Dee Patel-Managing Director

00:00Welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio, the tastiest hour of talk in Music City. Now here's your host, Brandon Styll. Hello Music City and welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio. My name is Brandon Styll and I am your host and welcome back to another Wednesday Rewind. We are still on our break here in this wonderful month of December and not doing live shows and God bless, I really miss doing interviews. This is kind of just the right amount of a break that I think I needed to refresh my brain and I know Jen and I have been talking a lot about some of the things we have coming up.

01:01I'll give you guys a little a teaser. One of the things that we are going to do is we're going to start sharing stories of recovery and we're going to do one episode a month that's going to be called Nashville Restaurant Recovery Radio and we're going to start off in January where I'm going to do a show where I tell my story. I've got so much of a response from my episode that I did with Eric Cacciatore on Restaurant Unstoppable with people who have kind of contacted me and said, hey man, I want to learn more about this. Why did you quit drinking? What's your story? I'm going to tell it. I'm going to come on and tell my story for anybody out there and then every month my intention is to interview somebody in our industry who's in recovery and kind of just for them to tell their story. I've already talked to a few people and I've got some people willing to do it and hopefully I can break some of the stigma around alcoholism or drug abuse or mental health and hopefully people out there that don't know or they're on the fence or they're scared can hear stories of strength and stories of hope and hopefully if you're out there and you're you know just a normal person who doesn't have the allergy or is not an alcoholic, we'll learn a little bit more about the people who are and ways to work with them and things to do and how to be sensitive. It could be educational for a lot of people and that's really my ultimate goal.

02:34That's kind of what we want to do here. So that's going to start happening in January and I'm scared to death to be honest with you to do this. I don't know, it's just a thing I guess but I'm excited, scared, nervous and incredibly, incredibly hopeful. So today's episode on this Wednesday Rewind, we are going to go back to election day in 2020 and we're going to talk to Dee Patel. She's the managing director from the Hermitage Hotel and so much has happened since this interview. That election day in November was amazing and her stories about women's suffrage at the Hermitage Hotel is very fascinating and this was really the first time that I've got to talk to Dee. I mean I'd heard a lot about her. We have a mutual friend in Janet Kurtz and she kind of helped make that introduction and from the end of this, through this conversation, you hear us kind of like build rapport throughout the entire interview and afterwards we started talking about Ladam Descoffier and I said I just want to be part of it which is where my Table Talk series, all of these interviews that are happening through Ladam that I'm airing on Nashville Restaurant Radio, that this is the genesis of all of that. So hopefully you can listen to this, you can kind of get a feel for who she is and since this has happened, she has brought Jean George to Nashville and they have opened Druzy and Dar where the Capitol Grill was in the Hermitage Hotel and if you haven't been there yet, you've got to go check it out. I have not been yet myself. I think all these amazing restaurants are opening up in hotels, Druzy and Dar, the Continental, Yolan, some just amazing, amazing places, but this interview with Dee Patel was the start of an

04:36awesome friendship. She is just one of the most amazing people that I've got to know over the pandemic. A little breaking news today. Bastion had a fire. There was a fire at Bastion. Apparently it wasn't too bad. I don't know a lot of the details. Nobody was hurt, but they're going to get up and running as soon as they possibly can, but it looks like fire, you know, full police fire and the whole first responders were there. From all indications, they're going to be okay and get the thing rolling, but that was a big scare today. Thoughts and prayers go out to everybody over there at Strategic and Bastion, one of the absolute best restaurants in our city and gosh, lots of stuff going on. I go to Instagram at Nashville underscore restaurant radio and give us a follow and then I post, I try and repost all the stuff that I see going on. Little random things about me and mine is at Brandon underscore NRR. You can follow my co-host Jen. Her name is Jen Ichikawa underscore NRR. Go find us on TikTok. We have got a TikTok page that seems to be going crazy. Everybody loves the chefs reading one-star reviews. If you are a chef or restaurant, you've got ridiculous one-star reviews, contact me. Film yourself reading it and send it to me. Send it to me at Brandon at Nashville restaurant radio and I will make a TikTok out of it. It just needs to be between one and two minutes long. If it's 30 seconds, that's great. It's just got to be short.

06:16Make sure that, you know, read it, be funny, be goofy. We really want to let the people out there know who are listeners, who are guests inside the restaurants, that they do have a power when they go to these sites and they leave reviews. And I'm hopefully going to get our local Yelp guy on an interview here coming up shortly in the new year to kind of talk about what you can do as a restaurant to prevent some of that and kind of what their capability is in all of this. I think here a lot of people say that they hate Yelp, but I don't think it's Yelp. I think it's a lot of times it's the people on Yelp. Maybe Yelp encourages them. I don't know. I want to get to the bottom of it. Another thing, if you guys have ideas for the show, any topics you want us to cover, again, shoot me an email. Brandon at NashvilleRestaurantRadio.com. We are 10 days away from Christmas. I hope you guys are ready. I miss talking to people and doing shows, so we are ramping up. So excited. Hope you guys are as busy as we've been. Hope you enjoy this episode with Dee Patel, and we'll see you next week on Wednesday. Enjoy. With much excitement, I want to welcome in Dee Patel, who is the managing director for the Hermitage Hotel. Welcome, Dee.

