Josiah (00:00:00):
What if a hotel was more than a place to stay but a catalyst for positive change for its guests, employees, and the planet? Today, Ken and Pam Cruse, co-founders of Soul Community Planet – SCP Hotels, are joining us to discuss how they are redefining hospitality to better serve people and the planet. In this episode, Ken and Pam revealed their passion for creating purpose-driven hotels that lead the way in sustainability, wellness, and community. You’ll hear about SCP’s innovative regenerative hospitality model, its commitment to quietly strengthening local communities, and its vision for a more health-centered travel experience. Whether you’re in hospitality or simply interested in business as a force for good, this conversation will open your eyes to the powerful impact a values-based hotel brand can make. Could this be the future of hospitality? Stay tuned to find out…
Ken (00:01:27):
So Pam and I met in graduate school in Washington DC and as most of your listeners are aware, Washington DC Bethesda, McLean, they’re sort of the mecca of hotel business in the United States. And so prior to grad school, I worked for a hotel owner and learned very quickly that it takes a very special person to be effective as a hotel operator. And I’m not one of those people, I just don’t have that talent level, but I love the industry and I love everything about hospitality. So ended up going back to graduate school and focusing more on finance and strategy and those types of things. And meanwhile, Pam was studying marketing as she just touched on in some of these other aspects of business. We both ended up working for Marriott International right out of grad school in separate departments, but departments that were on the same floor and very close to one another.
(00:02:14):
And one of the projects that I got engaged in, which was phenomenal right after joining Marriott was the acquisition of Renaissance brand and the acquisition of the Renaissance brand was conducted in a way where it was sort of backwards. It was a shotgun deal. Mart stepped in at the last minute, got the deal, and we had to figure out what we bought after we closed on the deal. So I was part of a team that traveled out to different places in Europe for three or four weeks at a time and then come back and then go to Asia, do different locations and kick the tires of what we’d acquired and figured out how we’re going to assimilate that into the business. And during that process, this is one of the big breaks that I achieved in my career prior to engaging in that reverse due diligence, if you will.
(00:03:00):
I was a member of a morning basketball group at Merit International, and I think it still exists today. It’s conducted a few days a week. It’s a very limited group that’s allowed to play. I don’t know how I got in. I’m not that good at basketball, but it was a great way to get exposure to some of the top leadership talent and senior folks, sort of legendary people from the Marriott organization. And one of those guys was a guy named Bruce Walinski who now is chairman of Playa Hotels. Bruce was one of the members of the Host Hotels team early on, and he and I got to know each other through hoops. He called me when I was in Cologne, Germany and said, Hey, we’re going to take this thing to the next level. It’s a messed up organization at the moment, but we’re going to take it to wonderful new heights and we need you to join the company. Help us to do that. And it was one of my first big breaks and I was really a product of just being present at the morning hoops game. And for some reason, I don’t know how he figured out, I knew anything about business or anything else, but that was a starting point for me that really opened up some really interesting doors.
Josiah (00:04:06):
I love that. Thanks for sharing that story. Pam. I would love to hear from you as well, as you kind of think back over your career to date, can you share a story about sort of an inflection point or pivotal moment where you feel like it was sort of a step function change in your career and what you do in your work today?
Pam (00:04:23):
Yeah, I was at Marriott, as Ken noted, my passion is more on the marketing side. So all things consumer psychology, the beauty of why people travel and all of that wrapped up. I had an amazing mentor and lots of mentors at Marriott and just really appreciated being there. Day one, when we changed it from the old program to what was then called Marriott Rewards, obviously now a very large program called Marriott Bonvoy. Just being in all those conversations and unto the mentorship of many people at Marriott was an amazing experience. I would say the inflection point was when I actually left Marriott and I didn’t want to lead, but at the time, hospitality has certain things they can offer and certain things they can’t. So my boss at the time was super supportive and I was in the strategic alliances area. Then we worked with big partners like Visa at t, all the big players that would partner with the hotels.
(00:05:26):
And I left and went to USA today, which sounds kind of interesting now that it wasn’t on the newspaper side, it was in the marketing side right when the dotcoms were all crashing. It was a beautiful time to go to work on a website, but the same psychology of the business traveler and the consumer mindset, there was a lot more that was common than I even thought when leaving there. But I would say the inflection point was such that it was a really hard time to leave, but it was also time for me to try something new. And that was still while we were in that DC Maryland area, if you will.
Josiah (00:06:00):
So I’m going to ask you both a follow up to that. Pam, I’ll ask you first, why do you work in hospitality today of all the things you can do?
Pam (00:06:08):
Thank you for that. I love to say if it wasn’t purpose driven, I wouldn’t be doing it. And so at this point, especially my career, we coined what we like to say is holistic hospitality, so taking care of the whole person. So the most simple example is you invite somebody over into your home, you want to care for them, you want to take care of them, you want them to have a beautiful time. And for me it’s mind, body, spirit. And so really being more focused on the wellness aspect of it, it still includes the psychology, it includes the science that we know even now more than we did back in the day of why hospitality. But the purpose-driven side is both, it’s both spiritual and it’s also the psychology of it and welcoming somebody, making them feel really great. And we have a Maya Angelou quote that we quote all the time that people won’t remember what you say or what you did, but they’ll always remember how you made them feel. And ultimately, hospitality is how you make somebody feel and the love ultimately is what you want them to walk away with. So I wouldn’t be doing this if it wasn’t purpose driven. There wasn’t a give back both for the planet and the people and the communities. So hence the name Soul Community Planet.
Josiah (00:07:17):
I feel like we could talk for hours about that. I’ve made some notes. I think we’re going to have to circle back on some themes of that. But Ken, I’m going to pose the same question to you. Why work in hospitality?
Ken (00:07:26):
Well, first of all, Pam gave a great answer to your question from a psychological and a values-based standpoint. The real answer for why Pam is in the hospitality industry is because I tricked her to come back in 2018 when we formed Soul Community Planet, which I’m sure is today’s conversation progresses. We’ll get into that one. But I pulled her aside and said, Hey, let’s form this company that’s based on our values, our experiences, our talents, and what the industry needs. And that became the nucleus, if you will, for sole community planet. But what brought me into hospitality, what kept me into hospitality and I’ve spent my entire career in the hospitality industry, it goes all the way back to being an undergrad and saying, man, this whole hotel business, I can really get my head around it. It’s sort of on its basic level, it’s very understandable, it’s very straightforward, and as Pam said, it’s about making other people feel good.
