It's Personal Stories, A Hospitality Podcast

Stephanie Ricca, Editorial Director, Hotel News Now interviewed by Rachel Humphrey

• David Kong

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Stephanie Ricca shares her unusual path from biology major to trade journalist. She discusses her own public speaking journey and how she coaches others to succeed in this area. Stephanie talks about building relationships, learning from her network of industry peers, and what resources she relies on to stay on top of trends. She also shares what she'd tell that 21-year old biology major self about how things turned out.

Rachel Humphrey:

I am Rachel Humphrey with d e I advisors. We are a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering personal success in the hospitality industry. And anyone who has listened before knows that I get a lot of enjoyment about turning the tables onto someone who is used to asking all of the questions, and today gets to be on the hot seat. So please help me. Welcome to the show, Stephanie Ricca

Stephanie Ricca:

hi Rachel. How are you

Rachel Humphrey:

Doing? Steph, as we are gonna spend about 30 minutes today talking about your path to leadership and some of the lessons you've learned along the way, and we are good going to do it, Stephanie Ow, which is no preparation, no conversation ahead of time, just wherever the conversation goes. So I love it. Tell us a little bit about what you're doing today and what the path was that you took to get there. Cause one of the exciting things about the hospitality industry is how we each kind of carve out our unique path to

Stephanie Ricca:

leadership. Yes. And I think it's something that I've really enjoyed. In your series of interviews, hearing people. Answer this question because it is such a diverse group and diverse industry. And of course, I did not start out in the hospitality industry at all. I'm not in the hospitality industry. I consider myself adjacent to it and writing about it. I. I, I always joke that had I known in college that such a thing as hospitality industry jobs existed, I would've loved to be a hospitality major. But as it was, all of these organizations talk about getting, younger people and students into the industry. I'm like, where was it for me? But I started as, Biology and an English major in college. And I worked for several years as a wildlife ecologist of all things. But I went back to journalism school because I just love talking to people. That's really it. All of journalism is talking to people and hearing their stories. So I got into it through that and I got a job in the industry that I liked. I started out in community newspapers like a lot of. Do. I worked in Washington DC for a news bureau. I worked in Chicago. In those early years. I think one of the things that got me progressing in the path was I said yes to any job I was offered. I changed jobs every two or three years. I would move to a different place and try something new and just said yes and worked hard, took any. And I ended up, in trade publishing, which is what the journalism around the industry is, you can end up covering a lot of different types of strange industries. And so I started out writing about the cardboard box manufacturing industry. I wrote about golf courts management and maintenance. I. About exterminators and the best ways to kill rats and termites. And then I got a job at a hotel industry publication and was like, yes, this is where I will stay.

Rachel Humphrey:

So from biology major to hotel industry, trade journalists. Yes. And what about that path once you got that first job in the ho in the hotel trades?

Stephanie Ricca:

So Jeff Higley, who many in the industry know, of course, Jeff is a legend. He hired me in my first job and at the interview he promised me, he said, Steph, In this industry, the shrimp flows like water. And I just laughed because it was, this perfect, very descriptive way to tell me what a hospitable group of people it is that makes up this industry. And it was a joke, but it's something that has just stayed with me and we joke about it all the time. Because that's really what has kept me in this industry. Of course, there is so much interesting to learn and it's, just a lot going on and a lot of news. But the people that make up this industry are different from any other industry that I've covered in my career as a journalist, and it's that hospitality element.

Rachel Humphrey:

That's fantastic. One of the things that I like to share is why I have asked certain guests to join us and the impact that they've had on me, specifically in my hospitality industry career. And as cause we've talked about it a lot, I am obsessed with your moderating style. I think it is so genuinely. In everything that you do, in everything that you are in, how you prepare, and in the the way that you help your panelists on your panel shine for whatever subject matter expertise they're carrying at the time. And so I want you to talk a little bit about public speaking because as a journalist, we think about behind. The camera, so to speak, but so many people talk about how public speaking is really their biggest impetus or the biggest motivator for them to develop their career, yet at the same time, the scariest or the most hard challenging piece of it. So talk a little bit about how you. Prepare how you get comfortable. Maybe some of the things if others are having a challenge with that, that you could impart. And I'm going to listen intently to continue to absorb every nugget that you're willing to share.

