It's Personal Stories, A Hospitality Podcast

Suzanne Bagnera, Director of Executive Education, Florida International University, Interviewed by Rachel Humphrey

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Suzanne discusses how her transferable skills have aided her hospitality journey from restaurants to hotels to academia and podcasting and how she develops new skills with each role. She shares her strategies for achieving work life harmony, one thing people don't know about her, and what advice she'd give to her younger self. Suzanne talks about her leadership evolution, how the next generation sees leadership today, and her strategies for public speaking and how they've changed since her first big opportunity.

Rachel Humphrey:

I am Rachel Humphrey with its Personal Stories of Hospitality podcast, and I am very excited to be joined today by the preeminent podcaster in the hospitality industry, Suzanne Bag, who wears a lot of hats, and we will cover some of them at some time, but it's always fun when you turn the microphone, or in this case, the keyboard around and get to switch roles. Suzanne, welcome to the program.

Suzanne Bagnera:

Thank you so much for having me. It's an honor to be interviewed by you and a part of your podcast.

Rachel Humphrey:

We are very excited and I am gonna kick off where we always do, talking about your journey to leadership. One of the things that I love so much about the hospitality industry is that no two journeys have to be the same. You and I can carve very different paths to get there, but both have really important roles within the industry. So talk a little bit about your background, maybe any pivotal moments along the way for you, and how did you get to the roles that you hold today?

Suzanne Bagnera:

I think you wanted to start when I was a child, so I'm gonna start when I was three days old. Now in all seriousness though,

Rachel Humphrey:

and now we have to go. So

Suzanne Bagnera:

my family had a seafood restaurant on Long Island and so from a very early age, I. Was a guest, so to speak, with my family coming into that restaurant and then got really involved. And by the time I was 12 from a family perspective, I was working in the back of the house and then eventually in the front of the house and learned the entire aspect of the restaurant industry. And that led me to going to Johnson Wales University in Providence, Rhode Island. Our sous chef had gone there and really wanted to be able to hone in what I was doing,'cause I really enjoyed it. And from that point got into the hotel industry. So one of the. Modeling things that I would see is that I looked at all the transferable skills, and so I worked at Johnson of Wales while I was there as a hall director, and that led me to transferable skills to get into and break into the hotel industry. And many of my opportunities came around, not because I was specifically looking for them, but I had great people in my space that would set me up for a speaking opportunity or a networking experience. Was doing a speaking session on portfolios and how students could put those together. And unbeknownst to me in the audience was the recruiter for a company at its heyday was Bristol Hotels and Resorts out of Dallas, Texas. And they then brought on an opportunity to interview in the president's. Office at Johnson of Wales by the president of Bristol Hotels. And that kind of set my fate into the hotel world and then commuted from Providence, Rhode Island into Boston. That's also how I met my husband working in that area of the hotel'cause he was a chief engineer and worked in the hotel industry, all the different positions because I set a goal for myself to be a general manager. And successfully met that goal by becoming a female GM in the city of Boston by the time I was 24. So really great opportunity to really take all of my years of experience and drive fast forward very quickly. And then as I started to see training opportunities happen, when I would do training at the properties that naturally led into education and how could then I start teaching in the world. And so I picked up a role. Literally happened while I was recruiting for the Holiday Inn Express as a general manager at a career fair. And a director or dean of a school had reached out and said, Hey I need someone. Can you teach? And I'm like, I'm actually available. Because back then not a lot of people had master's degrees. So that was another great opportunity to get into the role of being an adjunct and teaching, really started to enjoy that. Left the industry, if you will, altogether to go into teaching and then sat down, I think this is where that pivotal moment was sat down with my former dean at Johnson of Wales and she said, I see leadership potential in. You need to go for your PhD. And I was like, yeah, no, the master's was enough. That's what you all told me. I would be sufficient. But they said from that point, if I wanted to get into leadership in academia, I needed that degree and then went for that. Now I've been able to take my decades of industry experience, my decades of teaching, and continue to integrate and bridge those gaps between. Working in the space, in the podcast world and connecting with our industry professionals and then driving and creating executive education that can support the training gaps that are really seen within a lot of our businesses within the industry. So that's my fast journey.

