Seema shares how she took a hotel revenue management sales strategy and turned it next into a hotel brand career and now an entrepreneurial venture. She discusses her love of public speaking, prioritizing self care, and the important role seva (selfless service) plays in her life. Seema also talks about creating your personal brand and what advice she'd give her younger self, which is the same advice she currently imparts on her own children!
Seema shares how she took a hotel revenue management sales strategy and turned it next into a hotel brand career and now an entrepreneurial venture. She discusses her love of public speaking, prioritizing self care, and the important role seva (selfless service) plays in her life. Seema also talks about creating your personal brand and what advice she'd give her younger self, which is the same advice she currently imparts on her own children!
Good afternoon. I am Rachel Humphrey with d e I advisors and I am always excited to have these interviews, but today, especially so cause I get to, welcome to the show, a longtime friend and colleague from the hospitality industry, SEMA Jane sema. Welcome to d e i
Seema Jain:Advisors. Oh, thank you Rachel. It's an honor to be with you today.
Rachel Humphrey:I like to give everybody a little heads up on how I choose different interviews, why I think they'll be valuable to other people, and I'm not gonna do that yet, but I am gonna share that every now and then you meet someone and you know that your lives are destined across. At some point you don't know why and you don't know how it's gonna happen. But when we met the first time, I knew that our path was not yet over. So I'm excited to share a little bit later more about that. But I wanna start off now talking a little bit. your personal journey. One of the things that I love so much about the hospitality industry is that we all have incredibly different journeys in our path to leadership. So tell us a little bit about yours and how you got to where
Seema Jain:you are today. Okay. Rachel, and I think you might know a little bit about my history, but for those of you who don't I am a first generation Indian, born and raised in u S a. Parents came here in the sixties like many of our Indian hotelier friends have done. And my parents came here with the thought of higher education for themselves. And my father chose to be a professor in finance and economics and statistics. Fast forward and my turn comes to college. He said, you have lots of choices. You could be a doctor, a lawyer, a business or engineer. And that was the choice of my generation. So I followed his path and did finance. Yes, you heard me right. I am a finance nerd at heart. I love my numbers. I love my cashflows and discounted cash flow models and proformas. So I did that in the first life on my first journey. But in 1995, my parents decided to invest in hotel. And so they joined in the hotel business and I decided at that time that I better learn a little bit about the business if I was to help them out at some point. So I decided to take my hand into a hotel business, and I started with Marriott International and in corporate sales. And it was in that time in about 2006, 2008, Rachel, that I realized in a recession year, how was I gonna make numbers when there's a, recession going on. So I decided to start being a little bit culturally smart and take care of our guests the way they wanna be taken care of. So I identified a group of ethnic travelers and took care of them with their food TV stations they liked and different things in order to bring the business to our. The story went to Marriott Corporate. It went viral in the company and they created a position for me where I was in charge of the multicultural team. So basically that meant is I am going out to the hotels, making sure that our hotel team's front desk to housekeeping food and beverage sales events. Everybody was able to take care of a guest of a different background. the way they wanted to be taken care of. So if my Chinese guests are coming, or my Brazilian guests are coming, or German guests or Japanese, what do we do to make sure they are taken care of and that they will want to come back? Program did great at Marriott and then the pandemic hit. So during that time, I decided to go off on my own and take this great cultural knowledge that I had, but share it with other people, not limiting it to one company or even one industry. To go beyond hospitality. So though hospitality is a crux of our business and what we do, we have done things in tech space and financial institution all different inter we call it healthcare. So we're working in different industries as well because we realize being culturally competent is really for everyone.
Rachel Humphrey:That's incredible. And you touched on so many important themes there. Number one, you creating a strategy, it being recognized by those in your professional space, and then creating new opportunities that now led to the opportunity you have now. And that's just such an incredible lesson about being open to new things and by performance. Where that ended up taking you. And that is where our paths crossed because of course, the first time I had an opportunity to visit with you, you were speaking at the AOA Women's Conference talking about cultural competency, but in a revenue generation aspect. Fast forward, I had been looking for a trainer for cultural competency. Our volunteers and for our corporate staff and really had just never found the person or the company that I really thought could effectively do in the industry what we were looking for. Fast forward to that pandemic time. I see that you have created exactly what I had been looking for in Save A Global, and I reached out to you that very first day I actually saw your. And so tell me more because I think that I have a need and from there, of course, now, be able to share in one another's networks and share one another's successes as we've grown. Grateful for that and for that opportunity. I wanna talk a little bit about entrepreneurship for women because it is incredibly scary for anyone to start a. To go from the kind of that guaranteed paycheck and not having overhead and administrative to being responsible for all of it. How did you know that there was a need for the services that you were gonna provide, and how did you know that you were the one to do that? What advice would you give to others that are like, you know what? I think I may have an idea here of an entrepreneurial opportunity that could be successful.
