The Turning Tables Podcast Foodable Network

In the latest episode of Turning Tables, host and growth strategist, Kathleen Wood, and her guest, Hanson Li co-founder and chief executive officer of Lazy Susan talk about what the restaurant industry needs to do to close the gap between customers’ digital expectations and their current digital experience.

Lazy Susan is a contemporary concept of Chinese American takeout company. Li says Lazy Susan, “this is an idea that is thirty-plus years in the making. My family first immigrated from Hong Kong to the states when I was twelve years old and my dad would often ask why isn't there a dominance of Chinese food. His point was that everyone gets Chinese takeout but there's no national brand.”

Li talks about purposely designing the concept and operations around delivery and takeout. He notes that over ninety percent of Lazy Susan’s sales are delivery and takeout. The delivery experience is extremely important and Li shares, “If you want to go out to a great Chinese meal, there are great Chinese restaurants that we can go out to. But if you want a lazy night in on a Wednesday night I want you to remember Lazy Susan. So we have great digital ordering, we have curbside pickup, and we have good packaging that carries our food.”

Wood and Li address the gap between digital expectation and analog adaptation. Li says “I think that the restaurant industry is literally the last big segment of our economy that has not gone through a digital transformation.”

The discussion between Wood and Li takes a deep dive into having a digital relationship with your customers, having software that is streamlined to be more efficient and effective connecting the front and back of the house as well as capturing customer data through loyalty programs and feedback.

To hear more about closing the digital and physical gap and Li turns the tables on Wood tune into this episode of Turning Tables Podcast on Apple Podcasts.

In the latest episode of Turning Tables, host and growth strategist, Kathleen Wood, and her guest, Blaine Hurst discuss lessons in leadership. Hurst is the retired CEO of Panera Bread, a member of the Fast Casual Hall of Fame, a four-time Fast Casual Mover and Shaker, author of 8 patents, and is regarded as one of the highest-impact restaurant leaders of recent times.

Today Hurst is an active Executive Board Member of Hero Bread, an ultra-low net carb bread products company, and says that his real passion is people with intellectual disabilities. In March he will be speaking at the Franchising and Innovation Summit discussing the untapped labor pool. He said, “ ​​this emerging population that are very hireable that are very dedicated that walk into your building every day with joy and I just think there's a huge opportunity.” Wood refers to Hurst as a visionary, a trailblazer, and an innovator that is trying to bring a whole new generation into the workplace.

Wood and Hurst talk about the power of a culture that's never satisfied and Hurst shares his perspective saying, “I call that culture of dissatisfaction and people sometimes react to that negatively, to me it's quite the opposite and it's actually a very positive trait.” They break this down and relate it to today’s operator and the choice of prioritizing the changes to make improvements. Hurst says, “so my recommendation to the restaurant manager is to make a choice about what matters most and I will guarantee you it's people first I guarantee you there's really no debate about that in my head because people are the underlying foundation of great operations.”

Hurst talks about working with ClemsonLIFE (Learning Is For Everyone) which is a post-secondary education program with the specific purpose of helping young adults with intellectual disabilities. He is also an investor and advisor in the Sheperd Hotel and Delish Sisters restaurant in downtown Clemson where 40% of the staff are people with intellectual disabilities.

To hear about Hurst’s tagline, running the race with joy, and its significance as well as its impact tune into this episode of Turning Tables Podcast on Apple Podcasts.

In the latest episode of Turning Tables, host and growth strategist, Kathleen Wood, and her guest, Nichole (Cole) Robillard, Chief Marketing Officer at Smokey Bones discuss industry insights, staying competitive and being a marketing leader with a challenger’s mindset.

Robillard joined Smokey Bones in 2021 as Vice President of Marketing as a results-driven leader with extensive experience in multi-unit organization growth. Her current role is Chief Marketing Officer where she has led Smokey Bones to a record-breaking year for comparable store sales in 2021. FSR Magazine has recognized Robillard as one of the 13 Most Influential Marketing Leaders in the Restaurant Industry.

Robillard says, “I’ve traveled a bit of an unconventional path to get to where I am today. I started out my career on the agency side, working in advertising agencies, promotions agencies and even did a little bit of PR.” She shares that she consistently worked on restaurants as well as food and beverage accounts and had a love and passion for the industry.

During a pitch to Smokey Bones, Robillard connected to the brand and says she fell in love with Smokey Bones and had been striving to work for a great brand on the client side. She became a customer of the restaurant and discovered things about the experience within the restaurant that didn't connect for her. She says, “that all started to change a few years ago, 2019, which I later learned was because they brought in a new executive team. Our new CEO James O'Reilly came in the spring of 2019 and slowly started changing the business and the executive team and ultimately sort of changed what the brand stood for.”

Wood asks Robillard how she has been able to translate her past experiences into the exciting things she is doing with Smokey Bones. Robillard shares “food has definitely been a big passion of mine throughout my life, I've always really loved the power that food has to bring people together.”

To hear more on the innovation that Robillard is leading at Smokey Bones, industry insights and Robillard turn the tables on Wood, tune into this episode of Turning Tables Podcast on Apple Podcasts.

