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PODCAST

Pizza King Podcast: Empowering Pizzeria Leadership

Tyrell Reed | Pizzeria Leadership & Team Building Coach

The Pizza King Podcast is where pizzeria owners and operators go to sharpen their skills, build better teams, and grow more profitable businesses. Hosted by Tyrell Reed—franchise leader, coach, and author of Next Level Leadership—each episode delivers practical insights, real-life stories, and expert advice to help you win in the pizza business. Whether you"re opening your first shop or scaling your tenth, this show is your guide to pizza business excellence.

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All Episodes

29:41

September Sales Up 108.5%: What Changed at Our Pizzeria

Pizza King Podcast: Empowering Pizzeria Leadership ·

2026/10/06

September sales at Westshore Pizza Valrico reached $36,557, up 108.5% from last September. I share the rewards results, Facebook ads, direct mail plan, box toppers, QR stickers, catering, and operational changes behind this month's update. The comparison needs context. Last September included closures and inconsistent hours. September sales also fell 13.3% from August. Sales growth and profit are different measures. Our newest change was a personal introduction in customer emails. Customer...

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21:14

Conveyor Oven vs. Deck Oven: What Actually Works in a...

Pizza King Podcast: Empowering Pizzeria Leadership ·

2026/09/29

Someone told me EDGE is the oven for people who cannot make real pizza. I spent nearly 23 years working with deck ovens. Today, my pizzeria runs every pizza through an EDGE conveyor oven. That gives me a clear view of the conveyor oven vs. deck oven debate. This episode breaks down what each commercial pizza oven does well and how your choice affects pizzeria consistency, training, labor costs, production capacity, remakes, and pickup times. I share how our team handled an 88-pizza order w...

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41:29

You Can't Live in Your Shop Forever | Kevin Abbott

Pizza King Podcast: Empowering Pizzeria Leadership ·

2026/09/22

Kevin Abbott and his wife Allison own Stoner’s Pizza Joint directly across the street from my shop in Valrico, Florida. On paper, we compete. In real life, we help each other. Kevin shares why he left another industry, spent nearly a year learning inside another operator’s stores, and chose the franchise path. We also talk honestly about building a team you can trust enough to step away from the shop. This conversation covers working with your spouse, training, systems, community, competition...

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14:36

Takeout Tips: We Set A Record, Then Lost A Whole Day

Pizza King Podcast: Empowering Pizzeria Leadership ·

2026/09/17

Last week Tyrell came on and said the shop had its best month, up around 75 percent in sales. Three days later the phones died for the rest of the day. This Takeout Tips is about the number you are actually comparing yourself to. The week finished down about 15 percent from the week before. Against the same week last year it was up 36 percent. Same week, two different stories, and only one of them should change what you do on Monday. Inside: what a dead phone system costs a shop that takes ...

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73:55

How a Small-Town Pizzeria Beats the Big Chains |...

Pizza King Podcast: Empowering Pizzeria Leadership ·

2026/09/15

Aaron Keaser runs Teaford's Pizza & Subs in Greenville, Ohio, a town of about 13,000 people packed with national chains and local competition. He refuses to compete on price. Aaron joins Tyrell to explain how quality, consistency, customer service, kitchen flow, and community relationships help an independent pizzeria compete. They also talk about dough, menu decisions, DoorDash, fundraising boundaries, stress, sacrifice, and the reality that nobody is coming to save the owner. In this ep...

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24:49

The Systems Behind a 76% Sales Increase | Takeout Tips

Pizza King Podcast: Empowering Pizzeria Leadership ·

2026/09/03

August should have been one of our slowest months. Instead, our Westshore Pizza location finished at $42,143 in sales, up 76.22% from last year and ahead of every month we have on record for the store. That result did not come from one promotion. The turnaround started with eight months of operating work. We cleaned the store, trained the team, simplified the menu, removed weak hours, fixed the order process, built the rewards list, mailed every week, and stayed patient while catering gained ...

