Welcome to the modern hotel you're presented by stay flexi. I'm your host, David Millili. 

Steve Carran: And I'm Steve, 

David Millili: Steve, who do we have on the program?

Steve Carran: Yeah, David today we have on Dr. Jeffrey O. Jeffrey's a global renowned CEO, educator leadership coach, motivational speaker, and even an author. He's been recognized as one of the most famous and influential leaders in the world of global hospitality. Currently, Jeffrey's a CEO at St. Justine hotels and residences.

In addition, he also serves as a president of the international hospitality Institute where he oversees global operations. Jeffrey has published several books of fiction and nonfiction, including dead or alive, an action packed thriller. Welcome to The Modern Hotelier, Jeffrey. We're happy to have you. 

Dr. Jeffrey O: Steve. Thank you so much. I appreciate your kind introduction. Thank you. That's uh,that's quite a bit, but thank you very, very much. Appreciate it. And also, David, thanks for having me.

David Millili: Thank you. Welcome Jeffrey. So a format, the format of the modern hotelier. What we're going to do is ask you some personal questions, just so that the audience can get to know you a little bit better. We'll then blend that into some personal questions and your career, your current company, and things that you're working on.

And then we'll end with industry topics and trends and get your input there. Sound good. Okay. So what was your first job?

Dr. Jeffrey O: My first job was as a front desk agent in a hotel in Baltimore years and years ago, I worked for a Marriott property or now price street as a front desk agent. And I was a fun experience. I liked it so much. I decided to stick around and here I am. I still in industry many, many years later.

David Millili: What's the weirdest thing you've seen in a hotel.

Dr. Jeffrey O: Well, I've seen all kinds of things. I don't know.

David Millili: Everybody's said everyone says that could be a whole show on that, but we're asking it.

Dr. Jeffrey O: Probably enough time when I've seen all kinds of fans. I had a gentleman who was quite upset, check in. He wasn't very happy and he decided to, uh,you know, relieve himself at the front desk. And he was really upset and I guess he drank a little bit too much and he decided to just let fly at the front desk.

And, it was quite, quite a surprising and released. So that's only one of many, there have been a lot of experiences. One thing I think I'm actually going to write a book about the hotel industry. So I'm time with that idea and it's going to be quite interesting. I'm sure.

David Millili: I agree. So, what would you be doing if you weren't in hospitality? If that wasn't your fault?

Dr. Jeffrey O: I'll probably be writing books full time. I love to read, I love to write. I've got a ton of books in my home library. I've got, I just love books. That's my passion. So if I wasn't fully in the industry, I probably would be writing a food.

David Millili: Great. Uh, if you could trade places with someone for a day, who would it be?

Dr. Jeffrey O: That's a very interesting question. I've never talked about that. It would be someone living or someone. Well, it has to be someone living right now.

David Millili: Yeah. If you want it to go back in time, I'll let you go back in

Dr. Jeffrey O: Oh, we'll get B. I really, I have to, I struggle with that when I have never considered or that I've never close to that. I, I don't know the answer to that.

That's something I'm going to have to really think about. I don't want to just tell you anything that pops into my head, but I'll have to think about that.

David Millili: after the show you can, when you figure it out, you can see, can text them. Is there a, is there a secret talent that you have that no, nobody knows. Or most people know.

Dr. Jeffrey O: I don't think so. I, you know, I don't, I'm not as smart as people think I am. I don't have a lot of talent. I'm good at just a few things. If you think this is my wife would tell you and, uh, you know, I love to run obviously, I mean, know, love to run long distance. I've done the Meritor and all of that. I would not call that a talent, you know, so, so I think that's about it.

I mean, I, I dabbled in singing years and years ago and I actually, you know, was part of a group years and years ago when I was younger. So I don't know, again, I don't know if I was telling to when I was doing it, but you know, I didn't give it a shot. Oh,

Steve Carran: Can we ask what the group was called? 

Dr. Jeffrey O: well, it's got ABC. Believe it or not, he never went anywhere.

It was just some, you know, useful, uh, you know, adventure, you, well, I got it out, took my system. I so important pretty quickly.

David Millili: No problem. Well, what's on your bucket list.

Dr. Jeffrey O: My book list. I've got quite a few things I want to do. I want to be able to make a dent in the universe. I know to reference, uh, you know, Steve jobs. I want it to be able to do things that impact humanity to do not change the world. And obviously I love to travel like a lot of people, but I want to be able to help things like building an orphanage in, in, in a country that needs that helping those who are struggling, who need help, you know, in education.

All kinds of things that I'm already involved in charity work. And I, parts of a few organizations that do such things, but I want to be able to do them on a larger scale. I want to be able to give back. I've been incredibly blessed and I think our mission in life is to improve other people's lives.

Our mission is to rescue others in any way that we possibly can. And I always talk about my favorite quote by an American educator, Horace Mann. And I think we're all familiar with a quote, at least quite a few people are familiar with a quote where he talks about. You should be ashamed to die unless you've done something good for humanity.

You know, it's a quote that resonates with me, you know, high about the impact that we make on the world that we live in. We can not just be biological beds. We're interested in making money on eating and drinking and doing all kinds of plans. We have to have an impact on the people around us. We have to be able to make our world a better place, and I want to be able to contribute in any way that I possibly can.

If. it's through helping people get education in countries that really require that If it's helping people get access to food, you've got a lot of food insecurity in the world that we live in today. If he's helping people with Medicare, just helping any way that I possibly can with medical care.

