Latest / The Inspired Stories Podcast / Andrea Belfanti on Identity, Career Loss, and Why Being the Host Is Still Being the Boss

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Andrea Belfanti on Identity, Career Loss, and Why Being the Host Is Still Being the Boss · The Inspired Stories Podcast

0:04
Welcome to another edition of the Inspired Stories podcast,
0:08
where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from
0:11
their successes and be inspired by how they've overcome
0:14
adversity. As you listen today, let one
0:17
idea shape what you do next. My name is Anthony Kotaspodi,
0:20
and today's guest is Andrea Belfonte, Chief executive
0:24
Officer of the International Society of Hospitality
0:27
Consultants, better known as ISHC.
0:30
They are a global nonprofit network of more than 200 senior
0:34
hospitality consultants spread across 6 continents.
0:38
They advance the industry through trusted advice,
0:41
research, and professional development.
0:43
Members use the society to share knowledge, mentor peers and help
0:47
hotel owners solve complex problems.
0:51
Under Andrea's leadership, the society has expanded into new
0:54
regions, and she also overseas the ISHC annual conference,
0:59
several regional forums and the group's awards programs that
1:03
celebrates innovation in hotel design.
1:05
Andrea has worked in hospitality for more than 25 years.
1:09
Before becoming CEO in 2022, she served as ISHCS Executive
1:15
Director for more than a decade. She is a regular speaker at
1:19
events like ALIS and High Cap and sits on the Advisory Board
1:24
for the University of South Carolina's Hotel, Restaurant and
1:27
Tourism Management School. Now, before we get into all that
1:31
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Back benefits.com. All right, back to our guest
2:22
today, the CEO of ISHC, Andrea Belfonte.
2:26
Thanks for making the time to Share your story today.
2:28
Thanks, Anthony. That was a great introduction.
2:30
I feel like I should hire you to kind of talk about the society.
2:34
We're going to pump you up today.
2:36
I love it. So 25 years long time to stay
2:40
committed to 1 industry. Most people drift into
2:43
different, you know, career avenues.
2:44
Was there a moment early on for you where you thought this is
2:48
where I belong? Yeah, you know, honestly,
2:51
there's there's the humorous one where I was in college at the
2:56
University of South Carolina. I didn't have a major and my
2:59
older brother's girlfriend was a hospitality major and she talked
3:03
about a wine and spirits class and I was like, well, that
3:05
sounds great. So I took the intro class.
3:09
I loved it. I loved the idea of doing fun
3:13
things, working in bars and restaurants and hotels.
3:16
So that's kind of how I first really learned of the industry.
3:21
And then I when I started doing internships, that's when I was
3:25
like, oh, OK, I got this. This is this is what I love.
3:29
So that's when I really understood what it was and.
3:33
That's it. So it was the class where you
3:37
could get credits for drinking. That kind of was the first hook.
3:41
And then you got your foot in the door and you're like, oh,
3:44
now that I see what this is actually about, I still love it.
3:47
Sure. I'm 18 and I hear about like,
3:50
you can actually take a class where you drink.
3:52
That sounds like heaven, right? That's magic.
3:55
I'm like, I don't know, My other friends are taking economics.
3:58
Turns out I had to take economics too, and accounting
4:01
and all of those things. But I thought, let's let's at
4:04
least take the intro class, you know, let's see what this is all
4:07
about. So as an 18 year old you were
4:09
allowed to drink in the class. No, no, I couldn't take that
4:11
class. No, I took the intro class and I
4:13
what's funny is I never ended up taking that class because it
4:17
didn't fit in with all the serious classes that I really
4:20
needed to take. Like I never ended up taking the
4:23
wine and spirits class. It was just the allure, the idea
4:26
of this class that first sort of sparked your interest, OK?
4:29
Yeah, yeah. I'm surprised not every 18 year
4:31
old is in that class, right? I would think that there's
4:34
something in the way of that today, but I would.
4:36
Think so. Yeah.
4:38
So let's pick one of your formidable stops in hospitality
4:42
that really kind of helped to shape you as a leader.
4:45
Tell us about that. You know, I would say there were
4:50
quite a few of my first couple jobs out of school.
4:54
I had nightmare bosses, like, like from the movies, the
4:59
stereotypical just nightmare bosses.
5:02
You know, I'd go home most days crying and like, what have I
5:06
done? And in the hospitality,
5:08
especially at that age and in that time in the world, I was
5:12
working 60-70 hours a week. And just like one, for example,
5:18
I had a boss who was getting his MBA and I was probably 22 at the
5:23
time. And we had our regular
5:25
one-on-one meeting. And I said, so you're getting
5:27
your MBA. Do you think that's something I
5:29
should look into one day? Is that something you think is
5:32
valuable? And he said, yeah, yeah, yeah,
5:35
of course. But, you know, if you get your
5:37
MBA, you'd probably meet your husband and then you'd have
5:40
kids. And I don't really think you
5:41
need to spend time and money on education as a woman.
5:45
Like that's for real? And this was like 1930.
5:48
Like what was the time period for this?
5:50
Yeah, Yeah, exactly. Yeah, this would have been like
5:53
1998. Oh my goodness.
5:55
OK. No, no, actually it wouldn't
5:57
have been 2002. I got to do my math difference,
5:59
so it would have been 2002. And so, you know, it was just
6:03
that kind of my other favorite story.
6:05
Same boss, my aunt was critically ill and I said I
6:11
really want to go to Florida and see her.
6:12
I need to go with my mom. You know this is a thing.
6:14
I'm going to be gone. I'm going to take two extra days
6:16
off from my 6 day work week, right?
6:20
Like I'm going to take three days off.
6:22
And he said I understand that's fine are you going to need to
6:26
take more time off for the funeral though?
6:29
And basically it was like you got to pick you go now or you go
6:33
later kind of thing. So, you know, there were moments
6:38
like that that I think I am such a better boss, I'm a better
6:45
person now because of all that. I try, I'm not 100% successful,
6:50
but I try really hard if I screw up to admit it immediately.
6:55
I actually this morning was on a call with my employee and
6:59
another person and I said something I probably just
7:02
shouldn't have said. And it wasn't.
7:04
It was just a little dismissive. And as soon as the other person
7:07
hung up, I said, I'm so sorry. I've never should have said
7:09
that. She was like, I didn't even
7:10
notice it. I didn't even clock it.
7:12
And I was like, no, I I'm really sorry.
7:15
That could have been taken the wrong way.
7:16
And so I work really hard. I think as leaders and as
7:20
bosses, what we say can have more weight and we don't even
7:25
realize it. Like we don't, you know, you,
7:27
you can't be as flippant as you would be with your friends
7:31
because people take it to heart. Is there a part?
