MDY Business Spotlight | Gerti's

All right, everyone, welcome to Million Dollar Year Business Spotlight. Today we are highlighting Diana Hunter and I'm so happy to have you spotlighted here in this segment. We're doing. This is a fairly new thing that we're doing, really getting to know our members a million dollar year, but also like just supporting the other people in our Facebook group that maybe haven't worked with us that don't know what we do or the impact we can have when we come together as owners. And this interview series, I just want it to be more like a meeting of the minds and business owners coming together and just having really good conversations. So I know you're very busy, but I'm so appreciative of your time today.

Well, thank you for having me today, Belinda. I appreciate it.

This is fantastic. Why don't we start off with just a bit of a shout out about your business, like the name of your business, where you're located and basically just a little elevator pitch just about where you are, what you do and what you're passionate about in regards to your business. Sure.

So I own Gertie's Pub. We're located on Hunter street in the cafe district of downtown Peterborough. And we're a gastropub. So finer pub style dining. We make, I mean, everything from scratch, pretty much even our, you know, dressings and all that kind of good stuff. So it's actually, it's delicious food.

And in an industry where we're seeing more of fast, fast, fast, push food out fast, even for what was considered before more fine dining, we are seeing a lot of restaurants switching to like just heating up things and getting it out. It's so refreshing to hear that doing things from scratch is, is a priority of yours.

Absolutely, yeah. That's definitely something that we focus on. If it's not the best club, it's not going to be on my menu. I just refuse to waste the space and waste the time on the item. So it's going to be the best of everything that you're going to find.

And I think with prices going up too, it went across the board. Whether it's groceries, cooking for yourself at home or going out and having a bite to eat. I'm kind of from the belief as a consumer is like, it better be better than I can make. You know, if I'm going to go out and have that experience, you know, I want to feel like I'm having an experience. Do you find consumers are feeling like me as they're coming in now?

Oh, for sure they are. They Definitely do point out, wow, this is the best. You know, say, for instance, our burger. We get our burgers from Primal Cuts. Right. And it's just. It's going to be extra fresh. We support other local businesses in Peterborough, which is all so really important to us.

What's your philosophy there? Because I know you're really big on networking and connecting as business owners to your community, and I know you've expressed that. You know, when my business does good, I want other people's businesses to do well. Do you want to talk a little bit about that?

Absolutely. I mean, I couldn't imagine Hunter street with only Gertie's on it. Nobody would come downtown, first of all. Right, so we are all friends. We all support one another, and, you know, everybody's like, oh, what about your competition? And this, that. Like, I always found competitors to be such a funny word. Right? Yeah. I just picture, like, people fighting it out in a wrestling ring or something. But for me, like, I mean, we're all friends. We all want to, you know, we all want to help our customers make memories and have a good time. So it's. It's just a great, big happy family for the most part.

I love that. And I have always been a big belief that collaboration over competition always strives. When you're coming from a worry about competition, you're not going to be the same person as you are in a relationship or in an interaction is when you think, how can we collaborate? How can we come together and make things great across the board.

Absolutely.

You know, coming out of COVID and being a restaurant owner, a lot went down. Right.

How would you. Constantly changing.

Yeah. How did you. How were you able to pivot? How did you keep yourself in a good mindset as kind of the world around us was changing almost so rapidly that we didn't. We were just trying to catch up.

I really think that not being in the restaurant business prior to June, it was May of 2019. So really I only had, you know, less than a year under my belt in the restaurant business before COVID hit. I didn't know what to do. I wasn't accustomed to doing things the same way for the last 10, 15 years. So for me, it was just my business brain kicked in. Right. Okay, so what do we need to do? What do our customers want? What does the community want? What do we need right now? And honestly, everything felt so gray and dark at that time, especially the first month, two months. You know, we just kept getting pushed back and pushed back, and so I sat down with the chef and another line cook and my husband. And we thought, what does our community need right now? We know how we're feeling, you know, and we thought we need to just raise everybody's spirits a little. So we thought we'd throw up a pasta party and raise money for our hospital at the same time. And they were working.

Fantastic. So you went straight to charity instead of lacking. I think that's the difference in your mindset, where a lot of people just went, oh, poor me. This is happening, like, happening to me. This is an attack you went to. How can I bring something to someone else? Which I think, like, you may not even be realizing that, but to hear that back, you know, a couple of years later, is a beautiful mindset to switch to immediately.

I've had people say that after, and I was like, I don't know. It was just. That's what we all felt, you know, and we're human beings first, and then business and all that stuff will come later. But it was just that whole, you know, we just wanted to bring some light to what was happening around us, you know, and wanted to say thank you to all of our first line workers. Really beautiful, beautiful.

And I think for the hospital.

So that was awesome.

5,000.

