Scott Wiener Pizza Expert Joins Us On The Steve Jobs Inspired Join Up Dots Podcast
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Introducing Scott Wiener Pizza Expert
Scott Wiener is today’s guest joining us on the Steve Jobs inspired Join Up Dots free podcast interview.
He is an entrepreneur and connoisseur of something that most of us order, make, and then simply shove into our mouths as quickly as we can.
Yes, he is Scott Wiener, an expert on the integral food source known as Pizza.
Growing up in New York City, it was very hard not to at least every now and again, end up holding a dangling piece of melted cheese and pepperoni above your mouth, whilst reaching for the next piece eagerly.
And our guest loved pizza more than most…and that was it.
How The Dots Joined Up For Scott
He didn’t feel that his life would be linked with this Italian favourite, he just liked eating it.
But upon leaving familiar territory for college at Syracuse University, he began to realize that the way pizza was made in other areas was very much different to what he was used to.
What made the slices that he was eating at college so very different to the ones he had grown up eating?
Touring the country with rock bands throughout those college years provided perfect opportunities for research.
But yet still, he was on a path that was common place….get a job, lose a job, get another job and feel uninspired all the time.
Yep, we have all been there.
How The Dots Joined For Scott Wiener Pizza Man
But it was in that moment of searching for the thing that made Scott Wiener come alive as a departure from his life, whenever possible he gathered some friends for pizza day-trips.
Four people in a car eating a slice at each stop until stomachs were full.
It was fun, enjoyable and he could share the knowledge that he had built up about this cheesy delight.
The only problem was that his car wasn’t big enough to fit everyone who wanted to go, so he rented a bus for a massive birthday party and invited 26 friends and family members for a day of pizza adventuring.
Six months later, he used that very model to launch Scott’s Pizza Tours.
And now nearly six years later, 1,500 tours, over 25,000 tour guests later, and an entry into the Guinness Book Of World Records he can lay back with a full stomach and say yes I am where I should be in life.
So does he ever have days when he thinks “I can’t face another slice of this stuff ever again?”
And does he now have the recipe for the worlds most perfect pizza that he can share with us all?
Well let’s bring onto the show to start joining up dots, as we discuss the words of Steve Jobs in todays Free podcast, with the one and only Mr Scott Wiener.
Show Highlights
During the show we discussed such weighty topics with Scott such as:
How the process of getting into the Guinness Book of World Records occurs, and why with 800 pizzas boxes he is now the Champion of the world.
How he was never concerned about going the corporate route no matter how many people questioned his decisions.
How he found the starting of his business to be scary, but nothing like when he knew that he had to hire help to take him to the next level.
Why in his mind the strangest decisions that he has ever made have turned out to be inspired and lead him to grasp opportunities he could never have imagined.
And lastly……
Why it is so important that all of us review our happiness levels and if it falls lower then acceptable do something about it!
How To Connect With Scott Wiener
Return To The Top Of Scott Wiener Pizza Expert
If you enjoyed this episode with Scott Wiener why not check out other inspirational chat with Plum Deluxe, Jack Canfield, Leon Logothetis and the amazing Joe De Sena
You can also check our extensive podcast archive by clicking here – enjoy
Audio Transcription Of Scott Wiener Interview
Intro [0:00]
When we’re young, we have an amazing positive outlook about how great life is going to be. But somewhere along the line we forget to dream and end up settling. Join Up Dots features amazing people who refuse to give up and chose to go after their dreams. This is your blueprint for greatness. So here’s your host live from the back of his garden in the UK, David Ralph.
David Ralph [0:24]
Yes, hello there world and welcome to another edition of Join Up Dots. Yes, this is Episode 206. We’re quickly whizzing through to the next kind of milestones at 250s, the three hundreds of five hundreds of 5000s, who knows what we’re going to get. And today’s show is going to be a great show because he is a guy that I’ve already mentioned, I’ve mentioned a few times. So if you’ve been listening to the shows this week, you will hear me mentioned this guy because it’s kind of it’s kind of mad really how he’s created a life for himself. But it’s it’s fantastic because it’s a life that so many of us could replicate if we wanted to. He’s a guest who is a kind of shoe is something that most of us older, make, and then simply shove into our mouths as quickly as we can. Yes, he’s an expert on the table food source known as pizza, one of your five a day, growing up in New York City was very hard not to at least every now and again end up holding a dangling piece of melted cheese. And pepperoni above your mouth was reaching for the next piece eagerly, and our guest love pizza more than most and that was it really. He didn’t feel that his life would be linked with his Italian favourite he just liked eating it. But upon leaving familiar territory for college at Syracuse University, he began to realise that the way pizza was made in other areas was very much different to what he was used to what made the slices that he was eating at college so very different to the ones he had grown up eating. Rotolo in the country rock bands throughout those college years provided perfect opportunities per research. But yet still, he was an apartment was commonplace, get a job, lose a job, get an A job, and feel uninspired over time yet, we’ve all been there. But it was in that moment of searching for the thing that made him really come alive as a departure from his life. Whenever possible. He would gather some friends to pizza day trips for people in a car, eating a slice at each stop until stomachs were full. It was fun, it was enjoyable, and he could share the knowledge that he’d built up about these cheesy delight. The only problem was that his car wasn’t big enough to fit everyone who wanted to go. So he rented a bathroom massive party and invited 26 friends and family members for a day of pizza adventuring. Six months later, he used that very model to launch Scott’s pizza tours. And now nearly six years later, 1500 tours over 25,000 tour guests later, and an entry into the Guinness Book of World Records. Unbelievable. He can lay back with a full stomach and say yes, I am where I should be in life. So Does he ever have days when you think I can’t face another slice of his stuffed pepper again? And does he now have the recipe for the world’s most perfect pizza? But he can share with us all? Well, let’s find out as we bring on to the show to start Join Up Dots. The one and only Mr. Scott Wiener. How are you, Scott?
Scott Wiener [3:13]
I am great, David, thanks for having me.
David Ralph [3:15]
It is lovely to have you on the show, sir. Because yes, as I was saying before recording, it’s it’s kind of mad, isn’t it, that you’ve created this life for yourself? based around something that is kind of just in front of all of us? We are going to sort of touch on how that happened. But do you sort of lay in bed sometimes thinking? Yeah, really, this wasn’t the path that I really imagined when I was an eight year old?
Scott Wiener [3:38]
Absolutely. Every single day, there’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think about it.
David Ralph [3:44]
Why, why? Why is it so mad to you as it is to me? Because, you know, I know at the moment, you’ve got luggage powered around you because you’re flying over to my side of the pond to present pizza for beginners or the history of pizzas, well, what is it that you’re presenting over in London,
Scott Wiener [4:03]
so I’m actually presenting an exhibition of the world’s greatest pizza boxes. Because I collect you mentioned this Guinness World Record, which is a record for the world’s largest collection of unique pizza boxes. So I have this huge collection of pizza boxes, I wrote a book all about it. And now I’m being flown over there with 150 of my boxes to show them off in an exhibition space in a in an art gallery, essentially.
David Ralph [4:26]
So So how many of you got Ben?
Scott Wiener [4:29]
So at last count yesterday? It’s eight, just too shy of 807 98?
