Mike Deitemeyer, Executive Vice President, Rockbridge Holdings, interviewed by David Kong

In this interview, Mike reveals how venturing into unfamiliar territory helped him build a solid foundation, and his experience working with the Rowling family who acquired and transformed Omni Hotels & Resorts. We discuss the disappointments and setbacks in his career and the lessons he learned. Mike talks about his mentors and sponsors, and how embracing diversity, equity and inclusion has helped him. Finally, Mike offers his advice to his younger self and advice on personal empowerment.

Transcript

Greetings. I'm David Kong, the founder and principal of D E I advisors. We are a nonprofit organization dedicated to self-empowerment. We are delighted to have Mike Deitemeyer on our show today. 

David, A pleasure and always happy to participate in a great discussion. . 

Thank you. Mike, let's start with your career journey. Can you share some inflection points and the key factors that contributed to your success?

Yeah uh, happy to. And I'll go back fairly early my career, David, I. When I was in college first of all, I grew up in a family of parents who did not go to college. And my mother early on told me that it was something that I needed to do but clearly didn't have any real direction or mentor at that point.

And I, I have an accounting degree. I ended up going to school. I got an accounting degree.  But I did it only because I understood what that was and I had an opportunity in my junior year to do an internship and I went to a small regional school, Fitchburg State University in Massachusetts.

And I was a commuter student, a four year university. But I drove back and forth and worked. Along the way, all I knew I was working in a broom factory of all places, making broom, getting paid by a dozen. I knew I didn't wanna do that the rest of my life. I had no idea other than I was getting an accounting degree.

What I really wanted to do. And I had this internship for a opportunity and I interviewed at three places.  and they had me interview at a bank. I'm thinking I was pretty excited going to work in a bank that would be cool. But I went, interviewed at the office, and they wanted me to be in the basement all summer long working on SOPs.

I didn't even know what SOP was at the time, but they explained to me, we're gonna redo our standard operating procedures, how it's gonna work. . And then I had the I went and interviewed a grocery store chain, and the office was actually above one of the grocery stores. So that wasn't very very exciting.

And the next place I went to interview was the Worcester, Marriott, Worcester, Massachusetts. It was a brand new hotel the year or two old I had actually, as a young kid growing up, we camped or you'd stay in a motel where your car was parked outside the door. I'd never been into a hotel.  that had a a fine dining restaurant, a live nightclub, a retail store.

And I decided that was the industry and that was what I want to do. And it was the environment. I think, the part of our industry or does attract people, it's got this. Energy about it. It's dynamic. It's 365, it's 24 hours a day. So that was my journey. And literally the week I graduated, I went, I became a full-time employee of Interstate Hotels and Resorts, who was the manager of that hotel at the time if you so I was vested in the hospitality business.

I was on that journey. I was the guy who literally I moved from Massachusetts to Charlotte, North Carolina, never been in the state before. Other driving through to go to Florida when I was young. W. Work there and, coming into the, an industry that you didn't really know, you didn't go to school for, had the advantage of the internship.

It was really just about leaning in and then being the guy that volunteered for everything. Coming from that kind of blue collar background I felt going in that I didn't have all the tools that I needed, my educational background, those types of things, but I felt like I could outwork Some of the others, and I'd make up for my lack of ability with my work ethic.

And that was something I latched on early on. And then I was there nine months, moved to Memphis, Tennessee to open a hotel in Memphis there. A year, moved to Minneapolis and multiple moves on my journey being just somebody who would volunteer for the next. Next role. Next, next.

Opportu. It was a great time. It was a time though that I was pretty heads down all, all through that journey. And then I met, I was actually at 24 years old. I was a regional controller for interstate hotels, and I went to a closing of a hotel, a, a guy in Texas was buying a property that.

And I explained to them how there were certain preparations and things that mattered that in this purchase price, in, in this purchase accounting need, need to transact. And long story short, ended up going to work for this individual. And then later, I guess four years later, five years later, we bought Omni Hotels and I was cfo, f o of his company at the time.

And then certainly from that journey spent 23 years at interstate at o Omni, sorry from cfo, F to COO to president, and then from there back to Interstate hotels as CEO o in 2017, which was a pretty cool, when you're thinking about your career and that, that journey to have the opportunity to go.

Someplace that I started as an intern to be, c e o, the company was a pretty special special time and moment. And then from there merged with Abridge Hospitality. So today, I sit here in Dallas, Texas now And we have with a deal we just closed last week. We're at 1600 signed hotel management agreements in 23 different countries.

