Latest / The Inspired Stories Podcast / How Janelle Cash Built 20-Year Client Relationships and Won Multi-Million Dollar Deals at Placemakr

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How Janelle Cash Built 20-Year Client Relationships and Won Multi-Million Dollar Deals at Placemakr · 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. My name is Anthony Kotaspodi,
0:17
and today's guest is Janelle Cash, Senior Sales Management.
0:22
Let's do this again. Welcome to another edition of
0:26
the Inspired Stories podcast, where leaders share their
0:29
experiences so we can learn from their successes and be inspired
0:33
by how they've overcome adversity.
0:35
My name is Anthony Kotaspodi and today's guest is Janelle Cash,
0:39
Senior Sales Manager for Government Travel at Placemaker.
0:43
They are a tech enabled hospitality company combining
0:47
fully furnished apartment style living with the perks of a
0:51
hotel, making flexible stays accessible for nightly or
0:55
extended visits. Their mission is to provide
0:58
one-of-a-kind accommodations that help developers tap into
1:02
new revenue streams while ensuring guests feel right at
1:05
home. The company recently raised
1:08
substantial funds to expand into new markets, adding pop up
1:12
properties in places like downtown Phoenix.
1:15
Janelle brings over 20 years of hospitality sales experience,
1:18
including leadership roles at Yotel and Kempton, earning
1:23
awards such as Manager of the Year.
1:25
Her focus on building corporate and government partnerships has
1:29
helped place her focus on building corporate and
1:34
government partnerships has helped Placemaker grow and serve
1:37
a wide range of travellers. Now before we get into all the
1:42
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AD back benefits.com. All right, back to our guest
2:24
today, the senior sales manager for Government Travel at
2:28
Placemaker Hotels, Janelle Cash. Thanks for making the time to
2:32
Share your story today. Absolutely, Anthony, thank you
2:35
so much. Pleasure to be here Janelle,
2:38
you've been in the hospitality sales space for over 2 decades.
2:42
What first drew you into the industry?
2:46
If I'm being completely honest, I needed a job.
2:50
I was young. Honestly, you just need a job
2:53
and I got into being at a front desk at a hotel and quickly rose
2:59
from front desk to reservations to sales and I'm here today.
3:03
OK, what was it that you had loved about the space?
3:06
Or was it just, hey, I got my foot in the door and I'm just
3:08
going to keep rolling? Yeah, I, I got my foot in the
3:11
door and then I really enjoyed the hospitality side of it, just
3:16
being able to, to help guests, to learn more, to meet people,
3:20
all of it, which just, you know, exciting for me.
3:24
And how is your perspective on sales evolved through the
3:27
diversity of roles you've held at places like Yotel and
3:31
Kempton? I think initially when I first
3:33
got into sales, the idea was you've got to close, you've got
3:37
to, you know, get hit the goal, like just just get to it.
3:42
And then I think over time, what I've learned is it's it's more
3:45
about relationship building. You know, early on, I did always
3:48
want to have a relationship with everyone and that's what I did
3:50
it kind of naturally. But it hasn't evolved fully into
3:55
it's not just about closing the deal and the heart and the kill.
3:59
It's really just more about like building those relationships and
4:02
having those clients be loyal to you and continue to come back
4:04
and, and follow you everywhere you go.
4:06
So it it has evolved in that way, I will say for me.
4:10
How? How did that evolution unfold?
4:13
Was there like a big catalyst moment?
4:16
Was there a mentor who helped kind of steer you in a
4:20
direction? Or was it just sort of like a
4:21
slow realization that there's a better way to do this?
4:25
Yeah, I think it's a combination of things.
4:27
I've had great mentors along the way that have shown me where,
4:30
like one in particular, Jolla Whittaker, she's been a great
4:34
mentor for me. She was one of my first
4:36
directors of sales, and she really kind of showed me that
4:38
clients can be friends. And when you make them your
4:41
friends, they're the ones that are always going to be loyal to
4:43
you. So that sort of became a natural
4:45
progression. And I think just over time, I
4:49
learned that people followed me everywhere I went.
4:51
Not that I jumped around hotels, but everywhere I went, I have
4:55
clients that I have today that were my clients, you know, 20
4:59
years ago. So it, it's, it's evolved in, in
5:03
the way of it's, it's kind of been stagnant, but it's, it's
5:05
evolved in, in a little bit of a different way in how we're
5:08
booking and how people are selling with, you know, AI kind
5:12
of running everything now. It's not as knock on the door
5:16
anymore as much as you can sit behind a computer and do things.
5:18
But those clients still continue to be loyal to you if you keep
5:23
that relationship going. So you say some of your clients
5:27
have been with you for 20 years. So have you been specifically in
5:31
the government travel space for that long?
5:33
No, I have. I have the unique situation that
5:40
when I started in sales, sales was everything.
5:42
You were never segmented. You answered the phone, whoever
5:45
was on the other line or you went out and you got a client
5:48
because you needed the business. So I've sold just about every
5:51
single segment there is to sell when it comes to hospitality.
5:56
I've had clients that have been across the genres.
5:59
Now that my focus is on government, I still have a hotel
6:02
that I'm selling everything for. So I have clients that come in
6:06
for that, whatever their market is, whether that's corporate,
6:08
whether it's Smurf, you know, it doesn't really matter.
6:12
Smurf. Yeah.
6:13
So social, social, military, entertainment, religious,
6:19
fraternal. So we call that Smurf in the in
6:22
the hospitality world. OK.
6:24
So it's just it's, it's really my clients, even though there's
6:29
it's someone that I've been with forever, even if I need to move
6:32
them into work with someone else, they're just there because
6:36
I'm situated there. So they'll come over, they know
6:38
they'll be taken care of. They know if I go to a company,
6:41
it's well trusted, it's going to be a great brand.
6:44
I mean, it's something that they'll be comfortable with.
6:46
OK, so how did the opportunity to join Placemaker come about?
6:52
So I was actually at YOTEL, I had actualized 286% of my goal
6:57
that year. It was just it, it, you know, I
7:00
would love to say it was luck. I did, I did a lot of work, but
7:04
a little bit of luck. I ended up landing this, this
7:07
piece of business that was just did it all for me.
7:11
And then at the end of it, I, I sort of kind of reflected and
7:14
said, what am I going to do next?
7:15
Right? Like what, what's next?
7:16
What can I possibly do next? And I, you know, I was trying to
7:20
figure it out. And then I saw the opportunity
7:22
for Placemaker on LinkedIn. A friend of mine at the time or
7:25
previous colleague had been working at Placemaker.
7:28
And I reached out and just said, hey, do you know anything about
7:30
this? And he said, hey, you know, you
7:31
should apply, check it out. And I did.
7:34
And it was a grueling process, an interview process, but I made
7:38
it through and I'm here. OK, what was so grueling about
7:41
the interview? It's like 5 steps, man.
7:44
I think they put you through it. They just want to make sure they
7:46
have the right people that you're going to do, you know,
7:50
you're going to be able to handle the job and that you
7:54
know, it's just, it's, it's a, it's a, it's a step by step
7:56
process that you meet with. They have a really good way of
8:00
getting you to meet with everyone.
