Podcasts about Zagat

Lyric Lewin is a Photographer and Journalist whose work beautifully weaves together food, culture, and the connections that bind us all. Lyric's journey began at CNN, where she honed her eye for storytelling as a Photo Editor and writer, earning accolades from the National Press Photographers Association. Over the years, she's collaborated with renowned publications like Zagat and Atlanta Magazine and served as Photo Director at Whetstone Magazine, where her work continuously celebrated the intersection of food and social impact. Lyric now works as the Lead Food Writer for Chattanooga Times Free Press, where she brings her readers a weekly series of "Where to Eat Next", curating an authentic exploration of the local food scene in Chattanooga. Driven by a desire to understand the world through food, Lyric has traveled across the globe, using culinary traditions as a gateway to have deeper conversations around race, identity, and culture. Through her writing, photography, and in-person workshops, Lyric continues to inspire others to connect with the world of food. Her work is a reminder of the power food has to open doors, spark connections, and bring us closer to each other. https://www.lyriclewin.com/Sign up for her Substack : https://open.spotify.com/episode/49I5QqfoNSf3o8oIdJHlM7?si=5ggm-uqET8y-ZT7NHY6rWwSupport the show

There is not one sector of power that Jeffrey Epstein didn't have a toe dipped into. That even goes for the world of fine dining. Jeffrey Epstein was a fixture at the finest establishments in New York, even though he ate like a six year old according to former friends and associates. In this episode, we hear about Jeffrey Epstein's good friends the Zagat's and how he was often seen with the married couple and how they even made a trip to Jeffrey Epstein's island. (commercial at 8:14)to contact me:bobbycapucci@protonmail.comsource:Jeffrey Epstein repeatedly dined at NYC's top restaurants after he was listed as a sex offender | Daily Mail OnlineBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-epstein-chronicles--5003294/support.

Since reopening with much fanfare in 2015, New Orleans' St. Roch Market has experienced ups and downs, but the city's second oldest city market is still standing. Since 2015, St. Roch has functioned as a culinary incubator for food professional wannabes – and what a bunch of delicious incubation is happening there now! On this week's show, we speak with the market's new director, longtime vendor Kevin Pedeaux, and learn why that bustling spot on St. Claude is the place to be these days. We then go stall by stall to meet the vendors – the St. Roch stars who are cooking up some of the most diverse offerings to be found under one single roof today. Next, we hear from one of St. Roch Market's biggest success stories. Chef Charly Pierre began creating delicious Haitian dishes based on the traditional street foods that abound in his ancestral homeland. Charly's career has since skyrocketed. He's been featured on a number of national cooking competition shows, and garnered accolades from the likes of Zagat, Eater, and the James Beard Foundation. These days, Charly can be found in the kitchen of his own Basin Street restaurant, Fritai. For more of all things Louisiana Eats, be sure to visit us at PoppyTooker.com.

Since reopening with much fanfare in 2015, New Orleans' St. Roch Market has experienced ups and downs, but the city's second oldest city market is still standing. Since 2015, St. Roch has functioned as a culinary incubator for food professional wannabes – and what a bunch of delicious incubation is happening there now! On this week's show, we speak with the market's new director, longtime vendor Kevin Pedeaux, and learn why that bustling spot on St. Claude is the place to be these days. We then go stall by stall to meet the vendors – the St. Roch stars who are cooking up some of the most diverse offerings to be found under one single roof today. Next, we hear from one of St. Roch Market's biggest success stories. Chef Charly Pierre began creating delicious Haitian dishes based on the traditional street foods that abound in his ancestral homeland. Charly's career has since skyrocketed. He's been featured on a number of national cooking competition shows, and garnered accolades from the likes of Zagat, Eater, and the James Beard Foundation. These days, Charly can be found in the kitchen of his own Basin Street restaurant, Fritai. For more of all things Louisiana Eats, be sure to visit us at PoppyTooker.com.

On this week's episode, host Caryn Antonini is joined by Andy Wang, a seasoned journalist covering the latest restaurants and bars, food and drink destinations and emerging cultural trends. Andy has a particular interest in giving a voice to Chinese and Asian Americans in the food and restaurant industry. Andy has written for Food + Wine, The Robb Report, Zagat, Taste, Condé Nast, Epicurious and many other publications. He is the co-founder of Dumpling Mafia NFT, he co-hosts both the Chinese Food Fight Club and Industry Only at The Cheese Store, podcasts. Andy also hosts Industry Only events and is based in Los Angeles but also covers New York and Las Vegas. For more information on our guest:@andywangnylaCaryn Antoniniwww.cultivatedbycaryn.com@carynantonini@cultivatedbycarynshow###Get great recipes from Caryn at https://carynantonini.com/recipes/

There is not one sector of power that Jeffrey Epstein didn't have a toe dipped into. That even goes for the world of fine dining. Jeffrey Epstein was a fixture at the finest establishments in New York, even though he ate like a six year old according to former friends and associates.In this episode, we hear about Jeffrey Epstein's good friends the Zagat's and how he was often seen with the married couple and how they even made a trip to Jeffrey Epstein's island.(commercial at 8:14)to contact me:bobbycapucci@protonmail.comsource:Jeffrey Epstein repeatedly dined at NYC's top restaurants after he was listed as a sex offender | Daily Mail OnlineBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-epstein-chronicles--5003294/support.

A celebrated Chef, celebrity musician-turned-hospitality director, and an award-winning farm joined Food Farms and Chefs Radio Show this week.

In this podcast, chocolatier Aditi Malhotra Ahooja shares her unique path from her childhood in New York City, to a Swiss hospitality school and onto becoming a successful entrepreneur.  Aditi talks about her family's love and support, learning to become a pastry chef, some inevitable bumps along the way and her passion for chocolate.  She describes how her labor of love, Tache Chocolates, came into being. Tache Chocolate was founded by pastry chef Aditi Malhotra Ahooja. Her delicious and unique chocolates draw inspiration from her travels around the world and her Indian background. Each bite sized treat tells a story and captivates the senses! Aditi describes them as a “Journey of the Senses”She is a graduate of The Glion Hotel School in Switzerland and The French Culinary Institute. Aditi first started her career working under acclaimed pastry chef Pichet Ong and then went on to work as a Japanese chef at Morimoto. Aditi had an opportunity to learn from a chocolatier in Paris before opening her own storefront in NYC. Since opening Tache in 2012, Aditi and her chocolates have taken the confectionary world by storm.  She was the winner of Zagat's 30 Under 30 Award and selected as one of Forbes 30 under 30 game changers in Food & Wine.  She competed twice as Forbes best young chef in America as the only dessert chef invited. All of Tache's creations are handcrafted in her mini Willy Wonkaesque factory and are handmade from the finest ingredients in the world. Tache is also famous for its chocolate-making classes, which have gained the attention from the New York Times and Time Out Kids.  Her chocolates have been featured in The New York Times, Time Out, TV Asia, The Huffington Post, The Village Voice, Business Insider, Food and Wine, InStyle Magazine, Gotham Magazine and an HSBC commercial.Tache's name comes from the French word “tache” which means spot or smudge. When it comes to Aditi, she always has a “tache” of chocolate smeared all over her chef's coat. There was no other option then to name it after the evidence of a whimsical chocolatier!

Today on our episode #401 of All in the Industry®, Shari Bayer's guest is Bob Broskey, Executive Chef Partner of RPM Restaurants, which is part of Lettuce Entertain You Restaurants, overseeing a chef team nationwide at concepts, including RPM Seafood, RPM Italian, RPM Steak, The Oakville Grill & Cellar, Pizzeria Portofino, RPM Events. A native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Bob's journey led him to Chicago, and his cooking experience includes L2O, which was Lettuce Entertain You's two Michelin-starred seafood restaurant, where he eventually became chef de cuisine. Bob was recognized by Zagat's "30 Under 30" award. Today's show also features Shari's PR tip to know that every ending is a new beginning; Speed Round; Industry News on the 2024 Food Network New York City Wine & Food Festival presented by Invesco QQQ (#NYCWFF) taking place October 17-20, 2024 in Brooklyn; NYC's premier wine and food festival supporting New Yorkers in need with God's Love We Deliver; Eat. Drink. Feed NYC; and Solo Dining experience at Penny, a raw bar and seafood counter restaurant, which earned 3 stars by The New York Times and a spot on its Restaurant List 2024 as one of 50 favorite places in America. Shari also shares a big announcement that after 11 years and 401 episodes, this will be her last show on Heritage Radio Network. Many thanks to the entire HRN team for their support over the years, to all of our past guests, and to you, our loyal listeners. It's been quite a run, and Shari is truly grateful. Shari will be continuing to podcast, sharing the stories of behind-the-scenes talent in hospitality, so please follow @allindustry and @sharibayer on Instagram for updates, as well as "All in the Industry" on Facebook. Listen at Heritage Radio Network; subscribe/rate/review our show at iTunes, Stitcher or Spotify. Follow us @allindustry. Thanks for being a part of All in the Industry®. Heritage Radio Network is a listener supported nonprofit podcast network. Support All in the Industry by becoming a member!All in the Industry is Powered by Simplecast.

INTRO - This episode is the Zagat sketch from 1990's SNL. “Ravioli, holy cannoli!” FUTURE MOVIE NEWS: 2:15 - The Life of Chuck has been acquired by NEON. 4:26 - Conclave, Maria, Queer, The Brutalist, etc… all get release dates. 10:01 - The Shrouds acquired by Janus Films. 11:03 - Tarantino says he would like to make a horror movie. 13:32 - Scorsese film delays & The Passion of the Christ 2 greenlit. AWARDS NEWS: 15:37 - The Golden Globes might still be corrupt. 24: 43 - Deadwyler, Ronan, Swinton & Moore, Reynolds & Jackman set their campaigns. 27:56 - Best International Feature Selections & India's pick causes a stir. 31:32 - The Gotham Awards set The Piano Lesson for its ensemble tribute. BOX OFFICE UPDATE: 33:13 - Catching you up on the last two weekends of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. 36:34 - Projections for this weekend's Wild Robot & Megalopolis debuts. TRAILERS: 38:52 - Maria gets its first pretty teaser. 39:22 - Ballerina is from the world of John Wick. 41:17 - Gladiator II trailer II has some bad CGI, but Denzel looks like he's having fun. 43:36 - Rumours w/ Cate Blanchett lead to some NYFF pizza plans + a M1 epiphany. 45:17 - Thunderbolts is not allowed to continue the MCU's Attitude Era. 47:05 - Don't Move and why this is an impossible premise that is somehow alluring. 48:05 - Sinners gets a “we'll see” from M1, which is better than his Rumours reaction. 49:07 - A Real Pain WHAT WE'RE WATCHING: 50:22 - Monsters: The Lyle & Erik Menendez Brothers Story & M1's Ryan Murphy rabbit hole. 53:32 - The Mr. McMahon doc series on Netflix about the WWE is pretty great. 57:01 - His Three Daughters and the two ridiculous people here reviewing it. 59:07 - How To Have Sex & the launch of two promising new careers w/ Bruce & Walker. 1:00:20 - Humane on Shudder was also much better than expected. 1:02:24 - Stop The Steal doesn't salve or balm election worries. OUTRO- where we completely unravel after M1 reveals the real reason he didn't love His Three Daughters. Please do contact us with your inevitable concerns after listening to this one. Otherwise, yes, we discuss what's coming next after we see some upcoming movies in CT and NYC.

On today's episode, Mario Kalpou talks about surviving in the wild and his past experiencesMario Kalpou's lifelong fascination with nature's bounty took root at a young age. Australian born, comfortable in both the field and kitchen, Kalpou soon set on a path to pursue his innate love of cooking working alongside prominent chefs and eventually opening and operating several highly acclaimed restaurants most notably, The Old Library, garnering various awards such as Zagat 3 Hats and 2nd place Belle Awards. He deepened his love of harvesting from the wild and honed his already advanced outdoor skills when he traded the metropolitan restaurant world for rural New Zealand. Kalpou opened an extreme-adventure lodge and became a professional guide for overseas clients. During this time, he observed not only how being immersed in the outdoors positively affected each client but a realization that being connected to the source of free range, wild food echoed the interest of his chefs and patrons in the restaurant world. People want to feel connected to their food source and the inspiration for “Man Eats Wild” was born.Phil Daru is the Head trainer for some of the top athletes in the world and creator of Daru Strong Training Systems and founder of Daru Strong Performance Center. Daru has degrees in sports medicine and exercise science from Alabama State University where he played division 1 football. Holding certifications with Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) Certified Functional Strength Coach (CFSC) Functional Range Movement Specialist (FRCms) and Kabuki Movement Specialist (NSCA-KMS). Daru then began a career in MMA and turned professional at 21 years old where he then developed his own systems for training fighters. Daru has also competed in strongman, bodybuilding, and Bjj Gi and No Gi and currently competes in powerlifting. He has worked with well over 200 plus fighters including world champions like Joanna Jedrzejczyk, Dustin Poirier, Edson Barboza, Junior Dos Santos, Frankie Edgar, Tecia Torres, King Mo Lawal, Andrei Arlovski and many others. Coach Daru is a two time award winning Trainer of the Year for the Florida MMA Awards and Nominated for the Trainer of the Year for the World MMA Awards. He has been globally recognized for his contributions in combat sports performance and has traveled to over 10 countries teaching and mentoring. We want to welcome you to this channel and hope you enjoy the content!

Dynamic dishes, rich backgrounds, and a legacy of flavor are all on the menu in Marisel Salazar's debut cookbook Latin-ish: More Than 100 Recipes Celebrating American Latino Cuisines. Building on her heritage with years of research and travel, Salazar takes fellow cooks and food enthusiasts on a flavor-packed journey through the Latine diaspora. This collection of recipes draws from a wide range of community-driven cooking and immigrant experience, translated into the kitchens of today. Latin-ish is a unique deep dive into regional Latine food influences across the geography of the United States – from Floribbean to Tex-Mex, from Alta California to NYC Latine, and more. Latin-ish combines lively origin stories with step-by-step directions and vibrant photography to guide readers in putting together playful plates of food and history. Thoughtfully organized and contextualized, Salazar aims to provide a little something for every craving – day or night. Dig into indulgent breakfasts like Guava Cream Cheese Cinnamon Rolls, boost your snack game by crunching into a Mango Chamoy Salad or Yuca Fries with Cilantro Lime Aioli, warm your dinner guests up with Arkansas Tamales or Cuban Pizza, and treat yourself at the end of a long day with a slice of Plantain Upside-Down Cake or a Oaxaca Old-Fashioned. The recipes of Latin-ish raise a glass to a diverse spread of Latine roots while leaving ample room to grow in an ever-evolving corner of the modern American culinary landscape. Marisel Salazar is a writer, cook, recipe developer, and host with a focus on cultural context in the food world. She is the creator of the column Eating Off Duty for the Michelin Guide. Her writing, recipes, and on-camera work has been featured on platforms such as Zagat, Infatuation, Food & Wine, NYT Cooking, The Spruce Eats, and Thrillist. She is a member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, the Newswomen's Press Club of New York, and the International Association of Culinary Professionals. Agueda Pacheco Flores is a journalist in Seattle with a focus on Latinx culture and Mexican American identity. She was previously an arts and culture writer at Crosscut where she enjoyed writing about Chicano galleries, Cumbia in the Pacific Northwest as well as shining a light on emerging Latinx artists. Before Crosscut, she worked for The Seattle Times, where she was a general assignment reporter covering breaking news, crime, and federal courts. Originally from Queretaro, Mexico, Pacheco Flores is inspired by her own bicultural upbringing as an undocumented immigrant and proud Washingtonian. Her work has appeared in The Seattle Globalist, Seattle Weekly, The Daily, and the South Seattle Emerald. Buy the Book Latin-Ish: More Than 100 Recipes Celebrating American Latino Cuisines Book Larder

Featured Author:Marisel Salazar Book:Latin-Ish: More Than 100 Recipes Celebrating American Latino Cuisines  Author Bio: I am a bilingual, Latinx New York City-based food writer, restaurant critic, cook, and recipe developer for publications like the Michelin Guide, Zagat, Infatuation, Wine Enthusiast, VinePair, Thrillist, PureWow and more. I am the creator of the guide's popular column Eating Off Duty: What celebrated chefs eat outside their kitchens. I've been featured on NYT Cooking and do recipe development/digital videos for The Spruce Eats, The Kitchn, Food52, Delish, Buzzfeed Tasty, Tastemade and more. I am a member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, the Newswomen's Press Club of New York, and the International Association of Culinary Professionals. ExpertiseMy specialties are traditional to modern Latin-ish foods with fun riffs (I am originally from Panama and part Cuban), Japanese food (I lived in Japan for 4 years), Hawaiian food (I lived in Hawaii for 3 years), Spanish cuisine (I lived in Madrid), and wine (I write for top wine publications and studied wine tasting. I love fun wine pairings). My range within the food industry is deep: I cover fine dining, the technical side of cooking, dive deep into cultural context and have interviewed politicians, celebrity chefs, non-food celebrities to undocumented workers. When I'm not writing about food, I write for beauty, health, and wellness publications like Well + Good, PureWow, and mindbodygreen. I also co-author and ghostwrite cookbooks with celebrity chefs and have a treatment for my own cookbook currently in development. On-CameraIn front of the camera: I'm also the host of United States of Spirits on Spirits Network and Driven to Dine on MSG Networks. Catch me on Food & Wine's newest show Beat the Receipt! I am the host of HelloFresh's latest mini-digital series Fresh Takes on Takeout. I've been featured on NY1, ABC10, InsideHook, NYT Cooking and more. Borrowed Time is my debut documentary as host and co-producer, currently in post-edit. It focuses on the effects of Covid-19 on the restaurant industry. Website: https://www.mariselsalazar.com/home Latin-Ish: (August 20) https://www.amazon.com/Latin-Ish-Recipes-Celebrating-American-Cuisines-ebook/dp/B0CK43XP61 ⁠⁠ ________ If you follow my podcast and enjoy it, I'm on @buymeacoffee. If you like my work, you can buy me a coffee and share your thoughts

Shaun Brian Sells started life in a two-person tent surrounded by plantation ruins in the flats of Coral Bay, St. John, US Virgin Islands. It was in that environment where his love for cooking began– by roaming and foraging through the valley, fishing off his dad's sailboat and cooking for up to eight siblings at a time. Those challenges became the source of his inspiration. At Cudaco on James Island, SC, he brings that inspiration full circle, celebrating sustainable seafood practices and the creativity of the kitchen. Cudaco is part seafood market, part wine shop, part catering, and part casual restaurant with my favorite fried fish sandwich in town and also caviar in the cooler. Shaun's passion is educating guests about lesser known seafood species and how to make them delicious, and since he also serves the wholesale community, his seafood shows up on some of the best Charleston tables too. Shaun was named one of Zagat's 30 Under 30, he's an alumnus of the James Beard Foundation's Boot Camp for policy and change, and a former Senior Chef on the US Virgin Islands Culinary Team.

