Using ChatGPT for Storytelling With Cody Worden, Area Director of Sales and Marketing at Grand Hyatt Vail
Cody Worden is the Area Director of Sales and Marketing at Grand Hyatt Vail. With over two decades of experience, Cody has worked with hundreds of sales professionals, enriching his expertise and deepening his understanding of the sales industry. He’s been a sales and marketing leader at two key resorts in the Vail Valley. Cody is an outdoor enthusiast with hobbies that include snowboarding, hiking, and mountain biking.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
Cody Worden shares the primary goal for someone in his role
Why customers choose to stay at Grand Hyatt Vail instead of other nearby hotels
Which sales and marketing techniques has Cody found most effective?
Cody discusses his approach to marketing using social media and AI
Why telling a hotel’s story can be particularly valuable in the travel industry
How Grand Hyatt Vail seeks to personalize its communication with customers
What new sales and marketing strategy would Cody like to try?
What you’ll learn in this episode:
As more and more businesses depend on AI for help with communication, many are still discovering ways ChatGPT can be most beneficial. How about using it to tell your brand’s story?
According to Grand Hyatt Vail’s Cody Worden, who oversees sales for a hotel that’s undergone multiple iterations, his brand found value in using ChatGPT for storytelling. He says his longer-tenured team members came together and discussed the hotel’s history, its unique features, and the beauty that surrounds it. They put the information into ChatGPT and asked it to tell a story that would resonate with potential customers. The result has been a marketing foundation, which Cody says is a message his brand can build upon to amplify the experience the hotel offers.
On this episode of From Persona to Personal, Cody Worden, Area Director of Sales and Marketing at Grand Hyatt Vail, joins Roger Hurni for a conversation about personalizing communication with potential travelers. Cody discusses the value of telling his hotel’s story with the help of ChatGPT. He shares the sales and marketing techniques that have been most effective for him and which strategy he would like to try in the future. Cody also talks about the importance of being emotionally invested in his team.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
This episode’s sponsor:
Today’s episode is brought to you by Off Madison Ave. At Off Madison Ave, we create meaningful moments of brand trust and influence how people interact and engage with brands.
There is a science behind tapping into your audiences’ desires and motivation. After all, if you’re not changing your audiences’ behaviors, you can’t truly unlock all of your brand’s potential.
The proven models and methods of Behavior Design is the strategic foundation for your brands’ success.
Episode Transcript
Intro 0:02
This is From Persona to Personal podcast. Today's episode is brought to you by Off Madison Ave. Off Madison Ave creates meaningful moments of brand trust and influences how people interact and engage with brands. The science behind their approach taps into your audience's motivations and desires. After all, if you're not changing your audience's behaviors, you can't truly unlock all of your brand's potential. Now, let's get started with the show.
Roger Hurni 0:31
Hello, everyone, I am Roger Hurni, the host of From Persona to Personal where I get to use my expertise in consumer behavior to engage with top business leaders who are helping propel their brands forward. Before I get to today's guest, this episode is brought to you by Off Madison Ave. At Off Madison Ave, we use behavioral science to create meaningful moments of brand trust, which influences how people interact and engage with companies. Our behavioral approach taps into your audience's motivation and prompts them to shift behavior. If you're not shifting your audience's behaviors, you truly can unlock all of your brand's potential. These proven behavioral models and methods are the strategic foundation for you over brand success to learn more, visit off medicine ed.com. Now without further ado, I am really really happy to have with me today Cody Worden. Cody is a sales and marketing leader of two of the most prominent resorts in Vail Valley a place that I personally love particularly since one of the ski resorts there has a run called Rodgers run double black diamond highly recommend it. But anyway, one of Cody's premier properties and the one we'll be speaking about most today is the Grand Hyatt Vail. Presently Cody is also working on his third mountain destination resort that is within 100 feet of a chairlift which evidently now is something he specializes in resorts close to chairlifts. So Cody, welcome to the show.
Cody Worden 1:57
Thank you very much, Roger, I appreciate it.
Roger Hurni 2:00
All right. Corrections clarification, I screwed anything up there.
Cody Worden 2:04
No, that was accurate. All right.