07:37Thanks, Brandon. It's great to be here today. And I'm nervous, and I have so much emotion going on right now because the day is finally here, election day. It is the day that we have been... I don't know if you've... Are you one that's been excited or dreading, or what is your emotion around this day? Yeah, so gosh, I think my emotions have been all over the place, from excitement, to anxiety, to present day where we are today. And if you haven't voted, you need to go vote. It truly is our civic duty and an appellate to our democracy to the saying, actions speak louder than words. And it's just so important to take action and go vote. And I did that several days ago during election, and it was an easy in and out, five minutes, kindest people. And I felt empowered. I felt a sense of emotion that was positive that I was able to accomplish something that would be really meaningful. And I'll tell you more about why I feel that way when we talk about the history of the 100th anniversary of women's right to vote. And I want to jump right into that. I want to lead there because if somebody's listening to this podcast and they just have a little bit of time this morning to listen, I want them to understand all about women's suffrage and what it means in the fight for women to be able to vote, which we... you celebrated... we all celebrated 100 years, the centennial celebration of that, this year at the Hermitage Hotel. But I as well voted last week and I did the early voting and I've been seeing people talk about it all over the place that it's just been this emotional experience. And I didn't know... I went to Fairview to vote. I live out in Williamson County and I went out there and it was

09:39like nobody in there and I walked in super easy, got there behind the ballot thing and I did this wave of kind of an emotion. Like I voted in every election since I've been able to. Something about it was different this time. It just felt like... I don't know, it almost took over me. It was like just this moment that I had there. I was like, wow, I don't know. It almost felt like a little bit of weight had been lifted off. It did for me. Absolutely, 100 percent. So let's jump into that because I think if you're listening to this out there right now, I want you to understand... I want the people out there listening to understand kind of the history behind the suffrage. And so tell me about what you guys were able to do at the Hermitage Hotel. You just jump right in because you are so knowledgeable about this. You lead this. I will jump in. So just to set the stage, the Hermitage Hotel opened its first doors in 1910. We're located directly next to the state capital.

10:44In our very earlier days, a phrase was coined, meet me at the Hermitage Hotel. And that's very true today and that's certainly what happened 100 years ago. 1920, the summer of 1920 and stakes are high. 36 states are needed to ratify the 19th Amendment, which would allow women to have equal voting rights. The fight or the start of this movement happened 72 years prior to 1920. So imagine that. Nashville became... Tennessee became that pivotal state. 35 states were in, the rest were out. All eyes were on Nashville, Tennessee, the Hermitage Hotel. So both parties, the anti and the pro-suffragist leaders, both descended upon Nashville. The Hermitage Hotel became the headquarters for six long weeks. Both sides were staying at the hotel, all legislators, representatives, lobbyists of all sorts. If I could just be a fly on the wall or if the walls could fly, there was intensity, there was anxiety, there was this feeling of this is it. It's come down to this moment. If it's going to happen, it's going to happen now or we won't be celebrating 100 years in 2020 of August. And the hotel was full, there was collusion, there was spying, there was bribing. The anti-suffrage leaders, these were the leaders who were against women having the right to vote, had a sneaky idea of getting the legislators drunk off of Jack Daniel's whiskey and we had an infamous floor, the eighth floor of the Hermitage Hotel was known as a Jack

12:49Daniel's floor. On this floor was a suite in which whiskey was pouring like water and the anti-suffrage leaders were really getting the legislators drunk in hopes to sway the vote. So the entire movement was also called the War of the Roses, which if you wore a yellow rose on your lapel, you were for women's right to vote. If you wore a red rose, you were against it. And so that's how the leaders were able to differentiate between who was voting on what side. But it really boiled down to that final day, August 18th, you're in the chambers of the state capital and votes are being casted and this young state representative by the name of Harry T. Burns, who's 24 years old, mind you, through this period, because his county was against the vote, wore a red rose on his lapel. And so you're in the chambers, he received a letter from his mother earlier that day urging him to vote suffrage and help Kerry Chapman Catt, who was the leader of the movement, to vote in favor. And you're sitting there in the chambers, it's a tie. And all of a sudden he pulls out this letter and acknowledges it and takes off his red rose and flips a vote.

14:16And he became the tiebreaker. So when you really think and put things into perspective, here's a young 24-year-old state representative who received a letter from his mother to do the right thing. He flips out vote and that was a one pivotal vote that has changed our nation's history. Every vote matters. Absolutely. Every vote matters. And here we are today on Election Day. And that's why for me, it was really meaningful to vote and to feel a sense of pride, a sense of duty, right? Because it's our civic duty as citizens of our country to be part of our democracy. And so anyway, voting for me this time around was certainly a lot more meaningful than in years past. Now did you know about that whole story, you just told a wonderful story, did you know about all of that prior to your working at the Hermitage Hotel or is this a lot of stuff that you've learned because you're immersed in such a historical place?