8:02
It's not just sales and one person you meet with directors,
8:05
you meet with revenue, you meet with HR folks.
8:09
So it's a really good process that you get to kind of
8:11
breakdown and see how all these departments work together.
8:14
They also have you speak to operational folks as well.
8:18
So you just get a feel for how all of the departments work
8:21
together and how you would kind of fit in and and if it's
8:25
something that would work for you basically.
8:28
And could you tell right away that this was a good fit for you
8:31
or. Yeah, I.
8:34
Would say, I would say about the third interview, I was to the
8:39
point where I was like, I want this, like I want this job.
8:42
It just seemed like the culture and what they were bringing was
8:45
so different. It wasn't like anything I had
8:48
experienced before with hotels, you know, with I wasn't 100%
8:52
sure what I was walking into because the concept was very
8:55
much we, they started with pop up hotels right where they go
8:59
into an apartment building that's in the in the lease up
9:03
phase and then they create a pop up hotel out of it.
9:06
They take X amount of units and they run it as a pop up hotel.
9:10
It's just a win for that the person who owns the building.
9:15
So when for them, they don't have to worry about trying to
9:17
find leases for all of these and then they get some sort of a
9:21
good foundation and then they can move on.
9:24
So I was like, OK, well, never really done that before, but
9:27
sure. And I took my hotel approach to
9:30
it, which was, well, it's a hotel in my mind, I'm going to
9:33
operate it that way with my clients.
9:36
And it's been really successful. But they were, they just seemed
9:40
as if they knew what they were doing.
9:42
Like Placemaker as a whole was something so different and so
9:46
innovative and it's offering one night to multi year.
9:51
I thought that was just a really cool concept and I wanted to be
9:53
a part of it. Interesting.
9:56
So, OK, how long has Placemaker been around?
9:59
Eight years. Eight years and yeah, explain
10:02
this concept to us a little bit more.
10:03
What was the the problem that they were trying to solve when
10:06
the company was founded? Basically fill a need for people
10:12
to have sort of an Airbnb feel with the idea that you can be in
10:16
a hotel and you could choose your experience.
10:19
So whether you wanted it to be more of a hotel feel where
10:21
you're interacting with someone or you didn't want to deal with
10:24
anyone at all, it was totally up to you.
10:27
I think what sort of sets them apart from everyone else is that
10:31
like if you have a vacation rental, you know, you don't, you
10:33
have a checkout list or a clean up list, there's none of that.
10:37
So you can check in, you can feel like you're in a vacation
10:39
rental. It's your home for whatever
10:41
period of time you want it to be, whether that's very
10:44
transient, just a few nights or it's like I said, multi year.
10:48
You're there. You can get your complimentary
10:50
housekeeping bi weekly. There's washers and dryers.
10:53
They're full kitchens. You know you have a front desk.
10:56
If you want to go talk to the front desk and have that
10:59
interaction and get your help. You don't really do leases.
11:03
We do more of agreements for longer stays.
11:05
So it really kind of takes the way the extra the no lease in an
11:10
apartment feel and then also no pressure in a hotel field.
11:15
So I just feel like it was just, it's the concept is just so
11:19
cool. It's so different.
11:20
It's just really meant to make it easy for the traveler.
11:24
So the difference from like an Airbnb experience would be that
11:28
you typically would have access to housekeeping and somebody at
11:32
the front desk to answer your questions, help you out.
11:35
Yeah, exactly. So if you it, it is a hotel.
11:38
So our concept is it's really apartment needs hotel and it's,
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you know, the idea it's that as an Airbnb, you go in and in
11:50
your, your cut off, you really can just like text that owner if
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you have a problem right there and there, right then and there
11:58
on the property is maintenance. So if you have an issue,
12:01
maintenance come to your room right away.
12:04
There is a friend desk person. So if you have an issue or you
12:07
need something or you need directions, you need concierge,
12:10
there's a guest experience agent that's there to assist you.
12:13
And then there's also the fact that you're in your apartment,
12:17
your field. You can wash your clothes in
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your room, you can cook all your meals in your room.
12:21
You don't need to leave if you don't want to.
12:23
Most of our spaces, our public spaces have communal workspaces.
12:26
So you can go down sort of like a Wework sort of field.
12:29
You can go down and work in those.
12:31
Those public spaces like Codon Half in Washington, DC has a
12:34
really nice rooftop. You can hang out up there.
12:37
We have pools. We have pool in our Atlanta
12:39
property. One of our national properties
12:42
has a pool. So I mean it, it really is just
12:45
a feel of a hotel, but with your apartment.
12:48
So are these properties owned by Placemaker?
12:52
Some are owned by Placemaker, but we're mostly a management
12:55
property, a management company we manage themselves.
12:59
So, OK, I'm trying to think what's the motivation for an
13:04
apartment building owner to come to Placemaker and say, hey,
13:09
let's partner up on this versus them just filling those units on
13:12
their own? Are these units that they're
13:14
having trouble filling? Some people in the lease of
13:17
phase. So we contact you in the lease
13:19
of phase and it's really sort of like if I'm coming to you and
13:21
I'm saying I can take 100 units right now versus you having to
13:25
wait to get 100 people over the next year, potentially
13:29
somebody's telling you I'm taking 100 units right now and
13:34
we're going to run it like a pop up hotel.
13:36
So there's management. I don't know the exact inner
13:38
workings of those deals, but essentially if I'm an owner and
13:42
someone comes and tells me I can take 100 units and it's sort of
13:45
a profit sharing situation, it would make sense because I don't
13:50
have to worry about getting a tenant that I have to manage and
13:54
hope they pay rent and hope there's no issues and all of
13:58
that. When this company is coming in
14:01
and taking this and they sort of take on that responsibility
14:04
because they're operating like a silo inside of this building.
14:07
So I know that anything I need to do, it's one partnership that
14:10
I'm talking to and my rent's coming from from this
14:14
partnership. Interesting.
14:17
And so that one of the benefits is that you guys have this
14:21
marketing reach where you're able to get, you know, hey,
14:25
yeah, we can. We've already got an an
14:27
established presence in Phoenix. Let's do another building
14:30
because we know that the demand is there.
14:31
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.
14:34
OK. And so when you go into a
14:37
building, how long are you typically there?
14:40
Is this like a could be like a six month arrangement A2 year?
14:44
Do you guys have sort of like a min Max?
14:46
Yeah, I think most times we're looking for permanents.
14:49
So you know a lot of times we will have a building that would
14:53
be completely permanent. So like take hold on half as
14:55
well. It's half multi family, half
14:57
hotel. So there's a portion 66 rooms
15:02
are dedicated to hotel and then there's another portion that's
15:05
dedicated to multi families. So our leasing side will handle
15:08
completely unfurnished, you know folks would move into those
15:12
buildings. So that's our building and
15:14
that's how that's operated. Then in a pop up hotel scenario,
15:18
we may go in with a term that's a year to two years.
15:21
It really depends on the owner and what they're trying to
15:24
accomplish. And you know, that's really how
15:27
we run it I think. I think ideally the sweet spot
15:30
is 2 years or something like that.
15:34
OK. So Janelle, when you took on the
15:36
senior sales manager for the specifically for the government
15:40
travel role in early 2025, what were you really tasked with?
