Hello and welcome. My name is Lan Elliott on behalf of DEI advisors. And today's guest advisor is a friend that I am really happy to have on today, Matt Frye, who is a hospitality executive. He has been the senior vice president of global development at Starwood. The SVP of development for Hilton and Asia Pacific has lived in Asia, other parts of the world, and is just an amazing person. And I'm so happy to have him on. Welcome Matt. Thanks
Matt Fry:for having me. This is a real honor.
Lan Elliott:Oh, I am honored that you agreed to come on. So I wanted to start if you would, with your career journey. I had the good fortune of overlapping with you when we were both in W development at Starwood. When I was in Europe, you were already in charge of W development for Asia, for Starwood. But could you share some of the inflection points in your successful career and maybe a particular factor that you think contributed to your success?
Matt Fry:Sure, I think probably the first inflection point for me was going to business school. So I graduated from the hotel school at Cornell. And it was a pretty dark, period. It was the early 90s and I had a hard time finding a job. Ended up working in club management for my old high school boss. I worked at a country club throughout high school. And he had moved on and I was Became the assistant manager at a big yacht club in San Francisco. So there's a lot of food and beverage operations. I very quickly determined that was not what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. A couple other things along the way, but ultimately ended up going to business school. Got an MBA. And I think that kind of allowed me to make a transition away from operations into development and real estate. And so that was the first inflection point and I got lucky. I got, I sent a cold email to Starwood Hotels to Steve Goldman, who was the head of development at the time. He forwarded it on to Joe Long. Who forwarded on to another guy named Phil Barron's. I got a phone call and I got hired and I had, really no experience. And Starwood was, just acquired Weston and Sheraton at the time. It was, the bright shining star in the industry, the new kid on the block. And, I was really lucky. I got a job. I had. Almost no experience. Yeah, I guess really no experience. And that kind of set me on my path. And then I worked for Starwood in the headquarters in New York for about five years, and I had always wanted to live overseas and my wife as well. And so I was at a company conference and ended up sitting at a table with some people from Asia and just started talking to them and planted the seed. And, that, kept in contact with him by email. And I don't know how long it was about six months later, I got an email saying, Hey, would you be interested in moving to Asia? So that, for me was, probably the greatest thing that's happened to me and my family, ended up moving there when I was I guess just over 30. We ended up living there for 10 years. I had three young kids under the age of five when we moved. It was a great life experience, a great work experience. And that's probably the biggest thing that's happened to me in my career.
Lan Elliott:I love the nuggets in there of what you talked about. The idea of articulating what it is that you want and then Taking the opportunity to share that with people who might be in a position to make it happen one day and just putting it out there in the hopes that maybe something might come of it. So I love
Matt Fry:that. Yeah, no, I think that's right. I think, planting the seed with people and recognizing these things take time, especially when you're in a big organization. But if you don't plant that seed nothing's ever going to happen. Be forward thinking.
Lan Elliott:It's a really good point. We hear from a lot of lead leaders that curiosity and continuous learning is a big part of their journey. And sometimes you discover new skills that you need to learn along the way. I'm curious, you've done so many interesting things in your career. Did you find something like this along the way that you discovered? Oh, I actually need to develop this skill or expand on it a bit more.
