Today’s guest is a master at hospitality design. She is a 2022 Platinum Circle Inductee, as well as designing projects with major hotel brands from Four Seasons, to Fairmont, Marriott,  Ritz Carltons,  Sonesta, Hilton, Hyatt, and InterContinental, as well as independent hoteliers. Miriam Torres-Smalankas is the Co-owner and co-founder at Parker-Torres Design Inc. She joins the host Dan Ryan to talk about her journey through the world of hospitality and what it all means to her. 

Takeaways: 

• Hospitality is the relationship between a guest and host. It’s the embodiment of caring and providing a welcoming environment where you share what you have with the guest. 
• In all projects, there will be a lot of research that you need to do. The narrative or the story of the design space will drive the rest of the project and what it will look like. 
• Hospitality design is the mother of all designs. The influence it has stretches from corporate, to healthcare, to education and all areas in between. 
• The people who go into the hospitality world are very passionate about what they do, they don’t do it for the money but rather the love of creating something beautiful and memorable. 
• When looking at expanding your team, consider hiring people that are better than you. You want them to motivate you to become better at what you do. 
• When people start off in a new venture, they might think to themselves that they are a fraud or an imposter but you have to accept that you aren’t a fraud, but rather a strong and brave individual for taking a chance. 
• Perseverance is an important trait to have in the hospitality industry. Others may tell you a design might not work but keep trying until you get it just right. 

Quote of the Show:

2:21 “hospitality is the relationship between a guest and a host.”

Links:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/miriam-torres-smalanskas-1042581a8/
• Website: https://www.parkertorres.com/

Shout Outs:

4:37 Ken Hurd

4:49 Waldorf Astoria

5:19 Ritz-Carlton

6:43 Barbara Parker

8:29 Graham International

10:18 Hyatt

10:21 Fairmont Copley

10:25 Marriott Marquis

10:57 Henry David Thoreau

12:41 University of Massachusetts Amherst

12:51 MIT

14:43 Hilton

23:12 Cornell

30:54 Alan Benjamin

41:41 Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg

44:51 Larry Summers

44:59 Barack Obama

45:02 Facebook

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
• Amazon Music: ​​https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/8c904932-90fa-41c3-813e-1cb8f3c42419
• Podbean: https://www.defininghospitality.live/
• Youtube : https://youtu.be/XYhAynf1VaQ