Hello, Team City Barbeque! it’s been awhile, but we are finally back together again.

Wow! What a great month we had in August at our Regional Leadership Conferences in Charlotte, Indianapolis, and Columbus. It was so great to see our field leaders gathered together again to get updated on the tremendous trajectory City Barbeque is on. We discussed industry trends, improving our thru-put, staffing for success, developing leaders, the impact of our digital marketing platform, our new joint growth plan and much more. Most of all, we gathered together and were reminded of the special culture we all know and love. What a busy and awesome month in August; can't wait ‘til 2022 conference when we are all back together again! Check out some photos of our presenters and award winners below!

-Ronnie

Four Pillars

Team

We have rolled out a new one-on-one conversation sheet for the field and the Support Center.  This is a quick and easy form used to focus on Big “A” items, results, goals and how each leader can better serve their team with open and honest conversation.  Our goal is to keep everyone aligned and checked-in for clarity, progress, and engagement. All departments and areas of our business have a stake because we are accountable to each other.

Guest

The new citybbq.com, updated online ordering, and new City BBQ apps are now live! Our IT and Marketing teams have been working on these updates since 2019 and will keep making updates and adjustments to improve the experience for our teams and our guests. Right now, guests can enjoy our new seamless online ordering experience—and things will only get better from there!

Process

The full utilization of FlyBuy has greatly improved how we provide guest satisfaction.  We have decreased our wait times 36%; our average wait time is only 2 minutes!  Shoutout to Monti Tarmey’s and Randy Potts’ markets for having the shortest wait times in the company!

Financial

ALL joints beat budget and made bonus in the second quarter.  This gives us the opportunity to share our profits with even more Teammates.  Great job!

RAVING FANS

Durham

I stopped in earlier this evening to pick up dinner for my family. While waiting for my order to be prepared/assembled, I witnessed Alicia accidently drop one of my full racks of ribs on the floor (again, an honest mistake). Instead of becoming flustered or angry, she calmly turned around and asked the line chef for another order to replace them. Her coworker, Chris, immediately stopped what he was doing, and stepped in to help her by picking up the fallen food. Meanwhile, Alicia didn't skip a beat- she continued packaging the orders placed after mine, ever the professional... she and Chris both. Once my new ribs came up, she finishing packing my bag and kindly handed my food to me. I complimented them both and even sang their praises to their manager on-duty. Far too often, people find it so easy to lose their cool or complain about things beyond anyone's control. Tonight was an example of the opposite being true, so I wanted to publicly recognize them on a handling an unfortunate situation with grace and professionalism.

Greenwood

Just wanted to say that the food and service at my granddaughters wedding reception August 21st at the Whippoorwill Venue in Bloomington Indiana was outstanding! The food was hot, served to our guests in a timely order and continually filled. The girls, Stacy, and one other, were very friendly and nice! They did an outstanding job. When the need arises again, we will not hesitate to contact City Barbeque of Greenwood.

Harrodsburg

I just wanted to let you all know what a great job the Harrodsburg Rd location did with our lunch delivery today! We do a monthly staff lunch, so we order out A LOT! We have 2 locations & we try to order for delivery as much as possible. With ordering for several people, it's often difficult to 1)agree on somewhere &, the even bigger one, 2)receive correct orders. We were all very pleased today that not only was the order CORRECT & ON TIME, it was packaged individually which made it even better! THANK YOU for doing such a great job!! We will definitely be ordering from you all again!! I feel like anymore I'm complaining about a restaurant experience so it is nice to be able to COMPLIMENT instead!!

Kentwood

Awesome guys, took great care of us and the food was 5 star. We are here on vacation from Alaska, staying 2 hrs away. We will find an excuse to come back.

Madison

I want to praise the manager at the Madison store who helped with my online order. He went above and beyond to correct a small issue with my order. Thanks City BBQ Madison. I'll be back for more soon!! New Albany We go to this city bbq all the time, and Carrie is the best!! She always talks to us , SUPER FRIENDLY!! She definitely is our favorite!!! Keep up the great work Carrie!!!

