It's Personal Stories, A Hospitality Podcast

Davonne Reaves, Founder of Vesterr & The Vonne Group, interviewed by Lan Elliott

• David Kong

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Davonne shares how she went from a front desk agent to being one of the youngest female hotel owners.  She explains the elements she considered in building her unique personal brand.  Davonne discusses how great female mentors and champions have helped her, and three major risks she took to get to where she is today.  She also shares how being confident and authentic helps her advocate for herself, following the examples of other women she’s seen in the boardroom, who come prepared with the facts and are comfortable speaking up.

Lan Elliott:

Hello and welcome to D E I Advisors. My name is Lan Elliot on behalf of d e I advisors and today I am really thrilled that we have Daveon Reeds Reeves, the founder of Ster, and also the founder of the Von Group with us. Ster is a crowdfunding platform which raises capital for commercial real estate and. The Vaughn Group is a consulting practice that assists African Americans to become hotel owners and investors. So welcome Daveon.

Davonne Reaves:

Thank you so much Lan. Thank you for having me. So excited

Lan Elliott:

for this. Davonne, can you share some inflection points from your incredible career? And as we talked about, like I've been on panels with you, I've talked with you several times, but I'm really excited to hear your story, some of the inflection points and also maybe some of the factors or skills that you think contributed to your.

Davonne Reaves:

So well, hello? Hello everyone. My name is Rayvon Ree. As Lan mentioned, I am the founder Vester, which is a crowdfunding platform as well as the Von Group, both based out of Atlanta, Georgia. I've been in the hospitality industry for 15 years. I got my start off as a front desk agent working at the iconic Hyatt Regency Atlanta. So to all my hospitality folks out there, I'm pretty sure you probably made your way through the Hyatt Regency Atlanta. Okay. So I was, I worked in the front office for about six and a half years, and then I transitioned into corporate or the transactional side of hotels by working. As a non-paid intern for a consulting firm based out of Atlanta Panther Hospitality, now HWA Hospital, Horwath, htl. And then I was there for about two years. And then I worked for C H M Warning, which is one of the largest, so probably the largest third party hotel asset management firms. I was there for about two years. Absolutely loved it. Learned so, and in 2017 is when I formed my own firm. I finally got, I finally took that leap of faith into the world of entrepreneurship, and I created my own firm called Devon Group. And in 2020, I acquired my first property outside of working in corporate with Mass Hall Investments, which we acquired a 85 room home, two suites in El Reno, Oklahoma. And in 2021, we acquired two more properties, the state Virginia Suites in Indianapolis, fishers, and the Hampton and Sweets in Scottsburg, Indiana. and then in 2022, July 11th, 2022, my late father's birthday, I launched Veer, which is a crowdfunding platform and probably the best job out of everything that I've ever done or accomplished. I am a proud boy mom of a three year old. Son named Jamir. So that is my story in a nutshell. Amazing. And then you ask what helped me along my way or my journey to leadership? I was being persistent. I think by me being persistent and not taking no as an answer. I think that drove me. I'm a little competitive. When I was in middle school and high school, I played the clarinet and I. Did not rest or sleep until I was first chair. Which required a lot of practice, which required a lot of determination and which required a lot of sacrifice. So all of those things led me to where I am today to talking to you.

Lan Elliott:

Fantastic. I love that story. So you had mentioned taking the leap and going out on your own and becoming an entrepreneur. Obviously you don't get to where you are today without taking some calculated risks. Can you share an example of a time when you took that risk and succeeded and how you approached it with things? Did you