(00:08:18):
It’s about putting a little bit of good into the world, and I’ve always felt, and I’ve always experienced that the more good you put out into the world, ultimately the more good comes back to you. So hospitality in a very simple level is just a straightforward, positive industry and it’s wonderful to be around. So as I mentioned early on in my career, I learned that actually working in a hotel is a really tough job world of respect for the folks who do that work, and I found that my calling was much more on the real estate side and on the transactional side and on the corporate rather than being in the four walls of a hotel. And my career has progressed sort of along those lines from the day of joining Host, after leaving Cologne, Germany and coming back and joining Host, helping with the team to transform host from what was perceived as the bad company to Marriott International’s good company into what is today a world-class, blue chip hospitality, real estate investment trust with some of the great top guys in the industry, whether it was Chris Nassetta and Kevin Jacobs who are now over running Hilton or Ed Walter and some of just some amazing players who were all part of that team.
(00:09:36):
In retrospect, looking back on the seven or eight year process that we undertook to transform host to what it is today, that was one of the most impactful, gratifying, difficult, challenging times in my whole career career and it was absolutely worth every moment of it.
Josiah (00:09:54):
Well, I know you both have shared a little bit more about your story and a few other interviews and conversations. I’m going to link to those in the show notes because I think we have so much in this conversation to get to into what you’re doing now, and I want to focus on the majority of our conversation on that, but I do encourage our viewers and our listeners to hear your full stories, and so we’ll link to places where people can learn more about that. But you both have seen a lot. I want to tee up the conversation on what you’re doing now in terms of what was the opportunity, what was the gap, what was missing from the hospitality ecosystem that led you both into the work that you’re doing now?
Pam (00:10:32):
A lot has been focused on sustainability and at the time, so in 2018, we were looking at the purchase of one property and started talking about sustainability and it’s really important. And then the more we were diving into it and looking at our own values, and the more research you do, it really comes back to Maslow’s hierarchy needs that there’s a need to take care of self, there’s a need to be part of a community to have connection, and there’s a need to be connected to nature and all of it. And this is all pre covid. We know all of these things have really amplified post covid, but really key to me was that it wasn’t just one, it’s not a silo. You could be sustainable and then have terrible non-healthy food and that doesn’t make sense, right? There’s the sustainability and regenerative aspect that when it’s all together.
(00:11:19):
So for me, really drawing on the psychology of it and the importance, I just really dove into this. Nobody’s doing it all together. There’s a lot of wellness focused that yes, there’s sustainability, yes, there’s some community programs and everybody wants to do good, but there wasn’t anything that was packaging it all together. And I like to go with the circle motif and soul community planner, all interconnected. It’s not three silos. You can’t have one without the other. And so for me, when we were looking into this opportunity, it just can’t be one. There was also a lot of research and at that time the Global Wellness Institute already the research on wellness tourism, and so there were data points in 2018 that showed that this is a huge market. So when you look at that connection, and I’d like to refer to their definition of wellness.
(00:12:05):
So the wellness is multidimensional and I have this pulled up here because it’s just a great reflection on what wellness is. It’s physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, social and environmental. And if you actually listen to all of those, soul, community, planet is all within that. So that’s just even one pillar of our company is the wellness side with the soul and soul is SOUL. I love the part that talks about mental for example, is engaging with the world, with the intellectual mind, there’s mental health involved, all of that. But for us then taking that concept further, we get into our core elements so we can talk about that within what that means. So for example, having books on hand, right? Engaging the mind, so while you’re on property, taking that aspect of wellness and pulling it through. Another part is spiritual, having quotes throughout the property on the wall or on a signpost outside, for example, in a garden area, spiritual by the definition of the Global Wellness Institute, is searching for meaning and higher purpose in human existence. So it’s not a religious aspect, it’s man’s search for meaning. I mean it goes back to Viktor Frankl and some of this, so I’ll pause there, but super passionate about the why and how that fit into a space that we all can be a part of. Now, the ripple effect, as Ken noted, if every company can start doing a little bit more that addresses all of these aspects together, then there’s a lot more wellness for
Ken (00:13:34):
Everybody. Yeah, maybe just to emphasize your point that why is the fact that modern consumers, individuals in general in the United States have gravitated very directly toward what Pam was referring to? This idea of living your life in a way that’s more healthy, more positively impactful in the world around us and certainly more sustainable and caring of Mother Earth as we like to say, is all a mindset that the entire society has shifted toward, which is great. One of the interesting things, and we’re going to catch up, but as an industry, we haven’t, I think maintained pace with the transition of the US consumer and that’s where we saw a fairly big opportunity for a group like ours to come in and be disruptive and make an impact on our industry where some of the more mature organizations, maybe they didn’t have the innovative mindset or the risk taking appetite to form a company like Soul Community Planet. And so we’ve occupied that space and it’s worked pretty well for us so far.
Josiah (00:14:34):
I appreciate you both sharing that because I mean, we’re in California, right? I think since the hippies, or probably before then people have been talking about some of these themes and I think if I’m just among the redwoods and camping and talking to some folks there, I might expect them to say things like that. But you both were and are high-powered executives and you’re talking about this being kind of important personally for the culture and it seems you also see a business opportunity here. I want to, I think another dimension I find useful for exploring things like this is looking at what are the barriers or things holding market participants back from operating in this way. I think one is kind of the vision and what could exist out there, but I might pose this first to you, Ken, coming from the world of investment real estate where there’s systemic structural things that you observed that were holding back market participants from operating in a way that you are now.
Ken (00:15:32):
Yeah, multiple. Actually, if you think about our business, the hospitality world is broken into three different parts. There’s the real estate aspect, highly capital intensive, highly based on sort of prescribed the models for what a hotel is and what a hotel is not. There is the operations business, which the brand families, as you’re well aware, have largely moved away from. Marriott doesn’t necessarily need to be managing hotels. They’re sort of agnostic on whether they manage or not. Typically they’re not managing Hilton’s the same way. So third party managers who have a very unique skillset and very developed talent pool and institution knowledge, all that good stuff around running hotels. And then of course there’s the brand families themselves, which are highly oriented around licensing and creating brand products that they can drive unit growth through. And that’s really the driver of our entire industry is the brand families themselves.
(00:16:27):
In order to create unit growth, they need to come up with brand concepts that can be picked up by developers and then they can also be picked up by a third party operator and fairly easily executed upon. That’s where a company like ours can find white space in our industry because the concept of Soul Community Planet requires a certain depth and authenticity that has to be pervasive through all three of those verticals. We’ve structured our company rightly or wrongly as fully integrated. So we own the real estate, we have the management company, and we have the brand under one roof. What’s worked super well for us as a result is that we can have awareness, brand and culture now underscoring every decision that we make as an organization. And when we find that we’ve deviated from the core vision and the core values of the company in any way, shape or form in any of our hotels, we can quickly correct the course rather than having to go through some bureaucratic process and working with a brand or a manager to make those changes.