David Ralph [4:35]
Well, I have two questions, because I’m I’m a bit of a sort of cynical guy is how does the Guinness Book of Records work? Because how do you know that somebody, somebody somewhere hasn’t got 900 out and they categorise you
Scott Wiener [4:47]
this? So this is a really great question. Because I, I you know, growing up, I always used to get the Guinness Book. And I would flip through it. And when you flip through it, you’re seeing you know, these crazy things into the Yeah, how do they know that, that this lady has the longest neck or that this guy has the most tattoos or whatever it might be. And really what it comes down to is, when you have something that you think could be a record, and it doesn’t exist. A box is in the book. You call them up and you say, here’s the collection that I have. And they get back to you with a number and they said, Well, if you have this number, we can consider that a record. And then I guess what you do is you publish it in the book. And if nobody comes forth over the next year, then you hold the record. If somebody comes forward and says, hey, I’ve got more than this guy, and then they then they re approach. So it’s really just you know, in order in order to win the game, you got to play it, you know what I mean? You got to show up. So I think that’s part of it. Luckily, for something like pizza boxes today, in 2014. If you collect a weird thing, then you are on the internet about it and talking about it. So I always look around online. And I see people who take pictures of pizza boxes, and they post them on a flicker pages are you know they share them. But I have not come across somebody who actually collects the physical boxes. And so even though this is a Guinness World Record, I don’t think there’s even a number two collection in the world because it’s just not, not so many people collect. So you’re correct to be cynical about it. But I’m hoping that with press from the record, people may start collecting, and it would be great if somebody knocks me out because then have somebody to talk to about this stuff. somebody knocks
David Ralph [6:30]
you out with a pizza box that that would be great when it like a turf war, you meet a dome with your pizza boxes in both hands.
Scott Wiener [6:39]
Forget each other, that would
David Ralph [6:40]
be an image that I would pay to see I really would. But when you say it’s weird, that it’s not weird, though, isn’t you’re not collecting a weird thing. you’re collecting something really, really ordinary. And that’s the thing that I try to get across on this show where people are always striving for a dream life. Basically what we talked about, we talked about people that are finding their path and doing amazing things and doing stuff that is, you know, either successful or just slightly off the wall a bit. And most of the time, we kind of look for that that thing that nobody else has spotted before that the new Facebook for new VISTA new fad. But what you’ve done and you’ve done it very well, you’ve just found something that it’s all over the place. And it’s so all over the place. You wouldn’t even think about doing it. It’s a unit first person to do these tours. Are people now sort of coming to you going, Oh, I’m in Australia, and I wouldn’t mind doing a pizza tours over there.
Scott Wiener [7:37]
Oh, yeah, no, first of all, I’m not the first person to do it. There was a pizza tour that’s been in Brooklyn for three years longer than I’ve been doing it. But it’s a different, different different focus. The focus that I do on my tours is really specifically about pizza as a food. And as you just mentioned, it’s in front of you. It’s the mundane, but when you put it into its historical context and the scientific context, it is a completely different angle. So instead of pizza being just something that you’re eating for filler on the tour, we really approach it as a food that has history. And that has culture. And I you know, to your point, there certainly are people who now call me just yesterday, I was on the phone with somebody from Philadelphia, who wants to do a similar thing in Philadelphia and wants to talk about, well, how do I start this? How do I approach this head of the pizza result?
It’s it’s a format that you can certainly do anywhere. But
you know, it all depends on the that landscape of that dish in a town. So and I, you know, I don’t know about in the UK, but I know in America, you go to any city in the Midwest, and it’s a very different pizza from the city from the pizzas in the northeast or the Southwest. And so there’s something really interesting about seeing side by side comparisons with different styles that you don’t really get in some parts of the world, some parts of the world really just are uniform. And it’s just different with New York. This is great opportunity to have variation across the board.
David Ralph [9:06]
Because I’ve spent quite a bit of time in New York, and I’ll be honest with you, I said in the introduction when we first contacted each other on email. I don’t really like pizza because I’m not that keen on cheese. And I’ve never found a pizza that doesn’t have two tonne of cheese on it. Well, there’s a question. Can you get pizzas without cheese
Scott Wiener [9:23]
on it? Absolutely. Absolutely. Without a doubt. In fact, the
go old style of pizza from the mid 19th century. It’s tomato. It’s Oregon. No, it’s olive oil it pepper and salt. And that’s it.
David Ralph [9:41]
How does it fit together then how does it just all fall to pieces I thought the the cheese was the that was the glue.
Scott Wiener [9:47]
So surprisingly enough, the cheese for me is the opposite of the glue. If it’s a pizza that’s composed in a standard way, usually pizzas are a base than a sauce and then cheese and then toppings. This is typical. The cheese will act as a binder if you put the cheese on the dough before the sauce. Otherwise, the cheese is laying on top of a layer of moisture the tomato and usually the cheese will end up actually sliding around the top of the pizza because of all the moisture buildup below. So if you leave the cheese off, you actually like it a dryer pizza because moisture is better able to cook off of the top of the pizza off of the tomatoes.
David Ralph [10:25]
I always thought if I went into a place and said can I have a pizza without cheese, I would just look at me like I was a lunatic.
Scott Wiener [10:32]
Well, they probably wouldn’t most pizzerias, but big trend in Neapolitan pizza, which is the oldest style of pizza pizza comes from Naples, Italy. And the old version of it is a wood fired 92nd baked pizza, very simple topping very simple ingredients. And this is a big trend right now. And one of their staple pizzas is the pizza Mariner which I just described to you. So you’ll be safe. In fact, you know, when I’m in town, we’re going to meet up and I’m going to I’m going to show you some pizza, I think you’re gonna like what over here,
David Ralph [11:01]
I think we just have the franchise, you know, I spent quite a bit of time in New York. And it seems to be more kind of family run enterprises that were creating pieces. So you’d go in there and you almost felt like it was it was a mom and dad and kids sort of running these places. Over here. I think we had like Dominos Pizza, we have pizza heart, and we just have these big franchises. I can’t think off the top of my head people where you would go in there and they would be creating it in quite the same way. I imagine you get a different kind of pizza by somebody making it themselves ban the mass produced ones.
Scott Wiener [11:37]
Absolutely right and most production methods, which is that in those chain pizzerias, a lot of them are done by the commissary method. So all the ingredients are produced in advance at Central commissaries and then sold to the franchise’s. So in a mom and pop, everything’s happening in the house. So there’s more well, not necessarily more control. But there’s, I would say more variation, the opposite control. And that’s why you know, with a mom and pop, you might have something different happening every day, which gives a character. And that’s exactly what the chains don’t want. So you can definitely find mom and pops, but they’re actually going to be newer, because in the States, especially in New York, these pizzerias were opened by Italians who’d come over in the late 1800s, early 1900s. And in the UK, there’s not that same immigration pattern. And since you don’t have that same Southern Italian immigration pattern, you didn’t have the influx of pizza until you had it coming from the states from the chains. It’s our fault. We sent the crappy guys
David Ralph [12:36]
what we have Carrey houses. Basically, we have Carrey houses on every corner. And the sort of the Asian fraternity has basically changed the diet landscape of the UK, we laugh at Carrey, but we don’t often go out for a pizza. It’s more like a quick snack by actually going out for a meal.
