Room For All - S2 E11 - Stephanie Lopesi

The Power of Inclusion: An Insider's Look at Hospitality with Stephanie Lopesi

In this episode of the 'Room for All: The Inclusion in Hospitality Podcast,' join us as we welcome the incredible Stephanie Lopesi, Portfolio Director of Talent and Culture at the Accor Salter Brothers' Portfolio. Stephanie, fondly known as Steph, shares her professional journey and personal insights into the world of hospitality. Discover her passionate approach to promoting early promotions and inclusion within the industry, and learn about the successful partnerships with Hotel Etico that have made a profound impact on both staff and guests. This candid conversation also delves into the nuances of her role, the importance of empathy and genuine human connections, and the tangible benefits of embracing diversity in the workplace. Don't miss this enlightening discussion that underscores the colorful, fulfilling, and impactful world of inclusive hospitality.

00:00 Introduction and Welcome Back
02:24 Introducing the Guest: Stephanie Lopesi
03:37 Stephanie's Professional Journey
11:44 Personal Insights: Life Outside Work
13:33 Partnership with Hotel Etico
22:12 Inclusion and Diversity in Hospitality
31:46 Staff Support and Partnership
33:05 Embracing Diversity and Inclusion
34:58 Authenticity in Hiring
45:56 Emotional Intelligence in Leadership
50:04 Future Plans and Reflections

Transcript

Stephanie Lopesi

​[00:00:00]

Speaker 13: [00:01:00] Okay, that's a good one. And we are rolling bit rusty, but we are rolling. Um, we welcome back. Welcome back, RIA. To thank you another episode of Room for All the Inclusion in Hospitality Podcast. 

Speaker 9: It's been a while. 

Speaker 13: It's been a very long while, so much so that the software has changed.

We don't remember how to use it anymore, so this will be a bit of a funny. 

Speaker 9: As long as we don't lose the recording [00:02:00] this time, I think we'll be fine. I've 

Speaker 13: done it before and um, and our guest today was present when we before.

Speaker 2: did it before.

Speaker 9: How many times have you been here now? Step just twice. Just twice. So a third is definitely needed.

Absolutely. So 

Speaker 8: maybe two. You bring bet luck. 

Speaker 13: Alright, let's do, welcome 

Speaker 9: to hotel episode with your mad,

Speaker: juju.

Speaker 13: let's do the proper, the proper introduction. So today we're very excited to have, um, a very special guest that is an incredible supporter of, um, what KO does. And

Speaker 2: I'm talking,

Speaker 13: um, about Stephanie Lopesi. 

Speaker 9: First of all, Steph or Stephanie, what would you prefer?

Well, look that Stephanie was in something 

Speaker 14: that I read from you guys the other day, and I thought, oh, we're getting really formal now. In trouble.

Speaker 4: Yeah, you're in trouble,

Speaker 15: Steph. Day to day. 

Speaker 13: Step day 

Speaker 9: to day. 

Speaker 13: But I had to announce the full name. Yes. 

Speaker 9: Well, yeah, I think it's important, so

Speaker 2: so.

Speaker 13: yes. Welcome, Steph. How are you?

Thanks for 

Speaker 15: having me. Lovely to be back. 

Speaker 9: [00:03:00] We're excited to have you back. I love it when you come and visit. Thank you. Yes. I also love it when we come and visit you feeling mutual. 

Speaker 13: And today you brought another guest with you.

Speaker 4: I have

Speaker 11: I have our beautiful Bianca Blake. 

Speaker 13: Cool. Named 

Speaker 11: Bianca Blake 

Speaker 13: is part of the live audience today, together with, uh, 

Speaker 9: with Sophia 

Speaker 13: other friend Sophia.

Um, 

Speaker 9: she's actually staying the night, Bianca. 

Speaker 13: Yeah. No. Yeah. 

Speaker 9: Yeah. Great. Steph is not this time, but not this time. Yeah. She's mum duty. Yeah. 

Speaker 13: So, um, we'll probably talk about Bianca a little bit about why she's here, but we will do it later. Um,

Speaker 2: exactly. Um,

Speaker 13: so today we talk about, um, the perspective of employers and our employment partners, and we want to try and focus our attention on.

Um, the relationship with the industry, the, we wanna know a bit more about Steph as well, 'cause we always, she's pretty awesome, 

Speaker 9: but also what you actually do and what's your actual title 'cause [00:04:00] Yeah. 

Speaker 13: So tell us a little bit, tell us a little bit about who is Stephanie, who is Steph? Um, a bit of both from a professional point of view, but also who is deaf on personal side of things.

Speaker 15: Well, I was gonna say they're two different people. Steph. Stephanie,

Speaker 4: Lopesi.

Speaker 15: If you get me to present at any uni or anything like that, I'm definitely a Stephanie that day in a black and white suit,

Speaker 4: Uh,

Speaker 15: but here I can be myself. Right. Which is lovely. So no one's watching anyway. 

Speaker 11: Yeah, I've got no followers, so it's fine.

That's not true. 

Speaker 15: Plenty. Um, who is Steph Lopesi? Um, I am incredibly passionate. Lots of different things in life. I think just generally a passionate person. Um, I am bold. I am a risk taker. I'm known to be a risk taker. My best friend did my speech at my 40th birthday recently, and she said, you ever want encouragement from somebody to do the right or wrong thing?

You [00:05:00] come to me. Um, because tell you 

Speaker 12: about you. 

Speaker 15: Just do it. Go for it. Live, like live and, and ask for forgiveness later. So I think that's, um, yeah, in a nutshell, bold, brave risk taker I like that. No 

Speaker 10: wonder I like it. We get along. What does it look 

Speaker 16: like? What are the risks you've taken? 

Speaker 10: Um, I think, 

Speaker 15: uh, lots of things.

Lots of things. I think from a work perspective, I'm a really big believer in early promotion, promote people early. Do it and support them. They might have only been in a role for a year, and then you're asking them to step up and be a supervisor. But if they've got great leadership qualities, teach them.

Teach them. That's why job, yeah. Most things can be taught, right? So yes. Tell us 

Speaker 13: a little bit, yeah. Just to fill the blanks, like why, what do you do? Who are you professionally? 

Speaker 15: I've got a really long title and I never know that it's quite right for me. I remember signing my contract and being like. Well, I would've liked to pick something myself, but, um, this will do.

This is great. [00:06:00] Um, so my title is Portfolio Director of Talent and Culture. Okay. And I look after the Accor Salter Brothers portfolio. So I have 11 hotels. Um, our guest here today is, uh, one of our wonderful general managers. I'm just one of the properties. Um, I'm based in Sydney. Um, but 11 of our properties are based across four states in Australia, and we have four brands.

Speaker 13: Okay. What are the brands? 

Speaker 15: The Sebel Novotel Mercure and Ibis Styles. Nice. 

Speaker 13: Okay. So they, okay, so your employer is Accor? 

Speaker 15: Yes. Okay. Correct.

Speaker 4: Well,

Speaker 15: Well, technically my employer, Salter Brothers, but that's a 

Speaker 9: HR thing, right? Okay. Yeah, yeah. We were having this discussion yesterday. I was like, no, no, it's a court. And he's like, no, no, it's Salt Brothers.

I was like, well, let's ask her. Salter 

Speaker 15: Brothers is technically my contract. Yes. 

Speaker 13: Yes. Okay. 

Speaker 15: But they 

Speaker 13: don't tell you what to do. They don't tell you what to do. They 

Speaker 15: definitely do. And I time,

Speaker 4: yes every time.

Speaker 15: I guess if you're watching, but yes, I'll, yes.

Speaker 4: absolutely.

I'll.[00:07:00]

Speaker 9: Um, so you so tell is such a funny space because you can manage so many different properties over so many, um, and if you didn't work in it, you wouldn't know.

So you went to a Novotel, you would just assume Novotel managed by Novotel, it's by Mr. Novotel. It's just not, or Mrs. Not, it's just not like that. Yeah. Um, it's crazy. Yeah. 

