Episode 9: Staying One Step Ahead: Utilizing Your Passion And Purpose With Marin Bright
When everyone you have worked with follows your belief system, that’s when you have shown efficient leadership. In this episode, Marin Bright, the CEO of Smart Meetings, shares how utilizing her passion and purpose in connecting with people became her secret sauce to success. She talks about her leadership style and the importance of understanding how we can string our belief systems effectively into our personal and work life. Through her discussion, we are reminded that even the little things we do can greatly impact others.
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Staying One Step Ahead: Utilizing Your Passion And Purpose With Marin Bright
Marin Bright is the Founder and CEO of Smart Meetings. Smart Meetings is a monthly print magazine, digital news service, and elevated events that serve and engage event professional community. She has extensive experience in publishing meetings and hospitality industries. Marin has received numerous awards, including the PCMA Legend Award, the Western Publishing Association Distinction in Leadership Award, the prestigious Folio Awards where she is twice received the top women in media. She's been inducted in the Hall of Fame for Women in Events as a woman of influence. My discussion with Marin starts with how she was once told by her sister that her specialty is lunch. This passion that comes naturally for her to connect people and help to create relationships has ended up being her secret sauce to her success.
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I'm with Marin Bright of Smart Meetings. Thank you so much for being with me.
Thank you for having me.
I'd love for you to just give a little background to our readers of who you are, what you do and how you got there.
I'm the CEO of Smart Meetings and I started Smart Meetings many years ago. Prior to that, I graduated from Mills College. My first job was at the Hyatt Hotel and I went into that because my sister told me my specialty was lunch. I am good at lunch and I was good at lunch in college and that was my specialty. I went to the Mandarin and a couple of other hotels and the earthquake hit in San Francisco. I lived in the Marina. Nobody would believe that nobody wanted to come to San Francisco in 1989. I got married that year and lived in the Marina. I had a lot of broken glass and decided at that time it was so hard to sell San Francisco. After traveling around all over the country trying to get people to come to San Francisco, I thought I'm going to stop doing this. I had a degree in journalism. I wanted to stay on travel. I'm very passionate about hotels. When I go on vacation, I go to see hotels. I love it. It's my thing.
You're like a foodie but at a hotel.
In France, I had gone to the Ritz and there were monumental things. When I was coming along, nobody ate at a hotel. You had breakfast at the hotel and it was Campton Place and Kimpton that made the hotel. I remember we walked around the block fourteen times and then we said, “This place looks good.” We're like, “We're staying here. We're at our hotel.” Long story short, I loved journalism and I loved empowering. I loved the hotels. I love teaching and giving people ideas. I love connecting people. It's a real passion. I do it naturally if I have a party. People at my wedding left that didn't know each other to go out to dinner who is now best friends. I'm proud of my ability to hopefully create relationships. I think that publishing and what I do now and what it's evolved into in the media business is connecting. We're connecting readers and we're connecting with the hotelier, the CVBs and the suppliers of all sorts. To be able to do that on a grander scale in the way of publishing is so exciting to me.
Let's go back. When you were a little girl, you wanted to be a journalist?
When I was a little girl, I spent a lot of time reading fashion magazines. I did. I worked at Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue, I. Magnin's and Joseph Magnin's. My mother was a professional model and I was into fashion. I was going to go into fashion. I got hired by Victoria's Secret out of college because they were based in San Francisco and they were one store, but I turned it down. I thought, “I’ve got to do something much bigger.” I did go into fashion. It was in retail. I think I did my whole stint so long in retail and spent all my money at the store. I love to travel. My father on the other side was a geologist and so we traveled all over the world looking at rocks. I know a lot about rocks. I’m a gemologist. We stayed in lots of motels. The thing that my dad always appeased me with was, “You get to pick,” and it was motels. “You spend all your time in the pool so you get to pick the motel.” I got into that side of it. By the time going full circle, I loved magazines and I decided that travel was probably more my passion than fashion, but I wanted to dress up and go there.
Did your parents try to guide you in any one direction?
