Tina Patel, Chief Financial Officer, Promise Hotels, Interviewed by Rachel Humphrey

Tina shares the pivotal moments behind her career route from college biology major to CFO and how she developed the skills and subject matter expertise to be successful. She talks about her board service on the Federal Reserve and a community bank, how and why she commits her voice to advocacy on behalf of the industry, and how she navigates a family business. Tina discusses building great teams, overcoming self doubt, and the principles that guide her daily journey.

Transcript

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Rachel Humphrey 0:02

I am Rachel Humphrey with its Personal Stories, a hospitality podcast, and I'm extremely excited to be joined today with Tina Patel, the CFO of Promise Hotels. Tina, welcome to the program.

Tina Patel 0:14

Thank you. Glad to be here.

Rachel Humphrey 0:16

I am extra excited for this one, and we will talk about why in a little bit. But I do wanna just start off with you sharing a little bit about your journey to leadership. Those who listen to the program often know it's one of the things that I think is most special about hospitality is that no two paths have to be the same. So tell us a little bit about who you are and how you got to where you are today, and if you think there were any pivotal moments in that career journey for you.

Tina Patel 0:42

Sure, absolutely. First, I wanna say thank you for having me on the podcast. I'm glad to be here and congratulations on such an amazing platform to continue to put leadership and inspirational stories in our industry on here. So thank you for that. My story kind of starts with immigrations immigrated from the UK here to the United States in 1979 when I was seven years old. Landed in Kansas City, Missouri, and that's why I am a huge Kansas City Chiefs fan. And it's a good time to be a fan. Landed in Kansas City. My parents ended up moving into a hotel room. My dad, that's where we lived, and my mom worked at the front office while we were at school, and my dad went and worked. Manufacturing was just a place for us to live. We had no ties to the hotel or anything. They, and they immigrated here looking for the American dream and just better opportunities. Thereafter, we moved from, oh, they bought a hotel in Sedalia, Missouri, a 30 unit roadside hotel. And that was 1981, I believe. And we just moved inside the hotel, gave us a place to stay. My mom already knew how to run a front office. From Kansas City. So she ended up running the hotel along with my dad, and we really were raised inside the hotel. Unfortunately it was also the eighties with the oil bust. And business was really down. And so my dad ended up working, having to go outside to go work in a manufacturing job to bring home a paycheck so we could pay the mortgage on the hotel. And my mom would run the hotel while we're at school and stuff. And we learned every job. For an independent hotel. You know from, I remember since I'm the oldest daughter of my dad, I would be the maintenance person. So I would be his helper to fix busted pipes. I know how to sand a wall, know how to run the front office. So we did, and when we say we did every job, I literally did every job. So you have to imagine as a child having to do that and then going to school and kind of seeing the world outside of the bubble that we were in. I remember saying, I. We'll never be in the hotel business. I hate the hotel business. I'll never marry anybody in the hotel business. So again be careful what you ask for. So there was a big emphasis in our family for education. So I went ahead and went off to university of Missouri and Kansas City planning to have a career somewhere in the medical field. So I got my degree in biology. Funny enough, at the same time my parents had been, sold their hotel and other businesses that they had created in Sedalia, Missouri and planned to move to Paris, Texas and purchase a old hotel that was closed the same time I met my future husband Pete. Everyone is in my Pete, his name's Persh. At the same time, we connected and decided that we were gonna, start a life together. And so I was at a crossroads where I made a decision with my family. That, you know what? I will help you move to Paris, Texas, help open this closed hotel, and at the same time, plan for our wedding. So again. Do dove into renovations and learn how to renovate a hotel with my dad and my mom. And so then once Pete and I got married, I moved to Tulsa where he was already based and he was already working again in the hotel industry. He ca he graduated with business business administration marketing, and we landed at a hotel where we were managers at, and again, we ran a 54 unit Best Western Hotel. That was our first. Venture together in, in the franchise world. So that's where we learned our franchise world. And we cranked it for four or five years working for the family. And due to our hard work, we were able to start getting ownership and through our sweat equity. And we probably did copy pasted and developed three or four more hotels after that. Then it was about 2002. I had my first child, Jaden and my youngest child in 2004, Len. And again, we're at a crossroad as of Pete and I, knowing that we came from zero generational wealth, what are we going to do next? So we decided to venture out and we created Promise Hotels that started in 2008. Timing wasn't great. We bought, just bought two hotels and then the financial crisis happened. So again, now we've learned how to manage ourselves through a financial crisis and tight cash flow. And then after, but then once we managed through that, we were able to continue to grow our company where in our career we had about 30 hotels that we've either bought, sold, developed, acquired at our highest number. We had 13 at one time. We are now at a SE seven hotels. With 713 rooms and 165 in associates that work for us. So that's my, my, my quick story.

