Transcript: Episode 164: Oscar the Ghost
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[00:00:00] Susan Barry: This is Top Floor episode 164. You can find the show notes at topfloorpodcast.com/episode/164.
[00:00:12] Narrator: Welcome to Top Floor with Susan Barry. This weekly podcast right up to the top floor features tangible tips and excellent stories from the experts and characters who elevate hospitality. And now your host and elevator operator, Susan Barry.
[00:00:32] Susan Barry: Laura Lee Blake is the president and CEO of AAHOA, the largest hotel owners association in the world, representing nearly 20,000 members. With a background in law and a career spanning high profile litigation and leadership roles, Laura Lee first joined AAHOA in 2005 as in-house counsel. After a successful tenure and a brief return to private practice, she rejoined the association in 2022 to lead its efforts in advocacy and support for hotel owners across the United States. Laura Lee is passionate about advancing industry initiatives, including AAHOA's legislative work and its growing influence in governmental affairs. Today, we are going to talk about law and the LIONs Act, but before we jump in, we need to answer the call button.
Call button rings
[00:01:35] Susan Barry: The emergency call button is our hotline for hospitality professionals and anybody else with a burning question. If you would like to submit a question, you can call or text me at 850-404-9630. Today's question was submitted by Maggie, and here's what Maggie has to say. “I work for a tech company and have recently been assigned to the hospitality vertical. Is there a quick way for me to learn enough about the industry to speak to my customers effectively?” I think this is such a great question for you, Laura Lee, because you came to hospitality from law and those of us who sort of grew up in hospitality, I think have our own language and culture and shortcuts and acronyms galore. And I, it can be tough for somebody from outside the industry. So what's your advice for Maggie?
[00:02:29] Laura Lee Blake: Yes, well, excellent question, Maggie, and I would advise that to the extent possible that you would join one of our AAHOA events. You can go to AAHOA.com and look at all the events that we have hosted and come and join us and start speaking to the members and listening to the content. We cover a lot at all of our events. We are just finishing our season with the hotel owners conferences but we also have events coming up, for example, with HYPE, Helping Our Young Professionals Evolve. That will be early next year. Another great way is to, of course, click AAHOA.com. We have all types of content there. And if you would like, feel free to reach out to me individually, and we would be happy to put you in touch with our various team members, depending on what your questions are. We could get you copies of our magazine. We do our monthly magazine called Today's Hotelier, and there's always a lot of fantastic content in that as well.
[00:03:40] Susan Barry: Well, I hope that you don't end up regretting having people contact you directly. But I love your advice, especially about reading our industry publications. I think that is a huge help. And not for nothing, but there's this podcast called Top Floor all about hospitality that you can listen to and learn all kinds of things about the industry. Laura Lee, you have had an incredible journey from growing up in small town, Iowa, to becoming the president and CEO of AAHOA. This is a big question, but what motivated you to pivot from your first career in journalism to law and then from law into hospitality?
[00:04:25] Laura Lee Blake: Yes. Well, and I think this is probably my advice to all of the listeners that in your career path be open to new opportunities because you have no idea where it might take you. And so let me explain. I never intended to be a lawyer. And when I was in college, I was, I think a typical college student really trying to find my way. And I was changing majors and even doing some college hopping to determine where I should go and what was the best fit. Part of that was growing up in a very small town in Iowa and wanting to see the world, wanting to know what was out there. And part of that was just, I think, an inherent curiosity about What are the different opportunities that are available? So I ended up starting really in journalism and wanted to then become a television news anchor and television reporter.
This led me to a fantastic internship in Chicago with the ABC station WLS. And I was able to follow some of the major reporters around on the key stories that were taking place in Chicago. Linda Yu, some may recognize that name, was one of the reporters I was able to follow. But after that internship, I then stayed in Chicago for another semester attending Columbia College, but taking classes from actually the experts that worked in the industry. And as a quick side note, I took, for example, a camera class from one of the cameramen who covered the Cubs games in Chicago. Just fantastic, fantastic exposure, fantastic opportunities. But I then came back to the University of Iowa to graduate. And during that time, I was able to get a job with a very small TV station in Cedar Rapids. And of course, it was a markedly different market, right? I mean, I went from Chicago when the top three in the country to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, which was very small.
