Julienne shares her personal journey to the c-suite, with initial stops in the tech world and construction and real estate, then landing in the hospitality industry. She discusses how pros and cons lists help her evaluate and tackle risks, the time she empowered herself by improving her public speaking skills, and the impact that mentors and champions have had on her career. She offers tips on relationship building, the importance of attending conferences, and where to find resources to continue your personal growth. Finally, Julienne shares the 5 non-negotiable self-care strategies she honors every day.
Julienne shares her personal journey to the c-suite, with initial stops in the tech world and construction and real estate, then landing in the hospitality industry. She discusses how pros and cons lists help her evaluate and tackle risks, the time she empowered herself by improving her public speaking skills, and the impact that mentors and champions have had on her career. She offers tips on relationship building, the importance of attending conferences, and where to find resources to continue your personal growth. Finally, Julienne shares the 5 non-negotiable self-care strategies she honors every day.
Good afternoon. I'm Rachel Humphrey with D e I advisors, and it is my pleasure today to welcome Julienne Smith, chief Development Officer of I H G to the D E I Advisors program. Welcome Julian.
Julienne Smith:Thank you Rachel, so much for having me. I'm glad to be here with you.
Rachel Humphrey:Julienne, we're gonna jump right in. We're gonna spend about 30 minutes together today talking about you, your path to leadership, some of the things that you've learned along the way and feel free to offer any and all insights that you have. I want to start right off though with the path to leadership in hospitality is incredibly special because it's unique to everybody. So tell us a little bit about how you got to the role that you're at today and some of the steps you took along the way.
Julienne Smith:Sure. A and I'll start with the fact that I have a liberal arts degree. I wanted to make documentary films. It's what I wanted to do. I had a passion for it. I still watched them, but I don't make them maybe my second career. But I, when I graduated from college, my parents asked me now what? And I turned and I said now what? my dad signed me up for career counseling, which was a great pivot point for me because it, it taught me a couple things about myself that I had a knack for relationship building, maybe sales was something that would, I'd be good at. So I took that information and the first. the kind of real job I had out of college was working for Harper Collins Publishers in their publicity department. And I loved it. It was so fun. I got to work on the Rock's book, Dwayne Johnson's book. Can You Smell What The Rock Is Cooking, I think is what it was called. And that was a lot of fun. But as many people know, publishing doesn't pay very much. And a lot of my friends were making a ton of money in the.com world in Silicon Valley. I chased a marketing job to the west coast. My boyfriend and I now, my husband packed up our car and our dogs and we headed west right before the tech bubble. The entire Silicon Valley ended up being a place where everyone was looking for a job. So my.com role busted. I didn't have a have work. So long story short, after 60 interviews, literally 60 interviews with a number of companies, I landed a role. As a sales assistant for a construction company that was not my desire. I had no interest in working for a construction company, but I'm glad that I did because it opened my eyes to real estate development. They were working on the Washington Mutual banks all over the West Coast, and it opened my eyes to market positioning, construction schedules, things like that, that I found to be really interesting. But I had hit a ceiling there. It was a small family run company. I was there for a couple of years and I found myself wanting more. My paternal grandmother was actually a, an executive in New York in the 1940s and 1950s for Hearst Magazines, and she gave us, my siblings and I, the advice that if you want to be a part of a company, Kind of cha take any job. And she was of the era. Pensions and people working for companies for 40 and 50 years. So that was her perspective, that the company was really your career. But I took that advice and wanted to find a company that I could grow with, and I found two, two companies expanding their real estate development teams. One was young brands in Irvine, and the other was Marri. In their West Coast office, which was in Newport Beach, California at the time where I was living. I got no traction with Yum but I did with Marriott after hounding them actually for several months to consider me. And the job was a part-time development, assistant position. I was actually overqualified based on my few years of work experience and my college degree. And initially Chris Ivy, who was the hiring person. Didn't wanna hire me because he thought I was overqualified and I'd take the job for a few months and then move on. But I didn't let him not consider me. So I got my foot in the door. He hired me and he really took me under his wing. The whole team did there. Tony Cap was in the office at that time. Jim er Locker. A number of people who've been in this industry for a long time. Stan Jones, who's now with Intermountain, and they. Sent me on small