Transcript: Episode 175: $7,000 Vacuums
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[00:00:00] Susan Barry: This is Top Floor episode 175. You can find the show notes at topfloorpodcast.com/episode/175.
[00:00:14] Narrator: Welcome to Top Floor with Susan Barry. This weekly podcast ride 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: Welcome to the show. Micajah Sturdivant is the third generation in a family business that started with one of the first Holiday Inns in the world. His grandfather partnered with Kemmons Wilson to diversify Mississippi's economy into hospitality. Today, Micajah leads MMI, a multifaceted hospitality company managing hotels, restaurants, golf clubs, and more across the Southeast. Micajah is passionate about fostering what he calls psychological income for his employees and navigating industry shifts like the rise of soft brands and residential hospitality. Today, we'll talk about MMI's evolution, soft brands, and the future of hospitality business models. But before we jump in, we need to answer the call button.
Call button rings
[00:01:30] Susan Barry: The emergency call button is our hotline for hospitality professionals who have burning questions. If you would like to submit a question, you can call or text me at 850-404-9630. Today's question was submitted by Laina. I love this question. I'm so excited to hear what you say. Why do so many hotels get built without a restaurant? Your company is so deep into the food and beverage side that I felt like this would be a good question for you. So big picture, why do hotels get built without a restaurant? And does it make you as mad as it makes me? I'm just kidding.
[00:02:11] Michajah Sturdivant: Well, it makes it makes you mad when the experience, the anticipated experience is one that they're actually going to, you want to seek out. MMI, actually one of our operating companies was birthed out of this very situation where people were being required to incorporate food and beverage and specifically restaurant dining into their hotel offerings, and they couldn't run it. Well, they didn't know how to operate it. It's a very different animal, than checking and cleaning rooms.
And so we actually started in my dining systems where we were operating restaurants and other people's hotels. But today there is, there are great options elsewhere. And our industry has evolved dramatically from the days where you opened up a book and found out how many miles it was from one holiday into the next. And you knew that you could do everything you needed there in that one spot. But, there's great alternatives, I guess. And it's a different margin, different, just a different animal.
[00:03:25] Susan Barry: I think it's the margin that's the key. It's really hard to have a restaurant inside of a hotel not bleed your profit margin dry. And it's more profitable to run hotels that don't have restaurants, which it just makes me mad because I always want to order room service every single time I go to a hotel. And a lot of times that's not an option anymore.
[00:03:48] Michajah Sturdivant: That's very true. And even in hotels that do have great food and beverage, um, the room service experience has changed dramatically. The formality and kind of specialty that it once was has really kind of moved into a bento box and really takeout experience.
[00:04:09] Susan Barry: Right, it's DoorDash now.
[00:04:10] Michajah Sturdivant: Yeah, it's door, or just truly, you're right, third party out to DoorDash. So, it has moved, but for those who have stuck with it, they've they've worked really hard to make it work.
[00:04:24] Susan Barry: That's absolutely true. Well, you mentioned Holiday Inn before. Your grandfather opened one of the very first Holiday Inns. Can you talk about that and tell us about how your company started and how it's evolved?
[00:04:37] Michajah Sturdivant: Sure. I'm fortunate to be the third generation of the two co-founding families that created MMI, somewhat you could say out of necessity, somewhat, but not self necessity in a sense, really thought that there was a white space or an opportunity with a new industry. That was that was emerging with the interstate system and the classic holiday and story. My grandfather and his co-founding partner, Earl Jones, went out and bought places like the intersection of I-10 and 95, I-10 and 75, and ultimately built these sprawling 450 room two story exterior corridor, Holiday Inns, etcetera.
But back in the day, it started with my grandfather having come out of business school, returned to a fourth generation agricultural family. So how that industry was changing and folks were going to be without real opportunities in terms of workforce and thought that hospitality could be a way to do that. My grandfather said, here's my opportunity at an early age in his mid twenties to say, I'm going to step out, try something different and apply these business school principles beyond what was in place already on the farm.
[00:05:58] Susan Barry: Oh, that's really interesting. I wouldn't have thought of that. But like, there's sort of this tradition of major pivots within your family business. And maybe you have to think about looking around some. Is that what you mean?