There is not one sector of power that Jeffrey Epstein didn't have a toe dipped into. That even goes for the world of fine dining. Jeffrey Epstein was a fixture at the finest establishments in New York, even though he ate like a six year old according to former friends and associates.In this episode, we hear about Jeffrey Epstein's good friends the Zagat's and how he was often seen with the married couple and how they even made a trip to Jeffrey Epstein's island.(commercial at 8:14)to contact me:bobbycapucci@protonmail.comsource:Jeffrey Epstein repeatedly dined at NYC's top restaurants after he was listed as a sex offender | Daily Mail OnlineBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-epstein-chronicles--5003294/support.

Jason and Bryan channel their inner SNL Chris Farley and Adam Sandler going over the Packers schedule and where the ideal road trip destination would be. They also break down the pros and cons of the Packers having nine 12AM kick-offs and five prime-time slots.

Victoria Guido hosts Robbie Holmes, the founder and CEO of Holmes Consulting Group. The conversation kicks off with Robbie recounting his initial foray into the tech world at a small web hosting company named A1 Terabit.net, chosen for its alphabetical advantage in the white pages. This job was a stepping stone to a more significant role at Unisys, working for the state of New York's Department of Social Services, where Robbie inadvertently ventured into civic tech and public interest technology. Robbie shares his career progression from supporting welfare systems in New York to becoming a technological liaison between the city and state, leading to a deeper involvement in open-source solutions. His journey through tech spaces includes developing websites, diving into the Drupal community, and eventually establishing his consulting business. Robbie emphasizes the serendipitous nature of his career path, influenced significantly by community involvement and networking rather than a planned trajectory. Additionally, Robbie gives insights on the impact of technology in public services and his stint with the U.S. Digital Service (USDS), where he contributed to significant projects like vets.gov. Robbie promotes the value of community engagement in shaping one's career, stressing how connections and being in the right place at the right time can lead to unexpected opportunities and career pivots. Follow Robbie Holmes on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/robbiethegeek/), X (https://twitter.com/RobbieTheGeek), Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/robbiethegeek), Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/robbiethegeek), or GitHub (https://github.com/robbiethegeek). Check out his website at robbiethegeek (https://about.me/robbiethegeek). Follow thoughtbot on X (https://twitter.com/thoughtbot) or LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/150727/). Transcript: VICTORIA: This is the Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots podcast, where we explore the design, development, and business of great products. I'm your host, Victoria Guido. And with me today is Robbie Holmes, Founder and CEO of Holmes Consulting Group. Robbie, thank you for joining me. ROBBIE: I'm so happy to be here. It's great to talk to you, Victoria. VICTORIA: Yes. I have known you for a long time now, but I don't know everything about you. So, I thought I would start with the question: What was your first job that you ever had? ROBBIE: My first technical job, I ended up working for an internet web hosting company called A1 Terabit.net. And note the A1 because it came first in the white pages. It was a really small web hosting company run by a man named [SP] Maxim Avrutsky. I worked there for about six months before I submitted my resume to an online job forum. That's how old I am. And it ended up in the hands of Unisys, where I eventually worked for the state of New York. VICTORIA: Wow [laughs]. So, what a journey that you've been on to get from starting there, and what a marketing ploy back in the day with the white pages. So, tell me a little bit more about how you went from that first job to where you are today with having your own business in consulting. ROBBIE: Yeah, I wasn't even aware that I was jumping into the sort of civic tech space and public interest technology because the job I ended up with was working for New York State in the Department of Social Services. And welfare is federally funded and distributed to states and then states to localities. And New York City and New York State have a weird parasymbiotic relationship because over 50% of the welfare in New York State goes to the five boroughs in New York City. So, so much of my job was supporting the welfare system within the city, which was run by the human resources administration. So, that just led to this cascade of me, like, getting invested in supporting that, and then eventually jumping over to the other side where I worked for the City of New York. And at that point, I ended up becoming sort of a technology project manager and almost a tech liaison between the city and state. And I was out in the welfare centers, helping get the job centers up to a new application called the Paperless Office System, which was a client-server app that was a wrapper around welfare. All of that ended up leading to me finally making it to the network operation center for the City of New York, where I started replacing expensive solutions like HP OpenView with open-source solutions like Nagios and another open-source solution that provided an interface. And it really opened my eyes to the idea of open source. And I had really paid attention to a lot of open-source operating systems. So, I was kind of just a general tech nerd. And eventually, I started building websites, and that led me to the Drupal community in New York City, which was sort of this cascade that led me to communities. And I think that's sort of a through line for my entire career is I don't really think I ever had a plan. I think my entire career has been this sort of a lucky happenstance of being prepared when an opportunity arose and sometimes being in the right place because of my connections and community. VICTORIA: That's interesting about being involved with the people around you and seeing what problems are out there to solve and letting that lead you to where your interests lie. And then, following that, naturally led you to, like, this really long career and these really interesting, big projects and problems that you get to solve. ROBBIE: Yeah. And I think one interesting aspect is like, I feel I spent a lot of time worried about what I was going to do and where I was going to do it. I don't have a bachelor's degree. I don't have an advanced degree. I have a high school diploma and a couple of years in college. Well, 137 credits, not the right 125 or 124 to have a bachelor's degree. I have enough credits for a couple of minors though, definitely Greek art history, I think mathematics, maybe one more. I just never got it together and actually got my degree. But that was so interesting because it was limiting to what jobs I could find. So, I was in the tech space as an IT person and specifically doing networking. So, I was running the network operation center. I helped, like, create a whole process for how we track tickets, and how we created tickets, and how things were moved along. And, in the process, I started building websites for family and friends. And I built a website for our network operation center, so that way we could have photos to go with our diagrams of the network. So that way, when we were troubleshooting remotely, we could actually pull up images and say, "The cable that's in port six goes off to the router. I think that port is dead. Can we move it to the port two to its right, and I'll activate it?" And that made a really interesting solution for something we weren't even aware we had, which was lack of visibility. So many of the people in the fields were newer or were trying to figure it out. And some of us had really deep knowledge of what was going on in those network rooms and hubs. It led me to this solution of like, well, why don't we just start documenting it and making it easier for us to help when they're in the field? That led me to, like, the Drupal community because I started building sites in the Drupal CMS. And I went to, like, my first Drupal meetup in 2007, and there was, like, five of us around the table. That led to eventually me working for Sony Music and all these other things. But the year before I found my way to the Drupal community, I probably sent out, like, 400 resumes for jobs in the tech space, didn't really get any callbacks. And then, I met the community, and I started attending events, and then eventually, I started organizing events. And then, Sony I interviewed and talked to them a couple of times. And then, a friend of mine became the boss. And she contacted me and was like, "Hey, are you in the market?" And I was like, "I don't know. Why? What's up?" And she's like, "I became Doug." And I was like, "What?" And she was like, "I'm now replacing Doug at Sony. I'm running the team." And I was like, "Yeah, I'm happy to talk." And that was the big transition in my career from IT to sort of development and to delivery, right? Like, when it comes right down to it, is I became the manager of interactive media at Sony Music, which was really a job I landed because I was connected to the community, and running events, and getting to know everyone. VICTORIA: Yeah. And I think it's really cool that you had this exposure early on to what you called civic tech, which we'll get into a little bit, and then you went from the community into a commercial technology space and really getting into engineering with Drupal. ROBBIE: Yeah, it was an interesting transition because what they needed at Sony was sort of somebody who could ride the line between systems engineer, database administrator, and Drupal engineer, and also probably pre-DevOps DevOps person. So, I was responsible for all deployments and all tickets that came in. I was sort of both the technical arm of the help desk. When I joined, there was 24 websites on the Drupal platform, and when I left, there was over 200. And we upgraded it from Drupal 5 to Drupal 6 to Drupal 7 while I was there. So, I was heavily involved in all of those updates, and all those upgrades, and all of the deployments of all the new themes, and all the changes to all these sites. So, what was great was they, I believe, if I understand it correctly, they actually created a role for me out of, like, two or three jobs because they needed a me, and they didn't have a role that existed. So, all of a sudden, they made a manager of interactive media role. And I was able to work there for two years, sort of being what I jokingly say, like, a digital janitor. I used to say that I had, like, an eight-bit key ring in a push broom. And I was always mad at your kids for trying to break my stuff. VICTORIA: [laughs] That's so good. A digital service janitor [laughs]? The connection for me between that and where I met you in the U.S. digital service space [laughs] I feel like there's a lot of parallels between that and where your career evolved later on in life. ROBBIE: Yeah. What's amazing is I did all this early work in my career in civic tech and didn't realize it was civic tech at the time. I just realized what I was doing was providing this huge impact and was value. You know, I spent a couple of years in the welfare centers, and I used to say all the time that the two hardest jobs in the welfare center are the person applying for welfare and the person deciding whether or not that person gets welfare. So, being a technologist and trying to help make that as simple as possible or easier and smooth the edges off of that process was really important. And it really taught me how important technology is to delivering service. And I really never thought about it before. And then, when I was working for Phase2 technologies, I was a director of Digital Services. And I read in a blog post, I believe that was written by Mikey Dickerson, who was the original administrator for USDS, and he talked about HealthCare.gov. And he walked in the door, and he said, "How do you know HealthCare.gov is down?" And I think there was some allusion to the fact that we were like, we turn on the television and if they're yelling at us, we know it's down. And Mikey was like, "We know how to monitor things." So, like, if you don't know Mikey Dickerson, he's the person who sort of created the web application hierarchy of needs in Google. He was an SRE. And his pyramid, like Maslow's hierarchy of needs, was all over Google when I was there. I was so impressed with the idea that, like, we aren't talking about how do we solve this problem? We're talking about knowing when there's a problem. And then, if we know there's a problem, we can put some messaging around that. We can say, like, "We're aware," right? Like if the president calls the secretary, the secretary can say, "We know it's down. We're working on it," which is building up political capital. It's a really amazing process that I kept reading this blog post, and I was like, God, that's how I would approach it. And then, I was like, wow, I wonder if I could use my skills to help America, and very shortly submitted an application and was like, well, we'll see what happens. And about six months later, I walked in the door at the VA and was the eighth employee of the Digital Service team at the VA. That was a franchise team of the USDS model. VICTORIA: And can you say a little bit more about what is the U.S. Digital Service and expand upon your early experience there? ROBBIE: Yeah. So, the United States Digital Service was created after HealthCare.gov had its issues. Todd Park had convinced President Obama to reach out to get support from the private industry. And the few of the people who were there, Todd convinced to stick around and start creating a team that could support if there was this kind of issue in the future. I believe the team that was there on the ground was Mikey Dickerson, Erie Meyer, Haley Van Dyck, and Todd. And there was a few other people who came back or were very close at the beginning, including the current administrator of USDS. She has been around a long time and really helped with HealthCare.gov. It's amazing that Mina is back in government. We're very lucky to have her. But what came out of that was what if we were able to stand up a team that was here in case agencies needed support or could vet solutions before these types of problems could exist? So, USDS was what they called the startup inside the White House that was created during the 2014 administration of President Obama. The team started that year, and I joined in May of 2016. So, I would be, like, sort of the beginning of the second team of the VA U.S. Digital Service team. So, USDS supported this idea of tours of duty, where you're a schedule A employee, which meant you were a full-time government employee, but you were term-limited. You could do up to two years of duty and work, and then you could theoretically stick around and do two more years. That was how these roles were envisioned. I think there's lots of reasons why that was the case. But what's nice is it meant that you would come in with fresh eyes and would never become part of the entrenched IT ecosystem. There are people that transition from USDS into government, and I think that's a huge value prop nowadays. It's something that I don't know they were thinking about when the original United States Digital Service was stood up, but it was hugely impactful. Like, I was part of the team at the VA that helped digitize the first form on vets.gov and all the work that was done. When the VA team started, there was a team that was helping with veteran benefits, and they worked on the appeals process for veteran benefits. And I joined. And there was a team that was...eventually, it became dubbed the veteran-facing tools team. And we worked on vets.gov, which was a new front door to expose and let veterans interact with the VA digitally. And over time, all the work that went into the tools and the solutions that were built there, everything was user-researched. And all of that work eventually got brought into VA.gov in what they called a brand merger. So, we took, like, the sixth most trafficked front door of the VA and took all the modern solutioning that that was and brought it into VA.gov, the main front door. So, all of a sudden, there was an identity, a login provided on VA.gov for the first time. So big, impactful work that many people were a part of and is still ongoing today. Surprisingly, so much of this work has now fallen under OCTO, which is the Office of the CTO in the VA. And the CTO is Charles Worthington, who was a USDSer who's the epitome of a person who goes where the work is. Charles was a Presidential Innovation Fellow who helped out in the times of HealthCare.gov and, joined USDS and did anything and everything that was necessary. He interviewed engineers. He was a product person. Charles is one of the most unique technologists and civic tech people I've ever met in my life. But Charles, at the end of the Obama administration and in this transition, realized that the VA was in need of someone to fill the CTO role. So, he came over to become the interim CTO because one of the values of USDS is to go where the work is. And he realized, with the transition, that Marina Nitze, who was the CTO who was transitioning out, there was going to be a need for continuity. So, he came in to provide that continuity and eventually became the full-time CTO and has been there ever since. So, he has helped shape the vision of what the VA is working towards digitally and is now...he was just named the Chief AI Officer for the agency. Charles is a great person. He has successfully, you know, shepherded the work that was being done early by some of us into what is now becoming a sort of enterprise-wide solution, and it's really impressive. VICTORIA: I appreciate you sharing that. And, you know, I think there's a perception about working for public service or for government, state or federal agencies, that they are bureaucratic, difficult to work with, very slow. And I think that the USDS was a great example of trying to really create a massive change. And there's been this ripple effect of how the government acquires products and services to support public needs, right? ROBBIE: Yeah, I would say there's a couple of arms of the government that were sort of modernization approaches, so you have the Presidential Innovation Fellows, which are the equivalent of, like, entrepreneurs and residents in government. And they run out of...I think they're out of the TTS, the Technology Transformation Service over at GSA, which is the General Services Administration. But the PIFs are this really interesting group of people that get a chance to go in and try to dig in and use their entrepreneurial mindset and approach to try to solve problems in government. And a lot of PIFS work in offices. Like, Charles' early team when he first became the CTO included a lot of Presidential Innovation Fellows. It was basically like, "Hey, the VA could use some support," and these people were available and were able to be convinced to come and do this work. And then, you have the Presidential Management Fellows, which I think is a little bit more on the administration side. And then, we have 18F and USDS. The United States Digital Service is a funded agency with an OMB. And we were created as a way to provide the government with support either by detailing people over or dropping in when there was a problem. And then, 18F is an organization that is named because the offices of GSA and TTS (Technology Transformation Service), where it's housed, are on the corner of 18th Street and F in DC. And 18F is sort of like having a technology or a digital agency for hire within the government. So, they are full-time employees of the government, sort of like USDS, except government agencies can procure the support of that 18F team, just like they would procure the support of your company. And it was a really interesting play. They are fully cost-recoupable subcomponent of TTS, which means they have to basically make back all the money that they spend, whereas USDS is different. It's congressionally funded for what it does. But they're all similar sibling organizations that are all trying to change how government works or to bring a more modern idea or parlance into the government. I used to say to people all the time that at USDS, you know, we would set a broken bone say, and then we would come back around and say, like, "Hey, does your arm hurt anymore?" The idea being like, no. Be like, "Cool, cool. Maybe you should go to the gym, and you should eat better." And that would be, like, procurement change. That would be, like, changing for the long term. So, all the work I was doing was building political capital so we could do better work in changing how procurement was done and then changing how the government delivered these things. So, what was awesome was, like, we used to have these fights at USDS about whether or not we were a culture change or we were firefighters. And I think the reality is once we're involved, culture changes happen. The bigger question is, are we going to be there for the long haul, or are we only there for a shorter period of time? And I think there are reasons why USDS teams had both plays. And I think it really is just two different plays for the same outcome. VICTORIA: Yeah, that makes sense. And to pivot a little bit, I think, you know, our audience, we have clients and listeners who are founders of products that are aimed at making these, like, public service needs, or to give some examples, like, maybe they're trying to track Congressional voting patterns or contact information for different state representatives, and they're trying to navigate this space [laughs]. So, maybe you can give some advice for founders interested in selling their products to government agencies. What can they do to make it more appealing and less painful for themselves? ROBBIE: I wouldn't consider myself a procurement expert, but at USDS, the procurement team called themselves the [SP] procurementati. And I was a secret member of the procurementati. I often was the engineer they would call to evaluate statements of work or sometimes be on technology evaluation panels. And it was fun to be a part of that. Things that most companies don't realize is government agencies will put out things like request for information or sources sought in the government space. And this is a way for industry to influence how government tries to solve problems. If you are trying to go after government work and you're only responding to an RFP, you're probably behind in your influence that you could have on the type of work. So, you'll see if a procurement seems to be, like, specifically focused on an approach, or a technology, or a framework, it's probably because some companies have come through and said, "I think this would probably solve your problem," and they gave examples. So, that's one way to be more connected to what's going on is to follow those types of requests. Another is to follow the money. My wife is this amazing woman who helped write The Data Act and get it passed through government. And The Data Act is the Data and Transparency Act. And that led to her heading over to treasury and leading up a team that built USAspending.gov. So, there is a website that tracks every dollar, with some exceptions, of the funding that comes out of Congress every year. And what's great is you can track it down to where it's spent, and how it's spent, and things like that. For education purposes, I think that is a really good thing that business and growth people can focus on is try to see and target where competitors or where solutions that you've looked at have gone in the past. It's just a good set of data for you to take a look at. The other piece is if you're creating a solution that is a delivery or a deliverable, like a SaaS solution, in order for something to be utilized in the government, it probably needs to be FedRAMP-approved, which is a process by which security approvals have been given so that government agencies have the green light to utilize your solution. So, there's tons of documentation out there about FedRAMP and the FedRAMP approval process. But that is one of those things that becomes a very big stopping point for product companies that are trying to work in the government. The easiest way to work your way through that is to read up on it a bunch, but also find an agency that was probably willing to sponsor you getting FedRAMP approval. Most companies start working with a government agency, get an exemption for them to utilize your product, and then you get to shape what that FedRAMP process looks like. You start applying for it, and then you have to have some sort of person who's helping shepherd it for you internally in the government and accepting any issues that come along in the process. So, I guess FedRAMP approval is one that's a little complicated but would be worth looking into if you were planning on delivering a product in government. VICTORIA: Right. And does that apply to state governments as well? ROBBIE: So, lots of state-related and city and locality-related governments will actually adopt federal solutions or federal paradigms. So, I think in the state of California, I think FedRAMP as one of the guiding principles for accepting work into the state of California, so it's not consistent. There's not a one-to-one that every state, or every city, or every locality will pull this in. But if you are already approved to be a federal contractor, or a federal business, or a federal product, it's probably going to be easier to make your way into the local spaces also. VICTORIA: Right. And as you said, there's plenty of resources, and tools, and everything to help you go along that journey if that's the group you're going for [laughs]. Mid-Roll Ad: When starting a new project, we understand that you want to make the right choices in technology, features, and investment but that you don't have all year to do extended research. In just a few weeks, thoughtbot's Discovery Sprints deliver a user-centered product journey, a clickable prototype or Proof of Concept, and key market insights from focused user research. We'll help you to identify the primary user flow, decide which framework should be used to bring it to life, and set a firm estimate on future development efforts. Maximize impact and minimize risk with a validated roadmap for your new product. Get started at: tbot.io/sprint. VICTORIA: So, kind of bringing it back to you, like, you're saying you want those partnerships within the government. You want someone advocating for you or for your product or your service. Drawing that back to what you said earlier about community, like, how do you form a community with this group of people who are in the state, or federal government, or civic tech spaces? ROBBIE: Yeah, I think it's an interesting problem because so much of it feels impenetrable from the outside. Most people don't even know where to start. There are organizations out there that are pretty good community connections, an example I would give is ACT-IAC. It is a public-private partnership where people from within the government, experts in their fields, and people in the private industry who are experts in their fields will be together on community boards and engaging in panels. And so, it's a really nice way to start connecting those dots. I have no direct affiliation with ACT-IAC. But if they'd like to give me my own account, that would be great. But it is one of those organizations I've seen be successful for people trying to find their way into a community that is a little harder to find. I think, also, so much of the community engagement happens at conferences and around...so, like, if you're in the healthcare space, this last month, you've had multiple conferences that I think were really great for people to get to know one another, you know, an example is ViVE. It just happened out in LA, which is a little more on the private sector health space, but still, government agencies were there. I know that the Department