Latest / The Inspired Stories Podcast / The Power of Choice: Michael Dominguez's Journey from Restaurant Manager to Hospitality CEO

Transcript

The Power of Choice: Michael Dominguez's Journey from Restaurant Manager to Hospitality CEO · 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 Cotaspodi and
0:17
today's guest is Michael Dominguez, President and CEO of
0:21
Associated Luxury Hotels International, or ALHI.
0:25
With over 30 years of experience in luxury meetings and events,
0:29
Michael leads a global sales organization known for
0:31
representing more than 250 of the world's most prestigious
0:35
hotels, resorts, cruise lines and destination management
0:39
companies. Alhi's mission is to foster
0:42
innovation, share best practices, and maintain high
0:45
standards in the meetings and events industry.
0:48
Under his leadership, they provided personalized service
0:51
through more than 80 sales professionals across 26 offices
0:55
worldwide. Michael has earned multiple
0:57
awards, including the Smart Meetings 2016 Lifetime Achiever
1:02
Award and recognition as one of the top 25 most influential
1:06
people in the meetings industry. He is also passionate about
1:10
elevating personalized service in every program that Alhaya
1:14
supports. Now before we get into all that
1:15
good stuff, today's episode is brought to you by my company,
1:18
Add Back Benefits Agency, where we offer very specific and
1:22
unique employee benefits that are both great for your team and
1:25
fiscally optimized for your bottom line.
1:27
Imagine being able to give your employees free access to
1:30
doctors, therapists, and prescription meds in a way that
1:33
actually puts more money in your staff's pockets and the
1:36
companies too. As an example, a recent client
1:39
with over 450 employees boosted net profits over $412,000 a
1:44
year. Now results vary for each
1:46
company and some organizations may not be eligible.
1:48
To find out if your company qualifies, contact us today at
1:51
AD back benefits.com. All right, back to our guest
1:54
today, Michael Dominguez from Al High.
1:58
I appreciate you making the time to Share your story today.
2:00
Yeah, Thanks for the invite, Anthony.
2:02
I always love the conversations and I don't, you know, life
2:06
moves so fast. I don't think we take enough
2:08
time outs just to converse and reflect.
2:10
And these are always important to be able to do that.
2:12
Love it. Let's jump in and do it.
2:14
So what first brought you into the hospitality industry?
2:17
You've been in it for decades. I'm one of those.
2:20
And you know, I tell people, back in the day when I started,
2:24
we didn't have hospitality schools.
2:26
They weren't it wasn't a curriculum in most universities.
2:30
So like many of my peers, mine was by accident.
2:33
I started at the Hyatt San Antonio busing tables when I was
2:37
15 years old and I've never left the hotel business.
2:40
And that literally was the path and bus tables for two years on
2:45
the weekends while I was going to school because mom wouldn't
2:48
let anything get in the way of my grades.
2:50
So it was just weekend spending money.
2:52
And, and then when I graduated high school, I started waiting
2:55
tables as I was going to college.
2:57
And, and from there, shortly after, within six months, I was
3:00
an assistant manager in a restaurant and I did food and
3:04
beverage and operations for about 9 years.
3:06
And it just kind of took off from there.
3:08
And you know, the, the one thing I share with everybody, Anthony,
3:12
especially when I speak to students, is they're going to be
3:14
people that really take an interest in your life and your
3:17
career. And you have to have a small
3:19
enough ego to accept what they're telling you and knowing
3:22
it's for all the right reasons. And, you know, I, I was
3:25
fortunate. I had a mentor that started me
3:27
at that high at San Antonio. He was our food and beverage
3:30
director there. And he moved me three times.
3:31
And on the third move, we're having a, a beer as he picked me
3:35
up at the airport and moved me to Palm Springs.
3:37
And he goes, it's my third move. We're done like it's all on you.
3:41
Like I I've got you going, but it's all on you at this point.
3:45
And he was probably the hardest person you could ever work for,
3:48
but it was all done out of love. And I think it's one of the
3:51
reasons I succeeded because I had that kind of grounding to
3:53
start with and that kind of expectation.
3:56
Pat Donnelly and he is the actual he's the general manager
4:00
at the Hyatt Regency Chicago, which is Hyatt's largest hotel
4:03
and their flagship hotel there in Chicago.
4:06
Think just one lesson that you learned from him.
4:08
Pull it out. All about all about never
4:12
letting people get comfortable from a management perspective.
4:15
And he was the one to say that routines and patterns are the
4:21
worst thing to keep people on their toes.
4:24
And what I meant by that is, you know, we used to watch and it
4:26
was funny because our restaurant, we could see the
4:28
parking garage across the street where I ran this restaurant and
4:32
he had this white Porsche. And it would always be parked in
4:35
that first spot. And then when we see it leave,
4:37
it's like we had a rule. You couldn't, you couldn't be in
4:40
the restaurant without your sports coat or your jacket and
4:42
your suit coat. Regardless of what was
4:44
happening, you always had to have your coat on.
4:47
Well, when we saw the car was gone, OK, the coats came off,
4:50
we're cleaning up, nobody's around.
4:52
And all of a sudden he'd come flying through a back loading
4:55
dock on property because his car wasn't there 'cause he had moved
4:59
the car and he's somewhere else and he's still on property.
5:01
And his point is always keep people on their toes because
5:05
people will always look at are you coming in the same time?
5:07
Are you coming in the same way? Is everything so habitual or do
5:11
you just kind of keep it a little bit loose so that
5:13
everybody is not getting comfortable on what a routine
5:17
looks like? It was it was a valuable way
5:18
the. The mice will play kind of a
5:20
thing and so pretend like you're away and then come storming back
5:24
in. He used to say something that
5:26
always stuck with me. You know, we put rules in place
5:28
to keep the honest people on us. And he goes, and if I didn't
5:32
need, if I didn't need people holding people accountable, I
5:35
wouldn't need management. He would just let people free,
5:38
free ball it, you know, and he's like, that's not the way it
5:41
works. You, you have to have people
5:43
that are holding people accountable because we're all
5:45
human beings. And at times that's why you've
5:47
played any sport, you've learned any instrument.
5:49
Somebody's pushing you, somebody, a coach or an
5:52
instructor, somebody's pushing you to be better.
5:54
And he always taught us that was our responsibility.
5:57
OK, so Speaking of sports and coaches, there's a large jersey
6:04
behind your shoulder and I cheat a little bit because I've
6:08
already been given a sneak peek, but there's also a small rock on
6:11
your desk and you kind of talk us through what these are there
6:14
for. Yeah, very much so.
6:15
Like I'm, I'm everybody who's known me and my wife says, you
6:18
know, they'll, they'll get sick of hearing about the San Antonio
6:21
Spurs and, and my love for their organization and their culture.
6:25
And I think I mentioned, you know, they, they were actually
6:27
featured in a book called Culture Code by Daniel Coyle.
6:30
That's one of my favorite reads. That is really looking.
6:34
It was a best seller in 2017 and it took a look at organizations
6:38
and cultural organizations and how they're built.
6:40
And you know, San Antonio is a small market team.
6:44
Nobody really pays any attention to them.
6:46
They're not LA, they're not Chicago, they're not Boston,
6:49
they're San Antonio. But they're the most winning
6:52
franchise in any sport over the last 30 years.
6:55
They're the only team as I told you to.
6:57
Say that again. The most winning franchise in
7:00
any sport over the last 30 years and.
7:04
And Anthony the the thing I didn't even share with you 24
7:08
straight playoff appearances, 24 straight winning seasons, 20
7:12
straight 50 win seasons in the NBA.
7:15
It's unheard of of how long it lasted.
7:18
And it's their culture that drove it.
7:20
It's not. Yes, they had great talent, but
7:23
you have somebody, Yeah, that's Tim Duncan's jersey that sits
7:26
behind me. But I have Manu Ginobili's that
7:28
you can't see sitting on the front of me.
7:30
And it takes somebody like Manu Ginobili, the most decorated
7:34
international player in the history of basketball, who came
7:38
off the bench his entire career for the Spurs because it made
7:42
them better. That's the culture I'm talking
7:46
about. There's not an NBA player today
7:48
that is a superstar that you could actually think would say,
7:52
yeah, I need you to come off the bench because it'll make us a
7:54
better team. It doesn't happen.
7:57
But everybody with the Spurs, it didn't matter if you started or
7:59
came off the bench, you're going to play about the same minutes.
8:02
And that's how they run the team.
8:04
And it's they call it the factory when you hear other NBA
8:08
players talk about it because it's a machine.
8:11
And what I think is really important for this is where I
8:14
bring some of it into our organization.