Speaker 13: Mm mm Yeah, we, we learn, we've learned a lot 

Speaker 9: on 

Speaker 13: the way,

Speaker 2: ways.

Speaker 13: we definitely, um, not born hoteliers, but we 

Speaker 9: speak for yourself. 

Speaker 13: We've been defined as hoteliers lately, so why?

Speaker 9: I have not got that 

Speaker 13: title 

Speaker 9: yet. We'll get that one day.

Speaker: maybe.

Speaker 13: Um, and so what does a talent and culture is that? Uh, yes. 

Speaker 15: Director of Talent and Culture. So what, 

Speaker 13: what does director of talent culture do in a hotel? 

Speaker 15: Um, everything portfolio. I see, I see our role as advocate for the employee no matter who you are. Um, especially in my position.

Um, I find that sometimes the further up the chain you go, the less advocacy there is for you. Yeah. Um, that's a really big part of my role [00:08:00] is, is advocating for our general managers and our heads of department. That doesn't mean to say I don't advocate for our line level team members, um, but that's what I see.

Speaker 13: That's interesting. Is that the way your employer sees you or the employer sees you as the advocate for the employer? 

Speaker 15: Bleep this out.

Speaker 4: Probably

Speaker 15: Yeah. It's a tricky position. Guess.

Speaker 4: I guess realistically,

Speaker 15: the end of the day, I also want to do what's best for the business and protect our business because without our business, I don't have a job and neither does the 400 team members that.

It's a fine line. 

Speaker 9: So, yeah. Yeah. Business is hard. I think talent and culture and HR a lot is hard. And I think it's a lonely job. It is a

Speaker 4: a lonely job.

Speaker 9: I think it's a lonely, I have 

Speaker 10: this 

Speaker 15: conversation often with my boss, um, and especially with first time general managers where I say. You are, you're about to be the most lonely you've ever been, but I'm here.

I'm here. I'm here. Here 

Speaker 11: I am. I'm here. 

Speaker 13: What do you think are the successful skills that are necessary for, um, the director of[00:09:00] talent culture in, in your sector? 

Speaker 15: I think you need to be incredibly empathetic, understanding. Um, I think anybody who's great at what we do in our industry has actually come out of operations.

Um, and I always look for operations team members who wanna move into a people focused space, um, because they truly understand like nobody else. Mm-hmm. Um, that's not to say great HR professionals who have come outta unis or other industries won't do well with us.

Speaker 4: us,

Speaker 15: I have found if you come outta operations, you understand like nobody else because it's lived experience.

You've done it before. 

Speaker 13: Where did you come from? 

Speaker 15: I came up. Hotel. Okay. 

Speaker 13: Yeah, 

Speaker 15: yeah, 

Speaker 13: right. Yeah. But you sort of fell into or chase, an HR 

Speaker 15: role. I did. So I, I'll say it, we don't usually talk about a competitors, but I was working for Meriton at the time where they were just really taking off. Um, I, uh, was. Working, uh, in some Sydney properties, and we moved around a little bit [00:10:00] and at the time they didn't have hr.

Mm-hmm. Um, and so any of the people management fell into either the hotel manager, um, or the front office manager. And I was just really naturally that person who would say, I'll help you do interviews, or I'll help you do screening, or I'll be the buddy on the first two weeks, or I'll write the training plan.

And I realized how much I loved that. Mm. But there was no space for me to grow. Mm-hmm. Um, and so I actually left hospitality for a short time and went out and learned recruitment in private agency and firm. But there was something missing. Big time. Yeah. I didn't realize, I didn't know, I didn't realize what it was.

And I remember seeing the first job at for Accor, um, and I started in two properties in Western Sydney. Mercure Parramatta and Mercure Penrith. And I remember going for the interview and sitting in the lobby like, this is it. I'm back. I'm back, everyone. I'm back. I'm back in industry. This is where I'm supposed to be.

And that was nine years ago. So I haven't left Accor since 

Speaker 13: then. 

Speaker 15: Yeah. Wow. Nice. 

Speaker 13: I feel like the hotel industry is probably [00:11:00] such a. People centered industry, that HR is probably one of the most important.

Speaker 4: Mm-hmm.

Speaker 13: I suppose you 

Speaker 15: not just saying that because it's me. 

Speaker 13: No, like, I mean, it's all about people. Right. But in terms of relationship with customers and relationship with internal, it's all, it's very human centered.

Yeah. 

Speaker 10: Yeah, absolutely. Which really sucks if you don't like. Yeah, you're in the wrong job then double in the wrong job. Right. Because I 

Speaker 15: see HR people in hospitality as people, people, people. Right. So our Our people need to be people. People, yeah. And then we need to be people, people, people, people. Yeah. It's 

Speaker 10: gotta flow all the way 

Speaker 9: through.

Yeah.

Speaker: percent. Yeah.

Speaker 9: I mean, we're definitely in the right. We love people. Yeah. Most 

Speaker 13: of the time.

Speaker: Yeah. Most of

Speaker 13: Yeah,

Speaker: the time. 99.

Speaker 13: we do. We do. We do. It's, it's, it's great. That's the best part. Um, and uh, on the private side of things, like what do you do when you are not working, which is not often. 

Speaker 9: Yeah. Yeah. I was gonna say, I've seen her reply to my emails at like 11:00 PM 12:00 PM She is always.[00:12:00]

Yeah, she 

Speaker 15: is. And that's okay. That instills great, uh, work ethic into my three children. So there's, there's a little bit of, um, insight into me. I'm a mum. Three children. Three. Yes. And so you're not to anything else? The real kicker is that I had three kids in two and a half years. So, uh, I'm an overachiever.

How does that work? And also twins.

Speaker 4: Twins

Speaker 15: A set of twin or triplets. Yeah. Yeah. A set of twin. So my eldest son is 10. And then have a set of twins. Were eight. Oh, wow. As much 

Speaker 8: as we talk about Steph, I didn't know this about you. You didn't know that? No. Yeah. It's kind 

Speaker 9: of, yeah, and we do talk about it. Keep it private.

Keep it private. It's 

Speaker 13: three kids, 

Speaker 9: not all about keeping. 

Speaker 13: Right. So what do you do is like drive around to things. Yeah. Might being 

Speaker 14: bus in Tarago no, I No. Drive an Audi. I promise it's a little hatchback. 

Speaker 15: Um, what do I do? I'm, well, I'm footy mum tomorrow morning, so I can't stay over tonight. I'm unfortunately, because I'm up at 8:00 AM at footy fields, um, all three of my kids, including I have a daughter and she plays rugby league potentially better than the boys.

[00:13:00] I'll just say better watching this NRLW Watch out. She's half Polynesian 

Speaker 11: as well, so. 

Speaker 15: Right.

Speaker 6: Right.

Speaker 15: She's 

Speaker 11: gonna 

Speaker 9: be, uh, she'll be superstar. 

Speaker 10: She'll be with you 

Speaker 9: as her mother. I have no doubt. Yes, I have absolutely no doubt. I think you're a great role model. Thank 

Speaker 12: you. 

Speaker 13: And hobbies? 

Speaker 11: I run, I run, I don't, you know, I don't wanna say I run and I do Pilates or you're gonna get idea about me.

No. 

Speaker 9: Better run. I do Pilates. Great. I'm very jealous of you two that can run. I am. I'm not a runner. I'm not runner. 

Speaker 13: So let's talk about a little bit about why you're here. Yeah. Uh, apart from the fact that we're interested in hotels and so on, but what's your connection with Hotel Etico? Like, what's, why, what do we do together?

So, our 

Speaker 15: connection with Hotel Etico, I actually remember maybe the both of you being on a talent and culture regional call and we used to have them. Mm-hmm. 

Speaker 12: Um, 

Speaker 15: three, 

Speaker 12: four.