of Veterans Affairs had people there and were on panels. And then, HIMSS is another conference that takes place, and that just took place down in Miami. And in Miami, HIMSS happened and a whole bunch of other social community events took place. So, I'm close with a thing called the Digital Services Coalition, which is 47 companies that all try to deliver good government based on the Digital Services Playbook that was created by USDS that lives at playbook.cio.gov and the way that they try to accomplish this work. And that organization, while they were in Miami, hosted a happy hour. So, there's a lot of connections that can be made once you start seeing the players and getting to know who's around. So, it's a little bit about trying to find your way to that first event, and I think that will really open up everything for you. Within a week or two, I was at an International Women's Day event at MetroStar, which is a really great company that I've gotten a chance to spend some time with. And then, I was at an event for the Digital Services Coalition talking about open source in government. So, there's a lot of stuff out there for you to be a part of that isn't super cost-prohibitive and also doesn't take a lot once you start to open the door. You know, once you peek around that corner and you find some people, there's a lot more to be done. VICTORIA: Yeah. And you touched on something at the end there that wants me to bring up some of the advantages you can have being a small business, a minority-owned business, or woman-owned business, or veteran-owned business, so thinking about how you can form those connections, especially if you have one of those socio and economic set-asides that you might want to consider if they're looking to work with the government as well. ROBBIE: Yeah. Those socioeconomic set-asides include small businesses, woman-owned small business. I think it's Native and Alaskan 8(a), which is historically underrepresented and service-disabled veteran-owned. So, there are also sub-communities of associations, like there's the Digital WOSB, the digital Women-Owned Small Business alliance that was founded by Jess Morris from Pluribus Digital, and a bunch of other companies in the Digital Services Coalition. I believe she's the president of the Digital WOSB right now. That is a sub-community of women-owned small businesses that are trying to connect and create a community that they can support one another. And that's just one example of the type of connection you can make through those types of socioeconomic set-asides. But once you have those official socioeconomic set-asides, it will allow you to get specific contracts engagements in the government that are not allowed or available for others. So, the government procurement process will have some amount of these specific socioeconomic set-asides that need to be hit. Like, 8% of all procurements need to go to this and 10% of all procurements need to go to this. So, I think the VA is probably one of the most effective at hitting any of the socioeconomic set-asides, specifically related to service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses. So, if you happen to be a person of color and you found a business and you are female presenting, right? You may have 8(a) woman-owned small business. If you also happen to be a veteran and you're service-disabled, all of those things stack. You don't just get to have one of them. And they can be really effective in helping a business get a leg up and starting out and trying to help even the playing field for those communities. VICTORIA: Yeah. What I really appreciated about my experience working with Pluribus Digital, and you, and people who had had that experience in the U.S. Digital Services, that there is this community and desire to help each other out and that you can have access to people who know how to move your product forward, get you the connections that you need to be competitive, and to go after the work. So, I love encouraging people to consider civic tech options. And maybe even say more about just how impactful some of it can be. And what kind of missions are you solving in these spaces? ROBBIE: Yeah, I often try to remind people, especially those who are heading towards or considering civic tech, there are very few places in this world that you can work on something that can impact millions of people. Sure, I was lucky enough. I have tons of privilege. I worked at a lot of wacky places that have given me the access to do the type of work that I think is impactful, but very little has the kind of impact. Like, when I was interviewed by Marina Nitze as, my last interview when I joined USDS, she sent me an email at the end of it and said like, "Everything was great. I look forward to working with you. And remember, every time you commit code into our GitHub, you'll be helping 8 million veterans." And then, she cc'd Todd Park. And Todd was the CTO of the U.S., and he responded back within a minute. Todd is one of the most busy people. It was amazing to me how fast he responded. But he was like, "Lemme tell you, as somebody who can talk on behalf of our president, our country needs you." And those kinds of things they're hard to comprehend. And then, I joined the Digital Service team at the VA. And one of the first things that I got to support was the 10-10EZ. It's the healthcare application for veterans. And before I got there, it was a hosted PDF that we were trying to replace. And the team had been working for months to try to build a new, modern solution. What it was is it was, like, less than six submissions were happening a day because it only worked in Adobe Acrobat, I think it was 6.5 and below, and Internet Explorer 8.5 and below. And if you think about the people that could submit utilizing that limited set of technologies, it was slowly becoming homeless veterans who were using library computers that had not been upgraded. So, there was a diminishing amount of value that it was providing. And then, on top of it, it was sort of lying to veterans. If the version of the Adobe Acrobat was out of date, or wrong, or too new, it would tell them to upgrade their browser. So, like, it was effectively not providing any value over time. We were able to create a new version of that and that was already well on its way when I joined, but we were able to get it out the door. And it was a React frontend using a Node backend to talk to that SOAP API endpoint. Within the first week, we went from 6 submissions a day to 60 submissions a day. It's a joke, right? We were all 10x developers. We were like, "Look at us. We're killing it." But about three years later, Matt Cutts came to a staff meeting of USDS, and he was the second administrator of the USDS. And he brought the cake that had the actual 10-10EZ form on it, and it said, "500,000." And he had checked with the analytics team, and there were over 500,000 submissions of that form, which means there are 500,000 possible veterans that now may or may not have access to healthcare benefits. Those are big problems. All of that was done by changing out one form. It opened up the world. It opened up to a group of veterans that no one else was able to do. They would have had to go into a veteran's office, and they would have had to fill it out in paper. And some veterans just don't have the ability to do that, or don't have an address, or don't have a...so, there are so many reasons why having a digital form that worked for veterans was so important. But this one form that we digitized and we helped make modern has been submitted so many times and has helped so many veterans and their families. And that's just one example. That's just one form that we helped digitize. But now the team, I mean, I'm back in the VA ecosystem. There's, like, 2,500 people in the general channel in the office of the CTO Slack organization. That's amazing. There's people there that are working all day, every day, trying to solve the same problems that I was trying to solve when I got here. And there's so much work being done to help veterans. But that's just one example, right? Like, at USDS, I know that the digital filing for the free version of your tax form, the IRS e-file Direct, just went live. That was something that USDS had been working on for a very long time behind the scenes. And that's going to impact everybody who submits their taxes. These are the kind of problems that you get to work on or the scope of some of the problems if you work in these types of organizations, and that's really powerful. It's the thing that keeps drawing me back. I'm back supporting the VA again through some contracts in my business. But it's funny, like, I was working for another agency. I was over working at DHS on an asylum project. And a friend of mine kept telling people to tell me, "Man, veterans need you. If only there was another one of you to help us over here, that would be great." And eventually, it led to me being like, well, veterans need me. I'm going to go back to the VA. And that was my second tour at USDS at the Department of Veteran Affairs. And now I'm back there again. So, it's a very impactful place to work. There's tons of value you can provide to veterans. And, to me, it's the kind of work that keeps bringing me back. I didn't realize just how much I was a, like, impact junkie until I joined USDS, and then it really came to a head. I cannot believe how much work I've gotten to be a part of that has affected and supported those who get benefits and services from the federal government. VICTORIA: [inaudible 33:47] impact junkie. That's funny. But yeah, no, thank you for sharing that. That's really interesting. Let me see if you could go back in time to when you first started in this journey; if you could give yourself any advice, what would you say? ROBBIE: Yeah, I think I spent so much time being nervous about not having my degree that I was worried it was going to hinder me forever. And it's pretty amazing the career I've been able to thread together, right? Like, you know, I've hit on a few of them already. But, like, I started with a small web hosting company, and then New York State in the Department of Social Services, then New York City in the Human Resources Administration, Sony Music, Zagat Survey, Google, Johnson & Johnson, IDT telecommunications, Phase2 technologies, where I got to work on an awful lot of problems in lots of awesome places like NBA.com, and Major League Soccer, and Bassmaster. And then, the United States Digital Service where I got to work on things supporting the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Homeland Security over at ADA.gov in DOJ. I helped them out. And I worked over at USDA helping get Farmers.gov off the ground. So, everything on my left leg, tattoo-wise, is something that changed my life from my perspective. And I have a Drupal tattoo on the back of my leg. I have a DrupalCon. So, anytime somebody said "Drupal" anywhere near a USDS person, I would magically appear because they would just be like, "Oh, Robbie has that Drupal tattoo." So, I got to work on a lot of dot govs that eventually landed or were being built in Drupal. So, I got to support a lot of work. And it meant that I got to, like, float around in government and do a lot of things that others didn't get to do. When CISA stood up, which is the office of security inside of DHS, it's one of the newest sub-communities or subcomponents, they built DHS SchoolSafety.gov, which is a cross-MOU'd site. And I got to sit in and help at the beginning of that because of my Drupal background. But it was really fun to be the person who helped them work with the vendors and make sure that they understood what they were trying to accomplish and be a sort of voice of reason in the room. So, I did all of that work, and then after that, I went and worked at Pluribus Digital, where I got a chance to work side by side with you. And then, that led to other things, like, I was able to apply and become the director of Digital Services and software engineering for my local county. So, I worked for Prince William County, where I bought a house during the pandemic. And then, after that contract ended, I had already started my own business. So, that's led to me having multiple individual contracts with companies and so many people. I've gotten to work on so many different things. And I feel very lucky. If I could go back and tell myself one thing, it's just, take a breath. Everything's going to be okay. And focus on the things that matter. Focus on the things that are going to help you. Focus on community. Focus on delivering value. Everything else will work itself out. You know, I joke all the time that I'm really good at providing impact. If you can measure my life in impact and value, I would be a very rich man. If you can measure it in money, I'm doing all right, but I'm never going to be yacht Robbie, you know, but I'm going to do okay. VICTORIA: Oh my god, yacht Robbie. That's great. So, just to recap, everything's going to be okay. You never know where it's going to take you. And don't be limited by the things that you think, you know, make you not enough. Like, there's a lot of things that you can do out there. I really like that advice. ROBBIE: And I think one last piece is, like, community matters, if you are a part of communities and you do it genuinely, how much that will impact your career. I gave a talk from Drupal NYC to the White House and beyond. And I talked through my entire resume and how everything changed when I started doing community engagement. When I went to the Drupal community in New York City and how that led to Sony, and that led to Zagat, which led to me getting acquired by Google, like, these things all cascaded. And then, when I moved to the DMV, I was able to join here and continue supporting communities, which allowed me to bring people into the local civic tech community from the local DC tech community. So, so many of the best USDS engineers, and designers, and product people I was able to help influence to come to government were people I met in the community or the communities I helped support. You know, I was an early revivalist of Alexandria Code and Coffee. It was a community that was started and then wavered. And then, Sean McBeth reached out to the community and said, "Do we want to help and support getting it off the ground again?" And I immediately said, "Yes." And then, that led to my friends at BLACK CODE COLLECTIVE wanting to create a community where they could feel safe and connected and create a community of their own. And then DC Code & Coffee started. And from there, Baltimore Code & Coffee kicked off. And it's just really nice that, like, it doesn't matter where I've been. All these things keep coming back to be a part of community and help support others. And you will be surprised at how much you get back in return. I wouldn't be the person I am today in my community. I wouldn't have my career if it wasn't for the people who started and helped shepherd me when I was starting out. And I feel like I've been trying to do the same for people for a really long time. VICTORIA: I love that. That's what I say, too, when people ask me for advice on careers and how to grow. And my biggest piece is always to go out and meet people. And go to your community, like, look and see what's happening. Like, find people you like hanging out with and learning from. And just that should be the majority of your time probably if you're trying to figure out where to go with your career or even just, like, expand as a person sometimes [laughs]. Robbie, I was going to ask; you mentioned that you had bought a house in Virginia. One of my other warmup questions was going to be, what's your favorite thing to put on the grill? ROBBIE: My house in Virginia definitely gets a lot of use, especially in the spring and the fall. I'm a big fan of team no extreme when it comes to temperature. But during those time periods, my grill is often fired up. My favorite is probably to make skirt steak on the grill. I'm a huge fan of tacos, especially made out of skirt steak. I'm in all day. That's one of my favorites. I also love to smoke. I have a smoker because I'm a caricature-esque suburban dude. I'm going to live into all of the possible things I could have. But I've had a smoker for a long time, and I love making sort of poor man's burnt ends. It's one of my favorite things to make. But you got to have some time. That's the kind of thing that takes, you know, 14 hours or 16 hours, but it's really fun to take advantage of it. A quick thing I love to make is actually smoked salmon. It takes longer to brine it than it usually does to smoke it. But it is one of the nicest things I've made on my smoker, you know, fresh pesto on a piece of salmon is pretty awesome, or everything bagel. Everything with the bagel seasoning is a pretty fun way to smoke some salmon. VICTORIA: Wow, that sounds so good. I'm going to have to stop in next time I'm in Virginia and get some [laughs] and hang out. Do you have any questions for me? ROBBIE: I'm excited to see where you've gone and how you've gotten here. I think this is such a cool job for you. Knowing who you are as a person and seeing you land in a company like this is really exciting. And I think you getting to be a part of this podcast, which we were joking about earlier, is I've been listening to probably since it started. I've been a big fan for a long time. So, it's cool to be here on this podcast. But it's also cool that my friend is a part of this and gets to be a part of this legacy. I'm really excited to see where you go over time. I know my career has been changing, right? I worked in government. Before that, I did all kinds of other stuff. Nowadays I have my own business where I often joke I have sort of, like, three things I offer, which is, like, consigliere services. Wouldn't it be nice to have a Robbie on your executive team without having to pay them an executive salary? You know, another one is like, you know, strategy and mentoring, but these are all things I know you do also, which I think is cool. But I've been working on contracts where I support companies trying to figure out how they modernize, or how their CTO can be more hands-off keyboard, or how their new director of business development can be more of a technical leader and taking on their first direct reports. So, I just enjoy all those aspects, and I just think it's something that I've watched you do in the company where we worked together. And it's always fun to see what you're working on and getting a chance to catch up with you. I feel like you're one of those people that does a really great job of staying connected. Every once in a while, I'll get a random text message like, "Hey, how you doing?" It always makes me smile. I'm like, Victoria is a really good connector, and I feel like I am, but you're even better at it on the being proactive side. That's how this all came about, right? We caught up, and you were like, "Why don't you come on the podcast?" So, that's really exciting. VICTORIA: Well, thank you, Robbie. Yeah, I think that's one of the great things about community is you meet people. You're like, "Oh, you're really cool. And you're doing cool stuff all the time. Like, how can I support you in your journey [laughs]? Like, what's up?" Yeah, for me, it was hard to actually leave DC. I didn't, you know, really think about the impact of leaving behind my tech community, like, that network of people. It was pretty emotional for me, actually, especially when we finally, like, stopped doing the digital version [laughs]. And I, like, kind of gave up managing it from California, which was kind of funny anyways [laughs]. Yeah, so no, I'm grateful that we stayed in touch and that you made time to be here with us today. Is there anything else that you would like to promote? ROBBIE: You know, just to remind you, you've done a great job of transitioning into where you are today, but anybody can do that, right? Like, before I moved to the DC area, I was in New York, and I was helping to organize JavaScript events. And I started looking at the DC area before I moved down here. And I found the DC Tech Community. And I found the Node School DC GitHub organization and reached out to the person who had ownership of it and said I wanted to help and support. I looked at this the other day. I think I moved on May 8th, and then, like, May 11th, when I walked in the door, somebody was like, "Are you new?" And I was like, "Yeah, I just moved here." And they were like, "Oh, from where?" And I was like, "New York." And they were like, "Are you that guy who's been bugging Josh about running Node school events?" I was like, "Yeah." And like, they were planning an unconference at the end of the month. And they were like, "Would you like to run a Node school at that unconference?" Like, 27 days later. So, it was amazing that, like, I immediately, like, fell from the New York Community where I was super connected, but I went out of my way to try to, like, see what the community looked like before I got there. And I was lucky enough to find the right people, and immediately I joked...I think I wrote a blog post that said like, "I found my new friends. By, like, going from one community to another, gave a person who was in his 40s a chance to meet new people very quickly." And it was pretty amazing, and I felt very lucky. But I did spend a little bit of energy and capital to try to figure it out because I knew it was going to be important to me. So, I think you've done a really good job. You've helped launch and relaunch things that were going on in San Diego and becoming a part of this connection to more people. I think you and I have a very similar spirit, which is like, let's find a way to connect with humans, and we do it pretty effectively. VICTORIA: Well, thank you. That really boosts my confidence, Robbie [laughs]. Sometimes, you show up to an event you've never been to before by yourself, and it's like a deer in headlights kind of moment. Like, oh God, what have I done [laughs]? ROBBIE: Oh, and the last thing I need to mention is I also have a podcast. I have my podcast about film. It's called Geek on Film. I used to record it with my friend, Jon. He's a little busy right now. But I used to pitch it as a conversation show about the current films that were going on. Now, it's one lone geek's ramblings about what he just saw. It's a great podcast for me because it gives me an opportunity to think a little more critically about film, which is one of the things that I probably have almost enough credits to get a minor in. But I absolutely love cinema and film in general. And it's given me an opportunity to connect with a lot more people about this subject and also to scratch the itch of me being able to create something around a community and around a thing I really love. VICTORIA: That's super cool. Yeah. You're top of mind because I also like films. I'm like, what's Robbie up to? Like, what's the recommendations, you know [laughs]? Do you have a top film recommendation from the Oscars? Is that too big of a question? ROBBIE: So, the one I will say that didn't get enough spotlight shined on it was Nimona. So, I'm a huge fan of the Spider-Man movies. I think Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse and Across the Spider-Verse are both masterpieces. But Nimona is an animated film that was picked up by Netflix, and it is amazing. I don't know that I laughed or cried or was more moved by a film last year. And I don't know that it gets enough credit for what it was. But it did get nominated for best-animated film, but I don't know that enough people paid attention to it. Like it may have gotten lost in the algorithm. So, if you get a chance, check out Nimona. It's one of those beautiful, little gems that, if you travel down its story, there's all these twists and turns. It was based on a webcomic that became a graphic novel. One of the production companies picked it up, and it wasn't going to see the light of day. And then, Netflix bought its distribution rights. There's going to be a great documentary someday about, like, Inside Nimona. But I think the movie itself is really charming and moving, and I was really impressed with it. So, that was the one that got me, like, just before the Oscars this year, where I was like, this is the little animated movie that could, in my opinion. It's so charming. VICTORIA: I will definitely have to check that out. Thank you for giving us that recommendation. ROBBIE: Totally. VICTORIA: Final question. I just wanted to see if you had anything to share about being an advisory board member for Gray and for Hutch Studio. Could you tell us a little bit more about that? ROBBIE: Yeah. So, Gray Digital was founded by a friend of mine. We met through United States Digital Service. And his organization...I had been supporting him for a while and just being behind the scenes, talking to him and talking through business-related issues. And it was really nice. He offered to make me an official advisory board member. It was a great acknowledgment, and I really felt moved. There's some great people that are supporting him and have supported him. They've done really great work. Gray is out there delivering digital services in this space. And I think I was really lucky to be a part of it and to support my friend, Randall. Hutch is different. Hutch is an organization that's kind of like if you think about it, it almost is a way to support entrepreneurs of color who are trying to make their way into the digital service delivery space. Being an advisory board member there has been really interesting because it's shaping how Hutch provides services and what their approach is to how to support these companies. But over the last year, I've convinced the person who's running it, Stephanie, with a couple of other people, to open the door up or crack the door so we could talk directly and support the individual companies. So, it's been really great to be a Hutch advisory member to help shape how Hutch is approaching things. But I've also been a part of, like, many interview processes. I've reviewed a lot of, like, [inaudible 48:01] who want to join the organization. And I've also created personal relationships with many of the people who are part of Hutch. And, you know, like, you know me personally, so you know I run a Day of the Dead party. We'll just party at my house every year. I have a huge amount of affection for Mexican culture and, in general, the approach of how to remember people who are a part of your life. So, this is, like, the perfect way for me to bring people together at my house is to say, like, "Hey, my dad was awesome. What about your family? Who are your people?" What's really nice is that has given me an opportunity to host people at my house. And I've had Hutch company owners at my house the last couple of years and the person who runs Hutch. So, it's a really great community that I look at that is trying to shape the next emergent companies that are helping deliver digital services across the government. And it's really fun to be early on in their career and help them grow. Again, it seems silly, but it's the thing I care a lot about. How do I connect with people and provide the most value that I can? And this is a way I can provide that value to companies that may also go off and provide that value. It's a little bit of an amplifier. So, I'm a huge fan of what we've been able to accomplish and being a part of it in any way, shape, or form. VICTORIA: Well, I think that's a really beautiful way to wrap it up. ROBBIE: Really glad to catch up with you and be a part of this amazing podcast. VICTORIA: Yeah, so much fun. Thank you again so much. It was great to be here with you today. You can subscribe to the show and find notes along with a complete transcript for this episode at giantrobots.fm. If you have questions or comments, email us at hosts@giantrobots.fm. You can find me on thoughtbotsocial@vguido. This podcast is brought to you by thoughtbot and produced and edited by Mandy Moore. Thanks for listening. See you next time. AD: Did you know thoughtbot has a referral program? If you introduce us to someone looking for a design or development partner, we will compensate you if they decide to work with us. More info on our website at: tbot.io/referral. Or you can email us at: referrals@thoughtbot.com with any questions.