And so, as a result, I quickly learned that when you're working in these smaller stations, you get assigned a story and you do not have a cameraman or a camera woman who accompanies you. You take the camera. You do not have a separate producer, editor, you write it, you edit it, you produce it yourself. And then they will, if they like it, they will air it on TV. So of course, I was very young, so the initial stories were things like the new baby animals at the zoo and the balloon demonstration at the, at the local college. And I thought to myself, they are not taking me seriously. So I went to the general manager and I said, you know, sir, is there any opportunity for me to sit behind the news desk and serve as an anchor woman? I do not care if it's 4:30 in the morning. Could I get that opportunity? And he looked at me and he smiled and he said, Oh honey. He said, just give it a few years. There's an opportunity down the line, right? Back in the day, they could say these things, right?
But in many ways, as a result, it inspired me to consider law school because I thought, you know what, if I go to law school, I could become a legal correspondent and then I'd have opportunities to work maybe in Washington, D.C., or New York City, or even back in Chicago. So that was the reason that I decided, well, let me see what opportunity might be there. So I ended up applying, did very well on the LSAT, the Law School Admissions Test, and ended up in law school. And then I was able to work during my summers during law school with various law firms. Rotated through different departments and fell in love with the law. And so that's how I ended up in law school and pursuing law instead of journalism and television.
[00:08:46] Susan Barry: Am I right in thinking that you worked at the same station as Oprah Winfrey did early in her career?
[00:08:54] Laura Lee Blake: Yes. And that just goes to, like I said, I was in Chicago and here I was on the news floor for the ABC station and on the floor below us. Now, this is how many decades ago, you know, kind of shows my age, of course, but there was a brand new talk show host that no one had really ever heard of and her name was Oprah Winfrey. And she was just starting out and then within a year, she was so wildly popular that her show was syndicated and went national, but she was attracting some pretty big names and as interns, we would sneak down to watch her show.
[00:09:35] Susan Barry: Did that experience influence the horizon that you saw for your career? Like, you know, on the one hand you're being told just cover the baby animals and on the other hand you're watching an unknown Oprah Winfrey become Oprah Winfrey. How did that influence you, if at all?
[00:09:53] Laura Lee Blake: Yes, and it absolutely did because I learned that Oprah Winfrey actually had started at a very young age I think her first her first show was maybe in 17. She was working as a in television, maybe at the age of 17 or 19, and she just did continue to diligently pursue it. And that was really the lesson that I learned from that, that just keep pursuing it and just see where the opportunities would arise. Because I think she tried television, she was maybe in radio, and then she really found her niche in you know, being a talk show host. And so again, keep your doors of opportunity open because you don't know what path might suddenly arise that you can pursue. And then there's just amazing results. So yes, absolutely. She inspired me. And continues to do so today.
[00:10:51] Susan Barry: Me too. And everyone listening, I'm sure. Um, you were in house counsel at AAHOA, left, and then came back to be CEO. I want to make sure that our listeners understand the significance of that organization. AAHOA has truly played an instrumental, crucial role in addressing the discrimination that hotel owners faced early on as Asian Americans. Can you talk about that and how the association continues to advocate for minority business owners?
[00:11:27] Laura Lee Blake: Yes. Well, the story of AAHOA is really just such a remarkable one, and we're celebrating our 35th year anniversary this year, and I look back at the photo of the 12 founding fathers of AAHOA - you know, it's kind of a black and white photo, and there they stood. And I doubt any of them would have ever envisioned that 35 years later AAHOA would have nearly 20,000 members owning more than 60% of all hotels across this country - and that's on average. So admittedly in some of the midwestern States, it's maybe 40 to 50%. But then I'll use Texas as an example — in Texas AAHOA members own nearly 90 percent of all hotels in Texas. And that's not just the mom and pop and the limited service, that includes every hotel, that includes the full service as well as even the luxury. That just shows how our members have continued to build this industry and have continued to thrive in it. And it's such an American success story.
When I worked with AAHOA before, I was, as you said, I was there in 2005 and AAHOA was smaller. And I was dealing with a lot of our members who were first generation immigrants coming from largely from Gujarat, India. Many of them, English was the second language. They had taken their families here from India to start in the industry to give their children a better life. And many of them did. They bought that roadside hotel. The family lived in the hotel. I mean, the stories I hear from some of our members, especially now the children who grew up in these hotels. You know, after school, they could not go and play sports or do music or theater like the rest of us. They went home because they had to make the bed. They had to be at the front desk. They had to help with the laundry. Right? So they were learning the hotel business from a young age. And now, you know, generations later they're continuing to to do this.
