Krissy Gathright Interviewed by Rachel Humphrey

Krissy shares her journey into hospitality, culminating in the c-suite as well as public company board seats.  She talks about how to start and then grow the critical skill of public speaking and how she tackles taking risks. Krissy also discusses how she balances her career and her family and other aspects of her life, the role mentors and champions have played in her life and why she takes such pride in serving in those capacities for others, and why you should always do what you love.

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Rachel Humphrey 0:02

I am Rachel Humphrey on behalf of D E I advisors, and today I am delighted to have join me, Chrissy Gathright, who is Apple Hospitality REIT board member COO, retired and senior advisor with Derived Ventures. So welcome Chrissy.

Krissy Gathright 0:17

Welcome Rachel. I'm delighted to be here with you.

Rachel Humphrey 0:21

Chrissy, I I don't know if I have shared this with you before, but you were actually the first person when I started in the hospitality industry in my second career that I ever heard speak at a conference about elevating women in hospitality. And I left so incredibly impacted by your remarks. So I wanna thank you for being a trailblazer in that regard and sharing your thoughts and advice, not with us just today, but through. For many who has it has helped in their career minds specifically. But I wanna jump right in. We're gonna spend about 30 minutes together today, and everyone in hospitality seems to have an incredibly different journey to leadership. Yours is an inspiration to so many of us, and I'm hoping you can just share a little bit about your path and how do you got to where you are.

Krissy Gathright 1:08

Sure. Rachel. Originally I didn't start out wanting to be in hospitality. I had not had much experience in hospitality other than traveling with. Friends and family on vacations, but I knew that I wanted to be in business. So I went to business school, I went to the University of Virginia and I majored in accounting. And soon after, after college, I went to work for EY in as an auditor. And my clients just happened to be real estate and insurance clients. And for all the people that are extremely passionate and interested in insurance out there, I'm not meaning to disparage your industry, but I really gravitated towards real estate and it fell in love with it. One of the clients happened to offer me a job ultimately, and I went to work with U D R, which is a multi-family reit, and as a regional controller and a, and ultimately asset manager. And thi I really enjoyed that. I really enjoyed learning about the real estate business, how to create value in the real estate. And just gain additional experience. And then one of my other clients, actually, cornerstone Realty Income Trust, had just listed on the New York Stock Exchange and they were looking for someone to come run investor relations for them. And so as a young person, I thought I have a county experience, I have a bit of asset management experience and why I love the current role that I'm in, thought that might be a great opportunity for me to. Expanded my experience and, have a chance to understand what it was to be, involved with investors and analysts and be involved with a public company. So I decided to take the leap to move over to Cornerstone. And about a year into that role, the c e o at the time said, you know what? I'm thinking about starting a hospitality reit. Would you like to be a part of that new company? And I was in my, let's say early twenties, and it was exciting to think about going into a new industry even though I knew nothing about it and I wasn't. The important piece of the story is I wasn't the only person that he approached about coming in, joining the new company. There were several other individuals who had been with the company with Cornerstone for a while, but you, they were more comfortable in their role and. Thought maybe this other company would be a little bit of a side project, but potentially not go anywhere. I took the risk and decided to go ahead and sign up and became the first employee of what back then was known as apple Suite. And eight different hospitality REITs later that we ended up creating. And several that we merged, several that we sold. And one that we ended up listing on the New York Stock Exchange, which is the largest select service and extended stay hospitality REIT is still a new existence today. So all of that came from sort of an opportunity to. take a risk and try something new. And as soon as I got involved with hospitality I fell in love with it. I fell in love with the the opportunity to meet and connect with and serve people. But also being on the REIT ownership side, it gave me an, I had the opportunity also to be involved with analysis and numbers and marrying the two together and finding ways to create value. That's how I ultimately ended up as one of the executives of Apple Hospitality reit and now a board member for Apple. That's

Rachel Humphrey 4:46

incredible. And one of the things you mentioned that's very common that we've heard from a lot of the advisors who've shared their story with D E I advisors is taking on new opportunities either within a company or outside of it, to build that skillset. So whether you're learning the industry or learning the business or taking on roles that maybe weren't in the original path to have a real breadth of knowledge. So definitely a consistent thing that we're hearing. You talked about taking. In terms of going over to Apple, certainly is a huge one. I wanna talk about that a little bit because great leaders often have the ability not just to tackle risks in common, but the ways that they go about addressing risks and tackling them can be very different. How do you assess risk and how do you really process through that risk analysis?