15:28Yeah, unfortunately I didn't. And that was something that was important to me from a leadership standpoint, from a personal standpoint as a mother of two little children who I'm raising, we're raising to have a more rounded experience. Yeah, I really, really only came to know more about this history as I started working at the Hermitage Hotel and as we came near to the 100th anniversary, did I really truly understand these women who were trailblazers, these men who were supportive, right? So it wasn't just the women, it was the men and the women who were in support of the vote. And the degree that they had to go, yeah, it was only recently. And certainly as we were embarking upon the 100th year and kicking off this year, we had grand plans. And unfortunately with COVID, a lot of those plans diminished in really how we were going to celebrate, how we were going to educate our community, how we were going to embrace the history and the role that this, not just the hotel played, but the city and the state played. What a pivotal role in our history. So it was really important to me from a leadership standpoint, from the standpoint of my team, that we were able to respect the history, respect the men and women, particularly the women as we embarked upon August and how we were going to celebrate the moments and the days leading up to the 18th of August. And then eventually the 26th of August represented the day in which it was signed in Congress. Wow. I just, you know, hearing that story and all of this, it just takes you back. I don't know if you can hear that and not try and insert yourself back into that time and just envision walking down the halls and people wearing a yellow flower versus a red

17:33flower or the roses of yellow rose or white or red rose. And just the arguments, you gotta think of like the arguments for and against and the leadership. And I say leadership, I mean like just the sheer grit to stand up and fight for what you believe in and not just a party lines, but we deserve a vote and to be marginalized where your vote doesn't count and to even think back on those times where that was even a thing that somebody would stand up and argue like women shouldn't be able to vote. Like, and that was the thing. It just, it seems so completely foreign to me. Like, just like, I don't, I don't, like really? I think that it was only a hundred years ago and trying to put that into perspective to our young children and me trying to explain the story is the monument at Centennial Park was unveiled almost three years ago now, or maybe two years ago, taking my kids there and trying to help them understand what it represented, the story in a way that really resonated to kids. They couldn't fathom, well, what do you mean I couldn't vote? I don't understand that concept. And this is what my daughter at the time was five saying to me.

18:55And you do, you think about the grit, the resiliency, the relentlessness of the journey to get the vote. And it was interesting. The arguments were that if you, if women had the right to vote, prohibition would continue. Well, I'm delighted we're not in prohibition today. As is apparent behind you. As apparently behind me, I've got a collection of our single barrel Jack Daniel, the first bottle from each of our barrels sitting behind me. But it was that women's place was at home to bear children, to take care of the family, to take care of the husband, to take care of the household. And women who fought for their right to vote were portrayed as masculine or almost demonish figures. And it was, you know, you look at the cartoons today that were portrayed. So if you go to the National Public Library here downtown, when it opens, I encourage everyone to please tour the votes for women's room, which is just an incredible space and an incredible gift to our city and our community and really walking through the history of that moment. But that women wanted to have a right in terms of legislation, pasteurization of milk, you know, meals and schools. There were lots of appropriate reasons and rightful reasons why a mother would have, you know, or women would want to have that seat at the table. So these cookbooks were created by the suffrage leaders where recipes were being shared across the nation, but they also served as subliminal campaign recipe books that had reasons why it was important for women to have a seat at the table and to be able to have a voice. So we've incorporated these cookbooks

21:00into our suffrage afternoon tea, which we've extended through to the end of the year. We've done suffrage inspired dinners where those recipes were incorporated into our menu. And so we're really finding authentic, meaningful ways to educate and celebrate 100 years of history and to do it in a very thoughtful and inspiring way. And I know you reference the bottles behind me, but there's a yellow rose barrel that we selected this year to commemorate the 100th anniversary. And in addition to selecting this barrel that was selected by key women leaders, we've crafted a cocktail menu that tips a hat to each of the suffrage leaders. And so each leader is described in three adjectives that describes their personality. And so based on their personality, we've crafted a cocktail based on those attributes. And so, you know, so you have this cocktail menu. So Carrie Chapman Catt is described as robust, bold and staunch. And so then she's it's called the Carrie and then, you know, behind it is a description of each of the leaders. So it's a great conversation piece. It's a great way to educate one another in a different setting that's fun and not too heavy.

22:25And we have an exhibit in the lobby of our hotel that also takes you through the journey of the history. And you'll see all the original telegrams that was sent to the Hermitage Hotel during that time. Yes. So there's lots of. What are unique place in time and history for you? What a unique place in time to be the managing director for the Hermitage Hotel during this time. And so you're doing drink menus like that. Are those your ideas or is that your FMB director's idea? Like, do you have meetings where you say, how can we incorporate this together? Yeah, I mean, you know, I think from it, from my perspective, one, it is a great honor to be the first managing female director of this hotel. And that's an immense amount of honor and even responsibility. But to me, from a leadership standpoint, it's a collaboration. It's a great opportunity to meet and be inspired by your team, to engage with their vision and their ideas.

