- 4 minutes ago
Will Murray, co-founder of Fallow, didn't set out to become a content creator. He wanted more people to discover the restaurant. Four years later, Fallow's social media has grown 333%, helping transform the London restaurant into one of YouTube's biggest hospitality success stories.
Watch now to learn how Will Murray used storytelling to grow Fallow, why "scrappy, not Spielberg" became the team's content philosophy and how authentic videos turned viewers into guests.
Restaurant Influencers is sponsored by:
• Toast All-In-1 Restaurant POS: https://entm.ag/ToastRI
• PepsiCo Foodservice: https://entm.ag/RIPepsico
Watch now to learn how Will Murray used storytelling to grow Fallow, why "scrappy, not Spielberg" became the team's content philosophy and how authentic videos turned viewers into guests.
Restaurant Influencers is sponsored by:
• Toast All-In-1 Restaurant POS: https://entm.ag/ToastRI
• PepsiCo Foodservice: https://entm.ag/RIPepsico
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NewsTranscript
00:00The first bit of advice I got from YouTube was Scrappy, not Spielberg.
00:03Ah.
00:04So keep it scrappy, keep it organic.
00:06Keep it scrappy, not Spielberg.
00:06If all you've got is an Osmo, all you've got is a phone,
00:09you're more than capable of getting millions and millions of views online.
00:18So for the last two years I've been invited to the Google offices
00:21in New York, in Chicago, to talk about restaurants,
00:25to talk about storytelling, to talk about technology.
00:27And when I go, Google and the YouTube team,
00:30we talk about Fallow, about your YouTube channel.
00:34Over two million subscribers on YouTube, we tell restaurants,
00:38if you want to learn how to do it right, follow Fallow.
00:42When did you guys start?
00:44Well, we were four years in now.
00:47Four years in with restaurants and YouTube?
00:49No, so five years, restaurateur.
00:51Then we've been doing YouTube content for three years, socials for four.
00:55Okay.
00:56Yeah.
00:58Why so hard on YouTube?
00:59Because YouTube's, it's the OG social platform.
01:02Yeah.
01:03It takes a different craft than short form Instagram, Facebook.
01:07It's so much, there's so much more nuance in YouTube.
01:11Yes.
01:11YouTube, I always think is like, if you get, if you imagine a TikTok follower,
01:14in terms of conversion, I don't think most of them, because they're slightly younger,
01:19but you know, the views aren't as meaningful.
01:22Instagram, they are slightly more meaningful.
01:24Yeah.
01:24You can craft more of a narrative and people care a bit more.
01:26But YouTube, if you can craft a narrative and you can create long form content that people
01:31really engage with, they are the type of people that are going to come and eat at your restaurant.
01:36So since we started making content, we started four years ago, our business grew 33%.
01:43Our social media grew 333%.
01:47333%.
01:47Yeah.
01:48And then slowly, that increment's got a little bit less.
01:51But the views currently sit somewhere about combined platforms, about 85 to 110 million a month.
01:58And every single year we've been open, we've been growing 33% as a restaurant group.
02:02It's unbelievable.
02:03How big is the YouTube team, your content team?
02:05It's not that many.
02:07Small and mighty is fine.
02:08It's lean.
02:09Small and mighty is fine.
02:10The beauty of the thing is, like with our YouTube content, there's myself.
02:15There's a character.
02:16There's Jack.
02:17There's a character.
02:17And then the restaurant's character itself.
02:19So given that, you know, that's the emphasis.
02:22That's what we have.
02:23That's our edge on all the creators.
02:25Yes.
02:25All the creators.
02:26You have a business.
02:27Yeah, we have a business.
02:27This is the business creator economy.
02:29But people don't understand business owners.
02:31That's why I'm so passionate about what we do is we own restaurants.
02:34And it's not to be a creator.
02:35It's just to show what we do and what we love to do.
02:37Yeah.
02:38It's a window.
02:38It's already hard enough to do the restaurant.
02:41It is.
02:41To take care of people.
02:42But it's not, if you think about it like that, it's like, it's creating the restaurants
02:46and the business is the hard part.
02:48Yes.
02:48Creating a good window into it is actually more straightforward.
02:52Yeah.
