Traci shares her remarkable life and career journey, highlighting her transformative approach to tackling challenges with a positive mindset. Traci offers profound insights. Venturing into growth roles and relocating to Asia, she embraced diverse perspectives, enriching her cultural awareness. Traci advocates for discarding the notion of a rigid work-life balance, instead emphasizing the importance of investing time meaningfully in relationships, work, and other commitments.
Traci shares her remarkable life and career journey, highlighting her transformative approach to tackling challenges with a positive mindset. Traci offers profound insights. Venturing into growth roles and relocating to Asia, she embraced diverse perspectives, enriching her cultural awareness. Traci advocates for discarding the notion of a rigid work-life balance, instead emphasizing the importance of investing time meaningfully in relationships, work, and other commitments.
Greetings. I am Dorothy Dowling, a principal of DEI Advisors. We are a non profit organization dedicated to personal empowerment. I am delighted to welcome Tracy Mercer, SVP, Head of Accommodations at Priceline. Tracy, it is such an honor to have you with us today.
Traci Mercer:Thank you so much. It's great to be here. I know we've been trying to get this in the books for a little while, so I appreciate that we were finally able to do it and
Dorothy Dowling:glad to be here. Thank you, Tracy. So I'm hoping you will share with us your career journey. We always like to start with our de DEI advisors and have them frame up the journey that has really defined their career. And I know you have been an amazing commercial leader in the hospitality industry for many years, so I'm hoping you'll share your secrets of your success with our audience.
Traci Mercer:I'd love to do that. I wish there was some secret formula that someone could have told me maybe in business school. And so this is what you do and this is how you get there. So anyone who's listening is deep anticipation that's what you're going to figure out, Matt, it's not going to happen. The answer is for each of us, it's slightly different for me. I, as you said, I've been a commercial leader. I've worked across marketing across product across technology organizations and traverse different areas. And I'd say, There's four things that have been a common theme, but can be undermined by one and the four things for me that have been common throughout my career is number one. It really does take a lot of hard work. You have to put in the time, energy, and hard work that it takes. And hard work is different than the second thing that I'd say I have, which is tenacity. That is just you just keep going after it and then grit. And that's in the face of all that adversity at times that you might face that you continue to work at it and to push at it. And then, after hard work, tenacity, grit, I have to acknowledge that luck is involved. There is luck. There is timing. There are things that play. The one piece that I'd say could undermine all of those, no matter what you've navigated is if you lack integrity. And I think being a competent, high integrity open, authentic Thank you. Leader or individual contributor and now keeping that consistent all the way through, I think is incredibly important. So those would be my things. Hard work, grit, tenacity, a bit of luck undermined with a whole lot of
Dorothy Dowling:integrity. I think that is extraordinarily well said. Tracy, and I think it defines certainly long term career success that you've got to have all of those things in terms of building, building the kind of career path that you've had. I'm wondering if you've had a personal mantra that has helped really shape your personal career and success.
Traci Mercer:I actually don't have a mantra, one of my objectives. So each year, as I said, a new year, I don't set New Year's resolutions. I set kind of goals or objectives or things I want to achieve or things I'm going to force myself to push through. So this year I have. I'm going to come up with either a purpose, a why statement, a mantra, something like that. That's one of the things I'm going to I'm committed to. And it's hard. I don't know why it feels so galvanizing for me and hard, but what I will say is there's been a few quotes or a few sayings a few quotes that I've, I have throughout different times of my career have leaned on to remind me. And as I've shared with you in the past, my parents were huge influences in my life as they are for most kids different ways and different applications. But my mom would always tell me I'm one of six kids. She told all of us. And then she has she's passed away now, but between grandkids and great grandkids and extended family, we are, there's about. 40 nieces and nephews across my ecosystem here. She told all of us, it is your attitude, not your aptitude that takes you to your altitude in life. And that was something that resonated with me for so long when I would feel like I'm not the smartest person in the room, I don't know this industry. I didn't get the best score, whatever it might be. It was to remember that it's the attitude that's going to pull through. The next quote that I say often, and it sounds cheesy, and we may come back to this again at the end, but it's true is life isn't about finding yourself. It's about creating yourself. The circumstances good or bad that happened to me, the blessings or the curses or the challenges that you went through that doesn't define you, you define you and creating that life for yourself is super important. And I would remind myself when I might get in my head about. I didn't go to an Ivy League school or I didn't have this as was just, it's not about finding myself. It's not about being predefined. It's about that. And then the last quote, which I won't support, I won't say here because it's very long, but there's a beautiful quote by George Bernard Shaw. This is the true joy in life. And I actually memorized that in high school. And it is. multiple paragraphs, but it is something that I have said on again off again throughout my life to just remind me of the blessings and the joy and where I can get joy out of life. And that's about passing it on to others. Those are three things for me, not really mantras, but some quotes that I think are amazing.
