The Michelle Pascoe Hospitality Podcast

Welcome to The Michelle Pascoe Hospitality Podcast, where we explore the heart of the hospitality industry through conversations with leaders, experts, and innovators. Each episode brings you insights, practical advice, and inspiring stories that help you elevate guest experiences, enhance team performance, and stay ahead of industry trends. Whether you're an owner, manager, or passionate professional, this podcast will ignite your passion for hospitality. Tune in, learn, and grow with us!

The Michelle Pascoe Hospitality Podcast is a business podcast hosted by Michelle Pascoe, with 326 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Michelle Pascoe hosts The Michelle Pascoe Hospitality Podcast, a business show with 326 episodes published.

Our AI reads these to draft pitches. Use them as grounding for a pitch that cites a real guest and a specific topic.

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  Episode #334

  The Bag That Could Save a Life in Your Venue

  Aug 18, 202639 minS4

  **This episode discusses domestic and family abuse, including references to physical and psychological violence. Please take care while listening. If you or someone you know needs support, contact 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732, available 24/7. Escabags gives hospitality venues a free, practical way to support domestic abuse survivors. Founder Stacy Jane tells Certified Speaking Professional Michelle Pascoe, how her own survival story became a charity now stocked in over 3,000 locations across Australia, including registered clubs, hotels and community organisations. How can something as simple as a bag on a shelf save someone's life? In this episode, Michelle Pascoe sits down with Stacy Jane, founder and CEO of Escabags, an Australian charity that distributes free escape bags to people fleeing domestic and family abuse. Stacy shares her own experience of surviving an abusive relationship, the strangers on a cruise ship who helped her escape, and the moment she decided to turn her survival into a resource for others. Escabags works because it removes the practical barriers to leaving. Each bag is packed with the essentials someone needs for the first 24 to 72 hours after escaping, from toiletries to a prepaid SIM card, so nobody has to think about money, belongings or being tracked through their phone. Stacy and Michelle talk through what it takes for a club, pub or hospitality venue to become a stockist, why frontline staff are often the first to notice something is wrong, and how one simple question, asked consistently, can be the difference that changes someone's life. Key Takeaways How Stacy Jane's escape from an abusive relationship led her to found Escabags in 2019. What is actually packed inside an escape bag, and why every item is chosen with dignity in mind. How hospitality venues, including registered clubs, can become an Escabags stockist at no cost. Why frontline staff are often best placed to notice when someone needs support. How corporate volunteer days give hospitality teams a hands-on way to get involved. Next Steps Subscribe to The Michelle Pascoe Hospitality Podcast on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify: https://www.michellepascoe.com/The-Michelle-Pascoe-Hospitality-Podcast Join Michelle's newsletter for leadership, culture, and service excellence: https://www.michellepascoe.com/blog Book customer service workshops and middle management programs tailored to clubs, hotels, and hospitality venues: https://www.michellepascoe.com/traininganddevelopmentprograms About Michelle Michelle Pascoe helps hospitality leaders build multigenerational teams, lift service standards, and embed values-led culture. A Certified Speaking Professional with over 30 years in the hospitality industry, Michelle delivers bespoke keynotes, workshops, and leadership programs for clubs, hotels, and hospitality venues across Australia and internationally. Book customer service workshops and middle management programs: https://www.michellepascoe.com/traininganddevelopmentprograms About Stacy Stacy Jane is the Founder and CEO of Escabags, an Australian registered charity that distributes escape bags to people fleeing domestic and family abuse. Stacy is a survivor of domestic abuse and an award-winning keynote speaker, recognised as NSW Woman of the Year and a Westfield Local Hero, among other honours. Website: www.escabags.orgwww.stacyjane.com Donation Drop Off: Unit 29, 5-11 Waynote Place, Unanderra, New South Wales, Australia 2526

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  Episode #333

  Are Clubs the Last Place Solving Loneliness?