So I want to make an impact. I want to leave a legacy. I want to help people. And, I've got quite a few things I want to do. But For me, that's something that drives me. It gets me out to a bed on a daily basis to want to make a difference. So not living a life that has no meaning, in my opinion, when you live in life, when you haven't touched anyone else, you've lived in a light that has no meaning you only live for yourself.

I want to live a life that has meaning and build a legacy and that's so critically important to me 

David Millili: That's great. I agree. But do you have a favorite movie? A go-to movie.

Dr. Jeffrey O: Well, I've got so many great movies that I love. Oh my God. Where do I even start? I've seen so many over the years. I, I,

David Millili: Give us

Dr. Jeffrey O: I can't possibly name one movie. I'll have to name five or six. I've got so many. And, uh,I could name several, right. But it's tough. I saw city of God, which is filmed in Brazil.

I thought I was a great mother. It was brilliantly done. I rectory to movie scripts in addition to written, write in books. So when I see a story that really resonates with me, gets my attention. I'm currently watching one and I miss a protege and it's got a, if you really good, uh, you know, actresses in that.

And it actually said it watching it two nights ago on Amazon. Very, very good. It's good. Samuel L. Jackson is good if you are the folks in a great, great movie. There've been so many. I saw zero doc 30, which I thought was great. I saw the first movie that really struck me by Billy Bob turned tense, sling blade.

I thought that was a classic. I mean, there's so many, I mean, I could, we could spend the entire entire show talking about movies and then I've got shows that I really, really like, of course we've got game of Thrones. You've got game of Thrones. You've got, uh, what's this other one from the UK? I can't remember. But it's still, man. It's so many great movies out fan and series and all of that. So it's just, it's a long list.

David Millili: If you could have a superpower, what would it be?

Dr. Jeffrey O: The power to make people a better version of themselves.

David Millili: That's good.

Dr. Jeffrey O: You just trust someone. We all have things that we're wanting to be, right. I want to be better than I am as a human being. They look things I'm working on. I, you know, I'm a work in progress, right? But if I had the power to just touch someone and have them transform into a better version of themselves, the aspirational them that they want to be, I really want to be that person.

I would love to have such a power. Just touch them. Boom, just like that.

Steve Carran: That's awesome. 

David Millili: great. Yeah. And this will be the last one in this portion, give them, give us one word that best describes.

Dr. Jeffrey O: Passionate, passionate. Everything that I do. I'm driven by passion and anyone who's ever met me would tell you that I'm just a bundle of passion. That's I've always been. And, uh, that's that's me. 

Steve Carran: That's awesome. Well, Jeffrey, that was great. Now kind of want to learn a little bit more about you, your background, kind of how you got here.

Where did you grow up? 

Dr. Jeffrey O: I grew up. I was actually born in Nigeria and I moved to the us many, many years ago and came to the us to attend a school and ended up just sticking around. I, you know, I've been here ever since. So I started out to. Interestingly enough, not in just tons of the industry. I studied political science as my first degree.

I wanted to be a politician. I actually wanted to run for office at a high level. And that was my plan back then, I said, you know, I'm going to be in politics. I'm going to do, you know, things running for Senator running for, you know, all kinds of things, governor and all of that. I studied political science because I'm fascinated with all of that.

And so then I decided that at some point I needed to work, right. Just like most of us. So I went and got a job and I was hired as a front desk agent, the property in Baltimore Marriott property. And, I took the job. I loved it, fell in love with the job and I see, no, I think I'm actually good at. You know, I'm not good at a lot of things, but I found the one thing I think I was fairly good at, and that's dealing with people, interacting with people.

I've never met a stranger, everyone that I meet, you know, I meet people. I look, I love people. I love talking to people, interacting with people. I just fell into that. A career in hospitality and trajectory, turned out to be very favorable for me. I went from being a front desk agent to becoming a some point in front desk manager in night audit manager.

For an office manager, assistant DRAM manager, GM, and then onto the corporate world and now a CEO of a couple of companies as CEO and then on and on and on. So I've just been very blessed in that career has been remarkable for me. I love the industry and I can't imagine possibly doing anything else other than.

Steve Carran: That's awesome. That's awesome. How did it growing up in Nigeria shape you into who you are? 

Dr. Jeffrey O: I think he gives me a drive. It drivers just drive to never quit. You know, obviously the country vastly different from the U S you've got a country that's very blessed with natural resources, but it's also had its fair share of issues. In some ways you've got people who are super, super smart, highly educated.

I think in looking at it. You've got, I think, Nigerians in terms of looking at Ivy league, if you look at Ivy league colleges and even up the percentage of people, you know, by graduate degrees in the U S you're going to find a Nigeria's easily right up there. If not at that top of the list, suddenly very close to being at the top.

So you've got a country that places a high premium on education. Where people want to educate themselves. People want to better themselves. People are very driven. They want to improve their economic situation. And I think I left with those lessons of wanting to achieve wanting to make a difference, wanting to tap into what I perceived as my potential never quitting, never quitting.

And it taught me, you know, being born in Nigeria taught me to never quit and to have this sense of optimism that's almost It's not reckless, but there's a sense of exuberance that I have in my life about things about the possibilities of life and by what can be achieved. And I don't see things in terms of challenges and obstacles.

I always see an obstacle as something that is just temporary, something that I just have to find a way to either leapfrog or get around. And that's my mindset and I never quit. It doesn't matter what life throws at me. I never quit. And I think that's a lesson I learned from growing.

up 

Steve Carran: That's awesome. I love that. 

Uh, Jeffrey you're on the, board of directors for hope for three autism advocates. my youngest son is autistic non-verbal. Can you tell us about some of the work that, that you do?

