37 : Revolutionizing Hotel F&B Operations with Scot Turner, Founder of Auden Hospitality

Discover how hospitality maven Scott Turner, of Auden Hospitality, crafts high-performing teams and scales businesses through innovation and keen leadership. 

Scot Turner is the Founder and Managing Director of Auden Hospitality and partners with hoteliers and brands to create F&B outlets their guests will love. 

In this episode Scot and I tackle topics such as: 

• how to determine whether or not your business is scalable and ready for investment
• how he develops himself as a leader 
• his approach to building high performing team

Chapters:

0:08 - Building High-Performing Teams in Hospitality
8:44 - Career Transition to Hotel Consulting
14:26 - Hospitality Leadership and Concept Development
26:19 - Global Expansion Strategy and Challenges
37:55 - Empowering Teams and Continuous Learning
42:45 - Continuous Learning and Work-Life Balance
45:32 - Work-Life Balance in Entrepreneurship

Scott, a seasoned entrepreneur in the restaurant and bar industry, shares his personal journey from working in hotels to creating global establishments. His transition to entrepreneurship is a masterclass in balancing creative vision with sharp operational strategies, and his return to the UK signifies a pivotal moment where hands-on involvement led to the creation of his own path in the hospitality sector.

This episode is a treasure trove of insights for anyone in hospitality leadership or anyone aspiring to develop compelling concepts in the field. Hear how Scott applies an independent restaurateur's mindset to revitalize hotel F&B operations, and how Auden Hospitality is already making a mark by enhancing revenue and quality. The challenges of global expansion are demystified as we dissect strategies for adapting business models to different markets, ensuring scalability and consistency, and finding the sweet spot for creative storytelling behind each venture.

Auden Hospitality's philosophy of empowerment and continuous learning echoes throughout the conversation, and Scott's personal transformation since embarking on his entrepreneurial journey serves as an inspiration for all. Tune in for an enthralling blend of professional development advice and life lessons that underscore the power of presence, both in the boardroom and at home.

Resources Discussed in the Episode:
Auden Hospitality
Burnt Chef Project
Toast-The Restaurant Podcasts You Don't Want to Miss
Culinary Hospitality Outreach Wellness (CHOW)

Auden Channels:

You tube channel - https://youtube.com/@audenhospitality
LinkedIn- https://www.linkedin.com/company/audenhospitality/
Instagram- https://www.instagram.com/audenhospitality?igsh=bXNuM2RjNHNrN2R5&utm_source=qr 

Scots Channels:

Tik Tok- https://www.tiktok.com/@scot_auden?_t=8fl6fti6ucS&_r=1
Instagram- https://instagram.com/scot_auden?igshid=OGQ5ZDc2ODk2ZA==
LinkedIn-

More from Christin:

Curious about one-on-one coaching or leadership workshops? Click this link to schedule a 15 minute strategy session.

Transcript

Christin Marvin: 0:08

In the world of hospitality, regardless of location, country or concept, a consistent theme exists the presence of high-performing teams. Scott Turner is the founder and managing director of Auden Hospitality and partners with hoteliers and brands to create food and beverage outlets their guests will love. Scott and I tackle topics today such as how to determine whether or not your business is scalable and ready for investment, how he develops himself as a leader and his approach to building high-performing teams. Welcome to the no Hesitations podcast, the show where restaurant leaders learn tools, tactics and habits from the world's greatest operators. I am your host, Christin Marvin, with Solutions by Christin. I've spent the last two decades in the restaurant industry and now partner with restaurant owners to develop their leaders and scale their businesses without wasting time and energy, so they can achieve work-life balance and make more money. Hi, Scit Turner, how are you?

Scot Turner: 1:17

I am excellent, Christin. Thank you, good to see you.

Christin Marvin: 1:20

Good to see you too. Thanks so much for being here. I read a LinkedIn post from you this morning and it was very timely and I loved it. You were talking about LinkedIn and I know that you spent a lot of time creating content there and building community, and you were talking about some of the relationships that you've built through LinkedIn and that's how you and I connected. I was really looking to build a community of people that I could connect with and learn from and also help my entrepreneurial journey not seem so lonely, and I was curious about who was doing what I wanted to do in the space and was kind enough. You know, I reached out to you on LinkedIn and said, hey, can we have a quick, quick chat? And you were so kind and I'm so excited to have you on the show after that conversation. So thanks for being here.

Scot Turner: 2:07

No, my pleasure, and you know the amount of people that I've met through the LinkedIn journey since I first started posting August 2022 has been amazing, and I think you know my big tip to anyone when I talk to them and they talk to me about being on LinkedIn.

Scot Turner: 2:24

So much is the amount of great people I've met, the amount of resource that I've been able to absorb for free where a lot of people would have to. It's amazing how many times when you reach out to people that they respond with yes and jump on a zoom call and uh I. My way of giving back to all those people who did the same thing for me is to jump on calls with anyone else that is behind on the journey, ahead on the journey, just needs to chat, wants to talk through uh, doing your own business or working in hospitality or anything like that. So it's a great platform to be on and I still say now it's, apart from referrals and networks, it's probably 50% of where my leads come from as a business. So, apart from anything else, it's just a great revenue source for me to turn up every day and share knowledge and meet great people.

