Defining Hospitality

Dan Ryan: Today's guest is a creative design sage. He was the lead force in envisioning and designing the first 30 graduate hotels from inception through rollout and handling all of the design in-house with an amazing team. He has more than 20 years of experience in the interior design and creative concept industries.
He is the founder, owner, designer, chief creative officer, chef Cook, and bottle washer of Andrew Alfred, creative ladies and gentlemen. Without further ado, [00:01:00] Andrew Alfred. Welcome, Andrew. Hello.
Andrew Alford: How do you like, I feel like we, I feel like we could keep going with the titles like zookeeper. Uh uh.
Dan Ryan: Well, for those of you who are watching on YouTube, he's also a whoopy cushion
Andrew Alford: creator.
Yeah. Yeah. Like,
Dan Ryan: and I've never done this on a podcast,
Andrew Alford: so I just wanna do this. Maybe overgrown child should be like the first of my, oh, titles. It didn't
Dan Ryan: whoop. There we go.
Andrew Alford: My kid is, but I, I don't think it showed up on the recording. I think, I think the, I think they've got a, a too filter on Zoom.
Dan Ryan: Oh yeah, zoom is very good at like, filtering out all unwanted noises, so maybe it did, uh, it filtered out the tube, but it says Andrew Alfred on it.
It's beautiful. My kids love it. They've played many a prank on me with it. It's all good. But welcome. It's so good to see you. And it's been so good seeing you at Live and in person recently, and I think I'm gonna see you again in a couple weeks, [00:02:00] so it's like I'm getting my good fills of
Andrew Alford: Andrew. Yeah, yeah.
Um, during Covid, I moved to Portland, Oregon, uh, which doesn't, you know, self, it doesn't have as much of a hospitality design community. Um, so I'm making a really, really big effort, uh, now that the world is completely open and, uh, I think. You know, spending the last couple years sort of healing and, and getting myself in a much better place, I've now jumped back into really being present.
Um, and
Dan Ryan: go ahead. I I have a question for you on, um, the Portland thing, because before you moved there, there were all these bumper stickers with like big foot on it that says, keep Portland weird. Yes. So in your moving there, do you think you, you normalized Portland or did you make it a little or
Andrew Alford: a lot weirder?
Um, I wouldn't say I've made it weirder yet. Um, what I would say in my approach to Portland is it's a different form of creativity here for sure. Um, tell me more about that. Where, uh, [00:03:00] I would say it's much more like sort of vintage focused. Um, definitely a strong political bent to, to a lot of the creativity here.
Um, and I think. My goal wouldn't be necessarily to change Portland. Um, I look at more like a salad, like adding in a new ingredient more than changing the existing ingredients. So, um, you, you know, really looking into my skill set and my background and bringing something new to the city that, that, you know, there's not a whole lot of, uh, me type creativity here.
So, um, yeah, it's an exciting proposition to sort of get into. Well,
Dan Ryan: actually I'm gonna, Andrew, I'm gonna go out on a limb here, which might not be a limb. I think there's not a lot of you anywhere, I think Yeah. , I, I, I think just from, look, just letting everyone know here at full disclosure, we've known each other for.
20 plus years.
Andrew Alford: 20. Yeah. You and I met, um, my first [00:04:00] role in hospitality design, so I started off my career in very, very, very high end residential. So I moved to New York when I was 23. So I don't know if a lot of people know I never went to design school, so my degree's in English literature, um, off we
Dan Ryan: can, we can talk about a lot right now, but let's not, let's not go to the
Andrew Alford: literature route yet.
Yeah. That's a different podcast. Yeah. Um, so, uh, no, I moved to New York from Ohio when I was 23. Sort of ran away from home. Uh, got a job answering phones at a very, very high end residential design firm. And I did that the first, uh, five years of my career. So I've been in hospitality for 20 years, but designed total 25 years.
Um, and I really, really, really, really did not like residential, um, personality wise, it didn't really suit up with me. And just life philosophy wise, that to me, I love democratic design that's accessible to everyone. And in high end, residential, it's pretty much just accessible to. That family in their immediate circle.
So I moved to San Francisco, was still doing high end [00:05:00] residential. Um, ran into a change of circumstances and out of nowhere this position opened up with Kimpton Hotels. Yes. And that's when I transferred from, uh, residential. And I was actually with residential. I was at a point where I was gonna quit design, which at this point feels like a very strange notion, uh, given how much I've done now.
Um, but I had to separate out. When I got into hospitality, I realized it's not design. I love design. It was the personalities involved. And Kimpton was such an amazing nurturing company that once I hit that I was kinda like a duck and water with hospitality.
Dan Ryan: Yeah. And I heard you say they were, I would also say that they are, and I think what's really cool about Kimpton, and it's come up in a lot of conversations here, even since they've been acquired by ihg, they've managed to.
Scale, but also keep that kind of cool special. I don't know, I, I, I don't even know what it is. It's like this undefined thing that makes, [00:06:00] it, makes them uniquely kimpton, which I really appreciate and it's really cool. However, IHG and Kimpton have managed to, to navigate that and I really appreciate that.
But
Andrew Alford: so, so I it's a, wait, I think some
Dan Ryan: people there, oh, go ahead. Hold on. Cause I wanted to go into something which you actually surprised me with, cuz I think I knew this but I forgot You didn't go to design school. No. So what's interesting in a lot of these conversations that we've had, and we're coming up on a hundred here soon, um, there's been this theme of fresh eyes and I call it rookie smarts, like kind of coming into, I like that.
Um, whether it's hospitality or other things from a, with unencumbered, right? A whole fresh, um, kind of blue sky perspective. And I think that that. From your path, which I forgot you were doing re initial and I forgot you didn't go to design school, but to think about like having stepped out and seen graduate from this idea of [00:07:00] like, it's always very scary to have a target demographic or target customer that's so small, right?
And if you think about, hey, I'm a hotel, a hospitality company, we wanna go into college campuses and we wanna focus on, um, alums, students, and just the schools and whatever that whole fe flywheel of university life is. Yep. Yep. I would say that the concept that came up there and how it's rolled out has been really exciting to watch.
And I know you were such a, an incredible and, and strong part of that. And I remember being at, I think it was the first model room. I shared this with you when we were talking, but when I walked in there, I walked in, I was like, holy shit, this is crazy. It's like this, this stuff is so wild. This is, this is really weird.
Again, going back to the Portland weird thing, but it's worked so well. It all freaking came together. And also, just to let [00:08:00] everyone know, when I first saw Andrew in that model room, there was this pink and blue polka dot carpet. And I happened to be wearing a pink and blue polka dot tie. And I remember I woke up so early, this has never happened to me before or since, but I woke up at like four 30 to catch a 6:00 AM flight to Tempe.
And when I got, I was gonna go meet you, uh, as before we walked into one of the rooms and I got super embarrassed because I looked. And I got up so early and I was so tired that I realized I had put on two different brown shoes before I left my, my apartment to get on the plane to fly out to see you.
And I think I have a picture of those two shoes and me lying down on the carpet. But anyway, I'm talking too much. Let's bring it back to you.
Andrew Alford: Well, well, so I think, um, you know, coming back to your point about fresh eyes in a different point of view, so no, I didn't go to design school. Um, and you know, going back to when I was a kid, like my brothers would tell you that I've always had a different, like, there's just always been something different about [00:09:00] me.
