Defining Hospitality

[00:00:00]
Dan Ryan: Today's guest is a master of hospitality design. She's designed projects with. Most major hotel brands ranging from four seasons to Fairmont, to Marriott, to Ritz-Carltons, to Siesta, to Hilton, Waldorf Astoria's, Hyatts Intercontinentals, as well as many independent hotels. She's the co-founder and co-owner at Parker Torres Design.
She also is recently a 2022 Platinum Circle inductee, which is basically like the Hall of Fame for hospitality designers, ladies, and gentle. Miriam Torres. Welcome Mary.
Miriam Torres-Smalanskas: Hi, [00:01:00] Dan. It's fun to be here. I, I'm excited to be here. Thank you for having me.
Dan Ryan: Oh, it's so wonderful to have you here as well. Um, and I know that we've known each other for such a long time, and I'm just always, I'm, I love entrepreneurial stories, right.
And I just think that what you and Barbara have created, um, and I know you always joke about it as. Accidentally creating this business, but the team that you've assembled, the projects that you've worked on, the accolades that you've gotten, I don't know. It's just, it's, it's a really wonderful story, and I know that, I know in speaking to you before this, you're like, oh, you know, I hope I do okay and all this, but I said, you know, Miriam, all you have to do is just speak from your heart and mm-hmm.
I just know. You're always speaking from your heart. I do.
Miriam Torres-Smalanskas: And yeah. So sometimes it's good. Sometime it gets me in trouble, but .
Dan Ryan: [00:02:00] Right. But you know, I feel like everyone always knows where they stand with you, correct? Yes,
Miriam Torres-Smalanskas: yes. So it, it's, I have no filter to, and I go straight to the point and, and yeah. You know, uh, where I stand, that's for sure everybody
Dan Ryan: does.
Yes. And, you know, thinking about that, like speaking from the heart and, and being. Like coming always at a place from the heart. Um, I'm curious because, you know, obviously this is called defining hospitality, but that place of the heart and knowing where you stand and just really being open to that and expressing yourself, how has that.
Shaped what your idea of hospitality is like, how do you, how does that help you define what hospitality is?
Miriam Torres-Smalanskas: Well, okay, um, well, I guess hospitality is the relationship, between a guest and a host. But for me, really that relationship is about caring, sharing, welcoming. I mean, I'm, this is just like [00:03:00] my, the first words that come.
To mind Um, but I, I don't know. I also, because we're in this industry, so also to me instead of mine, um, I think it's also an experience and to me it's like a magical place, a dream. So I don't see it as defined like from a dictionary. I, see it beyond that spirit, especially now in our industries. So it's really, to me, an experience.
It could be just an amazing and unique experience. And
Dan Ryan: I love how, you know, in speaking to you before and then also hearing you say it now, it's kind of like this dream, right? Yes. So, and in a dream it's mostly feeling and it's surreal. Like how did you, how do you convey that dream or that dream state into the, the works and into your team and how, how do you get people [00:04:00] to.
Get on board with what the dream and the vision is of a, of a project. Or some other initiative that you're working
Miriam Torres-Smalanskas: on? Well, um, uh, we usually in all the project, we start with the narrative. So it's a lot of research in the, in the place, um, that we're doing actually the project. And actually people don't understand how, um, important that is.
We always go back to that narrative. We always have a story and we do a story that will create, um, Uh, a space and a dream like I keep saying, and an experience. So for us, our foundation is really the narrative of a project, and in that narrative, we decide what the projects will become.
Dan Ryan: I love it. And then I, I want to pull on that narrative thread because we also touched upon it a little bit when we were speaking.
I want to go back to before you started [00:05:00] Parker Torres. You were working at Ken Herd,
Miriam Torres-Smalanskas: correct? I, I've worked several places, but one of my first job was at Ken Herd, an associate. Um, he was a big mentor. I mentioned him in Planning Circle. I worked in the Wal Astoria twice for him. Um, and he really taught me a lot and I believe mentorship is so important.
I, Barb and I also met working. Turkish billionaire who before we started his very six stars hotel, took us around the world to learn what Six Star was. So mm-hmm. people don't know my background. I was very fortunate. I ended up in this situation and he took us, um, to Deran Palace and the Ritz in Paris and the Creon and, and plus Aine and.
Flew us to Cuomo, to Lake Cuomo and then to Milan, and it was crazy. And um, Barbara and I were able to experience really, really luxury. [00:06:00] He said, you need to do this before you work for me. And I'm like, okay. So yeah, people don't know that about us. We very fortunate, and this is 20, oh, like 25 years ago that we had that experience.
Dan Ryan: Right. So when you had that experience and your, you two were both working somewhere else and had this experience of ex what luxury is and getting indoctrinated into it, if you will, could you ever have imagined 22, 4 years later when you get inducted into the um, platinum Circle as not at all as the co-owner and co-founder, like, How shocking is that?
Like
Miriam Torres-Smalanskas: if you really it out, it was shocking when they call us. Well, it was shocking because I think Barbara and I have always just worked heads down and no distractions. We don't know what other people are doing. We just work, work, work, work. And we were, uh, nobody knows this, but we were in a kickoff meeting at the four season in Orlando when we got the [00:07:00] call and I stepped out of the meeting and not knowing, I thought, They keep calling is their problem.