Speaker: Maybe two or

Speaker 12: Yeah, I [00:14:00] do 

Speaker 9: remember that one. It was about three years ago. Yeah. The Accor one, the big one. Yes. Yeah. It was like, remember what we invited you guys on?

And I remember thinking, oh my God. Yeah.

Speaker: Wow.

Speaker 9: Yeah. That was a, you don't remember it? Yeah, I do. Yeah. I didn't remember. That was like the Brady Bunch. There was so many people on that 

Speaker 15: call. Look, it's a smaller community now, unfortunately. But that's okay. Um, and I remember thinking how wonderful it was. Um, and in my mind I was like.

Blue Mountains. Um, and then, uh, a year and a half ago maybe, uh, our previous general manager at

Speaker 4: Mercure Sydney,

Speaker 15: Warringah Scott, um, is a huge advocate of both of yours, as you know. And I, a previous Pod King old call. Yeah, that's right. He said to me, oh, you've gotta meet these two. Like, you just have to meet them.

Come on, we, we are gonna get on a call with them, and you just, you're just gonna love them. You're just gonna love them. I said, yeah. They do blah, blah. Anyway, so he was catching up. We're in a, in a, uh, in a call together prior and we're kind of catching up about it. And I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

So get on. And I'm just like, oh, you're right. [00:15:00] Oh no, we just gotta do this. We've gotta make this happen. Um, and so with incredible general managers like Scott and, and Bianca, um, we've been able to work with you, um, to have two incredible humans with us. So Cleo, uh, who works in our food and beverage department at Novotel, Sydney City Center.

Um, and then our wonderful Sam who's here on shift today, um, is an all rounder at our Mercure Sydney Manly 

Speaker 9: Warringah. You have two great employees there, I will say. Yeah, I mean, all of our graduates are amazing. Yeah, we don't have favorites, but we don't have favorites. We never have favorites, but, um, I.

Speaker: I

Speaker 9: Really miss Cleo being here.

She was like a second part of me, to be honest. Wherever I went, uh, she even made sure that I had lunch every day, to be honest. Like she made sure I took care of myself. So I do really, really miss Cleo. Um, she, the little alumni. The alumni. How good is that? I love it. I love about her. 

Speaker 11: How wonderful. Yeah. I love 

Speaker 9: that.

I can go in and, um, see her [00:16:00] whenever I'm in the city or um, see any of our graduates or even. Just pick up the call and call them. She actually messaged me while I was away. 

Speaker 16: And Cleo has two jobs now. Does. She works at two hotels. She does two, five, and 12. So she loves, 

Speaker 15: she's 

Speaker 16: So where does, she's such a partner.

Does Cleo work for you? 

Speaker 15: Uh, Novotel Sydney City Center. Okay. So she's in our restaurant. She does, uh, buffet breakfast in the morning and can I say that woman is the best up seller? I actually asked my food beverage at attendants. Can you just listen to what Cleo says? How you get how that's how you upsell barista coffee with your breakfast.

So she'll go and stand by the coffee machine. Like the, like the normal, I don't wanna call it the yucky coffee machine. It's a basic coffee machine. Yeah. That's included in the buffet breakfast package. And she learn very early on that she stood there and said to people, do want a real coffee? 

Speaker 13: I know,

Speaker 4: $3? I,

Speaker 13: I know people.

Speaker 9: Yeah, for $3, three. Good. Save your time. And she gets it. She gets it. She felt it.

Speaker 5: it. She's 

Speaker: so,

Speaker 9: She's it. Yeah, she's good. [00:17:00] She's can't say no, right? You can't. Yeah, hundred percent. She was to say a $3 coffee. Do you know how much your coffee costs these days? Exactly. $6 50. I paid for a coffee the other day. $6 50.

Outrageous. Uh,

Speaker 2: Uh,

Speaker 16: it's 'cause you put your special juice in it. 

Speaker 9: It's called vanilla,

Speaker: I'm not an idiot. People are now gonna think

Speaker 9: big and alcoholic or, or something. Yes, special juice guys. It's fine. It's vanilla syrup. It's

Speaker 2: It is vanilla.

Speaker 13: um, and then. Your other employee graduate of is Sam? 

Speaker 9: Well, he's not graduated yet. He, yeah, he's not formally graduated. He's not formally, he actually started with you before he started here.

Mm. So that's a, I mean, and we did cover that a little bit on Yeah. Scott's podcast. That's 

Speaker 13: right. So, 

Speaker 9: but you interviewed him, so I'm very curious, um, because I love your interview style. Yeah. You interview very similar to how I interview. Um, so I'm curious to know what you did. Mm-hmm.

Speaker 6: Mm-hmm.

Speaker 15: Look, I will, um, say firstly that I promise I do use the [00:18:00] interview guides 'cause um, my director

Speaker 4: Talent acquisition

Speaker 15: for the Pacific would be upset, but if I didn't, I do use the interview guide.

However, there are instances. Where you have to go off script. Mm-hmm. And I guess that's part of the whole risk taking and being a little bit like, no, be bold sometimes

Speaker 4: and just,

Speaker 15: don't have to do everything. HR is not black and white people are not black and and white. It's with Yeah. You, you can't stick to a script.

It's so get what you need from people. Absolutely. And let them learn and understand who you are. Um, but Sam and I actually went for a walk. On our interview, we walked around, we walked out the, the back door and walked through the car park and we were looking at the hedges and he was pointing out which, which, um, flowers are which, and which she, you should, uh, cut back at a particular time and which ones you shouldn't.

And then we talked about which bus he takes into the city and huge Sea Eagles supporter and, and all of these different things and, and.

Speaker 4: and

Speaker 15: Never have, I had so much insight into a person in, around the, around the hotel grounds Walk as I did with Sam, [00:19:00] in that interview. Um, and I kind of knew you, you kind of know when you meet somebody, right?

They're gonna perform well inverted commas in interview, in a traditional interview, or they're not. Mm-hmm. And

Speaker 4: Uh, I don't

Speaker 15: well in a traditional interview. I am, I should be the queen of interview because I can sell anything to anyone. I, I don't.

Speaker 4: interview you well either

Speaker 15: Accept yourself, me down. Don't sit me down and ask me to answer, you know, 10 solid black and white questions.

'cause I, I 

Speaker 9: don't fit in that. So why do we expect, I think, you know, that's what we, and Sophia works really, really, really hard with our industry partners on the recruitment process. There are a lot of, I don't think there's a right of way, right or wrong way to interview.

Speaker 6: Mm.

Speaker 9: Well, okay. There is a wrong way.

Alright, let's, I can see you've given me grief in the background. Um. But I think an interview should really get, be getting to know the person. I think, you know, like we, our interviews here are very conversational [00:20:00] and that's how to really find that talent. Um, history is changing. It's not so black and white.

Speaker 13: I mean, you would, you would say, you know, like technical skills can be. Can be taught I underst, right? It's about the attitude. Yeah. So I often talk, I've spoken a few times to the industry or the hotel industry about inclusion and why employ people with disability, why not be worried about people with disability or the risks or the productivity.

And I often talk about the fact that they shouldn't be looking at things with a productivity lens, but with a value. 

Speaker 12: Lens 

Speaker 13: and, and understand what the value is overall in a holistic way of employing someone with disability from a fact, from a workforce value, from a cultural value, from a image value, from a doing the right thing, value from a human rights value.

And if you put all those things together, the value's gonna be bigger than just the productivity thing, right? And no one's always a hundred percent [00:21:00] productive. So. 

Speaker 15: I think it's invaluable having, um, people like

Speaker 4: Sam and

Speaker 15: in our business, um, if you look at something that's a bit more measured,

Speaker 4: um, I'll never

Speaker 15: I think it was Cleo's second shift with us.

We started

Speaker 4: getting named feedback and

Speaker 15: like to get named feedback these days in hotels, um, is rare. Oh, you being from customers? Yeah. Yeah. So from guests who had dined with us and had breakfast with us. Um, and named Cleo in her second week of working with us. Yeah. Cleo, the level of connection. 