  Aug 11, 202641 minS4

  Clubs remain one of the few places where four to five generations meet face to face. Michelle Pascoe, Certified Speaking Professional and hospitality training expert, and Clubs New Zealand CEO Lucy Waterreus discuss how clubs are helping rebuild social fabric and address a growing loneliness crisis across every generation, not just Gen Z. So if Gen Z is the most digitally connected generation in history, why are they also the loneliest, and what does that mean for the club down the road? Clubs work as a fix for disconnection because they put people in the same room on a recurring basis. Lucy Waterreus points to this directly when she talks about the small group of regulars who show up at the same time every week, the kind of connection Michelle Pascoe describes as a club's table of knowledge. That connection isn't limited to members. Lucy Waterreus also explains how New Zealand clubs are recruiting staff as young as fourteen through school partnerships, pairing them alongside staff in their seventies, and what that does to the myths each generation holds about the other. Michelle and Lucy also talk through what succession planning realistically looks like when one person is wearing the GM, CEO, marketing and finance hats at once, and why getting governance and management right matters more as regulatory complexity increases. Key Takeaways Why clubs remain one of the few places where four to five generations meet face to face, and what that does to the myths each generation holds about the other. How New Zealand clubs recruit staff as young as fourteen through school-linked programs, and what that means for building the next generation of hospitality leaders. Why New Zealand's club sector is heading into a wave of CEO and manager retirements over the next five years, and what succession planning looks like in a lean-run sector. How the blurring of lines between governance and management stalls progress in clubs, and what the Incorporated Societies Act 2022 means for club boards. Why club boards are shrinking and diversifying, and the tension between relying on good hearted volunteers and building governance expertise. Next Steps Subscribe to The Michelle Pascoe Hospitality Podcast on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify: https://www.michellepascoe.com/The-Michelle-Pascoe-Hospitality-Podcast Join Michelle's newsletter for leadership, culture, and service excellence: https://www.michellepascoe.com/blog Book customer service workshops and middle management programs tailored to clubs, hotels, and hospitality venues: https://www.michellepascoe.com/traininganddevelopmentprograms About Michelle Michelle Pascoe helps hospitality leaders build multigenerational teams, lift service standards, and embed values-led culture. A Certified Speaking Professional with over 30 years in the hospitality industry, Michelle delivers bespoke keynotes, workshops, and leadership programs for clubs, hotels, and hospitality venues across Australia and internationally.  Book customer service workshops and middle management programs: https://www.michellepascoe.com/traininganddevelopmentprograms About Lucy Lucy Waterreus is CEO of Clubs New Zealand, where she works across governance, advocacy and operations for the club sector nationally. She began her career working behind the bar in clubs and has spent close to two decades in the industry, giving her a rare view of the sector from the frontline through to the boardroom.  Connect with Clubs New Zealand: https://www.clubsnz.org.nz

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  Episode #330

  What Does It Take to Become a Club CEO?