So I, and when we were, I was told, I came in the meeting and I had a tear of like, I couldn't believe it because we have never, I, I go to that event that every year mm-hmm. never occurred to me like, will we park? We just go there and Oh, like, oh wow. And so, no, it was, you know, it is nice to be recognized, especially as a woman and.
As a Puerto Rican girl, like to be recognizing something that you just work hard not looking for something, you just do the best you can for your client. It was amazing.
Dan Ryan: I, well, okay, so where it's not like you're looking for that. Accolade or end result. But again, if we go back to speaking from your heart and being in a place of your heart, you know, we all hear those cliches, which I actually don't think are cliches, where [00:08:00] if you're really doing what you love and you're passionate about, it's not work.
Miriam Torres-Smalanskas: It is true. Its true. It's just your life. It's not work though. I cry many times at night, but it's stressing out. But, uh, we, I think my business partner and I are fortunate that we are doing what we love. I will do, say, I will just say that.
Dan Ryan: Yeah. And, and, okay, so then I think another interesting story is, you know, there's so many entrepreneurial stories and journeys out there, but to think about you and Barbara 19 or 20 years ago where you took that step, right, as two women, We were like, okay, we're gonna do this.
We're gonna start this company. Like what was that feeling like? Like can you go back to that
Miriam Torres-Smalanskas: place? So she had worked in a very well-known, a lot of people now don't know, but at the time was one of the first companies ever called Graham International and she was doing work all over the world. She was there for 19 years and [00:09:00] they closed the office and she called me and I say, I won't, I won't start until I finish the weld.
Or if it was my second time around. I did finish and, um, we took the leap. There were no hospitality. Dis Boston has never had a strong hospitality design firm, so that has been very helpful for us because we've been able to attract the best talent. Mm-hmm. , because we don't have much competition, I will tell you.
So we get to get the best people. Mm-hmm. .
Dan Ryan: But when, when you go back to that moment where you're, you want to finish the wald, For that second time. And this opportunity is there, like, what was that first step like? Like when you, you're like, okay, we're doing it.
Miriam Torres-Smalanskas: No, but we were like, okay, we don't wanna compete with our bosses.
We feel bad. Let's do residential. We did residential for like four months, hated it. And um, It was interesting. People found out and the phone just start ringing all clients and we started in my [00:10:00] basement, um, just the two of us. And uh, it's interesting, it's 19 years and there's 30 people in an office building, so we never put $1, we never had a business.
It's crazy. So you,
Dan Ryan: so you just followed your hearts
Miriam Torres-Smalanskas: and, and work hard. And you just work hard, I'm telling you. And was it
Dan Ryan: the, uh, was it the basement of your house in near Walden
Miriam Torres-Smalanskas: Pond? So it was my basement of my house there, and then I built my dream house. So I ended up the office above. The basement, my new house that I dream.
And at one point, Barbara said to me, in your pan piano room, we have the a, a Hyatt, in your living room, we have the Fairmont Coley in your family room, we have the Marriott, uh, marquee. She's like, Miriam, we have every space in the room and in your refrigerator is all the food from everybody. She. [00:11:00] We are so frugal.
We have money, we can get an office , and that's what happened. And then we got an office that's probably about 12 years ago, but we were so frugal, we didn't wanna spend money in an office. But
Dan Ryan: I, I also love that the, those stories bootstrapping and being frugal, especially like. Being so close to Walden Pond where Throw was like, he lived like a monk in
Miriam Torres-Smalanskas: a little shack, but that's not me.
I know it's not. You like that and people can't believe it. I am frugal when it comes to business and my client's money. I'm not when it's my own. So, yeah. Yeah. But, but
Dan Ryan: I, I, I, I don't know. I just love, I was such a fan of
Miriam Torres-Smalanskas: Henry. It's a beautiful area. Yeah. Wait, and it's, it's just gorgeous.
Dan Ryan: Yeah. Yeah. But, okay, so then that's actually interesting too.
So if you think about, I know you've, we've talked about all these luxury projects as well, and. I just know that you work on so many different things, not just luxury. [00:12:00] So how, like what is the whole spectrum of what you guys are working on and like what's exciting you about Yeah. What you see out there
Miriam Torres-Smalanskas: and what is exciting me is the changes that our industry had made.
For all other, um, interior and architecture industry. I, I, I don't think people realize that hospitality design we're like the, the founders, or I call it the mother of design and how we influence everything. Corporate healthcare, um, academic, residential. I mean, people don't realize the influence. And, and the calls that we ca we get, and, and I can give you some examples.
Um, we got calls from. Car properties. They're one of the biggest developers in hosp in, um, office spaces. And they [00:13:00] asked us to do their lobbies that had many tiers and many Floor wasn't just a small lobby. We got a call from Amherst College. Academic. We did their in and then they called three time until we agreed to do their common areas and their dorms.
