The Hotel Culture I Experienced That Cared For People, Enabled Innovation & Earned Media Attention - Adam Wallace

Josiah: Adam, thanks for taking time to chat. I've been really looking forward to this. You and I have known each other for some time. I want to go back and spend the first part of our conversation talking about you. I love for listeners to get to know the people behind the ideas. You and I have known each other for years now. I want to go back as far back as you want to go and talk about how you got into the hospitality business and we'll go from there if that sounds good.

Adam: Yeah, I love it. And thanks so much for having me. It's been so amazing to see you get back into this podcast and been, of course, it's been, I think since 2007 or so since we knew each other, I think, we're both in our early twenties and inspired by the hospitality industry and so nice to, you know, come back and connect here. You know, probably my first exposure to hospitality was waiting tables in college, actually. And the summers in Saratoga Springs, New York, it was a horse town and horse racing town and big restaurant scene. And I actually loved my summers there waiting tables and working at some Italian restaurants and whatnot. And I love the service side of the business. I love the, you know, creating great experiences for guests, the details of it, all of that. Then 2006. My cousin invited me to come to New York. He was a aspiring filmmaker, and I had hacked around on some Dreamweaver websites in college. And he said, Hey, I'd love for you to create a web platform for the videos that I'm making. And we could do this tied to the hotel that my family owned and operated. So moved to New York and started hacking together a video-based blog with John and 2006. So it was the Fall before YouTube was bought by Google. So it was super early video marketing, and we were doing really creative storytelling and content creation for my family's hotel. Then my other cousin said, Hey, you're going to need health insurance. So why don't you take a union busing shift to the right? So I took the 5 a.m. breakfast bussing shift, and on the side, I was cultivating this content game. Then I ended up managing the restaurant. We stopped the content piece, and my uncle said, hey, have a practical job and manage the restaurant. And I loved that too. I was detail-oriented, creating experiences, learning how to manage union employees, sort of that hands-on experience. Then, in 2008, there was sort of a moment of evolution in the social media industry. It was around when Twitter was launched at South by Southwest. And we hired Brian Simpson, who had come to New York to launch the restaurants at the Plaza Hotel. And he came and took the restaurant manager position that I was sitting in. And his girlfriend at the time was one of the first thousand users on Twitter. And he would have her come hang out at the bar, and he was managing the bar and he started saying, Hey, well, asking guests if they had Twitter accounts and talking her friends on Twitter to come hang out at the hotel. And we sort of had this backbone of content storytelling. Then Brian and this sort of community management Twitter early days moment, he connected that up in a big way and started talking to people in social media. It was kind of the first moment that businesses were talking in a human kind of way. And so that sort of community development online and then the Twitter crowd saw that we were storytellers and we were creatives and we were doing video marketing and they were like, Oh, you're one of us. And so that took off quickly. And we became, you know, people called us the cheers of social media. We were doing three to five social media events a week. 2009, we were doing $50,000 a month in Twitter bookings for 130-room hotel and got a lot of press and conference speaking and took off from there. So, and just, you know, a lot that I learned from my aunt and uncle during that time as well.

Josiah: It's crazy to think back to that moment because you talk about Twitter and driving so much revenue through Twitter. It was so new, right? It was so new. And I think you and I actually may have met through Twitter. And I want to go and kind of pull on a thread that you mentioned of there was a back there's a backbone of storytelling or there's a culture of storytelling. And the reason I want to talk a little bit more about that, because the world's always changing, right? Now, social media has, you know, there's many almost scientific elements to it, even though there is a strong creative element. We're going to get to that. But the culture in how people experiment with new things is fascinating to me, because whatever the next wave of innovation is, it's going to start with the culture, right? Tell me a little bit about the culture in the hotel with your family or extended family, what led to that that enabled you to experiment really quickly and achieve some of these results?

