Anna Blue: Promoting Social Good in Hospitality

Meet Creating Hospitality: a conversation series where we explore an important question that impacts the journey to joy: how can today’s hospitality leaders create healthy, happy teams categorically capable of helping guests find their joy?

Host and Sertifi CMO, Shawn Gaines, chats fun and unique stories with hospitality leaders to inspire others how to build successful teams, careers, and customer experiences from the start.

In episode four, we chat with Anna Blue, former president of AHLA Foundation, about how early lessons in gender equity, racial justice, and politics – including Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign – blend with hospitality’s service-oriented approach.

Episode Transcription

Shawn Gaines: Welcome to Creating Hospitality, a conversation series that explores how today's hospitality leaders can create healthy, happy teams categorically capable of helping guests find their joy. I'm Shawn Gaines, your host, Sertifi’s CMO, and just a guy who gets inspired by talking with cool people. I'm very, very excited to chat with our guest, Anna Blue. Anna, welcome to the show. 

Anna Blue: Thank you. I'm very happy to be here. Thanks for having me. 

SG: Of course. And could you introduce yourself to our listeners? 

AB: Yeah, hello, everyone. I am Anna Blue, the former president of the AHLA Foundation, which is the nonprofit side of the American Hotel and Lodging Association. 

SG: Well, it's very exciting to have you today Anna. I’m excited to kick it off with my usual question just to hear a little bit about you. What's your story? Can you tell us a little bit about how you got into hospitality and what brought you there? 

AB: Yeah, so definitely later in my career, I found hospitality, and I've said many times, especially to young people, I wish I had found this world sooner and I knew what the opportunities were. I have a social impact background. I started in politics, which I don't like to talk about. 

SG: Yes. 

AB: It's not safe. It's not safe anymore. So, I started my career many years ago in politics and it was fortunate - the time that I was there. I spent eight years; I worked on Barack Obama's 2008 campaign, which was a groundbreaking campaign to be a part of. I always love to tell students that Barack Obama was the first presidential candidate ever to send a tweet because Twitter was founded in 2006, and he started running in 2007 and politicians weren't using that platform. And so it's just really funny to think about now, right? You've got them freewheeling on what is now called “X” all the time! But back then, it was groundbreaking.  

It was a cool thing, but it also connected me with real human beings, out on the road, in communities. And I was like, oh, I don't think politics is my jam. I think people are what I want to focus on. So I went into social impact, urban education. I've worked in racial justice, gender equity, for many, many years combating child sexual abuse and exploitation online, human trafficking, all of those things. Then, this opportunity popped up through a friend of mine and I was like, huh? Social good in hotels? What do you mean? I don't even understand what that looks like! 

I met the Foundation and the folks here and the board chair at the time, and what I learned within five seconds of talking to him is how much people in hospitality love hospitality and the passion that he had, and the joy of what he was talking about in his career. And I thought, if I can only work with a couple of people like that, I can do some real good here. And it turns out almost everybody is like that! 

But then, through the process, I met the Foundation and the folks here and the board chair at the time, and what I learned within five seconds of talking to him is how much people in hospitality love hospitality and the passion that he had, and the joy of what he was talking about in his career. And I thought, if I can only work with a couple of people like that, I can do some real good here. And it turns out almost everybody is like that! So, it's been amazing, this journey over the last couple of years, and in getting to know the hospitality world. 

SG: It's so interesting that some of the specific justice work you've done in the past around things like human trafficking or inclusivity are some of the biggest topics or challenges facing hospitality today. Did you know that going into it? Was that part of the appeal, to help solve those problems? 

AB: A little bit. The AHLA Foundation website at the time was terrible and so it was hard for me to actually figure out really what the Foundation did. But I saw academic scholarships, and having worked in urban education and in alternative paths to career for young people, I thought, that's really cool. And then, the human trafficking work, I was just coming from doing that work so I saw the alignment there and workforce development. 

I'm just going to scoop that up and bring it over here because I know how to do that. And we expanded it and grew it and now it's taken off and is an incredible force in the industry. So, it's been very cool to see kind of the culmination of all of the work that I've done in social impact come together in one place and in one industry. That was very unexpected and such a beautiful gift. 

