It's Personal Stories, A Hospitality Podcast

Carolyne Doyon_ President & CEO_ Club Med N_ America and Caribbean_ interviewed by David Kong

• David Kong

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From proving doubters wrong early on to leading with determination and kindness, Carolyne reminds us that “success doesn’t come easy, but small wins build confidence and influence.” She also shared candidly about overcoming imposter syndrome, the importance of surrounding yourself with the right people, and why sometimes the best advice is simple: “You’ve got this.” Her story is a powerful example of resilience, authenticity, and leadership with heart.

David Kong:

Greetings. I'm David Kong. I'm the founder and principal of Its Personal Stories. Today I'm delighted to welcome Caroline Doyen. She's the president and CEO of Club Net. North America and the Caribbean. Carolyn is well recognized in the industry. She recently won one of the top women in Travel and Hospitality Award, and she's been well known for her leadership as well as a commitment to empowering others to succeed. I'm honored to have you on a show, Carolyn Kel.

Carolyne Doyon:

It's an honor to be here, David, and thank you for having me.

David Kong:

Thank you. You have a very interesting career journey. I know you're from Canada. You studied social science and also tourism, and you've played many different roles in the travel industry, including airlines. Before you joined Club Med, would you mind to comment on the key factors of your career journey that contributed to your success?

Carolyne Doyon:

I would say it was. Determination, if I might presume it in one word. I was driven from a very young age into working hard, having good grades. I grew up in Montreal in a multicultural neighborhood, and I was always curious. But I was also very determined, and when I went from social science and so on and to tourism, my deter determination took another toll because I wanted to prove my mother wrong because she told me that if I was going into tourism, I will not be successful because it was very hard and there was a lot of people. And you were not making a lot of money. From that moment on, I decided not only I was going to follow my passion, but I was also determined to prove her wrong, which I can share with you now, David, that she has told me several times that she was wrong and that I did the good thing by following my passion and so on. All that to say that, yes, I think that the tipping point in where I am today was to be. To have a goal and to be determined to achieve it.

David Kong:

That's great. That speaks a lot to your determination and being driven. You overcome some resistance. Let's also talk about the both steps that you've taken in your career. You've taken a number of them. How did you find the courage to take those both steps and what can you share in terms of learnings?

Carolyne Doyon:

Yeah, so I think the first thing for me was always not to take anything for granted. Your success takes a long time to to reach, and it can go very quickly also, so you cannot take your success for granted. Another learning for me was do not forget where you're coming from. Very important. So it helps a lot in leadership style and so on. So always remember where you have started, where you're coming from, and always remember who you're speaking to. And of course you can more relate. I find that it helps also do not ever take kindness for weakness. Because through my different moves and career, I was fortunate to have very caring leaders and with different style, but very caring. And I find that it brings the best out of you when you have a caring leader that is there to support you, to let you grow, of course, and make mistake. But if it's done with kindness and looking out for you, I think that you can get even more so from yourself and also from your team. So it's not because you are kind, that you are weak. And this is a mindset that I think that a lot of leader today looking up to because it's very important and after it's don't be afraid to make mistake. You take full move and mistake happen when it does happen. Recognize it. Try to fail fast and learn from it and get back on track and go for your objectives. So I would say that these are the one that really, in terms of every obstacle and every steps that I did, that I always kept in mind and kept me focused.

David Kong:

Such great advice, and especially like a comment about being caring and kind to people. It's a hallmark of a successful leader in the early seventies or eighties when I was coming up a letter. The successful leaders are the ones who are really intense and tough, but how the world has changed, we all appreciate other people being kind and caring towards us and helping us with our career. Yeah, so thanks for sharing that. Yeah. Now, you went one day from being in charge of sales to being in charge of the whole company in North America and the Caribbean. That's not an easy shift from one day to the next. Can you comment on the mind shift that are necessary in order to advance your career?

Carolyne Doyon:

The mindset I started by telling you about determination. I think that. Follows in that same, in that same line and the mindset that you need to have that I believe in. So is that always be curious, ask a lot of question. And again, don't take anything for granted because if you do, then you are, you might miss out on some details or an opportunity and so on. So ask question for me is being curious. I have a lot of determination. You go for it. Also, don't settle. Because when you're a leader, sometimes you say, oh, if I go this way, it could be the easiest way. But I always ask myself, is it the best way? And often it's not the easiest way, that it's the best way, and sometimes it's the most complicated one, but you know that it might hurt at the beginning, but in the midterm, long term, it's gonna be better. So always have a mindset of asking yourself, am I doing this because. It's what should be done, or am I doing this for the right purpose and this is the right step that I have to do. After that, you need to trust yourself. At some point, you have to say, okay, this is the objective. I have a great, amazing team next to me. Let's do it. And maybe we don't have all the facts and data, but let's do it. And trust yourself, and you learn to trust yourself a little bit more with experience when you have realization and so on. When you have failed a couple of times you know that you won't do this again. But once you have this as you go and the years pass by, you gain a little bit more confidence. And then even though you don't have all the datas or all everything that you would like to take your decision, but you just go and you trust yourself. Yeah. So I do believe that this is. What shaped me and the mindset that I have today, and that I think I trust to other leaders.

