Mastering Media: How I Became An In-Demand Travel & Hospitality Expert For TV, Newspapers & Social Media - Sarah Dandashy

Josiah: 0:00

How can you tell stories and create content that gets you attention and media coverage? Stick around to learn from someone who has cracked the code on this to earn hundreds of thousands of social media followers, and as an in-demand guest expert on shows such as the Kelly Clarkson show and Good Day LA and networks from ABC to CBS to NBC, and has been featured everywhere from the New York Times to Readers Digest. One of Sarah Dandashy's first roles in her hospitality career was as a hotel concierge, work that she ended up winning an award for, but she's always been fascinated by media. Today, she is the number one best-selling author of Hospitality from Within, the host of the Creator's Podcast with Visit West Hollywood, and the co-host of Good Morning Hospitality, covering Hotel News for Hospitality FM, and as an in-demand guest in digital print and broadcast media. In this special episode, she shares with us the journey to her work today and the lessons that she's learned that we can all use to create opportunities for ourselves and our organizations. Tell us a little bit about your career journey and what led you to what you're doing today.

Sarah: 1:26

What's so interesting is that what I feel like what I do today, combines the best of both worlds. I always kind of have my finger in two industries, so to speak. I always had a passion for film and TV and had always been involved in that, even as a teenager and going to college as well. While I was going to school at Georgetown in Washington DC, so getting that fancy international relations degree, my cousin, who had gone to a hotel school Lozan, for those that are familiar he was working at the Four Seasons in Washington DC and he was like, why work at this restaurant down the street when you can work at the Four Seasons? And at that time I was like, oh, get paid $3 more, I'll be rich. And so that's naively, but that's what I kind of got me into the whole hotel world. And what I will say about this is that going in at 19 years old into some place as structured as the Four Seasons was a wonderful introduction to the hospitality industry because their training program was so spot on. I think we maybe even did three days of training and I was a hostess in the lobby bar. Now, granted, it's Washington DC and I got to rub elbows with a lot of big-week people but coming into hospitality and having that training is so important. It was so important for me then and it's still so important for people to this day. So, fast forward, end up moving out to Los Angeles because again I have this interest in film and TV. I was like, well, I need a day job. And so I was like I guess I'll do hotels. A hotel manager was like I think you'd make a great concierge. And I was like I'm going to be real honest with you. I just moved to LA. I know how to get from myself to the grocery store, the gas station I somehow got here to this interview today, but I can figure it out, I'm good with maps. And he just looks at me. He's like, okay, we know you're good with maps, you're good. So that's how I became a concierge and very luckily, a five-star, five-diamond property then ended up working at the peninsula in Beverly Hills and then fast forward a bit and worked at the London West Hollywood. So that's the journey as far as my concierge hotel journey joined Les Clefs d'Or, the gold keys. The ultimate professional concierge. And in the meantime I have been doing this ....not everybody knows this, but I have been doing sketch comedy, stand up, and then I was actually writing an online show, and so while I was doing that, I had an instructor say okay, everybody needs to do a vlog, a video blog about what you're an expert in. And I'm like, dude, what am I an expert in? I'm like, well, how old was I at this point? I'm like I'm like 28. I'm not an expert in anything, I'm not even an expert in life. But I thought about it and I was like, okay, you know what I'm just going to talk about, what I talk about on a daily basis, which I give advice. I do give professional advice to travelers at the concierge desk. Maybe I'm overlooking it and whatever. And I very quickly realized I was underestimating the knowledge that I had. So, for everybody tuning in, remember that you know way more than you think you know and you take for granted, because you know it so well, it's so close to you, it's right under your nose. So that's how I created the brand Ask a Concierge. I was always interested in social media. I mean, I basically grew up on Facebook. I was part of the first I don't know 12 people that joined, and so social media was interesting to me. I was like I didn't care. I was like, cool, I'll try it, and if it doesn't work, it's so long as you don't say something horribly offensive which I encourage everybody to not do try it. And so I ended up creating this blend of my two worlds, where I had this background in media. I was game to play and try on social media. I came up with the brand Ask a Concierge and then it tied in all my professional work that I've been doing for so, so many years. So there's a little bit of the long version, but that's kind of the way that it's tied. I've been able to kind of tie together these two aspects of the industries that I've worked in as well as, like my personality and all of that so fast forward. Obviously, Ask a Concierge is what I do full time. There are many aspects and elements to the business from the media side, and then I also even have private concierge clients as well too. So I still dabble and keep my fingers in a bit of the industry.