02:52I say that.
02:53YouTube has its nuances and, you know, it gets bigger and it gets more complicated.
02:57You know, the team get more hungry.
02:59They want more views.
03:00They get, we're getting deeper into it.
03:01But, but yeah, like ultimately the main thing is to showcase what we do on a daily basis.
03:06When did you realize in the beginning, like, did you start on YouTube or did you start?
03:10No, I started on Instagram.
03:11You started on Instagram.
03:12Okay.
03:13Pre-reels, which makes you sound like an old man, but pre-reels.
03:16I'm a fringe millennial.
03:17I'm 44.
03:19I know what Napster is.
03:20Okay.
03:21I'm sorry.
03:21I don't know what that is.
03:22Exactly.
03:23You're a young lad.
03:23Yeah.
03:24So yeah, pre-reels, we, we were quiet one day at Fallow.
03:28Yeah.
03:28It was Saturday lunch and Saturday brunch.
03:31And what we decided, it was our worst service of the whole week, which is strange, you know,
03:35even Monday was better.
03:37What we decided was we were going to launch a brunch and we posted a viral sort of way.
03:43It was a croissant, a laminated croissant puck.
03:46We called it the, I mean, it's called the Royale of Cheese.
03:49It's a Pulp Fiction reference.
03:51And I think it got, it got some, somewhere in the region of like.
03:55Which wallet is it?
03:56You what?
03:57Which wallet is it?
03:58I don't know what I mean.
03:58It's, it's the badass motherfucker wallet.
04:01That's it.
04:02I like that.
04:03It's been a while.
04:04I love that.
04:05Okay.
04:05So yeah, that got like 1.6 million views.
04:09Seriously.
04:09It's a photo.
04:10And then we sold, we were, we were completely full for four months off the back of it for
04:17Saturday.
04:17And now we do a thousand covers a day.
04:19A thousand covers a day?
04:20On a Saturday.
04:21How many restaurants you guys have?
04:22Three.
04:22Three restaurants.
04:23Yeah.
04:23And do you do content just as the restaurant group?
04:26Fallow is the, is the entire restaurant group?
04:28Or are you doing separate?
04:29Fallow is a restaurant group.
04:30We have a site in Canary Wharf and we have a chicken shop here.
04:33And the chicken shop, does it do its own content or does it all live?
04:36Yeah.
04:36They all have their different identities, but Fallow Chefs, which is mine and my business partner's
04:40YouTube page ties it all together.
04:43Amazing.
04:43So all the, all of the restaurants, they kind of have rows a bit more fine dining.
04:48Fallow is kind of quite a diverse menu, but you know, like it's kind of our flagship.
04:54And then Fowl is our kind of our place to have a bit of fun.
04:56But like, as you can see, it's, it's, it's really popping off.
04:59It's nice and busy all the time.
05:00And so like, it's kind of, there's a, there's a restaurant in the group for every kind of
05:05occasion, really.
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06:24I think one of the craziest things is I would expect Google and YouTube to tell me that the restaurant
06:30that has one of the biggest channels,
06:32the one that restauranteurs should emulate, would be in New York City or Miami or San Francisco.
06:37But we're here in London.
06:39We're working on it.
06:40We're working on it.
06:41We're here in London.
06:42It's amazing, but it's a global platform.
06:44So you have people all over the world that are following and learning your craft.
06:48Well, funny you should say that.
06:49The reason we first went viral was because of Americans.
06:53Because we did a POV service video.
06:56It was the first one we ever did.
06:58It's on 7.8 million views.
07:00Wow.
07:01That launched the YouTube channel.
07:03Yep.
07:04And the reason that went viral is actually because of Reddit.
07:07No way.
07:07Yeah.
07:08So it went viral on Reddit because all the Americans were like,
07:10you've got to close this place down, man.
07:12They're not wearing gloves.
07:15There is the power of social media.
07:17Yeah.
07:17So that outraged the Americans.
07:20I think just the rage bait of us English people.
07:23We don't, some do, but we don't wear gloves on service.
07:26And that was enough to, like, catapult to get onto the homepage.
07:30And then it got lots of clicks, lots of views.
07:32Yeah.
07:33And then we've diversified from there, really.