Wow. What an amazing story. It just goes to show you the opportunities, our industry offers. It doesn't matter where you are and how you begin. With hard work, dedication. You'll get somewhere. It's a wonderful story, and I was listening intently. When you talk about raising your hands and venturing into uncharted territory, how important was that to your success?

You know what I, we have new general managers come here to our corporate office. I'm sitting here today in Dallas.  and part of what I talk to them about I share a few things and one of those, depending on where you are in your life and what you're willing to do, there is no greater experience than working with an organization and constantly challenging yourself to do new things.

The reality is,  by raising your hand for new opportunities, you not only in, in my case, get to see new cities, new locations, but you're working for different leaders with different skills and with different expertise. And it turbocharges your personal development. You can have a great career in hospitality.

You can stay in a single market. You could stay in a single hotel. There are great opportunities there. I don't wanna imply that there's. , but that journey of going to new places, seeing new things grow, growing as a human being, just through, through all of that all of those experiences.

Once again, I was a simple kid from. Central Massachusetts, living in Charlotte and then Memphis, Tennessee. I'd never been that far west in my life. And the exploration as well as learning that there's not just one way to do any, to do things is, was fantastic and incredibly important in my career.

I love that story and like you, I've also volunteered quite a few times to go into uncharted territory, and I grew tremendously as a result and became much more marketable because of that experience. It's a wonderful story. Thanks for sharing that. Now, you alluded to this earlier, you have known the Rowling family for a long time, , and very fortunate to work for them when they acquired and transformed Omni hotels and resorts in many ways.

Tell us some of the learnings from that experience. 

At the time my, my background had been a hundred percent. Financially focused. And so part of what Interstate hotels now Abridge was known for and the legacy was being very good discipline, managed managers of a financial statement and could manage to an owner's expectations of a return.

Now, when you're on the management, You're holistically focused on that. So when we bought Omni, I mentioned I was the C F O of the company that acquired we, we were called T R T Development and we acquired Omni February 29th, 1996. So in the leap year , led the team that was doing the underwriting of all the assets.

We didn't have a lot of consultants help us. It was it was a small team. We had eight people and we did this work to buy Omni. And when we initially stepped into the process, things weren't moving as quickly. As quickly as they'd like. And I, of course, raised my hand.

One thing led to another and I became coo. So that's my transition to operations really happened through that acquisition of that business not realizing. The synergies and the, and effectiveness that I thought would be pulled through the company. The reality is that was an incredible learning experience.

So couple things. Just like I mentioned, different managers help you grow as an individual. So having some diversity in different mentor opportunities folks to learn from. , what I learned is owners of assets have different strategies as well. And this was this moment of, because I went from an organization that was managing for private equity and insurance companies that had one expectation to somebody that was highly focused on sustainable growing ebitda.

So it it was, these were assets that we were acquiring, the brand we were acquiring. For the long term. And what that really taught me, David is balance. And so at Omni we use the term trilogy, the balance between the owner, the associate, and the customer. .  and we spent a lot of time and a lot of thoughtfulness around what's it mean to have a sustainable long-term business.

Candidly, you have to take great care of your associates, you have to take great care of your customers, and it's finding that balance because any one of those pendulums goes too far and the ecosystem kind of falls apart on you. And so I was very proud that the, and I think part of this, part of these journeys that we all go.

is when you're in the mix of it, having some level of awareness is what's happening around you. And I was very proud that we found that right balance. And one, one of our peers in the industry, I was a mentor to me when I was young and I told him I was going through, I was gonna move from CFO F to coo and he told me, , they'll never accept you as an operator.

And then I won seven, or I didn't win. We won seven J Powers awards for, quality and Omni. So I was fairly proud of that, being part of the team that kind of led through led through that journey. But it was transformational from the perspective of understanding the business from a real estate mindset.

and the brand, which I didn't really have, I was just the operator before that. So it gave me lenses into the space and appreciation for a lot of things that I didn't really have prior. 

That's such a wonderful learning experience. Your transition from C F O to  coo, that must have been a story in itself.

You must have.  quite a few challenges  throughout that experience. Let's talk about your learnings from any difficulties or setbacks or disappointments that you've had. 

Yeah. I think certainly as a young man then, going through the journey . I never felt like I had a plan B or another option.

