Defining Hospitality

Creating a welcoming environment in a hotel or bar is a purposeful endeavor. Nina Grondin, Founder and Partner of Curioso, has created a collective where people such as architects, artists, interior designs and more work together to create meaningful experiences through design. Listen to this week’s episode as she shares #hospitality insights with Dan Ryan today!

Takeaways: 

• Hospitality isn’t confined to just hotels and bars. It covers a wide range of topics. The basis of hospitality is one person attending to the needs of another. 
• As humans we crave love and attention. It’s important in hospitality to feed those human needs and make sure the guest feels comfortable and seen.
• In hospitality, you are offering a service but more importantly you are anticipating someone’s needs. This creates deep connections with the guests.
• It’s important to listen to the community where you plan to put hotels or a hospitality business. Those in the community can tell you what they want and what they think would fit in.
• To create change, it’s important to start with having a conversation about how to be more inclusive. This applies to more than just hospitality, but all industries. 
• Don’t lose sight of what drives you and gets you motivated throughout the day. We all get so busy in our daily lives but it’s important to keep your motivation and your passion alive. 

Quote of the Show:

1:50 “When I think about hospitality, it's really one person attending to the needs of another person, but doing it with thoughtful intention and doing it in a way that makes them feel welcome. It makes them feel appreciated. It makes them feel seen. And it's really about that human connection. And so it's not really defined or confined to hotels and restaurants and bars, but really at any place where humans reside. And I think that ability to really make one another feel good and feel appreciated, that's what hospitality is all about.”

Links: 

• Nina’s Profile:  linkedin.com/in/nina-grondin-0ab5901
• Company website: curioso.us
• Instagram: @imissed

Shout Outs: 

14:42 Instagram

17:48 El Paso, TX

18:54 Beto O'Rourke

20:37 Detroit, MI

23:20 HDAC: Hospitality Diversity Action Council

23:41 Stacy Shoemaker

23:49 George Floyd

24:07 Bershard

27:10 Hoffman Institute 

27:37 HD Expo

27:48 Carlos Herrera

28:23 Damon Lawrence

28:30 Erin Anderson

28:55 LGBTQ

29:48 Independent Lodging Congress

31:58 Marquise Stillwell

36:13 Holiday Inns

36:15 Hampton Hotels

43:24 Dan Pierce

Ways to Tune In: 

• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0A2XOJvb6mGqEPYJ5bilPX
• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/defining-hospitality-podcast/id1573596386
• Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZGVmaW5pbmdob3NwaXRhbGl0eS5saXZlL2ZlZWQueG1s

Dr. Chloe Carmichael is a world renowned psychologist, entrepreneur, and public speaker. She is also the author of “Nervous Energy - Harness the Power of Your Anxiety”, teaching people how to manage their anxiety. She’s here to give a unique perspective on the overlap between hospitality and psychology. Listen to this week’s episode as she shares #hospitality insights with Dan Ryan today!

Takeaways: 

• There is an overlap when it comes to hospitality and psychology. There is a level of empathy that needs to be reached in each one.
• Reflective listening is when you are hearing someone talk to you but then you're able to feed it back to them in a concise manner.
• There is a healthy function to anxiety, so it’s not healthy to want to get rid of it. The best way is to manage it and focus it in a constructive way.
• Mental Shortlist Technique is when you are hyper focused on something coming up, so to make sure you don’t lose focus of everything else you make a short list of other things to keep you focused.
• Don’t be afraid to put yourself out there. It can be nerve wracking but in the long run it will be extremely beneficial and rewarding. 
• Taking care of yourself mentally is extremely important. Often we get so busy in our daily lives that we don’t take time to focus, breathe, and relax and ease our busy minds. 

Quote of the Show:

2:10 “When I even saw the title of your podcast, Defining hospitality, I got really curious about the etymology or the Greek roots of that word. So I was just looking it up and noticing that the Greek word in ‘hospa’ is going to be traced to caring for people. Not only as a host, but that it also pertains as a guest. And I thought it was interesting to see it was the same route that we applied to hospital.