feasibility studies. I went to conferences and assisted the development team in the conversations with PERS perspective and existing owners, and I absolutely fell in love with it. I fell in love with the entrepreneurial spirit of the owner, but I also fell in love with the hotel business. And as a kid we traveled a little bit, but I really wasn't someone who had spent a lot of time in hotels until that point. And I fell in love with the business. And what I did was with the encouragement of the people I worked for. I made myself known with senior and executive management in the appropriate ways of the appropriate time. And what that allowed for was promotion opportunities. So I was promoted and moved to Bethesda and worked for the development team there. And then Chris Ivy left and joined Hyatt to start their franchising program. Hyatt hadn't f. Before 2005, when, after the acquisition of Ameri Suites and Summerfield Suites. So I joined the development team. I had an opportunity to have my own territory and grow what is now Hyatt Place and Hyatt house. And I loved it. I had the opportunity to continue to grow again, taking my. Initial approach of aligning myself with senior management and executive management and making sure they know who I am and what I had to offer. Raising my hand for projects, showing up at the office, which I think is critical. And today I think we're in a different space with office in-person office activity. But I think it's paramount because that's where you get pulled into meetings. That's. People get to know you. So I continued to grow and expand and take over more territories and be promoted along the way. And about, I guess it was eight or nine years into my tenure at Hyatt I was presented with the opportunity to throw my hat in the ring. for an SVP position. And I'll tell you, Rachel, that when I first thought about it and it wasn't my idea, someone tapped me on the shoulder and said, Hey, I think you should raise your hand for this position. I thought, I'm not qualified for this. I don't have. A hundred percent of the criteria required for this position. And I was reading Lean In at the time, Cheryl Sandberg's book, right? And she says that there is in general a metric where women again, in general. Won't raise their hand for position unless they feel 110% qualified. And in general, men will when they're, 60 or 80% there, and I thought I'm definitely 60 or 80% there, I'll raise my hand. And I got the position and I did have a moment of, after I got the position saying, okay, now what how do I do this? And what I did was I just continued to align myself or surround myself with people who had what I wanted. Carried themself in a way that I thought was admirable, had a career trajectory that I thought I wanted as well. I'm a real observer of people and I either want to do what you're doing or I really don't wanna do what you're doing cuz there's a, an outcome that isn't favorable. So I observe, I surround myself with people who have what I wanna have as I mentioned. And then, as I really. Found my way through that role. After about four or five years, I was thinking now what's next? And a recruiter called me and presented me with this opportunity to be Joel's successor as a c d O of the Americas for i h g. And I'll tell you, initially I was skeptical because. I love living in Chicago. I love working for Hyatt. But the opportunity for growth and the opportunity to live in a warmer climate was pretty compelling to, to move to Atlanta. And it took about a year of kind of talking and negotiating and meeting with a lot of different people to say, is this really the right fit? And it ended up being a tremendous move. I love Hyatt, great people, great brands. I'd still be there today if this opportunity hadn't presented itself, but there's so much opportunity at I H G that I think that I can help. Really bring the company to the next level and see their plans through. So I would say my path to leadership has really been about aligning myself around with the right people. Just making sure that I am. Talking to people who have what I want. I'm also giving back and talking to people who I want to have on my team. Building a team has been critically important for me, there's that old adage that it's all about relationships and particularly in this business, it really is. And that's how I've been able to get where I.
Rachel Humphrey:I consider this the documentary of your story, so maybe we are still documentarian, so you can go back and tell your parents after all this time, right? The documentary of your life. No. You have touched Julian on so many really important themes in your journey and so many of the things that I think you have learned along the way and implemented more than just learned along the way. And so I wanna touch on a couple of those. One. Actually you touched on at the very beginning and at the very end, which is relationship building. You said that when you ha went to see a career coach, that person told you had a knack for relationships, and then as you finished, you said that you've really aligned yourself in that. what is it about your personality or your character traits that you think has really strengthened your ability? Because we all make relationships differently. Yours and my strategies might be completely different, but they can also both be incredibly successful. So what is your strategy, or what do you think is your secret recipe to that success?
