No More Bad Events

Science, Serotonin, and Saving the Hotel Industry (ft. Michael Dominguez, President & CEO of Associated Luxury Hotels International)

Episode Summary

This week, we hear from a true leader on shoring up his teams during the pandemic, planning for the future of hotels, and the tools that make events better because they make people feel better. It’s all here on No More Bad Events.

Episode Notes

Science, Serotonin, and Saving the Hotel Industry (ft. Michael Dominguez, President & CEO of Associated Luxury Hotels International)

Michael Dominguez on leadership and luxury in a post-pandemic world

OPENING QUOTE:

“That's the point, focus on the people. It doesn't matter what all this is if we're not paying attention to the people when it's all done. I thought that was just beautifully done.”

-Michael Dominguez

GUEST BIO:

Michael Dominguez is President and CEO of Associated Luxury Hotels International, a global sales organization known for its exclusive membership of the world's most distinguished, independently operated or owned hotels and resorts.

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CORE TOPICS + DETAILS:

[5:48] - Planning Priorities

What should come first when planning meetings?

The event industry is moving faster than expected, and one result is that there’s much less physical space available. Event planners need to take this into account, and realize that in some cases the metropolitan spaces are actually the ones with unexpected event spaces available. Sometimes you have to get creative and look to places you wouldn’t normally expect to find success. 

[11:21] - Introspection in the Event Industry

What Michael and others have learned

“I've always felt I've been pretty in tuned to my emotional intelligence, and been pretty good at it. What I had to do was even put that on steroids during the pandemic.” Michael’s personal transformation through the pandemic was one of intensity. He realized that there’s a lot of life happening to people right now, and we need to have more grace for the people around us— within the industry, and outside of it.

[15:37] - Bringing Wellness to the Meeting Space

Michael’s research on physical spaces and the human body

Michael worked with Delos Living to identify the lighting colors and hues that have the most positive impact on people’s wellbeing in meeting and workplaces. He realized that it doesn’t cost an extra penny to make small choices like these in spaces that will pay huge dividends when it comes to people’s mental health and wellness. “One of the reasons you’re tired after an eight-hour board meeting is because you’re sitting under crappy yellow lighting the entire day.”

[21:55] - Embrace the Details

From Spurs to Dinner Tables

What does the San Antonio Spurs basketball team have in common with Michael Dominguez? They both care about culture, and that’s why they succeed. Michael mentions that Spurs coach Greg Popovich organizes team meetings with no more than six people per table, ensuring that conversations don’t break off into smaller groups. “Everything is so specific and thoughtful,” Michael says, and this inspires him— as it should inspire all of us. After all, uncommon results come from uncommon approaches. 

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A veteran comedian and television personality who has built a reputation as the go-to choice for business humor, Scott has hosted hundreds of events over two decades for big and small organizations alike. Scott has also hosted his own weekly VH1 series, and recently co-hosted a national simulcast of the Grammy Awards from the Palace Theater.

As the son of a successful salesman, he was exposed to the principles of building a business at an early age. As a comedian, Scott cut his teeth at renowned improv and comedy clubs. And as a self-taught student of psychology, he’s explored what makes people tick and has written a book (albeit a farce) on how to get through life. He’s uniquely positioned to deliver significant notes on connecting people and making business seriously funny. And who doesn’t like to laugh? 

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SHOW CREDITS:

Episode Transcription

Michael Dominguez:

That's the point, focus on the people. It doesn't matter what all this is if we're not paying attention to the people when it's all done. I thought that was just beautifully done.

Scott Bloom:

Welcome to No More Bad Events, the podcast for professional event organizers, and anyone who wants to take their events to the next level. Each week we'll hear from the best in the business, and get an inside look at what goes on behind the scenes at the world's most perfectly executed conferences, meetings, and more. Together, we'll learn the secrets and strategies to help us reach one big goal, no more bad events. Our show is brought to you by eSpeakers, and I'm your host, Scott Bloom. Let's get started.