But you know the reason AAHOA was originally formed was due to discrimination and it was, at least from what I understand, the insurance company, the banking industry, they did not know AAHOA, and they were suddenly receiving applications from all of these immigrants with the last name Patel, and they were thinking that this was not true, that there was some scam going on. There was something, um, that was amiss. And so a lot of discrimination, our members really faced trying to get the insurance, trying to get the financing to open these hotels, which in some ways also inspired the community to come together to make it happen. But that was the start of AAHOA. And even over the years that I worked with AAHOA, I mean, the discrimination was not over. I mean, there was a period, um, when I was with AAHOA before where there were suddenly all of these American-owned billboards and signs, um, where it was really an effort by other owners, non-Asian owners to say, “Hey, we're Americans and we own the hotel, stay with us.” And of course, many of our members were Americans. The message was clear what they were trying to do. And so we had to stop that. We had to, because it was a threat to their livelihood. And I saw really some strength and unity as our members came together to kind of lobby some of these billboard companies, some of these cities that this was discriminatory, even some of the brands that they were, they had allowed their owners to be posting these types of signs.
So we had to educate kind of the world that AAHOA members are loyal Americans who achieved the true American dream, and they also are owners of these hotels. But I also remember there was a time too, with one of the major franchisors, where there was one of their leaders who made some highly discriminatory comments against Indian hoteliers during one of the big meetings, and a couple of our members caught it on their cell phone so we had evidence of it. We reached out to the brand and I really saw the industry come together and say, this is unacceptable. But, but I remember my personal reaction to it where I took it very personally because here I was working with AAHOA, I knew their strength, knew their, their… just, their brilliance and operating these hotels and to hear such blatant discriminatory comments against them…. We came together, I wrote some very strongly worded letters to the parties that were involved. And, and like I said, thankfully, Through education, kind of through a recognition that this was not right, that this was stopped and it was addressed and, you know, my hat's off to the brands and the franchise advisory council that took the matter into their own hands and made sure that this could not happen again.
[00:17:20] Susan Barry: Ooh, I bet that executive regrets that, uh, racist statement that they made for sure. You mentioned lobbying before, and I know that AAHOA is in the midst of a big project right now, a big push around the LIONs Act. Can you tell us what that is and why this legislation is so important for both members in the industry at large?
[00:17:49] Laura Lee Blake: Yes, so the LIONs Act — and it stands for Loans In Our Neighborhoods — and I just love the name because it's so easy to remember. But the idea is that it would be for SBA they have a cap on 7A loans, which many of our members used, especially when they were first starting out, buying their hotels, but there's a cap of only five million now. Five million sounds like a lot of money, but this number was set back in 2010, so many many years ago. And now over those years the costs of buying a hotel, renovating a hotel, the costs have — like everything else that we're facing — the costs have skyrocketed. So 5 million is just not enough anymore. So it's an effort to raise the 5 million to 10 million for these SBA 7A loans. So we anticipate — now we started this this past year, but of course it was very difficult to get legislation moving forward with the big elections that we have coming up here next week, right? All focus has been on that, and so it will be reintroduced next year and that will really be our effort. We're forming a coalition and we've had a large number of associations that have signed on to the coalition letter. Both in the hotel industry, but we're also focused on the banking industry. And so we believe that this has a good shot of really helping our members and really see, you know, and we're getting input from the brands too. The brands all support it because they see additional financing can only help at this point, especially with some of the challenges that are out there. So thank you for asking.
[00:19:39] Susan Barry: We will keep our fingers crossed for a successful legislative session in 2025. AAHOA you mentioned is celebrating 35 years. Are there any trends that you’re seeing among the second and third AAHOA?
[00:20:00] Laura Lee Blake: Yes, and just like everything there are always trends in any industry, but I'd say the big trends among the second and third generation is really to take the family portfolio — because that's what they grew up with — and to continue to expand it.
So, and what I mean by that is, to continue to expand even into other segments. I know right now, full service segments getting into some of the luxury hotels, but also extended stay. That has been a very strong trend right now. And some are even looking at things like assisted living centers, or other types of uses for the hotel. You know, with the homelessness crisis that has hit this country in some areas, they are being offered money for their hotels that they can be turned into shelters or residential communities for the unhoused residents of the city. So they're exploring that. But I see among the trends, especially with the younger generation — and it kind of goes to Maggie's question at the beginning — but, you know, what is technology? What does AI? How can that be used in the industry? How can that really take things to new levels with the extreme labor shortage? You know, what has what kind of trends has that produced? And we're seeing things like kiosks — I've seen this in some of the hotels, where if the if there is not a nighttime desk clerk, because the hotel has struggled to hire somebody, they might have a 24/7 kiosk and you go up and it's like an ATM machine. But then there's a live person on the other side. So when you walk in it'd be like getting like being on a zoom call, right? You can ask for your keys they can give you extra towels. They can even give you change if you if you need change for your twenty dollar bill. So it's a live person on the other end. So that is one trend.
