David Salcfas: Rocking Core Values & Rolling with Resiliency

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 two, we chat with David Salcfas, general manager at Hard Rock Hotel New York, about keeping teams aligned with strong core values, especially in moments of crisis – like working at a Brooklyn-based hotel on September 11, 2001.

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.

SG: Today we have what I think is one of the coolest, David Salcfas. David is the general manager at the Hard Rock Hotel in New York. He took on that role in 2023 following a distinguished 34-year career with Marriott International, where he held 23 positions across 16 hotels and five brands during his tenure.

Known for his passion for building community engagement, inclusive environments, and vibrant cultures within the properties he leads, David has mentored hundreds of aspiring leaders, and I could not be more excited to have you here today, David, how are you?

David Salcfas: I’m great, Shawn, thanks for having me. 

SG: Of course, of course! You know, I like to start with a pretty open-ended question. So David, what's your story? What got you into hospitality? 

DS: Sure. So, recently I did an article that I put out there regarding my unsung hero, which was my dad. My dad was a cook for Harry M. Stevens, which later I believe became acquired by Aramark or one of those institutional feeding type of organizations. And my dad worked in the industry, and he worked a lot of hours like you do in this business. And I found out the way to spend some quality time with my father was, at a very young age, to go to work with him. And that's where I learned about filling the ice bins, sweeping and mopping the floor, taking care of the employees, and then obviously servicing the guest.  

That turned into a career. I went to culinary school and my father ended up working for Trump Castle in Atlantic City. And then he spent the next 30+ years as a blackjack dealer and dealing poker and roulette in a variety of other games. He taught me about hard work and getting in there, so when I went to culinary school at Johnston Wales in Providence, Rhode Island, I got my bachelor's and food service management. Then I joined Marriott about a year or so afterwards, and I never looked back.  

And I've been blessed with this next phase of my life to try something very unique, cool, different at a brand and a company that really values its, what we call, "band members," not just employees. And it's been a great experience going on two years now. 

SG: That’s awesome. So, how old were you when you started working with your dad filling ice bins and all that? 

DS: Oh sure, I was the youngest, cheapest labor around, maybe, I don't know, 10 years old? I mean, it sounds ridiculous, but at 14 years old, you can get work in paper routes, and you can wash dishes and do it legally. And then you begin cooking as a short order cook. So, you know, [I started] at a really young age. And then I worked all through high school as most do in this business. 

And my father told me, “If you're going to go into this business, do it the right way. Don't go through the school of hard knocks like I did because it's a tougher road. Get yourself an education, find the right network of people to associate yourself with, find the right organization, stick with it, be loyal, and good things will come to you.” 

And that's exactly what's happened. And I couldn’t be happier where I'm at today. 

SG: Yeah! Just kind of curious [what it’s like] growing up, not even just when your dad was a cook, but being surrounded by this - it's like a world of hospitality, right? What was that like? Growing up surrounded by it? 

DS: Well, you know, you're surrounded by just this crazy, wild business where you're the first one in, you're the last one out. Whereas when I was in high school, if I go back that far, I was the last one in and the first one out of class. And it's amazing how life changes as you start working in your professional world. But there were just so many hotels, restaurants. There's a wide variety of things out there to make your way.

I think today the industry needs young people that are not afraid to jump in, roll up their sleeves, and do the work - and learn the business. Once it kind of it gets in your blood, and you spend more time there than you do with your family, you've really got to make it something you enjoy. Otherwise, it really is just exactly what they say. It becomes work, and it's not fun.

I think today the industry needs young people that are not afraid to jump in, roll up their sleeves, and do the work - and learn the business. Once it kind of it gets in your blood, you've really got to make it something you enjoy. Otherwise, it becomes work.

Early on, I realized that the people that I work with - you need to make sure that you're aligned, you have collaboration, there's synergy, so that you can, number one, get things done. But at the end of the day, you're sitting around the dinner table and you say, "Let me tell you about what happened today," and nobody wants to hear anything negative - the family. You have to bring home the positivity, and you have to make it that way. 

SG: I think it's a really astute observation too, especially with younger people today. I was just thinking about this the other day of how the millennial generation, we kind of got into this work life balance thing where they kind of blurred together. And Gen Z has kind of flipped it into life work balance where instead of work leading life, life's leading work in a sense where it's like, "I need to make sure my life is happy and fulfilling for my work to be fulfilling." Are you seeing that as well with your team? 

DS: Well, I see it with my team, but I also see it with my four children. I have adult children. My oldest is 27, then a 25-year-old and 23-year-old. All sons. And I have a 21-year-old daughter, so I'm living and breathing Gen Z and millennials to its fullest potential on a daily basis personally and also professionally. But what I find is you want to not live to work, but you want to work to live and work within your means. You know, you're not always going to get that highest paying job because you've got to pay your dues, particularly in the hospitality industry. You've got to be willing to do it. But I think creating balance is the key.  