Kids today, or at least folks I see feel like there's this easy escape valve. And I never felt like I had that, I felt like it would be and I'm not suggesting this is the only way, cuz it's not, but to me that would be life-altering failure. So I. , I felt a need to lean into everything and lead face, lead with your chin on any issues or opportunities.

I, I work hard to never run from a challenge or a problem. And I think it's funny on the journey of the companies I've gone through in. T r t, which became omni back to interstate and then amage. There's only one phase in there where I really interviewed for a job, so I was just always promoted and recognized for the work and the efforts and but that's hard.

Doing something for sustainable, just like marriage. I've been married 30 years. These, some of these things it's hard. And I think understanding that success is a two-way street. That you've gotta lean that you've gotta lean in, you've gotta deal with the things that are least appealing to you has been a core of what I think of as my own brand.

Yeah. It sounds like you have a tremendous work ethic. , you're just gonna plow through it no matter how hard it is. It that's one of the frameworks of your 

success for . Yeah. For, it's not always that simple, but for me, that's certainly something that, that I pride myself on. Is that ability and willingness to do that.

Yeah. The hard work and dedication really helps a great deal. Let's talk about your approach and challenges. We've all had them. What's your general approach to that? 

I think

first to step back and really understand what the core issue is. And so when someone comes to you and shares a problem in many cases, that's not really the fundamental problem. So it's understanding.  and listening in a way to get to what the root issue is. So I try to be thoughtful about that.

I try to ask questions to get at what the real core of the issue is. And then as I was saying earlier, it's about taking. Issue head on owning it and trying to work to resolve it. But I think all too often in our lives, in our relationships we don't slow down enough to truly listen to we, we take the problem at face value and it's rarely that there's always another layer, another piece, and.

I think working on your listening skills as a leader is an incredibly important. Oh, 

I totally agree with you, . If you don't understand the problem, there's no way you're gonna fix it properly. , that's very sage advice and also what I find interesting is sometimes when you try to redefine the problem it  becomes obvious that the initial problem that you think your had wasn't really the problem.

It's something else. But that's also through active listening and asking a lot of questions. Very good advice. Thank you. Yeah. We talked about mentors earlier and you certainly also mentioned the fact that you didn't have to interview for a lot of jobs. People were sponsoring you or championing for you to move up to different positions.

how do you find mentors and champions? They played a big factor in your career journey. 

Y yes. It's, in, in my career, my journey, I didn't set out like no one signed me, a mentor. I didn't set out to find. And. , and to find a mentor per se.

I think similar to the listening conversations, one, one of the people I learned the most from in the industry is a savant around the details of the business, but not a great leader in other ways. And so for me, the journey was, how do you observe  and take the best from those folks and mold them into your own evolution and how you're growing now.

Connections, reaching out to people for advice. That's how it all it does start with that. So it's. Meeting folks, or if you're in our industry and you're working in a hotel where you're going to school, and then later you find yourself in a different hotel, nurture the relationship from that first general manager.

You don't need to walk in and say, I want you to be my mentor and will talk to me once a month. But what is important? Is a level of connectivity and letting someone know that you appreciated their leadership and their time. People we all like that level of affirmation when somebody goes through the effort to tell you and to share with you.

Even a, when a young person reaches out I feel a different level of connect.  to that person. If I see an email or have a phone call, a year, two years later, and they're asking for advice or a question, that's someone I'm gonna help versus someone who reaches out blindly.

So I think as you think about yourself going through a journey in our space,  whatever your brand is. And I think in those types of terms, whoever you've decided you're going to be, it's being consistent. Leveraging to that and then maintaining these these touchpoints throughout your journey.

And someone who, I know people that have mentors that they're very close with, that they only work for nine months, but there was something about that connection that then.  And people, especially in our industry, that's, 365, 24 hours a day, we understand the value of our team members and our associates and folks that make that effort.

Extra effort will go far. So I tell people it really starts with you. It's not, somebody's not gonna appoint you. They may, in some organizations we assign mentors some leadership programs. We assign mentors. But it's very, it's more granular than that. The ones that I think are the tightest and last, the longest.

That's wonderful advice.  I really like it cuz , I have not seen formal mentorship program work very well, but I've seen plenty of situations where we connect with people that we like and we seek advice from them. That's worked really well.  Exactly what you just said. What about champions and sponsors though?

Don't we want others to advocate for us, so we have a chance to move ahead. 

Ab Absolutely. And I think when you think about sponsors or champions when you're working in any role, a boss, a supervisor, and the owner of the business, they're gonna value you the most if you make their life easier.