I mean we've seen the kind of the robotic vacuum cleaners and the robotic like room service deliveries, and so there's those types of trends. Of course, there's mobile check in. But even with that there's always kind of the good, the bad, and the ugly. We're hearing some pushback from the mobile check-in, to the extent that can it be used now for criminal activity because the person does not have to check into the front desk. So there's so many trends. Now, and I'll say on kind of a bigger picture too, I think even things like personalization for guests, especially as the loyalty point programs continue to evolve. Really personalizing experiences for guests. And we already see this, if you know they prefer an upper floor with a great penthouse view, or they prefer a lower one that's away from the elevator. They're already doing a lot of that. But there can even be, you know, recommendations. If you know someone loves Indian food or someone loves a local Italian spot, there can be recommendations for that. So there's a lot of personalization concepts that are being developed. So, so many exciting trends for the travel industry.
[00:23:39] Susan Barry: We like to make sure that our listeners come away from every episode of top floor with some Specific practical ideas or tips to try in their businesses and their personal lives, maybe in their travel. What advice would you give someone who is new to advocacy work with elected officials? Like are there some easy to report out on do's and don'ts that folks should know about before they start this kind of work?
[00:24:06] Laura Lee Blake: Yes, so my advice is actually quite simple. Number one: Reach out and set up in person meetings to the extent possible. And when you get that in person meeting set up, number one, be punctual, be dressed for the part, and especially if you can come with some professionally prepared leave behind material that identifies the key points that you are making. And so you come with all of that, but then I think what the most important part is to tell your personal story. If you can connect with your elected official And tell your personal story, they will remember that. That will stick with them because they are usually meeting with so many different constituents, so many different advocacy groups, they're probably hearing talking points, on every topic imaginable.
[00:25:06] Susan Barry: Numbers and stats and data, all of which goes in one ear and right out the other.
[00:25:13] Laura Lee Blake: So if you come in in a professional manner, but then share with them a personal story, my thought is that at some point, something is going to come up where they are in a committee meeting or there's some hearing and they hear a topic and all of a sudden they think, “Oh, I remember, I remember that story. I remember that meeting. Where are the materials that they left behind? What were their talking points?” And now hopefully they, because you so impressed them with your personal story and it meant a lot that they will then pick up the talking points that you, that you articulated and they have a copy of, and they can then use that to shape the legislation, to shape their vote, to shape their decision on that important issue.
[00:26:06] Susan Barry: I love that advice. I'm a big believer in storytelling as you know, we'll get to that in just a minute. AAHOA has made great strides with initiatives like Her Ownership. What advice would you offer women in hospitality who are looking to make their mark?
[00:26:24] Laura Lee Blake: Well, I think the number one thing for women is to network. And the reason I say it's the number one thing is because it's probably the most difficult thing for us to do. Our lives are so busy. We have family obligations. Oftentimes, especially in this age range, we are dealing with aging parents. We are dealing with children who are ranging from elementary school to college level, so we have so much with our families. We have outside friends. We of course have work demands that are never ending. Then we have our community obligations and we have our church activities and the list goes on and on. But if you can spend some dedicated time really networking with the other women that you find in the industry — maybe they can serve as mentors, maybe not. But at least if you're networking with them and communicating with them, that helps to keep you in touch with what their thoughts and concerns are with what the latest trends are in the industry, but also maybe new opportunities. And the more they see you and understand your passion, your goals, your objectives, then if some door of opportunity opens up, you may come to mind, they may give you a call. So I think networking is the number one and probably a close kind of cousin to that is making sure that your work is excellent. I always learn this as a child, there's an old proverb that if you do excellent work kings will notice. And I believe queens will too. That's what will get you noticed so always always always strive to do excellent work I mean, good enough just really is not good enough anymore, right? So if you want to shine, if you want those opportunities to make sure you're networking and you're doing your very best excellent work at every level, people will start to take notice and doors of opportunity will absolutely open for you.
[00:28:40] Susan Barry: Absolutely, true fact. We have reached the fortune telling portion of our show. So now you have to predict the future and then we'll check and see if you were right. What is a prediction that you have about the future of hospitality associations and their role in shaping the industry?
