109: Jay Ashton, the producer and host of the SVK Podcast Network, speaks to Jim Taylor and Adam Lamb about his unique initiative, The Staff Chair, in collaboration with The Brick furniture store to refit restaurant staffrooms into '"wellness rooms."

SVK Podcast

Jay Ashton on Linkedin

The Staff Chair

The Brick

Turning the Table Is the most progressive weekly podcast for today's food and beverage industry, featuring staff-centric operating solutions for restaurants in the #newhospitalityculture.

Join Jim Taylor of Benchmark Sixty and Adam Lamb as they "turn the tables" on the prevailing operating assumptions of running a restaurant in favor of innovative solutions to our industry's most persistent challenges.

Sponsored by Benchmark Sixty Restaurant Services

Check out the videocast on

Youtube

Linkedin

FB

This show is sponsored by Benchmark Sixty; check out their unique staff retention solution

In partnership with Realignment Hospitality

Copyright 2023 Realignment Media

Turning the Table, Episode109: Jay Ashton, producer and host of Sysco's SVK Podcast network, restaurant staff wellness, converting staff break rooms into wellness rooms, restaurant industry transformation, adam m lamb, restaurant business embracing changes, Jim Taylor, benchmark sixty, less talk - more action, The Brick furniture store, walking in nature, hospitality mental health wellness, hospitality industry, mental health wellness.

This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:

Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacy
Podtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp

Adam Lamb: 00:00:00

Welcome to another episode of Turning the Table.

Adam Lamb: 00:00:04

It's me, Adam Lamb once again with our good friend Jim Taylor from Benchmark 60.

Adam Lamb: 00:00:08

Jim, welcome.

Jim Taylor: 00:00:10

Hey, Adam.

Jim Taylor: 00:00:11

How you doing?

Jim Taylor: 00:00:11

I'm doing great

Adam Lamb: 00:00:13

and in our luxurious green room we have our very good friend

Adam Lamb: 00:00:16

Jay Ashton from the Svk Network.

Adam Lamb: 00:00:19

I'll go ahead and bring him in.

Adam Lamb: 00:00:21

Jay.

Adam Lamb: 00:00:22

Morning.

Adam Lamb: 00:00:22

Jay.

Adam Lamb: 00:00:22

How I am.

Adam Lamb: 00:00:24

Very well.

Adam Lamb: 00:00:24

How are you, sir?

Adam Lamb: 00:00:25

Good, good, good.

Adam Lamb: 00:00:26

I just wanted to welcome Jay.

Adam Lamb: 00:00:28

He is a fellow podcaster and the host and producer of the Svk the

Adam Lamb: 00:00:34

Sysco podcast, which is the only food service hospitality podcast that I

Adam Lamb: 00:00:38

know of that actually streams daily.

Adam Lamb: 00:00:40

Is that correct?

Adam Lamb: 00:00:41

Yep.

Adam Lamb: 00:00:42

Fantastic.

Adam Lamb: 00:00:43

And Jim, you and you and Jay have a long time association.

Adam Lamb: 00:00:47

Do you not?

Adam Lamb: 00:00:47

Yeah.

Jim Taylor: 00:00:48

We've done lots of fun stuff together before, so it's good

Jim Taylor: 00:00:50

to have you on turn, no pun intended.

Jim Taylor: 00:00:52

Here, turn the tables a little bit.

Jim Taylor: 00:00:54

Have you on our, I know on our show enjoying this.

Jim Taylor: 00:00:56

I'm

Jay Ashton: 00:00:56

enjoy this.

Adam Lamb: 00:00:57

So we want you to like, follow.

Adam Lamb: 00:01:00

And comment on the show.

Adam Lamb: 00:01:01

Your comments are very often kind of given us the juice as far

Adam Lamb: 00:01:05

as the conversation that goes.

Adam Lamb: 00:01:06

And today we're gonna be talking with Jay about this very, very interesting

Adam Lamb: 00:01:11

effort around and I think this is produced by the brick, is that.

Adam Lamb: 00:01:14

Jay, Actually

Jay Ashton: 00:01:16

it's under my brand.

Jay Ashton: 00:01:17

The Brick.

Jay Ashton: 00:01:18

Is it?

Jay Ashton: 00:01:18

Yeah.

Jay Ashton: 00:01:19

So it's under my brand which is the first time I've kind of went off and

Jay Ashton: 00:01:23

tried something with my brand and what I've done with the industry.

Jay Ashton: 00:01:25

So yeah, it's, the brick is a part of it.

Jay Ashton: 00:01:28

They're going to sponsor and be a part of it.

Jay Ashton: 00:01:30

So yeah, first

Jay Ashton: 00:01:32

time.

Adam Lamb: 00:01:33

And so this is called the Staff Chair project and I

Adam Lamb: 00:01:37

think the tagline is turning.

Adam Lamb: 00:01:38

Turning staff, break rooms into wellness rooms.

Adam Lamb: 00:01:41

And having spent a long time in the back of the house in my career, I can tell

Adam Lamb: 00:01:46

you that , most of the break rooms I've been a party of have been a little more

Adam Lamb: 00:01:51

than, you know, some lockers and a, in a central bench and a bag of stinky clothes.

Adam Lamb: 00:01:56

So not necessarily what I.

Adam Lamb: 00:02:00

Geared towards wellness.

Jay Ashton: 00:02:01

Yeah.

Jay Ashton: 00:02:02

We all laugh.

Jay Ashton: 00:02:03

We all laugh at it because they're all, it, it, they're all the same.

Jay Ashton: 00:02:08

They're broken chairs.

Jay Ashton: 00:02:10

You know, our logo has a milk crate on it.

Jay Ashton: 00:02:13

Their milk crates are upside down.

Jay Ashton: 00:02:14

Oil pales.

Jay Ashton: 00:02:16

There, you know, the furniture that broke out one night, you know, broken chair from

Jay Ashton: 00:02:20

the la or from the, you know, the bar, the, the, the, the old booth, you know,

Jay Ashton: 00:02:24

some old booths in there and all that.

Jay Ashton: 00:02:27

And that's where we, you know, the graveyard of our.

Jay Ashton: 00:02:29

Or good furniture live or lives is in those rooms.

Jay Ashton: 00:02:33

So you know, this is initiative.

Jay Ashton: 00:02:35

I, I can't take credit for the idea.

Jay Ashton: 00:02:37

I'm just going to put it across Canada and we're going to start really looking at it.

Jay Ashton: 00:02:42

Can I start telling you why?

Jay Ashton: 00:02:44

Yeah.

Jay Ashton: 00:02:44

Do the head ok.

Jay Ashton: 00:02:47

Jim knows I can talk and I don't have to do anything this time, which is awesome.

Jay Ashton: 00:02:51

Thank you again.

Jay Ashton: 00:02:52

Yeah, we just wanna hear about it.

Jay Ashton: 00:02:53

So here's the.

Jay Ashton: 00:02:56

Is that I have done about, well, I've done hundreds and hundreds of

Jay Ashton: 00:03:00

interviews over the last few years.

