Defining Hospitality

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Dan Ryan: I'm sitting here right now with the principal of her design team. Miss Sonya. Affy welcome, Sonya. Thanks, Dan. Um, what was really funny to me on stage while up there, and it was a great conversation, but there were about three or four times where Venus, like everyone else out here was plugging that, Hey, we need to hire people.
Yes, we, we need we're hiring and the whole crowd laughed, but I wanted to just like pull on that a little bit. Cuz one of the. that I was really struck by that she said is [00:03:00] she always wants to surround herself with people that are better than her. Yeah. And smarter at the things that they do. I don't know how many people are better at tennis than her.
Uh, but on the design side, um, she also said that in addition to the people being better, she really prides herself on having a very happy place to work in Palm beach. So I wanted to, like, you who's like running all the design teams. Like what makes it happy? And, and like, how do you feel like what resonated with you is what she said up there up on stage while you were sitting in the front row?
Well, I feel
Sonya Haffey: the same way, Dan. So I always wanna hire someone smarter than me. And I feel like we do that every day in the office. So I even told our newest hire I said, my goal in life is for you to prove me wrong, at least three times a day. If you can prove me wrong, I, I, you are. You'll make my day, I'll be the happiest person alive.
And I feel like that's part of it is giving [00:04:00] people space to be themselves also giving them space to fail. So they learn. And, our rule forever has been, since I've been with Venus is, no drama and that's, a big component of our team.
Dan Ryan: I love that. And another thing that struck me is she said, What she spends most of her time doing now is coaching.
And I think she must have, obviously she had some of the best coaches and mentors in, in her upbringing, but I was also, as she was saying that I'm like, walk me through a session between you and Venus where she's coaching you. Like, how does she coach you and how do you feel after that session?
Sonya Haffey: That's an interesting question.
I've never been asked. Um, so yeah, so it is direct. We have a very tight relationship and a lot of it is listen. Um, so sometimes it's almost like a therapist, right? So she'll ask the question. Here's what I need to know. You know, do you have this [00:05:00] data available or how are the projects going or how is, you know, HR, how's everybody feeling, and then I'm reflecting on it and giving her data that's most of our communication, but at that point, if I'm having trouble with something and I want a second opinion, or I wanna hear her take.
The way that she approaches it is much different. It's not, she's never telling you what to do. She's trying to get you to tell her how you are gonna make it happen. So she's trying to pull it out of you. So it's similar to a coach where I feel like in a lot of executives or executive roles, you're telling somebody what to do and they are just doing it.
There is no, you're not learning from it really. You're not gaining from that and knowledge. She's making you think she's making you do the
Dan Ryan: hard work. That's fascinating. And also the role of a good coach. And again, like I said, she probably learned from [00:06:00] the most, so another question for you is in her coaching of you, this'll be a two part question in her coaching of you.
How is she helped make you a better version of yourself?
Sonya Haffey: Wow. She's pushed me to my limits. Right. Just as far.
I don't know when you work for someone that has, I mean, you see their face all the time, all these amazing things that they've done. I mean, the tennis side, she's done amazing and amazing athlete. Right. But on the other side, like she said, and she's done a lot of work with helping others and equality. And when you see someone like.
It always just naturally, at least for me aspire, I, I wanna aspire to be better. So when I'm running her company, I want to make it the best I want to, I want her to look at me and be like, [00:07:00] wow, that's awesome. You know, I want, I don't want to make it smaller than it than it is. Right. And so I think that's part of it.
It's just, she allows me the space to, to get to that point on. And I love it. Okay. I don't wanna disappoint her just like you would never wanna disappoint your coach. Right. And my job like my, my court today is lodging conference.
Dan Ryan: I love it. Okay. So now in the ways that she's helped make you a better version of your yourself and inspired you and looping back how we first started talking about how she prides herself on this happy environment.
She's created in her and she's really proud of in, in the firm. Um, how do you take the coachings that you've learned or the, the, the techniques of coaching, uh, that you learned from Venus and how do you apply it to your team and why do you consider it a happy place? And why are [00:08:00] you so proud that it's a happy place to work?
Sonya Haffey: Well, I know in our industry, there's a lot of firms. a lot of people get. burn out I know, this is very common now. Oh, we have work life balance. We actually have work life balance. We don't work on weekends. we say no to projects because of it. If we don't have the capacity to do it, I feel like that's a big part of the happiness of the team, whether they know it or not, whether they've been in another position at another firm where they've been burned out or not.
Um, but I feel like with our team and the coaching. If I'm going to have a conversation about a floor plan or some kind of design that they've been working on, I'm, I'm pulling it out of them. I'm not going to sketch it. Well, sometimes I do. I'm like really rushed. Here's the sketch take it. But a lot of times I'll just sit down with them and say, well, what do you think?
Well, why do you think that that's better? What can we learn from this? Okay. So the next time, and sometimes I'm like, [00:09:00] okay, I think you went too fast. Let's step back. Like, let's go. Basics back to basics. What is it, Mike? So do it again and come back to me, you know, so that's the practice, right? That's part of coaching.
You have to practice and, you know, be good at it. And I'm not just, I don't know what the like, overarching and just on top of them, I'm, I'm letting them do the work.
Dan Ryan: And I bet that that resonates with them. And then it, it inspires them to always do better much in the same way that you said. Right. You know, you don't wanna let Venus.
and you get a lot of joy out of that, right? Yeah. And in the same way, you're, you're reciprocating that to your team. Yep. And, and helping them get better and become better versions of, of themselves. Hopefully. Um, well, so I just wanna say like Venus, literally three or four times saying we're hiring, we're hiring, we're hiring.
Um, we're gonna experiment. This is what this podcast is all about. And the job you have a job description.
Sonya Haffey: Yeah. [00:10:00] Intermediate interior designer. We're looking for a. Where in west Palm beach. So we're open to people moving. It's not a remote position because we really, I think part of it is being able to see and collaborate with each other.
So the intermediate role is between a junior and a senior, and we want them to grow with the company and they should have a lot of hospitality experience and, um, a really good attitude.
Dan Ryan: Great. So good attitudes. Lend themselves to the overall joy of the office. Yeah. And I'll put the link, uh, to the job description in the post.
Um, but if you wanna work in a joyful, happy place and be around Venus and have great coaches and help become a better version of yourself, click on the link, send your resume to Sonya and let's see what we can do. That's awesome. Thanks, Dan. I'd do anything for my fairy goddaughter, Venus, and there's more on that story later.
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