Scott Bloom:

Today's show is sponsored by ImpactEleven, formerly known as 3 Ring Circus, the best and most diverse and inclusive community built for training and developing professional speakers. They're not just elevating an industry we know and love. They work with hundreds of speakers to launch or scale their speaking businesses, earning tens of millions in speaking fees, landing bureau representation, securing book deals, and rising to the top of the field. If you're looking to take your speaking career to the next level, they'll help you make a bigger impact faster. To learn more and schedule a free intro call, visit impacteleven.com. That's impact E-L-E-V-E-N.com.

Scott Bloom:

No More Bad Events is produced and presented by eSpeakers who believes in the magic that happens when the perfect presenter gets in front of your audience and moves them. The eSpeakers marketplace helps you find, connect with and hire from the deepest catalog of experts who speak on the planet. The platform makes it easy to find, contract, and pay the expert who will ignite your audience to accomplish your meeting goals, and exit to a standing ovation. For more information, visit espeakers.com/nomorebadevents. That's espeakers.com/nomorebadevents.

Scott Bloom:

Today's guest knows something about people and science, and how the two should mix to create the environment's best for mental acuity, alertness and collaboration. Michael Dominguez is President and CEO of Associated Luxury Hotels International, a global sales organization known for its exclusive membership of the world's most distinguished, independently operated or owned hotels and resorts. And today, Michael lays it all on the line. He talks about how as a leader, he had to lean into his emotional intellect to shore up his troops to get through the pandemic. He segues into the outlook for the hotel industry going forward. And then, as a self-proclaimed science geek, Michael dives into highly-effective scientific based tools that will make a better event simply because the scientific effect will make people plugged in, feeling better, and more alive. From how the use of a color and brightness of a light in a meeting room suppresses or increases melatonin and serotonin, to how serving vitamin D rich foods replenishes and repairs, to how plants restore the air. It's fun, fascinating and phenomenal stuff, as is Michael Dominguez. Let's do this.

Scott Bloom:

Michael, I did some work for Krisam, I think it was years ago. You guys must have absorbed them? Or were they a whole different organization?

Michael Dominguez:

No, they were actually bought and brought into the ALHI family at that... God, it's been over a decade. It's well before my time. And there was one other organization out there at one time, was Hinton & Grusich. And it was Hinton & Grusich and Krisam at the time that all became part of ALHI. ALHI ended up bringing them in and consolidating them into the family. And what's interesting is we still have Bill Grusich that's still with us, that was one of the parents of Hinton & Grusich, and Kathy Kozminske, and André Valk. Some of those players that have been around for quite some time, they're still with us, and part of the family.

Scott Bloom:

Who did I know over at Krisam? Marcia Gerard. Do you know that name?

Michael Dominguez:

Yeah, Marcia is a legend in our industry, and-

Scott Bloom:

She is, isn't she?

Michael Dominguez:

Yeah, and I don't think she's active in the industry anymore, but she's still in New York. And you just reminded me, I got to touch base with her, just to see how she's doing.

Scott Bloom:

Oh, she's been a fan of mine, I've been a fan of hers for years. What a great person. I'm going to go over a little bit of your credentials right now because it is very impressive to be able to talk to you. As you mentioned, you're President and CEO of ALHI Associated Luxury Hotels International. You mentioned it's a member-based organization. You provide global sales services for independent hotels and hotel brands. And then, prior to joining ALHI in 2019, you were in executive sales positions with MGM Resorts, Loews Hotels, Hyatt, Starwood, and many others. In the industry of podcasting, this is kind of a get. This is a get for me to have the one and only Michael Dominguez on the program. I'm really excited to talk to you. You obviously have your finger on the pulse of everything in the event industry. What should people be thinking about these days as they start to start planning their meetings?

Michael Dominguez:

It's a complex environment as we start to move out of this because it's moving much faster than everybody expected, Scott. And that's not a surprise to me because fortunately, with our portfolio, we were able to have a very diverse view of what recovery looks like. And I reminded everybody, we have a lot of portfolio that are in areas that have been open for the last 18 months, so they're there. They're already [inaudible 00:06:22].

Scott Bloom:

We're talking about regionally.

Michael Dominguez:

Yeah.

Scott Bloom:

Regionally from of the states, maybe Florida.