Dr. Jeffrey O: yeah, I have no law. I have not been involved frankly, with a whole Fort or for three years since I left Houston, I used to live in Houston. I don't know if you know that. And, back then I manage a property in Houston and I was involved with the organization, but that's, that was several years ago.

But. The organization does a wonderful job. You know, anyone who cares about children, anyone who cares about people, that the word needs to pay attention to, that they weren't in to respect and recognize and support and be there for. Is a friend of mine. And I tell you, they're doing terrific work.

Obviously they're not the only organization working with autistic kids, but that's something that's very close to my heart. And when I was involved with them, my schedule was extremely busy, but I said, this is one thing that I am going to find time for, because an important to me and. Talk about making a difference.

Talk about doing work. That's important. That is important work. And I love to be involved with such organizations and I'm no longer involved because I'm no longer living in Houston. And obviously I'm not able to attend a meeting, some involve intricately. So, but you know, it's a great organization.

David Millili: Yeah. I find a lot of similarities, know, my son's 13 now and dealing with a lot of teachers that there's definitely this kind of, um, there's a connection. Cause people always say, what is it, what does it take to be in hospitality? You know, you're dealing with guests, you're dealing with people, then

you know, I look at it from the viewpoint of the teachers and the aides and the people that take care of these kids. And it's, it's different, but it's similar because it's this kind of caring and kind of just looking after people in a different manner. But I just try, draw some similarities between the two,

Dr. Jeffrey O: Absolutely. I think you did ask me if I was knowing fatality, what would I be doing? I think if I was nine in hospitality, I'll be writing full full-time, but I also will be teaching, you know, I love that as a reason why I sort of did a pivot a couple of years ago into the education as side of, of hospitality with IHI.

So. I want to be able to give back. I want it to be able to make a difference. And I think teaching is truly a novel profession and I want it to be able to do more of that. And as a reason, I went back to school to get my doctorate degree, just wanting to be able to help and share little dollars. I've got with other people while also learning from them. 

Steve Carran: That's awesome. So, so you mentioned you'd be a writer. If you weren't in hospitality, you wrote the book, Dead or Alive. Where did you get your inspiration for that? 

Dr. Jeffrey O: I live very imaginative guy. I think I've always got a very active imagination and I always look at different angles and I analyzing things and connecting with people. And I'm fascinated by people's stories. I tell you, my inspiration comes primarily from people. I'm the guy who's going to get in a cab or in an Uber without Uber.

And essentially talk the guy's head off or took the lady's head off. She be sick. I mean, Okie shuts up already. That's me. I'm not the guy who's going to be in the back of my Uber on my phone or pretending to fall asleep or not making eye contact. I'm the one that's going to chat with the guy and want to know about his kids, his wife, husband, boyfriend, family life school aspirations I love to learn from people. And that feeds me. That's the oxygen that keeps me going. So I'm inspired by people. that I meet on a daily basis and I see people and I try to imagine their lives What their lives might possibly be like, and, and when I write all of that stuff comes out. So, so I've written fiction.

I've written, non-fiction, I've written poetry. And my last book actually was. It's a book called Abraham Lincoln is not dead. And I'd say it's a book or poetry. That's intensely personal in many ways. So I'm fascinated by people. I love people. I love to listen to them, to watch them to talk to them. I think I'm a people watcher of sorts in a good way.

And that inspires me when I decide to write about people. And I think Kirkus reviews, which actually now is one of the two largest book reviewers in the world. Who've got Kirk coz reviews. Who've got published. The reviewed dare to I life. I think in February of this year, they did a review of dead or alive.

And I tell you, it was a very, favorable review. one of the things that talked about was the elite character of the book. I did described it as a supportive, you know, character as a character that just. They found to be a great character. And I, he written a review. That's probably the one thing I liked the most, the fact that it talked about how the character was brilliantly realized, and that I was happy about it because this was coming from an organization that's known for reviewing books.

And if you know them very well at the very tough we get reviews and it was great to have them give a dead or alive, such a favorable review and talk about the characterization in the.

Steve Carran: Okay. Did that character, did that, did you, did he, is he based off anybody or was that just somebody that you. 

Dr. Jeffrey O: Yeah, it was actually someone I made up. There are actually two characters in that boat that really fascinating that, you know, you've got one, it's like the all American hero, just a great person who went to Vietnam. Served this country came back, made a couple of billions of dollars. You know, grit look in, everyone loves them, right?

That's the character he finds himself under pressure, finds himself essentially running for his life. He finds his life in danger, right? And we all find ourselves pulling for him, rooting for him because he's such a great guy, such a great human banned period, a great Patriot, a great human being. Then you've got the detective who's investigating those involved in, in this book as well.

Well, we have mixed feelings about because he's a good guy as well. He's a great guy. He's very passionate about what he does, but he's a metrics about achieving results. I literally questionable. He doesn't mind. Essentially do some things that you will say shouldn't do and trying to get justice, you know, so that's, you know, so people read the book.

I conflicted about detective bone. His name is detective bond and the character is just Savage. So people say, oh, we love your savvy detective bone. We, we know what he's trying to get to. We wrote in for him, but the guy's kind of. He's got a bag. It's like, well, so you don't know what to make on because the cop was doing a great job or, you know, his heart is good.

It's great. He's going to fight for the little guy. He's going to beat up the bad guy, but at times in bitching of the bad guy, Uh,maybe he did it to punch him twice in the face. Right. Maybe you could punch him in the nose and see him bleed, but that's detective bone. So people are conflicted by his character, but you know, that's what makes it a book.