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49:10

Florida Pizza Is Better Than You Think

Pizza King Podcast: Empowering Pizzeria Leadership ·

2026/09/01

Jeff Berman has visited more than 500 pizzerias across the country. During one New York trip, he reached 53 shops and tried 70 slices in four and a half days. Jeff is the founder of Pizza Lovers of Florida, a Facebook community that grew from a small Citrus County group to more than 5,000 members. He does not call himself a reviewer or influencer. He calls himself a pizza enthusiast. In Episode 157 of the Pizza King Podcast, Jeff explains how he chooses which shops to visit, why he orders t...

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20:08

The 14-Week Pizzeria Operators Playbook

Pizza King Podcast: Empowering Pizzeria Leadership ·

2026/08/19

Most struggling pizzerias do not need more ideas. They need a clear order of operations. In Episode 156 of the Pizza King Podcast, Tyrell Reed breaks down the 14-week Pizzeria Operators Playbook he used to bring structure to a struggling store and support 34% sales growth in seven months. The playbook moves through four phases: stabilizing the operation, building a leadership pipeline, improving speed and accountability, and reinforcing the right habits through recog...

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69:01

Small Team, High Standards with Chef Peter Garces

Pizza King Podcast: Empowering Pizzeria Leadership ·

2026/08/18

A great pizzeria needs more than a strong recipe. Chef Peter Garces built By The Chef Pizza around premium ingredients, skilled people, simple systems, and hands-on leadership. In this conversation, Peter shares his path from culinary school and New York kitchens to pop-ups, Catapult Lakeland, and his own storefront. You will hear: 1. Why Peter prefers a small, well-paid team 2. How clear roles create independence 3. Why owners need firsthand operating e...

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20:05

The Pizzeria Advice Nobody Wants to Hear: Just Do It

Pizza King Podcast: Empowering Pizzeria Leadership ·

2026/08/13

Four years ago Tyrell picked up "Podcasting for Dummies" in a bookstore and never bought it — because you learn more from doing than from reading about it. In this Takeout Tips Thursday, he makes the operator's case for action over study: your pizzeria changes when you put the work in and tailor it to your shop, not when you buy one more program. You can't scale chaos. In this episode: (0:00) The bookstore photo that came full circle (4:52) You learn by doing, not reading (5:55) The soccer le...

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49:43

From Merrill Lynch to Best Pizza in Chicago | Sal...

Pizza King Podcast: Empowering Pizzeria Leadership ·

2026/08/11

Sal Guagliardo ran from the family pizza business, became a Merrill Lynch investment banker, then couldn't stay away — and a month after buying a little Chicago shop, the Chicago Tribune named it a top-3 pizza in the city. In this Pizza King Podcast episode, Sal breaks down how he keeps delivered pizza crispy with Pizza Protector, why "food cost" is the wrong reason to cut corners, how to lead from the front, and what it really takes to keep clean books and sell your shop for a strong multipl...

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72:45

Japanese Dough Science, Hater Comments & $30 Pizzas

Pizza King Podcast: Empowering Pizzeria Leadership ·

2026/07/28

Two of the most respected names in the pizza world sit down with Pizza King for a no-filter conversation. Uncle Rico brings the Florida-style, 26-years-behind-the-counter perspective; Vito brings Michelin training, Roman-style obsession, and a habit of nerding out on dough science. They get into the Japanese gelatinization technique that's quietly winning world competitions, why "competition pizza" and "shop pizza" are two different animals, the death of "the customer is always right," how Ch...

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12:05

The Kid Takes Over the Pizza King Podcast | Takeout Tips

Pizza King Podcast: Empowering Pizzeria Leadership ·

2026/07/23

This week's Takeout Tips got a special guest host — my son Dallas Reed grabbed the mic and turned the tables on the Pizza King. What starts as a hard-hitting debate (sausage vs. broccoli) turns into a surprisingly real conversation about running a shop, respect, and what actually makes a leader. It's a fun, wholesome one — and a peek at the next generation of the family business. 👉 Subscribe for weekly tips and conversations with pizzeria operators:

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56:19

How the Right Oven Solves Your Labor Problem | George...