(00:17:29):
We’ve also been able to develop the company as almost a passion project for the last few years where we’ve had multiple different test cases for what works and what doesn’t work for the brand. First Property was a vintage motel in Southern Colorado Springs. That wonderful transformation of an vintage hotel ended up moving up significantly in the guest satisfaction rankings in that market and nice transformation in general. But what we found is that’s not the type of product that’s ideally suited for Soul, community planet. We’re better around nature-based resorts that are mid-scale called 150 to 300 rooms or small town downtown boutique hotels like what we have in central Oregon where we took a vintage hotel that had been closed for a period of time, redid the whole thing, reopened it. It’s the number one hotel in the market by a long shot in terms of guest satisfaction, achieves 150 or so EDR and RevPAR index and does a wonderful job of flowing through to profitability.
(00:18:33):
So we’ve sort of oriented on those two product types. We wouldn’t have ever been able to achieve that if we came out of the gate saying these are all going to be new belts. It’s all a hundred rooms and it’s got these brand attributes and everything’s going to be cookie cutter. One of the strengths of SEO Community Planet is that we’re not cookie cutter a hundred percent. We maintain consistency of our value system across all of our different hotels, but how that value system is represented and how it looks and feels is largely going to be influenced. It’s not dictated by the asset and the markets themselves. What is that market asking for? We’ll create a product that is SCP, but it’s going to look very different in Laguna Beach than it does in Costa Rica or in central Oregon or even the Oregon coast. So we have a lot of flexibility in the look in the field, but very little flexibility thanks to Pam’s maniacal leadership of our values and culture in terms of what the true underpinning values are of personal community. That’s consistent across the board.
Josiah (00:19:32):
Thanks for going into the detail of that because I am always trying to educate people on here’s the different market participants and I think for people who are new, the industry or new in their careers, what you’ve outlined, very helpful. One thing I do want to get out of the way before we go further though is just some of the economics of this, because you talk about passion project might raise a question of is this just being done because it’s good for the planet and good for people or is there business around this? But then you talk about being kind of rated really highly and in my experience, when you earn those positive guest reviews, you’re earning loyalty, you’re building demand, which leads me to believe that there’s also a financially interesting business here as well.
Ken (00:20:13):
And think of it this way, we consider ourselves as social enterprise. So unlike the very traditional mindset around a corporation in the United States, which is almost like a one dot mentality, we’re going to get the consumers money and we’re going to give it to our investors, translate that into maximum profitability and as quickly of a time period as possible, capitalism is what has made America great. So make no mistake about it, we’re capitalists are through, but we like to think in terms of conscious capitalism and this is a concept that’s not new. It’s something that Yvan Ard in particular did a great job with and Mackey at Whole Foods and many others have demonstrated the fact that when you create a product that represents what your consumers are aspiring to, especially when it comes to a value system or a lifestyle and you focus on serving those customers or serving the stakeholders that you’ve identified up front, in our case, it’s our customers, it’s the local communities in which we exist, and more broadly it’s planet earth.
(00:21:15):
When we focus on serving those stakeholders, products become a byproduct of that and they become actually a more sustainable and long-term. Success ultimately becomes more short when you’re focusing on your stakeholders first, not profitability first. A little bit of a flip over of the traditional corporation model. So that’s worked extremely well for us. But we’ve met in business school, we focus on the numbers, we focus on the metrics. One of the key validations of what we’ve produced so far is the fact that we only have 10 hotels. We really don’t have that a hundred, 200, 500 hotel network yet around our brand. And yet in spite of that, we still have 65% direct bookings into our portfolio. And a lot of this direct booking comes from word of mouth because we’re in a limited number of markets today. A lot of folks who would like to come back and visit us time and time again, they just don’t have an occasion to go to those markets.
(00:22:12):
But what does happen is they go home and they tell four or five of their friends what a neat day they had in Central or and or in Colorado Springs or on the California coast, and a few of those five friends end up having an occasion to go to Hawaii and visit our hotel there or to go to the Oregon coast. And so we’ve got this great little network effect that’s already taking place, translating into terrific direct booking numbers, which in our industry is really, really important given how much it costs to distribute our hotels and the customer acquisition cost is so high. And then we’ve also got a really great score when it comes to net promoter scores, where our objective is to be at a 75 on net promoter scores. Maybe we can provide a link to the NPS protocol and what that stands for in this podcast.
(00:22:59):
Most people, many people are aware of it. It’s a really powerful tool, but essentially it’s a measure of our guests leaving your hotels so happy that they’re going to actually become evangelical customers and tell a few people or tell a bunch of people about what a great stay it was. That’s where what we’re working toward, in fact, we think of the customers happy customers, ecstatic customers as our product. That’s a very different product. If you asked many people who work in the hospitality industry or in any other industry, most people don’t say happy customers is the product that we’re building, and yet that’s how we think in terms of our business. And here again, it seems to serve us pretty well.
Josiah (00:23:35):
So Pam, I got to ask you because, okay, so this is fascinating to me because I bet every CMO or chief commercial officer listening to this would absolutely love Dev a 65% direct booking rate and having that direct customer relationship. I feel what I’m hearing from you both though is maybe rather than investing all available resources and just advertising and buying your way into attention, you’re investing more on the product on the unique aspects of the experience. And to your point, Ken, of this being the quote product, is it fair to say, Pam, this is kind of core to the marketing strategy, is create something worth talking about, create something worth feeling that affinity, that loyalty to and then that creates this virtuous cycle?
Pam (00:24:20):
Absolutely. Yeah. Back in the day, there was a book called the Loyalty Effect, and I believe it’s the same author that Net Promoter scores and all of the different industries that are studied as we know, but it’s better off that somebody else talks about you than you trying to talk about you. And now in the world of influencers and all of that, we see this play out on social media, but ultimately it’s back to the authentic experience. And every study shows that people are looking for these authentic experiences, not these contrived experiences, something that aligns with their values and being a purpose-driven company allows us to also make the guests feel like they’re the hero and they are the hero just by choosing to come stay with us on the backend, we’ve already taken care of it. They’ve already helped plant trees, helped plant seed trees, helped mental wellbeing resources for adolescents.
(00:25:08):
So there’s no guilt, no, you have to take a plastic bag and go pick up some trash just by choosing to come here, enjoy your stay, have a fantastic, joyful, adventurous, and I like to say on the doing and the bean, either you can just go relax and meditate and just have that meditative stay or the adrenaline kind of the doing and both. But the point is just by coming to an SAP, we’ve already taken care of that. And so there’s a lot to be said for that just on the back end. Also, non-toxic cleaning chemicals for example, somebody can come and know that we’ve already taken care of that. That’s not only healthy for our teens who are cleaning the rooms, but it’s also healthy for the guests coming in. So there’s a lot of details that are behind the scenes. I like to refer to those old cards that used to say, save the planet, don’t do this and drop your towel or whatever. And that’s kind of a guilt thing, and we don’t like to come from the guilt side of it. It’s more the joy of it. And by the way, if you drop your towel, you can have a new towel. It’s okay, we’re doing all this other stuff just by coming here. You’ve already taken care of the planet, the communities and yourself.