Matt Fry:Yeah, certainly. What immediately comes to mind is managing people, right? You start out and while I had management experience on the operational side, it was quite different, right? That was very task oriented. And, there's a lot of people skills that. That are similar, but I went from being an individual contributor, right? Doing deals. I started in feasibility, just doing pro formas and models and that kind of stuff. And then all of a sudden you find yourself managing, a pretty large group of people and no one sits you down and says, okay, now you've got this new job, here's what you need to know. or At least that didn't happen to me. And so you have to just almost figure it out on your own. I was fortunate enough. When I was in Asia, I was working for Miguel Coe, who was the head of Asia Pacific for Starwood. And he was just a fabulous person to observe in terms of how he managed people and I recognized pretty early on when I was managing people that it didn't just happen naturally, right? You had to spend time and effort getting to know people, getting to know the team giving feedback, positive and negative. And it was. Watching Miguel do it, he did it with such ease, but you could also tell that he worked at it, right? It wasn't something that he took for granted. He scheduled time with people and he was a really great person to emulate. It's something that I didn't have those skills, initially. anD then I think, you develop those skills over time. And I think one of the interesting periods of my career was when Starwood was taken over by Marriott, right? And that was a very long process, right? Starwood went into kind of the The strategic alternatives mode and, there's a lot of uncertainty. And then, Marriott finally struck a deal but it was almost a year from the announcement of that to the closing. And, I was charged with trying to keep the wheels on the organization and basically became a psychologist almost to a lot of people. People were dealing with huge amounts of uncertainty and, you just had to listen. And it was very interesting to observe. People who are going through the same situation react very differently to that situation. And that was a big learning I took is that, people are different and you've got to recognize those differences when you're managing them. Because Same thing may be happening, but one person is going to be totally fine and put their head down and get to work and other people are going to run around their hair's on fire. It's just, it's quite amazing.
Lan Elliott:Yeah, I think you're right. I think you go through at the beginning of your career, you're really developing technical. Knowledge and then at some point you get placed because of your technical knowledge in a position of managing people. And then you have to figure that out. And what I discovered similar to you is for me, the golden rule didn't work because. People didn't want to be treated the way I wanted to be treated. They wanted to each be treated differently in a way that worked for them. And that was really a learning because people are so
Matt Fry:different. I agree with that, right? But you also have to be true to yourself, right? As a person, right? You've got to be who you are when you're dealing with other people. You can't try and pretend you're someone else. But recognizing that other people are very different. I think the other thing I learned a lot or tried to learn was, I think, decision making. As you become more senior in an organization the decision making tends to fall on you and all the tough decisions they roll uphill. And, that was something that took a little while, right? And I think that only comes with experience, right? Once you jump off the high dive a couple of times and make a tough decision and maybe without all the. inPut that you're supposed to get her, you just said, look, I got to do this and you make a decision and ask for forgiveness, not for permission. Once you do that a couple of times, it becomes a lot easier, that's something I think that as people. advance in their careers, being conscious of how decisions are made and making decisions. And the good organizations empower you to make decisions and don't, rely on 4, 000 people to make decisions and second guess you probably more importantly.
Lan Elliott:Absolutely. And having a little bit of space to maybe make some mistakes. Hopefully not big mistakes but being okay with as people are figuring things out. And sometimes you try things and you say, let's try it and see if it works. And if it doesn't, we'll pivot and do something else. Yeah. Along those lines, because you don't get to where you are today without taking a number of calculated risks. Can you share an example of when you took a risk and it was successful? How did you prepare yourself mentally to take on something like that?
Matt Fry:Yeah, I think, the biggest risk I took was moving. Myself and my family in Singapore and switching jobs and moving to a totally, halfway around the world. liKe I said, it was something my wife and I always wanted to do. So there wasn't any kind of, tension at home with respect to that decision. But, it was a big decision and I'm a big fan of. Pros and cons lists, right? Literally put on a piece of paper, two columns write everything down. It really helps me think. And you've got to think long and hard when you're making a really big decision. And, but I would say once you. Make that decision, move on right kind of forget about the con side of that list you can almost throw it away and focus on the pros and Make the best of it and you know looking back, there's don't play that coulda shoulda woulda game That's not a healthy game to play And yeah, you might make some decisions that are wrong and you should learn from those but don't focus on it, right? Life moves too quickly
Lan Elliott:Absolutely. I love that concept of once you make the decision, think about the pros being positive and. And committing to what you've decided. I think
that's
Matt Fry:really great. I make the best of it. And one piece of advice I got when I moved to Singapore. I think it was actually from Miguel Coe, who's a very sage person. Anyone who's worked for him will echo that. But he said to me, don't try and recreate your life back in America. Like when you move to Singapore and Asia, you're going to have a new life and just Be happy with that. If you try and recreate everything that you had back there, you're not going to be happy. He was right.