8:17
My first interview for any new employee coming in starts with
8:21
my head of HR. And I've told her, you don't
8:24
know if this person has the competency or not for the job
8:27
we're looking at. Your job is to be my minister of
8:29
culture. Your job is to interview them
8:32
and understand do they fit who we are?
8:35
Because if they don't, Anthony, candidly, I don't care about
8:39
your resume. I don't care how talented you
8:42
are. So what?
8:43
Is he or she you're you're head of HR actually looking for?
8:46
The literally a sense of authenticity when we talk.
8:52
A sense of truly, not just talking about it.
8:55
Examples of Tell me how you are part of the team.
9:00
Tell me how you your mission is to make the team better.
9:04
And, and when I say some of that is driven by the Spurs, the
9:07
Spurs will tell you they have a, they have an NBA card like any
9:11
other team where you're evaluating talent.
9:13
It shows you, you know, free throw percentage, 3 point
9:16
percentage, how high you jump, how fast you run, all that
9:18
stuff. But the Spurs, and it was in one
9:21
interview I saw it was RC Buford, their general manager.
9:24
And he just said, we have one, one question above that Spur,
9:28
not a Spur, because if they're not a Spur, it doesn't matter
9:33
how talented they are. We have a system, we have a
9:36
program. And that system is about every
9:39
night. The reason the Spurs don't, as
9:41
good as Duncan was, you didn't see him ever leading this the
9:44
league in scoring or in rebounds because every night they moved
9:49
it based on the matchup. It wasn't based on your
9:52
superstar. It's where can we most
9:55
effectively attack A-Team And everybody bought into that.
9:58
So on certain nights, Duncan would be anchoring the defense
10:03
and it would be Tony Parker and Ginobili tearing it up on the
10:06
scoring side of it. On other nights, it would be
10:09
Duncan going off for 25 or 28 points.
10:12
That's where this team is unique 'cause they do that without any
10:15
kind of popping circumstance. And the way Pop says it, and I
10:19
love it, their coach Popovich, the way Pop says it is very
10:23
simply, we win, we lose, we go home and we do it with class.
10:28
And he always said, I work with a bunch of people that I like to
10:32
say got over themselves a long time ago.
10:34
The one thing I'm looking for, Anthony, is very low ego.
10:38
And my team asked me often tell me what success looks like.
10:42
I go when you were celebrating your teammates success as much
10:45
as yours were there, that's what success looks like.
10:48
But I told you about the rock. But the rock is the only thing
10:53
in the Spurs locker room. And, and here's The funny thing
10:56
in the Spurs locker room, I was fortunate to see it.
10:58
The only thing there is the story that's called the Ode to
11:01
the Stone Cutter. It's a poem by a 1920s immigrant
11:05
rights activist named Jacob Rees.
11:07
And the only thing in that locker room, most boring locker
11:09
room in the world you'll ever see, by the way, it has a
11:12
refrigerator for Gatorade. It has that story.
11:15
And then it has their little stalls with their name on them
11:18
and it probably has the an office chair look, looks like
11:22
the one you're in, but probably not as expensive or not as
11:26
fancy. It is the cheapest office chair
11:28
you would ever see. And when I'm looking at it, I'm
11:30
like, so what's the deal with the chairs?
11:32
They go everything the Spurs they do, they do with purpose,
11:36
said The chairs are telling the players, this is the office, get
11:39
ready to work. You're getting paid millions of
11:42
dollars to do a job. This isn't about games.
11:44
And, and I made the joke. I said, you know, I had read
11:47
that Cuban has Game Boys and you know, all kind of Sony stations
11:50
and everyone and the, and the, the marketing head of marketing
11:53
for San Antonio just said, you know what, they don't have 5
11:55
championships. And I was like, touché, really,
11:59
I get that. And this ode to the stone
12:01
cutter, the story is a a story of perseverance.
12:04
And it's how they've looked at the organization over the last
12:06
30 years here. Here's The funny thing.
12:09
Spurs came into the league in 1950.
12:12
They've missed the play offs 10 years since 1950.
12:15
How many sports organizations? So it's not just this.
12:18
Run right. It really is.
12:21
And it's not just this run, 'cause it was before it and many
12:23
coaches before him, many players before him.
12:25
And, and the interesting thing is this ode to the stone cutter
12:27
simply says, when all hope fails, I think of a stone cutter
12:30
hammering away the stone more than 100 times with no success.
12:34
And on the 101st strike, the stone splits.
12:36
And I know it's the 100 split strikes before it that split the
12:39
stone. So when you hear the the spurs
12:42
and they're being interviewed that you hear them say we're
12:44
just pounding the rock. We're just pounding the rock and
12:48
pounding the rock. And and I tell our team what the
12:50
message. Is that just meant that they
12:51
were dribbling the basketball role in?
12:53
Practice pounding the rock is a mantra.
12:56
Are we better today than we were yesterday?
12:59
Because that's another knock on the rock, and eventually that
13:02
rock will split. So how do you think the Spurs
13:05
future looks going forward with new coach Mitch Johnson?
13:08
I mean, Pop, was there a long time?
13:09
Well, this tells you what is most important, culture and
13:14
continuing it because you've got Mitch Johnson who's been part of
13:18
that team as a player and as a coach for over the last 12
13:22
years. So what they found, because
13:24
again, you've got Wimby, you've got all these stars, you got a
13:27
young team, you had Boldenhausen, who's part of the
13:30
Spurs network. That's a free agent.
13:31
And you know, they have every option to bring in a veteran
13:35
spur, a veteran coach. And what they ended up doing was
13:38
saying culture matters most. And I'm bringing, I'm going to
13:43
turn it over to somebody that understands the way we do it.
13:46
Understand they always talk about the corporate culture
13:50
within the Spurs. And like, you know, most people
13:53
don't know this. Ginobili is still part of it.
13:55
Now Ginobili is part of it because his job is with these
13:58
young players for them to understand the corporate
14:01
culture. What are the Spurs all about?
14:03
He works with all the young talent.
14:05
He's the minister of culture there.
14:07
He really is. And and they're a family.
14:09
That's what's so unique about this.
14:11
And you know, Pop had his stroke and when he was having his press
14:15
conference, what most people didn't pay attention to, the two
14:18
people sitting next to him that walked him to the podium were
14:21
Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili, the two people standing behind
14:24
him to make sure he didn't fall. Where Tim Duncan and Manu
14:27
Ginobili and Popovich says they have been at every rehab session
14:32
he's had since he's had a stroke.
14:34
That's unique. And that's what makes this very
14:36
simple. And what I didn't share with
14:38
you, Anthony, is that story, the ode to the Stone Cutter as
14:41
you're walking up the hallway to the locker room.
14:44
That story was repeated 4 different times because every
14:48
time they have an international player that doesn't speak
14:50
English, they translate it into their language.
14:54
That's how intentional they are about this culture.
14:58
It's phenomenal. I mean, it is a phenomenal
15:00
analysis when you start to look at the team.
15:03
OK, so let's bring it back to you and present day.
15:06
How did the opportunity to join all He come about?
15:11
Well, you know, it's funny. I was working with MGM Resorts
15:15
and I was the Chief sales officer at MGM and our board
15:19
with MGM had been one of the longest term members 'cause
15:24
we're a membership driven organization with the hotels.
15:27
So I've been a member for seven years with MGMA, member with
15:30
seven years with Loews Hotels when I was with them prior and
15:35
there was an opportunity the job was open.
15:37
Our chairman and he's part of the ownership group and we're
15:41
private equity. So he kind of did a worldwide
15:45
tour talking to planners, talking to clients, talking to
15:49
current members. And he was since we were a
15:52
member, he comes to Vegas, he wants to talk to me about MGM.
15:55
We're talking. And then he asked me to join him
15:58
for a cup of coffee the next morning.
15:59
And he says two way person. When I've asked if I could wave
16:03
a magic magic wand around this job, he goes, your name comes up
16:07
and he says, would you have any interest?
16:09
And and this is the funny true story, Anthony.
16:12
We're sitting in the middle of Bellagio.
16:14
We're having a cup of coffee, right?
16:15
And then he goes and I told him, you know, thank you, but I'm not
16:18
really interested. And he goes, Are you sure 'cause
16:21
it's a really cool job. And I go look around.
16:24
Cool would not be the selling factor here.
16:27
You know, we're sitting in the middle of Bellagio.
16:29
Like I've got all the coal you could imagine being in Vegas.
16:33
That's not what's going to sell me on the job.
16:35
And candidly, I got there be, you know, through the hell
16:39
through the help of my wife and then through a client that has
16:42
been a long time friend and is one of my brothers, truly a
16:45
brother in life and just happened to be he happened to be
16:49
in Vegas to run that time frame and he had he's done business
16:51
with Alhi. He knew it well, he knew me.
16:54
But my wife told me you get to be the CEO of a sales
16:57
organization. How cool was that?
