Lessons from Leo

Leo is nine years old. He is also the founder of the Squeeze Society. The combination of those two facts means that I have spent the last two years learning business from a kid who keeps a notebook in his back pocket and asks "but why?" approximately 400 times a day. Here are six things he has taught the rest of us.

Lesson one: ask, do not guess. Leo does not have a marketing degree. When he wants to know what flavor to make next, he asks the kids in line. When he wants to know what cup size people prefer, he asks the parents. When he wants to know whether to do a stand on Saturday or Sunday, he asks the regulars. He spends maybe ten minutes a day asking simple questions, and he runs his stand on real answers instead of guesses. The rest of us pretend to be sophisticated. Leo just asks.

Lesson two: smile first. The very first instruction Leo gives a new Squeezer is "smile before you say hi." It sounds obvious. It is not. Most stands lead with the menu. Leo leads with eye contact and a grin. Customers feel it immediately. The smile is the product.

Lesson three: write it down. Leo carries a small notebook everywhere. When a customer says something interesting, he writes it down. When a flavor experiment fails, he writes it down. When he hears a phrase he likes, he writes it down. Most of our best decisions in the last six months can be traced back to a note in Leo's notebook from a week earlier. Memory is not a strategy. A notebook is.

Lesson four: tiny upgrades, every week. Leo does not plan big revamps. He plans tiny upgrades. New chalk for the menu. A nicer tip jar. A small fan for the workspace. A second cutting board so two people can prep at once. Every Saturday morning before opening, he asks "what is one tiny thing we can make better today?" Over a year, those tiny upgrades have completely transformed the stand. The stand we run today is unrecognizable from the stand we ran six months ago, and it is all because of dozens of small Saturday morning decisions.

Lesson five: kids are real customers. Most adults treat kids at a stand like background characters. Leo treats them like the main customers. He greets them by name. He remembers their orders. He saves stickers for them. He bends down to talk at their eye level. Kids respond to being treated like real customers by becoming the most loyal customers you have ever met. The grown-ups eventually follow.

Lesson six: have fun out loud. Leo is loud about loving what he does. He laughs at the stand. He dances behind the table. He hypes up the team. The energy is contagious. Customers feel it before they have ordered. Fun is not a side effect of a good business. Fun is the business.

If you ever doubt whether a nine-year-old can teach you something serious, spend a Saturday morning at our stand. Bring your notebook. Leo will be there. He is taking notes too.