Scott Wiener [12:55]
Sure, sure. And it makes a whole lot of sense that curry would be the thing and it sort of curry is to London what pizza is to New York. And it’s because of the same reasons in in New York, it’s about immigration. And in the UK and especially in London. It’s about imperialism bringing in foods so actually when I’m when I’m going to be over there, I’m probably going to be eating more curry than pizza.
David Ralph [13:18]
Well, you’re just around the corner from the the best Carrey Road called Brick Lane when you get there, asked to go out to Brick Lane, and you will be surrounded by hugely drunk businessmen having a great time. And it’s one of these roads about I have been there many, many times. But if you ask me how to get there, I can’t because I’ve always been a bit steaming drunk. And people come out let’s go to a coffee. And so you kind of in a dreamlike state you wander to this place and had this meal. And yeah, it is the place to go. So you asked to go to Brick Lane and you will experience Carrey as it is meant to be eaten.
Scott Wiener [13:52]
I’ll you know I’ll be on Brick Lane because the exhibition is on Brooklyn. I know I will be it every day.
David Ralph [13:57]
You You will be coming back king of coffee and people. You’ve been to London. Yes, I can’t get away from it. I have been and you will be you know, borderline alcoholic by the time because we do like to drink as well. Scott?
Scott Wiener [14:10]
Well, maybe I’ll start up Scott’s Carrey tours absolutely will bring you down.
David Ralph [14:13]
So the thing about Join Up Dots is really sort of taking you through your struggles finding your path. So I think we’ve kind of covered but you are an expert, you’re economists, you have something that is quite mundane. But you have you’ve done your homework, you’ve done your research you you’ve you’ve gone into it in a level that most people haven’t. But in the intro, we were talking about how you for many years, you were on a path that so many of us are where you go into jobs, they don’t quite fit you’ve tried and you tried quite a lot of kind of strange jobs as well, didn’t you? It wasn’t just the corporate gigs that you you were into? Have you taken stuff from there? Well, what was the weirdest job that you did? Because I think there was a certain element of dressing up as well, wasn’t it?
Scott Wiener [14:57]
Yeah, I saw I did. I had a job for maybe six or eight months, where I was a costume character at birthday parties and street fairs. So that was an interesting one, I’d go to parties dressed as you know, the Elmo or whoever they wanted me to be. And that was kind of a bizarre job. I had a college degree. And that’s what I did.
David Ralph [15:16]
Did you think that inside in Elmo, boys? Did you say to the kids, Do you realise I’ve got a PhD, I’m above this.
Scott Wiener [15:24]
You know what, honestly, I never did. Because when I was doing it, I knew that it was my choice to be doing it. And they knew I I’ve had this history of choosing the job that doesn’t make the most sense to my parents, and to people who have more stable business minds. And I found that those were the better choices, because it allowed me to learn something that you weren’t learning in the more strict and the more typical workspaces. So yeah, being I never, I always thought, Oh, I’m a little too old to be doing this. Everyone else who’s working here is in high school, but I really never thought I’m above the Did you really just thought, you know, maybe, maybe I, you know, maybe eating pizza and ice cream. Iraqis birthday parties is actually more fun than when I can be doing
David Ralph [16:13]
when he that that’s the beauty of what you’ve done. And that’s what really the message in life is. But you don’t have to go down the sensible path. You don’t have to go down the corporate path. Because for most of us, I, I don’t know many people that wouldn’t be honest with me and say, actually, the job I do bores me, I’d rather be doing something else. But for years and years and years, you will go to a corporate environment. That’s kind of the given. And I did that for years and years and years and years. And there’s certain elements of it I enjoyed, but the bulk of it, not at all, really. But I still did that. So I applaud you, but you were taking the brave choices, where most people would have said to you and the best, especially your parents, Scott, come on, you went through college, and you’re doing this you should aim Hi, but what you were doing was really setting the groundwork for what you’re doing. Now you were interacting with the public and
Scott Wiener [17:06]
I yeah, that’s absolutely true. And but I really feel like it’s, it’s a, it’s a big track, to be thinking, Oh, no, you should be doing something better. Because that’s when you get involved in climbing the ladder, which climbing the ladder, when you realise two rungs up that you don’t want to be on it. And it’s harder to jump onto a different one. I just never wanted to get into that. And I never ever had the concept of having to choose a career and then follow that career. That’s why my family’s certainly I get this question all the time about what am I? What does my family think what my parents think about what I do? And at first? Absolutely, it was why Why are you doing this, you can you can network with people from your college, you can get a job. And that’s the way life usually works. But, you know, if you stick to the way life usually works, and you realise around you, everybody else is upset with what they’re doing. Guess what, you probably we’re going to end up in that same place, it doesn’t mean that you have to be upset some people, some people like being part of that structure. And that’s great. And sometimes I wish that I was part of that structure, because it’s more dependable. But it wouldn’t be nearly as much fun.
David Ralph [18:13]
Well, that’s that’s what’s nowaday. And that’s what I love about what you’re doing. You know, I, I have promoted you quite heavily on some of the shows, because it just seems like you are totally authentic to yourself, you’re totally unique. You’re doing something you love. And the fact that you’re you know, you’re flying over to London, a lot of people in corporate gigs would say, that’s part of my success. You know, when people are asking me to go around the world. And with the greatest respect, you wouldn’t think that what you’re doing would have that much breath, but you’re proving because you are so passionate about it about it, it engages people and people want to be engaged.
Scott Wiener [18:52]
Absolutely. Absolutely. And they, and I, you know, and I believe me, I, I stop and think about this every day. It’s only based on the reaction when I see people’s response to what it is that I do, and what we do with the tours, and with these boxes and everything. I mean, that’s what feeds the obsession, and that’s what feeds the entire business. So I’m obviously doing these odd jobs, like being a costume character, and going to street fairs was not the kind of job for a college graduate. And my parents certainly made it clear that they didn’t think it was the job for a college graduate. But in my mind, it was always it. I was never, I was never concerned with picking a single career path and following it. I was more interested in opportunities that would come up. And if something came up, I would just never say no. Because by saying no, I’m just shutting the door on something. And if I say yes, I can always stop. If they say no, I’ve stopped it before I’ve even before I’ve even experienced that. So I just found that most of the successful things that I’ve ever done, have been really dumb ideas at first.
David Ralph [20:00]
That’s it when you were saying that I was thinking about the Jim Carrey film The Yes, man. Have you seen
Scott Wiener [20:06]
that film? No, I have not seen it. That’s um, Wait, is that the one where he? That’s not the one where you can’t lie?