Not really. My parents were both very on the cutting edge as far as nutrition and vitamins, meditation. We have yoga. I was doing yoga 50 years ago in full tights in my parent’s living room when people didn't even know what it was. My mother ordered a masseuse into our house. I grew up in Reno and the clubs often had a massage place, which was unheard of. My parents were always open, I guess would be the point, to try new things. They were both entrepreneurs. My mother ended up going to work for the Sheriff's department because back then, after the fashion thing when she went back to work after us kids, she was a secretary. That's what women did. They needed a woman to extradite prisoners, so she became a deputy. My parents were always forward-thinking, trying something new and entrepreneur. She left there and became a private investigator. My father left Kennecott and Anaconda and all the huge mining companies and discovered one of the biggest mines in the world. He’s a quite famous geologist.
You decided to go into journalism. Where did you start? What were you doing?
I started at the San Francisco Business Times and I always developed their travel section. I built out this huge travel section. I went to San Francisco magazine and started locally. I got hired by a company. It's changed a lot but the name is still the same, Meeting News. That was a big publishing company. I went into the incentive side. I started business and incentives and I liked incentives. I worked for a lot of high-end hotels. I understand the incentive business. I went to another magazine and I worked for a woman. It was a little newspaper called Meetings California. It was sold to a family that the son had gone to Stanford and they needed somebody to run it. I ran that and now it's called Meetings Today and I was there for several years. I took it from a newspaper to a magazine. People used to always say to me, “This must be around me.” I'd miss my bus all the time. I gave it my heart and soul. I had that in my blood. My parents always treated their careers that way. After enough people said that, I thought, “Maybe I should be doing this for myself.” I was wiring the phone system. I was doing on all the sales calls and writing the articles. When you start your own company, like I started Smart Meetings, that's what you do. I did every sales call, I wrote the stories, I did the production and I sat behind the computer. I picked the colors and I branded it. You dig in and do what you’ve got to do.
With the job that you had before you started Smart Meetings, how did you navigate that? It sounds like you had to fit into a lot of roles.
No women were ever doing this. When I became a publisher, there was one other woman. I have to say back then, my mother was very much for ERA. We always had ERA signs. My mom's favorite pen was, “A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle.” I didn't like the feminist. I went to Mills, which is an all-women’s college and a lot of feminism was anti-men and I don't like that. I think men are great and women just need to lift each other up. They're different powers. They don't have to be a man to have power. I’ve always in my head a great example of that in my mother who was so ahead of her time as far as being a woman in the Sheriff's department. For me, there weren't any other women doing it, but I don't think that was an issue in our hospitality industry. It may have been an issue in others, but certainly there were a lot of times when being blonde and being a woman, people didn't take me seriously. Maybe my fashion background, I always kept my feminine touch. I don't believe in wielding power as a negative thing. I believe in the power being a positive thing, bringing the feminine sides of that. I always have. I’ve had great examples of that.
That's interesting because I know at a point in my career I was actually told to look plainer and I would be more accepted that way. I tried that for a while and then I was so miserable. How did you have the confidence to do what you did?
It was right after the dot-com burst and it was right after 9/11. I had left and I was trying to have a baby and there were a number of things that were happening in my personal life. I wanted to take a little time off. It was kind of a Jerry Maguire. A couple of the employees left as well. I keep saying, “We can do something together.” I said, “We'll do something on the side.” I don't know to be a true entrepreneur if anybody ever starts out going, “I'm going to do this and do that.” The next thing you know, it took off and then we did the action kit and people were buying into and it was a unique product.
What was the action kit?
The action kit was more like a card deck. It was for hotels during a time when the economy was down, almost like a coupon card and it was a unique idea. Nobody had done anything. I started off probably with the first lead generation of any kind.
How did you know to do that?
I love hotels and I wanted to have them get business. It was like a big bingo card that I was familiar with and I'm passionate about getting hotel business. People always used to say when I worked at the hotel, “How come you're the one booking all the rooms?” I'd be there all night and I was into it and loved it. When you love something, the ideas flow. I think it might've been the second bottle of wine on that day with my husband when I thought I have this great idea. Brenda was on my side and I had a couple of other people that have worked with me for a long time that wanted to join in. We didn't even know. We'd laugh about what people thought they were buying. The whole thing took off. What happens is you end up getting in it before you know you're in it. I thought at least to look around at the dot-coms and there was other people's money and nobody would do what I did.