Roger Hurni 2:07
I can't believe it. It's like I've been doing this before. It, it appears to me, Cody that you have a quote Steve Jobs. Here's one of the funner jobs in the industry. Can you give everybody a little background on what you do, and how you've impacted the Grand Hyatt Vail?
Cody Worden 2:30
Yeah, ultimately responsible for the sales and marketing operations of the resort. You know, basically, my goal really is here to, to maximize our revenue potential all around the hotel, create awareness, and, you know, bring more people to, to Grand Hyatt Vail. Luckily, we have a big team to help support my efforts with that, including some, some corporate marketing, oversight, and support and a number of agencies that that we work with. But ultimately, just create more awareness and get more people to the hotel. And as we say in the industry ads in beds. Yep. So
Roger Hurni 3:10
Vail, having been there quite frequently and skied and stuff there. It seems to be a location that can market itself, you say Vail, it's like, well let's go. So I'm curious to what are the needs of the Grand Hyatt Vail? In terms of you have to convince audiences to come to Vail? Are you, are you just trying to convince the audience coming to Vail to come to the Grand Hyatt over somebody else?
Cody Worden 3:34
Yeah, I think that's probably our biggest challenge. You know, this particular hotel has been in existence for 40 years, we have only been a Hyatt for four years and a very tumultuous four years at that. And, you know, obviously, that the mountain destinations specifically in 21, in 22, we're very lucky post-COVID with some unprecedented demand, you know, not only group but, but transient demand as well. You know, we had a lot of people that were willing to come to the mountains wanted to get outdoors wanted to space out, wanted to get out of their homes. And you know, everybody kind of felt that I think from like a leisure transient perspective, but even from a group perspective, in that there were companies that still needed to motivate, incentivize, reward people. And this was one of the destinations that they were really comfortable with. And we within those four years of being a Hyatt had really seen a different year, you know, from 2019, all the way to the present time. And just before that, we underwent a $85 million renovation here at the hotel. So we really had kind of two changes of identity. And I would say for us really this year 2023, I think represents kind of our first normal year. Since 2019. We're halfway through the year, we became the highest prop Birdie and flew the Hyatt flag. So along with that, there's a lot of awareness creation that we need to do a lot of high funnel marketing. And we have a very segregated comp set amongst the other competing hotels here in the valley and that everybody's just a little bit different, you know, at our expense experience, you know, what you're going to get out of the property the brands involved so when we really look at our comp set, it's a wide variety of hotels and different sizes and different experiences. And sometimes we really have to look out at the valley to have kind of a proper, you know, comp set that we compare ourselves against, you know, with hotels, Jackson, Aspen, Tahoe, you know, some other areas in the Pacific Northwest.
Roger Hurni 5:45
So, since you could have a different comp set that you're looking at, I'm just kind of curious, like, what is Grand Hyatt its USP compared to you know, anyone else that's just literally down the street? I mean, what, what is your advantage?
Cody Worden 6:03
Well, the big thing in winter is the third you know, the third property here that has like kind of a Hyatt you know, identity with it. There's uh, residences, there's the Park Hyatt Beaver Creek, and then there's Grand Hyatt Vail and we have a couple of Marriott properties here in the Valley. So one you know, kind of height as a very quickly growing company has made a number of acquisitions and has a great loyalty program. And that's something that that we lean on heavily. But we are the only hotel in Vail with a dedicated chairlift. So you know, if you've been to Vail, especially during that Saturday morning, or that that powder day, you know, it can get a little bit busy. Luckily, last year, they built two new lifts on the backside of the mountain that I think is kind of like dispersed, you know that the traffic so to speak, and it hasn't been, you know, the last couple years, the traditional long lines that you see in Vail, where sometimes it can take you 15 minutes to find the back of the line on on a busy weekend day. So I feel like it's normalized a little bit. From my perspective, the two new chair lifts have helped with that a little bit. But I think also too, you know, a lot of people have returned to European destinations. You know, when we're competing against Austria and Switzerland, again, especially when you're looking at the value of the dollar and the exchange rate that does come along with that. But really, it's our natural setting. In Vail there are two main villages. One is the Lionshead village and one is the main Vale village. And