Stephanie Ricca:

Thank you for saying that. And I feel the same way about you. I love watching you moderate and you speak and connect with people. Like we said, I love this conversation because it is a conversation and that's what I. Best public speaking it. And it's funny, when you start as a journalist, there's a day where you choose, are you gonna be a broadcast journalist or are you gonna be a print journalist? Of course that was in my day. It was print or broadcast. And you could tell oh, there's the broadcast people and there's us print people who have a face for radio. And I was very much a print person and you're like, oh, I'll never be. Weather gal or sports guy. But of course in this job as a journalist, you have to be comfortable talking to people. If you're not, then you better get out because you're not in the right place. And of course, as the industry evolves, which journalism is one of those industries that absolutely is evolving more every year. Multimedia is the way to go. And I didn't set out to think of myself as, a star public speaker or even somebody who would enjoy it, but it just became an occupational hazard. Like I said, it's, you gotta be comfortable talking to people. And of course I always have been my family jokes and even my team here at Hotel News now joke that. Can talk to anybody and I do talk to everybody that I meet on the street. I could talk to a brick in the wall. And I think that's a quality that has helped me evolve into it. And it was really nice when I started my career at Hotel News now, or I started my job at Hotel News now, which is part of S T R S T R. Offered a lot of public speaking resources because so many people in the company are presenting data all around the world. And if you were going to be speaking on behalf of the company we would go through some pretty rigorous public speaking training, which helped me a lot and I really grew to enjoy it. Over the years, and so now I train on public speaking. So within the company, within some associations that I belong to, because I've developed through the years really by observing other people who do it really well. I've come up with a plan, and so I have a program I call. Moderator bootcamp. Feel free to contact me for any of the details, but I watch people to see what they do well. I watch people all sorts of places in the industry on YouTube to see what they do poorly, and I've come up with a formula and so much of it is preparation, train people on my team in moderating and public speaking, I say that preparation step is going to be what helps you forget the script in the moment, prepare the script, prepare your subject matter, and then you'll feel so much more able to talk about whatever your subject is and what I think is. Cool to see in people is that this is not just for, in the grand scheme of things, not all of us are gonna have to go up on a stage and moderate a panel or give a presentation, but it helps in a meeting with your team. It helps when you're talking to stakeholders at your company, when you're trying to really convince anyone of anything in that sort of group environment. We're having those skills helps. And the last thing I think is, the best panels I, that I feel the most comfortable with and that I feel have been the most successful after the fact is when I've had fun and the other people on the panel have had fun and I have been able to get them to share their story because, at the end of the day, I'm here to help you talk, right? Yeah. Whether it's at a panel or a round table not me. And in order for your best and most compelling story to come out, I better know the right questions to ask. I better be able to establish that rapport and have fun because so many of these conversations are boring and just okay, we heard the same thing last year at this. So have fun with it.

Rachel Humphrey:

That's great advice. I really love that. And I think that part of that desire to bring out the stories is what I was saying, really helping them shine in that moment. Cause those panelists are picked for a specific reason, but like you said, if you're at one conference in the next, you don't wanna be talking about the same thing or one panel to the next. So really great advice and I love hearing you talk. That it doesn't have to be on stage at a conference because public speaking can be one-on-one to Oh, yes. The manager. It can be to your team. It could be at a staff meeting, a board meeting. There's so many ways to use that skill.