Lan Elliott:I love that advice, especially for anyone who's moved overseas or moved to a different city or tried something new. I wanted to talk a little bit about overcoming self doubt because oftentimes we're our own biggest critic and that noise in our head makes us doubt ourselves. What are some of the strategies that you use to stay positive?
Matt Fry:Yeah, I think again, as you move up in any organization or in your career you're given more responsibility and more decision making and they're going to be times where, you feel like you're, out there on the trapeze, right? There's no net there and you're going to feel nervous and, may have a few sleepless nights, but I think you've got to recognize that, that's a good thing in some ways, right? You've been given this opportunity and But you also can't let that fear overcome you and that self doubt can be self fulfilling, right? If you start thinking too much negatively bad things will happen. And you also can't let the people that you're working with or who's working for you know it too much, right? Don't be afraid to ask if you don't know something, right? I think that's the greatest sign of intelligence is when people speak up and raise their hand and say, Hey, look, I don't understand this or I need some help, but you also need to, bluff it a little bit, but be confident in your ability to get the job done. And once you survive on that flying trapeze a couple of times, right? The next time you're out there, you're just gonna be that much more confident. And that feeling will recur throughout your career, right? Until You retire. It's just a common feeling of being in over your head and everyone's at that point at some time.
Lan Elliott:Yeah. I think a few things in there, the idea of asking for help and being honest that you don't know something being a sign of intelligence. I think people oftentimes want to hide when they don't know something. So I love that you reframed it in a different way. Yeah. I also love the idea that when you're doing something new, this overcoming self doubt can feel like imposter syndrome. But if you keep going, if you keep moving forward after you've done it a while, it does get better. And it's a great way to embrace growth because when you try new things, it's scary. But then when you've done it a few times, it gets easier and it leaves you room to try the next scary thing. The next growth. Opportunity if you're able to move through it, sometimes though, you don't move through it. And sometimes you encounter a setback or your career doesn't go the way you had hoped. You ever experienced this in a way that actually became a learning opportunity? Cause we hear people say that you actually learn the most when things don't go the way you had planned.
Matt Fry:Yeah, no, I definitely have. So when Marriott acquired Starwood, I was the development liaison in charge of the integration between Starwood and Marriott worked, hand in hand with Tony Capuano got to know Marriott very well and, really liked the organization and Tony was kind enough to, he put me on a retention plan, there was no obvious role for me and he said, look, we'll figure something out. And I said, great. I don't want to wait forever, but, give it some time. And, I was pretty, pretty honored to be offered a position with Marriott. But then I got a phone call from an ex Starwood colleague who was at WeWork. And Ended up taking on the role of heading the U S I guess the America's real estate team. And then what they call global real estate operations, overseeing strategy and feasibility and underwriting. And, they really didn't have much, if you will. So it was a really exciting opportunity. Marriott and Tony were great enough to let me out of my agreement, and I ended up going to work for WeWork pretty shortly after the Marriott acquisition, so I worked for Marriott for a short period of time and, I looked at it as, look, this is a risk worth taking, right? It was the, they were the shiny, alluring new company, they're going to Break the real estate industry, the commercial real estate industry. I was fortunate enough when I left Marriott, right? I had some severance and investing in stock. So financially it was okay. I took it and I took a big pay cut to go to WeWork, took a big cash. eNded up, I had a lot of options, right? So there's a lot of upside. And I said, look, I'm willing to take this bet. It could be really exciting. It could be really lucrative, blah, blah, blah. lOng story short, it just, it didn't work out right. I didn't jive with the, the founder of the company who's pretty well known. He and I just didn't see eye to eye. I was brought in to be the mature, experienced person in the room. And they recognized that. And he even recognized that when I was interviewing with them, but they weren't ready for that. It was like they knew they had a problem, but they weren't. Ready to really deal with it. And the culture was just, wasn't for me. And so I ended up leaving just a little under a year. But it was a tremendous experience, it never worked for a startup before. Just being around that and, some of the positive things I learned Say what you want about WeWork, right? And the business model was, fundamentally flawed. And you recognize that pretty early on that they were, long term leases and short term, agreements with their tenants wasn't a great mix but they were able to open. Locations all around the country all around the world in an incredibly fast period of time and you know I would attribute that to two things one was decision making was you're empowered to just make decisions, right which There were probably some issues with that in terms of cost control. But people were, felt empowered. And there was also a very positive, can do attitude, right? Nothing was impossible. And I think the power of positive