Room for All

The Inclusion in Hospitality Podcast

Welcome to Room for All – the podcast where we dive deep into the world of inclusive employment and explore the power of creating opportunities for people with disabilities.

Andrea Comastri, CEO and co-founder of Hotel Etico, Australia’s first not for profit social enterprise hotel and Saraya O’Connell, General Manager of Hotel Etico. will be your hosts as they talk about the importance of breaking down barriers in the workplace with a particular focus on hospitality and other customer facing roles, and how businesses can lead the charge toward inclusion.

At Hotel Etico, we believe that everyone deserves a fair chance to succeed, and we’ve made it our mission to not only provide jobs but to build meaningful careers for people with disabilities. On this podcast, we’ll be sharing success stories, best practices, and inspiring conversations with industry leaders from the hospitality sector, disability sector, other social enterprises, philanthropy and of course our own trainees graduates and staff.

Whether you’re a business owner, an advocate for inclusion, or someone curious about the future of work, this podcast is for you.

So come and join us at Hotel Etico, or as we call it…the Hotel California for the heart. A place where once you have checked in…your heart will never never leave!”

So, let’s get started and open the doors for all.

All Episodes

Room for All

Room For All S2 E24 - Live at the 2025 Social Traders Convene - Jess Colgan, All Things Equal

October 18, 2025 • Andrea Comastri and Saraya O'Connell • Season 2 • Episode 24

Room for All: Inclusive Employment and Social Enterprise with Jess Colgan

Welcome to 'Room for All,' the podcast where we explore inclusive employment and the creation of opportunities for people with disabilities. Join hosts Andrea Comastri and Saraya O'Connell of Hotel Etico as they discuss breaking down workplace barriers, particularly in hospitality. This episode features Jess Colgan, CEO of All Things Equal and co-founder of Ginger Snap Patisserie, who shares insights into creating award wage employment for people with disabilities through her café and catering services. Learn about the unique challenges and successes faced by social enterprises committed to meaningful, inclusive employment.

00:00 Introduction to Room for All Podcast

01:49 Meet Jess Colgan: CEO of All Things Equal

03:05 All Things Equal: Mission and Impact

06:22 Challenges and Successes in Inclusive Employment

10:26 Future Plans and Personal Insights

17:43 The Synergy of Social Enterprises

26:51 Final Thoughts and Farewell

00:00 Introduction to Inclusive Employment

01:49 Meet Jess Colgan: CEO of All Things Equal

03:05 All Things Equal: Mission and Impact

06:22 Challenges and Successes in Social Enterprise

10:14 Future Plans and Personal Insights

28:27 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Send us a text

Jess Colgan

Speaker 4: [00:00:00] Okay. And we're rolling again. Why do you always start with a laugh

Speaker 2: because we're so flustered and then we go straight into recording. Anyway, go again. And we're rolling.

Speaker: No, no, this is staying. Oh no, I'm not cutting it out. And we have now Jess Colgan. Hello. How are you Jess? Good.

Speaker 5: How are you?

Speaker: Very, very good.

Jess from all things equal? Mm-hmm. CEO?

Speaker 2: Yes.

Speaker: CEO. Great.

Speaker 2: And she also has another. Business as well. Do you wanna mention that? Tell us all about it? Yeah, sure.

Speaker 5: Um, so yeah, so I'm the CEO of all Things Equal and also the co-founder of another business, ginger Snap Patisserie. Who With your brother? With my brother, yes.

Which is very good. I love

Speaker: following the stories. I, I know about it. Yes.

Speaker 5: Everyone loves seeing the desserts. Yes. Yeah. They're so good. They're very impressive.

Speaker: So he's the inventor of the tennis ball, one

Speaker 5: of the tennis ball tag. Yeah, that's right.

Speaker: Unbelievable.

Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. That was good. He's very talented.

Speaker: I, I'm curious, like, did he come up with it because of [00:01:00] the Australian Open or he came like, oh, we should use this for the Australian Open?

Speaker 5: Yeah, so, um, Brett trained at Crown Casino and was a pastry chef there for nearly 10 years. And so at Crown Casino, they really lean into all the big events across Melbourne. Yeah. So he's made so many different things along the way. And then when we had the opportunity for the Australian Open, he designed that specifically.

Fantastic for that event. Fantastic. Can you just

Speaker 2: move

Speaker 5: Jess,

Speaker 2: Mike in just a tiny bit, a little bit closer? Yes. Yeah. Soft spoken, unlike us loud people.

Speaker: Um, okay, so go back to all things Equal. Um, tell us, tell our listeners a little bit more about all Things Equal if they don't know already. Mm-hmm.

Speaker 5: All Things Equal is a hospitality based social enterprise that exists to bridge the gap between people with disability and the wider community through the creation of award wage.

Employment, and we do that through our cafe and catering services in Balaclava. And ultimately our goal is to provide our trainees with the experience, training, [00:02:00] and connections to move on to the next stage of their careers in hospitality.

Speaker: And if you haven't seen it. On the corner in Balaclava,

Speaker 5: it's red, yellow, bright yellow.

It's huge. You

Speaker: can't miss it. Right. You cannot

Speaker 5: miss it. Yeah. And it's amazing how many people actually, it's actually in the air, don't realize. Or they say, oh, I know that yellow building. And so, yeah. Yeah. Well, you said the other day, so I

Speaker 2: was telling B last night, so we had dinner with Bianca last night, and I was telling her that I was sitting next to somebody who lives.

Just down the road from you. So Melbourne to Sydney last time I was there and I was like, oh, you should go and check out all things Equal, it's in, in, you know, the same suburb because he said he was in Yeah, he, that's, that's where he said he was there. I don't know we, how we got on that conversation. Um, I don't generally ask people where they live, but um, and I said, you know, all things equal, they train and employ young people with a disability.

They're really great. It's unbelievable. You should really go there. And he's like, oh yeah, that's just down the road from me. I didn't know that was a cafe. I was like the giant yellow, like the yellow. And he's like, oh, that's a cafe. And I was like, go there.

Speaker 5: Well, it means that we need to do a better job with our marketing on [00:03:00] the outside of our building.

Love it. Which is something that we're looking at. I think,

Speaker: yeah, Bianca was saying we just need better

Speaker 5: messaging actually on the outside of the building. Like everybody knows the building because of the color, but you should know what it is. Should we should actually have our message and our mission wrapped around the building.

But that's another thing, so that's something that

Speaker 2: we're looking at. It's a fine line though, because you want people to come because you've got great coffee and good hospitality service. You don't necessarily want people just to come. It's, it's a fine.

Speaker: I was telling Bianca last night, and I'll tell you here, so that, do a promotion for them as well.