Jay Ashton: 00:03:02

Restauranters all over the globe and mental illness comes up all the time.

Jay Ashton: 00:03:08

Like I have had, I can't even imagine how many shows I've had on the subject.

Jay Ashton: 00:03:13

And, and I'm very grateful that we have now brought it up as a forefront

Jay Ashton: 00:03:16

of a subject within our industry.

Jay Ashton: 00:03:18

We talk about it, it's becoming.

Jay Ashton: 00:03:20

Very easy now to talk about it and address it, but I haven't

Jay Ashton: 00:03:24

seen too many actions applied.

Jay Ashton: 00:03:27

Mm-hmm.

Jay Ashton: 00:03:27

or things done to do or help with it.

Jay Ashton: 00:03:30

It's like we're keep talking and talking and talking, which is good.

Jay Ashton: 00:03:34

I thought, well, let's do something.

Jay Ashton: 00:03:36

So I was going through, I think it was LinkedIn or Facebook or whatever,

Jay Ashton: 00:03:39

social channel and a restaurant down, and I think it was Washington, and I

Jay Ashton: 00:03:43

apologize if I get their location wrong, changed their staff from mental wellness.

Jay Ashton: 00:03:48

And I'm like, this is brilliant.

Jay Ashton: 00:03:51

Like I said, all those horror stories of those years working in

Jay Ashton: 00:03:54

kitchens and those, those staff and Tim knows that we could do this.

Jay Ashton: 00:03:59

So I put out a call to furniture companies across Canada when the brick step,

Jay Ashton: 00:04:03

the brick stepped up to be a partner with me, and to start transforming

Jay Ashton: 00:04:07

restaurants, rooms, into staff rooms, into wellness rooms, and, and just

Jay Ashton: 00:04:12

really give them a new look, a new feel.

Jay Ashton: 00:04:15

And, and, and do something in a sense for mental illnesses, like an action.

Jay Ashton: 00:04:21

You know, we keep talking about it.

Jay Ashton: 00:04:23

We just talk ourselves, keep talking forever about it, and

Jay Ashton: 00:04:26

play an actual physical place or a space that people can go to.

Jay Ashton: 00:04:31

and we all know, and, and Jim, you probably even know this in in your

Jay Ashton: 00:04:34

days in the industry too, is you'll see servers having a bad day and they

Jay Ashton: 00:04:38

put that face on and then they go out and they, then they have their break

Jay Ashton: 00:04:42

and they'll come into the staff room and go back into their horrible world.

Jay Ashton: 00:04:45

Mm-hmm.

Jay Ashton: 00:04:46

. And we just think that, you know, why don't we make that a space that isn't

Jay Ashton: 00:04:50

that bad for them just to hang out?

Jay Ashton: 00:04:53

You know, it might be a place we know people come in early sometimes for

Jay Ashton: 00:04:56

chefs or they stay late after that.

Jay Ashton: 00:04:59

It's a place that they can feel that we're doing something for their mental illness.

Jay Ashton: 00:05:03

Yeah, so that's really the gist of it.

Jay Ashton: 00:05:06

It's simple.

Jay Ashton: 00:05:06

It can be done.

Jay Ashton: 00:05:08

We're looking for three locations to start this fall, fallen

Jay Ashton: 00:05:11

winter to get it out there.

Jay Ashton: 00:05:13

We've had some require our inquiries already.

Jay Ashton: 00:05:16

So pretty basis wanting to get on board with this.

Jay Ashton: 00:05:18

And the brick has been outstanding and supporting the idea.

Jay Ashton: 00:05:22

And I know we're going to, I wanna leave a legacy also in the industry

Jay Ashton: 00:05:27

of changing, doing something.

Jay Ashton: 00:05:29

I can't get my name on a menu you know, like the Shirley Temple, but I want to

Jay Ashton: 00:05:33

do something in a sense that I, you know, did something that I left this industry.

Jay Ashton: 00:05:37

Yeah.

Jay Ashton: 00:05:37

You know, many years, hopefully down the road that I leave this world

Jay Ashton: 00:05:40

leaving something in the industry.

Jay Ashton: 00:05:42

I.

Jay Ashton: 00:05:42

And if so, Jay?

Jim Taylor: 00:05:44

So furniture, I mean the association with the brick, obviously

Jim Taylor: 00:05:47

furniture's a part of it, right?

Jim Taylor: 00:05:49

Because I mean, you and I were kind of joking about this last

Jim Taylor: 00:05:52

time we were talking about it, that people have tried to make, you

Jim Taylor: 00:05:55

know, improve those spaces before.

Jim Taylor: 00:05:56

But usually it's like you said, they bring a furniture, piece of

Jim Taylor: 00:05:58

furniture from the dining room or, or the couch from somebody's apartment

Jim Taylor: 00:06:01

that they don't want anymore.

Jim Taylor: 00:06:02

Right?

Jim Taylor: 00:06:03

. And it's just the beat up coach where the fruit flies.

Jim Taylor: 00:06:05

So furniture's part of it, but what else are you guys gonna do?

Jim Taylor: 00:06:08

What else is part of the initial I'm, Is it a contest?

Jim Taylor: 00:06:10

Is it, you know, what are they, How do people

Adam Lamb: 00:06:12

get involved?

Adam Lamb: 00:06:12

Well, I think what here, go ahead.

Adam Lamb: 00:06:14

So can I just, can I just jump in and ask for a little context?

Adam Lamb: 00:06:17

Because some of our non-Canadian viewers slash listeners may not

Adam Lamb: 00:06:22

necessarily be familiar with the brick.

Adam Lamb: 00:06:25

So I think a little context would.

Adam Lamb: 00:06:27

Would help kind of ground the conversation about not only what

Adam Lamb: 00:06:29

you're trying to do, but where this initiative is kind of born from.

Adam Lamb: 00:06:33

And I know, and I know Jay to your point, that you especially wanna

Adam Lamb: 00:06:36

call out a, a couple people from the brick who specifically have

Adam Lamb: 00:06:41

been kind of behind this initiative.

Adam Lamb: 00:06:43

Right,

Jay Ashton: 00:06:44

Exactly.

Jay Ashton: 00:06:45

So the brick is Canada's largest furniture.

Jay Ashton: 00:06:48

Re I guess retailer.

Jay Ashton: 00:06:50

I don't know how you say that, but they, they have the most, they,

Jay Ashton: 00:06:52

they're everywhere in Canada.

Jay Ashton: 00:06:53

They've been a staple for, for Canada forever.

Jay Ashton: 00:06:56

They're located everywhere across the country and they also have, which

Jay Ashton: 00:07:00

is surprise to me until I started working with them, is they have a

Jay Ashton: 00:07:04

commercial side of the business as well.

Jay Ashton: 00:07:06

So they supply restaurants and hospitals and hospitality locations

Jay Ashton: 00:07:10

for furniture, for their dining rooms and for their kitchens and everything.

Jay Ashton: 00:07:15

Great opportunity to get their brand out there into our industry as

Jay Ashton: 00:07:18

well, to make sure that people know that brick is not just for your.