The gender equity piece was actually the biggest part of my background that was never discussed because Forward at the time, which is our movement to elevate and celebrate women at the Foundation, actually lived under AHLA and it was just a conference. So, I didn't even realize that that existed until I got into the role. And then I was like, oh, I'm just going to scoop that up and bring it over here because I know how to do that. And we expanded it and grew it and now it's taken off and is an incredible force in the industry. So, it's been very cool to see kind of the culmination of all of the work that I've done in social impact come together in one place and in one industry. That was very unexpected and such a beautiful gift. 

SG: That’s awesome. And I got to ask, what was your role in the Obama campaign? 

AB: I was a community organizer specifically targeting the youth vote. So, driving people 18 to 25-26 to the polls and making sure that they showed up. 

SG: Yeah? That's awesome. I drove this motorcade once, which is my claim to fame. That was really cool. My wife, one of her students at University of Chicago was one of his Advance people. And we called him up and he's like, we need a couple drivers, and I'm like, in!  

AB: Yeah! I can do that! 

SG: Yeah, it was so cool.  

AB: Yeah, it's very cool to be a part of that. Before I met him, I worked on the Hill when he came into the Senate, and I knew a lot of his staff. So that was the first time I met him was when we were both in the Senate. And Barack Obama in 2007-2008 wasn't the president yet. And he's still, I think, very much authentically who he is throughout his entire life. But it wasn't as grandiose and as big, and he was kind of there on the front lines, in his jeans and with everybody else. It was a very cool thing to reflect back on and be like, wow, I was part of that. Alright! 

SG: I remember meeting him and feeling like he was very tall. Is that true or was that just my grandiose view of him because he was already president at that point? 

AB: He is tall. Now, I preface this with my husband is six foot seven. So, I just feel small most of the time. But he is tall. And also, similar to Bill Clinton, who I met early in my career, they just have these incredible personnels. They just draw you in and they're larger than life in so many ways. They're brilliant people. Barack Obama is brilliant, but he's also super authentic and he will connect with you.  

The first time I actually ever met him; I was looking for his chief of staff. And this was when we were on the Hill. And I finally found him, and there was a group of people standing behind him and he had his back to me, and he was throwing M&M's up in the air and catching them in his mouth. And then his chief of staff was like, oh, have you met Senator Obama? And it was that same guy! He's just hanging out in the hallway, doing real business because he's brilliant and throwing M&M's up and catching them in his mouth! 

SG: But of course, he's also able to catch M&M's in his mouth. 

AB: Yes, and he's coordinated as well. He's all the things. 

SG: That’s so cool! 

I remember talking to older folks that were in their sixties or seventies during that campaign and the comparisons to JFK and people coming out and saying, I've been inactive in politics and this is the first time I have felt inspired, and that's a really cool thing to be a part of. And really, when I think on my whole career over the last twenty-something years, that inspiration is why I do what I do. 

AB: Yeah, it was. I remember talking to older folks that were in their sixties or seventies during that campaign and the comparisons to JFK and people coming out and saying, I've been inactive in politics and this is the first time I have felt inspired, and that's a really cool thing to be a part of. And really, when I think on my whole career over the last twenty-something years, that inspiration is why I do what I do. And it worked. People came out who had given up on politics and didn't want to vote because they felt something and that's a cool thing to have been a part of. 

SG: And we're talking about leadership. That's somebody who has a lot of gravity to them in that leadership. I met him very briefly. But it was like, he was probably meeting a thousand people at the time, and I’ll always remember this, eight of us drivers got to meet him and do a quick photo with him. So, he came, we all introduced ourselves, went down the line, said our names, and then the photographer was trying to arrange us for a photo and was having a little bit of trouble. And Obama was like, Shawn, get over here. 

AB: Yes! 

SG: And I’m like... 

AB: You said my name! 

SG: You remember my name? You met a thousand people, and you have a thousand more to go, and you, you were paying attention? That always impressed me and keeps me to the say of like, oh, that's a that's a good leadership principle where you're, he's so present there. 

AB: Very much so, yeah. 

SG: With anyone in the world who didn't need to be present... 

AB: Absolutely! Yeah, there are people to do that for you. And Michelle is the exact same way. My son went to high school with their daughters, and she would come to back to school night and just be very present with all the other moms and dads. And they are just that way. As leaders, and especially the penultimate position in the United States, it's a very impressive way to be. 

SG: Yeah. Then in terms of your leadership, we can talk about Obama all day... 

AB: That’s fine! 

SG: Hah! But focusing more on your journey, you came into AHLA Foundation with this background in community organizing and politics and racial justice. What was it like then? Can you take us back to that point where you come in with, not a hospitality background, but definitely a background in building community? What were those early days like in terms of taking the reins? 