Christin Marvin: 3:24

Yeah, I love it. Yeah, I agree with you. I think and I've heard this from a couple people you know in our circle of contacts but when somebody reaches out, I A I was really surprised with how many people I reached out to that all said yes about the conversation, because I thought everybody was really busy or I thought they were. So, you know, they had these giant companies, they didn't want to talk to little old me and everybody was so supportive and kind and, and I agree, I want to have a conversation with anybody. You know you you get what you give for sure, but I want to pay that forward. So, love that way. We share that mindset.

Scot Turner: 3:58

A hundred percent and and you know it's funny I think a lot of the time the piece that stops people from connecting is that you think they're going to say no. I know I certainly did. When I started reaching out to people, exactly like you, I was like, oh, I might get one in five back. He's definitely not going to talk to me.

Scot Turner: 4:16

I remember writing to Sean Walsh, who I now speak to quite a bit, and being like he's never going to respond back. And he was like, straight back, let's jump on a call and a Calendly link. And I was like, ok, what am I going to say to him? Because I hadn't thought about that, because I thought he was going to say no, troy Hooper was another one. And I was just like, ok, I'm going to have to think of something now. Give myself a couple of weeks on the Calendly to think and to think. And, um, yeah, I think people say yes, people want to help and there's a great community out there and if people are out there active on linkedin, it's probably a good indication that they're going to come back and say yes and and have a conversation. So, yeah, definitely, if you're sitting over that kind of send button now thinking they're going to say no or they're never going to come back to me. Just hit that button and see what they say, because probably the majority will come back and say yes.

Christin Marvin: 5:07

A hundred percent. We're there to engage, right. That's the whole point of us being on there. We love to come in and each other's posts. I talked to Sean last week for the first time and same thing. I was a little nervous to reach out to him because I see him everywhere and I know he's got all these restaurants and this barbecue media company right. And he said to me he was so gracious and kind with his time. But he said to me at the end reach out to me anytime. He said I'm oddly available and I just loved that, that sentiment about a little bit about odd hospitality and and really how you're challenging hoteliers to think different.

Christin Marvin: 5:46

I'm really, really excited about this. I worked for a hotel, a five-star, five diamond hotel for five years. It's really where I cut my teeth in the industry and fell in love with hospitality and going above and beyond for guests, wine and food and mixology and all the things. So you're taking me back a few years, which is really going to be exciting for me today. But would you start by just sharing with the audience a little bit about your story and then how Auden Hospitality came to be?

Scot Turner: 6:14

Yeah, 100 percent. I'll take you right back to when I was 16 and my first job was in hotels and I was a silver service waiter and I was working in the hotel that had the biggest ballroom in my hometown in the north of England. And from the first day I went in there, I just loved the adrenaline that was happening in the kitchen, in the room, with the teams, with the guests. I just loved that you were able to provide this service to people. That just made people smile and brought people together. And from that moment on I was hooked and worked there part time while I was finishing studies, went to go study hotel management at university and from there then went into hotels. I was in hotels for 15 years, worked in luxury hotels, city center, country house, golf resorts, and I was always really lucky that I worked in busy food and beverage operations. So, um, all but one of the hotels I worked food and beverage was equal, if not a slightly bit more, than the the rooms revenue, which is obviously really uncommon. Um, and just loved it, just loved everything about it. I loved about creating hospitality, the luxury element, you know, doing large-scale events, uh, and leading big teams to deliver great things, so did that. I worked my way up the chain, as as you do.

Scot Turner: 7:40

My last position in hotels I was hotel manager of the intercontinental in London. It was a brand new opening. I was hotel manager there and I started moving away from F&B for the first time and kind of sat there three years. I was in the position, got to that point where it was a bit like, ok, where do I go next? Do I go general manager? Is that what I want to do? And I just had this big passion for F&B and I wanted to stay in restaurants, I wanted to stay in bars, I wanted to stay in that environment and realize that Hotel GM wasn't the way forwards. And at the time I was, um, I was working alongside a F&B consultant, um and um, he had been a little bit of a mentor to me while we were doing the the hotel opening. And um, he was opening an office in Dubai and said why don't you come and work for me in Dubai? And he had been a little bit of a mentor to me while we were doing the hotel opening. And he was opening an office in Dubai and said why don't you come and work for me in Dubai and run restaurants and bars that we're doing in Dubai. So I had this opportunity to go and work in the Middle East. Something I'd always wanted to do was work abroad and I wanted to work in restaurants and bars. So I took the decision to move. And I wanted to work in restaurants and bars, so I took the decision to move.

Scot Turner: 8:44

I remember ringing my mum now and kind of sitting there going oh, mum, I'm going to go leave my job in hotels. And she was like what do you mean? You're leaving your job in hotels? Yeah, I'm off to go work in restaurants and bars. She was like, well, you've done all your life is hotels. You love hotels. I said, yeah, but I think I love restaurants and bars. Hotels. I said, yeah, but I think I love restaurants and bars and, by the way, I'm moving to Dubai as well. She was just like, oh, I give up. I give up, do what you want, we'll come and visit wherever you go, we're used to it. So, yeah, moved to Dubai, lived in Dubai for five years Amazing part of the world. If you've never been, you really should. We opened some amazing restaurants there. We opened Al-An-Dikas on the Palm. We worked with China Grill Management and opened Asia de Cuba in Abu, dhabi, bahrain and Dubai. We opened some homegrown concept restaurants as well and, yeah, just had a great time opening restaurants Across the time of working for them. We worked in 12 countries, different projects, so I got an amazing opportunity to see different countries and taking different cultures and opening restaurants in different parts of the world.