Josiah (00:26:11):
Let’s unpack that if we could because I think I want to get into the big wins you think about really being sustainable. I think there’s bigger wins than not washing your towel. I want to dig into this in a few different levels. I think maybe looping back for a moment, Ken, to what you’re talking about of the growth strategy, frankly it’s faster to grow your franchising. You create this model new developers can build. But I mean just riffing off this theme of sustainability, my understanding is that you’re focusing on retrofits in part because it’s more sustainable. You have less materials that go into than you would a new build. Is that accurate?
Ken (00:26:47):
Absolutely accurate. There’s so much great real estate in the world today that doesn’t fit necessarily within the box that’s been prescribed for whatever brand or concept. So we would want to build, our viewpoint is always let’s take the existing structure, especially one that has a story and some character and work with as much of it as we can, but then create an environment, a built environment that’s appealing to modern consumers. To us, that’s just a great way to create value in the real estate. The starting point is really important, and if we can buy stuff at a discount and carefully improve it to appeal to modern consumers without creating a basis that’s three or four times higher than what it would’ve otherwise been if we had done a new build, that’s a wonderful starting point. It doesn’t mean that it’s always perfect. We’ve got plenty of renovation projects that have resulted in and then product that’s costed more than it would’ve if we had just started out fresh.
(00:27:40):
But we do preserve the environment through that process or we endeavor to preserve the environment throughout that process. And another thing that we do as a company is rather than saying, Hey, we’ve got this spec for ff and e that needs to be produced in a certain way and then reach out to different factories across the world to make that product for us, we try very hard to work with local craftsmen. We try very hard to use found products. We try very hard to, like you said, reuse certain elements of an existing hotel wherever possible. We’ve had some great success in places like Hawaii where when we were renovating the hotel that we own right on the water in Hilo, we went out to source new case goods, new credenza, new desks, et cetera, et cetera, and we came across a local craftsman who this is during Covid and who was about ready to close up shop because business just wasn’t there.
(00:28:37):
We sat down with him, his name was Robert Kui and said, Hey, we’d like to have you do all the furniture for our hotel, have your shop do it. We want to use locally sourced wood that’s sustainably harvested, especially stuff that’s invasive species, which is a real problem in places like Hawaii or things that have been impacted by blights or disease or what have you. And so we were able to use local hardwood, created it local. Robert and his team would finish the product and drive it to the hotel in their pickup truck and a little bit slower process than would’ve been if we’d engaged with a big factory out of China. But the end result was carbon footprint was virtually zero. We used resources that were available to us locally. We employed local craftsmen who were otherwise facing a very challenging economic situation. And that’s just such a great example of the SCP model working in basically every way possible. We ensure that the product that was put into the guest rooms itself isn’t off-gassing a bunch of volatile organic compounds and so on. We actually work with them to create a finish on the case goods that is very non-toxic and here again, locally sourced. So just a neat example, we need to do a case study of that on our website because it’s a neat example of when you enact all three of the values of sole community planet and synergize them together, really good things happen.
Josiah (00:30:02):
I’m just hearing you talk and I’m excited about the potential with this because I have felt this sort of allergic reaction to places that feel manufactured. We try to manufacture authenticity and I haven’t seen that done well ever. And I feel by retrofitting buildings, you have existing structures that probably have some connection to the community. People are familiar with it. You’re reducing the carbon impact by working with that. You’re working with local creators on the materials, on making all the things that you just mentioned. And so I think I love that it feels very integrated with what you’ve described to be the why behind what you do. I want to get into some of the guest experience and maybe as a way to bridge that. Is there anything else about the physical structure or the properties that have been intentional in how you think about that guest experience? And then we might get into some of the more service aspects, but I want to bridge that. Anything else on the property level or structure?
Ken (00:30:58):
So we have brand standards, which are our operational standards, and here, as you can probably imagine hearing from us, it’s much looser than the brand standards that you might find at a more established brand. But we also have something called core elements which define the physical environment in which the guest experience when they come into our hotels. As I said a moment ago, each hotel is vastly different. We try to honor the identity and the heritage and the story behind each hotel when we redevelop them, but there are certain elements that we try to make sure are pervasive throughout, and Pam and her team have done a great job of figuring out what those should be.
Pam (00:31:32):
So it ties to guest experience, but from a product perspective, you would walk in and you feel this sense of welcome and ideally we don’t have a desk and it’s us versus them, but sometimes there’s a desk there
Ken (00:31:45):
Just to speak on that one. We view the traditional retail model, and this is evident in the hotel industry as well as not intentional, but there’s this automatic feeling that, okay, it’s me versus you, it’s us versus them. It’s transactional. This guy’s asking me for my money, they’re going to give me a guest room and they’re hoping that I’m going to leap happy. Okay, that’s a very single way to describe it. It’s not that bad. And our industry go, what we’ve endeavored to do is start off the relationship with our guests with a shared value system so that we’re appealing with these people who identify with the label conscious consumer. We present ourselves because we are on the same team with those individuals. We like to say we are for all of humankind, but we’re not for all humankind in as much as some people just don’t subscribe to that value system, but many people do. And when they’re able to meet their people when they’re on the road, so to speak, you start off on the same page, on the same side of the desk as Pam was just referring to. So sorry to interrupt. I just wanted to elaborate on that metaphor.
Pam (00:32:48):
Yes, and we tried to innovate with a welcome drink. So I made the reference to welcoming someone into your home. So whether it’s a kombucha or a draft beer or coffee or tea, the intention is just immediately having that home feeling, right. Welcome. Besides that, we have some standard core elements that are very related to the brand. One is called our SEP muse, and this is our depiction. We’d like to say it’s Mother Nature, but it depicts the core values of SEP. So it’s this beautiful muse. We can provide a link to that and at each location, she’s slightly different in the sense of the flora and fauna around here, so it reflects the location of the property and even within Oregon, as we know on the coast versus central Oregon, it’s very different. So really enjoy amplifying the muse. We also have green spaces, we like to say green spaces for relaxing and socializing.
(00:33:41):
So if it’s a property that has a lot of rain and you can’t get outside a lot, we want to make sure we have plants inside. We’re bringing biophilia. There’s a biophilia ceiling wherever you may be. So whether it be outdoors or making sure that that comes through the property as well. We have our library, we call the SEP library, and as I noted earlier, it’s that kind of mental engagement. And we have a SEP library that’s kind of the international, if you will, that we like to have as the umbrella. And then we also sprinkle in the local books, any local recommendations, history, things like that. And the intention there is to have this beautiful space, analog style where people can kick back and join together or just pick a book and take it back to their room. We also have SEP games, so there’s a game area, and those are also welcome to take back to your room.