[00:29:00] Laura Lee Blake: So my belief is that hospitality associations, and especially AAHOA, will continue to shape the industry. And what I mean by that, it's not only as they continue to grow and continue to have scope and influence because of the numbers of hotels that they own. But as you mentioned earlier, I'm seeing a strong effort by our members to be more involved in advocacy, and I'm seeing probably the next step on that is not just we go to Washington, D.C. twice a year, we're doing more and more at the state and local levels, but I'm expecting to start seeing more and more of them even running for office. And we are starting to see that. We've seen a few key members lately who have even run for the position of mayor, so that is exciting. We're seeing that governors are appointing some of our key members to important economic development committees. But I'm expecting that in the upcoming years, more and more of our members will be running for office and that will be the next step in our advocacy efforts as we continue to have a voice for the industry to shape the decisions that are being made to shape the industry and really to take it to the next level as we continue to do with AAHOA.
[00:30:23] Susan Barry: Oh, I hope that prediction is right. Okay, if you could wave your magic wand and change one thing about the way that our industry engages with policy and advocacy, what would that be?
[00:30:37] Laura Lee Blake: Well, if I waved my magic wand, I would say I would want it to be that the industry and our elected officials with our advocacy and policy issues, would understand that AAHOA is always right!
[00:30:59] Susan Barry: I love that!
[00:31:00] Laura Lee Blake: And I say that you know in somewhat of a humorous manner, but I also there's a level of seriousness to that because — and this is what I love about AAHOA — is we are just kind of the, the, um, master place of brilliant ideas, right? We never lack brilliant ideas, but before we go out, especially with advocacy and that type of thing, these ideas are fully vetted and we bring them to different committees. We bring them to our lobbyists. We bring this to outside experts. They are fully vetted. So by the time we take a position on a policy or we're advocating for something it's because we have seriously considered all angles. We have sought wise counsel from so many advisors. And we know that what we're doing is for the best of the members the best of the industry, and it's to strengthen and protect the industry. We don't do these things out of kind of just intuition or a feeling one morning that let's go and do something crazy. It is truly an effort to bet and to advance the industry.
[00:32:17] Susan Barry: It's important to say this too, that AAHOA is not a monolith. It is a very diverse organization with All different types of opinions. Like people don't just go to an AAHOA meeting and rubber stamp everything that happens. So when you say that ideas are vetted, they are very seriously vetted. I am well aware.
[00:32:37] Laura Lee Blake: Yes. Yes. We have many debates on the topics. And so anyway, that is my magic wand that the world would just know that we're right. Just listen to us.
[00:32:50] Susan Barry: Okay, fantastic. What is next for you and what's next for AAHOA big picture?
[00:32:57] Laura Lee Blake: Well, and again, it's to continue to advocate for these different issues and really to take it to the next level. I mean, we have, as I mentioned early on, we have another HYPE conference coming up in February of next year. Helping our Young Professionals Evolve. We'll be going next year on our fourth, Her Ownership conference. And the reason I raised both of these is because it's this ongoing effort to really expand and strengthen AAHOA and even I am looking at personally. How can we even take this to new levels where it's not just Asian Americans? We've been having these discussions on and off for years and I think one way to expand kind of our membership beyond Asian Americans is through the young professionals, it's through the Her Ownership. You know, Her Ownership especially is focused on all women that have an interest in possibly owning a hotel someday or who have hotels and want to expand their portfolios. And that's not just Asian American women, right?
So, really looking at new opportunities to engage the industry even further and create greater collaboration with even the non-Asian hoteliers to see, what can we offer you? And I have to, I'll just put in this little plug as well, because I attend a lot of conferences in this role and I love going to these conferences, but I have to say there is no conference like a AAHOACon. AAHOACon offers more the energy levels, not only the serious business topics that are addressed, but the tremendous fun that's infused in it along with the educational opportunities. And so if we could maybe spread that message even further and start inviting outside kind of hoteliers that are not yet members of AAHOA to experience it, I think we could take it to new levels as well. So these are just some of the ideas that we are sharing and we are considering on how can we continue to expand, continue to grow, continue our influence and continue to help shape and better the industry, every step of the way. So we're excited about, you know, the possibilities there again.
[00:35:31] Susan Barry: Okay, folks, before we tell Laura Lee goodbye, we are going to head down to the loading dock where all of the best stories get told.
Elevator voice announces, “Going down.”