thinking and when an entire culture believes in a mission and is behind it, incredible things can happen. And, WeWork was a testament to that, right? They failed for other reasons, but their ability to open those properties all around the world in such a short period of time was, it was pretty unparalleled. I also learned that you have, I, I had some valuable skills, right? You I think, Everyone tends to, and I'm pretty bad at it, undersell yourself. And you I've done this and I've done that. But you get into an organization that, you know, and maybe it was a little bit like, the one eyed man in the land of the blind, but I, had some real experience and skills that. Helped, that organization, whether it was doing their underwriting and setting up an investment committee, things like that, that you I think don't appreciate. And so my advice for people is don't undersell yourself, right? Think about what you've done and, value it. And other people value it too. You probably, they probably value it more than you
Lan Elliott:do. That's great advice. Great way to think of. About yourself and your skills in a different way, maybe from the outside in the way we normally think about ourselves. Wanted to move on to developing a network because as we've talked as fellow introverts, it can be sometimes difficult to meet people. I did want to share a story that I always think about when I think of you, Matt, which was my very first day. At my desk at Starwood when I joined in Europe and I was there by myself and the other people hadn't arrived yet. And I was sitting at my cubicle and I got this phone call from you all the way in Asia and I had just moved to Brussels. I was sitting in my office by myself, didn't know where I was going to live yet. And. You called me to welcome me to the company and to the W development team. And I just made such an impression on me that you had made that effort to reach out. And it's one of the things that I love about you is you're just such a great person in general. And so I wanted to talk with you about how do you build your network? We're both introverts. So that cocktail party at the big conferences is always something I know I dread a little bit but you are so well known and loved in the investment community. Can you talk about how you build your network in a way that's comfortable for you?
Matt Fry:Yeah, I think, early on, and as a fellow introvert, very soon that, going to a cocktail party and kind of glad handing with people is not what you love to do. And so you've got to recognize that early on. And then, I think for me, a lot of people wouldn't know I'm an introvert, right? I think you mask it a little bit, but for me, developing relationships was something that, it took time, right? I'm not good at small talk. I'm not good at chit chatting about, useless stuff. What I realized was that my best relationships were ones that were meaningful. And that developed over time, right? And I think. In the transaction business, right? You have the ability externally to work with a lot of different people and, pretty intensive work, right? Whether it was lawyers or people on the other side of the deal or banks or whatever, and through those, the trials and tribulations of doing a deal, you really get to know people whether you like it or not. And those are where I. really focus my efforts in terms of building relationships. And I think the same internally when you are in the fog of war with people and you come out of it those are deep, meaningful experiences. And so I focused my efforts on that, but I also did have to flex a little bit, right? Trying to enjoy. A cocktail party or going to a dinner with, 10 different people. You just got to push yourself and I'm fine in those situations. I leave at the end of the night, maybe a little bit more tired than others, but you do have to push yourself. On the relationship front when you're an introvert, but I would focus on the those kind of deeper meaningful relationships. And I think in Asia, 11 interesting aside, I think Asia is tough because Asia transactions work the opposite. Whereas a lot of time people wanted to invest time up front with you to get to know you and develop that relationship before they wanted to do work with you. Very different than the Western world. And that was hard for me, right? Cause I looked at it sometimes I'm like, I could invest this time. And, maybe I. Didn't think the deal was ever going to happen. Have that sixth sense as a deal person after a while, but you still had to go through the motions and that was hard, but that was part of the job. So
Lan Elliott:I think people would be surprised how many introverts are actually in development in our industry, because it's more than people think. And I think you're right. People do push themselves out of. Out of their comfort zone in order to meet new people. But I love the idea of working on projects together. And when you've been through the war together, it really can be bonding and you can develop deeper relationships over that. And one of the things that's wonderful about hospitality is. Unlike some other industries, people don't move in and out of the industry as much. So I was just talking to someone that I did a deal with. I didn't even realize it had been 10 years since we worked on a deal together. And that's a friendship that has persisted. And, you never know where you're going to find people you connect with. And so it might even be across the table on a negotiation, but in our industry, it's still an opportunity to develop. Let's talk a little bit about mentors and champions, because I know you've had a number of them in your career that have a really propelled you forward. Can you share maybe how your mentors or champions advanced your career? And what's. The right way to develop those kinds of relationships.
