thread Re: January & February 2025 Book Club: Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara in Square Readers Book Club

January & February 2025 Book Club: Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara

PessoAlumni — Tue, 21 Jan 2025 15:58:44 GMT

Hey Square Readers,

You voted and chose Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara as our Square Readers Book Club book for January & February 2025!

We’re so excited to kick off the new year with this book focusing on the core of our businesses: our customers. This book was also featured in Season 2 of the hit show, The Bear, in an episode all about giving service and taking pride in one’s work, and I can’t wait to dive in.

Here’s a quick summary:

Unreasonable Hospitality: The Remarkable Power of Giving People More Than They Expect

“Essential lessons in hospitality for every business: Radical reinvention, a true partnership between the kitchen and the dining room—and memorable, over-the-top, bespoke hospitality. The answer to some of the most pernicious business dilemmas is to give more; and the magic that can happen when a busser starts thinking like an owner. Today, every business can choose to be a hospitality business— we can all transform ordinary transactions into extraordinary experiences. Find the magic in what we do—for ourselves, the people we work with, and the people we serve.”

We’ll start reading on Monday, January 6th, so get ready and pick up a copy at a local library, bookstore, Amazon, or anywhere else! We’ll have discussion threads and conversations all throughout the two months, so keep checking back to the Square Readers Book Club.

We will once again have @DinaLRosenberg, co-owner of Amityville Apothecary in NY, co-hosting for this round of our book club. With an MBA, a ton of small business experience, and an absolute expertise in customer service, she is the perfect person to help guide us through this book.

Tell us in the comments:

Are you excited about this book?
What do you hope to learn?

Here are the next books we’ll read together:

March & April 2025: Obviously Awesome by April Dunford
May & June 2025: Atomic Habits by James Clear
July & August 2025: Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss
September & October 2025: Company of One by Paul Jarvis

Don’t forget to:

View and Subscribe to all threads about this book

We can’t wait to read with you!

Pesso

Re: January & February 2025 Book Club: Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara

RuckusDonuts — Mon, 16 Dec 2024 22:47:17 GMT

Fantastic read, highly recommended!

Re: January & February 2025 Book Club: Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara

PessoAlumni — Tue, 17 Dec 2024 14:09:36 GMT

Thanks, @RuckusDonuts ! We hope to have you in our discussions when we start up in January!

Are there any new takeaways and lessons that stuck with you from reading it?

Re: January & February 2025 Book Club: Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara

HC_Charlie — Tue, 17 Dec 2024 17:05:58 GMT

This sounds like a great read! I like to think I take this approach in my customer service...however, I'm never sure if my approach is making a difference in repeat business (I'd like to think so!). I'm curious if the book material will address how to calculate rewards or results from this approach.

Re: January & February 2025 Book Club: Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara

PessoAlumni — Tue, 17 Dec 2024 17:11:55 GMT

Thanks for jumping in, @HC_Charlie !

I totally get that and feel the same way -- I always think I'm going above and beyond, but in reflecting maybe it doesn't land with customers and I haven't been as amazing as I'd like to be.

Good point about being able to track and how to see the impact. Hopefully it goes into that too!

Looking forward to reading it along with ya and hearing more of your thoughts & perspective in our discussions as we go!

Re: January & February 2025 Book Club: Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara

RuckusDonuts — Wed, 18 Dec 2024 19:03:08 GMT

I'm in the process of rereading it (with a hi-lighter this time) so will share what I mined as valuable 🙂

Re: January & February 2025 Book Club: Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara

PessoAlumni — Wed, 18 Dec 2024 19:05:54 GMT

Love it! Looking forward to hearing your thoughts as we go through it, @RuckusDonuts !

We'll have some discussion threads set up by us, and feel free to make some new ones in the group yourself!