So I personally have almost had that emergency room feeling like, get me to a fine dining experience or a great hotel. I need that, my soul needs to be taken care of. Because actually also in psychology, the Greek word, ‘psyche’ traces to spirit. So I do think that there's so much overlap with psychology and hospitality, that level of empathy that we need to bring to people. 

Links: 

• Chloe’s Profile: www.linkedin.com/in/chloecarmichael
• Company website: drchloe.com
• Twitter: @DrChloe_
• Book: https://www.amazon.com/Nervous-Energy-Harness-Power-Anxiety/dp/1250241219

Shout Outs: 

0:14 Deepak Chopra

0:57 Entrepreneur Organization

20:26 Zone of Control technique

33:42 Baker McKenzie law firm

34:15 Corporate Counseling Associates

36:42 Flatiron District

50:31 YPO event

Ways to Tune In: 

• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0A2XOJvb6mGqEPYJ5bilPX
• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/defining-hospitality-podcast/id1573596386
• Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZGVmaW5pbmdob3NwaXRhbGl0eS5saXZlL2ZlZWQueG1s
• YouTube: https://youtu.be/dA03rKxaPIU

Kraig Kalashian is the owner of KKAD, Pocono Modern, and Westmore Hotels and  Restaurants, which includes Pren Kitchen. After spending years playing in a band, Kraig realized he has a passion for solving problems and he discovered the best way to do that is through architecture, food and music. He’s here to give a unique perspective on hospitality through a different lens. Listen to this week’s episode as he shares #hospitality insights with Dan Ryan today!

Takeaways: 

• Architecture isn’t about how to make money, but rather how to solve problems. It’s all about finding ways to fit everything you can imagine into a given space. 
• Hospitality is a feeling you get when you are taken care of. It’s knowing that somebody is devoting 100% of their time and attention to you and making sure all your needs are met. 
• Today, travel and dining out are not the luxuries they were once considered to be, but that doesn’t mean you don’t need to do it well.
• Kaizen is the Japanese word for making small, incremental improvements over a period of time. 
• Acknowledging that a mistake has been made is something that is very important when it comes to life and business.
• It’s important to listen to the staff and hear what their opinions are. They might have a great idea on where to better locate certain things to make their life easier (ie, making sure each floor has a linen closet).
• The Einstein approach is working on ideas for a long period of time, but sometimes the answer to each one arrives at the same time, making it seem like it was all done at once.
• Everybody gets the same 168 hours during the week. After sleeping and working, we are left with 50 hours of freetime. How you carve out that freetime is up to you, but you can use it to master your craft. 
• The backbone of hospitality is inclusivity. People from all walks of life are part of hospitality so finding ways to include them and making them feel wanted is the essence of the industry. 

Quote of the Show:

3:37 “Hospitality is a feeling, it's the feeling like somebody is taking care of you. It's the feeling like somebody sees who you are and what you need and, and gives you that. For me, the best way that I could define it is just this feeling I used to get from going to my grandmother's house when I was a kid. 

So if you asked what's hospitality, I would say it's, it's the way my grandmother treated me. Like when I was a kid, like when I would go to my grandmother's house, like she would just basically give me a hundred percent of her time and attention while I was there. She would always have things that were special for me.

It was really like this feeling of being treated in the best way, like you would imagine royalty gets treated and somebody stopping, whatever they're doing to just make you feel at home or accommodated or, you know, just pay attention to what you need. And so I think that for me, the idea of hospitality is just thinking about other people and how to, and how to make them feel seen and how to make them feel taken care of.”

