Taking the Culinary World by Storm: Propel Your Career with Expert Coaching - Turning the Table
Do you want to enhance your culinary career and unlock greater growth opportunities?
Are you searching for a solution that can bring you improved career clarity and advancement in the culinary industry?
Then look no further!
By enlisting the expertise of a specialized career coach in the culinary field, you can achieve exactly that.
They hold the key to guiding you towards a more fulfilling and successful culinary journey, helping you reach your goals and aspirations.
"They just don't teach this stuff in culinary school" ~ Chef Adam Lamb
In this episode, you will be able to:
1.) Discover how career coaching can drastically enhance your culinary career journey.
2) Delve into the profound impact of experience and knowledge on culinary success.
3.) Appreciate the unique advantage a specialized culinary career coach offers.
4.) Explore the significance of curiosity and humility in both personal and professional advancement.
5.) nderstand how fostering a supportive culinary culture can boost the growth of industry professionals.
The key moments in this episode are:
00:00:02 - Introduction,
00:00:32 - The Need for Career Coaching,
00:01:58 - Relatability of Career Coaches,
00:04:39 - Adam's Culinary Career Path,
00:10:43 - The Importance of Community and Belonging,
00:14:42 - Coaching and Mentoring in the Culinary Industry,
00:17:36 - Shifting Focus from Mission to People,
00:20:21 - The Difference Between Management and Mentorship,
00:23:58 - Choosing Consciously in the Culinary Industry,
00:25:15 - Changing the Culinary Industry Culture,
00:29:11 - The Coaching Process,
00:30:09 - Long-Term Growth,
00:30:33 - Changing Relationships,
00:35:09 - Identity and Purpose,
00:37:52 - Reconnecting with Guidance,
00:44:37 - Join the Chef Life Brigade,
00:45:00 - Contact Information,
00:45:25 - Immediate Help and Continuous Improvement,
00:45:54 - Pleasure and Key Takeaways,
00:46:37 - Connect and Support,
Turning the Table is the most progressive podcast for today's food and beverage industry featuring staff-centric operating solutions for restaurants in the #newhospitalityculture.
Join Jim Taylor of Benchmark Sixty and Adam Lamb as they "turn the tables" on the prevailing operating assumptions of the restaurant business in favor of innovative solutions to our industry's most persistent challenges.
Check out the videocast on
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Adam Lamb:
I got in this conversation with this person.
Adam Lamb:
We kind of bumped into one another in LinkedIn as, as want to do.
Adam Lamb:
And he was a chef and he wanted to pivot towards coaching.
Adam Lamb:
And so he was asking me about some of the stuff that I do and he's like, yeah,
Adam Lamb:
I didn't even know this was a thing.
Adam Lamb:
Chefs coaching other chefs.
Adam Lamb:
And I said, well, it hasn't been, but it will be.
Adam Lamb:
Yeah.
Jim Taylor:
Well, and and we've been, you and I have been working together on a few
Jim Taylor:
different things for about a year now.
Jim Taylor:
And, and you know, this comes up a lot.
Jim Taylor:
It's like, what is a, a career coach for chefs?
Jim Taylor:
Like what, like, I mean, in the title we've said, you know, what is that?
Jim Taylor:
So there's, what is that discussion
Adam Lamb:
today about that, I think, yeah.
Adam Lamb:
And and just to decide, I actually booked a client the other day and part of the
Adam Lamb:
conversation started with, He had gone, you know, he's in the culinary industry.
Adam Lamb:
He went on looking for career coaches online, and he kept coming across
Adam Lamb:
kind of similar focuses kind of mainstream in industry career coaches.
Adam Lamb:
And he thought to himself, yeah, I don't even know if these
Adam Lamb:
guys are gonna relate to me.
Adam Lamb:
Yeah, well, like, can, can they even relate to, to the
Adam Lamb:
experience that that I've had?
Adam Lamb:
And I thought that was an interesting.
Adam Lamb:
An interesting viewpoint, not, not one that I previously thought about, but I
Adam Lamb:
think this will give us an opportunity to not only talk about what career
Adam Lamb:
coaching is in general, but how I actually specifically bring that to the culinary
Adam Lamb:
industry and why that might be a little bit more necessary now than it was before.
Adam Lamb:
So, I wanna appreciate you for one moment just because it's our one year
Adam Lamb:
anniversary, and I, I just wanted to let you know that there's, there's
Adam Lamb:
only 1% of, or some crazy statistic, it's either 1% or 10% of all podcasters
Adam Lamb:
who actually make it a full year.
Adam Lamb:
So I just wanted to say thank you because it's been a really
Adam Lamb:
enjoyable experience with you and I, I certainly have learned a lot.
Jim Taylor:
Likewise.
Jim Taylor:
Happy anniversary.
Adam Lamb:
Happy anniversary.
Adam Lamb:
So we'll get to, Culinary Career coach.
Adam Lamb:
What's that?
Adam Lamb:
Right after these messages.
Adam Lamb:
Welcome to Turning the Table, the Most Progressive Weekly podcast for
Adam Lamb:
today's food and beverage industry, featuring staff centric operating
Adam Lamb:
solutions for restaurants in the hashtag new hospitality culture.
Adam Lamb:
Join Jim Taylor of Benchmark 60 and to Adam Lamb as they turn the
Adam Lamb:
tables on the prevailing operating assumptions of running a restaurant in
Adam Lamb:
favor of innovative solutions to our industry's most persistent challenges.
Adam Lamb:
Thanks for joining us and now, Onto the show.
Adam Lamb:
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Adam Lamb:
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Adam Lamb:
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Adam Lamb:
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Adam Lamb:
vocalize, and I guess you know.
Adam Lamb:
Maybe the first question would be, Jim, like why does anybody need a career coach?
Jim Taylor:
Well, I think we should spin that around and ask you, I
Jim Taylor:
mean, you're a big part of the conversation today is about really
Jim Taylor:
like, let's dig into, you know, why people can benefit from some support.
Jim Taylor:
You know, how, a little bit about your strategy on this and
Jim Taylor:
kind of the results mechanism.
Jim Taylor:
But you know, one of the things that I was thinking about leading into this
Jim Taylor:
conversation is that, I had a really big wake up call when I left the sort
Jim Taylor:
of operations world of restaurants.
Jim Taylor:
Mm-hmm.
Jim Taylor:
Because I thought, this is what the whole industry's like.
Jim Taylor:
You know, everything, every restaurant is the same.
Jim Taylor:
We all have the same issues or challenges or whatever it might be.
Jim Taylor:
And it wasn't until I started working with, you know, multiple restaurants
Jim Taylor:
all over the world, basically.
Jim Taylor:
I was like, Everybody has a different challenge going on.
Jim Taylor:
Sure.
Jim Taylor:
There's the big picture ones that are the same, but everybody's got unique
Jim Taylor:
market challenges and you know, these things that you have to try to work
Jim Taylor:
through and, and, you know, maybe you can take this and, and run with it in
Jim Taylor:
a second, but one of the things that I've always found interesting about, I.
Jim Taylor:
Your career path.
Jim Taylor:
And now what you do is you've got so much experience in so many
Jim Taylor:
markets, in so many environments, in so many types of businesses.
Jim Taylor:
You know, there's, there's an insane amount of knowledge there.
Jim Taylor:
So, I don't know, maybe you could kind of take that and
Jim Taylor:
just like, what's the basis of
Adam Lamb:
this whole thing?
Adam Lamb:
Yeah, I, I, and thank you for pointing that out.
Adam Lamb:
'cause sometimes sometimes it's easy to forget just how much we know or.
Adam Lamb:
Midway through my career I was asked to do a quorum on the culinary program
Adam Lamb:
for the Art Institute, the, the Chain of Art Institutes of America.
Adam Lamb:
Mm-hmm.
