Lynette shares how advocating for herself followed by her persistence led to her career in hospitality and the CEO role she holds today. She discusses mentors and champions who have and continue to provide her support and how she approaches public speaking. Lynette talks about overcoming obstacles and how organizational skills and designated time off help her manage to find work life balance. Lastly, Lynette shares some final advice and it's the same advice she gives her sons!
Lynette shares how advocating for herself followed by her persistence led to her career in hospitality and the CEO role she holds today. She discusses mentors and champions who have and continue to provide her support and how she approaches public speaking. Lynette talks about overcoming obstacles and how organizational skills and designated time off help her manage to find work life balance. Lastly, Lynette shares some final advice and it's the same advice she gives her sons!
/Good afternoon. I am Rachel Humphrey with DEI Advisors, and today I am delighted to, welcome to the show, Lynette Montoya.
Lynette Montoya:Lynette, welcome. Good morning, Rachel. It's so good to see you today.
Rachel Humphrey:Nice to see you. One of the things I like to do is share the impact that you and your leadership has had on me personally in my career, my hospitality journey. And I remember shortly after you assumed the role at Latino Hotel Association you reached out and we began having a series of conversations about association. Leadership and content and governance and all of these things. And I was really taken by your desire to learn and to grow and to understand the new role that you had and was very inspired to do the same as I continued my association leadership roles. I tell people, Nobody really goes to college thinking I'm gonna be an association executive when I grow up. And so the ability to learn from you and share with you, my learnings has been a really important part of my career. So I thank you for that. With that, I wanna turn and spend about 30 minutes with you talking about your path to leadership and the lessons that you have learned along the way. And I wanna start with you just telling us a little bit about who you are and how you got to where you are.
Lynette Montoya:Wow. Thank you Rachel so much. My name is Lynette Montoya and I am the CEO of the Latino Hotel Association. And I have to, reflect back on those days that I reached out to you and to Chip and I'm very thankful for those calls and those times it was I was vulnerable and I remain vulnerable because I think it's really important part of learning and being better in what what we're trying to achieve with the Latino Hotel Association. And I'm just Had I not had you and other leaders I don't know if I would still be here, I have to say this is the hardest job I've ever had. All jobs are hard and I've gone through many Iterations in my life of what I needed to do to be successful. But this one is extremely hard and, but at the same time, it's rewarding for sure.
Rachel Humphrey:It's so important. What was your career path before starting as CEO of the Latino Hotel Association?
Lynette Montoya:I could start from the day I was born, but really I think the pivoting point of my life was I always desired to. Affect the Latino community in some way. And I don't know where that came from because I'm from Santa Fe, New Mexico, born and raised in New Mexico, and I'm not like the typical immigrant. My parents were very fortunate in that they, the border crossed and we became just part of the US and our ancestors are the ones that fought the fight and we've been able to live. A really decent life based on our forefathers. And my dad was one of the first young men to graduate from college and. It was really interesting how he went on his path to do but he just inspired me all the time to just go to college. And he started to really understand the value of being an entrepreneur and working in real estate. And he worked. Very hard. He retired at like the age of 50, but he had everything going for him. He was a land surveyor. He was a real estate broker. He was a contractor. He's one of those men that was a man of all traits and could do almost anything. And so he really encouraged me to get my license early on. So before I even graduated from college, I had a real estate license. And I went off to, work in entities that provided help to Latinos, whether it was English as a second language job, finding skills, and I worked at a national level. For organization called SAD Jobs for Progress, and I was their government relations person. So just experiences abound, especially when you get to a certain age. You have all these different experiences. It's just hard to put'em all out there and where it affects you today. But I got married and I'm, I met this person and I ended up being in an abusive relationship. And I have to say that story because it was pivotal in me moving back to New Mexico and just using that real estate license that my dad never let me let go. And so I was selling high end real estate and It was, I was a single parent raising two young boys, and with that it gave me the opportunity to just be brave and to really step out of my situation and work on with sales only as an income. And when it I spent some time with a particular group of people that were looking at high end real estate in Santa Fe and. For any of you that know Carol Burnett from back in the Day, and Amy Irving and all of the major many major stars, even Julia Roberts, they all wanted to live in Santa Fe. And so I was in a great space where I was able to show these high end homes as I worked with this group for a while, and they finally didn't end up buying anything. Meanwhile, I was like really counting on selling'em a home, closing on those. So it was two of them, and then they just didn't wanna do it. And I was like, oh, I'm not letting these people go. And this is this is what I guess you call her systems. And so I went to their office and they had been talking about how they had started a management company and they were doing real estate. And by the way, they were both Hispanic, which is and so I I went to their office one day. I said, okay guys, I worked with you all this time and. I wasn't able to sell you a house, but since you're in this business, do you think I could sell you a hotel? So there you go, Rachel. That was where it all started. That's yeah, sure enough I saw them, their hotel in San Antonio, Texas, the St. Anthony. And