Michael Dominguez:

Exactly. Well, Florida, Texas, Georgia. Florida gets picked on, but they weren't alone. There were literally a dozen states that were wide open as well as Mexico that stayed through all of this, and we have a lot of Mexican properties. They all had some type of protocol but I think they got to where the bulk of our country got to later, was there are ways to continue to move and live life while still trying to protect ourselves. But I can tell you in the US, real simply in the meeting side of it specifically, we have such a compression around meeting space. Right now we have a reverse recovery. It is the rest of the country that's compressing the metro cities because the metro cities are the laggards right now. And in March, latest data I saw it was March of CBRE, and it was March of 2022.

Michael Dominguez:

If you looked at the resort areas, the resort areas were already indexing over a hundred percent to 2019 in group business. While if you looked at the other areas, metro and suburban, they're at about 80 to 82%. It's a good reminder for planners to say, if you're looking for things short term and you're getting a lot of nos, make sure to look at the metro areas because that may not have been your first natural instinct. But the San Franciscos of the world, the Chicagos of the world, that they do have availability. And I don't want to say that there's no space available, it's just much tighter everywhere else around the country.

Scott Bloom:

That's some good information because we know that, as you said, people who were a little more reticent before, they're still bringing that mindset forward. How do you get them to shift the mindset? How do you get them to say, "Hey, that was then, this is now."

Michael Dominguez:

Well, I think it's kind of getting force fed. I give a couple of points to people. For the planners, I've heard often that, "Look, I'm worried that people aren't ready to travel. They're not ready to get there." We've had record leisure demand on the same attendees that they're saying won't come to their meetings. They're traveling on their own.

Scott Bloom:

Yeah, that's funny. People are like, "Oh, I don't want to travel for business. I'll go out and have a nice vacation."

Michael Dominguez:

Well, and I think it's perspective. What I've heard, it is from the people in those environments. The problem is that let's say you're in one of those areas that's been closed for a longer period of time than some other parts of the country, you're reticent. If you're the one planning the meeting, you're reticent. If your stakeholders are in that area, they're reticent about it. And what they're not understanding necessarily is that reticence isn't there everywhere else. We're already starting to move. You know what's interesting? You know what we're experiencing right now?

Michael Dominguez:

Every meeting, what we've been dealing a lot with currently is simply addendums to add room nights because they didn't book enough rooms, and they're going right through their blocks. And that's consistent, and I think it's going to get even more aggressive. And Scott, there was a stat I read last night, really interesting is we are at the lowest point globally in deaths around the pandemic that actually influenza, cancer, and heart ailments would all exceed on a normal basis. When we talk about being endemic, it doesn't mean it's gone away, it just means we're back to a normalized pattern of seasonality. But outside of that, you're starting to see people move, and traffic numbers are showing that. And this would probably be a surprise for most people. We got to 80% of our group room nights of 2019 in March of this year already.

Scott Bloom:

That's great. That's such great news. I mean that's what people need to start hearing is the good news. I think we all know things have shifted but-

Michael Dominguez:

Exactly. The more we can get to normalized, I think the faster we're going to... And if you look at what's happening with every forecast, where I'm really optimistic, every forecast continues to improve, there's this discipline that I talk about often called effective forecasting in psychology. And it has nothing to do with numbers. It has everything to do with how you see the world based on your experiences and-

Scott Bloom:

Perception.

Michael Dominguez:

Yeah, and if you're coming out of a real negative timeframe, it is hard for you to see us getting normalized very quickly. And the same is true about us coming off a really good timeframe and going into a downturn. It's kind of the same coming out of this. But where I really am optimistic is that I'm seeing human behavior come back to normal very quickly once people experience it.

Scott Bloom:

And I see that a lot. I host meetings and I'm in front of a lot of people and I just see the joy in their faces of just being there, being able to experience things, having a shared experience with people. Everyone wants to go out there and have a good time. As I said, there are those people who are like, "Hey, I kind of like this not having to leave my home." We've all gone through a lot of introspection I think over the last couple of years. How about you personally? I know you're very passionate and excited about the new trend upwards that we're getting back together. I know that you're a big advocate for the event industries, but how about you personally? What discoveries have you made about yourself over the last couple years? And what have you learned that maybe the events industry can benefit from?