Adam Lamb:
And their subprogram of culinary arts.
Adam Lamb:
And there were about me and about 10 other chefs and other facilitators in the room.
Adam Lamb:
And the facilitator started by asking like, what are the, what are the
Adam Lamb:
core competencies that you know, That come in real handy with business.
Adam Lamb:
And what do you think our students should be leaving the program with?
Adam Lamb:
Mm-hmm.
Adam Lamb:
And in space of about 50 minutes, she had these yellow stickies all over this
Adam Lamb:
wall of stuff that, that we kind of have gained knowledge in and probably not
Adam Lamb:
given enough credit for even to ourselves.
Adam Lamb:
I looked at that wall and I said, wow, like that is, that's a lot.
Adam Lamb:
And you know, 15 years old I started washing dishes at the local restaurant.
Adam Lamb:
Yeah, the only reason I I started there is because that's where
Adam Lamb:
my dad used to like to hang out.
Adam Lamb:
He was a college professor, so on his breaks, he'd go down there and he'd kind
Adam Lamb:
of laugh and joke with the waitresses and so I think it was kind of a, a
Adam Lamb:
way in which, you know, I could be a little bit closer to my father, and
Adam Lamb:
not that we were estranged, but you know, I, I kind of wanted to see him,
Adam Lamb:
what he was like outside of the family.
Adam Lamb:
Yeah.
Adam Lamb:
It turns out he is a pretty charming person and everybody
Adam Lamb:
seemed to enjoy talking to him.
Adam Lamb:
And one Friday night I was walking past the, the kitchen door with a
Adam Lamb:
whole bunch of plates in my arms that had just got done washing and.
Adam Lamb:
There were two cooks that worked there, both female.
Adam Lamb:
One was a, a larger woman, her name was Artelia White.
Adam Lamb:
She had a gold tooth in the front of her mouth and she was always
Adam Lamb:
smiling and she would work the pass.
Adam Lamb:
And back then it was like the stainless steel wheel that used
Adam Lamb:
to spin in the window where people would put the tickets up.
Adam Lamb:
Mm-hmm.
Adam Lamb:
And so she worked that area and then there was a very thin, severe
Adam Lamb:
woman that worked next to her and.
Adam Lamb:
One, as I said, one Friday night, I was walking past the
Adam Lamb:
kitchen and it was in full throw.
Adam Lamb:
Man.
Adam Lamb:
They were, they were really working hard, but yet they had this, the only way I
Adam Lamb:
could describe it is this dance that they were doing between one another,
Adam Lamb:
almost like a articulated symphony of.
Adam Lamb:
Of steam and pans banging, and yet they didn't say anything to one another.
Adam Lamb:
They knew each other's moves so well.
Adam Lamb:
And that just kind of mesmerized me and I said, I, I don't know what the
Adam Lamb:
hell that is, but I wanna get me some.
Adam Lamb:
So I offer.
Adam Lamb:
And what market was that at?
Adam Lamb:
That was that was right outside of Chicago, on the Indiana side.
Adam Lamb:
So I lived in the Chicago land region is how they refer to it.
Adam Lamb:
Mm-hmm.
Adam Lamb:
And that could stretch as far as you know, almost to Wisconsin and
Adam Lamb:
Michigan, both kind of like at the bottom of Lake lake Michigan.
Adam Lamb:
Mm-hmm.
Adam Lamb:
And so I recognized that if I wanted to go further in my career,
Adam Lamb:
I would need to like, kind of get to downtown Chicago some way, but
Adam Lamb:
both geographically and skill level.
Adam Lamb:
Yeah.
Adam Lamb:
So very often I put myself in jobs that you know, I talked
Adam Lamb:
a really good game and to the.
Adam Lamb:
To your point, you know, I lied a lot, you know, about what I was capable of doing.
Adam Lamb:
I went to work at a Greek restaurant and the guy says, can
Adam Lamb:
you clean te beef tenderloins?
Adam Lamb:
And I said, oh, yeah, yeah, sure, sure, sure, sure.
Adam Lamb:
And the very first day I'm standing next to this guy kind of watching out of the
Adam Lamb:
corner of my eye how, how he was doing it.
Adam Lamb:
And I wanna tell you, if anybody's ever, you know, peeled silver skin off of beef
Adam Lamb:
tenderloin, it's, there's an art to it.
Adam Lamb:
And I'm afraid the first couple tender ones I did, there was more meat in
Adam Lamb:
the trash than there was on my table.
Jim Taylor:
You butchered it and not in the right way.
Adam Lamb:
I think one of my saving graces in my career has been and this
Adam Lamb:
being endlessly curious about things.
Adam Lamb:
So I always want to kind of try to figure things out.
Adam Lamb:
I see something and it's always a fascination for me.
Adam Lamb:
I love organization.
Adam Lamb:
I love systems.
Adam Lamb:
I never really had a, an idea of a type of cuisine that I wanted to create.
Adam Lamb:
You know, like Charlie Trotter or, or, or anybody else.
Adam Lamb:
And the thing that really hooked me early was this idea of community within
Adam Lamb:
a restaurant and everybody's in that kitchen working so hard that it builds
Adam Lamb:
relationships really, really quickly.
Adam Lamb:
And you really know who to depend on and who not to depend.
Adam Lamb:
Mm-hmm.
Adam Lamb:
Mm-hmm.
Adam Lamb:
So by virtue of the fact that I could, that I worked really hard and
Adam Lamb:
I was dependable, I became kind of someone that people could count on.
Adam Lamb:
I got my very first executive chef job relatively early in my twenties.
Adam Lamb:
Completely unprepared by the grace.
Adam Lamb:
There was a, there was a crusty old guy that was a food and beverage
Adam Lamb:
director by the name of Ed Jameson, who used to be a purchaser for the
Adam Lamb:
Black Hawk Restaurant downtown Chicago.
Adam Lamb:
Back in the days when they would actually have to go down to the meat
Adam Lamb:
market and he'd had a, he had a stamp.
Adam Lamb:
Mm-hmm.
Adam Lamb:
And an a pad and would go down the lines of these.
Adam Lamb:
Sides of beef and he'd be checking 'em out and stamping 'em for the Black Hawk.
Adam Lamb:
And then he'd spend the rest of the day rest of that afternoon in the
Adam Lamb:
in the office drinking brandy with the guy who was running the floor.
Adam Lamb:
So ed took a shine of me.
Adam Lamb:
And we both kind of came to this conclusion that even though at
Adam Lamb:
first we distrusted one another we were willing to work together.
Adam Lamb:
So I'm here by the grace of several mentors that really
Adam Lamb:
saw my greatness before I did.
Adam Lamb:
And who really guided me, you know, they, they allowed me to make a
Adam Lamb:
certain amount of mistakes that wouldn't necessarily hurt the guest,
Adam Lamb:
but they allowed me to trip and fall.
Adam Lamb:
Because, you know, at that age I was pretty full of myself
Adam Lamb:
and I needed some humility.
Adam Lamb:
Yeah.
Adam Lamb:
So I got taken down probably in my career, probably at three or four times where
Adam Lamb:
you know, to quote Anthony Bourdain, there's nothing like the restaurant
Adam Lamb:
business to pound some humility into.
Adam Lamb:
Hundred percent.
Jim Taylor:
So before you go any further growing, did you play sports?
Adam Lamb:
Yeah, I was a, I was a wrestler in high school.
Adam Lamb:
As a matter of fact, at at one point my, my only dream was to get a college
Adam Lamb:
scholarship to Iowa State and wrestle with Dan Grabble, who at that time was the,
Adam Lamb:
was the United States Gold Medal Champion.
Adam Lamb:
And then something happened that kind of put me on a different trajectory.
Adam Lamb:
So this need, this need for community, this need for a place
Adam Lamb:
to belong really mattered to me.
Adam Lamb:
Yeah.
