Sparking Creativity through Travel: The Power of Inspiration - Richard Fertig, Stomp Capital

Josiah: 0:00

This week I'm heading on my summer vacation and, to be honest, i was a little bit hesitant to disconnect from it all and take a break, because I love what I do here. But to inspire others, we need to inspire ourselves, and to help us understand this, we're speaking today with Richard Fertig, the founder of Stomp Capital, which owns and operates boutique lodging from the Hamptons to Palm Springs to Costa Rica. Richard. Thanks for taking a little time to chat today. We actually spoke last summer. We're talking about the importance of inspiration and it's summer again and it's travel time for many of us. You just came back from some travel and I'm going to make sure that I link to some of the past conversations and stories that we've done together, because you have an incredible story and are building an incredible hospitality business. But maybe to kick off our conversation, i wonder if we could talk a little bit about the importance of taking a break and being.

Richard: 1:12

Inspired Absolutely Well. First, thank you so much for having me back. I think what you're doing is fabulous, and anything I can do to promote hospitality and learning and education, as well as learn from everything that you're doing, i really appreciate. So thank you. Look, i'm very fortunate so far. As I grew up, my father was an entrepreneur, completely self-made, didn't have the benefit of a formal education, so he dropped out in middle school after being born in 1926, which is the Great Depression. So his childhood was very different from mine and I think that really inspired him to learn from all the hardship that he had and try and provide a better future for his children, and so, consequently, i graduated middle school and high school and got my BA at Cornell and I got my MBA at Wharton, and he valued education that he didn't have, but for him, travel was his education and that's where he learned culture, language, food, sights, smells, and so I grew up in a family that traveled all the time and really think that the experience is worthwhile for everybody. So I know you're about to take a trip, which maybe got this on the calendar early, but for me it's very inspirational and I always love to study my surroundings the design, the decor, the architecture, the people, the language, and I think, if we can create some of these magic moments by borrowing things that we've seen elsewhere and creating a new recipe, we really inspire people. And what I tweeted about, i think which is what you responded to is something I very much believe in. You know, when you talk about taking timeouts and recharging, so often we read about the grind and the hustle and working more than everyone else and like that's all cool and all, but just like when you're strength training or working out, you also need time to recover and refresh, and so the tweet that I sent out was if you yourself are not inspired, how can you and how can you expect to inspire others? And as a team, you know, i'm a leader of a team, so I have to inspire my employees. I run an investment firm, at Stomp Capital. We have to inspire prospective limited partners to become our limited partners. We have to inspire our guests to take full advantage of all of our different hospitality assets, and so if it's just a job or boring, or commonplace, or just another Tuesday in the office, then we're not doing our job on any level, and so, whereas some executives feel like I'm cheating, i'm taking timeout, i'm with my family, i'm vacationing, i'm whatever. I view it the opposite way and I'm very fortunate that my fiance's real contribution to me personally is to keep me in what we call peak state and keep me constantly fresh and traveling and excited and so on. Because when you're in that state you can move mountains right, you can raise as much money, you can buy that deal, you can get on the podcast, you can do whatever. But if you're just sort of going along and it's home, you know, nice and steady and stable, and it's another Tuesday, moving that mountain is going to be really, really challenging, if not impossible. So I find a lot of creativity, i find a lot of inspiration personally, a lot of recharging during these periods where I'm off grid, so to speak, and so much so. You said something before we started recording. This is my life. When people ask when I'm in Italy, are you on vacation, are you working? I said it's actually quite blurred. I have such a fortunate life that I love what I do. I do what I love. I don't know when I'm in Italy if I'm working because I just saw that idea or if I'm recreating because I love that idea, but in either case, it's like inspirational and it's something to share with others. We come back and discuss it with our team, we talk about it on your podcast, and so these moments that might seem like we're not working, that's really where you're moving the needle.

Josiah: 4:59

Absolutely. It's funny because when the first stories that we did last year blew up, i think people are calling you the Bobby Axelrod of hospitality. But I think it's magnetic, right. People are attracted to people living interesting lives, building interesting things. And I think what stands out to me about your work is it's not just about the travel, it's about recreating, or it's taking that inspiration and then building it. And if you look at your portfolio of properties, you've developed your investments. It's highly differentiated offerings, right, and I think people get a kick out of checking those out. And I think you've talked before about some of the most compelling aspects of hospitality happening when we move from consistency to excitement. Right, and that's the opportunity. On Monday, we're going to be sharing the lessons Richard learned from his most recent travels. There are a ton of insights in that part of our conversation that I can't wait to share with you. So be sure to subscribe to Hospitality Daily and your favorite podcast player so you don't miss it.