So, for example, one of the things that my wife of 31+ years decided long ago is if you work 16 hours today, somewhere in the course of the week, work 8 and come home and give it back to us. Give it back to you. Now, I'm not the best at it because there's modern technology with iPhones and laptops, and you can bring work to home, but the mentality is, you're really paid for 40 hours and that's what our paychecks say. Even if you're working 55-60, could be 75 hours, you've got to know what your limit is because you get to a certain point where you're not productive and you just become, I don't want to say angry, but almost, like, disgruntled. Like, I got to be here another hour. I got to be here another hour.

Be as productive as you can while you're there so that you're giving it your best. And hire the right amount of people, align with your team accordingly so that they can take what's delegated and carry out the strategy and execute what needs to happen from an employee engagement perspective, a guest satisfaction perspective, and then ensuring financial stability and success of the business.

Hire the right amount of people, align with your team so they can take what's delegated and carry out the strategy and execute what needs to happen. Because as a senior leader you want to work on the business, not necessarily in the business.

Because what you want to work as a senior leader is on the business, not necessarily in the business. And then, teach the folks that are the frontline employees and the frontline leaders, "Here's the trajectory you have to be in the business, but then that's going to help you working on the business as you grow in your career." And I think that's the key to it.

But you know, certain positions can be remote. If you're in a sales or a revenue position, you can do that anywhere. And quite frankly, you might be more productive if you work from home depending on your work environment. Like my hotel specifically right now, we don't have huge office spaces like they made at one time. The office spaces, you might have 10 people in one room working from pods or these little setups with desks. So, they're going to be more productive in that they could do proactive sales calls from home in an environment, like I'm speaking to you in right now, versus being in the office with tons of interruptions. Because a salesperson shouldn't be bussing tables in the restaurant. The salesperson should be out prospecting and going to get new business.

Now, the restaurant manager, you can't work remote. You have to get your balance at work because you can't service the guests that the salesperson brings in unless you're there. So, all I could say is with a Gen Z or Millennial, you're going to start here and you're going to end up here (motions upward). But if you get caught up that you're only here and there's nowhere for me to go, then you're doing it all wrong. Somebody's not mentoring you the proper way or you're not talking to the right people.

SG: That makes a lot of sense. And especially in your role and leading the Hard Rock Hotel New York, it's now your responsibility to create that culture and make sure the environment fits one's role and all of that. And I do want to kind of double-click on something you said earlier - how all of your teammates are fittingly called "band members." Kind of curious, I tried to get in the spirit of it and kind of look like a band member myself. I got my sunglasses; I got my drum set.

DS: There you go, you’ve got it going on! You got your drumsticks, too, that's awesome!

SG: Yeah, yeah, I’m ready. 

DS: You gotta know how to do the rock sign, Shawn! 

SG: Yeah. 

DS: There you go. 

SG: So, is this the vibe you're trying to create? And how did the band member idea come to be?

DS: So, Hard Rock, we're owned by the Seminole Tribe of Florida. Hard Rock Cafe is where it started in the early 70s, and it became Hard Rock International. As one global company, we're in 70 different countries, but entertainment is at the core of everything that we do. So we try to enliven our hotels and casinos, our cafes, what happens in our Hard Rock lives, now we have Hard Rock Digital, so there's a variety of brands, if you will, and outlets for our guests. We have our unity loyalty program that brings it all together. But the band members, we go by four mottos that we utilize and we live. I mean, it's not a tactical thing. It's something that is embedded in you when you go through what we call brand induction or what someone else would consider your orientation. And our four mottos are very simple: love all serve all; save the planet; take time to be kind; all is one.

These mottos sound like something that, with what's going on in the world today, was just put in place, but these mottos have been the mottos of Hard Rock since the inception of the organization and the company. And that's what's instilled in our band members.

SG: For “all is one,” like you pointed out, we live in a divisive time. How do you foster that kind of all togetherness, that “all is one” value? 

DS: I go back to the three key metrics: employees, guests, financial. And then if you add to it a little bit, enhancing the employee engagement, amplifying our guest service, and then ensuring financial stability. If you're not doing one of those three things, no matter what position you're in, from a steward working in the dish room to the general manager of the hotel, the rest of it's all just noise. Noise creates drama, and the drama's just counterproductive in your organization.

I go back to the three key metrics: enhancing the employee engagement, amplifying our guest service, and then ensuring financial stability. If you're not doing one of those three things, no matter what position you're in, from a steward working in the dish room to the general manager of the hotel, the rest of it's all just noise.

