This episode was originally published as part of the Restaurant Growth Podcast. It has been rebranded as part of The Pre-Shift Podcast as of January 2023. The information presented may no longer be up-to-date and may differ from the viewpoints and insights currently shared on The Pre-Shift Podcast.

Restaurant Marketing doesn’t begin and end—it’s ever moving. We sit down with Chip Klose, founder of Restaurant Strategy to chat though the restaurant marketing flywheel of attract, retain, evangelize, with strategies for how to win at each. The best part? The marketing flywheel applies both to customers and your own team. 

00:00 Introduction and Early Challenges
00:56 Strategic vs Tactical Approaches
03:00 Preparing for the Interview
03:48 Marketing Strategies for Restaurants
13:19 The Triangle Principle
16:07 Evangelism in Marketing
23:23 Building Relationships with Customers
23:50 Identifying and Engaging Evangelists
25:45 Retention Strategies: Email Marketing
27:27 Retention Strategies: Automation and Analog Methods
29:56 Mindset Shift: Inviting Customers Back
33:35 Attracting New Customers
37:36 Leveraging Social Media for Awareness
40:52 Applying Marketing Strategies to Hiring
46:48 Conclusion and Contact Information

Send us a text

📲 Connect with D.J.
DJ's Email
Follow on LinkedIn

More 7shifts
Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts
Subscribe to Food Runner, our Monthly Restaurant Newsletter
7shifts on YouTube
Follow us on TikTok
Read the 7shifts Blog

About Us
7shifts is a scheduling, payroll, and employee retention app designed to help restaurants thrive. With an easy-to-use app and industry-specific solutions, 7shifts saves time, reduces errors, and helps keep costs in check for more than 50,000 restaurants.

What would it be like to get paid every day? Now, it’s possible. Learn about the financial revolution that is real-time pay and earned wage access, and how Nico Simko and the team at Clair are making financial wellness attainable for hourly workers. We also chat about how 7shifts and Clair work together to provide restaurant owners with this compelling benefit to offer their teams.

The Restaurant Growth Podcast is hosted by Dominick "DJ" Costantino, 7shifts content writer

About Nico Simko

Nico Simko is the CEO and Co-Founder of Clair, a New York-based  fintech company that is breaking the paycheck-to-paycheck cycle by  offering fee-free on-demand pay to America's workers.

Prior  to co-founding Clair, Simko led the M&A due diligence process for  J.P. Morgan’s payments division. There, he gained insight and expertise  into the lesser-known financial pain points that many Americans face —  including high-interest payday loans — which eventually led to the  conception of Clair.

Since  its founding in 2019, Clair has become accessible to millions of hourly  workers across America. The company closed a $15M Series A earlier this  year that it plans to use to continue fine-tuning its on-demand pay  product, as well as expand its suite of financial tools for America’s  workforce.

Originally from Switzerland and Argentina, Nico holds a B.A in Economics from Harvard University.

This episode was originally published as part of the Restaurant Growth Podcast. It has been rebranded as part of The Pre-Shift Podcast as of January 2023. The information presented may no longer be up-to-date and may differ from the viewpoints and insights currently shared on The Pre-Shift Podcast.

Are you meeting the demand of local diners? Are you leveraging social media properly? Are you leaving money on the table? These are all questions that you should ask as you lay the foundations for a $10 million dollar restaurant. Josh Kopel, restautauateur and content creator, lays the blueprint for reaching profitability and then some in this tactic-packed episode.

00:00 Introduction and Opening Remarks
02:24 Meet Josh Kopel: A Michelin Rated Restaurateur
04:10 The Importance of Demand Analysis
07:59 Building Relationships and Community Engagement
13:01 Maximizing Revenue and Profitability
18:48 Leveraging Social Media and Digital Presence
24:07 Customer Retention Strategies
29:45 Practical Tips and Tools for Restaurateurs
31:40 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

About Josh Kopel

Josh Kopel is a restaurateur, tech pioneer and environmental advocate. Born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the spawn of bootleggers and retail giants, he was bred for the hospitality industry. Throughout Kopel’s 20+ year career in hospitality he has managed venues ranging from the Alligator Bayou Bar, located on Alligator Bayou Road, seated on Alligator Bayou (it was exactly how you’re picturing it in your mind) to the hottest Hollywood nightclubs, bars, and ultra-lounges (far less glamorous than you’re picturing it in your mind).