Davonne Reaves:

think about. So probably the big, probably the first risk. I always say I took three big risks in my life, right? So the first risk was taking that non-paid internship that I mentioned earlier, and I was still working at the Hyatt. So I took the non-paid internship working in the morning and working at the Hyatt at night. And the reason why I was a risk because. It was a non-paid internship after I graduated from college. And a lot of people, including my family, especially my dad, who didn't understand working for free, like that wasn't a part of his philosophy or vocabulary. Like just he didn't believe in that. and and I volunteered a lot, and so he didn't understand that either. And so that was a risk by for me to take that non-paid internship. But it was a very rewarding risk because if I wouldn't have taken that, that non-paid internship, then I wouldn't be where I am today. My goal was to become a hotel owner, and so I thought in my mind, the best way to become a hotel owner is to learn from other hotel owners, right? So working in a, it's on my mind I thought if I work for this consulting firm, the clients are hotel owners, I'm gonna learn. How to become a hotel owner, because at the time it wasn't YouTube University, it wasn't a Davon Reeves, it wasn't a lot of these different courses that I could Google and say, Hey, I wanna become a hotel, what do I do? So it wasn't, it really wasn't a pathway. A lot of brands they have, including Hyatt, they have the management training program where they trained me how to become a general manager. But there's not a program where it teaches you how to become a hotel owner. And so I had to design my own. So that was the first the first risk. The second risk was me moving to Boston. To work for C H m Warnock. I've never been to Boston before, A day in my life until I flew up there for my interview. I had no family, no friends up there. It was extremely cold. And I hate the cold to this day. hate the cold weather. I got a lot of lobster though a lot. And let some amazing people, working there and moving. But again, that was a risk, uh, again, I'm moving into an unknown territory. I'm moving away from all my friends and family. I've been in Georgia pretty much since I was eight years old. I was a grandma's girl, so I was leaving my grandma. All of my friends, I was basically leaving and rebuilding and started a new life. Later on in life, I think I was like 25 or 27, something like that. And so that was a bi a big risk for me. And then the third biggest risk I took was becoming an entre. right? Leaving the comfortable lifestyle of having an expense account, benefits, a steady paycheck, but to all my entrepreneurs out there in the world, you it's very difficult when you living into that uncertainty, right? You're everything, you're the director of sales and marketing, you're over business development. You're the cp, you you're director of finance. You're the coo, you're the ceo, you're all these different things and you have to do it all by yourself. So that was a. A crazy risk. And I think after how many years, I think I finally got the hang of it after my five, October 25th, I celebrated my fifth year anniversary of being entrepreneur. So I think I finally got the hang of it. after five years,

Lan Elliott:

That was a lot. That was a lot and a lot of great risks though. But but you had this goal that you wanted to go for to become a hotel owner and. All those risks were steps in

Davonne Reaves:

that direction, right? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Everything led to me where I am today, and I wouldn't change anything. The only thing I would change is I would've bought a hotel sooner. That was probably about, and I would've bought more real estate sooner. So if I could go and I probably would've majored like in finance or real estate while I was in. that, so that's probably tho. Those are my regrets. But the non-paid internship, all the mistakes I made, hey, I'll take it. Because it may, I've learned from it and it's okay, this is what not to do. Day learn. Yeah,

Lan Elliott:

absolutely. Absolutely. So let's talk a little bit about networking. And for a lot of people the idea of networking can be uncomfortable, but what we've discovered is in hospitality, it's really a relationship business. And there's so many people who meet and then they become friends out of working with people. So how have you built your network and. How do you do it in a way that feels authentic to you? I feel like you're always

Davonne Reaves:

authentic. Yeah. I'm just myself and I've become more and more myself. Before, when I was younger, I would worry I can't do this's in corporate. This is professional, and I was always either the youngest, I was the o I was the only, the youngest, only black, the only female. So I always I felt uncomfortable in my skin, but now I don't care. And so I'm very comfortable in my skin. You and you. This is Davon when you get her, okay? You either like me or love me. Ok. There's no in between OK. And so what I've learned about, I've never been the one that works the room. That's just not me. People don't believe me. I'm shy. I'm a little bit of an introvert. But I'm a people person, right? I love talking to people, especially like a one-on-one interaction. and my, and I guess I get that from my grandmother and my mom, because my mom now, my mom knows how to work the room. Everybody knows who she is. She's smiling all the time. So I get that from her. My grandmother's really shy, but she makes you feel so warm. She just has this warmth about her, like she makes you feel really good. So I guess I combined all that and my dad is a talker, but he don't make you feel warm. He's just a talker, So all of that combined, you get Davon. And so with my networking, I've been always very strategic with my networking, right? So if I go to an event, if I'm going, who am I meeting? Why am I there? I'm not just going just to be going. Everything has to be intentional. So it started for me being in college, right? I would volunteer at conferences if I knew I wanted to do X, Y, Z. I volunteered. I signed. I got free food and I got to meet some amazing people who I still have relationships with to this day. Like it's crazy. Wow. Cause I grew up in the industry, cuz I started off by volunteering, I'm checking these big names in at the front desk. I'm checking these big names in at these conferences and I volunteered at the Hunter Conference. I volunteered at Nab Hood, so I'm volunteering all of these major conferences. So full circle. I come back around now I'm attending or speaking at him. And so ev it's just relationship based. So just staying in contact with people, how can we work together? Making people, one thing is, I believe Maya Angelo said this, people may not, people may forget what you say, but they may, they'll always remember, I'm paraphrasing, but they'll remember how you made them. And so that goes into what in hospitality, right? Yeah. You wanna make people we're a service, we're a people company, people business. And so we wanna make people feel great. We wanna make people feel welcome and warm. And I'm that same way. My grandma told me, she said, Devon, treat people better than you wanna be treated. And so that's something that just stuck with me, and that's just what I try to do with.

Lan Elliott:

That's fantastic. I love how many lessons you take from your family. I think that's really wonderful. Yeah. Yay. Let's talk a little bit about mentors. Have you had mentors or champions that helped you

Davonne Reaves:

along the way? Oh my gosh, I did and it's so amazing because, and I did it from men, so mentor. It's always funny when you're younger, right? People always, cause I get that question a lot. Devon, how do you get a mentor and mentorship? It should be organic. right? It should be your organic relationship. It's weird. It's Hey, can you be my mentor? And I'm like, huh. It's kinda weird. So how I was able to build my mentors, actually people sought me out. So I was so fortunate, and they wanted to be my mentor, they would claim me, and I was like, claim away, I'll take it. So I had some really weak names as my mentor. I still to this day, big names like Valerie Ferguson. and Erica crawls baby. So these people who I look up to, and they're my mentors, right? And they're my champions, and the difference between a mentor and a champion, in my opinion, the champion that cha a, a champion is someone who's going to look after you when you're not in the room. If there's a position that they may think that you may need, they may throw your hat out there or somebody's talking bad about you, about your character. That champion is no, that's not Davon. I don't know which Davon you're talking about. But that's not the Davon No. That's a champion, A mentor is that relationship. Somebody who you can call and it's, it should be someone. who's either walked the journey that you have walked or they're walking your journey that you strive to to walk. And so I've been very intentional with the relationships and with the people who I look up to, I was, I told Ms, I told Valerie, Ms. Ferguson, that I'm gonna be like you when I grow up. That's what I told her when I first met. And same thing with Erica called Al Quba. She's the general manager of the black female of the largest hotel in Atlanta. Are you kidding me? I will. Oh my goodness. I just, I'm glad to take a picture with you. Like, how can I pick your brain? What can I do, icons like Pey Berg. Oh my gosh, I'm a groupie of hers too. Women like Dr. Debbie Cannon at Georgia State University. So I've been fortunate enough to be around these powerful people. It's especially women, who, if I have a question or if I don't, and it's okay to ask. That's what the mentor is for, right? Because it's a because everybody who's came along, somebody's helped them one way or. if it was tangible or tangible, somebody has been helped. Nobody came up in this world alone. I don't care what anybody says. Somebody's giving you the chance, right? Somebody's opened a door somehow, some way, and so people like to give back because somebody helped them, and so I try to do the same thing for others. and because others done the same thing for me. That's my take on mentors and champions and, just keeping those relationships, touching base with them. I still send, Christmas cards to my mentors and they don't care about me anymore. They just care about my little engineer. So I just send the picture. Engineer you. All right, And so just keeping those relationships going. And if I have a question that's difficult and I don't know the answer, guess what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna pick up my mentor cuz guess what? They probably went through it. Or they know somebody that they could connect me to help me go through get through this journey.