David Ralph [20:13]
No, it’s the one where basically he is in a dead end job. He’s in a dead end life. And he’s whole motivation. Just kind of goes out the window. So even if somebody sort of says to him, Do you fancy going out for a drink tonight? He would go on, I’m too busy. I’m too busy. But really all he was doing was just watching videos at home, you know? And so he goes to the seminar, and the main kind of brain washes him to say yes to every opportunity. And he would really say yes to every opportunity. So a Trump would come along and say to him, you know, have you got $5? And he would normally go, Oh, I haven’t got any money on me. But now he would go, Oh, yes, I have. And the Trump would go, Well, can I take all your money? And he go, yes. And he will just give it to him. And and it was how one thing led to another. And it was that having willingness to be open to opportunities, but actually changes his life. Now it is a bill. So it’s a kind of poetic licence. But the message is really sort of similar to yours. If you were saying, No, I can’t do this. No, I can’t do that. You’re going to get what everybody else is getting. But because you’re saying Well, yes. It might seem a bit strange at the moment, but I’m going to try that. Really on the Join Up. Dots timeline, no, no experience is wasted. And you’re just making yourself bring things into your life. But otherwise, you wouldn’t see. Did you do see what I’m saying?
Scott Wiener [21:34]
Absolutely. And I yeah, that’s exactly what it is. Because when I look, when I look at it, people always ask about how well how did this whole thing even start? And it’s it started because of a series of decisions that would not be normal for someone who graduated college with good grades and good Connexions. And, you know, it’s they were not they were not the decisions that made sense at the time to anybody but me.
David Ralph [21:57]
Now, I’m going to play the words of Jim Carrey, because I like fees very much. And he says a lot about what you’re talking about Mr. Jim Carrey,
Jim Carrey [22:05]
my father could have been a great comedian, but he didn’t believe that that was possible for him. And so he made a conservative choice. Instead, he got a safe job as an accountant. And when I was 12 years old, he was let go from that safe job. And our family had to do whatever we could to survive. I learned many great lessons from my father, not the least of which was that you can fail at what you don’t want. So you might as well take a chance on doing what you love.
David Ralph [22:31]
What you’ve come to believe. Do you live by that, haven’t you?
Scott Wiener [22:34]
Yeah, I mean, I feel like I live my life by anything. Jim Carrey says,
David Ralph [22:39]
even even when he’s ice,
Scott Wiener [22:42]
oh, most often, when he says winter, you get me? inspirational word. No, but seriously, but that’s that’s absolutely true. And I, I think I remember hearing that speech before. But that’s, that really is absolutely true. It doesn’t mean though, that it’s bad to pick something safe. I think that that’s an issue that comes up because, you know, I’m giving these tours. And a lot of times I do public tours, but I also do private tours. And when I do private tours there for companies, and very often somebody in the company, whether it’s the partner of the law firm, or you know, the head of the one of the lead executives, they’ll say something like, you’re doing something that you love, I don’t like showing up to work, how can I do this. And it’s really funny, because this is the person who’s made the choices based on finances and living, you know, living the way that you’re told to live. And, but then they end up not happy, and they want to do the thing that’s kind of the weird bum, bizarre talking about pizza all day. And I know that they don’t want to just talk about pizza all day, but they like what, you know, if you get excited about something every day, then that’s what you should be doing. And maybe less often than it should be, you know, accounting and being a lawyer maybe don’t fit that.
David Ralph [23:54]
I am so excited doing these shows every single day. And I talked about this quite a lot. But the administration side of it, I could take or leave. But the actual content, the show, can’t get enough of it, I would sit here seven days a week having these conversations. And it’s just so inspiring to me, when you you talk to somebody like yourself, Scott, who is just so confused about what they’re doing. And they can see that, you know, you are going to be basically inspirational to the kids coming up on my, the people who are in corporate land, and have got mortgages and responsibilities. And I’m not saying that they can’t have the life that they want, they can they just have to make the choices. But the kids coming up who hopefully are listening to these kinds of conversations, we have got a duty to say to them, actually, you can have your cake and eat it, you can have your pizza and eat it. You can enjoy yourself and also earn income and jump out of bed every day being inspired, because it’s something that you love doing and it’s bringing worth and value to you and to the world.
Scott Wiener [24:59]
Yeah, well, it’s just look, it’s a it’s a lot of ways, it’s a result of, you know, the history of economics in this country and throughout the rest of the world where my parents were raised to follow that that pattern because their parents wanted them to be better than them. And then, of course, my parents then have the same concept. But, you know, the linear economy kind of been in 2008. That all went out. And now they’re just we’re not Jobs. And I feel like now people are people are more often following something that they’re into and creating something now. So it is an amazing time right now
David Ralph [25:37]
is risky thing really is getting a job isn’t it in in London this week, one of our big banks, Lloyds Bank has said they’re going to get rid of 9000 jobs over the next three years, due to the fact that people aren’t going into banks like they used to were doing it online. And they’re sort of doing it through their mobile devices, and all that kind of stuff. And I was just listening to that. And I was thinking, yeah, all these people that have been with this company for so many years, and suddenly they lose their job, my God, what, what can I do? So I think really, the education system shows like this, people, like you should be saying to people, the risky route now is getting a job if you get a job, but you can also earn your own income. On the side, you’ve got a side hustle going vein, you’ve got options, and you can sort of enjoy your life, you know, you can decide whether you want to go the corporate route, or you can decide whether to be entrepreneurial. But the bottom line is if you can earn your own money, then it’s pressure off a bit, isn’t it?
Scott Wiener [26:37]
Well, it’s pressure off of it, because it’s less likely that somebody else can pull the rug out from under view. But it’s more pressure because you’re not making that paycheck, unless you are doing your hustle or you’re showing up. You know, it’s but I mean, it’s an amazing point you make about about it being a riskier to take that job. And in some cases now, I do agree with you. But I I think in the long run, it’s taking the risk of doing something yourself is maybe a greater risk at first, but it’s a much bigger reward. Because it’s the unexpected. And when you when you take when you when you climb the corporate ladder, you know what’s going to happen, you know, in five years that your salary might be x and attendant might be why. And that’s a really nice thing. And it’s really comfortable. But, and not everybody, not everybody has the physical ability to be able to do one or the other. And so that’s why sometimes I get in these conversations. And at the end, I feel like oh, wow, we’re just all we’re doing is talking about how starting your own thing is good. And doing somebody else’s thing is bad. They don’t agree with that at all. But in this case, where a giant bank is cutting 9000 jobs, somebody else is pulling the rug from out from under you. And it’s it’s no, it’s much less comfortable to be in that situation. But you won’t know until it’s too late. So it’s a definitely can’t go around telling people don’t take the job, because you never know when it’s gonna be done. It’s just that right now. It’s just it’s more exciting time where there are more opportunities. I don’t think people realise how much opportunity there is right now.