a lot of people like to be in those villages, you know, with the hustle and bustle, the, the world class restaurants, some of the shopping that comes along with it, just the amenities. The operator has seen what you have and kind of these European-style villages in the heart of Colorado. We are a little bit off of that we are one mile off west of the Lionshead Village and we are on the gold medal waters of the gore creek that flows through the back of the hotel. So we kind of like to, to capitalize on our natural mountain setting. It's why a lot of people do come to Colorado, I think a lot of people coming from city destinations, maybe want to distance themselves a little bit from that and have a quiet kind of more remote tranquil setting. And that's what we have here at the hotel. Good number of the hotel rooms in the back of the hotel, you can open up your double doors to the balconies. You can hear the sounds of the season so to speak, flowing through the creek in the backyard of the hotel. As far as I'm aware we have the most real estate in Vail on the creek. A gorgeous path that flows right through the back of the hotel all the way through both villages, in fact, goes all the way over to Summit County and goes all the way to Glenwood. So just a really really gorgeous bike path that you can take for a number of miles. walk all the way along the creek in and also to I would say our outdoor spaces that we have around the hotel are just fantastic. A lot of the hotels in the Vail Valley don't have that. And then with a $85 million renovation that we did in 2017. We have a fantastic room product, a little bit more spacious, just just great bathrooms, all the common spaces were renovated. And then in addition to that, we've got a world-class restaurant coming that we are going to be finishing up here in the end of November beginning of December. That is going to be a top 20 restaurant in the country celebrity chef type of situation and I think will be a draw within the hotel in dock very excited about that.
Roger Hurni 9:35
Well clearly you have a lot to work with. Because it's an all-year-round place. I mean people think of Vail as skiing but every time I've gone to a ski destination in the summertime, I was oh so this is why it's fantastic. Skiing is just like the icing on the cake so to speak. Because you have so much to work with and it's such a beautiful property. What say wasn't marketing techniques have you found to be, to be most effective?
Cody Worden 10:04
Yeah, well, I would definitely say, you know, digital marketing and retargeting, you know, it's just a great thing when people are coming to our websites that we can capture them through other channels through digital retargeting. A big partner of ours is soldier, you know, and they are just great when they've got that that display ad, you know, that's going to pop up on another website that you go to, because you happen to visit Grand Hyatt Vail. And a big thing for us with the high funnel marketing and the awareness creation is, you know, getting more unique users to our website, this year two, it's been really important for us to get back to to travel, whether that's on the leisure side or the group side. So as conferences and meetings have really come back full steam, we have a full slate of travel. And as you can imagine, you know, when we're talking about luxury consortia, wholesalers, group business, a lot of that is relationship-driven. And getting out there and making those connections and getting back face to face. There's been a lot of turnover in the hospitality industry, there's a lot of new people that are in the hospitality industry or on the fringe of the hospitality industry. So it's very important that we're out there making those connections. And more than anything, we are really driving the destination before we are selling the hotel. And as you can imagine, with a lot of, you know, some of these high net worth individuals or you know, big corporations that are planning these group trips, they can pick from a lot of great destinations around the world. And, you know, first and foremost, it's really selling Vale, and creating that awareness. And then I would say to content creation, you know, really just trying to create a lot of content out there with, you know, magazines, digital publications on how we can really create more awareness get out there, and maybe the perfect, you know, 48 hours in Vail and what that itinerary looks like. And as you spoke to earlier, a lot of people know us about, about winter, you know, people come, come here to visit for the winter seasons, but they stay for the summers. And once they've experienced that perfect 80-degree weather, no humidity, no bugs, all summer long, you know, you, you really can't beat it.
Roger Hurni 12:15
So you, you mentioned a lot of traditional sorts of digital media and the retargeting I know, that's been around for a long time. And then you talked about the magazines, you might be the first person in travel and DMOS that I have not mentioned social media. So Van Gogh, just go down that road, have you embraced Pidcock and other sorts of channels?