Re: January & February 2025 Book Club: Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara

CareyJo — Wed, 18 Dec 2024 19:27:25 GMT

I'm slightly stressed about getting it read in the time period because most of February is time off for me. I know, it's okay if I have to skim or can't finish but I still like to get through the whole book. I will be offline for three weeks in February...

I've often felt that a lot of hospitality is so fake because people are either dealing with a rude person they have to pacify or it comes across as not genuine and just for money. One of the biggest things I have always expressed in my business groups is to be authentic and have integrity. If we're serving people from a place of authenticity, then our hospitality won't feel or come across as fake. Just curious to see his take on it...

Re: January & February 2025 Book Club: Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara

PessoAlumni — Wed, 18 Dec 2024 20:24:13 GMT

That's so exciting that you're able to take that time off in February, @CareyJo -- so excited for you! Of course absolutely no worries if you don't finish it in time, but we'll miss ya during your time off either way!

Such a great point about the line between being authentic and being overly nice despite what one is really feeling -- thanks for bringing that up! I think this book dives into more of setting up a culture of going over the top in treating customers ridiculously well and setting up processes to provide exceptional service and treatment of customers. I think Hug Your Haters went more into how to handle rude customers, while Unreasonable Hospitality is more about creating an environment of hospitality. But we'll find out for sure soon!

Really looking forward to diving into it!

Re: January & February 2025 Book Club: Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara

CareyJo — Thu, 19 Dec 2024 12:26:39 GMT

I hope you're right! 🙂

Re: January & February 2025 Book Club: Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara

thecedar — Fri, 20 Dec 2024 17:36:26 GMT

Looking forward to this one!

Re: January & February 2025 Book Club: Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara

bonny — Mon, 30 Dec 2024 23:34:32 GMT

Even if you aren't sure if your approach is making a difference with your customers, if you feel good about the experience, so will they. Passion and a positive attitude are contagious. I'm not sure how you would measure that metric, but I think that is the overall takeaway from this book.

Re: January & February 2025 Book Club: Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara

bonny — Sun, 29 Dec 2024 15:27:08 GMT

I'm about halfway through the book. It's been fantastic so far!

Re: January & February 2025 Book Club: Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara

PessoAlumni — Mon, 06 Jan 2025 13:46:54 GMT

That's so great to hear @bonny ! I'm just about the same and really loving the insights I'm learning so far-

Re: January & February 2025 Book Club: Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara

CareyJo — Tue, 07 Jan 2025 15:54:43 GMT

I started it this morning - it's awesome!!! Good pick @PessoAlumni!! Another easy read! I read chapter one this morning and I love his writing!

Re: January & February 2025 Book Club: Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara

PessoAlumni — Tue, 07 Jan 2025 16:57:05 GMT

I'm so glad you're digging it so far, @CareyJo ! It's a great mix of narrative and flat out tips and is such an easy read.

Don't forget to jump on over to share your thoughts in our opening discussion (no reading needed!).

Re: January & February 2025 Book Club: Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara

PessoAlumni — Tue, 07 Jan 2025 19:06:41 GMT

Thank you, @thecedar ! We just posed our Opening Discussion and I'd love to hear your pre-reading thoughts

Re: January & February 2025 Book Club: Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara

Traderandco — Tue, 07 Jan 2025 22:53:43 GMT

Have just started reading this book, and so far it's really great and inspirational! Looking forward to the full read and discussions.

Re: January & February 2025 Book Club: Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara

PessoAlumni — Wed, 08 Jan 2025 15:15:54 GMT

Wonderful, thanks so much for joining us here @Traderandco ! I'm so glad that you're liking it so far and getting something out of it already.

You can jump into our first opening discussion to share your thoughts so far-

Re: January & February 2025 Book Club: Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara

EMstudioWA — Wed, 08 Jan 2025 20:44:43 GMT

Still on the waiting list from the library, I might see what others have to say about this one and join in on the next book (I’m already on the waiting list for the next 2 books since it seems like these are popular titles right now).