David Ralph [28:13]
No, I agree with you. And I think we need people to be employees. And I think certain people would be terrible entrepreneurs. I think that’s the way of the world. But I do think that you can be happy. And I don’t think you need to go into a job that you dislike every single day, just because it’s a job. And I see that time and time again. How many times Scott, do you say to somebody, How’s work at the moment, and I go, Oh, it’s a job. You know what it’s like, now that that to me, really strikes me as depressing that you can do a job that you love, and you can do a job that’s based around your passions. You may not be running the whole thing yourself, but you don’t have to go in and plough through spreadsheets, if that’s not your thing. You know, let somebody else who love spreadsheets do that. And I’ve done lots of jobs in my time. I’m where I look back on it. And I think that was so not me. I don’t know why I was doing it. Well, I do because it was where the money was. And people were offering me bigger and bigger money. And funnily enough, the higher the salary went in many ways the unhappier I got, because I was so I was going further and further away from the authentic self. And I just couldn’t see that I thought it was what needed to be done. And now I think know what needs to be done is to be happy. And the storey
Scott Wiener [29:27]
at Yes, yes, absolutely. If every decision that you make is based on will this make me happy or not, then I think you’re you’re in pretty good shape, it may be a naive thing to say, because there’s reality, and maybe saying yes to something is bringing you down a road that will not let you pay your mortgage. But you know what, sometimes you have to step back from that rush. And that’s why, you know, living in New York, or living in London living in these big cities, there’s there’s a kinetic energy, and there’s a rush and everybody else’s hustling, that if you don’t, then you fall back. So sometimes you end up because you’re in a rush, you’re driving really fast. And there’s a fork coming up. And you don’t know whether you go to left or right, you might make a rash decision and do the wrong one. And that’s why I feel like it’s it’s you got to be able to step back and think about the happiness level exactly what you just said, I mean part partially why I do what I do is because my father, who is a great guy, and you know, his, he’s worked in the same field and the same job for as long as I can remember. But every day he come home, Hey, Dad, How was work? How was your day, and sometimes he’d say, it was just okay, sometimes he just flat out say it sucked. And, and that really implanted itself in me. And he would tell me, he would sit there and he’s an attorney, he would sit there at the dinner table and say, never do a job that makes you wear suit. That that was that was it. That’s all I can say give you a very little, very few pieces of advice would come out like this. And that kind of thing just stuck with me. So when I started doing this, and he says, What the hell are you doing? I say it’s your fault, man. You’re the one who told me coming, you know that what you do every day stunk, and I’m not gonna, I’m not gonna do it.
David Ralph [31:04]
I’ve got a chap coming on tomorrow. And I’m just going to record him after today’s show after we finished recording. And when I started researching him, I suddenly realised Oh my God, he’s part of my, my past. Because when I made the corporate leap, I’d read a storey about a chap who was on Wall Street financial path, and he got a huge promotion. And he got a corner office looking over, I don’t know where it was in Wall Street, but a nice view Battery Park or something down there, if that’s correct, and he was standing there, and everything should have been great in his life. And he looked at it and he started crying. And he thought, I can’t do this. I can’t do this. I painted myself into a corner. So basically, he quit. And now he’s travelling the world with his girlfriend or wife now, having experiences and going into places and helping them develop. And when I was about to quit my job, I started quoting this bloke storey No, I put myself in his corner. And you know, this blokes done it. So why can’t I and now he’s going to be on tomorrow show. And he was the same thing as your dad, he kind of pushed me into that. And so it is weird when these influences come into your life, but make you see things in a different way. And it’s like you put new glasses on, and suddenly the landscape has shifted somehow.
Scott Wiener [32:23]
Yeah, absolutely.
David Ralph [32:25]
That was a very short answer Scott Wiener
Scott Wiener [32:28]
Boys. I mean, I agree.
David Ralph [32:30]
When people come back with one word answers.
Scott Wiener [32:33]
Yeah, I mean, I say I just I, I’ve said it before. I mean, it’s I absolutely that’s I agree with that. It’s when when you paint yourself into a corner, or when you do something that pushes you into one a one way decision making process. That’s clearly I mean, clearly, it’s 50% as good as having a two way decision making process. So that’s way it’s just much, much better to be able to have the flexibility. But I mean, as you’re talking about this guy, not every nobody has the financial means to step out of that, and to travel the world. So you know, it’s whenever I hear people saying, Oh, I quit this job, and I’m just travelling, I’m thinking, Well, what are the nuts and bolts of it? It? Where’s your money? How do you deal with this? Because there’s you have to, you have to think about all that kind of stuff. Believe me, I think about it all the time. I would love to, you know, even something as fun as doing pizza tours and all this, I would love to be able to step away for a couple of months, and do some travelling that wasn’t pizza related. Because there’s, there’s a whole world out there. And as much as I believe me, I love and there’s so much travelling to do based on pizza. You know, it’d be interesting for me to step away from that and see what happens elsewhere. But, you know, it’s just hard to physically do that.
David Ralph [33:42]
So So did you get to the point sometimes, but you think, oh, pizza again? Did you? Did you not eat much of it now? Are you more so talking about it and eating it?
Scott Wiener [33:50]
Oh, no, you know, oh, wow, I eat more of it now than I’ve ever eaten before I have to limit myself. Now I have a limit that is self imposed limit of 15 slices per week. So if I, I’m trying to maintain interest in pizza, which it’s not very difficult. And most people would say that they could eat pizza every day. But I literally eat pizza every day. And the day that I wake up, and I’m not excited to eat it and or talk about it. That’s a bad day in my career. So I limit myself to maintain that interest. And I would say now I’m more interested than I’ve ever been. Because, you know, it’s like, the more you learn, the more you discover about it, the more layers you peel away, the more you want to get into it. And so I feel like now more surrounded by it than ever before. And I’m eating pizza constantly. It’s harder to eat pizza outside of tours now because I’m doing so many of them. But it’s always fun on a tour when people see me not eating. And they say, Hey, what’s the deal Are you burnt out with? And I say no, you don’t understand. I’m going out for pizza tonight. And it with my quota. I can’t eat the pizza right now. So I’ve got eaten tonight, you know, follow me on Instagram or Twitter, if you want to see the pizza eating tonight as proof that I’m not lying to you and that I’m not taking you to a place that I dislike. So it’s always funny, like the last two nights have been pizza events at pizzerias. And so during the day, I have to be careful about how much I take in because it just you just you can have too much of a good thing. And I try to be really careful about maintaining that that level of interest. Because when I do the tour, you can smell it if I’m not truly interested in what I’m talking about. And luckily, nobody’s ever come up and said, You know, this is you know, I hear what you’re saying. But you know, I’m not not really getting the vibe about you that I’ve read online, you know, people every day come up and say, oh, gee, you know, they’re joking around the game. Oh, you know, I wish you were kind of I wish you were passionate about your job, you know, and the day that comes up that nobody jokes to me about being passionate about the job, that’s a day that I gotta slow down a little bit. But that’s customer service. Where isn’t it that that’s when, you know, when you’re the thing that used to light you up becomes mundane, you’ve got no actually it’s not customer service. It’s a kind of half customer service and professionalism. You see certain people doing a role time and time again. And it’s like, it’s like, it’s their thing. I went into a shop the other day, and I had to buy sports bag for my my son. And you know those racks but I saw like 90 feet tall and I had to get one of those poles with a big hook on it. And I said to this girl, I said Oh, can you get that bag down at the top? And she looked at me and her eyes rolled and she went, it’s very high. And I said, Well, I can’t climb up there. Can you can you sort of get a power something? She went?