15:46
What did they want you to come in and do?
15:48
Was this a whole new category or were you stepping in for
15:50
somebody that had been there before?
15:52
No, it was a brand new role. So it was a role that was really
15:56
created to bring in government business to Placemaker as a
16:00
whole. So we had had some success with
16:03
government business in Washington, DC, but we weren't
16:06
getting as much across the country.
16:08
So the idea was that we wanted to really kind of ramp this up,
16:12
see if we can have a government arm that would just focus on
16:17
getting U.S. government business and creating relationships with
16:21
the government as a whole, getting us on GSA as a partner
16:25
using sam.gov, which is a system for award management.
16:29
And my boss at the time had come up with the idea and she asked
16:33
me this was something I was interested in doing, so it was
16:36
really created and she had me in mind for that.
16:40
OK. And so getting on GSA and Sam
16:44
and things like that, is that something that you had
16:46
experience with before? I'd done it before, yeah.
16:49
For previous hotels, I'd done like the full Sam application.
16:54
I've never really fully been responsible for all of it for
16:57
hotels, but it was something that I had experience with, yes.
17:02
OK. And So what was your plan coming
17:04
in? How did you want to hit the
17:05
ground running? I really just wanted to get a
17:07
relationship with everyone in the government as much as
17:10
possible. A lot of my clients naturally,
17:12
being in Washington, DC were some sort of government
17:15
contractor or government client. So it was really easy for me to
17:20
transition them into, hey, we're going to, you know, I want you
17:25
to come over here, make sure you're staying with us.
17:26
It was really just ADC thing and getting those connections across
17:29
the country. My goal was hitting as many
17:35
agencies as possible and then getting the word out that we
17:38
knew what compliance meant for government travelers.
17:42
So and that placemaker could do it.
17:45
So that's that was really what I wanted to do was just get the
17:48
word out that we were government compliant.
17:51
We know how they operate. We know what their billing needs
17:54
to be like. And and really government's a
17:57
little bit different than dealing with another client,
17:59
right? Like they're all about, tell me
18:02
that you do per diem, tell me that my billing's going to be
18:05
seamless and I don't like that's it.
18:08
That's all they really care about.
18:10
So it was just, it was really about that.
18:12
Is this primarily federal government?
18:14
Are you trying to tap into state and everything?
18:17
All of it. So yeah, a little bit of
18:19
everything, yeah. So we're recording this November
18:23
19th, 2025. So we've just come out of the
18:26
longest government shutdown in U.S. history.
18:30
What was that like for you and your role?
18:34
I've been through this before. So I, I was around when the last
18:38
shutdown happened for 35 days. I feel like this is such a, I'm
18:45
accustomed to the ebbs and the flows with government travel.
18:49
So while there may not be something that is a shutdown,
18:52
there are a lot of things that can affect government travel.
18:56
So with the shutdown itself, initially what happens is you
19:00
the first wave is you get a ton of cancellations and that's
19:04
because everyone's panicking and no one really knows where the
19:07
funding is going to come from, what's going to happen, what
19:10
their role is and if they are going to be going home or can
19:13
even answer an e-mail. So you get sort of hit with that
19:16
first wave of of cancellations. And then the next step is the
19:20
other wave of people that are like, well, my credit card's not
19:24
going to work because there's no funding.
19:27
So you then have to deal with that.
19:28
And then there's the other side of it.
19:30
That's the ones that are essential, that are working,
19:33
that are still travelling, not necessarily travelling, but
19:35
maybe in house and they can't leave because they're essential
19:42
and they're sort of in a little bit of a place of I don't know
19:46
what to do. So there's different ways to it.
19:50
When I say we were completely affected, we were affected like
19:53
I think any other hotel company would have been, where I think
19:57
it's a little different for us with the fact that we are, we
20:03
offer a lot of extended stay business.
20:07
We didn't necessarily feel it as much as other people may have
20:10
because those folks that are extended stay kind of have to
20:13
stay put. So once they once they're
20:17
committed for that particular stay, it's not like they're
20:21
going to yank them out in the middle of it.
20:22
Yeah, they won't yank them out unless something goes a lot
20:26
longer. So had this gone on probably
20:29
touched maybe two months then they've there may have been a
20:32
plan to to pull them if they didn't think there was any kind
20:36
of resolution to it coming soon. So most of the government travel
20:40
that you're doing, is it a longer stay or is it just all
20:43
over the place? Some are a night like at a
20:45
hotel, and some of them are a month or two.
20:47
Yeah, it's a mix, but I do get a a good amount of extended stay.
20:52
OK. And so is that the biggest
20:54
attraction, whether it's for government clients or others, is
20:57
that this is a more comfortable place to stay for a longer
21:00
period of time than it would be at a hotel.
21:02
Yeah, absolutely. I had a client tell me that, you
21:05
know, for them it's about the space.
21:06
It's the fact that they can wash their clothes in their rooms,
21:09
and it's the fact that they don't have to depend on a per
21:11
diem to a pretty much stipend to buy their meals when they can
21:16
just go to the grocery store and cook what they want and eat out
21:18
when they feel like it. So it's really about feeling
21:22
like it's a place that's home away from home.
21:25
So, you know, I have clients that move in and they bring
21:28
their own lamp, they bring their own rugs because they just want
21:31
to feel like they're in an environment because their job
21:34
just requires them to be gone or on the road or in the field for
21:39
an extended period of time. So we try to make it as much of
21:44
home as possible and as comfortable for them as
21:47
possible. So since this is an apartment,
21:51
it's bigger than a hotel room, it has more amenities, you know,
21:54
like the washer and dryer, full size fridge, stove, microwave,
21:58
dishwasher, all that. I have to assume that the rates
22:01
are expectedly going to be a little bit higher than a hotel
22:04
stay. They're not, actually.
22:06
So it's pretty comparable. Yeah, it's pretty comparable.
22:08
So depending on what city you're in, you're in.
22:11
So for instance, you're in Austin, per diem is 141 there.
22:20
We we booked government per diem.
22:22
So per diem is 141 there. Whereas in Washington DC it's
22:25
276 depending on the time of the year or 196 in lower season.
22:29
And then you know, it can get as low as 113 in Columbia, MD and
22:35
137 in San Antonio, New York is 342.
22:38
So it really just depends on where you're staying.
22:41
Government per diem we follow, we fall within government per
22:45
diem rates and then our rates are lower for extended stays.
22:49
So it it it does end up being either very comparable to a
22:53
hotel or lower in most cases. I, I'm trying to wrap my head
22:57
around how that's possible, right?
22:59
I mean, at a hotel, to me it seems like it should be more
23:03
efficient, right? There's smaller rooms are
23:05
designed for quicker to and longer.
23:07
And how can the rates be the same or even a little bit lower
23:10
if the facility is bigger with more amenities?
23:13
What am I missing? Yeah.
23:15
You know, honestly, I, I, I feel like that's more of a question
23:17
for the hotel partners. I think for us, our main thing
23:20
is we do operate as a hotel, so we do want to be competitive.
23:25
And while we do offer all of those amenities, that's the
23:27
beauty of it all is that you can get all these amenities for the
23:31
same cost that you would pay at a hotel.