Speaker 9: Ah, yes. Like that's invaluable.

Yeah. To, with that we actually speaking of got a named Cleo Review from Song Hotel the other day as well. Yes. So GM sent it to us fantastic. It's really great. 

Speaker 13: And you can imagine with us, we have 15 of them all at once and people here you can imagine the level of named reviews that we get on a daily basis.

We get people saying. Thank you for not just to Michael or the Chef for here, but thank you to Cleo. [00:22:00] Thank you to Sam, thank you to Lenny or whatever it is like unbelievable.

Speaker: Yeah. We don't

Speaker 9: We don't get it often, you know? Tell us you're about to. Yeah. Because the amount of graduates that we have coming out go throw everyone.

Yeah. 

Speaker 13: And so tell us why, why is inclusion important for you? 

Speaker 10: It's a hard question. It is, yeah. It is a hard question. It's really depress. You don't have to do it. No, no, of course. No, no. As in, you know, like 

Speaker 13: you don't have to do inclusion, so Oh, no, 

Speaker 10: no. Oh gosh. You've been missing out. Yeah. But so, but what motivates you?

What a depressing world. Yeah. Yeah. What a depressing business. Yeah.

Speaker 4: Um.

Speaker 10: I, I just

Speaker 15: think the world is, is way more colorful with inclusion in it. There's no other way to really articulate it than just more colorful. Um, we talk a lot in Accor about heartist. Heartist is our underpinning value. It's something that I get up and facilitate and talk about at least once a month, and I never ever get sick of talking about heartist because it is the art of human connection.

And [00:23:00] the only way that you can do that is, um, by connecting hearts. And you can only, I do that. Too bad

Accor 

already have it like, we can't do it. I'll, I'll facilitate it.

Speaker 4: you one day you can come. gotta be in our core employee, so

Speaker 15: Figure something out. But anyway, um, it talks about you must be yourself. Like you have to be authentically yourself and you have to accept the, your colleague, your client, your supplier, your guest, the person walking in off the street and asking for directions. You have to accept them as their

Speaker 4: authentic selves as well. And that's not

Speaker 15: gonna look the same. Um, and so that's a really big piece. I think also. There's a, there's such a big difference between acceptance, because sometimes I accept things and I don't like them, but I'm like, no, I'm gonna, I'm gonna accept it and find peace with it. But there's, there's the other side of it, which is the understanding.

So you come to accept people for who they are and

Speaker 4: then really understanding them as well. Yeah. Um, and that

Speaker 15: you with your empathy and understanding what people want and need out of life or out of their job. And, [00:24:00] um, so I think without that. Colour of inclusion, we're all walking around the same, we're not talking the same, even though I look the same, like we've all got

Speaker 4: the same opinions. We've

Speaker 15: all got the same lived experience.

Like that's, it's not,

Speaker 4: not the,

Speaker 15: that's just not the word You want beige and that, 

Speaker 13: and do you feel like you're not 

Speaker 15: a beige, you're not a be I'm not a beige girl. 

Speaker 11: Be girl. 

Speaker 13: Do you feel there was already, there was already a. A ready culture of inclusion within the the Accor portfolio that you manage, or you had to do a lot of work?

I mean, without throwing anyone under the bus, but I mean, yeah. What level of readiness was there within your workplace? 

Speaker 15: I think that we were already fairly inclusive. Um, if I think about the disability employment space, were we already inclusive there? We definitely weren't where we were supposed to be.

It's hard to navigate. 

Speaker 9: It's not your fault. Yeah. It's very hard to navigate. 

Speaker 15: Yeah. Yeah. Um, and I think sometimes there's a bit of a fear [00:25:00] around it because it's unknown. How do I work with this person? What do I need to do to onboard them? You know, from a manager's perspective, I understand that it could be a bit cloudy or a bit frightening.

Um, I, you know, we were doing good things, um, but not good enough and not enough for us. Um, and when I started in this portfolio nearly three years ago now, I, I realized that I had such a unique opportunity to start from scratch with 11 hotels. And I was going to do it differently. Mm-hmm. And I was gonna make sure it was innovative and that it was colorful and that it was, that we had everybody from everywhere with every kind of background, um, and ability and experience.

Um, and so, you know, when I hear hospitality people say there's no talent out there like that.

Speaker 4: there

Speaker 11: it's my least favorite thing to hear from people. Oh, there's so much talent. 

Speaker 10: Yeah. Look harder. Look in a different spot. 

Speaker 13: That's right. That's right. And so what, what else [00:26:00] does your group do about, because you have your inclusion, 

Speaker 9: like the big group that you first saw us at, which is your talent and culture.

Um, like it's everyone regional meeting, but you also lead diversity and inclusion within Accor, right? I do. You do, right? I just, I just 

Speaker 15: officially put my hand up to be a pillar lead. Um, so we have, uh, I guess a social impact. Um, focus, uh, definitely speaking our language with Accor. Yeah, we love that. We love that language, definitely.

Um, and so my pillar is called the all abilities pillar. Um, and that is across the Pacific. Um, so we have different people from different backgrounds, um, different abilities who are on that pillar. I've actually just put my hand up to be the co-lead on that one across the Pacific. Um, so my boss, uh, David Chris was the.

A pillar lead and he, um, stepped away. He'd, you know, done his time and felt like he had contributed. But also I was always [00:27:00] there on every single meeting taking notes and doing 

Speaker 14: the do the behind you cannot do. So I 

Speaker 15: was kind of like, look, I'm doing it, you know, why not put your face on it and put your name on it and go something that I'm really proud of and I'm so passionate about.

Um, yeah, and kind of lead by example with it as well, a little bit too. That's 

Speaker 13: very exciting. And so is that driven by like. Reporting requirements. Is it driven by the market? Is it driven by the leadership? Where, where does it come from? The desire to do that? 'cause Yeah. You could be focused on something else.

Yeah. Because you 

Speaker 10: don't have to, right? People don't have to do this, I dunno. Or 

Speaker 13: do you? 

Speaker 15: No, no. You don't have to. Mm-hmm. You don't know. You definitely don't have to. Um, it's a. I normally say it's a passion piece because it's probably not. It

Speaker 4: should just be integrated into

Speaker 15: life. And I see our pillar in all abilities as maybe like a best practice.

Like this is what you can actually do in your hotels and I will help you with a framework and I'll help you with changing your onboarding, or I'll help you with educating your managers into, um, bringing a person [00:28:00] with disability into your business. Um, so I guess more than anything, I'm a resource in the.

Um, our Pacific community that can say, I've done this in my hotels, and we have a person, um, who is differently abled in every single one of our hotels, if not two, three or four, five, um, that it can be done and it's wonderful and it's so impactful and this is how you can do it. 

Speaker 13: Is it also coming from a realization that there's a market opportunity in terms of accessible tourism and diverse tourism and there's a, there's a pocket of people that you can, and there's nothing wrong with that?

Yeah. That you can sort of. Of tap into 

Speaker 15: look, there is, I, I looked at something recently that was, um, rolled out in Accor, uh, overseas. Um, and they asked me to have a look at it from, um, a guest perspective because I actually trialed it in one of our hotels, Mercure Blacktown and I went through and, um, it was interesting because it was so guest focused.

And while I am guest focused and, and hospitality heart and come, come out of hospitality, uh, operations myself, there were so many things missing on that [00:29:00] checklist that I was like, yeah, but what about the staff room? Yeah. What about the onboarding? Yeah. But what about this? So I saw it. Mm-hmm. From a people perspective as well, it definitely is there.

It is definitely a consideration, which 

Speaker 12: good. 

Speaker 15: Yeah. Yeah. So there's a couple of companies that we're looking at working with now to be able to provide us with. Hey, this is best practice. 

Speaker 10: for each hotel. 

Speaker 13: That's good. 

