Will Guidara’s journey from awestruck 12-year-old at the Four Seasons to creating one of the world’s best restaurants reveals what “unreasonable hospitality” truly means. Disney’s insistence on breathing animatronic birds teaches us why perfection in unseen details creates experiences customers can feel.

Steve confesses how a questionable radio crossfade between Deep Purple and Smokie’s Oh Carol sparked an 18-year broadcasting career, while David shares how a teacher’s inspired intervention led him to discover his guiding principle: “how you do anything is how you do everything.”

All this, plus a practical solution to website bottlenecks and a healthy skepticism about whether traditional pricing psychology still applies in our cashless world.

Get ready to take notes.

Talking About Marketing podcast episode notes with timecodes

01:15 Person This segment focusses on you, the person, because we believe business is personal.
Those Childhood Moments That Define Our Future Selves

Nothing shapes a career path quite like those lightning bolt moments from childhood. Will Guidara, in his brilliant book Unreasonable Hospitality, recounts how his entire professional trajectory was set at age 12 when a Four Seasons server called him “sir” after dropping his napkin. That dignified treatment, the refusal to make a child feel small in a sophisticated space, ignited his passion for hospitality.

Steve and David explore how these formative experiences shape our professional identities, with Steve confessing his own watershed moment came at precisely the same age—albeit sparked by something considerably less profound: a jarring radio crossfade between Deep Purple’s Smoke On The Water and Smokie’s Oh Carol that had him thinking, “That looks easy—and you’d get all the girls.” Despite its dubious inspiration, that moment launched an 18-year broadcasting career that no careers counsellor could talk him out of.

David’s path proved distinctly different, with uncertainty rather than clarity defining his early professional thoughts. His transformative moment came through a teacher who, recognising his analytical mind (and argumentative tendencies), arranged legal work experience that taught him a crucial lesson: “how you do anything is how you do everything”—a principle that would resurface throughout the episode.

09:30 Principles This segment focusses principles you can apply in your business today.
Disney Birds Must Breathe: The Power of Unreasonable Precision

Will Guidara’s Unreasonable Hospitality offers a masterclass in intentionality that has Steve and David unpacking its transformative implications for every aspect of business.

Guidara’s approach at Eleven Madison Park—requiring staff to position plates so manufacturer stamps would face right-side up if a guest flipped them over—exemplifies what Walt Disney understood decades earlier: “People can feel perfection.” When Disney’s Imagineers protested that no one would notice whether their animatronic birds appeared to breathe in the Enchanted Tiki Room, Disney insisted they add the feature, understanding that details create an emotional response even when not consciously registered.

The hosts explore how this meticulous attention applies beyond hospitality—it’s about creating an environment where precision becomes second nature. David connects this to his experiences in Special Operations training, where he witnessed firsthand how an entire culture of exactitude made everyone’s work smoother and more effective.

This precision extends to the mundane: putting staplers back exactly where they belong and refilling paper before it runs out. Steve introduces his emerging household philosophy of considering “the next person”—leaving things right for whoever follows, even if that person is your future self. David traces this mindset back to his Hungarian grandmother, who instinctively prepared everything for its next use before walking away.

In both hospitality and life, the way you do one thing truly becomes the way you do everything.

18:00 Problems This segment answers questions we've received from clients or listeners.
Unblocking the Website Bottleneck

What keeps projects stalled in the “too hard” basket? Steve and David examine how their new “Website in a Week” offering tackles three common bottlenecks that plague small business websites.

First, there’s the blank page problem—small business owners facing writer’s block when asked to create their own content. Steve’s solution: “Give me 30 minutes of your time. I’ll interview you and take content creation completely off your plate.”

Then there’s the deadline dilemma. Without clear timeframes, projects languish indefinitely. The “in a week” commitment creates urgency and clarity for everyone involved.

Finally, they address the perfection trap—that paralysing fear of launching something that isn’t 100% perfect. Their response channels Seth Godin’s “minimum viable product” philosophy while adding a crucial qualifier: websites are never truly finished but should be “fit for purpose at an absolute minimum.” Just ship it.

The hosts reflect on how we’re hardwired to avoid embarrassment, making us hesitant to put our work out for public scrutiny. Drawing from Will Storr’s insights, David notes that every business proposal gets filtered through two questions: “How will this affect my identity?” and “How will this affect my status in the group?” The key is designing solutions that enhance both.

25:15 Perspicacity This segment is designed to sharpen our thinking by reflecting on a case study from the past.
Do Bundles Still Need Easy Maths?

Has consumer behaviour fundamentally changed in our digital age? Steve and David explore an observation from marketing professional Sarah Levenger that people are 45% more likely to buy bundles when the mental maths is easy (like six shirts for $24 rather than six for $27).

In an era where shoppers rarely calculate prices mentally—let alone with pencil and paper—our hosts question whether this principle still applies. The more effective approach might simply be transparent communication: “$4 per shirt if you buy six.”

This leads to a reflection on the price denomination effect—the theory that consumers are more likely to purchase when prices align with currency note values. But as David notes, “I know a lot of people who haven’t handled bank notes since Covid,” suggesting these traditional pricing psychology principles may be losing relevance in our cashless world.

The verdict? Focus less on mathematical pricing tricks and more on clear value communication.

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