23:30And you know, this being in the hospitality industry, we're a diverse international group of people, all backgrounds, walks of life, different strengths, different backgrounds. But we all share a common goal, which is the love of hospitality, the passion of hospitality and serving. And we all bring something creative to the table. So it was really a creative and a collaborative way to be able to hit a lot of the different pillars of our hotel and how we can celebrate this history and be able to really have all members of our community enjoy it. So afternoon tea has been the Girl Scouts were here several weeks ago, because there's a suffrage badge that they can earn through various activities. We did an afternoon tea for the Girl Scouts troop. And the young girls got to listen to a book that was written by a local author. Mary Morgan Ketchell just published a book called Camilla Can Vote. And so, you know, the girls got to really listen to the story. They had the experience of afternoon tea. We had conversations around the room about voting and what was important, why it was important.

24:48And you were able to enjoy this beautiful tea experience with culinary delights from the 1920s cookbooks. That is just so cool. That just seems like it's great for the community to give back. It's not just a hotel. I mean, that's giving back and really cherishing your history and educating. And I love that. But I want to get back. I want to move away from this if that's okay. I know we could talk about it for another hour. You're very passionate about it. And I love that. But I want to kind of go back in time. I want people to hear this because if you're out on your way to vote right now, we love you. You need to do it. A lot of people fought for you to have that right. And if you weren't thinking about voting today, or you just didn't have the time, like make an effort and please get out there and go vote. Make your voice heard. It is your right as an American. So you moved to America. You weren't, were you born here? You weren't born here, right? No, I was born in Coventry, England. So you were born in England. And you moved here when you were 14. And you moved to most places that people move here from England moved to. Mississippi. Of course. And that's a natural Mecca. England to Vicksburg. Is it Vicksburg, Mississippi? Vicksburg, Mississippi. We're here on a family trip tour. It was our summer vacation, which led to me staying for a year in Vicksburg, Mississippi. And later we as a family decided to make the permanent move. And so I went back to England for another year and we moved back the following year. My dad was born in Nairobi, Kenya. And my mother is from India. And both once they got married, moved to England. And so just trying to go through all the documents of immigration,

26:52it took a year. And so I moved back to Mississippi. Four high schools later, I find myself in Charleston, South Carolina, attending Johnson and Wales University for hospitality and fell in love with it and have been in the field for over two decades now. I've been in Nashville for 16 years, moved to Nashville to be part of the reopening team. My only caveat after my general manager asked, what's it going to take for you to move to Nashville? I said, allow me to oversee your housekeeping department. And I think he looked at me like I had five heads, but agree. And hence was my start in Nashville and have moved in several roles to my current role today as managing director. So you said that the housekeeping department is the heart of the house. I've heard you say that. Because I'm a restaurant guy, right? So I can tell you how to operate a restaurant pretty well. But as far as a hotel, there are so many facets to a hotel that I am not 100% familiar with. I get the hospitality piece, but to never close and the housekeeping side of it is very interesting to me. Why housekeeping? Well, it's the heart of the house for a simple reason. When you take away all the bells and whistles of a hotel, particularly of a caliber of the Hermitage Hotel, when you really think of the essence of why hotels were created, why you had innkeepers, it was really travelers who were traveling from one destination to another and just needed a place of rest. And so your place was rest, was ensuring that you have a comfortable space, that your room is comfortable, it's clean, your bed allows for you to have a good night's rest. And over the years, we've added to the

28:56concept of hotels and have added all the different amenities and experiences. But essentially, your hotel is considered a lot of times your second home for those who are traveling. And housekeeping is such an important element in that it has lots of socioeconomic diversity, the essence of consistency of your guest room. It is 100% overhead. It is one of the difficult departments in hotels to manage and one that a lot of leaders don't sometimes understand the importance and the value of what this department and this role really plays in someone's experience as they're staying at a hotel. So to me, it was a very enriching and endearing experience. It allows for you to connect with your team in a different way from a leadership standpoint. It allows you to have a deeper grounded experience and really helps you understand how the other components of a hotel work when you truly have a sense of respect and understanding of ensuring that your guest rooms are clean, that they're maintained, that there's consistency, and that the men and the women who serve in that space, one, understand it, but are also respected at a different level. So when your GM of the hotel looked at you like you had five heads, why was he looking at you that way? Was he looking at you that way because you were asking for a position that was above you or was he asking because you were asking for a position that he was like, why do you want to be the housekeeping? Well, my background, I started off in guest services in the front of the house and I spent quite a bit of my time when I was part of the reopening team establishing processes and protocols. And I think that most people don't ask to oversee housekeeping. It's not typically a common request. It's usually generally a check