Michael Dominguez:

I think my perspective became more singularly focused, and it's how I've always led. And what I found was we all struggle as leaders around emotional intelligence. I've always felt I've been pretty in tuned to my emotional intelligence, and been pretty good at it. What I had to do was even put that on steroids during the pandemic. And I think if there's any change as a leader, it's not a change, it was a larger intensity around making sure we understand that... I said it recently, and I had one of my members say she's now used it more than once because she heard me say it. But I go, "There's a lot of life happening to everybody right now. And as leaders, as peers, we just need to have a tremendous amount of grace for everybody." And I think we've kind of lost that as a country, as a society at times.

Michael Dominguez:

And more importantly, I made it my mission not to lose anybody, and I can say that we didn't have any furloughs, we didn't have any layoffs during the pandemic. We kept everybody employed, and that was important for me. And I think it's intensified my resolve to make sure that... As I always say, I like my employees to be able to my team members to go home, and know that they're not stressing about work, and they can really free their mind, and be with their families.

Scott Bloom:

Yeah, I think everyone would love to have a leader like yourself. It's a great example. It is sort of your signature trademark leadership style. I've heard people talk about your humility, your humanity, your vulnerability. You talked about putting vulnerability on steroids, which sounds like an oxymoron. But if you've been listening to Brené Brown, that maybe makes sense. How do you teach this kind of leadership style? Do you have to be born that way? Can you actually learn it?

Michael Dominguez:

No, I think there are some people born with certain aspects and traits, and that makes it easier. You move faster through that learning curve. But I do think the important part is I'm a huge believer in servient leadership. And if you think about servient leadership, it just means we're here to serve. And if you think about, you're here to serve, it makes it real easy that every filter is about your team members.

Scott Bloom:

It's about them, not about you.

Michael Dominguez:

Exactly. It should never be about you. It's the actions, it's not the words. And I make the point is, if I was to ask you in any leadership role, what's your greatest asset? I promise the answer 90% of the time is my team members, my people. Well, if we all believe that, and I know we intuitively do, I always ask one question. Does your time reflect that? Are you spending more time with your people than you are in meetings, on emails, or whatever you think is more important for that day? Because you can't have it both ways. If it's your greatest asset, why isn't your time invested into your greatest asset? I try to put my money where my mouth is. We have a hundred employees in ALHI. Every single one of them has a 30-minute call with me once a quarter.

Michael Dominguez:

I will talk to every individual employee four times a year. And those calls are not about where they are in their numbers, not at all about their job unless they want it to be about their job. It's their call, and it's whatever they want to talk about. But it gives me an opportunity to ask them about their life, how they're feeling, where they're at, how can I help. I think it's our responsibility of leaders to show people what it's supposed to look like. Unfortunately good and bad. I've taken away from other leaders that I've worked for, what I don't want to do, and what it shouldn't look like, but I've also seen what it should look like, and I try to impress that on everybody.

Scott Bloom:

With wellness being so important, because that's what you're really focusing on, making sure that the wellness of your employees are doing well. But I also know you actually did some work with bringing wellness to the actual meeting space, and I think that's such a great idea. You want to tell us a little bit more about that?

Michael Dominguez:

Yeah, absolutely. People know I am a nerd. I will geek out on science and data. And the science around how spaces and physical places impact the human body just fascinate me. And in my past life, I was able to work with Delos. Delos Living, they're the founders of the International WELL Buildings Initiative. They do ratings on wellness in buildings. I always tell people think about sustainability, but now let's think about the human aspect. It's such a simple process when you think about it that if you go to a Home Depot or a Lowe's today, you will see the boxes with a different color of lights, and there's one that says daylight. And that daylight always looks like a blue hue, while all other lighting has always been yellow. Before LED lighting, this wouldn't have been possible. Today, it doesn't cost me an extra penny to get the right color.

Michael Dominguez:

And I explain to people, one of the reasons you're tired after an eight-hour board meeting, it's because you're sitting under crappy yellow light the entire day. And Scott, here's the simplest thing. The science, and this is what I love. Delos, everything is based on science. They're partnered with the Mayo Clinic, the Cleveland Clinic. They have a living laboratory at the Mayo Clinic where they have human guinea pigs. And I've told them I want to take a week off and be a human guinea pig just for a week because I want to be in this environment. And they're testing you on how your bodies are reacting to these different environments and what they look like. But the research over the last 12, 14 years has taught us that we have an optic nerve in our eye that has nothing to do with eyesight, and has everything to do with regulating melatonin and serotonin in your body.

