Why Staying in One Company Can Actually Accelerate Your Hospitality Career - Sara Masterson, Olympia Hospitality

Nancy: It's interesting and I think also wonderful that the tenure aspect of the Olympia Hospitality family, because it is kind of like that, in a world where some people, I mean, I remember when people would ask you, well, where do you see yourself in five years? And the right answer was, I see myself here growing with this company, and then On the flip side of that in recent history, it's been like, well, no, if you stay if you stay someplace five years, that's too long. That's too long. You need to move around. And that that was a very surprising turn of events to me. And, you know, you look at people's resumes and they're two years here, two years there, two years there. And it's a, you know, a kind of a gig culture and a gig society. But I think there's a predisposition to thinking if you stay someplace too long or a long time, it's a hindrance. I don't agree with that. And obviously you don't because you've grown. I mean, how many different milestones and different jobs have you had within the Olympia Hospitality?

Sara: Well, and I think that's a great, like that's a great differentiator, which is that because we have a broad footprint with a number of different property types and, you know, you are relying on a number of different skillsets, it's not always just a linear trajectory. You move around, you, you know, I started at a Hilton Garden Inn and then I went to an independent and Inn by the Sea, and then I sort of started to oversee more of our independent and boutique style of hotels, but then my footprint expanded and it included franchise and brands, which are quite different. And so it isn't a singular role. And in some ways it's of the same career path, but they're very, very different types of experiences all within one organization. And I think there's two things there. One is that our organization type and hospitality in general, I do think affords a lot of differentiation and just a lot of different jobs you can do in this space. And then I think for us organizationally, you know, we really, we, we value people's time. We are a family first organization. We're a culture focused organization. We're very people centric. And so it feels, it feels good to work for this group where it's not just transactional. It really does feel like family. There are people with this organization that I, I've worked with for all 19 years and they really are my family. And so I think those elements make us a little bit unique in this space that can otherwise be a little transactional and certainly transitional, you know, people moving kind of from job to job to job. But what we've been able to also, part of our growth strategy has been with our team in mind, that if we stayed a group of 15 hotels or 20 hotels or even 30 hotels, we weren't going to be able to provide those career paths for people. And so part of our growth strategy has been, okay, well, how can we make sure we can keep great people? We keep great people by building opportunities for them. And so that's always top of mind for us when we're looking at new management contracts or kind of as we expand our portfolio of work.

Nancy: Well, during all this time, speaking of family, you found time to raise a family. I understand you have two kids. How did you do all this? I mean, to raise, how old are your kids? I don't know.

Sara: My daughter is 17. Oh my God. And my son is 12.

Nancy: So you have grown. I mean, you have evolved in this role while raising a family. How did that go? I mean, how was that for you?

Sara: There are times where there's no doubt that it has been a challenge because you're sort of you're feeling a little bit divided or where your tensions need to be. But I also really do believe that you sort of as a person, you have 100 percent to give. And I don't believe in this whole work-life balance thing. It's just, it's not real. And trying to get 50% here and 50% there and be even and balanced, it's going to make you crazy. And so there are times in my career where I was traveling a lot, you know, I had a lot of external demand and that my career needed to take a little bit more than 50%. And it needed to do that in order for my family to be okay. I needed to be OK in my career and my workspace in order for my family to be OK. And then there were other times where my family had something going on and they needed more of my time and more of my attention. And so the pendulum is constantly swinging to your time and your resource allocation. And I would also just remind people, it's really important that you keep time and resources for yourself as well. Because you can't be good for any of those things if you're not taking care of yourself. I have a very supportive family. My husband is a teacher, and so his hours definitely worked better for kids who were school-aged. And I also think a lot of what I've done professionally has informed how I you know, how I am at home. Not that work and home are the same, but there are lessons learned in each different role, all the different roles we have, whether it's daughter or aunt or mom, that inform us in sort of our other capacities as well.

Nancy: I don't think to that point that you can separate who you are in business. I mean, you bring yourself to whatever you do. I know there are a lot of people that try not to, and it's nothing personal. Don't take this personally. Well, but it is. So, you know, there are all these things over the years that we've been told I mean also as women in the industry, I mean, it's it's societal Norms about a woman's position in business has changed so dramatically I mean, there's still a long way to go but it seems for you not to have been effortless But I think is it true that because you are in this? truly accepting environment. It's like if and a nurturing environment. Do you think that your evolution to this point in your career has been because of the culture, such as being in such a supportive culture?

Sara: Oh, without a doubt. I'm pretty determined. I'm pretty focused. And I think that those are also just important things because nothing, as you're growing and evolving in your career, I don't think these are necessarily handed to you. I think you have to take advantage of opportunities as they present themselves and learn from all of it. especially the things you do wrong, learning from mistakes, learning from, geez, I wish I had that decision back again. But yes, absolutely, the culture, the support that I get here has definitely been a major factor in where I've gotten in my career at this point.

Nancy: Has anything surprised you along this journey to where you are? It's so funny.

Sara: So we say this a lot because we work with people and, you know, people can be funny and, you know, make decisions that are sort of scratch your head. But every now and then I'm like, how could things still surprise me? But yes, things absolutely still surprised me, mostly around behaviors and decision-making and sort of like, why would you do that? But yes, I'm still regularly surprised by things. And I actually, I think that's good because I never presume that I sort of know what's next or what's on somebody's mind. So yes, I'm still frequently surprised and I hope that I always am. and I hope that I don't become predictable or try to predict everything that's going to happen.