And  part of my, it's that simple. People want you to solve their problems. They don't want you to be a problem. So how you balance asking for help versus listening to what they're really looking for? I think that's something that also becomes, people become champions for You want you on their team if they know you're gonna make their job.

Sometimes as a young manager coming up, you're doing that for a manager who you may not think is great or has all the tools or the skills that doesn't matter. You've gotta lean into those things cause you're gonna learn and you're gonna grow personally. And if you stay focused on that, I think that's that's the core.

It's easy. We all, especially the world today, social media, it's easy to complain. It's easy to do this and that, the majority of managers, no matter how good you are, they don't want you in their office telling you how bad everyone else is to lift yourself. They want you to be the one that's most effective at solving their problems.

And I found when you do that for people and you lean into to it like that, there's times, and this might be more controversial, but I would give my boss full credit for anything and. , I would affirm them in front of their boss when we're presenting something. I wouldn't say I, it was never I did it.

Those things matter and human nature is part of this journey, right? This isn't I as we talk diversity it's not that, it's the people that have helped me or that I've helped regard.  Is what I've valued the most as a leader.

And that's I think people just need to be aware of that. I don't wanna take a group of people that are my best friends into a meeting. I wanna take a group of people that are gonna help us perform or, and help me perform and deliver on the promise. And I worry sometimes I see people get too wound up.

other things and who gets credit and who doesn't get credit. I, at least from my experience it doesn't always happen in a timing. You want it to happen, but it happens if you're consistent, those people that you're there for become your mentors and champions. 

Yeah, I agree totally. There's so much wisdom to that and I think a lot of people are so eager to claim the credit, they think it's their way to move ahead, but it's not, it's sharing their credit, especially with your boss is really important. . Yeah, I like that. We talked about education earlier. How important is formal education?

Yeah I like, as I mentioned I went to college, I've afford your degree. I was quickly into a.  Where one, I felt insecure about my education because I didn't go to Cornell or to, to the right school per se. And those are all, those are issues and the obstacles.

That in our journey. I've sat in meetings where, you know, when I was young people go, where did you go to school? And it was, I'd slouched down a little bit because I was  embarrassed or uncomfortable with it. The reality is it might matter for a few years but ours is an industry that a bellman can become a, can become a general manager.

I mentioned I've told the story a few times about a waiter that was waiting on me and at a restaurant going to school during the day to finish an accounting degree. And, that individual one thing led to.  and ended up in the internship and then did finish his school and the internship.

And today is coo of one of our competitors, and ended up in a great position and great role. Education and growth is super important. It's something all of us need to focus on. I tell both my daughters.  When you go to bed at night, are you a better person?

Did you do something to grow? Formal education is ideal. I would challenge people to go through the process to make sure they're prepared to hopefully fast track their future. But that does not mean you can't do that nights while you're working. This is an industry that, that. EQ is as important as IQ and the ability to work and multitask is incredibly is incredibly important.

I like that.  It's about constantly learning, not necessarily about formal education. 

That's no and it's important. And you're gonna, if you, if those that I know that have, it is, there's times you're gonna wish you had it.

I think to me it demonstrates. Commitment that someone's done it. I don't care if, you could, if you're working here for us now, but you're going on and doing it even though you've got a good job. It just shows that your focus and you're willing to learn it creates opportunities to move people more quickly.

Because it does it does make a. . But yeah, ours in it is an industry that compared to many, you can have a great career and never finish college. 

That's right. And also what you said about EQ being more important than iq, I love that , especially in our business. That's absolutely true.

We sell, people think we sell. Rooms, and that's part of it. But we, and certainly as you think about the restaurants and all the other components and the resorts, we sell human interaction, we sell experiences and people that appreciate and understand and are empathetic to someone who shows up after a long day on the road or understands the reasons someone's there.

Those are the things that make, those are the touchpoints that make all the difference and make you successful in this space. . 

Absolutely. Those touchpoints are what makes the experience so special and memorable. Thanks for sharing that. Let's talk about work-life balance. You've had some very demanding jobs when you're coming up the ladder.

How did you balance that? Especially when you have younger kids at home? 

If I would tell you that I didn't do it well while I was young. I do it. I'm much better.  Now, and I think I, I think it at times and I tried, there were times I'd be conscious of it.

But I think slowing down enough to celebrate moments or to understand Kind of your journey and those you care about's important. I'm much better now. So if I look at myself today and say work, life balance, one, I'll include family occasionally on business trips. I will make, I schedule time.