23:33
The only difference is now it's at your control.
23:37
You are, you're doing your own thing.
23:39
You can cook, you can wash, you can do all of it.
23:41
But yeah, prices are very, very comparable.
23:45
Wow. OK.
23:47
So and how do you guys get the word out?
23:49
I mean, obviously you're doing sort of direct sales to the
23:52
government space. Are there other folks like you
23:55
within the organization that are focused on their own vertical so
23:58
it's a little less targeted maybe to like a a vacation
24:01
traveler because like this is my first time hearing a
24:05
placemakers, you know, our, our relationship, our conversation
24:08
here today, I don't see commercials alongside of the RBO
24:12
or Airbnb. Is that because you're more
24:15
targeted towards that business traveler?
24:18
Yeah. So it's a lot of business
24:19
travel. There are people.
24:21
So I'm the only person that's actually segmented.
24:24
So when I started, I sold everything.
24:27
So it was essentially attached to a property and I sold
24:31
everything for that property until we created the government
24:34
vertical. Outside of that there is there
24:38
are sales people that are attached to their hotels and
24:40
they sell everything except government.
24:43
So they are responsible for doing everything else and we
24:47
have a lot of really great established clients.
24:51
And then our goal is to get the word out to everyone else.
24:55
So there's a ramp of period. Obviously when we go into our
24:58
market, our team gets the word out that placemaker is coming,
25:03
we're here. So we have a full marketing team
25:05
that handles all of that sort of pre ramp of phase.
25:08
We also do our due diligence when we know our market is
25:11
coming into play and we just get out hit the ground running to
25:15
say we're coming. Once we're here, we target those
25:18
clients so they know who we are and we do advertise, of course
25:23
via like hospitality channels. So through the GDS with our
25:28
partners that we already have established, corporate housing
25:31
providers that we work with, travel agencies that we work
25:34
with, that's how we get the word out.
25:37
And as I understand, Placemaker has received a lot of funding
25:41
and you guys are continuing to expand the new markets like
25:44
downtown Phoenix. From your side, from a sales
25:47
perspective, Janelle, what have been the biggest challenges in
25:51
rolling out these new properties?
25:53
I think just that it's really getting the word out that is a
25:56
challenge because it is bringing brand awareness when we're not a
26:00
massive brand that has a ton of awareness in the market.
26:04
So, you know, it's really about going out and trying to meet
26:08
those clients and doing it sort of the old school way, which is
26:12
going door to door and meeting those people and and you know,
26:16
knocking on the doors, doing e-mail sequences, contacting
26:19
people as much as as we can. But I will say the challenge is
26:22
the ramp up fee. It's really trying to get the
26:25
name out in front of everyone when we aren't doing, we don't
26:29
have the big box brand, you know, firepower behind us.
26:35
And so is there, this is maybe outside of sort of your scope,
26:38
but you know since you're doing pop ups and maybe the agreement
26:43
is you know a couple of years with the property, seems like
26:46
you're probably constantly looking for new property
26:49
opportunities in each of the markets that you're operating.
26:52
Yeah, absolutely. And we have a team of people,
26:54
they're called real estate our, our, our EPP team.
26:57
So our real estate property partners, they actually go out
27:01
and they scout locations. They sort of do their due
27:05
diligence, their homework trying to figure out an area.
27:07
Sometimes they get approached by people to look at a building.
27:12
So there is a team that would handle and make all of those
27:15
decisions. OK.
27:17
From your time in sales and in hospitality and you're talking,
27:23
we've talked a little bit about the transition that you made
27:26
from being more like deal focused, transaction focused.
27:30
Let's get it done, Let's move on to the next thing, to much more
27:33
relationship focused. What are some of the other key
27:36
lessons that you've learned along the way that would be
27:39
helpful to share with listeners who are either in the
27:41
hospitality space or just a general sales position?
27:45
Yeah, I think learn as much as you can be a sponge.
27:48
I in my career early on, and I mean still, I'm always attaching
27:52
myself to the people that I know are teaching constantly.
27:57
And you can learn from anyone, but be a good, bad or
27:59
indifferent. You learn what you don't want
28:01
and you learn what you want and you learn what's good and you
28:04
can see the things that are bad that you need to stay away from.
28:07
I think it's really all about being a sponge, asking
28:12
questions, getting out and knowing your clients.
28:17
Build that relationship with your client because it's a
28:19
little bit more than just what can you do for me and what can I
28:23
do for you, but just how are you doing?
28:25
You know what I mean? People want to feel that.
28:26
People want to see value and feel value.
28:30
So I think if I could tell anyone anything is really pay
28:32
attention, show people that they are important because people are
28:36
important. We are all important in one way
28:38
or the other. And those are the relationships
28:40
that you will continue to build and will grow and will make you
28:43
successful as a salesperson because you are showing value at
28:46
folks. Can can you talk more practical
28:49
steps what that looks like showing value to people and not
28:53
being all about the sales transaction?
28:55
Yeah, absolutely. So I have clients that have
29:00
turned into basically what I would consider friends, right.
29:04
It's not going to be every single thing, but good enough
29:06
relationships where I know things about them.
29:09
Like I have a client that wrote a book, I bought his book, I
29:12
went out, I congratulated him when his book launched, you know
29:14
what I mean? So it's, it's one of those
29:16
things where it's the step of being authentic to who you are
29:22
and letting people see that you are authentic.
29:24
So it's caring, asking how their day's going, asking about
29:29
family, like what's important to them through a process of how
29:33
they like to be communicated with.
29:35
I think that's very important. And then once you know those
29:38
things about your clients, it's going to be easy to talk to them
29:41
because I have the clients that would e-mail me and just say,
29:44
Hey, I need X amount of rooms. Yes or no?
29:48
Do you have it? I know those clients are just
29:51
very, they're busy. They are, they just want it done
29:55
quickly. They're about the details.
29:57
So my process for them is book it.
30:00
I know what race they're going to pay, charge them that, get
30:02
them their receipt at the end. And then when holiday time
30:05
comes, it's like, hey, you want to go out for a drink?
30:07
Can I come to your office, bring you some cookies?
30:09
Those are those type of clients. And there's the other client
30:12
that's never going to e-mail me. They're going to pick up the
30:14
phone. They want to talk, They want to
30:15
take 20 minutes of my time. OK, cool.
30:17
I'll give you I'll. I know that I have to block out
30:20
a certain time to talk to that person because I can get really
30:24
busy and I don't want them to feel like I don't have time for
30:27
them. So I'll make sure I prioritize
30:30
my day that hey, I've got to give this person 20 minutes
30:33
because they let all can catch up and I, I need to ask them
30:37
questions and keep them engaged. And it's not that I'm thinking
30:41
like, oh, I'm doing this because I want to maintain you as a
30:43
client. It's just, I know this song
30:45
you'd like to be communicated with and that's OK.
30:48
And I'm fine with that. Can you share a time where you
30:52
faced a significant challenge in a sales process or a tough
30:56
negotiation and how? Oh yeah, she's nodding her head.
31:00
Yep, I have what I have a big one.
31:03
So sort of recent, earlier in the year I was working on a
31:08
deal, massive, massive, massive deal.