30:59box on a list of, oh, I have to have a few months or a little bit of experience in housekeeping. But when you really understand the value and the knowledge that you gain and the respect that you have, it really helps you run the hotel through a lens of understanding the different departments and the importance of most of them. So I hope that answered the question. A hundred percent. So it was intentional by you. It was a strategic. You didn't go and ask to be the F&B director or whatever. You said, I want to go here. You knew what you were doing because you wanted to gain that experience. Absolutely. As a leader, how do you lead or manage a team without having zero understanding of what you're managing? I think a lot of that has been instilled just in my upbringing with my family, seeing my dad in the workforce, understanding the various roles. But to me, it was important that as I navigate my journey in this field, that I do it in a way where I'm not falling flat on my face. And so for me, it was to gain that experience and that knowledge so that I could be a better leader and a better manager to my team while also respecting the role of the job and being able to understand why certain things can work and why they wouldn't. So yes, I absolutely asked for that role and understood the importance of that position and why it was important for me to gain that knowledge and experience before I moved to the next step. I love that. I'm with you a hundred percent. I've done something similar in my past too, just in a, I don't feel like I'm, I didn't want a role. I knew I was going to get a role, but I wanted to do the actual job first and work with the people and earn their respect as a co-worker before jumping into that leadership role. And it was a, it was an amazing opportunity

33:05for me to really feel what they went through on a daily basis. And it changed the way that I led them eventually. A couple of random questions that have nothing to do with your leadership or anything. These are just general hotel questions that I'm thought about while we were talking. One is to ensure proper service is tips. It's an acronym tips to ensure proper service. When you go stay at the Hermitage Hotel, I'm sure that there's a differentiator for people, like the housekeeping service is better than if you're staying and anywhere else. Do I leave them a tip? How many people leave a tip? How do you leave a tip? How do they know it's a tip? Is it a thing? It's a thing. It is a thing. Okay. Cause I typically don't and I need to know if I should and how much and where and all that stuff. I typically will always leave a tip for housekeeping before I do any other department. That is a department that has cared for your space, that has prepared your space in a thoughtful, meticulous manner. And when you understand what lengths are taken to prepare a room or what lengths are taken to service a room that has been occupied, you really gain a different understanding and appreciation of the thoughtfulness and the care that's taken to organize your room or organize your belongings or that someone is one in the most intimate environment of your space, which is in your guest room.

34:45Um, so I, I always do, um, anywhere between five to $10 per night that, that I'm there is, I think it's sort of a customary, um, way of thanking the housekeeping department. And do you just leave that on the counter or do you leave a note that says, thank you for taking care of me. This is for you because I don't know, they supposed to, there was money left. They got to go turn that in or do they know that that's a tip? What do you do? Yeah. So when I'm traveling by myself, I will always write a note and I will usually give it to, um, the front desk manager on duty, um, and, and explain that, that I'd like this for the housekeeping department. If I am with my family, which we were just recently in Hilton Head, uh, a few weeks ago, we, um, we had this rule of thumb where my daughter and son liked to write notes to, um, generally my daughter will write a thank you note to the general manager of the inn explaining elements that she appreciated during her stay. Um, and then she will also write the thank you note to the housekeeping department and why she was thankful. And then my son will usually scribble something on there, but it's to help them understand and to be appreciative and to acknowledge, um, humanity, people.

36:13Man, that's, I, I, again, I just love that. So thoughtful. And I have, I have five and seven year old boys and we, you know, we go to Florida every year and we always leave there. They have like the thing where you can leave a note for the people who own the condo or whatever. And there's like a big jar that we, and we always write like a note for them. And I don't have anybody ever in the world ever reads it like just to say thank you. And we appreciate letting us come into your, your home or whatever, but to write letters for your children. That's so, um, I'm going to steal that and start doing that immediately because Lord knows my boys need a little bit of that in their life. Okay. So you for the, um, director or the, the housekeeping manager of housekeeping and thank you. Is there anything, what's the craziest thing that's been left in a room? I imagine stuff gets left in rooms all the time. You've got to have like some story or like this guy left a leopard or, you know, I don't know what, what's the, if you can say, if you can't say, just say pass. I don't know. I'll just tell you, I won't say what was left. I mean, there's all kinds of things get left behind. Um, but you know, I was, I'll give you an experience. This was, I was in hell. I was a housekeeping manager at this time and I was in my young twenties, so very young and I radioed the director of engineering and I said, this is a really bad smell. Um, and I think there's a death skunk and I don't know where it's coming from, but it's on this hallway. The elevator smells. I know where this is going. I feel like I know where this is going and he just said, what, what are you talking about? Let me get up there and I think something has died. And so we go up and we get to the floor and, um, yeah. And he says, D that's not a dead skunk. That's marijuana.

38:11That's weed. And I said, what? He says, don't you know the smell of that? And I said, no, I don't. It smells like a skunk to me. And so we laughed and of course, you know, we, we had some, um, we had some, um, 311 was there when really a bad, it was a band and they departed and there was residual of that. And, and I, I learned, I learned a new sensory, um, scent. You know what that is, which is, I assume frowned upon in the hotel. Yes. Smoking frowned upon in the hotel. I still remember back to the days where you'd go and you'd check into a restaurant and you would say smoking or non and you'd go, you'd seat like six feet away from the smoking section and people would be smoking. You'd be like, I'm in the non-smoking section. So I'm good. Six feet away from the guy who's smoking. It just baffles me. Isn't that amazing to see how far we've come just in what a decade? Has it been a decade? Yeah. It's probably been 13, 14 years, 14 years of no smoking. It's crazy. So you excelled at being the manager of housekeeping was your next step. How did you move to get to be the, um, the managing director?

