How To Build A Team

You did not open a restaurant to become a marketer. Marketing is the one job that never rings, so it waits while every louder job gets done first.⁣ ⁣ In this episode, Pam Monteith explains why handing marketing to a specialist protects the hours that matter most, and shares four ideas for doing it well: decide what stays yours, hand over a number instead of a task, give access and one short weekly...

Your menu is the most-read thing your restaurant publishes. It sits in five or six places you may have forgotten, and it works for you or against you whether you tend it or not. In this episode, Pam Monteith walks through four small habits: say it in plain typed words, keep one source of truth, test with specials before committing, and check it with your thumb. Then she turns to the dishes that pa...

Toast IQ is grounded in your restaurant's own data, not a generic chatbot guessing at restaurants in general. So why does it so often feel flat? Toast's own Q1 2026 Restaurant Trends Report, covering how more than 125,000 US locations used Toast IQ from January to March, shows most operators are asking it the same shallow question, in different words. This episode breaks down what the report actua...

What types of emails should a restaurant send? At least ten, and a discount is only one of them. In this episode, Pam Monteith walks through 10 kinds of restaurant email in five families, using examples from Toast's published roundup of national chain emails, then shows which five make sense for an independent restaurant with no marketing team. You'll also get one sentence to finish before your ne...

You don't need a content plan. You need to hit record. This week, Pam walks through three places independent restaurant owners are already sitting on great social content, without realizing it: the kitchen itself, the reviews nobody's replied to, and the regulars already posting about the place. Plus one optional fourth idea if there's room in your feed for it.  In This Episode Why raw behind-the-...

Every restaurant runs the same four stage guest journey, whether anyone manages it or not: Discovery Interest Decision and Loyalty Most owners pour their effort into the first stage and let the other three quietly leak guests. In this episode, Pam breaks down what each stage actually requires, using a pattern that came up on a recent call with a café owner, and shows where the loyalty stage tends...

The print or email question at checkout isn't a printer preference, it's a marketing decision happening at every restaurant, every night. Pam breaks down the two second moment most Toast operators are letting slip by, and what to do with it instead. In This Episode The real moment behind this episode's title Why the cheapest, highest consent data any business will ever get is the data a customer h...

Most restaurant owners have more data available to them than ever, and less time than ever to turn it into a decision.    This episode breaks down why more data alone does not produce a better marketing decision, and shares the AI prompts Pam uses to turn restaurant numbers into next steps, including how to run a slow-night promotion without training guests to expect a discount. In This Episode • ...

Most restaurant owners have more sales data than they know what to do with: reports, dashboards, end-of-day summaries that pile up unread. This episode is about what changes when you stop treating your POS like a filing cabinet and start treating it like a conversation, and what Toast IQ is already sitting there to do about it. In This Episode •  Why restaurant owners have so much data and so few...

Most restaurant owners have a full strategy for finding new guests, and barely a plan for keeping the ones they already have. In this episode, Pam draws on seventeen years of marketing experience to break down why attraction gets all the attention while retention quietly gets ignored, and what that means if your restaurant is already running on Toast.   In this episode: •  Why attraction feels lik...

What is Toast's Guestbook, and why isn't it set up on your account? Every Toast restaurant has a guest profile for every diner, whether they know it or not, and most operators have never opened it. In this episode, Pam breaks down Toast's Guestbook: the guest profile that gets created automatically the moment anyone orders or dines in, loyalty member or not. She covers what's actually inside it, w...

If you're on Toast POS, the best email marketing tool for your restaurant is probably one you already have. Toast's own data shows one email campaign brings in an average of $2,800 in revenue within 14 days, yet most accounts have never sent a single one. In this episode, Pam Monteith walks through what's already built into your Toast account (your guest list, your segments, your templates), the o...

What does the guest experience actually look like inside a Toast loyalty program? Most restaurant owners set it up once and never see it from the guest's side again. This week, Pam walks through exactly what your guests experience, from sign-up to redemption, and the one five-minute exercise every operator should try before their next campaign. Topics Covered •  Why even marketing professionals st...