Jay Ashton: 00:07:21

But also for your workplace as well.

Jay Ashton: 00:07:23

So but yeah, it's good.

Jay Ashton: 00:07:24

Good call out Adam.

Jay Ashton: 00:07:25

People probably thought we were talking about a brick , probably.

Jay Ashton: 00:07:28

He's confused a few people already, but yes, it's a furniture company

Jay Ashton: 00:07:32

across Canada and they're brilliant and I thank them hugely for stepping

Jay Ashton: 00:07:36

up and, and being a part of this.

Jay Ashton: 00:07:37

So, and I think for the US market we can start there as well and start transforming

Jay Ashton: 00:07:43

these spaces into wellness rooms.

Jay Ashton: 00:07:45

Yeah, so cool.

Jim Taylor: 00:07:48

So, so Jay.

Jim Taylor: 00:07:49

So give us a little bit more information about it.

Jim Taylor: 00:07:51

Is this like a competition or is it a contest?

Jim Taylor: 00:07:53

Does someone have to send photos of how, you know, is it, is it

Jim Taylor: 00:07:56

one of those renovation shows?

Jim Taylor: 00:07:58

Like how, how's the whole thing going

Jay Ashton: 00:07:59

out?

Jay Ashton: 00:08:00

Yeah.

Jay Ashton: 00:08:00

It's, it's the Jim Taylor renovation show.

Jay Ashton: 00:08:03

. No, it, it is really, We want people.

Jay Ashton: 00:08:06

Yeah, exactly.

Jay Ashton: 00:08:06

We want people to send photos in to us so they can, they can

Jay Ashton: 00:08:10

go LinkedIn, send it to me.

Jay Ashton: 00:08:12

They can email it to me.

Jay Ashton: 00:08:13

But on LinkedIn's play easiest.

Jay Ashton: 00:08:14

Mm-hmm.

Jay Ashton: 00:08:15

send us photos of what their staff rooms look.

Jay Ashton: 00:08:18

Who they are, where they're located.

Jay Ashton: 00:08:20

Like say it could be anywhere in the US as well.

Jay Ashton: 00:08:22

I'm sure we'll figure out how to do that down there, but we'll definitely look at

Jay Ashton: 00:08:26

them, see what we can do to help them.

Jay Ashton: 00:08:27

And then we want to pick three, kinda like the three winners to start with this year.

Jay Ashton: 00:08:32

And then we'll go from there and see what we can create and help.

Adam Lamb: 00:08:35

So is this kind of like you're looking for three particular operations

Adam Lamb: 00:08:41

who are willing to take this challenge on?

Adam Lamb: 00:08:43

Are there any parameters by which you want to, like like what do you, what do

Adam Lamb: 00:08:48

you see to be kind of central elements behind changing what used to be kind of.

Adam Lamb: 00:08:53

Crappy smelly space into a, into a place where someone can

Adam Lamb: 00:08:56

actually take a deep breath.

Adam Lamb: 00:08:57

And whether that's 10 minutes of meditation or just some quiet time.

Adam Lamb: 00:09:00

And, and before you jump into that, Jay, I just wanted to kind of highlight this

Adam Lamb: 00:09:04

comment that we just got in the chat, which is, I have to say, my time at

Adam Lamb: 00:09:07

Apple changed my view of break rooms, which are really well thought out.

Adam Lamb: 00:09:10

My view of what's possible and necessary has not been the same since.

Adam Lamb: 00:09:14

So clearly this is a timely conversation for.

Adam Lamb: 00:09:17

Yeah.

Jay Ashton: 00:09:18

No kidding.

Jay Ashton: 00:09:18

That's awesome.

Jay Ashton: 00:09:19

You know what, I think we have to go one by, like, we'll have to

Jay Ashton: 00:09:22

go basis by basis, Adam on that.

Jay Ashton: 00:09:24

Mm-hmm.

Jay Ashton: 00:09:24

and look at, we have to make sure that, that, that location understands

Jay Ashton: 00:09:28

we're doing this, not just so they get a, you know, a fresh new staff

Jay Ashton: 00:09:31

room, but it's applying that it's a fixing, or not fixing, but helping

Jay Ashton: 00:09:34

with the mental illness that's, Abruptly across our industry immensely.

Jay Ashton: 00:09:39

So we wanna make sure that they're on board with that, that they want to help

Jay Ashton: 00:09:43

their staff out and their folks that work at their locations with tackling

Jay Ashton: 00:09:47

this, this craziness we have within mental illness within our industry.

Jay Ashton: 00:09:50

So we wanna make sure that they're on board with that.

Jay Ashton: 00:09:52

And then we also wanna make sure that they're gonna support it.

Jay Ashton: 00:09:56

They're gonna take care of it as well.

Jay Ashton: 00:09:58

It's not gonna turn into what it.

Jay Ashton: 00:10:00

So six months later and then they're out there advocating for the mental

Jay Ashton: 00:10:03

illness that's, you know, like I said, everywhere within our industry.

Jay Ashton: 00:10:07

So those are kind of really that simple as we wanna look at.

Jay Ashton: 00:10:10

We don't want to say it's for this kind or this kind.

Jay Ashton: 00:10:13

I saw this will blow your mind.

Jay Ashton: 00:10:15

I saw a restaurant two weeks ago.

Jay Ashton: 00:10:19

I was in in a city here in Canada, different part, and he took me down to

Jay Ashton: 00:10:24

a staff room and brand new restaurant.

Jay Ashton: 00:10:26

You know what a staff room was his.

Jay Ashton: 00:10:28

And I looked at the table and it was like an old dining room, kitchen table, you

Jay Ashton: 00:10:32

know, like probably from a house back in the eighties that just beat up kitchen.

Jay Ashton: 00:10:36

I'm like, cause I asked him, he said, Where'd you stop from?

Jay Ashton: 00:10:38

He's like, Oh, I got this straight here.

Jay Ashton: 00:10:39

Like, it's a table dude.

Jay Ashton: 00:10:41

And he is like, Yeah, it's a table.

Jay Ashton: 00:10:42

So I thought there for a second and, and Jim knows how creative I am.

Jay Ashton: 00:10:46

I'm like, I could even make this table better . Right?

Jay Ashton: 00:10:51

So it doesn't have to be a big, huge staff room or.

Jay Ashton: 00:10:55

It could be a bloody table as well, right?

Jay Ashton: 00:10:57

So we could do anything like make the table, maybe we put candles on

Jay Ashton: 00:11:01

it, maybe put 'em a random table, we put a picture up behind it.

Jay Ashton: 00:11:04

Maybe we could put some reading material on it you know, channels

Jay Ashton: 00:11:08

to a podcast, whatever it is.

Jay Ashton: 00:11:10

I don't think we can dis, you know, like we can say it has to be this or that.

Jay Ashton: 00:11:14

We could, I think, work with every location and your user creativity to

Jay Ashton: 00:11:18

make sure that we're addressing what we're trying to address by doing.