  Jul 21, 202659 minS4

  Becoming a club CEO takes practical experience built from the ground up, not a straight line through university. Michelle Pascoe, Certified Speaking Professional, talks with Young Services Club CEO Lewis Butterworth about the journey from bar work in Manchester to running a growing regional club, and what it actually takes to get there. So what actually separates someone who spends a career behind the bar from someone who ends up running the whole club? Michelle Pascoe is a Certified Speaking Professional and hospitality training expert with over 30 years' experience helping clubs, hotels, and hospitality venues build service cultures that retain staff and delight guests. In this episode, she sits down with Lewis Butterworth, who started behind a bar in Manchester at 15, dropped out of law school in his early twenties, and moved to Australia with nothing more than hospitality experience and a willingness to work. Today he is CEO of Young Services Club in regional New South Wales. Becoming a club CEO works because Lewis treated every step of the journey as a deliberate skill building exercise, not a fallback career. He explains how interviewing for jobs he did not necessarily want gave him honest feedback on where he stood, and why he chased opportunities a pay grade above his own rather than waiting to be handed one.  The conversation moves through why hospitality's middle management pipeline has thinned since COVID, why staff have to ask for opportunity rather than wait for it, and why a club CEO's job is closer to custodian than owner. Lewis also makes the case for regional hospitality careers, comparing the real cost of a city apartment against a 115 acre regional property, and argues the industry needs to stop treating "club" as separate from "hospitality" altogether. Key Takeaways Why becoming a club CEO rarely follows a straight or predictable path. How interviewing for jobs he didn't want gave Lewis the feedback he needed to grow. What Lewis inherited from predecessor Dean Cave's 20 year tenure at Young Services Club. Why hospitality's middle management pipeline collapsed after COVID and how to rebuild it. Why a club CEO's role is closer to custodian than owner. Next Steps Subscribe to The Michelle Pascoe Hospitality Podcast on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify: https://www.michellepascoe.com/The-Michelle-Pascoe-Hospitality-Podcast Join Michelle's newsletter for leadership, culture, and service excellence: https://www.michellepascoe.com/blog Book customer service workshops and middle management programs tailored to clubs, hotels, and hospitality venues: https://www.michellepascoe.com/traininganddevelopmentprograms About Michelle Michelle Pascoe helps hospitality leaders build multigenerational teams, lift service standards, and embed values-led culture. A Certified Speaking Professional with over 30 years in the hospitality industry, Michelle delivers bespoke keynotes, workshops, and leadership programs for clubs, hotels, and hospitality venues across Australia and internationally.  Book customer service workshops and middle management programs: https://www.michellepascoe.com/traininganddevelopmentprograms About Lewis Lewis Butterworth is CEO of Young Services Club in Young, New South Wales. He began his hospitality career behind a bar in Manchester at 15, moved to Australia after leaving law school in his early twenties, and worked across private hospitality groups, cocktail venues and TV chef restaurants before building a full time career in the club industry. He has grown Young Services Club's community footprint to include the Golf Club, Sporties Bowling Club and the Federation Motor Inn. Website: https://www.youngservicesclub.com.au/

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  Episode #329

  Why Boards Keep Hiring the Wrong Person for the Top Job

  Jul 14, 202639 minS4

  Boards keep hiring hospitality leaders for operational experience instead of leadership capability, according to recruitment specialists Ian Stazicker & Grant Taylor of White Now, speaking with Michelle Pascoe, Certified Speaking Professional and hospitality training expert. The right club CEO needs strategic thinking, critical thinking and genuine leadership, not familiarity with gaming machines or years behind the bar. So what should a board actually be looking for when they hire their next CEO? In this episode, Michelle Pascoe sits down with Ian and Grant, the new owners of White Now Recruitment, the long-standing recruitment agency for Australia's registered clubs and hospitality industry. Ian and Grant bring something most recruitment consultants don't have: genuine operational experience inside a club, having turned around a struggling regional club together before taking ownership of White Now. That background changes how they work. The conversation also gets into why boards keep making the same hiring mistake. Boards work because they hire for leadership, strategic thinking, and critical thinking, not for familiarity with gaming machines or years spent pouring beers. That distinction matters more as clubs face a wave of senior retirements and a middle management gap that opened during Covid and never fully closed. If you're a CEO, board member, or people leader in hospitality, particularly in a regional club, this conversation will change how you think about your next senior hire. Key Takeaways Why accommodation is the first question regional club candidates ask, before anything about the role itself. How clubs can use spare land and repurposed property to solve the regional housing problem for incoming staff. Why boards keep hiring for operational familiarity instead of leadership, strategic thinking, and critical thinking. How the hospitality leadership pipeline is thinning as senior leaders retire and middle managers who left during Covid haven't fully returned. Why bringing in leaders from outside the industry, including regulated sectors like aged care, can solve the talent gap boards are afraid to address. Next Steps Subscribe to The Michelle Pascoe Hospitality Podcast on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify: https://www.michellepascoe.com/The-Michelle-Pascoe-Hospitality-Podcast Join Michelle's newsletter for leadership, culture, and service excellence: https://www.michellepascoe.com/blog Book customer service workshops and middle management programs tailored to clubs, hotels, and hospitality venues: https://www.michellepascoe.com/traininganddevelopmentprograms About Michelle Michelle Pascoe helps hospitality leaders build multigenerational teams, lift service standards, and embed values-led culture. A Certified Speaking Professional with over 30 years in the hospitality industry, Michelle delivers bespoke keynotes, workshops, and leadership programs for clubs, hotels, and hospitality venues across Australia and internationally. Book customer service workshops and middle management programs: https://www.michellepascoe.com/traininganddevelopmentprograms About White Now Ian and Grant are the owners of White Now Recruitment, the leading recruitment agency for Australia's registered clubs and hospitality industry, and operate under their parent company ETE Hospitality Solutions. Ian brings over 30 years of senior leadership experience across tourism, hospitality, destination marketing, luxury retail, and real estate development in global markets, and previously served as president of the Bermagui Country Club board. Grant has spent 20 years working in clubs and hospitality in regional areas, including a senior finance role in consulting, and now leads the operational side of White Now. Find them at https://www.whitenow.com.au

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  Episode #328

  How Do You Manage Staff Who Won't Wait for You?