Um, over the last few years, and this will be a different topic, but over the last few years I've really worked through a lot of what actually may be different and sort of learned how to use it as better tools, but with the fresh eyes. There was another component to graduate, which is I didn't go away to college, so I grew up in Akron, Ohio.
My dad taught at the university. Um, and so that's where I went. So I lived in my hometown. I didn't have that graduate sort of experience of mm-hmm. . Going away. I don't think I made one friend at my university cause it was a commuter school. So coming into graduate wasn't just that I had fresh eyes on design.
I really had no preconceived notion of what that experience of going away to college was about. So I was, I, I think we were able to capture the fantasy of it partially because of that, that, and it ties into an idea that, um, there are these moments in my career where people say things to me that sort of fix something in my head of maybe a, an imposter [00:10:00] syndrome that's, you know, sort of embedded and that, that's not common uncommon.
I mean that most creatives have some sort of imposter syndrome. But a guy I worked for in San Francisco, this guy Ed Libra, and he was very, he was residential, very high end. He was this like chain smoking salty kind of older designer. And I absolutely adored him. But I said to him one day, I said, I don't know where this came from.
Like, I didn't grow up with money. I didn't grow up, you know, Uh, like my history has nothing to do with what I do for a living now. Um, and he, he said to me as he like, took a giant drag on a cigarette, he was like, you know, there are two kinds of designers in the world. He was like, there's the ones that grew up wealthy, so they just grew up around it.
So they sort of understand it, they understand the dna, and he was like, it's great. They create beautiful things. He was like, but where the real innovation comes in are the kids who grew up r because they grew up dreaming about how wealthy people in the, in what luxury environments are well design, but they don't, they're not, again, they're not based in reality.
So those are the ones like sort of breaking the mold and reinventing the wheels. So [00:11:00] for me, in my hiring practices, um, I've always had an appreciation for the designers that didn't grow up with money. I, I find that, um, there's just a different point of view, there's a different sense of gratitude. There's a sense of fantasy and play that, that you know, isn't there in a straightforward luxury environment and hustle.
Well, you know, I've actually banned that word, um, ooh, if I'm being honest. Uh, it was a word that was thrown around a lot. Um, the pace we went at was staggering. Uh, I'm not gonna lie about that. It, it, it ground me down. I mean, it, it, we went hard and fast. I'm super proud of what we did, but it, it wasn't an easy undertaking.
Um, and so the word hustle was thrown around a lot. And I, I, I look back at that and hustling is not a healthy way to live. And to me it has connotations of sort of like a street hustler, um, where I approach things from a, you know, my words would be like [00:12:00] nurture and support and, uh, inspire, not like hustle and grind.
Um, yeah. And so I think culturally, I, I just, I have a different point of view from that word. Fair enough. Well, I've also banned crazy from our household, so I. How hustle is the work word band And crazy is the, the home word abandoned. So
Dan Ryan: I'm gonna try and use hustle and crazy as many times as I can in this
Andrew Alford: interview.
We'll, we'll make it like PeeWee's the word of the day, like PeeWee's Playhouse. Like
Dan Ryan: every time we need, we need a mbie face in here. That'll be amazing. Um, oh my god, I miss peewee. Um, okay, so I wanna zoom out cause I've heard you say the residential side and there a lot of the people that we speak to here and a lot of the listeners maybe in residential or started residential and made the transition to hospitality.
So if we zoom out before we kind of dive into certain things, um, What drew you to hospitality and like, why do you find hospitality special?
What's,
Andrew Alford: yeah, [00:13:00] there's a really good answer for this. Um, so the other thing most people don't know about me, and this is kinda like, remember the Zoolander, when Will Ferrell was the guy that invented the key tar tie?
Mm-hmm. , this is sort of my version of that. My first career was actually in theme parks, um, and not in creative in operations. So given that I didn't go away to college, I did it in reverse where, um, there was amusement park in Ohio, they had dorms there. So I went away my summers and had that dorm experience and that sort of bonding experience.
And so the first summer I did that, I was 19 years old, I was essentially running away from home. I'd just come outta the closet. Things weren't going very well. And so I needed a fresh start. I. Staffed on the brand new, like multimillion dollar giant rollercoaster that was just opening that year. And uh, uh, what was it called?
Raptor. Ooh. And it's still, it's still, it's like hollow ground to me because it's where I, the first time I really truly found myself and started understanding what I might be capable [00:14:00] of, but getting back to y hospitality, it actually started back then because when I got staffed on that ride, the very first day we were open, this was the very first day this rollercoaster was open to the public.
We would do between 25 and 30,000 rides a day. The ride was two minutes 37 seconds long. When someone's on that ride, they're not thinking about the bills they have to pay. They're not thinking about their relative with cancer. It's pure healthy escapism. Um, and so you add two in it and 37 seconds up across 25, 30,000 rides.
It is a huge amount of public service you're doing in totally giving people relief. And so in, in my mind, Hotels should be the same thing, but almost to even a next level where, um, they're transported, they're, uh, uh, you know, they, they help suffering. Um, and, and you know, we, hotels are, and I always, when I onboard new employees, I, I always talk about this, that, you know, hotels are the backdrop for [00:15:00] a lot of our most special memories.
when my daughter was born, we adopted, and the first two and a half weeks as we were caring for our child, we couldn't leave Colorado. So we were in a SpringHill Suites by Marriott for two and a half weeks, and that was the backdrop for our first memories with our child. You know, obviously weddings, um, Uh, birthday parties, celebrations, couples, first weekends away together, which I always love thinking through that in design of, of how, how do you wanna provide that experience?
But then there's also a different side that, for me, again, coming back to that public service and easing, suffering. Uh, you know, on the extreme end, a lot of people go to hotels to commit suicide, and there's no way to quantify there's, there's no way to know. But the, the speech I always give is, the goal should be that if somebody is walking in there, in that dark of a place, that hopefully we have created something so magical and life affirming and something registers with them and they change their mind.
And I really believe [00:16:00] to the core of my being, that is what design does. It's not make it pretty, it's not, a selfie background. It's, a transformative experience when it's at its complete best.
Dan Ryan: And I love. I mean, I, okay, I hear you on, I don't, it's not that I love suicide, but I love that you use suicide and suffering because that's, on one ex, that's one extreme of suffering.
Right. But suffering, like from the, from like what I've read about the Buddhist perspective on suffering, it could be anything that's even slightly uncomfortable, right? It's, um, it's so, so it's a whole spectrum of suffering, but if, if you take that a, leaving that suffering from the most extreme case of suicide to just, you know, maybe not every day having the best Yeah.
Every day. Just like you're on a trip, you're staying at a hotel. But how, how did, how does that idea of suffering or how do you define, how does suffering [00:17:00] help you define hospitality?
Andrew Alford: Yeah, so, um, you know, you mentioned the Buddhist traditions and, uh, you know, throughout Covid, I, I've implemented, I mean, you, you name it.
We all had a chance to sit still. And so, you know, I did Buddhist reading. Uh, I've instituted a really strong mindfulness program, therapy, psychiatry, Pilates. I mean, I've thrown everything but the kitchen sink at it. But in starting at the very beginning, the Buddhist readings you, you know, in like aa. So if you go into a 12 step program, the first thing is admitting you have a problem.