7:34
Of you. Sorry, Andrew, is there a part
7:37
of you that's almost grateful for having had those horrible
7:40
boss experiences because it gave you a framework of exactly what
7:45
not to do? Yeah, I think you can learn a
7:48
lot from great bosses and bad bosses.
7:50
I would say I would rather have learned from the good bosses.
7:53
You know, I have. I have also had really amazing
7:55
bosses and leadership. I would rather those lessons,
7:59
but I don't know if they're as impactful.
8:02
They don't. They're not as scarring.
8:03
They don't like sear into you as much.
8:07
So yeah, I've I looking back, I am grateful now at the time.
8:12
It's brutal. It's brutal.
8:15
It's brutal. I mean, you're talking about
8:17
you're, you know, you're getting up for you're, you're going home
8:19
from work and you're crying like you're so upset that I mean,
8:22
that that's not the kind of job somebody wants to have.
8:25
No. And you know, and really in, in
8:27
hospitality, it's not as bad. Now, in some cases you work a
8:31
lot. You know, there are certain
8:33
industries where you just work. Hotels are open 24 hours a day,
8:37
right? When other people are having
8:39
fun, that is when, when we are working.
8:42
And so you're, you're already giving and sacrificing a lot and
8:47
then to then be mistreated. It's it's, it's a double whammy.
8:52
So tell us about a good boss or mentor experience that you've
8:56
had along the way. Gosh, so my favorite boss in the
9:01
whole world is a woman named Lori Raleigh, and she is the one
9:05
that hired me to work at ISHC. And so I was looking for a job
9:12
and I called her. I was leaving one job really.
9:16
And I called her not for a job. She was the only employed ISHC
9:19
at the time. And I just said here's what's
9:22
going on. And I genuinely hope we can stay
9:26
in touch. I think I might have even said
9:28
can we be friends? That's just how much I enjoyed
9:31
working with her and how much I liked her.
9:34
And then I ended up she was looking to hire someone.
9:37
And so then I got to work with her for the next 4 years, which
9:41
was the lessons learned. She is a woman that is so smart.
9:47
She was an asset manager. She is her financial brain is
9:52
unbelievable and super kind. I think, you know, they're that
9:58
stereotype, especially from 20 plus years ago of successful
10:03
women, you know, having tight fun, slipped back hair, being a
10:06
little cold. You remember all the movies from
10:08
the 80s, like if you were a successful woman, you had to be
10:11
a little cold, distant, mean. There was some truth to that in
10:16
the work world, because I think women have to had to especially
10:20
be a a little cold, a little strict, because if you showed me
10:25
emotion, you were hysterical. You know, women had different
10:28
career paths and different ways to go to the top.
10:31
So she to be able to work with her and she smartest woman.
10:36
I know also the kind one of the kindest people, period.
10:40
Not just that I've worked with kindest people period.
10:42
And the way she took care of, she would walk into a conference
10:45
and say like at a reception and be like, no one's talking to
10:50
that woman over there, Let's go meet her.
10:52
She would make friends in the elevator.
10:54
She was not super gregarious or outgoing.
10:58
Like, it made her nervous to talk about herself.
11:00
She would hate listening to this right now.
11:03
But she used her strength and her power of kindness to
11:08
network, to make friends, to make business connections.
11:13
So working with her was just amazing.
11:17
It sounds like an incredible role model.
11:19
You know, and you bring up an interesting point that I've
11:21
talked about with several other powerful women on this show.
11:26
And it's this idea of it's hard to be a woman in a place of
11:31
leadership in business even today.
11:34
We're recording this in 2026 where you think we're more
11:37
evolved. And you know, I would like to
11:40
hear you kind of give voice to your experience on all of this
11:44
and sort of the how do you balance between, yes, I'm a I'm
11:48
a woman in a place of leadership and, and I'm also a woman and I
11:52
want to be feminine and I want to be treated as such.
11:56
But how do you kind of balance all of this?
12:00
Yeah, that's a great question. I think it's it is hard.
12:05
It gets easier as you get older because I think you're my need
12:13
to impress and make sure everyone is OK and happy for
12:20
about things I can't control has gone down, which is a really
12:23
amazing thing about age, right? I don't necessarily love my Gray
12:26
hair. I don't love these wrinkles, but
12:28
I love the idea that I'm like, no, I got this, I'm not going
12:32
to. I don't need to pay attention to
12:33
you anymore kind of thing. But I think, you know, when I
12:37
started, when Lori retired and I took over as executive director
12:41
of ISHCI, remember my very first board meeting, we had the dinner
12:45
after the meeting and I one of the things I love about
12:49
hospitality is taking care of people.
12:51
That is, I love the idea of being there for special
12:53
occasions and making taking care of people.
12:57
I am like a consummate host. That's what I want to do.
12:59
So we're at this dinner and I'm making sure everyone has a seat
13:02
and everyone has what they want to drink, and I'm just taking
13:04
care of people. And one of our older board
13:07
members was like, Andrea, you're the boss now you have to sit
13:11
down. That's not what you do.
13:14
And I was like, oh, oh, OK. Because he saw taking care of
13:19
people and making sure everyone said as a weakness.
13:22
That's not what the boss does. The boss sits in charge and
13:26
people bring them drinks and make sure they're taken care of,
13:29
Right. That's that was his idea of
13:31
leadership. I remember being like, oh, OK,
13:35
all right, OK. And then I thought about it and
13:39
thought about it. And really over years, different
13:44
waves of recognition have kind of hit where I'm like, no,
13:47
actually, that's the kind of leader I want to be.
13:50
Just because that's not what he sees as powerful, strong
13:55
leadership. That's not my business.
13:57
Whatever he sees as a leader is fine.
13:59
The type of leader I want to be takes care of people.
14:02
And I still, you know, I don't let people walk all over me.
14:05
It's a fine line, right? But which is hard.
14:09
But I still I can be the host, I can be hospitable, I can take
14:14
care of people and be nurturing. I can be feminine and still be a
14:18
boss. Kind of fits into this category
14:21
of servant leadership 100. Percent.
14:23
Yeah. So there's different different
14:26
styles of leadership for different types of
14:28
personalities. And this gentleman was trying to
14:32
impose his personality, his approach to leadership upon you.
14:36
And because he's in a position of seniority leadership, that
14:40
probably carried some weight with you at the time and took a
14:43
little bit for you to unlearn. Absolutely, Yeah.
14:46
I mean, I really did think through it for board meetings to
14:50
come. I was like, should I do this?
14:51
Should I do that? Like what should now I'm like,
14:54
again, the the benefit of age. I'm like, no, this is exactly
14:58
who I am. I got here because of who I am.
15:02
So I'm going to keep doing what I know I need to do.
15:06
OK. So let's talk about the services
15:08
that you provided ISHC, Why is somebody a member?
15:11
What are they getting? Yes.
15:13
So we actually survey our members every few years and they
15:17
consistently say networking and idea exchange.