Dorothy Dowling:They certainly are very inspirational, Tracy. And I think they are good guiding posts for many to adopt in terms of their thoughts and motivating themselves through their career journey. I'm wondering if I could move on to mentors because I think many of us in our careers have had folks that have championed our career. So I'm wondering if there are any individuals that have really propelled your career forward and have lifted you up on their on your journey.
Traci Mercer:Yeah. I've had the opportunity to work for just amazing, inspirational icons in the industry to work for them to work far below them to negotiate with them at times, which is intimidating. But I will say there's been it. A lot of people that have influenced my career. I want to give an example of one who I don't think he actually knew how much of an impact he made to me. I wouldn't call him a sponsor. I would say he was an inspiration and I had the opportunity to tell him a few years ago at Focusrite and we were both dragons on stage during one of the competitions. And that's Eric Blatchford. When I joined early on, when I joined left the hotel industry on working on the hotel side and joined Expedia group at that time, it was just Expedia. com. He was our CEO and he came and met all of us new hires one day. And I was one of a very few number of people who were supposed to manage hotel relationships. And he came in, I think it was shortly after he had done I don't know, a lunchtime run training for an iron man or something. Cause that's what he did. And he said, yeah, so we're here and we're going to help everyone everywhere. Plan and purchase, everything and travel. And my pragmatic revenue management mind thought, what the hell? This man is crazy. That's let's be realistic. We can't do all of that. But the reason I think he was such a a mentor for me in a way he didn't even realize, is that just. That just ambition that risk belief that's what we could do made me instead of say, you're crazy. It actually made me stop and reflect and realize like we can do this. We can do this. And it pushed me in a way that maybe my grounding in reality needed. And and I just love that. And I had the opportunity to share that with them. And it was really fun experience. And then I'd say Much later on in my career, I worked for Spencer Escoff, who many of you may know, and he, I think, made a controversial decision to promote me into one of my leadership positions. And I only say controversial because the other people applying for the job, by distinction of their resume, went to better schools, maybe had better IQ. Maybe I don't know. They were just different. We were very different and he chose me. And I remember going to a meeting with him. It was an HSMAI kind of innovation think tank. And if you know me, I'm not the quiet type. I'm not the meek one at the table. And I was being meek and quiet in this meeting. And he leaned over and he said, you have a seat at the table. Use your voice. You're here for a reason. And there's no turning back like that. Instantly, you shortly, after that Cheryl Sandberg's lean in book came out and there was a variety of other things that happened. But I remember that moment. I remember that meeting and it. It was something that he always advocated for me to use my voice and to be exactly who I am but also that there's ways to bring that forward. Those were great impacts for me.
Dorothy Dowling:That was an amazing leadership gift to you at a, I'm sure a pivotal time in your career.
Traci Mercer:Absolutely. Absolutely. Very much.
Dorothy Dowling:Tracy, I'd like to move on because you have taken on some pretty big career opportunities in other parts of the world. Many people would not have taken on some of the risks that you did. So I'm just wondering if you can share how you were able to really consider those options and quite frankly, how you were able to embrace some of those opportunities.