Hire a marketing manager, hire an agency, or DIY it yourself? Most independent restaurant owners on Toast POS never ask the fourth option: what's already switched on (or sitting dormant) in the account they're already paying for. This episode breaks down the real cost of each path and where an honest audit fits before you spend a dollar or an hour on any of them. Grab your Free Toast Marketing Act...

How do I win back lapsed guests using Toast POS? In one real Toast account, new guests, returning guests, and total guests all fell 15 percent in the same 30 days. Lapsed guests rose 30 percent. Pam breaks down why that divergence, and not the overall dip, is the real story, plus the win-back sequence to run inside Toast this week. Free Toast Marketing Audit: tidycal.com/pam-pormentilla-monteith/r...

There is a report inside your Toast account that almost nobody looks at. It shows you two numbers: active gift cards and inactive gift cards. For one real restaurant account reviewed in June 2026, those numbers were 89 active and 912 inactive. A 10-to-1 dormancy ratio. In this episode, Pam Monteith breaks down why inactive gift cards are a marketing list in disguise, why operators consistently mis...

If you just opened your restaurant, or you are a few months in, this episode is for you. Most new restaurant owners believe that being open and posting on social media is enough marketing. And in the first few weeks, it can feel that way. The novelty does some of the work. But novelty fades. And the guests who walked in during that window, if your Toast marketing suite was off, are gone. No email...

Half of a restaurant's revenue comes from just 7% of its guests, according to new research from Toast and Resy. In this episode, Pam Monteith breaks down what the Regulars Report means for independent restaurants heading into Father's Day weekend, including why loyalty programs roughly quadruple return rates, why regulars book ahead, and the recognition gap that's costing restaurants repeat busine...

Toast launched ToastIQ Grow in May 2026, their own managed marketing service at $499 USD a month. In this episode, Pam walks through exactly what it includes, who it's right for, and the three specific gaps operators won't know about until they're already paying for it. No fluff. Just a straight answer to the question most Toast operators are already asking.   Links mentioned: Free 30-minute Toast...

Toast's Mother's Day 2025 data shows reservations up 319% and steak orders up 93%. Father's Day follows the same occasion pattern. In this episode, Pam Monteith walks through three specific checks inside your Toast account, including Toast Tables, Toast Email Marketing, and ToastIQ, plus the one loyalty setting most operators miss when a big occasion brings in new guests. Free Toast Marketing Acti...

Great Work for Restaurants is here and this is Season 2 EP 1. After an 18-month break, host Pam Monteith relaunches the show with a clear new direction: practical, tactical marketing for restaurant owners on Toast POS in Canada and the US. In this episode: why Pam went all-in on Toast POS marketing, what Toast Email Marketing, Guestbook, Loyalty, and the new ToastIQ AI tool can actually do for you...

Is your website working for your business—or against it? In today’s digital age, having a functional website is no longer optional. It’s a powerful tool that builds credibility, saves time, and gives you a competitive edge.   In this episode of How To Build A Team, I’m breaking down the top three reasons why every business needs a functional website and sharing actionable tips you can implement to...

In today’s episode, we're diving into why Google My Business (GMB) is a powerful yet underutilized tool for local visibility, especially for CPAs, professional service providers, and food and beverage businesses. If you’re looking to reach more clients or customers locally, a well-optimized GMB profile can help you stand out in search results and attract the right people. Join me as I share three...

In today’s episode, we’re diving into a topic that’s all too familiar for CPAs and professional service providers: balancing compliance deadlines with the need to grow your firm. If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by regulations and time-sensitive tasks, this episode is for you. I’ll be sharing my top 3 strategies to help you stop stressing over compliance so you can get back to focusing on what matt...

In this episode of How to Build a Team, I dive into a challenge many business owners face: the fear of losing your business because you’re stretched too thin and feel like you can’t afford help. It’s an overwhelming feeling, but the truth is, you don’t need a huge budget to get the support you need. Whether you're struggling to keep up with the day-to-day, unsure where to focus your energy, or wor...