Join us as we host Andy McNeill, the remarkable founder of AMI, a hospitality giant that takes corporate meetings beyond the conference room. His keen eye for detail and knack for relationship building has made him a sought-after figure among Fortune 500 companies. From his love for Asian wonton soup to his fondness for the band Queen, he pulls back the curtain to reveal the man behind the successful enterprise.
McNeil lets us in on his journey, explaining how his high school and college experiences laid the foundation for a career that's built on strong relationships and a cool head under pressure. He shares invaluable insights on identifying the right people for your team, creating a positive in-person culture, and managing the unique dynamics that come with in-person meetings. McNeill's tips on fostering real relationships and diffusing tense situations are gold nuggets you wouldn't want to miss. Discover how a passionate hospitality expert navigates the corporate world and builds bridges that stand the test of time. Prepare to be inspired!
Thanks for listening. Please check out our website at www.forsauk.com to hear great conversations on topics that need to be talked about. In these times of intense polarization we all need to find time to expand our Frame of Reference.
Join us as we host Andy McNeill, the remarkable founder of AMI, a hospitality giant that takes corporate meetings beyond the conference room. His keen eye for detail and knack for relationship building has made him a sought-after figure among Fortune 500 companies. From his love for Asian wonton soup to his fondness for the band Queen, he pulls back the curtain to reveal the man behind the successful enterprise.
McNeil lets us in on his journey, explaining how his high school and college experiences laid the foundation for a career that's built on strong relationships and a cool head under pressure. He shares invaluable insights on identifying the right people for your team, creating a positive in-person culture, and managing the unique dynamics that come with in-person meetings. McNeill's tips on fostering real relationships and diffusing tense situations are gold nuggets you wouldn't want to miss. Discover how a passionate hospitality expert navigates the corporate world and builds bridges that stand the test of time. Prepare to be inspired!
Thanks for listening. Please check out our website at www.forsauk.com to hear great conversations on topics that need to be talked about. In these times of intense polarization we all need to find time to expand our Frame of Reference.
Welcome to Frame of Reference. Informed, intelligent conversations about the issues and challenges facing everyone in today's world. In-depth interviews to help you expand and inform your Frame of Reference. Now here's your host, raul Labresch.
Speaker 2:Well, welcome, welcome, welcome. Welcome to another edition of the podcast Frame of Reference Profiles in Leadership. If you did not mean to listen to Frame of Reference, well then I'm sorry, but you really ought to stick around because we've got a wonderful guest today and my welcome, welcome. Welcome is usually not that effervescent, but you'll understand in a moment when I introduce our guest. I am sitting across the screen from Andy McNeil, who has a heart for hospitality. Excuse me, andy, but when I think of hospitality, I think of Mrs Potts singing. Be our guest, be our guest. And you know that just that gets me going in a very, you know, positive direction right away. Love it.
Speaker 2:But after 30 years of working in the industry, he has helped literally thousands of organizations build stronger relationships through shared human experience, and Lord knows, we need some shared human experiences more than ever.
Speaker 2:He's a successful entrepreneur and the founder of AMI, which is American Meetings Incorporated is that correct? Incorporated, yeah, ami. And which is a global hospitality and market that elevates I love that. It elevates the corporate meetings to the next level, which, again, you know, is that many, many, many companies could, and as well as individuals, and Andy has helped thousands of businesses and Fortune 500 companies travel to unique once in a lifetime destinations, like destination weddings, but business oriented, and AMI operates in 100 plus company works on global scale with the world's top brands like oh, you might have heard a couple of these Salesforce Mars Candy Bars one of my favorites, especially this time of year K-Cats, baby, yep, yeah, yeah, there we go Pepsi Cola, pfizer, cvs Health. You know little companies that no one probably knows about, but trust me, they're big deals. So, andy, thank you so much for being with me, thank you for sharing your expertise with my audience, and I'm looking for a dark hand.
Speaker 3:Yeah, Raul, thanks for allowing me the time to share our vision and just have a conversation today with you about leadership and hospitality and how they intersect.
Speaker 2:And that we will. And as we, as I talked a little bit before we got going to how I like to start things out, is a little exercise called my favorite things, and if I were Julie Andrews I could sing it as beautifully as the title invokes in most people's brains. But I can't, so I won't, and I don't think I don't really have the rights to the song either. So I don't want to get you know myself in trouble right away. But this is a, you know, completely Rorschachian if that's a word Rorschachian conversation, where I will just throw something out there and you just throw out what comes to your mind. If you have to think a little bit. I understand these might not be questions you're used to thinking about, but it's really all about just getting to know the real. Okay. So here we go. Start out easy. How about favorite food?
Speaker 3:Favorite food. I'm going to have to go with anything. Asian Wonton soup. Let's say love it.
Speaker 2:Okay, my daughter would be all over that, she's my daughter's a.
Speaker 3:My daughter's all over it too, really. One of the reasons she loves Wonton soup.
Speaker 2:We have a thing with crab ragoon too. I don't know if your family has a crab ragoon fetish, but that we have a restaurant in the area that makes it.
Speaker 3:I wouldn't get a crab ragoon fetish, but yeah, we eat it on occasion.
Speaker 2:Okay, low main pot stickers. Yeah, I'm with you, yeah. I'm with you, oh for sure, pot stickers the grilled, not the boiled too. I'm sorry, but I've got a kind of shine on that as well. So how about?
Speaker 3:favorite color Color always been blue, blue with a little like kind of green tinge to it. Maybe, maybe because I'm a one, a race Floridian, and that's the color of the water around here. Okay, but definitely something that you know. Look at a beautiful green ocean, blue ocean. That's my jam, sure.
Speaker 2:There's a talk that in my background in theater you know, there's the thing called the green room, and there are a number of different. You know tales of where that came from. Part of it, you know the lime lights that made actors appear green, but there's also a story that it goes that it does have something to do with ocean colors. You know the green of, you know plants and how that can be relaxing, and the funny thing is, though, that I have, I think, seen one green room in my life that actually has any green in it whatsoever.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but I've been in a few. But I think you know the thing about a green room is it's never relaxing. You're always nervous when you're sitting in a green room. Whenever I'm in one, to speak, it's like never a relaxing situation.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's some blasted stage manager coming in and saying three minutes, three minutes or whatever you know exactly. But how about a favorite band?
Speaker 3:and band. Oh, my guess that's a tough one. I'm going to go with Queen, Right, it's going to go with me. Yeah, I just love Queen. I just I like because he was, in my opinion, Freddie Mercury. You know he really transcended and almost a poet and how he wrote and what he did. But also, my age probably puts me in the queen category, so the queen.
Speaker 2:Well, I grew up that I was just getting in that, you know, into college when Queen made it big. So, as I remember, so I might have been even later, but I we are the champions was.
Speaker 3:Have you had anybody else say Queen?
Speaker 2:I don't know, I don't think so, I really don't think so. I bet a lot of people talk about jazz or, you know, country music or they. They tend to just kind of keep it generalized. But I've had some people too, from overseas to talk about bands I have no idea what they are, or techno music with you know bands that I have no idea what they're talking about. So that's good too. But so have you been following Queen since they got their new singer too, since they revitalized, I forget his Adam.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, Adam Levine. No, I'm Levine, I'm Adam, the guy from American Idol. Yeah, the members last night, yeah, but no, I haven't, I wouldn't.
Speaker 2:I saw a documentary on him and how they revitalized Queen and it was actually pretty fascinating that finding him in his voice is similar to Journey's journey in finding a young man that they have so and it's interesting because they have carried the song.
Speaker 3:I'll watch that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it's really, it's pretty fun. How about a favorite?
Speaker 3:book Favorite book. So I'm so I'll do my current favorite book because I just find it. So I mean, I've got I'm an avid reader, so I've got probably hundreds of books that consider a favorite. But I'm reading the Elon Musk autobiography right now and it is absolutely fascinating about so you get into this guy's head about how he is managing his you know six multi-billion dollar businesses across across the spectrum, from AI to Tesla to Neuralink to the board company, and just understanding, as an entrepreneur myself, understanding the intensity that he operates his businesses in. Ok, I've just found fascinating and I don't think very many of us could operate if any of us could operate the way he does, but I'm just finding it really fascinating. So if you want a good autobiography read, definitely pick it up. It's a great audiobook.
Speaker 2:That must be interesting too, because he's a person that the media tries to control the narrative of. Who is Elon Musk?
Speaker 3:And he won't let him. Yeah, yeah, that's why he bought Twitter. He wanted to own the pound, as he does.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and now he's just said you know what it is. It's supposed to be a forum for America and all of its pimples and all of its you know realities and whatnot, and you know, we're not going to pretend that these, these factions don't exist. We're going to let them speak to themselves. I think actually he's been a very courageous man in a lot of ways.
Speaker 3:He really, I mean, in so many ways he's also been such a massive disruptor, and one of the ways he does that is the way he manages the business, where he just you know there's not a no, you know it's. How do we do it differently? How do we get to there? And you know, and just imagine what he's done, from Tesla to SpaceX to Neuralink I mean, these companies are changing the world and they're all kind of converging. Paypal yep, PayPal was the first big companies. They're all kind of converging under the umbrella of AI now. So it's just really fascinating. I was listening to it on my walk this morning, so I'd recommend it.
Speaker 2:What about you have a favorite quote?
Speaker 3:Yes. So we at AMI, we have a quote that says I'm not going to get it right off top of my head, let's move on. I'll think about it in a second.
Speaker 2:How about a favorite? We're going to throw you way off board. Then how about a favorite animal, A favorite?
Speaker 3:dog Any particular breed Hands down. So I've grown up with Domations, so we have Domations. Yeah, they're really sweet and they're kind of like, you know, a running dog, but they're very, very protective of their owners, but super sweet as well.
Speaker 2:I've heard people talk about them being similar to Labradors. Have you found that, too, very much.
Speaker 3:A little bit more high strung. You know really good.
Speaker 2:I wonder if that's part of why they became the fire stations preferred dog.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they were actually. Yeah, they used to run a run in France next to the carriages of royalty and then they were taken over by the fire carriages.
Speaker 2:I suppose they're highly visible right so yeah, maybe that's why OK. Do you have a favorite place or a favorite thing that you like to do when you need to de-stress? What does Andy McNeil kind of get away from it all?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I hike, I hike, OK, so I yeah, spend a lot of time in the noise, in the mountains, specifically Vermont, which is in my jam, and love that place and just amazing, amazing, just nothing better. Especially in a high, stressful business like we're in, where we're traveling all over the world to big cities all the time, it's nice to get out into nature and do some, you know, really really good cardiovascular hiking. Sure, love it.
Speaker 2:With my dogs? Oh yeah, of course. Why would you not bring dogs?
Speaker 3:Am I in my whining kids behind me? Eventually, hopefully, they'll like it, but at 12, they're not too excited right now.
Speaker 2:Just keep reminding them. Why can't you be more like dog? So that would be good. So I should tell you too, given that, the places that you like to hike. I interviewed a guy years ago who had written a book called the Appalachian Way.
Speaker 3:That book yeah, so I don't know the book, but so the Appalachian Trail is one of my bucket list things to do when I've got more time, to hike it from, you know, from North Carolina, North Carolina or maybe North Georgia, maybe all the way up to the Canadian border.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he talks about it too that he didn't necessarily do it sequentially. He did different chunks at different times and yeah, that's what I'm going to do. It was fascinating.
Speaker 3:I'll have to get the book, thank you.
Speaker 2:No, not a problem, I'm writing it down right now, the Appalachian Way, and it's interesting to hear his story because he talks about it in terms of where his life was at. It's highly personable as well as just informative about what he found going along. So great stories. I'm a big one on anecdotes and he has bunches of them, so how about? Do you have a favorite you had on your childhood, something that when you think of or see or smell that it makes you go back to a particularly good time?
Speaker 3:You're growing up I think growing up here in Florida, you know whenever I'm in the ocean, the memories of snorkeling with my father and seeing the beautiful marine life is something that always comes back to me for sure. So just those great memories. My dad was an avid diver and took us to the Bahamas on time to go diving. So I would say that Scuba or just snorkel Mainly snorkel it's pretty shallow over there so you really don't need scuba. You can scuba, but there's so much more work to do that, especially with kids. So we would just pick these just unbelievable, beautiful, untouched reefs on the out islands in the northern Apagos, so the northern archipelago of the Bahamas. It's just absolutely spectacular, sure.
Speaker 2:Sure yeah, hard to not feel relaxed Absolutely. We gave you time. Here comes favorite quote. What is it?
Speaker 3:OK, I'm going to have to come back to you on that. I'm sitting here trying to write it down and it's such a great quote I want to get it right, because it's anonymous I can't tell people who even wrote it, so OK, that's OK, we'll come back.
Speaker 2:I'm a I'm a versatile and fluid kind of guy, so we're we're not going to sit here and have you know radio silence while we wait for you to figure out what it is and hopefully we'll talk about something I'll spring it again, right, yeah, so I'll jump right in.
Speaker 2:Alrighty, sounds like a plan. So, andy, looking at your background and the things that you have accomplished, both professionally and you know, just personally, because it sounds to me, in looking at things, how your career was largely driven from just your personal experience and who you are, I think in one place I read it said that you, you, have a heart for hospitality. So yeah, and how did that come about? How did you discover that you had that heart? How was it manifesting itself?
Speaker 3:Well, I think. I think to your point, I think it comes naturally to folks like me. And then to get into the business, I think is a real blessing because you get to do it every day and it comes naturally. So the first, my first memory of doing it was like in ninth grade when I joined the student council and we got to plan all the events for the school and I just fell in love with it Because it just seemed like a great way to make people happy, whether it was the pep rally or something going on with the football game, like Homecoming, it was just a lot of fun and it just brought joy to people. So I think that's where it started.
Speaker 3:And you know I did that, you know all for high school and then in college I was very involved with my fraternity.
Speaker 3:I ended up, you know, being in a bunch of different committee chairs where we planned events and did events and again, just making people happy and really doing that. And then, you know, as I got into my career, I found my. I just found myself naturally turning to that and you know, over the course of you know, my 20s, I was having some really fantastic mentors who were just unbelievable in what they did and how they approached hospitality and so that allowed me to you know kind of form my my ground on how we do it here at the AMI as an organization and deliver to our clients. So I think you know I think all of us if you look back, you know if you're an accountant you might really enjoy your math classes If you were. You know if you're an attorney you might have liked debate In my case it was student council and having a great mentor there as well who really had a passion for I think that.
Speaker 2:So when I think of that kind of realm of thing, I think of the logistics that are involved in it. And you know, you, you I think of you know plays, places in which they've been represented, reps, and you know it's the person with the clipboard, you know, trying to make sure that everybody you know gets to the place at the right time. And you know, frankly, they come across as control freaks a lot of the time, right, well, I'm sorry, yeah, and they're not enjoying themselves and it's hard for them, it's hard for you to, I think you know, watching that, how would anyone enjoy themselves with somebody? That's that stressed, you know, and how do you avoid that?
Speaker 3:Well, we, I mean, we have one of our core value sets here is never let them see you sweat so, and that comes from experience, but it also comes from having the right people in the right seat. There are some people that think they're good event planners or meeting planners who are not, and those are the ones that are normally stressed out. And so at AMI, we've, over the course of 22 years, been able to build an organization of people, and we hire, based on you know, a very thoughtful skill set, and one of them is being very calm under pressure, because you absolutely have to be. So if you're seeing a stressed, you know person producing event, they're probably not in the right seat or hey, something just really, really bad happening.
Speaker 2:Sure, and I would think, I think of my experience again as a theater person. You're talking about a stage manager, you know, you're talking about a technician.
Speaker 3:Very much so yeah.
Speaker 2:You know, those are the people that and I work around them a lot still and it amazes me how, you know, something completely goes south. And other people that just stay calm, work the problem, figure it out, get it going as soon as they can and it's not that they're not, you know, passionate about we got to get this fixed. They're just they don't have that, as you say, that is freak out. They just stay focused, do you? I know a big part of what you're you talk about in your materials the relationship built. It's. It's like me.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's how we paid the bill. Around here we really develop strategies and series of events that help build relationships between our clients and their most important audiences and those audiences can be students, that can be physicians, it can be other business people, it can be their direct customer but creating the atmosphere and the place where they can develop those relationships in a positive way because you know, people do business with people they like and trust and what better way to do that with being in a room with them and providing value to them Sure, what do you do when you I mean you have to bring teams together, right?
Speaker 2:Do you spend time? Or do you have to spend time getting the team to call less so that they can actually have that combined experience? Because it it strikes me very much like an ensemble. You know, we, when I direct plays, I start out the first rehearsal saying we're only as strong as our weakest link. So if you allow the weakest link to define how this whole thing is going to go, then you know it's going to be much less through a through issues. If you will, then if we embrace that person, embrace ourselves in the process of raising that person, move forward.
Speaker 3:What do you do, absolutely, yeah. So I think our you know our meeting managers really, really good at that. They have the experience to educate our clients on the best way to do that and so that that that group, that team that's there, is going to be a mixture of us, our team members here at AMI, as well as the clients folks, and then obviously, their attendees are there, their end users, you know, can be there, you know, like I said, their students, their, their customers, and so you know all those people and having a plan around what you're educating them on what you're talking to them about, and that definitely takes time to build that, that trust and the camaraderie to be the team that that actually does that.
Speaker 2:And so we do that over time as well, during the planning process you know, one of the things I looked at and I guess I'm hearing this kind of come through and a lot of what you're saying I looked at your website at American meetings, calm, and the values page in particular. I like to look at that to see if you know the. The proof is in the pudding, if you will, because it's a lot. It's one thing to have core statements is another thing to live them. So, but you have the.
Speaker 2:I thought it was interesting that one of the first things you talk about is accountability, that each person's words and actions contribute equally to the end results. We honor our commitments. Are clients into each other? You know, and I'm interested how do you measure that accountability, not only with your clients, if you're, you know, meeting a client and trying to discuss if you're good fit with them, but also with your, your, your, your, your personnel is there, yeah, so I mean, I think from a managerial perspective, you have KPIs, key performance indicators, that that are set with you and agreed upon with your clients.
Speaker 3:So when we onboard a new client, we know what metrics are important to you, what deliverables are most important to you, and how can we track those. So from a client side, you know that that's really important. But the most important thing is trust, is building that trust with a client, and the only way you do that is is to be accountable for your actions, and so it's what it's, why it's one of first one. So it is okay to mess up. We all mess up, and when you're running 1000s of meetings like am I is all over the world, things happen.
Speaker 3:We can't control whether a plane is late and delayed and you know a guest missed their car service, but what we can control is making sure that that car service is alerted and they get there and take care of that person as soon as possible. So it's just really important to be accountable and you know, own up when you mess up and don't mess up. You have to be really committed and that really goes role to having the right people in the right seats is people that enjoy servicing others and in our business that's critically important. So if we find someone that we believe is not, you know, a good fit for us at AMI, we try to, you know, let them go as soon as possible because it's not fair to them and it's not fair to us and it's certainly not fair to our clients who are paying for us, for our service.
Speaker 3:We wanna make sure that everyone who's involved at AMI has a strong service-related heart and wants to be positive. And do you find?
Speaker 2:that that's more difficult these days to find that those people. Are we becoming less and less of a service-oriented nation and more of a serving nation? We talk about the me generation, right, and it strikes me that people are looking to have stuff brought to them instead of wanting to bring things to others.
Speaker 3:I don't, I think. I think. I think it's like I said before we went on air. I think a lot of people in my, my world, it's almost embedded in them. It's either how they are raised or it's a gene that they have that makes it. So I think, from that perspective there, and then just, you know, finding the right people for the right seats which is a really important philosophy we have here at AMI is we just don't hire and put someone in there. They have to have that mindset and we've been able to hone our interview.
Speaker 3:Our HR team is just fantastic at identifying those people and even if we make a mistake and hire someone that's incorrect, we have things in place that we can notice, that the managers are very well trained on noticing what it is, and some people just don't have that mentality and they're just not gonna make it here. So do I see? I don't see it, because we live in a world where it's kind of part of our culture and so if we do notice it, we get rid of it. But we actually we just have just great service skills Because, you know, open the door, open the door for someone who comes up. They stand up when someone walks into our room. You know, please and thank you. You know humility, all those things really build a great service professional.
Speaker 2:It strikes me that there are people that are well raised, you know what we would have called good mannered. You know, and perhaps you know, your company is located in Florida. Perhaps your pool is a bit larger than it might be in other areas too, just because you have such a large service industry in Florida, you know, with all the theme parks.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so it's really good. I mean, we're a pretty flat organization. We've got people all over the world, but we do have the majority of people here from South Florida. There's about 150 of us, so they're all over the world. They speak different languages, they service different geography, but you know, our core operational staff is in South Florida and you're right, we have a great service culture here in South Florida.
Speaker 2:So what's the history of hospitality? I mean, I talked a little bit about the word hospitality. As I understand it comes from a Latin word that meant guest and referred to as the guesting process. But what do you find both? Your company's history, and just the history, of the whole idea of hospitality.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think the hospitality history is really, really interesting. It was common back, you know, and we're going back to, you know, bc here people that would travel mainly for religious purposes but travel to go on pilgrimages around the world, and it was written very, very early on that it was the expectation that you were to treat them as a guest and you even went to talk about specifics around that about how long they could stay. You know what was offered, what was not, but it was more just a way of living, not necessarily paid for it. Obviously it has grown from there to being a paid service, whether it's, you know, airbnb or what we do, which is meetings management and travel management.
Speaker 3:So I think from a historical perspective it's really interesting that you see it, you know, early, early on. Then you see it through the crusades Now it really comes solidified in culture about travel. People love to travel, people love to meet and get together and share ideas. And then, you know, obviously over the course of the 21st century it just completely blew up with conferences and trade shows and educational-based meetings. So all those things have really grown. But the philosophy is the same that you know. It is treating someone with respect and having them enjoy their time with you, and you know serving them.
Speaker 2:So, when you're going through the process of developing a destination, do your clients oftentimes have a destination, or is there a process that you're going through with them to discover what the best destination will be, given the dynamic of what they're trying to accomplish and the dynamic of that organization?
Speaker 3:Yep, so there's two main things and they're pretty much interchangeable the date and the location. So those are usually the two most important data points initially, and a destination usually is one of the most important, obviously. And so, yeah, we take our sourcing managers, take them through a process to identify what's important to them about that meeting. You know, is it the meeting space itself, is it the destination itself? And then that really can depend on what type of event or meeting that you're running. And really you know finding out what is most important to that client. And then you know helping ask the right questions to find out what's going to be really really important for the attendee. And then you know putting together a package and options for them about them.
Speaker 3:And we do that in several different ways and it is a step-by-step process. And then, once you do that, you pick the destination based on a whole list of criteria and try to narrow it down to what's most important, to make the best choice. But it is definitely an art and a science from a technology that we used to kind of what the client's feeling about why they want to be there. Maybe they had a great experience in a certain destination or a certain hotel and they want to recreate that experience for their attendees. So we take them through that process and, you know, make the right decision with them.
Speaker 2:Now you talk about in the materials that I saw too, that there you see it and have the opportunity for companies to build their brand the hospitality that they're experiencing firsthand.
Speaker 3:Absolutely yeah, but how does that then?
Speaker 2:transfer into the DNA or the organization.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So I think some people are really, really comfortable using meetings and events to establish relationships and grow and others aren't. We try to educate our well, we do educate our clients on the best way to do that, the best way to establish this relationship by providing that great service. And then the question is is can you transfer that into your organization as a whole, either by having events for your staff and kind of producing them in the same way and treating them as the client, but also building just a customer service mindset into your organization, which is tough to do, especially these days with the amount of volume people have to deal with, all the technologies they're having to learn, all those things that people can find quite frustrating. So, in from that perspective, I think, I think it's really, really important to you know, understand what your, what your culture is, and know that this is a great way to build, you know, a service mindset.
Speaker 2:Well, you also. You talk about creating a friendly in-person culture. What does that look like? An in-person culture? Is that a I think, of in-person as being almost in acting? We talk about that being in the moment. You know, the sign of truly good acting, the sign of truly good play, is that the actors and obviously the director have been in the moment of what's going on and trying to build those moments into longer and longer periods of time.
Speaker 3:Well relationships you know, relationships are just easier to do one-on-one right. So when we say in person, we're talking about you know, being in the same room with somebody and you can do a lot of that online. But at the end of the day, you know, real relationship building is one with that said. You know, covid changed everything and the technology has allowed us to do it, but at the end of the day, having you know dinner with somebody, getting to know them in a very personal bullway, sitting across from you three feet away, there's just a different dynamic. So having that as part of your strategy I think you're very important. Virtual is absolutely a critical part of any strategy for a company holding virtual meetings, but the in-person ones, we believe, just create a just different dynamic that allow for clients to really engage with either their employees or their clients.
Speaker 2:So I thought this was a really interesting point on your materials some tips that will make you the friendliest person in the room. I wanna know if I do any of these things and if I don't do them, what should I be doing to get to be the friendliest person? Cause I like being the friendliest of anything or the best of anything. There we go.
Speaker 3:So, leia, let's talk a little bit about that. So what are some of the ones that really stood out to you on that list?
Speaker 2:Being interested in other people, wanting to listen more than I want to talk, necessarily being upbeat about things, trying to find ways to strategize if someone's telling me about difficult things, not to share my own difficult things, cause I don't think that really works. Your experience is only the same as another person's, tends to be off-putting, but to at least try to probe the questions. Probe with more questions as much as the person's willing to share, find a good sense of humor, trying to just find ways to laugh and connect. To be the top things off my head. I'm sure there's more stuff, but it's like the quote that you're trying to think at this point.
Speaker 3:Well, there's so many right. You hit the nail on the head in so many ways when you talked about those things, about being positive. A couple of things just a smile, right, just being there and knowing that your baggage is not their baggage, and when you're much like you said, from being in the theater. When we step into a meeting, we're stepping onto our stage and we want to make sure that we're as positive as we can be and deal with those uncomfortable situations as best we can, and when we well, when we can't, we adjust and make the best decision possible at that time. But yeah, absolutely have to have a positive attitude because that really shines from the beginning.
Speaker 2:When you're not having that. I mean everybody has non-positive moments further around negative downer debbies. What do you? Is there a method that you use to shift yourself back into that positive?
Speaker 3:You know, just taking a second, and if you're in a negative situation, you really try to diffuse the situation and take everybody out of the situation. So it's not just about you being in an uncomfortable situation, so it's the other person so changing, walking into another room, say, hey, can I come speak, can we speak in private for a second? That will diffuse the situation immediately, you know, instead of you know doing it in front of a group of other people or in a crowded lobby. You know, step away. That makes a huge difference and it helps people feel like they're not being looked at, judged, being put on the spot. And so if you really diffuse that situation like that, I think it's one of the best things you can do.
Speaker 2:I find, too, that there are people that want to be on stage and it's their opportunity to sort of display the histrionics of some sort. Taking them off of that stage oftentimes could be helping too. Exactly, exactly, so okay, so we're running out of time and I wanna be respectful of your time. Is there an anecdote, an experience that you had, or one of the events that you've gone through, which is probably harder to pick one of those on a quote, but anything you could kind of describe to get the flavor of what a really great event it looks like for you as a success?
Speaker 3:Well, I think that's hard because every event has a different goal, right, it has a different focus, so it really is meeting the achieving the client's goal is what we're trying to do. But the ones I like the best is where you're being inspirational and you're providing some sort of production that produces a good feeling with the attendees that are sitting there. That can be an inspirational video. It could be a great gift, it could be a quote, something that really really sits with people and makes them feel special. So I think, again, it really depends on the event itself, but trying to be as inspirational as possible and you can be inspirational in lots of different ways but just like you tried it to make me feel comfortable today by asking me a bunch of questions fantastic, by the way, there's lots of different things that you can do to make people feel special and really inspire them in that moment.
Speaker 2:Is there a litmus test that you kind of do or that even suggests that will let you know you're on the right track or that you've accomplished what you set out to eat?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think, just being aware of the body language of your attendees, watching them, how are they responding to it. I think being in the now and understanding that, not focused on necessarily the message that you're communicating, but focused on what the attendees are receiving it and watching them, and then adjust from there.
Speaker 2:Are there any resources or things you'd like to point listeners towards? That would be helpful. If they want to learn no more or they want to try to get a meeting organized with you, that would be wonderful. I'm going to talk to my folks and see can we do this. I want to go to Thailand. I really always want to go to.
Speaker 3:Thailand, absolutely so. We're big fans of LinkedIn, and so we have an American Meetings page there that you can follow or reach out to us, or you can always go to americanmeetingscom, which is our main website, to reach out to us and learn about how we have this service-based philosophy when we're running meetings and events around the world.
Speaker 2:When you have your own podcast, too right, where people can find out more about what's going on there as well.
Speaker 3:So yeah, that's Destination Everywhere, so you can just go to DestinationEverywherecom and that is a podcast about just venues and destinations we've taken our clients to all over the world and what we love about that particular place.
Speaker 2:Okay, last question Did you think of your quote? I'm not going to let you off the hook for that. I'm sorry, I just can't do it. I can't let you off the hook, so paraphrase anything.
Speaker 3:I wonder what we do say here at AMI is that you should always have a smile and a thoughtful gesture.
Speaker 2:Always have a. You know, I worked at Lanzan for a while too, and they talked about you. Have to have a smile in your voice, right? And I remember the first time I heard that I was like what, come on, you know? But then, as time went along, you had to understand that that a true smile. And I have to say, the picture of your group that's on the About page, there's like genuine smiles across the whole board. You know, we can tell genuine smiles. I know a genuine smile when I see it. Let me tell you so, and it's interesting because virtually everyone there has a genuine smile, and there's just a couple of people that look like they're still figuring it out. You know, like they're not quite sure what this, you know what this is really going to entail.
Speaker 3:So, and that's a we're blessed and we have a fantastic team. Yeah, indeed.
Speaker 2:Andy, I can't thank you enough for your time. I know you're a busy man and I really appreciate taking the time to talk with me and our audience.
Speaker 3:Well, thank you for allowing us to talk to your audience and kind of convey our vision for running great meetings and events and how to have a great service mind. We really appreciate it.
Speaker 2:Folks, we've been talking with Andy McNeil, who is the founder and CEO are you not of American meetings? See you? Yeah, founder and CEO? Yeah, okay, and he has spent well over 30 years in the hospitality industry. So if you want to know how to be hospitality and what is the word for it, be a better host in general, right Hospital, hospital maybe. Yeah, there you go. Hospitable person Andy's your man. Andy is going to teach you things you probably didn't even know about what that looks like. So I hope you've enjoyed our talk as much as I have enjoyed our talk here on Frame of Reference, profiles and Leadership, and I hope you'll join us again. I hope you will feel welcome to appreciate another episode.
Speaker 1:Thank you.