15:20
So we spend a lot of time focusing on creating
15:24
opportunities for members to spend time together.
15:27
We work really hard to make sure it's not transactional, that I
15:32
jokingly say it's more like a round of golf than speed
15:35
networking. And I hate speed networking and
15:37
I don't play golf, but I think that kind of illustrates what we
15:41
do. So we don't talk about how many
15:44
referrals you're going to get, how many leads you're going to
15:46
get. We don't talk about any of that.
15:48
We say here opportunities for you to learn from your fellow
15:52
members or other people in the industry or people outside the
15:54
industry and here opportunities for you to genuinely and
15:57
authentically spend time together.
16:00
So what that does is create a environment where people bring
16:05
their spouses to our conferences.
16:07
People want to come. We have people that say like
16:10
their lifetime friends are from ISHC, they travel together
16:15
outside of work. So it's a really special, it's a
16:18
very unique group. So for those who are unaware,
16:24
they're outside sort of your sphere of the universe.
16:27
What is a hospitality consultant?
16:31
So it's, you know, if you think of.
16:33
So I like to use this analogy. If you won the lottery tomorrow,
16:37
then you were like, I'm going to buy a hotel.
16:40
This is what I want to do with my money.
16:42
I want to own a hotel. So you would hire a lawyer to
16:46
help you buy a piece of land. You would hire a consultant to
16:50
help you figure out if you wanted to be a brand or
16:53
unbranded. You'd hire a consultant to help
16:55
you do a feasibility study to figure out how many rooms and
16:58
what type of hotel it would be. Then you'd hire a designer and
17:01
an architect, maybe a food and beverage consultant, a spa
17:04
consultant, a revenue management consultant.
17:07
We have a water park consultant, maybe a spa consultants, so you
17:11
all the people that you hire that have very specific areas of
17:15
expertise to help make sure that your hotel is profitable.
17:20
So then we also outside of hotels, we have tourism
17:22
consultants, destination consultants, restaurant
17:25
consultants. But I think that if you think of
17:27
the life cycle of a hotel, for example, then you're going to
17:30
want a consultant to help you sell it.
17:32
You're going to want a consultant if you have to have a
17:35
lawyer. If you have an issue with a
17:37
guest or with the brands, do you need a lawyer to help you with
17:40
that? So all of those folks along the
17:42
way. So these are lots of different
17:45
niches within the hospitality world, OK.
17:49
Very much. So the roughly how many members
17:51
do you have? 270. 270 and so these are not
17:56
270 people that are doing approximately the same thing.
17:59
No, there there are clusters of folks that I would guess are
18:02
doing similar things. Yeah, no, it's they're really
18:05
and they're also all over the world.
18:06
So even if you have someone that is a lawyer doing transactions
18:10
actions in the US very different than a lawyer that's doing
18:14
transactions in Asia, the markets are super different.
18:18
They're different challenges, different banking systems,
18:21
different, all that kind of stuff.
18:22
The common thread to be a member, you have to be an owner
18:26
partner in your firm and you have to have been consulting for
18:30
at least three years with 10 years in the industry.
18:32
And then we have a pretty rigorous process to become a
18:35
member with the idea that we want really good quality people.
18:39
Not all consultants are created equal.
18:41
You know, some people lose their job and their consultants until
18:45
they get another real job. And those aren't our folks.
18:48
So it's they are very diverse in a lot of ways, but there is a
18:53
common thread going through it. Talk to me about the
18:57
international aspect of all of this.
18:59
I would think on the surface that oh, I'm in the US, there's
19:03
a culture here, there's rules, there's a way of doing things in
19:06
the US It's probably better for me to network with folks in my
19:09
own country, but I'm probably missing something.
19:13
Yeah, for sure. I mean, so first of all, a lot
19:16
of our consultants in the US are doing work all over the world
19:19
and vice versa. There's also an interesting, you
19:23
can, there's a lot of interesting learning.
19:25
So if you're doing feasibility studies in Tennessee, for
19:28
example, that's what you do. You don't, you don't do
19:31
Tennessee feasibility studies in New York, you do them in
19:34
Tennessee. So what is the value of you
19:36
networking with people outside the US?
19:38
Well, wouldn't it be interesting to talk to someone that's doing
19:40
feasibility studies in Asia or Europe or wherever And there's a
19:45
lot of trends. You know, some things the US is
19:48
ahead of other regions and some other regions are ahead of the
19:52
US. So are you seeing this?
19:53
How are you handling this? I've got clients that are asking
19:56
about this. They've never asked about that
19:58
before. Have you seen that and how did
20:01
you handle it? So there's a lot of knowledge
20:03
sharing, even if you think about somebody outside of your
20:06
specific area of expertise if you're.
20:10
Say you're a food and beverage consultant and do you talk to
20:14
the consultants who are design consultants who are designing
20:18
those restaurants? And you say, why do you guys
20:21
always design a restaurant with this?
20:24
Why is the bar never this? Tell me why, Because this is
20:27
always an issue and I can't figure out what's happening on
20:30
the front end that I haven't seen.
20:32
Why is this the case? Can we change it to help me
20:35
understand? So there's real value in talking
20:38
to people all over the world in different parts of the life
20:41
cycle and learning from them. Tell me about any events that
20:46
you put on throughout the year. Yeah, we do a lot of events.
20:50
So our biggest event is our annual conference that changes
20:53
locations. So last year we were in New
20:55
Orleans, this year we're in Rome.
20:58
Year before last we were in Dubai.
21:00
So we get to move all over the world for that conference.
21:03
That's our biggest event relatively in the event world.
21:06
It's very small, you know, it's under 200 people.
21:09
And then we do regional events, so kind of receptions, happy
21:13
hours, that type of thing. We do usually 10 or so of those
21:17
all over the world. Last year we did LA, London,
21:21
Singapore, Dubai, DC, Boston. That might be a Berlin.
21:30
So you're doing a lot of traveling.
21:32
I am, yeah. And in between these events are
21:36
for the folks who just, you know, their time, their
21:39
schedules don't permit them to make the trip.
21:42
What are the benefits that they're getting?
21:43
How are they able to interact and access the other members?
21:47
Yeah, so a couple different ways.
21:49
We do a whole series on top of the in person events.
21:52
We do a whole series of virtual events and we do those for a
21:56
couple different reasons and in a couple different ways.
21:59
So if you are, like I mentioned, say you're based in the US but
22:02
you're doing a ton of work in Europe or you're just interested
22:06
in that market because you've heard about this trend or that
22:09
trend. So we do a series of events, we
22:14
call them community cafes, and they're based by region and you
22:18
can join whichever region you'd like.
22:20
So those are virtual events where we say sometimes we have a
22:23
topic, what's a trend you're worried about?
22:26
What's something you're excited about?
22:27
Or if there's a hot topic in the news, how are you handling this?