Well, in Buddhism, the very first thing is everyone on the planet is suffering. And then the second sentence is, there's a cure for suffering. And I firmly believe that. And so, you know, throughout this process of distilling myself and healing past traumas and, and healing myself from the, the absolute grind that the pace of graduate was, um, it's really put me in touch with even more so in touch with [00:18:00] everyone is suffering and what, what my role is.
And so I came out of it like with one sentence that my role in life, my meaning. Which I think each of us has to ascribe meaning to, our prescribed meaning to ourselves, uh, is to improve people's lives with color and humor. That's it. I mean, it's, it's simple. It's not, and when did you figure that out? Um, I'd say it was at sometime last year.
And, and because I had, okay. So that's,
Dan Ryan: that's fucking crazy to me because just in that one statement, if I think about my whole experience with you over the past 20 years, I feel like it's amazing how sometimes the things that are so clear to us are often the hardest to define. Yeah. Right. So like that one statement of you, if I go back to all of our interactions over the past 20 years, it's like, that's you.
It's like, how could you miss, how could, how can you miss. [00:19:00] How could
Andrew Alford: you not? It's, I don't think it's missing it. I think one of the big challenges we have as humans is we are complicated beings. I think particularly when you get on the creative scale and me being like really kind of far out on the creative scale, you know, there's a lot of non neurotypical things, um, uh, you know, my diagnoses of like, if you look at it from a psychiatric or like, it's a menu of, of things with me.
So given all that complication, I think one of the hardest things for us to do as people is to distill it down to one sentence.
Dan Ryan: Um, but, but distill it. And my point was not to like, make you defend or explain. Oh, no, my, my point was, for instance, I was trying to figure out like, okay, I know what I do. Like why do I do what I do?
It's like, and I wrote down all these things. I had all the things that I liked doing, playing in like a World Cup tournament, fighting each other and see which one would win. And even in doing all that and scores and scores of journaling, I [00:20:00] couldn't see it. And then I shared it with some friends. They're like, wow, you got a lot going on in there.
And then, but I had a coach once and I said, I, I just can't. He's like, what? You don't see it? I was like, I don't see it. He goes, Dan, you love the journey, but what lights you up more than anything is making sure that everyone else is having the best possible journey around you. And I literally kind of like welled up with tears.
I was like, holy fuck. How did I miss this? Like I, there's
Andrew Alford: word that's missing in there. There's a word that's missing in that sentence and I don't know how it fits in, but my impression of you over 20 years and what I love and adore is that it's education is a huge part of you. And, and there's a, you've always been so open in sharing new knowledge cuz you're, to me, you've always been on this like continuous quest for new knowledge, like a voracious appetite to learn and grow and keep expanding.
Um, You know, if [00:21:00] anybody's not in the hospitality design community, I think it's hard to understand what a tight knit family it is. And I always see you as, um, this never ending mentor and teacher. And I, I think it's such a valuable role and I, I, and you know, it circles it back to again, when designing it is at its best, it's educational.
I mean, we did that with graduate where, you know, you weave the stories of lives into the design and educate at the same time as entertaining. And so I think for you, if I distill it down, it's that it's that combo of education and entertainment. That,
Dan Ryan: and, and you know what, I love how you're saying that.
And now I'm getting really uncomfortable because like, I'm the interviewer and now I feel like I, the camera turn to me.
Andrew Alford: I'll wrap it up with this. Then you, I'll wrap it up with this. Then you can move on to the next question. Um, I'm not really uncomfortable. Thank you. Stop. Stop. Yeah, so, so. When my time at graduate ended and it was time for me to move on.
Uh, you know, it started, it [00:22:00] was shortly before Covid, so obviously none of us had knew that a global pandemic was coming. Um, so it forced me to sit still and start this process, the healing process, doing all the work. Um, I quit drinking two years ago. Uh, you know, it's been a lot of transformational changes and you know what the biggest lesson was?
I learned at the end of all of it. There's nothing wrong with me. That's it. Like, and that's an, that's a staggering statement to get to for somebody like me who's grown up, you know, just constantly wondering what was wrong with me. Um, and sort of coming to understand myself well enough to be like, oh shit, there's actually nothing wrong with me.
Absolutely nothing wrong with me. The circumstances I'm in may be wrong for me, but me, myself, there's nothing wrong with me. In fact, there's a lot right with me. And that was. I don't know. It's weird to go through all that work and then distill it down to essentially two very simple state statements. One of my condition of, [00:23:00] and then the other one of like, who I actually am.
So like the manifestation of me and then the, the who I actually am. So, um, and
Dan Ryan: just to, just to restate it, it's really improving people's lives with color and humor.
Andrew Alford: Yeah. And I'm ready to, now that I've rested up and really, you know, invested in myself and I'm better now, like creatively better, um, better human being, uh, just better in every way.
So I'm, I feel like a dog on a chain right now. Like it's been three years of, you know, our business was savaged by Covid, so there wasn't much work to get out there this year. Everybody's sort of been catching up and so to do something, I'm ready to do something as big as graduate again. Um, and there's some opportunities percolating in that, that.
I think are gonna come to fruition that are really exciting. Um, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. I
Dan Ryan: don't think they're going to, I know they're going
Andrew Alford: to, well, okay, let me take it back. I know these things are gonna [00:24:00] manifest. There are opportunities presented in front of me right now that are steps on that path, so I'm not necessarily gonna say yet that the, these exact opportunities are gonna pan out, but I think, um, you gotta trust the process.
And in my career, so the, where I've gotten to right now, and this is when it always happens, it always happens, is, you know, I get to a point where I'm, the things I'm wanting, like really wanting, I'm crying to get and they don't happen. And then the second I like say, screw it, I'm just gonna relax and float.
And let the universe, and let the process take hold. Mm-hmm. that, that's when the magical thing happens. So that's the state I'm in right now. I'm sort of in buoyancy. Um, it's funny and sort. See, it's funny how that works, where the tide goes. Yeah. In fact, most people don't know this, but the night before I got the offer to do graduate, which was completely outta nowhere unexpected.
Um, the night before I was in [00:25:00] New York, uh, it was during the NYU investment conference. I had gone out that night with friends. This is when I was still very much drinking and I was just, it was a big night out and I could list the people and you'd be like, oh, yeah, I understand why that went that way. Um, and I was drunk and I was like, I'm done.
Like, my business wasn't going great. Uh, financially, it was me on my own. It was really difficult to, to, nobody understood what I was trying to do yet. So my business. Succeeding. And so I was drunk and I was like, I'm done. I quit. Like I've tried to do this for like so many years and it's not happening, and I'm just exhausted.
And I quit next morning, crazy hungover. I go into this meeting and graduate is presented to me of, we're gonna do 35 hotels over the next six years. You're gonna design all of them. You're gonna leave San Francisco, move to Chicago, and you're only gonna do this for the next number of years. Um, so literally the night before I was [00:26:00] failing and I was a failure, and I let go.