So can we be bian career?

Speaker 5: Sorry. Yeah. So Bianca is all things equals head of impact. Yes. And has been with all things equal from the very beginning. The very, very beginning. The very

Speaker: beginning. Yes. Um, great friend, but I was telling her, and I'll tell you and I'll tell everyone the listening and watching as well.

You should look up Kafe.

Speaker 5: Yes, I have. You

Speaker: know them? Yes. Yes. They are. Apart from the fact that they use the same yellow as you. Yellow and black.

Speaker 6: Yeah.

Speaker: But they're very good with their branding and their communication and they're sort of explaining the mission and using all that. So I think you can. Borrow a few [00:04:00] of those.

Um, sure things. I think they're very, very good at it. Yeah, they're very impressive. Yeah. Very good. Mm-hmm. I went, I visited a couple of their cafes in last year in Europe. Uh, unfortunately they've just closed the one next to the, um, atrium. Uh, I think they're lease.

Speaker 5: Yeah. Okay. At least. And that would be an expensive sport to be?

Well,

Speaker: I think they, they were getting it pro bono probably. Yeah. And that sort of, that patience ran out. Yeah, that's right. Because um, yeah, it would've been an extremely expensive place to be. If so,

Speaker 2: arsenal things equal, have one major, major thing. In common. I mean, apart from hospitality and training people with a disability and we just love each other.

Great CEOs and No, no, no, excellent CEOs. Jess, you're okay? Excellent. Jess is excellent. Hard to please. Um, no, but it's about award wage. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Um, so you guys published a. White paper, blue paper, white paper, white paper. Mm-hmm. But it's blue. But anyway, I'm just saying. No, it's cool. A white paper on that.

Mm-hmm. On and, and the impact of that. So do you wanna talk a little bit [00:05:00] about that? Yes.

Speaker 5: Yeah. So earlier this year we, um, wrote a white paper, which outlined our vision for the next 10 years, which is to see 1,100 jobs created for people with disability in the hospitality community. 1,100. Great number. We actually did the calcula, no, we actually did the calculations on it to say, well, through our three stage model that we have now, what do those numbers come to?

Plus, um, we'll be opening another venue in the next year or so. Um, so that combined plus, plus we also are doing some education pieces. We get contacted by. Yeah, disability organizations all across Australia. We have people fly from Perth, from New South Wales all over the place to come and see what we're doing, and so we wanna see how we can actually share some of that knowledge and see.

We would love to have all things equal everywhere, everywhere. Um, but we understand that we've been successful because of the really great community connection that we have, and [00:06:00] we don't want to take that away from other disability organizations in their local communities who have really strong community connections.

So yeah, it was, it was calculated based on, based on what we felt we could achieve and. We wanted to set that vision because we really wanted to put ourselves out to the world and put set up a goal for ourselves whilst we are a cafe, really. I often say that's really just the tip of the iceberg. Yes. Of what we do.

That's what people see from the forefront, but really there's this whole world that exists underneath that cafe. Yes, I know it will. Yeah. And I think it's really important for us as a social enterprise to really stamp ourselves as leaders in the work that we're doing. We know that through connections and partnerships with really, um, quite literally five star, you know, hospitality partners means that that grows our credibility and those five [00:07:00] star hospitality partners really wanna partner with someone who's a thought leader.

Yeah. Credible, who's really putting themselves out there, putting themselves on the maps. So. We went through that process, um, worked with an incredible PR consultant actually on that piece of work, Odette Barry, and, um, released that out to the world. And it really has resulted in many different organizations, both large hospitality employers, so like sporting stadiums and mm-hmm.

Um, hotels. David West from, um, yes. W the W was in involved in the paper as were you.

Speaker 4: Yeah.

Speaker 5: Um, and. It really brought them to us. Yeah, yeah. To have these conversations and to, to be a part of that impact. And they could see that, they could see what we were trying to do and wanted to connect in with that.

Speaker: It's very good. I think what's

Speaker 5: so powerful about,

Speaker 2: um, about it is the partnerships in which you create. Opportunities because you're right, we can't do it alone. You know, we train and employ young people with a [00:08:00] disability too. But anytime Bianca and Bianca has a question, I pick up the phone. I'm like, oh yeah, have you tried this?

Or you know, have you tried that? Or, Hey, what Easy reads like, it's all about sharing and collaboration. I

Speaker: still imagine that there will be eventually. A hotel

Speaker 2: Edcoe. Oh, with all things equal equals

Speaker: cafe did. He did. He had this. He said, how great

Speaker 2: would it be if we had Hotel Edco Australia in Melbourne and the cafe downstairs was all things equal.

And I was like, are you kidding, Bianca? And I would never get any work done. That would be gorgeous. That would be amazing. That

Speaker: could be a lot of synergies and a lot of, so if there's an

Speaker 2: investor listening. We'll take a hotel with a cafe in it.

Speaker: Yeah, yeah, that's right. And we'll rent. It's, yeah, we, we will rent.

Yeah, that would be amazing.

Speaker 2: Honestly, the, the amount of stuff we could do for, so for

Speaker: those that don't know, um, tell us who, who benefits from your, um, uh, program inside in the cafe? Like who are your service recipient or participant?

Speaker 5: Sure. Maybe I'll, um, rewind back to why we started and, um. Because [00:09:00] that helps give context yes.

To the people that we support. So all things Equal has been operating for four and a half years, was started by a man called Jonathan Winnick. He's a partner in a law firm, but his daughter, Tulley was um, finishing high school at a special school called Giant Steps. She's a young autistic woman who was really passionate about being in the kitchen, and he understood that she would need a really tailored approach.

To entering the workforce. Yeah. But that she could participate in the workforce. And so all things equal initially was really started to prove that people with disability could work in community facing roles. Yeah. Not in back of house. Yeah. You know, or factory based roles. Yeah. Connect with the community and also earn award wages for that work.

Actually, that almost leans into what, when we were talking about the marketing, the branding at the start. In the beginning, all things equal just wanted to be your everyday local cafe. Yeah. Where people [00:10:00] with disability were interacting. What's happened over time is that we've really learned to what the size of the need is for the work that we do.

It's huge. It's huge. Um, without actually ever. Going to an employment expo or doing anything like that, we have a wait list of more than a hundred people. Mm-hmm. Um, wanting to come and work with us. And so what has happened over time, and these are, um, young people, um, with intellectual disability, young people, um, with down syndrome, autistic people.