Krissy Gathright 5:34

Absolutely. I think that being able to assess risk and think big picture and you always be looking around the corner. That's one of the things that I've always felt was important in not only the hospitality in industry, but just in, in life. And so when I think about whether it be a particular economic environment or how the company is in the economic environment, the first thing I'd try to do. Is educate myself as much as possible on what does success mean? What are the things that the company needs to do that our employees need to do, that the industry ultimately needs to do to be successful and long-term sustainable? And in thinking about that, you also have to, you keep your per. Vision, you an eye on what could be the potential disruptors that you could be lurking, down the road. And so when we set up a Apple hospitality and we had those different REITs as we created each additional portfolio, we learned from every day. We learned more about the hospitality industry. We learned more about, structuring, a real estate ownership vehicle. We learned more about, if you have, if you take on, more leverage, that's inevitably more risky if you you've. Invest your funds in a more narrow pool of assets versus a broader, more diversified pool of assets that's more risky if you rely on just one operator or one brand that's more risky than, spreading the. The relationships amongst strong, high quality operators and strong high quality brands. And as we made mistakes along the way, as we navigated through, recessions we learned from you, we. We didn't always make or execute or plan every decision perfectly, but when we continue to grow as a company and as we continue to evolve as a leader within the industry, we learned from missteps. And I think that's the most important thing you can do. Your, you can assess risk and keep keep an eye out for other, challenges that, and prepare for those. But you can't always prepare for e everything. So I think the. Important things that for me in being successful over the long term are of course learning and educating yourself, listening, being aware not trying to make decisions in a vacuum. Relying on your team, relying on, and your team could mean people within your own company, people within the brands, within the operators, within the industry. Bringing a collective knowledge to the table in how you assess situations and then working together to make sure that you're ultimately making the best possible decision informed decision based on the facts and circumstances, not only of what you see now, what you could potentially see in front of you and what you've learned from the past, if that makes sense.

Rachel Humphrey 8:35

No, absolutely. That's incredible advice. I started off mentioning that you were the first person I had heard. at a conference. Speaking about elevating women, I'd like to talk about public speaking for a second, which can not just be in a panel or a keynote at a conference, but also in a meeting or in presenting to a group. How important is the skill of public speaking on elevating your career and how do you go about developing it? Mastering it might be a stretch for a lot of people, but really emphasizing public speaking as part of the growth

Krissy Gathright 9:07

pattern. Yeah public speaking is incredibly important. And when I think about public speaking I go back to my path to leadership and as I continue to advance in my career, a lot of that public speaking actually started on a smaller scale. So just being, having the opportunity first. And it, it connect with as many people as possible. Again, I mentioned the importance of learning and how that, that helps you be able to, find ways to create value and to teach others and create a positive impact. But in order for you to learn it's important for you. Speak with a lot of people, right? And it's important for you to have those one-on-one conversations and that's where it originally starts. Just getting comfortable talking to people at all different levels and putting yourself out there and creating opportunities for you to have conversations. Even if I go back to my early days at ey one of the reasons that ultimately I was able to move on to my clients and ultimately have the opportunity. Work with Apple or Create Apple is because, as a young staff member, I had to go into audit engagements and it was important for me not just to be behind the scenes doing ticks and ties with numbers, but to go in to meet with the C E O or the C F O and make sure that I had the opportu. FaceTime to really, of course take care of the business at hand, but also when there was the opportunity at the right and appropriate time to really learn from them and to be able to build that relationship and that rapport. So you take that a along as I continue to grow in my leadership roles and responsibilities, and as those, the. got bigger. I started joining industry councils brand councils a H L A, councils and had additional leadership opportunities. Quite often, very early on I was the only woman in the room, but I didn't really think about being the only woman in the room. I might it, as I walked into the room, obviously it was gonna be obvious that I was the only woman in the room, but I always walked into the room going, okay what at the end of the day are we trying to accomplish in this particular meeting? And how can my experience and knowledge add value and. It won't add value if I don't speak about it. So having the the education and the background and being informed gave me the confidence when there was a particular topic that would come up where I felt that I could add value to the conversation. I wasn't gonna speak just to speak, but I was gonna speak. Felt that I could add value to the conversation when I felt others can learn from the information that I was able to share. So fast forward that as I continue to grow in leadership roles, I also felt it was important. I saw the value of being able to contribute to important topics or, as you mentioned to be able to elevate and lift others up as, especially women. And to that inspired me and I, I took that energy with me to the stage or to the meeting or to the forum. Because, I saw as an end goal that if I, can just by sharing a little bit of my story or a little bit my insight help motivate and inspire others, then that gave me the passion and energy to to raise my hand to to be in front of the audience. And I'll say public speaking I know very few people for which, for it is difficult. The. It can be daunting, but I would say start small and continue to increase the opportunities where you're speaking in front of, one person, five people, 10 people, 15, that ultimately hundreds or thousands of people. And the more that you do it, the more, the easier it gets. At least that my personal experience. And it just gives you additional confidence. The more you, it's just practice with sports or, just gotta continue to put yourself out there. And that is the key too, is, sometimes it is so daunting for people that they don't want to take the leap to actually do it. But once they do, And they have the experience and they see the impact they can have. I think that just really builds that confidence. So the next time that you go do it, it's a lot easier if that's what I would say.