Scot Turner: 9:54

Halfway through my time we were bought by a Saudi investment company who wanted to take emerging brands or brands with maybe like two or three sites kind of hit. That founder led business stage needed more investment, needed more knowledge. Our business went in and we invested into the top company and then we helped them roll the brand across four operating platforms that we had, which was New York, london, kuwait and Saudi Arabia. And our job was really as the operations team. We'd go in pre-acquisition and kind of analyze the business and make sure it was scalable, investable and we could develop it. And then after acquisition, we'd then go in and put our systems, procedures, policies in place and work alongside the founders to help scale the business. So the founders stayed very much creative and almost brand guardians scale the business. So the founders stayed very much creative and almost brand guardians, and then us as operators. We would then run the operations and run the business from the day-to-day perspective. So we really looked at where the founders were strong and then we tried to fill the gaps.

Scot Turner: 10:56

As part of that, we opened an office in Riyadh, opened some restaurants in Riyadh and then, just before COVID, I came back to the UK position of COO. So my responsibility there was we had 16 brands across the four countries, 85 restaurants and each brand had its own GM who reported in to me and we had a five-year plan from an investment perspective and that was what we worked along on a day-to-day basis, got to end of 2021, and I'd been with the business seven years and it just got to that point where, again, I was kind of moving a little bit away from the operation. I was moving more towards the investment office and looking at strategic five-year plans and how do we exit brands and bring new brands into the cycle. And I missed being on the floor and I missed being with teams and I missed kind of being there where the action happened. I was more in central office with people reporting into me rather than being in the nooks and crannies, and I really missed it and I just felt like I wasn't particularly having an impact anymore in in the business. So I left all intentions of going and doing another COO job in a different business.

Scot Turner: 12:08

And I remember I was walking around one of the parks in London and just thinking about what was the next move and I just suddenly had this burning desire to do my own thing. For the first time ever, my dad had his own business. I always hated the fact that he had his own business because I saw how much time and effort he had to put into it and you know, and sacrifices he had to make and I always vowed that I would never have my own business. But yeah, I just had this burning desire. I came back to my wife and said listen, I want to do something for myself. She said what do you want to do? I really don't know if I'm being honest, but let's just try and work it out as we go.

Scot Turner: 12:40

At the time I had a couple of people who knew that I'd left the business and were ringing for individual projects and I just got back into the groove of doing that kind of consulting, project-based work. So I did that for a couple of months and then out of that just kind of found my niche. It's like when you set up your own business, you go back and you talk to the people who know you the most you and work your network. You chat to them about what the pain points, where's, where's my opportunity to make a difference if I'm going to go back in and do project and consulting work, like what's my point of difference? Because there's lots of consultants in the world and uh, and I found that it was. It was kind of back in hotels.

Scot Turner: 13:20

So really looked at that and this is where we get into the bit now about working with hotels and making them think differently and it was like I'd worked in hotels for 15 years and one of the reasons I left hotels as a as a sector was in the role of F&B director. Essentially the role is the same. What changes is? The four walls of the hotel and the number of outlets you look after, but fundamentally, breakfast, lunch, dinner, meetings and events is the same.

Scot Turner: 13:51

And I looked at that, looked at the operations and I always remember thinking about the all-day dining lounge and how I was sitting in a hotel in London won't say which one it was and it looked exactly like the hotel that I first worked in when I was 16 in the all-day dining lounge.

Scot Turner: 14:08

So in that time frame, 20 odd years, that all-day dining lounge concept hadn't changed and it was a bit like okay, maybe we can, with all these new coffee shops coming out now, bakeries and things, surely the world has moved on from the classic hotel lounge and thought you know what. Actually, I probably learned more in the seven years I was working in independent restaurants than the 15 years working in hotels. Because in hotels you have no rent, no utilities, maintenance team on tap, housekeepers to clean the venue. You have concierge to help sell the place for you, you have sales and marketing people, you have security. You have all these people that when you're suddenly on your own in an independent restaurant, you have to do it for yourself yeah and I thought what about if my USP was going back into hotels working with hoteliers to go?

Scot Turner: 15:02

do you know what? We need to think more like restaurateursurs in hotels, because if we did, we'd be a lot more innovative, we'd take a lot more ownership and we'd probably have a lot more success, because we'd see the individual outlets as independent businesses that we can then treat very differently to what we would do normally in a hotel environment. That's very much more functional than it is fun, because we're thinking about breakfast, we're thinking about room service, we're thinking about meeting and events. So we set up Odin Hospitality. That was April 2022 and really over the last couple of years now, we have gone into hotels and we work with the hotel team. We work with hoteliers, we analyze their F&B operations, we look at what we can do in terms of elevating those operations, whether that's from a revenue perspective or a quality perspective.

Scot Turner: 15:59

And you know, one of the things we do is we don't always go in and rip up the rule book and try and start again with concepts.