So we're really supporting people who have a whole, a broad range of needs. And our focus is. Strengths-based, person centered, and really about learning all the ways that we can support that individual person. And the NDIS has been really fabulous for us in that manner of being able to provide one-to-one support through throughout the journey of, um, someone's work with us.[00:11:00]

So you got, you guys run one, one-to-one. We do run one to one. One to one. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And that was a decision that I made in the early days. So we've been running four and a half years. I've been with All Things Equal for nearly three years. Oh, congrats. Has it really gone that fast? Yeah, that's right. No it hasn't.

Yeah. Oh my God. Um, and. So, yeah, in, in the beginning, people actually came to work with their own support workers. Okay. And that worked really nicely because, um, the support worker knew about the person, knew what was happening at home, could transition into work. But when we decided that we wanted to have much bigger impact, we wanted to see what we could do with this wait list, and we understood that we wouldn't be able to open.

Yeah. 50 cafes across Australia. It's just not a financially sustainable model to run. Um, and that we needed to focus on employment partners and getting people into their, into their next jobs. Uh, that's when we brought that support in-house and we employed, um, hospitality trainers. So [00:12:00] all of our trainers have a background in hospitality.

We focus more on those trainers having hospitality experience rather than disability experience. That's because we see ourselves as a professional hospitality organization and we want to make sure that we're providing really professional support to a person. And we also know that if somebody has the right values and is aligned to us, that we can teach them the skills that they need.

Um, from a disability perspective. Yes. 'cause a lot of the time it's just about being a good person. Yes, that's right. And being patient and kind. Um, so they're the sorts of people that we bring into our world. And from, um, a cafe operations perspective, that works really well as well. Mm-hmm. Because that trainer can also be a part of, um, the operations of the cafe.

Yeah.

Speaker 2: Yep. We've done both, we've done hospitality professionals and disability professionals mm-hmm. And merged them into the one. Well, the difference

Speaker: I think, with us is that because we've got the residential component Yeah. We've got the live in program, the level of support [00:13:00] required, um, and the ratios are, are very different.

Speaker 5: Yeah, that's right. So the models, you know, most of our. Another thing that we reviewed when I first came to the organization was, do we want to employ more people for less hours or less people for more hours? And I was like, financially it would probably work better for us to support less people for more hours.

Mm-hmm. Because there's a lot of, um, working involved in working with families mm-hmm. And all of the support that comes around that. But we made a firm decision to be, um, a person's first step. Yeah. Into. Into the world of work. So most of our, um, trainees only work with us for about seven or eight hours a week.

Which is quite different to what No, no. Our,

Speaker 2: our, our trainees are employed minimum eight hours a week. Okay. We have, uh, 15 at a time. So we obviously, yeah. Our models are similar, but very different. The differences that they. They, they live on site with us for

Speaker: 44 hours a week. [00:14:00]

Speaker 2: They're there, so they're, but eight

Speaker: or 10 of which they work.

Yep. And the other is either training is training or independently and so on, so that that's Yeah. Your,

Speaker 2: you do training on the job while they're being

Speaker 5: paid. So we have a pre-employment program. Which people participate in for about 12 months beforehand. And then once they've gone through that program, then they move into paid employment.

Speaker 6: Okay.

Speaker 5: In the beginning. And again, that was an iteration that we made. So in the beginning people were brought straight into award wage employment. Yeah. Um. That obviously had its challenges. Yeah. Wasn't great from the business part. Yeah. From the business point of view. And they're the parts that you always need to be thinking about as a social enterprise.

You've like balancing, balancing those two sides Yeah. Is the hardest part about social enterprise. Um, so the pre-employment program, we also know that hospitality's not for everyone. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So running a pre-employment program, make sure that people know what hospitality is about and they get all of that experience.

So we run that [00:15:00] from an offsite commercial kitchen. Um, there's a lot of kitchen work involved, but then now we run a pop-up cafe during the year we run a footy club canteen. We do shadow shifts in the cafe. So it's a very holistic experience. It's tailored to before. Yeah. Yeah. Before coming into that paid employment now.

Yeah.

Speaker: Very good. Wow.

Speaker 5: We're just so aligned. I love that. And

Speaker: what about Jess herself? Where, what's your, what were you doing before all things equal?

Speaker 5: Yeah, so I am actually, um, an accountant by background, reformed accountant. That's to joke you, you

Speaker 2: need that in the social enterprise space because like you said, you've

Speaker 5: got a balanced profit and purpose.

Exactly. So, yeah. So, um, I was actually financial controller of quite a large events then, um, catering business for seven years. And then moved into the social enterprise sector and worked with lots of different social enterprises, free to feed Project Rocket. Oh, lots of.

Speaker 6: [00:16:00] Right.

Speaker 5: Just really awesome places, um, in a CFO role and also doing some work in the impact investment space.

Okay. So I did that for a number of years and then I, so back to my brother. So my brother's a, um, proud deaf man. Um, born profoundly deaf. He has a cochlear implant. And we were, he had gotten into his work at Crown through a disability employment program there called Crown Ability. Yes. And became a very talented.

Thought after a pastry chef there. Mm-hmm. I, I'm quite jealous. I, I've

Speaker 2: seen, I follow him on Instagram and I can say I am one for like, I'm like,

Speaker 5: oh my God. Yeah. It's beautiful stuff. So when I was doing more of that consulting work and working with lots of social enterprises, Brett and I started building an idea for, um, a [00:17:00]patisserie.

We call it ginger snap because we both have red hair. Um, and we just put that together. Yeah. Um, so the idea behind Ginger Snap was that I was basically fed up with not seeing enough, um, w well, any really, people with disability in leadership roles mm-hmm. I was not seeing people with disability, um, in founder roles in really.

Being a part of a sector that, that they deserve to be a part of. So when Brett started making these really beautiful desserts, he made me this gorgeous cake one day and I said, we really need to do something with this. I knew from my work in a catering and events business that what he was creating, there was a need for it.

From a hospitality perspective. So thinking about that business side, but then, um, on the other side, really knowing that he had the capability and the capacity, so to be a leader in the sector as well. And so we [00:18:00] started that together. We started it from our mom's kitchen. Yeah. Um, and did it from there for a while.

And then, um, I met Bianca just purely, we were connecting over. The two all things equal is very much in its infancy. I was talking a bit about Gingers Snap and then she said to me, we are looking for our first CEO, and would you come and do that? And at the time I was like, oh. I was like, I've got so many things happening, but thank goodness I said yes.

Yeah. And um. So now I've had the very fortunate opportunity of having the two businesses grow together and, um, they really compliment each other. So my brother can do, run some of the pre-employment classes, um, can speak to the crew about his, his journey, um, and what he's been able to achieve in hospitality.

Then for things like the Australian Open, really [00:19:00] one wouldn't have succeeded without the other. Brett creating that tennis ball tart that really helped us to go quite viral. Yes. Um, and that's not something we could have created at all Things equal, but equally, gingersnap never would've got the opportunity at the Australian Open that without all things equal.