Steve Carran: Well, that's, that's awesome. I appreciate that. So, now, I'd like to learn a little bit more about kind of, you know, what your current role. You're currently the CEO at, uh, St. Justine hotel and, and resorts. How how's that going? 

Dr. Jeffrey O: It's going very well. I mean, it's just, that is really, the Genesis is really the origin of that is me looking to do, you know, come up with a brand ultra luxury brand and Uber luxury brand. That the word has no sin before something that takes it to a different level in terms of service excellence. You've got many brands out that are doing a terrific job and I don't need to name them.

We know who they are. But what Saint Justine is looking to do is something that's sort of ahead of it's time where we're looking to deliver service on a level, that's absolutely sublime where people are blown away. You come into a hotel or a residence and you are absolutely blown away. You say to yourself, I have never, never seen such a service service that's intuitive service.

That's customized. That's very. personal That's so in your face that is so dramatically different from anything you've ever experienced or you think, oh my God, it can't possibly be this good. And as the origami behind us and just stand on set, just to really someone said to me recently, what's the origin of the name.

And I said to them, I told them the story of scent, just incentive. Stan was a young. Lady it Virgin, who was asked to renounce her beliefs. She was a Christian. She was asked to renounce her beliefs at, at, at the point of death. I mean, you have to renounce what you believe and if you don't renounce what you believe you're going to get killed.

So you've got someone who was absolutely beautiful from all accounts. Absolutely beautiful young version girl. Absolutely beautiful. Try to get out to renounce. I believe she refused to. And they said, if you don't do it, you're going to get. And she absolutely paid the ultimate price and was beheaded. The point here is that she sent just to represent beauty, represent consistency, even in the face of storms, in the face of all travails and tribulations, consistency, not quitting, not backpedaling ness saying, okay.

No. Okay. I'm going to not do that anymore because you put me on the pressure. So we wanted a brand that was going to be. Not only delivering beautiful properties, but also delivering consistent service. There are so many brands out there that are great brands, beautiful properties, but at times, and you and I have been in some of these properties, they look very, very nice, but at times its service falls short.

It's not consistent. You go to one location and it's great. You go to another location and it's not so great. We want properties that are incredibly. beautiful But are also consistent. So beauty and consistency. That's the origin. of Saint Justine 

Steve Carran: That's great. And when is the first property? 

Dr. Jeffrey O: We actually look into our four properties open in 2022. Now the plan is to open initially were residences in 2022, and then our flagship property, it will open in January 20, 24 would actually be ready by December 20, 23, but open in January, 2024. And that's going to be the flagships and just end property.

But initially in 2022, we're going to have four residents working on some acquisitions currently that will open in different parts of the. In 2022. And then in 2023, we're going to have additional residents is open right now, 2023. We're looking at ten residences in 2023 for this year, between now and the end of the year.

And then the flagship percent just in property will open by January, 2024, actually already by December, 2023, but opening by January, 2024. And then there are other deals with currently our involvement currently working on.

Steve Carran: That's great. How is, how is, St. Justine, going to differ from other luxury hotels? I know you mentioned consistency and ultra luxury. anything specific that we're going to see in your properties, that's gonna, that's gonna kind of blow our socks. 

Dr. Jeffrey O: Great question. I think we going to really infuse technology into what we do on a level that allows entities that currently not doing, but technology while the brand is going to be technology forward is not going to take over the human interaction. We don't want to have. In our properties, that's not our goal.

We're going to deploy technology is going to be there. You're going to have all kinds of technology. You know, advanced technology involve in terms of the wrong product, in terms of the smart rooms, in terms of, you know, the bed and package, you have the entertainment experience, you have the, the dining experience you have.

All of that is going to be incorporated. What was essentially going to drive any scent? Just Justin is a human interaction is a level that a team is willing to go. You know, knowing your name. It's not just an expectation. We expect that all of our associates are going to know the names of my guests.

That's a basic, that's not, you know, it's, it's, it's performed to, I mean, that has to be in place. So that definitely a little bit there. So a lot, a lot what we're going to do will be premised on. Service excellence going above and beyond doing what other brands have not done before in terms of the product.

Obviously you're going to have the product. I can't tell you that we're going to have the product and no one else has, because that's going to, that would not be. So you have a lot of great looking properties all over the world in Asia, they've got magnificent properties. I mean, the U S you know, also middle east, we've got beautiful properties.

The issue is not just having bits of your properties is having consistent service. And that's what I keep talking about. Beautiful properties anchored by consistent service delivery. So that's ultimate. I think service is going to be a great differentiator. For his interest in property, you stay at this interest in property.

You're going to have access to your private chef. You know, you want, you know, any demand that you could possibly want that can be fulfilled within the bounds of reason is going to be fulfilled. If it's an, I wanted private helicopter to pick me up and take me to the golf course, if it's at all, do it, but we're going to arrange it for you.

So your private chef, your private driver, your personal fitness trainer, you know, all the vines going to have a, your Butler. You know, who's going to be at your back end. If you need any assistance, they're going to be there. You know, people talking about limo rides. If you want a private plane to come pick you up from your residence of fly to the property would arrange that.

So we going to go the distance, we going to go to a place that a lot of. People who are currently in the industry have not even imagined, not because they can do it because if not applied effort to do it, we would apply effort to do it. And if you look at your antecedents of people behind and just then you can see exactly why service is such an integral focus of what we done.