Adam: Yeah, no, it was amazing culture there. And I'd say first and foremost, what I've learned in the sort of 17 years of my time in the industry since then, as well as that, as I reflect back on that time, was that it was different being a family-owned and operated hotel. And not just because it was my own uncle that had it, but there's a culture that was different there and also being a single property owner, where they were in it, my aunt and uncle were in it. And my uncle was an amazing painter and sculptor and his wife's father had started the hotel back in the great depression era, late twenties, early thirties. And Suzanne, who we call Sutu, my aunt, She really, since the 80s, had such a, you know, sort of a back-to-the-soul-of-hospitality kind of spirit and she, you know, designed the rooms in a sort of classic New England style that was very homey, very warm, very you know, the lamps in the right places and the energy of it wasn't trying to pick up on trends, wasn't trying to be some conceptual thing. It was really, you know, how do I make this place warm and homey? And I realized, you know, you know, I've learned so much from my uncle and that he was so visionary on the creative side, but My aunt, the backbone of it was that humanity and that hospitality. And I realized too, and have grown my business that it really starts with how they treated their team and their employees. And that they, it was union hotel and so many people complained about the union and its challenges. And so much of that is based on P&L spreadsheet complaints on the cost of union and this and that. But they had that challenge of course, but more so they had a focus on humanity. And my uncle carried on in such a big way, but my aunt was, there was a soul of that, that you feel that in how you treat your employees leads to how they treat your guests. And there's something about like back to that, like the soul of hospitality of people entertaining and having them into their home, that it was such a spirit. And yeah, sadly, she passed away two days ago. So it's top of mind. She had a long battle with Parkinson's, which is a very challenging disease. And yeah, sadly passed. So there's a big reflection on that that I've had this week of you know, going back to actually, what is my core in this space? And it's like, and the love of that, you know, creating a space for strangers that you can become friends with and people that become loyal and they come back and, and they did an amazing job with that. That just, you know, I think probably the most loyal guests they maybe ever had, which was an amazing relationship that they formed with Jane Goodall, a primatologist and environmentalist. It was her home in New York for 30 years, never stayed anywhere else. And it was about this sort of. warm hospitality, this warm feeling. And she would invite her friends in and do Friends of Jane gatherings in her suite. And, you know, it was a platform that catered to that kind of home amongst the skyscrapers and sort of capitalism-driven energy of Lexington Avenue and Midtown Manhattan. So no, she, her spirit is strong and we learned a lot from her.

Josiah: Well, thank you for sharing that. I'm sorry for your loss, for your family's loss, but it's remarkable to hear the impact that she made, that your uncle made in terms of the culture and the environment that you're in. I think a lot of people talk about hospitality, being people driven. Sometimes that just feels like lip service until you get into the stories. And that's why I love hearing about family businesses, especially your family business and how that has shaped you. And then the impact on people, some of them famous, some of them that, you know, maybe people have never heard of, but this is part of their story, right? This is part of their, their memory. I wonder, was there any specific story or memory that stands out to you early on from your aunt in terms of that's shaped how you, you think about hospitality today?

Adam: Well, I think I saw she led the sort of the housekeeping team. She led the, she led the room side and she led the sort of operations on that side. And my uncle more on the forward-facing side. And, you know, I think seeing the like dignity and respect that she had for the housekeepers was impactful to me. And there was moments when, you know, we were. You know, there was a snowstorm one winter where the subways, I think were closed as a big snowstorm. And we were sort of on the block and we went in and, you know, did the sheets, you know, we did it, you had to support housekeeping. It was a moment where you have to just roll up your sleeves and do whatever it is. And the sort of warmth of, you know, treating everyone in the company with a dignity and respect of humanity. And that led me to do, you know, I was a photographer and doing video work and. I did a, one of my favorite projects I did there was a, I did a piece called the many faces of Roger Smith. And I did, you know, sort of beautifully done portraits of all of the staff members at the hotel of all parts. And, you know, it wasn't about trying to hide the back of house staff. It was actually honoring them. And I, You know, I was fascinated by, you know, the multicultural nature of it. You've got people from all over the world coming to New York. And, you know, and I think that Sue too, just like, I saw the level of dignity that she treated them with and the way that that energy transmitted through into the guest experience. And I think that's, I reflect now having worked with hundreds of hotels, that that's not always the case that there's like a. you know, the workers may be a line item and need to get it done right operationally. Otherwise they're scared they're going to lose their job or something where this is like much more of a warm kind of approach that she had that I think really filtered through.

Josiah: What an incredible person. And it's awesome to hear that. I appreciate you sharing that. I think, you know, what stands out to me as you were sharing that is just the need to connect with our own story, our own histories. Everybody has a different background, right? And an understanding kind of where is this coming from? Because it felt like the culture at this hotel shaped all the innovation that you did. And you got mainstream media attention for it. You drove incredible business results. You're on the forefront of media, of social media, of storytelling, and You know, more than a decade ahead of other hotels, you're very early, but you can't manufacture that. Right. You can't just conjure up this way of embracing. It felt like it was driven by culture. It was driven by something that was much deeper than this is a social media campaign.