So there's some really beautiful synergies between those things. Yeah. And it's really wonderful to see my brother. Really rise to this opportunity of being a leader, being able to show people what he's achieved. Um, yeah, and that's kind of me and how I got here and why I do what I do.

Speaker: Excellent. Love it.

Um, what's, um, what's the most difficult thing of, in

Speaker 2: which part of your of life running? Is it

Speaker 5: running two social enterprises or No,

Speaker: no, no, no. Of running. Um, a social enterprise.

Speaker 5: Social enterprise,

Speaker: yeah.

Speaker 5: Well, you're building two businesses at the one time, right? Mm-hmm. You're building a disability organization with mm-hmm.

A [00:20:00] whole series of support and, and compliance is Compliance and Yeah. Compliance. Yeah. And, um, I don't think you can have more stakeholders. I don't think you can possibly have more stakeholders than you do in running a social enterprise. You have families, you have trainees, you have customers, you have a board, you have government.

You literally have every possible stake stakeholders, NDIS providers. Yeah. So it's really, it's really getting that balance, right? Yes. Between those stakeholders. So now that we are focusing on getting people into the next stage of their employment and. With our funders, we've got impact numbers that we need to hit, right?

Yeah. So there's impact numbers that we wanna hit to ensure that we've got the funding to keep doing the work that we do. But on the other side, we've got families who don't wanna leave all things equal. Yes. Right? So you're trying to balance between those things all the time and. That that specifically is the part that I find the most challenging.

How do you deal,

Speaker: like, so do you make it [00:21:00] clear at the beginning this is just a pathway you will eventually leave or, or there's a door open for them to stay? Well, we

Speaker 5: we're very clear about it now, but when all things equal started, that wasn't the goal. So we're still placing people who have actually been with all things equal for four years.

Yeah. And so when they came to all Things Equal, they didn't know that that was, yeah, they probably thought that they would be at all things equal forever. So that's been really challenging. So it's been about finding the right partners, finding, um, ensuring that the families feel really safe and secure throughout the process.

Um, and then educating the employers as well, because once, um, they get really excited about it, really on board with it. But it's hard. And then once it happens, then they realize that it's actually quite challenging. So that's probably the part that I personally find the most challenging. I love that part.

Yeah. But the, um, but then overall as a social enterprise, and I've worked with so many social enterprises, it is this balance between [00:22:00] the impact Yeah. And building the impact. And then building a business, like they're literally two separate things that most people only do one or the other. Yeah. And we're trying to do both.

Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 2: Um, just when you go back to the, the employers thing, I think the thing I love the most about it is, you know, when you see that. That it clicks for them. Yep. That like when you give them that training and it just clicks, and then you see them go onto the next part, and then they can hire more people like that instant, like you, you can literally, when you're in there training an employee, you can actually see the light bulb, like it's in their eyes.

That is my most favorite part of it. Yeah.

Speaker: Do you think, um, employers, mainstream employers, for lack of a better word, are, are ready, uh, mature enough, or there's still a lot of work to be done? What are the main challenges? Oh, I think there's

Speaker 5: so much work to be done. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yep. I think we're, um, I think we're connecting with really good employers who are genuinely interested in [00:23:00] making this change, and I feel really fortunate that, um, we've been able to build the brand of all things equal to be someone that people are reaching out to and wanting to work with.

But, um, yeah, the realities are, you know, so much work. It is, it is a lot of work. But I think that if we can do more, I'm thinking now more about what role all things equal can play from an education perspective and using that education to actually be able to build. Those partners in future. Yeah. So So there's education happening before Yeah, that's right.

Speaker: talk about, I often talk about the fact that we don't just focus on the supply side, but we focus on the demand side of jobs.

Right. Because if you, if you keep just. [00:24:00] Investing or, or working on the individuals that need to find jobs, unless those jobs are available. Mm-hmm. There's no point to make those jobs available. You need to educate. But it's also like

Speaker 2: we're, we're here for the same thing. We're building careers for people.

People that, you know, never really thought that they could have one. And I think to build that career, the employers need to know that they're not, this is gonna sound terrible, but I'm just gonna say it, but. People with a disability are not there just to clear tables. Mm-hmm. Yeah. People with a disability are not there just to do dishes.

People with a disability is not there to fold laundry and a laundry. Like they are talented, they are skilled, and they are ready to work.

Speaker 3: Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Speaker 2: You know, like that's what that mind shift needs to change within employers because for so long, people with a disability is just put behind the scenes and it's a tokenism job.

We, I know a few people that have wanted just tokenism and we, we [00:25:00] haven't worked with them. So it's about finding those people because you really need to invest in them. It's huge. Australia like, or Sydney, for example. Sydney, I find all of our employment partners, they want to genuinely be inclusive and I think there's such an appetite for it.

Speaker: So Jess, what's um, what's ahead for you? You mentioned before you might be opening another site, which is still under wraps. Mm-hmm. It is under

Speaker 2: wraps. I tried to get it out of Bianca. She was so tightlipped. Yeah,

Speaker: she was very good. She was

Speaker 2: very good.

Speaker: Um, yeah. What's ahead?

Speaker 5: Well, hopefully it actually come, comes off.

'cause if it does it, we'll be back to That's

Speaker: all right.

Speaker 2: But that's the, the drawing board. But, but that's the problem. Well, not the problem. That's. I was gonna say, it's not the problem. It's not the beauty of, so it's the reality of social enterprise. That's something like that. We can talk about it and talk about it.

And talk about it all business. Yes. Suppose it's all business, but if it doesn't go ahead. It's not the fault of the social enterprise.

Speaker 5: Yeah. So, um. Ideally next [00:26:00] year we will have a second mm-hmm. Site. And then overall we are very focused on what are some of the other services that we can build as an organization.

You know, whether it's around education, whether it's around product, really thinking about our financial model overall. Um, it's not, we are not going to become more sustainable. Just through running a cafe Yes. And doing catering, that's not going to happen. So we need to think about all of, um, the intellectual property that we've built up as an organization and how we can um, monetize.

Monetize that. Monetize. Yeah. Yeah. That's a really important piece for us. And yeah, just really building those employment partnerships, thats the biggest part.

Speaker: Fantastic. Well, I'm, I'm sure you'll be busy doing that. Um, what. Have we not covered that you wanted to cover? You wanted to say

Speaker 2: nothing? I think we've gone through everything.

Yeah. Probably overtime actually. Oh no. [00:27:00] 29 minutes should be right.