Episode 69 of The New Age Sage Podcast with Brooke Siem.Brooke Siem is a writer, speaker, and advocate specializing in the safe de-prescribing of psychiatric drugs, with her notable work including the memoir "MAY CAUSE SIDE EFFECTS" and contributions to various major publications.She also runs the “Happiness is a Skill” newsletter, focusing on mental health education and recovery. In addition to her mental health advocacy, Brooke is an accomplished chef with over fifteen years in the industry.She co-founded Prohibition Bakery, was recognized in Zagat's 30 Under 30, and won on Food Network's "Chopped."————0:40 Intro1:30 I Was Put on Antidepressants When I Was a Teen08:30 How I Went From Medicated to Suicidal16:58 What Happened to My Brain During Antidepressant Withdrawal18:36 How I Learned to Stop Taking Antidepressants23:00 The Suicidal Ideation That Hurt My Soul27:25 How Many People Are on Psychotropic Drugs?31:26 Antidepressants on Kids38:08 How to Heal Yourself From Depression39:11 Are People Benefiting From Taking Antidepressants?41:36 The placebo Effect on Antidepressants47:28 The System of Psychiatry in the US56:19 Brain-scans ————Please like, comment, and subscribe if anything resonates with you. Thank you for watching!Lucas Salame: www.instagram.com/lucas__salame/ | https://www.new-age-sage.comBrook Siem: https://www.instagram.com/brookesiem/ | https://www.brookesiem.com/

Betsy Andrews is a James Beard awarded writer & poet. Betsy has more than two decades of experience writing about food, drink, travel, and the environment for publications including Travel & Leisure, Condé Nast Traveler, the Wall Street Journal, Food & Wine, SevenFifty Daily, and VinePair. She is a former senior editor for Zagat and the former executive editor for Saveur. Betsy is also a poet, and her books include New Jersey, The Bottom, and Crowded.To learn more about Betsy, visit https://betsyandrews.contently.com. To learn more about the Chumash marine preserve Betsy mentions in this episode, visit chumashsanctuary.org.

Author Rossi talks about her new memoir “The Punk Rock Queen of the Jews” with  Emmy Winner Charlotte Robinson host of OUTTAKE VOICES™. “The Punk Rock Queen of the Jews” is published by She Writes Press and filled with fabulous rich characters, hilarious dialogue taking the reader on a ride into a secretive oppressive Jewish Orthodox world and beyond to be released on April 23rd. Rossi grew up in New Jersey where she was expected to just marry a nice Jewish boy and to be a good kosher Jewish girl but by the age of 16 the rebellious Rossi was more interested in exploring the punk rock scene of the 80's and her sexuality. Then her adventure seeking days came to a screeching halt when her parents kidnapped her and dumped her with a Hasidic rabbi known for reforming wayward Jewish girls in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. Rossi was forced to relinquish her pink hair and Sex Pistols T-shirt for maxi skirts and long-sleeved blouses in this repressive, misogynistic culture straight out of the nineteenth century where she endured not only bone-crushing boredom but also outright abuse and violence. Fortunately Rossi knew there was a better future for her as she broke free from her oppressors and made her way to NYC where she thrived. Beginning as a bartender the opportunity arose in the catering industry as she talked her way into any cooking job she could get. Rossi a self-taught chef and self-made entrepreneur ended up launching The Raging Skillet one of the most sought-after catering companies in NYC that Zagat dubbed as “the wildest thing this side of the Mason-Dixon Line”. We talked to Rossi about her inspiration for writing “The Punk Rock Queen of the Jews” and her spin on our LGBTQ issues.  Rossi is the catering director, owner and executive chef of The Raging Skillet for over three decades. She has earned a reputation as the go-to company for out-of-the-box catering and weddings. The Raging Skillet has been voted one of New York's Top Five Wedding Caterers by The Knot from 2009 through 2023. Her first memoir, “The Raging Skillet: The True Life Story of Chef Rossi” was published by The Feminist Press in 2015 and turned into a stage production “Raging Skillet” by playwright Jacques Lamarre that toured nationally. Currently Rossi has written two full-length plays, a number of one-act comedies, a one-woman stage adaptation of Queen of the Jews and numerous screenplays.        For More Info… LISTEN: 600+ LGBTQ Chats @OUTTAKE VOICES

Creating a fine dining level experience in a coffee shop is no easy task. I requires discipline, focus, and a view of coffee that assumes that it is not just a beverage but that it is truly a culinary art. This is the disposition and mission of of today's Founder Friday guest, John Piquet of Caffe d'bolla in Salt Lake City, UT. For nearly two decades, John Piquet has crafted his expertise as a coffee professional, roaster and siphon brewing specialist. As owner and operator, caffe d'bolla has won 7X Best of State, 3X Best of the Beehive, Zagat's Top 50 coffee shops in the United States. Les Roka captures John's role in a December 2022 feature article at Gastronomicslc.com. "John Piquet's journey as Salt Lake City's first artisan roaster and siphon coffee bar continues, always fine-tuning the matrix for producing an exceptional cup of coffee." John's expertise has been recognized internationally by both peers and culinary professionals and has been featured in The New York Times, Salt Lake Tribune, as well as Fox13, KSL, KUTV's Taste Utah, ChefsFeed, Sunset Magazine, Miles Away Travel Blog, and the aptly named, “100 Things to Do in Salt Lake City Before You Die.” In our conversation we discuss how John came into the world of coffee service, cafe operation, and roasting. We also explore his philosophy and discipline in focus as a one-man operator striving for the sublime in espresso, siphon coffee, and roasting.  I find John's consistent pursuits in coffee inspiring and it is obvious those who have experienced Caffe d'bolla agree.  Enjoy! Links: https://shop.caffedbolla.com/ https://www.instagram.com/caffedbolla/   Related Episodes: 401 : Founder Friday! w/ Jack Benchakul of Endorffiene in Los Angeles 293 : Thoughts on Defining Professionalism 274 : Crafting Specialty Drinks in your Shop w/ Matt Foster” 430 : Embracing “Unreasonable Hospitality” w/ Will Guidara | Thank You NYC + The Welcome Conference 447: Understanding the Business of Coffee w/ Maxwell Colonna-Dashwood     Want to run an amazing coffee shop? Hire Keys to the Shop Consulting to work with you 1:1 to transform your coffee shop operations, quality, and people. Custom consulting for your unique business. Schedule a free discovery call now! https://calendly.com/chrisdeferio/30min   Thank you to our amazing sponsors! Get the best brewer and tool for batch espresso, iced lattes, and 8 minute cold brew! www.groundcontrol.coffee   The world loves plant based beverages and baristas love the Barista Series! www.pacificfoodservice.com

Since reopening with much fanfare in 2015, New Orleans' St. Roch Market has experienced ups and downs, but the city's second oldest city market is still standing. Since 2015, St. Roch has functioned as a culinary incubator for food professional wannabes – and what a bunch of delicious incubation is happening there now! On this week's show, we speak with the market's new director, longtime vendor Kevin Pedeaux, and learn why that bustling spot on St. Claude is the place to be these days. We then go stall by stall to meet the vendors – the St. Roch stars who are cooking up some of the most diverse offerings to be found under one single roof today. Next, we hear from one of St. Roch Market's biggest success stories. Chef Charly Pierre began creating delicious Haitian dishes based on the traditional street foods that abound in his ancestral homeland. Charly's career has since skyrocketed. He's been featured on a number of national cooking competition shows, and garnered accolades from the likes of Zagat, Eater, and the James Beard Foundation. These days, Charly can be found in the kitchen of his own Basin Street restaurant, Fritai. For more of all things Louisiana Eats, be sure to visit us at PoppyTooker.com.

Since reopening with much fanfare in 2015, New Orleans' St. Roch Market has experienced ups and downs, but the city's second oldest city market is still standing. Since 2015, St. Roch has functioned as a culinary incubator for food professional wannabes – and what a bunch of delicious incubation is happening there now! On this week's show, we speak with the market's new director, longtime vendor Kevin Pedeaux, and learn why that bustling spot on St. Claude is the place to be these days. We then go stall by stall to meet the vendors – the St. Roch stars who are cooking up some of the most diverse offerings to be found under one single roof today. Next, we hear from one of St. Roch Market's biggest success stories. Chef Charly Pierre began creating delicious Haitian dishes based on the traditional street foods that abound in his ancestral homeland. Charly's career has since skyrocketed. He's been featured on a number of national cooking competition shows, and garnered accolades from the likes of Zagat, Eater, and the James Beard Foundation. These days, Charly can be found in the kitchen of his own Basin Street restaurant, Fritai. For more of all things Louisiana Eats, be sure to visit us at PoppyTooker.com.