I had a lot to learn about the industry. The great thing is, there's so much opportunity to focus on the human beings. We are a people business, not just the people that we serve as consumers and as guests, but the people who are doing that. We are service minded folks.

AB: Yeah, I had a lot to learn in terms of the makeup of hospitality, right? I looked at a Courtyard Marriott and to me that was a Courtyard Marriott. And I didn't understand that the brand was different than the owner was different than the management company. So, I had a lot to learn about the business of hospitality. The guest experience, I have experienced. So, I know as a consumer what that was like and what I thought. But I never was thinking about the commercial side of the business, and sales, marketing, and revenue management, and all of the different things that go into this sector of business. So, I had a lot to learn about the industry. The great thing is, there's so much opportunity to focus on the human beings. We are a people business, not just the people that we serve as consumers and as guests, but the people who are doing that. We are service minded folks. This is a service industry, and I saw that opportunity very early.  

And it's such an incredible team. The Foundation has leaders who believe in this industry and who very much care about the people and are out there connecting and asking questions and trying to understand where we are needed as an impact organization. So, it was great, early on, just absorbing where the industry is now. I joined in 2023. So, you're talking about the turning of the tide of how people are talking about DEI. It went from that's all everybody wanted to talk about to like, la, la, la, la, la. And we were in the middle of that shift and navigating that in an industry that is largely made-up of people from diverse cultures, communities, and backgrounds across every spectrum of what that means. So, it's been really interesting to be here during that piece of it. But I love the industry. It's great. 

SG: What was that like? Navigating the changing landscape of things like DEI, especially for, like you said, an organization that's built on diversity, where it's kind of a core facet, now seeing those types of programs or an element like that, being under attack, how did you navigate that? 

AB: I mean, there's the emotional burden that comes with that, when you believe in creating opportunity and access for all people, especially people from communities that are not often afforded opportunity and access. I am somebody who very much believes in that. I've built my career on it. And so, to see people just be more outspoken about not wanting to move things in that direction, this narrative that we have right now around DEI, that you are either diverse or qualified, that's now where we've gone. So, we've come all the way full circle that you can't actually be both. It's one or the other, that you are a diverse person in the workforce, or you are qualified. And that is mind-blowing to me and extremely disheartening. I think that is an incredibly sad way to approach human beings who are showing up and working and giving of themselves. 

DEI to me is not a program. It's not a pillar that you stand up, which is what the Foundation had done. It is something that has to be what you believe in and a thread through all of the work that you do. So, we started to look at all of our programs, the work that we were doing with opportunity youth, our human trafficking work, our work to elevate and celebrate women, all of our workforce development, our scholarships, everything, with that lens of, “How do we create the most opportunity for the most people?” And this industry needs people from all cultures and communities. It is what we are built on. So, it's more about outcomes and less about pillars and marketing and all of those things. 

The way we navigated it really was, DEI to me is not a program. It's not a pillar that you stand up, which is what the Foundation had done. It is something that has to be what you believe in and a thread through all of the work that you do. So, we started to look at all of our programs, the work that we were doing with opportunity youth, our human trafficking work, our work to elevate and celebrate women, all of our workforce development, our scholarships, everything, with that lens of. “How do we create the most opportunity for the most people?” And this industry needs people from all cultures and communities. It is what we are built on. So, it's more about outcomes and less about pillars and marketing and all of those things. So that was a conscious decision we made. We communicated it to our board, the board was very much fully on board with that, being who we are and what we are committed to, which is providing access and opportunity for people with diverse backgrounds. 

SG: Yeah, it's not lip service. 

AB: Not lip service, you do it. 

SG: Yeah, you have a lot of programs behind it, things you're doing that support it. One of those two I'd love to dive even more into. You mentioned Forward, which I know is a lot of what you did over the past couple years, kind of building up Forward. First, I assume most of our listeners are familiar, but can you tell us a little bit about what Forward is, the goal of Forward, and then how you've seen that evolve in the last couple years? 

AB: Yeah, I'm very proud of Forward for a lot of reasons. Forward is the Foundation's initiative to elevate, celebrate, and champion women. It's not just for women because we all should believe in championing women and being supporters. It was a conference my first year in this role. It was the fourth Forward Conference, and it had grown incrementally. It grew by 50% between 2023 and 2024 and I think a lot of that really is just the passion and the background and the expertise that I bring to the table and having real and direct conversations with people.  