Yeah. So for every pasta we sold, it was a. We donated $5 to the hospital. And so that's over a thousand pastas. Yeah.

And so that was. People came and they got taken out and took it back to their homes. And then from that. That's okay. That is so great.

And just. Even the people coming to the door and picking up and the stories and the tears shared and the, you know, just. It was incredible. My heart's full for the rest of my life, honestly, is the most incredible experience.

You know, we could make it one or two ways. Right. And I love that you picked to say, you know, how can we serve? And I think you said an important thing there, that you have to look at the human aspect first and then be part of your business second. Like, look at service first, look at staying in character regardless of what's happening around us, and then worry about the business second. But I find often when I am in integrity and I have my values in business and I'm not. I'm. I'm more focused on that human aspect that the financials take care of themselves.

They sure do. Yep. Absolutely.

It's not even a big concern we need to have, you know. So what are you most passionate about, let's say, in your business? And then what are you most passionate about in life in general.

Oh. So in business, it would have to be the people still. It's just, I love my staff. I love my customers. It's just awesome being able to provide a great work environment for staff. So much so that they're, you know, they come to you and they say, I'm so proud that I work for you. Or, you know, I've got staff that worked for me, you know, 10, 12 years ago, and they come and they're like, oh, you've got a restaurant now. Can I work there too?

And.

It'S huge for me. That's always been the biggest thing for me is just that personal connection. And what am I passionate about personally? My family, of course, love to bits.

And what do you guys like to do as a family, though? What are your things that you.

Oh, we love to travel, but.

Okay, yeah, soon. Soon we're there. Where are your favorite places? Is there a place you've traveled as a family that kind of, you know, like, across the board? Everyone said this was memorable.

Probably Bahamas. That was probably our favorite trip together. We've been to so many places, though, so it's just. It's hard to pick one.

It is, yeah.

And then even just our trip to New York right before COVID actually.

Okay.

It was so much fun. Just. I don't know.

And each place has its own flavor, Right. It's like. It's hard to put it into words. I know my kids, out of all the Disney trips and all things like, that favorite trip is actually Portugal because the culture there allowed them to be kids and they wanted them to explore. And it was one of the first places that. Where they didn't want them to sit down in the restaurant. Like, when we were telling to sit down and be quiet, they were like, let's put the music on. They got. They turned the music on, and they're like, dance, dance. And getting them up. And I think my kids really loved that feeling of being able to express and that they didn't have to just sit down and be quiet. Kind of the North American way, how we do things. Right. So it's so cool to get your family out and have them have these kind of experience that really shapes them as humans. I know travel shaped me as a human for sure.

Absolutely.

But as a restaurant, it must really bring some new insights, too, to things that you try eating in different places, different ingredients. Do you find your travels have really shaped kind of ideas for your restaurant as well? Sure has.

Yeah. So my background is Croatian. I grew up in a Very Croatian family. I've got some Croatian items on our menu as well. And, yeah, I mean, you are always looking for new ideas. And what can we put on the menu? Let's try it as a special first. Let's see how it goes. And then if it flies, you know, put it as a menu item, you know, permanently leave it there.

So, yeah, I love it. Yeah. I wonder if you go to a restaurant, other places and go, okay, how do we reconstruct this and give this to Peterborough without having to pay for this trip, you know, how do we take a little slice of Italy back? You know, it was something we've tried or tasted that we can, you know, interject in. So. No. And I have seen you with. With your staff, and I always joke that I'm going to come and work at Gertie's myself because it's just such a fun, loving. I don't know how much work we'd get done, but I know the people would be happy.

Yeah, I have lots of friends offering that. So, Belinda, anytime you want to, you're very welcome to.

I love it. I love it. Such a special place. You've created a very nice atmosphere where people feel like they can be themselves. It almost feels like you're going to someone's house and sitting down their living room and just enjoying a meal together. I guess dining room is more appropriate, but it does really feel like that. It doesn't feel like you're in a restaurant. It feels like you've just been invited into someone's personal space. So well done with your ambiance, for sure. Amazing.

I actually had a culinary professor tell me that he came in, he had lunch on my patio, and he pulled me aside. He says, you know, I've talked to you. And he told me, you know, he's a professor and this, and a culinary professor. And he says, you know, the very first thing that I noticed when I came into your restaurant is that you actually want me here. And I thought, wow, that's so powerful. Like, it was just. And so, yeah, he explained to me that, you know, he's wrestler and he says he wants to bring his class to the restaurant. Wow, that's huge. Thank you.

So what a compliment from someone else in the industry that gets that, because I've been to restaurants where it's like a clock ticket. I remember one place just recently I went, we sat down and they said, you have the table to such and such time. And it took like the wind out of our sales. We literally had just sat down we looked around and there was empty tables everywhere. So it wasn't like the place is booming where they said, you know, we had reservations. And I thought, wow, that just kicked it off on a really weird tone. You know, that it's interesting how one thing can be said and it changes your experience and whether you'll go back or refer other people. Right.