Josiah: 5:34

Thanks for walking us through that, and I always find that the people that are building the most interesting things connect all these threads throughout their career, throughout their personal life as well, and it makes them one of a kind right, and so it's interesting to think about. What is that intersection of you know for you, this interest in hospitality and media and acting like a concierge? I want to go back to that moment where, the early days of you being a concierge, you ended up winning an award for your work as a concierge, and how did you you met? You were kind of describing the very first hours or days as a concierge. How did you learn to be a helpful, effective concierge in early on in your career there?

Sarah: 6:13

You know. So I think, because I came into being a concierge and I'm talking about gosh I might have been like 21, 22. And I'm working in a high-level hotel in Beverly Hills like people that are flying private jets and like they're renting bent leads, and I didn't grow. I mean, I'm aware of that out there in the world, but it's like that wasn't. It's not like I grew up around that so immediately, but I was just very curious and I think, if I'm really going to sum it down to something very simple and tangible, I was curious and so and I didn't judge myself and I was just very honest. So if somebody asked me like, oh hey, can you give me the recommendation for XYZ? I didn't know, but I was just like you know what? I'm not sure, but let me go ahead and find out for you. Nobody minded that they didn't know. What they cared about is that I was eager to find out. And so, being curious, being eager and excited about finding out, the answer was just the perfect attitude and outlook for that industry. And then you, just you learn from experience, because there's no as anybody that works in hospitality although no day is the same and you just learn and you go and so, and then with time, then you'll be like, okay, yeah, surprise me, shock me, what's your unusual request today? But you know at the beginning that curiosity is really what keeps you moving forward and because it's curious, you're open-minded, so you're not judgmental, and I think that that's. Another big element to the hospitality industry is that every day we're crossing paths with people from so many different walks of life. I mean, I would have people staying at a five-star hotel that were like I want to take the Metro, and I was like yo, I've never taken the Metro in Los Angeles. Like you, sure you're going to come back, okay, which is I'm saying that tongue in cheek, but it's understanding that, yeah, somebody might be staying at the five-star, five-diamond hotel, but like they want to take public transportation and I'm not here to judge them, I'm just here to give them the way. And if they ask for a little bit of advice, I might be like, eh, might not recommend it because it might take a lot longer and maybe that $7 for an Uber might be more effective. Use of your time, but up to you. So again, it's all knowing how to be diplomatic and sharing your opinions on things and just giving people the options.

Josiah: 8:36

I imagine that's very much an art form of saying hey, maybe you haven't thought about this, here's something to consider. But also I hear that you want this and I'm going to make happen what you're looking for.

Sarah: 8:47

Oh, totally. It's always that like fine too. And then, especially like in the world of concierge, you know, obviously, your program to like it's to say yes, your program to make the unimaginable happen. But guess what? Like that also, everything also revolves around availability, the price, all of that other stuff. So you have to be able to kind of dance around that Sure, I hear your request. This is, this is the options that I do have. So again, it's like when you're coming back to them and being like OK, well, I don't quite have this, but I have these two other options. It's amazing how you can kind of sway people, or if you're like, why do you want to do that? Like, what are you really looking for, and so you almost get the essence of what they want. And then you might guide them and be like you know, I know you really want the most celebs spotting experience. Well, this seems like it would be it, but this is actually where the celebrities are. So then you can kind of guide them in that sort of way. So again, having these conversations, it's amazing what people will share with you. But then it also makes it so much easier to end up fulfilling those requests or guiding them in a different direction if they need to.

Josiah: 9:56

I appreciate you breaking that down because I want to transition to talk about media and I feel there's a lot of people out there that look at the work that you're doing A lot of hoteliers, a lot of people in the hospitality industry broadly that are doing interesting things and I think they should be sharing that because more people could discover what they've created. But sometimes people get so lost in the hacks or the algorithms or like how do you hack YouTube and get these views? I feel like a really important thing to consider is be useful right. If you're being useful and valuable, that's going to do well for yourself or your business over time, and I think that is a theme in what I'm hearing you describe. What it took to be an effective concierge. Right is to be useful. But now we think about being useful in the media environment. You've had an interest in media for a long time. You've been involved in digital media creation for a long time. I'm curious, as you mentioned early in your story, experimenting with blogs and stuff like that do you recall the moment where you decided to make a more substantial commitment to creating stories online and participating in creating digital media?