And then the very next morning is when it happened. So, you know, I, I turned 48 a couple months ago and it, it, by this age you start seeing the ebbs and flows of your life. And so I think you can start sort of recognizing the trend and recognizing when to let go, when to climb up the hill and when to get to the top of the hill and say, okay, now it's time.
To slide back down and not like slide back down into slowing down. I would say not like Life
Dan Ryan: Spiral. Okay. So I wanna, I love the ebb and flow because it, it, to me it shows like a, like a sign, a sinuous wave or a sign wave, right? Or a sign curve. So there you are in this trough, right? And you're presented with Graduate and I don't know, like people out there, if you're not familiar with graduate, you should be because you guys created something [00:27:00] that was so targeted and so unique.
And also for a hotel company to be so vertically integrated from having, like, raising the funds, having doing all the design and capital expenditure management, like the construction management, uh, developing a man like a hotel management company at the same time, like, it's very rare to see that. Kind of explosive growth.
Yeah. In a vertically integrated world. Like what were some of the, like, what, what were some of like the most exciting and coolest things you learned through that whole process?
Andrew Alford: Um, I mean, you could imagine there's a, I could write a novel on the lessons, the, the lessons that we learned. Um,
you know, the, the owner of graduate once said, um, if something's difficult, it's [00:28:00] not a reason not to do it. It's the reason to do it. Um, and so, you know, it was a brave undertaking to begin with and the bravery to go with that kind of design. So, Be brave was one of the, one of the big lessons of don't pull your punches.
Um, if you're gonna go for it, like absolutely go for it. Um, I think, you know, if if I had to do it again, one of the things I would focus on would, I mean, it would definitely be the live work balance of it. Mm-hmm. , because, you know, that got so out of whack, um, that I think there would be a different way to do it.
Um, you know, I think in our culture there's a, there's a culture of like, oh, you've gotta be at work from like 7:00 AM and keep going and you never turn it off. And my belief on that was you're not gonna get work. Good workout of people on that. And the, the, [00:29:00] the, you gotta lean into the live work balance.
So one of the things I learned was like, get those employees outta there by six o'clock, five 30, preferably get 'em home to their families, their kids, um, And what happened was my staff would, given they were there from like nine to five 30, they didn't have time to mess around during the day. They were all really focused.
They weren't on social media, they were collaborating and then going home and having a really rich life at home. So I don't know if that's a lesson learned other than something that would be a core value going forward. Um, more practical lessons, uh, staffing in secondary markets is really difficult and I don't think we really thought about that in the beginning.
Um, where some of these towns, particularly on, you know, rules like housekeeping, if you look at a city like Chicago or New York or, um, even Portland, like this scale, hospitality management and operations is a career. So even if you're in housekeeping, there's a career path to get up to, [00:30:00] you know, housekeeping director, um, regional positions and stuff like that.
Well, in the secondary markets, there's not that kind of drive it. It's more of like, this is a job. Um, And on the more difficult positions, there are other jobs in town for the same money that you don't have to work nearly as hard. So operations were a challenge that I, I'm not sure we thought fully through in the very beginning.
So I, I would've a very different way of approaching that. Um, now, like I think that would definitely be a stronger, when I do this again, I'm not gonna say, if I'm gonna say when I do this again. Thank you. Um, there's gonna be a focus on in the field development, like, does somebody need help getting their g e d?
Um, you know, are there scholarship funds we can do, uh, you know, how do we really honor these people that are working just as hard as us, if not well, I mean, like, in a very, very different way. More so. So, um, I think my biggest lesson I took away is, is I, I've always been a people [00:31:00] first sort of manager and.
Executive. Um, I, I, I think I would trickle that down more to the field, uh, and really figure out some new ways of giving people reasons to be passionate. Um, out there. Uh, food and beverage, that was a huge lesson. Um, don't try to reinvent the wheel every time that didn't work. Like figure out a good formula that's going to go forward.
And, and most people don't realize this, but graduate is formulaic. Um, you would never know it cause they're all a hundred percent different. And, uh, they, you know, they looked like they were started from scratch each time, which the design was. But we had a really good process of, you know, we had an on staff librarian that was researching the towns and research, researching the stories so we could figure out which ones were the ones that we went and manifest in the design.
Um, so we didn't have brand standards per se, but we had a very, very. Tried and true process, um, which allowed us to [00:32:00] move at the speed that we did.
Dan Ryan: And also just for the stories that you would weave through were so strong. And like they would hit you in the face in a way because you're so tied to these.
And you're saying secondary market, I would say even tertiary markets where, you know, you're in,
Andrew Alford: I mean, where was I? Just, well now it's tertiary, two primary. So like, yeah, I mean, there's like Nashville and Seattle and,
Dan Ryan: but you know, you're in Athens, Georgia or Oxford, Mississippi or wherever, and you really dig in and find the history and then find all these elements to really tie it together and tell a phenomenal story.
And for, for those of you who aren't familiar and maybe haven't seen, I just say go to the website and check it out. But, um, there was this also just this, so much color and joy and all these. Like your purpose, your why? We're just through throughout the whole thing. And I, I, I guess I would say like plaid on plaid, on plaid, on plaid, right.
[00:33:00] There's a lot of plaid. Yeah. There, there's a lot of plaid and a lot of color. And it, it, it's, it's,
Andrew Alford: I doubt I will ever use plaid ever again. I'm
Dan Ryan: just being, so that was, so I was working my way around to this question. Like in all of this experience that you've gained in doing it and the disdain that you used to have for beige on beige, yeah.
Have you developed any warmer feeling towards beige?
Andrew Alford: You know, I think there are some people out there doing beige really, really, really well. So if you look at like, One hotels or six senses, they're neutral hotels. Mm-hmm. , but they're so textural and, um, such exciting ideas. So when I, when I say, am I allowed to say the F word?
Yeah. You say,
Dan Ryan: fuck Beige. Hash. And if you wanna like find some fun stuff, go on whatever social media and do hashtag fuck beige. And you'll find some like really cool stuff in there. So
Andrew Alford: interesting. So, so I actually own a trademark with the US government on fuck beige Like that. Another fun fact. Yeah. Yeah.
I locked that up. Um, so yeah, [00:34:00] that kind of became my signature. But, you know, Instagram, I don't understand the algorithms and stuff, but I ran into a problem where I had like 10,000 followers and no matter what I did, like. Practical celebrities tag. Like, it just, it wouldn't grow beyond that. And I suspect it may have been because I hashtag tagged everything with fuck beige and there might have been like a profanity sort of algorithm in it.
So I tweaked it now. I took seven months off of social media starting last July. I needed a rinse cycle. It was really beating up my self-esteem, um, because there's always gonna be somebody more successful than you. Um, and, uh, uh, so yeah, so I took a RIN cycle and when I came back, the, i, I love mischief and I love like figuring out ways to just mess with things.
And, um, so I started hashtagging things beige rather than fuck beige. So, you know, there's like, one of the images I put up recently is this, uh, it's one of the only residential interiors I've done in 25 years, 20 years. [00:35:00] Just a riot of color with this 17 foot rainbow sofa that goes down the middle of it.
And so I'll hashtag that with beige. And so if you go to the hashtag beige, it'll be like, boring, boring, boring, boring, boring. And then just like, boom. Oh. And so it's, it's just, it feels more mischievous to do it this way rather than
Dan Ryan: one of these is not like the other, which is pretty much like you, right?