You've got Mr. Horst Schulze, who, co-founded a Ritz Carlton hotel brand, uh, on the board of St just stand. You've got a Filip Boyen former CEO or the Fox travel guide. You know, obviously someone who knows his stuff, when it comes to loss of service on the board of scent, just then you go Frances Kiradjian who's one of the top 10, most influential women.

Do you know people actually in global hospitality who ruins the luxury boutique, association, logic, lifestyle leaders associated. Also part of center, Stan, you've got, Leticia Proctor is, you know, vice-president, we don't know who has fatality, who has been around for many years, doing some incredible things, also board member, and last but not the least, you've got Andrea Belfanti who is a CEO of ISI ISI HC, which is a international society of hospitality consultant or.

A member of the board of, of, St. Justin's. So you're not going to find a board anyway. And I industry that's go such an aggregate of people. Who've got vast experience in hospitality, especially in duress brutality or one board. Any of this before I mentioned alone is highly credible by themselves, just one of them.

So these are people who know their stuff. I've done it for many years, who incredibly hard. Even with all the experience that you've got all part of center stand. So really honored to get to work with this ladies and gentlemen, and I learned from them and share the little knowledge that I've got with the other team members in, in St.

John.

David Millili: That's great. I have to ask the question because of my background, but is there a piece of technology that you're excited that you'll be using it at, at these.

Dr. Jeffrey O: Yeah, we going to be using AI technology and lot smart technology where you check into a hotel, you know, you have the, the mirror in the elevator where you want to be able to access the elevator and facial recognition techniques. Well accessing the elevator. That's one that we think is important in the guest rooms.

Being able to access all of your devices, you know, have them all keyed in, into the alignment, all of that, your bed and package of just like being able to adjust your bed however you want and have your pre-sentence. However you want. All of that. You come back to the room and another day, you know, if you'd like a particular room on your return to the room on a particular day, you walk in and you get welcomed and said, Mr.

Cara and welcome. You know, to send, just stay in I robot. We're so glad to have you here, you know, all of those things and we're going to tap fully into all of that. But again, it's going to be technology forward, Brian, but technology is only a part of what we do because I firmly believe, and I always say this, I say technology is a moving train.

You can get in front of it or you can get inside of it. That's how I look at technology. So we want to use technology fully, but at the same time, Great technology does not make great hotels. Great people make great hotels and we never want to lose sight of that. So we hear people talking about, oh, I'm going to have all of this.

I'm going to have all that technology what's often missing is a human piece I want to check into a hotel where there is someone who is going to smile at me and say, good morning, good afternoon, Jeffrey. How are you doing today? How was your trip from the airport? We're glad to have you back. If you need anything at all, reach out to me.

This is my phone number. This is my extension. And shake my hand. and make me feel good. And that's what I'm looking for. I'm not looking for a robot. I'm not looking for a machine to talk to me. You know, if I wanted that, I can just talk to Siri.

David Millili: And I say to everyone, I think it's, you know, I ran hotels was a front desk clerk. My biggest thing is what are on the screen. Now that these front desk agents don't even look at, you don't even like look up, you walk back and forth through the lobby and have all these opportunities. Just exactly what you said, make a little bit of a difference.

How was your day, Mr. Maloley or, you know, anything? Just a smile, just, you know, everything. Okay. Like that's just that that doesn't cost anything. And they're there. I was at a hotel in Miami and every time I went by the front desk to agents and. It was a, it was a brand, it was a nice hotel and just staring at the screen,

Dr. Jeffrey O: That is so September, you know, it breaks my heart. When I hear by this standard, I think of myself primarily. As an evangelist for the industry, you know, service, I believe service. I mean, that's my passion. I love that. Now. I, what you've mentioned resonates with me because I went to a property in DC to give a speech several years ago, lovely property, which is going to remain or named bids for property top to your property.

One of the. And I get to this particular property, but I could barely get anyone to acknowledge me, I sat there wondering if I was invisible maybe they couldn't me. Maybe I am invisible they Don't see me. Maybe I don't exist like Sixth Sense the movie to 6 cents. Maybe I'm not really here. Maybe I'm dead Hey, do you see me? Hello? Hello. And that was the experience it was weird because here I was and this lovely property. beautifully appointed Not cheap at all in terms of pricing, I could barely find anyone to make eye contact, let alone give me a warm memorable, welcome. So you've got a lot of hotels that have got the reputation, they've got big name, but they don't deliver.

And it's unfortunate. You've got many hotels that are doing incredible. work But it has to be consistent right? A big Mac has to be a big Mac, right. It doesn't matter where you go to. And McDonald's gets it in that sense. I mean, when my kids go out and they get a big Mac, it doesn't matter if they're getting it from Texas or from Florida or from Kentucky it's going to be a big.

Mac And service in our industry needs to be consistent. You know, people need to at least get something, you know, if David checks into a hotel, he needs to be acknowledged, good morning, Mr. Millili welcome back. We're glad to see you enjoy your stay. That's not so hard to do, right. I mean, it's not asking for too much.

You go to a market like Miami, super expensive. And actually one of the markets that we are looking at for St. Justin, and I tell you, Miami right now is the second, most expensive real estate market in the us. There's a piece of land in Miami, in the Brickell area that just sold for $350 million, just the land to build a property.

So we are looking at Miami, but the values are absolutely insane. I mean, they really are. And then to check into a hotel in such as city, like you're like you experienced, I spent all that money and you can't even get someone to be kind to you. What does it take to be kind? What does it take to say hello to someone?

Good morning. Welcome back. How's your day Mr Carran That is not so difficult. I don't think it 

is 

Steve Carran: That's free. That's free

right there. 

David Millili: It's free.