This episode is brought to you by Momentous and AquaTru. We know that olive oil has many benefits, including being a heart-healthy fat rich in antioxidants and polyphenols. But with numerous olive oil bottles on the market, it's hard to know which one to choose, especially considering that olive oil is one of the top three adulterated foods. Today's guest is here to delve deep into olive oil and educate us on how to incorporate this oil into our healthy diets. Today, on the Dhru Purohit Show, Dhru sits down with Nicholas Coleman, an international expert on olive oil. Nicholas shares olive oil's history and incredible benefits, guiding us through selecting high-quality oil. He also explains the differences between fraudulent labeling, adulterated oil, and how to cook with olive oil appropriately.Nicholas Coleman is an international olive oil expert, educator, speaker, and co-founder of Grove and Vine, a bespoke full-service olive oil procurement center. He has taught oil courses for The International Culinary Center, Zagat's Master Class, Bon Appetit, The Institute of Culinary Education, Cornell, Yale, NYU, and Columbia University, Platinum Country Clubs, and to critically acclaimed chefs and sommeliers nationwide. He has been a judge at The New York International Olive Oil Competition and the Sol D'Oro Southern Hemisphere Competition. In this episode, Dhru and Nicholas dive into (audio version / Apple Subscriber version):How Italians and Greeks use olive oil (2:17 / 2:17)The health benefits of olive oil (3:15 / 3:15) The history of olive oil (11:35 / 9:33)Fraudulent labeling versus adulterated olive oil (18:12 / 16:08)Cutting olive oil with seed oils (22:18 / 20:16)How olive oil became popular in America (27:22 / 25:20)Should you cook with olive oil (38:12 / 34:58)Smoke point and denaturing oil (42:13 / 38:35)High-quality oils, levels of polyphenols, and filtering (43:52 / 40:15)Lack of regulation in the olive oil industry (55:29 / 51:56)What to look for in a quality olive oil (1:01:07 / 57:29) Nicholas' story and Grove and Vine (1:17:50 / 1:14:12)Also mentioned in this episode:Try This: How to Spot Fake Olive OilTry This: Upgrade Your Honey www.groveandvine.com discount code DP24 to receive $20 off either a 375ml or 1500 ml extra virgin olive oil membershipFor more on Nicholas, follow him on Instagram and Twitter. Optimize your Omega-3 levels by choosing a quality fish oil made by and used by the best. Go to livemomentous.com and enter promo code DHRU to get 20% off any order. AquaTru is a countertop reverse osmosis purifier with a four-stage filtration system that removes 15x more contaminants than the bestselling water filters out there. Go to dhrupurohit.com/filter/ and get $100 off when you try AquaTru for yourself. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

From our interview vault:  Derek Champagne's discussion with Eric Partaker.  Eric has been "CEO of the Year", Top 30 Entrepreneur, and High Performance Expert. He helps ambitious entrepreneurs, leaders, and coaches reach the top of their game.Eric shares his personal story of success in business and then having a near heart attack while flying back to London. This is a must listen to episode for learning how to be successful in life AND business!Eric has been named one of the "Top 30 Entrepreneurs in the UK", 35 and under, by Startups Magazine, and among "Britain's 27 Most Disruptive Entrepreneurs" by The Telegraph. His work has featured on over 7 major TV stations, as well as in the Wall Street Journal and The Economist. He has appeared as a guest judge with Lord Alan Sugar on the The Apprentice and cooked together with Tana Ramsay on UKTV's Market Kitchen.Eric has worked with and led high-performing teams at McKinsey & Company, Skype, and Chilango. He is one of 300 people worldwide certified as a High Performance Coach, by the High Performance Institute. Over the last 20 years he has studied and modeled the traits and habits of the world's most successful people, in order to help his teams and clients break through their barriers and reach their highest potential, in both their work and life.As co-founder and CEO of Chilango, Eric oversees overall company strategy, operations, and marketing as well as product, brand, and culture development. Chilango has been voted "London's Best Burritos" by Zagat, Harden's, Time Out, and The Evening Standard. It has been described by Elite Business Magazine as "arguably the most exciting fast food company of the decade" and profiled as one of the "Best Chain Restaurants Around the World" by Conde Naste Traveler. Chilango is also the most successfully crowdfunded restaurant chain in the world.Prior to Chilango Eric helped build Skype's multi-billion dollar success story, served as the Managing Director of a Norwegian non-profit focused on stimulating entrepreneurship, and started his career as a consultant with McKinsey & Company.Learn more at: www.ericpartaker.com

This weeks guest is Pamela Wiznitzer who joins us from New York City. Since 2006, Pamela has been working throughout NYC and globally to bring cocktail culture to life. Pamela was nominated as one of the top 10 bartenders for the 2014, 2015 and 2016 "American Bartender of the Year" award at Tales of the Cocktail and was named the "2014 Bartender of the Year" by the Village Voice. Additionally, Pamela was named as one of Food & Wine Magazine's top 10 Rising Star Mixologists, an inductees to the "Dames Hall of Fame" in 2015 and one of Wine Enthusiast Magazine's "40 Under 40" (now "Future 40") in 2015. Pamela has a Master's degree in Food Studies, with a concentration on spirits and alcohol from NYU's Steinhardt School, and is also a graduate of Barnard College and the Jewish Theological Seminary. And she has been featured in multiple publications including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Zagat, Glamour, Bloomberg, The Jewish Food Society, and Esquire, as well as recurring media appearances on the the Food Network, Vh1, and NBC. You can follow her recipes and cocktail inspiration on instagram at @pamwiz Links @pamwiz @sugarrunbar @babylonsistersbar @the_industry_podcast email us:  info@theindustrypodcast.club Podcast Artwork by Zak Hannah zakhannah.co