[00:06:12] Michajah Sturdivant: Yeah, I think so. I think there is kind of, I've always personally believed that in terms of family business dynamics, I call it the three M's. You're either managing what someone did before you, you're maintaining the status quo or you're maximizing. And you have to remember that there was an entrepreneurial spirit in the day in the early days. And where, where and how do you apply that same gusto to what it is that you're doing today? I've got a friend who's also a sixth generation family business that is services convenience stores six generations ago. They were not convenient and it makes me really think how many generations in the future will we have?
Will our entire auto population be electric? What will a convenience store be in 2060? And so that's when I kind of go back and think about there will always be a need for hospitality. In some form or another, there will be an appreciation for sincere hospitality. So we we try to keep it broad and make sure that we're evolving and touching on the spirit for which MMI was founded. But applying it in operations, policies, procedures that create real returns in today's economy.
[00:07:38] Susan Barry: So growing up in a family business, did you always see yourself sort of following in the footsteps or did you grow up like, I'm never going to be in the hotel business? And then something snapped and you changed your mind.
[00:07:54] Michajah Sturdivant: Well, interestingly, I am part of a big family in terms of count of people. And so I, my father grew up on it working in a different family business. So while I grew up in the spirit of family business, I did not grow up where my father were or mother worked in this particular company.
[00:08:17] Susan Barry: I got it.
[00:08:18] Michajah Sturdivant: The company that I lead today, our chairman of the board for our hospitality company is actually an uncle. And so everybody in the family kind of works for uncles or aunts rather than in this particular business. With that being said, I worked a dish pit back when I was in junior high I experienced, I enjoyed the world of hospitality. That was a big part of my motivation, I think, to explore how I might be able to serve in the hospitality industry, professionally.
[00:08:50] Susan Barry: You mentioned your uncle. You've worked with your uncle and alongside many really long term folks at MMI. What have you learned from those relationships specifically from the people who've been there for longer than you have?
[00:09:07] Michajah Sturdivant: Oh, goodness. Well, one thing I guess I would say is, a couple things. One is tenure. My grandfather said this, but tenure is an asset and a liability. We are fortunate in our office, I've got a wall where we have more than 90 team members have served our organization for more than 25 years.
[00:09:30] Susan Barry: Oh my gosh.
[00:09:31] Michajah Sturdivant: And so it's a really, really fun time when someone hits that mark and we get to celebrate them and add them to the wall. And what's especially, I especially like about it, or I would say I'll brag for a moment about is that it's not all corporate folks. It's a housekeeper. It's a van driver. It's a cook. It's a waitress. It's people who have passion for their particular role and understood what they the meaning of it and and lived it out every day.
And kind of to that point, I think I've learned by Mike Hart, who sits right next to me and next year will celebrate 50 years with MMI. Many years as our CFO and now serves in a kind of a senior VP of finance role, but really is just a mentor and advisor to me, is that there are, in the world of real estate, there are cycles and it doesn't matter how good you might be. There are going to be cycles and that we have to be prepared at all times for the next one. Life is a team sport, especially in family business. If you want to be successful, you have to surround yourself with the right people. I think that we have been fortunate to attract a group of folks that truly care about what they do and understand the significance of what they do. And that comes back to culture. And I can talk about that because that was something that was created by Mr. Jones, my grandfather's co-founder and lived out for many decades before me.
[00:11:06] Susan Barry: Mm-hmm.
[00:11:07] Michajah Sturdivant: When I think about businesses that start in a COVID or post-COVID era where more people are working remotely, you can build a P & L that might be successful. But to ride the low times in cycles to come and not having the opportunity to interact and really get to know each other personally and professionally, it makes it tough. But I think the other is a family business that's based in Mississippi in the Southeast. One thing that I can definitely attest to is that everything in life is relative. Our highs in Mississippi aren't going to be as high as those in folks in the major MSAs and gateway cities. But it also means that our dips aren't going to be as low. We're not going to drop in the same way.
[00:11:57] Susan Barry: The rise of soft brands has been a pretty major trend in hotels for quite a minute here. What do you think is exciting about soft brands and what do you think are the challenges with soft brands?