Rachel Humphrey:

You have a lot of incredible lessons in there, both reaching out to new opportunities on your own, being receptive to new opportunities when they come your way. You mentioned something interesting in there that I wanted to ask you about, and I didn't know you were gonna say anything there, where you had someone say that they saw leadership. In you. I'm curious about your self-awareness of it. One of the things I find really interesting on this podcast is that people will tell us, I was born to lead. I knew from a young age I wanted it. And then we have others who say, wait, you think I'm a leader today? I don't even see myself as a leader. I'm curious if you fall somewhere on that spectrum of if there was either a moment that you saw leadership in your future, if you knew that was always something you wanted to achieve within the hospitality industry.

Suzanne Bagnera:

I think naturally, and I think that's why I decided to go for my master's degree simply because when I would do things, I would always. Sit in the front of the class. I would always be more of a leader in youth in terms of organizations. I think when I was in high school, I might have been a leader of 21 different organizations in high school.

Rachel Humphrey:

So wait, you're saying that the multiple hats, the cat in the hat, Suzanne is not a new,

Suzanne Bagnera:

this is not a new situation for me. That kind of has been ingrained in me in the way in which I operate. And I like to, as I transition from one career to another, or one property to another really get a handle on what that particular experience is like and then dive headfirst in. And so I've had industry people that have sat down and said, we see potential within you to go further and try for more. And then from the academic standpoint, now from the academic standpoint. I didn't necessarily see myself as opportunity for administration or thinking along those lines because of the training and the teaching. But really hearing that from two people when they sat me down and said, no, you need to do this and you're gonna meet with, ironically, my current Dean, Michael Chen long before he was my boss, they said, go talk to him. He went through this. This program and this journey to get a PhD and learn more about what it's gonna be because we need great leaders and that's what academia tries hard to do because we don't have enough people to step into that position and really identify people to, to step up.

Rachel Humphrey:

Dean Chang has been an incredible guest on the podcast as well, so hope people will check that one out. But I really love the messaging and I think this is what's happened in my career a lot where someone else maybe has recognized an opportunity or a talent in me that I've not seen in myself, and it was really through somebody bringing it to my attention, exploring it more, and then being willing to say yes that I actually pursued those opportunities. So I love hearing. That commonality. One thing you know, as my role on your podcast have been many times is how important I believe public speaking is for the advancement of career, creating a personal brand, being seen as a subject matter expert, whether it is talking to your team or in front of a large conference, and as the producer of a lot of different podcasts as a, an academia. Or an academic seeing students teach. Talk a little bit about your own public speaking journey, but also what are some of the lessons that you would advise being on the receiving end of having a lot of public speakers crossing your path?

Suzanne Bagnera:

So I would say when I got started and when I was a guest on no vacancy live at the time, the amount of preparation that I did to be ready, and I still considered myself to be an expert in the space, if you will, but I. I had notes and post-its along my wall, along my monitor all around so that I could look and had taken tons of notes. I think I prepped for six hours to be as a guest on that particular show, just so that I had everything possible. And if you know anything about Glenn Houseman, there is no preparation. It is completely authentic, and I think I might have used a quarter of what I prepared for but. Then down the road. Fast forward, I had an opportunity to help out as a producer on that particular podcast. And for me, watching and listening to Glen perform, if you will, and be on stage and connect, has continued to give me strength in my own confidence where I'm not taking all of those notes in a notebook. I'm barely doing that anymore because I am. Tuning into what my listening skills are and hearing what they're talking about and how do I adjust and pivot. And that has led to more opportunities to be a moderator for an industry related panel, or even potentially a panelist or individual speaking opportunities. Again, the more practice I think is what has continued to develop my own confidence in that. I'm not gonna say I don't still prepare for big p big speaking opportunities. I definitely do. From the flip side, in terms of whether it be students or whether it be individuals that are looking to be on a podcast and connect, I think the one thing I would've appreciated hearing maybe a little bit more in all of those pieces is. You are the expert in what we're talking about. I'm not help lead that conversation. And that has helped, or I hope it has helped some of the guests that we've had when I've had conversations like, we've got you as podcast hosts. It's our job to make sure that the transition and the flow is natural and that you're comfortable and make that an easy component. But I think knowing that you are an expert in your own space is an important piece to add value to your own confidence that you can do this.