Pizza King Podcast: Empowering Pizzeria Leadership ·

2026/07/21

New episode this week on the Pizza King Podcast. George Clark drives the Edge Ovens test truck across the country — Maine to Miami, Seattle to San Diego — baking real pizza in real shops to prove one thing: a conveyor oven can absolutely make a great pie. In this operator-to-operator conversation, George breaks down why heat is the most important ingredient (and why he can dial a pizza in by the second bake), how a deck oven leaves your quality "up to an opinion" while a conveyor delivers t...

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18:57

The 4 Levers of Pizzeria Marketing

Pizza King Podcast: Empowering Pizzeria Leadership ·

2026/07/16

Most pizzeria "marketing" is really just a pile of one-off tactics — a flyer here, a boosted post there, a guy you hired to run social — with no strategy tying it together. In this week's Takeout Tips, Tyrell breaks down the only four levers that actually move the needle for a pizzeria, and how his shop pulls all four at once. You'll learn why every plan has to start with the goal, the four levers (acquire new customers, reactivate lapsed customers, increase frequency, raise ticket average), ...

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47:30

The Direct Mail Playbook Every Pizzeria Owner Needs...

Pizza King Podcast: Empowering Pizzeria Leadership ·

2026/07/14

I sat down with Kevin Slaughter, owner of Mailwise Solutions, a direct mail and print company that has been serving pizzeria operators across the country for almost nineteen years. Kevin started at Mailwise in college driving a box truck for his father-in-law, worked his way through every department, went corporate for a while at Procter & Gamble and Kroger, then came back full-time in 2018 and bought the business in January 2024. We talked about what direct mail actually costs, why posta...

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39:15

33 Years in the Pizza Game: How Gary Wilson Built a...

Pizza King Podcast: Empowering Pizzeria Leadership ·

2026/07/03

Edge will bring their oven to you! Learn more at Edgeovens.com/Test-bake Gary Wilson has been running Wilson's Pizza and Grill in Kansas City, Kansas since 1993, and what he's built there — through flyers, radio, Facebook Live, and now TikTok — is a real case study in what happens when you lead with community, show up every single day, and treat service as your real product. Follow Wilson's Pizza & Grill on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/p/Wilsons-Pizza-Grill-100054288770819/ Check out...

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53:23

How Odie O'Connor Runs Two Pizza Shops From Two...

Pizza King Podcast: Empowering Pizzeria Leadership ·

2026/06/23

I sat down with Odie O'Connor, co-founder of Boxcar Pizza in Portland and Odie's Pizza Co. in Oceanside, California. Odie shares how he went from making vegan pizzas in his backyard to running two sourdough pizza shops across two states — and the systems, partnerships, and mindset that made it possible. Whether you run one shop or are planning your second, this episode has something you can use today. George rolls up in the EDGE test truck and invites you to step inside, where you’ll bake y...

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59:45

What Reps, Relationships, and One Book Did for Eddie...

Pizza King Podcast: Empowering Pizzeria Leadership ·

2026/06/02

I talked to Eddie Stalewski — @eddiespizza412 — about going from the Pizza Bible in 2013 to standing on the main stage at Pizza Expo as a World Pizza Champion, and every connection, competition, and late Saturday pizza session that happened in between. If you have ever questioned whether the craft you are putting into your work actually leads somewhere, this episode will answer that. Join Pizza Pro Circle, the free community for Pizza King Podcast listeners. Take what you hear and turn ...

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61:17

Technique Over Ingredients: The Truth About Pizza...

Pizza King Podcast: Empowering Pizzeria Leadership ·

2026/05/26

Join my FREE Community! Brandon Herriott is a pizza and Italian food specialist at Performance Food Group Roma in Pittsburgh, where his team sells over 30,000 cases a week to independent operators. In this episode, Brandon talks about what operators get wrong about technique vs. ingredients, how to get more from your food rep, the Detroit style pizza opportunity, where pizza trends are heading, and what separates great operators from good ones. If you buy food from a distributor, this c...

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156 results

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