Tori talks about how the combination of being kind and compelling can take you far. She also shares her strategies for developing relationships with decision-makers on both sides of an issue, which of her character traits she relied upon in helping her lead through the pandemic, and which public speaking opportunities she thrives in as well as how she prepares for them. Tori also discusses how she overcomes self doubt and what she'd tell her younger self (and whether she's actually following her own advice now).
Tori talks about how the combination of being kind and compelling can take you far. She also shares her strategies for developing relationships with decision-makers on both sides of an issue, which of her character traits she relied upon in helping her lead through the pandemic, and which public speaking opportunities she thrives in as well as how she prepares for them. Tori also discusses how she overcomes self doubt and what she'd tell her younger self (and whether she's actually following her own advice now).
Good afternoon. I am Rachel Humphrey and I am delighted to welcome to the show today, Tori Emerson Barnes, who's an Executive Vice President at US Travel Association. Tori, welcome to the show.
Tori Emerson Barnes:Thanks so much for having me. It's great to see you today.
Rachel Humphrey:Tori, I'd like to give people a little bit of background on sometimes why I have chosen specific people to interview. And back in 2019 when I was the interim president and CEO for aoa, we had a chance to spend some time together on Capitol Hill, and I was incredibly impressed by your public speaking, by your advocacy on behalf of an industry. That is so important to both of us, to the relationships that you've built. And I know that you have a lot of guidance, a lot of lessons you've learned along the way, and I'm really delighted that you've agreed to share them with us today. We're gonna spend about 30 minutes together and we're gonna jump right in. As one of the things I love so much about the hospitality industry is we all have very different paths that led to our leadership. So I'm wondering if you can tell us a little bit about your path and where you got, how you got to where you are.
Tori Emerson Barnes:Yeah, no, absolutely. So I was actually born into a political family, so very actively involved. And I graduated from college I should say that I st. When I was going to college, I was debating between political science, communications or architecture. So two very different areas. I ended up going with the communications public. Affairs sort of route government affairs because of my love of. Government affairs government relations, or the government, I should say history in particular. And also was told that if you went into architecture, you couldn't be overly social that you needed to be really focused on on, on, on drawing and not not join a sorority or, do anything sort of social. And I'm very social person, so I. I, I went for the communications political science route. But ultimately I went from there to a nonprofit charity outside of the political arena to raise money for, as actually the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. And then after nine 11 of. Of 2001 I decided that I wanted to go to Capitol Hill or be involved somehow with the government. And so that's when I went up to Capitol Hill. Ultimately ended up at General Motors for almost 15 years where I learned a lot about government affairs lobbying. Communications crisis management, Crisis communications and then ended up leaving gm to come to the US Travel Association and moved up within this organization. And right before the pandemic given my, my crisis background being in the travel industry during a pandemic. So a lot good learnings along the. Absolutely.
Rachel Humphrey:You've actually just segued into a perfect topic. I wanna talk about leading during the pandemic for a little bit because obviously without having mentors to turn to or others who had been through a similar thing, and you may have just touched on it, but what were some of your character traits or your background that think helped you? Really succeed as a leader during the pandemic, Obviously the hospitality industry, the travel industry impacted so greatly that your work on Capitol Hill was so important and you knew that so many people's livelihoods were really depending on that. What did you rely on in your leadership skills during
Tori Emerson Barnes:that time? So I think the the ability to really identify the cadence of actions that needed to happen was one. And some of that comes from crisis. I think from the crisis experience that I'd had before, which one was okay, what are we dealing with right here, right before us that we can actually. Prepare ourselves for the long term. So we knew at the beginning of the pandemic or as things were shutting down that ultimately if the travel industry was gonna be shut down, that we were gonna need relief, we were gonna need help. And so we put together some pretty significant asks Our corporate CEOs to go to the White House. We are advocated. Our lobby team banded together with other industry folks to go to Capitol Hill to really be prepared for what we thought was gonna be a short. Shut down and ultimately ended up being an incredibly long one. And we know for our industry much longer than most. So I think, we knew that there was the relief we were gonna need and it wasn't gonna just be one bite at the apple. Ultimately we found out. We, we kept getting feedback from different folks within the industry that, it's not a one size fits all type of situation. And so as other opportunities to get additional relief dollars for for corporates. More in the sense of employee employee retention tax credits to get P for destination marketing organizations, which we know are small businesses that bring folks together and they