The Power of Storytelling in Hospitality Leadership with Sam Oches

 In this episode, Jason E. Brooks welcomes Sam Oches, Editor-in-Chief of Nation’s Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality, to explore how storytelling builds culture, shapes brands, and sets the tone for industry leadership. From empathy to media trends, this conversation is packed with insights for every hospitality leader. 

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Leadership and Storytelling
• 2:21 The Power of Storytelling in Hospitality
• 4:43 Transitioning from Music to Food Journalism
• 9:54 Identifying Relevant Stories in Food Service Media
• 13:46 Key Leadership Traits in the Restaurant Industry
• 19:43 Launching the Signature CEO Series
• 25:08 Conversations that Shape Leadership

Transcript

Jason E. Brooks (00:05)
 Welcome to the leadership table where conversations inspire, lead and elevate. I'm your host, Jason E. Brooks, bringing you insights from top leaders who are shaping industries through leadership, culture and success. Today, we're honored to have Sam Oches, the editor in chief at Nations Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality join us to discuss the power of storytelling in hospitality leadership.
 
 Sam has been at the forefront of industry journalism, sharing insights that help shape the restaurant world. Before his current role, he led the editorial content for QSR Magazine and FSR, interviewing top executives and exploring major trends in the food service space. His expertise in storytelling and leadership makes him an incredible guest for today's conversation.
 
 Before we dive in, be sure to subscribe and share this episode with a fellow leader who could benefit from today's discussion. Sam, welcome to the leadership table. Before we begin, give the leaders a brief introduction about who you are, what your role is, and everything that we don't know about you.
 
 Sam Oches (01:27)
 Sure, well Jason, thanks so much for having me. I appreciate that kind introduction. Yeah, so I have been covering the food service space now for 16 years. First started covering this industry in 2009 when I was just a baby and have had the great honor of serving this industry in the media capacity first at QSR and FSR. As you mentioned, I was there for 12 years and then I came over to Informa Food Services, which is our group that is
 
 the parent company to Nation's Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality, which I serve as editor in chief for. So gosh, if I got into what people don't know about me, we might be here for a few hours, but I'm sure there's other directions we could go.
 
 Jason E. Brooks (02:09)
 Well, thank you for that. So let's move into a different direction then. Why do you think storytelling is such a powerful tool for hospitality leaders?
 
 Sam Oches (02:24)
 Well, storytelling is so, so much with the consumer, right? Storytelling is a very human thing. you know, forget the industry, forget what, you know, the media coverage is. No matter what, as a human being, you connect to a story. And that is something that is compelling, something that has a beginning, middle, and end, rising action, falling action. We know all of this from school.
 
 But there's something so human about that, which is why I think it's very much the fundamental of how to communicate a business, how to communicate any kind of news. You want to do so through telling a good story. And what's so beautiful about the fact that we get to cover the restaurant industry is that the restaurant industry is also very much a human thing. It is the most universal of industries.
 
 because everybody eats and for the most part everybody has eaten at a restaurant or actively eats at restaurants. And so when you combine those two things, storytelling and restaurants, those are two of the greatest, most universal things we have in this world. And we get to put those together at Nations Restaurant News, which I'm thrilled to be able to do. And this is why food TV and food media in general is so popular is because...
 
 We love to see the story of food because we know food so well and again, we connect so fundamentally to storytelling.
 
 Jason E. Brooks (03:48)
 You know, I don't think a lot of people have really put those two together the way that you just did. When it comes down to the basic fundamentals of human nature from back in the caveman days of eating food and telling a story. At some point at that gathering, there was some story being told about the day. Now, of course, we do extend that more of
 
 How do we tell our story as brands, as leaders, as our own self-marketing team? How do we tell our own story? So that's very important, and I'm glad that you defined that. Now, your past started out not really within food. You started out wanting to be a music journalist, but found your way into food service journalism. What was that transition like?
 
 and how has your background shaped your perspective in hospitality media?
 
 Sam Oches (04:53)
 Yeah, it's a great question.
 
