Giving Hope in a Post Covid-19 world with Simon Soar

Foreign.

Of season eight of the Bruce Lee Podcast. Today I invited back Simon Saw. Simon is part of the Jersey Hospitality Association. He has got a direct line of communication into the Jersey government how they are dealing with coronavirus. He's going to share some really interesting stats on how many people on the island have actually had the coronavirus. The ratio is really low, which is really good news. But most importantly I wanted to pick his brains on how he thinks the government is dealing with it, how he thinks other governments are dealing with it, but most importantly about exit strategies, tactics, tips, what he's been saying to his members.

The last episode that we did, which.

Was the first episode of season eight, you can go and check it out now go to booster.co.uk podcast it was the most ever commented and tuned into episode that I've ever done live. I wanted to get him back on because it was one month later. He's going to share some some pretty crazy stories. He's going to tell us some pretty crazy things. But most importantly what he's going to do is paint a picture of how he sees this all panning out.

As always, all I would love for.

You to do is go and comment on it and leave a like and a share.

That's all I ask.

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If you are watching this for YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, wherever you're watching this, hit the like Button, go and subscribe, go and follow. That's all I ask. Without further ado, let's listen to to Simon Sor. This is part two of our interview, one month on from when we last spoke. Please make sure you watch, listen, but most importantly implement on the advice that we give.

So, as Mark said, my name is Simon Sor. I'm the Chief Executive for the Jersey Hospitality Association. I represent in excess of 200 local businesses, in excess of 250 venues within those businesses, somewhere around about 5 to 6,000 members of staff. I've been working very closely with the Business Liaison Group, which feeds directly into the Emergencies panel over here, which is our version of the UK's Cobra. So we're providing live data, up to date data straight in, so any policies being decided can be done with our industry, which seems to be the most severely impacted, being very carefully considered with everything being put through.

It's exactly one month since we spoke, we covered so much last time. I've listened back to the interview a couple of times. Obviously I've done the video, we've done the editing, we've done all the things for YouTube and whatnot. Then what has been the biggest change in the sort of the message that the Jersey government have been saying since then?

Find ourselves slightly behind the curve compared to uk, We've taken a little bit longer to move along in the timescale. We start our lockdown a bit later than you guys did. We've been working, it was a gradual lockdown over a period of about a week to, you know, starting to close off various businesses, what can operate, what can't, to the point where we're now in a lockdown position, where it's what's deemed as essential only within our industry. It's accommodation providers of key workers, those who require the ability to self isolate and can't at home, and then takeaways which are still deemed as essential because people still need to get food out their businesses or to their homes. Where we've seen. I was speaking to you earlier about the numbers we are On, I think 217 positive cases today, three deaths in hospitals so far we're keeping low on the curve as everyone keeps talking about the curve, trying to keep it very under control at the moment seems to be a case of progressing. We've got various government support coming through. I've been working very closely with the ministers who are working on that. We've managed to get some least some support which is going to keep a significant number of businesses going after this and it's also trying to get those who weren't originally included brought into the scope as well. So, yeah, I think it's just working through. As soon as you get one main chunk sorted, there seems to be other bits that spring off that you need to be addressing after we've been making the progress we need to. I think so far, when you give.

Those rates, you know, obviously free, dead, very low people have actually got it. How many people actually live on Jersey?

Probably about 110,000.

Really, really low numbers there. And obviously you're in the lockdown, which is obviously helping. How is the hospitals on Jersey? How many hospitals do you have and how is everything there, like the reports that are on the island?

So we've got one main hospital. They are currently building an emergency hospital site just in case we have outbreak. Hit a level where we need additional support from the health side. There's every chance we do get to that stage. So it's making sure we have the preparations in place for that. That should be ready within a couple of weeks, I believe, from what they were saying. Fact is, we are a small island. We've got a hospital which is big enough to look after an island of this size during normal times. Obviously gearing up for this level. They do have to look at additional support to provide enough to cover everyone off.

