What do you say to a GM working 60-hour weeks who thinks "finding your fire" is a luxury they can't afford? In this episode, I sit down with Jason Barnaby, founder and Chief Firestarter of Firestarters Inc., keynote speaker, executive coach, and author of Igniting the Firestarter Within.

Jason shares his winding path from ski bum to college professor in Poland to fine-dining server to corporate trainer — and how a layoff he calls "the gift of severance" pushed him to finally build something of his own. Along the way, he and Bryan dig into why one Indianapolis steakhouse survived COVID while another didn't, why burnout is usually a delegation and ego problem rather than a time problem, and how to fight back against the "what-if-abouts" — the pesky doubts and fears that keep us stuck.

Whether you're a shift lead eyeing your first GM role or an operator wondering about your next store, this conversation is about striking one small match at a time — and asking yourself the most powerful question of all: What do you want?

Topics covered:

• The Morton's vs. Capital Grille story: adaptability as survival
• "Your no is somebody else's yes" — delegation for burned-out leaders
• What-if-abouts: naming and torching the fears that hold you back
• Detachment: not letting wins or losses define you
• The one exercise every listener should do this week

Connect with Jason on LinkedIn, find Firestarters Inc. on Instagram, grab Igniting the Firestarter Within on Amazon, or check out his Sales Spark Podcast.

Why do the same three employees keep getting written up for the same mistake? Why does your training program work great for three weeks and then quietly disappear?

In this episode of The Shift Change, organizational development expert Tate Linden makes the case that most "people problems" in restaurants are actually system problems wearing a different name tag.

Tate shares the story of a three-day crab-wrangling job that shaped his entire approach to diagnosing why teams struggle — and walks through a simple test any operator can use this week: did the problem survive a change in people? If yes, you don't have a hiring problem. You have a system that's eating your managers.

If you've ever lost a great GM and watched the whole store fall apart in three weeks, this one's for you.

What if your employees didn't have to wait two weeks to access money they've already earned? In this episode of The Shift Change, host Bryan Gorman sits down with Aaron Martin, Director of Sales at Rain, to break down the growing world of

Earned Wage Access (EWA) and what it means for QSR operators navigating today's tight labor market.

Aaron shares how financial stress is quietly driving turnover on your team — and why most employees will never tell you about it. From the debt cycle created by overdrafts and payday loans, to the gamification of pay that keeps employees coming back for more shifts, this conversation covers the real business case for pay flexibility.

They also dig into how AI is reshaping financial wellness tools, what a successful EWA rollout actually looks like, and the story of a single mom whose reference call moved an entire room of executives to tears.

Whether you're an owner-operator looking to reduce turnover, or an HR leader exploring new ways to boost employee engagement, this episode is your practical starting point for understanding one of the fastest-growing benefits in the industry.

You signed the contract. You sat through the demo. You went live. And now, months later, your team is doing exactly what they did before — running payroll and punching timecards — while a dozen other modules collect dust.

Sound familiar?

In this solo episode, I breakdown one of the most expensive and overlooked problems in franchise operations: the gap between what you buy from your HR and payroll vendor and what you actually use. Research from Gartner shows that only 24% of organizations say they're getting maximum value from their HR technology. A Zylo study puts actual license utilization at just 47%. That means most operators are paying for the whole menu and only eating the fries.

I unpack why this happens in the QSR and franchise world specifically — rushed implementations, minimal training, high turnover, and vendors who disappear after go-live — and what it's actually costing you beyond the monthly subscription fee. ACA compliance, WOTC credits, multi-EIN payroll, tip reporting — these are the features that move the needle, and they're sitting untouched on platforms operators are already paying for.

You'll walk away knowing how to audit your current platform, what questions to ask your vendor before you renew, and how to right-size your HR tech stack for the way your operation actually runs.

In this episode:

• Why the "shiny features" problem hits QSR operators harder than most
• The real cost of underutilization — it's not just wasted dollars
• How to pull a usage report and what to do with what you find
• What to look for in a vendor who actually stays engaged post-implementation

Most multi-unit restaurant operators assume their tech stack is working. They've got a POS, a payroll system, a scheduling tool, maybe a benefits platform. But under the hood? It's often held together with spreadsheets, manual re-entry, and one manager who knows which buttons to push — and when that manager leaves, things get expensive fast.

In this solo episode, I break down why disconnected workforce systems are one of the most overlooked operational risks in the restaurant industry — and what a connected model actually looks like.