[00:12:12] Michajah Sturdivant: Well, I think you get to really, we're going to experience economy today. More and more people want to know and get a sense of where it is that they're traveling to. I joined the industry in '06, that's when I really believe the institutional investors were seeing hospitality as a sector of real estate that they could invest in scale. And so for that reason, I think even more so, not only the guests, but the debt and equity markets wanted consistency and not, I wouldn't say the plain vanilla, but they wanted consistency.
[00:12:48] Susan Barry: Travelers did too. I mean, that's right. Being an on the road business traveler, there's a lot of comfort in knowing that you can get the same club sandwich every city you go to.
[00:12:58] Michajah Sturdivant: Amen. Amen. And I think that that will never go away. But I think that the brand families, the franchise or brand families are evolving to try to find a middle ground. But in the interim, this rise of the soft brand has been real. And it has been exciting not only as a way for the franchise or is, I think, to grow their kind of store count. But for those who really care about a community or communities that want to really create economic drivers, these soft brands have been a way to meet in the middle.
MMI is an organization that for decades has built or operated independent hotels. And so we come at the soft brand experience a little bit different. We come at it from the independent side rather than from the corporate side and understand the significant investment that has to be made in terms of mental bandwidth. To think about all the little details that in a franchisor's core brand is provided to you in a box.
[00:14:05] Susan Barry: Mm-hmm.
[00:14:06] Michajah Sturdivant: Like plug and play kind of a thing. And so, it has created a great lot of great experiences. What I think the challenge will be in many ways for the owner operator, franchisee, or franchisor is not only in the short term, how do you continue to make sure that beyond hiring a fun interior designer and having a sexy food and beverage menu or space? Well, how are you evolving that every season? How are you updating your program? So that every time that guest comes back, they're wanting something new. What is it that they're going to experience on this family vacation to the beach this summer, that's going to be different. And even more a little bit further out in the in the kind of time horizon is the point around decor and the benefit of the road warrior who knows they're going to walk into this room and it's going to look the same as it did last week in a different city, is that the design and a lot of these soft brands is very subjective.
What someone feels is fresh and new, the second a soft branded hotel opens because they are leaning forward on design elements, that's gonna become a very subjective discussion between the franchisor and franchisee. Fortunately, I think they are listening to the voice of the guest, but that's going to get down ultimately to dollars and cents. And how are these offerings going to ensure that the CapEx reserve is there to keep them on the front end and keep them fun and inviting and exciting rather than just becoming this quirky, somewhat dated, different thing that locals no longer want to make their living room and interact with the travelers looking to experience the real community in which they're seeking.
[00:16:21] Susan Barry: Do you think that independent hotels and soft branded hotels need more frequent renovations?
[00:16:28] Michajah Sturdivant: Probably so. But I think it's kind of in some ways, I almost see it too though, it's like a home. I hadn't thought about this before, but maybe follow me here is that, in your home, you may not redo a whole room at once, but it's in a lot of our SRD, standard room decor, for branded hotels. It's the room at once. It's all soft goods. It's all hard goods because they're really packages. And I think that soft branded world needs to constantly evolve. I'm not saying the art, but what are the coffee table books? What are the lamps?
[00:17:05] Susan Barry: Yes. I'm glad you said that because that's the part in a soft branded hotel. This is going to sound crazy, so bear with me, but that I think makes or breaks the feeling of being dated because so many soft brand hotels have so many knick knack paddywhacks everywhere you turn that and they get raggedy after a minute, right?
[00:17:27] Michajah Sturdivant: They get raggedy or they go missing.
[00:17:29] Susan Barry: Yes. Or they get dirty or they stop making sense. Yeah.
[00:17:33] Michajah Sturdivant: That's right. And stop making sense. And so just in the same way that that new throw might make that guest room bed in your home, all of a sudden feel like something special or something new. We have to constantly think about, and that's difficult because so many owners, are relying on third parties, which include a fee and engagement. And you want to make sure that all of a sudden you're not becoming a bed and breakfast where you feel like you're in someone's home and their personal design.
