The Cutting Onions Podcast Bobby Shaw

Welcome to The Cutting Onions Podcast, Episode 82 which features Joseph Szala in a compelling conversation to talk about all things digital, loyalty, and how to create an amazing guest experience.

Joseph serves as Vice President of Digital Experience for Rapturous, a wing of 3 Owl. His hospitality-first approach and unyielding passion for creating remarkable digital restaurant experiences has positioned him as thought leader in the world of CX and UX as well as brand development and marketing.

He and the Rapturous team continue to craft superior digital restaurant experiences that realize measurable lifts in order averages, repeat traffic, loyalty, and revenue for an impressive suite of restaurant brands.

We know you are going to love this conversation! Enjoy.

Today we chat with Daniella Sardi from about AI Voice Technology. Daniella Sardi is the Head of Enterprise, Restaurants at SoundHound, specializing in strategic territory development and fostering collaborative teams.

She brings extensive experience as a successful sales leader across multiple verticals and has a track record of building winning cultures, which as you know is so important to us at The Cutting Onions Podcast.

Daniella also previously held key roles at Doma and TriNet, bringing a wealth of expertise to drive voice AI innovation in the restaurant industry.

There is so much to learn from this inspired conversation with Daniella, including the 5 questions you need to ask when evaluating a potential Voice AI partner.

In this week's episode we talk about the new California law, AB 1228 which raises the minimum wage to $20.00 as of April 1, 2024 at all fast food restaurants with 60 units or more in their portfolio.

We take a look at both sides of this issue and try and gauge the impact this new law will have on restaurant companies in California and talk about what this could mean for the industry overall if other states follow suit.

On this week's episode of The Cutting Onions Podcast and on the heels of the Restaurant Franchising Innovation Summit held in Kansas City by Fast Casual, we talk about Artificial Intelligence and Robotics.



We highlight some of what we learned this week about the future of AI and Robotics, and discuss what we already see in the restaurant experience with existing brands like McDonald’s and new brands that have just launched like Kernel.



This is a great lead-in to our conversation next week with Daniella Sardi, Head of Enterprise for SoundHound. SoundHound creates big-picture Voice AI solutions that drive growth for the restaurant industry.

Welcome to The Cutting Onions Podcast, Episode 78! In today's conversation Myles and Bobby talk about ramping up in the hospitality and retail business and all the things that need to be in place for that to happen successfully.



We also talk about team communication, scheduling, deployment, and how to take a fresh look at our businesses. We also dive into some leadership lessons from the late, great Andy Grove, former CEO of Intel.



We think you will enjoy this episode and would love to hear your feedback.



Enjoy!

On today's episode of The Cutting Onions Podcast, Myles and I continue the conversation we started last week around what it looks like to enter into a situation that is at best a struggle, and at worst broken, in the restaurant industry.

We get super granular in this episode building on the ideas we shared in Part One of this conversation in last week's episode. We talk about some important ideas including how important it is to bring your team alongside you as you begin rebuilding the shop, restaurant, district, or company.

We also talk about the key elements of effective leadership, including organization, follow-up, and clear communication. We suggest that effective leadership requires a combination of strategic thinking, strong communication skills, and a willingness to adapt and learn from experience.

We also discuss the importance of prioritizing people over financials when fixing a broken situation and setting expectations with bosses or ownership groups.



Key Questions we discuss:

* How can we celebrate wins and reinforce desired behaviors?

* What are the fears that people have when entering a challenging situation, and how can we help them overcome those fears?

* How can we document our experiences and share institutional knowledge for future leaders?

* How can we balance the need for speed with the need for organization and follow-up?