Steve Carran: That's great. So Jeffrey, so switching kind of like your thoughts on the industry here. If I'm just starting out in hospital. What's your advice for me? 

Dr. Jeffrey O: I love that. I think people at first, someone said, well, you can't really learn those fatalities. It has to be a gift that you have. And all of that I differ. I don't agree with that. You fight that you couldn't learn hospitality and get better at it. I would not be involved in IHI international hospitality, the Institute.

So what we do in log training, we train people, you know, professionals and all kinds of things, you know, in terms of improving themselves and, and upskilling reskilling themselves. To answer your question for someone who's just getting into the industry. I would say, learn as much as you can. You can't possibly go wrong with knowledge.

There's no such thing as having too much knowledge learn as much as you can. I mean, prepare to learn from everyone. Don't say, you know what? You're not my manager. I don't have to listen to you or you're not the general manager. I don't have to take advice from you Keep your eyes open, keep your ears open and be humble and learn as much as you can.

I think humble people always go very far when you're humble people see that. I think at the end of the day, when we talk about service, we need to remember that service comes from to serve, you know, and service requires humility. You can't really succeed in our industry to a certain extent if you're not willing, willing to serve, you're not willing to humble yourself.

Be humble and be open to learning and always, always keep learning, never stop learning.

David Millili: Yeah. So w we've covered a lot, um,what hotels are doing wrong? Is there one thing you think, as you travel that hotels should be doing differently? Is there one thing consistently that you kind of feel like, man, no matter what, everywhere I go, it's the same kind of mistake that.

Dr. Jeffrey O: We've got hotels doing really. Uh,great job overall. I should look at what's happening with, with COVID-19 I industry to quite a bit team, right? What a resiliency that the industry has showed. You're not going to find it in too many industries. You know, people in I industry, they work hard and don't quit.

You know, you have a hotel that's open 24 hours, right? Round the clock, you know, three shifts every day. People are constantly working, putting in a great effort. So. Hotels, you know, they're resilient. They've done a really great job post COVID. So what I have seen makes me feel very good. Most hotels do great.

You always have the few that struggle a little bit where people are not always trained properly. I think training is very important. I think we need to do a better job with training. I think a lot of people who are in the front lines, some people were in the frontline. We are not giving them their due When we put them out there without giving them proper training. We're doing them a disservice. Right? You put someone out there who is not fully trained. who is not well-trained. They don't quite know what to do. The stronger we know the system, the stronger we know how to interact with guests, and you put them out there to be your frontline person.

And then they're nervous, they're not confident, you know? That's often a problem. So I think we need to do a better job period with training. And I don't think anyone is going to dispute that. I don't think what I'm saying is controversial by any means. We need to do a better job at training the people on our front lines and equipping them for success.

If we don't do that and we're hurting our business so many hotel companies do a great job at it. I'm not going to mention names for some other hotel companies. There are opportunities to improve, to train people properly before putting them out there. Because if you don't do that, ultimately. You're going to turn them over.

They're going to leave because if you're confident in doing your job, you're going to stand there and smile And anything that comes at you You're going to be able to handle it. We should tend to, to like, you don't really know what you're doing. You don't know what buttons suppress. You don't know what you're supposed to say.

You stand in like a deer in headlights. And if you just stayed in there like a deer in headlights, and you're going to give the wrong answers, you go into at times, tick people off. Right. Because that's not what they want to hear and it's going to go or right. So. Training is critically important. I in chai is glad.

I'm very glad to be involved in IHI providing training to the global hospitality, the industry certifications, getting people who are just entering the industry already. I industry prepared for a future uh, that's really, you know, robust.

David Millili: Yeah. And I have to, I told this once on our very first episode, but I have to tell it again because you can appreciate it. So the same hotel in Miami, when I was checking out the guests, the clerk asked if I wanted an email confirmation a friend had made the room for me through a connection. I got to hook up and I said, do you have my email?

And the front desk agent said, that's a great question. And we had this awkward stare at each other, and he must not have known how to look up if my email was on my record. So he said, he says, I'm just going to, I'm going to write down your email. He goes, tell me what your email is. And I said, first. And he wrote down first name.

I said, last name. He wrote down last name. And then I said, NYC at Gmail. And he actually wrote it. He wrote it out and I never got my, I never got my receipt. Never

got my confirmation, but,

but, but, well, you're just talking about little things to treat. He didn't know how to look up the email.

Dr. Jeffrey O: believe that that reminds me of the joke about someone who called the tech support line and said, you know, my computer, I won't start. And the person on the other end said, you know, okay, all right, turn it on, press. Any key. And she said, well, I don't see any kid any,

David Millili: Yeah, 

Dr. Jeffrey O: 

any kid I C Q U w. I don't see any, that's kind of what that reminds me of first name last day, but she met.

David Millili: that's hilarious.

Dr. Jeffrey O: Training. You're absolutely right. Is all training people not trained properly. We put them out, then they're not fully trained. And then we want to times where they get frustrated and then leave, you know, again, many companies get the right idea, they're doing the right things. Or you've got a few companies that have opportunities to improve.

David Millili: my, My guilty pleasure is cigars. So I like to have a cigar on some. And it's amazing because there's a kind of here in Phoenix, it's a vapor cigar shop I've lived in this area or gone to that shop for three years. And no matter what employee is there, they are always polite.

What are your plans for today? What do you got going on? You know, and it's just this consistent, and it's amazing because it's just this little, you know, vape, vape, you know, cigar shop next to a supermarket. And you're thinking like, They can get it right. But I'm buying a, you know, $15 cigar and I'm getting better service than spending $1,500 a couple of nights at a hotel.