Andrew Alford: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Exactly. So, um, you know, if you're gonna stand out like a unicorn, stand out like a unicorn in every way you can. So, oh my god, you know, ruining the beige feed is, is a fun little game.
Dan Ryan: That is fun. Now I'm gonna have to, to go partake in that and see what, see what comes up. Um, okay, so you're on this new path.
So I also wanna share people, and, and we won't talk names right now, but, um, one question I always like to ask is, what's your biggest need right now? Right. And. I [00:36:00] recently, I was talking to you, I asked you that and you shared something with me. We don't have to go into it right now, but you've always been so good at kind of putting yourself out there and saying what it is, and then as you do that, I'm like, oh my God, you gotta talk to this guy, this guy, this guy.
Yeah. And, and I feel like all this stuff is really happening to you because you've also always been so good at putting yourself out there and like manifesting or whatever. And, um, I don't know. I'm just really excited. So like, have you always been able to do that or no? Is it okay? No. All of, so when did this,
Andrew Alford: all of these things are learned skills.
I, I'll, I'll say this. Um, the iteration of me that, you know, like the best, um, really started, I wanna say it was like 16 years ago. I went to HD Summit Hospitality Design Summit for the first time. And a buddy in mine had given me this. Sport coat that was like [00:37:00] camouflage and it had like velvet blood splatters on it.
And so I wore that to the first night of HD Summit and I had so many people coming up to me and like asking me about the jacket. And I'm really shy. I'm not shy, like you would know that I'm not shy, but I have a really hard time with being the person who approaches someone else, like in an event to start a conversation.
So I learned there that if you wear something unusual, somebody else will always say hi first. Um, you know, you're naturally gonna stick out in the room, but it, it's really. Kinda a trick for that. So me putting, it's like your icebreaker. Yeah. So me putting myself out there in the ways that, you know, in terms of being so exuberant and bright, and it really started then 16 years ago, and I really love it.
So like, it's not an act, it's not, you know, when I wear crazy things, when I, I love it. Um, and, and in fact I recently separated, uh, after 17 and a half years, and one of the things I'm now loving about living by myself is that, um, [00:38:00] I can be as weird as I want to be when I'm home alone. So I can put on some insane outfit, put on weird, weird music and like weird shit on the TV and just be there and be me without any, any sort of filter around it.
So it's, it's, it's been a really healthy process, but I think, you know, it sort of brings it around that if you're gonna be a designer. And Alec Baldwin had a really, really good quote on this. He, he said, you know, if you. If you wanna be an actor, there are community theaters everywhere. Like you can be an actor.
Um, he said, but people confuse acting with celebrity. And celebrity is a completely different job. And so at some point along the road, I had the desire to go more down the name recognition designer route. Mm-hmm. . Um, it, it just aligns with the goals that I have of, you know, I've got big ideas and big goals and I've always wanted my name to have value and [00:39:00] association with those big goals.
Um, so you've gotta differentiate. Um, and, and so, you know, if you wanna be a designer, any town in the country, there are jobs that are gonna allow you to design. But I think it's a different sort of thing of the differentiation I've gone for, which is more like the, the version of celebrity. I don't wanna be a celebrity, but, um, I feel like with the name brand recognition, uh, That's one of the big reasons I do it.
Um, and, and there was a few years ago, actually, probably four or five years ago now, I got asked to speak at a young designer's luncheon at, uh, HD Expo in Vegas. And every time I do speak engagements, there's, in the q and a, it's always, where do you get your inspiration? Um, and the answer I gave it, that one was, and it's about differentiation.
I said, okay, I'm not gonna, right now, I'm not gonna tell you where my inspiration comes from. I'm gonna tell you where it doesn't come from. And so this is a room of, you know, good 150, [00:40:00] 200 junior designers, like one to two years of experience. And the reason they were in that room is ultimately they wanna be the person up there speaking someday.
They've got these big dreams. And so I, I asked for a show of hands. I said, how many of you, your number one source of inspiration is nature? And probably 98% of the room put their hand up. And I said, okay, how are you gonna be the person up here? Look around the room, like 98% of people say nature. So you gotta find that 2% that.
And so that's what I've always strived for, is to find the sources that nobody else is looking at. So nature is not my inspiration, and I'm a rare designer that says that. What is your 2%? People like humans are freaking amazing. I mean, look at, like, I'm designing a hotel on, uh, a motel, actually like a historic motel on Route [00:41:00] 66 right now.
Flagstaff, Arizona, Flagstaff has a really, really strong history on astronomy, the planet or planet toy. This could be a different podcast, but Pluto. It's a contentious topic. Uh, Pluto was, uh, discovered from Flagstaff. Um, they did all the, uh, lunar landing training, so all the vehicular training in a crater right outside of Flagstaff.
So this really strong aeronautics and, and astronomy, um, sort of thing. So you look at like the web telescope now and the images that come back from that, and you see it. Humans made that. And so you look at that, I'm like, hu humans are staggeringly incredible. And there's so much inspiration there from the arts to music to so, so humans are always where I start.
And so with graduate, most of it was telling the story of humans, of the behaviors, the traditions, the, the notable people, the writers, the artists, the musicians that came outta these towns. It's staggering. And so, you know, if we went in and said, we're inspired by the nature of this [00:42:00] place, it wouldn't have told the story of that community.
We wouldn't have been able to write a love letter to that community if we had gone with the usual source of inspiration. So you gotta attack it from a different angle. I love it and I
Dan Ryan: love that you said people, because I think since moving out to the country and out of the city, I miss people so much. I would get so much energy and charge from them.
And it as you were saying, have you ever seen American Utopia by David Burn?
Andrew Alford: Oh, uh, multiple times.
Dan Ryan: Yeah. So have, it's freaking amazing. But he said there's something in there he says it's like, uh, okay, yeah, we can all look at sunsets or like a bicycle or a bag of potato chips. But people, yeah, people are the best.
Andrew Alford: Yeah. The way he designed that show, the way he designed that show where, if any, if you haven't seen it, everybody should seek it out cuz it's just a masterpiece of a piece of music. Um, he eliminated all the stationary instruments, so it's like a marching band, live band, but not playing marching band music.
So guitars and all that, but none of them [00:43:00] are. Stationary. And his whole point was people don't come here to look at the instruments. They go into a concert to look at the people and watch people. And that's, that's every human's favorite thing to do at the end of the day. We watch movies with people in them.
We watch TV shows with people in them. We go to concerts with people. Um, so that, I just think, and people come up with endless ideas and endless technology and endless growth over our history. And to me, and I also, I would say we forget, and this comes back to like the Buddha stuff. We forget that we're part of nature.
We separate ourselves from it. We don't view ourselves for what we are, we are animals in nature. And there's a, there's a Buddhist writer, I Lovet Han, and he has a word that he uses called inter being where everything inter is, uh, that the wallpaper we put on the wall made of paper. That doesn't exist without the tree.
The [00:44:00] tree doesn't exist without rain or sunshine, you know, so you can trace it. Everything is, it inter is and it's, it's inter being. And so I think in design, um, you could almost say you're designing by nature, even if people are the primary source of it.
Dan Ryan: I totally agree. And because really every, every built thing is an extension of us, right.