Cody Worden 12:41
Yeah, you know, Tik Tok, I think we're a little bit late to catch on in general, you know, we've started to venture in that a little bit, primarily, Instagram, and Facebook, you know, are our primary efforts, you know, definitely some geo-targeting, you know, some things that we're doing on on that side of thing, but really, our, our kind of strategy and goal right now with social media is more awareness creation, gaining users, kind of picking up our followers, especially only being a Grand Hyatt for four years. So as you can imagine, we're a little bit more in those, I would say, you know, earlier stages of, you know, kind of building that social media base. And a lot of people, you know, might work for some maybe closer to a populated area where, you know, they can draw people, we have Denver, right, you know, we don't have a population of, you know, 30 million people like a Southern California resort might have that they can tap into. So we have really limitations, I think with what we can do from a reservation perspective. And, you know, really getting some people in the hotel, with some of our social media advertising and things that we're doing. So right now, it's a little bit more awareness creation, you know, putting in the hope, the hotel and everything going on around the hotel, the outlets, the activations, and kind of that, that luxury light and really trying to capitalize on, you know, hey, there is a Hyatt in Vail this exists in and this is, you know, the experience that you're going to have here at the property.
Roger Hurni 14:07
So I wouldn't stress too much about Tik Tok there are, there are clearly generational differences between some of the social media platforms, there's also different psychological needs that are being fulfilled. Not every in my work with consumer behavior. Not every client, not every destination lines up with all three unless they have a specific content strategy geared toward the two things or two or three things that make up the content on that particular network. The you know, it takes some money to go to Dell. So like Facebook and Instagram makes sense. From a Gen X perspective, maybe even a Baby Boomer and certainly from you know, I love this term, geriatric mill millennials, because they're just getting older. They're, they're getting to 40 now and they're They're in their early 40s. And so they finally developed an income. But you know, tick tock, and you're looking at Gen Z, you're very young millennials, you know, they don't necessarily always have the cash to come to avail. And if they do come to avail, it's great that they get to experience the place because you become an aspiration, even if they're staying at a less expensive property. And so I wouldn't say you're late, but dividing up the content accordingly, from a behavioral psychology standpoint, makes makes a lot of sense. So I think you're on the right track there. The the thing that is coming down hard, and I was just at this national travel conference, and I don't know if you were there, because there's, you know, 1200 people or so it's called esto. For those who don't know, listening, this year took place in Savannah. And it's all the destination marketing organizations around the country. The topic, the hottest topic is AI and travel, and people are starting to do travel itineraries on things like chat GPT, or other large language models. The I'm kind of curious, and maybe, because you're part of a larger system, that may not be an appropriate question, but I'm going to ask it anyway. What are you doing about AI? And how is that impacting? You know, the Grand Hyatt in in your work? Is it just learning or even the learning stages of that? are you implementing in me that? I'm just kind of curious there? Yeah,
Cody Worden 16:30
I would think, you know, I would say experimenting with it a little bit more, you know, there's a lot of different uses for for AI, I think, you know, one kind of interesting thing that we really lean on it for is, you know, this, this hotel has been through a number of iterations. And we're really trying to develop the hotel story, you know, what is the story that we can tell throughout the hotel in, in marketing and sales on our site tours, our operations at the front desk, our outlets, our spa? And how can we all really capitalize on this unified story that's going to be throughout the hotel. So what we did is, you know, we've had a couple brainstorming meetings where we brought some of the longer tenured people at this hotel together. And, you know, talked about a lot of those those features that history, what distinguishes us, you know, what can we really capitalize on, and what is the feather in our cap, and we took a lot of that information, and we dumped it into chat GPT, and, you know, multiple iterations of it and said, you know, help us create our story. Our story really revolves around water, the water in the back of the hotel in the gore Creek, the lifeblood of 40 million people further down West, which has increased significance with some of the drought issues that we've had the last few years a lot better this year. It's really the lifeblood of the hotel, what distinguishes it here in the Vail Valley, and then it's also the lifeblood of all the activities that we love to do, whether frozen in liquid or vapor form. And we depend on that very, very heavily. So that's become kind of the foundation for our story in our experience. And it's been just great, kind of like putting that all together and having you know, Shad GPT, compiled a, you know, a four, paragraph three paragraph story, and see what it comes up with. I think it's given us a good foundation for you know, putting a little bit more of a human element on top of the foundation of a story. But you know, there's a lot of organizations out there that will charge, you know, 25 $50,000, you know, to really help you with your positioning, and to create that story. And I feel like that process and chat GPT has allowed us to do that and really get a good footing of the starting point of something that we can, you know, just tweak and tailor and improve upon and die has been really cool for that particular experience.