Jim Taylor: 00:11:22

So it's not just about furniture,

Jay Ashton: 00:11:23

right?

Jay Ashton: 00:11:24

No, that's just exactly it, Jim.

Jay Ashton: 00:11:27

It's not about that.

Jay Ashton: 00:11:28

Right?

Jay Ashton: 00:11:28

It's not.

Jay Ashton: 00:11:29

Well, you know, it's, I think it, it helps, but when you see action being

Jay Ashton: 00:11:34

applied to something that is you know, mental illness or whatever you want

Jay Ashton: 00:11:37

to have within this space, someone applying an activity or an action

Jay Ashton: 00:11:42

to something to address it, I think speaks more than just us always talking

Jay Ashton: 00:11:46

about it, but not doing something.

Jim Taylor: 00:11:48

Yeah.

Jim Taylor: 00:11:49

You know, Adam and I talk a lot about, and our, our whole sort of purpose

Jim Taylor: 00:11:53

in, in this, you know, discussion every week is, is about people

Jim Taylor: 00:11:58

centric type discussions, right?

Jim Taylor: 00:12:00

And, and some solutions for operators that can help to improve the,

Jim Taylor: 00:12:04

this sort of employee experience.

Jim Taylor: 00:12:05

Right.

Jim Taylor: 00:12:05

And so Jay, when you and I were talking about this last week, I mean that's

Jim Taylor: 00:12:08

why we wanted to have you here to have sort of this discussion cause it's

Jim Taylor: 00:12:11

such a people-centric piece and so many restaurants, you know, in my experience,

Jim Taylor: 00:12:17

It's not a revenue generating center.

Jim Taylor: 00:12:19

So it becomes this tiny tucked away in the corner.

Jim Taylor: 00:12:22

What's the least amount of space we can give in order to make sure

Jim Taylor: 00:12:25

we check the box of a staff area, but don't lose revenue space?

Jim Taylor: 00:12:29

Right.

Jim Taylor: 00:12:29

I mean, I've worked in some restaurants that had a hundred

Jim Taylor: 00:12:32

staff working at the same time mean, and their staff areas 10 by 10.

Jim Taylor: 00:12:35

I mean, it just doesn't, you know, it just doesn't work.

Jim Taylor: 00:12:37

So I think Where're doing just very cool.

Jim Taylor: 00:12:39

Well, you

Jay Ashton: 00:12:40

know, it's interesting you say that, Jim, because I always say

Jay Ashton: 00:12:42

in the kitchen, in a restaurant, The front house is where you spend most of

Jay Ashton: 00:12:46

your time thinking about when you're designing it, the kitchen maybe gets

Jay Ashton: 00:12:49

a little attention, then your office for your kitchen gets less, right?

Jay Ashton: 00:12:54

If you even get an office.

Jay Ashton: 00:12:56

And then your staff room is the last you think about, right?

Jay Ashton: 00:13:01

Like it's, it's the last thing.

Jay Ashton: 00:13:02

So it doesn't, it doesn't necessarily get the love and, and, and it, and it can't

Jay Ashton: 00:13:07

be at 10 by 10 for a hundred people.

Jay Ashton: 00:13:09

And, and then I've seen them, I, I've seen them over my, I've

Jay Ashton: 00:13:12

been 32 years in the industry.

Jay Ashton: 00:13:14

I have seen some horrific places and just need to apply something to

Jay Ashton: 00:13:19

change those, change it, and use it as a place to discuss these objects.

Jay Ashton: 00:13:23

Imagine if you have this and we, we do one of your, your staff rooms into a wellness

Jay Ashton: 00:13:27

room and your staff is having a hard time and they sit down with the management

Jay Ashton: 00:13:31

or your ownership or your ship mm-hmm.

Jay Ashton: 00:13:33

you have that place to have that discussion that feels

Jay Ashton: 00:13:36

comfortable and safe, right?

Jay Ashton: 00:13:38

Mm-hmm.

Jay Ashton: 00:13:38

. And we need to create safe places where these people, and we have these rooms or

Jay Ashton: 00:13:42

whatever it is, we can make it happen.

Jay Ashton: 00:13:44

And I, and I really think it's, And it, and here's the thing too,

Jay Ashton: 00:13:48

it doesn't cost of fortune, right?

Jay Ashton: 00:13:49

So you always gotta look at that.

Jay Ashton: 00:13:50

Cause you know, you look at these.

Jay Ashton: 00:13:52

Anything you implement in the in the, in anything.

Jay Ashton: 00:13:55

If it's, if it's too expensive, ain't gonna go.

Jay Ashton: 00:13:57

We know that.

Jay Ashton: 00:13:58

Yeah.

Jay Ashton: 00:13:58

So you need to know.

Jay Ashton: 00:13:59

It doesn't cost a lot.

Jay Ashton: 00:14:00

I'm in a, I'm in a, I'm in a, a, a green room they call it here in Toronto.

Jay Ashton: 00:14:05

And it's full of bricks and stuff, but it's pretty cool and nice in here.

Jay Ashton: 00:14:08

Right.

Jay Ashton: 00:14:08

So, and it's probably was a closet once.

Jay Ashton: 00:14:13

So

Adam Lamb: 00:14:13

you know, maybe to illustrate your point Jay I spent the last two years

Adam Lamb: 00:14:16

of my career working in senior living.

Adam Lamb: 00:14:19

And so there's already kind of an overarching.

Adam Lamb: 00:14:23

Focus on health and wellness within that environment.

Adam Lamb: 00:14:26

But like you say, very often it feels like, you know, for the staff, it's

Adam Lamb: 00:14:30

kind of whatever crumbs are left over.

Adam Lamb: 00:14:32

And we were blessed with it was Episcopalian, so there's a little chapel

Adam Lamb: 00:14:36

on premise and we had a couple Couple folks who ministered to the flock and one

Adam Lamb: 00:14:43

of them took it upon herself during Covid to actually take over the bar space and

Adam Lamb: 00:14:47

turn it into kind of like this real cool kind of zen space where it was kind of.

Adam Lamb: 00:14:53

Non-denominational.

Adam Lamb: 00:14:54

There was it was, the lighting was dimmed.

Adam Lamb: 00:14:56

There were a couple different areas where people could sit depending

Adam Lamb: 00:14:59

on what they were drawn to.

Adam Lamb: 00:15:00

There were some books to pick up, but generally it was a space specifically

Adam Lamb: 00:15:04

for the staff to, especially during that time when you have 650 folks

Adam Lamb: 00:15:08

under your care that are all at a hundred percent risk, not including

Adam Lamb: 00:15:12

them, but also, you know, a hundred.

Adam Lamb: 00:15:14

You know, 1200 staff members, you know, they recognized pretty

Adam Lamb: 00:15:18

quickly on that they needed a space where staff members could just

Adam Lamb: 00:15:22

kind of check out for 10 minutes.

Adam Lamb: 00:15:24

And I think it's interesting to point out that, you know, there was no,

Adam Lamb: 00:15:28

there was no timer on the door, right?