Rachel Humphrey:

I like the concept too of preparing, but not over preparing so that you're present in listening in the conversation, but also the idea of being an expert. I know that's one of the things that I have leaned into a lot the last few years of overcoming some anxieties or self-doubt about being a guest is somebody has asked me because of the content that they think or the value they think I can provide to their audience. And I think as soon as I switched that narrative. A little bit. It was very helpful for me in joining. I wanna follow up on that line of questioning. I, I've mentioned that's one of the ones that I have. Why would anybody want me to be a guest who wants to listen to what I have to say? And I think that we all have different types of self-doubt, but is that something that you experience in your journey, whether it's in, in your current roles or previously? And if so. What advice would you give someone else who is looking to maybe overcome some of that self-doubt that's keeping them from taking their next step?

Suzanne Bagnera:

I think many times, and it's not necessarily that I'm. Always doubting myself, but I think it's more of the interaction with other people and where I don't get the results that I'm envisioning or that I'm expecting, and I've had to take a step back many times and say, okay. Individuals have changed. The generations have changed. Learning has changed. So my mentality then is what do I have to do differently to connect or engage with the person that I want to get the results that I want? And many times I call it managing up. Because I will manage my different bosses that I've had in different ways, and every single one has a different nuance to what they expect or how they want things to be delivered. And if I want the results that I'm expecting to get or to get them in a timely fashion, I have to pivot myself and not always just be like this is the way that Suzanne does it. I have to be able to adapt to, okay, I know I'm gonna get better results if I do. Or if I change this email or if I make it look like this to make those components. And that made me feel more confident and less doubtful. But there's many times where I'm like, okay, this is not, I'm not getting where I wanna go, so I have to look at the person that I'm trying to deal with. And many times if I'm meeting a new person or if I'm trying to have an ask or an offer that I'm trying to put together for a proposal. If I know somebody that knows somebody, the question may be can you give me a little bit of an insight? What are the pet peeves of this person? Or how do they respond better so that I can be better prepared to that to make sure that I'm pivotal?

Rachel Humphrey:

One of the interesting things actually from this podcast that we're hearing is people who are meeting people for the first time will say, Hey, I tuned in and I listened to Suzanne so that I got a little bit of feeling for her cadence or her background or something else to give them that comfort level of approaching them. You just talked really though about. The evolution, how you evolve those particular skills if you're not getting the results that you're looking for. And I have a couple of questions I wanna ask you about evolving. That. One is you go from the restaurant industry to the hotel industry to being a gm, to being a professor, to being in the administrative side and also with the podcasting and constantly re reinventing, what you are doing. Adding, as I said to the cat in the hat, in each of those, I'm imagining that you came across new skills that maybe you didn't learn when you had your university days or in the job before it. And, here's something I've never done before. I don't know how to do, and I'm gonna need to learn whether to master it or at least to understand it before, to be successful in this new role. Can you think of any examples that's happened for you? And then how do you go about that continuous learning? How do you self, if you will, teach the things that you know you're gonna need to be successful?

Suzanne Bagnera:

I think it really got started in both the restaurant and the hotel side of the world. As I grew up, technology was evolving and so we would have pieces of technology, but you would have no IT person on site to be able to fix the problems that happened and inherently. I just was the one that would roll up my sleeves, try and figure it out. Many times would talk to your support person on the phone, but they weren't sending someone out. And so I had to learn how to do those things. And so technology then became something that I wasn't scared of. It's one of those necessary evils that I've continued to add into everything that I've done, so I have been willing to say. This is gonna happen in the industry. Let's try and get students prepared. Let's learn this technology. I've been on the variety of technology committees on the academic world to pilot and test out new LMS programs or learning management systems to see how that would work. I also looked at how did you use wikis back when wikis were a big thing before Wikipedia, but how could you use those tools and how could you use. Sites from Google and how could you use blogs and practical tools, not just the tools built into the LMS so that I had to teach it to myself and then be able to incorporate adapting that information to our students. Nowadays, the buzz is ai, and so one of the pieces that we had. From many of our guests on no vacancy was really the question, are you aware of AI and are you using ai? And we started that question back in 2022, just as CHATT PT had really gotten started. And what I kept hearing was people, I don't know. Like I've heard it, I don't know what to do, I don't know how to do it. And that motivated me to work with my director of it. And we actually created the first of its kind. AI and machine learning class that was focused on the hospitality industry in an online format to help inform others. And now we're adding another iteration to a workshop to that. And for myself, I literally just had another AI and teaching class, then I got accepted into a six week program that will help me continue to think about how can I adapt my assignments and. Aspects of my learning objectives and projects, how can I infuse that to continue to model that for students? We know that individuals are using it, but that many individuals are using tools on a very surface level, but how can we take that a step further? And so when I look at that big picture, sometimes it's hard and it takes a lot of investment and time to be like, I'm gonna learn this and add this to my portfolio, but I can see that bigger picture and know that. Someone's gotta do it, so I might as well just jump off the diving board and try.