Sarah: 10:58

It was actually probably pretty early on because I created, you know, I came up with the name Ask a Concierge and I was just like, hey, I'm doing this as an assignment, nobody's going to see this like whatever. But I did specifically choose the name Ask a Concierge and not Ask the Concierge because I never wanted to be like, oh, I'm the know it all. I am definitely not the know it all, I'm really good at finding out and I'm really good at Google. I'm going to be honest, really good at that. But it was like the idea of like Ask a Concierge, and so that was sort of my nod to the whole profession as well too, because it's like I'm not the expert in Paris but I do know the experts that are there. So it's that reminder of like when you go somewhere, ask a Concierge, like ask the people that know. So that's kind of like where the branding was. And then, very early on, I realized that that branding, like it was resonating with people. I got lucky, like I pulled the name like out of just out of a hat, not really, but you know what I mean. I just came up with it and it was just one of those like happy accidents, sort of speak, and bigger brands started responding pretty early on on the Twitter days, like the og Twitter days, and I was being asked to do Twitter chats and all that I'm like. Well, maybe there's more to this, and so I was always affirmed. But first of all, I always doubled down on video from the beginning, even when all of these platforms didn't really they weren't, like, optimized to video. Yes, they allowed video, but, like even Instagram at the beginning only did 15 seconds, and so I was like, okay why video? because to me, that would felt most authentic to my background as far as like I, to me the a I Feel like video, it's like it says like a thousand words. I always enjoyed that medium and I felt that if you could focus on the video component, like that just says so so much more than Maybe it was a nod to like my attention level or my attention span, like I was like I don't really want to read a two-page blog. Bless you all for doing that. I would much rather watch like a 15 second video, 30 second video and like get all the info I need. So I think that was just always something intuitive in me, and so that's what I liked about social media Is that, look, you could give these bite-sized snippets of things. By the way, I think it's hilarious coming from a person that wrote a book. The joke was it's like like I'm not a big reader. I like I didn't even read the book I wrote. Of course I did, but it's like I get it and that that was actually by design. When I look back at my book, oh, cool, there are also a lot of snippets in there, not done on purpose, but fun to kind of go back and see. So for me, I just think it's so much easier. Everybody's busy and I recognize this from a very early, early on. People are busy, people are doing a gazillion things, they've got families, they have work commitments. So how can you be the most effective? And it's really in these like little, like bite-sized nuggets of information or inspiration. Hello, look at news. Maybe back then not so much or whatever, but, like again, it's just understanding that this is how people kind of need to consume information in today's world and Obviously ahead of the curve. But again, it was just going based off of my gut instinct and I think, if anybody, if you're worried about doing anything in Media or social media, pay attention to what resonates with you because, like you are, you're an audience you consume as well too, and pay attention to your habits. Like, if you like, for me, I realized, wow, I don't like to sit down and read a whole lot of stuff. I prefer like quick, quick, short things, and so that's what I focused on. I mean, I would even get in arguments with my editors on on doing YouTube videos. I want to do a 20 minute video. I'm like bro, I don't even want to watch a 20 minute video on myself, you sure. And he's like no, no, no for sure. And I'm like can we like do a 45 second version, like a couple 45 second? So again, that was just always how I consumed information and how I like to do it. So I kind of veered towards that, but there are people that like longer form and other things, so there's no. The point is is that there's no wrong way to do it, and I think that's the other thing with media. So many people get so nervous they're like oh my gosh, like what if I mess up? What if it doesn't get a lot of views? Don't think about that. You have to focus on Consistency and I think, if anything, it's you just. You just have to be Consistent and just show up. Because, yeah, if you look back, by the way, I still have my original videos online on YouTube. They look really weird. You can watch them. I have like a scarf. People like you look like a flight attendant. I'm in my bedroom. It's weird. I mean it's appropriate, but it's just like oh. So people get too often too obsessed with like oh my gosh, the end product. You're so good, this, now that, and it's like yeah, but also I've been doing this for 12 years. So like give yourself a break, it's okay and I'm not perfect. Now, I did a TV segment a couple weeks ago and I was like, oh god, I was like tripping over my words and whatever, and it was just a day that I just wasn't perfect. Do other people notice? Maybe, maybe not, but again you just have to like let it happen, be okay. And so long as you lead with Positivity and good intentions and you're just mindful, you're not out there like cyber, bullying people or saying negative things, so long as you're doing a positive thing and you're trying to bring some value. It's amazing how forgiving people are. So just play like. How cool social media is, this sort of great Equalizer in Outreach and who you're able to reach out to. Like, how am I friends with ceo is of hotel companies? Now, I was a concierge, in essence, like, if you look at the hierarchy of a hotel, why would the ceo of a hotel care about a concierge of one property? What I entered? I entered the chat, I created the chat, so so again, if you look at social media, yes, you've got algorithms and all that that go into it, but if you look at social media as a way of Really connecting and breaking down those barriers, it's amazing how it can work in your favor. You just have to be consistent and add value, and that will work with you. That help drive it forward.