How much communication does the Jersey government have with the British in all of this? When you're feeding in those numbers that you gave me, is that what gets shown over here in the daily briefings, or is it something separate?

So we are separate. We aren't part of the UK government, We have our own government, but we are a Crown dependency. Our figures, I believe, are fed into uk. We talk to uk, we talk to a lot of other jurisdictions about how they're managing, what steps they're taking and what is appropriate at what stage. Our decisions are based on where we're at, what is happening currently and how we expect to control it in certain situations. They are still looking at the herd immunization approach, which is the idea that you want to try and get about 80% of the people to have had it at some stage. I think it's going to be quite interesting when they finally do the antibody test. We are expecting that at some stage, and that will be to see who has had it. My suspicion is this has been around a lot longer than most of us realize, especially in the uk, and I think we're going to see a lot more people coming back having had it than we think or would have Thought.

That'S something that I've heard a lot of people say that we obviously, we assume that people in the UK have had it since the end of February. Are you saying that from what you may think with these antibodies, that it actually might have been around a lot sooner? Because there are people that I talk to, you know, and everybody knows somebody, but they're saying that it could have been here at the back end of 2019. Is that sort of along the lines of when you think as well, don't dismiss the idea.

I think it's a case of looking at it and saying, is it possible this was the case? And in my mind you speak to a lot of people who said they suffered from very almost chesty flu like symptoms back then. And I know a significant number of people who said they've come down with those symptoms way before we even thought this was hitting our shores. If it is the case, if it was around at that point and it hadn't been diagnosed at that stage, then it actually puts us in a very good position because we could find a lot more people have got the antibodies, have already passed through it and are in a safer position now. Meaning that the recovery stage will happen a lot quicker if we do get to that point. A couple of flights coming in a day, the boats have stopped passengers, they're still bringing goods in. Flights are coming over for essential workers, people repatriating, whatever happens to be there. But there's no one coming over for leisure purposes at this stage. That's all been shut down. Hotels are shut with the exception of looking after key workers, essential workers, or those needing to self isolate somewhere. They can also remain open for people who might have been using them for a temporary residential status if they had to move out of their home for a period and must continue living elsewhere. That's still allowed. Restaurants are shut, except for takeaway cafe or anything that you can do. Takeaways, that is it. There's no ability to sit in anywhere at this stage. And I think there's obviously a lot of concerns surrounding businesses that focus primarily on people visiting the island to get the revenue coming in.

You obviously are speaking to a lot of people. Have you got any success stories? Have you any good news of people that have maybe pivoted, maybe restaurants that have started up doing deliveries, you know, has they got any good news to share?

I've got to be careful what I define as good news, because we have quite a few members who've adapted their business plan, I suppose, to shift over to a takeaway only basis to this period, it doesn't make up for the loss of revenue that they previously had. What it does is provide enough income that they can bridge between now, you know, with the wage grants we have coming in over here and reopening it allows them to get enough in to support because in Jersey the government will cover 80% of the wage but you still have to pay the additional 20% to make it up. The only ones who are taking people in at the moment are going to some of the hotels etc who have got the facilities in place for those we have some self catering who are offering the ability for especially key workers who want their own cooking facilities to be able to operate with that. But no, as general most people are sort of shutting down. Those in particular who are the holiday home side we have a very heavy business business visitors to the island, a lot of business tourists over to the island. So there's a lot of apartments which are focused towards providing them with an opportunity to have service department without having to stay in a hotel for what they're doing.

So how would you personally say the way that the Jersey government has dealt with all of this has overall dealt with Coronavirus and COVID 19 I've got.