It's a tightrope and it's gonna be a challenge I think as we have more and more people, especially those coming from the core or branded side who are anticipating or expecting the franchise or to really do more. And I think in the soft branded space, it really comes back to hoteliers, true hoteliers, having to own that experience and it not being so heavily weighted on the principles or core values or pillars of what the franchisor stands for.
[00:18:46] Susan Barry: Interesting. Well, I'm going to make a dramatic turn and ask a completely unrelated question, which is, because I have a lot I want to ask you about, what is psychological income, and how does MMI foster it for team members across the sort of diversity of your operations?
[00:19:06] Michajah Sturdivant: Yeah, well, I mean, I think part of it starts just with what you said, because there is diversity in our operations. Not only we were founded originally as a hotel owner operator of full service properties and how that parlayed into finding opcos that specifically celebrated the elements of that full service hotel. So today it's golf courses and spas, marinas, food and beverage outlets, independent restaurants, contract food service. Because we have diversity in our hiring practices, we even comes down to naming, et cetera. We, have some businesses that got more groundskeepers than housekeepers et cetera.
So what resonates ultimately for me and for our team members is that we're in the service industry. I fully recognize that every single one of our team members is not a member of their local country club because they either don't want to be or just simply they don't have the means to be. We are fortunate to have a lot of folks that find this to be a career, but we also recognize that we're an industry that is one in which people oftentimes used for transition or kind of tweener. So, how do we make sure that we provide the best experience for them at that stage of life? At that position in their economic well being, etcetera. And so one of the things that we at MMI really think about not to think of it as a cop out because we could and should be paying at or above market pay rates.
But we understand we can never expect someone to be hospitable for our guests if we're not being hospitable to them. And, we never, you never know what it is that somebody's walking in with. The person you've been sitting next to at work for 50 years. You never know what family issues they may be going on. True for our guests too. They may be, are they traveling to stay with us that night or play that round of golf to celebrate an engagement or they're there for a funeral. You don't know. And so psychological incomes really comes down to ensuring there is a sense of trust, well being. That they're cared for that we've got their back and that this place that they are using as where they spend a whole lot of their time is somewhere where they want to be and somewhere where they're seen. And so, as we have built out and continue to evolve our kind of benefits package, we really spend a lot of time trying to think about what is it that really matters for our team members.
[00:21:56] Susan Barry: You talked earlier about an assortment of operating companies in all of the sort of different components of running hotels and running hospitality businesses. I feel like branded residences are something that you're looking into or have begun to explore. Correct me if I'm wrong, but if that's true, can you talk a little bit about that and why that appeals?
[00:22:24] Michajah Sturdivant: Well, for me, really, it was a white paper that I was asked to provide for our board several years ago pre-COVID. You did have a number of startups, West Coast startups, that were trying to explore the white space between multifamily and hospitality. And they've evolved and approach that kind of space in different ways. But I do think that as an industry, we have definitely moved. Airbnb, while Airbnb and VRBO, the franchisors or the owner hotel owner community has said they're the big bad wolf. It has evolved the consideration of our guests significantly such that extended stay hotels were like, what were these things? These are, we're now like, oh man, these are great. They've got an extra refrigerator, they've got all this extra space like guests are using the full breadth of the franchised brands today in part, I think somewhat because Airbnb took them out to an extreme where we're saying, Oh, you can sleep on somebody's couch. Oh, you can stay in this guest bedroom with these weird sheets that have Muppets on it. And so I do think that there really is something where multi generational travel is here as part because being an experienced economy, in part because we're living longer. In part because housing is more expensive and we're way behind the europeans in terms of grand mom or great grand mom living with us, et cetera.
And so I think that not only if we're living together, I think there's more interest in traveling together. These residences provide much more space and common elements and areas. And so we are seeing where the franchisors are recognizing that. I've joked that one day, one of these days, Hyatt or Hilton or Marriott or Aichi or one of these large franchisors is going to own Airbnb or VRBO or the vice versa, whichever gets to it first.
