Strap in as we journey through an insightful conversation with Dan Simons, Founder and Co-owner of Farmers Restaurant Group. As a leader in the business world, he underlines the importance of striking a balance – pushing employees to achieve their goals while also ensuring their mental well-being is prioritized.

How do you balance work and wellbeing?

“While those are two different topics, mental health isn’t a lable, it’s just the human operating system. Telling people, ‘hey, stop complaining, you know there’s hard work to be done’ . . . I just think they’re missing the whole point of don’t you want to optimize the humans? . . .

. . . This is about, do you have the tools and the resources and the support“

As a restaurateur, how do I initiate mental health conversations with my team?

“I laid out a pretty detailed what I call, you know, a playbook for mental health in the workplace, so there’s a whole bunch of tactics and steps to it. The first one, though, and I think the simplest answer to your question as a leader, start to tell your own story.“

How does improving employee experience improve guest experience?

“Let’s take care of our people so they feel loved, supported, trained, and held accountable. Create a workplace so they can care for the guests when they come through the front doors. For me it’s that simple, and it starts and ends with that.“