Speaker: Um, no, it's actually less. 'cause Yeah, we started rolling it earlier. Um. One question that we've asked everyone, you had a sneak peek before because you were listening in to the previous guests. If your social enterprise was a dish on a menu, what would it be apart from the tennis ball?

Oh, you know what we should

Speaker 2: have asked? We should have asked Bianca last night and seen exactly if there was a difference. No,

Speaker: what would it be?

Speaker 5: Well, her, her favorite meal at the moment is our roasted mushroom, so I reckon that's what she would've said. I could die. It's not,

Speaker: it's not necessarily about your fat meal that

Speaker 2: that explains her reaction.

When I told her last night, I allergic, I was allergic to mushroom. She's like, what?

Speaker 5: She's

Speaker: deadly allergic. Well, she doesn't

Speaker 5: like butter, so that's like, yeah. Okay. Okay. And I run a cafe and don't drink coffee. So there you go. We've all got our quirky thing.

Speaker 2: Wow. We've

Speaker 5: all got our

Speaker 2: quirky good tea can just be the same.

Speaker: So yeah, no. What would your dish be, what would be the right representation for your source price? What things equal as food?

Speaker 5: All things equal as food. Well, I am going to choose something from our menu, and I'm going to say it's our [00:28:00] beautiful grazing box, which is full of all these different dips and olives and just a whole heap of variety.

And really that's because all things equal is just so diverse. Yeah. Love it in all the different ways that we work. Grazing

Speaker 2: box,

Speaker 5: um, our food is about bringing people together and. That to me is what a grazing table and that way of eating actually represents my favorite. Yeah. That's my favorite way of eating too.

Yeah. But it's really about bringing people together, sharing, um, yeah. And if you get quite literal, it's that it's that diversity that's within. That's such a good answer. Yeah. Very good.

Speaker 2: It's such a good answer.

Speaker: Very good. Okay. Where do people find out more about you? Less. You know what, what, where did they find you?

Where are you based? Mm-hmm. And how do they find out about you? Yep.

Speaker 5: Yellow building. So all things equal is in Carla Street, in Bella Claver, big yellow building. [00:29:00] See it? Um, and then across socials, like with LinkedIn, it's predominantly through, um, our personal LinkedIn. So, um, Jess Colgan and Bianca Stern.

Then we do a lot on Instagram. Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah. Okay. Very good. And you've got a website.

Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right.

Speaker: Yeah. So we'll put all those details. And how

Speaker 2: do people get involved for catering? Same website.

Speaker 5: Yeah. Yep. You can order through the website. It's a very streamlined process, which is really awesome. You can choose your, um, order time or and delivery time.

Um, and we can also host private events within the cafe.

Speaker: Perfect.

Speaker 5: Amazing.

Speaker 2: Okay, well, I love what you do personally. Yes. Sorry. And professionally. Thank you. Um, and I just wanna say a big thank you to you and Bianca because every time we come to Melbourne, we feel so welcome. Yeah, it's, and

Speaker: there's,

Speaker 2: we've been to the cafe a few times now and yeah, absolutely love it.

Speaker: Yeah. The food is great. Yeah, it's good food's. Great. Um, Jess, thank you for being our guest. Thank you very much. Enjoy the rest of the day, at Convene and see [00:30:00] you soon.

Speaker 5: Thank you. Some men too,

Speaker 3: forget, so I thought the captain, so please bring me my wine. He said, we haven't had that spirit here since 1969. And still those forces are falling from

wake you up in the. Hear

California

Place

[00:31:00] am.

Speaker: Welcome to Room for All the podcast where we dive deep into the world of inclusive employment and explore the power of creating opportunities for people with disabilities. I'm Andrea Ri, CEO and co-founder of Hotel Ethical Australia's first not-for-profit social enterprise hotel. And I am Cera O'Connell, COO of Hotel edco.

Speaker 2: Together we'll be your hosts as we talk about the importance of breaking down barriers in the workplace. We will have a particular focus on hospitality and other customer facing roles and how businesses can lead the charge toward inclusion. At Hotel Ethical. We believe that everyone deserves the fair chance to succeed, and we've made it our mission to not only provide jobs, but to build meaningful careers for people with disabilities.

Speaker: On this podcast, we will be sharing success stories. Best practice and inspiring conversations with industry leaders from the hospitality sector, the disability sector, other [00:32:00] social enterprises, philanthropy, and of course our own trainees, graduates and staff. Whether you're a business owner, an advocate for inclusion, or someone curious about the future of work, this podcast is for you.

So come and join us at Hotel et, or as we call it, the Hotel, California for the heart. A place where once you have checked in, your heart will never, never leave. So let's get started and make room for all.

Speaker 4: Okay. And we're rolling again. Why do you always start with a laugh because we're so flustered and then we go straight into recording. Anyway, go again. And we're rolling. No, no, this is staying. Oh no, I'm not cutting it out. And we have now Jess Colgan. Hello. How are you Jess? Good. How are you? Very, very good.

Speaker: Jess from all things equal? Mm-hmm. CEO? Yes. [00:33:00] CEO. Great. And she also has another. Business as well. Do you wanna mention that? Tell us all about it? Yeah, sure. Um, so yeah, so I'm the CEO of all Things Equal and also the co-founder of another business, ginger Snap Patisserie. Who With your brother? With my brother, yes.

Speaker 5: Which is very good. I love following the stories. I, I know about it. Yes. Everyone loves seeing the desserts. Yes. Yeah. They're so good. They're very impressive. So he's the inventor of the tennis ball, one of the tennis ball tag. Yeah, that's right. Unbelievable. Yeah. Yeah. That was good. He's very talented. I, I'm curious, like, did he come up with it because of the Australian Open or he came like, oh, we should use this for the Australian Open?

Yeah, so, um, Brett trained at Crown Casino and was a pastry chef there for nearly 10 years. And so at Crown Casino, they really lean into all the big events across Melbourne. Yeah. So he's made so many different things along the way. And then when we had the opportunity for the Australian Open, he designed that specifically.

Fantastic for that event. Fantastic. Can you just move [00:34:00] Jess, Mike in just a tiny bit, a little bit closer? Yes. Yeah. Soft spoken, unlike us loud people. Um, okay, so go back to all things Equal. Um, tell us, tell our listeners a little bit more about all Things Equal if they don't know already. Mm-hmm. All Things Equal is a hospitality based social enterprise that exists to bridge the gap between people with disability and the wider community through the creation of award wage.

Employment, and we do that through our cafe and catering services in Balaclava. And ultimately our goal is to provide our trainees with the experience, training, and connections to move on to the next stage of their careers in hospitality. And if you haven't seen it. On the corner in Balaclava, it's red, yellow, bright yellow.