16:59
Like, you know, think about that where you are in your life.
17:02
It's all about sales and that's cool running a team and dealing
17:06
with clients and being involved. Perfect.
17:09
And then I talked to my friend and we're having brunch with
17:12
him, me and my wife, and we're talking.
17:13
And I said, So what do you think?
17:14
He goes, Mike, as long as I've known you, he says, you like
17:17
building stuff. He says, what else are you going
17:19
to build? And I had been at MGM seven
17:22
years. We had built out a leisure
17:24
program in ARM. That was that last three years
17:27
that I've been there. And, you know, it's like, it's
17:30
kind of like status quo now. Yeah, yeah.
17:32
You know, there's always going to be new stuff, but it's not
17:34
having to build or rebuild. This was a full building and
17:37
rebuilding. I think he's asked you that you
17:40
were. Ready for your next challenge?
17:41
Yeah, He, he, he reminded me what makes me tick.
17:45
The only time it's hard is when I get bored.
17:48
You know, I like to be challenged mentally.
17:51
I love the grind, Anthony. I'm not one of these that I, I
17:54
am probably one of the most active CEOs in this space that
17:58
you're going to see. And I'm on the road every week
18:01
meeting with clients or meeting with members or speaking in the
18:04
industry because I still love the grind.
18:06
I love being around people. I love this industry, I love
18:09
learning about it. So help us better understand
18:11
what Alhi does. You said it's a member
18:13
organization. You guys do sales.
18:15
How does all this come together? Who are your members?
18:17
What kind of sales are you doing for them?
18:19
So very simply, Alhi for the most part is a representation
18:24
company for independent hotels. So non flags, a non Marriott,
18:29
non Hilton, non Hyatt and we become AI have 45 global sales
18:35
executives. So we're the global sales team
18:37
for the independent hotels. If you had a flag, you would
18:40
have a global sales team attached to that flag with one
18:43
of the main brands. And the reason that matters that
18:46
allows us, we play in the convention space.
18:48
So it is us on behalf of our of our hotels that could be an
18:53
independent hotel with three to four salespeople on property and
18:56
that's their entire sales existence by being a part of us,
19:01
I have 45 executives that are out there trying to bring
19:04
business to their property from a convention perspective.
19:07
Explain to me what that means. So like a group has already
19:11
decided that they're going to have their convention in
19:14
Minneapolis and or do you get involved even before that and
19:17
trying to convince them to go to Minneapolis?
19:19
Yeah, yeah. It's that, that there is that
19:22
there's very few groups that know exactly where they're
19:24
going. So what we end up doing is, you
19:26
know, there's our, our hotel, our industry is pretty mature.
19:30
So there's RFP mechanisms. The largest one is Cvent and our
19:35
clients will go into Cvent and they'll be saying, I want to
19:38
look at Orlando, California and maybe somewhere in the Midwest.
19:42
And it's kind of an open range. Here's my group.
19:45
I got 500 people. I need to bring them together.
19:47
I've got three nights. That's what we're playing with
19:51
and trying to get them there. And I have my super tankers, the
19:54
one that are 1000 rooms at a time and but literally half my
19:59
business are 100 people or less. Lot of small gatherings, could
20:03
be corporate, could be association.
20:06
Associations meet quite often and, and it's in their bylaws to
20:10
meet. So we have people dedicated and
20:12
we're very relationship driven. We're only in the luxury set.
20:15
So we only have 4 Diamond, 5 diamond hotels and we only deal
20:19
with luxury meetings so. That's a higher end client that
20:24
somebody who still expects very high touch and I think that's
20:28
always a challenge for some some people.
20:30
How do you continue to be high touch in a high tech world?
20:32
So you've got a close relationship with a lot of these
20:34
different groups and associations out there that, you
20:37
know, are looking for these high end events.
20:39
And then, you know, if they come to you and they're like, hey, we
20:42
want, I don't know, an option in Florida, an option in
20:45
California, some of the Midwest, like, you know, give us some
20:47
things to pick from. You've got members that, you
20:50
know, multiple members in some of those geographies.
20:53
How do you sort of think about who you're going to try to steer
20:55
them towards? Well, the the biggest thing for
20:57
us is that we. Are you there.
21:00
Yeah, go ahead. Yeah, I was going to say the
21:03
biggest thing for us is that, you know, our GS OS, our global
21:09
sales team, they've been through every one of our buildings.
21:12
So they know the building's inside and out.
21:14
And it's not as simple, Anthony, as like thrown out an RFP.
21:17
It's OK. What's the profile of the group?
21:20
What are you trying to accomplish?
21:21
What does that look like 'cause every hotel has its own
21:24
personality. So our job is to steer it to be.
21:27
And the way we we've phrased it, because we, we went through this
21:30
whole exercise of trying to figure out like, what is your
21:33
story? What does that look like?
21:36
We're a sommelier for a meetings experience.
21:41
You can have a great dinner, but pairing it with the perfect wine
21:44
makes it something you'll remember forever.
21:47
And I can give you a great hotel, but giving you the
21:50
perfect hotel then matches what your meal looks like.
21:54
We'll make that experience really special and something
21:57
you're going to remember forever.
21:58
So that's kind of our goal. We're very high touch in that
22:01
that that perspective. Not transactional at all.
22:05
And that's, that's what I think separates us.
22:07
It's a lot on my entire company is, you know, if you look at my,
22:11
my entire, you know, P&L, it's all labor because we're a people
22:15
driven organization. Human capital is my asset and
22:20
I've got the best of the best in that.
22:22
And I, I do mean that because they're very relationship
22:24
focused, but that requires a lot of sweat equity and that
22:29
requires being in front of people all the time, thus me
22:32
being on the road all the time. So it's a member organization,
22:35
so your members are paying some kind of a fee.
22:38
Are the groups that you're assisting also paying you some
22:42
kind of a fee? No.
22:43
No, no, we're just a service to those groups and, and, but we're
22:46
a trusted resource to those groups.
22:49
And and something we did, Anthony, that I think is really
22:51
important is during the pandemic, I was, I was Co
22:56
chairing A COVID recovery task force for the industry through
23:01
the events industry council EIC. And what's interesting is what
23:06
people didn't know, depending on where you lived, what people
23:09
didn't understand. I mean, I still had groups that
23:11
were meeting in the middle of a pandemic and everybody depending
23:16
on where you are in parts of the world or parts of our country,
23:19
you thought the world is shut down.
23:20
And it's like that wasn't accurate, but there were
23:23
protocols on how do you do this, how do you do this safely?
23:26
How do you keep 6 feet of separation and changed
23:29
everything on how we did this. And we started and, and, and
23:35
I'll tell you 2 points. First, as the world was shutting
23:38
down and realized if you're in the hotel business, there's,
23:41
there was no industry more impacted than the hotel industry
23:45
when you shut down the entire country on March 16th.
23:49
And I got the team together on March 16th.
23:52
We, you know, we actually, I sent an e-mail out and told the
23:55
team, this is what's going on. We're going to be OK, we'll
23:58
figure it out. And I had one of my GS OS that
24:01
reached out and she goes, can we jump on a call?
24:03
Because your voice is always soothing and I, we'd like to
24:06
talk and I'm like, great, great thought process.
24:10
So on that Friday where we're shutting down the country, I
24:12
jumped on a call. We had a call with the entire
24:14
team and then we made the decision right there or I made
24:17
the decision. It's like we will have this call
24:19
every day until we done. And during the pandemic, the
24:22
entire organization was on a call every day.
24:25
And and my orders to them was very simple is call your
24:30
clients, call our members, see how they're doing, see how we
24:33
can help and when you're done, do it again.
24:36
I don't care what we book, I don't care what that looks like
24:40
because it's going to be a hot mess.
24:41
It will be a dumpster fire for a while.
24:43
That's OK. Just check in on everybody.
24:47
And that led to realizing planners have a lot of
24:51
questions. The bigger brands literally
24:55
furloughed or laid off their sales teams overnight.
24:58
So I have clients like I got meetings booked, how do I do
25:01
them? And I have clients calling me
25:03
about brands. I'm like, I don't work for that
25:04
brand, but let me see how I can help.
25:06
Let me see what I can get a hold of.
25:08
And we became like this only standing resource during that
25:12
time frame. So I started having a weekly
25:14
call with planners to just come in and telling them and I was I
25:18
became they, they teased me that I was the doctor Fauci of our
25:22
industry. I learned more about that
25:24
Anthony than I ever wanted to, but it was only to help people
25:27
and to know what are the guidelines?
25:29
What are we seeing trying to follow the, the spike trends to
25:32
see what that would look like when it was all said and done.