Rachel Humphrey 5:24

I love it. And you serve as CFO of Promise Hotels.

Tina Patel 5:28

Yes. Yes.

Rachel Humphrey 5:30

It's an incredible story and one, so much of what you learned from your family, so much of what you learned in school. And then with Pete, and I wanna focus on that for a minute because we hear all the time, oh, my, my company is like a family. But in your case, your company is your family, and you and Pete. Run promise a very successful hotel company. Talk to others who either may be contemplating a family business model or who are in one about how you balance the success of a business, but also being separately a family to your children, to partners, to each other in your personal life as well as in your family business.

Tina Patel 6:09

Yeah, Rachel, that's a great question. Again, we've lived it. We, since the day we've been married, we have worked together and so that was a journey just finding how we fit fit roles and fit together. In that, I think. Defining our roles. I found obvious. I was really good at math and numbers, even though I didn't go to school for that. I, in high school I was on the math club and went to math competition, so I did. Numbers were easier to me and Pete, which is great with his background in marketing and administration and operations. And so we found skills that compliment each other Now. There was a journey of finding exactly how those roles were defined and learning how to, what I say is he makes the money, I save the money, and then we both grow the money. We still have our knockdown drag outs. But what we do realize is we have the same goal. We're aligned on our goals. We just may disagree on the path to get that goals to those goals. And so then we just come back to that and say, okay, let's figure this out. We're both on the same team. We, if one of us is not listening to the other, we say, Hey, look, we're all both on the same team. And so you've got to just respect each other's opinion, and work together. You're, as long as you're aligned on the goals. The other point you asked about is balance and how do balance work life, especially in a family business. And I have a little different take than most people might. We're in a 24 hour, seven days a week job in our business, and so I don't think there's really a balance. I try to do, what we try to do is the best each day. Some days I have to prioritize my family over the business. Some days, hey, I have a meeting to go to and I may not make the school play, and so we take each day and each week of prioritizing what's important for that day. And I've looked for this work life balance. I don't think there's a such thing. You just do it every day and you make sure family's a priority. Your business a priority in your personal self, you're a priority.

Rachel Humphrey 8:05

And I like that looking at it, what may be the right presence. One day may be focused in a different area the next day. It doesn't have to be an established or a set path. Yeah. One of the things that even though you have a lot going on as a mom and as a wife, and also running promise with Pete, you're extremely active in boards, associations. Nonprofits, the Federal Reserve, as you mentioned. Yeah. I'm curious, a couple of things. Number one is why those things are important to you because you have enough on your plate, you certainly adding more, but also one of the things that I have found is that I develop different leadership skills. In my association or board life or volunteer roles than I do in corporate roles, how has that involvement with those organizations really helped you really fine tune some of your leadership skills? So