22:31
Are you guys seeing that? And then everybody just kind of
22:34
talks, networks, brainstorms, are you handling this?
22:37
Are you seeing this? Have your clients asked about
22:39
this? That kind of thing.
22:41
We do some member matching. So every quarter will pair a
22:45
member with another member just so they can meet people that
22:48
they may not meet on a daily basis.
22:52
We do state of the society, we do new member orientations.
22:55
We do all kinds of things where if you never get on a plane and
22:58
you're in a part of the world where we don't do something
23:01
regularly, you can still connect with members.
23:03
It's also very fraternal, not in a keg stand hazing kind of
23:08
fraternal, but in a you can call and say, hey, I see you're doing
23:14
this. We've never met but I'm also a
23:15
member can do you have a few minutes and 99% of the time
23:19
people will answer the phone and chat.
23:23
Is there like a private Facebook group or like a Slack channel
23:27
for folks to interact as well? Yeah, so we have, we do have the
23:31
private Facebook group, but nobody really uses that anymore.
23:35
We do what we do. We have an e-mail listserv, so
23:39
you can e-mail, you can e-mail all members or you can e-mail
23:42
all members in your region. I also get a lot of like, hey,
23:45
I'm traveling to in the next 6 months, I'm going to be in LA,
23:49
London and Singapore. Who should I meet while I'm
23:52
there? I know I'm going to have time
23:53
for some dinners kind of thing. So you can connect that way or
23:57
I'm really struggling with this issue.
23:58
Do you know anyone else that just started their consulting
24:02
practice and might have advice on payroll systems or whatever?
24:06
You know, so we have members that say over our because we've
24:10
been around 38 years that ishc taught them how to use the
24:13
Internet and a fax machine. And so, you know, we if you
24:17
think about that and kind of translate that into today, 10
24:20
years ago, which is unbelievable.
24:23
You know, we were talking about Bitcoin blockchain and how that
24:26
how that might affect hospitality.
24:28
So what are the current Internet and fax machines that our
24:31
members should know about Cutting Edge?
24:35
And I'm curious, those crypto conversations that were taking
24:37
place several years ago, what was being shared at the time and
24:42
what have you found has actually come to fruition?
24:44
That's a really good question. So one of the things we did, how
24:49
was it 10 years ago? Maybe it was 8 years ago, we
24:52
brought in a blockchain expert and we spent the 1st 20 minutes
24:56
just talking about what blockchain was.
24:58
So like really intro to blockchain.
25:01
Here are the basics like blockchain for kindergarteners.
25:05
Other kindergartners might have an easier time getting it than
25:08
some of us. So they just basically talked
25:12
about what it was and then talked about potential
25:14
implications, how someday it may help with HR and confirming
25:18
resumes and Boa bond when you think about purchasing and
25:22
selling hotels, that there could be some ways that blockchain and
25:27
kind of more certifying information rather than actual
25:30
cryptocurrency. But the actual technical use of
25:34
blockchain, I have not seen any of that to come to fruition.
25:38
You know, I don't know of any companies that are using
25:41
blockchain to verify resumes or land deeds or anything like
25:47
that. But I think there's also, there
25:52
are some hotels that are using cryptocurrency and Bitcoin to
25:55
take payments, a few and far between.
25:58
They're a little gimmicky, which is fine, you know, if that works
26:01
for them. Everybody's got to have a niche.
26:04
But I don't know that it's certainly not as widespread as
26:07
we thought it would be. Yeah, it was one of those things
26:10
where I tried really hard to wrap my head around how to use
26:14
it in day-to-day business. And I, it was just one of those
26:18
things where I'm like, I think I'm just not smart enough to see
26:21
what's going on here and who knows there There's, you know,
26:24
the future hasn't been fully written so we'll see if this
26:28
sort of comes back around. But the present day equivalent
26:32
and I think is already having a much bigger impact, you know,
26:35
the 2 letters that are about to come out of my mouth.
26:38
AI what are you guys teaching? What are people talking about?
26:41
What do you see? Yeah, great question.
26:43
So we we have two members that really specialize in AI right
26:49
now and they are some of our most popular members right now,
26:52
especially when it comes time to conference.
26:55
So you know, it's interesting with regards to hotels
26:59
specifically what I am hearing and I am not you know, I run an
27:04
association that is my job. I am not in hotel transactions,
27:08
I am not in hotel operations. But what I'm hearing is that AI
27:12
is going to either help efficiencies, right?
27:15
It's going to help either bring more money in or save you money.
27:18
There's not a ton. So it's going to help you with
27:20
revenue management, yield management, that type of thing,
27:24
or it's going to help cut down your labor costs.
27:27
I think when it comes to hotel operations, that's probably
27:30
right. When it comes to how consultants
27:32
are running their practices, that's very different.
27:36
So what we've tried to do, because a lot of the industry
27:38
conferences are talking about how to use AI to make it get
27:42
more guests or that revenue management piece, what we're
27:45
trying to do is talk about it from a different perspective.
27:49
How can you use AI in your practice?
27:51
How is it going to change what you do?
27:53
So if you think I mentioned feasibility studies earlier,
27:56
there are some people that say you can just put some random
27:59
date, you're not random. You can put some specific data
28:02
into your AI tool of choice and it will spit out your
28:06
feasibility study. So our consultants really needed
28:09
anymore. But what we're seeing is that
28:12
yes, it may help with some of that basic report writing, but
28:15
like, like everyone's talking about, one of those numbers is
28:18
wrong and your bank may not give you financing or your project
28:22
may not actually be viable the way it says.
28:25
So I think we're trying to talk to our consultants about how to
28:29
use it to enhance your business, that we don't think it's going
28:32
to take over consulting roles, but you can use it in some ways
28:37
to make it more efficient to help with the start, like the
28:40
way we should all be using it, right, to help, not replace.
28:46
You know, I talked with a number of hotel owners and operators
28:50
and I hear similar things from them.
28:55
You know, one of the things that they really highlight, and
28:59
again, this is hotels and not the hotel consultants, is they
29:03
see it as a way to allow their staff to spend more time
29:08
interacting with each other and more importantly, guests.
29:13
They don't see it as, oh, you know, I've got 20 employees now.
29:18
Maybe this will get me down to 18.
29:20
It's how do I let those 20 employees spend more time making
29:24
and their guests experience wonderful?
29:26
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, that's and that's exactly
29:29
what it should be, right? That's how we should all be
29:30
using it. IAI is not going to write my
29:33
emails, do my calendar, but can I use it to make me a little
29:37
more efficient so I can spend more time talking to members
29:40
rather than doing these things? Absolutely.
29:43
And I think, you know, from a consultant's perspective, the
29:45
thing to be worried about, and I think you were kind of talking
29:47
around this, Andrea, pardon me, is being able to trust the data,
29:53
right? There's the still the
29:55
hallucination problem. Just, you know, this week I was
29:58
asked a legal question about something.