25:35
And if you started to look at it historically, you know, I, I
25:38
actually took some heat because somebody's like, you know, are
25:41
you a doctor? Because I kept saying, if you
25:43
look at all the trend lines on that last spike we had where
25:46
we're doing a million cases a day, I'm like, well, this will
25:49
be done in about 6 weeks. And I think we're done.
25:52
And they're all hitting me. I'm going, no, I'm not a doctor,
25:55
but I'm, I, I do understand math.
25:57
And if you look at the trend lines, every outbreak we had had
26:00
a six week bell curve and it's spiked.
26:03
And after the end of six weeks, we kind of moved past it and it
26:07
was helping the planners like plan for that.
26:09
Like I've got a program in October.
26:11
What do you think? I think we'll be done by April.
26:13
You'll be OK. We should be fine.
26:16
So we started doing this. And the reason I, I mentioned it
26:19
is we had 3000 clients joining us at the peak.
26:24
So I had to spread it to two calls a week because there were
26:27
so many people that were joining us and as we got closer to the
26:31
end of the pandemic. What members do you have,
26:32
Michael? Well, those are clients that
26:34
those aren't the members. My members are my member hotels
26:38
which are the 250 plus hotels. These are our clients and my
26:42
client pull the people we communicate or in the
26:45
associations. The people that are booking the.
26:47
Corporate, corporate meeting planners, third party planners.
26:50
I mean it's just it's very broad on my entire database that's
26:53
active is about 30,000. So it's a broad industry and we
26:59
had that kind of audience and it rotated, but you know there
27:01
people came in, came out, that was the live part of it.
27:04
You could also download, download the information and I
27:08
always had a deck put together for that.
27:10
So as we started to get to the mid to late 23 and you could see
27:14
we're kind of out of this completely.
27:16
We changed that and I still have now and it's now and every two
27:20
to three-week call, but now it's about the economy.
27:23
It's getting back to the old way, the old pieces of our
27:25
business. You know, what's happening with
27:27
room costs, what's happening with food and beverage costs?
27:29
How should I budget for next year?
27:31
What does that look like? So all of those pieces have come
27:34
into play and we've kept this audience going and this
27:37
community going. And I, that is to be said, is
27:40
we're much bigger than a sales organization.
27:42
We're a resource for our and, and I must say a trusted
27:46
resource because I'm never spending it.
27:48
I'm very data-driven and I'm trying to tell them, you know,
27:51
here's the data and I tried to not get over our skis.
27:54
Well, and it actually sounds like you use this tragedy of the
27:58
COVID outbreak as an opportunity to strengthen and forge those
28:02
relationships even more. You became, I mean you, you went
28:07
above and beyond all the services that you've been
28:09
providing before and it seems like it's paying dividends going
28:14
forward for you. Yeah.
28:15
And I think the important piece to that, Anthony, is there was
28:18
no master plan. We did it because it there was a
28:21
gap. We did it because there was a
28:23
need for it. And that authenticity of doing
28:27
it for the right reasons is what I think makes it work.
28:31
And probably the most rewarding comment I get from clients when
28:35
I'm out in the industry, they always say thank you for
28:37
everything you do for our industry.
28:39
Wow. And to know that's their
28:41
comment, they actually know. That's the lens I'm looking
28:44
through. I'm not doing it trying to
28:46
promote Al Hai. I'm not I, I do.
28:48
I am a believer you do all the right things.
28:50
Al Hai will get promoted the right way and will be looked at
28:53
the right way. And I don't have to promote that
28:55
hard. The biggest point is do the
28:57
right things, make our industry better, and people will
29:01
recognize that and want to be a part of it.
29:03
What's the size range in properties?
29:06
Max number of beds? Minimum number of beds. 5000
29:11
rooms at MGM Grand to 120 rooms at my smallest boutique hotel
29:18
and everything in between and. So MGM is considered an
29:21
independent. They don't fall under one of the
29:22
big flags. Because they own and manage all
29:25
their buildings. So that's the differential, the
29:28
independence. Like I just came back from the
29:31
Broadmoor. The Broadmoor is one of our
29:32
longest term members. The Broadmoor is an independent
29:35
hotel owned by an independent owner that owns that and Sea
29:39
Island, which is both our members.
29:42
Pebble Beach, I'm naming the ones that people would
29:44
recognize, Pebble Beach independent hotel by an
29:47
independent owner. It's never going to put a flag
29:50
on it. The Don CeSar down at Saint
29:52
Pete's Beach, these were those iconic, you know, independent
29:56
hotels and the independents are still growing right now.
29:59
There's a lot of people because of technology and where you are
30:03
with some of the larger technology applications, IE and
30:06
Expedia or Booking, there's hotels that are like, can I do
30:10
this without a brand? Because most of it with a brand,
30:13
you either need a management company, but if you're going to
30:16
manage it yourself, you need something to pull in leisure,
30:19
leisure traffic. And that's where the brand and
30:21
the brand, the flag recognition comes in.
30:23
And, and right now you have you do have a lot of on the luxury
30:28
side, a lot of independent hotels that are being built on
30:31
the luxury side or flagged, non flagged on the luxury.
30:35
Side and they their intent to sort of publicize and promote
30:38
themselves is through these third party platforms like
30:41
Expedia or hotels. Well, what I'm saying is because
30:44
of the third party platforms, that is a leisure valve you can
30:48
turn on and off that didn't exist 15 or 20 years ago.
30:52
Now that was problematic for hotels because the fees for that
30:56
when they first started were astronomical.
30:58
And that is why there was always this little bit of a push and
31:01
pressure. But as things have normalized
31:03
and as as those technologies have matured and the industry's
31:07
gotten broader, those fees have gotten to a point that I think
31:10
you have to do the math at certain times and just say, can
31:13
I do it without a flag in certain markets, Maybe certain
31:16
markets know you're going to need these flags because of
31:19
loyalty programs and how that all moves it.
31:22
It just depends. But what you're finding is
31:24
there's more options out there today.
31:26
What do you think are the key elements of curating a truly
31:30
stand out hotel or resort experience for the event
31:34
professionals that you're working with?
31:36
That's really simple. You know, I, I keep reminding
31:38
everybody, we forget about the human engagement and human, the
31:42
human connection that the reason you're bringing people together,
31:45
it's, it's that human outcome. And we sometimes are so focused
31:49
on planning the meeting, we're forgetting why we're doing the
31:53
meeting. And that is what I think is.
31:56
So you have to be intentional. You have to be purposeful.
31:59
We do our own series of events and our executive events and
32:03
they are highly rated and, and highly sought after by our, our
32:07
meeting professionals. But it's something as simple,
32:11
Anthony, that you know, we have sponsors that help sponsor
32:13
certain pieces of our meeting. And you've probably been to
32:16
meetings where you'll see the sponsor come out on stage
32:18
because they're sponsoring lunch or break.
32:21
Every sponsor that sponsors with us knows you will never get
32:23
stage shot. Our purpose of being together is
32:27
to educate and to form connections and to make sure
32:30
we're having the right conversations.
32:31
And if that is a qualifier for you sponsoring, then don't
32:34
sponsor. But if you want a sponsor,
32:37
you'll get to be part of the program.
32:38
You'll be to be able to network and interact like everybody
32:41
else. I'll promote the heck out of you
32:43
pre and post. But during the meeting, no, it's
32:46
all about education. It is all about connection.
32:49
It is all about conversation. It is not about promoting.
32:52
And I don't even promote Ally from stage.
32:54
You won't hear me talk. About what goes on, what goes on
32:57
there, what what it discussed. Pure education.
33:00
So I can tell you like at our executive exchanges, we, it's a
33:04
2 1/2 day program. We always start and this is
33:07
something really different, Anthony.
33:08
Usually if you go to a major program or major association
33:12
event, I, I can almost assure you, you start with a opening
33:15
reception. That's the first program of any
33:18
event. We have an opening reception,
33:20
but we actually have content and an open opening education
33:24
session for an hour before we get to the reception.
33:27
And that's a little bit different.
33:29
And we always say we try to do this as a laboratory because
33:31
we're trying to teach them how you can do it a little
33:34
differently. And the reason for that is it
33:36
starts off with the right tone that it's going to be
33:39
purposefully driven with content to hopefully better you
33:42
personally and professionally. But do you know how engaged the
33:45
conversations are with somebody you've never met when you just
33:48
heard a speaker and now you're at a reception because you have
33:51
something to talk about, you have a reason to connect.
33:54
It's like, what did you think about what that speaker just
33:56
said? It's so easy for the people that
33:59
are uncomfortable to connect. So it kind of starts it with the
34:02
right energy. And then the second day of our
34:05
meeting is very meaty, very meaty.
34:07
And I, I don't like panels. I'm the first one to tell you,
34:11
I, that's something else. I I try not to allow.