 I wanted to in college be a music journalist. I wanted to be the next Cameron Crowe, know, writing for Rolling Stone or whatever. And, you know, I was in college in the mid aughts and at that time, social media, blogging was really reshaping what journalism in general was like, but in particular music journalism. And so when I was in my little bubble of college and I could cover bands that came through,
 
 And I was a, I am a musician and I was playing in bands and I could, you know, sort of live this pipe dream of I'm going to make a life out of, you know, music and art and writing about it. When I, when I graduated and the world was made very big to me and I realized I'm just such a teeny tiny drop in a bucket when it comes to music journalists, because there's a lot of people out there who, you know, they were, they were blogging and they were very, very aggressive in getting out there and kind of be in the face of music journalism. And I just didn't think I really had that in me.
 
 So just through just a good luck, I stumbled into the associate editor role at QSR and I discovered that I could transfer that passion for music journalism to a passion for food business journalism because obviously again, there is the component of food that is art. And that's what I've always loved that in writing about music, I was writing about my passion for an art. Now in writing about the business of restaurants,
 
 It's a little bit less art and a little bit more science, but at the core of it is still the art, the food itself, right? And so that was a very fortunate transition that I could make to where I still cared deeply about the subject matter, which were the restaurants I was covering. And I was still talking to human beings. When I was covering music, what was ultimately the most fascinating part was the musicians themselves and where the art comes from. And in the restaurant space, you have the same thing. You have...
 
 where is this brand, where is this food coming from? That's people behind it, whether that's a chef, the founder, the CEO, whoever that is behind the restaurant company, their vision for it is manifest in the menu. And so the human element was always so compelling. So anyway, that's kind of how I got into restaurant journalism. And again, I think because I loved the industry so much, I connected so deeply to the humans who were running this industry.
 
 I was able to, it felt very much like a transition that needed to happen. It was very much a transition that was easy to make. I still am a musician, I can still listen to music all the time, and I do. I write about music in my restaurant writing when I can, but for the most part, this is an industry that I feel very honored to be able to cover in the way that I do.
 
 Jason E. Brooks (07:37)
 You mentioned something there about that transition and within our industry, as you know, it's we have to go through that transition constantly. Think about someone that was brought up in the burger world and they became a leader and then they had to transition into rolling some burritos. Yes, it's still food, but
 
 you have to figure out how do I lead my team, coach my team, manage my team into this world. And then from rolling some burritos into Casual Plus, from Casual Plus to fine dining, from fine dining into catering, from catering into marketing, from marketing into IT. But we have to always find little pieces of how we do what we do.
 
 and then transition that into the next segment that we move in. Of course, within that realm is just simply making people better. So it is amazing how you were able to take that love for the music, for the artists, for their journey, and then also transition that into the food, into the chef, into the brand order, that vision, and then of course the food that is on the menu. Now you said that you are still a musician. It sounds like.
 
 you still get on stage sometimes. Is that true? Really?
 
 Sam Oches (09:02)
 I do, yes that is true.
 
 I'm a drummer in a 80s cover band called Nakatoni Danza and we play a handful of times a year, I would say no more than maybe twice a quarter. But yes, we've played many shows in Ohio and last year I had the great opportunity to play in front of a Halloween crowd of about a thousand people, think that's about the biggest we did.
 
 Jason E. Brooks (09:23)
 Wow.
 
 Sam Oches (09:24)
 We play all the hits in the 80s and it's just stupid fun. not, you know, we don't get too creative with it. We just, we dress up and be silly and play 80s tunes.
 
 Jason E. Brooks (09:33)
 Well, if I'm ever in Ohio or you play in Charlotte, let me know. I will be there front stage and center. All right, so you have a very unique position to see where the industry is heading and everyone wishes that they had that crystal ball. How do you decide what stories need to be told in food service media?
 
 Sam Oches (09:58)
 Yeah, it's so fascinating because there's no science to it, right? I mean, it's a gut check. And I feel very fortunate now that I've been covering this industry for 16 years because it's a lot easier to do that gut check on is this new, is this interesting, is this relevant, is this something that will stick around for the long term? Our industry is especially beholden to trends. And so when you see things come and go so quickly,
 
 we do have to say is this just another trend that's not gonna be worth our time or is this something we should spend a little bit more time on because we recognize it'll be around for a while? And so, it sounds like cheating but it is the easiest way to say it is when something comes across my desk and I'm determining whether or not it should be covered, it's checking the gut and saying, have I seen this before? Is this new? Is this going to affect a large amount of the industry?
 
 or is this niche, is it just a passing trend? And that's sort of the first filter, I would say. You know, the vast majority of what comes across our desk or our inbox is a lot of the same kind of stuff. know, this industry tends to kind of move in the same direction together and it's because we're all reading the same stuff, we're all following the same brands, we all see, you know, if not the crystal ball, at least sort of the, we can read some tea leaves and see where things are going. And so,
 
 So I think in general we have a good sense if like I get three emails in a day about a certain tech that a brand, that different brands are using, I can be like, well, clearly if these three brands are moving this direction, they're not gonna be the only ones. There's probably a whole movement of brands that are using that tech. So that's the easiest way to do it. But you know, mean it's conversations, right? I host my podcast Takeaway.
 
 And that's my foot in the content door. I do a lot of video and podcasting is my primary content anymore because I just don't write as much. But the ability to talk to two or three people at least every week in depth, because it's like you, I'm doing these podcast conversations, is a great way to learn not only about what drives people, what drives leaders, what's distinct about them and unique about them, but we're digging into.
 
 of their strategies at their business. And through that, I'm able to really collect a lot of ideas on where are CEOs heads at today, where are founders heads at today. If I talk to a CMO, where's the state of marketing? And I can usually connect the dots because again, in general, people are all kind of zigging and zagging together. Now, if somebody is.
 
 really zagging where others are zigging, that also stands out because it's like, well now that's really different. I'm very intrigued by that because that sounds wildly outside the box. And sometimes those wild outside the box things, three or four years later, become very much the box. So it's, yeah, a lot of just kind of gut checking and the stuff that comes across my desk and my inbox and figuring out, you know, does this feel like it's part of the general movement of the industry as we march into the future?
 
 Jason E. Brooks (12:43)
 Hmm?
 
 I love that, because you are correct. There are times that that thing that seems like it's outside the box tends to peak one's interest, if not many people's interest. And as you said, years later, that ends up being inside the box versus outside. Now you've had a ton of interviews, not to call you 80 or 90, not to call you old, but you have had countless industry leaders.
 
 either you've sat across the table from them or across the screen. What are some standout leadership traits? Because this is the leadership table that separate the best from the rest.
 
 Sam Oches (13:49)
 You gotta start with empathy. mean, that is a very human ideal in general, and I think something we could all learn a lot from is being empathetic, but especially for CEOs and leaders of companies, in organizations especially that, take a look at some of these companies where they have, in some instances, hundreds of thousands of employees. And it's just these massive systems, and so many of those employees, the biggest chunk of those employees
 
 are working in kitchens and working on the front line for your guests and interacting with your guests every day. that need for empathy is so there because you're also dealing with every walk of life. mean, again, going back to the restaurant industry being so universal, not only from the consumer standpoint, but also from your workforce standpoint. You have every demographic working in the restaurant industry.
 
 You have low-income folks in the industry, have retirees working in the industry, you have that college student looking to pick up a second job to pay off student loans, working in this industry. You have the single mom who's trying to just fight through so she can go pick up her kids. I all of these different types of human beings working in restaurants, that if you are just a CEO sitting in your corner office, off in La La Land, and you cannot relate to those people who are driving your company,
 
 You're not gonna last very long in this industry. As somebody with empathy and you can understand, I need to support the working mothers in my restaurants. I need to support students and help them potentially even with their student loans and giving some flexibility around scheduling, because everybody's got lives, or maybe I need to pay better because I recognize the need to get quality labor in my kitchens or whatever that is. It starts with empathy because
 
 Again, I've worked with some people, I'll tell some people this and I don't name names, but I've interacted with some CEOs who, as I've explained it to people, I'm like, they live on another planet. You talk to them and some people have been doing this long enough that when you engage with them, you're like, this isn't even a human conversation. You've just been so rich and so powerful for so long, you don't even know how to speak to human beings. And if you are like that, well, how on earth could you deal with the host at one of your restaurants?
 