29:59
I said, let me do a little research and digging on that.
30:02
And with one AI model came up with a, you know, great, very
30:06
structured, very believable answer.
30:08
I said, let me put that into another AI model and, you know,
30:12
double check the accuracy. And it came back with all these
30:16
things that were supposedly wrong.
30:17
Now, which one of these is actually right?
30:19
I don't know. And that's where the consultant
30:22
is still very much needed. Like the the tool can help them
30:26
get to an output faster, but you still need that human expertise
30:31
of being in the industry for years and knowing what the
30:34
insurance and outs are to be able to deliver a reliable
30:38
product to to their client. Yeah, that's absolutely right.
30:42
I completely agree. Yeah, it does look so
30:44
believable, though, right? When it tells you with such
30:47
authority, you're like, well, how can this be wrong?
30:50
This must be right. Right.
30:54
So with this being an international member base, are
30:58
there ever issues of culture? You know, we're talking 6
31:03
continents, dozens of languages, different business norms.
31:07
Have you ever run into any friction there?
31:09
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I think especially, you know, as
31:15
an American, we tend to think we are the center of the universe.
31:20
That's, you know, how a lot of us guilty as charged.
31:23
We're the center of the universe.
31:24
And so I think in the early days when we were really working to
31:29
expand outside the US, we were like, here's our here's our
31:33
materials, here's our website, here's our standard e-mail,
31:36
here's everything we have. And we just have to change that
31:40
to, you know, some send it to somebody in the UK or send it to
31:44
somebody in Asia and all will be well.
31:46
And I think what we learned when we started talking to our
31:50
members in other parts of the world is they were like, that
31:53
doesn't really resonate with us. That doesn't there's member
31:56
benefits described that way. You'll note that they're not
31:58
valuable to us. So I think because as you
32:02
mentioned, there are different business structures and things
32:05
work in different ways. We had to really think through
32:07
and talk to our members and say, what's attractive to you?
32:11
What's a valuable to you? How do you want to be talked to?
32:14
What, when, when I send you a brochure, what's going to be
32:19
impactful and to really think through how other people want to
32:23
be spoken to and what's valuable to them.
32:27
And I think it's really interesting.
32:29
And we've tried to take that to not just the membership process
32:34
outside the US, but really to all of our members.
32:36
So now we work really hard to ask a lot of questions.
32:39
How do you want to be communicated with?
32:41
What's, is this valuable to you or is this a waste of time?
32:44
Do you want to hear about this or do you not?
32:47
Is are there more value? Are there more benefits that
32:50
we're not thinking of that would that would be attractive to you?
32:54
There's also some cultural, it's really interesting in the US and
32:58
in Europe and more advanced hospitality regions.
33:05
I mentioned there's a consultant for very specific things.
33:09
In other parts of the world where maybe hospitality or
33:12
consulting isn't as advanced, there's a generalist.
33:15
So here we have one consultant that does purchasing primarily
33:20
for this type of property. It's a real niche, whereas in
33:26
another part of the world you have somebody that can do head
33:30
hunting, consulting, purchasing, consulting, interim management
33:34
consulting, you know, and your revenue management.
33:37
And it's the same, It's the same dude.
33:39
And he's like, I do everything. And if we had somebody like that
33:41
here, we'd be like, well, you can't be a master of all of
33:44
that. You know, you got to so to kind
33:46
of think through how it's different in different regions
33:50
and not change our not change our criteria, but make sure that
33:56
we're not eliminating really qualified consultants because it
34:00
doesn't look like how it does in the US.
34:02
OK. I want to go back to what you
34:05
started with and that answer the communication of some of the
34:09
member benefits and how it wasn't landing the same way.
34:12
Is it that they weren't finding value in the benefits themselves
34:18
or the way in which it was communicated was not resonating
34:24
with them? I think there's a little bit of
34:25
both. I think there's a little bit of
34:27
both. So it's really interesting.
34:28
So for example, we are very well known in the US this is where we
34:32
were founded. This is where almost 70% of our
34:34
members are in North America. So touting that you are a member
34:42
of ISHC in the US is very valuable because people
34:45
understand what that means. They understand it's a select
34:48
group. But if you're in a region of the
34:50
world where nobody's ever heard of ISHC, touting that you are a
34:54
member means nothing. But what does mean something is
34:58
opportunities to publish in different trade publications,
35:02
opportunities to attend different conferences where
35:04
you're going to learn and network.
35:06
So it's, it's a little bit of both and how we were
35:09
communicating and some of our materials were like, I'm not
35:11
going to open that, I'm not going to read that.
35:13
That's not no. So I think there's a little bit
35:16
of both there. Interesting.
35:18
I understand that you partner with a lot of big investment
35:22
conferences. Can you talk about who they are
35:26
and what that partnership looks like?
35:27
Why there's a value add for both of you?
35:29
Yeah. So the Alice conference that you
35:33
mentioned, which is the America's Lodging Investment
35:37
Summit, it's usually one of the largest.
35:40
It's not the largest hotel investment conference in the
35:42
world. It's in Los Angeles.
35:45
We do the International Hotel Investment Forum, which is in
35:48
Berlin. We do a conference for the
35:51
Caribbean and Latin America. We do one in Asia Pacific.
35:56
It's for us. It's for me personally, it's
35:59
very valuable because like I said, I don't, I don't do hotel
36:03
transactions everyday. You know, I run, I run a
36:05
society. So I get a lot of value out of
36:10
being on the planning committees and attending the conferences
36:13
and learning what the trends are.
36:15
So what are people struggling with what's coming up?
36:18
That helps me help our members more.
36:21
It helps me to be a better resource for them to maybe steer
36:27
our programming towards things that will help them or what's
36:30
coming up or challenges. It helps me connect better with
36:34
our sponsors and our candidates and I can better identify kind
36:38
of what their struggles might be so we can make sure our
36:41
sponsorship packages are more valuable for them, that type of
36:44
thing. And it gives us great brand
36:46
recognition. So for us, you know, that's what
36:49
we get out of it. And then I think the conference
36:51
is because our members are best of the best and leaders in the
36:55
industry. I can say we have this great
36:59
member who would be a great speaker for that or we send out
37:02
information to our members to say, you know, here's a discount
37:05
for this conference, you should attend that kind of thing.
37:08
So we help the conferences hopefully get great quality
37:12
attendees and then it helps us in other ways I'll mention.
37:16
You know, a lot of your members credit the networking in the
37:20
professional development for helping to accelerate their
37:24
careers. I was going to ask this question
37:27
in terms of how it's helped your career, but I think I want to
37:30
change the angle here and ask if you can relate a specific story
37:35
of how you saw it really helped to evolve somebody else's
37:38
career, one of the members. That's a good one.