David Kong:

Yeah, I love this and I particularly like the comment about trusting yourself. There are many roles that lead to Rome and there are many different ways to achieve what you wanna achieve, but trusting yourself is the best way to accomplish what you set out to do.

Carolyne Doyon:

But again, you cannot do it alone. You have to trust yourself. In terms of leading. But you need to be surrounded by an A team of incredible people in order to do. But of course there's someone that usually leads to lead the way, and you need to have confidence in yourself that you can do it, so they can follow you and be with you, but obviously alone or not go getting anywhere.

David Kong:

I absolutely agree. You need to surround yourself with the best people. You can find people that are smarter than you. Yes. And so you can trust them as well. Now advocating for ourselves is really important for our own success, and it's something that's really difficult to do because you don't wanna appear like you are conceited. You advocate for yourself.

Carolyne Doyon:

Uh, you are right David. It's not an easy thing to do, and I'm much more easy to give feedback to my team than for me to advocate for myself, but as again, as you have more experience and so on, I do believe the best way to advocate for yourself, it's first to remain true to who you are. Always lead by example and be factual. And that I, and again, I was telling you earlier, but don't take anything for granted. When I advocate for myself, I'm never in a position of this is my natural next step, or this is what should come next. No. It's something that I aspire to do and I will come to the table with the realizations, what I can bring of course to the business, and a vision and a strategy, and everything is tangible and I know that when I sit down like any other candidate. So you have to come with your best self, obviously. While remaining true to who you are, and of course bringing tangible example and tangible experience that is important to your next step where you would like to go.

David Kong:

Sounds like you are saying that your actions and results speak for themselves, but I'm also curious sometimes, especially for those of us in the minority group, women or people of color. It's hard to be noticed in a company and how do you have conversations with your supervisors or your superiors so they know your career ambition and that you have good results to show?

Carolyne Doyon:

So I had the, the good fortune, if I may, to, I've been working for Clement for over 15 years now. So I've grown within the company. Come is a very human company and they give us always ongoing training and they trust you if you show, of course, talent, but also determination and you wanna grow within so they invest in you. So I was telling you earlier that caring leaders were along my path. So I got caring leaders that were able to push me. And outside of my comfort zone. And to show, to prove to myself that I was capable of doing things that I didn't think it was possible or achievable. So by doing this step by step, you get results by having results. Of course, you've noticed while you notice what they say and you raise your hand because you have to raise your hand and to say, I wanna sit at the table. I've done this with the team so far. I think we can go further. These are what we need and this is where we wanna go. And as you go, people start to trust you and trust you even more. See potential and after it's a wheel. And the importance is to really raise your hand to do it the right way, but to say, you know what? I think I can do this. No, I can do this. That I think I can do this if I have the following means or if I have the following opportunity. And I was again, fortunate enough to have a company that really believe in when it's people and allow me to grow within.

David Kong:

That's number one, right? You have to work for the right company with value, expertise, and your experience and who you are. Exactly. That's great advice. Now, next topic is about challenges and disappointments. We all encounter them, it's inevitable, and I was wondering if you could share some of the lessons that you've learned from the challenges that you've encountered.

Carolyne Doyon:

Yes, I had several challenges over my professional life, but there's one I would say that, and we can talk about COVID and so on, but there's one very unique, I think about myself, is that again, when I decided to switch from social science, to finish social science and to go into tourism, and my mom was. Saying you can't do that. One of the other thing that I didn't tell you is that I was not speaking a word of English. So I'm born in, raised in Montreal, French Canadian. My first language is French and she says, what are you gonna do in tourism? The language is, is English to us. I, I'll learn it. But back then I met early twenties and she goes, okay, finally I did my studies. I was. Okay. Still not speaking English, but I manage, and my first position was at Delta Airlines. So Delta Airlines, American based company out of Atlanta. And I wanted to work at the airport and I did the interview and it's in Montreal. So they asked me in French, do you speak English? And I said, yes, but in French, I did not really speak English. And I said to myself, I really wanna have. The position. So I committed to myself that I need to speak English for obvious reason, and I learned English in four months. Wow. And on my own reading with dictionary, translating, full immersion, watching movie and so on. I learned it four months, no need to tell you that. Delta realized quite quickly that I did not really, it was fully bilingual. Like I said, I was in French and they saw that I was. Going quite quickly into learning and they kept me and I keep going up and up within that organization at that time. But that moment, which was a big challenge for me, I turned it around and it create tremendous opportunity. And one of them is being, talking here with you in English and living now in Miami, Florida. So.