Scot Turner: 16:05

A lot of the time, hotels have put a lot of investment into branding and naming and things like that, and it's more about how we can put a story in place that everyone believes in, everyone knows, just like a restaurateur would do.

Scot Turner: 16:18

We create that concept and then from there we go and look at things like how do we optimize revenue, revenue systems, how can we go in there and get the team to really focus on, uh, achieving quality. We look at digital experience and how can we help make things more efficient and try and drive sales from there. And then we kind of come out of it and we work alongside the hotel team to implement some of those actions over probably a six to nine month period from there as well. Um, so that's our main core of our business, um, but then on the other side as well, we do concept development. We work with hotel groups in project stage, renovation stage. We develop what the f&b strategy would look like for the hotel and help them go through kind of design, uh, concept creation and implementation all the way through as well.

Christin Marvin: 17:05

So Scot, can I? Um, I want to go so much, so many wonderful questions that I have in in all the nuggets that you just shared. But I was. I want to go way back to your early days because I remember when I was first starting out in restaurants, I I did not go to school for hotel management, I went to school for marketing and I remember those of us that were hands-on in the restaurants, working our way up through the ranks of management that had not gone to hospitality management school, would look at people that graduated just coming in and go. You don't know what this is all about, right, and vice versa, the people with the degrees would say well, I know how to run the business really well, but since you guys don't know what I know, did you experience any of that when you were younger in your career?

Scot Turner: 17:50

Yeah, I think I always look back now on my time in university. I did a sandwich course, so I spent three years uni and one year in like a placement year, and I look at it as in like learning to drive you learn how to drive to pass your test and then you learn how to drive when you get on the road afterwards. I thought management school and university was very similar. It taught you the basics, it you theory, which is great. Everyone probably listening to your podcast right now is sitting there going, yeah, but hospitality doesn't work like a theory, doesn't work like a book. You can write things in as many management books as you like, it goes out of the window the first time you're doing an event and it doesn't break on time but you have all the food ready to serve and how do you manage that process? Or you're doing a restaurant operation and you have 30 people on the books and you end up doing 200 like no, no theory can teach you how to handle those environments.

Scot Turner: 18:49

So, yeah, I, I, you know we used to call it um, we used to. I don't know if this was uh similar to it to when you were in hotels, but we used to call it. We used to. I don't know if this was similar to when you were in hotels, but we used to call it new collar syndrome and you could always tell when someone had come out of university because they had the brand new suit and the brand new shirt and they were walking in with like the shoulders back and then the first time it got busy they'd be kind of cowering in the background.

Scot Turner: 19:13

It was yeah. So the the new color syndrome was definitely something we experienced. But I think you know what I love about the industry now is I think we've put a lot less reliance on education-based learning and we're really trying to bring people in and train them from the bottom, which I just think makes it such an accessible industry, uh, such an exciting industry, because people can come and be creative right from the start. And, yeah, I love the fact that it's putting a little bit less reliance on kind of the university school element of things.

Christin Marvin: 19:45

But yeah, you know it's, it's funny and in in hotels, all the managers are in suits, right? I remember when I moved my, when I became a GM at 24 and the hotel I was working for, I was so excited to go downstairs to the uniform department and get fitted for my suit, right, and I found that I really respected the managers that took their jackets off and got with us Right and and I think it's funny that you, you know you take me back to that memory, because when you see somebody come in with a suit on, you're like, man, we're just going to get, we want some stains on that thing and we're going to get you dirty and get you sweaty, right.

Scot Turner: 20:21

Definitely, definitely.

Christin Marvin: 20:30

Hey there, podcast friends. I hope you're enjoying these impactful conversations and leadership insights I'm bringing you each week. Before we dive back into today's episode, I wanna take a moment and reach out and ask a small favor. That would go a long way in supporting the show. If you've been loving the content I'm providing, please take a moment to leave a rating and review. Wherever you listen to your podcasts, Not only does it make my day, but it also plays a pivotal role in helping the show grow. Your reviews boost my visibility, attract new listeners and encourage exciting guests to join me on the mic. So if you want to be part of my show's growth journey, hit that review button and let me know what you think. Thanks a million for being awesome listeners.

Scot Turner: 21:20

Do you know? It's funny. I worked for the Dorchester Collection at a hotel called Cowarth Park and it's a beautiful country house hotel. It's got polo fields. We had two restaurants miles away from each other. It had a block of 30 rooms off the main hotel. So think about how you deliver room service there on a morning in the middle of the rain in England in January we could do two marquees for 500 people and I used to go through a pair of shoes a month because we'd do that much walking around the estate. But you just go through, yeah, you just go through soles of the shoes like you've never seen. And yeah, I think that's what is.

Scot Turner: 22:13

The sad state of the industry at the minute is I think we're losing too many managers from the floor into offices and I think it's one of the things now that when you sit in hotel lobbies and you sit in hotels, you don't see those suits as much anymore. And that's the bit that makes me the most sad, because you see people just left to their own devices on the floor and some of that and it's not always their fault the amount of times that we go into operations and we're looking at people doing manual inventories or time sheets are being done on excel and things like that. That just sucks up time, sucks up energy, sucks up resource, where working with the right systems and getting them in place can get your people back on the floor, which is what, for me, is the most important thing for the guests and it's the most important team thing for the teams, and it's what great hospitality is all about. I did a post on linkedin a while ago now about how all this admin and stuff is losing what I would call like the old art of the dining room, which is the maitre d like. We lose, we're losing those people who just want to be on the floor looking after guests and the reason guests come back again and again because they get looked after, and I think, um, it's one of the first things we look at. Um, you know, we're having a conversation actually with the.