Tina Patel 9:00

I think, I found that I can get in my own bubble, just work life. But there's a bigger piece of this outside of our work life bubble of things that affect our business and our daily lives that we don't have a voice for. And I think one of those things is I started becoming vocal in our business as soon as I saw an issue. Or a concern I had, I would reach out to people and say, what's going on with this? Why are they bringing this additional tax? Or why? I started asking questions. And through that I was able to connect with people and be able to get on these boards that really, show you how everything, the whole economy is impacted by other, let's take the Federal Reserve for lemme tell you a quick story about that though. When we first started out in 2008 my job was in the financial ro role. And then we were buying those two hotels. It was my first time reaching out to a bank to. Get a term sheet and close on a loan. And I remember when the loan officer said, it's going to committee, and I thought all day, my gosh, what are they talking about me? What are they saying about me? I really remembered saying out loud that someday I'm going to be on a bank board. And fast forward, who would've ever thought that it would be the Federal Reserve Bank Board. And just a side note, I'm also on the bank board. That did that loan, I am today on that bank board. You can manifest. That's incredible manifest things. But for the Federal Reserve, just to know that, they impact rates that impact the interest rates that impact everybody on the globe. What the Federal Reserve does and to see the data they have and that they wanna hear how it impacts you and our business, even as a small business. It's important. Sometimes we think do we belong in that room? Do we belong in that associate? You do. They have the, all the data in the world, but they don't have real time data, the boots on the ground. And so I think that's important. Advocacy. We, our industry. Has a lot, provides a lot for this c economy. And so we have to have a voice on what's taxing us, what's, what policies affect us. And I think recently, I testified at the house committee on small business congressional Committee on small business. And again, that's up me advocating for our industry, for small business and letting the poli policy makers know that. Hey, there's things that really impact us daily that they don't hear or see unless somebody's telling them. And so I don't know if there's further question then I answered the question, but yeah, I think advocacy is huge.

Rachel Humphrey 11:32

I think it's great to see too that your curiosity of why is this happening or what does this mean turns into, how can I help educate them? You started as curious about what does it mean for us? Yeah. And why, and then you evolve that into maybe I could be the answer to those questions instead of being the one asking them, and certainly the advocacy for the industry. In testifying before Congress. Again, another step in educating and letting people know the impact and the benefits of the hospitality industry on communities, on the economy, as you mentioned. Let me just elaborate for one question on the advocacy piece. Was there a point at which you are thinking this is important enough that I can't just be. Asking questions in my head or even reaching out to somebody, but I need to make it part of my business plan to make sure I know my local officials, that I am involved in the state, that I'm involved at the federal level, because you don't just ask questions and try to educate. You are making sure that when a voice is needed, you are there to stand up and raise your hand and say I'm happy to be that voice and share. Was there a pivotal moment for you when that transition happened?

Tina Patel 12:47

As I was pivotal moment, I'm not sure, but I, when I think about my business, it, it's not just affecting me and my business. I have 165 associates that depend on the success of my business 'cause it supports their families and et cetera. And I think there was a time I, obviously COVID was a huge, we were doing a little bit prior to COVID, but COVID was a huge impact to our industry. Ha getting calls from our congressman to say, Hey, how are you guys doing? And having that open mind to say, Hey, we need this. Or, Hey, they haven't declared our state a disaster from COVID yet. Every other state's, things like that. Being able to contact our policy makers, our government to say, you need to get this things done. That was a pivotal moment. I think most recent case that we had is. We had a, for on my local level, we had a city hotel motel tax audit. And it came back on the day after Christmas to all the hoteliers in town in which we're like, what is this? We've never seen this. And you pop it to us with 10 days to respond the day after Christmas. And so I, put in calls, wrote a letter to the mayor and the, and the city where they did a fire, fireside chat where I was on the stage with three other government officials debating them with as the lone hotelier, saying This is not right, this is not how it should be. Fast forward with the help of our association of other local community, we got the ordinance changed to be a little bit more fair for both parties and so that's advocacy. Finding an issue that's affecting you personally, and then discussing dialogue, debating following through, and getting actual things change and coming to a solution. So I think it's important people say don't just give up. I can't do anything. You can make change.

Rachel Humphrey 14:40

It's an incredible thing 'cause you've got two important lessons. One, when you look at the Federal Reserve and you think, you said you manifested being on the board, I think there's probably a little bit more than that.

Tina Patel 14:49

Yeah.