We got a call from m i t to do their labs. We got a call from residential. Most owners of the hotels we do, and I don't think people know the influence everybody wants. The designers, the hotel designer, everybody want that magic. And I think we have a movement and, and I think we're, we started this movement and I don't think people really realize it.
So it is, it's spread out. It's not just only hotels. And at the beginning we used to push back and say, we don't do, um, ams. They call three times before we agree. We're like, we don't do. Any dorms and we [00:14:00] don't do libraries. And, and, um, if I tell you honestly, people don't think about it, what, how the brand actually started this movement.
I mean, I don't think the hotel brands, yes. And I don't think people give credit to Hilton or Maria specific Marriott. I think, I don't know, 15 years ago, 20 years ago when they started like the great. With the zone of the quiet zone, the library and the bar in the middle of the lobby. People don't realize, cuz I think they were like the pioneers.
And then we became the creators, right? Like, Like we started creating those spaces, but they set that foundation and people don't realize that where we are now started with Marriott. I really believe so. I mean, Hilton has some other things that they started now that very interesting. But I think, um, that [00:15:00] foundation came from them and then we created the spaces and the influence they had is all these people.
Residential wants rooms that, bathrooms that look like spa, right? . Mm-hmm. The corporate world I'm working with, doing these office spaces, they, they incorporating the, they, they ask me to incorporate bars and do their lobbies like it's a hotel and connectivity and a quiet please and a library and healthcare the same.
I mean, m i t saw the Marriott in Cambridge that we did. We did. Seven years ago, which is funny because we were just asked to redo it. We're gonna start it again. And m i t saw it. We had no idea. They call and they're like, we're interested in you doing some of our lobbies for our labs or, and at that one we were like, we, we can't, we, we all over the place.
We like to focus what we do, but that's how much influence [00:16:00] our industry has in all facet of. So it's interesting.
Dan Ryan: I agree. And actually I really like your take on how it, it really started with Marriott maybe 15 or 20 years ago. Because if you think about it, that's probably. Shortly after I, I don't know all the dates, but shortly after, cuz Marriott used to own and operate so many of their hotels and then everything got really specialized, right?
They spun out a lot of their own assets, owned assets into host. Then they really started focusing on focusing on management and brand.
Miriam Torres-Smalanskas: Oh, every brand has done that. Most brands don't own their property. Very few,
Dan Ryan: correct. But in doing that, in specializing, The brand
Miriam Torres-Smalanskas: feeling? Yes. They really have specialized in management branding and they, they hired the.
People to outsource. They, they hire consultants. Yeah. To come up with all the vision. Then their people [00:17:00] help us get there. I, I mean, I used to be very like pushback with brands and it's interesting. I'm very different, I would say the last 10 years. If you get the right people, you grow, you get better, and you can influence incredibly.
Um, and the partnerships are amazing. So I'm completely the other way. I'm a brand girl. I think they make us better. I think they keep us in the right path. And if we can all together make more money for our clients, I'm gonna get another job. Totally.
Dan Ryan: I, I, I agree. And if you think about, if you look at all the mo, even outside of hospitality, but all.
You know, valuable companies out there in the world are brands, right? It's that brand, it's that, it's all that other stuff that is outside of just what the operations and how and what they do. It's like, It's just that bigger feeling. And that's what, that's really what drives the, it come back full
Miriam Torres-Smalanskas: circle is hospitality is that dream is welcoming people, but then the [00:18:00] design all come back from the main word hospitality and then all filter through.
And
Dan Ryan: you're also, you also bring up a really good point that I was actually surprised by in a couple of these conversations. It's, um, This idea of a hospitality lens, right? So where everyone, like you said, you're doing education, you're doing laboratories, you're doing all these things that probably wouldn't normally have a hospitality focus or filter on.
But again, it goes back to what you were saying, like it's that feeling, that dream, that brand, that what are you trying to convey? And I think in hospitality, we really. A really wonderful job in the built environment of conveying that warmth and feeling an open-heartedness. Well,
Miriam Torres-Smalanskas: I think also, I mean, there's some incredible designers out there and creators that take the brand, um, view and then they create this in magical spaces.
And when you think about what hotels are now, [00:19:00] when I. 38 years ago, um, they didn't have that idea of experience. Right. And what have. They've become now it's like one hotel is stopping the other. It's like every time we do a job, we give it our all and then we see another project and it's, it like, it's just amazing how the experiences outdoors and lobbies and guest rooms it, it is, it's a blast.
It's really a blast. I love my. And you get to dream and do whatever you want with somebody else's money. .
Dan Ryan: Totally. Um, I, I've heard you say the 38 years of experience a bunch. Like where were you? It's
Miriam Torres-Smalanskas: a long, somebody doesn't feel that long at all. I
Dan Ryan: know, but, okay, let's go back.
Miriam Torres-Smalanskas: I mean, I started really, really young.
Dan Ryan: E. Exactly. Cuz you're only 42 now, right? Oh yeah. . If [00:20:00] you go back to like four, what, what were you doing 40 years ago? What? Like what were you doing before you started on this hospitality
Miriam Torres-Smalanskas: journey? Well, I went to college at Umas Amherst and I was fortunate they asked you to do a thesis, but you needed to have plans, architectural plans for your thesis.
