Catering by Chef Mike called us with a business problem he had. He wanted it fixed.

His situation was that he had stumbled into a relatively new business idea of being a personal Chef in people’s homes, backyards, and in their gardens. He was initially hired by a well-known blogger who hired Chef Mike to show up in her home to “Do A Show.”

The performance was to show her and her girlfriend: “How to plate brunches, lunches, or dinners just like a Michelin-trained Chef would prepare at a restaurant.” Having a talented, trained chef teach the women how to prepare a beautiful plate would score points with a women’s significant others. Tha was the idea.

Here’s how we helped him curate Chef Mike’s new and improved website:

After living, working, owning, and promoting restaurants in Astoria from 2011 until 2018, I’ve had the great pleasure meet and work with many world-class chefs in Brooklyn and Queens. I learned and do know now how to appreciate differences between good and great food.

I have to say that after reading Chef Mike’s resume, I was reasonably and then, thoroughly impressed. The restaurant businesses where he worked are very, very tough. Long hours, really hard work, and a few coins to rub together at the end of a day. It takes a certain kind of human maniac to undertake the restaurant business. I honestly, can’t do it.

We started the first week in September 2021. It’s not terribly helpful to show you a before and after of his website. Let’s just leave it that he is very, very happy with the new website and overall program we’ve assisted him to build for he and his new customers’.

Résumé of Executive Chef Mike DiLeo — Executive Chef Mike’s Resume. ^

Here are the systemized tasks:

We start our Protocol with a 1-hour conversation. We call it the Query and we go through a questionnaire, gather facts, and learn more about Chef Mike (his past and present), Who he is, What he’s about, and some of his wins and loses.
We arranged a second telephone call with an executable idea to test. It was a small buy-in (aka project). We sent over a contract and arranged for a deposit.
The third call was longer. We call this step getting in Sync with the patron (Chef Mike). This gave us a good understanding of his perspective on Branding, Design, Communication, and Advertising.
With over 25 pages of data (the Query and Sync documents), we pulled together a solid strategy. The plan was to send just three emails with eye-catching graphics, some adjustments to improve the designs he used before, and amazing pro copywriting.
A problem was that Chef Mike’s email list was just 78 people.
Despite this minor setback, the promise we gave Chef Mike was that even with only 78 names, we would still be able to generate triple his return (ROI) in only three emails.

It was in the very first email that things started to happen.

A venue called Brooklyn’s Finest on Hylan Boulevard (Staten Island) wanted to partner with Chef Mike. They had a defunct ‘party room’ above their pizza place (right next to Bocelli’s) called Brooklyn Promenade. This venue’s email list had only 25 names. The venue holds 45-50 people maximum.

I asked Chef Mike to make arrangements and partner with a non-profit. We would give them the customary 5-10%. Our criteria for the non-profit was that they should have 5,000-10,000 names in their database.

Chef Mike chose Michael’s Cause. They only had 3,000 names.

That’s okay. We could still swing it. The idea was to charge $125. per person for a 4-course, Michelin-trained chef experience with “near endless” beer, wine, and cocktails.

PLEASE NOTE:
There was a great deal that went into the strategy which had to be executed and handled with considerable expertise in order to work. You could attempt to “do it yourself” but don’t go shooting us as the messengers when it does not work. There are several hundred variables to consider. That, or you can learn like we did, over 30+ years, and after making well over a thousand mistakes.

We designed and gave these events a branded name. It was called a SubRosa and we used the verbiage: Secret, Soirée, private, intimate, etc… to support the mystique and to create an atmosphere that these events. The campaign was to be very different than the usual fundraisers, very common on Staten Island.

**< This is the SubRosa graphic.**

This event
***SOLD OUT***
in 24 hours.

So Executive Chef Mike, Brooklyn’s Promenade, and Michael’s Cause were all lined up and ready to do this show. We launched the second email. The first 20 seats were sold within minutes. The other 20 seats were all sold out in a speedy record of just 24 hours.

40 Seats * SOLD OUT * in 24 hours * @ $125. per plate.

PLEASE NOTE:

The setting and mood were highly stylized and designed.

The room was dimly lit, with candles lit on the tables, and community-style seating with two long tables, 20 people at each. There was transient, moody, atmospheric, electronic instrumental music playing quietly in the background. A black and white film was playing on the large TV screen with inaudible sound switched to off.

It was a fantastic night for people to connect after a two year stint with the pandemic.

Here’s what the VP at Michael’s Cause wrote Chef Mike the day after the SubRosa.

A heart-felt sentiment
from the VP
of Michael’s Cause.

What was next?

We are advancing Executive Chef Mike’s campaign in 2022. Below is the new text on his website which will propel his business by over 300%, year over year.

Below is a very advanced technique. And it is not what one normally would expect. : )