Rachel Humphrey 14:50

But the things, you're sitting there with your first bank loan. Yeah, 15, 16 years ago. And fast forward to today, and now you're in a role that impacts that. And same thing, yeah. You have a personal issue that you know, affects you and your colleagues and your employees and your community. And fast forward, you're able to make real change that, that impacts everyone more broadly. You knew this one was coming because I have made no secret. About how many times I am requesting and sourcing and recommending you to be on different panels for different conferences, different trade publications. You did tell me that this is the first podcast you've been on, so I'm delighted about that. Yeah. I would love to hear you talk a little bit about your public speaking journey. Obviously testifying before Congress. Having the role with the Federal Reserve, the other organizations, your elected officials, there's a lot of ways we can public speak. It isn't just at a conference. How do you feel about it generally? How do you prepare for it? Are you nervous? Do you think that it's something that you enjoy but you don't make time for? What does that journey look like for you?

Tina Patel 15:53

So yes, to a lot of those things I definitely do enjoy it. I just don't make the time for it, as very well until but. I think for myself it's, of course we're human. We get nervous who doesn't get nervous? We have that moment of self-doubt and nervous and, but when you're speaking about your day-to-day life and your day-to-day job, it just now feels naturally. I'm just talking to you about things I talk about and see and do every single day. Sometimes I might not remember, but there's always that moment of nervousness, but then. I'm looking and digging into the facts of my 30 year career and journey and just able to speak to you like without a script, and prepare. Of course, I wanna prepare a little, make sure everything's done before, but you don't wanna be over prepared where you are again, memorizing a script. I think, and just take breaths. I think a lot of his breathing exercise right before, just take a few deep breaths and then just go.

Rachel Humphrey 16:47

I love that. So it's preparation and being there a little bit is okay, but not keeping you ultimately from saying yes and doing it well, I'm glad you said yes, for sure for this one. Yeah. I also wanna talk a little bit about the amount of conversation right now, about the desire form a diverse industry at the leadership level and what that looks like for rising leaders in the next generation. One area we hear a lot is that in finance there are not as many women. And as a CFO, as someone who is deeply involved in the banking community, do you think that there is truth in that? Is that more of an optic or a narrative? And what would you advise or share with other women about the finance track in the hospitality industry?

Tina Patel 17:34

When I first started 15 years ago, it was definitely a man's world, male dominated. I think I was so excited when, if I would go to a bank and see like a woman loan officer, because I would only have conversation with the in the males. Early on in our career when we were looking for financing. They would call Pete, even though I was the CFO, they would continue to call him, but he was great. He would be like I don't have the answer. If you need something, you need to call Tina. And so as they continued to start engaging with me and knowing I was gonna be the one that provided the answer, and I built a reputation, now they all call me. But it definitely was an uphill battle, it wasn't immediate oh, Tina's the person we need to go to for, any financial questions or for p and ls or negotiations interest rates. And so that was definitely an uphill battle, but I think that. Also gave me the reputation of, okay, hey, there's this girl, she's promised hotels and she's the one negotiating the deals for them and doing all the financial background. Finance is, whether it's our industry or any industry it's a hundred percent impacts everything. So I think it's. You have to have a natural ability about math and it can be taught for sure, but not to be scared about it. It's not difficult. Just, I'll tell you my story. I went to school for biology. I have no academic background in finance. Everything I know I learned on my own. I learned it from, researching, reading, or calling on network, on my network, or attending conferences and learned about finance. So if I can do it without an academic decree. Oversee 150 million in assets on the financial part and be on a Federal reserve bank board and a two. I currently serve as a board director on a $2 billion community bank. Locally. Anybody can do it. You just have to put in the effort and want to learn it.

Rachel Humphrey 19:29

I love the message behind that too, of setting out to develop those new skills, to be curious, again, a common theme here, but also that you had the ability to find resources to learn each of those things that you had to learn. I'm curious, as you were doing that promise has grown from, again. Single hotel asset into a management company. As you progressed as the CFO first in a single unit, and then as a different style and structure of company as well as with all of your staff and your teams, I'm sure you came across things that you didn't know how to do on a regular basis. How do you set out figuring out where to develop those skills? Where to look for, and I know you mentioned your network, probably a great way too of the rehab. Sizing the importance of knowing who to call for what, but how did you set out to develop some of those skills? So