Are you looking to hit the ground running with powerful ground marketing strategies? Our ground marketing course offers a range of actionable steps utilizing local restaurants, gyms, corporate locations, and small businesses in your area! With step-by-step scripts, foolproof plans, and real-time video demonstrations, you'll master the art of effectively engaging with your local community to attract new patients effortlessly. Click this link to join the community! https://thedentalmarketer.lpages.co/the-ground-marketing-course-open-enrollment/‍‍Guest: Michael SonickBusiness Name: Michael SonickCheck out Michael's Media:Website: https://www.michaelsonick.com/Michael's Book - Treating People Not Patients: https://a.co/d/gsHKkx3Email: mike@sonickdmd.comPhone: 203-209-7029Free Course Preview: https://www.michaelsonick.com/freepreview‍‍Other Mentions and Links:Dennis tarnowChristian CoachmanPeter DiamandisBroadway TheaterMonopolyUnreasonable Hospitality - Will GuidaraDanny Meyer Shake ShackEleven Madison ParkGramercy TavernUnion Square CafeZagat ModelAdam GrantThe Wizard of OzBlink - Malcolm GladwellHarvard UniversityInvisalignDavid GarberFrank Spear‍Host: Michael Arias‍Website: The Dental Marketer Join my newsletter: https://thedentalmarketer.lpages.co/newsletter/‍Join this podcast's Facebook Group: The Dental Marketer Society‍‍My Key Takeaways:How can you really wow patients, going above and beyond their expectations?What are the keys to hiring, including personality, effective roles, and must-haves?What is the first, and most important step to bringing on effective team members?The 5 core values of Dr. Sonick's practice, and how he implements them.Human to human interaction is irreplaceable when it comes to connecting with patients.The secret sauce Dr. Sonick takes from the restaurant industry to apply to his practice.‍Please don't forget to share with us on Instagram when you are listening to the podcast AND if you are really wanting to show us love, then please leave a 5 star review on iTunes! [Click here to leave a review on iTunes]‍p.s. Some links are affiliate links, which means that if you choose to make a purchase, I will earn a commission. This commission comes at no additional cost to you. Please understand that we have experience with these products/ company, and I recommend them because they are helpful and useful, not because of the small commissions we make if you decide to buy something. Please do not spend any money unless you feel you need them or that they will help you with your goals.‍Episode Transcript (Auto-Generated - Please Excuse Errors)Michael Arias: all right, it's time to talk with our featured guest, Dr. Michael Sonic. Michael, how's it going? Michael Sonick: It's going great. Thank you for having me on the show, Michael. Michael Arias: Yeah, definitely. Definitely. I appreciate you coming on. If you don't mind me asking right now, tell us a little bit about your past, your present.How did you get to where you are today? Michael Sonick: Well, I'm a perinatalist. I've been private practice since 1985 and I graduated dental school in 1979. So I'm probably than most of your audience. And I've had a true passion for, you know, working with my hands and also customer service. And so over the course of my 35, 40 years of building a practice, One of the things that resonated with me was really developing great connections with my patients.And my background was in the, not only the furniture business and woodworking, I was a lifeguard, but I also played cocktail piano. I did a lot of work in the restaurant business. So I waited on tables. I was a bartender. I was a busboy. Um, I even was a chef in the kitchen. So in college, every, every summer I would have a job, you know, when I wasn't lifeguarding, I moved over to hospitality. And that was a lot of fun. I met a lot of people and I realized the importance of connecting with, you know, my customers who are people in the restaurant. So for years, I always thought about the importance of really serving, people and we do that as dentists and also serving people in the restaurant business.So there were a lot of parallels between the restaurant business and my office. So when I first opened up my practice, I opened up in 1985 and for whatever reason I was sort of entrepreneurial. I didn't know it at the time, but I just decided I just wanted to work for myself. And, you know, today we have a lot of different choices.You can work for somebody else. You can work for a large corporation. You can open up your own practice. I still think there's a real strong need for people to be in their own practices and to connect with other human beings. But you're going to connect with other human beings, even if you're in a large corporation, or if you're working for somebody.That is critical. So in dental school. I did okay, you know, I liked it, but when I became a periodontist, you know, I was a general dentist for a few years, and then I went to my residency program, became a periodontist, and then I really just really enjoyed it, and I'd pull all nighters, and even though there weren't any grades, and it was a pass fail, I just really, really got into it, and I spent a lot of time the first 15 20 years of my, my, my career.Building my craft. And I think that's essential. You have to be really good at what you do. Most patients don't really know if you graduated first or last, or if you did a good crown prep or a bad ground prep, or you're good at dentures or extracting teeth, but what do they know? They know that you didn't hurt them.They know what your fees are and they know what the experience was like. Unless it's a front tooth, they're really not going to understand, the quality of your work. So. I still think it's real important to do great quality work, because it puts you in a niche, a top. So that's what I did. My first part of my career, I just studied, and I went to a lot of courses, and I spent a lot of time teaching, and I've been teaching for 40 years clinically.But I also realize it's real important to be able to connect with the people that you serve. And you have to do it by building a strong team. And that's by hiring the right people. And that's a whole different, you know, that's a whole different thing. How do you hire, how do you get the right people?How do you develop a culture? So there's a number of things that I believe you have to do to be a really successful dentist. One, you have to be great at your craft. Two, you have to have a nice looking office. It has to be clean. It has to be neat. You have to be clean and neat. And three, I can't say it's most importantly, but it's really important.And it's something that's not taught in dental schools. You have to have the ability to be able to give great superior customer service. Now, when I say customer service, it's not the stuff that's expected. It's the stuff that's not expected. It's the unexpected. It's going above and beyond. And, you know, Mike, I'm sure you remember those four or five great meals you had in restaurants or somewhere it could have been in someone's house.And you, if I asked you what was a great meal, you probably could think like, well, it's this meal. And what happened during that meal was the food was good, but there's also something very special that meal. Maybe it was the type of wine they opened. Maybe it was the way they. Gave you special attention.Maybe you didn't tell them that it was, you know, your friend's birthday. And then they came over with it and they did an over the top, you know, thing for them. Those are the things that, that we really remember. And I try to do that for my patients on every visit. We called it in our office, giving them the wow experience.Michael Arias: I really like how you pointed out these four things. You got to be great at your craft, nice looking office, ability to give great customer service. And I remember not that long ago, I read this book called Unreasonable Hospitality.And it provides... By William Godera. Michael Sonick: Yes, uh huh. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a classic. Michael Arias: Love that book. And I like how he said, service is black and white, but hospitality is color. Right. And so it is what you said, like you got to go above and beyond. So how do we do that in a practice? Because I know you're kind of a master at this.You wrote a book called Treating People, Not Patients. And so you dive deeper into this topic on just hospitality or what is that about? Michael Sonick: Yeah, that's a good question. Well, Will Guderia's mentor was Danny Meyer. I don't know if you know who that is. Danny Meyer. People know Danny Meyer because of Shake Shack, but Will Guderia, his restaurant, 11 Madison Park, was top restaurant in the world one year, voted.it's one of the best restaurants in Manhattan. Well, that was Danny restaurant, and Will Guderia bought that restaurant from him. Danny Meyer started Gramercy Tavern. And he started a union square cafe and he hunted 11 Madison park. He has about 50 restaurants in Manhattan, but he got put on the map financially because he started Shake Shack.And that's a, that's a whole nother story. that's what made him very wealthy, but he, he brought what we call hospitality to the restaurants. And we'll get there ran with that because, you know, he was a mentee of Danny Meyer and took it to the top. And in his book, he talks about the things that they do.They actually have somebody on staff there that's just there. I think it calls the director of customer experiences. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Great experiences there, buddy. He gives them those, those unique experiences. And in his book, he talks about. these like four people there. I think they were from Iowa and it was their last meal in Manhattan.And they're about to go back to Iowa. And he goes, what restaurants were you here? And I talked about it and, you know, a bunch of food. He used to talk about the same thing. And he probably a foodie if he read that book he says, well, what was your best experience? They go, we had a lot of good ones.He goes, anything you missed? He goes, yes. We never had a New York city hot dog. And so we'll get the era who's, you know, owns the restaurant. He goes outside in his suit in the middle of the day and he gets a couple of hot dogs in the street. brings to the kitchen and he asked them to cut them up.He says to serve and they play them with mustard and relish and, you know, some sauerkraut. And it comes out, of course, the chef didn't want to do that, you know, being a, chef in a, in a top restaurant, but he wanted to do it to give them that experience. Now, whatever kind of food they had, I think they had duck that night.It didn't really matter. They're going to be talking about the hot dog and the hot dog has nothing about food. So how do you do that? And in my book, I have 10 different chapters. I also have a series of videos that you can purchase that are specifically there to train the staff and there are different techniques you need.You need to be able be nice. It's basically four words, be nice to people. And when you have somebody in your chair. Or in your office, or in your waiting room, you know, are you nice to them? And how does your practice look to them? So the model of my practice is actually based on the restaurants, but it's called the Zagat model.Now, Zagat was a restaurant review book that was published by Tim and Nina Zagat out of Yale. It's no longer on the market. It was bought by Google, but they rated restaurants based upon three things, food, service, and decor. So I'm going to make an assumption that every dentist out there knows what they need to do to do good dentistry.So we don't serve food, we serve dentistry. But we still have to have good decor, and we still have to have good service in our practice. So how do you do the decor? Well, there's a whole series of checklists that we have, and we have a checklist for everything that we do in our practice. We have a checklist for the human being in our practice.Is your hair combed? Are you clean? Is your uniform pressed? Do you have a nice smile? Are your fingernails clean? you wear nice shoes? We have something in our office called the white sneakers. So in our practice, everybody wears white sneakers, and they're clean, and I buy them for everybody. And if they're not clean, they go out and buy a new pair, and they're had permission to do that.So when people join our practice, we tell them what our team is about, what our culture is about. And as one of one of the most important things in the dental practice is to be neat and clean because people are afraid of a couple of things in the office. They're afraid of pain. They're afraid of how much it's going to cost.afraid of the unknown, but they're also afraid of diseases and germs and cleanliness over the top clean office. You're going to stand out. Very few offices are like that. So we do a check and we go through it. We go through everything in the office and I do sort of, I'm sort of very picky when it comes to cleanliness and having everything run very smoothly.So I'll do little things like I'll unscrew a light bulb. I'll see how long it's going to take for somebody to realize that the light bulb is unscrewed. And I say, hey, how come nobody saw that light go? We used to have telephones with the cords that used to be raveled. I used to, if I saw a raveled phone cord, I said unravel it.And then when I unravel it, I'd unplug the phone and take the cord out. So people would answer the phone and there'd be nothing there because the cord would be unraveled. They go, Oh, Dr. Sonic was there doing that again. Sometimes I'll leave a piece of trash on the front lawn. I go, didn't anybody see that?and I do sort of games like, you know, with that, with, with the people want to practice. I say, bring it up, bring it up, bring it up. So I think to do that, you have to just make a decision early on. Are you going to be an excellent practitioner? Are you going to be someone who really wants to give great service to your patient?Do you realize that's important? Because I'm telling you it is. It makes such a difference with your patients if you are present for them. And I have a lot of different strategies for that. Cleanliness is one. Another one is giving everybody. On every visit, a phone call after their first visit there, whether it's surgery or not surgery from the team.And the next day, I will call a patient. So, a patient gets two phone calls from our office. Not many people get that from their dentists or their doctors. Another thing that I do that's really important and that I've recommended to every dentist, but nobody does it, is the patient letter. every first visit, Michael, if you came to see me as a new patient, let's say you had, you come in and you look like you have nice teeth, you have no disease or anything.Michael, it's a pleasure seeing you today. Today we did a diagnosis on you and a comprehensive examination. The good news is you have no periodontal disease, you have no decay. You don't grind your teeth. You don't need a bite guard. Okay. And, um, I'm very happy to say that if you get your teeth cleaned every four to six months and just brush and floss, you'll probably not need any dentistry for the rest of your life.Pleasure having you here. If you have any questions, feel free to call me on my cell phone, 203 209 7029, or email me at my private email, mikeatsonicdmd. com. Who gets that from their dentist or their doctor? Now, if you had a severe problem, you'd get a more detailed letter. And then I would say to you, go home, read this, discuss it with your, you know, loved one, or your friend, or maybe you know somebody else who's a dentist.Read it, and if you're not sure about whether you want to go through a treatment, come on back with your, you know, husband, your wife, your mother, whatever, your son, daughter, and let's have a consultation, we'll talk again, and share that letter. So what I do is a very specific strategies as I give information and I make it very easy for patients to communicate with me now.A lot of doctors. Now, I work with a lot of positions. It's really hard to communicate with positions. They want to communicate with faxes. They do not give you your personal email. You never get their cell phone. So if I'm going to meet somebody new, Michael, if you were a new person I'm working with, doctor Michael, what's your cell phone, what's your personal email.I get that all the time. And I have a database and I have a huge database so that I can call you directly when I want to communicate, as opposed to, I haven't heard back from him. I haven't heard back. So I'm very proactive about getting things done. I think my skill is I'm well known as a good surgeon, someone who does a lot of implants, et cetera, but my real skill is good communication.being very clear and direct with my patients. No ambiguity. You know, I don't know if you know about Adam Grant. I'm sure you've read his work as well, a psychologist from the University of Pennsylvania. He says what people find more and more challenging is not getting negative information or positive.It's that one in between. It's the ambiguity. When someone is ambiguous, It's confusing. And you've probably been with people, I mean, a lot of people do this. they don't do it advertently, but they may do it, you know, because it's just their habit. They use confusion to control you because they don't want to make a decision.So they'll start to say, you know, well, I could do this, this way. And you're talking with a patient, it's like, are you going to go through treatment or you're not going to go through treatment? What's the deal? So I find out, I go, you know, seem a little confused. I go, what is it? Is it the money? Are you fear of going through it?Have you had bad experiences? Do you not think you're worth it? Do you want to give the money to your children? Or do you have to pay for something else? Or do you just not trust me because you don't think I'm competent at what I'm doing? Here's what I can do. And I give patients all the information that I can.And I have, I can give it to him many ways. I can talk to him like I'm talking to you. I can write down the pictures. I can open up my website. This is another topic we can talk about. We should have over 1200 pages of content on my website. So they can go there. I've written six books, four of them picture books that are self published in the office.So this is a gum graph before, this is after. And we can all do this. We can just take a picture and do that. So I show them my work so they can say, this is my stuff. So you can look at it. Very few doctors will show you that. I don't know what that's like. Oh, you don't know what a bone wrap looks like?Here, here's a PowerPoint presentation. This is a flap reflector. This is the bone. This is the graft. This is what it looks like six months later. I will show them. I'll take away the mystery. I always say to patients, it's sort of like you're in the Wizard of Oz, and I'm the wizard, very omniscient, have all these powers, I'm behind a curtain.Here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to take back the curtain, I'm going to bring you into my world. I'm going to take you backstage. And I love going backstage in operations, but I'm going to take you to my backstage. And I'm going to show you what I actually do. And a lot of doctors are afraid to show the patients what they do.And then it becomes ambiguous because they don't trust you. And what's the most important thing you want to bring to a dentist or doctor or anybody that has a responsibility? You want to be able to trust them because you want to be able to feel love. cared for, nurtured. It's almost a spiritual experience when you're having that kind of a relationship.It's not an I it relationship where like you're an object and I'm just giving you a coin like I'm going to a toll. It's a really intimate relationship. and I try to break down those barriers. Now, I look, I've been practicing a long time. I couldn't do this when I was 30. I had developed confidence I was very arrogant as a young dentist, because you know, I was good.I was good. You know, I was good. I was good in my residency program. I had no experience, but I thought I was good. I thought I was smart. I thought it was cool. it was all basically a front because I was insecure. I realized I didn't know anything. I've been practicing one year. How do I talk to a patient with confidence?It's very hard to do that. what do you do as a young person? If you don't know how to, if you don't do that, you tell the patient what you can do. You tell the patients what you do know. You tell the patients what your experiences is. And you give them that great experience, you know, in that area. there are a lot of little hints that I can give you to do that.You know, from the simplest ones, to writing a letter, to cleanliness, to calling the patients, to developing a team. Now, developing a team is a very difficult thing to do. Most dentists say, Oh, I love the dentistry. I just hate my staff. Well, that's a problem. Okay, you want to be able to love your staff and you want your staff to support you.I get a lot of compliments on my staff. Most, actually, most people leave the dental practice not because of the quality of the dentist, but because of their relationship with the staff. before I even meet a patient, you know this 'cause, because this is what you do for a living before a doctor, before a patient even meets me.They probably have 15 to 20 different touchstones with our practice before the referral. The phone call, the website, the location, the outside of the building, the parking lot, what is the door squeak or not when you walk in, when it confirmed properly, did they say, or do you say hello? Hey, Michael, welcome or say, what's your name?they know it's at 11 o'clock. We've got one patient coming in. Might as well greet them by their name. How are you doing? The nurse meets them, they go in there. By the time I walk into that room, I got to really be bad to blow it, because they've already been sold. They've been sold because they've been treated well up until that point.And it's like, all of a sudden I walk in, it's like I'm a movie star walking into that room. Because they say, oh, a doctor's here. Yeah, but they've been treated well up until that point. And they often say, you know, well, Danielle or Amelia treat us really well. Whatever they say to do, we'll do, because our team is really what supports us and lifts us up.Michael Arias: Gotcha. And I feel Can you give us a little bit more insight on like how we can build the perfect team? I feel like there's a lot of people who feel like they get B players and they turn into C They get A players and then the B players are bringing them down kind of thing Michael Sonick: it really started, it starts with the, with the leader of your organization when dentistry, how do we become dentists?Well, you got to get good grades in school. It has nothing to do with clinical skills or building a team or being nice to people, right? it means you're good at multiple choice tests. I always say to some of my friends, you know, that are really smart.But they're not successful. I said, you know, the problem is you're too smart. you always the expression, the, uh, the A students work for the C students, you know, so it's a different skill set to build a team and it's, I have a whole chapter on hiring and how do you build a team?And we build it. First of all, you got to know what you want. And I think before you build a team, you got to figure out who you are and that sort of starts with developing a mission statement or a statement of purpose or whatever you want to call it. It starts like, well, what is it? What does your practice want to look like?does your practice want to look like someone who's just making money that just does high quality dentistry? Or does it want to look like someone who really. helps other people. So we developed our mission statement decades ago, and it's really, we've dumbed it down now. It's not really dumbed down, it's simplified.And it's really to improve the quality of patients lives. So when I hire people, I want people to be able to be similar to my mission. I want them to be able to help people. Now, I can't really train people to be nice. You know, I hire nice people. So that's, that's what I would hire you. You seem like a nice guy.No, you're, you're smiling. You're good. You connect with people. So you'd be great. You know, I would probably hire you based upon this, this podcast right now. you can really get, you know, Malcolm Gladwell, I'm sure you know, he talks about a blink, you know, it's like immediately you sort of know. So we develop our core values and I think every practice should look at their mission and their core values.And that's, that's a lot of self work and our core values are involved being servant hearted. So I want people to be servant hearted. I want them to be able to treat Patients. Well, I want them to have very high integrity. I want to be health oriented, and I want them to be teammates. I want them to be educational.So those are our five core values. So the most important ones, okay, are having integrity. That's, that's a, that's a non negotiable in our office. You know, if you don't have integrity, if you lie, if you steal, et cetera, that doesn't work. Um, and you have to be serving hearted. You have to want to serve the people.So everybody in my practice, I have 25 people in my practice. Everybody is there to serve. Okay, that's what we're there and also they should be good teammates. So we want to get along when you have 24, 25 people in the office, small office. It's not always easy, but we always talk about it. We talk about that and we're very transparent.No ambiguity, like I talked about earlier. So we're transparent and that there's a problem. we're going to bring it up and we can say, Hey, what's the problem here? Not make it personal, but talk about what the problem is. So once I find who I want, then we craft an ad and we, we interview people, but before we interview them, we get their resume, and you can tell a lot from resume, We get them to fill out a, um, employment application, you know, some basic information, but what's really important is we do something called a culture index. And not a lot of people know about this, but I do this on almost everybody in my life. What a culture index is, is, is a way that we can, I can look at somebody's personality and I look at them for seven different characteristics.Are they autonomous? Are they going to work on their own? Are they going to follow orders? Are they very social? Or are they very, are they not social? Are they very detail oriented? Something very important for dental assistant or they're not detail oriented. Do they have a sense of urgency or if they're really laid back and they'll just move at a slower pace.So those are the four major ones, but then it's like, how logical are they? I want people who are logical. Do they, are they creative? And do they have higher or lower energy? So I look at that and I'll tell you something. If I look, there's seven dots and I can look at these seven dots and I look at probably, probably look at 15 resumes and culture and disease a week.I can look at them and within about literally seven or eight seconds, I know what that person's like. Okay. I can, I don't know their integrity. I don't know if they're smart, but I know what kind of worker they're going to be. If they have the wrong culture index, they're not getting hired. And every time I don't follow the culture index, I hire the wrong person.Okay. I always try to fire it. So the culture index, the resume and the, um, appointment application. If I like the culture index and their resume, which is about one out of every 25, then they get a FaceTime interview with one of my office managers. If they like them after the FaceTime interview, they bring them in and then we do the blink and I look at them and within about three or four seconds, I know if they're a pretty good fit or not, if they know nothing about my practice, you know, if they haven't read the website, they're probably not very good.They're not curious, and they're probably not the right fit. If they don't stand up and look me in the eye and shake my hand with a firm handshake. They're not going to get hired. If they come in, they are looking terrible, disheveled, unwashed hair. If they're 15 minutes late, okay. If their fingernails are dirty and their shoes are all scuffed up, they're gone.So, I mean, it's just very quickly and it saves us a lot of time. We very rarely hire the wrong person anymore. It took me a long time to do this. And when I like, if I like them doing that blink, then the rest of my team interviews them. If they like that, they go home. Then if we like them at that point in time, we make them back for a working interview where they spend a full day with my team.And that's not for me. My team that makes the final decision. Are they a good teammate or not? We know very, very quickly. If I ever feel badly, sometimes people look great on paper and they, you know, and the other people like them, but they give me a knot in my stomach. They don't get hired. And I think, you know, that you either like it or it's a very, it's a chemical thing that happens.And once you're pretty perceptive and you become perceptive to this, and you can train yourself to become more perceptive, you start to see, because there's nothing worse than hiring the wrong person, and now they're there for four or five months. Now you got to let them go. It's stressful. their life. I'm doing somebody a favor if I don't hire them. you know, I don't want to have to hire somebody to fire them and we very rarely fire anybody. the reason people leave is because, um, usually, you know, the husband gets transferred or wife gets transferred, something like that, or, or they go back to school.We have a lot of people go back to school and, you know, better themselves. You know, I have like three or four people who went to medical school or dental school. So the hiring process is something I find very fascinating because I get to put the team together and I'm not hiring me. I'm hiring a teammates and it's like somebody doesn't work out one area.We have other jobs in the office where I can move them around to like, one of my best. One of my assistants is really social, but she's terrible with details. I mean, you know, I asked her to hand me the blue thing. She hands me the red thing. I know that about her. She's been with me for 11 years, always forgetting stuff.But she's the nicest person, and she always takes care of people who are nervous, and she'll do whatever it takes to really connect with people. She's the best connector, but she's the less detailed. So that's what we use her for, connecting with people, making people feel good. She's great, you know, and we love her.She's just a great, great human being. And I have other people that are really detailed, and really, and really persnickety. They're going to get everything right. great. Those are the people who do all my ordering and make sure everything is there. You know, so I'm not going to give my ordering to the person that's really nice, but not detail oriented and vice versa. I'm not going to put that person, uh, who's very detail oriented, not always that nice, you know, with a, with a disgruntled patient, something like that. very fascinating. How do you put the team, the teams together, stress when I have a good team. Michael Arias: you built like a, a system here to do that. You know what I mean?Especially tailored to you, or I think you can kind of like create this, uh, system and put it in literally any practice, but then they can kind of tailor to their mission statement and stuff like that. Right. and it's very strict in the sense of like, or not strict, I guess, but it's more like, Hey, this is the requirements because every, everything has to have a requirement.Right. In order to, to function well, even if you have, if you play Monopoly, right, you can't just, if I were to play Monopoly with you and I decided to do my own rules, you're going to be like, this is not fun no more. Right. I don't like doing this, but if I were to go by the rules, we can all enjoy it. And it's fun.And, uh, Michael Sonick: nobody in my life is perfect and I'm certainly not perfect. So we're all different. We all know, like my partner, I have two partners and my, partner, Ray Ma, he has a very different personality than I do, but I don't expect him to have my personality he's not a visionary.He's very good surgeon. And he's very detailed and he likes to look at numbers now. I'm good with numbers, but I don't like numbers. I don't like to look at him. I don't like to look at the pros and cons. I give it to somebody else. I make money, but I don't, do the spreadsheets. I don't even know how to use a spreadsheet.I mean, that's, that's not what my, where my brain is. So, like, we said, you know, can you teach me numbers? Yeah, I can teach you numbers. You know, if you make money. And then you have this much, this much debt, you subtract your debt from the money. What's left over is the number that you got. That's your, that's your net worth.I just really simplify it, but he's great at that. And we work out very well because we do different things. So I try to get everybody into their own lane in the practice. So my lane is very clear. You know, I'm the visionary and a marketing person and I do surgery and I try to keep the call and I try to keep to culture.Running well. So when I'm not there, because right now I only work two days a week, I work Tuesdays and Wednesdays. So the rest of my time is either teaching or, um, you know, writing which I love to do too. So I, well, I'm there Tuesday, Wednesday.So I come in Tuesday morning. I'll be frank with you. It's not the same as when I leave on Wednesday night and, you know, boxes may be out. This is here. I go, what's going on? And I just come through and they know it, they know what's coming on. I go. That's right. Dad's back in the house. Okay, get in line, man.I know it. I know it. But I buy him lunch too. And I'm real nice to him during the day, but they know exactly what I want, when I want it. last night we had a, uh, we had a meeting with a group of dentists. We do a lot of education in the office. We have a study club and last night, The other dentists were going, man, they really treat you well.they're putting a cup of coffee down for me. They're cleaning up my area. I go, yeah, they are. They are treating me well. It's not because I beat them. It's because they have certain roles to do. So do I, if I have to entertain 30 dentists, do I need to go down and make a cup of coffee at that time?Isn't my time better spent up there running that room and doing the education, doing everything else. And I make sure that they're all. They're all rewarded for that. they don't know this yet, but we do a bonus system. this month, each of my staff is getting a 2, 000 bonus because based upon what we do, I don't push them to make money because they're not, they're not on this bonus system.Like the more we do, because I don't want to do that. But you know, when we, when their office does better and we're above a certain percentage, you know, they, they get the share in It's always like a gift that they never expect, but nobody would do that.So nobody's on like a percentage there or anything like that. There are hourly employees, including my hygienist, and some people like to bonus them for doing more, but they don't have to do any selling for me. They just go in there and work. then when they work hard, you know, sometimes they get, they get rewarded.So we haven't told him that. I just found that out last night, my partner, because he doesn't. Michael Arias: That's fantastic. And it's good to do that, you know what I mean? To see the team achieve it and everything like that. Michael Sonick: Yeah, and we buy them lunch. We do a lot of nice things for the staff. We go to a Danny Meyers restaurant every year.we rent out the back room. This year we rented out the back room at Gramercy Tavern, which is an unbelievable room. And a lot of my team members have never been to New York City. They've never been to a Broadway play. You know, we'll We spend nine o'clock in the morning until probably midnight every summer, you know, taking the team to New York with four or five events, staying in great restaurants and having a really, really nice time.And so they talk about it to the patients, and then they bring back the same culture from Danny Meyer's restaurant to our office. And they know that we're running Meyer's restaurant. On the cover of my book, my blurb is Mike's deeper calling is to use hospitality gifts to make people feel better as lessons applied in a customer facing business.And it's Danny Myers. he gave me a blog top of the book, which was a big deal. I mean, that meant a lot to me. He, for me, is my role model for hospitality. And Will Guderian. Of course, I mean, you know, he's, he's phenomenal what he does, you know, we call it a wild experience.You know, he tries to do that for everybody in his, in his place. And that's how he became number one restaurant in the world. If you read his book, you know, he, the first time he was, he was invited to Europe. I think it was London. And, uh, they were going to give him an award for being one of the top 50 restaurants.He goes, yeah, great. One of the top 50, but they didn't know where he was. He was number 50. Okay, so one of the top 50, but I'm 50, it bothered him and that was the night he went back to his hotel room with his, um, partner, the chef, and he wrote down on a piece of paper because we're going to be number one, you know, within the next five years.And I think it took two years later. And then he wrote down unreasonable hospitality and that's what he wanted to do. Every time a patient comes in, I want to give them something that they're going to think about. It could be, like, if you want the best restaurants in my area, I have a list. If you want a place to walk, I have a list.If you want the top neurologist, I have that number. You want to go to hospital special surgery, you need knee replacement surgery, I have a list of doctors down there. I have a periodontist in L. A., I know who to send you to out in L. A. So, we make sure that our patients always are well taken care of, and I connect with other people that are similar.And so you end up building a network of like minded people, you know, so if you want to be great, you want to run a really successful practice, look at other successful people and ask them, how can you help me? Call me. I don't do consulting, you know, I just do teaching and, you know, lectures, that's what I don't have a consulting business.But if you have a question, send me an email, mikeatsonicdmd. com. I'm happy to give you some advice. I have it in a direct you to the right place. Oh, you're you're, you're in Idaho. I know somebody out there. That's pretty good that you can look at. You're in Columbus, Ohio. I know a great guy there that you can talk to, find other people to mentor you because great people love to mentor others.I mean, that's what you do. You like to help people. I mean, that's sort of what the core value of your business is making the people that you work with more successful. And that's a, it's a pretty cool way of living that every day I get to go to work and be the gift to my patients, which basically, you know, they always say giving is better than receiving.It is. It is. I mean, it definitely, it definitely is. it's, it's just a great, and you get paid for doing it too. I mean, we, we have a great job. We get to help people get paid for it, do clinical things, meet all these great people. I mean, you know, and improve the quality of people's lives. Yeah, I could be better than that.Michael Arias: Yeah, a thousand percent. So then where can we, cause I know right now we kind of just talked parts of the book, right? Where can we go get this book? Michael Sonick: Well, you can buy it on Amazon, so it's, uh, it's called Treating People, Not Patients. You can go to my website, which is my name, michaelsonic. com, and, uh, on my website, you can see courses that we teach.you can download videos, uh, there's a video series that, that is, uh, I think very powerful. It's three and a half hours videos that you, that are in segments, 15 minute segments. So once a week, you sit down with your team. And you look at the segment comes with a workbook, a course workbook, you can have your whole team right through the course workbook.And there's a series of questions and you get to evaluate your office. You know, there's a bunch of series in there. Like, how do patients want to be cared for? Are you good at telling a story? You know, do you do comprehensive examination? We haven't talked about that, but that being comprehensive is really important.most doctors, most dentists do not do a comprehensive examination. They look for procedures to do Most dentists are pothole fillers and they don't treat people comprehensively because they think they got to fill their book and they got to make money. Bottom line is you treat people comprehensively.Even if they don't need any treatment, they're going to refer you to other people that want the same thing. And going to be waiting around the corner to get into your office, you know, I mean, I booked until January and I don't do any. I mean, I don't do any real marketing.My marketing is all internal. I just started to do some external marketing because I have two partners, my younger one to build their practice and I was just playing around with it, and I take no insurance, so I've never taken insurance. And, uh, 4 to 7 percent of the population, dentists don't take insurance.My partner who joined me 10 years ago, wanted to take insurance to get busy. I go, no, wait, just treat people. And it took him a couple of years. He got busy. It's slower to build a practice if you don't take insurance, but you can do it, but you can't do it by being mediocre. You've got to be exceptional, not as a dentist, but as a human being to your patients, and if you want to do that, you can do that.That's a lot more fun. and my, my youngest partner, you know, she's been with me two years. She thinks no insurance either. So I'm booked. Uh, I'm booked until January. My mid range partner who's middle age, she's 40. He's booked until I don't know, he's booked like six weeks. And, uh, my youngest person, she's out on pregnancy leave now, but she's got a full schedule.not the waiting list, but she's on me when I have 2 years, but in 2 more years, you're not going to get into her schedule either. So, yeah, you know, I always say to my partner. the way, I'm an American I practice in my hometown, 200 yards from where I went to high school.Ray Ma is from, China. communist border of North Korea. Uh, Soo Jin Yoo is from, Korea, Seoul. So, I mean, you know, and I have five, six people from Europe here. I have a very international practice and it doesn't really matter. It doesn't really matter where you're from. The same principles apply.I, I said to my partner, he goes, well, you know, I can't really do what you do. Cause I'm not from Fairfield. I said, I can open up a practice in downtown Beijing and be busier than you. I said, as an American, he goes, what are you talking about? I said, because I'm going to treat people well. And the joke was, cause he's Chinese, all the Chinese patients came in and wanted to see me.Not him, I didn't realize at the time that it was like a, status to see an American dentist, as opposed to a Chinese dentist. It's like everybody in Korea wants to go to Harvard, Yeah. Yeah. Michael Arias: Gotcha. Interesting. My, my Korean Michael Sonick: partner did go to Harvard. So, Michael Arias: yeah, yeah, no, that's interesting.you're doing a lot, man. The seminars, study clubs and the book, right. And then your practice that you're running. It's a lot. So if you could, uh, one of the final pieces of advice that you can give our listeners right now, that would kind of help them move the needle towards where they want to go.Michael Sonick: first of all, I'd take two days. Go to a hotel room by yourself, or somewhere by yourself, and start to write. And write what your practice would look like, if you could do whatever you wanted. If you could take a magic wand and wave it in front of you, what would you like that to look like?And then, I mean, spend some time doing it. Do you want to be a restorative dentist? Do you want to do a lot of Invisalign? Do you want to do a multi specialty practice? Do you want to be, you know, you want to own a group of practices? Because there's so many different options. You know, if you feel like you're entrepreneurial, you want to buy practices, you don't really want to work, but you want them, and create them.And then find mentors and role models that have done that. And hang out with them. I remember when I was in my Early thirties, I said to a friend of mine, I said, in 25 years, this is what I want to do. I want to teach all over the world. I want to be well known nationally and internationally, and I want to be an educator, and I want to write articles, and I want to be well known like these people.And the people at the time were David Garber, who a lot of people know, and Frank Spear. And I said, I, that's where I that's a lofty way to be. I said, and I said, that's what I want. And so what I did was I started to meet those people. And all the well known people in our field. I know, you know, I wouldn't say they're friends of mine, but I have all their cell numbers and I talk to them all the time the sharing that goes on is really, really magical.So create a network of people. One of the things that a lot of people do today, especially your younger audience, is they do things on their own with social media and they learn from Instagram and they see other people and they text, that is a way to do it. I'm not saying it's wrong. But it's not a way to really connect with people.You don't build your practice by texting. You don't build it with social media only. it's a way to get people in front of you, but you really build it with human connectivity. All the work you do for your clients is useless if they come into a dirty office where the dentist doesn't care to them, doesn't spend the time looking in their eye, talking to them, and asking if they have any questions, and handing the business card with their cell phone number or personal email.You don't have to do that. By the way, my cell phone does not go off when a patient is calling me. They very rarely call me, but when they do, if I'm there for them to re cement a crown on it, like as I did last Sunday morning, before the patient flew off to Portugal for two weeks, because their front tooth fell out, you know, his dentist didn't, I'm a periodontist, his general dentist didn't pick up the phone, I did, and I re cemented it in with permanent cement, so he'll be okay in Portugal, and I gave him the name of a dentist I know in Lisbon, say call him if you have a problem.Giving it, not only cementing it, but give him a contact and then giving him my cell phone saying, if you're listening, the tooth falls out, call me. That's a wow experience. That's a hospitality that's over the top. And what did it cost me? I live a mile from my office. It cost me 25 minutes and a little bit of cement, and that is great marketing.Because that patient's going to be telling that story. And I said to him, I said, he goes, well, what do I leave for this? I go, nothing. He goes, nothing? What am I going to charge you? Can I make enough money for that one visit to get the marketing value? Then, not only was I there, I didn't charge him. I said, nothing.I said, you know why? I said, because you're going to be telling this story to people for the next 10 years about how nobody would call you back, but I came, your periodontist came in and re cement your tooth and gave you a cell phone number and a dentist and Lisbon. I told him exactly what I was doing for him.He happened to be a retired guy who was, who used to be in marketing himself. So I told him, and that's kind of transparency was pretty fun, you know? Yeah. Because you could say that I wasn't saying, well, oh, don't worry about, no, hey here, I'm doing it because I'm manipulating you to promote my practice and come back here.By the way, he's gonna need an implant there, so he's gonna be back in, you know, in, in and a few weeks, and I'll take care of him at that point in time. But that really gives great value to him and I, and I, by the way, I sent him a follow up letter to say, call me when you get back. Let's take a look and come up with a treatment plan.Okay? Not only did I see him, Did, did the service, gave 'em a contact number, gave 'em my cell phone. I sent them a letter. Okay, that's over the top and it's fun doing so. What do I do? Be nice to people. Be really nice to people. Connect with them. don't rush off. Be there. And the biggest way you can build your practice is when something goes wrong.Fix it. don't dismiss yourself in a part. That's a lot of younger people. I don't want this complication. Be there. If you can't fix it, find someone who can and develop relationships with those people. It's all about human connectivity and those will transform your relationships, you with everybody.Yeah. This is not about dentistry. This is just about, you know, connecting with people. Michael Arias: No, that's wonderful. Wonderful. So with that in mind, if anybody wanted to reach out to you. Call you or anything like that. Where can they reach out to you? Michael Sonick: Well, they can email me at Mike and Mike at sonic dmd. com. They can text me on my phone.Two Oh three, two Oh nine, seven Oh two nine. They can go to any of my websites, my name, michaelsonic. com. You can read my book, which I think you'll find very helpful, a lot of dentists have read it. I've had over 170 reviews from dentists from Dennis Tarnow to Christian Coachman to leaders in industry like Peter Diamandis and others.It's been really well received. Um, my goal is to get this book into every dental school so that we change the culture of how we treat people, you know, both dental and medical schools. and I'm, I'm talking to physicians as well about this. So it's my passion. I'm not hard to find. So nice, nice, Michael Arias: awesome.So guys, that's going to be in the show notes below. So definitely reach out to Michael and Michael, thank you so much for being with us. It's been a pleasure and we'll hear from you soon. Michael Sonick: Okay. Thank you, Michael. Thank you for having me.‍