I got up and went to the office at 3:00 in the morning because I couldn't sleep and I was thinking of all the things I had to do. We mortgaged our house and I sold my car to make payroll and I cashed in my 401(k). At one point I had $250,000 on my credit cards. I can’t believe I had that much credit at the time. There gets to be a point of no return. 9/11 wasn't so bad, but then there was SARS, the war and then there was the Bush and the whole thing going on. The next thing you know, you can't get out. You’ve got to keep going, you've got to keep going forward, one foot in front of another. I’ve been through a lot of ups and downs, I’ve seen a lot of economies. I think that resilience has to reign.
I think it's a couple of things you said. Resilience, especially when running a business, every day's a new day and you have no idea what's going to come at you. The one thing you said is that bigger purpose. When it's just about selling or getting the sales, but you don't understand who you're serving or why you're serving, that's where it's like, “No, this matters to me.”
Utilizing Passion And Purpose: Women don’t need to have men for power.
It's like the analogy of people who go into music because they want to be famous, but they don't love music. I'm very proud of Smart Meetings. We've been the first and a lot of it is driven by my passion. I love what I do. It was very painful, but “When you're going through hell, keep going,” the saying. Out of that grew, we were the first consumer-looking magazine and we were imitated by so many. We were the first to the lead gen and then our website. We were imitated. These one-on-one appointments that you experienced here, we were one of the first doing that as well. We are always one step ahead with the passion, the purpose of bringing more to our customers and to the industry. That's all it's about to me.
You started out with action cards and I always think this is interesting about owning a business because it's been that way for me with all the businesses. You go in thinking it's one thing and then the customers come and tell you it's something else. What were some beliefs you had walking in that you're like, “I’ve got to let that go.” I won this award and I couldn't believe in Los Angeles called Maggie and it's like Men's Journal and all kinds of top magazines for consumers. They picked me to be the winner. I went up to the podium and I was so tired and you're running a company, I didn't even make a big deal out of it. I got up there, I leaned on the podium and I said, “I went in this to be in publishing.” Now, I have a webinar, a website, newsletter, feed blast and events and I said, “This is great, but I'm tired. It’s been a long night.” If you don't change and it is speed to change and that's what being a small company has always been able to enable me is we can pivot. We pivot quick and I can pivot and I can move people. People who don't move with me while they don't stay on the ship, they fall overboard. That has been a big key to our success is that you have to be able to stick to the worth because everything's changing. You look at Uber and taxi cabs in the phone book, everything that you once knew. My survival skills are pretty honed. I think that I also enjoy bringing new things to this industry.
You’re diversified. If you had depended on print, you've got all these other avenues that you're working on.
I do want to say Millennial’s are into print. I learned that everything that is old is new. Anybody who thinks print is dead is missing it because nobody likes re-targeting and nobody likes being a big brother and being watched on the internet.
Sometimes it's an overwhelming amount of information that it's nice to just sit with the magazine. You started this business, you're growing and now you're responsible for people. How did that change as far as the way you became a leader? What things did you do that you never thought you'd do?
It takes a long time to get a great team. I have a great team now of about 40 people and we're based in Sausalito. I think that there are people who either make your life easier in your career or they make your life harder. We hopefully get good at picking those out that are making it harder and cut them out sooner. Sometimes, honestly, I’ve put more effort internally than I would have liked to, to ride my ship of those under me that didn't share my passion, that was there to trip me up, that came for a free ride or they thought Smart Meetings was a famous place to be. I’ve talked to people at NBC who say they have the same problem. They're going to get on the free ride or something. An entrepreneurial company needs every oar in the water. It's hard to keep that pace. I struggle with that. If you don't keep that pace, we won't survive. On the other hand, I can see some of my staff are burning out. It's hard. You have to be able to ebb and flow and juggle them. I'm taking four of them to the Cavallo Point, to the spa.
