Mike Bayer
Welcome back, Vacation Rental Success listeners. In this episode we're talking about team culture and how a well-aligned team will be far better at delivering magical guest experiences. And we all know how vital hospitality and the guest experience is in this industry. It's not just about clean linens and a welcome basket. It's about creating memorable experiences that your guests keep coming back and raving about your property and your brand.

Mike Bayer
But how do you train your team to consistently deliver that level of hospitality especially when onboarding new staff? That's where THRIVE Essentials comes in. The THRIVE Essentials Course is now live, and it's designed to give your new team members the skills, mindset, and confidence that they need to excel in hospitality from day one. Whether you're struggling with new hires who need to get up-to-speed fast or you're someone looking to break into the vacation rental industry, this course has everything you need to succeed. And here's the kicker. During this launch month of October, you can sign up at a special price before the rates go up.

Mike Bayer
But don't wait too long. We've already seen a huge wave of interest, and I want to make sure you lock in that lower price before it's gone. Head to our website, vacationrentalformula.com, or click on the link in the description of this episode to grab your registrations for THRIVE Essentials and start transforming your guest experience today. This could be the game changer your business and team has been waiting for.

Mike Bayer
So let's not delay. Let's get it over to Heather and get this episode started.

Heather Bayer
Today we are talking about how important it is to 'show up right' at the workplace. We're talking about internal communication, and how you show up has such an impact on the people that you deal with in your day-to-day. Whether it's guests, or owners, or the housekeeping teams, or the community, or just the team in the office. I'm talking to Christine Smith, a hospitality professional who now operates a consulting company. And this is her superpower. So listen in.

Heather Bayer
This is the Vacation Rental Success Podcast, keeping you up-to-date with news, views, information and resources on this rapidly changing short-term rental business. I'm your host, Heather Bayer. And with 25 years of experience in this industry, making sure you know what's hot, what's not, what's new, and what will help make your business a success.

Heather Bayer
Well, hello and welcome to another episode of the Vacation Rental Success Podcast. This is your host, Heather Bayer. And as ever, I'm super delighted to be back with you once again. So if you're listening to this on publication day, I'm on the road. We are heading from Kentucky down to, in fact, we are heading from Ohio down to Kentucky to spend a few days in Dale Hollow State Park, a place I've been to a number of times before. It really is the place. It's my happy place for going and just kicking back, relaxing, getting out on the bike, taking the dog for a walk, taking a pontoon boat out on the lake. It is glorious. If you've never been to that part of the world, I highly recommend it and can't wait to be there. If you're listening to this in the morning of publication, then we are just rolling down the road.

Heather Bayer
So today we're talking about how you show up. What do I mean by that? Let's think about it. Have you ever felt frustrated that your views weren't being taken into account? Or someone else's perspective has really impacted a decision at work? Or maybe you're aware of some unresolved conflicts that haven't been fixed and it's impacting everybody that's involved. This can impact everything from guest satisfaction to owner relations and even team morale. So in this episode, we're going to be talking about how these relationships shape the very core of your business and how the way you show up makes that difference.

Heather Bayer
So Christine Smith has been involved in hospitality for 20 plus years. She's the founder of CS Consulting 101, a company that focuses on strengthening team communication and relationships. She's going to explain how we show up every day can be the deciding factor in whether a business thrives or flounders. And she's going to offer some really actionable strategies for improving your internal communication, for fostering stronger connections, and ultimately driving business growth, which is what we all want, isn't it? Okay, this is an interesting discussion. There's a lot of takeaways here for you, so listen in.

Heather Bayer
So I'm super excited to have with me today Christine Smith from CS Consulting 101. And Christine's going to talk to us about how we show up in the workplace. And if you have no idea what I'm talking about, then by the end of this episode, it should be all clear. And you're going to have some really good, actionable strategies to take away and start seeing how other people show up, how you show up, and how improving and strengthening your communications is going to make things so much better. So welcome, Christine. Thank you for joining me.

Christine Smith
Thank you for having me, Heather. Happy to be here.

Heather Bayer
Well, this is great. You know, I come across people on LinkedIn every so often, and I get intrigued and I follow them, and then I think, Oh, this would be a great person to have on the podcast. And this is exactly how I connected with you. And I know that you've gone on other podcasts where this has happened. Somebody's found you on LinkedIn, so just shows how powerful LinkedIn is for those connections.

Christine Smith
Yes, and if I might add a little tidbit on, piggyback on that, Heather. That is part of the self awareness around relationship building that I teach on. Like, you intuitively felt attracted in some fashion, right? And then you reached out. That's part...., you did the work.

Heather Bayer
That's exactly it. And yes, and I like the way you used intuitively, because I feel that when we have these intuitive moments, and so often we don't act on them, and I think that is really important that when you get that, you know, oh my gosh, you know, I've seen something. I should take this to the next step. And so often we don't, or we don't even make a note of it. And now I'm an inveterate user of Notion as my note taker, and everything, whether I'm out on a walk or in the car, now I can speak to my Notion now, everything I think about goes down in Notion. And it could be just a coincidental meeting I have with somebody. And through my head or even in my gut, I get that feeling I need to further that connection, and I make a note of it, because otherwise it's just so fleeting, isn't it? It just disappears.

Christine Smith
Yeah, it's curiosity.

Heather Bayer
Yes, exactly. So, Christine, let's start with you. Tell us about your journey in hospitality and how you got to talking to short-term rental managers and hosts.

Christine Smith
Okay, so my journey started from the hospitality industry in general, working in restaurants, and then over time evolved into property management, where I started that journey as a live-in host myself, where I invited strangers essentially, into my home, which actually didn't scare me, I wasn't timid of that. That was exciting for me. I enjoy meeting people and entertaining and all the fun things. And from that experience, it went into working for larger boutique property management companies and then into smaller, independent places like BnBs. And long story short, with all that experience and things that I've noticed, how people interact, and so on and so forth, I accumulated all of that, my own self awareness and noticing the gaps that I saw and created my own business out of it. And we can go more into that if we'd like to.

Heather Bayer
Yeah, I'd love to know. So you were doing home hosting? Hosting people in your own home, which I find fascinating. You know, I've had multiple short-term rentals that I've operated and always kept my distance from the guests. But, you know, my eldest son met his wife when he was.... 'Couch-surfing' it was called in the UK, and she stayed at his place and two years later they were married.

Christine Smith
That's beautiful.

Heather Bayer
Yeah. She was from Germany, came across to Liverpool to actually do some nursing training and was actually staying at a friend of my son's and eventually came and stayed at his place as well. So that's, you know, I'll leave the story at that. But, yeah, that's always interesting. How did you make that step, though, from doing shared hosting into being able to consult with whole home hosts and property managers?

Christine Smith
Right. So from the experience of hosting people in my home, that's a very intimate space. I'm not only operating a business, so to speak, I'm now learning how to interact with someone in my home. Right? And so I'll share a little story. My first guest was from the UK and she stayed two and a half weeks and she was in town because she was an animal healer who did spirituality with animals. Lovely. And we became so close in that two and a half weeks that we cried when she left. Right? And this is it. I love people. This is so fun for me.

Christine Smith
And so over time, I was thinking, well, what do I want to do with my life? Right? Like all the...., we always do that. What do I want to do with my life? And I wanted to learn more. I wanted to learn how to operate maybe on a larger scale. Right? And so I went into property management for a larger company and learned so much more obviously within that, again, another self awareness of I don't like this. I didn't like it, to be honest. I didn't like it, but I understood it. I understand it from a profession in terms of my background and study in school. I understand it from a guest perspective, because I travel myself and I understood it as an owner and operator perspective, as myself. Right? And so I just, the combination/accumulation of all of that, I stepped back and I looked at it from a bigger lens of how do I do things differently than what I've experienced? And that opens the door to communication and relationship building.

Heather Bayer
Well, I've called this episode How we Show-up, because you've mentioned this a number of times in posts that you've written. So can you just set the scene and talk about this concept and how it applies to our business? Specifically, when we are juggling multiple stakeholders, we've got our guests, our owners, we've got the community, we've got the team. Just talk about how we show up, as a sort of general concept.

Christine Smith
This goes into self awareness, understanding who you are at your core. Meaning, let's take, for example, leadership style. Do you understand what type of leader you are? Do you understand how to translate that to your team? You may understand your leadership style, but your team, it's not their job to understand your leadership style, you just do, right? You lead. But I like to bring up the topic around bringing it up to your team, because your team may not understand you and they need to understand why you make the decisions you do. What the common goal is, the mission, all the things. And I feel like when we bring all perspectives to the table, we get a sense of understanding, and that is how we grow. And so in terms of showing up, it starts with ourselves understanding who we are, even honing into those spaces that we may not want to admit about ourselves, but it can be useful.

Heather Bayer
So when you talk about how we show up, does that mean you know the Persona that you know, you walk into your work, into your office, into your team, and you adopt a certain Persona and that Persona changes or not? I mean, how does that flesh out?

Christine Smith
Yes. I like to give examples when I answer questions, so I'll do so. At my core, I am this approachable, easygoing person. Right? I'm just a general, overall, nice person to be around. But in business, I have this belief that I have to have this Persona of being a boss. Right? I want to come in and give direction and lead a team. But who am I beneath the core of that Persona? How do you translate it into that Persona? You can still direct, right? We all know the difference between a boss and a leader. So in terms of putting on that Persona, it's being yourself. You can still direct and lead, but you still stay true to who you are and show that. Like, really actually show that to your team. Bring it up in conversation. You're not in competition with your team. You're there to show them. Before you were in that leadership position, you were once an employee who may have looked up to their leader at one point and go, Well, how did they get there? Right? So it's all about being vulnerable and being honest with who you are and then putting that into your Persona, but just being honest.

Heather Bayer
Okay, so let's say you've got a leader who, coming into work in the morning, they're stuck in traffic. They know they're going to be late for a meeting. They know they didn't prepare well. They're walking into that workspace. They're bringing frustrations with them. They're bringing some irritation, some annoyance, maybe some anger. How important is it that they take that and take it away, set it on one side and adopt a different Persona when they are walking in?

Heather Bayer
And I have to go...., Oh, gosh, I've got to go back to, this is my childhood. This is a childhood story from mine, and it just popped into my head. So therefore, it's worthwhile talking about, because I remember going to visit a doctor when I was probably about nine or ten years old. My mom took me, and we always went to the same doctor, and she would say to me, just keep quiet, don't say anything, and let me do the talking, because he's very grumpy. And I remember sitting in the waiting room and he hadn't arrived, so he was coming through the front door, and the door flew open, and he ignored everybody sitting in the waiting room, and he walked straight through and into his office and slammed the door.

Heather Bayer
He was the only person I've ever known in my life who can slam a door open as well as slam it shut. And I have never, ever forgotten that. It's been in my mind for lot of years, and I will still bring it up and talk about it because he was a grumpy guy, apparently. But it was such a great example of the impact that showing up in a certain way can have on people. Because I remember looking around the waiting room and everybody was sort of cowering and somebody even walked out. You know, that attitude was so powerful that it frightened people enough to walk away from an appointment they had. I'm sure from his perspective, that was probably exactly what he was aiming to do. Let's get the malingerers out of the waiting room, so I'll scare them to death.

Heather Bayer
But that's what I'm trying to get across. It is important, isn't it? And that is all the aspect of how we show up. We can make that decision as we're walking in a door. To say, I'm going to show up in a different way as I open this door than I was as I approached it.

Christine Smith
So let's go through that example. Before he walked in the door and you saw him in action of slamming the door, what did your mother tell you?

Heather Bayer
Well, she knew what to expect. She knew what to expect.

Christine Smith
So how old were you?

Heather Bayer
I was probably nine or ten, I think. Maybe a little older. Yeah.

Christine Smith
Okay. Just the simple act of....., look at nine or ten years old, your development is not there to understand the difference or make your own choices. Right? You're looking at your mother for guidance. Right? But the simple act of your mother saying, he's grumpy, you're already in your mind going, Oh, no, he's going to walk in, he's this grumpy person. Right? Like placing a seed of judgment based on your mother's experience. Right? And so take it into an example of the property manager. Right? Like, let's say the property manager is in that state of mind themselves. They're grumpy, but that's for them to control. It's not for the team to control. And if the team is passing judgment based on what they saw their property manager do, that shouldn't be happening either. That is their experience in their own life. And so in terms of translating it to the team. Putting on their professional hat, like getting out of their emotion, there's exercises we can do. We can have this breathing session for ourselves. Like, calm down. That's what happened before I got to work. This is not who I am right now.

Christine Smith
I have to serve my team, yes, but it's acknowledging it. And then if, let's say for example, the property manager comes out of their office and says, guys, you just saw me go through an emotion, right? Just own it. Because if you don't, I feel like when we don't bring things to awareness for others, there's this assumption. A judgment. Passive aggressive behavior. No?

Heather Bayer
Oh, yes. Completely agree. Let me just, you know, we're talking about the management. Everything starts from the top. So, how does leadership and management styles within a team trickle down to influence guest experiences? Because we're all about the guest experience. But we normally discuss guest experience from the perspective of amenities and providing a clean and a safe environment. But how does...., I'm really interested in this about leadership and management styles trickling down to have that impact on a guest experience.

Christine Smith
Okay, let's start with that trust thing, that safe space that you just mentioned before. We create the safe space for the guest. We have to create a safe space environment in our team. If, let's say, for example, hostility, judgment, passive aggressive, there's not a safe space to be who you are with your team. Subconsciously, we're going to pass that on to the guest experience. And I can give an example. Let's say you are a guest service manager and you're on the phone with, let's say, a potential guest or even a guest in house. It doesn't matter. You have to put on your Persona hat as the guest experience to create the guest experience on the phone. Subconsciously, you are thinking about what happened or what was said, how you feel, based on something that happened internally with your team. And it's not intentionally, it doesn't come out intentionally to hurt the guest experience, but subconsciously that's what's going on. And so if there's not a safe space internally to talk about all of this, it does pass on to the guest experience. I've watched it happen numerous of times.

Heather Bayer
Yeah. So it's a trickle down effect.

Christine Smith
It is, yeah.

Heather Bayer
Well, can you share some strategies that can improve that communication within a team?

Christine Smith
Yes. You know I like this, because I do this. I find myself in conversations around this topic with other leaders. And generally I get things like, Well, you can improve your leadership style or you can do these exercises or whatever it may be. And yes, all of those are valid. But again, the thing that I talk about the most is the things that you're not bringing to the table and discussing, because you may be not talking about those things based out of fear. And whatever exercise you're using, whether it be an open door policy, daily meetings with your team, whatever exercise you're utilizing, I really encourage you to bring up the things that you're afraid to talk about, and that is where the magic happens.

Heather Bayer
So explain, how can you bring up those things? I mean, who do you bring them up to?

Christine Smith
Well, and as far as a manager, like a management role to the team, you simply ask. It's a matter of reading the room. It's noticing, maybe social cues, watching your team's interaction with each other. And with you as the manager, you can, usually in conversation, we can sense hesitation or emotions that come up that are physical. And I would say explore that. It's just a matter of noticing it. Just really, it's just a matter of noticing it. That is the action step. It's noticing it and being able to bring it up. And if you're not comfortable with bringing it up, then it goes into a deeper conversation of, why are you not comfortable bringing it up?

Heather Bayer
So I went actually talking through this yesterday with my coach in a mastermind group, and we were talking about recognizing what's happening within the body when emotions are rising and being able to share that, you know, feeling that tightness in the gut or a tightness in the chest or shortness of breath, something like that. Everything. If something just happens like that, then I. It's a matter of going inside and figuring out what emotions are being uncovered here and how they're being expressed and then being open about that. You know, hey, I've got a feeling in the pit of my stomach about what you just said, so I want, you know, I'm sharing that. So, is that. Is that what you're talking about?

Christine Smith
Yes. And it's such a vulnerable space. I mean, I will be honest. Like, this is not a quick fix this, to actually be in a space with yourself to bring that up. And conversation, that is a lot of work in itself, really. Like, when I suggest that to clients, they're like, are you serious? I got to bring that up. I'm like, that's where the magic is. Please. You can, like, let me help you get there, right? And I can give examples all day long. Let's talk about. Because I've been in housekeeping. I'll talk about it from a housekeeping perspective. Here's an example. I have to report to a manager about a linen issue, but I know how to fix the issue, but my manager never listens to me. So when it comes time to the meeting and I hear my manager doing their spiel or giving direction, and then that conversation got brought up about linens, I may recluse and go or whatever and storm off in my own mind and do my own emotional thing when I leave. But however, if that manager noticed it and created that safe space for me to bring it up, I would have been able to present a solution.

Christine Smith
But the fact that I didn't feel safe to even deliver the solution, that's a problem.

Heather Bayer
So that's the problem that you're trying to fix, is with that, that leadership and that management and saying, but how does that manager actually identify that they have this communication issue? Because it takes somebody, maybe a consultant like yourself, to go in and recognize the dynamics of what's happening in a workplace. But when, I mean, let's say, you know, small teams or solo operators that are managing multiple properties and need to, even those solo operators have housekeepers and cleaning teams and maintenance people, how can, you know, what can they do to recognize that the issues that are happening within their teams are to do with them and not their teams? Because there's nobody out. There's nobody there to say because they don't have an immediate manager to say, yeah, we need to discuss the way you're not listening to people or the way you're communicating with people, but they're out there on their own just wondering why things are falling apart.

Christine Smith
Yes. And this comes down to those feelings that we've talked about, this whole conversation of. Of, let's say, for example, a manager is given direction, given all the things, and they're trying and trying, and they. And they go, why is this not working? Ask yourself why it's not working. Eliminate process elimination. Are my systems in place? Is my team on the same wavelength in terms of communication? Like, in systems based, like, are we using the things, optimizing it, like, do your own process elimination, and if you're still coming back to the same patterns, it's you. I mean, and it's. And actually, it's not. It's not a matter of just you. It's. It's. It takes two in communication, all right? That other person in your communicating with and your team also has to bring something to the table. Right? And so if. If we know that that person's, let's say, say, shy, or avoids confrontation, like we, over time, when you're working with your team, you start to know who they are, you really do you know how they act? Things that they'll do that others on the team won't just because they enjoy it, whatever it may be.

Christine Smith
But it's just. It's noticing. It's process elimination. So if I were to give an actionable step of how can I notice it's a process of elimination? Maybe it's a matter of writing it out for yourself. Maybe, I don't know, whatever exercise you want to do. But then it comes to admitting I need help.

Heather Bayer
Yes, admitting you need help. I think that's a massive. It's a massive decision for some people and a realization particularly, you know, people could have had years and years, decades even, of thinking they know it all.

Christine Smith
Yes. Let me add this piece. I do not want anyone ever in their life to feel bad about saying, It's me, I got to look in the mirror. I want to add something to that. Yes, it may be you, but it's also that other person. Like I explained, it takes two in the conversation. And so if you know that you're doing your best in conversation to get something accomplished and it's not working, it's not just you. It's actually the other person knowing how to communicate with you. It's always two sided. And, you know, maybe it's just, again, it's being able to get in that comfortable space with yourself, to say I'm going to ask the hard questions.

Christine Smith
I recently was in a room full of entrepreneurs, and I too have my own weaknesses in communication. There's things that people may say that may trigger me, but that is a space that needs help. There's things I don't like to hear, but all it needs is, why don't I like to hear that? That's all it means. It's not good or bad or someone else's fault, because we are literally a reflection. People are a reflection to us. And I really encourage...., I think it's a great thing that people get in those spaces of, I am uncomfortable. Because imagine, imagine you become comfortable and nothing defeats you anymore. You become so comfortable with the icky that you're like, what's next? Come on, what's next? This is self awareness. This is self development, and it's a very vulnerable spot. There's no sugar coating it.

Heather Bayer
You did say something there that triggered something in me. It's a quote, and I don't know who came out with this, but it's, "The meaning of communication is in the response you get". It took me a long time to really figure out what that meant. And basically, if you have a communication with somebody and they're angry at you, that communication came from you in the first place. So the meaning of your communication is in the response you get. So if you get a response that surprises you, or frightens you, or shocks you, it could often be because you have communicated something to them in a way that triggered them.

Christine Smith
That's right.

Heather Bayer
And that's such a powerful, powerful quote. The other thing that you mentioned that triggered something was talking about not always being comfortable. You don't have to be in a comfort zone all the time. And I was reading something that Matt Landau posted, and I know it's about a retreat that he's having in Costa Rica later this year. And it was something that his coach, Jordan, had said, and it was about that we don't always need to be in a safe place. We need to have things around us that challenge us. And it's just so true. But it can be very, you know, we all love to be in that comfort zone. I was thinking that the other day, we were eating something. This is real comfort food. But that's it. It makes you feel good. It makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. But being like that all the time doesn't stretch you.

Christine Smith
Yes. And let's take ourselves out of the business hat. Let's take the business hat off for a second. Okay. Think about our own relationships with our partner or with our friends. I like to ask the question, do you like to be challenged by them? Don't you want them to challenge you? It's a partnership. It takes two. And when they challenge you, how do you feel? And usually the answer is, oh, I love that. My partner sees me for who I am and they invite me to explore more. Right? You can do the same thing in business and still have the boundary aspect? You can, but it takes practice. Look, this did not happen overnight. And I still have my own challenges. It gets to the point where.... I'm now at the point where I crave the challenge. I'll share something vulnerable. Right now, I'm working with my relationship with money. That is a very, very vulnerable conversation to have with yourself and not to mention with the world that's watching this right now.

Christine Smith
So this...., I lead by example, and I would never teach something that I haven't gone through myself. We all have challenges, and we're always going to continue. Life is inevitable and changed, and it's just when we get to this level of trust with ourselves, magical things happen. And sometimes, from a business, you know, a CEO aspect or something, it may not translate at first. And my guess is, because they just haven't tried. And me as a coach, trying to make a sale myself, I have to learn how to translate it. And the way I do so is by conversations like this, it's a feeling. You start to notice a shift in the conversation of how you feel. How relaxed do you feel versus talking to someone with high anxiety and whatever. Right. You can feel the difference and you can feel the difference when your team is talking to you out of trust. And just to answer a question.

Heather Bayer
Yeah, that's an important point. Okay, let's get back to practical again. If a manager wants to show up better, starting today, they're listening to this and, okay, you know, I've listened to this. I need to be a bit more transparent. I need to be a bit more vulnerable in the workplace. But what are three immediate changes they can make that's going to positively impact the people they work with?

Christine Smith
Well, I would say one is bring it to your team without expectations, without just bringing up to your team. Again, that might take work to do so, but if I were to give an actual step to it, I would say go in to your team and saying something like, I feel that we aren't getting our goals met, and I want to hear your perspective as to why; it's including the team. And so if you don't want to make it about yourself, ask their perspective. So that is an actionable step, is bringing up in conversation.

Christine Smith
Maybe next would be possibly, I believe that this communication piece translates into systems and operations as well. And so I would take a look at your systems. Where can you connect the dots within your systems that are hindering your communication and fill that gap yourself with your systems. So that's another one.

Christine Smith
Three. Maybe you start with just a personal thing before you even show up to your team. Maybe it's a personal thing that you do with yourself. Maybe, you know, people talk about journaling, but I like doing the mirror talk, talking to yourself in the mirror. What do I feel comfortable bringing up to my team? And let me just try one at a time.

Heather Bayer
Yeah, that's great. That's great. How could these changes..... So somebody's thinking about adopting some changes, showing up better. How can that improve the relationships with the community? Because the community is one of the key stakeholders in a property management company, because these are the ones that can steer conversations towards regulations and restrictions. So creating that relationship and showing up in the right way is so important with the community. How can they do that?

Christine Smith
I like this one. I like saying, having conversations. We can have conversations with people with intent to have an expectation out of it, or we can have conversations with the simple intent of, I just want to learn. Right? And so when it comes to building that relationship with the community, I invite you to have conversations with the community. Maybe the community is a vendor, right? Maybe it's a vendor in the community, just having a conversation with them and saying, What's really working for you with us? What's not? What would you like to see? What would your customers like to see? What value can we add? If it's not a vendor and it's just the general overall community, you can just do it on a grander scale. Maybe it's just showing up somewhere to, let's say, either a charity event or just a business networking event. But really just showing up to those events just to have conversations. And this goes into sales, right? This subject goes into sales too. It's how are you making the sale? How are you making the connections with the people?

Christine Smith
So I just say, have a conversation with people. Ask them what's working, what can we do better? What would you like to see?

Heather Bayer
This is such an interesting conversation, and I'm sure it will carry on beyond this episode, because there's a lot we've touched on that I think goes out into many different directions and could spawn a lot of future conversations. But for now, I just want to come back on you, Christine, what you do, and if you'd like to share a bit about your business.

Christine Smith
Yes. So my business, see, this is vulnerable again, my business has shifted a lot. And so as of right now, I do one-on-one coaching with owners and operators in management in this space that we've talked about this whole time, the self awareness and relationship building with ourselves. So we can then connect with our teams, which then provides a better guest experience. That's the transformation, how I do so is one-on-one, and I am actually working on something right now where I want to be that person that perhaps, either I am creating, or someone else has already created, that they want to invite this value piece into their retreat or conference. That's another way you can work with me. I had this aha moment of, How do I lead best? Right? I'm always self exploring; how can I lead best? And one-on-one conversations like this, via virtual is great. However, in person is much more impactful.

Heather Bayer
Oh yeah, I totally agree.

Christine Smith
Yeah. Yes, it's fun. It's fun for me. So, like, putting on events and bringing this value piece to that event could just, in my opinion and how I foresee it, can bring just much more fun into it.

Heather Bayer
Well, that's brilliant. Well, I'll make sure that there is a link to you and your website on the Show Notes. So if anybody wants to contact you, they can do so. I'll have your LinkedIn profile on there as well. Email, I don't know what happened to email, but now every connection seems to be coming through LinkedIn. Certainly for me at the moment.

Heather Bayer
Christine, it's been such a pleasure talking to you. I've learned a lot about how I show up, and, you know, I don't run a property management company anymore, I know I could have showed up better. And, you know, this is perhaps a conversation it would have been great to have ten years ago before I sold my company.

Christine Smith
You know, Heather, you asked me some challenging questions. It's like, I know in my head what I do, but it's like when people ask me questions, I still get challenged. And you did that. So thank you.

Heather Bayer
Well, as I say, it's been a pleasure. Thank you so much for joining me.

Christine Smith
Yes, thank you.

Heather Bayer
Well, thank you, Christine, for that discussion on how we show up. It was funny when I, when I came up with that, that recollection of going into that doctor's office all those years ago, it really sort of brought it home that, you know, exactly that. You know, the way that guy showed up had a massive impact on the people that he was there to serve. And, yeah, he definitely didn't have any bedside manner. He was my doctor for years and years, and he never actually changed. But it makes for a really good example.

Heather Bayer
So I hope you enjoyed that conversation, a little bit of a change from the usual things that we're talking about here on the podcast. So let me know what, what you thought, and, of course, you can connect with Christine via her LinkedIn profile.

Heather Bayer
So that's it for another week. I hope you enjoy the rest of your day or evening or whenever you're listening to this podcast. And I'll be with you again next week.

Heather Bayer
It's been a pleasure as ever being with you. If there's anything you'd like to comment on, then join the conversation on the Show Notes for the episode at vacationrentalformula.com. We'd love to hear from you, and I look forward to being with you again next week.