Adam Lamb:
And then, and
Jim Taylor:
then you were in at least one, if not multiple bands, right?
Adam Lamb:
Oh, yeah.
Adam Lamb:
Yeah.
Adam Lamb:
Singing in a rock and roll band.
Adam Lamb:
As, as a matter of fact at the first hotel I ever ran, we put a band together
Adam Lamb:
out of people in the kitchen to play the the employee Christmas party.
Adam Lamb:
And that ended up lasting 15 years.
Adam Lamb:
And you can, you can find us on Spotify.
Adam Lamb:
The band's name is Naked Ambition.
Adam Lamb:
Thank you very much.
Jim Taylor:
Amazing.
Jim Taylor:
Well, and the reason, so the reason I ask those two things, like as
Jim Taylor:
you're starting to talk about community in the kitchen mm-hmm.
Jim Taylor:
And, and you know, the mentorship side of things and letting people fail and
Jim Taylor:
how that whole process goes, which I wanna dig into that in a minute.
Jim Taylor:
But there's also a, a side of.
Jim Taylor:
That's competitive, you know, the, the athletics thing, you know, creating
Jim Taylor:
this competitive nature and there's a camaraderie thing that exists
Jim Taylor:
there, which I'm sure you sort of found in the music side of things.
Jim Taylor:
So I always found that your story is really interesting that way.
Jim Taylor:
But thank you.
Jim Taylor:
So, okay, so letting people fail, I mean, there's definitely a
Jim Taylor:
connection to business, to learning and coaching and mentorship for sure.
Jim Taylor:
That's one of the things I always found was the hardest.
Jim Taylor:
As I moved up in management, and I'm hoping you can elaborate on this, one
Jim Taylor:
of the hardest things that I always found was when do you let someone
Jim Taylor:
struggle and potentially almost fail so that they can learn through that, and
Jim Taylor:
when do you step in and bail 'em out?
Jim Taylor:
Right.
Jim Taylor:
Like that's, there's, there's such a fine line there, right?
Jim Taylor:
So anyway, do, do you have any, take, any
Adam Lamb:
thoughts on that?
Adam Lamb:
I, I do and I have a very quick story and and the other point that I wanted to make
Adam Lamb:
is, you know, you mentioned those kind of physical and emotional attributes.
Adam Lamb:
The other one I would say is creativity.
Adam Lamb:
I.
Adam Lamb:
So the reason I ended up in a band is because I found myself being
Adam Lamb:
creative in, in several different ways.
Adam Lamb:
Very often people come to the culinary industry and they think, this is my life.
Adam Lamb:
This is all I ever want to do.
Adam Lamb:
And typically my very first piece of co piece of coaching is, yeah, that's cool.
Adam Lamb:
Now get a hobby.
Adam Lamb:
Because in order to have a, to have a creative outlet outside of work is
Adam Lamb:
a very, very powerful thing because you can get fed emotionally that way.
Adam Lamb:
And it does have, doesn't have anything to do with what you do
Adam Lamb:
or how you're making a living.
Adam Lamb:
And could very often turn into something lucrative, but as a side hustle.
Adam Lamb:
Yeah.
Adam Lamb:
And so to your point about that whole delegation thing, so it was a
Adam Lamb:
restaurant in Fort Lauderdale that I was running, it was a seafood restaurant
Adam Lamb:
on the Intercoastal, did mad numbers.
Adam Lamb:
You know, typical nights were seven, 700 to a thousand I think new Year's Eve.
Adam Lamb:
We did one New Year's Eve, we did 1200 covers and yeah, 1200 covers.
Adam Lamb:
Yeah.
Adam Lamb:
Wow.
Adam Lamb:
You start off, you start off with a, a 350 early bird between six and seven 30.
Adam Lamb:
And that, you know, warms up the room and gets everybody in action.
Adam Lamb:
And there was a guy who I hired as my sous chef, Greg Barnhill, who was a
Adam Lamb:
really hot I mean he had had his own restaurant in Fort Collins, Colorado.
Adam Lamb:
I was looking at his resume, thinking to myself, what the
Adam Lamb:
hell is he applying here for?
Adam Lamb:
And will he show me up?
Adam Lamb:
But I hired him anyway.
Adam Lamb:
And so one of the, I, I knew he could cook fabulously.
Adam Lamb:
But I didn't necessarily know if he understood systems and expediting.
Adam Lamb:
And in that particular location, there was one printer that was on
Adam Lamb:
expo at every station, which were there, there were seven stations.
Adam Lamb:
Had to listen to the Expeditor.
Adam Lamb:
There were no tickets there.
Adam Lamb:
So I got really, really good at expediting and I loved it.
Adam Lamb:
It was, you know, such an adrenaline rush for me.
Adam Lamb:
Mm-hmm.
Adam Lamb:
So I said, okay, okay, Greg, you're gonna do early birds.
Adam Lamb:
Okay, cool.
Adam Lamb:
And I stood, you know, kind of out of his way to the side.
Adam Lamb:
I watched him, you know, get in the weeds really, really quickly and he was, the
Adam Lamb:
line was about to crash and burn and that's when I kind of tapped, tapped
Adam Lamb:
him on the shoulder, said, okay, I want you to step over here and let me, let
Adam Lamb:
me just get you outta the weeds here so that I can, you know, so that we can
Adam Lamb:
better understand what the process, which is, you know, you're calling, you're
Adam Lamb:
calling the long ticket, long cook.
Adam Lamb:
Long cook items on all the tickets, and then you're working the first four.
Adam Lamb:
And at that point, you know, you're pulling plates out of the window
Adam Lamb:
and building trays and sending the food runners on their way.
Adam Lamb:
And he got to be very, very, very good.
Adam Lamb:
So in that case, I wanted him to like, get in the jam get in the juice
Adam Lamb:
so that he understood that there was a little bit more to it then.
Adam Lamb:
What he thought it was.
Adam Lamb:
And you know, there might've been a little humility about it, but I would not allow
Adam Lamb:
the guests to suffer and like, let the line crash, of course, because at that
Adam Lamb:
point that that exercise is terrible.
Adam Lamb:
Now, I would, I, I've come away from many, many experiences understanding that
Adam Lamb:
really the best thing if you're coaching and mentoring, so real quick definition.
Adam Lamb:
I always thought it was leading people, you know, getting a group of
Adam Lamb:
people who may speak three different languages from five different company
Adam Lamb:
countries and communicating in a way that each one of them understand.
Adam Lamb:
But we're basically going, going over the hill telling them what, what it is to do.
Adam Lamb:
Coaching and mentoring is completely different in which you are actually
Adam Lamb:
allowing them this opportunity to know not only attune to their guidance, but
Adam Lamb:
also to like, let them make their own mistakes in a way that that would be.
Adam Lamb:
That would drive home the lesson even deeper.
Adam Lamb:
The, you know, the famous trope is, you know, telling your kid, don't
Adam Lamb:
stick your finger in the light socket.
Adam Lamb:
Don't stick your finger light sock.
Adam Lamb:
And then the kid sticks his finger in light socket because very
Adam Lamb:
often knowledge unearned mm-hmm.
Adam Lamb:
Represents no value.
Adam Lamb:
That's why, you know, a lot of people sign up for a lot of free
Adam Lamb:
programs and then never do them.
Adam Lamb:
Right.
Adam Lamb:
They'll sit on their computer hard drive.
Adam Lamb:
They won't do it because it doesn't represent any, any value to them.
Adam Lamb:
Hence some spin in the game.
Adam Lamb:
You got it right there.
Adam Lamb:
So it took me a good long time to recognize that within the culinary
Adam Lamb:
industry, it could not be about the me, it had to be about the we.
Adam Lamb:
As a matter of fact, Greg was standing next to me as I cooked a staff meal for
Adam Lamb:
everybody, and I'm kind of standing there.