A strong aroma lures you towards the kitchen. What possibly could be generating such an enticing smell? Also, who is cooking this delicious smelling meal? Four people stand in the kitchen, all standing over a large pot of stew, but the ingredients they're adding are video games. Cartridges, discs, and hard drives bubble away in the pot as the hosts of this podcast pass the stirring spoon back and forth. We hope you're hungry. In this episode: Tom lights the burner, David starts to simmer, Greg kicks it up a notch, Tess finishes with a favorite. If you've enjoyed this episode/meal, consider giving us a rating on your podcatcher/Zagat. If you'd like more episodes/dishes like this, consider joining our Patreon for as little as $1 at patreon.com/LTRT Games discussed: Pokemon, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Peglin, Pokemon Omega Ruby

There is not one sector of power that Jeffrey Epstein didn't have a toe dipped into. That even goes for the world of fine dining. Jeffrey Epstein was a fixture at the finest establishments in New York, even though he ate like a six year old according to former friends and associates.In this episode, we hear about Jeffrey Epstein's good friends the Zagat's and how he was often seen with the married couple and how they even made a trip to Jeffrey Epstein's island.(commercial at 8:14)to contact me:bobbycapucci@protonmail.comsource:Jeffrey Epstein repeatedly dined at NYC's top restaurants after he was listed as a sex offender | Daily Mail OnlineThis show is part of the Spreaker Prime Network, if you are interested in advertising on this podcast, contact us at https://www.spreaker.com/show/5003294/advertisement

Natasha Case is the co-founder of Coolhaus Ice Cream. She created the company with Freya Estreller in 2009 because they did not feel represented by the ice cream brands on shelves and knew they could create higher quality and more unique ice cream with a more authentic story. They launched their ice cream sandwich company from a barely-drivable postal van at the Coachella Music Festival where the brand went viral. Since then, Coolhaus has scaled to a national fleet of trucks in LA and NYC, a flagship store and innovation center in Culver City, and a national grocery business of ice cream sammies, pints, cups, mini sammies, and cones in stores ranging from Whole Foods to Sprouts to Kroger. They launched a very successful dairy-free ice cream line (made from peas & brown rice!) in 2019. Natasha remained the CEO until Coolhaus was acquired by Perfect Day under their CPG umbrella company with a mission to make more sustainable products without compromise in December of 2021.    Natasha took on a founding CEO role with Lunch Bunch in August of 2022. As a mom of a three and six year-old, she felt close to the systemic issues around feeding our kids and feeding them well. Lunch Bunch takes a holistic approach to tackling the problem by providing nutritious, balanced, and healthy meals along with offering culinary, gardening and food entrepreneurship enrichment classes. Essentially: the way we will treat our society is by including kids in the conversation and process of eating better, while we offer them wholesome food options. Lunch Bunch will give them inspiration around food they can pass on for generations to come.   Natasha is devoted to transformational positive change by creating mission-led businesses. At Coolhaus, she devoted her work to the next generation of women and LGBTQ founders, entrepreneurs, and creators of diverse backgrounds to feel empowered to turn their dreams into realities in an equitable environment. Natasha partnered with Black Girl Ventures to create ice cream to raise funds for entrepreneurial grants, the Okra Foundation for Pride to create a flavor called EnjoyMINT for All, celebrating our differences through a top 8 allergen-free ice cream, and she is committed to teaching courses and frequent public speaking engagements to push the envelope for the next generation. At Lunch Bunch, core partners include National School Lunch subsidized programs for under-resourced schools and communities including Compton YAL, Roenne's School and culinary and gardening enrichments at Camp Harmony for homeless and vulnerable children.   Natasha has been named a Forbes 30 under 30 Food & Beverage, Zagat 30 Under 30, LinkedIn 10 under 35 for Food & Leisure, 10 Most Successful Women in Business by Leaders Globe, and UCLA's LGBTQ+ 2019 Alum of the Year. She is a published author of the Coolhaus Ice Cream Book which came out in 2014 and was featured on Good Morning America and named as one of Martha Stewart's favorites. She has been featured in many national publications and media outlets like Entrepreneur, LA Times, and Bon Appetit, and has judged Food Network's Chopped, King of Cones, and Top Chef Jr. She co-hosted her own podcast, ‘Start to Sale' through Eater/Vox Media. In 2019, she joined YPO in the Beverly Hills chapter. Natasha is a board member of UCLA Arts Dept, Larchmont Charter School, Startup UCLA, Naturally LA and a member of the Lyft Council (Los Angeles). In 2022 she completed the Victory Institute training for LGBTQ+ leaders of tomorrow. 

Today on The Grail I sit down with Josiah Citrin and talk all things food including the pressures of being a 2 Star Michelin Chef. Josiah is one of the most incredible Chefs in the industry and also a very cool Human.  Josiah is a two-star Michelin chef and owner of Santa Monica's highly-acclaimed Mélisse, Charcoal Venice,Charcoal Sunset and Dave's Doghouse at the Staples Center in Downtown Los Angeles and Indian Wells Tennis Garden. His culinary philosophy, “In Pursuit of Excellence” sets the standard for all of his concepts, whether fine-dining or casual. Citrin discovered his passion for food through his family at an early age, growing up in Santa Monica and Venice with a mother who was a caterer, and a French grandmother who cooked family meals. Their knowledge, combined with his excitement for cooking and business, led him to pursue a culinary career. Citrin moved to Paris to explore his French heritage after graduating from Santa Monica High School, and worked for three years at fine Parisian restaurants Vivarois and La Poste, gaining an understanding of and respect for the rules of traditional French cooking. This invaluable experience taught him both the art and discipline of cooking and fine dining, and formed the definitive basis of his training. He returned to the United States in 1990 and began applying his skills at Los Angeles' finest restaurants—notably Wolfgang Puck's celebrated Chinois on Main and then at Granita. After two years, Josiah moved on to join Patina and Pinot Bistro and cooked alongside famed chef and savvy restaurateur Joachim Splichal. Citrin subsequently became chef at Capri restaurant in Venice and Jackson's in West Hollywood. With a heightened interest in French gastronomy and a spirit for entrepreneurship, Citrin launched JiRaffe in 1996 alongside childhood friend and fellow chef Raphael Lunetta. Selling his interest to JiRaffe to Lunetta in 1999, Citrin pursued his lifelong dream of opening his own fine dining establishment by debuting Mélisse which opened to critical acclaim and has been impressing the culinary world ever since. HONORS Citrin's honors include: Two Stars from Michelin Guide (2007, 2008, 2021), #1 for Top Food in Los Angeles and #1 American-French Restaurant for Food in Los Angeles by Zagat (2013, 2014), “Best Wine List” by LA Weekly (2015), “Top 100 Restaurants in the World” by Elite Traveler (2015, 2016, 2017, 2018), Five Stars by Forbes Travel Guide (2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018), “Top Ten New Chefs” by Food & Wine magazine (1997), and “Best Chefs of the Year” by Los Angeles magazine (2012).

#25. In this episode, we're joined by Matt Conway, the charismatic owner, operator, and sommelier of the renowned Tippling House nestled in the heart of Charleston, South Carolina. Alongside his delightful partner-in-crime, Carissa Hernandez, Matt has created a haven for those who appreciate the finer aspects of life's libations.Under the wing of the late Chef Gray Kunz, Matt honed his craft at Café Gray in the Time Warner Center from 2004 to 2007. This eventually led him to to Restaurant Marc Forgione, where he wore multiple hats – GM, beverage director, and eventually a partner. Matt has collaborated with the world-famous cellers at Taillevent in Paris and has been bestowed the honor of being among Zagat's "30 Under 30" and a Star Chefs recognized "Rising Star Sommelier."Matthew's journey is one marked by consistent acclaim and notable presence at some of the most distinguished wine events. His finely tuned palate and comprehensive knowledge have made him a sought-after sommelier at premier gatherings like La Paulée and La Fête du Champagne. Today, Matthew Conway's legacy shines brightly as a partner at La Tablée. This establishment stands as a testament to his commitment and expertise, with a special focus on the captivating allure of the Northern Rhône Valley.Where to find Matt Conway: InstagramWhere to find host Josh Sharkey:InstagramLinkedInIn this episode, we cover:(2:26) How Matt became a sommelier(7:13) Working with Josh at Cafe Grey(11:10) Building relationships with producers(14:51) What makes a great sommelier(21:04) Empathy and inclusion when choosing wine(25:19) What's in the future for sommeliers?(31:31) Essential skills for a successful sommelier(33:13) Working at Restaurant Marc Forgione(35:19) Why Matt moved to Charleston(38:46) Building a company culture with work/life balance(44:06) Could Matt be successful with Tippling House in NYC?(49:16) New York life versus Charleston life

There is not one sector of power that Jeffrey Epstein didn't have a toe dipped into. That even goes for the world of fine dining. Jeffrey Epstein was a fixture at the finest establishments in New York, even though he ate like a six year old according to former friends and associates.In this episode, we hear about Jeffrey Epstein's good friends the Zagat's and how he was often seen with the married couple and how they even made a trip to Jeffrey Epstein's island.(commercial at 8:14)to contact me:bobbycapucci@protonmail.comsource:Jeffrey Epstein repeatedly dined at NYC's top restaurants after he was listed as a sex offender | Daily Mail OnlineThis show is part of the Spreaker Prime Network, if you are interested in advertising on this podcast, contact us at https://www.spreaker.com/show/5080327/advertisement

There is not one sector of power that Jeffrey Epstein didn't have a toe dipped into. That even goes for the world of fine dining. Jeffrey Epstein was a fixture at the finest establishments in New York, even though he ate like a six year old according to former friends and associates.In this episode, we hear about Jeffrey Epstein's good friends the Zagat's and how he was often seen with the married couple and how they even made a trip to Jeffrey Epstein's island.(commercial at 8:14)to contact me:bobbycapucci@protonmail.comsource:Jeffrey Epstein repeatedly dined at NYC's top restaurants after he was listed as a sex offender | Daily Mail OnlineThis show is part of the Spreaker Prime Network, if you are interested in advertising on this podcast, contact us at https://www.spreaker.com/show/5003294/advertisement

20230728- Co - Founder Of Zagat Surveys, Tim Zagat Talks Restaurants And Tourism In NYC by Kevin McCullough Radio

Chef Alex Seidel is a force in the world of farm to food. From winning the James Beard Best Chef SW in 2018, critically acclaimed restaurants Fruition and Mercantile, to starting his own farm and creamery, Alex walks the talk. His most recent endeavor is Chook Chicken, a Colorado-based fast-casual, emerging growth chain restaurant with three units to date. Chook serves up rotisserie chicken seasoned and cooked to perfection along with delicious veggies and sides. Their mantra is “Delicious Food, Sources Right, Fit for All. Lovely.” Born in 1973 in Wisconsin, Seidel began his culinary career at 14, serving as sous chef at Racine's Main Street Bistro by age 20. He attended culinary school at Western Culinary Institute in Portland, Oregon, finishing at the top of his class.Alex Seidel is chef-owner of Fruition Restaurant, Mercantile dining & provision, Füdmill and Chook. Alex, Fruition and Mercantile have been fortunate to find themselves featured as Chef of the Year and Best Restaurant rankings in numerous local and national magazines and guides including Denver Magazine, 5280, Bon Appetite, Gayot, and Zagat, and alumni from the restaurants have gone on to receive similar honors. Seidel himself has been the recipient of many accolades, including Food & Wine magazine's Best New Chef in 2010, Chef of the Year titles from local media including Denver Magazine and 5280. Seidel was awarded the 2018 James Beard Foundation Best Chef: South West. In addition to his restaurants, Seidel owns Fruition Farms Creamery, Colorado's first artisan sheep's milk creamery, located in Larkspur, Colorado. Seidel participates in numerous off-site events for both charitable and fine dining experiences. He very much enjoys furthering the culture of cuisine all the while staying down to earth and championing such causes as food advocacy, mindfulness when it comes to eating habits and waste. Becoming a chef and a business owner has allowed him to hone his very impressive skills while controlling the ingredients and the sourcing of his provisions. Subscribe to the MenuMasters YouTube channel for more culinary inspiration https://www.youtube.com/@menumastersawards. Get more info on MenuMasters Awards at https://menumastersevent.com/