Adam: Yeah. Yeah. No. And this intersection between the company culture leading to marketing culture in a way. And I also like. You know, I guess it's, you know, I always knew how special it was, but reflecting back and seeing that like the content that my uncle was pushing us to do ultimately had a tie back to business results. And also it was through the lens of like a human experience that he was trying to create in the marketing, in the storytelling. And so he would encourage us to do things that, that wasn't just, here's our product buyer product. It was, you know, he had an amazing installation and performance art gallery that he ran for 10 years that each month would have a different installation and he would encourage us to go do video stories about the artist and the art would be on display to the street corner of 47th and Lexington in Midtown Manhattan. But what he was interested in was the humanity behind that story and us doing through this video-based blog and video storytelling, we called it Roger Smith News, was really, you know, about attracting like-minded people through a culture of human storytelling through meaning, though, you know, that sort of depth. And there was, you know, the art was often deep and challenging. Probably the most significant piece was this Colombian artist, Cata Mejia, who did four shows there. That was a wild installation piece. about, she was from Colombia, about her brother being kidnapped and murdered by a FARC terrorist guerrilla. And we told her story. And she told her story through this art and through this, you know, connection. And we attracted an art scene. We did, you know, lunch meetups with artists and, you know, artists would stay at the hotel and artist residencies. Similarly, on the food and beverage side, we would connect meaningfully with guest chefs and create experiences. And so I think that that just, there was a culture of this, like being interested in a hotel as a platform for people and storytelling and both hosting people and telling stories and, and let that attract people in. And it's very different than just saying, Hey. do whatever I can to drive top line revenue. And in order to do that, the common thinking was, and still is for a lot of people, let's take a picture of our empty hotel room and let it be a design story. Fine. The design story is there. I love design. I love, you know, interiors and hotel room, but I think there's a culture still to this day of just, here's my product by my product. And in the 17 years of the evolution of social media, that do you really want to follow an account when you know that all they're trying to do is sell you their product and all they do is post their product every time? Like, why do I want to follow your advertisement? And still to this day, I think there's so much negative space between like getting to meaning, getting to depth, getting to, Hey, what inspired your chef to come up with that dish? What is it about him and his or her and her life that led her to find those ingredients? Who created those ingredients? Who's the, you know, the sommelier that goes to a vineyard, like what's the story of the vineyard, you know? And so there's like, there's so many layers of depth that I feel like we're just still superficial and storytelling and marketing, but actually like you can attract people by, by getting a layer deeper. And that culture was so there.

Josiah: And it's so exciting to think about the possibilities there. I think if you describe some of the outcomes that you had of being a hub in your community and attracting talented people to work at your hotel, attracting amazing guests and getting the publicity that you did, every hotel owner, every hotelier wants that outcome. But I'm always interested to dig into what are the inputs that are different, right? And what I heard from you are dedicating space, dedicating staff time, dedicating attention in your communication. to this. And so you can't just kind of bolt this on. It feels like it needs to be a part of how you think about the business. And there's going to be tradeoffs, right, that make this happen. But it seems to be an investment that is paying. Well, it did pay off and it builds. It seems durable advantage versus some ephemeral ad campaign. Yeah.

Adam: I think also being very specific and decisive about your target audience. Super important. So one of the interesting things that my uncle did is it was still coming out of a time that was, I think, more driven on travel agents than it is now. You know, it was sort of the early 2000s, a little bit like pre-digital marketing and being the primary either driver. And so he would do things where he would, you know, they had a family connection to Spain and they formed relationships with travel agents in Spain and they were specific about going for a target audience of outbound from Spain to, to New York. And so they would, we would go and we'd create content from Spain and do story. We did a Roger Smith world report and we would go and like make ourselves known in Spain, you know, and meet with travel agents and whatnot, but tell their stories. He did it in the nineties, a series of an Iberian food festival. And so we would have guests, Spanish chefs come over and Spanish food and, you know, embrace that community of saying, Hey, like. We were invested in the Spanish traveler, and then they did an intern program, partnered with hotel schools out of Spain, and they took their 17th floor space, which was unutilized and had a apartment up there. And for 20 years, they had five interns at a time living in the apartment upstairs, and they each worked in a different department. And they were mostly from Spanish hotel schools. And, you know, they furthered that sort of like specific word of mouth within a target market. And then we extended that where like, we said, okay, well, could we, and the arts community was obviously one. And then, you know, if we've got a food and beverage focus and there's a, you know, say a wine element to that. I was always looking for who can we connect up storytelling wise. That's going to have an audience that's going to be interested there. So during that time, Gary Vaynerchuk was just getting started as, as a wine blogger and he. started his wine blog four months after YouTube was launched and and took off. He was this like sort of, you know, aggressive Jersey, you know, totally different archetype than the typical wine community. And he took off and was on Ellen and Conan and like, like mainstream press for his wine blog. And we said, Hey, Gary, like, why don't you host your wine library TV live from our space? And we'll get that wine interested community here. And so that like extent network extensions of storytelling tied to a specific. Audience and then hosting people that are going to have the network that network effect was incredible. Um, and we had a lot of that with a lot of different people in that sort of social media space. So I think it's like, yeah, specific, being specific about who you're trying, who your hotel is for and creating community around that. And that's, yes, it's space and yes, it's the right people and it's all that, but it's, you know, actually caring about being resident within a community of people that want to stay here. It makes a difference.