Sponsorship Packet — The Pass HQ

Kitchen Leadership Program

Free. Ungated. Download it, fill it out, use it. · v0.3 · September 2026

Four parts: the Business Case · the ROI Worksheet · Sponsor Goals · the Commitment Conversation. Plus a one-page version for a chef who reads one thing.

Download the note (.txt) → Compare tiers

# The Sponsorship Packet
The Pass HQ Kitchen Leadership Program · v0.3 · September 2026

Free. Ungated. Download it, fill it out, use it.

Four parts: the Business Case (you write it) · the ROI Worksheet (you write it) · Sponsor Goals (your chef or GM writes it) · the Commitment Conversation (you have it together). Plus a one-page version for a chef who reads one thing.

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# BEFORE YOU START

## Most people don't pay for this themselves
Properties have training budgets. Most of them are underspent, and most of what does get spent goes to conferences that produce a tote bag and a hangover.

What almost never happens is somebody walking in and asking for a specific thing, with a number attached, and a reason the business benefits.

That's what this packet is. It's not a form. It's the argument.

## A warning about how to frame this
Do not walk in asking for training. That's a favor, and favors get deferred.

Walk in offering to do the job before you get the job. That's a proposal, and it puts something on the table.

## The honest part
Writing this is uncomfortable. You're asking your employer to spend money on you, and if they say no you'll feel it every shift for a while. Two things worth knowing:
- A no is usually about timing or budget, not about you. Ask when the next budget cycle opens.
- You can start on your own. Self-Study is the same curriculum, on the teaching set, with no one's permission needed. See "If the answer is no."

## What it costs

| | Self-Study | Sponsored | Guided |
| Price | $549, or $97/month × 6 | $1,495 | $4,995 |
| Full curriculum, worksheets, Lever Inventory, The Food Cost Formula System included | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Weekly Schedule & Labor Planner (two versions) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| You work on | The teaching set (a fictitious club) | Your own property | Your own property |
| Sessions with your chef or GM — 12 × 30 min, every other week | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Capstone | An exercise, self-scored | Real, chef-signed, goes to your GM | Same, plus reviewed by Chef Lockard |
| Kickoff call with Chef Lockard (30 min) | — | — | ✓ |
| Midpoint check (30 min) | — | — | ✓ |
| Capstone review by Chef Lockard (45 min + written notes) | — | — | ✓ |
| Program length | 6 months | 6 months | 6 months |
| How you get it | Buy | Buy | Enroll, or join the waitlist when seats are full |

Six months is set by study time: about an hour a day, five days a week.

**Ask for the one you can actually get.** A property that will fund $1,495 and not $4,995 is still a property that will fund you. Sponsored is the same curriculum and the same capstone. Guided adds three conversations with Chef Lockard.

**If you already bought the Plate Kit or the System,** what you paid is credited toward any program tier for 30 days. Say so in your ask — it lowers the number.

## Paying for it
- **If your property pays,** they choose "My property is paying" at checkout. It's paid in full by card, and an itemized receipt goes to you and to accounts payable, with a PO number if you have one.
- **If you pay and get reimbursed,** use the same path so AP gets the receipt directly.
- **Reimbursement is not sponsorship.** A property that pays for Self-Study has reimbursed a purchase. Sponsorship means your chef or GM is in the room thirty minutes every other week and signs your capstone. Make sure everyone knows which one they're agreeing to.

## If your chef wants to develop more than one person
Team Enrollment trains several people from the same property together.
- Sponsored Team: $1,495 for the first seat, $997 for each additional (up to 6 online).
- Guided Team: $4,995 for the first seat, $2,495 for each additional (up to 4 online).
- Each person gets their own enrollment, their own materials, and owns their own work. The property is the purchaser.
- Kickoff and midpoint with Chef Lockard are held once for a Guided team. Capstone reviews are per person.
- A cook and a sous can build the same event for their capstones — the sous costs and staffs it, the cook plans the prep and the line.

## The thing your GM will worry about and won't say out loud
**No property financial data is submitted, uploaded, or stored.**

All coursework is completed on your own documents, on your property's own systems. The program provides the structure; your numbers stay yours. Neither the platform nor the instructor sees your P&L, your invoices, or your vendor pricing. There is nowhere in this program to put that information, by design.

Guided capstone review uses an indexed or method-only version — no property names, vendor names, or contracted prices — and your chef approves it before it goes anywhere.

**Put this in front of them early.** It's the first objection and nobody ever says it.

## One rule before you do anything else
**Your chef sees this before your GM does. Always.**

If your chef is the sponsor, that's automatic. If your GM controls the budget, you still start with your chef — bring them the packet, ask for their support, and go up together or let them take it up for you.