Scot Turner: 23:26

We're doing a team meeting this morning about a project we're working on and we're working on the roles and responsibilities of the, the team that's going to be working in this cafe outlet, and we've got cashiers behind the tills, we've got guys baristas on the coffee machine and we were talking about the front of house and I was like let's not call them waiters, let's call them hosts, because that's what we want them to do. And that whole word host puts a different mindset on what that role is. You tell someone there's a waiter, they go into the tables they're serving. It's almost functional. You say to someone you're going to host, we want you to host this room, like you were welcoming someone into your dining room for a dinner party. That makes them think completely different.

Scot Turner: 24:11

So we've named that role, that's front of house, as F&B host, because we want them to be the ones who are going around and really talking. We're going to put digital ordering in, so there's not a big thing to do in terms of a sequence of service. So, instead of taking that role away, we want that role to be more hospitable. We want them to be more conversational. We want them to be the people who are engaging and getting the atmosphere of the restaurant bubbling, rather than spending time on notepads or iPads and things like that taking orders. So yeah, it's just. It puts a completely different mindset onto people, those little kind of words.

Christin Marvin: 24:46

I love that. Yeah, I agree with you a hundred percent. I think from the waiter's perspective right, they think of the table or this section as my responsibility but from a host perspective, you're seeing the entire restaurant. You're in charge of every table, every guest that walks in, just like you would be in your home, which I love. That scale and I'm curious earlier you mentioned that you would go in and look at the scalability and the investment potential, and I think you named one other bullet about concepts how did you identify if a restaurant was scalable and had an investment?

Scot Turner: 25:30

Yeah for sure. So, yeah, 100%. So we would would go in to operations and we'd look at a couple of things. So first of all it would be is the concept strong? Is it strong and is it transferable? So if we're investing into a concept so a prime example concept in Beirut we went into that concept and we looked at the product and we looked at it and thought, ok, if we're initially going to put this in our four operating platforms US, uk, western based, and then in the Middle East can this concept transfer into all those platforms? Because that's our easy way to scale. The brand Outside of that is then can you franchise it to other parts of the world. The brand Outside of that is then can you franchise it to other parts of the world. So first of all, we'd look at that. Can the concept transfer? The second one, then, is can the concept transfer commercially into the UK from the Middle East? Maybe the same if you were pulling it from Asia into the West.

Scot Turner: 26:31

And what I mean by that is a lot of concepts in the Middle East are heavily based on people producing the product, because the labor is cheaper than the West, and I heard Troy Hooper talk about this with Pepper Lunch Restaurants the other day, in that they have a real low skill model because they're buying everything in, so they're making sure the quality is there, but they're buying it in, so there's low prep. Because they're buying everything in, so they're making sure the quality is there, but they're buying it in, so there's low prep. And that's all focused around the fact that now labour's getting more expensive in the US, certainly here in the UK as well. So we would look at that and go, okay, take the bakery in. It was a bakery in Beirut. They were making what they call moagenettes, which is like individual little pastries that are made. They had a lineup of about 12 Moesianettes, so 12 individual pastry items that had to be done by hand because the way the design was you couldn't do them on a machine. So we looked at that and was like how are we going to be able to replicate that in the UK when you're paying $500 a month in Beirut? In the UK we would pay minimum minimum $2,000 a month for that same labor.

Scot Turner: 27:39

So we would look at that and be like, okay, can we transfer that across, or do we need to look at how we iterate the brand to bring it out. And then, from a scalability perspective, we would look at so, say, we bought a brand. We would then instantly look at how we could get five venues or locations in each operating platform as quickly as possible. So to be able to do that, we'd need to be able to scale quickly. So, do they have manuals in place already? Would we have to create them? How readily available is the information to be able to create them? And then, secondly, how simple is it to take that product and take it to a different country, where language might be different, skills might be different, and replicate that product? So if it was really labor-intensive, if it was really highly skilled, we would look at that and be going okay, we might not be able to open five of these, we might only be able to open one or two. And then, therefore, that makes the investment model change, because it's going to take a lot longer to get to five stores.

Scot Turner: 28:45

So we would look at things like okay, can we transfer the making of dough For example, in this bakery it was Manushi Can we outsource the dough, because that's a huge chunk, and get the same quality that we can buy in, because then we can take that recipe and we can drop it in the us, we can drop it in the uk and we can replicate that product quickly and instantly that goes from there.

Scot Turner: 29:07

So we'd look at that. We'd also look at, you know, can we uh systemize the way that dishes are put together? So, you know, using colored scoops with measures? So we're doing things by color and scoops rather than handful of this, spoonful of that. So we'd like get very specific on how we could do it, because what we could then do from that is, once we systemized it, once we put it into a format that could work globally, we can then have one task force team that rolls these restaurants out and can help scale that product quicker, and we don't have to have individual people that go and spend months and years in locations because they're the ones who have all the brand knowledge. So it was very much about how can you transfer those skills and do it. So, essentially, what we were looking at it as is, if you went into a brand today and said, can I franchise this brand, we would be doing exactly the same thing, but we'd be replicating it over four different countries and the nuances of each individual country.