Rachel Humphrey 13:31

I think the idea of progressive growth in there is really interesting too. So starting small one-on-one, smaller meetings, going to council's, committees, things like that. I think that's a really great way of looking at it. I'm interested in hearing you say that the idea of inspiring others was very, Exciting to you since I've said that, that's actually the impact that it had on me. So whatever you were doing to work with it, it definitely worked.

Krissy Gathright 13:56

You talked to me well, and I'd also say, Rachel, I would say the same thing for me and vice versa. So you hearing people like you know yourself, speak and hearing, my team. Speak and when, Catherine Luger was the head of the A H L A or you the other women who were industry leaders hearing from their experience and their learnings may energize me as well because there's always, some, tidbit that I would take out of that. So I think it's a, a virtuous cycle. No, I could not

Rachel Humphrey 14:27

agree more. And obviously that's the hope of the d e I advisor's interviews is to share those tidbits because not everybody can see you speak at a conference or hear you speak at a committee meeting, but to be able to share your knowledge or your insights and tidbits with the whole world is really exciting for us. You talked earlier about Someone in your role who then gave you an opportunity to go over and be employee number one at Apple, which is always an exciting apple hospitality, I'll say, not to be confused with the technology company, mentors and champions can mean a lot of different things to different people. How important in your career have your mentors and champions been, and how important is it for you to also serve in that role for

Krissy Gathright 15:06

others? I think mentors and champions are of critical importance. And I will say, as a woman in the industry, obviously I've had mentors and champions who are men, who are women who are In, a at different times superior in terms of their, stature or their I guess, rank or their position in the industry. And also I would say, I've even had mentors that are peers of mine or even because mentors, mentor for me means someone. Part of that gives counsel that gives advice and supports you, and that could be. it doesn't necessarily have to be someone that is, that you report to or that you look up to. There could be people all around you, and it could be people in the industry, it can be people in your philanthropic roles. It could be people in your everyday life, it could be family members. I, all of those people that I just mentioned, categories are people that have been my mentors, teachers, in the past, people that said things imparted their learnings. To you that is, has been critically important in all of my life. And maybe it's because my mom was a teacher, I think it's a, it's critically important to surround yourself. Listen to people, learn from people and especially in people that are, not necessarily in the same day-to-day role that, that you're in. Champions I think is champion, being a champion to me is more than just being a mentor. So I've been a mentor and a champion. And I've had people that have been mentors and champions for me. So for a champion is someone that is really, goes a step above and beyond just, providing counsel and advice and support. A champion is really someone who helps create opportunity for you and helps open the open doors and someone's your advocate. And those again have been, both men women and men in, in all different aspects. And I think for me and that could be an example, would be a champion opportunity would certainly be you. You have. S someone coming forward in, in on one of the brands and saying, you have done such a phenomenal job in we very much appreciate your role on some of these advisory councils. We've never had a woman be a president of any of the individual brand councils, but because of. Your your style and your balance and your approach. We think you would be wonderful to be the first women woman president, which ended up being the Courtyard Franchise Advisory Council, which I served as president of. Proudly for 10 years. But that was a brand advocate who ultimately went to that person in charge of making those decisions and said that we want, to ask her to do it. And so that's opening a path. Or of a friend of mine who also knew of my leadership capabilities you've nominated me for. Board, and it's a not-for-profit board, but it's an, a very influential board in the area. That for me it was great because I had the chance to exercise my leadership skills and be involved in a cause that, I could was very proud of. but it ultimately, that board being very influential and that person advocating for me. And then I, accepted the role on the board. That opened up so many additional opportunities for me in other leadership opportunities. But it's just those people. People taking the time to, not only give advice and counsel, but actually say, I think you need to talk to that person for this particular role responsibility. And so for me, that has that when once I was able to get to a position where, you know, I felt that I had more influence, then I felt. Incumbent upon me to actually go and use that influence for good and to be a mentor and be a champion. And I'm very proud that, as a board member of Apple Hospitality reit we've been very strong supporter of. Of women and the senior women in the industry. And two three of the women actually I'm mentored and champion, are now C-suite executives at, apple hospitality. And there's not as That's a large percentage for estate owners in the industry. And, they're, Continuing to do that, they're continuing to pay it forward. So you do it, someone else does it. They, it's, it just creates it, it just creates this additional sort of energy behind elevating and uplifting and it's, that's the way at the end of the day, that if we have more mentors and we have more champions, then we create more opportu.

