Glen Gould uses The Varsity restaurant in Atlanta as an example of how to build a business that stands out. He argues that the key is creating a consistent, distinctive customer experience that you can repeat and that attracts the right clients.
It's a beautiful evening here in Atlanta, Georgia, and I'm standing in front of the world-famous Varsity Restaurant. If you walk in those doors, you will hear and see and expect certain things. And the question is today, what do people expect to hear and see and think when they hear about your business? And why is that important? We'll talk about that tonight. I will bet you any amount of money if we walk inside that restaurant right there, The Varsity, that somewhere along the line you will hear, "What'll you have?" That is the line that everyone uses to ask you what you would like to order. There are signs everywhere inside the restaurant that say things like, "Have your money in hand and your order on mind so we can get you to the game on time." And this restaurant is located across the street from Georgia Tech University, which is right over there if you can see it. In the video there. And it is a national landmark. And it's become a national landmark because of the way they do business and the fact that it's very predictable what will happen when you go in there. Regardless of how busy they are, you can expect the same treatment, you can expect the same food, you can expect to get experience and an atmosphere and not just another hamburger or hot dog. And how this applies to your business is this This is how the Varsity stands out from all other fast food restaurants. They have carhops down there. They have a— you can see in the video there, you can see where they have carhops that come out and serve you at your car. You can dine in your car just like you did back in the '50s, I guess, and probably even before that. And then they have a number of different dining rooms inside. All of them have televisions. They had televisions back when it wasn't popular to have televisions in restaurants, and they had each room tuned to a different television station. I would I imagine all of them are tuned to different stations again tonight. I haven't been in yet. But it brings the question, you know, somebody along the line thought long and hard about the experience they wanted people to have when they came to the Varsity. And over the years, I'm sure it's changed a little bit, but they've held true to the vision of the original thought. If you look at all those buildings in the background, all of them have businesses in them. Over here is Coca-Cola, and down the street is Georgia Pacific. All of them started with an idea idea, just a simple idea that somebody had in their mind and they wanted to build upon it. And your business can be the exact same way. If you think about what you want, if you build on the idea, and if you let nothing stand in the way of your success, you too can build something special. And that's what you're gonna have to build if you're gonna succeed in business today. You're not gonna be able to stand, uh, out from the crowd. And if you don't stand out from the crowd, nobody will see you, nobody will carry you there. You're gonna You have to do something that no one else does so that you can attract a certain group of people who want to get the benefits that only you offer. So think a little bit about the varsity as you think about your business and how you can make it unique and how you can stand out from the crowd and so how you can attract the right clients for your business. If you do, I think you'll find business will be much better for you.