To be quite careful here because I'm dealing with them on a fairly regular basis, daily basis at the moment. I've said this to them. I think the communication both internally and externally hasn't been up to the standard we needed. However, we've got one minister in particular has been working very, very hard trying to provide as much as he can for have in place now, although a little bit later than when we actually needed it, a facility to get wage grants which can help support people to retain their staff during this period. But we have to understand we aren't part of the British government. We don't have the bank of England funding our payroll here. We have to use up our rainy day fund. We do have a significant rainy day fund that is finite and you know, as a small island, a small community, we have to look at what we can do to then bring that back up after it is understanding that we've been through a crisis 75 years ago at Finnish that had massive impact on the island. We saw a new face of the island come through after that. But we also saw an element of community come out of that. Suppose going back to it, the government are doing a lot at the moment. I think there's a lot of good measures coming through but there's also a lot of issues that have arisen because of this. And I think they'll be addressed after this. Now's not the time to start nitpicking. Now more than ever, we need an element of unity. We need to stand up, we need to get ourselves through this.

What I've noticed is that there's a lot of petitions going out there from so many different type of, type of industries and people that are right into their local MPs, they're sort of starting up petitions to try and take through to help X, Y or Z. From what you've seen on the island of Jersey, has this happened as people been doing petitions, writing to MPs and does that actually make a difference in a time like this? Or like you say, is the best thing to do right now to just get through the other side and then try and see what you can do? Or is now the perfect time to be doing it, to try and get your message across? Do you see the benefit in doing the petitions and things like that now? Or is it just a case of just waiting for it to come over and then try and act?

Not a fan of petitions. I see a lot of them come and a lot of them go. I think they're being bandied around a little bit too much at the moment. I don't think they're getting the impact that they used to when they were focused a bit more carefully. To your point about speaking to MPs, we have our local versions, which are our states members voted in every four years. People are writing to them, they're calling them the main guy we have dealing with the situation over here, who's our assistant Chief minister, which is the second top politician we have on Ireland, has been doing an incredible job. And I know for a fact he's picking up his phone to. I can't tell you how many different people just ring him. They're concerned about things and he is there to listen. He's going out of his way to make sure he can respond to them, he can listen to them and he's taking everything on board. And it's actually quite refreshing to see that level of engagement. You are never going to get this perfect first time with something that is this quick in reacting, happening this fast in an unprecedented time. And I hate using the word unprecedented, but, you know, we've not dealt with anything like this before and they do not know how to react with it. I think the jobs they're doing, incredibly high pressure and to at least come up with something which for the majority is providing a good result, I think is really good at this stage.

Have you got a message to hospitality businesses that you may have been speaking to on the island or just in general? Obviously you're part of the hospitality community and, you know, you're very active and, you know, there's lots of people sort of maybe reaching out now for advice. What has been the sort of the main advice that you've been passing on to hospitality owners to try and spread a bit of good news, to try and help them get through this and come out the other end very clear.

That I see a lot of people who are. They're struggling with dealing what's going on, and I'm not just talking about accepting it. It's a massive impact. They've worked in some cases dealing with very small operations where it's only them and maybe one or two other members of staff. They're putting every penny they have, all their time and all their passion, and they're at the point where they might lose everything they put in. And the level of emotion running through them can be very high. A lot of times it starts with, you know, let's rationalize, let's view. It's very, very rarely I have the same generic answers for everyone. I do view it on a case by case basis. Everything from an insurance policy, they're dealing with how their staff are, what their business operation. Everything is different because every business is built differently. You know, we don't. Again, we aren't an island filled with chains. We are a lot of independent businesses here, meaning that each of them will have their own usp and they're taking that unique selling point and creating something that hasn't really been replicated that much in the island. If they want to be able to deal with their individual problem, you have to analyze it on a case by case basis. And I've been quite creative and sat down over the phone, had some very long conversations with people, and it's about being as creative as possible to try and get their business over the line. So the small business owners, it tends to be a cash flow situation. These guys, they're not earning, they haven't got massive bank balances built up. So it's a case of can they afford to get through to the point where they reopen with enough money to reopen their business, to buy that initial stock to cover off anything they might have had outstanding. At this stage, some of the bigger businesses, they're looking at the staffing levels. Yes, they can hibernate their business, but what do they do with their staff? Are their staff going to accept? Are they looking at redundancies? Are they looking at just bedding down, doing less hours? Are they changing their contracts? Are they going to just pay out the 20% and get the other 80%? What is going to be the case with that? Also understand that in Jersey you actually have to pay the wage out first to get the 80% back. So there tends to be a cash flow concern that has to be addressed there. There's a lot of issues that get looked at and again, I know it doesn't answer your questions at all, but I think it's because the whole bit of what I'm dealing with now is everything is different. Every business is different. You try and find a generic answer to realize that there aren't generic answers because businesses aren't all generic.