Kopel went independent in 2010, opening his first concept Five0Four, a New Orleans-inspired bar, on the Walk of Fame in the heart of Hollywood. In subsequent years, he would open the Michelin-rated fine dining concept, Preux & Proper as well as South City Fried Chicken, voted the best fried chicken in Los Angeles by LA Weekly. Despite his success, he saw foundational issues within the industry and set out to fix them himself.

In 2018, Kopel founded FLO Hospitality Solutions, a company solely focused on leveraging tech to bring more humanity to the customer service experience, not less. His first product, FLO, launched in 2019 offering an all-in-one communication solution for restaurants, saving restaurateurs 1,500 labor hours per year while increasing their

Send us a text

📲 Connect with D.J.
DJ's Email
Follow on LinkedIn

More 7shifts
Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts
Subscribe to Food Runner, our Monthly Restaurant Newsletter
7shifts on YouTube
Follow us on TikTok
Read the 7shifts Blog

About Us
7shifts is a scheduling, payroll, and employee retention app designed to help restaurants thrive. With an easy-to-use app and industry-specific solutions, 7shifts saves time, reduces errors, and helps keep costs in check for more than 50,000 restaurants.

The restaurant industry is anything but predictable. But there are two major costs that you have more control over: food costs and labor costs. These two combined make for prime costs, which can be even better manged with the use of modern restaurant technology. Steven Downer from XtraChef by Toast came by to chat about the micro-adjustments made possible by restaurant tech that can help restaurant owners stay more on top of their controllable costs.

The Restaurant Growth Podcast is presented by 7shifts, and hosted by Dominick "DJ" Costantino.

About 7shifts

7shifts is a team management platform designed for restaurants. We help managers and operators spend less time and effort scheduling their staff, reduce their monthly labor costs and streamline team communication. The result is simplified labor management, one shift at a time.

This episode was originally published as part of the Restaurant Growth Podcast. It has been rebranded as part of The Pre-Shift Podcast as of January 2023. The information presented may no longer be up-to-date and may differ from the viewpoints and insights currently shared on The Pre-Shift Podcast.

For our tenth episode, we welcome the authors of Delivering the Digital Restaurant, Carl Osbourn and Meredith Sandland. Delivering The Digital Restaurant explores the world of off premise food and the massive disruption facing American  restaurants through first-hand accounts of restaurateurs, food industry veterans, and start up entrepreneurs. We chat about how the book came about, who it's for, and how technology can help restaurant during the labor crisis.

00:00 Introduction and Pre-Show Setup

01:19 Starting the Interview: Meet the Authors

02:22 Background Stories: Meredith and Carl

05:26 The Evolution of the Restaurant Industry

07:26 Challenges in the Restaurant Industry

14:23 Adapting to Digital and Delivery

21:57 Insights from Writing the Book

27:22 Conclusion and Where to Get the Book

30:20 Post-Show Wrap-Up

About Meredith Sandland

Spent two decades in consulting, corporate strategy, and restaurant development. After building 1000+ restaurants as the Chief Development Officer at Yum! Brands’ Taco Bell, Meredith observed that the on-demand economy was starting to affect restaurants. Meredith joined ghost kitchen start-up Kitchen United as employee #4 to create their business model, raise initial capital, and serve as the public face of the GV (Google Ventures) backed disruptor. Meredith lives in Orange County, California with her three favorite guys: husband, Scott; son, Lincoln; and dog, Kobe. 

About Carl Osbourn 

Carl led BP-owned ampm and its billion-dollar grab-and go food and beverage offering across the brand’s 1000+ convenience retail locations. At BP, Carl obsessed over consumer convenience, and transformed ampm’s fresh food offerings to deliver record growth. In 2018, Carl joined  

Kitchen United to lead Operations, working with restaurant brands to reinvent an operating system that capitalized on the rapidly changing face of  

food delivery. Carl, his wife Elicia, and their two cats, Positano and Ravello, live in Orange County, California.

Send us a text

📲 Connect with D.J.
DJ's Email
Follow on LinkedIn

More 7shifts
Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts
Subscribe to Food Runner, our Monthly Restaurant Newsletter
7shifts on YouTube
Follow us on TikTok
Read the 7shifts Blog

About Us
7shifts is a scheduling, payroll, and employee retention app designed to help restaurants thrive. With an easy-to-use app and industry-specific solutions, 7shifts saves time, reduces errors, and helps keep costs in check for more than 50,000 restaurants.