Adam Lamb: 00:15:31

Or, or a clock in that space.

Adam Lamb: 00:15:33

So when someone says, Hey, I need to take five.

Adam Lamb: 00:15:36

You know, that might be 30 or 20, but nobody's gonna go in there

Adam Lamb: 00:15:39

and, you know, hey, Oh, okay.

Adam Lamb: 00:15:40

Click, click, click, click, click time's up, we gotta get going because

Adam Lamb: 00:15:43

it kind of defeats the whole purpose.

Adam Lamb: 00:15:45

And to your point, it doesn't take a whole lot of space.

Adam Lamb: 00:15:48

But certainly the ambiance is absolutely critical.

Adam Lamb: 00:15:50

And to make it non-denominational where folks can, you know,

Adam Lamb: 00:15:54

feel good dropping in.

Adam Lamb: 00:15:55

And even if it's just sitting quietly or to pick up a book of wisdom or

Adam Lamb: 00:15:59

whatever it was, it was pretty cool.

Adam Lamb: 00:16:01

I used it a couple times but I was already preaching about self-care

Adam Lamb: 00:16:05

during that time with me and my staff, so they knew that, you know,

Adam Lamb: 00:16:08

they could go walk on the grounds.

Adam Lamb: 00:16:09

And maybe that wellness space.

Adam Lamb: 00:16:12

Uses the outside environment to be part of that.

Adam Lamb: 00:16:15

And I know that a lot of restaurants in the, especially in Canada, are in

Adam Lamb: 00:16:20

kind, not industrial complexes, but certainly retail spaces and if there's a

Adam Lamb: 00:16:23

lot of concrete and not a lot of grass.

Adam Lamb: 00:16:25

But certainly if there's the opportunity to, you know, step outside and walk for

Adam Lamb: 00:16:29

15 minutes in another environment, that that also could count, could it not?

Adam Lamb: 00:16:33

No, I

Jay Ashton: 00:16:34

think so.

Jay Ashton: 00:16:34

I think you, you nailed it, Adam, that that environment outside.

Jay Ashton: 00:16:39

In getting the fresh share and getting out there, Absolutely a hundred percent.

Jay Ashton: 00:16:43

. Adam Lamb: Yeah.

Jay Ashton: 00:16:44

Yeah.

Jay Ashton: 00:16:44

And

Jim Taylor: 00:16:45

that's an interesting one, Adam, because you know, you, I don't

Jim Taylor: 00:16:47

think most people and myself included, didn't think immediately about outside

Jim Taylor: 00:16:51

when you talk about staff space.

Jim Taylor: 00:16:53

But you know, how many times have you either seen or been a part of

Jim Taylor: 00:16:55

the sitting outside having your break on a milk crate in Pacific grease?

Jim Taylor: 00:17:00

I was gonna say dump, right?

Jim Taylor: 00:17:01

I mean it's, that's not any more pleasant than sitting on the same third

Jim Taylor: 00:17:06

generation couch full of fruit flies.

Jim Taylor: 00:17:08

So, I mean, the

Jay Ashton: 00:17:09

head's, the keg in the back, you're seen on the keg where,

Jay Ashton: 00:17:13

The greasy spill by the grease trap.

Adam Lamb: 00:17:16

Oh, the aroma brings back memories.

Jim Taylor: 00:17:20

Go their card.

Jim Taylor: 00:17:22

It's right.

Jay Ashton: 00:17:23

Yeah.

Jay Ashton: 00:17:24

Right.

Jay Ashton: 00:17:25

And you know what, it's interesting by you say that is that they're

Jay Ashton: 00:17:28

probably doing that because the staff room probably is not, It's

Jay Ashton: 00:17:31

worse place, it's probably worse.

Jay Ashton: 00:17:32

Right.

Jay Ashton: 00:17:32

So, you know, if we can you know, I think the thing is, is also

Jay Ashton: 00:17:36

I think it sends a message to.

Jay Ashton: 00:17:39

The old industry is that we're listening, we're hearing you,

Jay Ashton: 00:17:43

we're gonna do something.

Jay Ashton: 00:17:44

And I think that needs to be.

Jay Ashton: 00:17:45

And when you look as an owner and you have chefs in here and you have your,

Jay Ashton: 00:17:49

your staff and they see them doing something for that subject makes it like

Jay Ashton: 00:17:54

we're listening, you're hearing you.

Jay Ashton: 00:17:55

We wanna do something, we're applying something here.

Jay Ashton: 00:17:58

And I think be really good for retention.

Jay Ashton: 00:18:00

I dunno if it was you, Jim, or someone else who's mentioned

Jay Ashton: 00:18:02

that to me the other day.

Jay Ashton: 00:18:03

This will help with retention and we know that's important in our industry today.

Jay Ashton: 00:18:07

And that leads to.

Jay Ashton: 00:18:09

Right, and that leads to better business.

Jim Taylor: 00:18:12

So I was kind of trying to pick your brain a little bit about this

Jim Taylor: 00:18:14

the other day when we were chatting.

Jim Taylor: 00:18:15

And maybe we could get into it a little bit here too, but, so

Jim Taylor: 00:18:18

what are, what's the criteria?

Jim Taylor: 00:18:19

Is it, you know, you're gonna have, I know for sure you're gonna have hundreds

Jim Taylor: 00:18:23

if not thousands of inquiries about this.

Jim Taylor: 00:18:25

I mean as soon as that's only Canada.

Jim Taylor: 00:18:27

Wait until this gets to the US too.

Jim Taylor: 00:18:28

But is it, you know, like, is the restaurant that gets the

Jim Taylor: 00:18:33

opportunity to work on this with you?

Jim Taylor: 00:18:35

Is it, you know, they have the worst looking staff area is.

Jim Taylor: 00:18:38

They're the certain type of business.

Jim Taylor: 00:18:40

Is it just their attitude that, the right attitude you're

Jim Taylor: 00:18:42

looking for around collaboration?

Jim Taylor: 00:18:45

I'm really curious about, you know, what's the vetting process for?

Jay Ashton: 00:18:47

Well, I think who's gonna have the opportunity?

Jay Ashton: 00:18:49

Yeah.

Jay Ashton: 00:18:50

And I think we'll have to go through that, Jim one by one.

Jay Ashton: 00:18:52

Mm-hmm.

Jay Ashton: 00:18:52

. Because we also wanna make sure, like, I really wanna make sure that

Jay Ashton: 00:18:55

they're understand that this is about helping, supporting mental illness.

Jay Ashton: 00:18:59

Like I said, it's not just a, or the Jim Reno.

Jay Ashton: 00:19:03

Or Jay Reno show, right?

Jay Ashton: 00:19:04

Is that where Jay Reno show?

Jay Ashton: 00:19:06

Yeah, exactly.

Jay Ashton: 00:19:07

Which could it be?

Jay Ashton: 00:19:08

But we wanna make sure that it's applying to, you know, that they're on board with

Jay Ashton: 00:19:13

what the per overall purpose is of this.

Jay Ashton: 00:19:15

Mm-hmm.