Going around your chef to ask for development money reads as an angle for their job, whether you meant it that way or not. There is no version of this where you skip that step.

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# PART 1 — THE BUSINESS CASE
**One page. Hard cap. If it runs to two, you haven't finished thinking.**

This is the first time most cooks argue anything in dollars. That's not a side effect — it's the first lesson in the program, and it starts before you've paid for it.

### Section A — The problem, in their language
Name one thing that is costing the business right now that better training on your part would help. One problem, not five.

Weak: "Our food cost is high."
Strong: "We're running 3 points over target and nobody in the kitchen can explain why. It takes the controller two weeks after close to tell us, and by then the period's gone."

Your problem:
______________________________________________
______________________________________________

### Section B — What I can't do today
Name the gap honestly. This is the part that makes the rest credible. A chef reading a list of comfortable weaknesses knows exactly what you did.

Weak: "I could learn more about the financial side."
Strong: "I can't build a food cost number from inventory and purchases. I've never read our P&L. I've never built a schedule against a labor target."

Your gaps — three, honestly:
1. ______________________________________________
2. ______________________________________________
3. ______________________________________________

### Section C — What I'd be able to do in six months
Concrete and observable. Not "understand the business better."
- Explain our food cost movement between two periods, out loud, without notes
- Read our departmental P&L and say which lines I own
- Build a week's schedule against a labor target before it's posted
- Cost an event before we cook it, and reconcile it the day after
- Build a written case, in dollars, for something the kitchen needs

Yours:
______________________________________________
______________________________________________

### Section D — What you get at the end
This is the part that separates this from a course.

Two things. First, **Your Operating Plan** — a one-page plan for this kitchen, built one module at a time through the program. Second, **a capstone project on something this property actually needs**, chosen by Chef: costing our recipes, building an upcoming event, or building an event all the way through — food cost, order, prep, and the labor schedule — and checking it against what actually happened. Three pages of analysis with it: the number, the three biggest drivers, and five recommendations with dollar estimates and the standards impact of each.

I'd build it with Chef, and Chef decides what goes in it before it comes to you.

**That work exists whether or not I ever get promoted.** It's work the property keeps.

### Section E — What I'm asking for
All four. Don't leave one out and hope.

| | Your ask |
| The fee | $__________ (Sponsored $1,495 / Guided $4,995) |
| The time | 30 minutes every other week with my chef or GM, 12 sessions over six months. Plus my own study time. |
| Access | Permission to see our departmental statement, closed-period numbers, and invoices. Without this I can't do the work. |
| The conversation | A commitment that we talk about what this means for my role when I finish. Not a promise — a conversation. |

### Section F — The close
Two sentences. Your own words.

The shape that works:
*I'm not asking for a course. I'm asking to do the job before I get the job, and to hand you something useful either way.*

Yours:
______________________________________________
______________________________________________

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# PART 2 — THE ROI WORKSHEET
**One rule: no number you didn't pull from your own property.**

Industry averages read as filler and a GM knows it on sight. If you don't have the number, write "I don't have this" — that's more credible than an estimate you can't source.

### The return — pick two or three, not all of them
A focused case beats a comprehensive one.

**Anchor 1 — Food cost points on what I touch**
- Annual food purchases for my area: $__________
- One point of improvement = $__________
- Even a fraction of a point covers this.

**Anchor 2 — Turnover avoided**
- Cost to replace me — recruiting, training, the months at reduced output: $__________
- Say the quiet part: people who see no path leave. That's the actual risk, and it costs multiples of this program.

**Anchor 3 — Labor against target**
- Our weekly kitchen labor target: ____% Where we usually land: ____%
- One point of labor on our weekly food revenue = $__________ a week
- Current monthly overtime in my department: $__________
- The program's schedule planner shows the labor % before the week is posted. What changes if I can build the schedule to the target?

**Anchor 4 — Something specific to us**
- Our number: $__________
- Why it moves: ______________________________________________

### One line that carries more weight than the math
A single conference for two people costs more than this and produces nothing the property keeps. Use it if it's true where you work. Most places, it is.

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# PART 3 — SPONSOR GOALS
**Your chef or GM fills this out. Not you.** Hand it over blank. Then read what they wrote.

Why this matters more than it looks: at the end of the program, this same sheet comes back as the scoring rubric. Your sponsor grades the capstone against what they wrote here. Their words, their number, their verdict.