In this episode:

• Why integration challenges show up in 70–80% of conversations with restaurant operators
• The real cost of fragmented systems — including $17,000+ in monthly benefits overpayments that most operators never see coming
• What happens when your POS and your payroll system tell two different stories
• The 4 diagnostic questions every multi-unit operator should be asking about their tech stack right now
• What the shift to a single source of truth looks like — and why operators who've made it say they'll never go back

Want the free resource mentioned in this episode? I’ve put together the Restaurant Systems Integration Guide — a 16-question scorecard that helps you rate your integration maturity across payroll, POS, benefits, and workforce data architecture. Email me at [email protected] with "Integration Guide" in the subject line and I’ll send it over personally.

The Shift Change is a podcast for restaurant operators, HR leaders, and franchise professionals navigating the people, processes, and platforms behind modern restaurant operations.

Every summer, quick service restaurants scramble to fill shifts. The pitch is transactional — "Can you start today?" — and the result is predictable: high turnover, fast burnout, and a revolving door that never stops spinning. In this episode, Bryan sits down with organizational psychologist and restaurant veteran Dr. David Shar to talk about what a smarter, more human hiring process actually looks like. From the legend of Amber and the birthday cake to the Nordstrom tire chains story, David makes the case that your culture stories are your best recruiting tool — and that being honest about your flaws on day one builds more loyalty than any signing bonus ever could.

My conversation with Kirk Grogan, Co-Founder and COO at TipHaus covers the impact of the OBBBA on the hospitality industry, compliance challenges, misconceptions, and future-proofing tip strategies. It also delves into the experiential trends in hospitality and discusses a unique restaurant concept.

Takeaways

• OB-BBA Impact
• Compliance Challenges

Chapters

• 00:00 Introduction and Tip House Overview
• 05:32 Impact on Overtime Calculations
• 17:06 Future-Proofing Tip Strategy
• 21:57 Experiential Trends in Hospitality
• 29:21 Restaurant Concept and Conclusion

My interview with Steve Felson covers a wide range of topics related to the restaurant industry, including career experiences, industry trends, operational shifts, and the impact of AI. Steve shares insights on the challenges of starting a franchise division, the importance of onboarding and training, and the role of general managers in restaurants. He also discusses the impact of AI on the industry, the shift in restaurant worker values, unconventional guest situations, overrated restaurant trends, and advice for starting a new restaurant venture.

Takeaways

• Restaurant industry trends
• Operational shifts
• Guest experience and feedback
• Brand consolidation and diversification

Chapters

• 00:00 Advice for Day One in the Industry

Ever wonder why your training isn't sticking? At the QSR Workforce Management Summit in Dallas, industry leaders from across the restaurant space gathered to tackle the workforce challenges keeping operators up at night—and the answers were more human than most of us expected.

In this episode, I'm sharing the most important insights from the Training and Development stream, where seven sessions revealed a pattern that connects culture, systems, training design, and retention into one powerful idea: the most efficient path forward is through your people, not around them.

In this episode you'll hear about:

• Skills masking—the phenomenon where 58% of employees hide knowledge gaps out of fear, and what to do about it
• Why onboarding the person (not the checklist) changes everything about retention and confidence
• The diagnostic question every multi-unit operator needs to ask about their systems
• Why "good enough" training is quietly costing you millions in turnover, accuracy, and speed
• The difference between measuring turnover and measuring tenure—and why it matters
• What it really means to have a hospitality-first mindset at the GM level
• Why you should define success before you ever look at technology

Key Quotes from the Summit:

• "Culture eats strategy for breakfast."
• "You are onboarding the person—not the checklist."
• "Growth doesn't break brands—weak systems do."
• "Communication is not loud—it is clear."
• "With trust comes morale."
• "Consistency is the real brand."

Who should listen: Multi-unit operators, training and development leaders, HR professionals, and anyone responsible for building and retaining a frontline team in the QSR or broader hospitality space.

The first 2026 episode of the Shift Change podcast discusses the top five HR and payroll issues that will define success in the quick service restaurant industry. These issues include the evolution of payroll, compliance challenges, AI augmented management, total well-being, and data privacy. This episode emphasizes the need for fast, flexible pay options, bulletproof predictive scheduling, balancing AI with human leadership, holistic benefits, and an ironclad data security plan.

Takeaways

• Fast, flexible pay options
• Balancing AI with human leadership

Chapters

• 00:00 Data Privacy and Cybersecurity