07:35So this show is called Restaurant Influencers.
07:37I started podcasting in 2017.
07:38My first show was Digital Hospitality.
07:41Because of Toast, I pitched them on this idea that I would go and interview
07:45restaurateurs that were phenomenal at running restaurants,
07:47that were great storytellers, and that also believed in what I call Digital Hospitality.
07:51That's how we created the show.
07:52We partnered with Entrepreneur Magazine.
07:54This is the show that you're on now.
07:55Nice.
07:56So this is going to go on Entrepreneur.
07:57I didn't even expect that we would be able to run into you.
08:00I knew how busy you guys are.
08:01So thank you for taking the time to do this.
08:04What advice would you have to the restaurant audience that we have?
08:07How do you get started?
08:09Because everyone thinks that they don't have the time to create the content.
08:14So I'll give you a couple of things that I sort of think about.
08:19So for me, there's one figure that I love on the YouTube scene, which is a guy called Steve Vivaldi.
08:25Okay.
08:26Oh, he's my guy.
08:27I just interviewed him.
08:27Really?
08:28In Canada.
08:28Yeah, yeah.
08:29Steve Vivaldi's phenomenal.
08:30So I love Steve Vivaldi because he is…
08:32He's a restaurant.
08:32I literally just had him on the show.
08:33Don't get me wrong.
08:34He's…
08:34I don't…
08:35I'm not going to say like…
08:37He is exactly who he is.
08:38Yes.
08:39He just seems like a bloke.
08:40He turns on the camera and you get what you get.
08:43He's like, oh…
08:43If you don't like him much, you're not going to like him in real life.
08:44This guy comes in and says, oh, we're going to do Pastor Alfredo today.
08:47And he's, yep.
08:48Cool.
08:49And I just love it because it's completely authentic and organic to what he does.
08:52So what I would say is…
08:54What I would say is a really good sort of lesson there is…
08:58I'll give you another one.
08:59Adam Bayer.
09:00Okay.
09:00He's a Michelin-star chef in London.
09:02If you've not watched his content, check it out.
09:03I will.
09:03We'll follow him.
09:04We'll put links in the show notes.
09:05He is…
09:06He's probably like the most high-end content sort of creator I've ever seen.
09:09He's a Michelin chef.
09:10Yeah.
09:10Like, I was speaking to him just two days at an award ceremony.
09:13And he's doing just classical French recipes, teaching people how to cook, teaching
09:18the young people how to cook, classical techniques that will be forgotten.
09:21My advice is always, and it came from YouTube, the first bit of advice I got from YouTube
09:26was scrappy, not Spielberg.
09:28Ah.
09:29So keep it scrappy.
09:30Keep it organic.
09:31If all you've got is an Osmo, all you've got is a phone, all of those things are more…
09:37You're more than capable of getting millions and millions of views online.
09:41Don't overcomplicate it.
09:41Don't go buy a new camera.
09:42Don't employ an incredibly expensive PR company if you can't do it.
09:46Also, if you don't want to do it, don't do it because people will see that straight away.
09:50So when I opened up, when we switched our point of sale, we were on Aloha 2020.
09:56So we were on Aloha for 12 years.
09:57We switched from a legacy system to Toast.
10:00And I told Toast, I have a media company.
10:02I'm a business owner that creates content for other restaurant owners.
10:05And they go, okay, what are you going to do?
10:07I'm like, I'm going to unbox the hardware and talk about the software.
10:10And we're going to go live.
10:12We're going to put cameras.
10:13We're going to show the entire experience.
10:15So I put the pressure on them.
10:16They have delivered.
10:18I heard a rumor that Toast not only is in the UK, but I hear that you guys might be
10:22switching.
10:23We're working on it.
10:24You're working on it.
10:25Not inked?
10:25Not inked.
10:26Not inked yet.
10:27So what do we need to see from Toast?
10:29Why are you even considering Toast?
10:30How about that?
10:32I think that basically there's lots of different platforms at the moment that are reaching
10:38out to try and get our business.
10:40Of course.
10:40The main reason that we're thinking about Toast is because eventually what's going to happen,
10:46we predict, is that there are going to be lots of different systems that are not able
10:52to communicate with each other.