And lucky me, my father had a hotel and the AR architectural plans about hotel, and he say here, and I say, Perfect. I was the first student in Umas Amers who di did a hotel. Most people did a resident on an office or a restaurant, which was not a good idea because I had not just a resident, I had a lobby, a restaurant, guest room, a spa.
I remember calling my father, he said, I need more time. I, I, I think I wanna. Go this thesis through the summer. He's like, what? I'm like, the project is so big. He's like, do you have to do the whole hotel? Yeah. That's a lot of sleepless nights. I, and when I [00:21:00] presented my project, they had five companies from Boston to critique.
It was a senior year, and somebody presented an office building. Somebody was, you know, It was just a lot simpler, and then somebody presented a hair salon and he had presented a hotel. A gentleman came and gave me his business card, and that's how I got my first job. Kuk design, their hotel designers in Boston, literally gave me the business card.
I moved to Boston. I was in Amherst at the time, UMass Amherst. I moved to Boston. I called them, walked in, they say, bring your, your project, your senior project. And they all interviewed me and they, I got hired. I got hired in college because I did a hotel. . And where did your dad have his hotel? No. So it, he didn't own it.
Um, it was a partnership. I don't know. He, it was in Puerto Rico, but it was in Puerto Rico. Is um, in [00:22:00] Dorado. Oh. And my father was a developer. Got it. I don't know what he was doing there. I was too young to re Oh, we had a beach house, so, oh my God. I forgot about this. So my parents had a beach house in this resort, and I don't know how he got the drawings.
Um, And, um, it changed my life, so I've never done anything else but hotels. Wow.
Dan Ryan: And then how did you know? Before that, when you were deciding to go to UMass Amherst, how did you know that you wanted to get, get into design?
Miriam Torres-Smalanskas: Oh my God, that's a great question. So I had a very fortunate life. My parents were building their dream house.
Mm. And maybe I was like, Eight or 10 and they took me to the re residential designer in Puerto Rico, their offices, and they say, this is Miriam. Now that you're doing the house, she you, she's gonna do the room with you. Like they let me, Wow. And I was [00:23:00] like, this is the most incredible job. So actually, so this woman designed my room psychedelic.
I love, I love scar sparkles. Everybody knows that. Like I'm always glitz. My room was silver, metallic silver, blue and green, crazy. And my parents allowed me, I don't know, they were crazy to spend the money and do my dream room with this designer. I said I wanna do this. And I talked about this in Platinum Circle and my father said, that's not a profession.
You have to be an architect. And he sent me to Cornell for a summer program. Oh, I did that summer program too. And I did it and I hated it, but I did it and got the credits. Um, I say no. And he's like, well, you supposed to go to school for architecture that I apply. I say, I'm not doing. And it's a long story.
I ended up going to UMass Amherst because he said The [00:24:00] only way you can go to school for interior design has to be an accredited school. Mm-hmm. And I remember I applied there and I probably, I was waitlisted and resty and I actually went to see them, fell in love. UMass Amer had the most incredible brand new building over the top and ended up going to school there.
He never really. Love that was an interior designer. He's an engineer and a big developers and all my brothers are engineers, so bankers, and it took a long time for him to realize that this was a true business. When I started making more money than my engineer brothers. He's like, okay, .
Dan Ryan: Oh my God, that's amazing.
I
Miriam Torres-Smalanskas: know. I go on. I can't believe you asked this. That's so I forgot about. So
Dan Ryan: I want to, well, I think I did the same program at, at Cornell. So, so what, what was interesting, lemme tell, lemme tell you my, what I thought was most interesting about that [00:25:00] program is I always did art. I had painted, I drew a photography, so I was like, I had a great, I had so many great art teachers growing up and I was very passionate about it.
Um, but when I went to Cornell, it was the first time that they taught. A design process as a a means of solving problems.
Miriam Torres-Smalanskas: It was so
Dan Ryan: hard. It was really hard, but I never thought of
Miriam Torres-Smalanskas: It was time consuming. Is that what
Dan Ryan: it was? It was. I never did all I was in high school. I did three or four all-nighters in a summer trying to build.
I
Miriam Torres-Smalanskas: did too. I did. So I, you know, you go to Cornell and all my friends from Puerto Rico were taking English as second language in the morning and in the afternoon they go to the gorge swimming and get a sunan. No, the architecture student had. Uh, lecture in the morning and studio in the afternoon, and then we had to do.
Our drawings and homework and we're up all night. I was like, oh my God. And cutting our fingers off with the blades. Yeah. I've never done a model. It was a disaster. And literally I passed cuz [00:26:00] I'm Puerto Rican and we grew up in a very different culture. I was kind of afraid of my dad I passed. Cause I know he spent a lot of money to send me here and out of respect.
But I was like, oh my, it was, it was not like a fun summer at all.
Dan Ryan: But I also think, I walked away from that summer thinking, why don't we teach not just art and fine arts in high school? Why don't we teach what design
Miriam Torres-Smalanskas: is, teach design, art, design? Cuz people don't know. I mean, you know what? I think my next step in life is to do that.