Matt Fry:Yeah, I never had any real kind of, formal mentors, if you will. Someone said, Oh, I'm your mentor. But it was, they expose themselves to your kind of, and then it's up to you to take advantage of those relationships and not take advantage. Maybe that's not the right word. Get as much as you can from those people because they're usually much more experienced and wiser and have things to offer. It started early on in my career. I mentioned Steve Goldman, who was the head of development at Starwood. He, for some reason, took a liking to me and just it was Starwood was really a startup at that point, right? It had Weston and Sheraton, but. It wasn't run like a stable company with Barry Sternlicht at the helm. It was pretty chaotic and, which was a great thing for me as a young person because there was so much opportunity. So he would just give me stuff and you'd sink or swim. And I think luckily I swam. And I remember at one point he. He put me in charge of selling the Chigo portfolio, which was a luxury hotel portfolio with 25 hotels, predominantly in Italy, but a handful in Spain and Austria, golf courses and arenas. It was like 6, 000 acres of undeveloped land in Sardinia. I was. Uniquely unqualified to do this, but again, like I said, you're flying trapeze and, I was surrounded by good people and great advisors and great tax people and great operational people, some great people on the ground in Italy. And that was a great experience for me. And, through that, interestingly, I met Jeff Bellotti, CEO of Wyndham Hotels. Jeff at the time was running Italy for Starwood, which many, I think in the company. Correctly identified as the best job in the organization. He was living in Rome and running this own hotel portfolio. It was pretty nice. But we became very close through that, even despite the fact that I was the evil guy coming from the headquarters to sell off the crown jewels. We became very good friends and he's someone that I've relied on many times when I have, need career advice. And he's, a unique person in that regard. And then I've mentioned Miguel Coe, who's also been a great mentor. And he's another person who he goes out of his way to, to mentor people and just is an, has an open door policy and. One of the things I learned from Miguel was, he just, he would confide in you a lot of, personal things about his personal life and he would also not be afraid to share some company gossip or and it just made you feel like he cared about you as a person, and he trusted you and and he did. It wasn't, he wasn't doing that, ulterior motive. It was just, that's who he was. And it was a great, good lesson to me. But mentors are important. You need to seek them out when they show themselves to you and really take advantage of what they have to offer. Because like I said, this is not a course in a lot of this stuff, right? A lot of it you learn through observation and just, So
Lan Elliott:is it about having your antenna up that maybe this person is interested in giving you advice? And then how do you know when to go to them? And what do you go with to
Matt Fry:them with? Yeah, it's a hard, I think you do have to have your antenna up a little bit. And and then I think it's incumbent upon you to. When you have something that is meaningful, you have a career decision. And a lot of times it would happen where, Jeff would be after he left Starwood, I'd talk to him and you could confide in him stuff that maybe you couldn't confide into a a person at the same company. But yeah you need to push the issue a little bit. And I think, the squeaky wheel gets the grease in a lot of situations. And But people generally like to help other people. I think it's human nature, right? So if you ask someone their opinion on something they're going to give it to you, right? You might be flattered. Wow, you're asking me. That's great. No matter where someone is in the organizational level or kind of in the hierarchy of, people like to be, it's flattering.