I thought, oh my gosh, I gotta find him more properties. I gotta look everywhere. And I started looking at those old h and a books that were this thick and you opened them and you looked to see who all of the people were that owned the properties that managed the properties. And and I just started using those tools and Anyway, this is such a long story, Rachel. I could keep telling you more, but I need to tell you a few more steps in the story. I met Umra Lan, who you just interviewed recently, and I literally just called her up and said I'm in town. I flew to Houston by myself, asked my parents to watch my boys to just start to look for more assets. And I literally lock knocked on doors of hotels. I know, door knocking for homes is one thing, but for hotels was different. And I'd go to the front desk and I'd say can you tell me who I could reach out to so I could reach the owner? And that's literally what I did. And so that's how I found some assets and. I had a little spiel that I was taught in that period of time that the, those guys gave me the opportunity. They said, okay, this is what you say. You say, I know some people that are looking for acquisitions and I was wanting to see if you were looking at doing a disposition of your property, That's how I rolled. And anyway, I go see and we start looking at the portfolio that she was working with. And so we start looking at, some of their assets and we do make offers, but it, those didn't necessarily work out. But she did say to me, Lynette, you have to go to investment. So I started to go to investment conferences and it was a huge investment to go, and today it's a huge investment to go to those conferences, as we all know. And I would get there and I would be like, oh my gosh, this is. A sea of white men, and you may have heard this story, but it was very, it was a scary and intimidating situation to walk into these conferences and poor, I was just hanging onto her and I felt like the short Hispanic woman in the room and where were the, where. Anybody that I could relate to culturally but didn't matter. I still went up to everyone and I introduced myself and and I met a while back, John q Hammonds. And I stayed in touch with him and I was able to sell some of his assets too. It, it really paid off to be brave. Step out of the box. And then it got more difficult as there became a lot more brokers and there were men, it became a lot more difficult. That's when I realized I needed to tone it down, stay in my lane, in New Mexico and not try to do so much everywhere else. And also we had. A market crash, et cetera, that, slowed me down. And then I was raising young men and that took a lot of time. And meanwhile I remarried and so I had a support system so that I could just not be. So strapped and anyway, so that's the story. Rachel, maybe I told you the story before you, not all
Rachel Humphrey:the pieces of it, which I think is one of the things that's really interesting. And I will tell you, you have so many incredible nuggets in there. I wanna follow up on a few of them. First of all, one of the things we do hear often is the tremendous impact that your father had on raising a daughter. To show her, to show you that you could really be anything but the importance of the independence, the financial independence, the having a career and other things. So kudos for starters to your dad. But also so many examples of bravery in there and advocating for yourself and stepping out of your comfort zone. I wanna touch on a couple of the topics early on. Has been an incredible. Mentor and champion to so many. And you just talked about the influence that she had on you, and now in turn you are getting to serve as a mentor and champion to so many in the industry and as a role model. Talk a little bit about the process of identifying mentors and champions and then in turn paying it forward in that role for you today.
Lynette Montoya:Our industry, I felt since I've been in the industry for a while. And it was really good to come from a, that, a brokerage perspective because many of the people that I met way back when are still really good friends. And I always say we're just all growing up together. Yeah. And to me that's how I feel. I look at Wyndham, there was Jose Nido who just really helped me along the way to just, learn what I should do. Stay focused keep your money, do not overspend for the association as far as the association was concerned. And and then, he was just very helpful in many. And then there's been Bill Fortier over at Hilton, who's just been an amazing supporter of the association. And I'm very thankful to him and Rob Menez over at Best Western. He's like, when I first started, I didn't know what to do because I was the footsteps had gone dry from from the person that was before me. So there was so many things that needed to come back together and. And he always encouraged me along the way to, okay, when is your next conference? When are you gonna get going? And then of course as I was working with calling, having that monthly or bimonthly call with you and Chip. That was extremely helpful as well. Lynette get sponsored, so I'm like, but I don't have the owners. Okay. I have the owners, but they're so busy. I don't know if they'll come. And anyway, it. It was definitely a lot of mentors and champions along the way, and I probably would never be able to name them all. But very fortunate to still to continue to have support from all of the brands and from From others in the industry. That's such
Rachel Humphrey:a great lesson to show us too, that so many of your mentors and champions have been men and have been in brands where maybe that wasn't your role. So you can look outside of your company, you can look outside of maybe your direct field and have people who really play an important role in your develop. Separate from what you're doing in your day to day activities as part of an association executive, you and I have had an opportunity to be on panels, be speaking at the same conferences. How important do you think public speaking is on your role as a leader? How do you develop those skills? Are you comfortable with it? Do you get nervous? Do you have. A method of preparing. When you're preparing what is the role of public speaking in your leadership? Cause not everybody is comfortable with that and public speaking just as an add-on, could be speaking in front of a boardroom or could be speaking to your own team as opposed to in a conference like the size of yours.