Speaker 9: Well, I mean, one in five people in Australia has a disability. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, and it's, 

Speaker 13: it's documented that people with disability stay longer.

Mm-hmm. They often bring a carer. 

Speaker 12: Yeah. 

Speaker 13: So they need two rooms instead of one, if not three. Or travel with, or travel with family. Yeah. Uh, and they normally stay longer and they spend more money in it so that there's actually market. Yeah, apart from the fact of the, you know, the access and discrimination and sort of inclusion in general, but that's actually a market reason for it.

Accessible 

Speaker 9: tourism is definitely, um, yeah, it's, it's hard to find. My cousin, um, he has a disability. Uh, he has a very rare [00:30:00] form of muscular dystrophy, so he's wheelchair bound, electric wheelchair, um, and he struggles a lot with travel. Yeah, poor baby has to travel First class. He 

Speaker 16: has a big ass wheelchair.

It's, 

Speaker 9: I know it goes over my foot constantly. I don't how to be that ish,

Speaker: thing is.

It's six ton,

Speaker 9: but it's a, it's a lot to travel with. Um, and you know, he's. Uh, God, it was his birthday the other day, but he's at an age, I'm not gonna say it 'cause I forget, um, that he now travels with the carer. Um, he's just been to F1. Oh actually, well, Queensland, Brisbane, he's just been to F1.

Uh, Singapore. Singapore. Um, he's about, he's fundraising at the moment to go to. Sweden for to play, uh, for Australia for hockey. So, I mean, there's a massive thing now with accessible tourism and they travel a lot. But he

Speaker: But he shouldn't have

Speaker 9: pay first class,

Speaker 5: fees

Speaker 9: should he? Well, he does. He has to. 'cause he has to lay down.

Yeah, he, [00:31:00] uh, on a long haul flight for his, uh, machine. He shouldn't have to No, that's right. He should be able to pay for an economy ticket, but that's not the way the world works, unfortunately. Yeah. Anyway, that's another debate isn't Yeah, yeah. That's right. That's right. But no, he shouldn't have to, but. Um, he really struggles like, um, to go certain places.

So, I mean, for example, he can't go to Bali or different countries that don't, it's not very accessible. Not with those potholes. No, definitely. But yeah, it's very, uh, he's very limited on where he can stay as well. Yeah, yeah. Which is horrible, but it's the world. 

Speaker 13: Um, I think we've covered this, but sort of what had written down, like what difference has the partnership made?

With hotel within your hotels with staff and guests? I mean, you talked about the guests and the coffee and the, and the, the named reviews. But what about with staff? How does staff embrace if they do, um, the, the, the presence? And have we reached enough into staff?

Speaker: Have we helped

Speaker 9: Have we helped enough? Have we supported you enough?[00:32:00]

Yeah. Currently. Yeah.

Speaker 4: Yeah.

Speaker 9: Yeah. 

Speaker 15: You would know if you hadn't. I highly don't. Well, I am very kind and, uh, yeah. I'm also, one of my GMs

Speaker 4: describes me as the nicest, scariest

Speaker 15: lady he's ever met. So

Speaker 4: So I've been told

Speaker 15: would, I would, yeah. Yeah. I would tell you, 

Speaker 9: I would say I need help. You know, like, I, I can't do you because that's what it should be like.

I, I like, I think the value of our partnership is if you called me and said, I need help, we would be there the next day. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we've done that to people because like. Stuff happens. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and like what I appreciate so much about the, the GMs that you have is like, they can call us with any question and they feel comfortable to Yeah.

No judgment. No judgment. Like why would we, it's education. Everything is a learning piece. Um, I really, really value that in our partnership actually with all our employer partners. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 

Speaker 15: That's good. I think I was probably, um. You know,

Speaker 4: know, I see the world with rose

Speaker 15: glasses, rightly or wrongly.

But you[00:33:00]

Speaker 4: know, maybe initially when I was

Speaker 15: opening the portfolio with

Speaker 4: so much going on and recruiting so many

Speaker 15: at once and really wanting to be truly diverse with who I recruited, I actually didn't think about, you know, am I making sure that um, our people who, who have, uh, who are definitely abled, are they going to be okay?

Mm-hmm. Like I just imagine that everybody accepts everybody. That's the way my brain works. Yeah. That's the way, but it's not the way everybody's brain works. I was incredibly lucky when I think about, um, where, um, Cleo and

Speaker 4: and Sam have landed,

Speaker 15: um, and our other, um, uh, differently abled kids, um, how well they have landed and how, um, successful they have been.

Not

Speaker 4: just in themselves, but I look at

Speaker 15: impact that they've had on

Speaker 4: their managers. I'm thinking about an

Speaker 15: chef that we've got at

Speaker 4: at Ibis Style, Sydney Central.

Speaker 15: Um, I, I'm thinking about, um, you know, a food and beverage manager who works, um, with Cleo, or I'm thinking about our guest experience. [00:34:00] Um, Tina Mustav, who works at Cleo as well and did her onboarding.

Um, and the friendship between them is just. So incredibly sweet. Um, so yeah, look, it's not

Speaker 4: something that you should

Speaker 15: into without really thinking about. Mm-hmm. What environment am I, am

Speaker 4: I putting

Speaker 15: individual in? Yeah.

Speaker 4: Um, and so yeah, you definitely should have a,

Speaker 15: good think about if it's the right time.

Do they have the right support? Do they have the right manager? Has that manager got the skills and um, you

Speaker 4: know, emotional intelligence and all those sorts of things, um, to work.

Speaker 15: Um. With such colorful individuals, of course, is definitely colorful. Yeah, yeah, 

Speaker 16: yeah. Are they the only two that you work with or you ours, 

Speaker 9: yeah.

From Etico. There's not Joel as well? 

Speaker 16: No. 

Speaker 9: Uh, Ibis? No. I, no, no, no, 

Speaker 16: no. 

Speaker 13: Okay. Um, he is in Darling Harbor. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's at 

Speaker 9: the 

Speaker: the 

Speaker 9: Ibis

Darling Harbor. Steph used to, I used to work there. Used to, yes. Yes. So that connection was Yeah. Through Steph. 

Speaker 13: Okay. Fantastic. And so. [00:35:00] Learnings. Like what? Like are there any learnings that you can share with the

Speaker 2: the industry,

Speaker 13: even in like, you know, how to, I mean, you, you share them a little bit.

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2: Mm-hmm. Um,

Speaker 13: but what advice would you have apart from my, yeah, you should do it or you absolutely 

Speaker 9: should do it, but yeah, 

Speaker 13: that's, yeah. What, like, what pitfalls to look for, I suppose, or to be careful of if you really want to work with, in an inclusion space. 

Speaker 15: I guess, uh, I, yeah, again, rose colored glasses, how annoying.

But, um, no pitfalls as such, but pick a great partner. That's, that's probably my best piece of advice is pick a great partner, um, and work with them and educate yourself to, yeah. Um, and, uh, don't be too proud to say, I don't know. Or is this okay to say, or, you know,

Speaker 4: is this a silly

Speaker 15: Don't, don't be proud when it comes to that sort of thing, because.

You wanna get it [00:36:00] right and your intention is always, I think

Speaker 4: I think that 

Speaker 2: was a

Speaker 13: for us. I think so. I'm not sure. 

Speaker 15: Yeah. Gosh. Yeah. I hit a great part because unfortunately there are some, yeah, yeah. There are some, there are some horror stories that's, well, well look, I think their motivations are different sometimes.

Yeah. 

Speaker 13: It's the model that is different. There's more transactional Absolutely. Aspect to some of the traditional. Or disability employment service. We are not a 

Speaker 9: traditional disability employment service. We are not a disability employment service in the funding regard. Mm-hmm. Um, I mean, you know, um, but your goal is to have your people 

Speaker 10: employed.

Of course. Yeah. We do it the 

Speaker 13: hard way, but

Speaker 2: but

Speaker 13: hard way. Motivated by that. You and I would 

Speaker 10: be bored. The easy way. Yeah. 