We talked about celebrating small wins so that they know they're being appreciated.
We have an appreciation every Monday where we draw people in. Everybody gets to recognize everybody and then we have a drawing for a prize and we do a lot of things to keep people happy.
If you can think of leadership style, what are some things that you tried to bring in as values or ways for your staff to learn from your experience?
I am a doer. I could never sit in an ivory tower and point my finger and have people do everything. Even at the event, I'm picking up the napkins and I'm rolling up my sleeves because I think that's true leadership. I don't think that wielding a heavy stick is a good idea. Everybody has a different style of how to be motivated. It's not only for me as a leader, but how they're going to be receptive. We do a lot in our company. It's called the McQuaig Skills Assessment where you can find out what style somebody is. If I'm a driver, then I tend to be more bottom line. Which by the way, if I'm amiable, I know if I go to an amiable and I have no talk about their kids, their dogs and that thing, then they can't hear anything.
I do believe everybody is doing their best. You have to be able to give people the opportunity to make mistakes, work extremely on edge with risk. I empower my employees to take risks. I reward their risks. We've grown. I’ve had to let go of many things and it's been a joy and a delight to see people flourish under the Smart Meetings umbrella. I'm trying to get myself. That's interesting. There was a time when all I wanted was to be in the spotlight. Now, I'm trying to remove myself and we get more spotlight. We’ve got a good team and I think leadership is getting in and doing. We have a saying, “I'll do it and you tell me what I did and give me feedback. You do it. I’ll tell you what you did and I’ll give you feedback. You do it, I won't even be there watching and you tell me what happened. After a while, you do it.” I have a lot of people who are doing it.
I have some rapid-fire questions and you pick a category. The categories are family and friends, money, spiritual or health.
I'll go for family and friends for $100.
In family and friends, things or actions I don't have that I want.
I wish I had more friends. I think it's an entrepreneurial syndrome where you spend so much time working and not working with my kid or doing tasks that you have to do to keep your life going and personal life going. I wish I had more of them and I had more time with my family.
Things or actions I do have that I want.
I do have my mother and my son. My mother has turned 88. She's got Alzheimer's and I want her to remember she was always such a big part of my life. I want her to stick around for a while longer mentally and physically but it's hard. She was such an example and a spark to have her. I tell the story over and over.
Things or actions I don't have that I don't want with family or friends.
I don't want to gossip with people. I don't want shallow and superficial people. I don't want competitive people in my life. I don't want backstabbing and I don't have it because I’ve gotten good at my radar for things that I don't want. I don't have a lot of time and I'm not willing to settle for phony and people that aren't truly on my side.
Last question, the things or actions that I do have that I don't want with my family and friends.
I still have a husband. I'm not sure. Stay tuned for the day. Life is many roll with the punches, what you have, what you don't have, wishing it was different. I think that a lot of that is my state of mind. I can try to make everybody else different and that's never worked well for me.
Anything you want people to take away from this conversation or to know about Smart Meetings or some lessons that you want to make sure that they walk away with from your story?
Utilizing Passion And Purpose: You have to be able to give people the opportunity to make mistakes and work extremely on edge with risk.
I think that taking risks is tough and scary and I’ve taken a ton of them and I’ve been scared to death. They've been rewarded if you keep going and don't give up. I would say give up because I never thought I would have a company as successful as mine and I'm proud of what we do. I would say never compromise on quality. It's always been my motto, quality. I won't cut corners and I won't settle for second. It's never good enough. We push ourselves, we strive for excellence. I do too. I think that is in and out for quality you can taste. It’s in my DNA. I want my customers to get the best of us and I want them to feel aligned and proud to work with Smart Meetings. Smart Meetings, my team and what we do delivers. We're the best magazine and we're the best website. We're the best events. People tell me that all the time and I'm very proud of that.
One of the other things you talked about that was so important to you of creating relationships. You've been able to take a print magazine but find a way to still live your purpose by bringing all these different people together and having these relationships that you facilitate that brings everybody happiness. Congratulations.
I like making people happy. It’s important to me.
Thank you so much for taking this time.