  Jul 7, 202644 minS4

  Managing Gen Z hospitality staff means offering skills and purpose instead of a career ladder, says business futurist Kim Seeling Smith on The Michelle Pascoe Hospitality Podcast. With 72% of Gen Z running a side hustle, old-school carrot and stick management only produces short-term compliance. Michelle Pascoe, a Certified Speaking Professional with over 30 years in hospitality, says leaders who replace it with purpose, community, and AI-ready skills keep people longer. So if the career ladder isn't the hook anymore, what actually keeps a Gen Z hospitality worker showing up on a Friday night? In this episode, Michelle sits down with business futurist Kim Seeling Smith to unpack the three disruptions reshaping hospitality right now: the AI revolution, the polycrisis, and the rise of the empowered workforce. Kim has advised organisations globally on the future of work, appeared on the Today Show more than 30 times, and reverse-engineered over 5,000 exit interviews into her Nine Currencies of Choice framework. Her point for hospitality leaders is blunt. Old-school management, built on the promise of climbing a ladder, does not land with a generation that has already priced that ladder out of reach. Carrot and stick works, in the sense that it gets fast compliance. It just doesn't build loyalty. Kim explains why that approach only ever produces short-term behavioural change, and what replaces it: consequences framed around real people, not policy. The conversation also covers what AI is already doing inside hospitality operations, from automating rostering to changing how job interviews are run and scored, plus Kim's practical first steps for any club CEO or hotel GM who wants to start using AI properly without an enterprise IT budget. Key Takeaways Why 72% of Gen Z having a side hustle changes what loyalty and career development actually look like in hospitality Why carrot and stick management gets short-term compliance but loses good people over the long term How AI is already automating the dull, dirty, and dangerous work inside hospitality operations, and what that frees middle managers up to do instead Why AI screening tools and real-time interview-cheating apps are already changing how hospitality venues need to hire Kim Seeling Smith's practical first steps for any hospitality leader ready to start using AI properly Next Steps Listen to The Michelle Pascoe Hospitality Podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify: https://www.michellepascoe.com/The-Michelle-Pascoe-Hospitality-Podcast Join Michelle's newsletter for leadership, culture, and service excellence: https://www.michellepascoe.com/blog Book customer service workshops and middle management programs tailored to clubs, hotels, and hospitality venues: https://www.michellepascoe.com/traininganddevelopmentprograms About Michelle Michelle Pascoe helps hospitality leaders build multigenerational teams, lift service standards, and embed values-led culture. A Certified Speaking Professional with over 30 years in the hospitality industry, Michelle delivers bespoke keynotes, workshops, and leadership programs for clubs, hotels, and hospitality venues across Australia and internationally. Book customer service workshops and middle management programs: https://www.michellepascoe.com/traininganddevelopmentprograms About Kim Kim Seeling Smith is a business futurist who helps organisations navigate the AI revolution, the polycrisis, and the rise of the empowered workforce. She has held a seat at the table with Sir Richard Branson for her work on the future of work, was named a top 101 global influencer on employee engagement, and spent 15 years as a recruitment consultant reverse-engineering 5,000 exit interviews into her Nine Currencies of Choice framework. Kim appears regularly on the Today Show, in Forbes, Fast Company, Smart Company, CEO Magazine, CNBC, the Australian Financial Review, and the Sydney Morning Herald. Find her at https://www.kimseelingsmith.com or get Kim's white paper, The C-Suite's AI Playbook: From Pilot to Performance, at https://kimseelingsmith.com/the-c-suites-ai-playbook-b/

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