(00:34:28):
Might be something like one of my favorites is bananagrams or backgammon, but the intent is to be social, to have this area a library and the games, we love to have some hammocks, just kind of fun. This is just more of the joy of having some hanging hammocks. We have a fitness area and not every property has a room for fitness. So then we look at, okay, how can we partner locally or is it a recommendation for a hike on the beach? For example, in Laguna Beach where we don’t have a specific gym in that property as of yet, go take a plunge in the ocean. We’re looking at expanding some of our experiences, kind of guided experiences if you will. But there’s always this connection to also having this physical, working out physical wellness. The sleep of course is critical as we all know in hospitality, when people are coming there to have a great night of sleep.
(00:35:19):
And as we know, sleep has become so much more important and it’s tracked and monitored. And as you noted, every property and as we just discussed, our properties are different. There’s not one and done with the type of guest room, so you’re going to have different sizes, different layouts, but ultimately our goal is for everybody to have a great night’s sleep. So that starts with their day and how it begins. As we all know, sleep starts from the beginning of your day. So as you walk through the hotel, all those amenities, the food and beverage, the nourishing food and drink throughout your day, and then ending up in this great space, we’ve partnered with avocado mattresses. We are looking at doing sustainability in the guest room and expanding as we renovate newer hotels or some of our most recent hotels. So for example, in Laguna Beach we have avocado mattresses and we’re looking at what are other ways in the guest room we can provide not only guests, a great sleep, but tying all those core values together, the wellness, the community, and the planet.
Josiah (00:36:16):
Pam, you said you partnered with avocado. You didn’t say you bought avocado mattresses. What does that relationship look like? Is there something more to that?
Pam (00:36:23):
We’re working on marketing partnerships and what else we can offer together. They have a great audience, very brand aligned. We were working on a social media giveaway, if you will, and we’ll be following up with them. So not a full-blown, lots of tentacles yet, but there’s so much opportunity and we toured them around the property, I think it was about a year ago, and they had a lot of great ideas too. They have a fuller in Fullerton, California here. They have a warehouse. They actually make a lot of nightstands. There’s other furniture that they do have to offer aside from they also have robes and things like that. So we’re looking to expand that.
Josiah (00:37:03):
I appreciate you sharing that because I feel like there’s so much potential, so much creative potential
(00:37:08):
For working with other participants, whether it’s individuals, Ken, like you mentioned on creating the places or partnerships. And I feel like hospitality organizations in general are only scratching the surface of the potential of this. So I love hearing that example because you think about the creativity, even just the reach and the communities that these other organizations have, or you referenced earlier, Ken Patagonia, there’s these incredible organizations that are out there and it feels like there’s so much room for collaborations. But if I could just add a quick follow up to that, Pam. I think as you’re running through the different elements of the guest experience, I was like, man, this is the checklist of my dream hospitality stay. Can you give me a little bit of a sense behind into the creative process as you both have been imagining this? Because was it something that right out of the gates you had all of these amenities and services, or has it been an evolutionary process? What inspired all this?
Pam (00:38:02):
Well, I left up one that if I could lead with that and then I can give the backstory on that. So we also have something called the SEP code, and it’s something that we’ve committed to that we have either painted on our walls or it’s hanging in a frame on our walls. And little backstory there. Ken and I went to the San Clemente Surf History Museum to a night to hear some speakers, and there’s a famous speaker from the, excuse me, famous surfer from the seventies named Sean Thompson. He gave a very inspirational talk and he goes around the world and speaks to schools, companies, business groups, all sorts of organizations. And it’s this inspirational speech about how each of us should have these 12 lines of code. So for example, in his is I will Heal or So it’s kind of very personal, whatever resonates.
(00:38:51):
One of them was I will paddle back out. He gives this whole example of he could have quit in this one competition, and he said, I will paddle back out. So Ken and I came back and we said, you know what? It would be really great to have something like kind of like a manifesto. Obviously a lot of companies have a manifesto. It’d be great to have this for SEP, but we’d like to put it in the present tense. So we have our line of code and we read it every week, Monday meeting, Tuesday meeting, and then the GMs and their teams read it again on Wednesdays through the rest of the week. And an example is literally we have fun is one of ours. We provide plant forward food and drink is another one, and so on and so forth. So that’s a core element that I left out that has a beautiful backstory. I will say from the, go ahead,
Ken (00:39:36):
Sorry to interrupt, but it’s also important to note that that is prominently placed in full view of all of our guests. And what that does is here again, it puts the onus on us to be accountable for providing everything that we list on the code, and it really helps to set the stage for what we stand for, and I think it puts that relationship on the right foot out of the gate.
Pam (00:39:58):
I’ll give an example at the library, a lot of the research and going into the brand is a lot of personal values and personal likes and just really loving books and wanting to share the message. And some of it comes up. It could be a podcast like today we’re going to, you’re inspiring many people with your information. That’s what we hope to inspire too. So as we learn in hear, it’s a lot of personal favorites. We did solicit from our team members, other ones, and we didn’t want it to be super preachy or anything. It’s very much could align with anybody’s core values, but specifically with sole community planet, it has to fit within there. Some of the other inspirations are local. For example, Kobe does a great job. Their shops here in Laguna Beach and walking through there, they have a fantastic book selection.
(00:40:50):
One of them I found was about a woman captain Liz Clark, who sailed around the world for about 12 years. She was sponsored by Billabong and wrote this amazing book. Fast forward to last month, Ken and I got to meet her at a speaker series in Dana Point, and she’s very inspirational and very much supporting sustainability in all that she does and many aspects of her life. So anyway, full circle, just really fun to meet an author that I plucked a book off, so some of us personal others that, of course soliciting information from the team playing games is just the joy and the science of that is so important and connectivity and with travel. So a lot of those games are ones that we personally enjoy. Again, solicited information from the team. It wasn’t any one hard fast formula, which is the beauty of creation. And as you said, we’re in hospitality and being creative is part of the process. So really love that part.
Josiah (00:41:45):
It seems like you both spend a lot of time out there meeting people, interacting with people, and I call that out. I think it’s so important if we’re just in our offices all day long, it seems like you both are traveling, you’re listening to inspirational people inside and outside of hospitality, and I think it allows you to show up and create the things that you do. I think it is an important lesson.