 You know, even a general manager, you've gotta be on the same planet as your team. So for me, that's empathy. And the beautiful thing about this industry is it is hospitality. And I actually just wrote about this in my March editor's letter, which is I did an internship in college covering the architecture industry. And this is not to throw shade at that industry. But when I was talking to architects, and in some instances, I'm sitting inside the buildings that these architects design.
 
 They tended to look down their nose at me. Now I was like a pipsqueak, I was 21 years old and I probably hadn't earned their respect necessarily, but I still felt like architects kinda had this like, I'm better than you. And I've very rarely gotten that from restaurant executives. In general, in the hospitality industry, in an industry where so many of these leaders started as cashiers and worked their way up, I think I generally do see that empathy because of
 
 you know, just the nature of the business. But for anybody who's coming from outside the industry into restaurants or anybody getting, anybody who's starting out and looking to climb a ladder, you know, that's the best leadership quality I think you can take with you, which is be empathetic to the teams that you serve and, you know, remember that we're all human beings and we're serving all human beings in this industry. So.
 
 whenever I'm particularly impressed with certain CEOs, it's always, man, they're treating me very, with a lot of respect and kindness and compassion. They're very empathetic to me when I'm just the guy in the media, but they're kind to me because they're in the hospitality industry and that's not lost on them.
 
 Jason E. Brooks (17:54)
 Listeners, if you took anything away from that, be empathetic and keep your feet on the same planet as everyone else. Don't be on Mars too long, bring it back home, but it is the hospitality industry and we do restore people, we do restore their emotions, their feelings, their food. I always tell people the first connection that everyone
 
 on this planet has right now is always associated with food. Even when you think about it, everyone that's on this planet right now, when they were born, when they were born, someone placed you on the chest of your mother. Someone that loved you knew you were good. And you were like, whether you remember this or don't, most don't, but this is a person that loves me. And the very first discomfort
 
 every person on this planet had was because they were hungry. And the person that loved you cured that discomfort with food. And every single time you felt that discomfort, she fed you. And now we share that same emotion with friends, families, coworkers. So whenever we do,
 
 Get that guest complaint that seems like it's coming out of left field. Whenever we do read it online, remember it's a feeling that is real. It is really connected and all of us must give it its full attention. Now, before you did mention about your podcast, Take Away with Sam Oches. Now you interview restaurant leaders, but you also just launched Signature.
 
 a CEO series with Sam Oches. What's been the most surprising or insightful takeaway from a guest that's been on your show or what made you shift and have the addition of the CEO series?
 
 Sam Oches (20:03)
 Yeah, I'm so glad you saw that, Jason. We're really proud to have launched that this week. And in fact, a good segue from our last topic to this one is my first guest for Signature is Kirk Tanner, who's the CEO at Wendy's. And that is a great example of somebody who, Wendy's has over 7,000 restaurants globally. They did over $14 billion in sales in 2024. They are
 
 you know, by all means, a gigantic corporation. And yet, Kirk Tanner, their CEO, the guy at the top, was enormously welcoming in sitting down with me. He gave me two hours of his time. You know, he was very easy to talk to, very likable. I mean, in general, he was a human being. And it's to take these folks out of that ivory tower and say, like, this is a human who happens to be a very, you know, important.
 
 Powerful human, yes, but at the end of the day, human. And so he's a great example of that empathy I was talking about earlier. But Signature, we launched this in partnership with our friends at the Coca-Cola company. And it was this idea that has percolated for me for a while. And to be honest with you, it started with this realization that I wanted to put more CEOs on the cover of NRN. And we still have a monthly print edition. And as somebody who's been in media for 16 years, in food service media for 16 years,
 
 put a lot of people on a lot of covers, I realized like, we've kind of gotten away from that at NRN. I want to put more people on the covers and I want to put important people on the covers and there's so many important people in this industry. And as I started thinking about it and developing this idea and thinking about this roster of people I would want to put on the cover, I thought, know, I don't want to make it some simple, grab a photo, throw in a couple of quotes and call it a day.
 
 let's really go in depth and develop this as a new series. And so Signature was born and we've been working on it for about six months. Kirk is our first and only so far, but I've got another one planned for two weeks, in two weeks from now. I'm not gonna say who it is, but in two weeks I'm traveling to Dallas. That's all I'll say, I'm going to Dallas and we'll have another one that's going to be in launch in May. And the idea here is to really reveal the humanity of the CEO, kind of going back to what we've been saying, which is again,
 