Rachel Humphrey:

Technology's such a great example too.'cause it moves so quickly that the minute sometimes you feel like you've learned it, it's outdated and so it gets frustrating to try to keep ahead. I'll tell you just very quickly in college, my roommate came back and said that her father had bought a plane ticket on this thing called Prodigy, and my mom was a travel agent and I said, no one will ever buy plane tickets on the worldwide web. That's the craziest thing I ever heard of. So famously as AI is taking its thing, everybody's Hey, I think that we need to flash back to that day in college. You said that and recognize that people are gonna adapt and adopt technology, but you also talked, and we were talking about this a second ago with leadership evolution. I'm curious, as you look back on 2025, what was one of the biggest lessons you learned last year and how will it inform your leadership moving forward?

Suzanne Bagnera:

I think for me it's thinking about the focus and I think for going into 2026, that's been what my word has been and looking at what is on my plate. I think. When you are a high achieving individual and you wear many hats as the cat and the hat can do a lot of projects will inherently fall into your lap or you'll be asked to take on something. And so I'm trying to look at is there a focus to that? Is that the best use of my time? Or in many instances, is there a way to. Cross collaborate and either work with others or combined things instead of keep them all separated and keep swirling so many different silos and make things work together. And that, I think, has really set me up for a better 2026 as to how am I investing my time then, because there's only one of me there's a lot of programs that I oversee and teaching full-time and having a family, to right. Find that right level of, it's never gonna be a balance, but how do you find that? Give and take to be able to be happy and successful.

Rachel Humphrey:

I wanna follow up on some of those themes in a second, but I wanna stick to leadership for a minute. You have an incredible vantage point at the university level through the podcasting. What are you seeing or hearing from students today, rising leaders about where they see the hospitality industry from a leadership. Level, what they're looking for, maybe in leaders and what we could be doing better to be listening to them saying about where they think leadership is currently or where it's headed.

Suzanne Bagnera:

We are very fortunate. We have a lot of experiential learning opportunities at the Chaplain School of Hospitality and Tourism Management at FIU, and that gives our students such an advantage to being involved. Many times we have what we call pods programs on demand, and we will take students on experiences so that they can see more than just something that has to be offered in Miami. And to be honest, Miami is a great mecca for learning. The volume of hospitality businesses is immense. I happen to lead as the advisor of the Hotel Guild, so I get the opportunity to take a group of students very frequently to hotels in the Miami area and then engage in. Letting those students hear from the different supervisors, managers, and leaders that are at those properties and they enjoy hearing the stories, knowing that sense that they're not alone in what they're doing, and that when people can make that connection. Not to, I don't like the phrase back in my day, but but when you look at, when I was a student, this is where I was at, and this is how I carried forward my journey that seems to resonate really well and make those connections. I've created, this is gonna be, its third year. We're calling it the Future Ready Forum. And so in reality, we know that female leaders have been a void in a lot of what we offer in our industry. And so we wanted to take a look at bringing together females that are in a variety of different leadership positions, but in a variety of. Generational stages in their career, and it's a full day experience, but I personally get to moderate the panel. And so we really dive deep into those different experiences to help the students see and think, because sometimes, quite honestly their glasses only let them see this far they're still having a hard time understanding what the entire industry is and what it can offer. And then how do you get that? And I think. COVID, and I don't like to bring this back up, but the pandemic. For these students that are still at that point of graduating, that limited time where they were then forced to be online as opposed to being in person is still making an impact on those crucial conversations and that personal engagement. Where we might not have seen that in years past, and so many of us think, oh, we can go beyond that. No, we still have to do a little bit of back to basics and include those important conversations in what we're communicating to help drive the confidence of the students higher.