Links: 

• Kraig’s Profile: linkedin.com/in/kraig-kalashian-ra-ncarb-leed-ap-916b388
• Company website: poconomodern.com 
• Personal website: kalashian.com 

Shout Outs: 

5:56 Dominique Ansel, creator of the Cronut

10:25 Independent Lodging Congress event in Brooklyn 

10:29 David Rockwell

12:46 Danny Meyer

20:20 W Hotels

22:03 Blackberry Farm

24:46 John George

25:54 Hygge, Scandinavian Design 

36:13 Libby Patrick

40:26 Amman

40:27 Four Season

40:29 Mandarin Oriential 

49:13 Joe Rogan

49:14 Marc Maron

50:47 Game of Thrones

51:20 Target 

51:26 Starbucks

58:54 DoubleTree Hilton

Ways to Tune In: 

• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0A2XOJvb6mGqEPYJ5bilPX
• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/defining-hospitality-podcast/id1573596386
• Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZGVmaW5pbmdob3NwaXRhbGl0eS5saXZlL2ZlZWQueG1s
• YouTube: https://youtu.be/BDd0WGhX8xY

Arnie Malham is the founder of a number of different companies and organizations, including BetterBookClub.com. He’s also the author of “Worth Doing Wrong,” where he discusses how to build a sustainable business model through company culture. Listen to this week’s episode as he shares #hospitality insights with Dan Ryan today!

Takeaways: 

• At work, your team will never treat clients better than how the boss treats the team. That is one of the many forms of hospitality. 
• If you put people in a position and don’t pay them well and they don’t believe in the team then there is a discomfort that grows. 
• Core values start with a team leader. It’s easy for a leader to praise certain values but it’s important that the leader also is willing to help with even the little things and show they are invested and they care.
• Embrace growth, always be confident, be optimistic, and prepare. These are 4 core values to have going through life. 
• It’s the little things that can make a difference for a guest. Things like certain types of bedsheets and toilet paper can make them feel important and known. 
• As a team, don’t say no to any idea. It’s ok to be wrong, but saying no creates a roadblock and might discourage people from sharing anymore of their ideas.

Quote of the Show:

6:26 I'm a believer in that the core values and culture start with the leader. And in fact, they start and end with a leader, that leader. The leader of an organization, a team that is the number one thing that sets the tone for culture and core values.

And then what that leader does versus what that leader says. It's easy to go down a list and determine if those two things match up. I'll quote Jack Daly again. I'm pretty sure he said, ‘I can tell you your values based on your calendar. I can look at your calendar and tell you your values, because it doesn't matter what you say, the question is, are you doing the things that match your values, that match your priorities?’

It's little things. It's where the leader parks, it's where the leaders are willing to participate in and the cleanliness of the environment. It's what he or she accepts and praises, but almost more importantly, what he or she tolerates. What a leader tolerates in their business, in themselves, in their direct reports and in the entire team, I think has as much to do with setting the tone of a culture than anything else.”

Links: 

• Arnie’s Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arniemalham/
• Company website:  https://www.worthdoingwrong.com/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/amalham
• Book: https://www.amazon.com/Worth-Doing-Wrong-Quest-Culture/dp/159932587X

Shout Outs: 

0:18 MIT Entrepreneurial Masters Program

3:54 Jack Daley

19:13 Andrew Scarlett

22:50 Andrew Benioff

22:52 Independent Lodging Congress

22:57 Nico

22:59 Pan Pacific in Seattle

34:34 Loren Brill 

34:35 Sweet Loren’s

43:22 John DiJulius

46:05 Verne Harnish

58:28 Hilton Hotels

Ways to Tune In: 

• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0A2XOJvb6mGqEPYJ5bilPX
• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/defining-hospitality-podcast/id1573596386
• Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZGVmaW5pbmdob3NwaXRhbGl0eS5saXZlL2ZlZWQueG1s
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1mEu_pueA8

When it comes to life changing events, there is nothing quite like travel. Joseph Diaz is the co-founder of AFAR Media, and he has taken it upon himself to use travel as a way to enrich the lives of the younger generation that doesn’t have the same opportunities. There’s a lot to be said about going to a completely new place and truly immersing yourself in the culture, and seeing what you can do to contribute to the community.  Listen to this week’s episode as he shares #hospitality insights with Dan Ryan today!