So 

Dr. Jeffrey O: all about training. And I think it would really companies who really do themselves. a great deal or a favor by really focusing on training and training people on a daily basis. And it can not be training as a data dump. You can truly Bible of things that people and expect them to memorize all of that information.

You know, just training people incrementally consistently. It makes all the difference.

David Millili: Yeah, so it might be this, but so right now you look at a platform like LinkedIn. there's a lot going on about, you know, COVID masked labor shortage. What do you think that we're not talking about in hospitality enough on a platform like LinkedIn? I mean, maybe it could be the training, but is there something that you think that like you man you're like, why is it you're thinking, why isn't somebody posting about.

Dr. Jeffrey O: Yeah, I think we need to do a better job of recognizing people. I think it's so important, you know, recognizing people is so critically important, you know, it takes us back. my point takes us back to brown, brown Maslow's hierarchy of needs, right? In which we all studied in college. Once you get past that food shelter, uh, olive and clothing, people want to be recognized, people want to be made to feel good.

Ultimately is so important, especially in the fast moving society that. Right. Everyone who comes into your hotel, if you work in a hotel, needs to be made to feel that his superstar, not his star, but his superstar. We're so happy to see you. Hey, can I get that for you? Can I get you some coffee? Can I get you a drink?

You know, in a way, what are your dinner plans for tonight? You know, have you been to the area before here? Let me show you a map. You know, check out some restaurants, let me, we need to make people feel humiliated. When they come into our properties, it doesn't matter if we have any good deal, a bad day. So, and then the people work in those hotels.

We need to make them feel like a million bucks because you've got folks who are on the front lines, working every day and an operation that's 24 hours. And some of them make okay money. And some of them don't make. wages, right? It don't some do make decent wages and some, you know, they know becoming millionaires, right.

From working at the front desk or cleaning rooms or, you know, serving food. Right. I don't know if any person who became a millionaire because I worked at a front desk or I was serving food, you know, I, you know, I was busing tables and I, you know, I sit in a $1 million in my 401k. You're not going to find that for the most part.

We're not saying that people need to be paid a million dollars to, to bus tables. That's not the point, right? Because economics, the economics involved in all of that, we get that, but we need to recognize the heck out of people. There is no good deed that's done that. We should not recognize. We recognize we should shout every good deed from the rooftop.

We should recognize people. We should make them feel good about what they do. I mean, I remember I used to run a property in Houston years and years ago. I tell you. One of the things I love to do with any of my team members received an accolade from a guest, either common car that was favorable or was mentioned in Medallia, you know, the guest service tracking system or TripAdvisor.

I took my management team. I went over to that team member, just walked up to them. Are we testing anything? We said, clapping. You know, people would turn red. People allow my God, you know, I guess we see this happening and people love that. It was awkward. It was embarrassing as heck, but he loved it. We need to take time to recognize people, people who are in our industry, we can possibly not recognize them too much.

So we need to recognize them. And every day we need to start every day. As leaders running hotels with a pep rally type deal. 

Steve Carran: Yeah. 

Dr. Jeffrey O: We were every morning, you'd get everyone together, you know, five minutes, Hey, you know, gets everyone all pumped up. It's like a football team. Football coach has about two in the locker room with the team members where the football team members are getting everyone to fight up every day.

We need to do that and we don't need to only do that. Pep rally or hoarder once a day. We need to do it before. You're doing it for the moral you should, you get to your team members all pumped up and they go out there and deliver great, great results. Then the afternoon shift comes in or you do the same thing on a night shift, or you do the same thing.

People need their recognition. They need to be recognized. You need to thank them. Thank you for your work. We don't have to give them an award. We don't have to pin a meadow to the jacket, but we need to show that we appreciate the effort and that's only going to make them work a little bit hard.

Steve Carran: Absolutely. And then kind of one question into the future here. Not quite too far into the future, but how, how do you think the metaverse is going to affect hospitality? 

Dr. Jeffrey O: think it's something that we need to pay attention to. You've got a couple of a couple of companies already to have hotels, right. And the metaphors that are coming off with that, I haven't explored. For myself, I haven't exploded for St. Justin as something, not for IHI.

I haven't done any of that, but I think he had to stay. I think some of some folks who are not very familiar with the workings of all of that, right. The virtual wards and things that they're not used to, that they don't do it on a daily basis. So at times I quick to be dismissive. There were people talk that.

Facebook and Twitter and Instagram and Snapchat, we just a fad. We flip all that stuff is going to be gone in a day. Well, here we are right to, to just go. So for, I don't know, 44 million billion billion dollars or whatever, you know, look at Facebook. I remember when Facebook came out and they went public, you know, there were many who were skeptical, frankly.

I always have to go back then I'm going to write. 

Yeah. I said, oh, feasible. Who's going to use that. I remember having a conversation with someone who, by YouTube. I said, who's going to be posting videos on their website. I mean, really YouTube. What's that about? Now, here we are. Right. We can not be loaded.

Again, technology is like a moving train. You can get in front of it or you can get inside of it. And I think in hospitality, this space, we need to maximize the use of the metaphors. We need to look at virtual reality. We need to look at any technology that we can possibly deploy to advance. Other industries that are looking at it.

So why wouldn't we look at it? So I think the metaphors is going to play a big role. You've got a lot of conversations now about, you know, tokenization has going on, right? There's a lot of that happening and, and, you know, NFTs and all of that is an area I think is yet to stay. And people who don't know that they're going to find out in a couple of, in a few years from now that they're the ones missing.