39:33My next step was moving into the room's executive role, which was overseeing housekeeping and overseeing guest services. Um, all of the front of the house, really your, your guest experience, the journey from the point in which the guest pulls up to the front of the hotel to the guest room all the way to departure. Um, you know, that was, that was my oversight for several years. And through those years, I, you know, often would ask my general manager of what else can I take on? What else can I do? Is there anything that you don't want to deal with that I can take care of? It was just important to me that my growth progressed and it didn't really have to fit into the job description of the role per se. It was just, I wanted to learn everything as much as possible about the operations of a hotel. And so, um, I had oversight of all of our capital improvements, a lot of our design improvements, adding certain, um, various projects that I oversaw, um, real estate acquisitions that later became sort of, again, part of my oversight. And it kept me engaged, intrigued, interested, humbled, and really driven to keep learning and, and moving, moving up, moving on. But that's the move. I mean, what you did there is, I've told so many people over time where somebody's come to me and they say, I need to make more money or, hey, I want this job. And I go, okay, why do you feel like you should have this job?

41:11I go, because I think I deserve it. I go, why do you deserve it? And if you can't answer that question, or if they say I need a raise and I go, what value are you bringing right now? And I know that can be cold and that can be like, you would say that to somebody. You, I'm a little nicer about that conversation, but I think the, the right way to do it is to take on the responsibility and take on the roles and start showing leadership that you have the ability to multitask or that I can focus on multiple projects. I can take on that level of responsibility without asking for some title or without asking for it. It's just coming in and saying, look, what can I take off of your plate? What responsibility can I have? And then when the, the managing director position comes available, when they go, who should we hire? We need to find somebody to take over the managing director spot. They go, well, D already does it. So, I mean, she's already doing all of the things. There's no question. I don't need to go look for somebody. I've got the person right here.

42:16And, and I think that that, that's just the way to go about it. If you're out there listening, I think if you take on more responsibility and start working towards the role you want, when that role becomes available, put yourself in a position to where you're the natural choice. Is that kind of? Absolutely. I mean, being proactive, taking the initiative, really demonstrating that you can do the job is how you're communicating to whomever your leadership, that you have the ability to continue to excel. It's also a great way for you to understand the next steps and the next role upwards, where you have, it's a great way for you to really experience the role without the title. And so you can navigate best next steps or how to oversee it in a way where you don't fall flat on your face. Cause when you have that title next to your name, there's, you better know how to do your job. And we all, we all make mistakes in navigating. That's one thing, but you don't get to give excuses when you have a title next to your name. And it's important that you understand what role you're taking on before you just ask for a simple increase and a title change, because you think you deserve it.

43:38Like, I don't know if you can say that loud enough. Like before you go and ask for a talent change because you think you deserve it, like earn it, earn it first, put yourself in a position to have strength. When you walk into that position saying, I'll never forget, I had a guy come to me and say, Hey, I've been the bar manager for six months now. And I was told that I would get a raise after six months. And I just, I'm looking for that raise now. And it was pretty much like that. I was told I'd get a raise and I go, okay, well I'll be happy to sit down and talk to you about it. What, what do you feel like you've been able to accomplish over the first six months of your employment here? And he's like, I come to work and do my job. I'm learning it. I go, okay, so you're, you've come to work and you're learning your job. What do you feel like you've added to the position? And he was like, what do you mean? Like, I just, I count inventory and I, you know, I order the liquor. I mean, I'm just looking for a raise, man. I'm like, yeah, I'm not going to give you more money because you've been able to stay status quo. But if you had told me, well, I reorganized the entire liquor room and I put an alphabetized system to where the bartenders can find the liquor faster. I can count inventory quicker. And it's helped me reduce the amount of inventory I have because I'm, I'm reducing inventory errors. And so I've dropped liquor costs down by three points. And I'm in, you know, it's like, yeah, man. Like then I, I, I definitely want to share that with you. And it's a, it's one of those moments. I think people out there can, can add value before doing that. I'm sorry to go off on a little tangent there, but I agree. But it's a thing. Walk me through what a day of yours looks like.

45:29That's hard. Every day is different. You know, it is any kind of routine. There was some routines, you know, you sort of, you, you do your, there's some things that I do. I check my email, for example, I do a walkthrough of the public spaces, check in with the team. We have standing meetings, daily, weekly, bimonthly. So you've got a structure and a foundation. I live by my calendar. If it's not on my calendar, most likely I will miss whatever it, I just, I, I won't, I won't get to it. So I live by my calendar. I think that sense of organization is really important to me. Structure is important to some degree, but each day is different. Occupancy is different. Your guest needs are different. Your circumstances are different. You know, pandemic, for example, like the last eight months, like the last eight months. So there is, I mean, there are certain routine things that, that you, you want to accomplish and standing conversations or team collaborate, collaborations that, that are a part of your weekly schedule. But really a lot of things I, I do are not just sort of macro overseeing the hotel, but there's a lot of community involvement that I have in different organizations. And that's a big part of my role as, as a leader. And as someone that looks through the lens of an entrepreneur is that I find it and believe that it's really important to become a stakeholder in your community and align yourself in different community initiatives that are meaningful to your business and the core values. So let me, let me just go over a quick list of some of those things that you do, or you recognize the woman of influence by the Nashville Business Journal, Outstanding Woman Hotelier of the Year. You're on the board for the Tennessee Hospitality and