It's huge. You can't miss it. Right. You cannot miss it. Yeah. And it's amazing how many people actually, it's actually in the air, don't realize. Or they say, oh, I know that yellow building. And so, yeah. Yeah. Well, you said the other day, so I was telling B last night, so we had dinner with Bianca last night, and I was telling [00:35:00] her that I was sitting next to somebody who lives.

Speaker 2: Just down the road from you. So Melbourne to Sydney last time I was there and I was like, oh, you should go and check out all things Equal, it's in, in, you know, the same suburb because he said he was in Yeah, he, that's, that's where he said he was there. I don't know we, how we got on that conversation. Um, I don't generally ask people where they live, but um, and I said, you know, all things equal, they train and employ young people with a disability.

Speaker 5: Love it. Which is something that we're looking at. I think, yeah, Bianca was saying we just need better messaging actually on the outside of the building. Like everybody knows the building because of the color, but you should know what it is. Should we should actually have our message and our mission wrapped around the building.

But that's another thing, so that's something that we're looking at. It's a fine line though, because you want people to come because you've got great coffee and good hospitality service. You don't necessarily want people just to come. It's, it's a fine. I was telling Bianca last [00:36:00] night, and I'll tell you here, so that, do a promotion for them as well.

Speaker: So can we be bian career? Sorry. Yeah. So Bianca is all things equals head of impact. Yes. And has been with all things equal from the very beginning. The very, very beginning. The very beginning. Yes. Um, great friend, but I was telling her, and I'll tell you and I'll tell everyone the listening and watching as well.

You should look up Kafe. Yes, I have. You know them? Yes. Yes. They are. Apart from the fact that they use the same yellow as you. Yellow and black. Yeah. But they're very good with their branding and their communication and they're sort of explaining the mission and using all that. So I think you can. Borrow a few of those.

Speaker 5: Well, I think they, they were getting it pro bono probably. Yeah. And that sort of, that patience ran out. Yeah, that's right. Because um, [00:37:00] yeah, it would've been an extremely expensive place to be. If so, arsenal things equal, have one major, major thing. In common. I mean, apart from hospitality and training people with a disability and we just love each other.

Speaker 2: Great CEOs and No, no, no, excellent CEOs. Jess, you're okay? Excellent. Jess is excellent. Hard to please. Um, no, but it's about award wage. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Um, so you guys published a. White paper, blue paper, white paper, white paper. Mm-hmm. But it's blue. But anyway, I'm just saying. No, it's cool. A white paper on that.

Mm-hmm. On and, and the impact of that. So do you wanna talk a little bit about that? Yes. Yeah. So earlier this year we, um, wrote a white paper, which outlined our vision for the next 10 years, which is to see 1,100 jobs created for people with disability in the hospitality community. 1,100. Great number. We actually did the calcula, no, we actually did the calculations on it to say, well, through our three stage model that we have now, what do those numbers come [00:38:00] to?

Speaker 5: Plus, um, we'll be opening another venue in the next year or so. Um, so that combined plus, plus we also are doing some education pieces. We get contacted by. Yeah, disability organizations all across Australia. We have people fly from Perth, from New South Wales all over the place to come and see what we're doing, and so we wanna see how we can actually share some of that knowledge and see.

We would love to have all things equal everywhere, everywhere. Um, but we understand that we've been successful because of the really great community connection that we have, and we don't want to take that away from other disability organizations in their local communities who have really strong community connections.

So yeah, it was, it was calculated based on, based on what we felt we could achieve and. We wanted to set that vision because we really wanted to put ourselves out to the world and put set up a goal for [00:39:00] ourselves whilst we are a cafe, really. I often say that's really just the tip of the iceberg. Yes. Of what we do.

That's what people see from the forefront, but really there's this whole world that exists underneath that cafe. Yes, I know it will. Yeah. And I think it's really important for us as a social enterprise to really stamp ourselves as leaders in the work that we're doing. We know that through connections and partnerships with really, um, quite literally five star, you know, hospitality partners means that that grows our credibility and those five star hospitality partners really wanna partner with someone who's a thought leader.

Yeah. Credible, who's really putting themselves out there, putting themselves on the maps. So. We went through that process, um, worked with an incredible PR consultant actually on that piece of work, Odette Barry, and, um, released that out to the world. And it really has resulted in many different organizations, both [00:40:00] large hospitality employers, so like sporting stadiums and mm-hmm.

Um, hotels. David West from, um, yes. W the W was in involved in the paper as were you. Yeah. Um, and. It really brought them to us. Yeah, yeah. To have these conversations and to, to be a part of that impact. And they could see that, they could see what we were trying to do and wanted to connect in with that.

Speaker: It's very good. I think what's so powerful about, um, about it is the partnerships in which you create. Opportunities because you're right, we can't do it alone. You know, we train and employ young people with a disability too. But anytime Bianca and Bianca has a question, I pick up the phone. I'm like, oh yeah, have you tried this?

Speaker 2: Or you know, have you tried that? Or, Hey, what Easy reads like, it's all about sharing and collaboration. I still imagine that there will be eventually. A hotel Edcoe. Oh, with all things equal equals cafe did. He did. He had this. He said, how great would it be if we had Hotel Edco Australia in Melbourne and the cafe downstairs was [00:41:00] all things equal.

And I was like, are you kidding, Bianca? And I would never get any work done. That would be gorgeous. That would be amazing. That could be a lot of synergies and a lot of, so if there's an investor listening. We'll take a hotel with a cafe in it. Yeah, yeah, that's right. And we'll rent. It's, yeah, we, we will rent.

Speaker: Yeah, that would be amazing. Honestly, the, the amount of stuff we could do for, so for those that don't know, um, tell us who, who benefits from your, um, uh, program inside in the cafe? Like who are your service recipient or participant? Sure. Maybe I'll, um, rewind back to why we started and, um. Because that helps give context yes.

Speaker 5: To the people that we support. So all things Equal has been operating for four and a half years, was started by a man called Jonathan Winnick. He's a partner in a law firm, but his daughter, Tulley was um, finishing high school at a special school called Giant Steps. She's a young autistic woman who was really passionate about being in the kitchen, and he understood that she would need a really tailored [00:42:00] approach.

Actually, that almost leans into what, when we were talking about the marketing, the branding at the start. In the beginning, all things equal just wanted to be your everyday local cafe. Yeah. Where people with disability were interacting. What's happened over time is that we've really learned to what the size of the need is for the work that we do.

It's huge. It's huge. Um, without actually ever. Going to an employment expo or doing anything like that, we have a wait list of more than a hundred people. Mm-hmm. Um, wanting to come and work with us. And so [00:43:00] what has happened over time, and these are, um, young people, um, with intellectual disability, young people, um, with down syndrome, autistic people.

