Little Containers of Cheerios

I want to add to my love letter to Chick-fil-A.

Lauren and I were out running errands with Miles yesterday. It was getting close to dinner time so we decided to stop by Chick-fil-A. Those sandwiches are oh so good.

When we go out to eat, the moment that we always have to be prepared is the time between when we sit down and when the food comes.  We usually have to pull something entertaining  or distracting out of the diaper bag.

I was so pleasantly surprised as we were sitting down to see little containers of Cheerios sitting by where you pick up silverware. It was the perfect amount to distract Miles while we wait for our food.

All in all this little container of Cheerios may have cost Chick-fil-A a few cents. But it’s the little things that endear you to a brand. It shows that I can go into a Chick-fil-a as parent and they have my back. It shows they care. It part of why we keep going back and back and back.

It’s a challenge for me. What are the little things that I can do for my customers that take my customers from like to LOVE?

 

Developing a Daily Writing Habit is HARD

I admire people like investor Fred Wilson who pushes out new content on his blog everyday. I aspire to write something on my blog everyday. It’s really hard though.

We read things. We experience things. This causes us to have thoughts about the world. It’s hard to turn those thoughts into something that you want to share with people.

The discipline of writing everyday and articulating those thoughts brings a certain level of clarity for yourself (and ultimately for your readers). It’s an amazing mental exercise.

But building the habit is hard. There’s something about, at least how I’m wired, that makes me want to passively consume information without thinking about it. BUT that’s bad. As I wrote previously, taking notes on what I’m consuming has helped a lot. Now to just turn that into thoughts that I want to share.

I’ve been using the app Coach.me to prompt myself to write everyday, along with some other habits that I’m working on. I’ve found it pretty helpful.

What tips have helped you develop a daily writing habit?

Taking notes on what I read 

I love the Web. It allows me to read whatever I want and feed my never ending intellectual curiosity. It’s too easy for me to fill up my Instapaper queue with hundreds of articles.

When I read, it’s easy for it to go in and out of my brain quickly. If you were to ask me what I read and how it contributed to my worldview, I’d say very little. It’s easy for me to flip through news feeds and get nothing out of it. Skimming is an easy bad habit.

So, I’ve started taking notes on everything that I read. I have an Evernote notebook. Each note is on a different topic. When I read something on that topic, I take what I took from what I read and add it to that note.

I really enjoy reading news about the election. It’s easy for the barrage of stories to cause you to grow numb. But if you intentionally take what your reading and see that coverage next to all the coverage for a particular candidate, you start to get a bigger picture view.

If you’re fascinated by a particular topic, like autonomous vehicles, jot down every time you see a story about it. Add a couple sentences from that article. You’ll really start to get a sense for the evolution of autonomous vehicles.

I love Aldi Grocery Stores!

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I love finding ways where I can pay less for an experience that I’d otherwise pay more. It increases the return on my investment. Food can easily become one of the biggest chunks of your budget. I’m amazed how easy it is to blow a lot of cash at the grocery store, especially if you go in without a plan.

My favorite discovery is the Aldi grocery stores. They defy traditional grocery store features and pass the savings on to the consumers. For example, they don’t use normal product brands. Their displays are made of shipping boxes. You bag your own groceries. You corral your own grocery cart.

With this, groceries are extraordinarily cheap. A tub of hummus that would typically cost $4-5 costs $2. I can get half a gallon of organic milk for $2.25 where in most grocery stores that cost $4+. I could go on for days telling you about their amazing prices. My favorite is you can get avocados for $.50-.89, where they’d typically cost $1.50+.

I went yesterday and got a week’s worth of groceries for a family of 3 for $70.

Some of the non-branded groceries look exactly… exactly like their branded counterparts. It’s like the factory just switched out the labels. With that, you get a HUGE discount.

So… #1 if you want to save a lot of money on groceries, start shopping at Aldi. #2 if you’re an entrepreneur, how can you challenge the assumptions of your industry. Why do you have to do things the way that they’ve always been done? How can you pass more value on to the consumer?

(Photo from Mike Mozart)

Thankful for you. 

Holidays make me contemplative which makes me thankful. I’m so thankful for so many things but wanted to use this time to say thank you to all of you. 

There are so many writers and creators out there that are looking for an audience. The fact that you have chosen to pay attention to me across one of my different social and email channels is a HUGE honor. 

As we head into 2016, I hope to dive more into what it means to be a human being, husband, father, marketer, entrepreneur, and St Louis-ian in the digital age, as well as sharing my normal stuff.  I hope that you find all of it useful and thought provoking. 

If you have thoughts, concerns, or ideas, don’t hesitate to hit me up — jthorp@gmail.com

Happy New Year! 

Binge On “Making a Murderer”

Have a little bit of extra downtime between now and the beginning of the year? Looking for a new show to binge on in the Netflix library? I highly recommend the documentary series “Making a Murderer.”

It’s the story of a man, Steven Avery, in rural Wisconsin who was wrongly convicted of rape, imprisoned for 18 years, and then released after DNA testing. He sued the county where he was arrested. There was a murder in his town and guess who was the first suspect. I’ll just leave it all there.

It’s a 10 part documentary series that’s very well done. It’s well paced. The end of each episode has something that makes you want to watch the next one.