Michael Dominguez:

It's very simple. When it's attracted to yellow light or exposed to a yellow light, it is kicking in melatonin, which we all know makes us sleepy. I.e. Sitting in a boardroom for eight hours under yellow light, you are producing melatonin through the entire day. A blue light suppresses melatonin and brings in serotonin, which makes us alert and a little more awake. And if you think about this, I've explained this to everybody, it's the easiest example. Think about a beautiful day. What does every beautiful day look like? It's a blue sky. What does every single sunset look like? Orange and yellow. That is mother nature's way of getting us ready for bedtime because we're kicking in melatonin before we had four walls. And have you ever noticed if you're outdoors, and it's under blue sky and you're walking around or doing something, you're never sleepy. It's-

Scott Bloom:

You're feeling great. You're energetic, you're out there.

Michael Dominguez:

Yeah, and it's that blue light that's keeping it, but it's also why they tell you not to look at your device before you go to bed. That is a blue screen that is suppressing melatonin instead of bringing serotonin into your body. And that is why every phone has a night view that turns the screen yellow as a background, so that yellow light is starting to bring in melatonin, and it becomes more natural. And it's so different because the light and the light suppression is really what you're looking for. That is the simplest example. And the reason I'm so passionate about it is, think about the amount of payroll we are moving when we bring people together. Isn't it incumbent upon us to create the environments that are best for mental acuity, alertness, collaboration that we possibly could, so you get the most out of that money?

Scott Bloom:

What about in a ballroom situation? A lot of times they bring the lights down and when I'm on stage and I'm at a meeting, I'm like, let's not bring it down to the point where they can actually fall asleep. Let's keep it up. But can you give ambient lighting to let's say, a group of 500? A group of 1000? I know you're talking about a boardroom or something like that. On planes, we see now that sort of lighting thing, which I think feels great. I know they know what they're doing. Right?

Michael Dominguez:

Right. And what color is the light on the planes now? Blue.

Scott Bloom:

Blue.

Michael Dominguez:

It's that blue light that is-

Scott Bloom:

Feels like you're in a nightclub. Originally, when I was flying, what was it, Jet Blue or Virgin? I think Virgin was the first that was doing that colored lighting thing.

Michael Dominguez:

I agree. Scott, when you're in a major ballroom, here would be my one point. We traditionally are in a general session. Those general sessions aren't all day. You're going to break out, you're going to do other things. It's not that you have to be like that all day, but you got to think about the time that you're in that light. And as long as you come out of that ballroom, and you're exposed to either natural light, or that lighting that we've talked about, that's more of a daylight cue, you're going to be fine. Because you're going to again, immediately suppress any melatonin and you're going to bring up serotonin, so it'll help balance your body. That's not the negative, but if you're going to be in a ballroom for four hours and the light's going to be completely dim, you're going to have some people falling asleep. But, like I said, I geek out about this. I find it fascinating that all of that has an impact.

Michael Dominguez:

Greenery has a huge impact and we all know that. But when you start talking about the plants and the hydro plants that are put in today, I learned that it's the roots that clean the air more than the leaves, and yet we all cover the roots because we put them in pots. These walls that you see, these green walls, the roots are exposed and there's new science behind it. Because it's a green wall, it has a small fan, and it's literally pulling moisture out of the air to keep it moist without any watering going on. It's in lava rocks, but the roots are exposed, which means it's cleaning the air, and it's cleaning the air of all biohazards that are out there when it's all said and done. It's fascinating to me, that there's all science around this.

Scott Bloom:

Oh no, I love the bring science in to making a better event. Making people healthier, making people more alive, getting people more plugged in because they're feeling better. These are some things people don't always think about. I know a lot of times in these bigger conferences, we saw the shift of everyone being smashed in together. I've never had to fully sit in that situation, but I've seen how cramped some of these people are. We spread people out now, we have been over the last couple years. Do you think that's a benefit? Do you think they give people a little bit more room? Let's not try to pack everyone in? Or is it just based on necessity?