Takeaways: 

• The hospitality world has been flipped upside down. In 2019 it was very guest centric, but today it is a two way street. It is a concept that embraces the idea of mutual benefit, and what the guest can bring to the community.
• A form of hospitality where you put the guest on a pedestal is limiting and creates a fear of messing up. But what the guest truly craves is connection to the place they are visiting.
• Travel is the best form of education. Getting young people to travel and explore the world will provide them opportunities they might not have ever had and can change their world.
• You need to create a message to attract people to come visit your town or location not just during tourist season, but at all times of the year.
• How do we continue to stay open to new experiences? The good, the bad, the ugly? We have natural tendencies to run away from things we don’t like, but those experiences are just as important.
• The generation coming up is more in tune with their values and more open to travel and exploring other communities.

Quote of the Show:

1:34 “A 2019 definition of hospitality would be one that is extremely guest centric, where it's focused on the desk, doing everything to make the guests feel welcome, feel at home. You know, there's tons of  definitions that are similar to that in our world. And the way that we're thinking about things today, hospitality for us is a two-way street.

It is a concept that really embraces the idea of mutual benefit and what the guests can also contribute to the equation. You know, I think JFK, his famous ‘ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.’ Similarly ask, ‘not what your travels can do for you; ask what your travels can do for the communities where you're traveling and the planet in which we are living.’”

 Links: 

• Joseph’s Profile: https://linkedin.com/in/josephdiaz
• Company website: www.afar.com
• Twitter: @JoeDiazAFAR

Shout Outs: 

0:26 Independent Lodging Congress

5:09 White Lotus

9:01 “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” by Stephen Covey

9:45 Laura Redmond

9:49 Ben Pundole 

13:42 Teach for America

14:13 Rosa Linda Elementary School in South Phoenix, AZ

16:10 JFK 

16:16 Peace Corps

26:08 Reykjavik

26:09 Venice

30:20 Asheville, North Carolina

31:45 Vanuatu

36:51: Airbnb

1;04:44 Amika Moran

1;07:08 Staples

 Ways to Tune In: 

• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0A2XOJvb6mGqEPYJ5bilPX
• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/defining-hospitality-podcast/id1573596386
• Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZGVmaW5pbmdob3NwaXRhbGl0eS5saXZlL2ZlZWQueG1s
• Podbean:  https://www.defininghospitality.live/
• YouTube: https://youtu.be/Bl5TRqnVWiw

Today’s guest has a unique business and with that brings his positive attitude about life and hospitality to everything he does. Dan is joined by Michael Bedner, a partner at SOLi, and part of Hirsch/Bedner Associates. Listen to this week’s episode as he shares #hospitality insights with Dan Ryan today!

Takeaways: 

• In the hospitality industry, there are three major rules to live by. One, always do your best job. Two, you better enjoy what you do. And three, you must grow and learn from any mistakes. 
• The best way to describe hospitality is that it is ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen.
• Hospitality is all about making guests feel comfortable and at ease. 
• The replacement of not having people at check in desks has turned it from a place of human gathering to a place where iPhones gather, it’s not as magical as it used to be.
• Comfort is not just your surroundings, it’s also how you are perceived. You want to make people feel glad they are at the place they chose to be, making sure they don’t feel like a burden. 
• California has 1600 different building area codes, which makes it incredibly difficult to bring in new and innovative projects to the area. 
• Michael is hopeful that in the future there will be enough people that are willing to try new and innovative ideas and change the way that the hospitality industry functions. 

Quote of the Show:

7:49 “The most important element of hospitality is making someone feel totally comfortable at ease and enjoy the experience. You could do that in an empty room with nothing around. If the service is wonderful and we have a view. Or 98% of the time, you don't always have that amazing view. So you have to provide the atmosphere where you feel where you have, as Howard would say a sense of place.”