Ken (00:42:05):
Oh, for sure. Yeah. We can draw so much from the world around us, and I think to summarize what Pam was just describing, to answer your question about the physical environment within our hotel, it really is influenced by all those global relationships that we’ve had that good fortune of establishing. To summarize the vibe within an SEP hotel, it’s sort of eco handcrafted and bohemian and very non-corporate. Two other pieces too that are on the physical environment that we would touch on, and one of ’em sort of spans into the guest experiences. There’s a lot of Eastern influences in our style, and that would often show up in the form of a hand carved Buddha, for example, that’s been properly blessed and placed in the right location within a hotel. It’s not that we’re here to advance the philosophies of Buddhism or any religion or any political angle impact. We are really, really hardcore about not being affiliated with any specific religion, philosophy or political stance. We just feel like a lot of times you see stuff like that, like a Handcar Buddha, and it just creates a sense of calm and almost like an esoteric vibe that is hard to establish otherwise. And it works in conjunction with the scent and the sound and the lighting and everything else that we try to try do within our hotels.
Josiah (00:43:26):
I appreciate the view into behind the scenes, all the stuff that goes into that. As earlier, Ken, you had mentioned taking this property and going through this transformation that led it to be rated very highly by guests, and I was going to ask you about that, but then I’m listening to you both talk about all the things that you’re doing on a physical property level, on a service level, on an amenity level, how could guests not be happy after all of that? I guess, is there anything else from an operating rhythm perspective that you have found useful in maybe turning around but maybe maintaining that level of excellence? I heard the mission, the 12 lines of code, if you will, being a key piece to that, but I’m curious if either of you have any other thoughts around the operating rhythms that you have that allow you to consistently deliver excellence to your guests?
Ken (00:44:19):
Absolutely. Let me start with that. And first of all, I want to make it clear that as small startup entrepreneur leaders, there are so many fires that we’re fighting every single day. I’m listening to us both talking, and we’re so excited about what we’re building and we love everything about the business. I don’t want it to come across as everything is just flawlessly rocketing to the top of the heap here. We’ve got plenty of challenges every single day, day in and day out. As it relates to the operational element of our business, obviously that’s founded on team. We’re a capital intensive business when it comes to buying and renovating hotels, but we’re a very, very human intensive business when it comes to providing great guests experiences. So the stuff that Pam just touched on as it relates to establishing and building on a great relationship with our guests, it starts way before that in establishing and building great relationships with the folks who choose to honor us with joining our team.
(00:45:16):
And a lot of that gets reinforced with our culture. We have something called the SCP Way, which is a 16 chapter book that we spend, and what would perhaps be perceived as an inordinate amount of time on by other corporate entities. We think it’s not even enough. We go through one chapter every week with our senior leadership team. We do it again with the regional team and then the GMs, as Pam was touching on with our code. Same thing with the culture. We spend at least an hour with each of those factions of our team going through one chapter of the SCP wave. And this talks about how we interact with one another, how we embody the core values of soul, community, planet, how we advance the vision of what the company is. And that does even more to reinforce this idea that we’re here for something bigger than just a paycheck.
Josiah (00:46:08):
Is there a little preview you can give me just a little excerpt or a little kind of thought or idea from that?
Ken (00:46:13):
Yeah,
Josiah (00:46:13):
Just to share with our listeners, help them get a sense of what this includes.
Ken (00:46:16):
Use the brush truck was what I was going to go to. Okay.
Pam (00:46:19):
Well, I’m going to,
Ken (00:46:20):
Oh, yeah, please.
Pam (00:46:21):
One example, one practice lesson is based on Carol Dweck’s work on growth mindset versus fixed mindset. And to your point about hospitality, it’s so appropriate for anybody to learn. And my viewpoint is if we can share and learn together, no matter if someone doesn’t stay with our company, it’s so beautiful. To me, that’s a ripple effect, right? They’ve learned and they’ve taken that to wherever in their personal life or in their professional life. So growth mindset was one that was recent. It’s not a new notion, but it’s very important to really think about when somebody’s learning in a hospitality focused business, they might think that this is the way we do it and this is the way we always do it, and I can’t change anything. And so we want to make sure we opened up. I like to say what’s possible. And so when we go through the growth mindset, it’s what’s possible. And yes, there’s certain things that we have to do a certain way, but not really. We want to blow that notion out of the water and make sure that we can be creative and creative. Problem solving is ultimately going to be more efficient, make more money and more give back for all the organizations that we’re supporting and brand advocacy. So just starting with that one, it’s an easy one to kind of reference, again, relating to hospitality, just kind of growth mindset.
Ken (00:47:33):
Well, and each chapter is oriented around what we aspire to be and what we are not. And it’s never a polar opposite. It’s more like the healthy chapters. We are healthy but not excessive, which means we’re not going to shame you if you’re walking into our hotel and you’re not going to get up at 6:00 AM and do yoga and do meditation. It’s just a good step in the right direction by coming to stay with us, and maybe you’ll have a slightly healthier meal than you would’ve had otherwise or whatever. So we tend to not be excessive, and each chapter is oriented that way. We’ll shoot you a copy of the book, keep it under your hat,
Pam (00:48:06):
Secret sauce. Secret sauce, top
Ken (00:48:07):
Secret. It’s not top secret at all.
Josiah (00:48:10):
Or for our listeners, apparently what I’m taking away from this is you got to work for you both to get access to this. So I might link to your careers page.
Ken (00:48:18):
Yeah, we’d love. But again, just to finish the thought on the operational front, the idea that you do stand for a value system that is consistent with what the values, individuals who choose to stay with us and work with us may hold dear. That in and of itself creates a system where we tend to have a more engaged, inspired, and long lasting team. One of the issues with our industry, of course, is turnover. We have a 75% plus turnover rate as an industry. We’ve improved on that meaningfully, but it’s still a huge number. I was just on a call with our people services team about what more can we do to ensure that once we’ve invested in new associates, and Pam always talks about customer acquisition costs on the guest side. Well, the associate acquisition cost is significantly more, and if that’s an associate who’s going to join us, we’re going to invest in training.
(00:49:13):
And I like to say teaching, not training and teaching and learning the culture and so on and so forth. And then that associate leaves in three months. That’s just a really bad model for success in our world. So we’ve got to figure out more ways to create that alignment and that longevity with our team. And a lot of the code actually speaks to that. The SEB way speaks to that. There are so many other elements, but starting out being on the same page from a value standpoint is probably the strongest alignment that we can have with our property level team or anybody who works within our organization to ensure longevity.