Tina Patel 20:25

the first thing is I went to our conferences, our our national industry conferences, whether it's LOING or our franchise conference or hunter or and learned. I learned, I went to those classes. I, and I remember everyone saying, oh, she's gonna make it to every class. I did. I went to HOA and I went to every class and I learned as much as I could. I think back when we were starting on our career. One of the associations I had where you can go and visit existing management companies who kind of show, you spend a day with them just showing how things are and that was huge. That was huge for me to learn of how to organize our company. And again, whether it's national, even locally, I would go to local small business seminars. I'd go to our state lodging association seminars. I'd go on any pod. I was on a podcast or a seminar online yesterday learning and I can still learn stuff. So that's huge is just put yourself out there. Go to these conferences and don't be afraid to call people or ask questions. Don't be afraid to ask cold call people and ask 'em and say, Hey, how do you do this? That's how I honestly learned. I didn't go to college for this for this career, the whole world is out there for you to learn from and you can't. You gotta keep learning. I'm still learning to this day.

Rachel Humphrey 21:43

I love that. Continuous learning for sure. One of the other things, as Promise continued to grow, it's originally starts. And now as you mentioned, you have so many associates in a large team. As you're looking to build out your teams, whether it's your leadership teams or the hotel teams, what are you looking for that you can pinpoint? This is the right person. Obviously everybody has their, and their skills there. But what is the it thing that Tina looks for when you're like, I'm, this is the offer I wanna make.

Tina Patel 22:14

Yeah. It's, this one's easy. It's attitude and honesty. That's it. Just from our, my history with, in this business, I can. I can't teach good attitude and I can't teach honesty. I, we can teach you the technical skills, like in this industry it's such a upward, it's easy to be upwardly mobile. We can train you on the job training. And so that's one thing that. It's non-negotiable to me. You have to come in with a hospitality, heart and customer service ability. And so smiling and being a happy person, a positive person we need, and then just honesty to work with your colleagues with us that, truth and honesty is very important to us. I'll give you a quick example. So one of our we, a housekeeper started out with us in 2001. And fast forward to now, she's still with us 20 plus years labor later, and she's overseeing two of our hotels as a regional manager. And so that makes me proud. That was us on the job training from her and, but it was also her showing. Hey, I wanna this to be my career. I want y'all to take a chance on me, teach me, guide me. I'm willing to do whatever it takes. And so that's a proud, that's a proud moment. We have several employees that have been with us 15, 20 years and one of my controller has been, she's actually outta Texas when we used to own a hotel in Texas and she, for the last 12 years. Drive from Texas to Tulsa just to work for us every other week. And I said, why do you do that? You can easily, and she goes, no, I just, I love your culture and I love working for Promise and I'm gonna do it until I'm retired. So that's a proud moment for me to talk about. So

Rachel Humphrey 23:52

And that's a reflection on, like you said, the culture that you've created and how you all are hiring and leading those teams. I wanna turn to something else that isn't necessarily specific to women, but is more often attributed to women, which is that our voices in our head can be. Holding us back or can be negative in some way and they can be louder than the people that are championing us or telling us that we have skills or strategies or providing opportunities. Yeah. Do you experience any self-doubt? And if so, what are some of the ways that you work to overcome that?

Tina Patel 24:26

Yeah, you go through your day. There's lots of times that I've thought do I deserve to be in this room? Am I, should I be, am I, do I belong here? And you can get inside your own head. And again, I've had mentors as well that said, you deserve to be in that room. They need you for your knowledge. You, they need diversity of knowledge in there. And you can doubt yourself slightly, but then put it aside and say. Think positive. So a lot of my, the way I overcome those moments, like how lucky I am to be here, how lucky that I've got knowledge that I can provide and get and have a voice in this room or be at this table. And so just trying to flip the perspective is what I would say is just. Think about the positive. Don't self doubt yourself. You belong here and you deserve to be here and how lucky you are to be here. And so that's usually how I, 'cause there's, our industry, we have been had, we've had so many ups and downs and that's what you have to do is, you know what? What's the worst that can happen, and how lucky you are to at least get to go through that journey. One of, as I look back in my industry, the biggest lessons I've ever learned is always through the hardest times.