 To take a quick tangent, the importance of culture today, as you know, Jason, is so important to the success of any business that however you define culture, is vital to giving your employees a reason of being and really having core values at the center of your business. Culture starts at the top and it trickles down. So CEO isn't just important for
 
 you know, helping to run the P and L or isn't just important for setting a vision or, you know, whatever. The CEO is also the starting point for the culture of the organization. And so when we launched Signature, it was to say, let's get to know these people who are in charge of the culture and in charge of these massive organizations, get to know them as humans, get to know about their career, their leadership lessons.
 
 Let's look beyond that sound bite you get from them in typical media and get to know them more. Sit down with them in one of their restaurants. And that's what we did with Kirk. We even went so far as to, had a little lightning round question, series of questions at the end. And it's what do you do on an airplane when you long flights? What's the last TV show you binged? These are the questions we're asking them, because it's again to kind of get at the core of, hey, you're a human being, I'm a human being, let's talk as human beings.
 
 who happen to be in the best industry in the world. check that out. We've got six signature episodes coming out throughout 2025. The next one is in May. So very, very excited to do that.
 
 Jason E. Brooks (23:53)
 Well.
 
 You know, I can't let this escape without addressing the elephant that's in the room. Now, Kirk Tanner came from a very deep Pepsi background. Signature is also a part of Coke, Coke helped to sponsors. How was that having a deep Pepsi guy?
 
 Sam Oches (24:03)
 Okay.
 
 Yeah, it's funny that you picked up on that. A couple people have noticed that and texted me about this and they're like, hey, wow, Coca-Cola product and Pepsi guy. Look, God bless him, Kirk was a good sport. And first off, I'll just say, love my friends at Coca-Cola and Pepsi. There's room for all. Yeah, that's right, that's right. East coast, west coast, right, left, we got it all. We got room for everybody.
 
 Jason E. Brooks (24:38)
 Absolutely. Nike and Reebok. Yes, absolutely. Chris Ghost.
 
 Sam Oches (24:50)
 But you know, we're
 
 very proud to partner with Coca-Cola on this. And yes, he was a 30 year veteran of Pepsi. But Wendy's is a Coca-Cola brand. What's more interesting, Jason, that you should get Kirk on your podcast and have him talk about what it's like to go from Pepsi to a Coca-Cola chain. That's where the rubber really meets the road and understanding what that looks like.
 
 Jason E. Brooks (24:56)
 Mm-hmm. Exactly! Exactly!
 
 I'm going to have to, that is going to be on my before 2025, shift to 26, get Kirk on the podcast and bring up that topic. you know, there's two questions that I asked to every single guest. Okay. If you could sit at a round table with three other leaders, no matter what background, what industry, a live or from history.
 
 Sam Oches (25:18)
 There you go.
 
 Jason E. Brooks (25:42)
 Who would you choose and why?
 
 Sam Oches (25:45)
 Three of them, whoa. Goodness gracious. That's tough. Somebody in the music world, somebody like a Paul McCartney would be at that table. A big Beatles guy, because of course. And Paul, I read his biography and he was not just a musical genius, but he was also just kind of a genius genius and I think was very much in charge of...
 
 Jason E. Brooks (25:57)
 Mm-hmm.
 
 Sam Oches (26:14)
 Paul McCartney and the Beatles as a business, as an enterprise, not just as an art form. And so he's somebody for sure who would be there. I hope this doesn't sound political, but Barack Obama, as somebody who I've just admired as a leader in general, and I'm pushing 40, but I'm a millennial and he was such a force outside of politics, he's just such a force when he...
 
 Jason E. Brooks (26:19)
 Mm-hmm.
 
 Sam Oches (26:43)
 became president and was so fascinating to watch and admire. And then as a third, that's interesting. I would probably go with somebody from the literary world to just recognize my roots in writing. Maybe somebody like, I feel like this is starting to skew less from away from leadership and more towards just people I'm interested in. But like in the literature world, maybe somebody like,
 
 Kurt Vonnegut, Kurt Vonnegut is like just always my favorite author. I think I got him somewhere behind me on the shelf. But just as just an absurdist and an interesting thinker, what a weird group of people I just put together.
 