Stephanie Ricca:

Oh, exactly. You

Rachel Humphrey:

mentioned early on about being able to talk to any brick in the wall. So I'm gonna ask you, is that the secret to your success in relationship building and networking? Because for a lot of us the reality is that the industry is all about relationships. You could talk about almost every topic in leadership in some way. It's gonna come back to relationship building in the industry. What is your. For networking because you and I may do it very differently, but end up with very similar networks at the

Stephanie Ricca:

end of the day. That's a great question and. When I first started out, as I'm sure many people do in their professional careers, whatever they are, I was terrified of the networking reception, cuz I didn't know anybody. And I would make a bargain with myself and say, okay Steph, you're gonna go for five minutes. You're gonna get one shrimp because the shrimp flows like water. You're gonna get one shrimp, you're gonna, if you talk to one person, yay, good, you can go back to your room and hide. So it was scary. And I've had a lot of people on my team over the years who say to me that's their most intimidating part is going to that networking reception or event where you don't know anybody. And I guess it just became a matter of doing it enough times and realizing. Okay, this isn't gonna kill me. I can talk to anybody and I'm just gonna go in and talk about, I don't have to, when I was 30 and starting in the industry, I didn't have to walk into the networking reception and say to a stranger, Hey, let's talk about mezzanine financing. No. I had to say, oh, where did you come from? Where did you fly in from this morning? And Connecting with people and making friends is how I network, and I have to do it that way because again, My job, I have to have fun. I have to like the people, I have to like the people I work with. I have to like the people that I'm talking to in an industry. And so you're gonna connect if you think of the person as somebody that you might be friends with, and nine times outta 10, you'll end up being friends with the person and you can connect on that level. And so once you've connected on that personal level, Which I think has gotten a lot easier since the pandemic and people have been more open to it then you know that person and can go back for a professional ask or to ask for advice or help with the story for us, w I have a pretty natural icebreaker in that I can say, oh, we're working on a story about this. Is it okay if we call you? So that's always good because people like to talk about what they are passionate about. But I think that idea of approaching networking as just talking to someone who might be a potential friend.

Rachel Humphrey:

I love that, and I really like the idea of connecting on the personal level. We hear from so many leaders that oftentimes they'll end a quote unquote business meeting and never have talked business. Yeah. It's just about continuing to deepen and strengthen those connections or to build new ones that you don't have yet.

Stephanie Ricca:

And I think that is, it's a pro. But it can also be a con, we talk a lot about finding equality and finding opportunities for people across a wide spectrum of interest in the industry. And sometimes I fear it's great when you can talk to people on that personal level and make a business connection and say, oh, maybe we'll do a deal together. Maybe we can do this. But as we start to see the industry open, And different kinds of people join different, non-white, non-male people who may not bond over a golf course or even bond over coffee. I worry a little bit that the networking, I just. I wanna make sure that people are open to networking in that sense, that personal connection sense with everybody.

Rachel Humphrey:

No, I think that's a great point. I talk about this a lot with relationship building. I'm not gonna golf, I'm not gonna be at the cigar bar, right? Nothing good happens after midnight at any of the receptions at any conference,

Stephanie Ricca:

but that's when someone falls in the pool. You don't wanna be there. There

Rachel Humphrey:

are lots of topics whether. My kids or sports teams I root for, or vacations I just took, or a restaurant I went to. And I think I'm hopeful that in what you talk about, that there are ways of finding connection in so many different areas and interest that it isn't limited just to those that might Absolutely. Veer towards people. Networking only with like-minded

Stephanie Ricca:

other. Exactly. That I think is that next challenge, that next phase of where the industry and I would wager every industry. Ours is not the only one needs to go in that direction to open up that conversation.