Pam (00:49:50):
And I like to go back to the why when we talked about the why, and one of the examples we talk about in our SEP way is a book called The Power of Moments by Chip and Dan Heath and Moments, right? Moments matter. And we know everybody in hospitality is talking about moments. One of the ones I like to refer to is they talk about in a hospital, and they were asking the cleaning staff, the janitorial staff, why do you do what you do? And the first, because my boss said too, because it’s on my checklist, isn’t my job. And when you keep asking, you keep asking, well, it keeps the patients healthy. And so when you draw that out, no matter what your position is in a hospitality company, if you can get back to these core values, keeping someone healthy, that’s fantastic. And the job satisfaction and what you can grow from that in a person, we just see that as an opportunity. So high turnover, yes, as an industry a lot more when we pull out the values and help celebrate those values, help amplify those values and help somebody, for example, on a team at Laguna Beach, take a break and go watch the sunset if that’s during their time, that’s all inspiring and beautiful and scientifically proven to boost their mental health. So
(00:50:58):
Lots of opportunities.
Ken (00:50:59):
And to add to that a little bit, this week’s culture practice was the chapter entitled, we Are Intentional and Never Renegade. And again, not opposites, but being intentional means challenge. Everything that we’re doing operationally, whatever task we’re engaged in, whatever processes we’re engaged in, why are we engaged in this? And it goes back to what Pam was saying. What is the ultimate? Are we advancing the core values of soul, community, plant, healthy, kind, and green? Are we making the guest stays better? If not, why are we doing this? And often when you peel back the layer after layer, you realize we’re doing certain things because that’s the way we’ve always done them in our industry. And coming to this business, not really having a great grounding on the operational opera. As I mentioned, I did a tour of duty on the operations front, but I’m not one of the hotel operators that are really expert in this field, and in some ways, not in some ways, that’s served us quite well. And one of ’em is, again, just using this week’s example, being intentional and never renegade means we can peel back a lot of layers of work, of resource strains, of distractions that happen at a hotel level and start out with just a core experience that advances the values without spending a lot of money and time and effort on stuff that doesn’t matter.
Josiah (00:52:15):
I love it. I am reflecting on everything that you’ve shared so far in our conversation and I’m hearing a very, very integrated approach to hospitality. I mean, I saw this on your website, some of the visuals, some of the ways that you described the brand. There’s such a connection within us as people within how you operate in the industry. And it excites me and it gives me hope because I mean we’re recording this, all of us are recording this in an effort to kind of create something that’s valuable as we’re recording this now, though we’re in an election season, I think we both share, we all share this notion of being nonpartisan. And I think for me, this is why hospitality is so cool. I think it has a chance to bring people together. And so it’s not a political question, but I would love to hear you both reflect on what is the opportunity or the power or the potential to bring people together, including, but not limited to a political sense, just like bringing humans together and creating a more connected world. I guess
Pam (00:53:21):
I just wrote down as you said that first of all, a book that I was of called Super Communicators, and I believe that Ken and I listened to it on a long road trip from one of our properties. And what was fascinating to me was really the crux when you get to it, when two people are talking and they have two different mindsets, really the core value, the core value they’re coming from is the same. And I’m not trying to talk politics, I’m just going to say one of the examples was safety for my family. And so you can think about in many different ways. So there is a commonality, right? And so
Ken (00:53:54):
That was a gun control. So that gun control is a very polarized political statement. You’re either for or with. And if you’re four, you’re on one side and if you’re not for you’re on the other side, but maybe draw that accent because that’s such a powerful one, it turns out well, I’ll let you finish it because really good at this one.
Pam (00:54:13):
Well, I didn’t have any more to say.
Ken (00:54:14):
Well, no. On the gun control one, the conversation was why are you for guns? Why are you against guns? And the conversation continued to peel back and peel back until they realized everybody was motivated by the same factor. They wanted safety and they were just coming at it from a very different angle. So I just thought it was interesting that the genesis of that whole alignment of values was something that is highly polarized in today’s political environment. So the way I think of it, to answer your question Josiah, is that one of the lines in our quote is we welcome all sort of seems like a throwaway statement in some ways, but it’s really not because again, if you think about if stand for a certain elevated values, that can be very off-putting for certain people. In fact, it can be even off-putting for people who aspire to those values but don’t feel like they’ve attained them.
(00:55:04):
So we always say, look, we’re all operating at different levels of a similar value system. Nine out of 10 Americans identify with the label conscious consumer. So we all, who doesn’t want to be more healthy? Who doesn’t want to be more kind? Who doesn’t want to take care of Mother Earth a little bit more than we maybe have been? Those are all common shared values. It’s just that how we describe them from a political standpoint. We’ve somehow figured out a way to make you either good or bad depending on where you describe those values. We like to say that we’re throwing away the notion that being a good person is a political statement. Everybody wants to be a good person. And that’s sort of represented in how we interact with everybody.
Pam (00:55:47):
And I would say simplicity and back to science. So if you go to awe, right? We all have a comment, everybody’s going to stand on a beach and look at a sunset. What is that moment like for you and me and somebody else? It’s pretty similar. The science of what’s happening in our brains and our bodies is the same. When you put your feet in the sand, you put your feet in the ocean, you walk in a forest, you see the red road treats, you go to a downtown place, you notice other people, you feel a connection by being in a hotel lobby that’s set up nicely. So that there is this connection that if I’m alone, I feel part of something. Or if I’m with some other people that we connect with others, whether that be playing the game or just watching, there is commonality in the music playing in the scent playing.
(00:56:28):
And those are all part of hospitality. But that is my hope too. And the hope is I like to talk about we’re enthusiasts, so there’s a part for activism and that’s absolutely necessary, but our brand is about being enthusiast. And there was a quote that I read in one of the books that we referenced is there was somebody that was up in a tree preventing it from being cut down and they kept asking and they forgot what they were for. They were so against the logging that they forgot, they’re for nature. So I think the more we can come back to that, there’s that common bond and the beauty of it and the awe. And again, it doesn’t take away from some very necessary things that need to happen in this world, but we’re humans and club human is what we’re here for. So we want to promote that.
Josiah (00:57:12):
I love that we started our conversation talking about your careers, what you saw in the world. I’d like to close it with sort of a lightning round of personal questions. And the reason to do that is one of the reasons I do this show is to connect good people with each other. So whether that is an investor who’s looking to invest in responsible, interesting hospitality companies or it’s somebody who’s looking for their next career move, I find across all these decisions that happen, everything between those two at both ends of the spectrum, it comes down to people, right? People want to get a little bit of a sense of the people that they could or want to work with. And so I guess if I could just ask a couple of quick questions around this. I think listening to you both, I’m picking up a curiosity, I’m picking up a groundedness and it permeates all of the work that you both are doing. I’m curious, what new belief, behavior or habit has most shaped your life over the past, I dunno, let’s say five years or recently?