Rachel Humphrey 19:53

One of the things that I think is unique about hospitality is that I very rarely, if ever hear someone reaching out to someone and that person saying no. Whether it's to ask a singular question, whether it's to ask for mentorship, whether it's to ask for connections, guidance, whatever it is. And so I think that this industry is really special in that regard, not just of wanting to pay it forward, which a lot of us do, but in really wanting to see. The industry succeed and it succeeds by, like you said making sure that the next generat. Is equipped with the tools and mindsets and skillsets that they need. And so I, that's one thing I really love is how easy it is to reach out's. Scary takes a risk like we talked about earlier, it, it just, I just don't hear about people regardless of level really saying, no, I just can't, or I just don't have time. So speaking of having time life balance is usually something we talk about. When it comes to women, but it certainly applies to lots of men in the industry as well. I'm not sure balance is possible. I heard someone the other day refer to it as management. So some days we all manage better than others. I'm wondering if along the way you've learned lessons that have really worked for you to find a balance or a management level that you feel good.

Krissy Gathright 21:11

Yeah. So you did mention one of the key things in there, you're right about the hospitality industry, and that's why I love it so much. All the relationships and, people wanting to help people wanting to serve people, and people wanting to better people. Yeah, usually if it's someone from the hospitality industry who reaches out and has a request, I, I. You, we will move mountains to, to try to get it done. But with that being said, I think that one things that you learn as you continue to take on greater roles and responsibilities is that you do have to say no occasionally. Otherwise you, there's managing your life and, achieving. And I've always seen, I've never really liked the work-life balance. Paradigm. I always see it as a work life continuum. It's just life and work is a piece of it. And, and your personal, you've, your friends and family and your Phil philanthropy and, your, if your spirituality, all of those things are pieces of your life. And it's a matter of making sure that for me it's, making sure that I Focus on the priorities and, family is a, certainly a priority of mine. Being able to, there are always gonna be, as I look back on my career, there are always gonna be some sacrifices that you make. In, in, in you, in trying to manage all the different roles and responsibilities. But I think it's been if I look back, it's the critical things you that, I'll use, for example, with my kids growing up and I have three boys, I knew that I wasn't gonna be able to make it to every school event. Every function, every athletic event. But I did priorit. The ones that I felt were the most important so that I could be present, not for all, but I you for, and I enjoyed that. I enjoyed being part of those activities. But I knew that I would have to give on some things. And the same thing with. Work or your work commitments, there are certain conferences or certain, investor meetings or certain things that with the team that you need to make sure meetings that you need to make sure that you were there for. But the team also understood that there, that it was, that you weren't gonna, there were gonna be certain things because you chose on the family side or, other. That you needed to make it to those, what you weren't gonna be able to make it to everything. But I think that the critical piece of that is what I said as team, you need a support system that has an understanding that you're gonna do your best, even if you're not there a hundred percent of the time. You're gonna also have people, hopefully if you, on the, on your career side, that you have mentored and you've inspired inspired and that they are, they. Totally capable of being able to, if you're not there, they're able to fill in and that becomes a leadership opportunity for them. Or on the family side, you have your your, I have my husband who's been a incredible support and I have a group of friends and, extended family. So if there were things. Was traveling and couldn't make, I had a family member. So it's all a matter of making sure you understand your priorities, also utilizing your support system and being upfront and b and honest and hi, and hopefully finding an environment. That it, that has flexibility in that, at Apple was really important and critically important for us to understand that, that in order for, going back to the philosophy and hospitality, if you serve your associates well, they're gonna serve your guests well and everybody's gonna be, keep coming back. The same thing. You as a manager, as a leader, understanding that you are not gonna achieve the success or the goals that you want as a company if you're not taking care of the people that are every day there. You, it's they're not just employees. They're not just associates. They're people and they have lots and they have different things that they prioritize too. So just having that open, honest, conversation about those things. Really. Helped for me to be able to navigate through. And I do think one other little tip is that in my schedule, and I'm a calendar person, and I've I think it's important to stay as organized as you possibly can to make sure that you're not. Overwhelming yourself, but in my schedule I do quite often build in time. That's just free time. That gives me a chance to catch up on things. Or maybe if there's a meeting that I wouldn't normally be able to squeeze in, but it's important I can put it in there and or I also make sure that I. Put in self-care time. So I'll actually put it on the calendar and it may be a facial, it may be a massage, it may be a glass of wine with a girlfriend or just a walk with, my, kid or my dog. So I, I do think that you have to also calendar just as much, some of the things to take care of yourself as you would, all the other responsibilities that.