Rachel Humphrey:

That's such a great point. I wanna pivot for a minute to continuing to grow your skills, your knowledge base. One thing I find really intimidating about your career is I feel like you have to know everything about everything in the hospitality industry, whether it is. A new trend, whether it's something that's established. You mentioned taking courses through s t R to work on your public speaking. There are so many resources within the industry for each of us to continue to grow. What do you turn to? Where do you look to, to really keep your skills sharp? To keep your knowledge as broad as it can be for the

Stephanie Ricca:

role that you have. It's tough, there's so many aspects of the industry that you've gotta just jump in right away and be able to talk equally as adeptly about operations as you are about financing and structuring a deal. And, so you can ask the, you can ask the relevant questions. I read a lot. I read everything, every news source I get news and story leads from Twitter and from LinkedIn all the time. I'm always emailing things to myself as little story ideas and tips and I talk to people. Again, it goes back to that. That openness and willingness to ask questions, and I'm suspicious of people who act as though they know it all. There's nothing. I hate more than a know-it-all, unless maybe it's a travel influencer, but we can talk about that later. You have to be always continuously open to learning. If I knew everything right now, I might as well just retire and go home and watch tv. Like I am always on a question no more. And I have to couple that with the absolute, openness to asking the dumb questions at all times. And. One of the things that we do, one product of networking, at least in our segment of the industry and writing about it, is we have a lot of people. Who are, friends of hotel news now who we can call to say, Hey, this is off the record. You're not a source, but we're doing this story on transaction trends in downtown la. Can you're a broker. Can you give us a little bit of background on what that environment. Is just give us sort of some information. And I think that idea of doing, in journalism, we call it an informational interview. It's not gonna be on the record, it's not gonna be quoted, but you're just going to somebody for more information. I think I use that in my personal and professional development life too. Just being able to identify the people. I don't have to know all the answers, but I have to have a good network of people who can help me figure'em out. And that goes for a. That's really

Rachel Humphrey:

great advice. I appreciate your sharing that.

Stephanie Ricca:

Oh, I knew everything. No way. I'll never. What about

Rachel Humphrey:

people who say that their own negative voice in their head tends to be the loudest? They may have champions and allies. They may have a mentor. They may see you in the hallway and you build him up and give him the hype girl speech, but they can't seem to get past. What, we hear a lot of phrases, whether it's an imposter syndrome, whether it's just not believing in themselves, not seeing the reality. Do you have any strategies you would recommend for people or any maybe times that you were able to hype yourself up to overcome any doubts or negative

Stephanie Ricca:

self-talk? Oh man, I have it all the time. I have negative self-talk all the time. I think it's completely normal and I think even the people that act as though they. Probably have it too. At least I, it makes me feel better to think that other people do too. How to overcome it. I had, my first boss told me, gave me a really good piece of advice. She said, start a good things folder or a good things file. And it's Folder on your computer, whatever kind of thing where you store away those little compliments that you get. It might be an email saying, oh, you did great in this meeting today. Or, I really like the story you wrote, or, thank you for doing this. And She said, if you have this, it helps build up your confidence. So when you have those periods of doubt, you can look back on that and say, okay, yeah I do know how to do this. And so that's been something that I've had. I have the folder in my email right now. I have a folder on my desktop and I tell every single person who I've ever hired to do this, it's probably the best professional advice I've ever gotten. And I look back. I really do. And it's one of those instances where experience pays off because you have that moment of self doubt. And then you can overcome it by saying no, I don't know what's gonna happen now. But in the past when I've. Been in the same scenario, it's been okay. And as far as I always, I set a real low bar for myself, Rachel, as long as I don't fall off the stage or like literally fall down or throw up in public. Oh, that would be

Rachel Humphrey:

good. I was gonna say falling down or falling off stage. I even think that's overcomeable.

Stephanie Ricca:

So far I have not done either of those things. So low bar, set the low bar, and you're totally.

Rachel Humphrey:

I like the strategy and I liked that it has worked for you in that you have also then shared it with others to pay it forward on that

Stephanie Ricca:

strategy. Yeah, and a lot of people now use it and I'll talk to people who I've worked with over the years and they're like, Steph, the good things folder. It really, yeah, it's great.

Rachel Humphrey:

I hope that I have either sent you emails or handwritten notes that have found their way into the business. Absolutely. What about have you come across a situation especially since you've entered the hospitality sector where you came across a skill and you're like, wow, I don't know how to do that, or, I am not proficient in that, but really to lead to my success, whether it be in leadership or substantively and you're like, I'm gonna need to develop this, and then how did you set out and do that?