Seema Jain:Oh, no, that's a great question, Rachel. So it actually organically fell into my lap, where in 2014, several sales leaders in the catering field had approached me because they wanted to learn about Indian weddings. And if you've ever been to an Indian wedding, Rachel, I'm not sure if you have, they're pretty extravagant. It's a production of three to four days, several events. Several room nights we don't do 10 on a night, we'll do a hundred room block. So it's a pretty big event. It's almost equal to a corporate event when you really think about it. So they asked me to educate them on the Indian wedding and the culture so that they could better market themselves and sell to this Indian client. So we created the curriculum. That was the first one we did back in 2014, and we built upon. Then soon people would come to me and say, can you teach us about, Judaism, Jewish culture, Jewish BA Mitzvah or LGBTQ plus or Chinese Muslim? And that's how we started. So based on market demand, we started creating programs. And many people ask me, how did you learn about this? Cuz I have a finance economics background, a marketing in my grad school. It is a. If you want to learn, you're going to learn. So talking to people of different backgrounds, talking to colleagues in the different countries that we were working with, building that myself was such a satisfaction. Leaving a paycheck is not easy. You have a stable income each month, but. The ROI of just having that satisfaction of doing it by myself, Don, not having a boss, not having to deal with legal, HR or anything. Everything I do is so purposeful in the sense the meeting has a reason and I don't have to worry about any politics or anything. So there is a good side of it, and I think the best is that I tell people I don't really need a boss. I just love my. And that's what I love is I wake up every day motivated by them and the team that I've created in the last two years as well. So if it is something that is on your bucket list, you need to do it because I don't wanna go in this world thinking, oh, I'm gonna regret that I did do it. My father was an entrepreneur, my brother was an entrepreneur. Entrepreneur. I think it's in our blood. And the pandemic was actually just a silver lining that gave me an opportu. That had that not happened, I may have still been working for corporate America, and that's great, but now that I see this other side, I feel much more satisfied that I can help so many more people in the space that really needs to be looked at today.
Rachel Humphrey:That's great. Great advice. I wanna turn a little bit to the company, the name of the company Seva means Selfless Service. How important has that philosophy been in your career in guiding the journey that you've been on and how you practice today?
Seema Jain:Oh, that's such a great question. Rachel, when we came up with the name, I remember my youngest daughter and I were sitting in the family room and we were drawing symbols and thinking of words, and I wanted it to tie something to my culture, but a word that had some very good meaning to anybody who heard it. So I actually did a cultural check on the word seva to make sure it didn't offend any other cultures. But seva is a Sri word, the act of selfless. And interestingly, hospitality is a service industry, so it was a beautiful tie in from that perspective. But in our Indian culture, SVA is the first thing is how do you do save up for your parents taking care of them or the elders in your community or the underprivileged communities that we work in. So for me, this was such a great meme because every day I look at my logo, I look at my name, I think to myself, did I do a little save up for somebody today? Did I take care of someone, do a random act of kindness, make a donation? What did I do? And it reminds me the bigger picture in life that yes, I want to earn money, but at the same time I wanna give back. So the company's a perfect intersection of career, service, and bringing the harmony that I need in my life. And so I try to remember every day, Rachel. Did I pay forward? Did all those people who helped me in the beginning of my career. Now it's my turn to help all those people who are not sure how to start a company. Not sure if they should do this. First thing is believe in yourself. When you believe in yourself, it's going to come out okay? So I try to pay forward by helping now other entrepreneurs making sure they can see their journey and give them hope.
Rachel Humphrey:What a great phrase to talk about harmony in your life. And, that's something that we all struggle with on a daily basis and maybe get better or worse over time depending on what's going on. You're a mom, a wife, you're a community leader, obviously a careerist as well. what are some of the strategies that you've implemented over time to help you find that harmony in wanting to be fulfilled as an entrepreneur, fulfilled as a businesswoman, but also fulfilled in your family and community life?