But I completely envision there being a time in the not too distant future where you're going to a resort, community or, development where today it might be all of these homes are individually owned and they're either using local rental agencies or VRBO or something like that. But instead, now I'm staying at the frog house and it can sleep 20 people and I'm getting Hilton points or redeeming Hilton points. So I do think it's a space and it's fascinating. I'm not sure a lot of peers specifically in the hotel business recognize the resources that our franchise partners have committed to these spaces and branded residences, branded apartments. Are really, I think, an element of the future where you're finding the locality and feel of New Orleans, but the standardization of bathroom amenities, bedding, housekeeping, procedures, et cetera. And so there's melting that's happening.
[00:25:51] Susan Barry: I have long said that when hoteliers get out of their own head about the differences between short term and vacation rentals and more traditional lodging that will stop having a hotel business, hotel industry, and a short term rental industry and we'll start having a lodging industry with all different flavors of types of product, types of stay, purpose of visit, all that stuff. So I totally agree with you there.
[00:26:22] Susan Barry: We like to make sure that our listeners come away from every single episode of Top Floor with a couple of practical, tangible tips they can try in their businesses and their personal lives. So my big question for you, Micajah, is what advice do you have for other family businesses to help them maintain their pace of innovation as the generations pass? I think you guys have done a really good job of that. So I'm sure that you've got quick easy tips.
[00:26:54] Michajah Sturdivant: No. Yes. Family dynamics. No. I think being purposeful in remembering that communication, whether it's personal, professional is your greatest, greatest asset. And our family has really been fortunate in that. We don't have to get to the tough stuff because we know each other personally, because we travel together. Funny enough, being in the hospital, we actually, so 30 of us go snow skiing every year together and 30 of us go to the beach together every year. And so my wife, and some of these things, you don't really realize until you get married and your wife goes, why do y'all?
It's amazing that our children know their third cousins as well as they do. Yeah, you're right. I guess that's not exactly normal. And it's not that we're doing it for the family businesses, but I think it does come back to the general principle of so many family businesses are created. So as to keep the family together, mom and dad want to do something and they'd love for children to come back and be involved and engaged and live life together in some way. And so how you interact outside of the office and staying engaged and making that trip to see a niece's play or attend a family wedding goes a long way.
[00:28:21] Susan Barry: I feel like there needs to be a TV show about your family.
[00:28:24] Michajah Sturdivant: No, we're not, we're not fun enough. We're not fun enough. No, no, I should say we are fun in the sense that it's amazing how excited my father and his siblings can get over winning a dollar, a total of a dollar or winning the pod at a holiday left right center game. It gets pretty contested. But there's something wonderful in being 70 in a 70 year olds body. And that's something that I aspire to.
[00:28:59] Susan Barry: Excellent. Well, we have reached the fortune telling portion of our show. So now you're going to predict the future and then we'll see if you got it right. No pressure. No pressure. What is a prediction you have about the future of hospitality branding?
[00:29:17] Michajah Sturdivant: The future of hos, okay, all right. Well, I think that there's been an evolution in the sense the age of the internet has allowed independence and now you can say that also true for soft brands to build awareness in advance. But with that being said, it's not only about awareness for brands to live forever. They have to be loved forever. And so you have to pour into that as I've been told my love bank needs some deposits.
[00:29:53] Susan Barry: That emotional bank account is something when I learned about that, that changed my life. Will you explain that for the listeners real quick?
[00:30:00] Michajah Sturdivant: Oh, well, in part, it came from me out of a book called The Five Love Languages. But the other is that you have to ensure that you are providing what resonates with your partner. Providing what resonates and also apply professionally what resonates with your team members, psychological income with your guest in terms of programming and offerings, etcetera. What resonates for them? You could be two boats passing in the night.
[00:30:32] Susan Barry: Well it's like a bank account. If you don't consistently deposit into that bank account, then something bad happens and you're instantly overdrawn versus being able to work on it together. Anyway, sorry to go down the rabbit hole, but it's my favorite thing. It's my favorite way to explain things to people.