Lan Elliott:That's a great way to think about it because sometimes you get so scared to ask the senior person for help and advice. And I think sometimes if you keep in the back of your mind, they might actually be flattered by you asking. It makes it easier to make the move. One of the common generalizations that's out there is that women. And some underrepresented groups don't do a great job of advocating for themselves. And it makes it hard for them then to get those projects that lead to promotions or asking for something that they want. What would you tell our viewers who are struggling to find their voice? What's the right way to ask for something you really want?
Matt Fry:Yeah, it's a good question. I think, one, you've got to be Mindful of the person you're asking it from, right? We talked a little bit about putting yourself in other people's shoes, right? That's good advice in anything you do, right? Whether it's negotiations, dealing with your spouse, whatever the case, put yourself in their shoes and make sure what you're asking for is realistic and if it's going to cause some, issues think about those and pre, come up with some thoughts and maybe the objections that the person you're asking might have and come up with arguments for it. I think you have to pick the right time, right? If you're asking for something, make sure that, a couple of things. But one, maybe you've had a successful run at your job. You've done some good projects. You've done a couple of deals, whatever the case may be. Pick the right times to, to ask for those things. I think also being mindful of if you're asking for a promotion or a raise, if you're in a big organization every big organization has promotion policies and cycles and calendars and yeah, it's bureaucratic and all of that, and there's ways to work around that if it's an emergency. But. it's easier for the manager to work within the system. So be mindful of that right and recognize that things take time. But you need to have those hard conversations, right? Because a lot of times you have to manage your own career, right? No one's going to manage your career for you, right? There's you and yeah, you've got mentors and all of that, but they're you know, they're busy doing other things as well. So you've got to manage your own career. The squeaky wheel does get the grease. And, I found, I think, some women who have worked for me, they're just less it's in a good way, right? They're just less squeaky. But sometimes, that doesn't benefit them. And so I think just. Being an advocate for yourself and ask, asking for things is okay. As long as they're realistic and not crazy things. I remember when I was at WeWork, I'd had people come in and they're like I've been in this role for six months. I need a promotion. I know things work fast here, but maybe that's a little too quick. Why don't focus on doing your job and, I think also do your job that you have as best to the best of your ability. And, good things will happen, right? You got to keep that's number one, right? You got to do a good job of what you're being asked to do today. Otherwise, nothing's gonna happen for you.
Lan Elliott:Yeah, I do find and I know I've been guilty of this as that you do a good job and maybe things don't come your way. So you just keep working harder and you put your nose to the grindstone and you keep working harder and you sit in your office working harder and you think they're gonna notice me and then they're going to come and find me and then good things will happen and What I didn't realize is that other people were also doing a great job doing their work, but also Building relationships and asking for the roles that they want And
Matt Fry:yeah, you've got to toot your own horn a little bit right in the setting right kind of make it known That you did this and be mindful of How you're perceived, by other people, right? That's it, but unfortunately, right? Perception is reality. And so being mindful of your own, your own brand, right? Or you're your own image in the company. And you do have to do a little brand building, right? Sometime. Absolutely.
Lan Elliott:Absolutely. I love that. One of the things we've talked about is the challenges. Of leading diverse teams and diversity could be beyond gender and race. It could be cultural diversity, different ways of thinking. And you've worked in Asia and led teams from various countries who have very different cultures and approach things in a different way. How do you manage a diverse team and ensure that. Everyone feels
Matt Fry:heard. Yeah, I think you do have to recognize that cultures are different, right? So if you layer in the fact we talked about people are different generally, and then you have cultures are very different, right? And you it almost becomes, exponential, the differences that you're dealing with in a given day with different people when you've got multiple cultures. So it's. You've got to be mindful of that. And I think when I moved to Asia again, no one gives you the book, right? Okay. And you can read something, get some training on cultural differences, but until you experience firsthand it's different, right? So if you're dealing with. soMeone in Australia versus someone in Japan versus someone in China. It can be very different with respect to a lot of things. And especially when you're managing people and people. Speaking out or speaking up, you have to be sensitive. You may be on a conference call and talking about some difficult issue with your team, and there was a couple of people who are happy to pipe right in and raise their hand. Talk and blah, blah, blah. And then there's a vast majority of the group that's just totally silent, right? And then you, it's incumbent upon you. You've got to recognize that and talk to those people one on one, right? A lot of times I pick up the phone and talk to people that worked for me in China or Japan or wherever and said what do you think about that? I know you didn't say anything. And you have to seek that out because especially in Asia there's a lot of, but. Confrontation is, not something that happens regularly in some cultures. And you have to be mindful of
Lan Elliott:that. I think going and seeking them out and making the time to call them and talk to them individually. It takes more time.