What does a day to day look like of Simon Sar right now? Like, how is your. What you do, your role, your life, how has it changed since we last spoke?

Two weeks after we spoke were some of the hardest I've ever dealt with in my career. Not necessarily the longest hours I've ever done, but I've never. From 6 in the morning till 10 at night, I was speaking to members. You know, these are people who. It was when it was first happening, when the impact of this was being seen, when bookings were being cancelled, drying up completely and people were going, what do I do? I've got nothing. There's literally, I've got all my staff starting and there's nothing coming in. So that was when the real concern was happening. That was, that was pretty full on. Now we've got into a sort of bed in situation and, and it's addressing the individual concerns. So before, again, as I was saying before, was the big generic people being made with no bookings coming in, no money coming in, are we on lockdown? Aren't we on lockdown? What information is being fed into government? Are government responding as we need them to? Are they aware of the problems we're having with which to base their relief packages on? Do they know what the situations are? So it was making sure that we had all that information to put forward. We provide a number of, we've done surveys out to members which provided some real key data which was fed directly into the ministers to allow them to work out what support levels were required and how they needed to take place.

I guess the final question before we move on to the quick fire ones and end on some a little bit fun. Are you confident? Are you confident for the Jersey Hospitality Association? Are you confident for the Jersey tourism, that when this is over that life will turn to a new normal and things will be fine. Or are you right now like others, like, worried or like skeptical at what's going on?

So yes, you said new normal. We are not going to be the same coming out of this. There's no question about that. How does our community change? How does our industry change? How do people traveling change? How does the way people view holidays change? And I think that that in itself is a big talk, which I'm sure you'll be dealing with at some stage. I'd like to hope we're going to get as many of my members over that finish line as possible. My biggest concern is a second wave of this and if we haven't got enough people who've had the virus in place, what the impact of that second.

Wave could be good that we had this conversation on 16 March when it was so raw having it now on the on the 13th of April and it'll be good to have it again at some point in the future just to sort of have a little timeline, a little check in to see what's happening. So really do appreciate it. And I know that there are a lot of people watching live and I know there are a lot of people who watched last time that really did appreciate doing something like this. As always on these podcasts, I like to finish on a little quick fire question. If you could be isolated or locked down, quarantine with one celebrity, who would it be?

It depends what mood I'm in. It's either going to be someone like Jim Jeffries, who is slightly outrageous, but I think he would help get you through some dark times, or Billy Connolly. I think the man isn't just funny, he's got a wealth of experience and he can hold a decent conversation. I think they'd be my key to slightly on the comedic side, but one slightly darker.

I said on Friday that mine would be Joe Rogan for very similar, very similar sort of reasons. So obviously you're a busy person and you're running around on all the things. Everybody has a To Watch list, whether it's on Netflix or whatever. What has been one movie or one series that has been on your To Watch list that you hadn't had the chance to do so in the past, but now getting that chance to maybe watch it back or watch it two.

Films, Captain Marvel and Avengers Endgame. I've just got Disney plus so they're happening very soon. Two series, Mandalorian and I'm also catching up on Brooklyn nine nine.