37:43
You know, I will say this, the pandemic was a really obviously
37:49
challenging time, right, Hospitality consulting and what
37:54
we, I'm really proud of how we responded.
37:58
Most of our members, a majority of them, their businesses tried
38:03
up in a day, right? You don't need a food and
38:05
beverage consultant. And the few members that were
38:09
really busy were members that were dealing with bankruptcy,
38:14
you know, lawyers that help with that.
38:16
Some of our asset managers were swamped in the early days
38:19
because hotels were trying to figure out whether or not to
38:22
close or stay open. And we spent, I joked with my
38:27
husband that I was like part grief counselor, part career
38:30
counselor. And we spent a lot of time
38:32
connecting members and saying, OK, this is it hit Asia first.
38:38
This is how Asia is dealing with it.
38:41
Let's get a call with some of our Asian members who are a
38:44
couple months ahead of us and and learn from them.
38:48
And so the Asian members were like, we couldn't close hotels.
38:50
We did this. This is what happened here.
38:52
This is how we dealt with the bank and our financing.
38:56
And then some members we said you can pivot your business this
39:00
way, talk to this member and see because they're they're doing
39:04
business right now. So how can you support what
39:06
they're doing and try to keep your doors open kind of things.
39:09
So we did. Again, I'm really proud of what
39:12
we did, connecting people, educating people and helping
39:15
people. I think emotionally, you know,
39:18
there was something, I don't know if you think back to those
39:21
early days, if you can do it without getting sweaty, there
39:24
was so little information. So we worked really hard to help
39:29
with that and then help people with their jobs and find
39:32
business. What did you see people pivoting
39:35
into at that time? You know, it was other niches of
39:39
hospitality. So you know, it was obviously
39:43
you don't need a food and beverage consultant.
39:44
That's really tough. But maybe if you've got an owner
39:48
with some time and some capital, maybe you can help them with
39:51
their strategic planning for when we do open.
39:53
Maybe you can help them with their CAPEC spend.
39:56
So we had some, you know, the owners, hotel owners that were
40:00
well capitalized were like, let's do this, let's do this
40:03
renovation right now. Let's spend some time and money,
40:06
let's get in, let's order our supplies so that we open back
40:09
up. And if you remember, nobody had
40:11
any idea when that would be. Was it a month?
40:13
Was it a year? So we had a lot of people that
40:16
were helping with future planning that were pivoting and
40:19
advising their owners in different ways, that type of
40:22
thing. Yeah.
40:24
What's been the most successful form of member growth for you?
40:32
I would say the most successful tactic that we've had is in
40:37
person. Like there's just, you know, we
40:39
talked about expanding into different parts of the world.
40:43
We were like, well, how do you do that?
40:45
You know, how are we going to do this?
40:46
Are we going to hire somebody over there?
40:48
Are we going to have our members, the couple members that
40:51
we have in those regions, be this, you know, and what we
40:54
decided on is that I needed to go.
40:56
And there's really is no substitute for looking someone
41:00
in the eye and shaking their hand and getting to know them.
41:03
And so, but then we discovered that I can't just go once.
41:07
It's not like I can go to Asia once and be like, all right,
41:10
we're good. I don't need to go back.
41:13
You know, you have to go year after year and you have to
41:15
develop those relationships and you really have to put in the
41:18
time and the money and the energy and that's what and it
41:22
takes years to pay off too. That's The thing is, you know, I
41:25
may talk to a candidate and it's three years before they decide
41:30
they want to apply. You know, it's, it's, it's a
41:33
long process. It's not like you talk to
41:36
someone and you get a contract signed, you know, before you
41:38
leave lunch kind of thing. So it's going to those
41:43
conferences and spending time in the regions has been our best
41:46
way to get members and expand. What does that nurturing process
41:50
look like? You meet somebody today, they
41:52
signed the agreement in three years.
41:54
What are you doing in between to stay in touch?
41:57
So we're inviting them to our events.
42:00
So hopefully we get some face to FaceTime with them.
42:02
They get to meet our other members.
42:04
You know, I, I feel like I can talk about the benefits and I
42:08
can sell it like nobody else, but there's really no substitute
42:11
from meeting their members and saying, oh, she's a member,
42:15
that's really great. I love her.
42:16
She's so smart, let me go talk to her, that kind of thing.
42:19
So it's inviting them to our events, it's communicating with
42:23
them. It's being a resource.
42:25
One of the things I love and I say like I love being a resource
42:28
in the industry, whether you are a member, media sponsor, a
42:32
candidate, you know, I get a lot of phone calls.
42:34
They're like, hey, who do you know that's doing this?
42:37
Can you blah, blah, blah. So I love connecting people and
42:39
being a resource. So I really try to do that.
42:42
We are, we are not a sales heavy organization.
42:46
I am never going to put the pressure on.
42:48
I'm going to say I'm here if you need anything and I'd love to
42:52
stay in touch whether you're a member or not because it's
42:55
mostly really great people. And I genuinely mean that it's
42:58
rare. It's a rare occasion that I'm
42:59
like, oh God, I hope he doesn't call kind of thing, you know?
43:04
Yeah. That's what we do.
43:05
Do you have a filter? Like somebody comes to apply,
43:09
they show an interest, and you see this red flag or yellow flag
43:13
and you're like, yeah. We do.
43:15
I mean, I could, I could show you a slide of our entire
43:18
process, but I won't do that. Nobody wants me to open up the
43:20
PowerPoint, but we have a a lengthy process.
43:23
So it starts with a call with myself and I try to make sure
43:27
the basic criteria is not you are a consultant, you're not
43:30
selling a product, you've been doing it the right number of
43:32
years, that kind of thing. And then it go, then they fill
43:35
out an application. They have to be sponsored by a
43:37
current member. Then it goes to our membership
43:39
review committee. They check references, they talk
43:42
to the candidate, they call common clients.
43:44
They look at social media. It is, yeah.
43:49
And then it goes to our membership Co chairs.
43:52
They also interview the candidates.
43:54
Then they come, they get invited to our annual conference.
43:56
Then the board votes, then the full membership votes.
43:59
So it is a lengthy process with really the goal, like I said, of
44:03
having good quality people. Wow, that's a lot of filters in
44:07
place. It is.
44:08
It is a lengthy. If you make it through that, you
44:11
are, I think you've got to feel sort of good about yourself.
44:14
Wow. I was accepted into this very
44:16
prestige organization. Wasn't just somebody who would
44:18
take anybody's check. That's right.
44:21
Yeah. Yeah.
44:22
I, I have often made the joke that if we made it, if we put it
44:26
on like the website where you could just put in your credit
44:28
card information and be a member, we'd have two great
44:30
years. We would have all kinds of
44:32
money. We could have great events.