Speaker 13: But yeah, so I think that's important for sure. 'cause you need to feel supported, right?

Speaker 15: Yeah. Yes. But just pick a good partner. Yeah. Yeah. Pick a

Speaker 4: a really good

Speaker 15: And if you have multiple like me, multiples, um, because you're not able to, unfortunately, you guys not in Perth not Oh, Brisbane. That's right. Not yet. Not [00:37:00] yet. But we've started, right? Yeah. Yeah. Um, and you want to make sure that you know, you, you have, um, you wanna lead. True,

Speaker 4: by example.

Yeah.

Speaker 15: yeah. You have true diversity in every corner of Australia. Right. 

Speaker 9: So

Speaker 4: So

Speaker 9: he is your partner. I think there is absolutely no reason, and I say this all the time, there's no reason why Australia cannot lead the change in inclusion and hospitality.

We can be number one. Like, it's, yeah, it's actually, it's very encouraging. The 

Speaker 13: Yeah. But that is really there. Like in some, in the tourism, hospitality, I agree. Industry, we, we've been almost like overwhelmed by the, by the desire to partner with us or to talk about inclusion. Um. Um, when it's not necessarily a legislative requirement or, you know, but there's, there's a bit of a wave, tidal wave sort of in terms of everyone trying to outdo each other to sort of is good.

Right. But that's okay. That's all right. Yeah, absolutely. Um, but I also 

Speaker 9: think that our reputation is there. Yeah, yeah. You know, like I think, [00:38:00] uh, Sophia, our employ manager, she works really, really hard in the partnerships that she has. Um, and she supports every single one of our employers. So I think that that shows.

Speaker: shows, mm,

Speaker 9: I think you've

Speaker 4: also

Speaker 10: really established good, solid,

Speaker 4: legitimate relationships

Speaker 10: people, and

Speaker 4: Mm. If there's anything I've learned.

Speaker 10: over the years. Hospitality is all, who knows everyone. That's right. Oh my God,

Speaker 4: Yeah,

Speaker 10: right. You can't go anywhere. The power of a good 

Speaker 15: relationship, any business, of course. But especially in hospitality.

Yeah. Oh my God. It's 

Speaker 13: funny, when we, when we hear that a general manager has moved to another hotel for us it's, oh yes. Now we've got two hotels that we can work with. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. So yeah, it's definitely there's a lot of, um, moving around. Yeah. Um, sorry, do you have other questions? 

Speaker 9: Um, I had heaps before you talk about, um, being true to your authentic self.

And I know that you lead that way and I. Try to lead that way. I think I do lead that way. But, um, what do you [00:39:00] find when hiring somebody? Have you had any really, this is just because I want to know, have you had any Really not anything. This is just a random question. 

Speaker 13: We can cut it later 

Speaker 9: probably. I'm not going to No, you never cut what I ask.

Um, have you had instances when hiring that people. Do you think that they're being their true, authentic self, but then it turns out they aren't. 

Speaker 8: So, yeah. So beyond disability, we're not talking beyond disability. I'm talking 

Speaker 9: about HR people and culture in general. How do you actually find that The real person, the real person, like, 'cause I know you find talent, you have a knack for it, and I know you're known for it too.

People tell me all the time, you have a knack for it. Um, but how do you do that? Like, how do you as Steph or Stephanie find true authentic talent? 

Speaker 15: Well, that's Steph Lopesi does that because that's [00:40:00] Steph a, Stephanie, that's Steph because she's authentic. Um, I try and get really authentic with people and I'm really conversational with them.

And also I feel like I, part of my makeup and my brain chemistry is that I'm incredibly intuitive. I'm incredibly intuitive. I'll feel something is off about a person before I've even spoken to 'em. And we do talk about, you know,

Speaker 4: not,

Speaker 15: not making my decisions, those sorts of things, don't judge people, blah, blah, blah.

Um, but I think if you know that you've got good intuition about a person, then you should go with it. Um, and it doesn't mean that you have to be rude and cut

Speaker 4: them off or anything like that. I think it means that you,

Speaker 15: you, you have

Speaker 4: permission to be incredibly honest and say.

Speaker 15: oh, I feel

Speaker 4: like something's not

Speaker 15: right, so I'm actually gonna give you the

Speaker 4: the opportunity to, to tell me if there's something more to

Speaker 15: story or so, I'm really honest and authentic with them and hope that they give it back to me. Sometimes people won't, and that's okay. Yeah. That's actually your answer. Mm Yeah. That's actually your answer. Yeah. If you [00:41:00] know that they're not giving you

Speaker 4: Authenticity. And

Speaker 15: it be 

Speaker 13: because they're shy because Yeah.

They introverted and.

Speaker 4: Um,

Speaker 15: So you 

Speaker 13: need to be able to cut through that sort of, you've gotta have good 

Speaker 15: intuition and have done

Speaker 4: as

Speaker 15: interviews as me to be able to recognize shy

Speaker 4: versus introverted versus this

Speaker 15: is actually just not being

Speaker 4: themselves. Mm. Hard to believe, but my brother is incredibly shy.

Incredibly shy. And we both came from the

Speaker 15: parents somehow. Oh, yeah. Um, 

Speaker 13: my, my daughter

Speaker 2: daughter. Yeah. And son are

Speaker 13: the opposite. 

Speaker 15: Yeah. Um, so I know to the outside world, he would come across

Speaker 4: as.

Speaker 15: as you maybe rude, maybe arrogant, but I know that that's, that's not him.

Speaker 4: not him. So

Speaker 15: I actually love when I

Speaker 4: I meet a person and they're really

Speaker 15: quiet or they come

Speaker 4: across arrogant.

Those

Speaker 15: are my favorites. 'cause I'm like, Ooh, ooh, ooh. This exterior arrogance is actually for a reason. And there is a beautiful kind, humble. Loving,

Speaker 4: genuine, authentic human underneath, [00:42:00] arrogance on the outside. So you've

Speaker 15: be able to look past that something. 

Speaker 13: But the world doesn't have much time for those people, unfortunately.

Right? Generally speaking, world people think I talk about, 

Speaker 9: but same. So the first impression people have of me and one of my really good friends who is a psychologist now, um,

Speaker: she said to me

Speaker 9: the first time I ever met you, swear, I thought you were the biggest. Which I've ever met. And it was your face. And I was like, what is wrong with my face?

And we both worked in disabilities, so, um, and I

Speaker: I was like. She's like,

Speaker 9: know now. You are the nicest human being I have ever met, and you would do anything for anybody. But because I'm an introvert and because I am shy, people assume I'm arrogant. They assume that I'm a horrible person. But it's the same.

Yeah. I'm really, and I suppose to sort of 

Speaker 13: moving back to the disability side of

Speaker 2: of

Speaker 13: Things because people with disability, I'm talking about intellectual disability, would have other filters or other layers that [00:43:00] we, that, that, you know, uh, the mainstream, for lack of a better word, would not be used to.

You need to come up with innovative way of interviewing and recruiting. And so your walk with Sam was obviously the key and 'cause that just. Normalizes or, or comes out of. Yeah, so it's about

Speaker 2: how you recruit's,

Speaker 13: how you recruit. So it's about how you talking people? People. People. 

Speaker 9: Absolutely. People. People, people. People, people.

Speaker 13: I mean, I think 90% if not more of our trainees and graduates if they went through a normal interview process as much as which we train, but we do train. Yeah. As much as we want them to learn, to do that. Learn. But if we were just relying on that. No, they will probably not get a job. Mm-hmm. But as soon as they are sort of selected in a different way and people get to know them in a different way, you realize, oh gee, there's actually a great performer in there.

Yeah. So it just completely changes. So I think interviewing practices [00:44:00] have to change within. The world, but absolutely, particularly in this sector.

Speaker 4: Well, they're more enjoyable and they're a bit more authentic too, right? Yeah. 