Yeah. I do find that a lot of restaurants had to do that. Yes. After Covid, you know, they're like, okay, you got an hour and 45 minute turnover and that's it. I know the keg is really big for that. It's an hour and 45 minutes. I know a lot of the servers there and it's your. You've got to do those steps of service. And then, okay, are we ready for the bill? Kind of, you know, get them out the door because you want that next table to come in.

But of course, of course. And I think there's just ways to do it in a different way than for sure.

It felt like there was like one.

Of these time things that they're turning over, going, okay, get eating. You know, it's just how you express yourself and, you know, are you staying for a full meal? Are you more having an appetizer? We generally move our tables over in such and such time. Is that okay? You know, like, having a conversation is a little bit different.

And we'll typically do that over the phone. Yeah, right.

But we'll typically do that over the.

Phone if somebody's making a reservation. But, you know, how long would you like to dine with us? You know, if it's a larger party, we leave three hours space because that's typically our turnover time for a larger party, you know, of course, but it's just you kind of deal with it in a different manner. Not okay, so you need to be out of here by seven o'. Clock.

Because when you feel that then you don't have the same dining experience. You know, you're happy to comply with the rules and stay within the boundaries. But, you know, it's just interesting how different places, you know, handle things differently. But you guys have done an excellent job. So you decided to join our million dollar year program and have been in it for several months now. What appealed to you about the program to begin with?

Okay, so anything that Bob puts out there is gold, honestly. I mean, when Covid started, he was on Facebook videos and just empowering our community in just giving us all kinds of free advice, essentially on what we should be doing, what we should be applying for what we should be planning for and all that kind of thing. And then he held his ascent summit a couple years ago. I attended that, and it was fantastic. And then I had to do it again when he had it the second year round. And during the second ascent summit, he did present the million dollar year program. And I thought, I have to be a part of this. My biggest issue is procrastinating. I literally cannot. So having somebody there to hold me accountable for the things that I need to do is huge for me. I mean, even just attending the meetings every Tuesday is really, really important for me because first of all, I get ideas on things that maybe I haven't thought about or maybe things that I should be implementing. But being there, it just lights up fire under me to get my stuff going. So I've had so many things on the back burner and I've been chipping away at them hard.

You have?

Oh, it's been awesome. I feel lighter, you know, and even just some little things like I've got. I had to apply for a Croatian citizenship. Right. So my dad told me a couple years ago, he's like, nano, you've got to do this. And then, okay, I'll get it done, I'll get it done. And then thinking like, I just have to do something small. It's not going to take me long, but it's done now. You know what I mean? Like I said, on Tuesday afternoon.

Okay. So it kind of sets the tone when we do our Tuesday lunch hour meetings that we have every week religiously, you feel like it sets a tone for your day so that you're more productive in the afternoon. But does that, does that carry you through?

It sure does. Yeah.

Okay.

But then, you know, by the time Thursday, Friday, roll around, the restaurant is so busy for me. Right. So I end up, I'm here, you know, three days straight. Just don't even. Yeah. I don't have a chance to do anything else. But of course, like, come Monday, take care of all.

Ready for that?

Let's go. Yeah. So it gets me fired up again. Right. And I just want to get everything done. I love it four hours in the day, but. Right.

So accountability. Yes. Yeah. So the sounding board piece, like my next question basically was, you know, how do you find the community? Because I'm so proud of this community.

So awesome. I've met some incredible humans through this entire thing. And I mean, personally coming to the restaurant and saying, hey, it's me. I'm not a little picture on the screen, you know, and so it's just wonderful getting that, meeting all the people and ideas, bouncing ideas off one another. You're just always there, all of you, you know, and it's amazing. Anytime I have an issue with anything, I can message you and you respond immediately. I'm thinking she not have anything else to do.

I know she's busy answering me so quickly. Yeah, ye. But I think I always treat you guys, especially in the customer service department of it, like I would want to be treated. And you know, as business owners, we move fast, we move quick. We have to get answers kind of faster than the average person. So I try to always keep that in mind, you know, as I see questions come in or concerns come in or anything that I can solve come in, takes me three seconds. But it could make someone say a lot smoother because they're able to move through something a little bit quicker. Yeah.

Well, thank you. I really, really appreciate it.

And how have you found all of our, you know, speakers that we've had come in and do the trainings?

They're the best in the business. I mean, they know what they're talking about and they put it in such simple ways in terms that you can understand it. And I feel like I can do it at the end of the day.

