Under 25% turnover isn’t luck. It’s a proven system. Nick Sarillo (Nick’s Pizza & Pub) breaks down how a carpenter’s mindset turned two suburban Chicago units into high‑throughput, low‑churn operations: a purpose the team actually uses on shift, training that certifies to a 1–5 standard (not “shadow me”), a visible ladder (Rookie → Pro → Expert) tied to pay, and an accountability test that fixes problems fast: Don’t care, Don’t know how, Can’t do it. We also cover his open‑book huddles, the email that drove a 110% sales surge in five weeks, and the hard lessons from closing a Chicago location. If you lead a team, this is a blueprint you can steal tomorrow. If your “help wanted” budget is bigger than your training budget, you’re buying turnover. Nick shows the opposite approach—engineer the job, teach life skills, and make excellence objective. The result: sub‑25% annual turnover and a team of mostly first‑job teenagers who run a 9,000‑sq‑ft, high‑volume room with confidence. What you’ll learn: Write a purpose your team can use on shift. Start with a collective subject (“Our dedicated family…”), present tense, and specifics your competitors can’t copy. Put it in orientation and training; certify people by having them write down where they lived it with a guest.Replace “shadow me” with standards. Use a 1–5 scoring sheet per role; certify only when a team member hits 4s. Excellence becomes evidence‑based, not opinion.Make the restaurant a school. Post the Rookie → Pro → Expert ladder (3 skills per rung) and tie pay to certifications so progress = paycheck.Decompose complex stations. At the host desk, Nick trains four roles: Greeter, Seater, Filler (350 seats, headset, live map), and Host Coordinator (the strategist).Diagnose mistakes in 60 seconds. Don’t care, cDon’t know how, Can’t do it. If you hire for values, it’s usually #2 or #3 → retrain or reassign.Open‑book rhythms that matter. Weekly 20‑min huddles on sales & cash‑flow projections (not just post‑mortems) so everyone sees the runway.Leading through a crunch. In 2011, road construction cratered sales ~60%. Nick leveled with his community; the email (his team’s idea) drove a ~110% sales bump over five weeks and kept the doors open.Knowing when to walk away. He closed a Chicago location after a year: rent too high, runway too short, over‑optimistic sales. Lesson—get a conservative real‑estate model and a team that pushes back on assumptions.Scaling culture before units. Bake purpose, values, training, and communication tools into onboarding so culture scales with you.Chapters 00:00 — Why Nick: sub‑25% turnover in two busy units01:16 — From carpenter to operator: design work that means something08:08 — Purpose that runs a shift (“Our dedicated family…”) + how to teach it10:58 — Onboarding & values: make culture a certifiable skill12:39 — Coaching & feedback: loop, performance, direct (life skills)14:47 — Training over recruiting: define A‑plus and teach to it16:14 — Don’t care / Don’t know how / Can’t do it (accountability test)20:04 — Host stand, decomposed: Greeter/Seater/Filler/Coordinator24:17 — The ladder: Rookie → Pro → Expert (pay tied to skills)33:44 — 2011 crunch: open‑book huddles + the 110% “save the shop” email38:08 — Chicago closure: rent, runway, realism41:20 — Scale culture before units: systems that survive growth43:15 — Reading list: Built to Last, Resonant Leadership, Emotional Intelligence 2.0, The Fearless Organization, Good Jobs (discussed)