Speaker 2: Yeah.

Speaker 15: they're enjoyable for everybody. If you're not sitting there feeling like every question that you answer is going to be written down or Yeah.

Speaker 13: Do you do like test, like IQ and stuff, tests, personality test? If part of the selection you.

Speaker 2: You don't. Yeah,

Speaker 9: People do that. Yeah. An IQ test. Senior senior management level. An IQ test. Uh, not an IQ test. Like more 

Speaker 13: of like a personality, like my Briggs and all sort of stuff. Yeah. I fail.

Speaker 5: Ha

Speaker 14: We're supposed to, but uh,

Speaker 4: uh,

Speaker 14: I probably wouldn't pass one of those to cut. No,

Speaker 4: we're

Speaker 14: we're supposed to, but considering I probably wouldn't pass one of those and I'd come across as arrogant. Right. That's a 

Speaker 15: great 

Speaker 14: example. Right. I would come across. Is incredibly arrogant. 

Speaker 9: We did it, we did it in the, in one of our leadership things and yeah, we did the different,

Speaker: I was all

Speaker 9: I was red or was it red and Yeah, red and, 

Speaker 13: yeah.

Speaker 9: I couldn't believe 

Speaker 10: it. So [00:45:00] what 

Speaker 13: Myers Briggs are you, 

Speaker 15: I can't remember. We didn't do Myers Briggs. We did Cliftons Strengths. 

Speaker 13: Okay. 

Speaker 15: And, um, mine came up as like the ultimate sales person, like the ultimate sales woman. And I was like, oh, maybe she'd be a am I in the wrong space? You know, but I understood completely what it said and, and we really talked through.

Um, into what happens when I'm lean into being a salesperson too much. I can't come across arrogant and I can come across as too confident. Yeah. But I also will pick you up at three o'clock in the morning if you need me to. Yeah. Or I will be there for you in the middle of the night when your fire alarm code goes off and you can't actually get there.

Or like, I will absolutely do anything for you, but Yeah, I understand. I literally get 

Speaker 9: the same scores, I get the same scores and I'm like, it's the color one that got me. I was like, I'm not red. Yeah. Highly aggressive. No, 

Speaker 13: I mean,

Speaker 2: means,

Speaker 13: it's a hard time. It's very, it's situational, right? It's the, the way you are.

I'm not a fan of personality. It's situational. Um, and I think the most important skill [00:46:00] and manager or anyone actually can, but you know, if you talk about leadership, is the ability to navigate and lead from different directions, lead from the front, lead from the back, lead from the side being situational and adaptable.

Like it's about adaptive leadership. And 

Speaker 15: having great emotional intelligence. 

Speaker 13: Yeah, that's right. Which then translate into, well, with this person I need to act in a regular way. It's not about being fake, it's about adapting to the other side. Yeah,

Speaker 2: Yeah.

Speaker 13: absolutely. Yeah. 

Speaker 9: I think that they're teaching that now. I hope that they're teaching that now in leadership courses.

No. Oh, yeah. It's generally something that I 

Speaker 15: look for if I'm interviewing for a general manager and somebody has zero emotional intelligence, but good.

Speaker 4: 20 years

Speaker 15: a general

Speaker 4: manager, I know I'm picking the first time, GM.

Speaker 15: Yeah. 

Speaker 9: Every time. 

Speaker 15: Every time. 

Speaker 9: Every time. Every single time. And 

Speaker 15: that's, that's evident in the people that I've picked to lead our business.

You know, like, uh, GMs are incredibly emotionally intelligent. And so they can work in an

Speaker 4: environment where,

Speaker 15: um, they're bringing [00:47:00] people in from different backgrounds, different. Uh, race and ethnicity. I'm 

Speaker 13: laughing because I'm thinking my mind is opening to a, I'm gonna open a can of worms or not, but I just wanna make a statement about it.

Go for it. I wish they applied that to political leadership around the world. 

Speaker 11: Oh gosh, absolutely. Because imagine if 

Speaker 13: there's, if there's a, there's a problem with our current Worldwide leadership is that. They have no clue about emotional intelligence. Yeah. Or at least they're not projected or they're presented, but they might have 

Speaker 9: pm whoever is Please come on our podcast.

Yeah. This is recorded the day before the election, the day before. We have to vote. 

Speaker 13: I'm not necessarily talking about Australia just 

Speaker 9: in general. I come, there's a, 

Speaker 13: that's such 

Speaker 9: a, it's hard to be emotionally intelligent. 

Speaker 13: All the worst people think to rise to the top. 

Speaker 9: I dunno if it's hard. I wouldn't call it hard.

I think maybe it's. I think if you lead, like I find very difficult 'cause I'm a bit of an empath, it's very hard to sometimes separate that like you [00:48:00] take a lot home. Like, you know, I might come across as arrogant or whatever, but I take a lot home. If I have to make the tough decisions, it's hard. 

Speaker 8: Instead without using swear words.

What did you tell me just before the show about me and my, um, approach,

Speaker: uh,

Speaker 9: uh, just 

Speaker 8: paraphrase. 

Speaker 9: Where before this show? Yeah. Was it, where was I? We were just 

Speaker 8: commenting about my. Ability not to 

Speaker 9: what? 

Speaker 8: When to give much dam about, 

Speaker 9: oh, you are so, like, you're a great leader, but you have like, I don't know what it is, but like sometimes I just think, are you human?

Do you have 

Speaker 8: any feelings? Yeah. 

Speaker 9: Do you have feelings? Well, you said it yourself, like you, you find it hard. This is gonna get cut. Alright, so Alright. If you lose the parent. What did you say? We had this conversation when you lost a parent. You said, oh yeah, I was fine. No, 

Speaker 16: I 

Speaker 9: didn't 

Speaker 16: say that. No. 

Speaker 13: Cut. Cut.

Speaker 2: cut.

Speaker 9: Say you do.

Speaker 13: No, you did. You don't. I underst misunderstood. No, I understand. [00:49:00] Um, no, but I'm definitely more able to, in my ca in this case, you, you always talk about compartmentalizing, but in, in my case, I'm able to compartmentalize. Yeah. Very well feelings from. Need to manage, need to lead, as in managing 

Speaker 9: people. Like am you compartmentalize from their feelings?

Manage the business.

Speaker: business. Like,

Speaker 13: I don't know. Anyway, whatever. I think we've gone down the wrong path. All of this.

Speaker 2: Let's cut all of this.

Speaker 13: Uh, no, no, we won't. We won't um,

Speaker 2: um,

Speaker 13: yeah, sometimes you 

Speaker 9: do lead with vulnerability. You can be very vulnerable and empathetic. I'm just saying sometimes it's just like.

Speaker: you does that.

Speaker 9: Anyway, we're not very, and he just doesn't 

Speaker 15: carry it.

There's a difference in that. Yeah. He says it out loud. Yeah, that's okay. You don't carry a safe place. No, true. That's true. That's it. Actually, I don't it. 

Speaker 9: I don't take it. He does not take it. Very intuitive. You're so intuitive. But you know what I was trying to say? You're right. He doesn't take it on. I take it home.

He doesn't. It on. Yeah. [00:50:00] That's 

Speaker 13: interesting. 

Speaker 9: Yeah. 

Speaker 13: That's because I don't go home. Just keep working. Um, I think we'll probably start winding up. Um, yeah, we're on 

Speaker 9: 48 minutes. We wrap for time. 

Speaker 13: Yes. Um, is there anything that you wanna say that is not a question? 

Speaker 10: Any advice I should have had questions 

Speaker 15: for you. Oh my God.

Flip the script and being the risk taker that I. Just talk myself up to 

Speaker 4: to 

Speaker 15: be.

Speaker 4: I'm sure. No, I guess 

Speaker 15: I'm sorry. No, I guess I'm not talking 

Speaker 13: about compliments or anything. No, no. But 

Speaker 15: there will be one because, um, I would love to thank you both, all three of you actually, um, for coming into our lives. So I guess I'll say, um, and bringing, um, Cleo and Sam in particular, I just love Stop this.