were left out of of the original covid relief. Or if it was just to reopen the international borders. Everything took a long time. And within travel, we had the domestic companies, we have global companies, we've got non-profits. It's just such a wide grouping of different folks that are, were impacted in the industry. So that was one thing. Second, we knew that if we were gonna get people ultimately traveling again we needed to be prepared to welcome them safely, to have protocols in place that would give them confidence to be able to travel. So we corral the industry, put together health and safety guidance that we could collectively put out as guidance for our members. and then we really knew that we needed to remind people of what they were missing and ultimately that it was okay to dream and think about travel again. So we launched the Let's go there camp, Let's Go There. Campaign, which really brought the whole industry together to say Remember all of these great times and we'll get back there again ultimately. And then when the time was right and we knew that we, had the vaccine and we could encourage folks to get back out there, we had the health and safety guidance in place. We had re. Reminded folks of what how being with their loved ones and learning about new places and ideas and changing scenery can be so what good for your mental health and your wellbeing. That we finally launched the sort of the second part of let's go there, which was actually to go there. So those were some of the things that we did. In the right cadence. I would say the other thing that I really learned and a lot of this is from having been through the crises before, is that, being there for your team and really understanding, yeah, I've gotta be there for my industry, but I also have to be there for my team and I have to be able to demonstrate empathy and do one-on-ones. And so I, I would do one-on-one meetings and check-ins with my team via Zoom or call. And really just be there, as a leader in a way that was more human, than what you sometimes will see in traditional work environment. Because it was such a difficult time and folks were facing such challenges with whether it was, childcare elderly care, just caring for yourself in doing your work and not knowing when or if you can turn things off. I think the two things was. Being able to act quickly and and in a, in the right cadence for the industry. And then secondly, being able to be there for the team and demonstrate empathy and caring. And that's something that comes genuine for me, genuinely for me. So it is, it was easy to execute.
Rachel Humphrey:I think the empathy is something we've heard discussed a lot since then about something coming out of the pandemic that seems to be more than a trend. I, it really seems to be something that, that's gonna stay, or more than a fat, I should say. And obviously on behalf of the industry, so grateful for the work that you and your team contributed to and accomplished during the pandemic for the industry. A lot of those. Thinking quickly. Acting quickly relied on your ability to communicate effectively. And sometimes when we think of public speaking, we can think of the conference with thousands of attendees, but we can also think of smaller press conferences or coalition meetings. Team meetings going as you do around Capitol Hill. How did you develop or do you continue to develop your public speaking skills? Were you always comfortable with it? Was it something that's natural for you? Cause as I mentioned at the top of the call it is certainly something that draws me to you in wanting to emulate and seeing. Your skill set in that area.
Tori Emerson Barnes:Thank you. So I love public speaking from the standpoint of one on one or a panel discussion. I love going into a member of Congress's office or up to talk to the administration on key issues and really highlighting why the industry is so important economic. Socially from a learning standpoint. But I really don't like the big public speaking, even though I do it all the time. So getting on a stage and being in a microphone by myself is something that still to this day, terrifies me. But I think that I watched both my parents were very engaged in public speaking and my little sister as well. Throughout our and actually one of my older sisters throughout their careers. And I think especially when you're able to have that conversation like we're having right now, or, if you're having conversation with a group of four folks on a stage or you're talking to a member of Congress and their staff it, it's just, it's telling the story and being. Genuine and real in how you tell it in a compelling way. And I like to think about, okay, what's gonna resonate? What resonates with someone from Massachusetts might be different than what resonates with someone from Missouri. You know what Robert resonates with the Republicans. It's gonna be different than what resonates with the Democrat. But you wanna stay true to what your core message is and the meaning behind it and what you're advocating for. And so if you can be true to that. North, star if you will. And then be able to modify based on what your au, who your audience is. That's been I think, the best learning for me. I also think having data to back up what your argument is really important and compelling. So always, trying to make sure that you've got some statistics and facts that are easy to remember. Not too many cuz you don't wanna lose the audience. But a couple key salient data points that can really help emphasize why. What you're advocating for or saying is important really helps. That's been helpful for me. And I think also, being prepared and and spending time with the content in advance is another thing that is really important. But there's a lot you can do on the fly. If again, you stated that North Star and that key message.