David Ralph [36:39]
Okay, there’s a Yeah, okay, there’s a pole over there. And so she sort of came back with a pathetic middle hand, and she was just like waggling about, and I said, I’ll do it. And she said, No, you can’t. It’s health and safety. And I said, Well, no one’s looking. And I still got the pole and I knocked it down. And then two minutes later, I went to the till, and the lady was there. Hello, how are you? You know, you just saw the difference. And it was professionalism. It was professionalism and customer service, and cheats. The same amount of people as the Powell waggling Gail. But it was just she had the spark, and your tours, the fact that you’re talking so passionately now, even though you’re desperately gonna fly off on get on a plane and go and talk to her again. You can see you’ve got professionalism Avenue.
Scott Wiener [37:26]
Well, yeah. And it’s maybe it’s a step deeper than professionalism. It’s, it’s some. The whole reason that I do this is that I know that people have questions about this mundane thing, this thing that we eat all the time that you never think deeply about. And everybody has the same questions. But in the same way that Oh, every maybe everybody asked this girl to like, Oh, can you get this for me can get that for me? And she’s grown tired of the question. Because the answer is not exciting to her. For me that the questions and the answers are always exciting, because it’s somebody else is coming up to me and say, I want to pay for this experience. And I have a question, I’m going to get involved in this conversation and ask you, and the fact that they’re getting involved is what excites me about it, because the questions they’re asking me are ones that I’ve asked over the past 10 years of building up what this tour is, and, and I’m just excited that I have the answer for them. But they don’t have to go and look in the way that I’ve had to look. And, you know, it’s I guess maybe that’s professionalism, maybe it’s just actual interest in what it is. And it’s the same way that you mentioned about not having mom and pop pizza shops, a you know, a mom and pop pizza shop has a different feel any restaurant that’s run by the people who own it, it’s sort of like living in a building where the landlord lives in the building, as opposed to your landlords live 3000 miles away, you know, that person will take better care of the building, the person will take better care of the restaurant, the person who’s operating it, and who’s who’s doing the job, because they’re there and they’re passionate, they love it is going to give you better answers and better service, because they want to have five other people who work with me and they do the tours. And I only let them do one or two a week, because I want them to be really excited when it gets to Friday. And Miriam shows up to do her tour. I want I want that to be that day that she is doing the tour that’s her break from normal life from her other jobs. And and you can really see that and you feel it in the voice of somebody talking to you that when they’re excited. And the minute that they’re not, and they’re just feeling and the minute you ask a question and they say well, let me finish my spiel. That’s death, instant death, because it even kills me that I have to have the word tour in my business title. Because it’s, it’s so much more conversational in the way that you know, your interaction with the girl at the till is more conversational. Oh, hi, where are you? Rather than? Oh, you want me to get this for you? It’s it’s very high in Whoa, it’s it’s which is crazy. It’s just it’s just a it’s it shows that some jobs. Some jobs, just they have the lower level, obviously, people working in shops. You don’t you don’t always require this other level the girl at the till maybe she’s been there longer. Maybe she’s more invested in it. Maybe it’s her place. When somebody plays, they always always get more into it because they’re there because they chose to,
David Ralph [40:21]
and that the profits come their way. Don’t know that. That’s the bottom line.
Scott Wiener [40:24]
Well, yeah, that’s true, too. But I mean, I know when I’m doing tours, it’s never about I, it’s not like if I give a better answer, I’m going to make more money. It’s more if I give a better answer. It’s I feel better about connecting the dots for somebody else. And as they’re sitting here talking about something mundane like pizza. I know the questions to them, it’s the first time they’ve ever verbalised, one of these questions. So it’s an honour to be the one to kind of help them, you know, close the loop on something like that. It’s just, it’s it thrills me every day. And if people didn’t ask questions, I probably wouldn’t do this anymore. It has to do with the interaction.
David Ralph [41:06]
So if we went back in time, and obviously you went for the stumbles, and I’m kind of interested when, when you were driving before this kind of car and New York City just for something to do with your mates, and you’re going to sort of pizza places. Did anybody at that time say to you, we should do this as a business? Or was it only when you got the mini bus? And I’m imagine even at that point, in your heart of hearts, you couldn’t have thought I can actually turn this into a business because it’s something that, in many ways, seems effortless. But of course, is incredibly hard. Because you’ve got to sort of clue up, you need to know what you’re doing. You need to network blah, blah, blah. But did you have that moment when you fall off? disappear? Good idea. But now now it’s not going to work?
Scott Wiener [41:50]
It was it was I feel like I first had that moment, maybe the first day of running the business, not in the six months leading up to that. And it it was my friends who pushed me to do it, because taking my buddies around in my car was fun. And they would say things like, Oh, my friends are coming into town from from our college. And they want to come and do this with you. And of course every once in a while somebody would say you should do this as a business? And I’d say no. And my stock answer was, no, I have no interest in running a business. I have no interest in art. I have no knowledge of how to physically do that. How do you practically do that? And then even when we did this birthday party with the with the minibus, I still I and that was the most formatted. That was the most formulaic way to do it. When we did it on this bus, people could see that it was something bigger or could be something bigger and had potential. And I’m telling you, David, it took two or three months after that day of them, pestering me before I finally said, Let me look into what it would actually take to do this. And then figure out if I’m ready to do that. What
David Ralph [42:55]
What did he take you so long? Because obviously you were you were looking for your thing? Nothing was bad in front of you?
Scott Wiener [43:02]
Well, you know, I mean, I guess it was self doubt. Because I just figured, well, no, doing a business is not something that I’ve ever thought about doing. Even though when I look back, you know, I was I remember, you know, selling, our family had just a box of plastic sunglasses for some reason. I remember selling them out on the street in front of my parents house on a Saturday. So there was some kind of a bug in there, you know, having a lemonade stand, you know, this, some sort of I don’t know if it’s an entrepreneurial bug, or it’s just boredom. I don’t know what it was. But there was something there. It just took me a while because this seemed like such a big task that I didn’t know, I had, my family was not involved with this business. I had no connexion to it. I didn’t know how, what was the process of doing it. I’d never taken a tour before it just so the the how does it work part of it. That was really, that was really the scariest thing, I was just filled with doubt about that. And the only seriously, the only reason that I ended up doing it was because at the time, I was living in a place that I did not have to pay rent, and you calculated the amount of money that I’d saved. And living there, I said, Well, this man this money is let’s just call it play money. And I’m going to put it into this thing. I’m going to research and develop this business over six months or four months it was and, and whatever. If I lose the money, then whatever, no big deal, I would have paid it and rent anyway. So if I did not have that opportunity, I don’t know if I would have gone through it. I don’t know if I had the guts to do it on the side of a full time job, or ditch a full time job to do it. I just, I have no idea. If I would have done that it really all came down to being in a situation where I did not have the fiscal liability over it.