David Kong:

That's what they say. Challenges, uh, opportunities.

Speaker 3:

Exactly, exactly. You turn that

David Kong:

challenge into a huge opportunity for yourself. Kudos to you. That's a delightful story. Love that. Now many of us struggle with the imposter syndrome, and could you share some advice on how you shift that negative thinking into something that's positive and constructive?

Carolyne Doyon:

Yeah, impostor syndrome really do exist, and for me, it's very much present in my life and even after all these years. And one of the exam, I have several of them, but one of them that I can share with you is that I've been asked to do a keynote for Women's Forum in 2024. And when the PR agency brought me the opportunity, my first reaction was, I can't do that. Why would I do that? What would I say that would interest all these professional leaders and so on that I have nothing to say? And they said, no, we believe. And it was my first keynote. I did a lot of interview. I did a lot of round tables and panels, but never a keynote. And David, it was. Very scary for me because, again, imposter syndrome. I didn't think I had anything interesting to share apart from my little story that I'm just resuming for you. So what I learned is that I needed to prepare and I did prepare, and I was coached and I was helped. And again, you need to surround yourself by the best team. And I'm doing a shutout to Adam. He will recognize himself, which was my coach, and we work on it. Several hours and when I arrived, it was in Toronto. When I arrived on that stage, that very morning, I knew I was ready and while I was doing the speech, I was talking about imposter syndrome and I was telling them that I was having it here on stage at that very moment because it was my first keynote and that I was still asking myself, why am I doing this again? Because I am I really interesting. All that to say that it was a wonderful experience. I got a standing ovation and for me, that moment I said, okay, I had the um, imposter syndrome and I still have it. But when you prepare and when you get out of your comfort zone, then anything can happen. And that was a huge learner for me after did I enjoy it? It's another story. But no, it was a great experience. But all that to say that, yes, it's, it's the imposter syndrome. Like you cannot have a better study case than this.

David Kong:

Yeah. I'm so glad you shared that story and your advice on being prepared. I is such a wonderful. Thing for us all to remember. When you're prepared, you're much more ready to take on that imposter syndrome. Now, I was wondering if you could share the best advice you've ever received.

Carolyne Doyon:

The best advice I receive in doubt. There's no doubt that is really the best advice I've received. I receive a lot, but it tags to every, sorry. IT tags to everything. It can tags to hr, it can tags to business. It can tags for everything. So when you doubt about something. There's no doubt, stop. Because often we would say, oh, I'm not sure I'm, if something doesn't feel right, it's because it's not right. And this is something that I challenge my team every day with. Sometimes they come to me with something and I said, what do you think this, this person or this project or this? I said, what do you think? I'm not sure. I I do you doubt? Yes. But I said, there's no doubt. Then. And now they're starting to see. And for me, it was really one of the best advice I've received amongst surround yourself with the best people you know. Don't ever be afraid to have all the best of any field around you. They will be better than you. They will know better than you in terms of their own feel. And you know what? It's okay. And you can always learn from them and you bring them something else. So that's the beauty of a team, of course. But these are the two advice that I would say really guide me still today, every day.

David Kong:

Good advice. I love that. I think a little doubt is sometimes our mechanism of making sure that we've thought through everything. So it's probably okay, but once you decide to pursue something, you have to go at it with full gusto, with full conviction. So I totally agree with you on that. I am curious as,'cause I have certainly evolved how I define success as I progressed. Through my career. And what about you? Do you think about success differently than you did five years ago?