31:12
Essentially, I bid it out at one of my properties and everything
31:18
was going well. The client was like this sounds
31:20
good. They went back, we went back and
31:22
forth a couple times on rate and they were like, you know, can we
31:24
negotiate? I think I can, you know, if you
31:27
do this, it's yours. And, you know, I pulled everyone
31:31
in and everyone was involved. I mean, I'm talking about it got
31:35
to like the highest level to where I was getting calls at.
31:38
You know, this is awesome. I can't believe you have this or
31:41
no. I mean, I'm talking like
31:43
millions of dollars with this deal.
31:46
And then everything was great. Everything was set to close.
31:50
And I logged off for work and on the way to my son's swimming
31:54
practice, and I get a message that says, hey, Janelle, so
31:59
sorry. Everything's been great.
32:01
But the client decided it's not. It's not going to, they're not
32:04
going to go forward. I cried.
32:08
I cried. So just to talk, you have 23
32:11
years. I could still have emotion
32:12
behind a deal. And I think I was more bothered
32:16
that so many people were involved.
32:17
And I felt like I was letting down just multitudes of people,
32:21
right? And I had my 2025 minute
32:25
breakdown and I was just like, OK, you got to pull yourself out
32:30
of this. I, I reached out to the client
32:32
and I said, you know, thank you so much for the information.
32:35
But can you tell me what we could have done differently to
32:39
win this bid? And then is there an opportunity
32:42
to do something in the future with you guys?
32:46
And she said, well, if you could have built a hotel closer to
32:50
where they need to be, it would have been yours.
32:54
And I just said, well, where do they need to be?
32:57
And she told me. And I said, all right, give me
32:59
24 hours. And I called one of our Rapp
33:05
team and I just said, what's the likelihood of getting a hotel
33:08
within 5 miles of this location? And they were like, OK, we'll be
33:14
back. We'll get back with you.
33:15
Within 24 hours, they were calling me with three possible
33:18
locations, and they said pitch it to the client.
33:22
So I called the client and I said, hey, I have three possible
33:25
locations, but I need to call you on Teams because I need to
33:27
show you geographically where they're located.
33:31
And she said, OK. So I called her and she said,
33:33
no, this one's too too close. I mean, too far.
33:36
And then the other one, she's like, yeah, it's about the same.
33:39
Like it's, you know, it's 24 minutes.
33:41
I was like, all right, well, I'll get back with you.
33:43
We kicked my back to the drawing board.
33:44
There was one more, only one. And I said to her, I did the
33:49
call and when for whatever reason, this just came out of my
33:52
mouth, I was like, you told me to build a hotel.
33:54
Here's the builder and I introduced her to, you know,
33:57
our, our, our APP guy. And he shows her and she goes,
34:02
yeah, I mean, it's worth a shot. I'll kick it back to the client.
34:04
Why not? Let's try.
34:06
And we, it was a bunch of back and forth for maybe about a
34:11
month, a month and 1/2. And then they were like, yeah,
34:16
we want it. Like, let's do it.
34:18
So we quoted everything out. And I mean, it took months to
34:22
close. And I was on edge every day.
34:24
And everyone was calling me. And I was scared that it was
34:26
going to fall apart. And then one day I'm in
34:29
Huntsville sitting in a restaurant with my boss and the
34:32
client calls me and she goes, hey, I'll have great news for
34:34
you on Wednesday. And I'm like, all right, cool.
34:37
And I was like, wait, it's Wednesday.
34:38
Like, what are you talking about?
34:39
And she goes, she goes, they're moving forward.
34:41
Send me the contract. And I was like, holy moly.
34:45
And we essentially created a pop up hotel just for this one
34:48
client. And it was honestly, I'm so
34:52
blown away by it because I didn't think that we could ever.
34:56
The fact that I'm with a company that could even pull something
34:58
like this off is crazy to me that you know, but it was huge.
35:04
It was huge. It was months of I didn't sleep.
35:06
I think I lost weight. I was like sick every morning
35:10
and I got up or you know just it was, it was a lot.
35:14
It was a lot going through the process, but we got it done.
35:18
The client's in, the client's happy and we have running a pop
35:21
up hotel only for them. There was this poster my dad
35:25
used to keep on our refrigerator when we were kids growing up.
35:28
I wonder if you've seen it. It's picture of some kind of
35:31
bird, like a stork, and it's trying to swallow a frog.
35:35
And the frog has reached down and is closing the throat of the
35:40
bird so that the bird can't actually swallow it.
35:43
And the title is never give up. Have you seen?
35:46
Yeah. And so that's exactly what I had
35:49
in in my brain as you were telling the story because it was
35:52
like you thought this was a sure thing.
35:54
And and, you know, for anybody who's been, you know, through
35:57
the sales process, which is just about everybody in business,
35:59
right, they're these ups and downs, highs and lows, You think
36:03
you're going to land the job. You don't land the job.
36:05
There's a lot of emotion around that.
36:07
But what I love is you were the frog holding on to the stork's
36:12
neck there, not allowing this to to just fall apart.
36:16
And so you're like, what can I do?
36:18
So you you called him up and and you got into action and you and
36:22
your team miraculously were able to pull something together.
36:26
That's that's fabulous. And now what's interesting is so
36:31
you were working with a go between on this because they
36:34
were like, hey, the client and they go back to the client, OK.
36:37
Is that typical in a lot of your deals or are you?
36:39
Yeah, we have a, we have a couple clients of part that
36:42
represent some bigger organizations that, you know,
36:47
for whatever reason, security reasons, different things that
36:50
they can't deal directly. So they'll go through a, a sort
36:54
of a liaison, so to speak. So, but yeah, it was it.
36:59
They technically work for the client, but it was just a go
37:02
between as you said. Yeah.
37:04
Now, looking back on that whole experience, anything you would
37:07
have done differently? I think from the start, I would
37:10
have asked better questions because I don't know that I
37:13
asked the right questions to know that there was a
37:15
possibility that it could have fallen apart.
37:18
I was just so gung ho and going with the fact that they were
37:22
like, oh, well, if you do this, you can win it, you know, versus
37:25
sort of asking like is what are the risks, right?
37:28
And how can we mitigate those risks?
37:30
And I didn't ask those questions ahead of time, like who, who's
37:35
making the decision and really what's a big risk factor for
37:39
them? And I think I was just so I was
37:41
so gung ho when the fact that I thought it would be easy because
37:46
we had everything we were offering everything.
37:48
We, you know, there was really no reason as to why we couldn't
37:52
have gotten it. And then it came back that we
37:55
weren't close enough. And I, I never thought to think,
37:59
you know, to say, are we like, is this going to be an issue
38:03
because we're located here versus, you know, or where do
38:06
they need to be every day? I didn't ask that question.
38:09
And I probably should have thought a little bit better
38:11
about the questions I needed to ask.