Josiah: 17:16

I think that consistency is a really good reminder for those listening, because I think many times you know, if we think about our lives or careers, maybe I want to clear change and I want something to happen overnight. Or I'm, you know, running a business and we're Making something new, change or something announcement, and if you expect to be perfect on just kind of those moments, there's a lot of problems with that. Right, you just you won't have the practice, you won't have the reps, you won't have the audience that you need, and so there's something about kind of the constant routine practice of getting better over time and sharing a story time. I do want to ask about how you think about what to share. So again for someone who's listening, maybe working at a hotel or other hospitality business, they're serving their guests, are taking care of their team, stuff like that. You've been in this role, right, and you started out from the perspective of a concierge and in a very specific role. But I'm curious how you think about what to talk about, because that might help guide our listeners and how they think what they might share.

Sarah: 18:10

So I mean, at the end of the day again and I love that you ask this question because, for those that happen to follow me and I'm far more active on instagram I actually just shared a very personal post two days ago when I always kind of lean into the side of professionalism and don't always like share what's going on totally behind the curtain, and it was very tough for me but I knew I needed to do it and that kind of will help guide this answer. But in general, you want to be professional, I want to be professional, but you also people want personality. So it's like have, have a little bit of this personality. And when you're talking like what to share, again, it's like if you're leading with, like how I can I provide value? Maybe that values are sources, inspiration, like inspiration can also be valuable. And then how to just have like a little bit of something special to it, like people just don't. We're all being inundated with information on a regular basis, so like, how can you just be you? And maybe, if you are doing social media on behalf of a brand, how can you maybe have a little bit of your personality come out in that? Now, again, you do want to keep in mind that you know you might be speaking on behalf of a brand. So it's like you do want to stay within certain parameters. I mean, at the end of the day, if that's the case, you work jobs before we've all worked for people, before you have a general understanding as far as what's appropriate behavior, what's not appropriate behavior. So, if you kind of understand that like, would I do this in the workforce, like what's safe for work, you know, I know those are broad strokes, but it's like, again, have that personality for sure and then play with that, that that's, I think, where people should like, lean into it and it's what's true to you. I love music and so, for those that follow like me on Instagram, music is a huge part of what I share my stories. People are like oh my God, I'm on a musical journey. Are we in the 60s or are we in the 80s today? I don't know. We've got hip hop. But again, that's like me being me and it's like I'll add that to some things. And sometimes I even like we'll do something tongue-in-cheek and add music that's completely opposite to like the visual that you're seeing. So, again, that's just something that's unique to me. So, again, these are like random examples, but a different way to kind of give people like the green light to play and that's the whole thing is like play, because people want to see you having fun. Now, when it comes to like how much you share, that is a personal like. If you're talking about like a personal brand, it's up to the individual. You know like sometimes people want to share their personal life. You know, some people are cool sharing their kids online. Some people are like oh, no way, my cousin of mine has never shared a photo of her child online. She always has like an emoji in his face or the back of his head, and it's now going on like five years and I think it's kind of actually hilarious now. But again, that was like a personal choice for her. I'm always very professional. I don't always share what's going on behind the scenes. The other day I was like, okay, I'm going to just like share a little bit more, and the response has been very positive. So again, if you are honest, if you're authentic to yourself, it's amazing how much people will just they'll, they'll soak it in and they will be your biggest fans and supporters and most likely they're probably it's going to resonate with them because, guess what? We are all humans at the end of the day. We've all gone through something similar. So I think that that's the really great part, the community aspect that you can build beyond social media. So really like, like, put that out there and know that what you put out there, you will attract and bring back in.