Julienne Smith:Yeah, half of it is showing up. I really believe that showing up at the right places, in the right meetings with the right people, the right conferences is half of it. Out of sight, out of mind is a real thing. And you can become irrelevant if you're not showing up to the conversation. I said, I think that's part of it. I'm certainly not a shy person, so that it's helped me that I can do that. Without feeling awkward. We all have moments of y feeling awkward, but I can show up and I do that. And the other is I really try to be authentic early in my career. A woman named Maureen McInerney, I think she's retired now and owns restaurants actually. She told me to be successful in this job. There's a couple of things she recommended. One was, If you don't know the answer, don't make it up. Tell the person who's asking that you'll find out and you'll get back to them and then get back to them. So follow up is important. And the second was to be yourself that people can really see through an act. and I took that to heart because at the time I was working in a environment that was mostly male dominated. It's must much less male dominated now, but that can feel uncomfortable when you're not, you don't a hundred percent fit in. How do I act like the other person? What do I do? And she gave me the permission to just be myself. So authenticity has been a big part of how I bring myself to. I don't like playing golf. I've tried I don't like it either, but I'll show up to, eh l a events cuz they have other activities. And then I get to network with people in the evening. I did try to be a golfer and I've recently said, I just, I can't do it. It's not me. But again, just being authentic and connecting with people on a real level. We're all people, we all have families, we all have other interests. So really trying to connect with people and sharing stories about myself and being open and honest has been something that I've done.
Rachel Humphrey:I really love that. The idea that you don't have to morph into somebody else to build those relationships just to capitalize on your own. And you've done it again cuz Now you've touched on another theme that I wanted to talk about from your path to leadership, but then in, in using your relationship strategy, which is the importance of mentors and champions. You have talked about how people took you under your wing and continued and even recommended you for promotions that maybe you. Even consider for yourself, I have had a similar experience, but then also wanting to pay it forward and make sure that you're mentoring and championing others. Tell us a little bit about the importance of that in this industry and how you can go about identifying the right mentors and champions. And I'm sure people reach out to you. all the time. And what do you tell them about trying to find mentors and champions?
Julienne Smith:Yeah I view that as there's personal mentors and then there's professional mentors. And I've had my best friend I made in kindergarten, she's still my best friend today. My husband I met in high school we're still married today with two awesome children. And they really know me. So I can share things with both of them and some other people in my personal life to really, gut check and have people have them. Be honest with me, honesty, we can believe our own. BS sometimes, right? And having someone or many people who can reflect back to me the truth and be like, you might be being a little, stubborn here, or maybe there's another way you could look at this has been incredibly important for my personal and emotional. Development. And then on the professional side there's many people who've done what I've, what I'm doing already. They might be in retirement. I have mentors who are retired. I have mentors who are younger than me who might have an idea of how to do things differently. So I view mentorship as really across the spectrum. It's not necessarily about the person who has the job that I want next or. it's all over the place. But again, having those people who can reflect back to me honestly, and tell me things about myself or how I might be reacting to a situation that maybe I might wanna reconsider, or, Hey, go with your gut. Keep doing it. Keep doing what you're doing. But having those conversations are important. And then mentoring others is also a way to learn more about yourself as well. And hearing your story. And how that is reflected back to you is critical. I was just talking to a young colleague at I h g earlier this morning who has an interest in growing in development and just sharing what that what my secret sauce has been. I think is critically important and it also allows people to maybe think a little bit differently themselves, maybe raise their hand for an opportunity that they wouldn't otherwise have. And I think that type of exposure I is critical and allowing. Allowing myself and others to have that open door policy I think is really important. All of my mentors have had that also Hey, come talk to me about anything. I'm available to you. You might have to schedule the time, right? Because of how busy we are. But just having that ability to connect authentically with people, I think is critical.