Yeah. Oh my God. Um, and. So, yeah, in, in the beginning, people actually came to work with their [00:44:00] own support workers. Okay. And that worked really nicely because, um, the support worker knew about the person, knew what was happening at home, could transition into work. But when we decided that we wanted to have much bigger impact, we wanted to see what we could do with this wait list, and we understood that we wouldn't be able to open.

Yeah. 50 cafes across Australia. It's just not a financially sustainable model to run. Um, and that we needed to focus on employment partners and getting people into their, into their next jobs. Uh, that's when we brought that support in-house and we employed, um, hospitality trainers. So all of our trainers have a background in hospitality.

Yeah. Yep. We've done both, we've done hospitality professionals and disability professionals mm-hmm. And merged them into the one. Well, the difference I think, with us is that because we've got the residential component Yeah. We've got the live in program, the level of support required, um, and the ratios are, are very different.

Yeah, that's right. So the models, you know, most of our. Another thing that we reviewed when I first came to the organization was, do we want to employ more people for less hours or less people for more hours? And I was like, financially it would probably work better for us to support less people for more hours.

Mm-hmm. Because there's a lot of, [00:46:00] um, working involved in working with families mm-hmm. And all of the support that comes around that. But we made a firm decision to be, um, a person's first step. Yeah. Into. Into the world of work. So most of our, um, trainees only work with us for about seven or eight hours a week.

Which is quite different to what No, no. Our, our, our trainees are employed minimum eight hours a week. Okay. We have, uh, 15 at a time. So we obviously, yeah. Our models are similar, but very different. The differences that they. They, they live on site with us for 44 hours a week. They're there, so they're, but eight or 10 of which they work.

Speaker: Yep. And the other is either training is training or independently and so on, so that that's Yeah. Your, you do training on the job while they're being paid. So we have a pre-employment program. Which people participate in for about 12 months beforehand. And then once they've gone through that program, then they move into paid employment.

Speaker 6: Okay. In the beginning. And [00:47:00] again, that was an iteration that we made. So in the beginning people were brought straight into award wage employment. Yeah. Um. That obviously had its challenges. Yeah. Wasn't great from the business part. Yeah. From the business point of view. And they're the parts that you always need to be thinking about as a social enterprise.

Speaker 5: You've like balancing, balancing those two sides Yeah. Is the hardest part about social enterprise. Um, so the pre-employment program, we also know that hospitality's not for everyone. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So running a pre-employment program, make sure that people know what hospitality is about and they get all of that experience.

So we run that from an offsite commercial kitchen. Um, there's a lot of kitchen work involved, but then now we run a pop-up cafe during the year we run a footy club canteen. We do shadow shifts in the cafe. So it's a very holistic experience. It's tailored to before. Yeah. Yeah. Before coming into that paid employment now.

Yeah. Very good. Wow. We're just so aligned. [00:48:00] I love that. And what about Jess herself? Where, what's your, what were you doing before all things equal? Yeah, so I am actually, um, an accountant by background, reformed accountant. That's to joke you, you need that in the social enterprise space because like you said, you've got a balanced profit and purpose.

Okay. So I did that for a number of years and then I, so back to my brother. So my brother's a, um, proud deaf man. Um, born profoundly deaf. He has a cochlear implant. And we [00:49:00] were, he had gotten into his work at Crown through a disability employment program there called Crown Ability. Yes. And became a very talented.

Thought after a pastry chef there. Mm-hmm. I, I'm quite jealous. I, I've seen, I follow him on Instagram and I can say I am one for like, I'm like, oh my God. Yeah. It's beautiful stuff. So when I was doing more of that consulting work and working with lots of social enterprises, Brett and I started building an idea for, um, a patisserie.

From a hospitality perspective. So thinking about that business side, but then, um, on the other side, really knowing that he had the capability and the capacity, so to be a leader in the sector as well. And so we started that together. We started it from our mom's kitchen. Yeah. Um, and did it from there for a while.

And then, um, I met Bianca just purely, we were connecting over. The two all things equal is very much in its infancy. I was talking a bit about Gingers Snap and then she said to me, we are looking for our first CEO, and would you [00:51:00] come and do that? And at the time I was like, oh. I was like, I've got so many things happening, but thank goodness I said yes.

Then for things like the Australian Open, really one wouldn't have succeeded without the other. Brett creating that tennis ball tart that really helped us to go quite viral. Yes. Um, and that's not something we could have created at all Things equal, but equally, gingersnap never would've got the opportunity at the Australian Open that without all things equal.

So there's some really beautiful synergies between those things. Yeah. And it's really wonderful to see my brother. [00:52:00] Really rise to this opportunity of being a leader, being able to show people what he's achieved. Um, yeah, and that's kind of me and how I got here and why I do what I do. Excellent. Love it.

Speaker: Um, what's, um, what's the most difficult thing of, in which part of your of life running? Is it running two social enterprises or No, no, no, no. Of running. Um, a social enterprise. Social enterprise, yeah. Well, you're building two businesses at the one time, right? Mm-hmm. You're building a disability organization with mm-hmm.

Speaker 5: A whole series of support and, and compliance is Compliance and Yeah. Compliance. Yeah. And, um, I don't think you can have more stakeholders. I don't think you can possibly have more stakeholders than you do in running a social enterprise. You have families, you have trainees, you have customers, you have a board, you have government.

You literally have every possible stake stakeholders, [00:53:00] NDIS providers. Yeah. So it's really, it's really getting that balance, right? Yes. Between those stakeholders. So now that we are focusing on getting people into the next stage of their employment and. With our funders, we've got impact numbers that we need to hit, right?

How do you deal, like, so do you make it clear at the beginning this is just a pathway you will eventually leave or, or there's a door open for them to stay? Well, we we're very clear about it now, but when all things equal started, that wasn't the goal. So we're still placing people who have actually been with all things equal for four years.

Yeah. And so when they came to all Things Equal, they didn't know that that was, yeah, they probably thought that they would be at all things equal forever. So that's been really [00:54:00] challenging. So it's been about finding the right partners, finding, um, ensuring that the families feel really safe and secure throughout the process.

Yeah. But the, um, but then overall as a social enterprise, and I've worked with so many social enterprises, it is this balance between the impact Yeah. And building the impact. And then building a business, like they're literally two separate things that most people only do one or the other. Yeah. And we're trying to do both.

Yeah. Yeah. Um, just when you go back to the, the employers thing, I think the thing I love the most about it is, you know, when you see that. That it clicks for them. Yep. That like when you give them that training and it just clicks, and then you [00:55:00] see them go onto the next part, and then they can hire more people like that instant, like you, you can literally, when you're in there training an employee, you can actually see the light bulb, like it's in their eyes.