Seema Jain:Oh gosh. I think this is the biggest struggle for anybody, right? It's always the work life harmony and how do we balance everything? And as women, I feel that the most important thing is taking care of yourself first. Okay. So yes, my morning starts out with the workout. If I don't get that workout in Rachel, I'm not very happy. And I get a little crabby. So I just, I gotta get that in. I know what makes me going for the day. It keeps me happy. But I think for us all women, we. We can have it all. We just can't have it all at the same time. Sometimes you have to make choices and that's okay. When we look at success, we think of it as differently. To some people, it could be financial success to others. It can be how I raised my children. Who is to say what is success? It's in the way we wanna look at it, but self-care is a very important part. I feel that it's extremely important for women today to take a moment to take care of yourself first, because we are the pillar, right? We wear so many hats and we have to stay strong in order to do that. So it's not a selfish thing to take care of. It's a selfless thing to take care of yourself, so you agree better as an employer, as a mother, as a wife, as a daughter, or any role that you play. It's important that, so I encourage women, take a step back, detox from technology. Get rid of that phone for a while. Computers do something that makes you happy and take that out an hour a day. Because if you don't, you're gonna burn yourself into the ground. And I've seen many women do that and then they have to reposition themselves and think, okay, I lost my help. This happened. And really, Rachel, at the end of the day, is there any money worth help?
Rachel Humphrey:Yeah. It's so interesting to hear you say that because I feel very strongly in that, but I didn't practice it until this chapter of my life where I was able to really revisit and say, I have to include myself somehow in this equation. And so anytime I hear from you or others that you are aware and practicing it, while also full-time. Career women. It is just incredibly inspirational to me. And I, I always tell people, if I could give myself my 21 year old self advice, it would be to go back and say, never let that slide the way that you did when other things started taking over. Such great advice. I wanna switch gears a little bit and talk about personal branding. you are such a strong proponent of having a brand, and we hear about it, but a lot of people, the term is relatively new and what it means is relatively new. what does having a personal brand mean for you and why is it so important that we each really are able to tell our
Seema Jain:story? So personal brand, when I started and about two years ago today actually is when I started thinking. who do I wanna be? What's that brand that I wanna associate with through, do I wanna be a Ritz-Carlton? Do I wanna be a courtyard? Do I wanna be a Delta? What brand am I thinking of when I think of my service and the product offerings that I have? And I only mentioned those cuz those are the ones I'm most familiar with, having worked with the company. But of course, love all my hotels and brands. And at the time that we started, I realized that I am the kind of person who will always give more than my client will ask. I was one who, in high school when I was studying for an exam, and even if I already had an A plus on the record and I needed only a c. To maintain an A Rich, I didn't know how to study for a c I always knew how to study for an A, and that's when I realized I need to be that level of a brand. And I do identify myself more of a Ritz Carlton brand where it's anticipating your client's needs and giving the. Full experience and not having to nickel and dime for everything else, right? I want to charge appropriately that when they need an adjustment made or something needs to be pivoted, that's okay. We're going to do that for them because at the end of the day, I want my clients to be happy and satisfied. So when I sat there and thought about it, I knew whether I charge this price or that price, I'm always going to give you the best that I can because I didn't know another. So I do like to say that I am the Ritz Carlton of Cultural competency, and I do think that it's a phenomenal brand that I've learned over the years, but I do feel very strongly that, this is the way I know I like to take care of my clients and I appreciate them and if I do a really great job, they'll come back to me over and over again. And that's the goal. It's a relationship building, it's building loyalty. And that is exactly what I'm hoping.