Rachel Humphrey:I heard recently from a friend about the concept of a personal board of directors that we should all have, and it sounds like yours is comprised of personal and professional, and that's what I love, the idea that you surround yourself with people who know you, who will be truthful to you, which is a another theme that I've heard from a lot of people recently. Surrounding yourself with people who only build you up to. believe the hype ends up not benefiting you in the end. So I love the idea of picking people that will be honest with you and maybe help you reposition a little bit. In looking at that too, you talked about the advice you gave this morning, which was to speak up, and there's a general proposition that women are not good at advocating for ourselves. You mentioned that. you had to do that several times early in your career to both tell people why you should do something or tell people why they should hire you when they might not otherwise want to, even if it's for a good reason that they might think you are overqualified. How do you get over the hurdles of the fears or the hesitations or the. Generalization that society may say that we shouldn't be advocating for ourselves.
Julienne Smith:Man, it is critically important to, to advocate for ourselves. And I would say that, I am the far youngest of three and. If I didn't advocate for myself back then, I'd probably still be, waiting at the mall to be picked up. So I think that there's some of that I've learned and had to use just to survive in the family that was brought up in. But We are in charge of our careers. We'll certainly have mentors and champions who will help us along the way, but we absolutely have to take the steps and have to knock on the doors and align ourselves with people because. You are the most vested in your own career, right? We might have the best of mentors who have the best of intentions, but at the end of the day, they have their own issues and priorities in their lives. Making sure that you are thinking about the steps and you're taking charge, you're raising your hand for opportunities. You're letting people know. What you're interested in sitting and waiting for somebody to, to recognize you just isn't a good strategy. Raising your hand, having those conversations saying, Hey, you know what, I might be in, finance today, but I'd really love to be in marketing and I'd like to spend some time with you to find out a little bit more about that. And then at certain times we might have to ask for a raise or ask for a promotion in a meaningful, thoughtful, data-driven way. I think that's also equally important just to make sure that we're standing up for ourselves in a, in appropriate
Rachel Humphrey:I wanna switch gears a little bit and talk about family and talk about hobbies. And we are way more than our corporate titles. You and I have had a chance to talk about family and other things, and you mentioned your husband of a long time and your amazing kids. You also have a job that. Puts you on the road a lot, you have volunteer and service opportunities as well. How do you find the right balance for you, the right management of these competing interests for you?
Julienne Smith:Yeah, I would say it's a daily, weekly, monthly balancing act. And I remember hearing someone. Some motivational speaker along the way talking about the fact that we need to strive for harmony versus balance, cuz we're never gonna be completely balanced, right? Because there's often, work might have a deadline or a conference you need to show up to. And, in, in the family life you might have a, a sick child or an event that needs to be celebrated. So that's gonna be out of balance. But finding those moments of. Of harmony have been important to me. And what I do is I guardrail my calendar and if I have different events for my kids, for example a volleyball game or whatever with my daughter, I will put that in my calendar and I'll guardrail around it and I won't schedule anything over it. So I'm really Very intentional. Yeah, I'm very intentional and serious about that. And then weekends I try to focus on the family, last week as an example, I was gone Sunday night through Friday. And that's an atypical week for me. But, it's tough. So it's FaceTiming with the kids, hearing about what they're doing in a nightly way. It's also from a. From a work aspect, I do have to say no to things sometimes. And I think earlier as a leader, as a senior leader, I pro, I probably said yes to everything, just to understand what felt right. But saying yes to the right opportunities that are strategic for me and strategic for the company I work has been important. And saying no to the others. So being really mindful of. of my schedule. The other thing that I have, I've talked about this before and I just love it, is I do have five non-negotiables and I think about that every day. And my non-negotiables are hydration, meditation, nutrition, movement. and rest, and in every day I try to find those things right. Make sure I have the bottles of water with me, make sure I, I've packed a lunch if I think that I'm not gonna be able to, take a break and grab something. I pray and meditate several times throughout the day just to take a deep breath and take it down a notch. I'll go for a walk if I can't get to the gym. And then I really do try to get as much sleep as possible. I feel like. The, that's the golden ticket. For doing all this is the right amount of sleep.