Jay Ashton: 00:19:16

. And I think we have to go one by one because like I said, from a

Jay Ashton: 00:19:18

table that I think we can help that location out just by redoing a day.

Jay Ashton: 00:19:23

To doing these big, you know, bigger, you know, our retail, you know,

Jay Ashton: 00:19:27

bigger restaurant style, location.

Jay Ashton: 00:19:29

So I think we have to go one by one on that.

Jay Ashton: 00:19:31

We have to, you know, meet with them, talk with them, they're on board mm-hmm.

Jay Ashton: 00:19:35

, and then get our brick people over there to help and see what

Jay Ashton: 00:19:38

we can do to help them out.

Jay Ashton: 00:19:39

And, and it's gonna be, You know, and even to a point I was thinking about

Jay Ashton: 00:19:43

this too, is that maybe some of their stuff wants to be a part of the re when

Jay Ashton: 00:19:47

we do the re for these staff rooms where we're painting the brick walls like they

Jay Ashton: 00:19:51

see behind me or we're just, you know, maybe they wanna be a part of that too.

Jay Ashton: 00:19:55

And sometimes that, that becomes therapeutic in a way as well, that

Jay Ashton: 00:19:59

we're doing something to apply to what people are struggling with and talk

Jay Ashton: 00:20:04

about making it forefront is when you go in there and say, Look what we.

Jay Ashton: 00:20:08

To help tackle mental illness or support it or help with it.

Jay Ashton: 00:20:11

Look at, we did see like you can see it and you can sit

Jay Ashton: 00:20:15

in it and you can enjoy it.

Jay Ashton: 00:20:16

So we gotta do it.

Jay Ashton: 00:20:17

I think we gotta do stuff like this more and more.

Adam Lamb: 00:20:20

So I just wanted to kind of pivot back to a comment that we got

Adam Lamb: 00:20:23

on our LinkedIn chat by a good friend.

Adam Lamb: 00:20:26

And partner Chris Boucher where he is talking about Apple and his view of

Adam Lamb: 00:20:29

break rooms which are really thought out.

Adam Lamb: 00:20:31

And Chris, if you're still watching I'd love you to chime back in and maybe give

Adam Lamb: 00:20:35

us one or two pointers of what that space impact like, how, how it impacted you

Adam Lamb: 00:20:40

and what were those elements that really spoke to you, because that may give you

Adam Lamb: 00:20:43

know, folks who are considering doing.

Adam Lamb: 00:20:46

You know, a place to start, right?

Adam Lamb: 00:20:48

I mean, yes, we know we need to clean things up and we need

Adam Lamb: 00:20:50

to make things kind of pretty.

Adam Lamb: 00:20:51

But aside from that, you know, we can learn from other industries.

Adam Lamb: 00:20:54

I mean, that's the great thing about the hospitality industry is

Adam Lamb: 00:20:56

we seem to be really, really good at co-opting great ideas, no matter

Adam Lamb: 00:21:02

no matter what industry they are.

Adam Lamb: 00:21:03

Vis Avi, you know, the Benchmark 60 Productivity metric,

Adam Lamb: 00:21:06

which for most industrial.

Adam Lamb: 00:21:09

Organizations have been used for years, but for some reason never caught on

Adam Lamb: 00:21:13

in the restaurant industry until Jim started banging the gong about that.

Adam Lamb: 00:21:16

So yeah.

Adam Lamb: 00:21:17

I'm, I'm interested by anybody.

Adam Lamb: 00:21:19

Let me see here.

Adam Lamb: 00:21:20

If I got this.

Adam Lamb: 00:21:20

And we're gonna just kind of.

Adam Lamb: 00:21:22

Put up one more comment was, anywhere I've been a leader, I have a rule.

Adam Lamb: 00:21:25

If my people ever get overwhelming feelings, they have an autonomy to tell

Adam Lamb: 00:21:28

their supervisor, colleague they're taking 10, and to let them take a 10 minute

Adam Lamb: 00:21:31

walk outside on the clock to reset them.

Adam Lamb: 00:21:34

It's worked wonders.

Adam Lamb: 00:21:35

And I think that's great.

Adam Lamb: 00:21:37

And I would ask, you know, what do you do in those crunch time moments

Adam Lamb: 00:21:40

when you can't really afford.

Adam Lamb: 00:21:43

Let somebody off to take 10 minutes, you know, because we're in this cycle

Adam Lamb: 00:21:48

of, you know, the restaurant gets full and now it's time to jump to action, and

Adam Lamb: 00:21:53

then there's a little bit of lag time.

Adam Lamb: 00:21:54

So how does, how does a manager actually, or an operator actually

Adam Lamb: 00:21:59

manage the expectations of the customer as well as the associate?

Adam Lamb: 00:22:04

So, and that's from our good friend, Doug.

Adam Lamb: 00:22:06

Doug Newkirk.

Adam Lamb: 00:22:07

So Adam, I

Jay Ashton: 00:22:08

love that I, I gotta jump in on that because I love that.

Jay Ashton: 00:22:12

Like we could even set a standard that maybe, cuz the staff room

Jay Ashton: 00:22:15

used to be always that place where you, you I shovel your food in.

Jay Ashton: 00:22:19

Oh yeah.

Jay Ashton: 00:22:19

You know, back in the day when you could smoke in restaurants,

Jay Ashton: 00:22:21

it was where the smoke room was.

Jay Ashton: 00:22:23

All these different things was where we thought you had to stay there.

Jay Ashton: 00:22:27

And so maybe some locations can't let their staff leave premise.

Jay Ashton: 00:22:30

That's okay.

Jay Ashton: 00:22:31

But I love the fact that people mention that, you know, they

Jay Ashton: 00:22:34

take a 10 minute wellness.

Jay Ashton: 00:22:36

Or get out there and get some fresh air and it probably in a sense that

Jay Ashton: 00:22:41

10 minutes just going for a quick walk, maybe you suggest, hey, walk

Jay Ashton: 00:22:45

to so and so's, you know, park or whatever's by your restaurant.

Jay Ashton: 00:22:49

But I'm gonna say that 10 minute wellness walk, let's say, or in a

Jay Ashton: 00:22:53

wellness room, will probably increase your sales from that server or whoever

Jay Ashton: 00:22:59

it is, or productivity from the chefs or the, the culinary team in.

Jay Ashton: 00:23:03

immensely because like you said, you get that fresh, it's like you breathe

Jay Ashton: 00:23:06

and you're resetting opposed to sitting in that, you know, that environment

Jay Ashton: 00:23:10

that you're, you know, there's still, still kind of, you know, not happy

Jay Ashton: 00:23:14

at that moment in those places.

Jay Ashton: 00:23:15

Not gonna say they're congee, but you know, you, you're usually here and then

Jay Ashton: 00:23:21

they're probably, you know what happens is you have four servers sitting there.

Jay Ashton: 00:23:25

Let's say they're taking their 10 minutes altogether.

Jay Ashton: 00:23:29

Typically they're not talking about rainbows and roses.