Traci Mercer:Yeah. Yeah, thanks for the question. It's, I could spend a little bit of time on, on this. Cause I think I have had a really blessed career in many regards, but each blessing has come with taken a big chance that I didn't know if I should take at the time. And upon reflection, it was one of the best decisions I made each time. So I'll definitely lead with that. I'll start with my first big. Move was actually to leave the hotel industry and to go work for an OTA to go work for Expedia as a revenue manager, I had a certain opinion of how OTAs worked, especially early on in the days in the early two thousands post nine 11 here in the U S there was some debating philosophies on how this would all emerge and grow. And my belief was. I can't manage, navigate, or become a leader if I don't understand something. And I just don't get it. And so my first move was I decided to take the leap of leaving my very comfortable position in an executive leadership team and with a company and a brand and to go work for an OTA. And the first kind of shock to me was they closed now that may sound silly, but when you work in a hotel for years, hotels, don't close corporate offices and tech companies closed. So that was like a big shock for me. What that blessing gave me was to understand a side of technology of pace of innovation of disruption of risk taking some of those things that Eric said in my first day when I joined. Thank you. That really opened my eyes to a degree that I don't think I had really appreciated on the operational side. So that was one throughout that career, I'd say probably the biggest then risk I took was I was tapped to move to Asia. And this was on 20, 2012 and. I first said, have you met me? I am super American. What do I have any business doing in Asia? The irony of the situation is they sent this very American woman to run this large. We had two joint ventures at the time. We were opening across multiple countries and they wanted us to quote unquote, get local in many of these geos. And since I had created a way to do it in the U S this. Just go replicate that. And I think what surprised myself as well as all of them is one of my first reports back was that's not going to work. What works there won't work here. And I think if I reflected on my learnings of taking an international assignment, I would separate a learning on the business side and a learning on the culture side. On the business side, business is business. We know how to run things, strategy, metrics, numbers. If I said there was one big learning there, the big learning for me there was you have to be really careful what you say yes to and really careful what you say no to. The analogy I'd use is there's money everywhere. There's opportunity. There's so many things you could do. Everything you say yes to takes time, attention, fragmentation. So be super thoughtful on what you say yes to. And that was a big learning because yes has a cost. As much as it has an opportunity, but the bigger learning for me on the move internationally. And when I was based in Singapore, I was there almost three years. I traveled 280 some days a year, 285 or something days a year. I was. Across the geography, across the globe all the time. The thing that I would say transcends is good common sense. Remain grounded, basic business judgment prevails and don't underestimate the cultural differences. So listen, be empathetic, seek to learn and understand. Be humble and respectful, but know that if you're grounded in basic business judgment and basic business rules, it will prevail. But if you're going to go there and say, this is how I've always done it. This is who I am. You better accept me. It's just not, it's just not going to work. I remember a specific anecdote that one of my team members said to me in Japan. And I was trying to motivate my team. He said, Tracy's son. Do you know how in the US you would say the squeaky wheel gets the grease? And I'm like, yes, exactly. He's and you know how I would say the the early bird gets the worm. You would say that miss Tracy's son. And I said, yes, exactly. That's what I'm trying to say. And he said in Japan. We would say the tallest tree gets struck by lightning. And I was like, Oh, shoot, how, because it was completely counter. And that's the cultural nuance. And it wasn't that we couldn't grow the forest. It was that we had to do it differently. And I was so fortunate to have great team members who helped educate me on those cultural nuances, but don't underestimate. The cultural impact and how you're going to need to listen, learn, be humble, and take those kinds of feedback from all levels to apply it to being a leader internationally.
Dorothy Dowling:I think that's amazing that you had one, the courage to take on an international move like that, Tracy, but also to embrace the learning that. It afforded you, and I'm sure it is one of the things that has powered your career in immeasurable ways by taking on both the risk and the learnings that came through that.
Traci Mercer:Absolutely. Absolutely.
Dorothy Dowling:So I'm wondering if we can talk a little bit about change and how you really approach change and, in your career, in your personal life. Those kinds of cultural shifts that you would have had to make even personally, moves are tough. Regardless of when you do them but when you make those kinds of global kinds of changes, those are very significant. So how did you keep such a positive point of view and how did you really build that adaptive mindset? Oh,
Traci Mercer:I think there's generally, I think some people are anti change and some people love change. And for good or bad, I fall in the, I am invigorated by change. I don't know what I was born with that made me this way, but I have always just been one that's invigorated by change, invigorated by challenges, invigorated by jumping into something I don't know, and I don't understand and trying to figure it out. But I would say. I think professionally approaching that I was really blessed. I believe everyone has companies or instances that really shape you personally and professionally. And I think I was really shaped by being. Part of this industry at a time of great change. Now, arguably, you could probably say every year has had great change. For me, it was a time in which the on transparency of rates were coming out as I was in this discipline of revenue management. For me, it was in a time when acquisitions and M and A's were going and then 9 11 happened and, That it just there was just so much turmoil and chaos that thank goodness. I was invigorated by change or I would have been a basket case and that's as many people were so for me. I think that shaped me and it gave me. An ability to apply something that I, a talent, I didn't know that I had. And that was, I'm pretty good at creating clarity and focused amidst ambiguity and chaos, cutting through a bunch of noise to see at the heart of it, these are the things we need to do, and this is what we can impact. And what I found as both an employee, as an individual, as a leader, when you're going through great change, the team needs that. They need something to hold on to, something to stabilize. Behind and that ability to create focus and clarity amidst ambiguity and then to be able to tell the story and give some people something to hope for to aspire to tell a line behind. I think that helped me. I would also say. On a personal front and you and I have talked about this a bit, Dorothy, I've had a number of really pivotal personal experiences in my life. And that could be a whole nother session, a whole nother topic, but it is something that I want to Your mindset, it's your attitude that you have to apply to. It really changes it. My husband was in an accident that disabled him and it, it changed the trajectory of our life. And it was you could look and say, Oh, he lost so much or, Oh, you were challenged so much. I look at it, both he and I look at it and say, that was such a blessing in hindsight. What an amazing thing we got to learn from that. And if you can. Take that from all the elements of change, of chaos of shifts, titanic little shifts that happen under your feet. You will prevail because you then you glean from all those circumstances, just a really great thing that allows you to navigate the next round of change so much easier.