And we are nature. So you can't extricate the two.
Andrew Alford: Um, I mean, matter can't be created or destroyed, you know? So we got the big bang, we're all made of stars. Everything we see came out of these cosmic explosions. So that's where I'm like, there is no separation. Like we didn't, humans didn't create new matter.
We manipulating matter that already exists.
It's part of what I've always liked about design. I mean, there's a godlike kind of, I hate to say it, and I think this is where egos become problematic in design, is there's a godlike nature to it that you're creating, [00:45:00] manipulating. Um, it's a genesis every time you do a new project that
Dan Ryan: Yeah, it's, and you got that, it's, you start off with that white canvas and you get to be the ultimate creator.
Yes. It's awesome. So going with people and why people are so awesome and taking that as what, as your 2%, your inspiration, that's the coal that's going into your fire. The people are your fuel. Um, when you look out there into the future with this fuel of people and inspiration, like what's exciting you most about the future?
Mm.
Andrew Alford: Um,
there's an Instagram account I follow called Think and the stuff they post every day, it, it, it's like an optimistic science account of saying there are all these scary things going on in the world. Um, and if you wanna circle back on that, that, that would circle back into what I wanna do next. But the world is a scary place.
We all know it. Um, [00:46:00] pandemics, shootings, climate change, I mean like we live in a scary world, but, you know, we've always lived in a scary world. It's not like there was ever a golden time for humans where everything was okay. I mean, like there's been World Wars famines. Previous pandemics. So everything is always gonna be scary.
Dan Ryan: You'd get killed by a sinus infection.
Andrew Alford: Yeah. Yeah, exactly. So everything has always been scary. I, I think what we have an opportunity to do right now, and I don't say this in a hippie dippy way, is at some point, and I think Americans in particular need to decide this, either we're gonna choose optimism or pessimism, and we each get the ability to decide optimism.
Pessimism are the exact same thing. They're just two ends of the same spectrum. So if you imagine us in the middle, starting off as neutral, we get to decide. We get to decide if we're going, you know, negative or positive. Mm-hmm. . Um, so it's not a concrete thing, but I'm optimistic about the future, which is a [00:47:00] rare, rare manifestation of thought these days.
I mean, it, if you, I, I don't know, could you meet anybody that says the future's gonna be awesome? Yeah, I think that, I really do believe it's going to, humans always figure it out. We always do. I always like and I
Dan Ryan: believe you can. Yeah, I agree. I, to me it's that idea of the Star Trek future. I just, I want to get there.
I know we're gonna get there. Um, I love, I'm gonna, I don't know if Freethink, I'm gonna check it out, but going back to David Burn, I don't know if he helped found it or he's just a, something involved. There's this other one that's called Reasons to be Cheerful and it's freaking awesome. They just put in all this good news, and I think it's because it's our, our tendencies are the headlines that grab us are, if it bleeds, it leads.
Right. So it's like, and, and you throw, you sprinkle in the fact that with all the social media and the Twitter and the megaphone, it's not just like, it's not a newspaper that you would walk past the [00:48:00] newsy saying like, get your paper here. It's on us all the time. Right? Yep. So it, I think we as humans are, haven't like, figured out how to deal with.
The onslaught of all the information just yet, but we're, I agree with you, we are smart. Our brains are untapped and we're, we're about to, we're in the process of figuring it out. We're in this like weird
Andrew Alford: paradigm shift and there are gonna be some seismic shifts coming up. So here in Oregon, um, uh, pretty much, well, everything is legal now.
The, when I tell people I live in Oregon now, they're like, dude, can you just go buy crack? And I'm like, no, you cannot. Well, you could that it's, if you, if you're the one buying the drugs, you're not gonna get in trouble. The people selling the drugs, that is still illegal. But the thing that is legal now, um, and in fact a psychedelic clinic opened two blocks from my house where it's psilocybin, mdma, ketamine.
Um, and those, it's a really [00:49:00] interesting topic to study and I, I think it's gonna impact creativity a lot. Um, where back in the 1950s, there were studies, um, Done of all those psychedelics, that there were studies that showed one and done treatments for depression. Mm-hmm. , like one series of, you know, the psilocybin they were using, or, um, the M DMA or the L S D, uh, were making permanent changes to people's depression and, and all that.
So I think there's stuff coming down the, the pipe that's, it's gonna be a revolution I think, in terms of public thinking. Um, and so I think there's opportunity op, optimistic opportunity. Oh, that is hard to say. Optimistic opportunities coming. We just have to make the decision to embrace them. And so coming back to like what I say my life mission is, improve people's lives with color and humor.
It's part of that manifestation of that future. It's the future I want. [00:50:00] Totally. You know, and design has been so serious for years now, um, that I just feel like it's time. So say, stop it. Stop. Like, we don't need one more sophisticated beige hotel. We don't need one more thing that looks like, you know, uh, how would I put it?
Like a Soho House knockoff, like I love Soho House, but like, things that mimic that. Um, it's, it's serious design. Like super, super serious. And I think we're getting to a point where it's time to turn the tide. And, and you and I have been in this long enough that we know that every so often seismic shifts come along.
Mm-hmm. where when I started it was when like the Delano and Philippe Stark were, that aesthetic was like, and Kimpton was super colorful and whimsical. So there was a lot of that. And also like a lot of overt sexuality. Well, then Ace came along and it just sort of [00:51:00] felt like a breath of fresh air compared to all of that sort of luck.
Straight outta Portland. Straight outta Portland. Um, And then I was, you know, then I would say sort of the Soho House thing came along of using traditional decorating techniques, and I certainly played into that. So one of my strengths at graduate and the fact that I didn't kind of bring that full circle to blank slate sort of people that didn't go to design school.
I grew up in design on Park Avenue, learning how to use tassels and trims and all these French decorating techniques and English decorating techniques. Stuff that had really fallen outta fashion. And so when we started graduate from the onset, I was just using these things that I knew, and that's why it felt so different was because I was using these like antiquated decorating techniques, but updating them into a modern vernacular or like an eccentric blended vernacular.
I always called it a greatest hits radio station, which is an interesting topic.
Dan Ryan: Did you ever use a [00:52:00] Merkin as a doley?
Andrew Alford: Um, I'm trying to think. Like on that topic. No, not as a Doy . Um, We tried 'em in uniforms and it didn't really work. Are you kidding? No. Wait. No. I am kidding. I am. Okay. . No, I'm trying to think, I think I've snuck some things in.
I'm sure you have, but
Dan Ryan: nothing's jumping because that's you, the, the playful satter, right? Yeah,
Andrew Alford: yeah, yeah, yeah. I like, and in fact, I mean, like that, that's my dream, to be the, the comedian. There's, there's a designer I really, really admire. Um, and he was one, I mentioned that like, sometimes people say one line that fixes a chip on my shoulder.
Mm-hmm. , um, and he said, oh, you're the Robin Williams of our industry, that he was never gonna win an Oscar. But can you imagine the, you know, the, the, did he not win an Oscar? [00:53:00] I don't think
Dan Ryan: he ever won an Oscar. Oh my God. I feel like he won. I hope he won for either Oliver Sacks or Mrs. Dot Doubtfire. Anyway, keep going.