Christin Marvin: 30:05

Got it, so that totally makes sense from an execution standpoint. Can we duplicate this model really really easily and train it and execute really really well? Consistency, all that good stuff. How did you know that it would be successful in those brand new markets, especially when you're going into different countries?

Scot Turner: 30:24

Yeah, I mean that was very much about and we do a lot now when we're looking at new concepts with clients we would just research and analyze the markets with clients. We would just research and analyze the markets. So you know, we were in New York, we were in London, we were in across Saudi Arabia, we were in Kuwait City. So again, we had very kind of targeted demographics and locations that we could work on and then within those locations we'd start looking at okay, is it something that should be around offices, is it something that's more neighborhood, is it something where people are going to go to at night or is it daytime? And then we'd start looking at what the commercial model looks like, to start looking at what rent values it could sustain as a business and things like that. So we'd really go in and we'd analyze and really look at what our target locations were for the brand.

Scot Turner: 31:18

Not all of them transferred. Some of them had to stay in the Middle East because they were heavy labor intensive and if we ever brought them to the UK or the US it just wouldn't have worked as a commercial model and some of them could go across all four. And then some of them were because we were in New York, because we were in London, we looked at certain brands and said, okay, is this worth taking a hit from a commercial perspective? Because the footprint of having this brand in London and in New York adds value to the overall value of the investment that sits there. Because the minute we put a brand in London, the minute we put a brand in New York, we could franchise that out quite easily because they had the footprint especially back into the Middle East. So we really analyzed that and looked at what the commercial value was versus the marketing and brand exposure that you could get from those platforms.

Christin Marvin: 32:16

Nice. What has been the project that you worked on that you're just so incredibly proud of?

Scot Turner: 32:27

Wow, that's a good question. There's been a few over the years. I think the one that stands to mind more than any was and it's more because of the adversity of the whole situation that led through and I shared this last night, actually, on a show that we did with Monty Silver and Sean we opened a bakery in 2021. We opened it in May 2021. It was supposed to open in November 2020. The day before we were supposed to open, we'd done all the marketing, we'd built up all the awareness, we'd hired the team.

Scot Turner: 33:07

We went into a full lockdown in the UK and we were sitting there on what was supposedly day one, with maybe five of us because everyone else couldn't come into work and had to stay at home, and we thought it was going to be a month. It ended up being six months of it there. We had the team in place, we had some great bakers in place, we'd spent the marketing budget and we sat there and we were kind of like, okay, how do we keep this brand alive? How do we keep the momentum going? We've got no more marketing budget left, so how do we do it all for free? Um, and we really looked at how we could engage the local community. So we went on linkedin live. Every week we did bake alongs with our head baker. We did a competition at the start of the week where people could nominate, um, friends and family to get uh bakery items and our head baker would take it to the house on a friday, um, and would deliver these pastries. It was like that human connection piece and covid was great, um, and we wanted to keep people in jobs so we were doing like, uh, wholesale stuff for takeaway places and stuff like that and, um, yeah, we managed to open on the first day that we came out of lockdown. Uh, and we had queues outside the door because we just built up this amazing engagement, an amazing connection with the local community that as soon as they could come out, they were there.

Scot Turner: 34:30

And our big saying throughout those whole six months of being locked down was how do we create the new habit of our guest to come to our bakery when people can come back out again? Because we saw it as a huge reset. We were in central London, right, so central London, very habitual. You go to the same place for coffee as you do anywhere and we thought this was a chance to reset those habits and get people into us, to be the new habit. And that's all we focused on was connection, connection, connection, emotion, emotion, emotion, and worked on it and did it all through free of charge, free on social media, and we had queues outside the door and it was yeah, it was such a great one. But I always look at that just because the drama of being closed the day before opening isn't something that usually happens in a restaurant. So there was that.

Scot Turner: 35:19

But we had some amazing ones. We opened a hotel. We opened a hotel as a task force in Montenegro. We went in there three months before. It was in a bit of a state. We managed to get it open.

Scot Turner: 35:31

That was a huge one because we went into a totally different culture that none of us knew. There was four of us in this task force and by hook or by crook, we pretty much dragged the hotel open. For the start, there was some there. We got sent to Davos once for the World Economic Forum. We went and we took over this guy's bar.

Scot Turner: 35:57

We created a speakeasy in two weeks that then the company who hired us were doing social events there and hosting and entertaining, which doesn't sound that difficult, but it is when you're in minus 17. And the team are working from Dubai, who have been in 35 degrees, so you do a massive 40-degree swing. And you know, trying to find boots and coats and things in Dubai Mall was like virtually impossible. So we all went there in our like literally short coats that we'd wear in Dubai and the first thing we had to do was buy boots and coats. So yeah, there's a few, but the bakery one always stands out to me. Just because of the, just because of the adversity that then went into, went into success at the end.