Dorothy Dowling:I think your mother set you up well when she said about how attitude defines your altitude. Yeah, because that is an amazing story about how you look at everything through such a positive lens and try to look and find the opportunity there. So thank you for sharing that. I'm wondering if we could talk a little bit about that work life balance. I know lots of people don't use those terminologies directly, you mentioned when you were in Singapore that you were traveling, I don't even know, I have to do quick math, that sounded like 85 to 90 percent of the time. How did you find that being in terms of your health and? In keeping all your relationships intact and making sure that you were doing all the right things for yourself and for the company how did you balance all of those things?
Traci Mercer:I've generally maintained that. Work life balance is not real there. There's no such thing as balance. And I have candidly said my whole time, I live without balance and I love it. What I actually think is balance is what's true for you. And for me, what balance means is I like to work. I like my job. I love this industry and I want to do that. I also. Like my family. I like my husband. I like my dogs. Now I wouldn't say they're always in balance, but there's a few things that I do and I've learned through the years. I would say that I did look up at a point in my life and realize all I had done was worked. And I, everything else that I said was a priority, I didn't give time to because everything went to work now that life without balance for a while is what led to me being able to create more balance later because you do have to pay your dues. And I think about it. I'm no longer a marathon runner and you've had some amazing runners on here that could give great analogies there. But when you run a marathon, You go through times where you sprint at points, you pace run at times. You might bonk. I think for me, I was trying to sprint the marathon for a while, and that just isn't sustainable and I was about to bunk. And so I took a step back and said, okay. If I say this, my, my family, my home life is a top priority. Does my life reflect it? If I go back to my kind of goals that I set each year, I actually started with that and said, what do I believe are the most important things to me? And have I architected my life to support and sustain that being true? And unfortunately the answer was no. So I had to make some adjustments. Does that mean I work less? No, it means you're more purposeful. It meant I intentionally chose to be very deliberate and focused on how I used my time. So for me, that was one thing. And then there's a concept called the third place. Have you heard of the third
Dorothy Dowling:place? I'd love to learn more. It
Traci Mercer:is it is something that I think has allowed me to create. A level of balance that I couldn't do before. The idea or the concept behind the third place, and the listeners and watchers could go research this, is that you have a home life, you. And with that comes a certain persona, definition, and an expectation of what you should do there. And you have, at least in our case, we have a work life. And we have a certain persona, definition. Productivity expectations, success expectations there. But what humans need and what we need is A third place. And this plays an important role in helping us build like individual and collective identities outside those of home and work. And I've heard this a lot. I've heard this with friends who are getting divorced or in the pandemic is I don't know who I am when my kids are gone. I don't know who I am when I can't be in a workplace. I don't know the idea behind a third places. You need to know who you are and you develop that in a third place. Now, for some people that may be a gym for some people that may be. The neighborhood pub that they stop. But for me, it's actually animal rescue. And that may not seem true for others, but it's a place where it's an escape from how I am defined and productive. at home or how I'm undefined and productive at work, and it provides me a mental reset that allows me to do something that I love and that I value and be surrounded by like minded people who are passionate about the same thing. And someone's third place could be they're a CrossFitter. It could be they're a runner. It could be, They love their local coffee shop and they go there and they're an introvert. They don't need to talk and socialize. They just need to be around. But I would encourage everyone to really think about what is your third place, where is your identity outside of home and work and how are you developing that? I love the animal rescue work that I do and it is my third place and no one there knows the title. I have the home. I have the level I am. They just know that. I'm in it to help change an animal's life, to rescue them from hardship, and to give a voice to someone that's voiceless, something that's voiceless. And it is rewarding to a level that I can't even describe, and I just wish everyone could find their thing of what that is.
Dorothy Dowling:Tracy, thank you for framing that you know that I have admired your work with dog rescues because I'm a big dog lover myself, but I have always, observed the kind of commitment that you bring to animals. And I have, I just, the way you re home, the way you commit to, you drive miles and miles to rescue animals and to. Rehome them and find new places for them to have a better life. But I didn't really understand that was part of this journey of your third life. So I really appreciate you sharing that and sharing that with our listeners and our viewers today. So thank you.