Rachel Humphrey:Your brand certainly is putting your best foot forward all the time. Certainly in the experience that I've had with you. How important has public speaking been both in your career and also in this new step, this new chapter of your career with your own business? And what advice would you give? You We hear from a lot of people. Public speaking is my biggest hangup or the biggest hurdle I have to overcome, or no matter how successful I get, I still, it's not my favorite thing to do. Where has, what role has that played in your career
Seema Jain:trajectory? Really when I started in 2014 developing the Culture Day program for Marriott International, that was my first really public speaking, right? You're going in front of a class and you have 40, 50 hotel staff members there from sales events, catering, and you're talking about a culture, right? You're speaking about how to take care of a Muslim guest or how to take care of the guests from Mexico. So you're learning. One thing I do realize is it is my happy. Getting in front of people and speaking to them on a topic I'm so passionate about is great. I tell people who say, how do you do it? How do you do it? You practice on a topic first that you're very passionate about, because when you practice on something you enjoy, that makes. One variable easier for you. Then you can jump to something that's a little harder oh my God, I have to talk about revenue manager and I have to talk about something I'm not so comfortable in. Then you practice that way. But I feel the best tips on public speaking is that every time I speak, it has gotta be heartfelt. It has to have a little bit of humor and people who've heard me know, I tell lots of stories about my wedding days or some sort of thing personal that I've had. It's got to have sincerity. It has to have something of interaction and engagement. I only speak Rachel the way I wanna be spoken to, right? I don't wanna fall asleep. I make sure, and the best compliment I got was when I did an eight hour presentation and somebody came to me at the end and said, you know what? I never looked at my. So that meant I kept their attention and that was the good thing. So making sure how to read the audience. If you see they're getting bored, what do you do? How do you change it? You have to be flexible, you have to able to pivot at times too. The worst is the after lunch slot when everyone's kinda in, food coma and you've gotta capture them there. So you have to find different ways, but public speaking. a big part of my career at corporate, but it is also what I do now, whether it's virtual in person or hybrid, I have to make sure that I am capturing the audience and the attendees and getting the most for them that I can. So virtual, we did a four hour virtual a couple of weeks ago, and to keep. Entertaining for four hours on a Friday afternoon is hard. But that's my job. That's my responsibility. And I like those challenges. I like to make sure that, hey, I didn't lose anybody and they're still on with me at 4:00 PM on a Friday is a good thing. So it's a good thing. I think it's a great skill, I think all young. Students in college started as young as you can, right? There's ne it's never too early to start public speaking, whether it's with your family or with colleagues or with your team members in school. But it is a great skill that is life gonna last for your entire life, for sure. And it is something that you will use, wherever you go.
Rachel Humphrey:I think one of your great points in there, and there's so many, is that it doesn't have to be on a main stage with 5,000 people. It can be no to your colleagues, it can be to your team. It can be, at a nonprofit maybe that you spend some time with. So there's lots of ways of easing into it for sure. I would disagree with you on one thing. I think the worst slot is the one right before the bar is opening at, oh, that's another one. Yes, I agree. That is not a good time slot. But other than that, I think you're right on. I wanna talk about women and one of the generalizations that we hear a lot is that we are not good advocates for ourselves. I know that's an area that throughout my career I had a lot of room for improvement and probably looking back on it now, was not as successful there. I think I was advocating for others, but not really taking the time to advocate for myself. What would you tell women who are. Struggling a little bit with how to, or finding the confidence to advocate for themselves, whether it's a raise, or a promotion or an opportunity or even a job.
Seema Jain:It is a challenge I know to get the confidence to be comfortable in advocating for yourselves, and it takes time. I think when women can look at themselves and find the goods in them and the pros and their strengths, that's gonna start building their confidence. Surrounding yourself with cheerleaders, surrounding yourself with people who support you, and most importantly, surrounding yourself with positivity. People who bring that good energy and good vibes, it's gonna start developing your confidence. I tell women all the time, always. Only thing someone can do is say no. When you're going for a salary, when you're going, but always remember to to deserve first then desire, right? You should actually earn that before you ask for the promotion. But when you're asking for salary, you and I know Rachel, we're getting paid a lot less than a, an average male counterpart would, and why not? why not? The only thing someone can do is say no. But if you go in with confidence and you feel you deserve it, and it's rightfully then ask. And I will tell you, in my experience, you would be surprised how many things you can ask for. And people don't argue. They're just, they don't expect you to do it. So going in there, be strong. Be you have to believe in yourself, Rachel, because if you don't believe in yourself, who's gonna believe? right? So you have to feel strong about yourself. You have to feel good about yourself. You surround with the network of people that make you feel good and will help you shine. And that's how you can start advocating for yourself. And it's always the fine line of, oh, is she being too arrogant or is she, really sincere about. So it's hard to sometimes measure how people will perceive it, but I think one thing I always admire with the best leaders that I have seen are three. approachability, humility, and visionary. And it's the humility that sits really well with me the most is to remember, no matter what you advocate, you can always be humble. You can always be humble. It crosses all cultures, it crosses any generation. But that's the one thing that will always help. And you can advocate. Be strong, be confident. Always remember to stay a little bit humble and I think that can win.