Rachel Humphrey:

That's such a great point. You mentioned a minute ago having a family in the demands of both trying to have a. Demanding career, but also enjoy life outside of that. And I could not agree more. That's why I don't use the word balance either, but Talk a little bit about, for you, what that journey has been like. Has it evolved over time for you? What are some of the important lessons that you've learned? And one of the things when I speak to students that I hate hearing is I don't think I can be a mom and an executive at the same time. Are you hearing that from how people perceive the hospitality industry still?

Suzanne Bagnera:

I think a lot of the changes that have happened in the hospitality industry have. Gone to the betterment, right? We are allowing a little bit more flexibility. There's opportunities that might not have been traditional in the time in which you and I grew up into the industry. So I think that mentality is very important to be attractive to our younger opportunity of generation coming into. To the focus for me as I looked at the industry growing up and seeing my family work in the restaurant industry, and I worked when I was in high school every single weekend. I would start Friday night and I would work until we would close on Sunday evening, and I didn't really have too much of a life, if you will. And so I knew that the industry was going to demand a lot of me. And so when I had an opportunity to look at. Going for my master's degree. That for me was saying I think I can see myself teaching in that transferable skill of training, and that can give me an opportunity to have more tools in my toolbox or the ability to pivot and change my career. For me, I had a really bad accident years ago. While I was a GM and I actually fractured my kneecap. And so yes, I'm in the 3% population that has had a fractured kneecap. But for me that was at a pivotal moment to, oh, wait a minute, stop, take it easy. Reevaluate what it is that you want to do, how do you want to do that? And. That eventually, that got me more into teaching full-time because that was a na natural transition. But if I didn't have my master's degree, that wasn't going to be something that was there. And then getting married finding a partner that was, someone that understood the industry. My husband was a chief engineer of hotels and had been in the industry for a long time, and the joke was that he married the hotel before me because there were many times that you would get a phone call in the middle of the night and he would have to go in and I had to be fine with that. In the same token, he had to be fine with me doing some traveling. And then you eventually add children into that mix. It was a very flexible opportunity because he was married previously and I ended up doing a lot of the primary chi childcare giving, and I was flexible enough to leave to pick up the kids for their weekday or their weekend visitation, where he might not have been able to do that. But in the same token, that give and take, there were some nights that it was really late. Now my own son, we have eventually moved to Florida from being in the Boston area, and he's grown up ridiculously fast. I don't know how we're at like 11 right now but even that younger age, right? You need more support and you've got daycare deadlines to be able to deal with and traffic. And now talk about traffic, some people have heard this and many don't realize it, but this beautiful campus behind me in North Miami is approximately three hours south of where I live. So my commute is a really long commute to get to campus, but that sacrifice in our family dynamic. My husband no longer works and my son is more capable of taking care of himself. We built up models so that he can cook if he needs to, and has become independent by being in scouting America, and it's gonna move over to the troop level. So those things make it so that I don't have to hold his hand for everything, but I can also adapt my schedule to know. When something is happening, I can be there to be able to support him. And I think those give that level of balance that or that focus when I need it to be able to have fun in both fields. Because as much as I do, I love it. And I don't necessarily feel like it's a burdensome level of being at work because I get to do so many different things and keep that pulse on what's happening in the industry.

Rachel Humphrey:

I think it's incredible too because the intentionality, both of having a partner where you describe the give and take, having career choices that have changed over time, that have fit wherever you are at whatever stage. You are in are so important in finding that ability not to let one dominate or take over for the other. One of the things that I love about interviewing people on here is that we all think, we know the leaders in our industry. We see them at every conference, we see them on every podcast. We have all of these things. Tell me, what is one thing that would really surprise people about you?

Suzanne Bagnera:

That I still haven't unpacked for moving from Florida and I have a storage unit of boxes. Yes.

Rachel Humphrey:

There's no, there's so much I can add to that one. Yes, I also own storage units in Florida, but that will be a different type of podcast for a different day.