I think that's huge. I think that piece that you're actually saying is huge because I had someone else say, you know, I got intimidated by it. I hadn't really opened it yet. I was, you know, hoping my partner in the business would kind of take the lead on this. They usually handle this part of the numbers or learning kind of more the accounting or how to manage my business. And my response back was like, you're going to be so pleasantly surprised that you are going to be able to understand all this stuff. So do not count any of you, count yourself out with really understanding how to manage and run and understand the numbers in your business because it's so powerful. Like I found for myself, like I'm sitting through our guest lectures too, and I'm taking pages and pages of notes on stuff I had no clue about, you know, running my own business too, you know, so sure, we're all growing together and I think that's, that's the biggest thing. Like there's no stupid questions, there's no anything like that in this group is everybody is there to support. So it's great when you put a. You know, I think one of the biggest benefits of joining is having our frequently asked question Friday where we have a world renowned accountant that we can ask anything we want, basically. And he's there to support us. Having an accountant in your back pocket as a small business owner or large business owner is I think gold, first of all. But I also love how the community, when you put a question in answers with their experience and they could be in a different industry, but that interruption of hearing what someone's doing in a different industry can be so impactful.

Yeah, Belinda, I've been self employed since 94. I started when I was 2. It's fine. You can do the math there. Right. But honestly. And I've spent a lot of money on different programs and things like that, but the money that I'm spending on million dollar year is the most valuable money I've ever spent on anything. I've gotten the most out of it. And it's only been a few months, really.

So great. So great. And this was the dream. This was the dream. And I love how you mentioned how Bob stepped up during COVID We weren't collaborating at that point, but I gained so much respect for my friend watching him turn into this Matt. He was always a leader, but he just showed everybody. I think in that moment, which I'm so glad, like I was scared, I was hanging on. I was adding people to his Facebook group like crazy because in a space where we didn't know if we could pay our mortgages, we didn't know what to do with staff, we didn't know should we be canceling all our subscriptions, like what is the right thing to do. And I think seeing him stand there as that calm leader and it was the calmness that helped me so much. And he said, we're going to take a day by day as there's advancements. I'm going to let you know my team is on top of this. It just felt so supportive. So I'm glad that laid the foundation for you coming in and bringing some of your services over to us and trusting us a million dollar year with, with the knowledge we're bringing forth and the value, because I think that's a beautiful way to come in when there's already some trust, you know. But what would you just say to someone who had never heard of Bob, never heard of myself or any of the, you know, experts that we bring in on coaching on everything from investments to marketing to we have our legal counsel coming in and teaching us how to plan our estates. Something that's kind of a touchy subject but so needed as business owners. So if nobody had ever met us or heard of Us. What would you say to them? Maybe the skeptical or the kind of cold lead that really doesn't know much.

I don't know how they would trust me more than you. I mean, the team has so much knowledge. You can see from the following on all social media platforms and just from the information that you deliver on a daily basis. Really, it's a no brainer for me knowing you personally and it honestly is the best decision you will ever make joining the team.

I love it. I love it. So tell me, tell me something fun about yourself that maybe someone wouldn't know.

Oh.

Not common knowledge about you that could just give us an insider scoop on just knowing you a little bit better.

Oh, I don't even know. I don't know where I would go with this.

Can be anything from like a favorite food to a favorite pastime to what you would do if you had five hours extra during your day.

I would get my bookkeeping done. That's been the biggest thorn in my side is just getting that caught up. I've always been, you know, my, my QuickBooks files would be delivered to my accountant every January and it was done right off. It was filed before the end of January and I didn't have to worry about it then. I had a couple of months to pay it. Right. But ever since the restaurant, I just can't, I can't motivate myself enough to get it done. It's the most frustrating feeling.

I get it. I get it. Well, I have all the belief that you will be able to get that done as you've been chipping away everything else and really allowing yourself to be vulnerable and other people hold you accountable. I think there's so many, so much growth there and you have been such a great part of the community, cheerleading everybody else on and introducing yourself and putting yourself out there, being visible. So we want to thank you as well for your participation and how much you show up for others because it is felt in your community, but it is also felt in this online community.

Well, thank you. That's the easy part for me is the interaction with people. So.

Well, it is a gift and not everybody has it. So thank you and congratulations and we're so glad you trusted in us. I can't wait to see where we take your business from.

Changing careers. So I'm not sure what's next.

Well, we will see. And thank you for taking the time with me today. I know you're extremely busy in the restaurant, so your time is very valued and we appreciate you.

Thank you so much. Belinda, it was so nice to chat with you today.

All right, take care. And we're going to put all of your business details in the post here so that people who want to experience your restaurant can. And whether they're from Peterborough, they, you know, eventually take a trip to Peterborough, will be able to find you and experience the awesomeness that Gertie's is.

Okay, Sounds good.

Awesome. Take care. Bye now. Bye.