Rachel Humphrey 26:00

Yeah, I think I, one of my biggest lessons in retirement actually is that self-care is not selfish and that how critically important it is. I think we have similar parenting ideas I remember, or strategies on managing in terms of choosing what matters. I had moved. Mountains to attend my older daughter's Valentine cookie decorating party at school. And then she did not acknowledge me the entire time I was there, And I thought to myself, this is the most important lesson, and I'm glad I'm learning it when she's six, because I can be at what matters. But she is not gonna be scarred for life, although she may say now she's scarred for life. If I don't make it to, the Halloween. Cupcake decorating or something else. So right in trying to give, show ourselves a little grace of giving. But,

Krissy Gathright 26:46

but you were there and I will tell you, oh, it's there, You were there. I'll tell you a little story because I did, once a year I tried to make either it's like a mystery reader or there was one that I ended up volunteering for and I didn't realize it was. Sewing gingerbread men, together, and I'm not very good at sewing, I, I did the best of it. And I look over and there's the mom beside me and then she like in five seconds she had all that things that sewed and it was perfect. And I'm like, oh my gosh. But it turns out she was a surgeon. This was the one time that she actually had a chance to be there. It just so happened she was a little better in sewing than me.

Rachel Humphrey 27:24

I loved mystery reader. That's one I never missed, cuz I actually thought that was one of high value. There are a million things actually that I wanna talk to you about that we are gonna run out of time for. So knowing the. Vision of d e i advisors to empower personal success. Is there anything we haven't covered? And there's so much more. I said like I wanted to talk about philanthropy and board service and all of these things, so we may need a Chrissy 2.0 at one point But any final thoughts for our listeners? Really just on taking their path into their own hands and really empowering them to reach whatever. Success

Krissy Gathright 27:57

they'd like to reach? What you just said was the most critical piece there. Take your path into your own hands, right? To go out there and first of all, be passionate about what you do. Passion is so important and passion. When you have passion and you. You lead with passion, it inspires others who to wanna come along with you. So I think you live your life with passion and follow your passions. For me all the phases of my life have been guided by at the, ultimately I want to make a positive impact on people. I want to help people, whether it's philanthropy, whether it's through my roles at Apple or in the industry or just, with friends and family. You. Teach live your life with passion, create your own path, but, seek help from others. Don't be af you don't feel like you have to do it by yourself.

Rachel Humphrey 28:45

That's fantastic. Christie, I appreciate it. Very much. Thank you for continuing to lead in the industry. I'm glad that you were enjoying this next chapter of your life and thank for sharing everything with d e I advisors today.

Krissy Gathright 28:58

Absolutely. I look forward to coming back and doing Board 2.0. good. All. All right. Thank you, Rachel.