What I like not to teach, but what I like to do, especially in Puerto Rico, that's my next goal is. To promote our industry. Mm. You know, everywhere I go and people say, what do you do? And I say, I design hotels. They're like, what? That's a job. What? And I realize especially, um, Kids that don't have their means will be amazing.
That that is my next [00:27:00] step. I would like to, in Puerto Rico, go to schools, high schools and talk about it, um, and show our project and say, if I did it coming from my town, it's a small town. If I did it, you could do it. I would love to promote our industry. I really would. That that's what I really wanna.
Dan Ryan: I think that would be amazing for promoting our industry.
But also if you go to the small town you're from and you tell your story and your story of success, I think it could inspire so many people that don't even want to get into that and to do other things. You know what I mean?
Miriam Torres-Smalanskas: And it can try a contractor or a artist to do art for the hotel. It like could branch.
I've been thinking that's, that's, that's really my future. I would like to do that. Oh my gosh.
Dan Ryan: I'd love to talk to you more about that at some point, cuz that sounds really exciting. I lo one of the things that's so cool about doing this con these podcasts is the feedback I get from so many people, but specifically from kids who are in, [00:28:00] uh, design school or architecture school or in hotel operations school, they're like, oh my gosh, thank you.
I never thought about that. Yeah. And it's almost like it's kind, all these stories and conversations are really. Having some kind of an impact on a lot of people, but really on people who are up and coming. And I, I love it. It fills my bucket.
Miriam Torres-Smalanskas: Yeah, no, um, I don't think people, we have the best industry, I'm telling you.
I totally agree. We have the best people. You can't get rid of me. We have the best people, the best, the most fun, the best parties . It really is. I mean, always come down to the parties, to me, but we do. But I think work hard, play hard.
Dan Ryan: But I think it also comes into like one of the things that I love about what we do in, in the different areas of our industry, and it's all.
Ultimately people wanna design that bar or restaurant that they can go have a drink at with their friends. Right. And it's that [00:29:00] feeling and that warmth and going back to that, it's, we're all like leading with our hearts here.
Miriam Torres-Smalanskas: You know? Yes. I think, I think most people in this industry is not for the money.
Yeah. When we're not neurologist and killing it, it just, uh, people who are in this industry that are successful, I think is really a passion. Really
Dan Ryan: is. I totally agree. And it's also being surrounded by all these. Really passionate
Miriam Torres-Smalanskas: people who all care. Yes. And then you become friend. I mean, I, I even this is one of those industry that your competitors become your friends.
Right? Totally. I have a lot of designers that I bet in projects and they're my friend and I'm like, oh, if I didn't get it, but you got it, I'm okay because you're my friend. I'd rather you get it this's somebody that I don't know. But I think it's cool to. Become friends with all the representative and the clients and all the brand, [00:30:00] um, people.
I, I, I love that. I, I love that I get to work with people that I enjoy their company. I, I really, I've been lucky in that aspect. And
Dan Ryan: aside from all of the like-minded people, just to shift gears a little bit, um, I just, I. Seeing you and Barbara work together as partners. Right. And I think what's so cool is that, I don't know if it's like a delineated like lane that all of your It is, but like you guys are so complimentary
Miriam Torres-Smalanskas: to each other, but it's, it is a lane but not planned.
Dan Ryan: Okay, so that not planned, was that really not planned or you guys
Miriam Torres-Smalanskas: are just like, no plan a client put us, we work with a client. And he said, you guys are the perfect match. The Turkish gentleman. And um, she was doing all the architectural drawings and I was doing all the ff n e, which is how we run our business.
Barbara's gone to the point, she's been out of design [00:31:00] about six years now and she's running the business, really running the business. She feels she. People that are super experienced our age, that gun so good at it that she's out and, and it, it is interesting because one of the best advice I got was from Alan Benjamin and he said to me, we do a lot of work with him the third grade.
And he said to me, hire people better. And that's what we've done. No ego. And they're like, no, no, we still need you. And I, I review everything, but boy, there are people out there that are so good. Have a team that is better than you. I mean, they might not have your experience and that's what I can bring to the table.
But, um, that was a great advice he gave me. He also told me, cuz I s he told me, Do you think I know how to ride a PO anymore? And I [00:32:00] say, no, I don't know how to ride. I don't know how to get in the computer and do a spec. He goes, well, do you think the press, the c e o of Delta can fly a plane? That changed my vision.
I'm like, I don't need to ride a spec anymore. That was Alan. Wow.
Dan Ryan: So when you, 19 or 20 years ago, when you and Barbara embarked on this entrepreneurial journey, I know you said you didn't, you didn't have your lanes planned, or it wasn't a planned way, but how did it, how did you guys find your equilibrium?
Miriam Torres-Smalanskas: It happened organically. We never planned anything, and I don't know. She's a planner. I'm not, but we never planned it. We just got the first job and it was the two of us. She was joined by hand. Not even cat. And I was typing specs and selecting the fabrics. Literally, that's how it all started. And we had nobody, we'd never planned to hire anybody.