Roger Hurni 18:58
You know, I think it goes further than that, because you're on the ground floor of using it for storytelling with someone, nobody's actually told me that they're using it from a storytelling perspective, which I really love, particularly since Google is going to hate this search is going to shift particularly in travel from searching on Google. And I mean, the traditional search cannot there, LLM Baird or however they pronounce it. That organic search is going to be long winded in that organic search is going to shift and if you don't have storytelling as a part of chat, GPT because everything you put into it, it's now a part of the collective. It's like the Borg on Star Trek. So you're building a base of organic search probably without even realizing you're building a base of organic search, which allows people when they start to search for things that are and this is how this just starts to translate. When people are starting to search. It allows them to bring The level of personalization to their travel experience had not been able to do before, because personalization is part of the namesake of this podcast. That's really the key is because you don't have one resort, you don't even have three resorts, you have hundreds of resorts based on the experience of each individual and the things that they want to get out of it. So chat GPT, or any other AI like that can help get you to that happen, how can help you get there? I'm also wondering, from a personalization standpoint, are you doing anything else to try to approach personalization to the people coming to the resorts that you're managing? Maybe it's just the travel itineraries. And it's a self selection thing. I just didn't know if you were doing anything else along that line. Yeah, you know, I'd
Cody Worden 20:51
say the other closest thing that kind of ties in with that is a lot of our paid search efforts, you know, in really going after the the audience that we want some, you know, one thing that we do here is we have a destination residences here. So anywhere from a one bedroom condo up to a nine bedroom hole. As you can imagine, when you're dealing with something like a nine bedroom hole made veil, you're talking about the 1% of the 1%. And you have to get very, very targeted with some of those paid search terms, you know, and really a far further reaching campaign than you might think, initially, just for a larger, you know, a home that's going to house a family of 20. So I think that's a real good example, where we've really personalized the search terms, the the SEO, the paid search, that we are really trying to capitalize on to get that unique, you know, needle in the haystack, so to speak, that is something very new to me from a marketing perspective. But when you're talking about, you know, 15 to $20,000 ADR that you are seeing with that particular home, you know, you almost have to isolate it and come up with its own marketing and really go after a very, very targeted
Roger Hurni 22:03
audience. Make sense? You doing a lot in those areas. And again, I really appreciate what you're doing from a Chechi jet chat GPT perspective. I'm curious, is there a sales or marketing strategy or tactic that you haven't tried yet? Or you haven't done enough that you would really like? But you know, all the chips on the table on? You know, is there something that you really want to do that you just haven't had a chance to really do in a robust way? Yeah,
Cody Worden 22:33
I would say, you know, earlier this year, I was at a conference and we had the main Google person that's really in charge of that the travel, you know, segment for Google, and, you know, search engine optimization, advertising, you name it, everything that comes along with with Google, and you know, maybe a little bit older, and behind the curve, so to speak, but it was very eye opening, how many younger individuals, you know, 20s, Young 30s, are booking off of videos. And I think that we have a really, really good opportunity here. And I think Hyatt, you know, in general is maybe a little bit behind the curve, as far as a few other brands to build out a high profile, high quality video library that really showcases the hotel and the experience that you're going to have here. And you know, when I was listening to the numbers, and the amount of people that are booking off of a video, where you know, I'm traditionally looking on a search engine, and I'm looking at the website, I'm not jumping right away to the videos, and then booking from a video. I think, for us, that is really the biggest opportunity and coming up with those best things that are really going to give the whole vibe, the whole feeling. And then you know, the ability to really capitalize on a reservation once that one two minute video has has rock. Yeah, I
Roger Hurni 23:54
think that's actually great advice in the travel business video is really critical. And this may be a faux pas, speaking to a sales person who does sales, as well as marketing, but this is actually why I I don't subscribe to the whole funnel idea because it's not a linear process, that visitor journey just, it goes in so many directions and, and loops back onto itself. And so I've always felt you have to be there at those key behavioral moments. So that whether it's a video or whether it's search, or whether it's a social media piece of content, you can deliver something that is in line with those motivations at that particular moment in time. That's just not linear. And so I when the work that I've done with clients, I just don't think that way and I don't really I don't believe that most DMO managers recognize that that's actually what they're doing. You're putting together a strategy along that video along that visitor journey. A hell of a lot more then you are about a funnel. And I think that's the that's the opportunity video, certainly something that is, is critically important to that.