47:34Tourism Association. Tell me if I'm wrong on any of these. On the board for the Historic Hotels of America, the Nashville Downtown Partnership. And just recently, this was like last week, right? You are now the new president of La Dame des Cafés here in Nashville. And congratulations, what an honor. Thank you. It's a huge honor. It is just, it's one of the organizations that I've been a part of that truly is incredibly meaningful. It supports mentors, empowers women in the field of hospitality, food and beverage, agriculture, the culinary space. And it really resonates to me, not just because of my role in the industry, but really me personally. And a lot of these boards that I'm a part of really have a true sense of meaning. And so I am incredibly honored to be part of this group of just, wow, women who are strong, resilient, inspiring. And my goal is to really, you know, really tell the community how great this organization is through our strategic, you know, planning and how we engage with our various members of the community.

49:09How can people out there, if you're listening to this and you want to get involved, can you, to be a member of the La Dame des Cafés, do you have to be asked in? Is it like something you get voted in? Can you just join? Is there a fee? Like what, how is that, how does that work? So it is through an invitational, it is a membership that's based on an invitational program. The essence of the group is to, that you are women in a form of leadership that can demonstrate and hit the pillars of what the organization is and its philanthropic mission, goals are. So yes, while there is that, there are so many other ways that you can get involved. We have some great partners that have been partners of our organization. We are about to do lunch with Dom's where Dom Manichohan will be launching, not launching, but we'll have her book be a part of this wonderful afternoon luncheon at Chattable. So look out for that. We will be, that is a public event. And so we do welcome, you know, members of our community to come join and get a ticket and come listen to Manichohan. So there are things that we will be doing throughout the year. Obviously we're trying to rethink a lot of that planning, because our year is just a little different. But a lot of what we do is raising awareness, raising fundraising and those fundraising dollars are converted into scholarships and grants that then go out to women who are in need, whether it's a need in their business, financially, whether it's a woman who wants to start their own business and needs financial support, or it's women who want to further their career, further their education in the

51:14hospitality field. And so our work this year is to really bring a lot more awareness to our efforts and to work on more collaborative ways to really showcase the things that we do. Mentorship programs are available. We're reworking some of that in a virtual space where a lot of our in-person programming is just not going to be conducive for the next year. So please go to our website. It's Ladam Nashville. We also have a Facebook page. And so we invite the listeners to come learn more about that. And I would like to make myself available in Nashville Restaurant Radio in any way that I can help your goal, your mission, anything that you need. If you need promotion, you want me to talk about something, you need me to elevate anything that you guys are doing in any way, please let me know. I want to be, whatever role I can help you in, I want to do it. Thank you. That's incredibly meaningful. The first half of this year, we were able to give over $19,000 into the community between tornado relief and other grants and scholarships. And so that's the work that we do as women in that space of giving back financially or giving back from a mentorship standpoint. So thank you. We appreciate that support. And I will be reaching out just to say, what can I do? Let me know what I can do. I want to help. We're approaching that time where we're at. I feel like I could talk to you for days. You are just amazing. I just enjoy your stories and I enjoy your perspective and everything. Like I said, I could talk to you for days. We'll have to do this again sometime. This is the last question, and this is something

53:15that I'm asking a lot of people who are leaders that come on the show, because I feel like we started this pandemic March 17th and then they started closing restaurants. But I started talking about it on air. What kind of led to this podcast was March 13th was my first podcast. And I started talking because I was talking about your people, like, what do we do? What do we do now? Do we need to continue to promote our restaurants? Do we need to say no, go home? Do we need to do what Tom Morales did yesterday or two days ago and announce that he's closing Acme for the particular time until it's safe? It's like I want to do the right thing. There's no Patrick Lencioni book on how to lead throughout a pandemic. And there's no blueprint for what to do. Do you have a mentor that you talk to in these type situations? And how have you had to pivot your leadership throughout this? Yeah, no, that's a great question. You know, again, I would say that we started the year feeling very confident, very excited. It was going to be, you know, again, bust a year to then experience the tornado and the impact of that emotionally in our community, our employees, our city, to then sort of go into this global pandemic, which we were all, you know, asking a million different questions. For me, it was really to take one step at a time to look to my present, look to the team, look to, OK, what are we doing?

54:54What can we do differently? Obviously, first steps were just ensuring safety and health practices. And so we rolled out a very quick, you know, internal sort of protocols on what that was going to look like. I think for me, I think each company and each business is in its own in terms of how it's structured, what is possible, what is not. For this hotel, closing the doors was not part of our narrative. And so we remained open throughout. While our revenues disappeared overnight, as did everyone else's in our industry, we did a few things very intentionally. We kept, you know, the majority of the team stayed on. We started deep cleaning, stripping, repainting all of our back of the house spaces. That was first step. And that was a way to really communicate to my team that your spaces are just as important as our guest spaces, right?

