Jason-Candid Knüsel: Healthy Hospo, mental health for hospitality workers

Every worker in the hospitality industry knows that it can take a toll on your mental health, even when you love it. That’s where Healthy Hospo comes in. In our first talk with Jason-Candid Knüsel, we chat about what it is and how it can help.

Naomi: Hi Jason, so great to talk to you again! We met at Mirror Hospitality Expo where I first heard about Healthy Hospo. It’s a great resource for such an important topic that I wanted to share it with others. For those who do not have the benefit of knowing about it, could you start with telling us about Healthy Hospo?

Jason: Yes, of course. Healthy Hospo is a nonprofit organisation, founded in 2017 in London. We focus on inspiring, educating and directly changing the hospitality industry towards a healthier and happier hospitality industry. The first way for us is being a leader in training, meaning we create different training plans. It sounds a little like a gym training plan or a nutrition training plan. It’s not quite like that but we offer courses and plans that cover different elements that impact our mental health.

Most of the organisations out there focus on mental health challenges but we take a bit of a different stance. We look at the elements that constitute mental health and more importantly, how we can prevent mental health challenges. Prevention for us is key.

So when we break down mental health as an umbrella term, we see that sleep is incredibly important for your mental health, but also nutrition and physical exercise. We look at financial health, understanding that if you can't pay your bills at the end of the month or if you struggle financially, that is a massive stressor so it therefore also impacts your mental health. We look at topics like connection of various kinds, connection with yourself, with others and with nature, all vital for your mental health too.

Jason at the Zurich Bar Show. Source: Healthy Hospo

So, not only do we break down the elements of mental health but then also put that into an operational setting. We work in hospitality, we love hospitality, and so we also want to create an environment for people in the trade so they can thrive. We focus on providing tools to people in the trade so they can thrive both in their personal life and also at work. And so we also look at topics like healthy leadership and healthy operations.

Understanding that if I or my team in the kitchen - because I run a restaurant and bar venue - cook fresh food for the team, it's not only for the nutritional value but then also for the moment when we sit together and build connection, understanding the motivation it brings and the value of caring that is transmitted by fresh food, of making sure that this happens for our staff. Looking at how to schedule efficiently considering breaks, etc. There are multiple ways and tools that we can implement in our daily work life that impact the mental health of our staff members in a positive way.

There are more topics as well and we're very broad, but I think that’s the most beautiful thing because there's not just one way that fits everyone. We work in an industry which is driven by people, but also we need to understand that every single person is an individual. So different solutions fit for different people. As an example, I really dislike the gym. The gym is not my thing, but I love nature so I run and swim and get outside. And so some things might work for me, but some things might not work for someone else. We take a holistic approach, knowing that everything starts with conversation and inspiration before actual change can slowly be made, and the more we drive change, the more things become second nature. That's Healthy Hospo in a nutshell.

How do you convince people to be preventative instead of addressing issues after the fact? I know that if I have some physical pain, I do physical therapy, it stops hurting so I stop doing the exercises, then it starts to hurt again, rinse and repeat. It’s easy to fall into a cycle of only addressing something when it already becomes a problem.

One of our approaches is to give talks. For example, when we met at Mirror Expo, I gave a seminar with world leaders, a place that brings different people together. It is a huge platform that can motivate and inspire young bartenders but also other partners that have been in the trade for quite a while.

Jason at Mirror Expo.

Inspiring is only just the first step, though, we are not here just to tell you what to do, we're here to show you what you could be doing and how much better you could be, whether personal or professional, because obviously they go hand in hand.

Hospitality was built by egotistical and immature men. Back in the day people were proud of working 18 hours, proud of putting their own bodies on the line and proud of that toxic environment. Only the tough people could do it. But if you look at that way of doing things, these are the first people that burn out. So how tough are they really in the long run? That kind of culture also advocated things like you sleep when you're dead, when you come to work leave your problems at home, put a mask on. Always smile, always be happy. Yes, we understand that you can't be a grumpy person towards your guests of course. When gastronomy as we know it started at the end of the 1800s, it was a very toxic, high stress environment. And we want to change that environment into a more positive one.