44:34
I'd take a little bonus and then we would shut down because the
44:38
value of the society and really like what makes U.S. special
44:41
would be gone. Interesting.
44:43
Yeah. So besides what we've already
44:47
talked about, what is the future of ISHC Look like?
44:51
You guys want to grow more members, more geographies, What
44:53
haven't we talked about? Yeah.
44:55
So I think it is all those things we want to, we don't have
45:00
membership requirements or goals like never in my like
45:03
compensation package is it you must have X number of members
45:07
because we never want to compromise on quality.
45:10
We never want to like look at a candidate, be like, oh, this
45:13
guy's mediocre, but if I get one, more will reach my goal.
45:17
So, but our goals are to expand our diversity in all ways.
45:23
So when we talk about geography, areas of expertise, racial
45:28
diversity, more women, more young people.
45:31
So in all ways we want to be as diverse as possible.
45:35
I think a little side tangent, if you don't mind.
45:38
I think the industry as a whole struggles with diversity in a
45:42
lot of different ways. And my hope, my kind of
45:47
idealistic hope, is that as the industry focuses on that and
45:51
gets more diverse, that then our membership will also get more
45:54
diverse. And we're doing everything we
45:55
can to help with that in small and big ways.
46:01
Growth, personal growth, often comes through overcoming big
46:06
challenges. Andrea, what's a big challenge
46:09
that you had to overcome and what did you learn getting
46:12
through that? So, you know, I mentioned
46:16
earlier when I called Lori and said I'm leaving this job and
46:20
I'd love to stay friends. So I actually was laid off in
46:23
2008 during the great financial crisis.
46:26
I worked for a major hotel company and I did big, expensive
46:31
events all over the world. So I don't know if you remember
46:33
the early 2000s, but big expensive parties were very on
46:37
trend. And I got to travel all over the
46:40
world doing them, which was, you know, I was in my late 20s.
46:44
I was like, this is a dream. So I got laid off, which was
46:51
devastating. And I realized then and have
46:55
realized multiple times since then, it's a lesson I have to
46:58
continue to learn that I had put too much of my identity and self
47:04
worth and value into my job. I was, you know, people are
47:08
like, what are your hobbies and what do you like to do?
47:10
I would be like, I have work, what do you do?
47:13
Like, you know, I would back in the day, like wake up in the
47:16
middle of the night and check my BlackBerry to see if someone
47:18
from Asia had emailed me kind of thing.
47:22
And it was a very, I, I joke that it was like a really bad
47:25
breakup. I had put everything into that
47:27
relationship. I had alienated everything else,
47:32
put it all in that relationship. And then I, and then they dumped
47:35
me. And it was, I mean, I, it was
47:37
hard and it was also a recession and I was an event planner.
47:41
So it was, you know, there was the feeling like I had done
47:45
something wrong, you know, crushing myself worth and and
47:50
then also like, oh, shit, what am I going to do?
47:53
Like, I shouldn't cuss. Sorry.
47:54
But you know, it was like, what am I going to do?
47:56
I'm an event planner in a recession.
47:59
Expensive big events are really inappropriate.
48:04
Yeah. So it was, it was really hard.
48:06
And I have had to learn the lesson over and over again.
48:08
It's almost like a mantra that I say to myself, especially when
48:11
I'm super stressed out. I'm not saving lives.
48:14
I'm not saving lives. Calm down.
48:17
Take a deep breath. I can't believe you're losing
48:20
sleep over a party in Rome. You know, like, this is not
48:24
worth losing sleep over. Get some perspective.
48:28
But it was, it was, I say, top three hardest things I've ever
48:31
been through. You know, I'm really glad that
48:33
you gave voice to this, Andrea, because I think it's something
48:36
that so many people have been through and either don't feel
48:41
comfortable talking about or don't have the language to
48:44
express it in the way that you did.
48:46
You know, whether you are an entrepreneur and you've started
48:50
a business and that you exit that business or the business
48:53
fails or you're somebody who is, you know, a type, you are
48:57
driven, you enjoy your job. It's very much part of your
49:00
identity. When that gets taken away from
49:03
you, I think people underestimate the whole that it
49:07
leaves inside. And you have used it as an
49:11
opportunity to try to remind yourself going forward, I am not
49:15
what I do, right? I am more than that.
49:18
But it's one thing to sort of say that to yourself, and it's
49:20
one thing to say that out loud so you and other people can hear
49:23
it. It's another thing for your
49:26
central nervous system to actually wrap on to that and
49:29
believe it. A. 100% yeah, I think it is
49:32
because it's a double whammy. Like I said, it's you all the
49:35
sudden what you felt secure in, where you made your money, where
49:39
you spent your time, what you did with your day, right?
49:43
Like when people ask you, what are you doing this week?
49:45
You're like, I'm going to work. I'm going, you know, like I'm
49:47
working. This is what I'm doing.
49:49
And then it also is your emotional like it's and it is,
49:54
it's one of those things that happens all the time.
49:56
I mean, we all know dozens of people that over their career
49:59
have been laid off. So there is that like it's fine,
50:02
it's not a big deal. Everybody loses a job.
50:04
I can find another one. I can whatever.
50:06
And but that's not true in that and how your body and your heart
50:10
and your brain react. If you were to go through
50:15
another career shift now, whether of your own choosing or
50:18
not, do you have any sense of how you might process that
50:24
internally? If it were not of my choosing,
50:28
Anthony, I would be devastated. I would.
50:31
I'll tell you, I can't say that I would be any less devastated,
50:35
especially now, because I've been in this role for so long
50:37
and I love these people in this organization so much.
50:40
So if I didn't choose it, I would still be crushed.
50:43
What would be different is that I know I could get through it.
50:48
There is something, you know, that whole like what doesn't
50:51
kill you makes you stronger. I think it's a bunch of crap,
50:53
like what doesn't kill you. Sometimes you wish it did, like
50:55
I don't. But I think that I think there
50:59
is value in having gone through something.
51:02
And I so I think now if I lost my job, you know, if they called
51:06
me tomorrow and said you're out, we're done with you, it would, I
51:09
would be devastated. It would hurt.
51:11
But I also would be like, that's OK, I'm going to make it.
51:14
So of the two, you know that there's two chunks, right?
51:17
The financial security piece. I know I would be OK.
51:21
I know I would find another job. I know I would recover.
51:25
I know eventually I'll be able to get out of the fetal
51:27
position. It's not that I wouldn't get in
51:29
the fetal position. It's that I know I will
51:31
eventually get out of it. And I appreciate you being
51:34
honest on that because I think the answer to everybody wants to
51:38
give is, oh, I've learned from before.
51:40
I'm stronger. It would be totally different.
51:43
And if it were me I I would have the same answer as you as I got
51:48
to be honest that this this would be crushing.
51:50
Yeah, it's, you know, when it happened the first time, I
51:53
didn't know if I would get out of the fetal position, right?