Rachel Humphrey:I love the idea of Deserve first and then desire, and the worst thing that somebody can say is no. One of the recurring themes we hear at d e I advisors on these interviews is if you want something, you have to ask for it. you either can't assume that people know that you want it or think that you're just going to get it because you deserve it. And so that really dovetails nicely with the worst that can happen is that somebody can say no. And one of. Favorite things you just said in there is talking about surrounding yourself with positivity and with a strong support system. how do you identify the right people in your support system? I'm guessing that you use it for different purposes as well, but how does a support system help you in your
Seema Jain:journey? Oh, I think it's the number one thing you need, especially as an entrepreneur. You're scared. Some days you're not sure if you're making the right decision, who do you fall back? When I started this entrepreneurship journey a couple of years ago, I reached out to mentors. I reached out to people that I trusted would not only give me good advice, but they'll challenge me. I'm not looking Rachel, for people who are gonna sugar coat, oh yeah, this is great. No. I don't need that. I need someone to push my buttons to say, Hey, did you think about this? Or Why do you think this is gonna. My mentors, my network. I try to make it very diverse. So when I look at my mentors, I look at generations. Doesn't mean just someone older than me. As a mentor, I look at the Gen Zs as well to make sure I pull someone from there and they can guide me in a different way. Looking at different diverse perspectives is gonna make me a better person. So my mentors are diverse by gender, by age, by religion, by. My team is diverse. We are five generations and we're only six people, so it's a small team, but I have purposely made sure that I also, I talk about this every day, that diverse teams will rise above, they'll be financially successful. I believe in it, and I do it because everybody on my team brings some new perspective to me. And I may not always agree, but I like to hear it. And I want to say, bring, tell me more. Tell me more why you think this. Because if I'm open, this is how we're gonna all work together. So my support is my team support of diversity, of clients support in my mentors, my networking. I try even though, yes, I'm Indian, I don't have just all Indian friends. I wanna make sure I have, I actually lived in a Jewish community, so I have a great set of Jewish friends. I have, friends from the LGBTQ plus community. I wanna make sure all my friends and my colleagues are as diverse as they can be as well, because that's how we grow. And. That's how we grow and learn by hearing other perspectives, by learning from different communities. Yesterday we did a presentation on Kwanza for our client, and I brought a guest speaker in. Again, learning is the way we're gonna do it. So I actually didn't know anybody who celebrated it, found somebody, and she engaged and taught us all at the same time. So I think support systems are crucial. When I started, honestly, Rachel, I was like, oh my God, I've never written a proposal like this. I've never, I dunno what pricing should be. I had to do my homework, talking to people like at top five consulting groups to anybody who's been in my consulting small suite, talking a variety of people to get the best ideas of how to make my pricing. we've never done that before. As an entrepreneur, how do I know what I'm worth? How do I know what to sell? What's reasonable? Not too high, not too low. So I fully believe if you're gonna start a journey like what I did, you need to find people who are gonna support you, who are gonna be your cheerleaders, keep you positive, and yet question and challenge you, and that's most important.
Rachel Humphrey:I love that. I'm imagining that your support system has also been very helpful in overcoming challenges. All leaders at some point or another are gonna have to tackle things that maybe don't go their way or unexpected. What strategies do you use, or what character traits do you rely on? What's your process when you identify a challenge or an obstacle in plowing through and moving forward?
