like, ‘We support you and we’re coming here once a week.’ And it just really made me so grateful.” She says Clint St. Martin of Sonoma County Devil Pups, a nonprofit that promotes youth service to the community, was helping local restaurants with special events during the pandemic and Homerun Pizza was the first one he helped with a takeout event. “He was supporting his community and that, in turn, sparked me to want to do the same,” Caughie says. “I was like, ‘Wow, pretty freaking cool.’ It was important to me that people were supporting us, and so I wanted to help support other people, like they supported us. Caughie began doing community events in the restaurant with Homerun Pizza’s Giving Tuesdays. “Every third Tuesday of the month we support a local nonprofit or charity,” she says. “I have a saying: Community supporting community,” Caughie says. “It’s really important that we continue to do that within our community—we support them like they support us.” Being a mother, a business owner and supporting her community are not her only accomplishments. Caughie says her entrepreneur journey began when she purchased the restaurant, but it didn’t stop there. She read Grant Cordone’s 2011 book, The 10X Rule: The Only Difference Between Success and Failure , which encourages readers to set targets 10 times greater than what they think they can achieve and take actions that are 10 times greater than what is necessary to achieve those goals. It sparked her growth as a person, entrepreneur and business leader. She found a community of 10 inspired entrepreneurs and leaders and began learning from them, as well. She began changing her business strategy. She was encouraged to think about what set Homerun Pizza apart and how best to grow its brand. She says she realized it was their signature dish, the Knuckle Ball—pizza dough stuffed with mozzarella cheese and bacon, topped with butter and parmesan cheese and served with ranch dressing. “The Knuckle Ball makes our restaurant different from any other pizza place,” Caughie says. “When I started to think about that it totally changed my business model and where I was going, what I was going to accomplish and how I was going to get there.” “The knuckleball is a staple,” Caughie says. “Not only is it our signature dish, but it’s growing our popularity and our brand. We have a slogan for the Knuckle Ball. ‘Life is short. Have a ball.’” She also learned what self-development was. “I was like—why didn’t anybody tell me this when I was younger and how did this whole world just open up for me?” she says. “It really just started this amazing journey for me.” She wanted to share the valuable knowledge she had found and began writing her own books. She’s written Ignite the Entrepreneur and You Can Do Hard Things . She also completed a compilation book with Greg Reid called Station 42 . She created the Reflection Journal that inspires self-awareness. She recently released The Consistency Maker , a planner and journal that helps with staying consistent. “That is one of the things that I find is the hardest thing to do,” Caughie says. “It’s not about all the things and all the people telling you what you can’t do. It has to be: What can I do?” —Cynthia Caughie, Homerun Pizza
Cynthia Caughie is ‘doing hard things’
Cynthia Caughie has overcome many hurdles on her way to being a restaurant owner, entrepreneur and business leader. She has written several books that illustrate just how to persevere and accomplish hard things in business and in life. Her most recent, You Can Do Hard Things, shows how she worked through adversity to realize her dreams. The mother of three lost her home in the 2017 Tubbs fire. She’d been dreaming of someday owning the restaurant she worked at, Homerun Pizza—and that opportunity presented itself soon after the fire had taken everything from her. Caughie says that loss changed her perspective. She literally had nothing left to lose and, although she didn’t have the money to buy the restaurant, she decided to find a way to make it happen. And she did. Since then, Caughie has continued to weather the difficulties facing small businesses in the North Bay. Her business has made it through fires, storms, electrical outages, pandemic lockdowns and a struggling economy. She grew stronger as she made it through those struggles, but it was when she discovered the power of discipline and consistency that her success began to truly take off. Caughie says connecting to these strengths are a key to success and her book shares how others can connect with that inner superpower to achieve their dreams. She says she truly believes in her motto: You can do hard things. Part of doing that is having the mindset to find what you can do to accomplish your goals and having the discipline and consistency to make it work. Her book is full of tips and tricks that help the reader with their own self-development and to put them on the trajectory to their best self. You Can Do Hard Things and Caughie’s other books and journals can be found at cynthiacaughie.com.
—Janet Perry
Homerun Pizza is at 484 Larkfield Center. Call 707-527-6600 or visit homerunpizzalarkfield.com.
Caughie has grown her own brand. She now has a website, a Facebook page, offers coaching and public speaking. She says she’s helping others discover that they are their own superpower. “You know, it’s so crazy, but it’s my motto,” she says. “You can do hard things. And when it’s hard you have to have the mindset: What can I do? “It’s not about all the things and all the people telling you what you can’t do. It has to be: What can I do?” g
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June 2024
NorthBaybiz 37
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