Lynette Montoya:I, that's a really good question. Before all of this began, I I used to go to Toastmasters. I honestly think that was very helpful. And then it faded and, but when I had those successes with, there, there's so many you're making me think of all these things. But when I had those successes in the real estate industry I was always a. I've always had previously business coaching for real estate and just for my own business. And I always felt like those were key components to me being successful. And still today, I know I, I take a nugget from everywhere, every co coaching opportunity that I've had and I, and. Remember it. And I go back to it and so I'm very thankful for that. But I was coached by a real estate company a real estate coaching company called Buffini Real Estate. And when they heard that I had that big sale, they used to put me on the stage and I just would tell my story. Yeah. And I think the biggest. The most impact I have is when I'm vulnerable. Yep. And I can't say that more than because even I was on a panel on yesterday or Monday and. And I just was from the heart about what I know and what I think is important. And I think that's where the public speaking comes together for me, because if I don't share my story and I'm not authentic, then I'm just speaking. But in order to influence others and to give them a perspective that they might not have considered when I put myself in and in their place and speak about it, I think that. That's where where I know I, I can feel it when I'm saying it, that it makes a difference.
Rachel Humphrey:And that's storytelling. The whole mission behind DEI advisors to share stories, yours and the other advisors is because it is relatable and it is vulnerable sharing and it is talking about an area, hopefully, that you are very comfortable with. But I think also when you talk about the panel speaking, it's important to. The right avenues. So if you're speaking on a panel and you know that content or you are able to share your personal story, then you are going to resonate with your audience. If you pick a panel talking about, I don't know what, some space that is not yours, and you're just memorizing note cards or questions or something else, it's gonna come across that way. So really selecting the good fit for you and then telling your personal story. I love that so much. You were talking about in. Personal journey, being a single mom and having two boys, and certainly none of us has mastered perfectly this idea of work life balance, just trying to manage the two for those who are trying to figure it out. Now, what is some advice you have or strategies you implemented, because you've had a very demanding career in several different facets, but very demanding. You're on the road a lot, obviously now. How do you find a, a. That really are a management style that works for you and having both of those components of your.
Lynette Montoya:That's a good question. I, one of going back to some of the coaching tips I had from oh a long time ago is, it sticks with me. I'll just pop this up. So this little notepad, it may be small, but I just put the four things that I need to really. Today, and I usually write it the night before, or I look at it early in the morning and just, know that and they're not necessarily tasks. Some of them are just a project that needs to get started, but that's one one. Helpful hint I can share because if you have this list and my list used to be so long and, and then I would have to, anyway, so this has been very efficient for me. I really choose not to work on the weekends. But some Sunday nights usually there's some preparation for Monday. But I do like to take at least 24 hours off. and because I need to regroup, refresh, connect with family, and and take care of myself. I also put workout into my schedule at least three to four days a week and no matter what. And it's my meeting and so I don't schedule during that time. And other COVID. I realized yesterday when I had to go to Albuquerque and I travel a lot, as we all do, but I realized that I hadn't taken the time to just step out of this little office of mine. And just remember all of those other opportunities that are out there. And they're not gonna really come to me just sitting here. And even though we travel, we're really traveling for a specific thing and to achieve a specific goal. So just taking off yesterday and just spending that time with one of my board members, with some investors, with other people that. That are very successful. It, I just feel really filled today and reminded that there's so many more things I can be doing do, and I have to put it somehow into my work life management because there's a lot left for me to achieve. Including lha of course. Yeah.
Rachel Humphrey:It's interesting, I first of all love a good list. I am a big believer in the organization of a list as well. But what I really touched on there was that you are self-aware enough to recognize the importance of self-care and that you are building in that important time because it's very easy as parents, especially as single parents, to. To not prioritize ourselves and to make sure the association is taken care of, to make sure that you mentioned all the shareholders of the association are taken care of, that your children are taken care of. But I love that you are finding intentional time to take care of yourself. That, that's incredibly helpful advice to share and I hope that people will definitely attach onto that. One of my favorite questions to answer and so I always ask it is what advice would we give to our 20 year old selves? And I like it so much because I think that reflecting on where we come from, what we wanna be, how we're gonna get there is so important and we continue to grow and we continue to learn. And it sounds like you've had great coaching experiences, great mentors, great industry experience that has helped you do that. Looking back now, what would you tell 20 year old.