34:14
I think the panels are the worst, most boring thing you can
34:19
do because it's. Sort of lack structure, like
34:23
there isn't one person in charge of it.
34:25
Why do you? Why do you?
34:25
Dislike Well, why don't we make it too big?
34:28
You know, if you're, to me, a panel's two people, even getting
34:31
to 3 is too much, but you got to have some really diverse
34:34
perspectives and and then what I think is the the challenge is we
34:39
don't have always strong moderators for a panel.
34:42
Panels don't know how to interact and in in interject,
34:46
they just answered the question and we're kind of going down the
34:48
gauntlet. That's what I mean.
34:51
It's hard to get a good flow unless you really, really know
34:54
who you're speaking to. So it's not that I don't believe
34:57
they're valuable. So normally I you would have had
35:00
a panel in the hotel industry, for instance, I'd have somebody
35:03
from the airlines, I'd have somebody from the hotels, I'd
35:05
have somebody from the destinations and we're talking
35:07
about our industry. I do the same thing, but we call
35:10
them trend talks. Anthony, it's 20 to 25 minutes.
35:14
I bring up the person with the airline, Let's talk about the
35:17
airline industry, 20 to 25 minutes, bring up somebody from
35:20
the hotel. Let's talk about the hotel
35:22
industry instead of trying to say everybody has to put in
35:25
their two cents, you know, on one question as we go down the
35:28
gauntlet, we spend a lot of time and I I think behavioral science
35:33
when you say how do you make it a good meeting?
35:36
How do you bring behavioral science and how do you think
35:38
about this? So why do I say that?
35:41
All sciences told me I can't keep your attention for more
35:43
than 20/20/20 to 25 minutes at a time.
35:46
Yet I've never not seen an agenda that says we're going to
35:49
meet for an hour and a half and take a break.
35:52
How does that make any sense when we know that's not the
35:55
human condition? So by me breaking up the trend
35:58
talks, I I'm making the mind have to reset again because 2025
36:03
and 20 minutes talking about the airline industry, 5 minutes of
36:07
Q&A with the audience and then you hear a strike the music I'm
36:11
introducing somebody else. It completely resets your brain
36:14
again to pay attention. That is such a simple exercise
36:19
and I don't think people spend enough time on the content on
36:23
how it's delivered, how it's going to be most impactful, what
36:26
makes sense. And Anthony, I would drive a
36:28
meeting planner crazy. Thank God mine works with me
36:30
really well because we're changing content and flow
36:34
through the program like every night I'm changing it because of
36:37
something else I heard or but if it should be a living and
36:41
breathing Organism instead of I have a plan and we have to
36:45
deliver the plan instead of Oh no the plan just changed because
36:49
of what just came up in a conversation.
36:52
And you were talking about trends, I'd be curious to hear
36:54
some big trends that you've seen during the time that you've been
36:57
in the industry. What what are some big things
37:00
that have have changed and then kind of morph into what are some
37:04
big changes that you foresee coming?
37:07
Yeah, I, I think one of the biggest things right now is we,
37:11
we have a need and there's more of an intention around white
37:15
space in an agenda. And it's the other thing that I
37:18
am always sharing with planners. You need to have more white
37:20
space in the agenda. So Anthony, if he came to my
37:23
meeting, if I want your complete attention from 9:00 AM until 12
37:28
before we go to lunch and then we're going to break the
37:29
afternoon, you need to know you have the entire afternoon free
37:34
to explore the destination or go do the phone call.
37:36
You need to go catch up with the emails.
37:39
And what you find is by giving people a lot of white space, you
37:43
own them mentally during the time you need them.
37:46
That is a trend you're starting to see.
37:49
Old agendas used to go 8 to 8 or 8 to ten, 8:00 AM to 10:00 PM.
37:53
No breaks except for your restroom breaks in your mills.
37:57
But there's no other white space.
37:58
It's it's program after program after program after program.
38:02
So does it make sense for that white space to be a big chunk at
38:05
the end of the day, or to sort of chunk it up where it's like,
38:08
OK, we're going to meet for an hour, then you got an hour and a
38:11
half off, we'll come back for another.
38:14
I think you could do it anyway. Depends on your group.
38:16
You know, We cram it into the morning because in the afternoon
38:20
we allow them to go explore the destination.
38:22
We have activities set up for them or do nothing, and that's
38:26
what I don't think enough groups do.
38:28
So one of the things, and it is a trend right now where we call
38:31
it Club Alhi. Basically, I'm renting a couple
38:34
of cabanas by a pole. We have food and beverage.
38:38
Come sit, do whatever. Just hang out if you want to.
38:41
There's no programming. It's just a place to hang out.
38:45
I can't tell you how many planners have told me, you know,
38:48
the last time I had three hours to myself with no kids, no
38:52
family, no work to just breathe. Those are the things that I
38:57
think are coming into play. And I think everybody needs
39:00
space to breathe because our responsibilities at home, in
39:04
addition to what we're trying to do in a career, it it's
39:08
sometimes is, is hard. And that is a shift, you know,
39:12
and the and I, I do see another shift and it's in conversation.
39:15
There used to be this always this talk about balance, and
39:19
I've always been a big proponent of this, Anthony, but now I'm
39:21
starting to see the drum beat and I tell my team there is no
39:23
such thing as balance and quit talking about balance there.
39:26
There is something called rhythm and you want to develop a good
39:29
rhythm between your personal and your professional life, but it
39:33
will never be balanced. And anyone that uses those words
39:35
to me, you're looking for an excuse based on your decisions
39:40
that you were making, because everywhere you choose to spend
39:43
your time is a decision and you want someone to blame when
39:47
you're talking about balance versus how do you get it into
39:50
rhythm? And, and what I mean by that is
39:53
like I tell people, come on, work is going to win some
39:57
decisions just because it's work and I'm trying to earn a living
40:01
for a family. So sometimes that's going to
40:03
win. I just tell my team, just make
40:05
sure that three out of 10, four out of 10, your family, you
40:10
personally are winning those decisions.
40:12
It's not ten out of 10. Winning for work.
40:16
And is it balanced? No.
40:18
It. But do I start to get a rhythm
40:21
on how I do it? Yeah.
40:23
And you're finding people starting to do that because it
40:26
gives them the ability to. I just came from a program.
40:30
You know how many people brought their families?
40:32
That's rhythm. That's not balance because
40:35
during the day, they're still in a meeting all day, but their
40:37
families are enjoying the resort.
40:39
They get to go do activities they get to do, and then at
40:42
night they're all together. You know, that's to me, the
40:44
little bit of rhythm versus balance.
40:47
Do you find it challenging to manage such a large, and I guess
40:52
call it geographically diverse set of team members?
40:57
I, I think management is always hard, but I, I remind you know,
41:03
myself, my, my job is to lead them, not manage them.
41:06
I have other people that have to a little bit manage their, their
41:09
day-to-day, but I don't think it's difficult.
41:12
I, I think where people make a mistake, Anthony, is they don't
41:14
clearly identify expectations and they don't clearly inspire
41:21
our team to do great things together.
41:23
And if you can do those things, I don't think the rest of it is
41:27
that hard. And how do you?
41:28
How do you how do you inspire your team to do great things
41:30
together? Candidly, mine's not by words,
41:34
mine's by actions. And you know, and I, I hear from
41:37
my team and I, I had a conversation with my, one of my
41:39
new team members this morning, just checking in 'cause they've
41:43
been with us now a month and they go, you know how proud I am
41:46
when I'm sitting at a trade show booth 'cause they just went to
41:48
1. And I have people coming up and
41:50
thanking us for what Alhide does for them and what you do for our
41:54
industry. And when you start to hear that,
41:57
how do you inspire? You inspire by doing and knowing
41:59
that they're always proud to be in the market and know that
42:03
that's the comment they get, that that's the feedback they
42:06
get back. And I'm not asking them to do
42:08
anything, Anthony, that that, that I'm not going to do myself
42:12
When I am committing the type of, you know, sweat equity into
42:17
getting there and getting to our market and being with our
42:20
clients. It matters.
42:22
And, and I think too many leaders talk too much and don't
42:25
do enough as far as what they're trying to show.
42:29
And, and that's not a criticism. I, I, I understand that.
42:32
I just think you have to be intentional if you really want
42:36
to inspire people. It's not just your words, it's
42:39
your actions. Your actions have to mirror it
42:41
or it just doesn't matter. So I got to ask about AI because
42:45
you've got a big view of what a lot of different players in the
42:50
space are doing or talking about doing.
42:53
How are you seeing it being used today?
42:55
Where do you see it potentially going?