And one [00:33:00] day I said to her, we need to be like a big company. We need to have somebody answer the phone. Somebody do the specs. She's like, we don't have any money. And she was teaching hospitality design at night and she's like, what if I get an intern to help us? Never planned it. We got an intern. An intern turning to 27 people now.
Wow. So we never planned it. We never put a dollar, can you believe it? Our cell phone and our old computers. Wow. So, yeah. Um, and then it happened organically. She will do sketch. You know what is so funny? Only like four years ago, somebody asked a question and she's like, well, when I designed this sketch with Miriam, I show her imageries of things I want, and she designed this space in a sketch, she say, A few years ago I always designing black and white.
I'm like, what? Maybe that's why we never [00:34:00] had an issue. She's like, no, I design in black and white. I'm like In your head, black and white. I never designed black and white. I only designed with color. Isn't that crazy? She's catches this space in black and white. So I guess we never really had a problem because.
We are completely different. So we bring what the other one doesn't bring. I don't know. Yeah. I'm
Dan Ryan: having, I'm visualizing like the yin yang, right? It's just a perfect compliment, but not overlapping.
Miriam Torres-Smalanskas: Right. Yeah. She's also very quiet and very proper and. Very bright and, and you're very quiet, very American.
And I'm like, wow, crazy Puerto Rican and not proper, whatever, but it's okay. He works, he works. You
Dan Ryan: are proper, but you're, you're not quiet. You're not too of the same.
Miriam Torres-Smalanskas: Um, how,
Dan Ryan: and then as your partnership over the past 20 years has grown and you're, you know, and you've built this amazing company, like how do you guys.[00:35:00]
How do you guys like reconnect and like just make sure, like everything okay. Are we doing okay? Like, are we on the right course?
Miriam Torres-Smalanskas: I feel like it's always a craziness, honestly. It's craziness. Um, we do get together once in a while, um, and we're like, oh, another year has gone by. You know? Um, I think when we get together what is really bizarre, we're so different, but we're so similar. Like people don't understand. We finish each other's sentences and I don't know, it just happened to be that way and that was just luck.
If I get together with her and she's like, it is time to buy, and I say Computer, she's like, yeah, or it's time to give so-and-so. I say a raise. I don't know. We're so in sync and I don't know why. When we would get together, we'd know what is the next step. It's, I remember it is time to get an office. It's time to hire [00:36:00] somebody.
It's time. I remember at one point we decided to hire a restaurant team. A lot of people don't know that we lost, uh, we were doing a really luxurious hotel and we lost the restaurant. I went home and I cried cuz that's me. She was like, whatever. I cry and I. I'm not doing this again. So I call her. We got together.
I'm like, we need to hire a restaurant design team. And people don't realize we have a group of people that only do restaurants or food, food and beverage. They do markets and bars in our office. And ever since that a lot of our clients don't outsource the restaurant if they know they're gonna get that team.
But these are things that happen that she and I on the same page, and that's how evolved. And when I, I, I start saying it, she finish the sentence so you're
Dan Ryan: crying. [00:37:00] Is a good indicator of where, of the direction, of where we, where you need to fill in the gaps to continue to
Miriam Torres-Smalanskas: grow. Yeah. Uh, the, well, my crying is the emotional, thank God she's levelheaded and keeps me in check, but I'm the one that, because of those feelings and that emotion, I need to do something to resolve.
It gives me to a good resolution. Right. I mean, I, I went to bed and the next morning I'm thinking, thinking, thinking. I'm like, the answer is for me not to lose that. Let's hire, and we literally hired a team from a restaurant design firm in Boston, boo Boo. Wow. They've been with us like 12 years. Wow.
Dan Ryan: That's so awesome.
It's, uh, it's amazing. I don't know, I just, I get. Being an entrepreneur. I just love hearing all of the other entrepreneurial, entrepreneurial stories, especially like on the partnership side, because there's so many times partners, it doesn't work out
Miriam Torres-Smalanskas: right. I hear [00:38:00] all the time from other friends of mine in the industry, they're like, oh, what you have is special.
What you have is special. I don't know. A client put us together and the client used to say, you guys will be great. And, uh, A good rep, a Barbara, a friend of her will say to her, between the client and the rep, put us together. Um, I think honestly it's because we're nothing alike. I mean, my marriage was the same.
My husband was, I always say he was like, Barbara's brother, cuz he was like Barbara. And I think we don't ever compete. I don't know. And it's interesting cuz Barbara and our partnership, we're not like, we don't do things today. It's not like we're spending weekends together, but anytime I have a hardship in my life, or Chee does in our personal life, we discuss it and we support each other.
We have like this really interesting relationship that we're like sisters, but we're not hanging out together. [00:39:00] Mm-hmm. , I don't know. I find
Dan Ryan: that, you know, if I look at you. My closest friends, even though we may be s and you guys are really close to each other, lo um, physically because you're in Boston and in this in the office when you're not traveling.
But when I look at my closest friends, I think the thing that ties us all together is when we all get together, it's, we don't even have to spend time on what, where, what all happened. It's just like, we just kind of fit together, like pieces. It's easy. Pieces of a puzzle.
Miriam Torres-Smalanskas: Yeah. Yeah. No, my, my, my business with her is easy.
Like when, so I, I, I say this before, I've never had an argument with her in 18 years or a disagreement. That's baar.
Dan Ryan: It's probably because you're all talking to each other with your heart's open, right? Yeah. And she's designing black and
Miriam Torres-Smalanskas: white's defining color. Color, exactly. Um,
Dan Ryan: so as you look at the journey that you've [00:40:00] been on and the 27 plus or minus people that are on your team, and you look at kind of where we've been, all the ups and downs and kind of what the, what the future looks like, what's exciting you most about like what you see out on the horizon?
Miriam Torres-Smalanskas: I mean, I think for us, we've been doing a lot of luxury in the last like three years. I mean, we doing. Doing about four Ritz, um, Denver, Tyson. Yeah. Four Ritz working on and a four season, um, public spaces in a fair amount. So it is kind of nice that we get to work in this project that we do our dream and we, we really get to do.
And, and express ourself all the way with no limitation. So that is exciting to us, um, because before we will get one like that every so often, but it seems like it's been [00:41:00] lately the trend. And I think also that clients, we've gotten to a point in our industry, Barb and I, that client kind of trust us and I don't feel like I have to constantly prove myself like I used.
So if I'm doing a Ritz, um, obviously we have to work hard and I'm always feel like I'm not good enough. Right? That's what makes you work so hard. But I feel like we have delivered. So you have that comfort and, and I feel, I used to always feel like I was a fraud. Mm. And I didn't know what I was doing and I'm like, oh, how lucky after I presented and I don't feel like that anymore.
I'm like, I know what we're doing. That's really
Dan Ryan: interesting that, and I was talking to someone recently, this idea of being a fraud or an imposter. How, what was it that kind of tipped the scales on that to where you were just comfortable with, with yourself and, and your ability and you weren't second guessing?
You? [00:42:00] Whether you were real or legitimate or not.
Miriam Torres-Smalanskas: I read a book Leaning in, um, Sheryl Sandberg. That's her, yeah. It changed my life. Hmm. Um, I sent it to bunch of client and, and the book is about being a woman and, and never, I mean, this was like 10 years ago, but being a woman and never. , um, you always feel like you're a fraud, right? And you go to these meetings and you will have this meeting and then you walk out of the room like, oh, I just faked it.
And I, when I read that book, I'm like, oh my God, that's me. Mm-hmm. Uh, and as I read the book, she's like, there is no reason that you fake it. It is just not by chance. You fake it. You actually knew what you were talking about, your experience there. But we are raise in a way that. I mean, I don't wanna get into this woman thing.
It's, it is personal, right? Mm-hmm. , but you're raised in a way that you might not be good enough. And I don't think [00:43:00] I was raised like that, but I felt in the industry, um, that. They judge a lot. Honestly, when you become a designer, especially if you wanna do luxury, oh, she's never done luxury or, or something like that.
And, um, and it's difficult, but after I read that book, I realized, no, I'm not faking it. The reason that presentation after presentation after presentation is successful because I know what I'm doing, but it is something that you have to come with terms. Have to be the whole process and, and step back and say, there's a reason why I'm doing this property.
There's a reason why they've, we finish the projects and they work in their budget and they're beautiful and everybody from the brand and ownership is happy. I, I'm not a fraud. Mm. I know what I'm doing, but it takes a long time and uh, obviously you do have to have humility. I don't walk out with an ego.
I know what I'm [00:44:00] doing. I'm the best cuz I feel having some humility and working hard makes you better cuz you're always trying to top yourself and it's not good to think I know it all and that's when you're gonna fail again. Right. But reading that book changed me to feel secure and to understand. I might know as much of everybody in this room, and not that I always have to say it, which is hard for me to hold back, but be secure.
You've done this long enough, you've done this for 38 years. You know it. So I think it was like seven or eight years ago after I read that book.
Dan Ryan: And then she, I mean, she's just an incredible inspiration and she. I mean, it was shocking with her. Her husband passed away while running on a treadmill suddenly, right?
Yeah. And then she wrote another book with Adam Grant, right.
Miriam Torres-Smalanskas: Leading in, um, no, it was plan B I think or something. B, option [00:45:00] B. Option B. Which when my husband passed away, I don't wanna get into that. I read again, but another thing I learned from her, um, she, her mentor was her Harvard professor. Hmm. Um, the finance summers, Mary Summers.
Mary Summers, and when I read her book, how he got her to work with her, I think when he was working for Obama and then she went to Facebook. But my point of all this. How she spoke in the book, how important mentorship is. Mm-hmm. . And that has been a big thing for us. And that's why we have the, I'm very interest, we're very involved having a really good internship program.
Well, and how mentorship can change your
Dan Ryan: life. But you know, the other thing you said earlier in the conversation about going back to Puerto Rico and inspiring and impacting others, right? Yeah. So this idea of mentorship, I. . I don't know. I, I love [00:46:00] doing what, what I do because in a way I get to impact a lot of people in a lot of different
Miriam Torres-Smalanskas: ways.
Right. And you, you know, it's almost like talking to you to realize that's what I wanna do. Yeah. Like it verbalize it and bring it to front. Like I wasn't thinking, but I think now after this, fuck guys, I realize I wanna go home. I wanna mentorship students. I wanna show them what we do and what's out there, and what a.
Profession that we're involved in, and I think it's coming out of just talking out loud with you and the whole process. Thank you. Oh man.
Dan Ryan: Well, you're welcome. Well, and actually as I'm talking to you recently, um, in a lot of these conversations, um, the idea of like impactful books have come up and I don't actually ask people what's the most impactful book, but.
It's amazing
Miriam Torres-Smalanskas: how so many people, that was a big I impact in my business. Yeah. And, and I, and I think if you asked me specific of a [00:47:00] book, I would not say that. But because you asked me about a topic, then I thought, oh, that's the book that I read that impacted me. Right. In many ways.
Dan Ryan: Totally. And I, I think I want to start asking more people about what's the most impactful book that they've ever read, because I think, again, it, it helps shorten other people's journeys towards what, you know, what they're looking for.
And I don't know, I just feel like I love reading. I read probably more than most people, maybe a little bit too much. Um, but it. I don't know, every book I read or listen to it always gives me something that can help with my growth. Learn. Yeah. Right? Yes. And helps me reframe kind of where I'm coming from.
But, um, sh yeah. Cheryl is a freaking amazing. She's a really
Miriam Torres-Smalanskas: successful, yeah.
Dan Ryan: Um, okay, so now I, I want to kind of shift gears a little bit. So we, we've thought about this future of mentorship, right, [00:48:00] of impact. The next generation. Right? Yeah. If you, I want to go back to the Miriam who's designing her childhood bedroom.
Right? How old were you when that happened? I
Miriam Torres-Smalanskas: think like 11.
Dan Ryan: 11. Oh, that's a good year. Okay, so the Miriam that I'm speaking to right now, okay, so it's you and me. Let's say you teleport back into that room with your 11 year old self. What advice do you have for your 11 year old?
Miriam Torres-Smalanskas: What advice a half, 11 year old self?
Um hmm. Work hard, dream big, and never take no for an answer. I love it. Never take no for an answer. I, I think if people look. They would've never thought, would I be [00:49:00] just perseverance. Perseverance.
Dan Ryan: Perseverance. I love it. Yes, resilience. You gotta keep getting up
Miriam Torres-Smalanskas: right now for perseverance. They tell me no a boy, they don't know what's coming.
I don't stop until I get it.
Dan Ryan: You know? Because I think it's all that passion that you lead with your. Right. You can't keep your heart down.
Miriam Torres-Smalanskas: I'm very competitive too,
I dunno if that's good or bad, but
Dan Ryan: No, that's wonderful. Well, I mean, I'm, well, I dunno if this conversation in any way helped you. Yeah, I did and I kind of, kind of coach you on like,
Miriam Torres-Smalanskas: what's next, what I'm doing next. Yeah. I mean, it's not like, I mean, I don't take you made my day. No, I don't take time to think and I'm in a very odd part of my life right now because of my, what's [00:50:00] happened the last two years.
I love my job and I, I will never stop working. But I, in my personal life, I need to do something that can fulfill me that is lacking right now. Maybe that's it. I'm going to Puerto Rico for Christmas and maybe I can call some of my friends who are teachers and maybe my first step. Thank you, Dan.
Dan Ryan: Okay, so I'm gonna call you in January.
I'm gonna put it in my calendar. Okay. What teachers did you talk to and what's next? Yeah. How are you impacting the next generation? I can I do that?
Miriam Torres-Smalanskas: Yeah, that would be cool. Yeah.
Dan Ryan: All right. Oh, this is super awesome. I'm getting goosebumps thinking about it. Um, cool. Well, Miriam, this has just been so wonderful and kind of uplifting for me.
I. The same for you. So yes, this is like really unexpected for me. Um, if people wanted to [00:51:00] get in touch with you, how, how can they get in touch and learn more?
Miriam Torres-Smalanskas: Um, well, anybody can email me. I'm, I'm very open and. Love welcoming people. Um, miriam parker torres.com. Anytime. Mm-hmm. , uh, I'm very easy to access. I mean, I travel all the time, but I'm always checking my email.
I think that's the best way.
Dan Ryan: Great. Um, and then we'll put up your company website as well, and, um, yeah, that would be awesome. So I also, I, so I, I guess ultimately, I just wanna thank you for your time because this has just been really inspirational
Miriam Torres-Smalanskas: for it. Fun. Me too. It's fun. Yeah, I know. I just go on and on and on cuz I just opened my heart
Um, I hope he's okay.
Dan Ryan: Oh, it's amazing. Um, and also I want to thank our listeners because I, I, I say this all the time, but every week the listenership grows [00:52:00] and it's just awesome. And I think because Miriam, it all comes back to what you said. . You know, you tell people that you design or build or are involved in making hotels or these really special environments happen.
People are always very intrigued. And I, I think it's growing every week because people are seeing that this does touch all industries. We're not limited to hospitality. So I wanna thank the listeners as well. And listeners, if this has helped change your idea of hospitality, you're creating hospitality through design, um, please pass it.
And we'll catch you next time.