One phrase you mentioned when we were in Bratislava that I really liked and I'd love to hear more about is “mental fitness”. What do you consider mental fitness and how do you practise it?

In a few words, it's just the actual state of improving your mind, actively doing something that benefits your mind. This can happen on so many levels. Reading a book is basically mental fitness. Playing chess is mental fitness. For me, going for a run is also mental fitness. Listening to a podcast, that's mental fitness as well. Learning, hearing different perspectives, listening about a topic from a different angle, from a different expert, maybe on a topic I've never really heard of, or don't know enough about. Anything that builds your brain muscles is what we see under the term mental fitness.

I like the image of putting the two words together because everyone knows if you don't use a muscle, it doesn't grow but becomes weak; if you work a muscle it becomes strong. This term gives a way to visualize our mental capabilities. When we improve our invisible mental fitness, then we’re stronger when the inevitable hard times come and we are more able to find solutions to the challenges and not feel so overwhelmed.

Source: Healthy Hospo

You also offer a lot of courses, what kind of courses will people find?

We cover topics that are important to health like sleep, nutrition, finances, physical health, connection, we look at leadership and healthy operations, those topics we spoke about at the beginning. And then as a slight tease, we're going to have quite a bit of new courses geared towards the kitchen, including women in the kitchen, which I find is an incredible topic as well. And we also have a lot of things coming up in collaboration with incredible experts and brands.

Are the courses practical? For example, how to improve sleep for someone who's in the hospitality industry. People in the trade have particular challenges, for example, sometimes I would finish a shift and either be so tired I wasn't sure I could drive home, or so hyped up from all the adrenaline that I would get home and lay there still buzzing.

Definitely. Not every course expert is an expert regarding gastro but they are able to translate their knowledge for people in hospitality. If we take for example the topic of sleep, we work with an incredible expert. His name is Nick Littlehales. And Nick worked with the British Olympic team, Team Sky, Manchester United and Real Madrid, etc. He is definitely one of the biggest experts on the topic of sleep at an international level. Definitely look his podcast up. I've listened to some of his podcasts and read books and stuff, he provides such great information.

The reason we have him on board is because he works with professional athletes and they have a very different schedule than a regular office job. They're constantly travelling; they are very often in stressful situations; they really put their body and mind to the limits as we do in hospitality. But the big difference unfortunately is that hospitality professionals don't learn to take care of their bodies specifically in tough situations, which is a big difference compared to athletes. But he’s an example of how you can take a coach expert with knowledge around sports and translate that into hospitality. There's a lot of synergies in different areas as well.

That makes the courses a lot more interesting because I’m skeptical of the quality of online courses, if I’m going to gain something from it or just hear what I’ve heard before. Knowing that there are such experts behind the courses definitely gives me confidence to invest.

Please go ahead and you will see more than 90% of the courses are for free. We do this on purpose. We want to make sure that the front line in hospitality, who often are the ones that do not have the greatest financial power, can access the information. However, you will find a few courses with a minimal cost. So a course that has a price with us costs less than a cup of coffee and you have access for multiple months. It’s a few coins for the organisation but it helps to cover some costs and more importantly get more experts on board as well.

Source: Healthy Hospo

Do you have any positive stories as a result of Healthy Hospo, either from in person training or the app? Things that you guys have done that you're proud of or that made a big impact?

Yes. Of course. We have been able to inspire thousands of people in the last seven years now, which is awesome. There are so many incredible stories. Not all of them start well, but I think each one has a silver lining. There are, of course, some sad stories of the most incredible people in hospitality passing away. We've come across those stories of people taking their own lives or dying from a heart attack due to their lifestyle. When we hear these we just wish that we could have been bigger and been able to help more people sooner but the reality is we can only grow step by step, as much as I wish we could be everywhere all the time.