42:59
On in our side of the world right now, it's a lot in
43:02
marketing, a lot in some accounting functions, back of
43:06
the house functions. I think the biggest piece you're
43:10
going to see in play in our industry is going to be around
43:13
customization, our ability to quickly process when Anthony's
43:18
checking in at the front desk and to know what your likes and
43:22
dislikes are or what you purchased when you were here in
43:24
the past with us. I mean, we've all tried to do
43:27
that. We've never had the computing
43:29
power to be able to analyze that so quickly to know that I can
43:33
give you an experience that when you walked in, wouldn't it be
43:36
nice that no, you don't have to push the button to request
43:39
feather pillows. They're already in your room
43:41
because we know that's what you want in your room.
43:44
I think that's where we're headed.
43:45
And especially on the AI side of it from a marketing perspective,
43:49
I mean, we're doing some really cool stuff that just makes us
43:52
more effective. You know, I in that regard, I'll
43:54
give you an example, you know, sending out a note for one of
43:58
the events that was coming up and all, everybody that had
44:00
signed up for us for this event, we, we tried an AI, an AI
44:05
component in our marketing platform where it delivered to
44:09
you. I, I hit deliver on one time,
44:12
but it delivered to you at the time that is most optimal for
44:16
you to read our stuff. In other words, it's doing an,
44:19
an analysis to say Anthony usually reads your stuff on a
44:23
Saturday, not during the week. You probably go into a folder
44:27
until he's ready to read it and you're one of those that's going
44:30
to be a weekend read. So you would be getting that
44:33
same e-mail on a Friday afternoon knowing that it's
44:37
going to be fresh in your inbox versus it going out on Monday
44:41
when I just sent it out on Monday.
44:42
But I it, and what's really interesting is it trickles
44:45
through the week. I get out of offices and bounce
44:49
backs that come to my e-mail when it's sent from me.
44:52
And I see that the same e-mail, I'm starting to get triggered
44:55
later in the week with the out of offices because that's when
44:57
it's being delivered to a different time frame.
45:00
First time we did that, Anthony, we had an 80% open rate to that
45:04
e-mail. Wow, which is unheard of and
45:07
even in our numbers and our click through rate was over 50%.
45:10
Now that was a limited audience for an event, but even for our
45:13
event emails, we don't see that kind of connectivity at all or
45:16
that kind of engagement. So I think those are the
45:19
opportunities with AII think we sometimes overthink it.
45:23
But in the hotel side, I think AI is going to allow us to take
45:27
away tasks that will allow our human capital to actually
45:32
deliver and interact with our guests better because they're
45:35
not spending their time with a bunch of minutia versus being in
45:40
front of the customer that that is standing in front of them and
45:43
being completely present and trying to help and serve their
45:46
needs. I think that's going to be the
45:48
shift that's going to be phenomenal for us to to take
45:50
that off the table. What's the timeline?
45:54
Where do? You next 24 months.
45:56
I mean, it's not that far. And, and I sometimes think we
45:59
overthink it. When I was at MGM, for instance,
46:02
I'll give you a simple example of this.
46:05
We, we have, and I'm talking about automation, not as much
46:10
AI, but part of that is AI. If you've ever been on a casino
46:14
floor and people serve you drinks and you're gambling and
46:16
they're coming through and they're serving you drinks,
46:18
that's all coming through your hotel bar.
46:20
Like somewhere on the, somewhere on the casino bar, the casino
46:23
floor. We ended up putting in a program
46:26
when I was still there and it was called a robo bar.
46:30
And the robo bar was literally a machine.
46:33
You know, like the Coke machines where you go in and you hit the
46:36
buttons and get the Coke you want and you can have a cherry
46:38
Coke. You want a cherry Coke?
46:39
Same thought process. But think about your normal
46:42
drinks. You're serving, well, drinks.
46:43
So it's a gin and tonic. It's a, you know, vodka soda.
46:48
It's those type of drinks. Instead of coming from the
46:51
casino bar, there's now a service station with a robo bar
46:54
in it. Literally a machine is spinning
46:57
out your drinks to order as you're punching them in.
47:00
Now, what that did was alleviate a bartender having to produce a
47:05
whole bunch of drinks for the servers on the floor so they
47:08
could actually take care of the customers in front of them.
47:11
And make sure that you're getting a consistent poor, which
47:13
helps on the economic side of things.
47:15
The cost side and all of those pieces, but that is just a
47:18
simple automation that made us more effective so that we could
47:21
spend more time, you know, and, and when we first were launching
47:24
that, you know, what you heard people say is that, oh, we're
47:26
just trying to get rid of bartenders.
47:27
No, the opposite. We're trying to let the
47:29
bartender do their job to actually engage and talk to the
47:33
people in front of them. I hear this from a lot of my
47:35
guests when we talk about AI is that the hope is that it frees
47:39
people up from doing back office work, from doing sort of the the
47:45
minutia and being able to interact with Co workers,
47:49
interact with their clientele, their patients in a hospital
47:52
setting more because it's that human element that really drives
47:57
so many industries, especially yours.
47:59
Yeah. And Anthony, you know, how many
48:01
companies have you talked to where when you're talking to the
48:04
people, they'll tell you we have a bunch of people collecting
48:07
data. We don't have a lot of people
48:08
analyzing it. Yeah.
48:10
And if I could take all this data we have and have great
48:13
analytics so that I know I could put it into action, it just
48:16
makes us all better. And that's where I'm excited
48:18
about AI. And you mentioned medical.
48:20
My biggest excitement is what I'm reading and seeing on the
48:23
medical front because the, you know, we've always heard, you
48:27
know, fail fast and move often. It's going to allow us on
48:32
medicine to fail fast and actually get there quicker.
48:37
And you're already seeing it. And it's just the, the ability
48:40
to analyze that kind of data that quickly.
48:43
And I, and I think the, the, I think the explosion on the
48:48
medical side personally is when you start to mix AI and quantum
48:52
computing and that's in another four to five years.
48:55
And when that happens, when we can do the quanticative
48:57
computing at the same time, I think the things we're going to
49:01
be able to solve for medically is what's most exciting for me
49:05
to take away people's suffering, to be able to heal people that,
49:09
you know, we all know cancer is the biggest evil out there.
49:13
And yet I think we're going to be able to really, really attack
49:17
it in a different way. And like I, I have plaque
49:20
buildup. I've always had plaque buildup
49:22
over the last decade and monitor it and do all the things I'm
49:25
supposed to. But one of those advancements
49:27
I've seen, nano nanotechnology, basically many microscopic
49:33
robots that will be sent into your bloodstream and will cut
49:38
away, will literally cut away the plaque and take it with you.
49:42
Take it with it as you basically flush it out of your system.
49:46
No more balloons, no more angiograms.
49:49
We're going to be able to do that.
49:50
That kind of stuff. They're talking about being 5 to
49:52
8 years away. That's encouraging.
49:55
How many people, you know, heart disease is one of the biggest
49:57
killers, How many people can it save if we can solve those kind
50:01
of things? So I, I know that's being a
50:03
little Pollyanna, but that's, that is what excites me more
50:06
than anything is I think we're going to be able to improve the
50:08
human condition in a dramatic way.
50:10
There's a lot of exciting frontiers that it's going to be
50:13
fun to follow. Let's shift gears a little bit
50:15
here, Michael. I'd like to hear about a serious
50:18
challenge that you've overcome. How did you get through it and
50:22
what did you learn? Well, I'll, I'll go to my
50:26
darkest day and the hardest moment of my career from a
50:32
leadership journey that hands down I'll never replicate again,
50:36
God willing. But I was in Vegas during the
50:39
shooting of Las Vegas and that is in our building it the
50:45
shooter was literally my office faced the same way and it was
50:49
just a few floors up. And that is real when it hits
50:53
home and you're in the middle of something like that.
50:55
And the fact that from a leadership perspective, the only
51:01
thing going through your mind is how do I lead the team?
51:04
How do I get them through such a dark time?
51:07
And it was dark for Vegas. It was dark for everybody there.
51:12
You had survivor's guilt like you would never think of.
51:16
We had people that were there that said, why did I survive
51:19
when the girl lay it running next to me falls down dead.
51:23
You know, it's that type of remorse that you're feeling over
51:28
months, months and months and months.
51:32
And how do you lead the team through it?
51:33
And, and you know, and candidly, during that time frame, I, I, I
51:37
told all of our leaders at our hotels, I said check on our
51:40
teams. And very similar to my message
51:42
on COVID, check on our teams, check on your clients and make
51:45
sure everybody's OK. And I go and the ones that tell
51:48
you they're OK, they're the ones that are least OK.
51:51
So realize that this is a lot of trauma and we're going to have
51:55
to be there for people. And I, and I was telling them
51:58
just watch and learn. And I the same thing.
52:01
I don't care what we book over the next three to four weeks,
52:03
doesn't matter. Just care about the human
52:06
condition at the moment. And how do we focus on that?
