their own theories in the same lab, without pooling their discoveries towards the shared aim of a breakthrough. This disjointed effort can dilute the team’s overall achievements and distract from the primary mission.

Each of these challenges requires understanding and action from every team member to overcome, paving the way for a more cohesive, effective, and successful team dynamic.

From a pure business growth and development perspective, the slightly boring, but necessary Double-Digit Growth: How Great Companies Achieve It–No Matter What by Michael Treacy.

Treacy’s concept of achieving double-digit growth is a compelling strategy for businesses looking to significantly expand their revenue. This approach emphasizes the importance of focusing on core sales disciplines and leveraging the unique strengths of a company’s products or services to outperform competitors. Tracy argues that by carefully analyzing market opportunities, enhancing customer value, and fostering a culture of excellence within sales teams, organizations can consistently achieve growth rates of 10% or more annually. His methodology involves a blend of aggressive sales tactics, strategic planning, and customer-centric innovation, suggesting that sustained double-digit growth is not just possible but achievable with the right mindset and execution.

While not exactly needed for the bar business (it was for when I was with Cerner Corporation, now Oracle), discipline and principles of market analysis and growth opportunity are the same

I would say any of Patrick Lencioni’s books are worth a read.

Can you talk to us about manufacturing? How’d you figure it all out? We’d love to hear the story.

Many good bars these days have some kind of march or swag store. We haven’t started off with that, but we now have it in place. Because our footprint for storage is small in the building, I opted to go for a online store through Printify, that is integrated with my webinar platform, Squarespace.

Right now this seems a viable approach to offer and Swag, without the necessity of running around to various stores, and also store an inventory. We are learning as we go. We’ll see how this works.

I think at the end of the day it pays to be continually learning and have a Excellence mindset. Doing the right things for the right reasons, it will hard to be wrong.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.thethirstygnome.com/
• Instagram: @thethirstygnome
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thethirstygnome?mibextid=LQQJ4d
• Yelp: https://yelp.to/g-pGxXDhjl

Image Credits
Rebel Jones Photography