Rachel Humphrey:You and I have not discussed that before and I am incredibly inspired that you are. Honoring that with your family commitments and with your career commitments. I actually spoke at a conference last week about the number one lesson from a retiree, and it was self-care. And I stood up and I said, for the past 12 months, I have eaten. I have hydrated, I have slept, I have a little bit of a love-hate with sleep still, but I have gotten fresh air every day. I have meditated, I have exercised, and there were some laughter here and there, but afterwards everybody came up to me and they said, So relatable, how easy it is to let those things slide and how now I say, I have this new self-care regimen and I wanna honor it even if I'm at a conference speaking or even if I'm on vacation or taking care of my parents. And so I'm, I love to hear that because I think that more people need to hear that it is okay. Not only Okay. That it's incredibly important to find that time for the non-negotiables, so I appreciate your sharing that. Absolutely. I have had the great opportunity to hear you speak publicly on a lot of occasions in small and very large audiences. I think we both share the belief that it is an important part of leadership, whether you're presenting to one person your manager, An interview for a job, a corporate boardroom, or a large conference. What are your strategies for public speaking? Do you get nervous? Do you prepare? Do you accept all opportunities? What is your theory behind the role of public speaking in elevating your career?
Julienne Smith:Yeah there's definitely preparation that goes involved gets that is involved. with it. There's taking a deep breath and relaxing ahead of time. There's a woman who talks about, doing super. Poses or superwoman poses before giving a speech to just, empower yourself, believe in yourself. But the biggest pivot point for me in public speaking was probably about 12 or 15 years ago, I was presenting on behalf of the company I was working for in front of a major convention authority. And it was probably 15 or 20 people who. We're not a big fan of the company I was representing at the time and had a lot of really hard questions, and it was a, a fire drill type of environment. And I got totally flustered. I botched the whole thing. I made no sense. It was awful. And obviously the meeting didn't turn out. Great. So I left that meeting thinking, okay, I need to do one of two things. I need to find a different career path or I need help. So I actually called my dad saying, what do I do? And he said, sign up for Toastmasters. So I did, I found a local club. I was living in New Jersey at the time. I found a local club unaffiliated with the company I was working for. Totally. I wanted anonymous, and hide out in this room and admit to everybody, I can't public speak, but it ended up being one of the best. Things I ever did because I was with a group of people who were all trying to improve. Some were trying to become professional public speakers, so they were very good. Others were very shy, couldn't stand up in front of people and they wanted to practice and everywhere in between. And it gave me the forum to, to practice and hear honest feedback and learn that when I get nervous, I start speaking quickly. I say, A lot and how many times do I say between words? So it really helped me see myself as a speaker. Which it wasn't something I was really doing. I wasn't thinking about how I was coming to bear in front of people. And I did that for about two years and it absolutely transformed my ability to stand in front of people. There's a couple things I learned. One is public speaking is the number one fear above all else, which I think is a really interest. Statistic. And secondly, people aren't really paying that close attention when you're public speaking So if you mess up, if you pause, if you forget what you're saying, mostly people don't really notice, just keep going. So you know, as an individual speaking, you are more worried about what you're saying than really anybody else's. So just a couple of those things have really helped me, and that's something that I recommend to anybody I work with who feels stuck in any way. Join Toastmasters. It's an awesome organization. Most large companies like I h g have their own club. And that just really has helped me. And there's tricks that I've learned through that process that I use today.
Rachel Humphrey:That's incredible advice, and I'm gonna go rapid fire on a couple of things because you've touched on continuous growth a couple of times now, knowing that you needed maybe a little bit more training in public speaking or going to conferences or volunteering with H L A. What are, what would you recommend to people who are looking for resources, who want to know how, maybe even outside of their companies, but within the industry, they can learn new skills or continue their growth process?