Cody Worden 25:09
Yeah, and especially for us in summary, you know, that's kind of been the direction with RDF owl, it's like, look, we've got winter covered here, you know, this needs to be full, you know, awareness, you know, creation for what's going on here at summer, the the videos that the messaging, the advertising, all the communication in dive, that's just, you know, no better way to do it than that video, I think the challenge just becomes, you know, it's time consuming. And it costs a lot of money to put together the quality, you know, content that you really want to put together and put out there on the video side.
Roger Hurni 25:42
Well, clearly, you have a challenge in video that nobody else has, because you know, the place doesn't look very good. So wherever you are, you probably have to clean up like, No, I'm kidding. I mean, that's the beauty of where you are, you point the camera in any direction is gorgeous. So yeah, you got the backdrop right there for that just screams shoot video, you know, so I'm kind of curious, a pivot a little bit here. What's keeping you up at night? What challenges are you facing that? You know, you feel like I really got to work on this.
Cody Worden 26:14
Yeah, I would say, you know, all of us have seen it here in Vail and it's a normalization of the market, I would say, you know, kind of like I mentioned earlier, you know, we became a Hyatt in August 2019. And what a lot of us look at the financials, and we look at the numbers, you know, we go back to 2019 is kind of the last like baseline comparable year, because, you know, 2020, obviously, we were all going through it 2122 Were really gangbusters for us, you know, 22 was the best year that this hotel had ever seen. And you know, when a lot of us looked at budgets, we looked at pro formas. You know, 2122 just keeps on continuing into the future. And, you know, kind of like I mentioned earlier, we're competing against the city properties, again, there's been a big, big gravitation back to back to city destinations. and in Europe in general, especially with the conversion rate, especially during the winter season, where people are like, well, I can put together a trip for my family of four in Switzerland cheaper than I can in in Vail. And I think that, you know, we got a little bit excited about some of the ADRs and the compression and the demand that we were really seeing during those years. And, you know, it was a great thing for us. But now it's really just, you know, getting back to realistic expectations. And a lot of us have looked at, you know, taking money out of the forecast because of how ambitious we were going into 2023 budget season is upon us again. And I feel you know, when we look back at this year, in the year 2023. I think a lot of hotels are gonna say we had a normal year. So now I think we kind of have a new baseline to compare against, you know, business wise, I would say that's been a little bit of a challenge, especially from a leisure perspective. Personally, I love it, you know, get out there and not dealing with any crowds and hordes of people and you know, can do all the hikes and outdoor activities with, you know, without a ton of people like I mentioned, we really haven't experienced that that big of lines, you know, at the lifts. And I think you know, a lot of people have that connotation with Vail. But if they came here and they experienced, you know, what's going on here, you know, they would they would love it even more, because it's just a great place to be the last couple years, especially during the winter season where you know, sometimes the mountain is all yours. Now,
Roger Hurni 28:43
I'm glad you said that you are looking at a new baseline. I'm I'm gonna get on a little soapbox here for a second because hey, it's my show. So I'm actually tired of hearing. Travel Planners DMO. There's talk about 2019 as this comparative, and how I've heard this term from many marketing executive about going back to normal. We're not going back to normal, there is no no going back to normal. The pandemic has shifted a lot of behaviors that happen into habits. And you want to say it's a new normal, I'll totally agree it's a new normal. But we've got to stop going back to 2019. And doing these comparatives because it's just not reality we have a different set of dynamics that we're dealing with a new habits that we're dealing with this people's attitudes of change. And so if 2023 It ends up being the year that and I think that's a great baseline year, and we move forward from here. But you know, I'm hoping never to hear about well, we're looking at 2019 Again, I'm like Stop, stop. It's never going to be that again, it's just won't you
Cody Worden 29:54
know, I think it's you know, a little bit of the the human nature so to speak for a lot of us that have been in hospital Aldean and live through that and you know, wanting to, to kind of get back to that, especially when you're looking at it from a financial perspective, right, you know, the end of the day. And, you know, especially with us with becoming a Hyatt halfway through the year and not really having that full financial baseline comparison. So you really crave that more more and more. And, you know, once you realize when you start to look at, you know, wider trends, you know, what's going on here in the destination, you realize you're not unique in that regard. And, you know, some of the underlying circumstances, whether it's been the economy, the value over in Europe, the people, you know, not having the opportunity to get there the last couple years, and a lot of the doors opening, and then a lot of things getting better, you know, back in city destinations, and it's really a culmination of all those things. Luckily, I think it tends to be swinging back the the other way here as we head towards winter, and we pace for 2024. So while I'm, you know, definitely looking better this time, you know, than it was this time last year. Yeah.