David Ralph [44:49]
And I suppose that is the perfect answer really, isn’t it? When anyone starts something they don’t know if it’s gonna work. They don’t know if other people gonna love it. But you just you kind of do stuff and you you try different things. And little by little it takes shape. And it kind of destroys the myth. And we all love this myth of the overnight success. But when I look at those stats, you know, six years later, 1500 tours 25,000 tour guests, the Guinness Book of World Records. It was bad, wasn’t it? It was bad for you. But you didn’t have the answers. And why should you have the answers. That’s what Join Up Dots is all about is about just trying stuff. And little by little people will either get engaged by it or not. And if you do it well enough and consistently enough, then people will start going. Have you been to New York recently, I went on this tour the other day with this bloke called Scott, that sounds good. Next time I’m over there, I’ll go on it. And that’s how it happens, isn’t it and then it gets to that point where you kind of go, oh, Blimey, this is actually a proper business beforehand. It was kind of a hobby I was messing around with vain. That’s I found doing this that was the scary bit different the first 3040 shows over, it was just me having a laugh, really. But then when I realised that people were listening a lot, I suddenly thought, oh my god, can I can I keep doing this? Can I keep doing this? can I provide what they want? And it That was really terrifying. That was more terrifying than launching? Have you had that as well? Have you had that kind of bit where you suddenly fo? I’m like, oh, people are actually coming to me now. He’s not something that I can decide not to do? I’ve got to do it.
Scott Wiener [46:26]
Yeah. Oh, yeah. Well, and the scariest part was probably when I realised that I need to take I need to bring on other people to do these tours. Rather than have it just be me every time. Because enough people were coming to do it, that it was more demand than I can handle. And it was taken away from my ability to even run it and to do related things like pizza box, art, exhibition tours, and things like that. So that was the scariest part was that I felt like now I have this responsibility to these people were reading reviews online about this guy who’s freakishly obsessed with pizza. And we’ll talk for hours about it. And an interesting and engaging that now there’s this pressure of live now I’ve got to not just continue to deliver the goods, but figure out a better way to do it and to create an infrastructure to do that thing. So yeah, that’s the scariest part, that was way scarier than starting it. Because starting it was, you know, I was I was low to the ground. And when you’re low to the ground, and you fall, you know, there’s not a high impact. It’s when you start building up. And you know, maybe I’d had 10 or 15,000 customers, by the time I took on other tour guides. That’s when it got more terrifying because now there’s expectation. And at this point, it’s actually funny, I’ve got an update the numbers that I send out, because now it’s been somewhere around 1700 tours, it’s been over 30,000, maybe 31 or 32,000 customers, and, and every every change that I’ve made along the way, every time I’ve added another tour, or followed up a path toward a book or the boxes or anything, it’s it’s always been an organic experience rather than a business plan. And I think that’s kind of a big point in what I’ve learned about this, is that people always ask me, the lawyers on my tours always ask, Well, what Where do you see yourself in five years, because they don’t really understand where they don’t totally understand where what I’m doing now. And they’re fascinated by what would be in five years. And they are frustrated by my answer, which is that I have no idea. And I’ll know, in four and a half years, where I’ll be in five years, all I know is that if I keep going the way that I’m going now, then, you know, the decision making process has been fruitful, it’s been, it’s been really good. And if something doesn’t work, if I try a tour for a vegan pizza Tour, which you know, you would love not having cheese on there, and it doesn’t work, then I don’t do it. And you have you have, you have when it’s a small business like this, I run it out of the apartment that I’m sitting in right now. And when you make a decision, you can easily change it. And that’s the greatest freedom ever, you can just, you can change it, you don’t have to go through a hierarchy and corporate red tape and decision making you just you just do it. And that’s that’s been the path. But that’s that. I mean, I’m, I’m sitting here right now looking at a shelf of pizza books, and a bunch of pizza boxes, and like, you know, books, my Guinness book and all this, and I’m just thinking, I there’s no way I would have known about this to even two years ago, I never would have been able to predict this. And if you made me follow a plan that I would write five years in advance, I would make decisions based on that plan instead of what was the right decision. And so it’s been really helpful to sort of not have that plan and not have that expectation. My only answer to these guys asking the question is, well, in five years, I’ll be at a higher level of doing what I’m doing now. And I don’t know what that will look like. Maybe it’s another book, maybe it’s more tour guides, maybe it’s I mean, I doubt it’s other cities have kind of ruled that out. All I know is I’ll be having a blast and meeting a lot great people and talking about pizza all day. That’s what I like to do.
David Ralph [50:06]
And so you should I’m going to play the words of Steve Jobs, which quite nicely, you’ve saved Wade, as in. And he talks about only knowing your past, when you look back and connect the dots. This is Steve Jobs.
Steve Jobs [50:18]
Of course, it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards 10 years later. Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something, your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. Because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart, even when it leaves you off the well worn path. And that will make all the difference.
David Ralph [50:52]
And that’s really the in summary what you were saying, isn’t it? Totally.
Scott Wiener [50:57]
Yeah. Because when you try to set up your future, there’s too much uncertainty. And it’s just, it makes so much more sense. If you follow your gut really, I mean, what he just said is, it’s just 100% right? For me, I mean, it just it was following my gut. And and if your guts wrong, then you can make another decision. But if you following a path that isn’t it for other reasons, you know, if it’s money, if it’s you know, what your what your what you think you’re supposed to do based on movies and TV shows or your parents, then you’re just living somebody else’s life. And I don’t want to do that.
David Ralph [51:40]
I’m going to ask you one last question, really, before I send you back in time to have a one on one with your younger self? And do you have the definitive pizza recipe? Now do you do you do after all your research? Could you say yes, to have the make love to my mouth kind of experience? It would be?
Scott Wiener [52:02]
No, I do not. Because I’ve just I five years ago, I might have said yes. But now there’s just been so there’s so much variation. There’s not one Pizza Pizza, the word does not mean one specific breakdown, it just doesn’t that mean one specific dish. So for me making pizza at home, I have recipes that I like. But the best part about it is that there are so few ingredients, that it’s wide open for experimentation. It’s kind of exactly what we’re talking about with career paths, you’re you know, you can hold back on the soft a little bit. And that’s going to have a chemical change in the rest of the dough. And knowing that you want to get more rise or more char, you can make little tweaks in those four ingredients that go into dough, flour, salt, water, and yeast, and you can get a different outcome. That’s, that’s why I love pizza, because it’s if its simplicity. And even though it’s simple, it doesn’t mean it’s easy. its simplicity actually means that it’s a much more difficult. So when you’re trying to target perfection, I feel like that’s the wrong thing, in pizza, and in career paths as well. Because perfection is defined by probably somebody else. And if it’s defined by you, then it’s a definition that can change all the time. And I would much prefer a changing definition. Because Because it’s life, it’s real life or humans are on a planet. The wind changes direction all the time. And you got to be flexible with pizza and in life. My words of wisdom
David Ralph [53:32]
well, words of wisdom, and I’m just thinking, what do you be great if everyone who bites into a pizza actually stops to think about it and thinks that the choices that went into making there? And how just that that one turn of the salt pepper in a different way made a different choice, you know, and made a different pizza. And that really is what life is about, isn’t it? It’s having those choices that you don’t know that they’re quite going to work, but ultimately could pan out into something spectacular.
