If hospitality were a competitive sport, you win by making a lot of people feel good about themselves.
Isn’t that the goal of hospitality? For our guests to feel good about who they are and where they are? It’s mostly about reinforcing good decisions.
Here’s an example: The thing that I hate most about the Cheesecake Factory menu isn’t the fact that it’s famously long. I hate that it has the calorie count at the end of every menu item. It’s like:
“Look. I know I’m at the Cheesecake Factory. I know your portion sizes can feed an entire village, and I know this isn’t the healthiest choice. But I’m here anyway. So instead of telling me I’m about to consume 1,700 calories on a slice of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cheesecake, tell me it has 1,700 five-star reviews.”
As people who convene meetings, press conferences, grand openings, and fundraising events, my clients know it’s expensive, they know it’s going to take a lot of time, with over a million details to consider, plus the fact that overwhelm will quickly take over. My clients don’t need to be reminded of these things.
My clients need to be reminded, over and over again, of what they’ll get at the end of the day:
- Time with their audience
- The microphone
- An event that expands their influence
- The opportunity to change hearts and minds
- To be celebrated by their competitors, thought leaders, and their entire industry
- More brand awareness
- Sales, sales, sales
- More revenue
- Customer goodwill
- A spot on the 10 o’clock news
Even with the expense, the disruption, and the overwhelm—it’ll all be worth it.
Consider the Olympics. In the documentary The Weight of Gold, Michael Phelps narrates interviews with athletes like Apolo Ohno, Shaun White, Lolo Jones, and Gracie Gold. They share personal stories about the intense pressures of competition, struggles with identity after the Olympics, and the lack of mental health support. These athletes know the price of going to the Olympics—what it takes to compete to win.
They don’t need to be reminded of the sacrifices. Their dreams of taking the podium and winning gold need to be reinforced.
It’s the same thing in hospitality. If it were a sport, we would score when our guests feel good about themselves:
- When they walk away feeling accomplished – we score
- When they sit in a room full of people and feel like the most charismatic person there – we score
- When they leave thinking they’re the smartest person in the room – we score
Gatherings are tough. But making people feel good about the time and effort they’ve invested is the essence of hospitality.
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