Adam Lamb:
I'm proud of myself.
Adam Lamb:
Look at what I did.
Adam Lamb:
Luckily, everybody's so happy and he turned to me.
Adam Lamb:
He said if you think that cooking them a meal would would stop them
Adam Lamb:
from gutting you like a fish.
Adam Lamb:
Had they had the chance you're completely wrong.
Adam Lamb:
I'm like, what?
Adam Lamb:
Hmm?
Adam Lamb:
Like, because no amount of food is gonna make up for, you know, Basically the abuse
Adam Lamb:
and the hard, it wasn't abuse, but it was just a very, very hard operation to run.
Adam Lamb:
So I was hard on all the people.
Adam Lamb:
Yeah.
Adam Lamb:
And for a long time, a long time.
Adam Lamb:
For me, it was about the mission as opposed to the people.
Adam Lamb:
And since that opportunity came to, to make my mistakes and to
Adam Lamb:
learn, I recognized that it's gotta be about the people before
Adam Lamb:
the mission because the mm-hmm.
Adam Lamb:
If not, then I'm on the line by myself and I can't run seven stations by myself.
Adam Lamb:
So right by,
Jim Taylor:
so sorry.
Adam Lamb:
Finish, finish your thought there.
Adam Lamb:
No, it was, it was kind of, it's by necessity in order to be
Adam Lamb:
successful, to invest in your people.
Adam Lamb:
And, you know, 20 years later, Greg hired me as his sous chef at one
Adam Lamb:
of the oldest resorts in the United States, the Homestead Omni homestead
Adam Lamb:
in the western part of Virginia.
Adam Lamb:
And I hadn't been a sous chef for 30 years and I was actually
Adam Lamb:
out of the industry for a while.
Adam Lamb:
I was gonna take a different path.
Adam Lamb:
And just like the old mob thing, you know, I thought I was out
Adam Lamb:
and then they pulled me back in.
Adam Lamb:
So I, I was separate from my partner who, who would go on to be my, become
Adam Lamb:
my wife, but, She was down in Florida.
Adam Lamb:
I was, I was in Virginia.
Adam Lamb:
I'm like, I don't understand why I'm here.
Adam Lamb:
Like, I don't, I just don't get it like this, this.
Adam Lamb:
And she says, why don't you just be where you're at and have what you have?
Adam Lamb:
Why don't you just be there completely?
Adam Lamb:
I'll come up and visit.
Adam Lamb:
You can come down and visit, but you know, this whole splitting yourself emotionally
Adam Lamb:
is not gonna do anything for anybody.
Adam Lamb:
And so I took her advice and I recognized that I had this superpower, which was.
Adam Lamb:
Basically running around this resort, having a thousand conversations a
Adam Lamb:
day, just checking in with people, developing these deep relationships,
Adam Lamb:
creating a community within our particular department, which at,
Adam Lamb:
at peak was 150, 160 associates.
Adam Lamb:
Some a large portion that made up by J one and, and H two B visas.
Adam Lamb:
And so there'd be like a click of, or a group coming from
Adam Lamb:
the Philippines or India.
Adam Lamb:
And very often, you know, they would take over as the crew in a particular outlet.
Adam Lamb:
That meant not only that I had to like ramp myself up culturally in order to
Adam Lamb:
motivate and teach them, but also to give them an opportunity again to kind
Adam Lamb:
of like, oh, you think you got this cool, I'm just gonna stand over here
Adam Lamb:
while, while you try to get this done.
Adam Lamb:
Mm-hmm.
Adam Lamb:
So this idea of building community from within, building really,
Adam Lamb:
specifically good, communication skills, relationship building has, It's
Adam Lamb:
been a large portion of my success.
Adam Lamb:
And I also recognize it's not anything that's taught in culinary schools.
Adam Lamb:
And you know, if you're in the insurance business, if you're in the
Adam Lamb:
insurance business and you're gonna manage a team, you might have six
Adam Lamb:
months to a year training before you're even allowed to manage that team.
Adam Lamb:
And because our environment moves so fast and a few other different
Adam Lamb:
scenarios, very often nobody, nobody gets a chance to learn that,
Adam Lamb:
that until they're in the mix and.
Adam Lamb:
Communication skills, leadership skills relationship building skills
Adam Lamb:
that's not really on the job.
Adam Lamb:
Training doesn't necessarily make that a good thing.
Adam Lamb:
Right?
Adam Lamb:
Yeah.
Adam Lamb:
So hard to build those skills while you're cutting fish.
Jim Taylor:
Totally.
Jim Taylor:
And, and there's a big difference between I think management and
Jim Taylor:
mentorship coaching, right?
Jim Taylor:
Yeah.
Jim Taylor:
So, you know, I think one of the things that I'm curious about, and maybe you
Jim Taylor:
could talk a little bit about, is.
Jim Taylor:
You know, you obviously had a really interesting and and exciting path
Jim Taylor:
up through your management career.
Jim Taylor:
Mm-hmm.
Jim Taylor:
Right?
Jim Taylor:
And learning some lessons and some skills along the way.
Jim Taylor:
Yeah.
Jim Taylor:
So, but let's fast forward to now.
Jim Taylor:
Yep.
Jim Taylor:
Yep.
Jim Taylor:
What's your process with people like, someone comes and you identify
Jim Taylor:
somebody, or you get in touch with somebody, you get introduced to
Jim Taylor:
somebody and they're like, listen.
Jim Taylor:
I'm in this position.
Jim Taylor:
I love the industry, I love my career.
Jim Taylor:
I'm, I need to get, you know, over the, the hump I need to get, I really
Jim Taylor:
want this next role or this next, you know, bump in compensation or this
Jim Taylor:
next opportunity and I need some help.
Jim Taylor:
Like what's, what's the process?
Jim Taylor:
How do you interact with that?
Adam Lamb:
Yeah, I built up this framework that I found very helpful
Adam Lamb:
for myself, and it's lent itself very well to my coaching practice.
Adam Lamb:
As a matter of fact, I have a hundred percent success rate
Adam Lamb:
amongst all my coaching clients.
Adam Lamb:
Some going back to their place of business or employment with a renewed vigor
Adam Lamb:
and a grounding that kind of, that is not necessarily passion, but you know,
Adam Lamb:
it's, it's a great way to be in that.
Adam Lamb:
It's.
Adam Lamb:
You know, passion lends itself to ups and downs, whereas being very well grounded
Adam Lamb:
and neutral in your position means that stuff can happen around you and you're
Adam Lamb:
not necessarily getting taken off.
Adam Lamb:
So the very first thing is you know, we have a, there's a very detailed initial
Adam Lamb:
assessment that I have them go through that even though those questions might not
Adam Lamb:
necessarily be about work, certainly to me, illuminates some opportunity for them.
Adam Lamb:
And then, and then there's an initial discovery call in which we kind of dig in
Adam Lamb:
and see where they're at, where they want to go, and what's standing in their way.
Adam Lamb:
So what's the gap between where they, where they are and where
Adam Lamb:
they think they should be?
Adam Lamb:
Now, I'd love, I, I'd love to be able to say that that's all mechanics,
Adam Lamb:
but it's not very often there's, there's some emotional components
Adam Lamb:
and there may be some work that maybe they've been hesitant to do.
Adam Lamb:
I had a client whose parents owned three restaurants in middle of Ohio.
Adam Lamb:
She had been tapped on the shoulder to run them.
Adam Lamb:
Mm-hmm.
Adam Lamb:
Her mother did Mo, her mother did most of the work, and sometimes
Adam Lamb:
that mother-daughter relationship doesn't really work very well.
Adam Lamb:
And I went there, I went there on a site visit and mind Mindy's okay
Adam Lamb:
with me telling this story, but.
Adam Lamb:
Mindy and I went out for lunch and I said, is this anything you really wanna even do?
