A few weeks ago, I flipped on a late-night…ok, early-morning 🙈 news show as I was getting ready for bed.
There was a story about outdoor dining in New York during the pandemic. At the end, they mentioned that NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio said that indoor dining in the city might not come back until next year (2021). The anchor then pointed out that could be a very tough blow to the Manhattan restaurant industry since New York has this thing called winter coming.
“Crap!” I thought. “I hope Sal’s Pizza is doing ok.”
In normal years, we visit New York four times – twice for our two-day The FEARLESS Man Live seminar and twice for The Experience, our flagship intensive. We’ve been running those events on the Lower Eastside just outside Little Italy for a few years now.
I love pizza, and when I’m in NYC, I could eat slices all day long. I’ve conducted my own little New York Pizza tours several times. And in Little Italy, I discovered my favorite New York slice at Sal’s Little Italy: their “Grandma Pizza.”
The Grandma isn’t even on the menu anymore, but they can still usually make it if you ask. The sauce is just glorious – always my favorite part of pizza. The cheese, seasoning, and dough is awesome too.
I go there at least two or three times per trip, and whenever I can get away with it, I take clients there on our lunch breaks during events.
So I was relieved when I got on my phone in the middle of the night and found that they’re still in business and open, serving up their heavenly East Coast fare outside.
But still…What will they do when it gets cold in Manhattan? When it rains? And snows?
I would be crushed if they went out of business.
I decided to check out their Instagram and see if they had a GoFundMe or something that I could give a little support to.
I didn’t find that, but what I did find was that they’re using a perishable-food shipping service, Goldbelly, to ship their calzones all over the country.
But…they cost $40 each to ship! With a two-calzone minimum.
“I can’t spend $80 on two calzones,” I scoffed to myself. But then I remembered that I was ready to donate some money for nothing in return.
And I also realized that this was a lot like my experience Flying to San Francisco for Sourdough Bread, Cookies…and Growth, when I snagged a dirt-cheap ticket on two of the last ever Virgin America flights (before they were merged into Alaska Airlines the next day) and spent the day in San Francisco for the hell of it. It wasn’t actually a lot of money for me (stay with me if this feels out of your reality or current budget – I’ll get to that later)…it was that my kneejerk reaction was it wasn’t acceptable to spend money on that…even though I wouldn’t think twice about spending more than that on a night in Vegas, for example.
But these were little life experiences. As they used to say on Parks and Rec, “Treat yo self!” experiences.
And in Sal’s case, I could give myself a pretty cool experience of eating food straight outta my favorite spot on Broome Street while simultaneously throwing them a little support in a very challenging year. For less than I spend at the restaurant sometimes on one East Coast trip.
So I made the purchase. I even scheduled them to arrive a couple weeks later when I’d be more comfortable getting loose for a couple of days with my diet.
The day came, the box arrived, I tore it open, I covered the calzones in foil, and popped em in the oven as directed…
And they were glorious.
From the perfect crunch of the dough to the subtleties of their sweet tomato sauce, I felt for those moments like I was sitting right in their charming old school dining room with paintings of Italy on the walls, chatting with Franco, a host, and my favorite person there.
And just the experience of eating fresh food flown all the way from New York to Hollywood was pretty damn cool by itself.
I’ll probably do it again (hopefully with our former coach, Matt, who loves them too) as the temperature drops out there and things don’t get any easier for them.
Now, if spending $80 on two calzones is out of your reality or budget right now, I totally get that. I’m very fortunate to still have a job that’s actually thriving in a lot of ways through the pandemic and to not have missed a single paycheck. Much less have disposable cash.
I share this story because we so often get lost in limiting beliefs about what’s “ok” to spend money on.
One form of experience or entertainment is “ok” to spend money on because you’re used to it and/or society normalizes it…but an outside the box, slightly luxurious experience that costs the same – or even less – is “a waste of money.”
“Only for rich people.”
Or take investing in your growth as a human, your relationships and career…aka your longterm quality of life: People commonly tell us (long before the pandemic) that they “Don’t have the money” for an intensive with us, or sometimes even a 2-day seminar…
But if you look at all the other non-essential things they’re spending money on, like alcohol and other nightlife-related expenses, streaming video and music services, Amazon Prime, or a much nicer-than-necessary car – often things that are meant to make them happy but usually don’t if they don’t have their confidence, connection skills, and emotional health handled – the money’s there.
They just can’t see investing that in upping the quality of the rest of their lives as “ok” or a priority.
So whether it’s investing in your personal development or just enjoying life, when you think something’s out of your reach, take a few moments and reflect: Is that really true, or is it really that stories (limiting beliefs) about it being outside the box and outside your “normal” for what’s “ok” to spend money on or prioritize are limiting your reality, your experiences, and your life?