West Chester

We arrived in town today from Maryland for the tennis tournament and City BBQ was our first stop. We were greeted by Mike the ambassador and he really made our visit. We talked a little BBQ and Maryland crabs then he gave us a tour of the restaurant and introduced us to Reese the GM. They both made us feel at home and take a great deal of pride in working at City. Great experience and excellent food. We’ll definitely be going back for more. Thanks guys.

Westerville

Once again the guys and gals in Westerville are knocking it outta the park! I travel on business every week and have to endure what people call the best, award winning BBQ. Well, that's not at all true. Had everything from shoe leather to very decent chicken. But no one puts it out there consistently like you guys. And I've been to many of your locations. They're not all created equal. Westerville is First Class every day. Dejuan welcomes people like they're old friends. Kelly always has a big smile. Andrew has it all running so well he makes it look easy. I don't know anything about the restaurant business but I know that these guys have it goin' on!

Whitestown

The host was Abigail. She remembered my name as it has been quite a while since I've been in the restaurant and seen her. Thats impressive!!!😊😋 excellent employee

NEW JOINTS

Greensboro, Madison, & lake Boone trail

ALETHA’S CORNER

It can be hard to take care of yourself when so many things need your attention and time; however, you can give only as much as you have available to give. To think “you can give only what you have to give” took me by surprise, when I heard this from a very influential leader. I really had to think about what this meant. I thought, I have tons to give. Then the question was tossed back, “How, if you don’t recharge?” Just then it made perfect sense! If you don’t water a plant, it won’t grow. If you don’t put gas in your car, it won’t run. Everything needs a refueling or recharging process. I started to think about what recharging would look like in my life and for others around me, and how I would know when one or the other needed to be recharged. What I soon discovered is that it was easy to identify what this looked like, but tough to execute for many. What does recharging do? For me, it sets my energy level back to where I feel ready to take on whatever comes my way. It also helps me look at things with an open view and a willingness to see the bigger picture. I also learned that this may look different for different people. I would challenge each of you to write down on a note card what ‘fully recharged’ looks like for you. How do you get there? Again, this may look different for each of us. The one thing I know for sure is this: getting recharged is vital and must be done for us to support what’s important in our lives, from our families to our work, and everything in between. For me, I take time out of each day for myself. I had to plan and be mindful of this time that was to be set aside for myself, even if it meant getting up early to workout, or driving the long way home so I could listen to a whole podcast. These were times that I planned on taking for myself. Another important step in carving out this time for myself was banishing the negative self-talk that said, “No, you should be doing something else or taking care of something for someone else.” I had to find the balance among what I needed to do, what I had to do, and what could be done only by me. Prioritization and delegation became my friends, not only because they helped me see what needed to be done, but because they also ensured that I was included in the priority list. Too many of us don’t include ourselves in the priority list. We must find our way to recharge. How do you recharge?

• Listen to a podcast, or to a story that intrigues you.

• Make something with your hands. It doesn’t need to be perfect, it’s just to help you relax.

• Hike and breathe in nature.

• Meditate and find your inner peace.

• Write down things that are meaningful to you in a journal.

• Take a long hot bath and relax.

• Do nothing for 30 minutes.

• Exercise and jam out with your favorite tunes.

I love and practice all these things. This is a very small list, comparatively. What can you do to recharge? Remember, this can be something quick that doesn’t take a ton of time and energy. When your recharge idea feels like a whole other job, you will be less likely to stick with it. Make it something you want to do and can accomplish relatively easily. Think about what’s most important to you -that may be your family, your education, your career, or just getting to be the best YOU possible. No matter what it is, you need to have a plan for getting there. Start with YOU and plan to recharge, so you can show up each day recharged and ready to contribute.

-Aletha