That, that stuff is not going anywhere. It's like Bitcoin, Bitcoin came out and I said, oh, big fly out. Come on. I'm not spending my money on that. Now you've got people made millions in billions from Bitcoin. I mean, it goes up and it goes down. But look at it. I mean, back in 2013, I mean, Bitcoin, no one here.

People were not fooling around with Bitcoin. They were not right. And not here we are. So I think the mentors has a huge role to play. And is going to play that role. And I think, uh, people in us be telling us, you need to wake up to that. It's not going anywhere. It's going to be here to stay.

David Millili: Yeah, we have to get ahead of it. We're going to have probably next month, a good friend of mine, Michael Cohen. Who's a really kind of a he's with the Hugo virtual and he's going to have a VR kind of metaverse expert. So I try to read his stuff and the articles he's posting on LinkedIn, because I I'll be the first to admit I, I kind of get it, but I don't get it. Um, so I need to learn and educate myself. And like you said, I think. In the past that some of them, that you try to learn from some of those mistakes. When, you know, you said, oh, well, how about Facebook ever helped my hotel? Or how would Instagram ever help my hotel? And then you're behind. And then it's too late.

And the ones, the early adapters and the ones who educate themselves kind of prevail and get ahead. 

Dr. Jeffrey O: So true.

people are listening because you guy, who's going to technology bag. And if you were sitting here saying, listen, I need to educate my there's a lot. I need to learn about the metaverse that's humility. That's what I'm talking about, knowing that. There's a lot. We don't know. We have to always take curious.

There's a lot. We don't know, but there are people who are going to go, I'm a technology guy and all of that, but here you are. You're a technology guy. You've run technology companies. you know that there's a lot, you still need to learn it by this new world that we're all exploring. That's humility. And that's the attitude I think we all need to have.

And I think at times we, we don't realize that. So thanks for saying that.

David Millili: Oh, no problem. Yeah. I'm, I'm pretty humble. I try to surround. People that are smarter than me like that. I let them do, you know, as you talked about Steve jobs earlier, I mean, that's my mantra is I hire, I hire smart people to tell me what to do. I don't hire smart people for me to tell them

what to do,because then why did you hire them?

It doesn't make any

Dr. Jeffrey O: I mean, this is a good example of Stephen and David. You know, I took the call. I call was going to be . I had the time wrong. And I S I was on the coast. It's in there waiting. And I said, there's no one here. There's no money. And then 

when I saw your Steve myself, it was my mistake. I was the one who screwed up.

I was the one who had the random time. It wasn't you. I owe you an apology. 

Steve Carran: You don't know, we had apology. You're 

getting. 

Dr. Jeffrey O: I couldn't 

figure it out. 

David Millili: yeah, Steve, John and I, we were, we were all freaking out. We're all like what? And then I have it worse because I'm in Phoenix. And so we don't do daylight savings here. So half of the year I'm on Pacific. So I'm on LA time and I'm three hours behind New York and then half of the. I'm an hour ahead of LA, California, and I'm two hours behind New

York. And so it always, you know, and I've, I've been here for years, but it's still, I'm still not getting used 

to it, but anyway, but no, we really, we, we appreciate you. We're glad you were able to accommodate, you know, with the right time. And, um, you know, before we finish up, that was our last question. Is there anything that you want to tell us about that's up and coming?

Anything you want to plug go away? Some things that are happening with you, that we can share with you.

Dr. Jeffrey O: Thank you. We've got several things going on. And obviously I talked a bit about St. Justine and all the plants we've got. You're going to be hearing some, my announcements, the next step, you know, a few months about, you know, new developments you sent just tense, really excited about that and all this happening.

When the IHI side, you know, we have a lot of things always happening on the IHI side. We recently completed, uh, the global hospitality awards, which is quite a big deal in any industry, recognizing, you know, people from all over the globe, we're doing great work in the hospitality space. So we've got some other things coming up.

I mean, IHI, you know, so several more courses being rolled out since vacation programs, partnerships with different entities in different possibly worlds that, that we've got happening. And that one thing that's going to be happening. And I'm really excited about. You're going to see it costs a global customer service index type deal.

Dr. Jeffrey O: That's going to recognize companies that are the best performers in delivering hospitality globally. You're going to be saying that. So you're talking to buy restaurants, hotels, hospitals, entities, that provide services that have that one-on-one interaction with, with that clientele. Are we going to have that global index?

That's going to track companies by. Hospitality customer service. Excellent. So you're going to see that. So we're currently working on that. It's a pretty massive project because it's not only the U S is global and you've got a ton of companies that I've been, uh, I looked at. So it's a pretty big, big deal that we were working on.

It's going to take up several months, but it's currently being worked on. So I'm excited about that. You know, my passion again is service and I see myself as a service evangelist and anything they're recognized as people who are doing great. Being kind to others and spreading the spirit of hospitality, lightened and touch hospitality that touches my heart.

So very passionate about all of that.

Steve Carran: thanks for coming on. I love the passion That's coming through and like just the positivity. Like I'm having a better day after this podcast. I'll be, I'll be honest with you. So thanks so much for coming out, Jeffrey. it was, this was this was awesome 

David Millili: Yeah, we hope to hope to see you in person sometime soon. I really appreciate it, you know, uh, you taking the time and that wraps up our episode of the modern hotelier presented by stay flexi. And again, Jeffrey, thank you so much. We really appreciate it. And, uh, everyone be safe.

Dr. Jeffrey O: Thank you, David. You're very kind still. Thank you. I appreciate you. Thank you. 

Thank you. Thank you.