But, but you
Andrew Alford: know, I that, that like saying, could you imagine Hollywood if Robin Williams hadn't existed? Um, and so it fixed that and, and sort of, and again, design has been very, very, very serious. So when you're the comedian designer and you're just surrounded by everybody doing serious stuff, like you just feel like a unicorn.
And so, so that's where I want to go. I wanna lean further into my unicorn. This, um, I went to, have you heard of Modern Elder Academy? Chip Con? Oh yeah. Chip. So I went down there this summer. Um, oh my God, I want to go check that out. You a hundred percent should. It's an amazing experience. Wonderful people, beautiful facility.
The food is incredible. Um, but it's a transformational experience and I'm not gonna give it away cuz like the last, there's a thing. At the end of it that I, that's a surprise. [00:54:00] But one of the activities you do is one of the other people has to pick one word to describe you. And this is after you get to know everybody in your cohort for like a week.
Um, and the word that was chosen for me was Kaleidoscope. Yes. Yes. I think it's like fucking Yes. Right, right. Like, so I just think it's the best description of me. Um,
Dan Ryan: I think your logo needs to be a, like a horse with a kaleidoscope of a horn. Yeah.
Andrew Alford: Shooting tattoo. I love tattoos. I could get that as a, I could get that as a tattoo.
You should totally get,
Dan Ryan: wait. So, okay. Modern Elder Academy is really fascinating to me on a lot of different levels. Um, mostly because as we, I think Chip had this way of talking about like, putting your life in quarters, like a sporting event. So first quarter, second quarter, third quarter, fourth quarter.
So, Oftentimes in middle age, you're really only [00:55:00] into the end of the second, beginning of the third quarter. There's so much left. Yeah. And then if you look at this, this turnover of the baby boomers, which is the largest demographic, I think millennials are next, um, it's like, oh my God, we have such incredible experience and network and, um, knowhow from this older generation and probably in their fourth quarter now it's like, how do, but oftentimes they get pushed aside, right?
So it's like, how do we embrace Yeah, the third and the fourth quarter and going, so my question for you on that is like, from the day that you rolled up there in Toto Santos, or wherever it is, Toto Santo. Okay, so you roll up there. What was the difference in Andrew from when you walked into the door to when you walked out of the door the week later?
Andrew Alford: So, I'm gonna go really personal on this for a sec. Uh, you know, I'm an open book on, there's not a part of my life I'm ashamed of. And. You know, like we were talking about, everyone suffers. I don't know [00:56:00] if there's a person on this planet that doesn't have challenges with anxiety or depression or some sort of manifestation at that at this point.
So last year I went away, uh, for help with that for three weeks, um, a place down in San Diego. And that was like the acute, where I'd sort of hit what a lot of people call rock bottom. Mm-hmm. . Um, and I knew I needed extra help. And so I went down and I did three weeks of that and came outta that transformed Modern Elder Academy was like the, if that was like the base level modern Academy took, took what I learned in that experience and just elevated it to, I came out of there with such belief in myself and self-confidence, understanding of my path forward.
Um, uh, the ability to, I, I have a weird thing where I've always had just, just one. Well, no, I mean, we, we could do a completely separate podcast on my weird things [00:57:00] like I shower in the dark. Like, I mean, we could, like, there's, are you kidding me? No, it, like, it, it allows me, um, I always look for opportunities to let my brain drift because that's where a lot of the creativity comes from.
So showering in the dark and taking away like part of the sensory experience. Um,
Dan Ryan: I almost, okay, that's a whole other conversation, but I want you to go back to your walking out of
Andrew Alford: modern. Yeah, yeah. So one of the challenges I've always have, I've always had is, um, internalizing praise. So when people, and I, and I element freely, people say really nice things to me and very words that are big, like genius and visionary and stuff like that, and I.
I was telling a new friend, I was like, it kind of feels like if you went and bought the world's most expensive suit that's made on this beautiful, sort of like cashmere wool, but it fits really shitty. Like you can recognize that the fabric's beautiful, but like the fit is off. And I would say that Modern Elder Academy was kinda like the [00:58:00] tailor that allowed me to like sort of fit into that suit in a better way.
Um, and, and you know, one of the first things you learned there is that a hundred years ago life expectancy was 45 years old, and now it's like 90. So it is a legitimate second half. Um, so coming outta there, the other thing I I, the feeling I had was, oh wait, yeah, I'm 48, but the first, this was a training exercise.
Totally. Like graduate wasn't my big deal. It wasn't. It was my training exercise for what I wanted to do next. Um, it was a stepping stone. Yeah. And not a, I mean, I mean, it's a very large stepping stone, don't get me wrong. Um, I don't say it's my big break, uh, because I don't really believe in big breaks. I believe in small breaks.
Um, but I would say Modern Elder Academy, it helped me just love myself more unconditionally [00:59:00] in saying, because the other fear I had, and this would be, I'm gonna be careful about how I word this. There are people in my past who would get upset cuz I would use the word I, um, accuse me of being an egomaniac and, uh, which, which is not the case.
Um, funny story, uh, last year when I, when I went down to get real help, one of the first things I said to them down there was, I'm worried I'm a narcissist. The counselor started busting out laughing, and they're like, if you're worried about being a narcissist, you're not a narcissist. But, you know, I've been conditioned, we're we're susceptible to the things people say to us.
Um, and one of the lessons I learned was, don't let people minimize you with those kinds of words. Um, and as creatives, I think we have a [01:00:00] tendency to want an opportunity so bad that will tolerate a certain amount of abuse because we're scared of learning that, you know, when you decide to live as an artist, you know that you're not gonna have like total job security.
So when you get those big jobs, you're willing to put up with things that you normally wouldn't put up with because you're scared of losing the opportunity. So lesson learned going forward. Modern Elder Academy helped with this. I'm coming out with just a way stronger self of confidence, a sense of confidence which would manifest going forward as if something's not right.
At any point along the road, I am now confident to say, stop. That's not okay. I'm not okay with that. Behavior. Boundaries. Boundaries.
Dan Ryan: So is there a safe, is
Andrew Alford: there a safe word? . So somebody that I knew had the best safe word ever, um, he said, you wanna know what my safe word is? And I was like, yeah, you [01:01:00] Southern.
And I was like, he was like, you wanna know what my safe word is? And I was like, yeah. He was like, harder. And I was like, I thought that was the best answer I've ever heard. Oh my God, Andrew. That no, mine would be something, mine would be something juvenile like poo poo P pee or something like that. It would be,
Dan Ryan: I like, I like cantaloupe.
Canale. Yeah. Yeah. Um, Okay, so now you've peaked my interest again on the Modern Elder Academy. I know I went back and forth with Chip about going there. Um, I think I just need to do it. I think like from a learning you need do it, curiosity, um, fresh experience. I think it's pretty cool.
Andrew Alford: Yeah. And the other thing, and this brings it back to just a hospitality point of view, um, the people, I think there were, I'm trying to remember how many of, I think it was like 20 of us the week that I was there.
Um, you grow so close, it's really intense. Group therapy. Every day is in a [01:02:00] luxury, beautiful environment, but it's intense. So you grow very, very close to the people you're there with. Um, we have biweekly zooms now where we all still stay together. We do the same sort of check in of what we're feeling that day, uh, you know, what we're experiencing.