Speaker 2: That is my most favorite part of it. Yeah. Do you think, um, employers, mainstream employers, for lack of a better word, are, are ready, uh, mature enough, or there's still a lot of work to be done? What are the main challenges? Oh, I think there's so much work to be done. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yep. I think we're, um, I think we're connecting with really good employers who are genuinely interested in making this change, and I feel really fortunate that, um, we've been able to build the brand of all things equal to be someone that people are reaching out to and wanting to work with.

Speaker 5: But, um, yeah, the realities are, you know, so much work. It is, it is a lot of work. But I think that if we can do more, I'm thinking now more about what role all things equal can [00:56:00]play from an education perspective and using that education to actually be able to build. Those partners in future. Yeah. So So there's education happening before Yeah, that's right.

You're even, even turning someone into a partner. Yeah. And I think that that's where that sort of systems change piece comes into it and how you can think about yourself beyond Yeah. Being a hospitality Yeah, that's right. Organization. Yeah. We often talk about, I often talk about the fact that we don't just focus on the supply side, but we focus on the demand side of jobs.

Speaker: Right. Because if you, if you keep just. Investing or, or working on the individuals that need to find jobs, unless those jobs are available. Mm-hmm. There's no point to make those jobs available. You need to educate. But it's also like we're, we're here for the same thing. We're building careers for people.

Speaker 2: People that, you know, never really thought that they could have one. And I think to build that career, the employers need to know that they're not, this [00:57:00] is gonna sound terrible, but I'm just gonna say it, but. People with a disability are not there just to clear tables. Mm-hmm. Yeah. People with a disability are not there just to do dishes.

People with a disability is not there to fold laundry and a laundry. Like they are talented, they are skilled, and they are ready to work. Mm-hmm. Yeah. You know, like that's what that mind shift needs to change within employers because for so long, people with a disability is just put behind the scenes and it's a tokenism job.

We, I know a few people that have wanted just tokenism and we, we haven't worked with them. So it's about finding those people because you really need to invest in them. It's huge. Australia like, or Sydney, for example. Sydney, I find all of our employment partners, they want to genuinely be inclusive and I think there's such an appetite for it.

Speaker: So Jess, what's um, what's ahead for you? You mentioned before you might be opening another site, which is still under wraps. Mm-hmm. It [00:58:00] is under wraps. I tried to get it out of Bianca. She was so tightlipped. Yeah, she was very good. She was very good. Um, yeah. What's ahead? Well, hopefully it actually come, comes off.

Speaker 5: 'cause if it does it, we'll be back to That's all right. But that's the, the drawing board. But, but that's the problem. Well, not the problem. That's. I was gonna say, it's not the problem. It's not the beauty of, so it's the reality of social enterprise. That's something like that. We can talk about it and talk about it.

Speaker 2: And talk about it all business. Yes. Suppose it's all business, but if it doesn't go ahead. It's not the fault of the social enterprise. Yeah. So, um. Ideally next year we will have a second mm-hmm. Site. And then overall we are very focused on what are some of the other services that we can build as an organization.

Speaker 5: You know, whether it's around education, whether it's around product, really thinking about our financial model overall. Um, it's not, we are not going to become more sustainable. [00:59:00] Just through running a cafe Yes. And doing catering, that's not going to happen. So we need to think about all of, um, the intellectual property that we've built up as an organization and how we can um, monetize.

Monetize that. Monetize. Yeah. Yeah. That's a really important piece for us. And yeah, just really building those employment partnerships, thats the biggest part. Fantastic. Well, I'm, I'm sure you'll be busy doing that. Um, what. Have we not covered that you wanted to cover? You wanted to say nothing? I think we've gone through everything.

Speaker 2: Yeah. Probably overtime actually. Oh no. 29 minutes should be right. Um, no, it's actually less. 'cause Yeah, we started rolling it earlier. Um. One question that we've asked everyone, you had a sneak peek before because you were listening in to the previous guests. If your social enterprise was a dish on a menu, what would it be apart from the tennis ball?

Speaker: Oh, you know what we should have asked? We should have asked Bianca last night and seen exactly if there was a difference. No, what would it be? Well, her, her favorite meal at the [01:00:00]moment is our roasted mushroom, so I reckon that's what she would've said. I could die. It's not, it's not necessarily about your fat meal that that explains her reaction.

Speaker 2: When I told her last night, I allergic, I was allergic to mushroom. She's like, what? She's deadly allergic. Well, she doesn't like butter, so that's like, yeah. Okay. Okay. And I run a cafe and don't drink coffee. So there you go. We've all got our quirky thing. Wow. We've all got our quirky good tea can just be the same.

Speaker: So yeah, no. What would your dish be, what would be the right representation for your source price? What things equal as food? All things equal as food. Well, I am going to choose something from our menu, and I'm going to say it's our beautiful grazing box, which is full of all these different dips and olives and just a whole heap of variety.

Speaker 5: And really that's because all things equal is just so diverse. Yeah. Love it in all the different ways that we work. Grazing box, um, our food is about bringing people together and. That to me is what a grazing [01:01:00] table and that way of eating actually represents my favorite. Yeah. That's my favorite way of eating too.

Yeah. But it's really about bringing people together, sharing, um, yeah. And if you get quite literal, it's that it's that diversity that's within. That's such a good answer. Yeah. Very good. It's such a good answer. Very good. Okay. Where do people find out more about you? Less. You know what, what, where did they find you?

Speaker: Where are you based? Mm-hmm. And how do they find out about you? Yep. Yellow building. So all things equal is in Carla Street, in Bella Claver, big yellow building. See it? Um, and then across socials, like with LinkedIn, it's predominantly through, um, our personal LinkedIn. So, um, Jess Colgan and Bianca Stern.

Speaker 5: Then we do a lot on Instagram. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Very good. And you've got a website. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. So we'll put all those details. And how do people get involved for catering? Same website. Yeah. [01:02:00] Yep. You can order through the website. It's a very streamlined process, which is really awesome. You can choose your, um, order time or and delivery time.

Um, and we can also host private events within the cafe. Perfect. Amazing. Okay, well, I love what you do personally. Yes. Sorry. And professionally. Thank you. Um, and I just wanna say a big thank you to you and Bianca because every time we come to Melbourne, we feel so welcome. Yeah, it's, and there's, we've been to the cafe a few times now and yeah, absolutely love it.

Speaker: Yeah. The food is great. Yeah, it's good food's. Great. Um, Jess, thank you for being our guest. Thank you very much. Enjoy the rest of the day, at Convene, and see you soon. Thank you.

People on this episode