Thank you for having me. It's a pleasure.
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In our mindful moments for this episode. I would like to step back and reflect on some of the things that Marin brought up during our discussion about the importance of understanding what our belief systems are, how they were created, and how it actually strings throughout our lives. She talked about her passion of really connecting people and travel. When we talked about it, she stepped back to look at her mom getting her interested in fashion magazines and that's where she started getting the passion for journalism and her father being a geologist and giving her the excitement of choosing motels on their travels. It's these little things that each of us do that maybe we don't even realize. Whether it's with our children or the people around us that spark ideas that we could never imagine that person taking further where she's got parents that have two totally different occupations. Because they involved her and she started getting interested in little things that they did, it helped her to connect who she was going to be and really connect to what her purpose is in life and what her passions are.
When we get to understand what our passions are, things just don't feel like work. When she's talking about, “I love being in hotels, I love traveling,” if I am helping the hotel industry, it doesn't feel like work. It doesn't mean she has to work in the hotel. It means that she's a part of the industry and helping it grow and it's still serving her purpose and her passion. It's important for us to take that time and understand what our purpose and passion is. A lot of times we spend time on our business goals and setting those each year. We don't necessarily step back and say, “What is my purpose? As I'm putting my goals in place for my business or in my career, how does it align back to my overall purpose and passion?” With Marin, she had the confidence to understand that this is what made her excited and it didn't feel like work when she was connecting people and elevating others.
She also spoke a lot about being an entrepreneur and there were important messages, not just as an entrepreneur but as a leader. Sometimes leaders can go in different directions of how they lead. We are an expert in something and we become leader because of it but don't realize the people side that we need to understand with leadership. We feel because we're a leader that, as Marin put it, we can sit there and point to everyone to do different things. I think when we're authentic as a leader, we're in it with our people that we are paying attention to their experiences. We're open to listening to what's going on in their day and their encounters with other customers or staff and so forth. We do dig in and roll up our sleeves when we need to.
She made the statement, “Get in and do it.” A lot of times we wait for someone else to do things. Then the time has passed of an opportunity that could have been a bigger opportunity for us in our career or for our business because we're waiting on something else. Sometimes it just takes us to jump in and do it. The other thing she talked about was resilience. In order to be a leader or to run a business, we have to have that belief in our overall purpose of what we're doing. Be resilient to all the things that we can't even predict that will happen in our business and our workday and so forth. Be able to step back, assess it and figure out how we're going to move forward. The thing is we can't over analyze or get into paralysis analysis. We've got to keep moving to stay ahead and that is all about innovation. One of the things that she brought up is one of her secrets for success is always staying one step ahead, and this is a big decision point anyone has to make.
Are you going to be the imitator or are you going to be the person that spearheads change? If you're going to be that person that spearheads change, that means you're going to have to be okay when people imitate you along the way because you're already ready for your next best thing. The only way for you to be ready for your next best thing is to have a team, have a community that supports you and your ideas, but also be open to research and thinking about all the different things that you can encounter. As you saw in her business, she had to keep changing the way her business worked until the point where she's looking back and going, “We're offering all these different services. I don't even know how we got here, but we got here because everyone came along with me and had that belief system with me.” Don't hide your purpose, your passion, whether you're the leader or whether you're the person helping the leader or helping the business. When you're in it together, you create so much more than you could do alone.
Important Links:
About Marin Bright
Marin Bright is founder and CEO of Smart Meetings, a monthly print magazine, digital news service and elevated events that serve an engaged event professional community. She has extensive experience in the publishing, meetings and hospitality industries.
In recognition of her long list of achievements and passion for the meetings industry, Marin has received numerous awards, including:
– The PCMA Legend Award for significant contributions to the meetings industry.
– The Western Publishing Association Distinction in Leadership Award for outstanding
representation in the media industry.
– And from the prestigious Folio awards, Marin twice received the “Top Women in
Media” national award recognizing what Folio calls, “the most influential women in
media—women who are innovating in new ways and guiding their businesses into new
markets.”
– Women in Events (AWE) Hall of Fame as a Woman of Influence
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