Links: 

• Michael’s Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-bedner-ab3b23176/
• Company website: https://www.soli.space

Shout Outs: 

5:08 Howard Hirsch

5:32 Beverly Rodale Hotel

6:39 Porsche

6:40 Ritz-Carlton

34:18 Tesla

41:20 Buckminster Fuller

49:30 UC San Diego 

51:44 Disneyland

Ways to Tune In: 

• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0A2XOJvb6mGqEPYJ5bilPX
• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/defining-hospitality-podcast/id1573596386
• Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZGVmaW5pbmdob3NwaXRhbGl0eS5saXZlL2ZlZWQueG1s
• Podbean:  https://www.defininghospitality.live/

Today’s guest spent time working in Japan and brings his cultured view to hospitality. Andrew Benioff is the Founder and Managing Partner of the Llenrock Group. He’s also the Founder of the Philadelphia Real Estate Council and the Independent Lodging Congress. Listen to this week’s episode as he shares #hospitality insights with Dan Ryan today!

Takeaways: 

• Service is the act of serving, but hospitality is the feeling an empathic employee gives to a customer. It’s difficult to have good hospitality without great service.
• Japanese culture is a mentality. A big part of it is the wellbeing of a group of people over an individual. 
• In Japan, perfection is expected in your work. While it can be demanding, it brings out the best work in the person and allows them to achieve the highest goals they have.
• While perfection is expected in Japan, it’s not always a good thing. It’s ok to fail at something that is a new attempt. Failure can be a great teaching moment.
• Try to be flexible in your thinking. A new approach to a process might be an idea that can turn out to be helpful. 
• Two things that hotels absolutely need to have: a shower with great water pressure and a comfortable bed. If a hotel has those two features all other issues are forgotten.
• Be patient and have an open mind. Try not to think that things need to go a certain way, it’s almost more important to know what you don’t want rather than to know what you want to do. 

Quote of the Show:

48:32 “The longer I've done ILC (Independent Lodging Congress), the more I've become interested in indie hospitality in indie hotels.

I think that the indie space is fascinating for so many reasons in that it takes so much more attention to detail to work on one of those projects. And it also takes so much more of a connection to the community and the area that the project is in. And so I'm working on a number of different projects that are all indie focused, and I love them because each one of them is so distinct and different.

And I love that focus of really digging into the community.”

Links: 

• Andrew’s Profile: linkedin.com/in/llenrockgroupbenioff
• Company website: https://precouncil.org
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/indiecongress?lang=en

Shout Outs: 

3:06 Danny Meyer

4:12 Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company

6:00 Four Seasons 

6:10 Rosewood

8:23 The Rock House in the Bahamas

12:38 Team Building ILC

16:18 McDonald’s

19:46 Jiro Dreams of Sushi documentary 

24:07 Penn Pacific in San Francisco

24:08 Nico in San Francisco

24:10 Ritz-Carlton in San Francisco

44:44 The Birth of Sake

49:44 Fairfield Inn

49:45 Hampton Inn

50:15 Hortz Schulze, founder of Ritz-Carlton

51:45 Michael Bedner

Ways to Tune In: 

• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0A2XOJvb6mGqEPYJ5bilPX
• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/defining-hospitality-podcast/id1573596386
• Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZGVmaW5pbmdob3NwaXRhbGl0eS5saXZlL2ZlZWQueG1s
• Podbean:  https://www.defininghospitality.live/

How do you feel when you first step into a hotel or a restaurant? The excitement in the air, the feeling that you have found some place that is truly unique is part of the allure of the hospitality industry.

Dan is joined by a renowned designer, innovative thinker and creative Entrepreneur, Marquise Stillwell. Marquise is also the founder of Deem Journal, ArtMatr, Openbox, Opendox, and Urban Ocean Lab. Listen to this week’s episode as he shares #hospitality insights with Dan Ryan today!