Stephanie Ricca:

I think there's a couple. Different examples because there are lots of skills in terms of knowledge that I need to know about the industry. In the beginning it's pretty easy to wrap your head around hotel operations because we've all stayed in a hotel. We know how things work. But if you don't have that finance background or that development background or commercial real estate background, I had to really dig in and I still do all the time trying to learn about. The nitty gritty of structuring a deal. And I have a lot of people that I call on to do those informational interviews and we'll shout out in our newsroom all the time Hey, what does this mean again? And can we talk a little bit about an example of it? So there's that openness to developing new areas of knowledge, which is so important. And then in terms of skillset, I just, I consume a lot of media because so much is changing all the time. And so we have to, it's like I said, there was that day when you're like, am I broadcaster? Am I print? And if I choose print, I will never have to have anybody see my face again. Of course, that's not true in journalism. We're all multimedia now, so we are learning at hotel news now we're learning podcasting. We do a ton of video and we spend a lot of time. Talking about and practicing those on-air skills and connecting with an audience over a different platform or a different medium, because it's important, that's how you're gonna connect with your audience. And we're always looking at new, if we're gonna try podcasting what will it look like? What will make it different? Are we gonna look at, different formats and places. For our content to be where our readers are.

Rachel Humphrey:

That's great. Do you think that when you pick, let's say the print journalism side and then you watch the evolution, which gets you back in front of the camera, do you think that also is a natural you said earlier you say yes to more opportu. Or you said yes to all opportunities. That would come your way. One of the things we hear about from a lot of leaders is say yes more than you say. No. Do you think when you get to that point and you pick print journalism thinking, okay, I'm only gonna be on the print side, and then you see this evolution, that part of that is also that curiosity or that okay, I can say yes to this too. It might be scary, I'm okay. I will be okay in the end.

Stephanie Ricca:

Yes. I do look, I said yes to your question, and I think it's it's tough to paint with a broad brush because it's, I almost think that as you get older and get more experience under your belt, you start to see the things, of course, that you Know you're good at that you may want to pursue further and things that challenge you, that you want to, that you may not be as skilled at and want to say yes to try and develop. But then there's also plenty of things that I think we have to reserve that professional right? To say, I don't really want to do that. That's not where I wanna spend my time. And I encourage people to. I'm never gonna say to everybody on my team, okay? You all have to be clones of me, and you have to go out there and be cheerleaders and jumping up and down on the stage and moderating and da. No. If that is not something that you enjoy, let me help you find something that you want to develop. So sometimes it's that Digging in a little bit or working with your network or the support people around you to say I may not love that part of the job, but I really do enjoy this part, and are there ways that I can explore? Developing a new skill there that doesn't necessarily have to be the same new skill that we expect of everybody. That is

Rachel Humphrey:

actually a perfect segue as if you're reading your On My Mind, because I wanna talk to you about another challenge. There's a generalization that women especially are not good at advocating for ourselves, and the example you just gave would be someone who. To you or on your team saying, I'm not sure that I want to be doing that, or I know for sure I don't wanna be doing that. That can be incredibly intimidating, a very scary thing to go say to my boss, I, I would like to do this and I'm not already, or I don't wanna be doing that. What advice do you give either to your team or someone who would come up to you to ask you, how can I best advocate for myself?