Christin Marvin: 36:41

What I love about your story is that there's really such a common theme that that hospitality and strong operations and food and beverage just translates across all cultures, it sounds like, and all concepts, whether it's hotel, restaurants, bars, and I'm curious what you think the common thread is to that theme.

Scot Turner: 37:06

I think one thing that I've always had throughout my whole career has been an amazing team, and I think that's the one thing that transcends across borders and countries is that first thing is, how do you develop the team? Because that team is the one thing that can get you through. And you know, when we were in Dubai, we had some amazing people there who didn't go back home for two or three years, didn't see the kids, because they were. You know, their main aim was sending money home to give them education and give them homes, and you really had that real team mentality that went through it. And I think, if I look back at my career, I've always been lucky that we worked with high-performing teams and I think that really does make it easy. And I think it's something that we don't get enough credit for in hospitality because we focus on the negatives too much and I think everyone starts picking on how we overwork people and you know it's not great.

Scot Turner: 38:07

Environments and I'm an ambassador at the Burnt Chef Project. I get it, I see it. I've seen examples of it. I was judging the awards the other day. I've lived, you know, examples of where businesses don't look after the people, but isn't that the same in any industry. I think what we don't do as an industry enough is we don't shout about the great things that we do really well that team shape, that camaraderie, the way people pull together in difficult situations all those things I think we're really bad at selling ourselves about. How we can teach some amazing soft skills to people.

Scot Turner: 38:43

And there's a. There's a organization here in the uk called hospitality rising and they've done a really good job just recently of going. Do you know what? Actually, this is a great industry to be in and come and work for it.

Scot Turner: 38:54

Because of these reasons, and I was speaking to a hr director recently and she was saying she stopped measuring retention in terms of a flat figure now, and how she measures retention is one, how many people in the organization leave in the industry and how many people leave outside of the industry. And she focuses on the outside industry metric more, because what she's saying is if we really engage people and we're a great place to be, but then move on to another hospitality business, well, that's just career growth. That's someone wanting to have a change of scenery. But if someone comes in and they don't enjoy it, they're not engaged by it. They don't love it, they don't get the bug and the lead to go outside the industry. That's where we've got to be more concerned, and I'd love it if more businesses were analyzing that metric, because I think it's a really good metric to live by.

Christin Marvin: 39:47

Yeah, a hundred percent. I love that there's organizations out there like Burnt Chef that you know, like Chow we've got Chow and I know Chris Hall of Burnt Chef is on our board as well at Chow and just there's incredible. There's so many wonderful organizations out there that are just really trying to work hard to keep people in the industry, and just like you and I are, which is amazing. I'm curious I'm going to put you on the spot here for a second I'm curious how you are developing yourself as a leader and how you're developing your team into a high-performing team at Auden Hospitality.

Scot Turner: 40:21

Yeah, let's start with the team first. I am a massive believer in empowerment, so how I would prefer my team to go and do something and make mistakes than me overanalyze and micromanage. So I could probably be accused sometimes of not giving people enough guidance, but I always used to thrive in environments where I'd have to go off and learn myself and do things and use my own creativity and come back. So you know, if we're doing training sheets for a project, I won't dictate what that should look like. I'd let my team go and do it and come back, and if it needs tweaks, we have a conversation and we talk about why back, and if it needs tweaks, we have a conversation and we talk about why. So, um, when it comes to my team, I'm very much of a thing of go and be creative, go and use your own initiative, come back and let's have a chat around why you've done it, and if we need to make some tweaks, we can. We can make some tweaks. Um, so that's the. That's a big one for me. And then I really encourage them to do exactly what I do on a daily basis in terms of sucking up knowledge, and that is, I listen to podcasts and I read every single day.

Scot Turner: 41:36

So I, I'm lucky. I travel on the train into London every morning and I travel out of London every day and I just consume content and and. At home, when I put the kids to bed, I go downstairs and I read a chapter of a book every single night that I get through because I just find it the best, easiest way to do it. So yeah, that's it. And it's not always around hospitality, it's things in business. I've got my laptop rested on books. I've got Em emotion by design by greg hoffman. He was the cmo of nike. I've got atomic habits by james clear. Good to great by jim collins. I'm reading um, you can't do it alone by matt rolf at the minute, nice, which is a great read, uh, a really, really good one. So yeah, lots of books. Podcasts. Uh, love gary v um.

Scot Turner: 42:26

I think you have to read between the lines sometimes, um, and not every episode is great, but I love that. Um, obviously, some of the hospitality ones are brilliant. Diary of a ceo is great, um, but, um, yeah, that's how I that's kind of how I suck up and learn and just consume. I don't really switch off. I don't really switch off. My brain doesn't really switch off. So whenever I can, whenever there's a quiet moment, I'll stick the AirPods in my ear and listen to something or read, and I really ask the team to do the same, because it's really important that you just don't sit still.

Scot Turner: 43:03

I think that's why LinkedInin I enjoy linkedin so much, because you just get so much value from. I was reading a thing today from a guy, um, who was talking all about like neighborhood planning and how that impacts restaurants and bars and strategy around it, and it's just really interesting, like thinking about how someone can be curating a residential neighborhood and starts thinking about where should the coffee place sit, where should the restaurant sit, where should the takeaway places sit within this master scheme. So I think that's where LinkedIn is really good as well. If you can get the right people coming up in your feed, you can get some pretty amazing stuff that you never thought you'd need to know.