51:55
Because I was like, how? It's me.
51:59
I, you know, I, you don't know that you're going to get through
52:02
it. So I would at least know that I
52:04
would get through it, but it doesn't mean it wouldn't crush
52:08
me. What's your super?
52:10
Sorry, you got something else you want to say.
52:12
Well, I was going to say if it wasn't my choice, then I would
52:15
be nervous. I would, you know, my stomach
52:17
would hurt. I would be anxious, but I would
52:19
be excited. If I were choosing it, I would
52:21
be excited about it but nervous at the same time.
52:23
Yeah, because it's like a death, right?
52:26
And I don't mean that to trivialize actual death, which
52:29
is irreversible and, you know, a a pain that has no, but it feels
52:35
like it internally, doesn't it? Yeah.
52:37
It really does, yeah. OK, shifting on to more positive
52:42
things. Andrea, what is your superpower?
52:45
This is a really hard question. Can you see like how red I'm
52:47
turning? Talking about myself is like,
52:50
this is not. This is a stretch.
52:51
For you, this is an uncomfortable place.
52:54
For you, which is where growth happens, So I plot.
52:56
That I I like asking the questions, answering them is
52:59
hard. So superpower, you know, a lot
53:03
of people, I think especially women, but a lot of people, it's
53:06
hard to talk about yourself. But I would say I'm really good
53:11
at building consensus. So I am good at like with the
53:17
organization, taking ideas. And this group of members maybe
53:21
wants us to do this and spend money and time here.
53:23
And this group is here. And the reality of it is this is
53:26
how much money we actually have. And then the board is deciding.
53:30
So I am good at talking to the different groups, kind of
53:34
helping share the message, helping explain why we're going
53:38
to do what we're going to do, and ideally kind of bringing
53:42
everyone on the same page moving forward.
53:46
Andrea, if you had to give one piece of career or life advice
53:50
to someone that's entering this fast evolving industry, what
53:53
would that be? Well, I'm not super great at
53:57
following directions apparently because I have two.
54:00
One is I mentioned I had those bad bosses early on in my
54:05
career. One of the things I didn't do
54:07
was my research and my homework. And I think the same way that
54:13
companies will check your references and interview you and
54:16
make sure that you align with their values and what they
54:19
expect of you. I think people interesting
54:22
entering the industry need to do the same thing for the companies
54:25
that they're looking to go work at you.
54:27
Especially now with everyone being so connected, you can call
54:31
somebody and say, have you ever worked for Joe Smith?
54:34
Any idea what kind of boss he is?
54:36
Do you know anything about this company?
54:37
You blah, blah, blah. I think people need to do their
54:40
research because like we said, you can learn from a bad boss,
54:45
but it's a lot more fun to learn from a good boss.
54:48
And I think aligning with companies that share your values
54:51
and your ethics is really important.
54:53
And then the second piece of ADVO, sorry, go ahead.
54:56
The second piece of advice that Ioffer students is, I think it
55:02
doesn't seem like career advice, but it really is.
55:04
I think to keep your finances in order is a very powerful career
55:10
tool. I think I didn't do well at
55:13
that. I was in a lot of debt when I
55:15
was younger and you tend to make decision, career decisions based
55:19
on fear and only money. So even if you know the maybe
55:23
the boss isn't going to be great or the company isn't aligned,
55:26
that's probably why they're going to pay you more money.
55:28
You take those, you take those jobs because of that.
55:31
And I think if you are living financially responsible and have
55:36
don't have as much debt, you can maybe change career paths if you
55:40
want to and take a little step back on your money, that type of
55:44
thing. I think it's really important to
55:48
be able to make career decisions, not just on money,
55:52
and you can't do that if you're broke.
55:53
Yeah, good point. Andrea, I've just got one more
55:56
question for you today. But before I ask it, I want to
55:58
do 3 quick things for the audience.
56:01
First of all, anybody that wants to get in touch with Andrea,
56:03
we've got two ways. Her e-mail address is a Belfonti
56:07
BELFANTI at IS iashc.com. Let's try that again, folks.
56:15
Yep. ABELFAN, t.i@ishc.com.
56:21
We'll have it in the show notes and also her LinkedIn profile.
56:24
Andrea Belfonte, ISHC you could look for.
56:27
You'll find her. But we'll have a link in the
56:28
show notes to that. Yeah.
56:30
And if you're enjoying the show today, please take a moment to
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subscribe wherever you're listening.
56:34
It sends a signal that also helps others discover our
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podcast. So thank you for taking a quick
56:39
moment to do that right now. And as a reminder, you can get
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your hospitality employees access to therapist doctors and
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prescription meds that, as paradoxical as it seems,
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actually increases your company's net profits, real
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gains that can change how a business is valued.
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Contact us today at AD back benefits.com.
56:58
So last question for you, Andrea.
57:00
A year from now, what is 1 very specific thing that you hope to
57:03
be celebrating? You know, I don't I'm, I am very
57:08
happy to say that I am a good place personally and
57:12
professionally. So there's not one huge big
57:15
thing. I would say for me, I would hope
57:18
to be celebrating a great vacation where I've been,
57:21
somewhere I haven't been and you know, had a great time with my
57:24
husband. I would hope that I am
57:27
celebrating another great year with my senior dog who probably
57:31
only has a few years left and that I've spent great time with
57:34
friends and family and kind of celebrating the small little
57:37
things. I don't need anything huge right
57:40
now. I don't need the one big thing.
57:42
I need lots of little things. I love that.
57:45
OK, how about a couple of the spots that are on your travel
57:47
bucket list? Oh OK, so I've not I've changed
57:52
the planes in Japan but I've not been to Japan.
57:56
I this is going to sound. I know how this sounds.
57:59
It sounds a little pretentious and ridiculous but I'm going to
58:02
say it anyway. I hope to go to all 7
58:05
continents. I have two left, Antarctica and
58:08
Australia. I have a birthday with a 0
58:12
coming up in couple years, so my husband and I are planning to go
58:18
to Antarctica then and then we'll do Australia either before
58:22
or after that because at that point I can't, I can't have just
58:25
one left. Yeah.
58:27
Yeah. And I also just, yeah, the
58:29
beach. I just love the beach.
58:31
You. Know anyone that you haven't
58:33
been to that you're looking forward to?
58:35
I've never been to the Maldives. I've never been to the
58:37
Seychelles. That sound pretty great to me.
58:41
All right, fun stuff. Andrea Belfonte from Ishci want
58:46
to be the first to thank you for sharing both your time and your
58:49
story with us today. I really appreciate you being
58:51
here. Thank you, Anthony.
58:53
This was a real pleasure. I appreciate it.
58:55
Folks, that's a wrap on another episode of the Inspired Stories
58:58
podcast. Thanks for learning with us.
59:00
And if one thing stood out, put that into action today.