Stephanie Ricca:

This is also a tough question because I am not great at advocating for myself. I am not good at advocating for myself. I'm good at advocating for others and for picking out and trying to help others, and I've never been good at it for myself. So at this point I'm like, okay, yeah, I can work on that. I can model it. I can try and listen to my own advice. But in terms of how I help other people do it is I really like when somebody would come up to me and say, Steph, this is you. Let's say public speaking. Public speaking is not necessarily something I love, but here is something I love. Can you help me figure out a way to get there? And I. Absolutely. I think being able to iterate and talk about what those personal goals are, what a person's personal goals are in the professional space. Are, then you are more likely to hopefully get support to figure them out whether they're within the scope of your job or not. And it's nice because what I do is very low risk. I'm not, Going to my boss and saying, Hey, gimme a hundred million dollars. And I got a feeling about this hotel and I'm just gonna invest in it. No I can afford to take more risks without, the world crashing down. But I think it does that, having that mindset of recognizing I'm good at this, so I'd like to pursue it. I may not be very good at this, but I would also like to pursue, it means help me get the skills. To pursue it. Or I don't like that. I'd like to pursue something else. Being able to. Talk about that for your own self. Recognize it, figure out what those things are, and then have the conversation about it with a manager or a boss, I think would put you in. At least it works for me with people on my team and myself,

Rachel Humphrey:

like you, I'm, I have never been even good at advocating for myself. Although I think very good at advocating for others. But I like two things that you said in there. One is having given it some thought, and I think that's a really important piece of advice if I know internally, Okay. I don't want to be doing that, or I do wanna be doing that. Being able to articulate why. Yes. And in a way that makes sense maybe to somebody else so that when I'm presenting it, I'm not just saying, Nope, don't wanna do that. Exactly. But I'm actually going in with kind of some thought behind it I think is really important. The other is, I love the idea of presenting an alternative. So whether it's, I am interested. And maybe this is a way you could help me get there, or I'm not interested in this, but can you help me develop this, I think is a really interesting strategy that feels very approachable.

Stephanie Ricca:

In here

Rachel Humphrey:

to talk to. I like that a lot. I could sit and talk to you all day, just like when I run into you anywhere. You too. I'm a circus circuit, but unfortunately, or fortunately for our reader, listeners who may not wanna, that went fast. We are growing short on time. So I wanna end with two last thoughts. One, and anyone who has listened to me before knows this is my favorite question. And the reason I love to talk about advice to our younger self is I think we're all a work in progress. I think continuous growth is really important, but so is reflection. And so as you think back to that biology major or the different paths that you've taken. What would you tell 21 year old Steph about how things played out for you today and maybe something you would've done differently or the same along the way?

Stephanie Ricca:

I would say, you're doing fine kid. You're doing fine. I worried a whole lot more than I do now. I was out there changing jobs, having adventures, moving places on a dime, but I worried a lot, so I'd say You're doing fine. I love that. It's fine. It's all

Rachel Humphrey:

good. And then knowing the motto of d e I advisors to empower personal success, there's so much we haven't talked about today, so much more I would love to talk about, but tell me a little bit about one final piece of advice that you'd offer to our listen.

Stephanie Ricca:

This is so tough, but I think the best advice, I don't know that I'm qualified to give advice, but the piece of advice that I find myself telling myself all the time and telling other people who are in, whether it's a moment of crisis or a moment of, trying to overcome something tough, I always say just take one step at a. All you can do is put one foot in front of the other one.

Rachel Humphrey:

That is not only so accurate, but so easy to try Justin, to understand for someone who gets paid for words that very succinct and right to the point. Steph as I knew we would. Such a great time talking with you today on behalf of everything that I have learned from you personally and on behalf of a hotel industry that you have continued to lead and inspire. Thank you so much for everything that you do.

Stephanie Ricca:

Thank you. And same to you, Rachel. I. Just have always admired you from afar and from near, and I love what you are doing with D e I advisors and the conversations that you've brought to the stage.

Rachel Humphrey:

Thank you so much and to our audience, thank you so much for tuning in today. If you have liked what you've heard, we hope you'll head on over to d e i advisors.org where you can hear from over 85 industry executives about their paths to leadership and some of the lessons they've learned along the way. You can also stream d e I Advisors podcast on all of your favorite streaming channels. Stephanie Ricka, thank you so much for joining us, and thank you for supporting D e I advisors.

Stephanie Ricca:

Thank you, Rachel.