It was so interesting for me, coming from the gender equity space and having been in all of the rooms with people like me who do this work. Whether for an organization or within a company, I realized how much of an echo chamber I have been in, and I've learned a ton. I don't know everything about this space. But I came into a very buttoned up corporate world where I'm actually seeing the systems that hold women back in action and seeing how they are perpetuated and all of that stuff, and it was like, this is actually worse than I thought it was to be honest. 

I saw an opportunity for me to bring an expertise to the table and to highlight those things for women, some of the stuff that is stood up to make you feel valued is actually the same system that keeps you where you are and keeps you stuck, but you feel like you're being valued. So, let's have real conversations about this so we can challenge some of those systems. 

But then, I saw an opportunity for me to bring an expertise to the table and to highlight those things for women, some of the stuff that is stood up to make you feel valued is actually the same system that keeps you where you are and keeps you stuck, but you feel like you're being valued. So, let's have real conversations about this so we can challenge some of those systems. So, it's been really incredible. The growth has been absolutely amazing. A week before my first Forward Conference, there were about 250 people in the Forward network, which is our e-mail list around Forward. And by the time I left the Foundation, it was at 4,000 people because of the momentum, the excitement, and the passion around Forward.  

And Forward is absolutely bigger than me. I didn't start it. I grew it, I elevated it, and it will continue. It wasn't ever supposed to be built on my brand. But I'm very, very proud of that growth and the excitement that we saw – not just from women, but from men too. Kevin Jacobs came last year, from Hilton, and he looked around and he's just like, OK, we absolutely need to send more men to this. It was just, once you're there, you're like, yes, I understand. The men of Laz Parking would literally sit in the front row at the front table every year and show up and have their Forward shirts on that they made and designed! It's just such a cool thing to be a part of. 

SG: Yeah, and to have that type of joy and attachment to the brand of a conference, it's somewhat unusual, right? It shows the impact of it for folks to respond in that way. 

AB: It doesn’t feel like a typical industry conference. I'm an introvert in a very extroverted role, I always have been so, conferences drain the life out of me and Forward feels completely the opposite. You go and you're energized and you're excited and your cup is full. You're not exhausted by the end of it. It's just a very different conference experience. 

SG: I'm curious about the team at AHLA Foundation. When you joined and started putting this work into the Forward Conference, was there a team that you needed to make sure they understood the vision, to get aligned with or was everyone pretty much on board? What did what did that look like? 

AB: Yeah, I think the conference, again, it had been brewing and the person on the events team, Forward was kind of her baby. And she and I met early and she's like, look, I know your background, so I would love to have you involved in this. And really what I had to do with a group of people that had been working on Forward within AHLA, at the time it wasn't primarily the Foundation, it was AHLA’s events team with a little bit of the Foundation kind of co-creating this event, so I had to walk through some of the things that people say around gender equity and women that are actually problematic and why. I had to do a lot of educating, but everybody was excited about it. Everybody was really open and receptive because they are more excited about the opportunity that Forward creates. So, it was really wonderful.  

It didn't really live with any one person, which is hard, but so many people were excited about it that everybody took really good care of it, which you don't often see. There were a lot of people from different departments within the organization that worked on Forward and that was really exciting because I got to work beyond just the Foundation with other passionate folks. 

SG: Now that you're no longer with the Foundation, where do you hope to see Forward go into the future? 

AB: I mean, I hope it continues on that authentic path of getting women excited but also being an opportunity to bring in new thoughts and ideas and perspectives about the truth about imposter syndrome and why it's this epidemic of sorts and what it really means and why it was created. I went on my soapbox for ten minutes at the end of Forward last year because we asked a question, we were doing this thing called stand up, sit down and we asked a question, stand up if you have ever felt like you've had imposter syndrome. And in a room full of 900 people, probably 700 of them stood up. 

I hope that Forward continues in that way, because at the education piece of it, the sharing of what we as human beings have learned and experienced and the storytelling opportunities around sharing the narrative of women and their contributions to this industry, that's really what we've done over the past two years and that's what people have responded to.

So, I was like, let me give you the background and cultural context around imposter syndrome so that if you're going to say you have it, you understand where it's coming from. And I hope that Forward continues in that way, because at the education piece of it, the sharing of what we as human beings have learned and experienced and the storytelling opportunities around sharing the narrative of women and their contributions to this industry, that's really what we've done over the past two years and that's what people have responded to. So, I hope that that continues because Forward has carved out such an authentic and genuine power platform and I'm really excited to see that continue. 