Jay Ashton: 00:23:32

Right.

Jay Ashton: 00:23:35

So they're, they're doing the opposite.

Jay Ashton: 00:23:37

Right.

Jay Ashton: 00:23:38

So I think the more that we can encourage, you know, either sitting in

Jay Ashton: 00:23:43

a wellness room or going for a wellness walk for breaks will actually increase

Jay Ashton: 00:23:48

productivity, playing increased sales.

Jay Ashton: 00:23:49

Mm-hmm.

Jay Ashton: 00:23:50

, Jim's always looking at how to do that and, and that will, I, I, I

Jay Ashton: 00:23:53

can almost guarantee I can see it.

Jay Ashton: 00:23:55

Yeah.

Jay Ashton: 00:23:55

You reset, Here you go for your second half of your.

Jay Ashton: 00:23:59

or you know, here you go back into the, the craziness of the restaurant.

Jay Ashton: 00:24:03

I bet you does.

Jay Ashton: 00:24:04

I bet you increase the sales for

Jim Taylor: 00:24:06

sure.

Jim Taylor: 00:24:07

I think that so much of this stuff, Jay, is, is attitude driven too, right?

Jim Taylor: 00:24:11

I mean, yeah, whether it's, let's look at what the staff area, how that's set up.

Jim Taylor: 00:24:15

Let's look at the 10 minute wellness walk.

Jim Taylor: 00:24:16

Let's look at any of those things.

Jim Taylor: 00:24:17

You know, there's going to, I think, naturally be people who go,

Jim Taylor: 00:24:21

I don't know if that's possible.

Jim Taylor: 00:24:22

I don't know if we can afford it.

Jim Taylor: 00:24:23

I don't know how you're gonna cover a section off or a station.

Jim Taylor: 00:24:27

You know, it's things like, you know, other industries have implemented these,

Jim Taylor: 00:24:30

you know, unlimited vacation, for example.

Jim Taylor: 00:24:32

I mean, at some point yeah.

Jim Taylor: 00:24:33

Someone was like, That's not possible.

Jim Taylor: 00:24:35

You know, we can't run the business that way.

Jim Taylor: 00:24:37

And so people figured it out.

Jim Taylor: 00:24:39

So I think this, there's just an attitude around taking better care of and

Jim Taylor: 00:24:43

protecting people and employee experience that you're, you're onto something here.

Jay Ashton: 00:24:48

Okay.

Jay Ashton: 00:24:48

Well, we'll see where it.

Jay Ashton: 00:24:50

Love it.

Adam Lamb: 00:24:51

Yeah, and I think I'm compelled to throw my hat in the ring, Jay.

Adam Lamb: 00:24:54

So maybe this is a conversation for offline, but if you're looking at somebody

Adam Lamb: 00:24:58

to kind of anchor the process in the United States, I would love to I'd love

Adam Lamb: 00:25:01

to have a conversation about that because, you know, we're all in it together.

Adam Lamb: 00:25:05

So the more we get into it and you know, Jim and I have had

Adam Lamb: 00:25:08

these long ranging conversations about kind of non-traditional.

Adam Lamb: 00:25:12

Employee benefits as as a tool for not only retention, but also as a, as

Adam Lamb: 00:25:16

a point of differentiation in making a particular operation, you know,

Adam Lamb: 00:25:21

The preferred employer of, because everybody knows, hey, they get taking

Adam Lamb: 00:25:25

really good care of that there.

Adam Lamb: 00:25:27

So i

Jay Ashton: 00:25:28

b ideas on

Adam Lamb: 00:25:29

those.

Adam Lamb: 00:25:29

We've been talking . Exactly.

Adam Lamb: 00:25:31

But I, you know, I really wanted to applaud you for, you know, putting

Adam Lamb: 00:25:35

your foot in it and stepping in the circle and taking on this challenge.

Adam Lamb: 00:25:38

I have no doubt that gonna be that, you know, you might be in, you might be in

Adam Lamb: 00:25:42

for it a little bit because, you know, you asked for three, you could have 30.

Adam Lamb: 00:25:45

So you

Jim Taylor: 00:25:46

could have 300.

Adam Lamb: 00:25:48

Yeah.

Adam Lamb: 00:25:48

Here's, here's hope and here's, because, you know, if that's, you know, 50

Adam Lamb: 00:25:52

to 60 associates per unit, that's a whole lot of people who are getting

Adam Lamb: 00:25:56

who are getting regular doses of a positive environment to be able to not

Adam Lamb: 00:26:00

only mitigate the stress, but also to hopefully alleviate those momentary.

Adam Lamb: 00:26:05

Pressures which could lead to a more cyclical emotional output.

Adam Lamb: 00:26:10

So thank you very much.

Adam Lamb: 00:26:12

And for all our viewers and listeners, Jay, can you kind of just give us

Adam Lamb: 00:26:16

kind of a thumbnail on how they can actually get in touch with you?

Adam Lamb: 00:26:19

Maybe there's someone listening to this podcast right now in Canada

Adam Lamb: 00:26:21

to say, Dammit, I want in on this.

Adam Lamb: 00:26:23

How do I get a hold ej?

Adam Lamb: 00:26:25

So

Jay Ashton: 00:26:25

just go, just do Jay Ashton on LinkedIn and you'll find.

Jay Ashton: 00:26:30

Connect with me, message me there, and then we good to, We're good to go there.

Jay Ashton: 00:26:33

That's the fastest we're in.

Jay Ashton: 00:26:35

Facebook probably as well, if there's a few people still on Facebook.

Jay Ashton: 00:26:39

, no.

Jay Ashton: 00:26:40

Shout out there.

Jay Ashton: 00:26:40

Good.

Jay Ashton: 00:26:41

They're, they're good supporter.

Jay Ashton: 00:26:42

Exactly, Definitely look at LinkedIn and send me a message.

Jay Ashton: 00:26:47

You'll see my logo, my brand up there as well.

Jay Ashton: 00:26:50

And and then yeah, you can watch my shows too over there as well.

Jay Ashton: 00:26:54

But yeah, I definitely, well,

Adam Lamb: 00:26:56

yeah, I definitely wanted to do that because for those of you

Adam Lamb: 00:26:59

who are interested in following Jay's show I put in the Spotify link in

Adam Lamb: 00:27:03

the chat and I've also added the.

Adam Lamb: 00:27:05

Your LinkedIn connection and one more comment before we leave it.

Adam Lamb: 00:27:11

Which is nailed it.

Adam Lamb: 00:27:13

The fact that they know that they have the autonomy, that they use it

Adam Lamb: 00:27:15

wisely and timely, and everyone has each other's back battle through the

Adam Lamb: 00:27:18

world when, and reset when needed.

Adam Lamb: 00:27:20

And of course that's Doug new hook who always makes it

Adam Lamb: 00:27:23

sound like we're going to war

Adam Lamb: 00:27:25

My wife said to me once, like, you, you talk about the industry

Adam Lamb: 00:27:27

like you guys are going to war.