Also as well those of you tuning in live or on the replay, leave it in the comments. What is one celebrity that you would be isolated with and what is that one movie or series? I asked today in the hospitality community Netflix suggestions and we had over 178. So there's lots to go back on in there. What is the one thing that you've missed since being in lockdown? So what is the one thing that you've just missed being able to do?

Actually thinking about this a lot the other day and you could say is it going to the pub? But with a three year old getting to the pub doesn't happen as much as you'd like. Is it going out for a meal in the restaurant? Yeah, we like that but we cook at home quite a lot. Anyway, I think I realized and it sounds silly it's actually going out and having a coffee with my members so I spend a lot of time, my meetings are out and about with members over a coffee and it's also a chance to catch up and speak to them.

I was thinking about this over the weekend and I think it really hit today. I really miss the football not being here, having that escapism for like that 90 minutes. Not not having that. And I'm a, I'm a big Liverpool fan. We are just two wins away from this Premier League if it happens. So just having that and again that the escapism falls into movies and going to the cinema again like is that going to be something that, that we were able to do in the future? You know, as so many movie chains now you can see over in America, AMC are having to ask for bailouts and all the things. So yeah, having that. Missing definitely missing that. So in the last 12 months, if there's something that stands out under a hundred pounds, what has been your favorite? Your best purchase above £100?

Because I've got something which I don't normally spend money very often. The missus holds the purse strings, etc.

Let's do it.

Let's do it. Go for it.

Machine broke after seven years, was about 2 22:30 I think we picked it up for. It's the best thing. I got a replacement for it.

Do you have a favorite podcast or YouTube channel? The one that you've just got in your earbuds or the one you like to just tune in on? Have you got a particular favorite?

I'm not a massive podcast. I listen to a lot of audiobooks in particular if I'm going out Walking to see members, you know, or driving in the car. I'll stick my audiobook on. That's my little escape, I suppose. It was a David Gemmell book, I believe. I've gone through most of his. A massive fan of his and Simon Scarrow, big fan of his as well.

What is your number one advice to anybody listening to help them potentially boost their direct bookings? What's the one bit of advice that you give to members, to anybody, when it comes to if they want to increase their direct bookings, not rely on third parties to get them in the future, what would be that one piece of little nugget?

I suppose it's looking at the personal touches. A lot of things when we look because we quite often will stay if we're going away, especially if it's for short breaks, will stay in self catering or little places. If I can see somewhere that's got a personal touch to it, a personal feel to it that for me means more than anything else showing those little touches. In particular, if you're looking at self catering accommodation, showing things that you've done, things that you've made at your own, not that generic style, not just the typical put in repeated sort of thing, show something that really personalizes it and I think that means more than anything else.

I just want to say thank you so much for doing this, Simon. We really, really, really appreciate. I know the people in the comments appreciate it. Anybody wants to get in touch, where's the best place? Is it social media, is it an email or if anybody wants to just reach out and just say thanks for this. Is there any preferred place I'm on.

Social media, they're welcome. My emails public Anyway, it's SimonJerseyHospitality.com always happy to answer any questions. I do look, you know I'm a member association. I do primarily look after my members during times like this. My advice is always there if anyone needs it or wants to chat or wants to bounce ideas, anything at all.

Thank you to everybody that has tuned in. If you could do me one big favor before you leave. There's a little share button in the bottom left hand corner of your screen. Tap that. Share it on your personal wall. Share it on a business page, share it in a Facebook group. Tell people about what we're doing for today's show. Notes I have mentioned this already, booster.co.uk podcast. Go there and you can go and find out more about everything that we have chatted about today and more. And if you want to get a step guide on how you can increase your direct bookings, go to boostly.co.uk Five Step alright, thank you very much. Tomorrow night or the next episode, we are going to be back with hospitality owners that have been able to get bookings during this period, have income and revenue come in, they're going to share their stories to see if you can pick up on anything, to see if you can put it into practice in your business. For now, thank you so much for tuning in and I will see you on the other side.