The documentary shows where the criminal justice system can go terribly wrong, where justice isn’t done. It’s a true story. It’s crazy.

This series is definitely worth a watch. Here’s the trailer…

 

Siri helps me remember 

IMG_0809Especially as a parent, the amount of information and details that you have to keep straight and remember is never ending. I’m constantly trying to tweak my system of tools. The latest that’s become really handy is Siri on the iPhone.

For example, I woke up this morning and wanted to remind myself to change the cat litter this afternoon. I just need to tell Siri to “remind me to change the cat litter at 2pm.” Maybe I want to remember to blow out a candle or get the laundry. Sometimes I’ll tell it to set a reminder that I have an 830am meeting.

Siri is an incredible personal assistant voice-based platform. I tell it to remind me and it interfaces with the Reminder app on my phone.  I then get the notifications for the reminders.

I love the idea of using a computer as a personal assistant, especially when just using I can just talk to it like a person. I just wish Apple would open up Siri as a platform so more apps could integrate with it. I want to create an event with Google Calendar or make a note in Evernote using Siri.

Do you use Siri? What other helpful use cases have you found?

Espresso: it’s just more efficient 

IMG_0742As I’ve written about in other posts, in this new phase of my life, I’m really seeing how precious time is.  It’s our most valuable resource.

I’m also a huge coffee lover. I’ve perfected my setup to make a great pour over coffee. But that takes time. And let’s be honest. 99% of the time we drink coffee for the caffeine. It’s caused me to get into drinking espresso.

Espresso is the same amount of caffeine as a cup of coffee but it’s a lot smaller. It’s quick and easy. In a minute, you have your caffeine hit and you get back on with your day.

Plus you can really taste the flavor of the coffee. In a latte from Starbucks, you just taste milk and sugar, especially if you’re drinking the venti peppermint mocha. (Let’s be honest. That’s not coffee.) With espresso, you actually taste coffee. Crazy to drink coffee and taste coffee. If you’re like, “oh coffee… espresso tastes nasty.” Maybe you’re drinking nasty coffee.

It’s funny how drinking espresso in the United States is so rare, depending on where you are.  (I’ve found it to be much more common when I’ve traveled abroad.) I remember once my wife and I were traveling, to a smaller town. We went to the closest coffee shop. I ordered a double espresso. They were like “espresso… with what?” They were shocked that someone could order espresso by itself.

Do you drink coffee? Have you gotten into drinking straight espresso?

Getting up early 

The kid is starting to sleep in a little bit longer. So, instead of sleeping in, I’ve been trying to get up before him. I can use that time to make a cup of coffee, read the Bible, skim the NY Times and just generally reflect on the day ahead of me. 

It’s hard to get up early. It’s hard to build that new habit or routine. Time is so precious and mornings are some of the only places in my daily schedule where I can adjust things to make for more time. And that time can be just for me. 

I wish there was a way to stretch a 24 day hour day into 28 hours. It never feels like there’s enough time  or energy to get things done.  Time is the most precious resource. 

The morning time is the easiest place to reprioritize. I know some people that just hurl themselves out of bed and rush right into their day. That stresses me out just thinking about it. I need to ease into the day. So, I get up early. 

No wonder Chick-fil-A is always busy.

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Lauren, Miles, and I were out running errands yesterday. Our tummies were all starting to rumble and were excited to see that a Chick-fil-A across the shopping center.  The last few times we went had been through the drive-thru. The kid had just taken a massive poop and we needed to change his diaper. So, we definitely opted to go inside.

When I got into the men’s bathroom, I was instantly excited. There was actually a changing table, which especially isn’t a given for a men’s bathroom. There was also spare wipes, spare diapers, and a stool for little kids to be able to reach the sink.  What kind of magical parenting paradise is this?

We got to our table and one of the employees offered to get us a clean high chair, which was puzzling to us. The one that was there was barely used. But the clean one came with hand wipes and placemat for the kid that stuck to the table. It’s like there’s someone at Chick-fil-A that’s actually been the parent of a young kid before.

Plus plus plus… the meal is decently healthy. It included grilled chicken, a fruit cup, and a bottle of reduced fat milk. I don’t feel guilty giving this to my kid, like every other fast food place. And it included an age appropriate toy. It was a book for kids 2 years and younger. 😀

And if all that wasn’t enough… there was an option, where you could order through the drive-thru and then one of the employees would setup a table with your food. You’d park and then enjoy the lovely meal inside.

At any given lunch time, you go into any Chick-fil-A and it’s HOPPING. Go into any other fast food restaurant and it’s up-in-the air, whether it’ll be a ghost town. I’m sure some CFO would cringe at the cost of all the extra amenities that Chick-fil-A is offering. But it’s the difference between in my relationship with Chick-fil-A and anywhere else.

With anywhere else, it’s just a transaction. I give you money. You give me food. But especially when you have a family, it’s never just about the food. The food is one of a hundred things thats running through my mind. If a restaurant can take 20 of those things off my plate, I get to actually enjoy the experience that much more.  Dang Chick-fil-A chicken sandwiches are good.  It’s like they’re on my side. And they’ll in the end get more of my money.

(Photo by Mike Mozart)