Matt Fry:It does, but you also need their input because, for example, if you're dealing with, China it's the biggest part of the business in the region, and if you don't get it right there, and you need to value the people's input. I think one of the things I learned is, I was an expat flown in from America and You very quickly better have those local people on the ground that you can trust because you cannot function in, 12 or 13 different countries, whatever the case may be, without local expertise, right? And I used to call them guides and you'd go into a meeting in Japan and I'd have no idea. I'd walk out, what happened? And I'd ask our guy in Japan and he'd be like, he'd give me, the interpretation, right? It was, they were speaking in English, but I had no idea what just transpired.
Lan Elliott:That's amazing. And valuing those guides and just knowing just because you heard it in English, doesn't mean. They were saying the thing you heard
Matt Fry:them say. Yeah and a lot of times in some cultures that the actual meeting happens after the meeting or before the meeting. The meeting is just a pretense, right?
Lan Elliott:It's true. I was really shocked when I heard that the meeting doesn't happen in the meeting. And I thought, what?
Matt Fry:That's true.
Lan Elliott:As I expected, we're running short on time. So I did want to ask you two last quick questions. And the first one being, what advice would you give to your younger self? What would you tell? What do you wish 22 year old Matt?
Matt Fry:Yeah, I think we touched on it a little bit, right? As I'm winding down my career I look back and, what were the good old times A, I think be mindful of, you might be living in the good old times right now. Recognize that. And I think, and I don't look back at deals I did or transactions my team did or, Whatever, I think back about the people that I worked with and the experiences we had together, whether it was driving around India with people on my team and the chaos there and there, just things like that. And so I think value those relationships. If I was my younger self, spend more time. Even deepening those relationships, right? Get to know people, get to know people that you may not work with directly in your organization, right? There's so many interesting people in big companies and different areas of expertise. And and again, I'm an introvert, but the people part side of things is really. What I look back most fondly on,
Lan Elliott:that's really wonderful advice. All right. Our last question, Matt offered so much great advice today. Could you perhaps share one final nugget of advice with our audience and keeping in mind that the mission of DEI advisors is around empowering personal success. Do you have some final advice?
Matt Fry:Yeah, again, I talked about it earlier. I think one is focus on the task at hand, right? Do the best job at what your current role is that you can do. And with that will come, good things. So you need to look forward, but you don't want to look too far forward. And there's a happy line between kind of managing your career and doing the job that you're being tasked to do. So focus on the task at hand and do an excellent job at it. Good things generally will happen and you'll be recognized. That being said, you also have to manage your own career, right? So it's learning that balance between those two things, the short term or the immediate term. And then, what do you want long term? And don't be afraid to advocate for yourself. I really do believe that having some hard conversations with people in the organization in it, you also could advocate for yourself outside of your current department or role, talk to some other people and maybe you'll find, you don't like in development, you didn't like development, but you thought marketing was interesting, right? There's a lot of opportunities in organizations. And you have that kind of at your fingertips, which is a real luxury.
Lan Elliott:Great advice to end on. Thank you very much, Matt, for being on and sharing your wisdom with our audience. And for our audience, if you've enjoyed this conversation with Matt, I hope you'll go to our website, DEIadvisors. org for more interviews with hospitality industry executives. Ann.