A short YouTube talk by Donald Burns offering practical strategies to prevent and recover from burnout in restaurant work. Burns introduces the SAD system—Set a schedule, Accountability, Define your boundaries, Delegate, Drive—and explains actionable steps for each element, concluding with a pitch for his Restaurant Coach Method and a promise of a next video on doubling sales.
You ever feel like you're juggling too much in your restaurant, running on empty and inching closer to the dangerous cliff of burnout? Well, here's the thing. You're not alone. And honestly, I've been there myself a few times. In fact, burnout has become the silent killer of many thriving restaurants. But the good news doesn't have to be that way. Today I'm going to introduce you to my SAD system. And that's sadd. It's a powerful game changing strategy designed to really rejuvenate your passion, refocus your purpose and bring back life into your restaurant. So if you're ready to say goodbye to exhaustion and say hello to excitement, stay tuned because this might be the most crucial video you watch this entire year. Hey. Donald Byrne is a restaurant coach, author of the your Restaurant sucks trilogy and creator of the Restaurant Coach method. So let me ask you a question. Are you starting to feel the burnout coming on? Maybe it's been a few months since you had time for yourself. Maybe you really haven't been sleeping as much as you need. Maybe you've just been kind of eating junk food a lot more than you'd like to. Maybe you're just starting to get tired of the same old grind. Now if you're feeling burnout coming on, it's time to get proactive and stop it before it becomes a full, full blown meltdown. Then here's your guide to stopping restaurant burnout before it stops you. Allow me to introduce you to the SAD system. The SAD framework has really saved me many, many times when I was feeling that kind of burnout crispy edge starting to come over me. So let's get into it. S is for set a schedule. You see, burnout happens when you allow your life to become a free for all. You. You say you're going to work out at the gym, but you never schedule time. Tell yourself you're going to get the menu updated, but you never make time on your calendar. Say you're going to call your parents, but you never seem to get around to it. Truth is that you can make time for anything. If that's a big if, if you make it a priority. If you want to stop restaurant burnout, you need to make time for things. And the best way to do that is to schedule it on your calendar. Now if you're not a fan of calendars, there are a bunch of apps out there that can help you schedule your life. The key is to make it easy to access and you really want to stick to it if you make it too challenging to reach any of your goals, you're going to find yourself always just kind of reaching for the goal, but never quite getting there. A in the SAD system is for accountability. Now, if you're not a fan of the calendar, you're really going to love having an accountability partner. Accountability partner is someone who's going to help you commit to meeting with on a regular basis to discuss your goals. Now, the key is to choose someone who's going to hold you accountable to your goals and not going to let you slide off the hook. Someone's going to call you out on your B.S. you know, if you don't want to find a accountability partner, maybe you need to find a coach. Now, coaching is a great way to take your game to the next level. It's also a great way to stop your restaurant burnout before it really takes you down. Now, the first D in our SAD system is for define your boundaries. See, burnout can sneak up on you when you allow other people kind of tell you what to do. Restaurants and guests can be very, very demanding, and it's so easy to let them dictate your schedule. If you really want to stop restaurant burnout, you need to stand up for yourself. It's time to define your boundaries. You have to stand up for your time. You have to block off time. You have to protect it and make sure other people respect that. If your restaurant manager wants to meet with you or the owner wants to meet with you, you have to make sure you say something like this, I am happy to help, but I have this meeting and I have these obligations. But I can make time for you on this day, at this time. And if you're a chef, you really need to do the same thing with your cooks. Make sure they respect your time and your boundaries. If they push too hard and if you let it go, you're just handing them more power. Here's the thing. You can't let people push you around. If you ever want to stop restaurant burnout. Now, the second d in the SAD system is for delegate. If you really want to stop restaurant burnout, you need to learn the art of delegation. You don't have time to do everything yourself. You need to find people who. Who can do things better than you, and then you need to trust them to do it. Like, if you're a chef, you don't need to design every single menu item yourself. Find someone maybe on your team, maybe the sous chef who has some talent, who maybe can help create some menu items. They can do the research and then trust them to do it. And if you're a manager, please don't micromanage your team. Trust them to do their job, and when they do something wrong, help them make it right. Train your team until they can't get it wrong. The truth is, if you can't delegate, it's a reflection on you, not on your team. It means that you're not comfortable with giving up control, and that means you don't trust other people. If you really want to stop restaurant burnout, you need to get over that fear, and you need to start learning to let shit go. And the final D in the SAD system is for drive. You need to have your own personal mission. Now, if you don't have a mission, you're going to find yourself kind of of just getting pulled in all different directions by everybody else. You're going to find yourself trying to please everyone and end up pleasing no one. You're going to find yourself in the middle of restaurant burnout. And the best way to avoid this is to have your own mission and your own vision. And you want to stay focused to it. You need to have a goal that's bigger than your restaurant. And if you're a chef, if your goal could be maybe to be the best chef you can be. If you're a leader in the restaurant, your goal could be to become the best leader you can be. And if you're an owner, your goal should always be to be the best owner that you can. Your personal mission is the only thing that can keep you out of restaurant burnout. Now, if you're starting to feel restaurant burnout coming on, don't wait. Use the SAD system. Stop restaurant burnout before it takes you down. And if you're really serious about making 18% profit or more while working less than 30 hours a week in your restaurant, then you and I should talk about the restaurant coach method. It is my signature system that I've used with over 2,600 independent restaurants that they've implemented to help break free from the shackles of being chained to their restaurant 24 7. Isn't it time that your restaurant started to work for you? Hey, make sure to hit that like and subscribe button before you go. In my next video, I'm going to share with you the fastest way to to double your sales.
If your restaurant only works because you work 80 hours a week, it doesn't work.