10:53So the idea for us is Toast seems like the one that's working hardest to link everything up.
11:00But yeah, look, we're in tentative implementation stages.
11:07Implementation stages?
11:08So we'll see.
11:08So we'll see.
11:09We will see.
11:09So we're going to put them to the test.
11:10Yeah, yeah.
11:10Because it's important to me to see Toast not only in the United States succeed, but also
11:15here.
11:16We're here.
11:16I'm here with my family, my team.
11:18We've interviewed some of the most incredible restaurateurs that are on Toast here.
11:22I'm going to Dublin to go tell some more Toast stories.
11:24They believe deeply in technology.
11:26There's a very good restaurateur who's just opened Simpsons on the Strand.
11:32So there are some really, really good people using Toast, but I think, generally speaking,
11:39I still think there's a little bit of market saturation they need to hit.
11:42Did you know that Toast powers over 140,000 restaurants across the United States, Canada,
11:49and UK?
11:50It's an incredible company.
11:52I'm on the Toast customer advisory board.
11:54They are proud sponsors of this show, Restaurant Influencers.
11:57We couldn't do it without their support.
11:58They power our barbecue restaurants in San Diego.
12:02If you have questions about Toast, if you're thinking about bringing Toast on to be your
12:06primary technology partner at your restaurants, please reach out to me.
12:10I'm happy to get a local Toast representative to take care of you.
12:14You can reach me at SeanPWelcheff on Instagram.
12:17Once again, thank you to Toast for believing in the power of technology, the power of storytelling,
12:24back to the show.
12:26Best piece of advice for the restaurateur or the person that's watching this and they're
12:30dreaming about opening up a restaurant.
12:32When are you ready to chase this crazy dream?
12:36I think in the US, accessing capital and backing enterprise is easier than in the UK at the moment.
12:46Okay.
12:46The UK is a really, really tough industry at the moment.
12:51There's just not enough meat on the bone unless you're willing to engage massively with social media
12:58and pull every lever that's available to you.
13:02And yeah, look, thankfully we're weathering the storm and all the uncertain price increases
13:07and all of the staff increases.
13:10But yeah, my advice to anyone is get some good Michelin experience under your belt.
13:17You can always cook.
13:19You can always cook down, but you can never cook up.
13:21So I always say to my chefs that go and get your feet on the ground in a really, really
13:26accomplished restaurant.
13:28Go and work for someone who you really admire.
13:30And then once you've learned the best way to do things, then you can go off and start a food
13:34truck.
13:34You can go off and all of those skills become transferable.
13:38Amazing.
13:38Would you mind showing us a little bit inside?
13:41Come on, let's go.
13:42Let's go.
13:42Sure, you can do it.
13:43So this is where we film all the content.
13:47Oh really?
13:47At this restaurant?
13:48So we're closed on a Monday.
13:49Okay.
13:53So this is where we do all...
13:54Everything is amazing.
13:54Oh good.
13:55You guys, phenomenal.
13:56Have you been to Fallow yet?
13:57Tonight we just stayed, my first time.
13:58Been to Fallow?
13:59Oh no, not yet.
14:00Not yet.
14:01I'll tell you first.
14:02It's connected.
14:03Beautiful.
14:03Can you do that?
14:04Yeah, yeah.
14:04So this is our YouTube set.
14:07Yes.
14:08So we close one day a week.
14:09Okay.
14:09And then we put two cameras here, one light.
14:11Okay.
14:11And then we just do our live cooking demos from here.
14:13How many pieces of content do you film?
14:15What's the...
14:15How many hours?
14:16We film, we upload three pieces of short form YouTube content.
14:21Three for short form?
14:22Two pieces of bespoke restaurant content per week.
14:25That's long form?
14:26Short form.
14:27And then long form we post one times per week.
14:30And what's long for you?
14:33Fourteen to twenty-four minutes.
14:34And then sometimes forty-five.
14:35How much editing do you film?
14:37Oh mate.
14:38Forty-five minute projects take a serious amount of time.
14:41Yeah.
14:41Yeah, really big projects.
14:43Unfortunately.
14:44Oh, we're going to Fallow.
14:45So we're hundreds?