Takeaways: 

• Hospitalities, especially hotels, are like tiny little cities. They are open 24 hours, they never stop and there are 24 hours of activity going on. 
• Hotels serve the purpose to be surprised, meaning each time you walk in, you should feel it is a unique experience.  This is also known as Creating the Conditions to be Surprised.
• Sometimes luck plays a big role. The proximity of luck is when you go out to a restaurant or a hotel and you begin to talk to someone near you, that person could be your next connection.
• Restaurants and hotels that reflect the community are the ones of the future. 
• When you meet people who are in close proximity to you (ie a hotel) that is called Density of Network.
• The younger generation is going to get tired quickly of the rapid change in employment and treating employees like they are on a conveyor belt.

Quote of the Show:

24:31 “Hospitality right now is in a place where we need to rethink our model. Restaurants were already struggling. We need to rethink that model, we need to make it more human and people centered. We need to make sure people can afford to  live and work off their salary. We need to do the same thing in hotels. We need to make sure the front staff is just as respected as the office staff and that they have a livable wage. That’s a larger conversation but it goes to every aspect of what it means to serve. If you're in the service industry, and you’re providing food and you’re serving food and you can’t even afford the food you’re serving, that’s a problem.”

Links: 

• Marquise’s Profile - https://www.linkedin.com/in/quise/
• Websites
  • https://www.opnbx.com/team/marquise-stillwell
•  
• Twitter
  • https://twitter.com/quise7?lang=en
•  

Shout Outs: 

3:54 Ramada Inn and Hotel

12:38 Ramada Inn University and Hotel in Columbus, Ohio

31:15 Westin Hotels

31:30 Equinox Hotels

32:38 Scent Dawn and Samantha Goldworm

49:19 Hoffman Process

Ways to Tune In: 

• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0A2XOJvb6mGqEPYJ5bilPX
• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/defining-hospitality-podcast/id1573596386
• Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZGVmaW5pbmdob3NwaXRhbGl0eS5saXZlL2ZlZWQueG1s

The hospitality industry has roots in all sorts of other lines of work, even in journalism. 

Dan is joined by the author of the Moon Boston Travel guide and world traveler, Cameron Sperance! Cameron is also a hospitality beat reporter at Skift. Listen to this week’s episode as he shares #hospitality insights with Dan Ryan today!

Takeaways: 

• Hospitality boils down to providing that home away from home experience. It’s all about providing caring service with a smile and making a pleasant stay for the guests. 
• You can tell if people are being treated well at the hotel they work at by the way they treat their guests, and a positive attitude creates a better experience.
• In Cameron’s experience reporting about hospitality, you have to build genuine connections with people.
• During the pandemic, many industries have tried to replicate how the hospitality industry makes their guests feel, showing that hospitality has its roots in many industries.
• The concept of doing some self isolation and meditation has taken off in recent years, and it’s a great way to recharge with a busy life. 
• There is a lot of tension around who will stick in the hospitality industry in terms of the labor level employees, the ones who work long hours and demanding schedules. 
• A struggle some hotels face is finding the balance between being exclusive while also being fair to your clients and guests. 

Quote of the Show:

28:33 “There was always a hospitality element to how we work that I think that's why it made it so successful and popular,  pre pandemic.

And I mean, it just kind of runs the gamut. There's so many different, Industries out there that are trying to get a little bit more hospitable that I think this has been a wake-up call of just like how the tentacles of hospitality span out into so many different industries.” 

Links: 

• Cameron’s Profile - linkedin.com/in/cameron-sperance-988505a
• Company website: skift.com
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/cameronsperance
• Book: https://www.amazon.com/Boston-Travel-Guide-Cameron-Sperance/dp/1631218859

Shout Outs: 

2:41 Boston Bureau 

2:51 Ghelfi and Laura Posa

3:04 Skift

4:16 Alice conference 

8:01 Daily Planet from Superman

8:01 J. Jonah Jameson from Spider-Man

8:41 Boston Herald

11:14 Wall Street Journal

11:15 The Real Deal

11:16 The New York Times

12:01 Boston University School of Hospitality

12:02 Pinnacle Advisory

17:20 Hilton

17:21 Marriott

21:18 Soho House

21:19 Rosewood in Hong Kong

32:54 Walden Pond

33:04 Henry David Thoreau

32:20 Parker Torres

35:39 The Lorraine Motel 

37:06 Dubrovnik, Croatia

37:30 Daenerys Targaryen from Game of Thrones

41:46 Russian River

52:16 SoulCycle

52:22 Equinox

56:46 Michael  Lastoria

 Ways to Tune In: 

• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0A2XOJvb6mGqEPYJ5bilPX
• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/defining-hospitality-podcast/id1573596386
• Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZGVmaW5pbmdob3NwaXRhbGl0eS5saXZlL2ZlZWQueG1s
• Podbean:  https://www.defininghospitality.live/

When you design your space, are you thinking about the next generation? In this week’s episode, Dan Ryan is joined by Glen Coben, President of Glen & Company, and his daughter Maya Coben of Rialto Capital for our first ever double guest episode! Listen in as they share their combined, multi-generational perspective on the future of hospitality, nurturing growth, developing intuition, and more great insights!

Check out some takeaways from this episode below:

• Hospitality is about creating a community. We can build community by having empathy and listening to others, and pivoting to whatever the guest needs to feel like they’re most important.
• Work for the people instead of yourself. Identify the unique aspects of your client’s vision by approaching them with empathy and understanding.
• When you design a space, it’s not just for the current generation. You’re designing for the next generation as well. “The best way to stay relevant is to make sure that your 12-year-old child is teaching you” - Glen Coben 
• Nurture growth within your own company by giving people opportunities to learn and develop. The mutual desire for success can lead to more than just satisfied clients. 
• Negative feedback can be an opportunity to delight a client on the next revision, but success doesn’t have to be based on fear and intimidation. Hospitality and empathy drive successful students and future industry leaders. 
• Glen’s most important question when taking on new clients; Who is going to be making the decisions? The best answers to that question are the honest answers. If the whole family is going to review and approve a presentation, they should be in the room so they have all the information. 
• Intuition is built not just by listening and learning, but by asking questions. Be a sponge.
• Don’t be afraid to say “I don’t know the answer.” Asking for more information is a sign of strength, not weakness. Be okay with feeling that nervous energy, because it’s a sign that growth is coming!
• One positive change from the pandemic: taking non local projects becomes easier. Collaboration tools will always be better in person, but our ability to adapt to remote working enables us to think more globally about new opportunities. 

Quote of the Show:

22:46 - You remember those days when we were talking about “how do you design for the millennial?” That bothered me because the millennial is going to no longer want that cool hip thing. So we have to figure out a way to strike a balance through our design skills, that there are Instagram moments, there is technology, but there's also, we're designing across a broader spectrum. - Glen Coben

53:07 -  I think that asking questions is the most important thing. And whenever I ask at the end of an interview, or just any conversation I have with anyone, a mentor, a friend, what advice do you have for me? Ask questions, be a sponge. Those are the two main things that I've heard time and time again. How can you learn as much as humanly possible in your career and through each experience that you're a part of? - Maya Coben

Links: Guest’s info

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/glen-coben-bb298a1/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/maya-coben/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/GlenCoben
• Company website: https://glenandcompany.com/
• Architect's Cookbook: A Culinary Journey Through Design

Shout Outs: 

4:20 - Danney Meyer of Union Square Hospitality Group - “Hospitality is a Team Sport”

7:19 - Stacey Shoemaker’s HD Summit 

8:50 - The Architect’s Cookbook, Max & The Magic Mushroom

10:10 - Grey Kunz 

11:53 - The French Laundry 

16:13 - Gabriel Kreuther

35:36 - William Grimes of the New York Times, Moda

59:59 - Nervous Energy by Dr. Chloe Carmichael 

Ways to Tune In: 

• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0A2XOJvb6mGqEPYJ5bilPX
• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/defining-hospitality-podcast/id1573596386
• Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZGVmaW5pbmdob3NwaXRhbGl0eS5saXZlL2ZlZWQueG1s
• Podbean: https://www.defininghospitality.live/
• Youtube : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBOU_S-CF0Y