So, one of the things that we do on a daily basis throughout the hotel is we do what we call sound checks or lineup meetings where each department, whether it's front desk, housekeeping, the restaurant, the kitchen, etc., they get together with their band members that are working that shift, and they talk about what's happening in the course of the day. The VIPS that are coming in, anything that's happening - we'll celebrate a birthday, celebrate an anniversary, if somebody lost a loved one, we might have a moment of silence, and then I take it a step further. 

As the general manager, or what I like to call myself, the bandleader, I'll do a bandleader sound check for the overnight team, the AM team, and then the PM team every week on Wednesdays. And then I bring the entire group together - managers, employees, union, nonunion, doesn't matter. We’ll all come together, and we’ll talk about the business. We talk about what's happening - good things, bad things, controversial things, so that we put it all out there. So, if somebody has a question, and then it creates a rumor, you know - I love the word “they.” I always say, “They said.” “They” nine times out of ten is me. And I love when I hear “they.” And I'm like, I didn't say that number one, but I'll play the phone game.

So, I'll tell you, Shawn, you know, I'll give you a situation with a couple of tidbits in it and then I'll say tell your friend next to you, tell your friend next to you. By the time you get to the fifth person, what I said with that phone game is totally different. It was supposed to be yellow, but it's blue. It was supposed to be on Tuesday, but it's Thursday. So, all those sorts of things, that's where the “all is one” comes into play.  

I think the one that really resonates with me most is “take time to be kind” because it's a fast-paced business. Things are happening constantly, and it's an ever-changing business. Things break and things happen. It’s how we - there's no script. Like, we teach somebody at brand induction how to do their job or we give them the core values of the company, but then when they're talking to you and you're at the front desk checking in and your room's not ready for whatever reason, they have to resolve that issue. And that's what we do and that's what we teach them.

SG: I feel like the analogies really helps to visualize it. Like now, even you talking to yourself as bandleader doing a sound check with your band members, I see you as the Paul Shaffer here. It's kind of like you’re looking out to your crowd and the drummer's as important as the person on the trumpet, as is the pianist, and you're talking to all of them. There's no broad hierarchy of playing telephone, like you said. 

DS: No, and it's also, as a manager in the hotel, I'll make my way through the building. So, if a cook calls out, it's a problem. If I call out, they're going to get by. Their success is my success. The best examples that I think any leader can have is those that happen when they're not there. It also gives the individuals the opportunity to showcase what they can do. And then, being able to recognize them afterwards is key. We pride ourselves on being a Forbes recommended hotel. We're an upper/upscale lifestyle offering, so we're there to provide the utmost service, and our mission is to create unique experiences that rock, which ties into the whole theme of being a band member. And how many times have you been to a concert or you go to a show and thought, "Man, like that thing really rocked!" That's how we want our guests to walk away from us, like, "Wow, that guy rocks, that guy rocks! That's the coolest thing." And it's simple.  

SG: And it’s not something you always even think about when going to a hotel, right? Sometimes it's, "I'm just going there to sleep and it'll be fine and it's more about the adventure." I go beyond it. But what you're doing is making that part of your whole experience, right? You're in New York. There's going to be so many great experiences you're going to have, but also, where you're staying is going to be part of that.

DS: Well, to give you an example to drill down on it a little bit... guest checks in at the front desk or they're dining in the restaurant, and our band member asks them a probing question, and they say, "It's our anniversary - celebrating 25 years." So, the next thing you know, we're blessed with some incredible employees, Fannie and Susie, down in our uniform area that do monogramming of the pillowcases. So, we get their room number, we get their last name or their initials, and we embroider this in their pillowcase in the top left corner. They walk into their room, and they're like, "Oh my god, my pillowcase is embroidered with my name! How cool is this?!" And then, that employee tells the first person in the restaurant, and there's a champagne toast. It's those subtle things that don't cost you a lot of money, but it's just priceless. It's kind of like the MasterCard commercial. It's just truly priceless. And they never forget that you made them feel that way and you made them feel special. And that's the key to it. 

SG: Yeah. That's a memory that they're going to take with them forever.

Now this is a podcast all about leadership, so I feel like I'd be remiss not to ask. I did read an article where you talked about - you know, New York's a strong thread in your personal DNA, and you talked about the impact of the events of 9/11. You were working in New York at the time. Managing through crisis is one thing, managing through this level of crisis is another. So, just from a leadership perspective, what was that like? Can you tell us a little bit about that experience? 

DS: Sure. I was at the Brooklyn Marriott in Downtown Brooklyn right at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge, and it was early on that 9/11 morning, and I was a director of sales and marketing at the hotel at the time. The word came out that the tower was hit. We thought it was an accident, and we all didn't know what to expect. So then, I ran to the roof up on the 32nd floor, and I was able to watch the other plane come zooming in and hit the other tower. I watched everything, and I said, "Wow, this is no accident."

I was at the Brooklyn Marriott in Downtown Brooklyn right at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge, and it was early on that 9/11 morning. I ran to the roof up on the 32nd floor and saw the other plane come zooming in and hit the other tower.