38:15
What do you think are the the top three questions to ask in a
38:17
sales process? So when are you trying to make
38:20
the decision, who are the decision makers and really is
38:25
there anyone that besides you that we need to pull into this
38:30
from the start so we can understand from soup to nuts
38:34
what is really needed to put our best foot forward from the
38:39
start? Is there something surprising
38:43
you've come to understand about human psychology from the work
38:46
that you do? I think I've said it before,
38:50
everyone wants to be, everyone wants value and everyone wants
38:54
to feel valued. So I don't know if that's
38:57
necessarily surprising. I mean, maybe it surprised me as
39:00
I got older because I never really thought about it being a
39:04
younger salesperson. It was always more about what I
39:08
can do and what we can offer versus how this person is tied
39:13
to this. How does this affect them on a
39:15
day-to-day basis? So I think that's the surprising
39:20
part of it is that ultimately for people, they want to feel
39:25
good in what they do and they have people they have to impress
39:28
as well. I'm not the only person that has
39:30
people to answer to. The person I'm talking to has to
39:33
answer to somebody else. So I've got to make sure they
39:36
look good in the process because they're the ones that, you know,
39:43
they may, they may be signing off, but somebody has to tell
39:45
them like, yeah, it's good, good to go sign off.
39:49
So I think it's, I think it's that it's just that everybody
39:51
wants to feel valued. You have an interesting story,
39:57
Janelle, on how you came to be in this country.
40:01
Can you walk us through that? Yeah.
40:04
At three years old, my mother decided that she wanted to move
40:08
to the US and from Trinidad and Tobago.
40:13
And she was moving to the US for what she considered a better
40:17
opportunity than what she had back in the Caribbean.
40:23
And I was left behind with my grandparents and an aunt that
40:25
lived at home. That was 16 when I was born.
40:30
And my mom moved here, moved to the US and I remained in
40:34
Trinidad and was raised by my house, my aunt, my grandmother,
40:37
after my grandfather died when I was 8.
40:41
And I've remained with them until I was 16 years old.
40:43
My mom did the typical sort of Caribbean American dream pro,
40:48
you know, situation where she sent for me, as they say.
40:52
And I moved to the US at 60. Wow.
40:56
And so you said typical. So this is a a pattern that
40:59
you've seen with a lot of folks that originate from the
41:02
Caribbean. Yeah, if you talk to really
41:05
anybody from a Caribbean island that's roughly in their 40s,
41:09
they can tell you that they started with somebody, came here
41:12
first, got established and then sent for them.
41:15
And what was that like? Basically most of your growing
41:20
up years being without your mother.
41:22
Yeah, I mean, it was, it was, it was rough.
41:24
It poses for, you know, tough relationships when you do
41:27
reunite with your with your mom. I was extremely close to my
41:31
grandmother, like very, very close.
41:33
My grandmother became my mother up until she passed away on
41:37
September 21st. Oh, September 18th, September
41:40
18th. She's just recently.
41:44
And yeah, I developed a bond with her that was just
41:49
completely just unbreakable. But it was good because young,
41:55
you know, you're a kid, your attitude is out of this world.
41:59
And, you know, I thought I knew everything.
42:03
I thought I could be anything, you know, And not that that's a
42:08
bad thought process, that you could be anything, but just
42:11
didn't realize that there's a process to things, right?
42:13
There are levels to things and you've got to sort of start
42:16
somewhere. I dealt with really just, it was
42:21
difficult for me being away from my grandmother when I moved
42:24
here. So that was that was hard.
42:25
I didn't want to move. I didn't want to come to the US.
42:28
It was, it was sort of a fight. And I sold the story that I was
42:31
kidnapped from my grandmother by my mother, sold it for a long,
42:35
long time. Sold it to who?
42:38
Anyone that would listen, Anyone I would tell.
42:41
Them just because you were angry about leaving your grandmother?
42:43
I didn't want to leave. I didn't want to leave my
42:45
grandmother. I didn't want to move here.
42:47
And I felt like I was abandoning her.
42:49
And then I kind of lashed out a little bit, like, why would you
42:53
let her take me? You know, there was a lot of
42:55
that to my grandmother, just being very hopeful that I would
43:01
do well. And she never really told me
43:04
until the end when I found out that she wanted me to go.
43:11
And when I heard that story, which I found out in August this
43:14
year before she passed away from another aunt actually on my
43:18
dad's side that said, you know, I remember when your grandmother
43:21
wanted this so bad. She kept saying, I hope Chanel's
43:24
visa goes through so she can move to the US.
43:27
And, and I was able to tell my grandmother two days before she
43:31
passed away that I understood why she did it.
43:35
I was thankful that she did it because what she saw was that I
43:39
would have a life that she couldn't give me and that I
43:43
would be able to do things that just made sense for me.
43:49
You know, I didn't, not that she didn't think I had a future
43:52
there. She just knew that I would get
43:54
an experience. I couldn't get there.
43:57
So, you know, it was, it was, it was important to her.
44:01
And I think the fact that I had my grandmother for 98 years,
44:05
Yep, makes me very happy because she was able to see her
44:10
sacrifice come to play and everything that she she wanted.
44:15
Most people will never get that opportunity to see their kids
44:17
become what in their eyes, you know what I mean?
44:21
Like something great. Because to her, it was just, she
44:24
was just happy that I was thriving.
44:26
And, you know, I bought a house and partly all these things that
44:29
you can look at materialistically and see.
44:31
And she didn't care about any of that stuff.
44:33
But she didn't have to pay a bill either because there wasn't
44:37
a bill. I was letting her pay at all
44:40
from the time that I got a check.
44:42
I was like, I'm paying your bills.
44:45
I'm doing all of these things. So, you know, and when she
44:47
passed away, I opened up her her closet and it was just, you
44:51
know, maybe 11 dresses. You know, I mean, obviously when
44:54
you get older, you need less things and made me kind of sad.
44:58
I was like, why does she only have 11 dresses?
44:59
But I was like, I think I bought 10 of the 11 dresses.
45:02
And it made me feel good because she was able to see that I could
45:07
take care of her. And I think not that that's what
45:10
she wanted, but it made me feel good to be able to do that and
45:14
have her see me be in her eyes, successful.
45:17
So you know. How long after you came to the
45:21
States did it take for you to become maybe less angry about
45:27
the situation, more accepting, grateful to be here?
45:31
Probably my 20s. Probably.
45:34
It took me a while. It took me a while.
45:36
That came at 16. I went back at 18 after I
45:39
graduated high school, and at that point I was already
45:44
resigned to living in the US, So I was like, no, I'm going back,
45:46
you know? And so I'd accepted living in
45:49
the US at 18. But as far as not being angry, I
45:55
would say roughly about 20 to 23, I kind of started coming out
46:00
of it a little bit. And I think when I finally felt
46:05
at home, honestly, it was probably 30 because I think I,
46:10
you know, I had my children. My children were, were, I just
46:15
had my own little family. So I'd always kind of felt a
46:18
little disjointed in that I have all these people that have
46:23
raised me in one way or the other, a mother or father, a
46:28
grandmother, an aunt or aunt, you know, my great aunt who was
46:35
very instrumental in raising me as well, and her son, my, my
46:39
uncle. It's so I've had all these
46:42
people with all this love in multiple places.
46:45
And I think for a long time I looked at it like very odd.
46:50
It's an odd situation because most people don't have that.
46:52
And I think by 30 I started changing it to say I had a lot
46:57
of love. I got lucky because I have more
47:01
than just two people that love me.
47:02
I've got six or seven, you know, that love me.