[00:30:51] Michajah Sturdivant: That's a good point. Now, I think also in terms of branding, soft branding and the core brands will live on. The big boys will only get bigger because rewards and reservation systems rule today and will rule tomorrow. I really believe that's a big part of it. In some ways, I think we've gotten a little cutesy for certain properties in terms of some design or customs. But we have to think about the long run and the grande dames, the Peabody in Memphis, the Biltmore in Miami, the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs. Those things aren't being built anymore. And so what will be those properties that live through generations, is important where that branding and how it property is positioned not as a fad, but something that really resonates today and can live on. I read this recently I thought it was interesting, is that advertising is the price you pay for being unremarkable.
[00:32:00] Susan Barry: Oh, wow.
[00:32:01] Michajah Sturdivant: Yeah, but nothing
[00:32:01] Susan Barry: That's like a gut punch. But it's true.
[00:32:04] Michajah Sturdivant: But nothing is as commonplace as the desire to be remarkable. So, as I apply that to branding, it makes me really think about that. It's got to evolve. It's got to evolve. Brand is about trust and understanding and you have to continually preach it, continue to preach it and assume that nobody knows it already. I mean, it's amazing to me. Take Coca Cola, right? I mean, they are constantly reinforcing what that point is because there's always a new audience.
[00:32:44] Susan Barry: Okay, if you could wave a magic wand and start a completely new hospitality concept tomorrow, it doesn't have to be realistic by the way, what would it be and why?
[00:32:55] Michajah Sturdivant: I think I'd have to default back on on the trend that's already in place about this white space between multifamily and hospitality. Like you said, I think that there is a spectrum that is being stretched and lodging is the word of the future. And that's going to be multifamily. I mean, not multifamily, multigenerational, experience, road warrior, all those stereotypes or stakeholders are going to live on, but they're going to find that there's a broader offering. And there's going to be a new way to experience travel, not by anything revolutionary, but just kind of mixing the pieces that are already there and siloed.
[00:33:45] Susan Barry: I just love the idea that grandparents, parents, and kids could go to a place and not have to rent it for a week or two weeks, could go for three nights, have a common area, have separate rooms, but not have to have the kids like down the hall or on a different floor. To me, that is such a compelling selling proposition that I think those need to be getting built quicker and quicker. I hope y'all do it.
Okay, folks, before we tell Micajah goodbye, we are going to head down to the loading dock where all of the best stories get told.
[00:34:28] Narrator: Going down.
[00:34:30] Susan Barry: Micajah, what is a story you would only tell on the loading dock?
Elevator voice announces, “Going down.”
[00:34:33] Michajah Sturdivant: Oh, boy, this scares me.
[00:34:37] Susan Barry: Good. It'll be a good story.
[00:34:39] Michajah Sturdivant: No I'll, so if I have to think of a loading dock. Okay, all right. I think that when the TV show Ozark came out, there were a lot of people Googling, so how exactly do you launder money?
[00:34:56] Susan Barry: Stop it.
[00:34:57] Michajah Sturdivant: I did not have to Google that. Because I found myself in a situation in the lodging industry where I got a call from a cousin one day. He said, I hear that y'all have a new owner that may be taking over this hotel that y'all managed. I said, yeah, I don't know much about him, but it's really interesting that they're not doing any due diligence and they really only drove by the hotel one day. And they're like, to close in 2 weeks.
[00:35:26] Susan Barry: What?
[00:35:27] Michajah Sturdivant: And I was like, this is a little interesting. So, he said, yeah, I can't find this guy anywhere online, but someone told me, and this was a small little Mississippi town, Natchez, Mississippi, which is right on the Mississippi River. And I say, it's the perfect mix of Cajun crazy and Mississippi genteel. And he said, you need to go Google this article that Wired magazine ran about a 5’ 2” female bounty hunter and the guy that she was tracking who stole a yacht after embezzling money from a plantation owner over in Louisiana. I was like, this is not the same person. There's no way this would be the same person.
Well, in the article, I read about the fleet of Rolls Royces that this gentleman from Louisiana owned, including a Rolls Royce limousine. And all of this really happened at the holidays. And I was like this is, what am I, this is, this is crazy. This isn't real. Nobody would actually do all this stuff. And I was invited by this new owner who was closing several days, a few days after where we were going to be managing a hotel and restaurant and bar for this guy. I said, look, hey, we're going to be in town, we'd like to meet you over lunch, meet us at Pearl Street Pasta, which was the one Italian restaurant in town. And so I said, okay. Well, I, naive me, thinking everything's gonna be fine. It's gonna be good for the team members because it's gonna be smooth through the holidays. And I come around the corner in this quaint little small town, Mississippi, and what's sitting out front of this little Italian restaurant? The darkest tinted window stretch Rolls Royce.