But then we do have beautiful stories. Sometimes it starts from weird encounters, like the time I was in Oslo 1.5 years ago, visiting a friend of mine. It was my first time in Oslo, we do the sauna thing, swimming in the cold river, then go for dinner and some bar hopping. We do this for a few days, at one place we meet some friends of my friend. We start talking and health and well-being come up. He tells me that he came across an amazing organisation that does incredible stuff internationally. He doesn’t know that I do anything similar. Then suddenly he goes on our Instagram page, showing me, look what they do here, look what they've done there. To him I’m just the guy sitting next to him; to me, it was amazing to hear him talking about us, to hear him tell me about the events we’ve been organising.

I just play it cool, I’m curious to hear what he wants to say. And once he finishes, I’m already prepared. He says he wants to bring those guys to Oslo, I give him my business card and say, “Well, let me know whenever you wanna do something”. And he looks at me, totally shocked. He starts to cry, gets up and leaves the table. I’m sitting there stunned.  What just happened? What went wrong? He left for more than 10 minutes, his partner was looking at me like, what did you tell him? What the fuck happened? I don't really know what just happened. After a while he comes back and tells me he had been following Healthy Hospo for years. “You changed my life, I was on the edge for XYZ,” he says.

This was during a period where we were facing closure again, for the fourth time of the business, because obviously Covid and post-Covid weren’t in our favour. I needed that trip to Oslo because I needed to wind down, I needed to recharge my batteries and rethink how we were going to do things and if we were even going to continue. This just came to me from out of heaven.

I have even more stories like this. They renew my motivation, reminders that it doesn't matter how difficult it is, personally, financially, professionally, on all levels because what we're doing really, really matters. And it has changed lives. So we need to keep going. He gave me the energy I needed for another six months at least. I'm good at motivating myself, but sometimes it's just nice to have it from an external perspective.

Where can people find Healthy Hospo? Who are you looking for and what can you help them with?

Instagram is our #1 platform, @healthyhospo. Hospo stands for hospitality but not everyone gets it, especially in countries where English isn’t the main language. Then you also find Healthy Hospo on Facebook, it's a bit more minimalistic but we're still there. Then, of course, our website, which is healthyhospo.com and last but not least, if you want to be a little more personal in terms of communication, you can also hit me up, which on Instagram is @jasoncandid. And of course we have an app, you can find the app in the Apple Store and Google Play, which is Healthy Hospo again.

Speaking of the app, it’s perfect for operators to drive change with little to no investment. It's pocket size, you can access it 24/7 in most every country. We have a lot of our courses online, but we also enjoy doing seminars and training and courses always tailored to the venue. So it's always difficult to say we have everything on there because we constantly change, we will be adding new big projects which will be shared soon, so definitely watch our space. The app is in its first version, so there is potential to improve there. We just launched it a few months ago, taking baby steps is what we're all about.

Jason, thank you so much for taking the time to talk. I'm glad we managed to connect and have a chat.

Thank you very much for your time and I really, really appreciate it.

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Jason-Candid Knüsel is an award-winning bartender who has developed an arsenal of skills in hospitality over more than a decade in high-end environments. Jason's heart beats for food, drinks and people within hospitality. He has expanded his knowledge around Nutrition & it’s impact on health. In 2022 JCK joined forces with founder Tim Etherington-Judge to bring Healthy Hospo, a nonprofit organisation with the mission to create a healthier & happier hospitality, to new heights. 

Healthy Hospo works around the world to build healthy workplaces that are more profitable, resilient, deliver better customer service & much more enjoyable places to work.
 The services offered are practical & actionable, sharing solutions through workshops & the digital platform to help hospo heroes personally & professionally.

On a day to day basis, Jason runs the acclaimed Restaurant-Bar concept named Bar Lupo, based in the beautiful city of Zürich, Switzerland, where he oversees the daily operation and drinks development.