Um, So you walk away with a real sense of community, like not sense of community. It is an actual, I have a new segment of community in my life because of that experience, and I think Love it. I think what CHIP has done really well in the entire team, um, we hear so much in hospitality about creating a sense of community and nine times outta 10 it's put a big communal table in the lobby, have a, I don't know, like it's not really building community.
What Chip has done is genuinely altering people's lives with community. And I think it's a model. I think there are components of it that, that every hotelier should look at and say, how can we go further in community? [01:03:00]
Dan Ryan: Have you, this is, we don't have to get into this now, but have you ever heard of the thing called the Hoffman process?
Yes. Yes. I did that about it just over a year ago. It was freaking amazing community. Re was really awesome. It was super cool. I I'll share that with you
Andrew Alford: later. Um, yeah, and the other thing about the experience is in, and this would tie into, I've never designed luxury per se, um, but there were, there were elements of the experience that I was like, I think these things are really gonna start showing up.
Um, in the wellness segment one, they have a resident shaman, so I got to, uh, his name's Saul. He's absolutely beautiful human being. Um, one of the add-ons you can do as part of the experience is he takes you, he picks you up at four 15 in the morning. You get in his like rough and tumble four by four and like drive up to the top of a mountain in Mexico.
Mm-hmm. . Um, and he does a sunrise meditation with you. He, he takes three people at a time, does a sunrise meditation with you, and then he takes each of you to the [01:04:00] side and does a, an individual reading, um, and sort of a cleansing. And all of us were just, In awe of how on the money he was with not knowing us and the things he said to me, the weird part was they matched up with what you guys say to me, but with a spiritual way bigger sort of dimension to it.
Um, so it was very validating to
Dan Ryan: have this perception. I think those people who are, are so em empathetic and in tune that they can really get into your heart wave and like, feel what's going on. And they're just so open. It's, it's incredible.
Andrew Alford: Yeah. I think wellness segment can learn from, from that experience.
Yeah. I,
Dan Ryan: well also, you know, talking about wellness and ego and this and that, you know, the, the clinic that's opening up down the street from you or clinics, uh, on the psychedelic front from. You know, that whole idea of ego and death of ego and what the, what those [01:05:00] psychedelics have the opportunity to do is pretty awesome.
Yeah. From like a humbling, um, new look on life kind of perspective. And I'm, I'm really excited, like societally for that to really take hold Yep. Everywhere because I think, I think it's just, it's, it's all about opening up, um, and thinking about life and, and new perspective. So
Andrew Alford: one question, new perspective.
Yeah. And sorry, I'm running a little tight on time. Um, new perspective is where I'm going. Good. So the meeting I had yesterday was you did this graduate just released a coffee table book of every hotel we designed. Um, which is kinda a beautiful example of me physically getting to close a chapter and move on to a next one.
Um, and so I would say yesterday started. What is the next thing? And so the whole time during Covid, it's not [01:06:00] like my brain stopped designing. So I have this massive catalog of hotel brands, uh, uh, product lines, art, you name it, that this whole time during Covid I've been producing, it just hasn't had a home.
So now that I'm in this really strong place and the world is going back where we want it to be, um, yeah, I'm excited about the future. Really excited.
Dan Ryan: Yeah. Cause you're gonna find that capital and you're gonna have your canvas and I'm super excited to see all of this happen. Um, one question I love asking is, okay, Andrew, I'm talking to you now, your 48 year old self, right?
I want you to magically appear to your whatever, 18 year old or 17 year old Carney self at the Raptor ride. Yeah. Yeah. What advice does the 48 year old Andrew. Give your younger self. So
Andrew Alford: it's interesting you asked this because part of my, my mindfulness practice is viewing myself, uh, [01:07:00] I think we have a tendency to view our younger selves as like a Russian doll where it stacks up next to us, but we're really rings in a tree where these hurt scared kids and teenagers that we were, they're still inside of us.
And so, you know, my daughter's 10, I wouldn't beat her up over a decision that she made. I would try to, if she was upset, I'd try to nurture her. So like 18, 19 year old me, Sandusky, Ohio, there was a moment where I was just coming outta the closet. Gay marriage wasn't legal parenting. Gay parenting certainly didn't really exist.
And I was, there's a beach there and I was crying like at one o'clock in the morning on the beach cuz I was admitting to myself that I was never really gonna have kids. I was never gonna have a marriage. And then I ended up with the amazing marriage, the phenomenal kid. . Um, so when I look back at my 19 year old self and say is, you have no idea how wonderful it's gonna be.
And I have that actual conversation, like I picture my 19 year old self [01:08:00] sitting next to me in my car and have a conversation with that kid and say, I know what you're feeling. You have no idea how awesome this is gonna get. It's gonna suck. You're gonna go through like, I mean, I've been homeless at times, like I've been through the ringer.
Um, but it's all worth it. And you end up in this really beautiful place. And so that's what I would say to him is, it's gonna suck, but it's gonna be amazing. The light is
Dan Ryan: always there. Yeah. Sometimes you can't see it, but it's always there. You just gotta keep taking one foot in front of the other and then you see the
Andrew Alford: light.
I mean that, that, that gay marriage, the, the same sex marriage bill was just passed, uh, by the Senate and whatnot. So, I would've never dreamed of that when I was a kid. But, you know, the, the phrase that came into me this week is that conservatism doesn't stop progress. It just delays it. Um, so, you know, you just gotta be patient.
And again, I keep saying trust the process, but 19 year old kid, [01:09:00] I think I was also convinced that I would never have, like, nobody would ever really love me and I would never have a physical life. And again, all untrue. So I would just go back and just tell him, dude, it's gonna be amazing.
Dan Ryan: I love it. Um, how can people get in touch with you and learn more?
Andrew Alford: So I'll admit freely, I was a little lazy over Covid and didn't put up a website. So there is not that. Um, Instagram is always good at Andrew Alfred Creative. Um, anybody can email me if they want Andrew alfred.design. Um, I'm not gonna give my cell phone number. Uh, yeah, I think those will be the two.
Dan Ryan: Perfect. And we'll put 'em in the show notes if anyone wants to reach out, be inspired and learn more. Um, Andrew, I'm so glad we had this conversation, and thank you so much for your time. I know you're really, really [01:10:00] busy and thank you.
Andrew Alford: Thank you, thank you. Yeah, no, and if anybody listening has tens of millions of dollars, they want to create a new his whole brand with, you know, DM me, I guess that's the like DM me with yours,
Dan Ryan: DME with millions.
Slide in slide in slide or slip, slide into his DM slide in
Andrew Alford: my dms with your millions. I love it. I
Dan Ryan: think that's the goal. And I would be remiss to not also thank our listeners because again, I'm just humbled. Every week we grow and grow and grow. That must mean that people like Andrew and the other guests are super interesting and people are learning stuff.
So again, it's all, it's not possible without the guests and it's not possible without the listeners. So if this changed your thinking on anything, please
Andrew Alford: share it. Yeah, and I would say stay in touch. Like I, I could talk about this stuff for days on any of these topics, so if anybody listening, I'm happy to continue the conversation, um, and keep it going.
Dan Ryan: Awesome. So thank you [01:11:00] everyone, and we'll check in next time.