47:06
So when my husband met my family, the first thing he said
47:10
to me is you're so spoiled. He was like every, you're like,
47:12
you're like everyone's favorite. You're so spoiled.
47:14
He's like, no wonder I got to deal with these attitudes.
47:17
He's like, because everyone spoils you.
47:18
And then that's when it really clicked for me.
47:20
I was like, yeah, I I had it great because I got love from
47:24
multiple places. So it was really hearing your
47:27
husband's perspective on things that was like a light switch
47:31
kind of going. On for you for sure.
47:34
Interesting. And what was that like, kind of
47:36
going back to, you know, coming here at 16, reconnecting with
47:40
your mother, who you probably had some memories of.
47:42
And I'm sure you'd communicated with her, you know, while she
47:44
was gone. But you, you didn't know her.
47:47
You didn't have a relationship with her like you did living
47:50
with her. It made it hard.
47:51
It made it very difficult. We had a rough, we had a rough
47:54
patch for a long time. It was, it was hard because, you
47:59
know, I, I spent a lot of time thinking by the time I, when I
48:02
was living Internet, one of my biggest things was that I miss
48:05
my mom. I miss my mom.
48:06
I miss my mom. I cried for her all the time.
48:09
It was just always, you're missing what you don't have
48:12
because other people have it, not realizing that right in
48:16
front of me, I had a grandmother to love me, a great aunt that
48:18
loved me, aunts that loves me. You know, I was just wanting my
48:21
mother. And then I got with my mom and I
48:24
didn't want her. I wanted all the people I left
48:26
behind. You always want what you don't
48:29
have, right? And I think I just got to the
48:33
point where it was rough for us. So I lashed out at her a lot and
48:39
didn't really see her sacrifice until I got older.
48:41
And I was like, you know, she left to make a better life for
48:45
herself and for me. And what she thought she was
48:48
doing is the right thing, you know, and it was hard and I did
48:50
not make it easy being 6, I mean, 16 and a, a woman at that,
48:56
you know, I or thought I was a woman.
48:57
Oh God, we're the worst. So, you know, you're coming with
49:00
like all the attitude, all the everything.
49:03
And I, I know I didn't make it easy for her, which kind of
49:08
stunted our relationship for a really long time.
49:10
We're in a a better place, but I would say our relationship is a
49:14
little bit more like sisters versus a mother and daughter
49:18
because her mom was really my mom to me.
49:22
So I have more of a maternal relationship with my grandmother
49:26
than I do my mom, but she's still my mom.
49:31
Yeah. You know, So yeah.
49:32
And how many kids do you have? I have three.
49:34
I have two daughters and a son. OK.
49:37
And are any of them that 16 age mark?
49:40
My son is 16, my daughter's a 23, and I'm sorry, 24 and 22.
49:46
OK, so you've been through that teenage process with them
49:49
already? Process.
49:50
Yeah, it was very different. I didn't go through, thank God,
49:53
because my grandmother used to tell me all the time when you
49:55
have kids, they're going to be 10 times worse than you.
49:59
And thankfully I did not get that punishment, but yeah.
50:04
Good. All right, let's shift gears
50:06
again. Any particular Burke books or
50:09
podcasts that have been helpful for you?
50:11
Many resources that you want to recommend for our audience.
50:14
Yeah, when I first started in sales, my mentor, Johnette
50:19
Whitaker gave me a book called The Measure of a Man by Doctor
50:23
Martin Luther King. And that was, she was like, just
50:25
read it, just read it. And I think it was, it was such
50:28
a good book because it was it just talked about being the best
50:31
at no matter what, you just be the best at it, right?
50:35
Like, even if there's a story in it about being a garbage man, if
50:38
you're a garbage man, be the best garbage man that you can
50:40
be. So I read that and really took
50:42
it to heart that you had to be the best, give your best in
50:48
every situation. And then shameless plug, my dad
50:52
wrote a book called Everyday leadership.
50:54
His name is Kenneth Corby. And it's I love the book because
50:58
it does talk about like leadership and everything that
51:01
you touch, right? You're a leader whether you
51:04
think you are or not. So I really enjoy that book
51:08
because it's right down to the person that's behind the counter
51:12
that's taking your order for your burger and fries.
51:15
Like how they're leading you and how you're leading someone that
51:19
you don't even realize you're doing it, you know?
51:23
So those those two I think really kind of keep me grounded
51:27
and I refer to them a lot when I just need to to pep myself over
51:31
a little bit. You have any daily habits or
51:35
routines that pep you up or get you started, keep you on track?
51:39
Yeah, I pray everyday. Like everyday I do not.
51:43
My feet don't hit the ground unless I turn my Bible app on
51:46
and I listen and then I pray and I get my day started.
51:52
Nice. What's something fun you like to
51:54
do outside of work? Travel.
51:57
I love to travel. I mean, I travel a lot for work,
52:00
but I just I like, I need a beach.
52:03
I love a beach. I love going home and visiting
52:05
my family. That's that's probably the most
52:09
fun thing for me. And then also my daughter's, my
52:13
second daughter particularly, she loves to go out to eat.
52:15
She is just from the time she would, could walk.
52:18
It was like seafood. I want seafood.
52:20
You know, she, she's my little expensive kid, but I like to go
52:24
out. I like to go on a little dates
52:25
with her and go to eat because she's, she's fancy.
52:28
So I always feel like she exposes me to all of the
52:31
everything new and upcoming when it comes to food.
52:35
Janelle, we've already talked about a couple of big challenges
52:38
that you've been through and overcome.
52:39
Is there another one that maybe you want to give voice to
52:42
explain how you got through something, what you learn going
52:45
through that hard stuff? Yeah.
52:47
I mean, on a personal level, I was diagnosed with spindle cell
52:50
sarcoma in July 2017. It's a very rare form of soft
52:57
tissue cancer. I got diagnosed with that just
53:01
it was the most random thing. I had an itch on my thigh and it
53:05
just didn't felt a big lump and went to the doctor and they
53:08
tested it and it was spinal cell sarcoma.
53:11
Difficult news to hear, didn't want to hear it, didn't know how
53:14
I was going to get through it. And honestly, my grandmother
53:18
like she always did, told me you got to learn how to pray and the
53:21
best way to pray is God. It's if it's your will, it will
53:23
be and that's it. Just leave it alone.
53:25
And that's what I did and that's how I approached it.
53:28
And honestly, I couldn't have had a better experience with it,
53:32
which was really just surgically removed and no real treatment.
53:39
Just I was down for probably about three months not able to
53:42
walk or do anything like that. But I had a really good job at
53:47
the time and they were super supportive.
53:50
They never once asked me to go in FMLA or any of that kind of
53:54
stuff. They just allowed me to work
53:56
from home and just whenever I needed to, whatever I need to
53:58
do, take care of it. And it, it was good.
54:02
It was, it was easy. I got through it.
54:04
I was diagnosed cancer free. I maybe two years ago, they
54:10
finally declared me as no more. You don't need to come back or
54:14
do anything. So yeah, it's been, it was a
54:16
challenge, but I mean, I got through it.
54:19
So summer of 2017 is when you discovered.
54:22
July 5th, twenty 17th is when I was diagnosed.
54:25
I found it in I found it in February 2017.
54:30
I did nothing about it until maybe May.