This episode was originally published as part of the Restaurant Growth Podcast. It has been rebranded as part of The Pre-Shift Podcast as of January 2023. The information presented may no longer be up-to-date and may differ from the viewpoints and insights currently shared on The Pre-Shift Podcast.

How do you train a deskless workforce with modern technology? Through our great uniter—the text message. We welcome Rachael Nemeth, Co-founder and CEO of Opus Training on the show to discuss Opus' text message-based learning platform for frontline workers, onboarding and training the deskless workforce, and how a great training program can help keep employees around.

The 7shifts Restaurant Growth Podcast is hosted by Dominick "D.J." Costantino, 7shifts' Content Writer.

00:00 Introduction and Initial Requests

01:40 Podcast Recording Details

02:21 Challenges and Solutions in Podcasting

04:09 Introducing Opus Training

05:38 Use Cases for Opus Training

08:27 Importance of New Hire Training

09:46 Supporting Managers and Digital Assistance

13:39 Growth Pathways in Restaurants

18:03 Equitable Technology for Desk-less Workers

26:33 Challenges with Traditional LMS

29:43 Conclusion and Contact Information

About Rachael Nemeth
Rachael Nemeth is the CEO and Cofounder of Opus, a platform that helps employers design and deliver text message-based courses to their "deskless" workforce. Her background combines decades of experience in the service industry, instructional design, and second language acquisition. Before Opus, she worked in Operations and HR for Danny Meyer's, Union Square Hospitality Group, Baked, and Hot Bread Kitchen, an NGO that teaches baking production skills to underrepresented women. Her first company, ESL Works brought industry-relevant English training to New York City kitchens. Rachael is an alum of The New School and is from Kansas City (the Kansas side, if you're wondering).

Send us a text

📲 Connect with D.J.
DJ's Email
Follow on LinkedIn

More 7shifts
Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts
Subscribe to Food Runner, our Monthly Restaurant Newsletter
7shifts on YouTube
Follow us on TikTok
Read the 7shifts Blog

About Us
7shifts is a scheduling, payroll, and employee retention app designed to help restaurants thrive. With an easy-to-use app and industry-specific solutions, 7shifts saves time, reduces errors, and helps keep costs in check for more than 50,000 restaurants.

This episode was originally published as part of the Restaurant Growth Podcast. It has been rebranded as part of The Pre-Shift Podcast as of January 2023. The information presented may no longer be up-to-date and may differ from the viewpoints and insights currently shared on The Pre-Shift Podcast.

We have a very special episode to share with you all, featuring the one and only Danny Meyer. We had the pleasure of hosting Danny (virtually) in our offices for a fireside chat with our CEO, Jordan Boesch. Danny went over his career, philosophy on hiring for his teams, the state of the restaurant industry, the early days of restaurant technology, and answered some questions from our team. It's an episode that you don't want to miss. We hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

About Danny Meyer
Born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri, Danny Meyer grew up in a family that relished great food and hospitality. Thanks to his father’s travel business, which designed custom European trips, Danny spent much of his childhood eating, visiting near and far-off places, and sowing the seeds for his future passion. In 1985, at the age of 27, Danny opened his first restaurant, Union Square Cafe, launching what would become a lifelong career in hospitality. 

Thirty years later, Danny’s Union Square Hospitality Group (USHG) comprises some of New York’s most beloved and acclaimed restaurants, including Gramercy Tavern, The Modern, Maialino, and more. Danny and USHG founded Shake Shack, the modern-day “roadside” burger restaurant, which became a public company in 2015. USHG also offers large-scale event services, foodservice solutions for public and private institutions, industry consulting, and educational programming. 

Under Danny’s leadership, USHG is renowned not only for its acclaimed restaurants but also for its distinctive and celebrated culture of Enlightened Hospitality. This guiding principle of prioritizing employees first and foremost has driven and shaped USHG’s ongoing evolution from a small group of restaurants into a multi-faceted hospitality organization.

Danny and USHG’s diverse ventures have added to the hospitality dialogue in many contexts including dining options in museums, sports arenas, and cultural institutions, as well as prescient investments in burgeoning neighborhoods.