Seema Jain:Yeah, that's, it's a really good question. And we all have those challenges. We've come up with challenges with clients that just were not organized and it put a lot of pressure on my team to try to always, everything was an emergency, how do we maneuver through these? I think the one thing I always do, and maybe it's now my age, as we're not young anymore. Our patience is a little bit more as we're getting older. I think, Rachel, the first thing I do, Sit down and analyze, okay, let's see what's going on. Not rushing into things and just taking my time to think it really thoughtfully through of what am I going to do next? Okay, here's our situation. What's my next step? And I want to not rush into it and maybe take a couple days on the email. Just wait a minute. Let me think it through before I react to it. So I think that patience on a challenging situation is sometimes best. Many times I will write an email at. And I will let it sit. for 24 hours, because my thought might be different in 24 hours, right? Or at times my husband, my number one supporter in life, I'll have him look at it. He writes a little bit differently than I, and so it's nice to see his lens as well. So sometimes it's just taking the time and not rushing is the way I've overcome challenges. Okay, let me think this through. Let me see all the options. What makes sense? How am I gonna present it to the client and take my time? And it seems to do well. When you just take a step back and reflect on it for a minute rather than, oh my gosh, I can't believe this just happened. Take a moment, reflect, because in 24 hours you're probably gonna change how your thinking is.
Rachel Humphrey:I love the combination of patience and time. I think that makes a lot of sense. And you bring up a great example with responding to email because I think many of us have that inclination of the instant, response time or whatever it is. And sometimes that's not our most. Thoughtful way of responding. I know that I've got some lighting challenges here. I apologize. Talk to me about the lessons that you have learned over time. One of the things that I've always loved this question for is because I think reflection is such an, a critically important part of our own growth and our own continuous path. What would you tell 21 year old SEMA coming out of college that you wish you knew?
Seema Jain:So one definite. So it's funny, my husband and I sometimes talk about this what would we have done differently or what would we have, added to our life? One is from a financial perspective, I wish if I had to redo something at a young age that I had more diversified my portfolio. So not just maybe stocks, but maybe invest in real estate at a younger age. So yes, as an Indian hotelier, many of us are growing up with generational opportunities. But even with commercial real estate, I wish I had done things earlier, like multi-family buildings, which we started doing at 50 and not at a younger age. So my son is at 24. He is in real estate and that's advice we've given him is make sure you diversify your portfolio, whether it's cash, stock, gold, real estate, whatever it. That's one thing I would've done differently at that time. And again, I think as you get older, your patience grow. I would've looked back and said, I was probably a little bit more sensitive at that younger age, right? When something didn't go right, we were, I can't believe this didn't, you're, and I think as you age over time and become more mature, you realize it's okay. Just give it a little time. I think not being so quick to react when I was younger. Things you reacted a lot faster and sometimes the emotions got into play. So those are things that if I could have done a little differently. And then on a very personal note, Rachel, between you and me, I've got three kids. I probably would've wish I had four I would've taken one more. If I could have, I would've. I love that, would've love that. And it's. Very
Rachel Humphrey:that you can have, but they can probably hear me enough
Seema Jain:not to No, you two are great. I love your two, so
Rachel Humphrey:I know, understand I'm a hard time. Seima, as I told you at the top of our time together, I could visit with you forever and continue to learn so much from you and enjoy our time together so much. But when you think about the d e I advisor's motto of empowering personal success, tell me maybe a piece of final advice that we have not had an opportunity to talk about or something that you would share with our listeners who are really looking to take their career to the next step.
Seema Jain:Sure. Rich, I think it's interesting. When I was younger, I thought I wanna be the VP of this or the senior vice president, the c e O. That's, that to me was success. And I think, like I said earlier, success is in the eye of the be. So your success today is very different than what it was 10 years ago, right? My success today is measured differently than what it was 10 years ago, and I think for women or men or anybody, don't need to compare to other people. Just be happy with your accomplishments and be realizing that your success, whether it's financial success, whether it's how I raised my family, that can be very success for somebody as well. These are all important things, but I think too often in society we're used to jumping to certain measurements out there that define success, but who's to say that is true? So my advice is be proud of who you are in your accomplishments. Don't compare to. don't compare. You define success that works for you, and that's exactly what I would tell people today. I
Rachel Humphrey:love that so much. Not comparing yourself to others. Really being proud of who you are and your accomplishments. Such an important lesson to learn. SEMA on behalf of an industry, on behalf of d e I advisors, thank you so much for your leadership, for your ongoing support and education on cultural competency and so many other things for our friendship as well. But thank you so much for joining us with d e I advisors.
Seema Jain:Oh my gosh, Rachel, my pleasure. You were my first client and when the pandemic started, I'll never forget that. And always excited to, keep our relationship and if there's anything I can do for you personally or for di, I am always there for you. Thank you so much.
Rachel Humphrey:Have a good afternoon. Thank you.