SG: And how special is it to have a conference where you can have a real talk about imposter syndrome! 

AB: Yes, yes! 

SG: I'm sure that wasn't the goal of that whole session or whatever it happened to be, but to be able to take that time and learn and get that perspective. I think, like you said, I can't imagine you not leaving a conference like that more energized than when you came in. 

AB: Yeah, because you feel powered. Feeling powerful is really important. I have been studying women and power for a long time. I posted about it on LinkedIn yesterday in honor of Women's History Month, sort of, how I view power, and that's the theme of the Forward Conference this year, power. And that's what you feel like when you're leaving, you feel powerful, and that's an incredible way to leave a conference, in feeling that. 

SG: That's awesome. I love that so much. Well Anna, I know we're getting close to our time. This was an awesome conversation. I feel like I personally learned a lot. I do want to end with a question I love to ask all of our guests. It’s the one segment on our show; we call it Hospitality Shout Outs. We're in an industry where we want to be supporting each other. What's a recent experience you’ve had, a very positive hospitality experience, maybe at a hotel or a venue where you felt like, oh, I experienced really great hospitality? 

AB: I have so many. Recently, or last year, - it all feels like time, I don't even understand anymore. Last year, I brought my youngest, she was nine at the time, I was going to speak at a women's event for WITHorg and Women in Travel and Hospitality in Canada, in Toronto and I brought my youngest with me. And took her out of school for a couple of days, she's never seen me speak before. I was giving the keynote and getting an award, so it was a cool mother daughter moment, and I do this thing with balloons, so I had her up on stage with me helping with this balloon thing. 

But in the hotel where the conference was, where we were staying, she likes to write notes to the housekeepers. She's always done that, since she could write. It was not ever a thing that I even encouraged her to do, this predates me being in hospitality, but she's always done it. They have the little note cards and so she leaves notes. And this was the first time; every day the housekeeper wrote back to her. So they were these invisible pen pals just writing back over the course of these three days and it was really quick and it made her feel so special and seen, but also I think it validated that she always does this and that there is somebody on the other side of it and they're not just tossing the note. Somebody is reading it and feels special. So, it was just a really cool experience. And she got the note and was like, oh my gosh, I have to write her back! And it just became this cool little thing, and we were able to actually find her and meet her on the way out. But it's been one of my most favorite experiences in a hotel. 

SG: I'm so glad you said the ending where they met. What was that like when she finally got to meet her? 

I think they both created space to make the other person feel seen and valued and that's really all we want. 

AB: Well, my daughter's very shy, but the housekeeper was absolutely lovely and gave her a big hug and said thank you so much for your note, it made my day and I wanted to know who you are and, asked her questions about herself and what we were doing there. Then they just had this cool conversation, like they were best friends, and it was awesome. I think they both created space to make the other person feel seen and valued and that's really all we want. And they got that just from these short little notes. It was cool. 

SG: I love that, and I like how you said to be seen, right? These are someone whose job is literally to often be invisible, to come in and clean up and leave. And then a kid who is also somebody else who is generally not as visible in society as adults. And that connection is, that's so cool! 

AB: Yeah, it was. It was great. And it truly is the best part of hospitality. That is hospitality right there. 

SG: Yeah, that's totally it. That's fantastic. Well, I can't think of a better way to end. This was such a great conversation. A huge thank you to you Anna, for sharing your stories with us. I will say, today I did learn a couple things, probably one of them being the importance of learning. I loved hearing about how when you joined the Foundation, your first thing was, I just need to learn. There's a lot here I can work on, but let me learn the industry, learn hospitality, learn why it matters, and being able to act on that. And two, really standing up for what you believe in. Like you said, you came in with this background of racial justice and community organization, and there's some things you really wanted to accomplish in your time there, and then, in your couple of years at the Foundation, you did that, and you made the hospitality industry a better place because of it. So, thank you for that and for showing the importance of standing up for those things that you believe in. 

AB: Thank you, thank you for saying that. It's been a really wonderful ride so, thank you. 

SG: Thanks to our listeners for tuning in. Be sure to follow and subscribe to Creating Hospitality on Apple podcasts, Spotify or YouTube and please share a rating. We'd love to hear from you.