55:57And so the team were able to continue really keeping their hours. There were some members that weren't comfortable. And again, you have to be flexible. And that was the one thing that was important is the flexibility and the empathy of understanding that everyone's situation is different. And so we had members of our team that needed hours to be able to have a warm meal on their table for their family. And so we were able to find these unique and creative ways to keep all the work that needed to still be done internally. And so it was motivating. It was a morale booster. Our culinary team, Chef Derek Brooks, partnered with Second Harvest and we started, you know, providing meals to all of our first responders. Second Harvest partnership was really important. And that program through this process, we've been able to provide over 20,000 meals into the community in places where we just couldn't have a reach into. And so that was meaningful. We very earlier on partnered with Meharry Medical College and with the support of Dr. Hildreth and his team, where we put together a 30-page protocol packet. And that was through really working with all of our partners sort of on a national level, whether it was preferred hotels, our luxury partners, understanding the basic CDC guidelines.

57:24And then as a luxury hotel, right, there's a difference between just being basic and really ensuring that we weren't going to go from this luxury guest experience to transactional service and just start saying no to all these different things because we're dealing with COVID. And so we really looked to our partners to help us make sure that we were hitting all the check boxes and all of that to say it was important that we communicated trust outwardly, right, and inwardly to our guest, our future guest, our community, and then to our, you know, of course to our employees. And that was why the first step was to upgrade all of our back of the house areas. And you had a housekeeper painting the walls of one of the corridors and things that you would not otherwise think that we would all be doing, but we just rolled up our sleeves and, yeah, it was something very meaningful. And we took care of our employees and that was the first most important priority.

58:34I hope people that have high turnover are listening to this right now. I hope people that complain that they have high turnover and that it's this or whatever these external circumstances are listening to this right now to understand. So I'll bet your turnover is really low. You know, it's been, it's been different. I think in the recent years, I think we're all experienced a level of turnover that we just hadn't in years past, just given the, you know, excessive growth and the prosperity that our city has experienced. I think there's a different mind shift of our today's employee. And I hope that this time and any crisis gives you an opportunity. There's a beacon of inspiration. There's something there. I hope that this time has given us all clarity personally or professionally and helps us really navigate as we come out of this pandemic and really what that means, what that is. Well, I'm going to tell you thank you for taking the time today to talk to me. I've, I'm inspired. I want to come work for you. I'm so impressed by really everything that you're doing. And I hope that people out there hear this. I hope that you go vote today. And the last thing that I do every episode is I like to let my guest take us out. So whatever you want to say, there's no holds barred, no time limit, whatever you want to say to the city of Nashville, go. All right. I'll end it with a leader. A leader inspires purpose and purpose inspires all, right? It is voting day. It is the last day. It is the day. And for those who are listening, go rewind back to the very first part of this segment and listen to

01:00:42the strength, the endurance and the resilience of the women who fought for equality and voting rights. And that while that took place, it was a young 24 year old state representative who casted his vote at the very last minute. And he was the tie break vote. Just think about that. One vote, that was a tie breaker. And so it is our civic duty to take action and to go vote. So if you haven't, I hope this inspires you to go vote. Amen. Dee Patel, thank you so much for spending this time with me on election day. Well, Brandon, I appreciate you having such a great inspiring platform. And I am honored that you invited me to have a great conversation. The honor is all over here and we will be in touch so I can help in any way that I possibly can for the Damaskafie. Have a great day. You too.

01:01:48Man, I really enjoyed doing that interview. Thank you so much, Dee Patel, for joining me on election day to talk about all the things and thank you for staying in touch and allowing me to help work with Le Damaskafie. You women are all amazing over there. I've enjoyed hearing your table. I've learned so much. Go back and listen. You can go back right now and listen to all the table talk series. They talk about farming, social media, how to pivot throughout the pandemic, so many great topics. And as long as they're doing them and they will allow me to air them, I will be honored to continue to do that. If you're out there right now, we're going to end the show, but what chefs want, they're amazing, amazing people. If you're looking for a new company starting this year to buy your produce, your fish, your seafood, your hand-cut steaks, you want seven-day deliveries, you want split cases, they will do it all. Let's not forget about Sharpier's locally owned, woman-owned bakery here in Nashville delivering six days a week, celebrating 36 years delivering fresh bread to you. Obviously, we're big fans and Sitex and Supersource, two other companies. If you're looking to change up your linen company, you want a good linen company that you can trust, check out Sitex. You can look at all of these companies, Supersource, Sitex, Complete Health Partners. All of them are going to be at NashvilleRestaurantRadio.com.

01:03:26Click the sponsors tab. You got special deals when you click on the buttons to find these sponsors, so go check out the website. Look at all the cool stuff we have on there. Got t-shirts for sale, hats for sale, lots of fun stuff. We'll see you next Wednesday, guys. Hope you're being safe. Go get your vaccine. Get your booster. Love you, guys. Bye.