Danny’s groundbreaking business book, Setting the Table (HarperCollins, 2006), a New York Times Bestselle

Send us a text

📲 Connect with D.J.
DJ's Email
Follow on LinkedIn

More 7shifts
Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts
Subscribe to Food Runner, our Monthly Restaurant Newsletter
7shifts on YouTube
Follow us on TikTok
Read the 7shifts Blog

About Us
7shifts is a scheduling, payroll, and employee retention app designed to help restaurants thrive. With an easy-to-use app and industry-specific solutions, 7shifts saves time, reduces errors, and helps keep costs in check for more than 50,000 restaurants.

This episode was originally published as part of the Restaurant Growth Podcast. It has been rebranded as part of The Pre-Shift Podcast as of January 2023. The information presented may no longer be up-to-date and may differ from the viewpoints and insights currently shared on The Pre-Shift Podcast.

What are your restaurant's core values? If you're not sure, this episode of the podcast will help you figure that out. We sit down with Kelly McCutcheon, VP of People at Hopdoddy Burger Bar, to chat about how Kelly and her team whittled down a list of 50 characteristics into four core values that drive the 32-location machine that is Hopdoddy Burger Bar. 

00:00 Introduction to the Podcast

01:11 Meet Kelly McCutcheon, VP of People at Hopdoddy

01:57 Establishing Core Values at Hopdoddy

02:44 The Process of Defining Core Values

06:24 Implementing and Living Core Values

09:06 Core Values in Hiring and Daily Operations

13:22 Adapting Core Values Over Time

18:47 Advice for Restaurant Owners

20:45 Conclusion and Contact Information

About Kelly McCutcheon
In her hospitality career spanning 20 years, Kelly’s skill for training has grown into a passion for leading and developing others. She’s had the pleasure of leading the creation of a TM to GM career development program, where over 100 Team Members have turned their passion into purpose by advancing their career into a position of leadership. Through experience opening over 60 new restaurant locations, she’s discovered that great training aligns what we do with what we say we do, and great business performance begins by pouring into our people. Her training mission is to help people grow into the best version of themselves. Kelly is currently VP of People for Hopdoddy Burger Bar based in Austin TX. She’s also the Regional Training Director for the Council of Hotel & Restaurant Trainers and a dog mom of 2 adorable rescues.

Send us a text

📲 Connect with D.J.
DJ's Email
Follow on LinkedIn

More 7shifts
Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts
Subscribe to Food Runner, our Monthly Restaurant Newsletter
7shifts on YouTube
Follow us on TikTok
Read the 7shifts Blog

About Us
7shifts is a scheduling, payroll, and employee retention app designed to help restaurants thrive. With an easy-to-use app and industry-specific solutions, 7shifts saves time, reduces errors, and helps keep costs in check for more than 50,000 restaurants.

Now that guests are coming back into your restaurant, it means there are more tables to clean, more guests to attend to, and more side work to complete.

The problem of restaurant task management is not a new one. Restaurateurs named employee engagement their third-biggest challenge going into 2020, meaning that figuring out how to keep your staff productive and motivated has been (and continues to be) a top priority in the restaurant industry.

In this episode, we’ll help you answer that question. Keep listening for our tips on making your staff more efficient and ensuring no task is left incomplete when you go home for the day.

Send us a text

📲 Connect with D.J.
DJ's Email
Follow on LinkedIn

More 7shifts
Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts
Subscribe to Food Runner, our Monthly Restaurant Newsletter
7shifts on YouTube
Follow us on TikTok
Read the 7shifts Blog

About Us
7shifts is a scheduling, payroll, and employee retention app designed to help restaurants thrive. With an easy-to-use app and industry-specific solutions, 7shifts saves time, reduces errors, and helps keep costs in check for more than 50,000 restaurants.

Opening a restaurant is a big challenge that requires a huge investment of time and money. But the challenges don’t stop there—once open you have to focus on improving processes, managing labor schedules, and controlling restaurant costs.

Whether it’s food cost increases due to inflation or a labor cost rise due to rising minimum wage, cost increases, like taxes, are pretty much a guarantee in the restaurant industry.

This episode answers these questions and more. You’ll learn almost everything you need to know about restaurant costs so that you can remain profitable.

Send us a text

📲 Connect with D.J.
DJ's Email
Follow on LinkedIn

More 7shifts
Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts
Subscribe to Food Runner, our Monthly Restaurant Newsletter
7shifts on YouTube
Follow us on TikTok
Read the 7shifts Blog

About Us
7shifts is a scheduling, payroll, and employee retention app designed to help restaurants thrive. With an easy-to-use app and industry-specific solutions, 7shifts saves time, reduces errors, and helps keep costs in check for more than 50,000 restaurants.