Scott Wiener [53:59]
Yeah, I mean, was specifically with pizza. It’s most people approach to thinking, Oh, this is a fast food. It’s dough, and it’s cheese and its sauce. What? What can you possibly mess up with that. And then on a tour when people see how intricate it can be to bake a pizza, or how your choices from here we go three pizza shops, or four pizza shops, and each one how the crust will come back completely differently because of the way that they touch it. It gives you a new respect for not just that pizza, but for other things in life. It’s you know, attention, paying attention. Everything has choices that go along with it, things are not as simple as they seemed. And when you’re looking into something really mundane, or that seems mundane. That’s when it really comes to life. And, and that’s just it’s just that people walk away. I know that at least 31,000 people out there right now are looking at Pizza in a different way. And I think that they’re looking at more than pizza in a different way. Because I I dont preach about this in a definitely don’t get all like, you know, heady about it. But it’s the pizza is analogous to life in general. And to any product that you see. And I feel like that has so much more benefit than just thinking of it as you’re going to take me to three pizza shops, and I’m going to eat at them. Why am I paying you for that? I could do that myself? Well, it’s about it’s actually it’s about what you what you do on your show. It’s about connecting the dots for somebody. And it’s about what what Steve Jobs said it’s about looking back and seeing how the dots connected. And it just it explains the present so well. And, you know, when I was making decisions that led to this, I had no idea that it would lead to this. But now when I look back now, only now can I pinpoint. Oh, it was that decision, it was a decision to live in a place that didn’t charge me rent for three years and ended up being three years, that was probably the biggest, most important decision of my life. And that was a decision that my family friends, nobody understood. I decided to live on a historic ferry boat that was docked in Hoboken, New Jersey. And only because the opportunity came up one day that that was Hey, you know, we need somebody to live aboard and clean this thing every day. And in exchange, you can live there and not pay rent. And you know, the weirdest decision you can make to live on an old boat with no electricity and no heat in the wintertime. And that’s what that’s what it was. That’s what did it. That was your big dot. That was the big one big time.
David Ralph [56:34]
Well, we’re going to send you back in time now to close the show. And this is the part that we call the Sermon on the mic. And this is when I played a theme tune, and we send you back like a young Marty McFly to have a one on one with your younger self. And if you could have a moment with you, what age would you choose? And what advice would you give? Well, we’re going to play the theme tune and when it fade you out, this is the Sermon on the mic.
Unknown Speaker [57:01]
Here we go with the best beer on the show.
Scott Wiener [57:19]
Well, young Scott, Scott, let’s say 10 year old Scott, it’s me. It’s your older self. It’s been 23 years since I was you. And I’ve got to say just you know, from where I’m standing right now, everything’s gonna be fine. I’m just letting you know that right off the bat. But
if
something comes up the one, the one piece of advice, if any that I could give to you is
to
listen to yourself and not worry about what somebody else wants you to do, ever. Because when you make a decision based somebody else’s interests, then you’re making a decision that’s better for their life. And not necessarily yours. Because I know along the way, like right now, look, you’re 10 years old, like you love eating pizza. And that’s just a very small part of your life. You have no idea how big of a part of your life is going to become all these other things that you’re in right now. I mean, you’re 1010 years old, Scott is Oh, he’s playing the drums. He’s, you know, playing music playing piano a little bit. That stuff is really cool, really fun. And you’re going to grow up thinking that, oh, you can never make decisions that take me away from that kind of stuff from that kind of thing. But don’t make hard and fast decisions now. Make them when you gotta make them. Because I know growing up, you sort of along the way. Think about getting prepared for what am I going to be like in the future? I know. When when I was a 10 year old Scotty boy, you’re thinking about what am I going to be like when I’m 20? Or when I’m 25 when I’m 30 or when I’m 33 years old. And right now this is 33 year old Scott telling you
I its way.
It’s way better than you can even imagine. because growing up you listening to listening to what, what? What what school is telling you and parents and all that stuff is great. Everybody wants the best for you. But follow opportunity, all about following the opportunity, saying yes. When you feel like it’s right to say yes. Because it all is going to work out great. If you say no to something you’re preventing yourself from even finding out what’s going to happen. So my one piece of advice is that just stay on course listen to yourself. And don’t be afraid to make the weirdo decision. Do not say no when somebody says you can live on a ferry boat for free. In exchange for scraping barnacles off the side of it. Get into barnacles they will save your life, Scott. That’s my words of wisdom, Scott.
David Ralph [59:58]
Scott, how can our audience connect with you, sir?
Scott Wiener [1:00:01]
all kinds of ways Scott’s pizza tours. com is my website. I’m on Twitter at Scott’s pizza tour, Instagram at Scott’s pizza tours. And on Facebook slash New York pizza tours. And then there’s a YouTube slash Scott’s pizza doors, all those kinds of things. They can just go online and do a search everywhere all the time constantly active doing pizza stuff. They can also check out my book, which is called Viva pizza, the art of the pizza box, which is all about pizza box artwork. And yeah, I mean, I I’m just bouncing around all the time doing pizza tours in New York. So anybody who’s coming in New York should definitely look me up. And my team of what I have what I like to think of is pizza information superheroes. There’s six of us. And we all approach pizza from slightly different angles, and we’re here to help explain things. And if anybody has any pizza questions, email me. I’m happy to answer weird pizza questions all the time over email. It’s my favourite thing to do.
David Ralph [1:00:58]
He won’t ever respond to you drunk. Now he’s in the United Kingdom. Remember people? If focus? Well, Scott. Yeah,
Scott Wiener [1:01:07]
well,
Scott Wiener [1:01:08]
we actually went and you know, when is this posted?
David Ralph [1:01:11]
This is going to go out on the web. It’s live. Scott, I should have told you isn’t a course. It’s a live show you’re showing behind the curtain. It’s going to be the 20th of November.
Scott Wiener [1:01:23]
Okay, I only asked because I would tell them to go out to the pizza box art exhibition. But by the time you’re listening to this, my pizza boxes will be safe packed up back in Brooklyn, New York. As well, I I will demonstrate you.
Although I’ll tell you right now, there’s a possibility of doing a show in Manchester in January. So stay in touch. People should keep up with me. And if anybody’s in Manchester, come and see us in January, we should be there.
David Ralph [1:01:50]
Sounds great. Scott, thank you so much for spending time with us today, joining up those dots. And please come back again, when you do have more dots join up because I believe that by joining on those dots and connecting our past is the best way to build our futures. Scott winner. Thank you so much.
Scott Wiener [1:02:06]
Thank you, it’s been an absolute pleasure.
David Ralph [1:02:12]
Thanks so much for listening to another episode of Join Up Dots. It’s been an absolute roller coaster to get the show where it is at the moment at the top of the charts. And I’ll be honest with you, I have loved every second it’s been exhausting. But still an amazing thrill to create this for you. But listener now the show has truly grown exponentially. And whilst it’s been a labour of love to get it to the top of the charts, and now know my heart of hearts, but it’s too big for me to run my own. I need help to push it to the next level so I can move on with the exciting plans for growth which I want to achieve, leading to all of us getting the lives we deserve. It’s as simple as that. If I can provide the most I can for you, then we will all win big time. So if you believe in my mission and building the value in the shows is there for you. I would be so grateful and humbled if you’d consider donating to the show by going to Join Up Dots and clicking but Donate button and pledge what ever you can and I promise I’ll work even harder to make this not just a show, but a community where we can achieve the dreams that we long for every day. Thanks so much for your help. And please keep on listening. Thanks guys. Bye bye.