Adam Lamb:
Mm, right.
Adam Lamb:
Because I, I saw the tension between them and, and it didn't look like her mother
Adam Lamb:
was going to just leave and hands off.
Adam Lamb:
It wasn't gonna be that simple.
Adam Lamb:
And as it turned out, she let that question in.
Adam Lamb:
And as now and at university studying to be a counselor and she wants to counsel
Adam Lamb:
people in the hospitality industry because of what her experience was like.
Adam Lamb:
You know, it can be, it can be fairly traumatic to be in this industry if you're
Adam Lamb:
not prepared for it, and you carry that trauma with you from job to job to job.
Adam Lamb:
So the first so after those two processes, then it's then it's a discovery process
Adam Lamb:
around what are your core values.
Adam Lamb:
So there and core values are different than what you're really good at.
Adam Lamb:
Core values are like what?
Adam Lamb:
What's non, what's non-negotiable?
Adam Lamb:
Do you need autonomy?
Adam Lamb:
Do you need support?
Adam Lamb:
Do you need clear communication?
Adam Lamb:
You know, what are those things that you are unwilling to negotiate away?
Adam Lamb:
Because very often we're taking jobs because of a financial hardship or
Adam Lamb:
whatever, and don't really get to ask them, ask ourselves those questions.
Adam Lamb:
So to be in this discovery process of, okay, so what's my why?
Adam Lamb:
How do I actually make that?
Adam Lamb:
Why live in the world?
Adam Lamb:
So one's an internal process, the other one's external because they gotta call
Adam Lamb:
people who, who know them and say, yeah, so so what do you know about me?
Adam Lamb:
Like, how do I actually do this kind of stuff?
Adam Lamb:
And that's always a great aha because very often they're unaware that of the way
Adam Lamb:
that they're showing up to other people.
Adam Lamb:
And it could be in complete congruence with that and sometimes not.
Adam Lamb:
But yeah, very since the pandemic and since, you know, 6 million
Adam Lamb:
people got out of the industry, and now I think we're back to
Adam Lamb:
about 4 million have returned back.
Adam Lamb:
I really under, I really understood that this was an opportunity
Adam Lamb:
for them to choose consciously.
Adam Lamb:
Like, do you really wanna be in this industry?
Adam Lamb:
Right.
Adam Lamb:
There's nothing, there's nothing wrong with, you know, taking
Adam Lamb:
a job outside of the industry.
Adam Lamb:
And chef Paul Sorgel during an interview I did for Chef Life Radio said, you
Adam Lamb:
know, if they're not happy, leave.
Adam Lamb:
Just leave, just get out of the industry.
Adam Lamb:
Mm-hmm.
Adam Lamb:
And sometimes what happens is they recognize they fall back in
Adam Lamb:
love with the thing that they were doing before and end up going back.
Adam Lamb:
I think the chef I think the burn chef project did a survey where they,
Adam Lamb:
where it was determined that of the people that left the industry, almost
Adam Lamb:
70% were planning to come back.
Adam Lamb:
Interesting.
Adam Lamb:
But what I knew is that we had to change as an industry and as a
Adam Lamb:
culture in order to make it safe for those folks to come back because.
Adam Lamb:
This veneration of overwork, this you know, beating each other
Adam Lamb:
up verbally and emotionally.
Adam Lamb:
That that shit doesn't work.
Adam Lamb:
Yeah.
Adam Lamb:
And, and, and didn't.
Adam Lamb:
So there's, so there's the discovery process around the, hows the whys.
Adam Lamb:
Then there is a great resume exercise I do that will el immediately
Adam Lamb:
illuminate any recurring patterns that happened, not necessarily at
Adam Lamb:
work, but also in your personal life.
Adam Lamb:
'cause there's an idea of.
Adam Lamb:
Writing down in those timeframes the major life events the story that you made up
Adam Lamb:
about it, and then, and then to tell the story, and then to tell the story as a
Adam Lamb:
reporter would completely neutral in order to see the reality of what was going on.
Adam Lamb:
For me, the first time I did it, what I, what popped way up for me was this
Adam Lamb:
idea that anytime that there were things going wrong in my life, I would typically
Adam Lamb:
pivot to having an illicit romance, because at least I knew how to do that.
Adam Lamb:
At least that made me feel good, you know?
Adam Lamb:
Folks are generally predisposed to running away from pain and towards pleasure.
Adam Lamb:
So when you have someone who thinks that you're the greatest thing
Adam Lamb:
since sliced bread, sometimes that's the easiest pivot to make.
Adam Lamb:
Yeah.
Adam Lamb:
To the detriment of all the rest of my relationships.
Adam Lamb:
Right.
Adam Lamb:
So the other, the great thing is that once, once you're grounded
Adam Lamb:
in your core values and the things that are non-negotiable, then you
Adam Lamb:
can start interviewing employers as opposed to the other way around.
Adam Lamb:
And to be really engaged in that process is very, very powerful.
Adam Lamb:
I.
Adam Lamb:
Because you're not a victim anymore.
Adam Lamb:
You're actually empowered to make the right decision based upon what you want.
Adam Lamb:
Mm-hmm.
Adam Lamb:
And what you want out of your life.
Adam Lamb:
And so I, I think it's something that's incredibly.
Adam Lamb:
Powerful.
Adam Lamb:
And from then it's like mechanics.
Adam Lamb:
Okay?
Adam Lamb:
So are, are you in transition right now?
Adam Lamb:
Are you, you want to, do you want a better job, a bigger job?
Adam Lamb:
Do you wanna become a food and beverage director?
Adam Lamb:
Do you want to move to a different market segment?
Adam Lamb:
You've been in restaurants now, you want to be in hotels.
Adam Lamb:
All these particular skill sets are at the core of the same,
Adam Lamb:
but they're slightly different.
Adam Lamb:
And so, Then it becomes interview prep you know, resume work.
Adam Lamb:
It's whatever needs to happen in order to get them so well prepared
Adam Lamb:
that when, when they're in the interview, not only do they not falter,
Adam Lamb:
but they feel completely secure.
Adam Lamb:
So one of the things with one of my clients, he kept trying to figure out
Adam Lamb:
what, what the employer wanted to hear.
Adam Lamb:
And I said, every, and so we roleplayed this.
Adam Lamb:
And every time he would stumble on his words, I'm like, that's
Adam Lamb:
because you're trying to figure out the answer that I trying.
Adam Lamb:
Yeah.
Adam Lamb:
Yeah.
Adam Lamb:
So what, so what would it look like if you actually knew cold?
Adam Lamb:
What that answer was, regardless of what they want to hear, because then
Adam Lamb:
you're being completely congruent.
Adam Lamb:
You know in your heart exactly what that is, and you come
Adam Lamb:
across as being confident.
Adam Lamb:
Well read.
Adam Lamb:
There's also a couple books that I like to give folks during the, during
Adam Lamb:
the coaching process, depending where they're in their management principles.
Adam Lamb:
One is Radical Candor by or Radical Cander by Kim Scott, and the other
Adam Lamb:
one is by our friend Kelly Ingham.
Adam Lamb:
You know, maximizing team performance, the ABCs of leadership, which is
Adam Lamb:
assumptions, boundaries and communication.
Adam Lamb:
You know, those three things.
Adam Lamb:
Mm-hmm.
Adam Lamb:
Great.
Adam Lamb:
Both.
Adam Lamb:
Yeah.
Adam Lamb:
We've had around the show several times, but every time it's like, hits me in
Adam Lamb:
my heart in such a way that like those two books combined provide the playbook
Adam Lamb:
for managing and leading people in, in our post covid hospitality 2.0 Reality.
Adam Lamb:
So there's, so, so
Jim Taylor:
how, how long do you typically spend with people?
Jim Taylor:
Like how, how much time
Adam Lamb:
is this?