[00:37:26] Susan Barry: Oh my god, did you start sweating?
[00:37:30] Michajah Sturdivant: I did, I really thought like, I have no way to protect myself. Like, I don't have a knife. I don't, you're like, what am I gonna do with a knife anyway? But I walk into the restaurant for a 1:30 lunch reservation to, I mean, it's out of a movie to the one round table behind the bar.
[00:37:51] Susan Barry: Mm-hmm.
[00:37:52] Michajah Sturdivant: In the very back corner to where this one man is sitting there, who’s, I found out is actually like 40 years old. I mean, this guy's done a lot fast, and I learned the two gentlemen sitting on his side is one is his local representative, which I had, I learned a lot about.
[00:38:08] Susan Barry: Mh-hmm.
[00:38:09] Michajah Sturdivant: And the other is his numbers guy.
[00:38:11] Susan Barry: Which one is the Marty Bird character from Ozark?
[00:38:13] Michajah Sturdivant: Right, exactly right. And so I'm sitting there, and long story short, we have this long lunch in which he kind of says, well, we like to do the books. And I said, well, we don't really work like that. And we work through a couple of weeks of managing because we had, we wanted to keep the team members employed, being paid payroll. But yeah, every request from, we’d like you to buy $7,000 vacuum cleaners, to we'd like you to fire every female that's not well endowed in certain ways, to we would like you to hire these folks that don't have social security numbers.
[00:39:00] Susan Barry: Holy mackerel! What is happening?
[00:39:02] Michajah Sturdivant: And they're going to live in the hotel. So long story short, after one payroll, despite us not, or two payrolls, despite us not getting reimbursed, we just said we can't we can't do any of this. And he says, well, I'm just going to come lock the door. I said, come on. I'd love to meet you there. I'd love to see you do it. Lock the doors and long story short, the guy's now in jail.
[00:39:31] Susan Barry: No, I'm shocked by that information.
[00:39:34] Michajah Sturdivant: Yes, can you believe it? Can you believe it?
[00:39:37] Susan Barry: Oh my God.
[00:39:38] Michajah Sturdivant: And even better, the property had a fire.
[00:39:43] Susan Barry: No.
[00:39:43] Michajah Sturdivant: Yeah. Soon after we left and an insurance claim. So that one was pretty crazy. So I knew down with money launderers, attempted money launderers, I guess you should say.
[00:39:58] Susan Barry: That may top any criminal enterprise I've ever heard about in the hotel business. So I think you win.
[00:40:05] Michajah Sturdivant: Yeah, I mean it was so blatant. That was what was wild about it. It was so blatant and I'm going like, how do you get away with this? You know, how do you, how can you expect someone to act on these things that you're asking? There's just no way.
[00:40:20] Susan Barry: Buy a $7,000 vacuum. I didn't even know that was an existing product that you can get.
[00:40:27] Michajah Sturdivant: But like Marty, I don't think it is, you know?
[00:40:31] Susan Barry: Oh, I see.
[00:40:31] Michajah Sturdivant: I think somebody's goes, Oh, I've got these vacuum cleaners. They're worth $7,000.
[00:40:37] Susan Barry: I gotcha. I gotcha. Wow.
[00:40:40] Michajah Sturdivant: It all comes back to Ozark eventually.
[00:40:42] Susan Barry: I mean, listen, I think this is one of the many perfect parts of your future television program about the Sturdivant family. So, Micajah Sturdivant, thank you so much for being here. That is the craziest story I've ever heard. I know that our listeners loved hearing about you and your family and your company, and I really appreciate you riding up to the top floor.
[00:41:06] Michajah Sturdivant: It's a great honor. Thank you, Susan.
[00:41:09] Susan Barry: Thank you for listening. You can find the show notes at topfloorpodcast.com/episode/175. 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.
[00:41:45] 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.