Roger Hurni 31:03
You've been great with your time, we have just one last question for you. There's been a lot of insights you've provided, and some good advice in some of the things that you're doing from a strategy and tactical perspective. So this can be personal or professional. Because I always think there's learnings in this question. What's the worst advice you've ever gotten that you went? No, I'm not doing I'm not doing that. Oh, wow. Wow, that's, that's a response literally every time because everyone's always saying, and this is me stalling what you think everyone's always thinking? Like, I've never gotten that question before. Because always people ask for the best advice, like, what's your great advice that you can give me that I can take? But I found there's a lot of lessons to be learned in the worst advice, which is why I asked the question.
Cody Worden 31:52
You know, I would say, you know, probably, you know, it's pretty basic, but I think, you know, stay focused on the financials, and you know, kind of worry about your yourself, and you know, how you can control that at the end of the day. And, you know, I think that was a little bit more direct advice, you know, kind of specifically talking about, you know, the financial situation and reporting to, to ownership and our asset managers, but for me, as a leader, it is very, very important to be invested in my team, to be there to support them to see their growth to be involved in their day to day, and ultimately, you know, rise the tide, so to speak with everybody that that is involved on the team, and I'm not somebody that can kind of just turn that off, you know, emotionally, I am very invested in everybody else, seeing them succeed, seeing them wanting to wanting to grow, I, anybody I hire, you know, I want them to have a growth mentality, and that they want to, you know, take it to the next step and see themselves in that role in the future. So, I'm not somebody that can just turn off a switch, and, you know, necessarily do that, and, you know, not not care, so to speak, it's a big value of high hotels, and, you know, we care for people, so they can be their best. And that's really something I believe in when it comes to the team. And if somebody fails on the team, I fail. And, you know, I take personal responsibility in that, and I'm not somebody that can just, you know, cut that off, and, you know, put fully blame that on somebody else, you know, there's a lot of moving parts, we depend on each other a lot of cases in the hospitality industry. And, you know, people need to play nice in the sandbox, especially when we're talking about the sales team. And it's really finding those right personalities in that right dynamic to bring it all together, rise the tide, and ultimately be successful with what you're doing and get everybody to buy into it. So I think, you know, there's a lot of leaders that I've come across over the years that, you know, maybe don't have that emotional investment, or I say, maybe care what others think, you know, don't I think, yeah, maybe if you had to summarize it, you know, don't care what others think. I care what others think, you know, especially those those people that I work with.
Roger Hurni 34:08
Alright, very good. Very good. Well, I appreciate all of your time today and really enjoyed the conversation. I have been speaking with Cody Worden, he is the he heads up the sales and marketing for the Grand Hyatt Vail. Cody, where can people learn more about you and the properties you represent?
Cody Worden 34:28
Yeah, you know, effectively online is the best place you know, search Grand Hyatt Vail or hyatt.com and search for Vail. We are on there. I guarantee if you come out west, we are right in the heart of Colorado. Adventures for everybody. Every single direction right here in the heart of Vail, a touch of Europe, in the Rocky Mountains and would love to see you here.
Roger Hurni 34:53
Wonderful, wonderful. I am Roger Hurni. This is From Persona to Personal and we'll catch you next time. Thank you Roger. Thank you.
Outro 35:03
Thanks for listening to From Persona to Personal, the podcast that takes a closer look into how organizations personalize their marketing. We'll see you again next time and be sure to click Subscribe to get future episodes.