Candidate: ____________________ Sponsor: ____________________ Date: __________

1. What do you want this person doing in twelve months that they can't do now?
______________________________________________

2. What's the one number you'd want to see move?
______________________________________________

3. What have you already tried with this person that didn't take?
______________________________________________

4. What would make you say this was a waste of money?
______________________________________________

5. Are you prepared to promote or expand this role if they complete it?
Not binding. But an honest answer here is worth more than an encouraging one — to both of you.
______________________________________________

### Notes for the sponsor
**Your answer to Question 1 picks the capstone.** If you want this person running events without you, the capstone is an event built all the way through — food, order, prep, schedule, labor. If you want them owning costing, it's recipes or an event menu. If they're a cook stepping up, it's the prep build for an event. You choose at the start.

**Question 4 is the most useful on this sheet.** Failure defined at the start is failure you can avoid. Answer it plainly.

**Question 5 matters more than it looks.** The most likely bad outcome isn't a failed program — it's someone who completes it, nothing changes, and they leave. If there's no path right now, say so. They'd rather know in week one.

**Some goals are out of scope.** This program teaches financial literacy and operational judgment. It does not fix attendance, attitude, or reliability.

**Your time is capped.** Each session takes 30 minutes, and preparing for it takes 20 minutes or less — a one-page guide per unit tells you what to look at. If you miss three sessions, the candidate can finish on their own; the capstone just won't carry your sign-off.

**Give this to the candidate on day one.** Half the value is them finally hearing, in plain words, what you actually want.

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# PART 4 — THE COMMITMENT CONVERSATION
**Read this first: this is not a contract and it is not a template for one.**

It's a list of things worth agreeing on out loud before anyone spends money. Pass HQ is not a party to any agreement between you and your employer. If either of you wants something in writing, that's between you, your employer, and your own advisors.

### What the candidate is committing to
- Complete the curriculum within six months
- Come prepared to every session
- Produce the capstone
- Take everything to my chef first, never around them
- Treat everything I see as confidential to this property

### What the sponsor is committing to
- The fee
- 30 minutes every other week, 12 sessions
- Access to the numbers the work requires — the departmental statement, closed periods, invoices, and (for an event capstone) the event's menu, price, guarantee, and labor rates
- A conversation at the end about what it means for the role

**The access commitment is the one that gets skipped, and it's the one that kills programs.** A candidate who can't see an invoice cannot do the coursework. Sort it now, not in month two.

### Say out loud what you can't share
Some numbers may be above what your chef can hand over, and that's legitimate. Better said in week one than discovered in month three. Agree on what's available and work within it — every unit can run on the teaching set instead.

### Two things to be careful about
**Training time and pay.** If the candidate is hourly and the property requires this work during or around scheduled hours, that time may be compensable — potentially at overtime. How training time is classified and paid is the employer's call and the employer's responsibility. Sort it with whoever handles payroll before you start.

**Repayment agreements.** Some properties ask employees to repay training costs if they leave within a period. These are heavily regulated, vary by state, and some are unenforceable. Pass HQ takes no position and provides no template. Both sides should have any such agreement reviewed by their own counsel.

### If the answer is no
Ask two questions before you leave the room:
1. "Is it the money or the timing?" — if it's timing, ask when the next cycle opens and put it in your calendar.
2. "What would I need to show you to make this an easy yes next time?"

Then keep moving:
- **Self-Study** — the same curriculum on the teaching set, $549 or $97 a month, no one's permission needed. What you pay credits toward Sponsored for 30 days if the answer changes.
- **Or start smaller** — the $49 Plate Cost Kit or the $297 System — and come back in a few months having already done something on your own. That's a much better second conversation.

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# THE ONE-PAGE VERSION
*If your chef reads one thing, make it this.*

**What I'm asking for:** $______ and 30 minutes every other week for six months.

**What it is:** A structured program on food cost, labor, purchasing, and reading a P&L. Self-paced, about an hour a day. I do the work on our numbers. Every other week we meet for 30 minutes, both score the same questions, and talk about where we disagree. Your prep is 20 minutes or less.

**What you get:** A one-page operating plan for our kitchen, and a capstone project you choose — costing our recipes, building an upcoming event, or running an event all the way through including the labor schedule — with three pages of analysis and five recommendations in dollars. Built with you. You decide what's in it before it goes anywhere.

**What it costs you:** Six hours over six months, and access to numbers I'd need to see.

**Our data stays here.** Nothing is uploaded, submitted, or stored anywhere. There's nowhere in the program to put it.

**What I'm not asking for:** A promotion, a raise, or a promise. Just the chance to do the job before I get the job — and to hand you something useful whether or not anything changes.

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*The Pass HQ Kitchen Leadership Program · Sponsorship Packet · v0.3 · September 2026*
*Not legal advice. Any agreement between candidate and employer is theirs alone. Planning tools are educational and not payroll advice.*

Ask your chef or GM to sponsor you