Lan Elliott:

Yeah, that's fantastic. Thank you. Thank you for sharing that and also how you went about, getting these amazing women to be mentors and champions for you. Let's talk about advocating for ourselves because there's a common generalization that women aren't very good at advocating for themselves. And what would you tell our viewers or people who are struggling to find their voice to get something that

Davonne Reaves:

they really want? You know what? I wasn't the best at advocating for myself. I really wasn't. I can't believe that. Yeah. Because I wasn't raised that way. I was raised to not ask questions. I wasn't, I wa I was raised not to challenge whatever this person said. That's what it was. And I've learned throughout my journey, you challenged that person. You ask questions, you do your research. Just because someone said X, Y, and Z, you need to double. So I've learned that, and I've learned to, and this comes from a con, I've learned this comes more so of a confidence level as well. Once you become more confident and authentic and happy with who you are, you're gonna speak up for yourself because you demand, you're gonna demand a level of respect, right? So you can't, and I've learned not everybody's gonna advocate for you, so you have to advocate for. and then sometimes people, they won't advocate for you because you won't advocate for yourself, right? If somebody is disrespectful, if someone didn't give the, give you the job that you deserved. If someone, because ev, you have to earn it. A lot of times, and I hate to say it with my generation and younger generations, it's a sense of entitlement, where we, y'all paved the way for us. So it's not as, it's not as hard for us anymore. It's a little bit easier. It's not, maybe not all the way easy, people like yourself, Lauren and Peggy, and all the women that I mentioned before, they made it a little bit easier for us, right? And so some people have this sense of entitlement where they feel like, they should just get it and not where you have to work for it. And so working for it means speaking up, Hey, I didn't, I deserve this promotion. And you come with your prepared facts. You come with your, look, I did X, Y, and Z. I increased X, I quant. This is what I did. And you come prepared and you're advocating, your advocating for yourself on why you deserve X, Y. And. And so I've learned this throughout my journey and I got a privilege to work with, Fern Camp Tour, working with her at CM Warner, she was definition always advocating for herself. So being around women like that in the boardroom, and, so I'm young, I'm learning from these women who know this is how it should be done. No, I don't agree with this. And they're challenging people. They're challenging, clients, and. once I saw that was the norm, right? Because sometimes when you don't see it, you don't understand. But when you start seeing it and you start hearing people do these type of things, and then of course when you get more comfortable and confident and you come prepared, with your facts and you start advocating for your advocating for yourself. So I think it's very important to advocate for yourself because if no one is gonna advocate, if no one's gonna advocate for you, at least you need to do it for.

Lan Elliott:

Absolutely. And it's so interesting what what you said about you learn these things as you grow up. Maybe it's, girls get taught these things, you don't ask questions, you don't challenge people. You need to be sweet and nice. And quiet. and so there are these things you have to unlearn and you are right that having a measure of confidence really helps to step up and be able to ask for those things that you deserve. Great points. So continuing with women in leadership, one of the barriers that women face sometimes is gender bias in terms of stereotyping, and some people have a way of thinking about women or underrepresented groups in leadership. What's your advice on that? Both. Both for the company and then also for individuals who are in this

Davonne Reaves:

situation? I strongly believe in diversity. I strongly believe in every C-suite. Should have a woman. And the reason why, because women, we get things done. Women are smarter than win than men. I will continue to say this and no one's gonna challenge me on it, right? Because it is the fact, okay? Anything that has ever happened in the world, it has been some type of woman behind it. We may have not have received credit for it, but everything that has happened is because of a woman, right? And I love the fact that we are starting to get more recognition and more companies are starting to realize that, okay, we need to have more of a diverse culture. We need to have more diverse leadership. So things are definitely changing. Matter of fact, I was just, I just had a meeting earlier today and it was a gentleman who told me, He started a company and everybody was men. Everybody in the company, they were men. And I said, it wasn't successful, was it? He said, no. He said, I had to close it down. I said, cuz you didn't have any women. He said, you were I right. Everybody thinks the same. It's a lot of egos. Every, women, we get things. We are the ones that literally get things done and we have a different perspective. So leadership style. I've learned to become a better leader cuz I was a bad employee. I didn't realize I was a bad employee until I became an entrepreneur. To all my bosses, I'm like, so sorry. I was a horrible employee. I was okay. I was a, and so my leadership style has helped me. I mean by, for me, working in entry level positions have helped me because I remember what it was like to be a worker or to be an employee. I remember what it was like when my voice wasn't heard. I remember what it was like. when my opinion didn't matter or I got, I didn't get a promotion or I didn't felt like I was taken care of as an employee. And the reason why I say it's helped me because with my hotels, I'm so grateful for my employees. I speak to them, I talk to the housekeepers and ask them, what do they wanna do in life? How are they kids doing? I talk to, every time I go to the hotel, I'm gonna talk to somebody. I'm gonna ask'em how their day is going and what are their goals. Because that's important to me because you know what? Because of them I'm able to do what I do, right? They're the ones that are working 24 hours a day. They're the ones that are sacrificing, they're the ones on the frontline during covid. And the least I can do is say thank you and talk to them and treat them as a person. And the reason why I do that, not only because how I was brought, because I remember working in a hotel and what it was, When I, my employees that I have now, I wanna hear their opinions. What do you think? What can be done to be, what can we do to be done better? I wanna hear your voice. What are your goals? What are you trying to do? Because when you take care of your employees take care of you. And so my leadership style is based off of that. I'm firm. I, I'm the boss, but I wanna hear your opinion. I either agree, I don't agree with it, but the thing is, I wanna hear what you have to say because in order for, because no one person can't do what I'm doing now, it's impossible. and I had to realize that in order for me to sleep at night and take care of my little one and be allowed to talk to you, I have to have employees and I have to have a team. So I have to. So I've been learning and I'm still learning how to be an effective leader in how to manage all of these different things. So bringing people on who are. who compliment my weaknesses. I'm not a process person, so guess what I need? I need a process person to help me right? So I'm learning all those different things so that way I can become a better leader and a more effective leader.

Lan Elliott:

That's fantastic. I love that advice. And also just advocating for the diversity on the team, cuz different people bring different things to to the equation and they might bring different skills that you might have. That's terrific. So we've heard a lot recently about developing a personal brand, and you are one of the people in our industry who's done a great job of establishing a very distinctive personal brand. I think maybe the most memorable LinkedIn post I've ever seen was you dancing on your balcony when you were getting ready to. It was pre-announcement, so it was, it was coming soon, but you were announcing you were getting ready to announce the launch of Ster, your crowdfunding platform. How did, how would you describe your personal brand and how did you create it?

Davonne Reaves:

Just what you just said, memorable. I want you to remember Davon Reeves, when you think of hotels, I want you to think of Davon. When you think of crowdfunding, I want you to think of Davon. So my, I've always tried to be, I've always been different, right? And going back to being my authentic self, I was always different, but I didn't wanna be different because I would be left out and, no, that wasn't cool, but. I don't care. I'm gonna be different. I'm gonna be Devon Ree. I'm a huge fan of Beyonce. I wanna be the Beyonce at the hospitality industry. Okay? So that is me. When I go, when you hear Beyonce, think of Devon. You know what I mean? So that's branding and brand is also. How you, what you wanna be known for. How do you make people feel? So my favorite color is green. I got green in the background, right? So everything, what does that mean? My, my logo is a pineapple. That's a symbol for hospitality. So when you think about your personal brand, you wanna think about what do you wanna be known for? right? What does your LinkedIn page, what does, when people hear, LAN Elliot, what do they think? What does she do? Who is she as a person? That's your personal brand, right? And so a lot of times people, they don't, they overcomplicated. It's just what do you wanna be known as, right? It's certain things when you hear, like when you, for example, when you think of hamburgers, what do you think of? You think of McDonald's. When you think of chicken, you think of Chick-fil-A, right? When you think of hotels, you think of Devon. You know what I mean? So it's just that thing that, what do you wanna be known for? And I've worked really hard and I wanna be outside of the. And also I'm a little competitive, so I just like being number one. I always try to, what can I do to outshine and what can I do to be innovative? And so I thought to myself, I'm a huge Beyonce fan. She has this song called seven 11. My dad's birthday is on seven 11. So guess what? I am going to launch my crowdfunding platform that I've been working on for I feel like almost two. On my late father's birthday dancing to Beyonce. Cuz guess what? She was in a hotel, right? So anything that I do, I try to tie all of those different things. Like I'm very intentional with what I do. I wanna incorporate green. I wanna incorporate a hotel I wanna incorporate because all of this is who I am as a person. I love crab legs, so all of those different things as a person, it defines me who I am as a brand. I wanna make you feel good. right? Like I want you to feel loved and warmth cuz I'm just a happy person and I think everybody should be happy cuz the world would be so much better if we smile and just hug each other. That's just what, that's just how I am. I love