Rachel Humphrey:I think that you've touched on a couple of things that have, I've always focused on in my career too, which is knowing your content and knowing your audience. And if you know those two things, you're gonna be able to handle whatever the situation provides. Some of that, what you've talked about, both in what you do as a living but also within our industry is relationship building and networking. Yours. Even more so than just how we function among our own industry, because a lot of your relationship building is going to be with elected officials, with their staff to make you effective at what you do. What are the personality traits of yours that you draw on in relationship building? What I do may be very different, but we may end up with similar networks at the end of the day, but how do you tend to build your
Tori Emerson Barnes:It really started with looking at. The sort of macro of what you're trying to accomplish or what, I guess this is how I started was, okay, it who is the whole set of folks that, that ultimately will need to be communicated with or engaged or part of the, are gonna ultimately be part of the decision making of an issue that I'm working on. And if I think back to like when I was early on at General Motors, for example I worked on pension and tax issues and, I would look at, the Ways and Means committee and the, and the workforce committee and, all of the members. Where did we have plants? Where were, folks that would naturally be like-minded, potentially care. Where we were coming from. How would how would the folks that potentially would be in the, on the opposite side of that how would we be able to communicate with them and get them to see our way? So work with the natural people that, that are gonna be on your side make be able to, The arguments and the relationships with folks that maybe are not gonna be on your side and see if you can bridge the gap and then fill in the rest. So that's how I started the building of the networks on some of the key issues that I worked on young when I was earlier in my career. But I brought that over to US Travel and it's just my general. Philosophy in life is, look at the bigger macro picture and where you're gonna have the natural champions. Where are there people that like, are maybe not gonna see things the same way? But see where you can have some common ground and then always be kind, always be courteous, but be compelling. And so I feel like that's been a way to really really grow my relationship base. And the other thing is, I may be known for being of one political persuasion where I have been at s times in my past. But being willing to go and again, find those compelling. The other side of the aisle or the other side of the argument, I think are really important. And so while I have a really vast network, I have a very vast network of folks that are on both Republican side, the democratic side. I have a lot of auto industry friends. I have a lot of travel industry friends, right? Like it's really broadening. And then also looking for synergies sometimes. And if you're bringing different worlds together. So I would say, it's also just the general rule of thumb is to always be kind always be courteous and thoughtful. But I feel being compelling is also really important. And then maintaining those relationships, checking in with folks. How are you doing? How's your family? What's going on? Always good to do as.
Rachel Humphrey:It's such an interesting concept because when we think of being kind and compelling, immediately you start to think, can those two things coexist? Of course they can't And it sounds so basic and it's concept, but really so impactful and so successful for you. So I appreciate your sharing that. One of the things we hear a lot is that women especially, but sometimes other underrepresented groups are not great about advocating. Selves, what would you tell our audience about either your ability to advocate for yourself or lessons you've learned along the way? Or if they're really struggling finding their voice, maybe some strategies they might be able to implement to be more successful in that area?
Tori Emerson Barnes:Yes, absolutely. I, I ha I, there definitely been different periods of time in my career where it's been, you feel like it's hard to ask for more or say you wanna do more. I've found that if you just take on more, if you're, if you take on more, if you bring more to the table, if you get there early, if you stay late, not just to be there early and stay late, but to be doing something, to be talking to someone, to be learning from someone, to, to pick different people's brains and understand what's happening on the other side of the office or the other side of the another side of an issue or. Making sure that you. Offer yourself your services. Maybe you have to ask someone, you can't just take on, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do that. But, if you go around and ask a few different people, how can I help you? Is there anything extra you have? Is there anything that you need off your plate? You see someone who's like running around like a crazy man. Hey, how can I help you? What can I do to take something off of your plate? I think that is always helpful and I think it's almost always noticed. I can't say always, but almost always noticed. I remember someone younger in my career telling me, you. You can't be a a director until you've been, you're a manager, but you can't be a director unless you manage people. And I remember saying to the person I can't manage someone. I can't just tell someone they're gonna work for me. I, it requires someone, taking a chance on me and saying, Okay, we're gonna, this is a growth opportunity. We're gonna give you someone to manage. And so I think, Sometimes you gotta be frank like that. Sometimes you just have to say, Okay, then what is it that I need to do to be able to manage people? It can't just be on me. I'm, if I'm working, coming early and I'm working late and I'm asking everyone how can I help? Does that mean I need to go to another place? Do I need to leave the organization and take on another opportunity? And sometimes you don't wanna do that. Sometimes you're like, I love what I'm doing and if you're okay doing that, then be okay doing that and then don't complain. But if you really, want to be able to. To have greater responsibility, then you have to start to own it. You have to do it. And then if you don't get the opportunity, then I do think it's important to look elsewhere. And, I loved gm. I didn't necessarily leave gm because I wasn't getting internal opportunity. It was time to do something different. It was time to, to stretch myself. By coming here, ultimately I've taken on a huge portfolio because I took the risk to leave. And sometimes you have to do that.