Nobody really knew what was happening at the time, but we knew it wasn't good. And shortly after that, obviously everybody knows the story, the tower collapsed, and the fuel from the plane ignited - it was a disaster. So, people were fleeing lower Manhattan, and they were going across the Brooklyn Bridge, and we're literally at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge.

We were fortunate. We had 60 nurses and doctors from the University of Washington, if I remember, that were doing a conference in our banquet space. We had a ballroom, about a little over 18,000 square feet, and we could hold 2,000 people. Our hotel was 376 rooms at the time, and we were pretty full for the time of year that it was. 

So, everybody's walking through, coming off the bridge. I remember this one individual I'll never forget. He was literally walking through the lobby in a t-shirt, no shoes, and he had gym shorts on. And he says, “You don't know me. I just need to take a shower and rest my head.” 

We set up a triage center with the nurses and doctors set up in a ballroom. We had beds, blankets, and I got this gentleman set up with a room. And then it was just, you know, all the chaos going on, so I simply never saw him again.  

A year later, this gentleman walks in. He walks in with three or four people with him, and he says to me, “Do you remember me?” And I said, “I'm sorry, I don't.”  And he was all dressed in a suit, like business professional. He says, “I will never forget you.” 

And he had these three guys with him, and it was one of the main meeting planners with JP Morgan Chase, and they were in Metrotech, and they ended up bringing all kinds of rooms and business and became one of our best customers at that hotel. 

But you know, I'm one story. There's so many stories. When I was working for Marriott for all those years, we lost two managers on that day. And one who’s a really dear friend of mine, his father actually hired me into Marriott years ago, he was running through the building to try to make sure all the guests were out at the World Trade Center Marriott, which is the tower - the hotel collapsed because it was part of the Twin Towers. He went right or left, I'm not sure which one, and the person he was running with went the other direction, and they never came out.  

So, you know, it makes you stronger, but I do remember the one thing that was the most refreshing. We talked about the “take time to be kind” motto of Hard Rock. People were so kind, generous, and nice during that time in New York City and everywhere, probably, in the world for that matter, because people were like, "Wow, we've got to put our differences aside and we've got to stick to what matters," and they did.

It makes you stronger, but I do remember the one thing that was the most refreshing. We talked about the “take time to be kind” motto of Hard Rock. People were so kind, generous, and nice during that time. We had to put our differences aside and stick to what matters.

It's a heart-wrenching story, but it's also one of resilience and overcoming adversity as a leader. You have to continue to go. And that day we had to still continue to service people that were our guests and weren't our guests.

SG: Even like you said, look at how these values that are now the core values at the Hard Rock are values of hospitality, right? The kindness that was being shown, all is one. Everyone working together to help where you can. It's refreshing and amazing just to hear the hospitality community coming together like that. 

Well, David, thank you for sharing all of this - all of these great leadership ideas. I do have one more question for you. This is our Creating Hospitality segment. We're trying to do a segment at the end of every episode. We'll call it "hospitality shoutouts." Just curious, can you share a recent, really positive experience you had in the hospitality world? Maybe a restaurant you went to or a venue or a different hotel that you stayed at? 

DS: Sure. Recently I was at a hotel at the Jersey Shore. We were celebrating my 31st wedding anniversary this past December, and I didn't make any real special arrangements. I just simply said I'm coming. I think I mentioned it to the front desk employee - this is a perfect example. We went out to dinner. We came back and my room was covered with rose petals. So, you walk in, and I was like, "Wow." My wife was like, "Wow, you really did this?" I took full credit for the rose petals. [Laughs]

SG: As you should! 

DS: It had nothing to do with me!

SG: Well, huge thank you to David. Thank you so much for sharing your stories with us. Today I learned a couple things from you. One, I like how you said noise creates drama. Just doing sound checks with your team, staying aware of what's going on, just being open and honest with one another. And then two, the importance of kindness. I think that of all the values that you talked about, that one really shone through, whether it be in the crisis of all crises, right, 9/11 happening, or just your day-to-day understanding like, "Hey, just be kind to one another" makes a real big impact. So David, thank you for teaching me both of those things today.

DS: My pleasure. You know, one other thing as a senior leader, if I could just end with this for a lot of the young aspiring leaders out there: if you don't have a mentor, or a network, or what you would consider your counsel of righteousness, find someone or find a group, several people, whomever it is, that you can confide in, whether it's how to tie a tie for an interview or "this manager told me this; this doesn't sound right." Someone that you could talk candidly with will serve you well as you go on your journey in this business. Thank you.

SG: Got that, listeners? Council of righteousness. Get it today if you don't have it. I love that. What a great thought to leave our listeners with David, thank you. 

DS: Alright, so Shawn, can you give me a "you rock" at the end? 

SG: Yeeeaaaah!