Suzanne Bagnera:

I take a ton of pictures and so in my previous homes I had. Photographs that are framed, and I have boxes and boxes of them, but I haven't found them to unpack them, much less to hang them up. And so yes eventually it's, on my mission goal, I think the difference in the state of Florida versus in the other states when I've worked ACA academically is most times I've had the summer off in Florida. They actually push to have classes that happen in the summer so that students are constantly learning. And I miss that summertime off where you have a little bit more decompression from an academic world. You're like fully on for 16 weeks. You get a small little break and then you're on again for 16 weeks, or the summer might be an eight or 12 week experience, but there becomes a lot less time to go to the storage unit and find what you. I'll get there.

Rachel Humphrey:

That's going on the 2026 project list. I'm gonna ask you again next January if you cross that one off the to-do list.

Suzanne Bagnera:

We'll try.

Rachel Humphrey:

I mentioned when we started, and I, and we'll never have enough time to talk about everything I want to, but I mentioned when we started that one of the things that I love about. The industry is these different paths to leadership and all of the pivots and I believe, greatly in sliding doors. But I also think that we all evolve as leaders, as people, and some of that comes from reflection. Looking back on. Those earlier things, whether they were the families were raised in the earlier jobs we held, the academic education we've had. If you look back to Suzanne in high school, working at the restaurant with your family, what would you tell her today? Either about how things worked out for you or something maybe you wish you knew at the start that might have changed the path for you.

Suzanne Bagnera:

Probably the fact that when I was younger, even all of the activity involvement and things that I didn't necessarily think it would. As many friends have alluded to, there's a spider web in my head, and not that I'm old, but that it's a spider web of connection. And that has helped me tremendously where people will reach out and be like. Someone that knows someone and to be able to connect. And so in the early days, I might not have really thought about it to that way. And being able to continue to make those meaningful connections, I might not have made those reengagement. Now I'm more intentional about that, and so I would tell myself to continue to make sure that every connection. Counts in matters. It was when I was leaving the hotel back in probably 2007, 2008, that's when LinkedIn was just starting and there was a revenue manager that was like, I'm gonna connect with you on this tool and this platform. And I was like. Okay, whatever. And I just added it to my mix and now that helps me continue to make sure that I also connect with people.'cause yes, I have my binder with all of my business cards and my notes, which I still do, but LinkedIn serves as that way to continue to make those connections meaningful and memorable. And continue to reach out to people. And I think that helps me in anything that I do. Whether it just be advice or connecting other people to other people I would've loved to have been able to tell myself to have a little bit more investment in that when I was younger.

Rachel Humphrey:

That's such great advice because we've both experienced the real impact of genuine connections along the way and being a connector of people and how important that can be both to fill our own cup'cause it feels great to introduce people, but also to continue to advance whatever initiatives are important to us. As we wrap up the motto for. It's personal stories is empowering personal success, and we've talked about a lot of different things in your journey, a lot of the things you're seeing and doing. What is one final piece of advice you would share with our audience?

Suzanne Bagnera:

I think it's follow your passion. And with that you need to say yes and show up. And I think for young people in the industry, it's to be able to show up and listen it. It means bringing a notebook, taking notes, thinking and investigating before you just always ask the surface level question. And when you connect in that way and you explore what that drives you, it brings you to what fills your cup and gives you that sense of passion and charges you up. And don't forget to smile in the process.

Rachel Humphrey:

I love show up and listen and smile. I'll add that. But I love the show up and listen very much. I appreciate you very much. I appreciate all you do for the industry. Like I said, I'm familiar with the cat and the hat. Hat'cause I wear them as well, but I. Know that you have a lot of responsibilities and you give a tremendous amount to the industry and to the rising leaders in it, especially so appreciative for that. Loved having you sit on the opposite side of the microphone today. And to our audience, thank you so much for listening. We know you have a lot of ways you can spend your time. We hope you'll visit us@itspersonalstories.com to hear from a lot of other industry leaders that will share likewise, their personal stories, their journeys, and their leadership insights as well. But Suzanne, thank you so much for joining us.

Suzanne Bagnera:

An absolute pleasure. Thank you.

Rachel Humphrey:

Thank you.