54:35
And how long before they operated?
54:38
When we, when I went to a doctor in May, they had me go do a
54:43
biopsy. So that was the first surgery.
54:46
I had that in June and then the re resection is what they call
54:50
it. That happened.
54:52
That happened in August, like August 9th 2017 was when I had
54:56
that. Surgery and sounds like it must
54:58
have been a pretty invasive surgery if you're not able to
55:01
walk for three months. Yeah, it's the, the tumor was
55:06
the size of a golf ball and it's hard as a golf ball as well.
55:11
And they, my doctor, the way he describes it is I went as deep
55:17
as possible and as wide as possible.
55:19
And I probably took out things that I didn't need to take out,
55:22
but I wanted to just get as much as I could.
55:27
Anything that looks suspicious, even if it didn't, I just
55:31
removed it. So he essentially cut my the
55:35
Patella nerve. So like, my kneecap was, you
55:39
know, not supported by anything and, you know, all of that, you
55:42
kind of essentially that if there's no nerves there, your
55:46
brain can't tell your leg what to do.
55:49
So a lot of it had to be manually done for me to be able
55:52
to learn how to walk again. Oh wow.
55:55
Yeah. So it's a, it's a couple years
55:56
before I can actually do full like walk properly, so or run or
56:04
dance like all of those things. But I started back walking after
56:08
three months. But it wasn't like a, you know,
56:11
the way I was walking before I should.
56:13
Say using a cane or a Walker or some kind of an assist.
56:15
I had an assess. My doctor was not happy with me
56:18
having an assist because he just felt like I needed to not walk
56:22
with anything. And he's like, you can do this.
56:24
It's, you know, discipline your mind, But it, it just was.
56:29
I walked with a limp because habit was, I think my mind
56:34
because there was no connection there.
56:36
I couldn't tell that I wasn't in pain.
56:39
So to me I I walked with a limp because I felt like I needed to
56:42
not put pressure on my leg fully.
56:48
Who did you lean on during this time?
56:50
My family, really, my kids, my husband, grandmother, I called
56:57
her all the time. But yeah, it was mostly, I kept
57:00
it very close to the vest that people knew, but I kept it very,
57:03
very close to the vest because it was just such a difficult
57:06
time for me. I didn't want any.
57:09
I was sensitive to multiple opinions and advice because I
57:16
think a lot of people started What the Health.
57:18
You remember What the Health that documentary, there was a
57:21
documentary called What the Health about meat, but eating
57:24
meat. So people started sending me
57:26
that and I, you know, it was like, all the advice is, oh,
57:30
don't eat this or don't eat. And I was like, I got to cut
57:32
that. Like, so I just basically sort
57:34
of shut down from anyone that wasn't in my immediate bubble
57:39
because there's just a lot more advice than than what I felt
57:44
like was needed at the time. I think people, you know, I, I
57:47
said it to my dad and I remember my dad being very, very serious
57:51
about people. When people love you, they grasp
57:55
as straws to save you. So don't look at it as people
58:00
want to give their opinion and everyone has something to say.
58:02
It was more of they're scared. They love you, they're looking
58:06
for ways to save you. And that's I had to change my
58:09
mindset a little bit on that. So.
58:12
When you look back on that time, would you have approached it any
58:15
differently or you think, hey, I did, I did exactly what I should
58:18
have done during that time? I think maybe not shut people
58:23
out as much is probably the only thing.
58:27
I don't think anything I would have changed differently with
58:29
like my treatment or my conversations with my kids or
58:32
anything like that. But just maybe understand that
58:36
people weren't coming from a place of you shouldn't do this
58:40
or you should do this. It was just more of like the
58:42
care. It was just more care, seeing it
58:44
as more caring than, you know, invasive.
58:49
And there were no additional treatments that were needed
58:50
after that. No, surprisingly, I did not.
58:53
They just checked on you on a regular basis and then two years
58:55
ago they said, hey, it's been long enough.
58:57
We haven't seen anything. Yeah, I did.
59:00
Every three months I would do an MRI and ACT scan because that
59:05
type of cancer if it were to metastasize, it would go to your
59:07
lungs. So I had to do ACT of my lungs
59:10
and amri of my legs. So that would happen every three
59:13
months. And the reason they did it more
59:17
then they would do like say for breast cancer or something else
59:20
like a carcinoma, carcinomas are easier to find versus sarcomas.
59:24
They're not easy to find. So they have to check a lot more
59:28
often than they would for somebody else because most
59:31
people you'll talk to, they'll tell you, oh, every six months
59:33
is when I have to go, like mine was every three months.
59:36
OK. And Janelle, I've just got one
59:37
more question for you today. Before I ask it, I want to do 3
59:40
quick things. First of all, anybody who wants
59:43
to get in touch with Janelle or the company placemaker, you can
59:47
find at placemaker.com, but it's PLACEMAKR, so there's no E at
59:54
the end of Maker placemaker.com. And if you want to reach out to
59:57
Janelle directly, it's J Cash, CASHJ Cash at placemaker.com.
1:00:04
We'll have a link to that in the show notes.
1:00:06
Also, as a reminder, if you want to get more employees access to
1:00:09
benefits that won't hurt them financially and carries a
1:00:12
financial upside for the company, reach out to us at Add
1:00:15
Back benefits.com. Finally, if you'll take just a
1:00:18
moment to leave us a comment or review on your favorite podcast
1:00:21
app, you will hold a special place in my heart forever.
1:00:23
Thank you. So last question for you,
1:00:26
Janelle, a year from now, you and I reconnect and you are
1:00:29
celebrating something big. What's that big thing you hope
1:00:33
to be celebrating one year from today?
1:00:37
Creating the next me like giving somebody my role, essentially, I
1:00:42
think if I can, if I can pay it forward, that will make me happy
1:00:48
because somebody other people have done that for me where
1:00:52
they've paid it forward because somebody did it for them.
1:00:55
So I want to be able to train the next person to be the senior
1:00:59
sales government travel manager. And then hopefully I'm sitting
1:01:02
in more of like a a director role with a team.
1:01:05
I did just acquire A-Team recently, but I think growing
1:01:11
the team, growing the market to where it's not just one person
1:01:15
doing all government, but we have a government team and then
1:01:18
somebody sitting in my role that I can say is doing better than I
1:01:23
did. Have you had the opportunity to
1:01:26
mentor other people in the past? I have.
1:01:28
Yep, I have, yes. This is something we want to
1:01:32
continue. Yeah, that's where I'm most.
1:01:34
Fulfilled, yeah. And so if folks feel compelled
1:01:38
to reach out to you for advice and sales, that's something that
1:01:42
you would be receptive to. Absolutely, absolutely.
1:01:46
Somebody did it for me, so I am. I'm happy to do it for somebody
1:01:49
else. That's terrific.
1:01:52
Well, Janelle Cash from Placemaker Hotels, I want to be
1:01:54
the first to thank you for sharing both your time and your
1:01:57
story with us today. I really appreciate that.
1:01:59
Thank you so much, Anthony. I enjoyed being here.
1:02:02
Folks, that's a wrap on another episode of the Inspired Stories
1:02:05
podcast. Thanks for learning with us
1:02:07
today.