Adam Lamb:
Yeah, so this process, how long does this take?
Adam Lamb:
It's pretty detailed.
Adam Lamb:
So it's very detailed.
Adam Lamb:
There's a bunch of worksheets.
Adam Lamb:
So I have someone who's, who I'm onboarding right now.
Adam Lamb:
So that foundational session is about 90 minutes.
Adam Lamb:
The second session is 60 minutes.
Adam Lamb:
Typically those are within a week.
Adam Lamb:
If someone's on a, a five week program, they want to crash, of course, then
Adam Lamb:
it's, you know, 60 minutes every time.
Adam Lamb:
And I'll also do three months, six months in a year.
Adam Lamb:
And those work a little bit differently where there's, you know, mm-hmm.
Adam Lamb:
2 45 minute calls, there's homework between each one.
Adam Lamb:
There's stuff that they get to do to not only stabilize their
Adam Lamb:
immediate situation, but lay the groundwork for where they want to go.
Adam Lamb:
Yeah.
Adam Lamb:
I, I had a gentleman who a client who knew that he needed to learn more, period.
Adam Lamb:
He wanted to learn more about himself.
Adam Lamb:
It wasn't necessarily about the job, but it was about him.
Adam Lamb:
And that was an incredibly rewarding experience for me because it's not just
Adam Lamb:
me telling people what to do again.
Adam Lamb:
If I'm gonna, if I'm going to coach and mentor and teach them how to coach
Adam Lamb:
and mentor by example and model mature professionalism, which is ultimately
Adam Lamb:
what this is about, then good morning, someone's shouting out from Facebook.
Adam Lamb:
Good morning, chef.
Adam Lamb:
Good morning.
Adam Lamb:
Thanks for joining us.
Adam Lamb:
It's an opportunity to for those folks to, to grow.
Adam Lamb:
In an exponential manner.
Adam Lamb:
So yeah, we can do it quickly, but really the process between three
Adam Lamb:
months, six months and a year are individualized as to where they're going.
Adam Lamb:
Right.
Adam Lamb:
I have a guy who I'm very close with, who I, who worked with me at the Omni
Adam Lamb:
Homestead and then eight years later said, yeah, I think I need some coaching.
Adam Lamb:
Okay, buddy.
Adam Lamb:
Yeah.
Adam Lamb:
Couldn't be happier.
Adam Lamb:
Couldn't be happier.
Adam Lamb:
And sometimes that might, that might mean.
Adam Lamb:
That their relationships change at home.
Adam Lamb:
That might mean that their relationships change at work.
Adam Lamb:
Mm-hmm.
Adam Lamb:
Mm-hmm.
Adam Lamb:
But, but the worst thing is to walk into this situation and, and be uncoachable,
Adam Lamb:
think you have all the answers.
Adam Lamb:
Mm-hmm.
Adam Lamb:
And, and not be willing to go where that leads.
Adam Lamb:
Yeah.
Adam Lamb:
Right.
Adam Lamb:
For sure.
Adam Lamb:
Like, like I, yeah, I want, I want the best job I've ever had,
Adam Lamb:
but, you know, I don't want to have to stop drinking and do it.
Adam Lamb:
Well, you know, and having been with you, Jim, over the last year, It's
Adam Lamb:
also helped inform me and my process and how I coach people based upon how
Adam Lamb:
you were in the hospitality industry.
Adam Lamb:
Mm-hmm.
Adam Lamb:
And I gotta say thank you for that because, you know, it's been an
Adam Lamb:
enriching and rewarding experience for me to be able to kind of frame that I.
Adam Lamb:
My own work in such a way that not only does it make sense to me, but it makes
Adam Lamb:
sense to others because I don't want anything to be a mystery about this.
Adam Lamb:
Yeah.
Adam Lamb:
I wanna be completely upfront, honest with everybody.
Adam Lamb:
And you know, it's for chefs and hospitality professionals
Adam Lamb:
who want to enjoy their career without sacrificing their life.
Adam Lamb:
And that's not everybody.
Adam Lamb:
There's a lot of folks that are still committed to this sacrifice for your,
Adam Lamb:
for my passion idea, and And that works until, it doesn't, until your,
Adam Lamb:
you know, personal relationships are crashing or, or your health.
Adam Lamb:
The other part of this is there's always going to be a, a, a part of my
Adam Lamb:
coaching that is about creating a, a practice of self nurture and self-care.
Adam Lamb:
Mm-hmm.
Adam Lamb:
For me, nothing in my life ever changed until I did, until I was
Adam Lamb:
ready to let go of my bullshit story.
Adam Lamb:
Mm-hmm.
Adam Lamb:
You know, I'm not gonna listen to my own bullshit anymore.
Adam Lamb:
I'm gonna ask for help.
Adam Lamb:
Because Einstein once said, you know, you can't solve a problem
Adam Lamb:
with the same mind that created it.
Adam Lamb:
So very often we need an outside perspective.
Adam Lamb:
I had someone I had someone do an audit of Chef Life Radio just the other day,
Adam Lamb:
and they had three specific points that they told me, and it blew me away
Adam Lamb:
because in the back of my mind I knew it.
Adam Lamb:
Right.
Adam Lamb:
Your call to action.
Adam Lamb:
What's your call to action?
Adam Lamb:
Why are you talking about memberships if you, if, if you do coaching?
Adam Lamb:
I'm like, yeah, yeah, I know.
Adam Lamb:
So it's, it's a, it's a sneaky process because I.
Adam Lamb:
Theoretically, I'm not telling them anything that they don't already know
Adam Lamb:
or don't have the access to learn.
Adam Lamb:
Yeah.
Adam Lamb:
And very often that that remembering is so powerful that they're like,
Adam Lamb:
oh yeah, I, yeah, I knew that.
Adam Lamb:
Yeah.
Jim Taylor:
So the, so the people that you spend time with Yep.
Jim Taylor:
Chefs, hospitality, pros, whatever, whatever their role might be.
Jim Taylor:
Yep.
Jim Taylor:
Is there a, I guess two part question.
Jim Taylor:
Is there a, a common thing that they're, they're looking for?
Jim Taylor:
And, and, and the second part of the question would be, what's the
Jim Taylor:
common feedback when they're done?
Adam Lamb:
Sure.
Adam Lamb:
I would say that there's, they're, they could be in very, very
Adam Lamb:
different stages of their career.
Adam Lamb:
They could be in different market segments.
Adam Lamb:
But the one but the one common factor is they know that there's
Adam Lamb:
something more available.
Adam Lamb:
They just don't know how to get there.
Adam Lamb:
And that's where I get to come in.
Adam Lamb:
The feedback from.
Adam Lamb:
That I've gotten.
Adam Lamb:
I just got just celebrated with someone the other day because they just got
Adam Lamb:
the job of their dreams and they didn't even know that they wanted it, you know?
Adam Lamb:
Nice.
Adam Lamb:
I said, well, how, how are you?
Adam Lamb:
And she said I haven't been this good in years.
Adam Lamb:
Amazing.
Adam Lamb:
So, to, to feel on purpose in the right place with the right with the right
Adam Lamb:
team members and the right, you know, to have support in your, in your career.
Adam Lamb:
Like, there's nothing better than having a food and beverage director
Adam Lamb:
or a general manager who, who gets you and wants to support you because
Adam Lamb:
then, you know, like me, I'm liable to do just about anything in order
Adam Lamb:
to, you know, keep that relationship solid and, and moving forward.
Adam Lamb:
Yeah.
Adam Lamb:
At the same time, I wanna make sure that I don't sacrifice my family,
Adam Lamb:
my friends, my own self nurture.
Adam Lamb:
Because at the end of the day, I talk about this all the time, the
Adam Lamb:
self-identification as a chef, as who I am versus what I do.
Adam Lamb:
Simply because the standpoint, at some point you have to, you, you're
Adam Lamb:
gonna have to hang your apron up.
