{"podcast":{"title":"Top Floor","slug":"top-floor-6321208","podcast_index_feed_id":6321208,"rss_url":"https://feeds.libsyn.com/366290/rss?_ga=2.116498438.164353567.1671557087-1121528866.1656706241","website_url":"https://topfloorpodcast.com","image_url":"https://static.libsyn.com/p/assets/c/7/e/2/c7e2393712bae1a816c3140a3186d450/TF_2026_Logo_-_Blue_BG-20260116-r48xuyo5to.png","author":"Susan Barry","episode_count":100,"summary":"Top Floor is a weekly podcast with tangible tips and excellent stories from the experts and characters who elevate hospitality. Host and elevator operator Susan Barry explores the idea that everything is marketing in the hotel business. Our interviews with creators, thought leaders and hospitality groundbreakers are designed to provide practical tactics that hoteliers, restaurateurs and travel mavens can use to promote their businesses. Along the way, we answer burning marketing questions submitted on the Emergency Call Button and share the funniest, craziest, just-plain-weirdest stories down at the Loading Dock. Need to press the Emergency Call Button? Or have a story to share at the Loading Dock? Reach us at 850.404.9630 to be featured in a future episode.","last_synced_at":null,"page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/top-floor-6321208"},"episode":{"title":"223 | Tasting Catastrophe","slug":"223-tasting-catastrophe","published_at":"2025-12-23T08:01:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/top-floor-6321208/223-tasting-catastrophe","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/top-floor-6321208","url":"https://www.topfloorpodcast.com/episode/223","audio_url":"https://pdcn.co/e/traffic.libsyn.com/secure/topfloor/223_Tasting_Catastrophe.m4a?dest-id=3007631","summary":"Franck Desplechin is a French-born chef turned luxury hotel food and beverage executive, with roots in Michelin-starred kitchens and brands like St. Regis and Auberge Resorts. After running iconic properties (including a wild Sedona chapter with his wife as co-leaders), he launched a nationwide task force and consulting practice and distilled his \"chef mindset\" leadership style into a book. Susan and Franck talk about building healthy, high-performing teams in high-pressure environments. What You'll Learn About: • Lessons from a 15-year-old apprentice about reliability, humility, and showing up that still matter in the C-suite • Navigating partnership when you and your spouse run the hotel together without killing each other (or the vibe) • How COVID, quarantine, and a pregnant partner forced a workaholic to completely rearrange his priorities • What the \"chef mindset\" really is and how to use adversity, rejection, and pressure as a leadership training ground • Spotting when your culture is out of balance between guest experience and employee experience • Rethinking \"we have jobs because we have guests\" and flipping it to a culture-first, people-first philosophy • What task force really looks like behind the scenes and how elite consultants show up differently than the average fill-in • Serving what the property needs vs pushing what you think they should fix as an external expert • Meetings that should absolutely die and how to spot the recurring time-wasters with zero impact • Simple daily rituals that build loyalty, like the 15-minute \"hello tour\" that makes your team feel seen • Where luxury F&B is headed next and why fewer, better outlets may beat \"infinite options\" for modern travelers *** Our Top Three Takeaways 1. Leadership in luxury F&B is shaped earl…","meta_description":"Franck Desplechin is a French-born chef turned luxury hotel food and beverage executive, with roots in Michelin-starred kitchens and brands like St. Regis…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":2686,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/top-floor-6321208/episodes/223-tasting-catastrophe/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/top-floor-6321208/223-tasting-catastrophe.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}