[00:37:24] Susan Barry: Laura Lee, what is a story you would only tell on the loading dock and maybe not in a senator's office?
[00:35:55] Laura Lee Blake: Since it is Halloween, um, I have to share the story. So, and it, we recently had a women's event. It was a women's Sunday afternoon high tea and soiree at the Columbia Gorge Hotel and Spa in Hood River, Oregon. This is owned by a family of our AAHOA Northwest Regional Director Tron Patel, and this historic hotel has become infamous for its spooky sightings and eerie experiences, okay? So the story is that it is haunted, okay? And while we were there, we heard the stories and even did a tour of the hotel to see some of the, some of the spots. But the smell of cigar smoke is believed to have come from a former resident and the hotel staff told us, yes, they often smell cigar smoke as they're walking through the hotel, even though no one is there. Furniture is sometimes mysteriously barricaded in empty rooms. There are ghostly apparitions, including a man in a frock coat, a lady in white, and a woman haunting room 330, and even a child's spirit is lingering where a pool once stood.
[00:37:27] Susan Barry: Oh, I don't like that.
[00:37:29] Laura Lee Blake: And while we were there, um, they even showed us, in their kind of main meeting room where we had our sessions, there was a wall of, of mirrors. And they showed us that despite how many times they clean these mirrors, Fingerprints will show up on these mirrors and some of the women actually got photos of this.
[00:37:53] Susan Barry: Oh, no! Why are you trying to give me nightmares?
[00:38:00] Laura Lee Blake: So we went and did a tour and we went and saw like various rooms and there's apparently a friendly ghost named Oscar that they've also identified And so we do this, I mean we're having a great time hearing these stories. We even did things, like we wiped the fingerprints off the mirror to see if we came back if they were there again, you know, we were, we were kind of messing with it. We're having a great time, but then we wrapped up the meeting and the team and I, we got into our SUV because we had another event to go to that evening. And as we got in the SUV and we're pulling out onto the freeway, suddenly the back hatch opened and we, the team kind of freaks out, like, to the driver, like, please stop! You know? And so he pulls over and he's like, I swear I didn't push anything. And we get the back hatch closed and we figured, okay, you know, it was just something crazy. And somebody said, well, maybe that's Oscar. Then we go to this event and we come out and we get back on the road and that back hatch opens again. And the driver now is freaking out. Same driver. He was like, I swear I did not touch anything. So the joke became that Oscar was joining us.
So we start talking to Oscar, telling him, “Oscar, Oscar, you know what time to go back to the hotel. We don't want to take you away from from where you've lived for many years.” But we did hear at the hotel as well that in fact, they rent out some of these rooms that are that are supposedly haunted and one guest was staying in the room and was so freaked out that he decided he couldn't stay there any longer. Reached out to all the hotels in the community and it was sold out that night. He spent the night in his car in the parking lot because he couldn't handle it. So.
[00:40:04] Susan Barry: Oh, poor guy. Oscar should have come to comfort that guest.
[00:40:11] Laura Lee Blake: But in some ways, you know, it was interesting. It actually opened up a lot of great conversations with my team on who believed in ghosts and who doesn't and experiences that we've all had at different points. And just kind of even our, our religious and faith beliefs and what does that mean? So it was, it was as silly as it was, with kind of this thought that maybe Oscar had joined us, it actually turned into just a lovely opportunity to connect with the team and kind of talk about our faith and our beliefs and what we believe is even in the next life. So, anyway, it was truly a blessing in the end.
[00:40:54] Susan Barry: Well, I'm glad because I was nervous that you were going to say everyone had bad dreams that night and all quit the next day. So I'm very happy that I had a happy resolution. Laura Lee Blake, thank you so much for being here. I know that our listeners love learning more about AAHOA. I certainly did. And I really appreciate you riding with us to the top floor.
[00:41:15] Laura Lee Blake: Yes. Well, thank you. This has been such an enjoyable experience. Thank you for making it so fun.
[00:41:23] Susan Barry: Thanks so much for listening. You can find the show notes at topfloorpodcast.com/episode/164. Jonathan Albano is our editor, producer, and all around genius. He even wrote and performed our theme song with vocals by Cameron Albano. You can subscribe to Top Floor on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you like to listen. And your rating or review will go a long way in helping us give you more of what you like.
[00:41:58] Narrator: Thanks for listening to the Top Floor Podcast at www.topfloorpodcast.com. Have a hospitality marketing question? Reach us at 850-404-9630 to be featured in a future episode.