Defining Hospitality

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what I do is inconsequential why I do what I do is I get to shorten people's Journeys every day what I love about our
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hospitality industry is that it's our mission to make people feel cared for while on their Journeys together we'll
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explore what Hospitality means in the built environment in business and in our
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daily lives I'm Dan Ryan and this is defining Hospitality today's guest is
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working on a diverse array of residential and Commercial projects including high-profile hotels restaurants and Retail
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he's telling a story through the spaces he creates and reimagining the visual landscape through stylish spirited and
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sophisticated designs he recently founded archive by Dan mazzarini which we'll talk about later and I also gave
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away the surprise he is the owner and creative director at bhdm design ladies
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and gentlemen Dan mazzarini welcome Dan thanks Dan couple of dance today a
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couple of dance and for those of you who don't know um I first met Dan I don't know seven
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eight years ago it was like yeah at least seven or eight years ago at 1201 Broadway I had an office down this
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little hallway and the door right next to me was bhdm's was I assume that was your
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first office right yeah pretty much our first world headquarters so yeah wow and
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we treated that floor pretty much like a dorm didn't we I mean we definitely did uh there was a lot of uh
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shared fun shared drama um but really good cocktails eventually
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I mean really yeah share cocktails um but I also remember like that whole building in that it's crazy to think now
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that that building 1201 Broadway is sandwiched between the Virgin to the
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North and the Ritz Carlton to the South and I remember when I first moved in there I signed the lease
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um they took my deposit and I went upstairs I had this clear view west across Manhattan to the aventi hotel
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yeah and down below there was a parking lot and then as soon as like the day
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after I moved in the parking lot was torn up I'm like what are they doing and they built a freaking building right in my really the only window yeah we did
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the same except that we rented what was I'm sure just storage space in the building uh and you know like I love to
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do a project for with a roll of duct tape and we were like we can polish this up and we like you looked at the parking
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garage until they tore it down and excavated for the Ritz at which point I was like I think we're out because we'll
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never see the sun again so great looking Hotel better door than a window right oh
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my God yes and do you remember how jarring it was when we were getting it
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from the west and the South sides of those pile drivers for all the site and foundation work it was like I remember
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my teeth were shaking for days this is really I feel like um I'm going back
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into like some PTSD right now a little PTSD but those were also like pre-covered times so we would take that
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over two years of just sitting at a computer but you know great great experience I think to feel what our
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clients feel and what people around our developments feel sometimes right so hey it's like a lesson learned and so now I
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feel like we have this appreciation for that part too yes a hundred percent and
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So speaking of appreciation I with you like so many of my guests I'm just so
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grateful that I'm able to steal some of your time here and share your story with everyone and before we get into it
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um you know the first question I always ask everyone is what does hospitality mean to you or how do you define
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Hospitality Dan yeah it's a great question I knew you were going to ask this question uh you know I think my
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definition is pretty simple I think it's really about two small things one is anticipating needs right and the second
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is exceeding expectations and I think it's kind of as simple as that you know we can get into you know how you feel
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when you walk in and all the touch points that go into Hospitality but really we're here as designers and
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developers and everyone to anticipate the needs of guests sometimes even the needs they don't even know that they
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need and then to exceed their expectations with the product I mean I think without that like you
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know what else are we doing here right 100 and and again that what I've found is that there's not a
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black and white binary definition right it's it's nebulous but a lot of it is it's putting others first right so
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you're you're you you're 100 correct in your definition um and the more I learn about it like I
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don't even I'm beginning to not even know what the definition is anymore um but it's cool it lives in this Venn diagram of all these overlapping ideas
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and then you know it when you feel it yeah but I think you know the the longer
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I'm in the design field the more it very clearly is a service field right like to
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our clients to our vendors to our teams and our staff um anything in this instance in
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Hospitality it's always about the end user too right so I feel like this notion of trying to yes I love to tell
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the story and I love a narrative and I think that always defines the big picture to the smallest detail but if
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we're not thinking about user experience and how we what people are really going to be doing there where they're coming from how tired they are how excited they
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are how do we anticipate those things and then how do we design an answer that exceeds what people are hoping something
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would be so I I completely agree and I want to like so if we were to just
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kind of sit with that idea of anticipation and thinking about your journey uh bhdm has been open and doing
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business for 10 years plus or minus when it when is your birthday 10 years it was
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this past August officially so we're just over 10 years old yeah wow so congratulations that's quite a milestone
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and for those of you who don't know most businesses tend to fail in their first year or two
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so a hooray to taking that entrepreneurial step and being on this
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decade-long journey um yeah what I'm intrigued about is
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you used to work in retail designing stores correct for Ralph Lauren
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for a number of people I mean when I so I graduated from Miami University in
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2003 in Oxford Ohio and I would say Midwestern at heart kind of grew up in Pittsburgh went to school in Ohio but
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New York was calling and so all my friends went to Chicago I ended up taking a right turn to New York but it
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was a time when people weren't hiring like it just the economy was not great we were around rebounding from 2001 and
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I did a number of informational interviews um like over a cocktail a different day
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so many funny stories with people in the business they're like I didn't meet you and I'm like we did meet a hundred years ago but I had one job
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and it was from this company called Kramer Design Group Robin Kramer and Phillip rosenswag at the time headed up
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the business and I met with them they asked to keep my portfolio and I was like no I have other interviews you
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can't keep it but I came back later in the afternoon and they sat me down in their conference room and said we don't
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have a job but we like your work and we think that you know we'd like to make a space for you here and so I took the one
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job offer I had at a branding and Retail design company um and I think like a lot of first jobs
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for people I started in not really having a project to work on so I did a little bit of everything and like kind
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of a lot of nothing but was always busy there and within the first six months like I would be the first in I would be
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the last out I would do whatever they needed me to do and try to exceed expectations
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um and within six months my boss came to me and said we have a client coming in who has investors and we're going to
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help them kind of launch the brand his name is Michael Kors and so at 23 I
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ended up designing the launch of the Michael Kors brand and it was a real baptism by fire because we went from two
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stores to 1500 stores in a about 18 months and that was back in like the
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Heyday of wholesale so we were working with Macy's and Bloomingdale's and everybody but it was I I remember Dan
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link I was I was sketching I'm a hand drawer I'm like all these beautiful programs I'm like I'm I'm a cusper I
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kind of work analog and so I'd be sketching and they would just take the drawings from under my hand scan them
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and send them to the millworker and the next day I'd get back shop drawings it was this total roller coaster but
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um a really fun baptism by fire and that's sort of how I got to New York how I got a first job and then like how it
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kind of all started so that was back in the day wow and and every vendor you've worked with since then turns their shop
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drawings around in one day moment in time I think but uh uh you
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know we it it definitely taught me like the whole circle of life for all
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these projects anything more than that the fact of like how many sets of hands go into making a project successful like
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there's no way at 23 I would have known anything about anything but I could draw it and I could think about it and so
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um yeah there's some vendors I mean I got a specialist I go to for the one day turnaround but yeah pretty miraculous
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right oh wow that's unreal and to just also think about the scale going from two stores to 1500
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over how long two years honestly the launch was about six months
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um like from design to the beginning of the launch and then it was like 1500 stores in about 18 months and this would
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be like anything from a flagship at Harold Square to you know a 200 square
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foot accessory shop in Pataskala Ohio but we did it all so it was It was kind
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of nutty I mean that could be fun that is just unbelievable speed and
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scale to Market I that's unreal and most of them were they how many were
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of those 1500 were Standalone stores and how many were um kind of PODS within a department a
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larger department store almost all of them were drop shops or Flagship stores at department stores but that was that
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was how those businesses were launching then you know and I think um as far as like you know working in
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retail then and then from Michael worked with a bunch of different brands launched a line for Jennifer Lopez
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launched Waterworks studio and like helped them think through that back in the day worked with Movado watches and
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Shiseido cosmetics and all these different kind of scales and parts of the business but they were all about
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speed to Market and about storytelling right like there was a brand DNA for
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each of those products in a certain way that you sold it in a certain way that you had to think about how things were
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merchandised and so while that wasn't Hospitality it was an incredible foundation for storytelling for
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detailing for like thinking about things quickly and in section um and figuring out how things are made
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so um yeah it was it was kind of a Nutty thing lots of lots of shopping shops as we say
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yeah well I you know I I'll push back on you there because on the speed to Market
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and the storytelling even though that totally resonates with me as far as the
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hospitality world as well maybe it's not going from two to fifteen hundred
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um in 18 months but the faster that we can open our hotels the faster the rents
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bump and the faster the returns are to shareholders and and satisfied guests as
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well yeah so and I guess that's that transition or speed bump or
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scene change from retail to starting your own company
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and going into Hospitality restaurants hotels bars and all things in between
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like what how did you take that first step because I know a lot I get a lot of feedback on the show and a lot of them
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are like oh my gosh thank you for sharing that story because I've been thinking about taking that entrepreneurial step how like
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what was your mindset as you did that yeah so there was a step between Kramer and bhdm and that was a six year stint
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at Ralph Lauren and I was in store design there sort of at an apex of Ralph
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Lauren history it was the 40th anniversary they were buying back all their licensed businesses and so I ended
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up spending three years back and forth to Asia with the licensees I knew from Michael and then three years in Europe
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kind of doing the stores there and it was it was a total almost like 180 to
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the experience with like the prior Brands which was like design everything and Ralph such a big machine it was like
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design your piece which was decorative so it was artwork and it was all the knickknacks and all the accessories and
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mannequins and if you I always say if you shook a store whatever would fall out that was the stuff I bought right
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um and why that important why that transition was important I think was it really I yes I could tell a story yes I
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could think quickly but it was about a refinement of of the the craft of
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decorative of how every part in peace is as important
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as the big picture plan and so your question about like what was the
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transition from one to the other um Ralph Lauren even while the travel I did even with all the work I did the
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team I ran I um I'm going to say the thing people don't want to hear I I moonlit I did freelance work I started
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answering Craigslist ads which is not a dirty thing it sounds dirty now but there were people like at the time
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remember remember Trading Spaces back in the day I mean it's like the precursor
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to all HGTV I think I was answering ads to help people with their apartments on the weekends in the Bronx or like in
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Brooklyn or wherever so I was working around the clock and in so doing like had a reputation retail for sure but
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also was like garnering these clients and um while at Ralph somebody knew I was
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there and asked me to help with the restaurant and so I did that that project was called the lion on 9th
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Street and then I was actually on the beach one summer and talking to this guy and
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um he was like what are you doing at design and he's like what are you working on I said I work here but I did this restaurant and he was like oh my
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God I know that restaurant I love it I have a hotel in Miami you have to do it
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well you've heard this kind of like magical story before and I was like that sounds great here's my number give me a
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call and he did and within a week I was on a flight to Miami and I booked our first hotel and so suddenly I'm working
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a full-time job and I've got this like kind of full-time roster of freelance clients
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and I was always nervous this is a long story but I mean maybe the punchline I was always nervous because
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I like certainty I like I think as a business person to control situations as
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much control as I can have that's the amount of security that I feel and so Brian who was my client at the time
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asked me the same questions like why are you going to start the business I was like I'm afraid and he gave me great advice he said you know what you can be
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afraid but what's the worst that happens you don't get any clients and you don't make any money
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and I was like yeah that's pretty bad Brian like yeah and he's like you know what you'll do you'll get
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another job and it was kind of this light bulb moment where I was like things are transferable if you're a
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hustler like you're gonna get a job done and so I took the leap I gave a long
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bandwidth exit from Ralph Lauren and I picked up all these things and what was incredible Dan was once I told people I
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was leaving and I told these other people I was full-time both sides were like that's that's great because we have
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more work for you here and like that makes more bandwidth for other people around Florence too so
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um it was a kind of cuckoo thing but I I needed the nudge from a client to tell
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me and give me the confidence it was time to do it what was the first hotel it was called Lord's South Beach and it
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was a little Deco project I think it was like 120 rooms on Collins and 11th
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um and it was owned by one guy and my client came in and was like we're gonna judge it and for like our bazzle into a
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thing it was actually to be um a gay branded Hotel oh
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called Lords or was it Lords isn't that ironic I mean really um yeah uh and it was fun it was like
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this total budget project like I remember like I'll show you pictures of
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it but I remember designing this and our our narrative was poolside Chic whatever
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that meant and we did all this fun stuff when we did carpets and we did paint and I put like stickers above the bed
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because we couldn't afford framed art and at the end of it I was like the young entrepreneur I
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remember we ended up painting repainting Furniture in one of their like little Cabanas and so there's paint all over
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the floor and one day I was like scrubbing the floor with turpentine because that was my that was my job that
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was my job right um I almost passed out and that's when I like walked out I was like okay I think
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there's limits to what we need to do to be Scrappy here totally um it was a great project and it was super fun and
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it was our first hotel and gratefully Hospitality design gave us the nod for
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um mid-scale Hotel of the year that year and I was like okay we don't know anything of I'm not a
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trained Hotel designer which I think is a fun thing for people to hear sometimes but I think with that project taught me
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is if you if you think about the user if you try to anticipate
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what they're looking for and then if you exceed their expectations the outcome has to be good right like
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and so it kind of told me like learn what you got to learn um apply your knowledge to the rest from
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what you've known from your career to date and that was really how we started to take on Hospitality work and then you
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know get a little high huffing turpentine along the way I tell that story and people like that
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doesn't sound safe I was like it really does not oh man that's that's tough but you know we all and that's you know I'm
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that entrepreneurial Journey you just do whatever it takes to to get there or die trying
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um I wanna I wanna this story had a happier ending yeah well I'm very happy
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for you and and for your success and journey um I really liked how you lit up when you
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were talking about your time at Ralph Lauren with respect to the refinement of
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going from really designed like super fast paced super scale like
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design build you're just in it up to your eyebrows and then it switched to more of this
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decoration and refinement and how like unpack that refinement word for us as
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far as yeah what it means I think I think when I was saying refinement it really means two things for me it was
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about a honing of um a honing of taste a honing of
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um the fact it's okay to be picky right like certainly I had great uh mentors
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and the first company that I worked for but it was small and it was busy busy is
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like an understatement it was kind of insane it was Breakneck so as much as you could do as fast as you could do and
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as much as you could learn was the pace at Ralph we did a tremendous volume of work and I
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had a tremendous purchasing power I mean friends that I know now in the industry are like I remember when and I was like
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yep that's why we remember each other um but the refinement piece was two things it was a refinement of taste but
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it was also this like refinement in the approach to the work meaning like don't
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be afraid to ask for the better thing don't be afraid to like underscore the importance and value of something that
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is authentic um as an example we would shop for antique tables it sounds cuckoo to like
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put them in a department store and then five years later they either get reused or pulled back or even thrown away it's
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kind of crazy but there was an authenticity to so much of what was done
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there and so um you know I think some people when they look at our work they appreciate
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that there's like a residential sensibility and I have to credit Ralph for a lot of that because
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there was there was authentic things in those stores even department stores across the world and I think the
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refinement was not just in the things we bought but in teaching people that taste and what to ask for there so well and
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it's not it's not also the actual like the actual buying of those things
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but like when I think of a lot of those stores or installations there's so many found objects and found objects are so
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difficult to get to work with when within whatever you're trying to convey um and the hunt for those things must be
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amazing like would you go up to Brimfield and with truckloads of with empty trucks and just be the first in
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line and everyone would be salivating as you're walking towards them you know I yes in a word yes
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um better still I got to go to the Paris Flea Markets oh yeah right
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um and that was fun because as a kid like I started working there was when I was 26 and I would organize you know 400
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000 budget of stuff that we got to shop for and nobody knew how it was the first trip but we would do a loop and by the
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and I would kind of eye everything by the second loop I was going and being like we'll take those six tables and
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those hundred lights and do you have more of these and all of a sudden people are like you kind of everybody calls around and be like Ralph Lauren is
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coming um it was great it was great because it was fun but it was also this exposure to
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things that I would not have seen otherwise and so now my perspective when we talk about projects isn't just Oxford
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Ohio or Pittsburgh or New York it's gratefully much more worldly because of first-hand experience
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um yeah just incredible so I think about going to the Paris Flea Market or to
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Brimfield or my wife loves hunting for things right it's her that's her jam and
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I really don't like it I just find it overwhelming I don't know where to start you can tell her to call me I'm happy to
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go well as I'm talking to you I'm like I think I may have found her her soul mate
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uh in in you in that the strategy that you must have to go like when I see all
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that I just see a whole bunch of noise like I I don't know what to do it like it really really freaks me out how do
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you what were your strategies to get everything organized and like kind of shut down that noise and really stay on
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a mission um it always was a mission that's a great word for it but you know we would
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we would print our floor plans we would highlight stuff I would have things to mentioned and then I'd have a list right
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and sometimes we would be shopping for this is a moment when Ralph had I think there were 16 distinct Brands so it was
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like kids and then they Ed and then like men's purple blue black like it's a
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different thing now but it was and everything had a different look and so I would categorize it all and be like
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we're looking for Purple Label this and blue label this and this shop is modern and this shop is Country and
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one of my super talents is I have like a crazy visual memory if I see it I
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remember it right so once I did all this stuff I was like oh we need 13 tables and I need six of them to be wood and
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like it just this is this is why I'm good to shop with I just kind of remember so now
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um I forget what the show was down I want to say it was like Wheel of Fortune like back in the day where like your
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head would be in the corner and you'd go around the prize room and like pick the stuff do you know what I'm talking about no you can imagine it I can imagine I'm
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imagining it yeah I mean colors please let us know what that show is that would be great um
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anyway like that's kind of how I always look at these booths and things I'm like kind of going around I'm like those are
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the lights like that's the I need that stuffed alligator or whatever I don't know but like
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um yeah it's I'm always on the hunt it feels like and okay so when you're buying four
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hundred thousand dollars of stuff at let's say the Paris Flea Markets or Brimfield
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you purchase all the things you need that fit that floor plan what's your success rate on all that stuff Landing
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where it's supposed to because yeah I mean the bigger problem is did I
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negotiate the right amount because my French was kind of iffy you know so uh but
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um this is the other part of our business that I think is really interesting is the logistics right like
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you make a bunch of stuff overseas and locally we make a bunch of stuff overseas and locally so the logistics of
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getting things anywhere in one piece I always think it's a miracle I mean really truly like if you think about how
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many people are involved in making the most simple widget from concept to
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planning to fabrication packing shipping driving
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unloading placing it's like it's unreal yeah and and to clients sometimes
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especially in moments of stress where they're like where is that I'm like it takes a hundred set of hands to make
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that sofa right between the Weaver and who's dying the Yarns and who's making
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the inside and blah blah like it's just incredible to me so your question about how does it get from A to B and the
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success rate I mean tremendous success but I think our industry is really good at that right and just because and I
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think this goes back to like one thing influences another yes I come from retail specifically like scaled high-end retail
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our business and hospitality is about creating something and oftentimes multiplying it out right 700 room hotel
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or like a three or four building property or whatever but that's my point there in the sense that when you're
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doing that at that scale 99.99 out of 100 times usually it's
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everything new right you're making everything new um and then
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what you're talking about and I think that's the real the refinement is like I don't like I've seen people try
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and do these found objects yeah and then more often than not I've seen people do
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it really really well but more often than not it just kind of Falls flat it's like oh we're just grabbing this thing
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and putting it here it's kind of out of context but when I would go into those Ralph Lauren stores you just everything
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looks like it's meant to be there yeah well it's a it's certainly selected
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specifically for what's happening there and um you know it's one of the things that
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we try to pull forward into our projects at bhdm which is you can call it refinement but I think it's
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um it's this sense of found I always tell my team I like a little crusty Dusty which is true like I like things
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that have a sense of History to them and it's always it's not always better I think it's always sensed when it's
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authentic right so it can be vintage killing pillows it can be a great table or a glazed you know lamp any of those
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things but it just tends to make things feel and this is why I think more and more art and using Artisans and projects
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even if you're making multiples of something really resonates I know it resonates in art projects but I think
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that's really important I totally agree um so
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the superpower that you have right when did you know
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you had it when did it become apparent to you um
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I just you know I'm I have a twin sister and so growing up
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you know we always took the same classes and great thank God she would study with me because I think I still have those
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High School nightmares where like you're not ready for the test but she made sure I was ready we just had very different
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ways of learning she is a very book smart person what's her name I kind of Marianne Marianne okay thank you
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McCarthy now yeah thank you thank you Marianne um she's a very book smart person and I
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just could if I could see it or I could get a mnemonic or something no sweat so I would sing it I would draw
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it I would do whatever um and I think there's just something about being a visual learner that and I
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tell my team still like a visual vocabulary is something that I want everyone on our team to build because
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for me it can be about a floor plan it can be about a detail it could be about you know something that I see somewhere
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or even something in a movie and like I don't know I think it was from school
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onward Dan like it just was how I learned and so that just became ingrained and you stayed so you you
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basically always put yourself in a place where you could where your visual sensibilities
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could be at their highest and best use yeah um yeah and and as Marianne is is she a
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visual learner or no is she like I will say I think she has a beautiful eye
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um in fact two of them um I think uh much like sort of boy girl twins like
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I went to design school and she went to school for American history and political science so she's a military
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lawyer and I'll play the role of interior designer no way she is okay so yeah she is of the word
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yeah bird is the word um so and then as you were as you were a kid
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and growing up before you decided you wanted to go off to Ohio to go to design school
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um did you have other learning challenges because the reason why I'm asking here is a lot of the people that I've spoken
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who become designers Architects you know many were dyslexic many many just they
30:09
didn't learn they had um what is that like neurodivergence right they were just different but then they were able
30:15
to find this zone of Genius for themselves and then kind of excel where other people like me walking into a flea
30:22
market I I think I just get itchy and I don't want to do it well that's okay with me then that's that's job security
30:28
in my world yeah you know um you know I I didn't have a problem learning I just had different interests
30:36
right like I wanted to be um I wanted to be artistic I'd love to
30:41
sing I was on all the shows tell me when you're shocked like you know and but but hours was a really academic upbringing
30:48
and so you know I was driven toward a four-year liberal arts school
30:54
um but senior year I just was like I want to do something creative um the story was this is this is a story
31:01
and it's like kind of all over the place but I was interning for my uncle who was a primary care physician
31:08
um and the summer before I went like junior year and toward the end of the
31:14
summer he asked me he said so what do you think do you want to be a doctor and I was like I could be a doctor said do
31:19
you want to be and I said I don't know and he said let me give you advice this is advice number two he said
31:27
do something that you love well enough that you would do it for free and then do it well enough so that people pay you
31:34
this was like my actual first light bulb moment where I was like oh I don't I don't want to be a doctor like
31:39
yeah and I went home and I told my parents I was like I'm gonna go to design school and they were like what did you do to
31:45
our doctor I think was their reaction but um but the the great thing about that was
31:51
like it really kind of was that moment yes I learned yeah I just wasn't really interested and design was something I
31:58
was interested in from the get-go I loved movies I loved sets I loved building things I like was the kid with
32:05
the refrigerator box cutting shutters in you know and like then drawing the wallpaper on the inside
32:11
um and so I started in design school because it was like the right thing and it's just been the right fit and how old
32:17
were you when your uncle gave you that Sage advice like 17. oh wow okay and so
32:23
then you totally changed your whole direction or that was a light bulb that helped put you onto that path yeah I
32:30
mean liberal arts was still the direction I wanted to go to Parsons my parents were like not the big city and
32:36
so I ended up going to school in Ohio where did you grow up Steve Pittsburgh okay that's like it's kind of
32:42
a big city-ish yeah I mean New York's a lot bigger yeah a little bit so just uh but I went to
32:49
school for interior design at a Fourier liberal arts school and again like the
32:54
universe has been really really good to me like I didn't know that this was the marriage of things that I needed but to
33:01
go to an actual Interiors program or there was Studio every year for four years Moment In Time incredible professors the
33:08
best friends I've ever met um but I came out of it with not just design but at least exposure to business
33:16
and marketing and like it's a huge business school there
33:21
um and so I think to be around that um has certainly influenced not just my
33:27
interest in the the business side of our business but how I think about how I
33:32
talk about our work when I have to go sell it okay so on the selling side and thinking
33:39
about putting it out there it's making me want to go back to
33:45
your favorite shows you were in at high school like what was your which performance and which part
33:51
were you most proud of um so favorite show was Joseph right oh
33:57
I think it should be almost every parent's favorite show too because I think they can squeeze it into one act and you don't have to wait through
34:03
intermission um but so fun so so fun it was like and it was a year that I also got to help
34:09
with the sets so go figure I liked both um my starring role was I played Reuben
34:15
the French brother see it all comes back to the Paris Lane Market who knew right oh
34:21
um it was just really fun like that was a great a great way I think that was our senior year so a great way to go out
34:26
really fun um awesome uh so
34:33
in talking to you I'm also very struck like you're on this entrepreneurial Journey it's been 10 years
34:40
um you've had success you've built a great team um
34:46
one of the things that I keep hearing you say is this idea of growth right not
34:53
um not necessarily from a mod like a bank account growth actually not even necessarily at all not
35:00
at all you could put that in the universe too Dan well it's in the universe but when I talk to you it's more about
35:06
um growth of mindset growth of experience you must have said that word 20 times in
35:14
our in our in a recent conversation and so walk us through your vision
35:20
of growth and what it means to you and your team yeah
35:25
interviewer you're very insightful here and I feel like you know growth for me as we've been talking
35:32
today and kind of for me to reflect back a little bit um
35:37
you know I don't take lightly kind of the the
35:43
is with a lot of gratitude that I sit here today where I am for the people who have helped me get here for my
35:48
incredible team and for the clients that we've had um I also I think when I look back you
35:55
know I haven't always felt confident and so for me we actually talked as a senior
36:00
team this year about a theme and that is it happens to be growth um and why that's important for me is
36:07
you know we want to always think better bigger isn't better but we want to sort
36:13
of expand how we think about our work as a team and for us growth this year is about helping ourselves and each other
36:21
improve it's it's sort of thinking about the work that we've accomplished to date on how we might sort of
36:27
um level up to like the next kind of project that we would love to do
36:32
um but it's really about helping our team to grow and mature and Advance their sort of own creativity
36:40
um it's about evolving our business not just the kinds of projects we do but actually in some of our new launches for
36:46
new businesses too um and going after work that we haven't done before but I think
36:51
again to go back to things we talked about earlier I never did a restaurant before I did a restaurant and that was
36:57
well received and that led to a hotel which I'd never done and then gratefully won an award for and so you know if I if
37:05
I can take my own advice and sort of become my own self-promoter or encourager here
37:12
the year of growth is really to be less afraid of the things we don't know how
37:17
to do and set out to do new things so as I'm hearing you say that I'm also
37:24
reminded you know and speaking to you there's this um really great
37:31
self-awareness and um strategic Vision right that I pick up
37:38
from you which many many people do not have and many many business owners do not have
37:45
and you were Moonlighting and kind of doing things on the side and then took the big
37:50
leap have you always been like that and had that kind of perspective or or do
37:56
you have like a coach that helps you kind of get focused on that because a lot of people don't take the time to
38:01
clarify their vision and like their Direction explain to me this
38:08
awareness that I'm picking up for me well I'll try and um number one will thank my therapist for having that kind
38:14
of clarity right shout out to Brian um you know I think I haven't always had
38:20
Clarity and in fact I think my career has been an undulating one right from from retail to kind of all sorts of
38:28
things and now we really kind of do all kinds of work um one one of the things I have always
38:34
had awareness of is starting from yes right starting from yes like it can be a
38:39
yes and no I'm not I'm not a comedian you know like but it is like improv is a
38:46
great sort of similar here where [Music] um my career has taken me in directions
38:52
that I didn't think it would go but I've always looked for the opportunity in them um and so it is now with hindsight that
38:59
I can look forward and say what are the things we want to do and I guess it's not always been that way Dan
39:05
right like I I've never I've not always been super directed toward one thing but
39:11
now I've done a lot and so it's it is with Clarity that we're looking forward and saying like what are the kinds of
39:17
projects we want to do what's the kind of company we would want to start or what's the kind of products we would
39:22
want to design um and that's fun and it's taken a while to get there but it's a fun place to be
39:28
well so the other thing is this idea of growth okay so I'm talking about your
39:34
self-awareness and strategic Vision but if I remember earlier in our
39:39
conversation it also you were able to assemble your team and
39:45
kind of spit I got the feeling you were spitballing these ideas and then you all came up with it collectively or they did
39:51
and and you just it all gelled around um this plan forward
39:56
yeah did Brian help you with that too
40:02
uh you know one of the things that one of the things that's always served
40:07
me in owning the business is I want to take on work that is exciting for me and
40:14
so you know while I come from a world of retail rollouts it was not the same every day right lots of different kinds
40:20
of companies lots of different kinds of Aesthetics lots of different stories to tell and so for us rather than
40:27
um rather than do just one kind of work and I don't think it's ever just a hotel or just a restaurant we do a lot of
40:34
different kinds of things I would say our project all of our projects are Hospitality forward and how we approach them it can be an office it can be a
40:42
startup it can be health care and we do all of those things but this what started in service to me
40:49
just because I wanted to stay interested turns out is a real common denominator
40:54
for lots of creatives we want to do things that are different we want to continue to learn and be challenged and
41:00
while it's great to hone skills within a certain kind of work now I go after die
41:06
verse work because I care about our team and I want to make sure that they have they are interested in the work that
41:11
we're doing too so uh to answer your question yes there has been strategic
41:18
conversation with our Senior Team about where we want to go forward but we love
41:23
all opportunities that sort of jive with us being able to help a client kind of answer uh the question looking for like
41:31
a new Creative Vision on something awesome so if you could think of if you look
41:36
back over your portfolio or catalog of past work
41:42
is there a project out there that you know I've heard you say this idea of anticipation
41:49
experience growth exceeding expectations
41:54
um huffing turpentine just kidding but this
41:59
idea of refinement um if you were to think about all those different elements
42:05
where like you would light up when you're talking about it is there a project that recent or in the past or
42:11
even one coming up in the future that you think exemplifies that and that you could
42:18
just take us on a little visual journey through yeah
42:24
um gratefully there's a bunch of those projects the one I'll pick is a project that is still to be built it needs to
42:31
find a home now because it was just before covid but I think a great representation of how we think how we
42:38
sort of help think about what expectations may be and then how we exceed them the Project's called the
42:44
Brian Paul Hotel it was meant to be in Nashville which is Music City and so everything's got a little rock and roll
42:49
sex appeal to it but this was in within uh collaboration with Wade Weissman
42:56
who's an architect out of Milwaukee um beautiful classical architect and so he designed the shell of this building
43:02
and the rough footprint and it just was this awesome Synergy where they brought
43:07
us in and kind of handed us almost a blank plan and said what do we do right what did we we know
43:13
we want a lot of stuff in here a lot of food and beverage a lot of like event space for you know music performance and
43:23
um music video previews because I guess that's still a thing like and recording
43:28
studio so people can kind of camp out here we want we want a mecca for music but in this kind of luxury lifestyle
43:35
space um and so we took a new space and I think this goes to authenticity or
43:42
trying to make things feel authentic and we we applied this Narrative of spaces that were uncovered like they'd been
43:49
there a long time so this notion of excavation um spaces that we uncovered and kept raw
43:54
which was about preservation and then the third bucket was kind of these discoverable jewel boxes in the space
44:01
um and so we took we took people all through a Brian Paul lens through like it wasn't just a place to check in it
44:07
was kind of this Great Hall a place where you would sort of gather and it was almost like walk in the door to a
44:13
party not just walk in the door to reception um I think the the main public space was
44:19
I was described coffee to cocktail right bar in the round but lots of different um seating groups and lots of found
44:25
Furniture this was the fun thing is we were already talking to people who would provide vintage for the space it was
44:30
going to have this great hand they put on the plan at one point um the library and I was like I was like when people
44:37
put a library on a plane I'm like show me your books I'm like we don't have any books so like nobody has any books we all read on our phone now so but I said
44:44
well what if you want a library what if what was like an archival music library where
44:50
it's about vintage instruments and different pieces of writing and this is
44:55
all also your work Lounge this was five years ago but then you could find all of that at the Paris Flea Market and
45:01
Brimfield you could but the thought was you'd sit at this communal table right next to your vintage megaphone whatever
45:09
it would be uh and you'd plug into the table and you'd get archival sound on site that was recorded at the Brian Paul
45:15
and could only be heard at the Brian Paul and part of this was you know I'm a Casper meaning like I was
45:23
born in a analog time and now we live in this digital world and it kind of get both but for me you know we are in the
45:31
business of building spaces for people to come together in and for people to experience physical sort of environments
45:38
and so I ideas like that where it's like you can only get it here ways to drive
45:44
traffic and interest in an authentic way to say there's reason for you to be here and for us to be here together so
45:51
um super fun project kind of kooky like really different look for us it was very sort of uh rock and roll Gypsy Den kind
46:00
of thing really really fun um and it's waiting to find a home so anybody listening the Brian Paul is
46:06
waiting but um a really good example of narrative of taking a new space and making it feel
46:13
authentic um and I think applying all those things we talked about like found objects and
46:19
storytelling and all that into a space awesome and I think that's a really good transition into this refinement found
46:28
object kind of catalog of work that you've had in the past now you've started this
46:35
other Endeavor archive like why not yeah why not the entrepreneurial add visual
46:41
brain like why well I don't know if you have ADD but I definitely do but why
46:48
um why archives um
46:54
a sound sort of um flippant here but ultimately it became like a why not right
47:00
um I think for years and this was your opening I I have done retail we do a lot
47:06
of residential single family multi-family certainly we do hotels and restaurants and like all this is
47:12
Hospitality forward but in our residential world you know you show a picture to somebody and they're like that without without
47:20
uh without failure somebody's going to ask you where'd you get that where's that
47:25
from I love that thing where is it from and you know for me working with brands for so many years I feel like I've I've
47:32
gratefully worked like a chameleon and sort of um helped Brands find their own DNA and
47:39
at a certain point I was kind of like I wonder if I have a look well it turns out I do it just you have to kind of
47:45
like stop and think about it and so archive was born recently as a response to two things number one where did you
47:51
get where do I get that and number two for me to answer for myself like what's my personal taste and what is like the
47:58
stamp that I'll put my name on um and so archive is our direct to Consumer affiliate marketing website so
48:05
far and it's archived by Dan mazzarini archived by DM it's a website um and we've kind of created this as a
48:13
blogazine what's that you ask um no I I it's I love I love I I can
48:19
visualize what it is but why don't you walk everyone well we kind of thought about it as almost like a monthly magazine right where there's a house
48:26
tour each month but within the pictures instead of just putting the captions they're shoppable stories so it's not
48:32
just that white sofa it's the Roundup of all of our favorite white sofas and it's not just a clear glass and lamp for a
48:39
beach house it's like from 90 bucks to 900 bucks like you know a variety of
48:44
things for every price point um so it's it's been really fun we've done it for it launched in January
48:52
um and there's a couple of months on there already and it's we do roundups of
48:58
different kinds of categories we do Trends so everything from malachite to terracotta
49:04
um we're doing shopping guides Paris Flea Market is coming up how to do it and what to look at so oh my goodness a
49:09
little bit of everything yeah um I have to get that guide for Alexa
49:15
although she'll want to do a trip out there and I don't know when is the I'm telling you Dan I'm happy to shop around okay maybe you two go I I think yeah
49:22
I'll send both of you um that's amazing and then so I've seen the
49:27
website um on the back end of it how are you organizing are using like Shopify or
49:34
something like that yeah um we have uh grateful we have a developer that we're working with um it's on Shopify
49:40
currently it'll it'll switch over um to a different platform eventually I think
49:46
um but that has been the most humbling experience yeah so what's the biggest challenge in doing that like because
49:52
it's like every time you drill in it's like oh my God I forgot about that and then you have to kind of Step all the way back start all over and get it to
49:58
workflow out perfectly yeah I I sometimes joke that designers
50:04
trying to be business people are like the dangerous kind of business people um I've decided that designers trying to
50:10
be I.T people are really the dangerous okay uh uh it's it's been it's been
50:15
incredible and I have to compliment my entire team that's behind me and in front of me on this one
50:21
um you know the process is number one we come up with like the guide like what do we want to talk about and then we shop
50:26
it we're shopping like 1500 vendors it's wild to find our 12 Favorite Things
50:33
um and then it all gets uploaded all this digital stuff and it's like a whole yeah and then you update it and then you
50:39
have to do it all over again and you do it all over again every month so it's basically um you know why build one company when
50:46
you can build two right and this has been a very humbling experience but ultimately really fun because now we're
50:53
I think we're probably about five months of content on here and we're kind of getting our stride like
51:00
um it turns out I'm the writer I'm the voice of this thing so I've written all these articles on it some of it is
51:06
really if you like a pun look no further I'm telling you but but it's been really really fun it's a crazy
51:14
process um I have the best team working on this and it really scratches an itch not just
51:21
um from like a personal style creative perspective but also um this kind of merchant quality that I
51:27
love like you know I like to shop yeah I also love to build a shop and this is a way to do it without holding inventory
51:33
so far yeah and it's it's a way to take that um superpower of refinement and
51:41
organization and and just kind of make it more presentable to everyone rather than project by projects obviously
51:48
you're still doing the project by project stuff but you get to be in that zone of Genius a little bit more or as
51:53
your uncle said when you were 17 you know being in that place where it doesn't feel like work although I'm sure
52:00
it feels like work right now because you're just starting it but I when I speak to you and see you speak
52:08
about it I see the vision and I think it's like it's a really cool outlet and I wish you
52:15
a ton of Success With It thanks Dan thanks um tell you tell your friends as they
52:20
say tell your friends I will tell my friends and we'll put it we'll put all that in the show notes um so aside from going to Paris with my
52:28
wife to do the uh the flea markets um if people wanted to learn more about
52:35
you where do they find you how do they how do they learn more about you I mean if Dan if they want to know more after this
52:41
God bless right um no social is a great way to get in touch I'm at Dan mazzarini our company
52:48
is at bhdm design at archive by Dan mazzarini and certainly visit archive by
52:53
dm.com um yeah I'm actually uh I have a zero
52:59
inbox on Instagram I have a zero inbox nowhere else in my life but Instagram somehow I do so okay great well we'll
53:05
we'll put all that in the show notes um because I'm sure people will want to learn more um
53:12
thank you so much for your time this has been fantastic and I know how busy you are with everything but I'm supremely
53:19
grateful that we got to do this well I'm so so grateful to be invited especially
53:25
amongst you and all your various team guests it's really an honor um and I feel like someday we'll have to
53:31
flip this around and I'll get to interview you because everybody wants to know why the heck did you start this because it's so awesome oh yeah well I
53:38
and I'll bring my puns when that happens oh my I'll dust off my dictionary of dad
53:43
jokes and it will be amazing um all right and then so thank you and I
53:49
also want to thank all of the listeners if this has changed your way of thinking about Hospitality or designing for
53:55
Hospitality or designing for anything please pass it along and please follow like And subscribe because we're all
54:02
growing by word of mouth and it is just amazing thank you thank you thank you
54:14
thank you