Lan Elliott:

that. And I love what you stand for and I love how confident and comfortable you are in your own skin. And it just makes everyone feel good when they're around you,

Davonne Reaves:

right? Oh, thank you.

Lan Elliott:

So looking back on your journey, what would you want your 22 year old self

Davonne Reaves:

to know? Be more confident. Oh my goodness. I would say be more confident. Be prepared. Don't rush. I was always rushing. I don't know why. Nowhere to go rushing bills. They don't go anywhere. They're gonna be here forever and I was rushing to get outta college. I don't know why. And I do have a regret. I would've not worked full-time and went to school full-time. I would've worked part-time and went to school full-time that I would never, I don't advise that to anybody if I know some people don't have a choice, they have to do it, but I didn't have to do that. So my advice to my younger self to buy real estate, cuz when I was well younger self, that was when the oh eight crash hit. So I should have bought some real estate. So that was advice to my younger self, buy more real. be more confident in yourself. Love yourself. Advocate for yourself. Be prepared. Work hard. I didn't work as hard as I should. I probably should have worked a little bit harder. That's just me being tough on myself. But definitely the biggest thing is, and I didn't ask enough questions. I was surrounded by so many wonderful people, and I was in their proximity where I could have just asked, how did you do this? How did you do that? What do I need to do? What do I, and I didn't do it, and I would've read more, and I would've asked more questions. So that would be, if I could go back 10, 15 years from now, that's what I would, that's that's what I would tell my younger self working at the front. Fantastic.

Lan Elliott:

Great advice. So we are running towards the end of our time together and I know I could ask you many more questions. We'll do that next time, So as we're getting close to the end and keeping in mind that d e I Advisor's mission is all around empowering personal success, could you offer one final bit of advice to women and underrepresented groups who are looking to advance their career?

Davonne Reaves:

It's okay to be yourself, be apologetically unapologetically yourself. It embrace who you are, work for a company who embraces who you are. I don't think we're in a time. we have to it's an employee market now. right? So now we as employees, they can choose where they wanna work. So if this doesn't match my culture, if diversity is not on the forefront, I don't wanna work with you. If I can't wear my fro, if I can't dye my hair pink and green and all the stuff that people are doing, and I have a hundred tattoos, and hey, whatever works for you. I'm not into that. But what if that works for you? That works for you, and work for a company that embodies that, or start your own company, right? So my final advice would be, Women and women from, underrepresented communities. Speak up, ask questions. Once you get through the door, don't forget about the people. It's other people. As my mentor, one of my mentors told me, once you notice that you're the only black person in the room, then that's when you stop. Excuse me. Once you stop noticing that you're the only black person in the room, then there's a problem. So if you look up and you're the only woman or the only black, or whatever culture you're from, and you're the only one, it's your job. It's your mission to make sure that you bring other women or other people who look like you in the same room that you're in. And that's what I'm doing.

Lan Elliott:

That's fantastic. Wonderful advice. Thank you so much, Davon, for being on, loved hearing your perspective, always full of energy and smiles. I always love being

Davonne Reaves:

with you. Oh, thank you. I'm giving you a virtual hug,

Lan Elliott:

virtual hugs, back And for our viewers, if you've enjoyed this interview, I hope you'll go to our website, d ei advisors.org to see other interviews with other leaders. Thank you so much.