Adam Lamb: 00:27:28

I'm like, Yeah, well, sometimes it's what it feels like too far off

Adam Lamb: 00:27:32

and un unfortunately not having.

Adam Lamb: 00:27:34

An employer who could provide an asset like a wellness room

Adam Lamb: 00:27:37

made it feel even more so.

Adam Lamb: 00:27:39

Right.

Adam Lamb: 00:27:40

And you know, my particular practice and focuses towards culinary professionals

Adam Lamb: 00:27:44

and chefs who want to enjoy their careers without sacrificing their lives.

Adam Lamb: 00:27:48

And I think this particular initiative fits right in that scope.

Adam Lamb: 00:27:51

And I know Jim, who speaks endlessly and eloquently about, you know, this idea

Adam Lamb: 00:27:56

about productivity versus efficiency.

Adam Lamb: 00:27:58

Yeah, it might not necessarily be very efficient to have somebody sit

Adam Lamb: 00:28:01

down in a wellness room for 10 to 20 minutes, but it's probably gonna make

Adam Lamb: 00:28:04

'em a hell a lot more productive.

Adam Lamb: 00:28:05

And I think we're gonna have to fucking figure that out in a metric.

Adam Lamb: 00:28:10

, do it.

Adam Lamb: 00:28:11

Put it on

Jim Taylor: 00:28:12

your PNLs.

Jim Taylor: 00:28:13

Let's do

Jay Ashton: 00:28:14

it.

Jay Ashton: 00:28:14

Right?

Jay Ashton: 00:28:15

Wellness remain the.

Jay Ashton: 00:28:17

Hundred percent.

Jay Ashton: 00:28:17

Let's

Jim Taylor: 00:28:18

figure that out.

Jim Taylor: 00:28:18

There's a way to find it through that data.

Jim Taylor: 00:28:20

5%.

Jim Taylor: 00:28:21

Well, it, you know that.

Jim Taylor: 00:28:22

Yeah,

Adam Lamb: 00:28:22

that's do.

Adam Lamb: 00:28:23

And if it's, and if it's, if it's if you can quantify it, you can certainly

Adam Lamb: 00:28:29

put up a really good argument for why anybody silly not to move forward

Jay Ashton: 00:28:34

on it.

Jay Ashton: 00:28:35

How did I sort of leave on this as well?

Jay Ashton: 00:28:36

Is that this more official, This is that you hear so many stories of people

Jay Ashton: 00:28:40

that were about to commit suicide.

Jay Ashton: 00:28:43

This one thing changed their decision on, you know, the horrific

Jay Ashton: 00:28:48

decision to end their life.

Jay Ashton: 00:28:50

If this creates one thing to save one of our chefs in our restaurant

Jay Ashton: 00:28:53

people, then it's all worth it.

Adam Lamb: 00:28:55

Yeah, I couldn't agree more.

Adam Lamb: 00:28:57

Jim, any last words for Jay or our

Jim Taylor: 00:29:00

listeners?

Jim Taylor: 00:29:01

Well, I'm, I'm looking forward to following along here, Jay.

Jim Taylor: 00:29:04

I mean, you and I chat fairly regularly anyway, but I'm gonna keep asking

Jim Taylor: 00:29:07

you what you know, what's the latest, where can I look at some examples?

Jim Taylor: 00:29:10

What's happen?

Jim Taylor: 00:29:11

You know, how can we help?

Jim Taylor: 00:29:12

So, just appreciate you being on today.

Jim Taylor: 00:29:14

It's good to have a chat with you again.

Jim Taylor: 00:29:15

Thank you so.

Adam Lamb: 00:29:16

Excellent.

Adam Lamb: 00:29:17

I wanna appreciate all the comments that we received during the show.

Adam Lamb: 00:29:19

And even in replay, if you're catching this as a livestream replay on

Adam Lamb: 00:29:24

LinkedIn, Facebook, or YouTube, please leave comments because we answer

Adam Lamb: 00:29:28

and check every single one of them.

Adam Lamb: 00:29:29

And if you're already doing something like this, let us know.

Adam Lamb: 00:29:31

Take pictures.

Adam Lamb: 00:29:32

Mm-hmm.

Adam Lamb: 00:29:33

, tag us on Facebook.

Adam Lamb: 00:29:35

Some of us do really, really well when we have something to go by.

Adam Lamb: 00:29:38

You know, it's hard to create in a vacuum, so to see other people

Adam Lamb: 00:29:41

doing similar things, I think really provides a lot of juice.

Adam Lamb: 00:29:45

And even if you don't have a separate room that you can convert, maybe

Adam Lamb: 00:29:49

it's a table in the back of the room.

Adam Lamb: 00:29:51

And Jay, to your point, you know, this whole idea about Like being more

Adam Lamb: 00:29:55

staff centric also kind of probably leads into other conversations

Adam Lamb: 00:29:59

about what does it look like to have everybody sit down at the same table

Adam Lamb: 00:30:02

and have a meal at the same time.

Adam Lamb: 00:30:04

Not, not to create a sense of family, because I think family is the wrong

Adam Lamb: 00:30:08

connotation within this particular industry, but certainly a cohesive team.

Adam Lamb: 00:30:12

Right.

Adam Lamb: 00:30:12

Mm-hmm.

Adam Lamb: 00:30:12

. Exactly.

Adam Lamb: 00:30:13

Absolutely.

Adam Lamb: 00:30:14

Absolutely.

Adam Lamb: 00:30:15

So thank you very much for watching and listening.

Adam Lamb: 00:30:17

My name is Adam Lamb.

Adam Lamb: 00:30:18

Jim Taylor, Benchmark 60 j Ashton of the Svk Network.

Adam Lamb: 00:30:22

Check out his podcast, support his work and get behind this particular

Adam Lamb: 00:30:26

initiative, the staff chair project.

Adam Lamb: 00:30:29

So thanks very much everybody, and we'll see you soon.

Adam Lamb: 00:30:43

Thanks for joining us on this episode of Turning the Table with

Adam Lamb: 00:30:46

me, Adam Lamb and Jim Taylor.

Adam Lamb: 00:30:49

This episode was sponsored by Benchmark 60.

Adam Lamb: 00:30:52

We're on a mission to change the food and beverage industry by

Adam Lamb: 00:30:54

focusing on staff mental health and wellbeing, by forecasting and actively

Adam Lamb: 00:30:59

managing workload productivity.

Adam Lamb: 00:31:01

Over 200 restaurants and food and beverage operat.

Adam Lamb: 00:31:04

Have discovered for themselves how to increase staff retention and become

Adam Lamb: 00:31:08

a preferred employer in their market by using our proprietary system.

Adam Lamb: 00:31:12

If you'd like to have an operational culture that everybody wants to work

Adam Lamb: 00:31:15

for, then check out Benchmark 60 on the web@www.benchmarksixty.com.

Adam Lamb: 00:31:21

Thanks for taking the time to be with us and the courage to try new things for the

Adam Lamb: 00:31:25

restaurant profession's oldest problem.

Adam Lamb: 00:31:27

Turning the table is a production of realignment media.