Josiah: 22:01

Those are good guidelines to think about and there's a fair amount of latitude there in terms of how you decide to express yourself, right. But I think that's good guiding principles. And if I think about your work with Ask a Concierge, you're drawing from kind of what would, what might someone be curious about, based on on my experience, right? So that may be another starting point of think about. You know what capacity are you working, what might people outside of working in that job be curious about, and how can you share from that?

Sarah: 22:25

And actually this kind of reminds me of, like how I even started Ask a Concierge, so really quick, a good way if you're like I don't even know what to share, super, super basic. We literally write down a list of questions that people ask you all the time. It can be friends, and it might not even have to do with your work. It might have to do with something that you're passionate about. You're like oh wow, I didn't realize that. To my friends, I'm a car geek and I know a lot about cars, whatever that is. So, again, just really try to be mindful about what. Do people come to you to ask you for your advice on baking cars, hospitality, how to make a bed, it doesn't matter. And then that's a good place to start playing with your content. Start playing with that perspective, because that's the value that you give to people in real life and that's definitely the value that you're going to be able to give to people online.

Josiah: 23:16

I love it. You have appeared on TV, You've gotten extensive traditional media coverage and I'm curious, as you kind of experienced, that you're also creating on the digital media side. Where do you feel most of the opportunity lies, Because I find some people are so obsessed with traditional media. You've done it all. What's been your experience?

Sarah: 23:36

A mix. It needs to be a mix because, at the end of the day, there's complete value to traditional media. Do it dabble. But it's also not the be all, end all because, keep in mind, generally speaking, you go, you do your live segment. It might be three and a half five minutes, seven if you're really lucky and then that's aired and the people see it while they're eating their oatmeal at home for breakfast or whatever they're doing folding laundry, and then it kind of moves on. Yes, it might live on a landing page, but again, the value it's kind of like a one and done. So those are good for little bursts, but if you're wanting to build that consistency, that's where social media is so great, so you can't just rely on one or the other. Both is really the area in which to play in, I think.

Josiah: 24:22

I love it. I think one of the things that's most exciting to me is to see almost like remixes of traditional media concepts and what you're doing now with Steve Turk, who's appeared on this show, and it's something I love. Good morning hospitality. I'll link to it in the show notes. You have to check it out because it's a riff on that morning talk show concept. Tell us a little bit about the show and what you're excited about doing through that.

Sarah: 24:45

Yes, so good morning hospitality. So, for those that might know, there's actually been going on for quite some time. They do have a Monday show where the host on that particular show have more of a vacation rental background, and so that's their approach. And as they were looking to expand, they're like okay, well, we want people that are more like embedded in the hotel industry and that space, and obviously there's a lot of overlap. So that's how Steve and I kind of got brought into the fold with this and what I really wanted to do is you know, steve's based in Miami, I'm in Los Angeles, like we're doing this live. I'm like barely awake doing it, I'm kidding. But I was like wait, let's give ourselves some structure, because, like with structure, it gives us an overarching arc and then we can play with that, because then we know, and so it also gives those that are tuning in an idea of like, oh, what can we expect? And so that's how we've kind of like built out the show. So we've got these little segments where it's like I love that we well, we'll talk about new what's going on in the news. So for hotels, but also travel as well too, because that's absolutely part of the hotel hospitality equation. And then I love this thing that's called this real time recap and it's like what experiences have we had out there in the world? It could be from a Starbucks to a lawn mowing company to a hotel, to whatever it might be and cool hospitality experiences Awesome If they're positive, also good lessons If they're not so great, and we share that, and then also kind of ended off with a hospitality quote. So that's kind of like the overarching arc of the show. We're just like really breaking it down from a hotelier's perspective and just trying to give people a different way to maybe just have their finger on the pulse of what's going on in the industry it's rapidly changing and maybe even connect with others, because there are still many challenges as well too, and I think getting through challenges, it's really important to connect with others in the space, even if they are in different destinations, because it's a reminder that we're kind of all going through this together. Maybe you can learn from somebody else as well too. So that's a little bit about good morning hospitality. The Wednesday edition.

Josiah: 26:54

So what's a must-listen show. I always enjoy it and I'll link to the show notes. I really encourage people to check it out. But, Sarah, it's awesome to talk with you. I appreciate you walking through your journey, what you've learned along the way, and I look forward to hearing your next show next Wednesday.

Sarah: 27:09

Absolutely. Thank you