Rachel Humphrey:I love the idea of showing your value, but also communicating what you want or what you're interested in. That's such a great combination of things. Another. Another, segue, if you will, that you just talked about was actually taking risks. And I wanna talk about that for a little minute, a minute, because we do hear very often from great leaders that their path to leadership meant that they were taking big risks in their career. Sometimes it's a move to another company, sometimes it's a move out of state For a company taking on your roles how do you tackle risks? How do you evaluate them? Do you know, have you had any that haven't paid off, but you've still learned from
Tori Emerson Barnes:those? Yes. I think the one that I just really, the, probably the biggest risk I ever took was leaving gm, right? I worked at a Fortune 10 company, in a really great role in a Washington office doing. Working on issues that I absolutely loved. But I, again, as I said, I had been there for almost 15 years. I was working around the clock. I was working like crazy. I had a little girl who. Almost maybe not yet, two. And I said, You know what? I'm gonna, I'm gonna do something different. And I remember coming over to US Travel, and at first, the first week I remember putting my head in my hands and being like, Oh my God, what did you do? What did you just do to yourself? And and then I got to know the team and I got to know the industry. Absolutely. Amazing. And one of the things that drew me to the travel industry was really. You know how underappreciated the industry has been from an economic impact standpoint, The travel industry is just as vital to the US economy as the travel industry, but doesn't have anywhere near the same Wait at the time really as the US auto industry. And so it was a really great opportunity in that regard and reframing kind of my thinking on that. And then also really getting in the weeds and learning the industry and learning the issues. And then ultimately getting the role that I have now was. Was great, but it was not without a significant risk both from a, happiness standpoint and a monetary standpoint. And it, I wouldn't change it for the world. And I'm in a great place. There definitely times though where you take risks that that don't pan out. There were times at gm, where. I took some risks that, I felt, were they worth it? Were they not worth it? And it was probably not as significant, right? It was I'm I'm framing this policy issue in this way, and it's a little bit more edgy, or it's a little bit more makes it a little bit more volatile. Was that the right idea? Maybe not. I Ultimately we got something accomplished, there was something else we didn't get accomplished because we prioritized this one thing when we could have collectively worked on it together. That's like a different type of a risk. But ultimately, do I feel like there are things I didn't accomplish because of certain risks? Absolutely. But ultimately I think. Intellectually, if you put your heart and soul into something and you're taking a risk, as long as it's kosher and you're not, you're not doing something dangerous in this, health and safety or standpoint or putting, a reputation on the line. I think that risk is a.
Rachel Humphrey:Yeah. We can learn so much from the ones that don't pan out. It all contributes to our growth in some way. The risk may not pay off with what we were hoping for, but certainly it isn't lost or invaluable in that sense. One of my favorite questions to be asked when I am doing panels and other things and love to ask it so much of others, is the advice you would give to your younger self. And part of that is because I think we all reflect and grow and we develop as leaders over time, and we develop as people over time. So as you sit here today, what would you tell 21 year old Tori when you're graduating from college and you've got that degree in hand and ready to take on the world, what would you tell her?
Tori Emerson Barnes:So I would say, a couple things, probably three, one, don't be so hard on yourself. Don't beat yourself up over and over again. Just continue to work hard and you'll get where you need to be. I think that's one of the things is we really, and especially women, I think really we beat ourselves up and what if this, or what if that, or why didn't I do it this way? Or why didn't I do it that way? And really, I think that we, it the more you believe in yourself the more the further that you can go. I think, secondly, you gotta have a little bit of fun too, right? It can't just all be I gotta get to the office at 6:00 AM and I gotta leave at eight, 8:00 PM and I know it's different now a little bit, but I, I would definitely say have a little bit more fun be a little bit more flexible. And then third, I think I would say probably. Back to the risk conversation. Maybe take some more risks, right? Take, don't always play it safe. Take some more risks earlier on. Again, not in a bad, dangerous way but be willing to be willing to take some risks and not always play it safe.
Rachel Humphrey:Does Tori today follow those three pieces of advice,
Tori Emerson Barnes:I definitely believe in myself a lot more and I definitely talk to myself in the mirror and tell myself to, you can do it. You can do it, you can do it. My they have fun. One, one of the things I've really been working on lately is I have my, now my, what, almost two year old at the time is now almost seven, My daughter. And, she's just gonna be this age for this period of time and I'll tear up just thinking about it. But she's so fun and she wants to have fun. And so I think making sure that I make the time to have fun with her is really important. So yes, I'm doing more of that. And on the risk side yeah I've definitely been taking more risks. Again, some of'em panned out and some of them don't, and the ones that don't you learn from it.