In the latest episode of Turning Tables, host and growth strategist, Kathleen Wood, and her guest, President and Chief Executive Officer of Native Foods, Carin Stutz about guiding and mentoring the next generation of leaders in the industry.

Stutz has served as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Red Robin, President of McAlister's Deli, CEO and President of Cosi, President of Global Business Development for Brinker International, Executive Vice President of Operations for Applebee's International, the Pacific Division Vice President for Wendy's International, Regional Operations Vice President for Sodexo, U.S.A., and was Vice President of Corporate Operations for NutriSystem, Inc., prior to joining Native Foods.

Wood asks Stutz about her secret to success, she says, “You can go out and find money, you can figure out how to fix the brand, you could find real estate, although they're all expensive and they're all equally challenging but people are the key.” She adds, “so having a good pipeline of talented people who believe in the mission and people who believe in the brand certainly makes any path to growth much more manageable and much more successful.”

Stutz talks about how she approached mentoring in the past as opposed to how she mentors now. She says in the past the conversations would address leadership competencies and now she finds the one big thing that can make a huge impact when working with an individual.

They talk about GLEAM Network which is a non-profit, volunteer-based organization that's mission is to provide mentorship and leadership development to the underserved community in the restaurant and foodservice industry. Stutz says, It's the people on the front lines, management and middle management that aren't necessarily getting the development that they need. She adds, it started out during the beginning of Covid. We saw a lot of people in our industry unfortunately being laid off and we were all getting a lot of calls asking for help.

To hear Stutz talk about her drive to keep making an impact, what leaders should focus on in 2023 to increase their probability of success and Stutz turning the table on Wood, tune into this episode of Turning Tables Podcast on Spotify.

In the latest episode of Turning Tables, host and growth strategist, Kathleen Wood, and her guest, Peter Sclafani, chef, restaurateur, chief executive officer and founding partner of Making Raving Fans Hospitality Group have an insightful discussion on customers, service and most importantly hospitality.

Making Raving Hospitality Group has four restaurant concepts Jubans Restaurant, Portobello’s Grill, P-Beau’s, and SoLou.

Sclafani says, “I'm a third generation chef and restaurant tour. My grandfather started as a chef in the 1940s and he had his own restaurant.” He adds, “my family lived above the restaurant, so everybody worked in it. My dad ended up going off on his own and creating his own restaurant and I started working there when I was a little kid and one of my earliest memories is standing on a milk crate washing dishes in a three compartment sink and I was just so excited to be a part of the team.”

Wood askes Sclafani what is happening to hospitality in our industry now and he says, I'd start with my history. I grew up in a family restaurant and the restaurant was named after us, so the brand was extremely personal. Nobody taught me that we have to focus on hospitality. We have to focus on how we make people feel, we were protecting our family name so it just came naturally.” Sclafani talks about service and its importance but more so how hospitality is what separates brands. He shares “It's about the way they make you feel, it's the story, it's something that was done a surprise and delight that was a little bit extra. That's what people talk about .So I feel so strongly about it that we named our company Making Raving Fans and that's what we focus on everyday.” Sclafani talks about delivering that kind of hospitality so guests will talk about the restaurant and want to come back.

“I think hospitality is so important. There's been a shift in the industry. We know there's this labor crunch and a lot of people that are out there that are coming into the hospitality industry are first timers and they don't have that experience. They haven’t seen it before and they're learning the steps of service. We've realized we have to do a better job at explaining hospitality.” Sclafani says.

To hear Sclafani share more about the importance of hospitality and steps to teaching it to the team as well him turning the table on Wood, tune into this episode of Turning Tables Podcast on Apple Podcasts.

In the latest episode of Turning Tables, host and growth strategist, Kathleen Wood, and her guest, Brant Menswar, entrepreneur, author and speaker. He is also CEO of Booky Call the world’s first book discovery app and co-host of the wildly popular podcast, Thoughts that Rock as well as author of the book Black Sheep.

Menswar spent twenty years in the music business with two different bands, two record deals and toured the world. He talks about making a change and he says, “I found myself with an opportunity to say gosh if I could help other people discover what matters most to them including myself, we could avoid these scenarios when when life throws you a curveball get yourself on a solid foundation to make great decisions and that's what sort of led me on the journey to write Black Sheep.”

Menswar explains Black Sheep and says it is a metaphor. He adds, “I was 47 years old when someone finally took the time to explain to me why farmers don't value black sheep like the rest of the flock and you know I think most of us when we think black sheep think of an outcast of some kind. And the truth is that farmers don't value black sheep like the rest of the flock because a black sheep's wool cannot be dyed so in effect every black sheep is 100% authentically original.”

Wood and Menswar talk about taking his book to the next level by helping companies and organizations to find their flock of five values to create high performing teams and culture. Wood says,”I happen to personally believe that culture undeniably is one of the greatest competitive advantages that any business or organization can have.”

“There is a video that I absolutely love,” Menswar says about the rehearsal video from the Greatest Showman. He adds, “the movie was the Greatest Showman and this was a rehearsal where the cast was singing a song for the financiers to try to get this movie financed to to get a green lit.”

To hear the discussion around the video, get more details on the importance of the five values and Menswar turn the tables on Wood, tune into this episode of Turning Tables Podcast on Apple Podcasts.