Traci Mercer:Absolutely. There's a great book I would also recommend for people. It's not necessarily about this concept of a third place, but It's by Romi Neustadt. It's called You Can Have It All, Just Not at the Same Damn Time. And it's a great, it's a great book. I found it entertaining, witty, and also just for many people who struggle with an expectation of what it means and what you should be doing, just a reality set of. You know what? Let some stuff go. Stop putting this pressure on yourself. And so yeah, I'd recommend that as well.
Dorothy Dowling:Thank you. I'm sure many of our listeners will take you up on that recommendation. Tracy, you're a fabulous public speaker. We've obviously seen the benefit of that today. I've seen you on stage many times, but I'm wondering if you have some tips that you might share with our audience in terms of how you really prepare to deliver on stage or in sessions like today.
Traci Mercer:If a tip could be, don't be boring, that would be my number one tip for any public speaker. Just don't be boring. And it takes work to do that. So that's the first thing. I was not a natural public speaker by any means. It is something I started working on. Ironically, I've been goal oriented for a long time at nine years old. I started taking, Public speaking as a class. Now, my family didn't have money to put me in classes to train on this, so I actually got involved through a program called 4 H. For anybody in the U. S. you might know about 4 H, but that's how I started my public speaking. And if you have a child that's struggling with confidence, if you yourself are struggling with confidence or trying to learn, highly recommend getting involved in that program. My tips. First of all, it really is. Don't be boring. The second is have a point. Like, why are you talking and what is in it for your audience? This isn't about you. It's about them and about what they can get out of it. So make sure you have a point with them, a takeaway for them. Second would be have an arc to your story. The worst part about a public speaker is when it's just feature, or blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. There should be an opening. There should be a crescendo and there should be a closing and framing that and transitioning, keeping that attention all the way along. And if you care, if you're passionate, if you have a personal compelling message to it, you'll nail it. And that sounds so silly. Have, don't be boring, know your audience and have a point for them. Have an arc to your story and care. Those would be my tips. But I do love it. I find it invigorating because I find it as a way that I can. Bring people along a story or bring people along a lesson. And my favorite topics to speak about are numbers because numbers tend to be really boring to people. And if you can create the story and understand the landscape from what the numbers are telling, I think that is just brilliance. So that's my favorite.
Dorothy Dowling:You are very accomplished when you deliver messages, Tracy, so thank you for sharing that intentional path to actually creating that interest and really making sure that you deliver back to the audience. We're coming up to near the end of our interview and so there's a couple of questions that we like to ask one is. If you were looking at your 20 year old or your 17 or your 19 year old self, if there is any kind of advice that you would offer to yourself that have been insights that you've gained over the years that your younger self and benefit our listeners.
Traci Mercer:I think if I was literally talking to my younger self, I would just say, it'll be okay. It'll be okay. But if I was giving advice to our listeners, it's not everyone peaks in high school, it's okay. Don't stress. If you didn't get homecoming king or queen, if you weren't the valedictorian. Not everybody peaks then. And actually I would encourage you don't waste your peak then. Use that peak to come later in life.
Dorothy Dowling:I think that's very motivational because then that means everybody has a chance still to find that peak in their journey. So the final question we always ask everyone, Tracy is when you think about the tagline of DEI advisors, which is really empowering personal success. Is there one piece or any piece of final advice that you would like to share with our audience?
Traci Mercer:I think I'd go back to the, your life is for you. It's about what you create, what you define, and it's on you. You are not the victim of your life or circumstances. You are the director. And what an amazing. We all have, if you can actually embrace that don't define yourself by what happened to you. Don't spend your time trying to find it. You know what? Decide what you want, decide what you want your life to be, and then work like hell to create it because you can own that part. And I think that just gives inspiration and motivation to know anything is possible when you put yourself behind it.
Dorothy Dowling:Tracy, if I may, I'd love to just say thank you. You provided amazing wisdom, but I also think you're a remarkable example. You're a living example of the advice that you've shared with us today in terms of embracing life through a very positive lens, very intentional in terms of taking risks and career pathing. And I'm sure that your peak. Is still well ahead of you and I'm going to enjoy watching in terms of where your career continues to unfold. So thank you so much for being part of our show today. And I look forward to watching your career grow.
Traci Mercer:Thank you so much, Dorothy. I appreciate being here. It's great to share. And yeah, this isn't the end. There's so much more to do and so much more we can do together. So thank you. Thank you, Tracy.