Rachel Humphrey:I know you hear from everybody how quickly the time with your children or how quickly they grow up as the mom of a 21 year old daughter and a 17 year old daughter. Those moments that you're talking about will make me tear up as well, because I've been, I've got two seniors and this is the time they make you go back and do yearbook pages and all these things. So we've been reflecting. so many of those moments together that you're talking about. So I love that you are aware and capitalizing on them cuz they're just so important for you. You touched on one thing a second ago, the talking to yourself in the mirror, and I wanna ask you a question about that because there are a lot of times that we can all be bogged down by our own negative self-talk or our own insecurities in that way, or the There's a lot, the phrase, head trash, things like that. How do you overcome some of that other than just talking to yourself in the mirror, which I love and I may now start doing as well, but what, how do you talk to yourself when maybe you're starting to doubt yourself?
Tori Emerson Barnes:So one of the things that I do three things I guess, that I think are important. One is I like to exercise and I feel like that really helps to clear my head. So if I'll go for a run or I'll get on the Peloton, or I'll do I'll spend some time in the morning, early in the morning doing something for myself and I feel like by doing something that's making me stronger physically and. Clearing my mind really helps me to get through some of that negative and sort it out so I can, think a little bit more rationally if I'm doing that. So that, that's one thing that I really think is important. And so if you do that on a daily or an every other day basis then I think that can help, especially when you get something in your head that you really just are like having a hard time getting over or getting through or working it out. Second is the sort of talking yourself in the mirror, right? We're all brushing your teeth or we're all putting on makeup if you're a woman or, fixing your hair even if you're a man, right? I feel looking at yourself and really opening your eyes and just saying like to yourself I'm a good person. I work hard, I love I, and I'm loved by people and. I'm smart and I, this is something that I accomplished this week. Like even just one thing. I think that can help. Make your bed every day and then you've got at least that one thing you can say you did. And then I think from, third I think that it is important to, to recognize that everyone out there minus maybe you, The handful, whatever handful of narcissists, we all know, have times that they feel bad and it's okay. And it might be a difficult time or it might be a difficult issue we're working on, or it might be, we're not just having a bad air day, whatever this negative thing is. That everyone's got that and everyone's gonna have that from time to time. And It's not just you. It's not just you. And I think thinking about it like that, like really does.
Rachel Humphrey:and I love the self care too. I've told people that in retirement, I've become a huge proponent of it. I wish that I had done it much earlier. That's probably the advice I'd give to my 21 year old self. But a combination of the self care and certainly keeping things in perspective. I love that advice. As I expected, we are gonna run out of time now, but we've covered some ground and. left. I'm gonna need Tori 2.0 at some point. But what is keeping in mind the DEI advisor's mission of empowering personal success? What is one final bit of advice you would give to our audience as far as their ability to empower personal success or some of the less one more lesson that maybe you've learned along the
Tori Emerson Barnes:way? I will go back to the sort of kind and empathetic hard working. Mindset, I think it's really important to be hardworking but not so hardworking that you kill yourself, right? You've gotta, you've gotta keep that that right sized perspective of you, you deserve time for you and time to reflect and time to be with your loved ones. I think that's really important. But I also think, That kindness and demonstrating empathy. And you bring that together with hard working and and a commitment to excellence. And I really think that it's a really strong recipe to move you forward. You don't wanna be so kind that you're a pushover, right? That's not what I'm saying. But it's being kind and thoughtful empathetic. and hard working and again, driven and driven towards excellence. And I think that if you can get that mix right, then you can really go. Everywhere and anywhere. It it really is. Every day I say to my daughter, Okay, what are you gonna do today? And this is something my dad said to me. It was, Come home smarter today than you were this morning. And I love you. And then I say, Be kind, be safe and have fun. Those are the things, right? And so if you can incorporate that into your daily life you can go far and you can be anything and do.
Rachel Humphrey:I love that so much. Such great advice, great recipe, as you said for advice. Tori, on behalf of an entire industry, thank you so much for your tireless leadership, all that you do, and sharing your story and your insights with us today.
Tori Emerson Barnes:Thanks so much for having me. It's great to chat and I can't wait to see you in person sometime soon. Nice. See,
Rachel Humphrey:thanks so much. Thank you.