With my children and towards, as they were older, I would make an effort to schedule those kind of those one-on-one times. A lot of people com compartmentalize their life. And when you're performing, I don't wanna say it high level, but when you have a high intensity job you need to blend those a little bit more.

You need to bring some of. Into your professional life. And my children today, they're older now, but they're very close to people that I've worked with in the journey. So I, as I got older and went through my career, I got better at it. And it is one of those things you have to be careful of as you're raising your hand to move all the time for the next job or the next promotion.

Very good. Let's talk about diversity, equity, inclusion. You've built a quite a diverse team. How has embracing diversity equity inclusion helped you and help your company? 

I think first and foremost and I made this comment earlier from my perspective, I've never wanted a team.

That would just echo what I said. So first when I think about diversity, equity, inclusion I think fundamentally it just makes you better and it makes you better because, we have 60,000 employees in this company. I don't we're not servicing our customers or our associate base if they.

look like me. At one point in my career, I got, when I was newly promoted, I got a team of my people together. And this wasn't about ethnicity or anything at the time, it was just sitting with the room. I said, listen, if you don't have different opinions in me, if you don't bring something else to the equation, , I'm gonna make a, I'm gonna make a couple changes because I want people who challenge the way I think, or bring a different perspective.

And, six months later, two of those people are gone. And we brought in people that think differently, have different experiences, tad to the value. And I think it's that simple interstate. When I was there, I made a lot of changes. I ended up with a leadership team that was more female than male.

And I didn't set out to do that, but those were the people who just as I'm interviewing and as I'm talking about the business brought different thoughts and perspectives and I think that's what's important as.  as you move into leadership roles, as you move into management roles yes, you want the folks that are solving your problems.

But the reality is you want people feeding you different ways and different things. To think to me that, that means by the nature of that you're gonna have a diverse workforce or you.

That's very well said, . I really like what you just said. Love it, . Okay, now we're all older, wiser now, and as you look back, what advice would you give to your younger self? 

I touched on it already a little bit. I didn't enjoy the moments more and celebrate with the people around you. I'm very much head down. What's the next problem? And I think at times have not, have, not patted everybody on the back cuz it, I feel, I, I feel a pressure for our people and our teams to, to grow. And I feel an obligation to continue to push, to try to be better. And sometimes I'm the toughest on the people closest to me because of that.

And those are the ones who at times, we, I need to slow down and do more with break bread with more those types of things. I actually fresh off a retreat last week, so I'm so just did that with my team after we got through our budget meetings and our business plan for next year.

But I think not only your work team, but your broader family and friends, it's slow, slow down. Listen more. And that's not just at work, that's at home. Even when you're having that conversation with a family member a spouse, listen to what they're really saying.

Try to hear through.  what the top issue is and get to the core of it. Yeah. 

Like you I was a taskmaster .  Once I solve one problem, I'm onto the next one. . I never gave myself any rest and never take time to cherish the moment.  What you said is so true. We have to make time and listen more. And enjoy the moment more. That's wonderful advice. Thanks for sharing that. 

There is one period in my life where I would I would go home and my wife's line for a period of time is, stop. I don't work for you. Let's rephrase how we're having this conversation but.

But honestly, that not only made me reflect on my family, but also made me reflect on how you're talking to people at work and how sometimes we get the blinders on and we forget the empathy side of our business or the the need to be part of a team, which is important in our industry.

That's 

That's right. We're coming to the end of the show, but Would like to have one more piece of advice. Our show us about self-empowerment.  Can you share one more piece of advice on self-empowerment? 

I, be your own advocate is really this is a great industry.

there's a lot of opportunity in our space, and I'm sure in many, this is the only industry I know but I'm sure the case is true for many businesses. And it's finding that balance, define your brand, but then being that advocate for your own growth. And I guess I go back to what I said earlier about my, my you.

Comment I would make to my daughters is, are you growing, are you learning that's a good day? And just be your advocate. Focus on that. 

That's great.  Wonderful advice. Thank you so much, Mike. I know you've been a busy guy and I am so grateful that you're taking the time to be on our show and sharing your wisdom with us.

Thank you again. Oh, I 

appreciate it. I appreciate David. Thank you. 

And to our audience. I appreciate you taking the time to be on our show as well. And if you enjoy the show, I hope you'll join us on our website. It's d e i advisors.org. We hope to see you there. Thanks again, Mike. All right. Bye .  Bye.