#317 Nicole Antonio-Gadsdon Founder at Banana Pepper HR - Hiring for Human Magic and Hospitality Alchemists

About this episode

Michael Tingsager interviews Nicole Antonio-Gadsdon about her book 'Help Wanted' and the importance of human connection in hiring within the hospitality industry.

Michael welcomes Nicole back to discuss her new book, "Help Wanted," focused on finding “human magic” in hiring—going beyond technical skills and surface-level values fit to build teams and cultures that can withstand challenges. Nicole, a culture architect and founder of Banana Pepper HR, argues hospitality is at risk of becoming transactional and has an opportunity to re-center belonging and human connection. They critique standard, rushed recruitment as soulless and misaligned with brand promises, emphasizing “hospitality begins in-house” and that recruitment is a brand’s first act of hospitality. Nicole highlights “super skills” often dismissed as soft skills—empathy, kindness, curiosity, creativity, vulnerability, resilience, and more—and explains how missing them can lead to poor service, brand damage, and commercial loss. Practical ideas include slowing down hiring, doing stronger reference checks (including peer references), interviewing for stories by creating psychological safety, and using a three-course interview framework (appetizer/entrée/dessert). Nicole shares why she chose 10 super skills, drawing inspiration from Danny Meyer’s “HQ” and behavioral science…

People in this episode

Host: Michael Tingsager

Guest: Nicole Antonio-Gadsdon

Topics covered

• hiring
• human connection
• hospitality
• soft skills
• recruitment
• team building

Keywords

• human magic
• super skills
• empathy
• recruitment
• hospitality
• team culture
• reference checks
• psychological safety

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Banana Pepper HR

Books & works: Help Wanted

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