14:46Yeah, so Fallow's our flagship.
14:48They're all connected downstairs.
14:50Yeah.
14:51So these are...
14:51This is our busiest site.
14:52So we're doing about...
14:56What are we doing about?
14:57Careful, it's quite slippery there.
14:59Um...
14:59Only thousands of covers out of here a week.
15:01A thousand?
15:02Yeah.
15:04Dairy cow beef.
15:05Don't know if you get much dairy cow in the US.
15:07Wow, no, no.
15:07You see all that yellow fat?
15:09Wow.
15:09Yeah, it's super tasty.
15:11Really delicious.
15:13These beautiful like...
15:14These are our sort of dairy cow steaks.
15:16Amazing.
15:17Really good produce.
15:19These are our sweet breads, beef ribs, pork heads.
15:23We've got all of our dry-aging ducks up here.
15:26All of our porchetta.
15:28Iberico beef.
15:29Iberico pork.
15:30Yeah, just all these beautiful ribeyes that we're getting.
15:33Wow.
15:33Forty-five, forty-eight day aged.
15:35Brilliant.
15:35Yeah, so really, really good quality of shit.
15:37Yeah, we've got a full-time butcher in-house.
15:40Wow.
15:40Fallow itself, for one restaurant, is 170 staff.
15:43Holy shit, seriously?
15:44Yeah.
15:44How many did you see?
15:46Well, we can do about seven to eight, 850 people a day.
15:50Oh, wow.
15:50And then we do a thousand on Saturdays.
15:53That's it.
15:54That's a wrap.
15:55Fallow, YouTube.
15:57Literally, one of the most important restaurants in the world are all in on storytelling.
16:01So it's not just YouTube, it's Facebook, it's Instagram, TikTok too.
16:04Oh, yeah.
16:05All of it.
16:05They don't discriminate.
16:06Substack.
16:07Chinese.
16:07Yeah, we're on...
16:09Stop it.
16:09Chinese TikTok.
16:10Really?
16:11Yeah, yeah.
16:11Who's uploading there?
16:12Big market for us.
16:13We've got a specialist...
16:15Come on.
16:16...lady in Liverpool.
16:16Yeah.
16:17I feel so...
16:18All right.
16:18Yeah.
16:19I usually go and give homework.
16:21Will's giving me homework.
16:22It's great.
16:23Dude, I love it.
16:24Entrepreneur audience, restaurant owner audience, what's your final piece of advice?
16:28Final piece of advice.
16:31I think don't do anything unless it feels natural, because an audience is always going
16:36to be able to tell if it's an unnatural sort of, if you're unnaturally doing it to camera.
16:42I think that running a business is tougher than ever with soaring costs in every different
16:48aspect.
16:50So, communicating to your audience is more important than ever.
16:53Amazing.
16:54You guys know where to find me.
16:55I'm available.
16:56Instagram, LinkedIn, all the platforms, at Sean P. Welchef.
16:59As always, we appreciate you.
17:01Please come to Fallow.
17:02Please support them.
17:03Please follow them on YouTube and all the channels.
17:05As always, stay curious.
17:07Get involved.
17:07Don't be afraid to ask for help.
17:09We'll see you guys in London.
17:14Thank you for listening.
17:15If you've made it this long, you are part of the community.
17:17You're part of the tribe.
17:18We can't do this alone.
17:20We started, no one was listening.
17:21Now we have a community of digital hospitality leaders all over the globe.
17:25Please check out our new series called Restaurant Technology Substack.
17:30It's a Substack newsletter.
17:31It's free.
17:32It's some of our deep work on the best technology for restaurants.
17:35Also, go to YouTube and subscribe to Cali BBQ Media.
17:39Cali BBQ Media on YouTube.
17:41We've been putting out a lot of new original content.
17:43Hopefully, you guys like that content.
17:45If you want to work with us, go to BeTheShow.media.
17:48We show up all over the United States, some international countries.
17:52We would love to work with you and your growing brand on digital storytelling.
17:56You can reach out to me anytime at Sean P. Welchef on Instagram.
17:59I'm weirdly available.
18:01Stay curious.
18:02Get involved.
18:02Don't be afraid to ask for help.
18:04We'll catch you next episode.
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