 Jason E. Brooks (27:28)
 That is,
 
 look, that group of people right there is your board of directors. That is your board exactly. That will help you weave through all kind of challenges in your life. No, that's perfect, absolutely perfect.
 
 Sam Oches (27:35)
 That's my board of directors right there.
 
 Great,
 
 great, I'm glad that I could do that exercise with you live on air.
 
 Jason E. Brooks (27:49)
 Last one, last question at the leadership table. We believe in conversations that inspire, lead, and elevate. So what's one conversation in your career that profoundly shaped you as a leader?
 
 Sam Oches (28:07)
 I would point to, well, there's a couple, if I could cheat just a little bit, and the first was when I was probably 23 or 24 and got sat down by my boss and got the talk of basically like, hey, this isn't, you're not really cutting it. And I was young and I didn't, I like to think I was talented and had a lot of potential, but I.
 
 Just, I was a kid and I was not fully respecting the position I was in. And thankfully this boss gave me another shot and I turned it around. I recognized, okay, yeah, I don't wanna blow this. This is too good of an opportunity to pass up. And then the second one is thinking about my first boss while I was at NRN, which is Sarah Lockyer, who's at the Elliott Group now. And Sarah told me, you know, trust your gut. She said, you've got a really good,
 
 Jason E. Brooks (28:41)
 Mmm.
 
 Sam Oches (29:06)
 gut instinct, trust it. And that has been something that has informed a lot of my decision making as a leader, which is to say, you know, we've all got that gut instinct, right? We all kinda know what we should do, but you can get paralyzed by indecision or paralyzed by the fear of doing the wrong thing. And I needed to hear that I have the right instinct and I should trust it. So that's informed my leadership for sure. And then not a particular conversation that I've had, but.
 
 I am somebody who has been needed to be reminded over the years that I have leadership quality, that I have leadership potential. And anytime somebody tells me, shares with me that potential, shares with me, hey, you could do this if you only did this, or if you just recognize that potential in you, you could fulfill it. That's always been really important. And I think the thing for me to take away from that is,
 
 How can we provide that for other people behind us who are coming behind us? Because I'm motivated when people show me what kind of leader I can be. So I need to be the kind of person who shows others what kind of leader they can be, just because we need to hear that sometimes.
 
 Jason E. Brooks (30:17)
 I absolutely love that. And you are right. It's very hard to read the outside of the jar when you're the one inside. And sometimes it's very clear letters of great leader, but we need that outward perspective from someone else to help remind us of truly who we are, what and what we're capable of, because we will doubt ourselves at all times.
 
 Sam, before we wrap up, where can our listeners connect with you and learn more about your work?
 
 Sam Oches (30:54)
 Sure, we'll certainly go subscribe to my podcast takeaway as we've been talking about. It's a weekly podcast, episodes drop on Tuesday and it is, the tagline is that I interview the restaurant industry's most influential decision makers. That's kind of everybody from a Kirk Tanner level down to a founder of a one, two unit chain. it's really trying to identify people with interesting stories, something interesting to share to the industry.
 
 and so you can go subscribe to that podcast. You can also find me at LinkedIn. And I just launched a TikTok, Jason. And as I mentioned before, I'm getting old and I'm not like a big social guy. depending on when this episode drops, I'm not even sure if there's gonna be a single post by the time you follow me, but the intention is to do them. So you can find me on TikTok at TakeawaySam.
 
 Jason E. Brooks (31:42)
 I love it, I love it, I love it. Okay, so today we explored how storytelling shapes leadership, brand loyalty and industry trends. Sam, thank you for sharing your expertise with us at the leadership table and to our listeners. If you found value in today's conversation, be sure to subscribe, leave a review and share this episode with a fellow leader.
 
 You can also visit us at www.jasonebrooks.com for more leadership insights and resources. And until next time, keep leading with impact and remember, manage, lead, coach, repeat. Thank you so much, Sam. Thank you, sir.
 
 Sam Oches (32:25)
 Thanks, Jason.