What we really do is storytelling through performance marketing .
H : How does the industry respond to this ?
EL : It creates a little upheaval . People are not always used to having marketing analytics clearly show whether something did or didn ’ t work . Some people are used to being able to go back to marketing to say , ‘ I didn ’ t see this , so I don ’ t think it worked .’ But we don ’ t have to think about it anymore . We have analytics to tell us if it worked . It takes a little bit of getting used to .
H : How prevalent do you believe the glass ceiling is in the hospitality industry ? How are younger professionals creating their own networks ?
EL : The old boys ’ network still exists . It would be silly to say , ‘ oh , yeah , all this stuff happened in the last few years and it ’ s gone .’ All it did was hide it a little more . People may say , ‘ oh , we have one woman on our team so we ’ re good now , right ?’ But it ’ s not as simple as that . That goes for all types of equality and diversity and inclusion — gender bias , racial bias and more . The important thing is to become aware of unconscious bias , to recognize it when it happens and then be able to talk about it .
Glass ceilings still exist , too . There have been very few interviews I ’ ve had where someone hasn ’ t asked me how many kids I have or what my husband does . At what point does a man go into an interview and hear , ‘ hey , what does your wife do ?’ No . They don ’ t care . My answer is always , ‘ I appreciate your question , but I can tell you that there is nothing in my personal life that is going to get in the way of me giving 150 %.’ Because that ’ s a need-to-know basis . They wouldn ’ t ask a man that . That ’ s why I say it truly is an unconscious bias .
H : What are some of the needs of next-gen leaders ? Do they have different priorities than the old guard ?
EL : Having fun at work is important . Work should be fun and exciting and fulfilling . I hate when people say , ‘ This is my 9-to-5 job .’ It ’ s not your 9-to-5 job because we ’ re always connected — we think about [ our work ] all day long . If it ’ s not fun , ambitious and exciting , you ’ re in the wrong place .
H : What would you tell those entering the industry now ?
EL : People are watching no matter where you are , so be your authentic self .
H : What are some things that you try to do every day ?
EL : I try to tell people how grateful I am that they ’ re here and remind them of something they ’ ve done really well . Especially in marketing , we have this tendency to say , ‘ you need to do this , we need to take on this .’ People forget to celebrate all the great wins .
There ’ s still something beautiful about receiving a handwritten card , so I keep notecards next to my desk and I jot down when someone does something that impresses me , and I drop the note in the mail . Sometimes we don ’ t know what people are going through outside of work , so being able to let them know that they serve a purpose is really important . I don ’ t think people get that enough .
H : Where do you find inspiration outside of your industry ?
EL : I look at other industries to see what they ’ re doing . For example , I went to the CoverGirl store in Times Square
Erin Levzow
[ New York City ] to try their augmented reality experience where you can virtually try on makeup . I looked at it and thought , ‘ I wonder what we could do with this ?’ How do we take this experience into a hotel ? The ideas start to build . Sometimes we look too much to our sister companies to see what they ’ re doing instead of looking outside the industry .
H : What ’ s a prediction you ’ re willing to make ?
EL : We ’ re going to continue to see teams comprised of many different types of people , including those from outside the industry , who can come in and become game changers . We ’ ve seen a lot of companies try and grow their own internal agency — some have done really well , some haven ’ t . For that to work , you have to build a very diverse and dynamic team . That doesn ’ t mean everyone is always going to get along , but there ’ s going to be a mutual respect when you ’ re all working toward the same goal .
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