With all the news about the double-dip recession, I found myself doing anything but complaining as the road was calling once again only 2 days after my return from Bulgaria.  Not only is it good to be busy and growing as a company, but I also made the best of my time with the kids during the interval.  After helping with 4^th grade and middle school homework, my job seemed easy to go back on the road.  It’s always great to be heading back to Gulf  Shores, AL, as I know the short drive from the Pensacola airport by memory.  This was yet another visit as part of the annual training plan we are doing for Brett-Robinson, and it is great to see them embracing the new processes and rolling onward with the positive changes.  It was also fun to be traveling with Kathleen (Kat) Olarte, who has been with KTN for going on 3 years now as a reservations mystery shopping coach.  Since she is understudying to be a KTN Trainer, it also gave me a break as a trainer over the two days.  The best part was watching Kat connect with the agents who she has monitored and coached remotely and was meeting for the first time in person.  Here is a picture of us that day.  (From left: Kat Olarte, Marie Curren, Director of Marketing and Operations, Doug, and Angela Mason, Reservations Coach.)

                                                    

Here is a picture of us with the last group that day after we conducted the training on e-mail sales:

                                                

After having another weekend at home and a few days to catch up with my team in the office, it was time to hit the road again, and yet again the route was familiar.  The occasion was to be the guest speaker for the company retreat being planned by Emerald Isle Vacations, which was to include virtually everyone from reception desk to maintenance, housekeeping, reservations, owners services, accounting, and even some of the key vendor-partners.  Having known the Wax family for so many years, I knew it would be a very special engagement as I know what a wonderful company culture they have always had in place.  I have mostly known Julia Wax over the years from the VRMA conference, who took over the family business many years ago from her aunt who had founded it, and also her husband Mark who with Julia helped the company actualize its potential under their combined leadership.  More recently I have enjoyed working with their son Nathan and his wife Jamie, who is now the reservations manager  and the person charged with organizing our part of the conference.  I was so honored when Jamie opened the conference by remarking that she had attended one of my seminars when she was first learning the business and had herself found it inspiring. 

What a fun day they had planned, including a tasty lunch, healthy snacks, and a fun (and lucrative!) annual employee awards ceremony.  I could not have imagined a more picturesque and serene setting for the meeting either, as they had scheduled it at the nearby Trinity Conference Center in Emerald Isle, NC.  Here is a link:  Click here 

Aside from seeing the Wax family, this was also an especially rewarding experience as it was another opportunity to work with our newest KTN Network partner Gay Lynn Willamson-Grigas, who conducted a very engaging 2 hour segment of  the full day event. 

I’ve known Gay Lynn for many years now as a Internationally published author and speaker who happens to also live in Hollywood, FL.  Ever since I first read her newly published manual entitled “Trigger-Proof Your Way To Success!” I was excited to introduce her content to the lodging industry.  Seeing her in action with the entire Emerald Isle company staff. including housekeeping, accounting, maintenance, and all levels of management, I knew I had made the right choice as they really seemed to connect with her message.  Here is a picture of us with the Wax family.  (From left: Doug, Gay Lynn Williamson-Grigas, Jamie Wax, and Nathan Wax.) 

                                         

Here is our picture with Julia and Mark Wax: 

                            

Due to the flight times, Gay Lynn and I were flying out of Myrtle Beach on a non-stop the next morning, which turned out to be a stroke of good luck as the Northeast US airports were completely shut down (again) that night with another blizzard, so I am sure any connections we would have been trying to make would have been delayed.  But instead we did have to face a 3 hour drive after the 8 hours of training.  Fortunately Gay Lynn loves to drive so she took the wheel as I navigated our way.  The Cracker Barrel billboards must have brought out the "southern girl" in Gay Lynn, as she wanted to eat there. Unfortunately we must have missed the turn and the next thing I knew we were on a 75 mile stretch with virtually no food options.  Good thing we finally found an Applebees for dinner as it was almost 8pm and we'd not eaten since lunch.  The lodging worked out great, despite that I had overlooked the need to even book rooms for us in Myrtle Beach until 24 hours out.  One email to my good client friend John Daniels, General Manager of The Breakers Myrtle Beach, and the next thing I knew he had us booked into two ocean front suites for the night!  I will never forget watching a huge flock of sea gulls taking a break on the ocean in front of my balcony, floating like a sea of bowling pins bobbing up and down in the waves.  Then slowly one bird flew off into the distance,  followed by more and more until the hundreds of birds had taken flight again, their white feathers glowing in the moonlight. 

After Emerald Isle it was wonderful to be back home for a 3 day weekend to celebrate Valentines Day and also to have President's Day off with the family, followed by the rest of the week in the office with my KTN family. 

The last week in February brought my last trip of the month, which was another journey to revisit a familiar destination of Bend, Oregon.  I have been to Bend so many times, originally to train one of our biggest clients - Sunriver Resort - when I was President of HSA International.   I have later visited to speak at the Oregon Lodging Association, the Navis Technologies users conference, and also to train many of the vacation condo/home rental companies in the area.  But this was an especially exciting opportunity as the occasion was to conduct training for a new client which I had never worked with before, Oxford Suites hotel company.  I had known Kim Baney, V.P. of Marketing, over the years and had met her once or twice at other conferences.  So when Kim called to ask me to be a guest speaker at their upcoming GM's conference, I was well aware of her unique and well respected hotel company - Oxford Suites, which was founded by her family in 1989.  This was an especially exciting annual conference, as it was scheduled to coincide with the grand opening of their first boutique-type property, the Oxford Hotel in Bend, OR. 

Immediately upon arrival at the Redmond/Bend airport, where I was greeted by Jason, the bellman from the Oxford Hotel who was there to pick me up, I knew I was in for a very special hotel experience.  Jason turned out to be one of many hospitality superstars I encountered at the Oxford Hotel.  In fact every single experience I had with the guest contact staff from this hotel was nothing short of excellent.  For example, after dropping my bags in the room and looking at the agenda, I went to the meeting room where the lunch was scheduled only to find the group had finished already.  There I met Katie, the wonderful banquet waitress, who suggested (and then insisted!) that I take some of the tasty and healthy items on the buffet back to my room to snack on later.  (After we returned from a 3 hour tour of the Deschutes brewery I was very appreciative of this!)  I also met Todd, another bellman, who insisted on driving me to the supermarket to purchase some last minute items I needed for the training so I wouldn't have to wait for a taxi and be late for dinner.  Best of all was when Todd was driving me back to the airport on the last day, he presented me with a snack box lunch that Justin (the other bellman)  had packed for me, knowing the airport restaurants were closed for renovation.   Later, when I met Ben Edwards, their General Manager (who had been a hotel manager at my previous client in the area - Sunriver) I knew it was no accident but instead his tireless, inspired and in-touch leadership style which was the catalyst for it all. 

Here is a picture of me with Kim Baney, Vice President of Marketing, and Ben Edwards, General Manager of Hotel Oxford that day:

                                                     

I really enjoyed working with their group of GM's, who despite virtually all being well seasoned hoteliers were eager to learn and take away whatever they could from my presentation.  Here is a picture of me with the group that day: