It's Personal Stories, A Hospitality Podcast

Lani Kane-Hanan, CEO, ONE (Open Network Exchange), interviewed by Lan Elliott

• David Kong

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Lani discusses her 20+ year career with Marriott’s timeshare group and her new role as CEO of a technology company.  She shares how she advocates for herself, how she selectively chooses new roles and takes on calculated risks, and how being a mentor can get you a mentor.  She also discusses the tendency of some women to use language that diminishes their words, in order to avoid being perceived as aggressive.

Lan Elliott:

Hello and welcome to DEI Advisors. My name is Lan Elliott on behalf of DEI Advisors and today I'm really happy to have a friend that I've known in the industry for many years, Lainie Kane Hannon.

Lani Kane-Hanan:

Welcome, Lainie. Thank you, Lan. I'm very excited to be here. I have been wanting to be a part of this initiative that you've been working on. I find it very inspiring and I'm so pleased to finally be able to be your guest.

Lan Elliott:

I'm so pleased we found a time to make it work. So thank you Lainey. And Lainey is the CEO of one, which stands for Open Network Exchange. And if you aren't familiar with her many accomplishments, I hope you'll go to our website, dei advisors.org, where you can read more about her. Lainey, let's jump right in'cause I know our paths have crossed a number of times over the years. Can you share some of the inflection points of your very successful career? And if there were any particular factors or factor that you think contributed to your success.

Lani Kane-Hanan:

Absolutely, so over the years, I have been the CEO just to give everyone a bit of background. I've been the CEO of wine for a whopping 3 months. And in tech world, maybe that's dog years. Maybe that's 21 months, but it's still only 3 months. And 1 is a, a tech company, which services a lot of different industry, but really specializes in the hospitality industry. And and while we are a tech company, we're really a partnership company. And that's what and that's what I love. And we really work with our partners, contribute our technology, know, how marketing and sales initiatives. To their products to make them stronger, bigger, faster, better. So when I think about the role I have now, and I think about my last 23 years prior to that at Marriott and at Marriott, I loved every day of it. It was a wonderful place to have 23 years because I had 10 different careers and never left the company. But when I think about that journey and each of that. Each of the moves that I've made, I think the inflection point was at each of them was being able to recognize that a situation that's happened and make myself an impact player during that situation or crisis to prepare myself for the next blank. And I didn't know necessarily what that was, but if you go back to the early years of 9, 11, when I, when we 1st, when I 1st started with Marriott, there's a crisis jump in hands and feet 1st, right? Do whatever you need to do from making big decisions to, I say, emptying the dishwasher, everything in between and know that you're becoming an impact player. And then when the dust settles, there'll be a place for those people who went above and beyond and who really cared about what was going on with their company. And more importantly, the associates, employees, clients that were impacted with what, whatever, what was going on. And most of the time the major inflection points for my career, whether it was a 9 11, or when Marriott spun us off into our own publicly held company, or, to a way to a non financial crisis, or most recently a pandemic, whatever it might be their external factors coming in. But and people always say they're not personal, but they are personal the personal to every single person who works at that. At that company to every single customer who's impacted by that every single client who's seeing a change in their bottom line. So by all means, even though it may not be something that you directly caused, it's personal and there's nothing wrong with making it personal, especially in our industry. Absolutely.

Lan Elliott:

I am curious about staying at Marriott for as long as you did, because obviously there were opportunities where you could have jumped off along the way. Could you talk maybe just a little bit about the choice to stay at one company for a long time and how you know when it's time to move to the next thing?

Lani Kane-Hanan:

Absolutely. So for me, I never planned on, I never joined Marriott to say I'm going to stay here for a quarter century and and, or just shy thereof never even was on my radar. And in fact, when I joined Marriott it was in Marriott vacation club in the vacation. ownership division. And I remember my mom used to say, my daughter's a vice president with Marriott in timeshare, like she whispered that in timeshare part, right? Because that was risky, right? To join in timeshare. But I loved the product. I had a lot of passion for the product. I really believed in it. And I think that passion is what fueled me through the 23 years. Because we were in a constant state of reinvention and a constant state of change and challenge. So I always felt that I was contributing. I always felt that I was respected. I always felt that I was learning new things. And to me, when you had that kind of network and support system. It's not that I constantly chose to stay. It's that I never desired to leave. I felt very fulfilled in that. And I think that at the core of it, and I was thinking about this is it's really passion. It was passion and belief for the products that I think is the edge of longevity, because when you hear people. Come and they would say, Oh, I would never stay at a Marriott courtyard, or I would never buy a timeshare or something like that. This isn't the right company for you, right? Because you, if you don't believe in our product and really have passion for what we were doing at the time, then how can. How can you really give that extra 10, 20 percent that takes you from good to great. So I don't know if that's a secret recipe, but I think it was for me. What fueled my longevity?

Lan Elliott:

I love that. I love the idea of being really passionate about what you're doing. It's not just a job. It's really, you pour yourself into it when you're in these kinds of roles. So I love that as a. As a thing to consider when you're selecting a job or when you're staying in a job. I want to go a little bit further down career development. Was there ever a skill or a trait that you said, you know what, I'm going to intentionally develop this because it might be important to further my career. I know it's interesting player, so I don't know if there were other things,

Lani Kane-Hanan:

but early on well, before I decided to have a career in hospitality, my family was in the hospitality business, which is really where I believe I learned to love this business and the. My grandfather used to say the business of hospitality is a privilege and it was an interesting perspective on it because he said people are choosing your establishment to spend the most maybe scary or exciting or challenging times of their life. They may be on a big business meeting or a job interview. It may be a wedding or a sweet 16, whatever it might be. They've chosen to spend that. That amazing piece of their life with you. So consider it a privilege. So from early on, I had my grandfather as this mentor for me in the hospitality business. And so when I was one of three girls, my mother was one of two girls. And so we were always women in, in, in this hospitality business with my grandfather. And and he used to say, if you want to be in business, know how to run your business. And so from an early age, he instilled on me that you have to love the hospitality business. You have to believe it's a privilege. But you have to know how to run your business. And I always took that to heart. So the skill that I really dove into was to build my financial prowess to make sure I knew how to read a financial statement. I knew how to create a budget. I understood my cashflow. I knew what was driving my business so that. I was just as useful in a good time as I was in an economic downturn and I, so I think for me, what set me apart was having that deep financial understanding coming in, feeling very comfortable with numbers and in a business where people think it's all about, hospitality, but it's still a business.

Lan Elliott:

It is absolutely, and I love the intentionality of really knowing the numbers and knowing how your business operates from a financial point of view. And I also love the idea that you mentioned that it makes you, it insulates you a little bit because our industry is very volatile and there are ups and downs and it makes you more valuable, especially in the downturns.

Lani Kane-Hanan:

So never take a job that can be eliminated from an org chart during an economic downturn, right? And so I always think about every role. Do you absolutely need it if the economy turns south, right? And and if you understand your business and your numbers, it's easy to pick that job and still pick one where you have passion.

Lan Elliott:

Absolutely. Let's talk a little bit about taking risks because you don't get to where you are today, Lainey, without taking a number of calculated risks. Can you share maybe an example of success in this regard where you prepare, how you, and how you prepared yourself mentally to take a chance on something?

Lani Kane-Hanan:

Absolutely. When I would say that I'm cautiously aggressive by nature. So I'm not a a huge risk taker. I'm the kind that sets a limit before I go into a casino. I'll absolutely bet. But as soon as I lose my limit, I leave. So I have a little bit of risk taking in me, but it's not inherent. And so every time I've been at a crossroads where it's been the opportunity to take a new role on, let's say, with Marriott Or even when we talked about, spinning off and the opportunity to be your own publicly held company and not have the safety and security of Marriott as your backbone anymore, although it was still always, I was considered at our parent company, but, I would always try it on. So whenever I get to one of these crossroads of risks, I try it on. Okay, what if I took the risk? How did it feel if I failed? Now, what if I didn't take the risk? How do I feel the next day about regret? And I've had those moments in my life where the regret overpowered the fear of failure. And that's when I said, Hey, I can take this risk. And I've had that moment where I said, I don't think I'm ready for this risk. I think I'm just not prepared for it. And I know myself well enough. So I would always as crazy as it is. I try it on. I live with the decision for a day. See how it feels. Then I live with not making the decision for a day and see how it feels. And and from that, the answer comes.

Lan Elliott:

That's a wonderful piece of advice. I read something recently that said when people look back It's the things they don't do that they regret more than the things that they did do that maybe didn't turn out So I find that really interesting Moving on to mentors and champions because I know you've had a number of them in your career. Could you share? Perhaps how important it is to have mentors and champions in the business world. And for those who don't have them, how do they go about it? And maybe how your mentors and champions helped your career?

Lani Kane-Hanan:

Absolutely. I think that it is I'm basic philosophy. You give, you get as good as you give, right? So I think that it's not only important to have that mentor community, but to be part of it. So every time that I've had a mentor, I've always tried to have a protege and and when people think, oh, I, I've only been working a couple of years. I can't contribute. I can't be a protege because you learn as much being a mentor as you do having a mentor. And I designed a mentoring program at merit vacation club several years ago, where we had all the execs. Be the protege's and the young newcomers into the company be the mentors and just turn it upside down because that there are always things that you can teach and always things you can learn. And they really helped with Twitter accounts and social media strategies. And then we switched it around and help with career progression and career development. I think that 1 of the best ways to. And to enter into the mentoring kind of arena and to get one is to be one right to give so you can get you put it out there. It comes back. I'm a big believer in that. And that it's always if you. volunteer. You see somebody who has a tight deadline, you know it, ask them, Hey, can I help you get to know them? And for me, it's through personal relationships that I've gotten, informal and formal mentors and some of the best ones. And it's, You building the network to me isn't going to a cocktail party and exchanging business cards or now, tapping on your iPhone and saying, here's my contact number. Here's yours. I just dated myself. But I think it's really about jumping in and helping someone and to build a relationships. They help you. You help them. They help you. You help them. That's Castel, right? Helping each other through a network, building each other by pulling each other up. And I think it's especially true for women that we owe each other the hand up. So we can pull them up and then they can pull us up. And so the assignment begins. So for people, I would say, jump in, be a mentor to get to mentor. And I would say some of, some of the most impactful mentors that I've had are the ones that really were not afraid to tell me. The truth about some of my best strengths and how to really think about something differently, or, a situation differently. And I think that early on. When I joined the executive committee of Merit Vacation Club at several points, I was the only woman. And at several points, I was only one of two women. And it was really my mentor at the time, Steve Weiss, who was the CEO of the company and my boss who, shared with me that you, you don't always get married. What you think that you deserve sometimes you have to speak up, right? And we, as women often have this phenomenon where, it's not our turn. So we don't speak up because if we do, what happened for aggressive. And if we don't, we're meek. And if there's something in between, I don't know, I can never find that balance. But but it got me thinking as I was on a plane once to Japan, and I was. Arranging for the Japanese translator in the meeting and it really got me thinking that if I'm going to Japan where there's a room full of people and we don't speak the language, I'm going to get a translator. But here I am the only female in a room full of male executives and I don't recognize that we're speaking different languages. And we were. And so I spent some time thinking about and researching and digging into how men and women speak different languages. And some of it's cliche and some of it's, maybe exaggeration, but there was some truth to it because I know I was the kind of person who used to say, this might be a dumb question, but. So I've already dismissed myself. I've already dismissed myself in the meeting. But for me, it was a comfortable way because I didn't want to be aggressive of jumping in. So I learned those things that I was doing to dismiss myself or dismiss my idea. I had that habit of if I had an idea, even if I was saying it. I had a little inflection at the end of my, at the end of my statement. We almost made it a question, right? And so that would diminish confidence in what I was saying, even if it was conscious or subconscious. So I think it's understanding, the role that mentors play and in different parts of your life and being really open to thinking about the concept, that constructive. I'll be it. I use the word constructive. Constructive feedback is a gift. Open the gift, use it.

Lan Elliott:

So many great concepts that you covered in there. I love this idea about being a mentor in order to get a mentor. Chip Conley has this term that he, I think, invented called being a mentor, where you can learn from each other. You can be a mentor and an intern at the same time because you can love it another. So it's, it parallels that concept. And I also really find it interesting that Part of it is the different languages that perhaps men and women have when they're suggesting an idea and women might do it in a different way than men. And I do want to come back to that. So I'm going to circle back to that in a little bit.

Lani Kane-Hanan:

Sure.

Lan Elliott:

But along those lines, wanted to talk about. Advocating for ourselves because a common generalization is that we don't always do a good job advocating for ourselves or when we do we say we diminish it and the way we ask the question or turn questions, turn statements into questions. So there are lots of ways that maybe we aren't advocating for ourselves in a way that's helpful. And there is some thought that's one of the challenges and seeing women. Elevated to the C suite or getting promotions or other things, what would you tell viewers who are struggling to find their voice to ask for something that they really want other than not making it a everything as a question at the end?

Lani Kane-Hanan:

That's true. I have found that I stopped comparing myself to others, right? And saying, okay Chip walks into the meeting and says, I demand a raise that strategy may or may not work for me. And it might not work for me, not because I'm a woman, but because it's not my nature. And at the end of the day, we still have to be true to our natures. So I found for me that every time I needed to advocate for myself, I approach, I still do this today. I approach it like a sales call. So if I was going to go to ULAN and present. Open network exchange. You need to use our technology to build your new loyalty program. I'd have a beautiful PowerPoint. I'd have all of, we probably wouldn't use PowerPoint, but use pitch, but whatever's the technology you'd use, we'd have a beautiful presentation with all of the points about how our companies can work together and the win and right. So why don't I do that for myself? So I found that whenever I needed to advocate for myself, I approached it like a sales call. So people come into my office all the time and they say, I've been here 2 years. I deserve to be a VP to me. Time does not equal promotion or merit. You come into my office and say. I've been here two years. Here's the seven things that I've accomplished. Here's how I've exceeded the KPIs. Here's some things that you never asked me to do that I jumped in and tackled. And here's how I want to approach my development plan. And here's why, therefore, I think that I can be a, I can hit the ground running as a VP or this new job. And here's what I commit to achieving. I'm going to give the person that job. They thought it through, right? And so I have to advocate from a period from a place of homework done. That's what builds my confidence. And so I think that what I would say is if you're going to advocate for yourself, know yourself, know what builds your confidence, right? Know your own superpower. And for me, it's not sales, but for me, it's selling something where it's a win. It's a no brainer. And so if I'm able to put this plan together, and I really believe. That I am the right person. I have my facts together. I've been doing the job already. I stepped up. And then I feel very strongly that I can advocate for myself if but you have to know the flip side. Let's say you advocate for yourself and you don't get it. What are you prepared to do? What are you prepared to ask? How are you prepared to, to emote, right? What are going to be emotions through that? So I think it's knowing both sides, but, knowing your own self and knows knowing what gives you confidence and speaking and following through. So many people like I didn't get a promotion. Did you ask? Did you say something? Did you say you wanted it? No, you just sat and stewed. You can't. Yes, the company should have known they should have recognized. But sometimes I have 14 direct reports and sometimes I lose track of who did does what. I never mind when someone reminds me. I appreciate it.

Lan Elliott:

Yeah, I think sometimes you get caught up in the things that you've done and you assume that other people remember everything that you've done. So I really like the idea of preparing, going in with the facts and trying to keep emotion out of it. It's really about, these are the facts, these are the plans and being thoughtful about it and approaching it. Like you said like a pitch that you might be doing that you would talk about your company. You talk about your own accomplishments and I love that approach to it. I'm going to move on to a concept called the assertiveness double bind, which the first time I read this, I didn't know what the heck this was, but a double bind is one of those situations where no matter what you do, you can't win. And a challenge that women leaders sometimes face is this idea that you can't be both competent and kind. So if you're too kind, you're too nice, you're too weak to be able to be a good, strong leader. So that doesn't help you. On the other hand, if you're too assertive, you're strong, you're a strong negotiator, you can be viewed as difficult. And then that also makes it harder for you to advance within a company. Have you ever had? This situation that you've encountered and if so, how do you walk that tight rope? How do you balance it all?

Lani Kane-Hanan:

I can't think of a time when I haven't had this situation, right? I've often been the only woman in the room. My various roles have always been product related, but sometimes it was constructing physical products. So in the construction world they're not expecting me often even in a tech or product related role. And I've often been caught in this conundrum of being assertive, but being feminine, right? And how you balance the two. For me I've. I believe over the years, I've developed my own internal brand, if that doesn't, if that doesn't sound silly, but the, my brand has always been to have grace, but when the race, right? So that's a crazy statement but what it means is that I'm always going to still fight hard to win the race. And that's that assertive piece of me, but my nature is to have grace. It, it's to I'm not going to be comfortable being the person who speaks over somebody, but I don't want to be the person that shrinks in the corner. Either and I want to handle each situation with grace which means not necessarily placating somebody or compromising to the point of mediocrity, which sometimes happens it's really more of being fair and and considering You know, both sides of the situation and living with myself to feel like I actually considered both sides and I will tell you I have been called equally amounts in my life as too aggressive and an equal amount as too soft, right? So I feel maybe that's my sweet spot, right? If half the room thinks you're too aggressive and half the room thinks you're. You're too soft. Maybe you're just right.

Lan Elliott:

That's a great way to look at it. It's the same room. You get different feedback from the same room. That's

Lani Kane-Hanan:

absolutely. So the only judge you can really have is yourself.

Lan Elliott:

I think you've hit the middle. One of the things that has been talked about a lot since the pandemic is this idea of self care. And it's a renewed focus on self care or maybe wellness. What do you do, Lainey, to recharge?

Lani Kane-Hanan:

So I want to have a popular answer and say, I run and I do yoga and I have Pilates classes. But I'm going to be honest. So I have a basic kind of philosophy and I did not make this up. I just don't know who to give credit for, but the first third of your life, you learn second third, you earn last third, you return. So I'm in this cusp of my life right now where I'm earning and returning. And so I find what feeds me and what energizes me what recharges me is this concept of returning. I love being part of initiatives like yours or the HLA Castile project that we're both involved in. I spend a lot of time and with Make A Wish and I'm on their board here in the South Florida chapter. And I have other. Charities and ways that I support and give back to the community. And I find that's what recharges me. And relative to self care, my new mantra is about sleep. I've never been a good sleeper. And but now, as as I get into that, earn return phase of my life. I realized the importance of sleep. And so my little bit of self care has been around trying on and learning practices that will help me have better sleep because I've certainly seen the benefits of it. The next day. My self care is a little bit around, giving back and a little bit around sleeping more or better. I should say those are both.

Lan Elliott:

Those are both great ones. What is how long is a good night's sleep for you?

Lani Kane-Hanan:

I'm a 5 hour a night sleeper always have been. So now I'm just trying to figure out how I get a better quality 5 or 6. I've just never been a good sleeper.

Lan Elliott:

I'm just thinking what I could do if I only slept five hours a night and could actually be effective at that. I'm not surprised that we're coming to the end of the time that we're talking together because time always goes fast when I'm with you. But I have a couple last questions that I wanted to cover. And the first one is, Advice that you would give to your younger self. And this is one of our favorite questions on DEI advisors because it really goes to self reflection and looking back on your career. So I'm curious what you would want your 22 year old self to know.