Adam Lamb:
You know, it's a physically intense, emotionally draining
Adam Lamb:
intellectually stimulating mm-hmm.
Adam Lamb:
Career and yet, There's gonna be a moment where you're gonna have to walk away and
Adam Lamb:
pick something else, whether that's a different market segment like healthcare
Adam Lamb:
or turn to turn to teaching because you want to give back, but at some point
Adam Lamb:
you get to hang up your apron and you can't be aligned with that anymore.
Adam Lamb:
So if, yeah, if you're, then who are you?
Adam Lamb:
Are you still a chef?
Adam Lamb:
Are you a, a former chef?
Adam Lamb:
I mean, like, and yeah.
Adam Lamb:
Identity is a big part of it, right?
Adam Lamb:
And if, and if you're counting on that in order to get your emotional.
Adam Lamb:
Emotional gratification, then that ends too.
Adam Lamb:
And then what happens then?
Adam Lamb:
You know, the statistics for, for in the United States for men who
Adam Lamb:
die after retirement, like within years of retirement, it's staggering.
Adam Lamb:
Hmm.
Adam Lamb:
It's not, it's not so much for the feminine, but for men, it seems
Adam Lamb:
like if they, like they need, we need, I need a sense of purpose
Adam Lamb:
in order to get up every morning.
Adam Lamb:
Mm-hmm.
Adam Lamb:
And so if you don't have that in your life or you think that you're gonna
Adam Lamb:
golf your day away or go fishing, you know, there's only so much fish.
Adam Lamb:
Fishermen would probably disagree with me, but you know, geez, how
Adam Lamb:
many days can you go fishing?
Adam Lamb:
Every single one.
Adam Lamb:
Yeah.
Jim Taylor:
Yeah, yeah.
Jim Taylor:
So what's, what's the weight like, kind of just getting back
Jim Taylor:
to the, the process thing again.
Jim Taylor:
What's, if, if we went and asked 50 people that have worked, what
Jim Taylor:
would they say about the sort of, How would they describe this is what
Jim Taylor:
it was like when we were finished?
Jim Taylor:
Where am I?
Jim Taylor:
Like is there a, is there a sort of a common theme?
Adam Lamb:
Yeah.
Adam Lamb:
And again, I just want to kind of reference chef Holly in that, you
Adam Lamb:
know, she had no, she was unclear that safety was important to her.
Adam Lamb:
She had got she had got unceremoniously dumped at a resort after putting
Adam Lamb:
in nine years without necessarily even any feedback from anybody.
Adam Lamb:
They just put her on leave, pending investigation,
Adam Lamb:
whatever the hell that means.
Adam Lamb:
Because a new company had taken it over and wanted to put in their, and
Adam Lamb:
installed their people like many, many do.
Adam Lamb:
But for her, this idea of emotional safety was so powerful and yet she recognized
Adam Lamb:
that that was the thing that she could give to others that would matter the most.
Adam Lamb:
Mm-hmm.
Adam Lamb:
Very often those things that we didn't get enough of as we were growing
Adam Lamb:
up instead of us clinging to that, like, we really, really need it.
Adam Lamb:
That should, that should be a, an immediate giveaway that that's
Adam Lamb:
actually our gift to give to others.
Adam Lamb:
Which I know is kind of a heady concept, but very often it's like,
Adam Lamb:
I, I knew I knew that, but I didn't really know how deep that went.
Adam Lamb:
And working with you, like again, to come back to this point, what I really
Adam Lamb:
want is, is for you, chef, or for you, Jim or anybody, to have their own
Adam Lamb:
connection to their own guidance, because that, and, and to be able to trust
Adam Lamb:
that, like, that, that gut feeling like this, this situation is not working.
Adam Lamb:
And yet you still, you still sit there and grind, grind, grind,
Adam Lamb:
grind and grind and mm-hmm.
Adam Lamb:
And make some terrible sacrifices.
Adam Lamb:
So to be able to be reconnected to your own guidance so that your
Adam Lamb:
own gurus, so that from now on you're your own best advocate.
Adam Lamb:
That's a powerful, powerful thing.
Adam Lamb:
Yeah,
Jim Taylor:
for sure.
Jim Taylor:
And so, you know, we've talked a lot about your career, how you've
Jim Taylor:
kind of gone through this process of learning and changing and
Jim Taylor:
you know, the Einstein quotes.
Jim Taylor:
It's genius, obviously Einstein.
Jim Taylor:
And a little bit about kind of like, okay, here's where people are at when
Jim Taylor:
they start, here's where people are at, you know, through the process.
Jim Taylor:
I mean, there's so much value in this type of support for people, especially
Jim Taylor:
in the restaurant industry, I think because, so I mean, I was one of these
Jim Taylor:
people, but so often on the job training is what it actually means, is like,
Jim Taylor:
here's the keys, you're in charge.
Jim Taylor:
We changed your title on the schedule, so away you go.
Jim Taylor:
Right, right.
Jim Taylor:
And, and those people are left to really kind of, in a lot of cases,
Jim Taylor:
struggle their way through trying to learn a lot of these skills.
Jim Taylor:
So, you know, I think what you're doing is great for the industry and there's
Jim Taylor:
a lot of, there's a lot of need for
Adam Lamb:
it.
Adam Lamb:
Thanks.
Adam Lamb:
I mean, I actually had to leave the industry in order
Adam Lamb:
to learn some of these things.
Adam Lamb:
I had, I had to leave the industry to take a, you know, a.
Adam Lamb:
Actual coaching course to learn how to coach people.
Adam Lamb:
You know, again, telling people what to do is, you know, can be
Adam Lamb:
qualified as leadership or at, you know, at the very least, management.
Adam Lamb:
But in order to be a great leader, you have to be invested in someone else's
Adam Lamb:
welfare and someone else's growth.
Adam Lamb:
And that's not necessarily always apparent.
Adam Lamb:
So for me, it was a, it's a, it's a legacy project to give back to the industry.
Adam Lamb:
You know, it's chef life coaching.
Adam Lamb:
It's not Adam Lamb, the chef life coach.
Adam Lamb:
Because I am looking for others to partner with.
Adam Lamb:
So not only we can grow the brand, but we can also grow the availability of
Adam Lamb:
this type of coaching to more people.
Adam Lamb:
Because, you know, they might not think they need it now, that they
Adam Lamb:
can kind of struggle along that they, that they know what's best.
Adam Lamb:
And sometimes that's true and sometimes it's not true.
Adam Lamb:
Again, to have an outside perspective and say, so you don't think this is
Adam Lamb:
causing you a problem when you know you're in the middle of, you know,
Adam Lamb:
talking about getting divorced with your wife or whatever that conversation is.
Adam Lamb:
Mm-hmm.
Adam Lamb:
Is really, really powerful.
Adam Lamb:
So, you know, underneath that umbrella of leadership, you know, the three pillars
Adam Lamb:
are relationship building, communication skills, and community building.
Adam Lamb:
And with those three skill sets any chef can become A magnet for, for folks
Adam Lamb:
who wanna learn in the industry, become the preferred, preferred employer on
Adam Lamb:
their block, as long as they're in congruence with, you know, the core
Adam Lamb:
values of the place that they work at.
Adam Lamb:
And if not the under to have the understanding that the skill sets
Adam Lamb:
that we have built up that wall with all those yellow stickies
Adam Lamb:
are transferable to any industry.
Adam Lamb:
And there's a lot of industries out there that need the type of, you know, program
Adam Lamb:
management, leadership, mentorship.
Adam Lamb:
That, that we learn in our industry mm-hmm.
Adam Lamb:
That, that a lot of us take for granted.
Adam Lamb:
Like, what do you mean?