52:09
And I cleared my calendar for three weeks and all I did was go
52:14
from hotel to hotel to hotel because we had 13 hotels in Las
52:17
Vegas. And I would go to a hotel and I
52:20
would check in on the team and check in on the staff and I
52:22
would go to the next one and go to the next one.
52:24
And that was in between 3 days, three times a day meetings with
52:28
the senior leadership at 8:00 noon.
52:31
And five, as we're working through this, that the one thing
52:35
I tell people is the ability for me to tell everybody tomorrow
52:40
will be a better day. And the, the ability for them to
52:43
believe that came from all the trust I had built up in the
52:47
relationships months and years beforehand.
52:51
And I think too many leaders don't spend enough time being
52:55
intentional on the, the, with the leadership and build our,
52:58
the relationship so that when it comes a time to have to lead in
53:03
those hard moments that you're believable and connected to
53:06
everybody. I think that's a miss and
53:09
especially if you're in a smaller company.
53:11
I mean, Anthony, we have 150 employees.
53:13
I have twice a year phone calls with every single one of them
53:17
for 30 minutes. And the call is just to check in
53:20
with them, not not to check in on their work.
53:23
How are you doing? How is your life?
53:26
How is your family? And I learned so much about my
53:30
team members. And what's interesting is I have
53:32
team members that tell me all, all the time.
53:34
You're the only CEO I've ever had a call and it's just to
53:37
check in on them. And, and when I speak to
53:41
leadership, I tell people, if I was to ask you what your
53:44
greatest resource is, most people will say my team members,
53:47
my, my, my team, my people. And I said, does your time
53:50
reflect that statement? So all I'm saying, if you really
53:54
believe they're your greatest resource, are you spending more
53:58
time with your people than you are in emails and meetings?
54:02
And all of the things that we think are so important because
54:05
that goes back to how do you inspire them?
54:06
Inspire them by actually caring and showing that you care by
54:10
your actions. So I want to go back to that day
54:14
because I'm hearing you talk about sort of the aftermath and
54:17
going around and visiting each of the different properties in
54:19
the Vegas area. So even people who weren't at
54:22
the property where it happened in the whole city, the whole
54:25
country was affected by this to some degree.
54:28
Your office was actually in the. It was in Mandalay Bay, the
54:32
shooter was in Mandalay Bay, so it was the same, just.
54:34
A few floors above. I was on the 2nd floor.
54:37
They were higher up, so the second floor were executive
54:41
offices, but I had the same view of the festival grounds that the
54:45
shooter did. I mean, it's exactly the same
54:48
corner. Were you?
54:48
Witness to the events as they were.
54:50
Happening, No, I, fortunately, I, that night was also a Vegas
54:56
night hockey game. And my wife and I, we were
54:59
supposed to be at the event. We chose to go to the hockey
55:03
game. We were going to go by the event
55:06
before we went home. And my wife's like, let's just
55:08
go home. Like we're, we're done.
55:09
It's already 10:00. And that was the reason we
55:14
weren't there. We just chose to do another
55:16
event. And, and Anthony, I, I think
55:18
it's an important note because coming out of that, you know, I,
55:22
we had to see, I, I can tell you the story that when our
55:26
leadership team was meeting together, we had an XX what
55:31
officer that was there helping guide in, in some discussions
55:36
and actually told our CEO that everybody's running on
55:39
adrenaline and like, you need to make sure that they're all
55:42
talking to somebody. And he was talking about the
55:45
senior leadership. That was just again, from, from
55:48
the time the shooting happened for about 3 1/2 weeks.
55:51
We were just on and he just said, and he said they're
55:55
suffering from trauma and they don't know it.
55:57
And it's all adrenaline that's hiding it.
56:00
So you need to do that adrenaline going for weeks.
56:03
Yeah, Yeah. And you're just going non-stop.
56:05
And, and the reason I say that is like 2 1/2 weeks into it, I
56:08
walked into my office and there's somebody sitting in
56:10
there and I'm like, like, who are you?
56:12
And it was a doctor that was sent and somebody's supposed to
56:15
talk to me. And I said, look, I'm fine.
56:18
And they go, yeah, yeah. You know, people say that, Mike,
56:20
and you're fine. I go, look, I am mentally
56:21
exhausted. I am physically exhausted.
56:24
And if I'm doing it the right way, I should be.
56:26
And I said, but I'm OK. And I go.
56:28
I was supposed to be there that night, but I chose to go to a
56:31
Vegas hockey game. I go my brain does not work with
56:34
what if I made a different decision that put me in a
56:37
different situation. My brain does not go there.
56:40
That's not how my brain works. Not that, oh, I could have been
56:44
there. I didn't because I made a
56:46
different choice. And candidly, that's how life
56:48
works. Our choices put us in
56:50
situations. And I said I wasn't there.
56:53
I said, but I am running and talking to everybody.
56:55
I'm caring about everybody. And I go and guess what I have?
56:58
And it was a Friday. I go guess what I have tomorrow
57:01
on Saturday. And she's like, what?
57:03
And I said a two hour massage for myself.
57:05
Guess what I had last week on Saturday, a 2 hour massage for
57:09
myself. And I go and guess what I will
57:11
have next week on the Saturday? A 2 hour massage for myself
57:15
because I know I need it, I said.
57:18
But I am mentally fine. I understand that tragedies
57:22
happen and I don't put my head into what if my brain doesn't
57:27
work that way. Now some people do and it's just
57:30
the way my brain works and it's always freaked out my wife a
57:35
little bit because I don't think that way.
57:37
She can she can go down rabbit holes.
57:40
I don't go down rabbit holes. I'm like I made a different
57:43
choice and. Because that you don't have any
57:46
of that survivor guilt. Not a lot of other people were
57:49
affected by it. Now, and had I been there, I
57:52
probably would have, you know, that would have been different.
57:55
You know why me not them if you're at the situation, but or
57:59
at the event, I wasn't at the event because I made a different
58:02
decision. That was that was where my mind
58:05
works a little bit differently. And long ago, Anthony, there was
58:08
a lesson we had. It was a there was a guy named
58:10
Ted Willey and he had a book out.
58:12
It was Doctor Ted Willey and he had a book out called the power
58:14
of choice. And what he always talked and it
58:16
always stuck with me is that everything you experience in
58:19
your life, you choose to experience your choices put you
58:23
there. Doesn't mean you want to
58:25
experience something, but it's your choices to put you into
58:28
situations. And it's, it was a hard one
58:32
because it's like where he lost people and like we're doing this
58:35
whole workshop. He says if you're on a plane
58:38
that crashes, you chose to die. And people were like time out,
58:41
hold on. He goes, I didn't say you wish
58:43
to die. You chose which airline you
58:46
chose, which airport you chose, what time you were going to fly
58:49
out. He's like your choices put you
58:53
into the situation. And that was probably the most
58:56
sensational conversation because that was so it created so much
59:01
chaos with people that it was one of the healthiest
59:03
conversations we had the whole week.
59:05
And that's why he said it that way 'cause he wanted to get
59:08
does. That end up being healthy
59:10
because I could see people be and I I I have this initial
59:12
reaction like you're crazy. Yes, did I make those choices?
59:16
But I would have made different choices if I had any idea how
59:19
that was going to end up. Well, but you just said it.
59:21
You're talking about the result. He's his only message.
59:25
Your choices put you into the experience you're experiencing
59:29
and the and the reason you're having the whole workshop was
59:32
quit blaming everybody. It is your choices that are
59:35
putting you there. And that is, and he used an
59:38
example, anybody who's late to work, there's an accident on the
59:41
accident on the freeway. You chose not to give yourself
59:44
30 extra minutes. You chose what time you were
59:46
going to leave. There can always be an accident
59:49
on the freeway. He goes that becomes an excuse
59:51
for you not to perform. And that is where he was trying
59:54
to get people. It's your choices and the power
59:57
of choice was saying don't be a victim.
59:59
It's your choices. And he took the most extreme
1:00:02
with the the airline situation. But what he was trying to
1:00:05
explain, he said, I didn't say you wanted to die.
1:00:07
I didn't say that was your purpose of the day.
1:00:10
He's saying your choices put you into any experience that you're
1:00:14
experiencing. And if you can get start to live
1:00:17
that way, you start to live a little less like a victim.
1:00:20
And understanding my choices matter.
1:00:22
I wonder if there is a version of that that that I could use
1:00:26
with my kids. I think it's a.
1:00:30
It's a hard thing for me as a grown adult to be like, OK, I'm
1:00:34
starting to get there, but man, would I love for my kids to be
1:00:38
able to start to wrap their heads around that kind.