Michael Dominguez:

Well, I think it's a little bit of both. It's good. I think there's some learnings in there. Anybody who knows me, knows I'm a diehard San Antonio Spurs fan. And it's not about the basketball team, it's about their culture. And they've been covered in a book called Culture Code by Daniel Coyle. It was a bestselling book and there's about 30 pages dedicated to Spurs with other organizations. The reason I say that is there's learnings in there that they have these team dinners and these team dinners are mandatory, and there's assigned seating. And you've got millionaires being told exactly where they're going to be sitting that night. And it's this culture of you do what you're told to do and there's a reason behind it. There's always a reason behind it. But Coach Popovich, in something that we could take as an industry, he doesn't allow any table to be more than six people because once you get past six people, the conversations become groups of twos and threes, versus the entire table.

Michael Dominguez:

Everything is so specific and thoughtful. When you talk about crowdedness, I hope we stay at tables of six and eight when we can because I think the conversations better. And again, I'm hoping we remember what's the purpose. What are we trying to do? If we're really looking at engagement and interaction, how do we create those environments? And I think some of that will come around. I'm a big believer, not just in science, but behavioral science needs to become a bigger part of the meetings industry. When I present in the industry, Scott, I always have video. And that video comes in every 15 to 20 minutes because it uses a different part of your brain, and you have to focus a little differently.

Michael Dominguez:

And then you're coming back to me presenting a little bit more, and then I'm going to go back to something that's video or audio to break it up, so that you're actually having to use other parts of your brain. We don't think enough like that. We don't think about how is it being consumed by people? We know some people are visual, some people are audio, so you have to have a good combination of both. That's the part of behavioral science that I think we can start to bring into play to really understand how people are wired and how they learn, how they communicate, and making sure that becomes part of our environment.

Scott Bloom:

What's great about listening to you is what you're really saying, which is very simple and we all know it, is you have to be purposeful in your design. Everything from behavioral science, understanding how people interact with each other, what makes people feel good, being aware of people's feelings and emotions, and trying to keep engagement and connection top of mind.

Michael Dominguez:

I'm laughing Scott, because in that little statement you said people six times. That's the point, focus on the people. I just thought it was beautifully said. Everything you were saying was people, people, people. And we tend to forget about, it doesn't matter what all this is if we're not paying attention to the people when it's all done. I thought that was just beautifully done.

Scott Bloom:

Well, I think we got our sound bite that's going to definitely open up this episode. Well, Michael, I've really enjoyed talking to you. I think people are definitely going to get a lot out of this. If we want more tips, more advice, more counsel, how can we hear more about you?

Michael Dominguez:

You know what? One, on our ALHI website, we have a lot of this content there and we're continuously trying to push content. Our website has very much been content driven since I arrived two and a half years ago. That's our focus. How can we be a benefit to the industry? Outside of that, I'm always available. I'm in the industry, I'm speaking often, I'm being invited to be with a lot of different customer bases, and I'll never say no. I think it's important that again, that servant leadership goes to our industry as well. And if I can help and if we can help move the conversation forward, move our industry forward, I'm there. And besides that, my email address is mdominguez@alhi.com, and don't be shy. You can reach out to me and I'm happy to help. But I appreciate the conversation and hope to be invited back because there's always so much to talk about. And thank you for the time. It's been fun.

Scott Bloom:

It has been fun. I think you got a new fan here. I've heard the rep for a long time now, to finally get to meet you, I understand. I can clearly see it's all true. Thank you, Michael, for joining us here, it has been a pleasure.

Michael Dominguez:

Thank you, Scott. Have a good one, sir.

Scott Bloom:

You too.

Scott Bloom:

That's it for now. I've been your host, Scott Bloom, Corporate Event MC and Comedic Keynote Speaker. And of course, your connoisseur of connections. If you'd like more information, you could find me at scottbloomconnects.com or you could book me directly for your next event on eSpeakers marketplace at espeakers.com/marketplace. And if you like what you heard, subscribe on Apple, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. If you love what you heard, drop us a review, and don't forget to share with your friends. For show transcripts and show notes with resources to help you get even more out of the show, visit nomorebadevents.com. No More Bad Events is produced and presented by eSpeakers, and we're grateful to our sponsor ImpactEleven for helping us make our show possible. Thanks for listening. Now, go out and make your event a good one.