Julienne Smith:Yeah. You mentioned one, a h and a has a ton of resources. I think that's a tremendous organization who's really tr trying to cultivate our new and u upcoming leaders. In the industry. So they've got a library of opportunities. Cornell and some of the other hotel schools also have resources where you can have participate in a certificate program that is less expensive than maybe going for an MBA or something like that. So I highly recommend that. And also, early in my career I did a lot of small, inexpensive networking events. So the major conferences are absolutely critical for growth. I think within This industry, but they are expensive. So if you don't have a company kind of paying the 1500 or the$2,000 entrance fee, there are companies like Biznow as an example where, it's 50 bucks or 75 bucks to sign up for a Lunche and learn or a net networking event. So I think networking, hearing what others are talking about, not just in the hotel business, but okay, what's happening in tech, what's happening in office? Just always learning and hearing what the topics of the day are, I think are critical. And I also read a lot of course our own literature within the hotel business, whether it's daily lodging report or hotels magazine or whatever it is. But, wall Street Journal, different blogs, I think always consuming really great data and articles is critical as well.
Rachel Humphrey:I think the idea of the smaller events is great too, because it touches on the relationship building aspect as well. So you're, you've got the growth, but you're also meeting more people. Yeah. Yeah. You mentioned in your path to leadership that you left a company, which was great people, a great opportunity, a place that you really loved for an. And that's an incredibly risky thing to do. You uprooted your family, you made a lot of changes, maybe for warmer weather, but it's still a big decision to make. How did you know at the end of the day, at the end of that year that you were evaluating everything, that was a risk worth taking? Yeah,
Julienne Smith:I'm a big, first of all, talking to my mentors and other confidants in my life. I think they're tired of hearing from me about that. But just leveraging my relationships in that way. And then I'm a big fan of pros and cons list, man. I make pros and cons lists on an any major decision. And if the pros list is longer than the cons, go for it. And I've also believed that not everything works out right. You can hope for the best you can. You can analyze it, you can certainly make those pros and cons lists, and then it might not work out. And that's okay. And I have that mindset and every risk I've taken, I've said, okay, if this doesn't work out, I know how to bartend My husband can go back to work. We can, we'll figure it out. And that's I've. Taken that mindset with me that this is not life or death. We're not making a decision about a major surgery or something like that could be life threatening. This is a job opportunity. This is important cuz it's a career path. And I hold my career in high regard and I think it's in important especially to me, but it's not life or death. And if something doesn't work out, there's gonna be another door that opens. And it's luckily, All of the moves I have made except for following that.com job out into California, have all worked out in some way or another. So I think that sometimes risks might seem like a bigger deal than they really are and. My husband and I have lived in nine different cities three with our children. My daughter has asked me not to move again. She said if we leave Atlanta, she's staying. With the now a high schooler and almost middle schooler, we're not moving again. But I've also felt hey, I, we could go back home. Our home is the greater Philadelphia area. Y there's always a, a place to live. We don't if it doesn't work out here. But so again I just feel like risks are worth taking if that pros list is longer than your cons list.
Rachel Humphrey:I would disagree that the.com job didn't work out because without it, you don't end up at the construction company, which leads to, I'm a big believer in sliding doors. So your sliding doors led to where you are today. So even from something that doesn't seem successful on its face, it has changed the course probably of your trajectory overall. So as I knew we would, we're out of time, running out of time. Knowing the Motto or the mission of d e i advisors to empower personal success. What is one thing maybe you haven't talked about so far, either advice to your younger self or advice to others that you think would help people in their passion for continuing their
Julienne Smith:personal growth? Yeah, I think for my younger self I would tell myself to just chill out. It's all gonna work out. I gripped onto things and was worried and pensive about different decisions and learned that the. Less of a grip you have on life the actual, the easier it is. So I would say take a deep breath and chill out would be my advice. But I've told a lot of people who are trying to continue to grow their career, that careers are fast and slow. Meaning opportunities will come up quickly. So make sure you're in a position to be able to jump on them. But then when you're in those positions, it might take a while, it might take several years of you being in that position and kind of understanding who you are in that role, how you are as a leader before the next opportunity comes. So I would position yourself. So be able to jump on opportunities quickly and then be patient as you're growing in your career.
Rachel Humphrey:That's fantastic advice. I really appreciate Julian, for all you do for the industry, for elevating women for serving as a role model, mentor, champion to so many of us. Thank you very much and thank you for supporting d e I advisors. Thank you
so
Julienne Smith:much for having me and for standing this important group that you have. I've really enjoyed listening to the other interviews. So thank you so much.
Rachel Humphrey:Thank you.