Ken (00:58:16):
I can start couple of things. So we have four daughters and so hopefully that’ll be one of the responses because the genesis of Soul Community Planet was also highly motivated by our desire to set an example for our four daughters. But just as a minor example, five or six years ago, I guess at this point, one of my daughters said, Hey, you should try being a vegetarian for one month. And sure, I’ll give that a shot for one month. And one month came and went. And I’ve never gone back to being an omnivore, if you will, that wasn’t motivated by anything other than my daughter throwing down a challenge and then me being too lazy to get back into eating meat or whatever. But it’s certainly changed my life. I think it’s made me more healthy. It’s certainly made me much more mindful about what I put in my body and what I don’t plenty of room to improve in that regard too. But that was just one simple statement that sort of threw down a challenge and it certainly changed my values in a positive way.
Pam (00:59:15):
The rest of us are not vegetarians, just to be clear.
(00:59:19):
And there’s a nutritional value in many of it. So I would say number one, the most recent one for me is not picking up my phone until I’ve taken some time for breath work meditation and had just a little bit of pause before getting back on a bit of the treadmill that we all have of the device that kind of can turn our mood here and there. And it sounds really simple and you keep reading about it, but it really has helped me. So that’s one that’s very recent, just getting out in nature in the morning, it’s getting dark here. I have a headlamp and a little fluorescent outfit to walk our dogs in, but I love getting out there in the morning and before it was sunset or sunrise, now it’s a little bit dark, but two habits that really helped me start my day and frame my wellbeing that helps me be a better part of everything I’m doing during the day.
Josiah (01:00:12):
Well, Pam, you already answered. My next question would be how do you take care of yourself, sustain yourself in your work? So I’m going to ask that to Ken and if you have anything else that comes to mind, Pam, feel free to jump in. But Ken, on your side, if you think about wellbeing, sustaining yourself, anything that you found useful in that regard?
Ken (01:00:29):
Yeah, absolutely. One example would be during Covid, we were all sort of had cabin fever all stuck and we couldn’t go do much. And a friend of mine had a fitness company and he set up a remote fitness program that was all done via Zoom and it’s all using body weight exercises and so on. And I was able to set it up my studio, if you will, for this class outdoors. And that started during Covid. Our instructors are in London, so it’s at 2:00 PM their time, which is 6:00 AM our time. So I’m forced every day and forced is the wrong term, but every day is part of my routine. Get up at 5 25 in the morning, go down and this time of year it’s dark and you go do this class with a few other people every morning. It’s such a wonderful routine because it covers so many different bases. As Pam was such, you’re out in nature. A lot of this thing works with running. I’d never wear shoes to it. I’m out running in my yard, grounding in the process. It’s cold, it’s uncomfortable, and sometimes, and it’s just, I don’t know, it’s such a great way to start your day and once you’ve accomplished that, I never feel like getting up and doing the class, but once I’ve accomplished it, it just sets me in the right direction for the rest of the day.
Josiah (01:01:41):
Last question. In this lightning round, I am curious if you’ve learned anything in the world of professional hospitality you’ve brought into your personal life in the sense of providing hospitality personally. Pam, I’m reflecting back to something you mentioned at the very start of our call around you think about the power of hospitality, maybe inviting someone over for dinner. It doesn’t have to be a dinner party, but I guess the reason I’m asking is I’m trying to get better personally and I’d like our listeners to get better at taking all the best things, all the cool things in the professional hospitality and become better family members, friends, neighbors. And so I’m kind of curious, anything that you both have found in terms of bringing this into your home and I guess showing hospitality on a personal level?
Pam (01:02:21):
I think something that translates well, we have something we call a mindful moment. So when we start off our team calls, for example, somebody signs up and it could be a poem, it could be a breathwork, it can be a video, it can be a little snippet. And the intention is to ground everybody together. And I believe that, I may have read about this originally from Ariana Huffington that she had done like a 62nd at the beginning of the meeting where it was about a person. But we do it as a mindful moment. And I think that especially when we gather with friends or family, it’s nice to pause and kind of get everybody’s attention and have that grounding moment versus everybody’s kind of in their own conversations and then it actually deepens the rest of the time together because you notice that people are more willing to be in that conversation. It skips it from the chitchat. And I think just personally at this point in my life, it’s so great to just have deeper connections and deeper conversations. And I think people are really looking for that these days. We know the science is there and the data is there too. So I enjoy that.
Josiah (01:03:23):
Amazing. You’ve shared so much. Thank you for walking through so many different elements of your lives, your business, your story. Before we go, any other thoughts, things that hoping we’d cover any parting thoughts or things on either of your minds before we go?
Ken (01:03:39):
I can start. One of the things that I want to always do with these conversations is make sure that we’re providing something of true value to your listeners. You and I talked a little bit about this before the conversation and I look back at what we just talked about in the ground we covered, and as I said, we’re so enthusiastic about what we’re building and how it’s just been so gratifying to create something from nothing and get it to where it is today, which is still a very small company, but one that is having an impact. What I don’t want to leave the listeners with is that this is just a big advertisement for SCP and everything is perfect and flawless. So if there’s so many lessons learned, maybe we’ll do another installment of this at some point where we can just talk about lessons learned, stumbles along the way.
(01:04:24):
There’s a book that our kids always read in school called The Blessing of a Skin’s Knee. And our knees are permanently skinned at this point. So I would encourage everyone to at some point in their career, embark in an entrepreneurial journey such as what we’re doing, but do it based on how we did it, which we didn’t realize we were doing it this way, which is the foundation of Iki. Ikigai is a Japanese concept and it’s loosely, I’m going to sort of butcher it for Western purposes, but it’s loosely described as if you take a Venn diagram and create what are you passionate about, what are you good at, IE, what are the skills that you’ve developed over the course of your training in your career? What is the world looking for? And then finally, what can you actually be successful at or get paid for is the term that they use in similar term that they use in Japan.
(01:05:14):
And were those four circles overlap. The center of that, the nucleus of that is Ikigai. And in retrospect, again, we didn’t know that we were working off of the concept of Ikigai, but in retrospect when we formed the company, we really did it based on that. What are we good at? What do we love to do? What is the world looking for in terms of gaps and voids within our industry and what do we think we can be successful at? And that provided the genesis of Soul, community, planet. So anybody who’s looking to go on an entrepreneurial attorney, I would highly recommend you start with an Iki guy exercise before you go too far.
Pam (01:05:52):
And I like to reference Ted Lasso and tell our tapes believe it may seem like you can’t change something that’s been done in hospitality or another industry, but believe and you’re almost there.
Josiah (01:06:06):
Or be a goldfish. Or be a goldfish. Forget everything. Every 30 seconds. What a great note. Ted, thank you both for sharing your story, inspiring me. I know you’re going to inspire so many that are watching and listening to this, so thank you.
Ken (01:06:18):
Appreciate it. Thank you so much.
Josiah (01:06:20):
Appreciate
Pam (01:06:20):
It.