1:00:41
Of hiking. I think it's an important
1:00:42
lesson. And by the way, my youngest
1:00:44
daughter is the least victim. My youngest daughter's 34 now
1:00:48
and she is the least victim oriented child you will ever
1:00:51
see. But you know what she remembers.
1:00:54
Her kindergarten teacher misses Bennett and we do too that from
1:00:58
our verse parent teacher. She said, I believe in choices
1:01:02
and I believe in teaching your kids that all choices have
1:01:04
consequences. And she even in her her
1:01:08
kindergarten class said we're going to do English, we're going
1:01:11
to do writing, you know, or we're going to do math and then
1:01:14
we're going to do reading. The kids have to do each one of
1:01:17
those things, but she gave them the option in which order they
1:01:20
they had to do. So she taught them choices and
1:01:25
there was no choice to not do them, but you had the choice on
1:01:29
what order you did. And she actually said, I'm going
1:01:31
to tell the kids don't run on the playtop or the blacktop.
1:01:34
Don't run on the blacktop. Somebody's going to fall down,
1:01:36
no running on the blacktop. And she goes and one of your
1:01:39
kids is going to run and fall on the blacktop.
1:01:41
And when they skin their knee and, and they're starting to
1:01:45
whine to me, I'm going to send them inside and say, you know
1:01:48
where the 1st 80 kid is, Go clean up your wound because you
1:01:51
chose to run on the blacktop and that was your choice.
1:01:55
Now, she said, if your kid cracks their head open, I'm
1:01:57
taken care of. That's not my point.
1:01:59
But she goes, your kid skins their knee.
1:02:01
They need to learn that their choice to not follow instruction
1:02:06
is what led to that. And and it's something we used
1:02:09
to tell our kids all the time, Anthony.
1:02:11
You know, we would tell them one time it was A or B.
1:02:13
These are your choices. This is it.
1:02:15
Make a choice. And they didn't like either one
1:02:17
of them. That's not the option.
1:02:19
Make a choice and that gets them into the habit of making a
1:02:23
choice. And these, these were even in
1:02:26
punishments. We did this with my oldest
1:02:27
daughter. She was on a soccer team, a club
1:02:29
soccer team. And when she would get in
1:02:32
trouble, and it's like, you know, let's talk about what your
1:02:35
punishment's going to be. Well, I'm not going to the
1:02:37
tournament. I go.
1:02:37
That is not an option because you have a responsibility to a
1:02:40
team and they shouldn't suffer for your stupidity.
1:02:43
That's somebody else. That's you so let's try again
1:02:48
like that is a non option that's.
1:02:50
Where and what her consequences are going to be?
1:02:54
But I didn't let her make it up. I'm like, it's A or B.
1:02:59
Well, but I'm not. I don't want to go to the term
1:03:01
that's not your option, it's A or B.
1:03:04
And I think that's the important part.
1:03:06
It's not unlimited choices. Sometimes we don't have
1:03:09
unlimited choices as adults. And it's important to teach kids
1:03:12
young that, you know, the, the, the choices are sometimes hard
1:03:16
and got to make them. And I think it's important,
1:03:18
Anthony, if you do it when they're kids, you're doing it
1:03:21
when there's not life and death circumstances at stake.
1:03:25
They're learning choices at a very young age when it really
1:03:29
isn't that you know it isn't going to be that impactful to
1:03:33
their life overall. I just got one more question for
1:03:36
you, Michael as. We.
1:03:37
Yes, Sir. But before I ask it, I also want
1:03:39
to let people know the best way either to get in touch with you
1:03:41
directly or the brand or continue to follow your story.
1:03:44
What would that be? Sure.
1:03:46
Couplethingsimm.dominguez@alhide.com It's as simple as it comes.
1:03:51
And I'm also on LinkedIn and they can follow me as Michael
1:03:54
Dominguez as well or just go to our Alhi website.
1:03:58
But I'm an open book and you'll see on my, even on my signature
1:04:03
line, I only have one phone number and it's my cell phone.
1:04:05
I don't have any other phone. There is no phone number.
1:04:08
And I used to have people's like, I can't believe you put
1:04:10
your phone number on your business card.
1:04:11
I'm like, why? Because I want people to call
1:04:13
me. I'm in cells.
1:04:14
I want people to call me. So I don't have a lot of a lot
1:04:18
of gates. It's If you want to get a hold
1:04:20
of me, you can get a hold of me. I love that.
1:04:22
We'll make sure we include links to all those things in the show
1:04:24
notes for people. The last question for you, Yes,
1:04:27
Sir. You and I reconnect a year from
1:04:28
now and you're really excited because you are celebrating
1:04:31
something, one thing specific thing a year from now.
1:04:34
What is that one thing? I'm going to make it.
1:04:37
I'm going to make it too, just because yesterday was my 36th
1:04:41
wedding anniversary, so I'm hoping.
1:04:43
I'm celebrating on 37th. I know I will be.
1:04:46
And I always say hoping because God willing, we're both still
1:04:49
here. But 37, I would want to be
1:04:51
celebrating. And outside of that, as an
1:04:54
organization, we're building out an entire leisure division just
1:05:00
like we have on our group side. And I'm hoping on a year from
1:05:04
now celebrating that we have 50 members in our leisure program
1:05:08
already and that thing is starting to hit on on all
1:05:11
cylinders and we're on our way to 100.
1:05:13
And what does a leisure? Program look like for you guys
1:05:15
then. So for a luxury, for anybody in
1:05:18
the luxury space, if you're in the luxury programs, it's having
1:05:21
a global sales team that can help you with those programs.
1:05:24
Like everybody wants to be an American Express Fine Hotels and
1:05:27
Resorts program, which is the Platinum program from a travel
1:05:30
perspective. Well, once you're in the
1:05:32
program, who's dealing with the agents, Who's dealing with the
1:05:35
three call centers that they have across the country?
1:05:38
Who's making sure you're adhering to all policy within
1:05:41
that part? Because that's one of fifty
1:05:42
programs, your hotels apart. So we're building out a team
1:05:46
that can help one with the hand holding and education of the
1:05:50
agents. And it's probably a surprise,
1:05:53
Anthony. People used to think that travel
1:05:54
agencies were dead. Travel agencies has had a new re
1:05:58
emergence. And in the luxury space
1:06:00
specifically, people want someone to take care of all the
1:06:03
arrangements for them. They've got all the money in the
1:06:05
world. They don't care about, you know,
1:06:08
paying for it. It's like, here's my credit
1:06:10
card, can you make the arrangements?
1:06:11
That is still really a big, big proponent of what we're doing.
1:06:15
We know it's a gap for our hotels 'cause they can't do it
1:06:18
themselves. That's a lot of human capital
1:06:20
that doesn't make sense at the property level.
1:06:22
Makes a lot of sense. So is this is this sort of
1:06:25
managing the relationship between the travel agents and
1:06:28
and the? Hotel, yes, OK, yes, yeah.
1:06:30
But you've got Virtuoso, you have American Express, you have
1:06:33
ABC Travel, you have Valerie Wilson, you have Altour Travel,
1:06:38
and that's just the top five. There's hundreds of those that
1:06:42
you have to manage and it's not being part of the program, it's
1:06:45
how do you leverage the program. And we're trying to be a very
1:06:48
strategic partner in that. And that's where our hotels are
1:06:51
excited because we want to help them analyze their market where
1:06:54
they can move share, what programs we think they can move
1:06:57
share in and help them do that. Because when you're running a
1:07:00
hotel day-to-day, you don't have time.
1:07:02
Like I said, it's nice just to have a time out and think, and
1:07:05
that's what I think that allows you to do.
1:07:07
There has to be a a pretty big tech component to what it is
1:07:10
that you guys are building out to manage all these different.
1:07:13
Well, now that the the tech, the tech is on their platforms
1:07:16
already, the rest of it for us is literally just a really good
1:07:19
CRM system. We're in Salesforce, you know,
1:07:22
it's managing that side of it and managing the notes and what
1:07:24
that looks like. But the tech platforms already
1:07:27
exist for the hotels. We're just helping them and
1:07:31
going back to what we said about AI, we're helping them analyze
1:07:34
all of that to try to make the best recommendations of what we
1:07:37
should be targeting. And and it's more of a laser
1:07:40
focus versus the shotgun approach to those type of
1:07:43
programs. Gotcha.
1:07:45
Michael Dominguez from Al High. I want to be the first to thank
1:07:48
you for sharing with your time and your story with us today.
1:07:50
I really appreciate it. Now, thank you Anthony.
1:07:52
It's a lot of fun and you know, I could do this anytime.
1:07:55
I I enjoy these type of conversations.
1:07:58
Folks, that's a wrap on another episode of the Inspired Stories
1:08:00
podcast. Thanks for learning with us
1:08:02
today.