Stop 

Speaker 10: it. Oh, I can't 

Speaker 15: take compliments very well. Celebrating anything. For you guys, and I hope you know that I'm such an advocate of yours. Um, and any opportunity that I get, I talk about Hotel Etico with like, I'm the like the little love heart emoji. Like every time I talk about you guys, because I just think that you are such, I've seen you in Yeah, you're always one [00:51:00] of the first, like

Speaker 4: on I'm, I'm

Speaker 15: over everything, right?

Um, no, and, and going to Cleo's graduation last year probably sealed the deal for me. That was where I was like, oh. Very, did you see the photo of you there? 

Speaker 11: I no, like, proud mom. Proud mom. I had proud mom and proud dad next to me clapping. Like, and you're standing. You stood. Yes. You stood. Yeah. I was very, very 

Speaker 15: proud.

Um, and I'm

Speaker 4: looking forward to

Speaker 15: that again for Sam and, and for, for future, um, hotel lady kids who love to come and work with us. Um, I see it as a, um, a very valuable partnership. Um, but

Speaker 4: one that's

Speaker 15: so fulfilling and just enjoyable, like a good choice to do it. And we actually laugh at each other, which is lovely.

I do like you. It's 

Speaker 13: so good. Yeah. Yeah. We've got the 

Speaker 15: best 

Speaker 9: jobs we do. We have the best jobs. Yeah. Um, yeah. Yeah,

Speaker: Yeah. 

Speaker 2: Absolutely.

Speaker 13: Alright, so, um, normally the last

Speaker 2: question we ask is like, you know, what's, what's ahead

Speaker 13: you? Like, I mean,

Speaker 2: mean, yeah.

Speaker 13: what's your future? What does your future look like? 

Speaker 10: Oh, yeah.

Speaker 4: Oh, yeah. Um,

Speaker 15: I don't know. Uh, I'm at office I [00:52:00] from Amazing.

Your three days, is there an offer or, um, we're not knowing. We can't, we can't afford you unfortunately. Okay. Okay. 

Speaker 13: We do 

Speaker 15: it for love. Can we do we do it for 

Speaker 9: love? 

Speaker 15: I'm at three years almost in my current role, um, in my portfolio. I can't imagine leaving. I love what I do so much. Um, and. Um, yeah. I can't imagine ever giving these 11 hotels up and my 11, 12 general managers and, and my

Speaker 4: 400

Speaker 15: members.

I can't imagine giving it up, but I know that there will come a time where I say, I've done what I needed to do here, and it's time for me to go now. I, I just dunno what that is. It's still 

Speaker 8: within the hospitality industry though. Yeah. 

Speaker 9: I

Speaker 2: Yeah. I

Speaker 9: leave. I know. It's very, you always go back anyway. You always go back.

Yeah. Yeah. You always go back to hospital. Yeah. But I 

Speaker 13: think HR, hospitality will be so much more fun than, than HR in, in an office. Well, the stories 

Speaker 9: are wild. Some of the stories are wild. I love them. What's next? I don't know, but, um, yeah. Yeah. Okay. Well, your kids are getting older. [00:53:00] Yeah. So, for Steph, for Steph personally, what's.

Speaker 5: next?

Speaker 15: I'm gonna run my first half marathon. I'm saying it now and it's recorded. Yes. And towards the end of the year. I'm not gonna commit to the day, even though I know what the date is. Uh, but I'm not gonna say that loud. Um, so that's

Speaker 4: there for me. I hope to take a

Speaker 15: and actually have a rest at the end of the year.

I've got,

Speaker 4: um, two new

Speaker 15: members. Um, I've got, um, kids who will be

Speaker 4: approaching end

Speaker 15: primary school. I know. It is scary. I see what's on. Lylah just got 

Speaker 9: into high school. It's crazy. Yeah, it's honestly crazy. It's a good time. It's a goods time. It's a new step. Yeah, kids in high school, I feel like it's gonna be next level.

Speaker 16: Ah, that'd be right. No, 

Speaker 9: I meant for us, like,

Speaker: freedom.

Speaker 16: ah, uh, yeah. 

Speaker 13: Freedom takes a few more years. That was pretty, takes a few more years, but yes. Yeah. Yeah. It's getting there. Well. Steph, um, from both of us, thank you. Huge. Thank you for not just being here today, but for being here, for being really the right advocate, um,

Speaker 2: in the industry. I

Speaker 13: we still, we've only just scratched the surface. I think about how much we can do together [00:54:00] to promote inclusion. Uh, we love your enthusiasm and we love you. Authenticity. We love your risk. Taking you. Yeah,

Speaker 2: love. Yeah,

Speaker 9: you keep doing that. Yes, you keep doing that. And I think that you set a standard, um, in the hospitality space.

For that. Yeah. Because 

Speaker 13: as much as there is the appetite that we talked about, there's still a lot of walls to be knocked down and there's a lot of barriers. There's still a lot of know work to be done. So it's champions like you that we are really very proud to be associated with. So thank you.

Absolutely. 

Speaker 9: Thank you.

Speaker 13: And Bianca, um, she's 

Speaker 9: here, she's behind the scenes we talk about, so. 

Speaker 16: Oh 

Speaker 9: yeah. Bianca. 

Speaker 16: Yeah. So who is Bianca? We talked, we did this where, who did we say Bianca is? 

Speaker 15: Really talk about. So I think we should say before, let's give her three minutes. Hey. So who is Bianca?

Speaker 4: She's here. So who is

Speaker 15: So who is Bianca?

Bianca is our wonderful general manager, um, at the Mercure, Sydney Manly Warringah. So, uh, Scott Bear, who I

Speaker 4: I mentioned previously, who.

Speaker 15: Pod King, um, has passed the baton onto Bianca, um, and

Speaker 4: so this

Speaker 15: Bianca's first time general manager position. Um, and we are so proud and [00:55:00] so happy and so excited to have them there.

That's, I mean, about you finding talent. I know she's right. She's very on the ball. I know she's awesome and she's 

Speaker 13: walked into big shoes, but big, she, she feels them very, very comfortably. She 

Speaker 15: does. Yeah. She's, um. Uh, I know Sam absolutely adores her cause

told me

Speaker 4: Yeah. In the car on the way Home

Speaker 15: tell you if he didn't. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's right.

Speaker 5: right.

Speaker 15: Also very forthcoming. He's very, yeah, he's very good. Um, and, and I know that Bianca loves having him at work. Like she just, she lights up when, when Sam's there, like everybody does. 

Speaker 9: I just also think like it's, it's nerve wracking going for a new job. Um, and. I mean, one of the first things she did as GM was reach out to us and say, Hey, I'm here.

I'm just getting to know the role. Um, but I'm so excited to meet you and I think that that was a really, really nice thing. I can hand up. I promise you that. I

Speaker 4: I didn't tell her to do

Speaker 9: I can. I believe you. I believe you. Did you? Yeah. That's what I mean. I'd be surprised if you did. 'cause she's [00:56:00] just that kind of human.

Speaker 13: Okay. Enough talking to you about someone else. In the room. 

Speaker 9: Yeah, but she, she doesn't

Speaker: have, have a

Speaker 9: and she can't say anything.

Speaker: episode. 

Speaker 2: She's being, we let

Speaker 9: She's going red, but she's 

Speaker 13: so to close. We always like to say that. Um, and in this case, I'll say that together. Uh, let's just keep making room for all 

Speaker 9: and keep fighting for inclusion. 

Speaker 13: Thank you, Seth.

Speaker 9: Thank you. Thanks for me. Is that it?

Speaker 3: it?

Speaker 9: Wait, wait.

Speaker: Knives. 

Speaker 3: But they just

Speaker 9: Oh, is that your exit song?

Speaker 3: beast.

Speaker 9: I'll take ​[00:57:00]