Carolyne Doyon:

Yes, I do, and I have COVID to thanks for that, if I may. And all that craziness, it allow me to take a step back and to really be able to see the greater picture. Then just let's say a sales resort, the results on the spot and say, oh, we have the, I realize in time that often you do everything you can to have everything in place and you can have the best plan, but unfortunately things happen and the outcome is not what you expected. Do we have a. Commercial or a budget success, the answer might not, will not be no because for some reason that it's out of your control. But once you're able to take a step back and to say, we've done everything we could and we've done it really well, did the outcome worked? No, unfortunately, but we know why. If we could control, then we're not successful. If we can control and it's out of our hands, but we did everything. Then we are successful and we will learn from that. Five or 10 years ago, we probably would've this conversation. I would tell you if the budget is not achieved, if my costs are not under control, if this is this, it would've been a completely different definition of success. So yes, I see success with much more now. Again, a greater vision and much more. That was what was put into it than the end results, which still have to be. Positive. How did we get there? I see this more than just,

David Kong:

I'm so glad you said that.'cause a lot of people struggle to define success, and I'm so glad that you added clarity to this. Let's talk about how we can build confidence and influence because that is so important in our success. I have people come up to me and say, I don't know what it is about. Me being in a meeting and I listen to conversation, I volunteer my thought and nobody pays any attention to me. And then afterwards, somebody restates the same idea as mine and all of a sudden that's like the best thing since sliced bread. Why is that? And I often try to suggest that maybe it's a lack of influence and maybe it's a lack of confidence in how the idea was stated. And maybe there are other reasons. So. Building confidence and influence is crucial to our success. What advice can you provide us on this?

Carolyne Doyon:

I think that there's nothing that build confidence more than having small wins. You don't need to have tremendous three year plan and so on because it might take a while. I always say start with baby steps. Get out of your comfort zone, try learn, and it probably will work. And if it does work, you say, oh, I was able to do this much, then I can do this much. And I think that confidence, it's not built overnight, it builds with, I was telling you earlier, but the realization, the small win to see someone grow. So give yourself some target. Which are your own target, not necessarily the company you work for, but you know that for you to reach these target, it's asking you quite a bit because you know it's not something maybe you're used to or you're getting completely out of your comfort zone, but once you do it and you say, okay, I was able to do this, do it again. So don't be afraid to challenge yourself and to set goals for yourself. You will build your confidence after. I was telling you about being caring leadership. If you are true to yourself, if you are loyal, honest to the people that you're around, then the influence come naturally. This is what we call leadership, right? I am not a manager. I wanna be a leader, and I'm trying to give this to my team because in order to influence, for me, it's more lead. Is that you have to have the people that believe in you and that wants to follow you. And how do you do this? This by staying true to yourself. Of course, lead by example. Raise your hand if you made a mistake and make it better and give success to your team when it's due and things like that. But everything, the confidence and the influence, they go hand in hand and they go step by step. Because the more you are gonna have confidence in yourself, the more you're going inspire the team and your clients, and the more you inspire them, your influence always coming naturally. But it takes some times, it does take some times.

David Kong:

Yes, I totally agree with you. It's a lot of small wins that begin to build your confidence and influence. Wonderful. Sharing that with us, I see that we are coming almost to the end of our show. So I have two other questions for you. One is you've had a spectacular career journey and you have a young son that's with you through this journey. What. Lesson do you want your son to pick up through this journey?

Carolyne Doyon:

My son, Sam, is 14-year-old, 13 years old. I want him to know that nothing good come easily. You know it when we say it's too good to be true. It is too good to be true. So I want for him to know early on that. If he sets himself a goal or a small win or something that he has to himself put the effort because success doesn't come on its own. So for him, if he just one thing, of course, good values and so on, but for him, in terms professionally, nothing. Good comes easy and we know this, but often sometimes we're sidetracked. So if you can just keep this in mind, I think you will have a good roadmap.

David Kong:

I totally agree with you. That's great advice for son. Now I'll show Isabel self-empowerment, and if you can provide one final piece of advice that would be on every billboard in North America, what would that be?

Speaker 3:

You've got this.

David Kong:

You got this,

Speaker 3:

you've got this. Yes.

David Kong:

That's right.

Speaker 3:

Yeah.

David Kong:

I love that. A lot of times it's the mindset, right? You've got this. You gotta believe in yourself

Carolyne Doyon:

because sometimes you're in doubt and you have to tell you some. You've got this. Again, it's all tied up to the impost. I love that.

David Kong:

I love that. Because if you don't believe in yourself, why should anyone believe in you? You've got this. What a great model. Thank you.

Carolyne Doyon:

Are we gonna make some billboard of it so I can give it to my team and to everybody? I think

David Kong:

you got this. Let's soon take over the Nike Sweep. If you enjoy the show with Carolyn, I hope you join us on our website. It's personal stories.com. Carolyn, it's such a pleasure to have you. Your comments have been most insightful and beneficial. Thank you very much for taking the time to be on the show.

Carolyne Doyon:

Again, thank you so much for having me, David, and let's speak soon. Thank you.

David Kong:

Yeah, let's speak soon. Thank you.