Rachel Humphrey 25:33

Yeah.

Tina Patel 25:33

And you don't think about that when you're going through it, but as I look back and think, my God, those were the best lessons and each one of those moments have made me. Stronger. And and I feel like I can take on anything. And again, what's the worst that's gonna happen? You have your health, right? That your health, there's nothing else matters at that point. So

Rachel Humphrey 25:51

I love the rewriting the narrative in your own head. That's such an important lesson. Thanks for sharing that.

Tina Patel 25:57

Yeah.

Rachel Humphrey 25:58

Tina, for many of us, we have a guiding star or a phrase that we repeatedly say, and yours might be like, how fortunate I am to be. Yeah. But I, and so I, if that is it, that I probably just stole your thunder, but a guiding star for you or a mantra that you say that really forms how you make decisions, how you want to live your life.

Tina Patel 26:21

That's one of 'em is the how you a perspective, changing the narratives and just a positive because no matter what you're going through, there's people that are going through worse things, whether it's in their business or personal life. So I always look at that. I have my health, I have a great family. I'm loved by my family. I have great children. I have great community. You gotta. Lean on those positive things. The second is, I try to be curious and not judgmental. Always look at what people's journey are, whether it's my employee or a family member or irate Guess, okay, what's happening? What's, let's not just ju go rush to judgment. Be curious and find out what's their journey before we make a judgment on somebody, you, we don't know what. What they've been going through to make 'em, whether they're a irate guest or an employee that's just not working well with people. Let's find out what's going on.

Rachel Humphrey 27:15

That's a really great piece of advice. When you look back now, this is one of my favorite questions, ask and to ask others. You look back at 20-year-old Tina studying biology.

Tina Patel 27:29

Yeah.

Rachel Humphrey 27:29

Expecting maybe to move, moving to Texas from Kansas City.

Tina Patel 27:33

Yeah.

Rachel Humphrey 27:33

What would you tell that young girl today, either about how things. For you or some maybe something that you wish you knew then that might have made things different or easier for you along the way?

Tina Patel 27:46

Yeah, that's a great question. And this is what I tell my kids, and it's hard when you're young to appreciate that, but youth, this is your most valuable asset. Youth, your youth. And so I try and looking back, if I had known what I'd known, in my youth, things would be a lot more different. But, use your youth wise wisely, I would say the other advice for my younger self is success is not a straight line. It, it goes up and down. And like I said earlier. Your best skillset is gonna come out through the hardest moments in your life. And and I think that's so true.

Rachel Humphrey 28:24

Turning adversity into strength. Incredible. Yes. We are wrapping up on time and you've gi shared a lot of great advice today. I'm curious, as you think about the motto for its personal stories, which is empowering personal success. What is a least of final advice you would share with our audience?

Tina Patel 28:43

Just do it like, like I said, with the youth, don't have an analysis paralysis. I think they call it like, take the step if you've been wanting to do things, just do it. You don't know what's gonna happen tomorrow. And that if I could go back in time, I'd do a lot more things earlier in my life than later. And youth is your asset. Use it wisely and why not? Take the job love.

Rachel Humphrey 29:06

Yeah. I love that. We don't know that we are guaranteed tomorrow and certainly making sure to take advantage of opportunities. I am so excited you said yes. I need you to say yes more, but I'm excited you said yes to this one. I'm really appreciative for you sharing your story on behalf of the industry, what you do for advocacy and for. Our communities and for our industry as a whole is really admirable and one of the many reasons that I admire you. But I wanna just say thank you so much for joining the show today and really appreciate it.

Tina Patel 29:41

Thank you Rachel, and thank you for giving me a platform. Appreciate it.

Rachel Humphrey 29:45

And to our audience, we know you have a lot of ways to choose to spend your time, so thank you so much for tuning in, and we hope you'll head over to its personal stories.com to hear from other incredible hospitality industry leaders like Tina, who have also shared their personal journeys and their leadership insights as well. Thank you again, Tina.

Tina Patel 30:02

Thank you.