Christin Marvin: 43:43

But actually when you consume it can really help what you do thought you'd need to know, but actually when you consume it can, can really help what you do.

Christin Marvin: 43:51

Yeah, I agree, I, um, I listen to podcasts and read constantly, whether it's emails or content on LinkedIn, and it's you know, it's interesting.

Christin Marvin: 43:55

There's so, especially now being an entrepreneur and getting you know not being in operations full time, where you're constantly on the floor there's so much content coming at us, you know, at every single second of the day, and it's and it took me a little bit of time to realize like I can I know I can control this what do, what exactly do I want to listen to and what do I want to learn about it? And then, one thing I've found being an entrepreneur is it's I'm learning how to develop the skill of being able to turn this off, because I can't, it can't all just be a business podcast all the time, right, like I've taught myself every aspect of how to do this business not every aspect, but a lot of aspects of how to do this business from books and podcasts, but also through community, and there are some times I just need to turn it off and read a story that has nothing to do with it, or learn about something about nutrition, or running or dogs or whatever you know.

Scot Turner: 44:46

Yeah, it's important about nutrition or running or dogs or whatever you know. It's important that whole um you know one thing about, about doing this, uh for myself and and and being um a business owner and it and I say the same to the team now that I was shouting at them the other day because, um, they were on Slack at like half past eight at night and they were working on something that just didn't need to be working on, worked on Like I fully commend night, and they were working on something that just didn't need to be worked on. I fully commend them and if they're listening to this, thank you very much. But it could have waited and I was on Slack just like guys, have a rest, go, go, go, wait till tomorrow. No one's going to, it's not going to change the world by tomorrow, and I think that whole freedom of time piece has been one of the most valuable things that has happened to me over the last two years of being a business owner. Do I work as hard as I did before? Probably more, probably harder?

Scot Turner: 45:36

yeah but I do that when I want to work. So you know, I can now go for lunch with my wife guilt free, which I've never done before, and I just work a bit later at night. Or I pick the times when I work and when I don't work and it works for me. I've never seen my kids so much as in the last two years, as I've had my own business, as I did before, and you know I always tell a story about um, uh, the first parents uh meeting that we had at school. After I finished, uh, started working for myself. And you know it's like when you first work for yourself, things are a bit quieter, you have a bit more time, um, so it becomes a bit easier. But we were walking down the street to the school, uh, myself and my wife, and I said to her I said you know, this is a really strange feeling I've got now, and she said what do you mean? I said well, normally this time last year, when I was in a job, I would either not have been here because I'd have been at work, or if I had have been here, I wouldn't have been paying attention because I'd have been that interested in what my phone was saying what my boss thought about me being away at school and things like that. And this is the first time I'm going to go to a parent's evening and actually listen, guilt free, to what's being said actually listen guilt-free to what's being said and I've never forgot that moment because it was just a huge change in my life from having 25 years in hospitality.

Scot Turner: 46:53

So I think that whole freedom of time making time for yourself, having time to switch off consume, and I was one of the worst for always looking at the next role.

Scot Turner: 47:04

So I would never be comfortable in the role I was in From day one of the next role I was looking at, comfortable in the role I was in from day one of the next role. I was looking at what was next and that was always my target and you know I became very task orientated and that was always my focus. But I would look at it now and go, if I'd have put some me time, if I'd have had some switch off time, I think I would probably have been better than I was when I was in those roles because I would have switched off and things like that. So, um, yeah, I would encourage anyone to just put time in the diary, schedule it if you have to, if you have to get into those habits. That's what I did initially. I scheduled where I would have it off um and and do something for you because it does make a massive, does make a massive difference to your output and your focus at work, for sure.

Christin Marvin: 47:53

Yeah, I love that you're taking more time to be present in the moment and enjoying the journey instead of constantly just looking at what's next, because that's can really it can really lead to burnout. I've been there myself, Scott. This has been awesome. Thank you so much. Can you tell listeners where they can find you? Let's pimp the show.

Scot Turner: 48:11

Yeah, 100%. Thank you very much, and congratulations on getting into the Toast Best podcast as well, Christin. You really well deserve. So, yeah, sitting in some great people there. So if anyone wants to get hold of me, hit me up on LinkedIn, scott Turner, that's probably the best place to get me. Audenhospitality. com is the website if you want to see how we help hoteliers think differently. And then, yeah, hospitality Huddles podcast is on all the major podcast channels, and then I have a newsletter on Substack, f&b Insider, which gives tips every Saturday for F&B leaders to just think a little bit differently, and we share some of the bits that we're working on, projects wise, to just show examples of how you can implement it in your operation.

Christin Marvin: 48:56

I love it. Keep up the great work, my friend. Such a great pleasure to connect with you again today and can't wait to keep just cheering you on and listening to your show and enjoying all your content. Thank you so much for everything you do.

Scot Turner: 49:09

My pleasure. Thanks,Christin, really enjoyed it.

Christin Marvin: 49:11

You bet. All right, everybody, be sure to check out or share this podcast with any leaders that you know in the restaurant industry who could benefit, and check out my step-by-step guide on how to retain your employees at ChristinMarvin. com. Thanks everybody, we'll talk to you next week.