Meg investigates the corruption and drama that defined Donald Manes' short life. Jessica at The Quilted Giraffe and gets a good look at its clientele of American Psychos.Please check out our website, follow us on Instagram, on Facebook, and...WRITE US A REVIEW HEREWe'd LOVE to hear from you! Let us know if you have any ideas for stories HEREThank you for listening!Love,Meg and Jessica

The guys attempt to gain a better understanding of various restaurant rating systems, heavily promote their new mens fragrance, and learn the extreme conditions it would take for Todd to give a 1 star review. Follow Foodiot on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for the latest episodes, news, and more. Sponsors Foodiot is proud to be sponsored by Hey Grill Hey and the Hey Grill Hey app. Episode References & Resources Books Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly - Anthony Bourdain Movies Burnt - John Wells Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring - Peter Jackson TV Shows Law & Order The Muppets Sesame Street Deep Thoughts by Jack Handy - SNL The Herlihy Boy House-Sitting Service - SNL Zagat's with Hank & Beverly Gefland - SNL Songs Kiss from a Rose - Seal Restaurants Blue Hill at Stone Barns Mugshots Grill and Bar Picasso Piggly Wiggly Deli Restaurant Awards & Ratings Google Health Department James Beard Award Michelin Guide Trip Advisor Yelp! Zagat's Guide Random We Both Crode This Bathroom Is Disgusting Credits Hosts: Todd Bulloch, Lloyd Grimm, Denny Munson Music Credit: Shiny Heads Productions

Designers can draw inspiration from various elements, including artworks, photographs, or even the human emotions and stories that reside behind each project. This allows for a more profound and meaningful experience, as the design connects with its audience on a deeper level. Similarly, examining how other aspects of design, like performances and stage design, can offer valuable insights for memorial designers. In the AIP podcast, host Melissa Daniel and Christina Sturdivant Sani, native, wife, and mother, known for her exceptional work in esteemed publications like the Washington Post and CityLab, discusses Rihanna's halftime show at the 2023 Super Bowl, focusing on the design of the performance set. We also discuss the MLK Memorial design competition and how "The Embrace," underwent noticeable transformations from its initial rendering to its final design. Curbed Online The 5 Proposals For The MLK Memorial On Boston Common Rhianna Half Time Show Perron-Roettinger Scratching the Surface Podcast with Willo Perron Christina Sturdivant Sani is a proud Washington, D.C. native and prolific freelance journalist. As Editorial Director and Co-founder of Bloc By Block News, she oversees the production of website, newsletter, and social media content. A former staff writer at DCist, Christina wrote more than 1,600 breaking news stories on politics, transportation, education, policing, food, and entertainment, among other topics. Many of her feature stories highlighted Black life and culture in D.C. and investigated issues related to marginalized communities east of the Anacostia River. She's written a half dozen cover stories for Washington City Paper and has freelanced for nearly two dozen publications including The Washington Post, Washingtonian Magazine, Zagat, PBS, and CityLab. She studied print journalism at Hampton University. You're likely to spot her working remotely at your favorite D.C.-area coffee shop. Twitter @christurdisani

There is not one sector of power that Jeffrey Epstein didn't have a toe dipped into. That even goes for the world of fine dining. Jeffrey Epstein was a fixture at the finest establishments in New York, even though he ate like a six year old according to former friends and associates. In this episode, we hear about Jeffrey Epstein's good friends the Zagat's and how he was often seen with the married couple and how they even made a trip to Jeffrey Epstein's island. (commercial at 8:14)to contact me:bobbycapucci@protonmail.comsource:Jeffrey Epstein repeatedly dined at NYC's top restaurants after he was listed as a sex offender | Daily Mail OnlineThis show is part of the Spreaker Prime Network, if you are interested in advertising on this podcast, contact us at https://www.spreaker.com/show/5080327/advertisement

There is not one sector of power that Jeffrey Epstein didn't have a toe dipped into. That even goes for the world of fine dining. Jeffrey Epstein was a fixture at the finest establishments in New York, even though he ate like a six year old according to former friends and associates. In this episode, we hear about Jeffrey Epstein's good friends the Zagat's and how he was often seen with the married couple and how they even made a trip to Jeffrey Epstein's island. (commercial at 8:14)to contact me:bobbycapucci@protonmail.comsource:Jeffrey Epstein repeatedly dined at NYC's top restaurants after he was listed as a sex offender | Daily Mail OnlineThis show is part of the Spreaker Prime Network, if you are interested in advertising on this podcast, contact us at https://www.spreaker.com/show/5003294/advertisement

On this week's episode of The Healthcare Plus Podcast, host Dan Collard is joined by special guest Tyler Lyne. Tyler Lyne CEC, PCIII, Culinary Institute of America Graduate & Hospitality Entrepreneur.Dan and Tyler discuss the difference between service and hospitality and offer ideas on how the healthcare industry can learn from restaurants. Tyler shares a quote he learned from the book Unreasonable Hospitality, which says that “service is black and white; hospitality is color.” Written by Will Guidara, the co-owner of legendary restaurant Eleven Madison Park, the book explains that “black and white” means doing your job with competence and efficiency; “color” means you make people feel great about the job you're doing for them.Whether you are a chef or a nurse, this color is what separates high performing individuals and organizations from their peers. In healthcare, it also directly correlates with improving patient experiences. Listen to the full episode to hear Dan and Tyler's insights on the relationship between customer service, leadership, and employee engagement.About Tyler LyneTyler Lyne is a molecular gastronomy expert & Culinary Institute of America graduate. He has honed his skills in Japan and at such highly regarded restaurants as Restaurant Cru, Bouley, Momofuku Ko and Ciano before landing his first chef job as Chef de Cuisine at La Esquina. From there, he became a partner and held the title of Executive Chef at Cloud Catering, Riviera Caterers, and Creative Edge Parties. He is currently VP of Culinary at Neuman's Kitchen. His clients have included Nasdaq, Facebook, the NFL and various red-carpet A-List events. Simultaneously, he serves as Culinary Director for Bamboo Asia – Far Out Market in San Francisco and Lucky Rooster Market Street in Miami, Chicago and South CarolinaTyler has appeared in Food Network's Iron Chef America in Battle Pasta. He has also been recognized by ZAGAT as one of New York City's "30 under 30" list of trailblazers helping to define the next wave of culinary greatness. 

Emily Fleming is here for the first time, fresh from working the door at what I'm pretty sure is a modern-day rave. No one gets my "exchange an egg" reference, not even Jordan Morris who is also here and doesn't have big lunch energy (he's a dinner dude). Daniel and I went to dinner the previous night and a perplexing thing kept happening and I need to talk about it. Was it because of the two tartares? Plus some Good Mythical Morning chat, self-defense, food fears and so much more. Products I Use/Recommend/Love: http://amazon.com/shop/alisonrosen Check us out on Patreon: http://patreon.com/alisonrosen   This show is brought to you by: GAMETIME: download the Gatetime app, create an account and use code BESTFRIEND for $20 off your first purchase BETTERHELP: http://BetterHelp.com/BESTFRIEND (use code BESTFRIEND for 10% off), Alison Rosen Is Your New Best Friend is sponsored by Better Help Buy Alison's Book: Tropical Attire Encouraged (and Other Phrases That Scare Me)  https://amzn.to/2JuOqcd You probably need to buy the HGFY ringtone! https://www.alisonrosen.com/store/ Try Amazon Prime Free 30 Day Trial

Boss Babe Alert!  She owns two distinguished and popular restaurants, published six cookbooks, has an Emmy-nominated YouTube series, launched her own Cabernet Sauvignon label.  Meet Chef Adrianne Calvo, a self made brand, business woman, public figure and philanthropist. After studying under THE Thomas Keller of French Laundry at the young age of 19, Chef Adrianne became the youngest author in America at 20.  After catching a break on the Montel Williams show, Chef used the entire proceeds of her book sales to open her first restaurant at the young age of 22.  The rest is history, Her namesake restaurant, Chef Adrianne's Vineyard Restaurant and Bar in Miami has been open now for over 15 years, and collecting accolade over accolade as it carved out its position on the culinary stage, such as 8 Most Innovative Restaurants in Miami, Best Chef Miami, Best Chef Florida, New Times Miami Best Restaurant, Thrillist's 50 Things to Eat Before You Die, Thrillist's 17 Most Important Restaurants in Miami, Thrillist's Most Influential Restaurants, Zagat's 10 Totally Unique Restaurants in America, Zagat's Top 6 Restaurants Worth a Drive, and Zagat's 9 Most Romantic Restaurants. In 2019, Chef Adrianne launched her fine-casual eatery, Cracked by Chef Adrianne, which has been featured on Food Network, CNN, and Delish boasting about its “drool-worthy” cuisine.Chef Adrianne  has appeared on the Today Show, Good Morning America, Fox and Friends, Fox News, Food Network's Chopped, Food Network's Beat Bobby Flay, The Talk, Pickler and Ben, Morning's with Maria, CNN, Hallmark Channel, and has a weekly cooking segment on NBC 6 in the Mix for over 14 years. BTW...she's 39 Friggen Years Old.  Let's Go!Get Ready To Be Inspired, Educated, Empowered and Entertained! For more information visit us @shesa10times5. https://instagram.com/shesa10times5

Language lovers rejoice — the blab at sporkers transmit live to tape from the exhibition Glossolalia, hosted at ACRE (hosted by Drama Club) with our guests David Sprecher and Jeff Prokash. Their collaborative show, which performs a complicated material translation of an excerpt of a Franny Choi poem, is up through the weekend and includes a series of readings this Saturday (2/25/23) amidst and among their sculpture-phonemes. We talk about talking and think about thinking in what Zagat's is calling “ə ˈrɪli ɡreɪt ˌɛksəˈbɪʃən ... wɜrθ ˈsikɪŋ ænd ˈsiɪŋ ɪf ju hir wɑt ɪts ˈseɪɪŋ θru ˈbiɪŋ sin …” and we'll agree.      https://davidsprecher.org/home.html https://www.jeffprokash.com/ https://www.acreresidency.org/exhibition/glossolalia

This week, Jamie sits down with Chef Julian Rodarte, co-founder of Beto & Son and CEO of Trinity Grove Restaurant Strip (if you are in Dallas you know!) and he comes on the podcast to talk all things food, family & the power both have to create beautiful moments and memories for so many. Jamie asks Julian about his journey into the culinary arts, what inspired Beto & Son and the role his father played in his love for creating unique dishes and a restaurant that has now been featured on Zagat, Buzzfeed, Food Network, Travel Channel and Chopped U. Julian gives us Backstage views of running a restaurant, what it means to be a food scientist, his favorite kitchen tool, the story behind his original and famous liquid nitrogen margarita and his go-to comfort dish. Enjoy this super foodie chat between Jamie and Chef Julian and anyone in Dallas go visit Beto & Son…and tell them Jamie sent you!

Rachel Miller first fell in love with cooking while working at a small restaurant on the coast of Virginia, where she's from. It was there that she discovered the sensory impact of terroir, since the restaurant sourced ingredients from nearby farms and local fishermen. She also discovered a love for butchering and charcuterie, which quickly propelled her to move to Boston to pursue an entry level butchering job at Lionetti's in the South End. Over the next 12 years, Rachel studied and cooked every day working her way up in some of the best kitchens in Boston, most notably as Chef de Cuisine at Clio, Ken Oringer's flagship restaurant. Prior to Clio, she was named one of Zagat's 30 Under 30: Boston's Hottest Up and Comers, as Executive Sous Chef at Bondir. Once Rachel ran out of opportunities operating other chef's kitchens she decided to move forward and open her own restaurant. For over 2.5 years she worked as a private chef and booked Nightshade Pop Up dinners in and around Boston and the North Shore, learning and growing into her own style. In October of 2019 she opened her first baby, Nightshade Noodle Bar in downtown Lynn, MA where she lives and can be found cooking on the line every night. Follow Rachel for a glimpse from behind the scenes of the Nightshade Noodle Bar kitchen and her next project, Sin City Superette, next door. Check out episode 923 with Brendan Vesey as mentioned in today's episode! Show notes… Calls to ACTION!!! Join Restaurant Unstoppable Network and get your first 30 days on me!  Connect with my past guest and a community of superfans. Subscribe to the Restaurant Unstoppable YouTube Channel Join the private Unstoppable Facebook Group Join the email list! (Scroll Down to get the Vendor List!) Favor success quote/mantra: "Everything I do is to the best of my ability." In this episode with Rachel Miller we will discuss: Travel when you are young Mentors Ego Pop ups Insurance Marketing Building a diverse clientele Creating an email list Today's sponsor: Join the 60-day Restaurant Systems Pro FREE TRAINING. This is something that has never been done before. This 60-day event is at no cost to you, but it is not for everyone. Fred Langley, CEO of Restaurant Systems Pro, will lead a group of restaurateurs through the Restaurant Systems Pro software and set up the systems for your restaurant. During the 60 days, Fred will walk you through the Restaurant Systems Pro Process and help you crush the following goals: Recipe Costing Cards; Guidance in your books for accounting; Cash controls; Sales Forecasting(With Accuracy); Checklists; Budgeting for the entire year; Scheduling for profit; More butts in seats and more… Click Here to learn more. 7shifts is the team management platform for restaurants. From hiring to scheduling, training, and retaining, they've got the tools you need to help you run your business with ease. Better understand your restaurant, hit your labor targets, and keep your entire team connected. Plus, 7shifts integrates with POS and payroll systems you already use and trust! Join over 30,000 restaurants using 7shifts today. Restaurant Unstoppable listeners get 3 months for free. Sign up here: https://www.7shifts.com/unstoppable Knowledge bombs Which "it factor" habit, trait, or characteristic you believe most contributes to your success? Compassion What is your biggest weakness? Compassion What's one thing you ask or look for when interviewing/growing your team? "Why are you here?" What's a current challenge? How are you dealing with it? Hiring Share one code of conduct or behavior you teach your team. "Everything we do is to the best of our ability." What is one uncommon standard of service you teach your staff? Keep a record of what regulars order to reference the next time they come in What's one book we must read to become a better person or restaurant owner? Setting The Table by Danny Meyer GET THIS BOOK FOR FREE AT AUDIBLE.COM  What's one piece of technology you've adopted within your restaurant walls and how has it influence operations? Resy What is one thing you feel restaurateurs don't do well enough or often enough? Thank their staff If you got the news that you'd be leaving this world tomorrow and all memories of you, your work, and your restaurants would be lost with your departure with the exception of 3 pieces of wisdom you could leave behind for the good of humanity, what would they be? Apply an admin fee and pay everyone fairly Do everything to the best of your ability Keep your sidewalk clean Contact: Email: rachel@nightshadenoodlebar.com Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for joining today! Have some feedback you'd like to share? Leave a note in the comment section below! If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the top of the post. Also, please leave an honest review for the Restaurant Unstoppable Podcast on iTunes! Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show, and I read each and every one of them. And finally, don't forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes to get automatic updates. Huge thanks to Rachel Miller for joining me for another awesome episode. Until next time! Restaurant Unstoppable is a free podcast. One of the ways I'm able to make it free is by earning a commission when sharing certain products with you. I've made it a core value to only share tools, resources, and services my guest mentors have recommend, first. If you're finding value in my podcast, please use my links!

Ryan talks to Kwame Onwuachi about his book Notes from a Young Black Chef: A Memoir, the importance of looking at failures as opportunities for growth, how to effectively lead a team of people, and more.Kwame Onwuachi is an American-Nigerian chef based in Washington, D.C. By the age of 27, Onwuachi had competed on Top Chef, been named a 30 Under 30 honoree by both Zagat and Forbes, and had opened five restaurants. He cooked at the White House twice under the Obama administration, and he was the head chef of Kith/Kin inside the InterContinental at the Wharf.✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail

When Chef Irene Li opened a food truck, mei mei, with her siblings, hoping to have fun together, build something cool, and reimagine Chinese comfort cuisine with a playful, modern twist, what happened next took everyone by surprise. Mei Mei exploded, becoming the talk of the town within months. They soon found themselves looking for space and opening a full-service restaurant that was perpetually abuzz. The restaurant was a big success. But, beyond the chance to do something cool with her brother and sister, and push the culinary envelope, there was something else going on.Growing up, Irene's grandparents immigrated to the US and slowly built up their own restaurants. While her brother had been in fine dining for years, she'd developed a deep passion not just for food, but also for the environment, viewing agriculture, the food and restaurant industry as a potential vehicle to change people's lives, to completely upend the way restaurants run, and weave in a powerful thru line of social justice, advocacy and impact. And, of course, fun and love. As mei mei took off, Irene and the restaurant landed features everywhere from Food & Wine and The New York Times to People, Bon Appetit and more. Irene gained acclaim for her creativity and innovation, being named a Zagat 30 Under 30 and Forbes 30 Under 30 winner, six-time James Beard Foundation Rising Star Chef nominee, and James Beard Foundation Leadership Award winner. Her cookbook is Double Awesome Chinese Food: Irresistible and Totally Achievable Recipes from Our Chinese-American Kitchen.Like many restaurants, though, the pandemic was a brutal experience, the restaurant space eventually closed its doors, but mei mei - the creative, joyful food innovator brand - transformed itself into a next-generation direct-to-consumer and wholesale food manufacturer, focusing on their signature dumplings, with a heartbeat that remains deeply rooted in industry reform and social justice. Irene's commitment to food, agriculture, cooking and community is a testament to the dedication she has for her work and her genuine commitment to being in relationship with others to impact the greater good. You can find Irene at: Website | Instagram | Dumplings | PrepshiftIf you LOVED this episode: you'll also love the conversations we had with Ellen Bennett, the founder of Hedley & Bennett chef's apron brand, about how she built a business in the food industry when everyone around her told her it'd never work.Check out our offerings & partners: My New Book Sparked | My New Podcast SPARKEDVisit Our Sponsor Page For a Complete List of Vanity URLs & Discount Codes.Zapier: Workflow automation for everyone. Zapier automates your work across 4000+ app integrations, so you can focus on what matters. Try Zapier for free today at zapier.com/GLP. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.