Adam Lamb:
Well, dude, it's just, you know, the product's, the product to product, whether
Adam Lamb:
it's a plate of chicken or an ebook or a building, you know, it's all the same.
Adam Lamb:
Yeah.
Adam Lamb:
And it's just so what's our process to get there?
Jim Taylor:
Amazing.
Jim Taylor:
So as you and I have been doing this now for a year and we try
Jim Taylor:
to always make sure that there's some takeaways for people, right?
Jim Taylor:
Right.
Jim Taylor:
Yep.
Jim Taylor:
So I know that you've probably got a few things prepared here, but Sure.
Jim Taylor:
If I'm a hospitality professional, a chef, an up and coming, you
Jim Taylor:
know, whatever it might be a future rockstar in the industry.
Jim Taylor:
Yeah.
Jim Taylor:
What are the, what are three things?
Jim Taylor:
Like what do you recommend that people consider around
Adam Lamb:
this concept?
Adam Lamb:
So, so the very first thing I would say is, if nothing else, Make sure that you
Adam Lamb:
get the two books radical Candor by Kim Scott and maximizing Team Performance,
Adam Lamb:
the ABCs of Leadership by Kelly Feather.
Adam Lamb:
Those are two really great places to start.
Adam Lamb:
I'm not advocating that you go out and get a coach, although depending on
Adam Lamb:
where you want to be, I have a coach.
Adam Lamb:
I know you have a coach.
Adam Lamb:
Several, some people have several different coaches,
Adam Lamb:
and again, I a few actually.
Adam Lamb:
Yeah, yeah.
Adam Lamb:
Understand that you know, you'll be continually learning and growing
Adam Lamb:
throughout your career and may need some support time to time, primarily
Adam Lamb:
from the standpoint of like, it feels really good to have yourself.
Adam Lamb:
Being got by someone else, right?
Adam Lamb:
That's not, that's, that's not, that's not aligned with your work and it's not
Adam Lamb:
aligned with your relationships, right?
Adam Lamb:
You could go home and have that, or go to work and have that, but how do
Adam Lamb:
you actually know where the mm-hmm.
Adam Lamb:
Where the true is until you get something from the outside, go
Adam Lamb:
like, yeah, yeah, man, you're right, you're right on the path, man.
Adam Lamb:
You're, you're doing great.
Adam Lamb:
Keep going.
Adam Lamb:
So, so
Jim Taylor:
the biggest, the best example I have of anyone that I've
Jim Taylor:
ever met in my life around why coaching is important or just not
Jim Taylor:
why coach is important, but mm-hmm.
Jim Taylor:
That just, it is, and it, it provides value and all these different things.
Jim Taylor:
It's an an old colleague of mine mm-hmm.
Jim Taylor:
He.
Jim Taylor:
I actually used to work for him.
Jim Taylor:
He might have even hired me, I can't remember exactly, but definitely promoted
Jim Taylor:
me a few times throughout my career.
Jim Taylor:
He's probably 35 years older than me.
Jim Taylor:
He's retired now.
Jim Taylor:
Uhhuh, he's, you know, he's so, he's in his seventies.
Jim Taylor:
He has five different coaches and he's in his seventies.
Jim Taylor:
One of them is financial coach.
Jim Taylor:
One of them's his nutrition coach.
Jim Taylor:
One of them is his golf coach.
Jim Taylor:
One of them is his tennis coach, and one of them is, is his bridge coach.
Jim Taylor:
Mm.
Jim Taylor:
Because the things that he's passionate about and that he knows are important
Jim Taylor:
in his life, he wants to continue to be learning and be successful at.
Jim Taylor:
So he has coaches, he has a bridge coach.
Jim Taylor:
I mean, I didn't even know that was a thing, but I think it's, every time I
Jim Taylor:
speak to him, I'm reminded that there's, you know, it's, it's important to have,
Jim Taylor:
you know, that whether it's mentorship, Guidance advice, you know, someone to
Jim Taylor:
talk through things with and a process.
Jim Taylor:
So I think what we're doing for the industry is amazing and would
Jim Taylor:
definitely recommend that anyone who is in a position of wanting to
Jim Taylor:
move forward should be in touch with
Adam Lamb:
you.
Adam Lamb:
Right.
Adam Lamb:
And the other thing I would say is if you're not part of a community, you
Adam Lamb:
need to be, and I'm not necessarily talking about a Facebook group with
Adam Lamb:
you know, shitty waitress memes.
Adam Lamb:
I'm talking about being in a committed community of like-minded individuals.
Adam Lamb:
Yeah.
Adam Lamb:
Not only so you can see yourself reflected, but you can also be in
Adam Lamb:
contribution to others, whether that's the a c F or I mean, there's
Adam Lamb:
plenty of professional organizations that you can be a part of.
Adam Lamb:
You can come join the chef Life Brigade at chef life coaching.com/.
Adam Lamb:
Brigade that's the only online community not associated with a
Adam Lamb:
social media platform of like-minded individuals within the industry.
Adam Lamb:
Mm-hmm.
Adam Lamb:
Again we're not about carpet and bitching about what is we want to know about what's
Adam Lamb:
possible and how we're gonna move forward.
Jim Taylor:
Amazing.
Jim Taylor:
So, is that the best way for people to get
Adam Lamb:
ahold of you?
Adam Lamb:
They can get ahold of me several ways.
Adam Lamb:
They can get ahold of me through LinkedIn.
Adam Lamb:
Facebook, I have pretty good presence in.
Adam Lamb:
You can go to chef life coaching.com.
Adam Lamb:
Or you can go to chef life radio.com, which is the podcast that I do that's
Adam Lamb:
in support of that particular thing.
Adam Lamb:
DMM me message me.
Adam Lamb:
You can call me at (828) 407-3359.
Adam Lamb:
If you are currently in distress and you need some immediate help, I can point you
Adam Lamb:
in the direction of some great assets.
Adam Lamb:
And you don't necessarily have to be in a dire emotional
Adam Lamb:
state to, to want to improve.
Adam Lamb:
It could be just part of your process, and again, you're looking for someone
Adam Lamb:
to kind of reflect back to you.
Adam Lamb:
So amazing.
Adam Lamb:
Thanks for giving me this time to talk about what I do and how it, how it how
Adam Lamb:
it serves not only the, the professionals within it, but also the industry as well.
Adam Lamb:
Jim, thank you.
Jim Taylor:
Well, it's been a pleasure and, and I think there's
Jim Taylor:
lots of key takeaways there.
Jim Taylor:
So thanks so much, Adam, and it's been a pleasure spending time with you on this
Jim Taylor:
podcast over the last year or two, so
Adam Lamb:
I, I couldn't agree more, man, and I can't wait till next week.
Adam Lamb:
I'll see you soon.
Adam Lamb:
Thanks for joining us on this episode of Turning the Table with
Adam Lamb:
me, Adam Lamb and Jim Taylor.
Adam Lamb:
We're on a mission to change the food and beverage industry for the better by
Adam Lamb:
focusing on staff mental health, physical and emotional wellbeing, by proactively
Adam Lamb:
measuring and managing staff workloads.
Adam Lamb:
Join other hospitality professionals co-creating the hashtag new
Adam Lamb:
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Adam Lamb:
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Adam Lamb:
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Adam Lamb:
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Adam Lamb:
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Adam Lamb:
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Adam Lamb:
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Adam Lamb:
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Adam Lamb:
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Adam Lamb:
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Adam Lamb:
Just like you find the show, or better yet, grab the show link
Adam Lamb:
and share it with a friend or colleague who you wanna see succeed.
Adam Lamb:
Thanks for stepping in and speaking out for an industry craft and
Adam Lamb:
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Adam Lamb:
Remember, retention is the new Cool y'all.
Adam Lamb:
This podcast was written, directed, and produced by me, Adam Lamb and Jim Taylor.
Adam Lamb:
Turning the table is a production of Realignment Media.