Lynette Montoya:This is just a reflection of the first the first thing that comes to mind is this will pass. This, whatever's happening to you at that age, it's, and it seems so traumatic, it will pass. And I think that's really hard to see when you're. You see just the worst in everything. And and as I've gotten older, I just have learned more about just surrendering and just saying, it's, everything's going to work out. You work towards helping it to work out but sometimes the dwelling on something that's not happening it can be really painful. and I wish I would've known that and given myself a little bit more of a break. I would say invest. Look at ways to invest, save your money however you can in, in whatever resource that's available to you through your workplace and or if you're an entrepreneur to get advice on how to do to appreciate. The next thing would be to really appreciate your. Where you're at, because I think we, I, I don't know when we're on our 20 somethings we're, we are loving it, but I don't know what we're waiting for, so enjoy the moment. That's great advice.
Rachel Humphrey:I love that. Lyna as CEO of the Latino Hotel Association, but also through your career you have accomplished great things, but it is not without obstacles, personal and professional. What are some of the strategies when faced with a challenge or an obstacle that you implement part of your character that you think helps you hunker down and overcome whatever that challenge is that you're facing?
Lynette Montoya:Those are really good questions. We had a really successful conference and I'll just talk about that. We had a very successful conference and then in the end I was really pleased with everything. There's always something, but, and I caught myself dwelling on the, something that didn't happen. It was really a wonderful conference. It was, it just really showed how we have, how we've moved along and how we are really on a great path. And I think the obstacles that we face is always just. Being recognized as a as an organization that really matters and that we are a large enough, we have such an impactful population on the US and pay attention to us. And so I've been just reaching out to, to many. To find better ways to do what we're doing and to find more support for doing what we're doing. And and without, More resources, like how can we just have more of an impact? Because we have one conference a year, that's obviously not enough if we're trying to reach this great community, and are we reaching them and how do we get there? And so right now I feel obstacles, but I'm just gonna break'em down one at a time and figure out ways that, that we can make a difference. And really using my team and my board a lot more because sometimes I just get. Honed in that everybody's so busy they can't, I don't know if they have time for this, and so just realizing that they're there, they want to help. They know that this is important. We have so much data that we cannot be ignored and where you need to do everything we can to break down any obstacles and not and not be ignored. And you know that it's about the association. And then just for, personally, also for me to know that this is so important, but I also have. Consider to continue building generational wealth in my family, which we already have and which we continue to do. But when there, there's so much more I wanna do.
Rachel Humphrey:I think such great advice about taking the pieces a little bit at a time instead of being overwhelmed by the whole, but also, like you said, reaching out to others to help and know that they want to help you and to support you. And as we strive for a more diverse industry at all levels, the work that Latino Hotel Association is doing is so important in developing future leaders, hotel owners, and all of that to be more diverse. Obvious I do remember. Where the association was when you stepped in and where it is today. And you should be incredibly proud, but also feed off of that success and that trajectory to keep powering you forward. As expected. We're gonna run short on time and I could ask you a million other things, but keeping in mind the. Mission of DEI advisors, which is to empower personal success for individuals to go out and grow and enable their own futures. What is a final piece of advice? Maybe something that we haven't talked about, but that you would wanna tell our listeners? Not if you're thinking about one thing, but if you're thinking about one more thing here is something that I have relied on in elevating my career and may help you as.
Lynette Montoya:I guess I can look at it from the perspective of the advice that I've given my boys and those around me my nieces, et cetera. And nephews too, by the way is to just. Really believe in yourself and and write your goals. And then go back and read them. I know that sounds like all of the Motivational speakers of the world. Those little things can really make a big difference in your life and, know what you want and expect great things to happen. Expect a big offer to come. So you have to really believe in yourself to see those things happen. And just know that it's when you have what you have and you're holding onto it, then it's not gonna grow. But if you let go and you take some risk with a lot of knowledge, let's be clear good things will happen. And so just believe in yourself and listen to your. And date the people around so you know that you're around the right people. Just date'em and know them very well. I love
Rachel Humphrey:that so much. I love ending on such a note of optimism and hope and positive thinking. But ette, on behalf of an entire industry, thank you so much for your leadership. On behalf of our team here at DEI Advisors, thank you so much for sharing your story and the insights you've learned along the way. But we are glad to have you as a guest. Thank you so much.
Lynette Montoya:Thank you.