Lani Kane-Hanan:

Besides of telling my 22 year old self to buy a very significant amount of apple stock, that would probably be my big advice. But aside from that, I think I would give myself permission to make mistakes. I was early on in my career, very concerned about failure, making mistakes, what people would think. And, somewhere along the line you realize that it's not the mistake or failure that defines you, but how you handle it. And it becomes part of your brand. And I think I would also give myself permission to speak my mind and in a way that's constructive. And of course, on brand for me with grace. But every moment of our lives and our careers, this is advice that I constantly give myself right now, when we look at what's happening in the world as a champion for those who are underrepresented or who don't always have a voice and in the world or a company and I, I struggle with what's going on in the world. Right and this whole geopolitical environment and how to. How it influences the workplace in a global company when you have clients and associates all over the world, right? Who have different passions, different beliefs, different new sources, right? And so how do you create this safe? Environment, how do I speak up and have my voice, but my voice as a mother, my voice as a leader, my voice as a woman, my voice as as a Jew all of these things in my life and it comes to ahead, even at this moment of my life, it's the same advice I need to give my 22 year old self, which is have grace. Do it with grace, but still have a voice. If you made a mistake, right? You might you just need to handle that mistake, own it and move forward, but not be afraid to navigate a challenge. And I don't have the answer right now as a leader, right? I'm navigating this current situation where. I want to be respectful for everything that's going on in the world, but I have my personal beliefs and passions and you're trying to balance that. And maybe the second piece of advice, which is what I've given myself in this situation is I'm listening. I think we want to talk more and listen less, especially when it's something like this arises. So when you're unsure, listen, and that's the piece of advice I'm giving myself back then and taking right now in this situation.

Lan Elliott:

Those are really good pieces of advice. I am curious given the items that you selected when you were younger, did you have trouble asking for help?

Lani Kane-Hanan:

I always. I always. I had trouble asking for help, right? Yeah, because that was viewed at the time a sign of weakness, right? If you needed help and now I don't feel shame in asking for help or advice or. Assistance. And I don't always even feel the need to explain why and justify why I'm asking for the help, but I do try to offer it when I ask for it to create that balance in my life. That's very comfortable. Yeah, I really love that.

Lan Elliott:

All right, Laney. As we come to the end, I have one last question for you because you've offered so many wonderful bits of advice. Keeping in mind the mission of D. E. I. Advisors, which is around empowering personal success. Do you have one last nugget of advice for her? Our audience, maybe someone who is struggling what advice would you have for them who are people who are looking to advance their careers?

Lani Kane-Hanan:

I think, don't be afraid when you're looking at your options to take a step sideways. Some of the best steps I've taken in my career have been those sideways ones. I wasn't sure which path I wanted to take forward. I know I was ready for a change. So step to the side, try something new. It doesn't have to be a promotion. We pay to go to college, right? So when we take on a new job or a new role, we're learning something new and getting paid. But we feel like it's a failure, right? If we don't take a job, that's an upward. Title money, what benefits, what have you, but some of the best steps I've taken in my career have been the ones I've taken sideways where I tried something new. I learned something new, a medical network of people. And really, I think prepared me for the job. I have today because I've been able to spend, a little bit of time in a lot of bit of subjects.

Lan Elliott:

Thanks. That's wonderful. Thank you. I love that advice. I love the step sideways. And also it goes back to continuous learning and there's always something new to learn and you never know what's going to be something that you learn that will propel you further than if you hadn't taken that step.

Lani Kane-Hanan:

Absolutely.

Lan Elliott:

Thank you very much, Laney, for being on today and sharing your wisdom and your insights for their audience. I'm really grateful.

Lani Kane-Hanan:

Thank you so much for asking me to be part of it. I loved being part of it and spending time with you, like always. Thank you for everything that you're doing to help keep these very important concepts, especially in these very challenging times forward.

Lan Elliott:

Thank you. And Lainey, you continue to inspire me and many other people, and I know you mentor and lift others up. So thank you for all that you do for others in our industry.

Lani Kane-Hanan:

Appreciate that.

Lan Elliott:

And for our audience, if you would like to check out other great interviews with industry leaders, I hope you'll go to our website, DEI advisors. org and look for some other great interviews with industry leaders. Thank you.