Jasmine Seliga: Putting People & Values First

Sertifi's excited to introduce hospitality's newest leadership podcast, Creating Hospitality. In this conversation series, 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 our premiere episode, we chat with Jasmine Seliga, co-founder & CEO of Affixify, about what it means to have a "leader last" mindset, clearing out noise, and the importance of staying in touch when growing your team.

Episode Transcription

Shawn Gaines: I'm so excited! This is our premiere episode, and we have a very special guest today who I'm really excited to chat with. So, I'd like to introduce you all to Jasmine Seliga, the co-founder and CEO of Affixify. Jasmine has spent her entire career in hospitality technology, partnering with hotels all over the world to find and implement new software, leading talented technology sales teams and consulting with technology providers in various categories. Jasmine is also a proud wife, boy mom, and Christian. I'm super excited to talk to her, all-around awesome person. Jasmine: welcome to the podcast! 

Jasmine Seliga: Thank you, Shawn! I'm listening to that bio and the one thing is - yeah, you got to say "boy mom" in there! I love it! It's so good to be here. And I'm honored to be on the first premiere podcast for Sertifi. I feel very excited. I hope I do it justice! 

SG: Well, we're honored to have you! As a boy dad, I also feel like that's a big draw having somebody who has those shared experiences. You can kind of tell, for those of you watching the video, my camera's kind of pointed upwards, because if it was pointed downwards, you would just see trash everywhere. I don't know if your house is like that, Jasmine. 

JS: Oh, I was rage cleaning this morning. Like, how do we have so many nerf darts all over this house? You know? I get it - it's crazy! 

SG: Yeah, for sure! Well, to start off, Jasmine, I always love asking this question to just get to know somebody and how they got to their current place in their career, so I’ll kind of keep it open-ended but, Jasmine: what's your story? How did you get to where you are today? 

JS: I like to start two days after I graduated (college). I went to Baylor University for marketing and back then - kind of a side note - but as you know, marketing has evolved so much. So, in the early 2000s, what I would learn then, I would probably have a completely different degree now. But I did graduate from Baylor in Waco, Texas and quite literally two days later, I left the day of graduation, moved home to Fort Worth, Texas, and started at a company called Digital Alchemy.  

I had fully intended to do a two-month internship and then move into the medical sales path. And I did some professional sales courses at Baylor. So, I'm like, this is just a quick way to get out of college and get on my medical path. And hilariously, but I think we've all learned this in hospitality, within two weeks, I had a wonderful CEO who's like, "Hey, you want to come to this event called HITEC?" I think it was HITEC Baltimore back then. And then I go to HITEC, and I'm learning about the industry, and I'm just like, "This is pretty awesome!"

I intended to do a two-month hospitality internship and then move into the medical sales path. Within two weeks, I go to HITEC, and I'm learning about the industry, and I'm just like, "This is pretty awesome!"

And then, within a few months, I was promoted to sales manager and long story short, I ended up staying with Digital Alchemy. We were an email marketing company for hotels and were acquired by TravelClick and then Amadeus, and I was on the acquisitions team. And I was the head of sales when I left. So, I truly went from intern to VP over time, and that was a journey!  

I actually took a gap year and went and sold at Springer Miller with Theresa Ellsworth, your guys’ VP of sales. And that's how I know Theresa and, I mean, really, I was just stuck on it. I'm like, I could never leave! And so, at that time, after our second acquisition to Amadeus, I had two little boys. Two of my three boys were born 15 months apart. And the reason that's important to my journey is that I ended up deciding, I'm just tired. A lot of acquisitions, a lot of babies. So, I took a year off, which happened to be during the pandemic, so I was able to be home with my kids, which was such a blessing. 

And then I came back into the industry as a consultant and honestly, as I was consulting, contracting, I started to see this need - and maybe I had seen the need through the years - but gosh, hotels could really use an easier, better way to connect with vendors. And so, that started this crazy journey. That was three years ago for Affixify. And ever since then, I've been on the startup journey. About a year ago I stopped my consulting firm to fully focus on this. So that was a long, long explanation, but that's kind of how I got here. 

SG: I love it! I especially love the, "Hey, I'm going to get into medical sales," but then you go to HITEC! You're like, "Wait a minute - these people are fun!"

JS: They were! I remember I didn't even know the term "hotelier." I remember specifically talking to someone - I mean, I'm fresh out of college, a couple weeks, and someone's like, "I'm a hotelier," and I'm like, what does that mean? And now, that’s my life, talking to hoteliers every day. So, it's really cool how that happened. 

SG: Can I ask what made you initially think about medical sales? It feels so different from hospitality. 

JS: Yeah, it's so different. I think I always saw that as the only path for really successful salespeople - especially in college. I think you hear a lot about medical sales, pharmaceutical sales, medical equipment sales. I don't know that people talk a lot about hospitality. Where I'm from, we're not in a tourism - I mean, people come to DFW, but it's not like we're in Maui. The way I got connected was my - this is funny - but my dad knew my CEO because he taught his son piano. My dad is a musician, and he said, "I have a piano student whose dad owns a hotel marketing company" and that's really how it happened: personal connections. 

SG: That's fascinating. I love it. I didn't realize you had that gap year in the pandemic before getting into consultancy. Do you think the pandemic impacted the timing of things? Since your consultancy focused on tech, do you think the pandemic had any type of influence on either your decision or how it (Affixify) went in the early days? 

JS: I think so. Had the pandemic not happened, I probably would have quickly gone back into the corporate world. Honestly, so many layoffs happened and so much happened to our industry specifically that it didn't make a lot of sense for me at that time to try to go back in and find a job when our industry was suffering so much. I knew so many people that were feeling that hit. And then, when I decided to come back, it was just this amazing open door where I was offered roles of consulting and contracting and coming in and helping companies with their sales teams. So, it kind of happened organically. I never really sat down and said, "OK, it's 2021 - let's launch this consulting firm."

I remember sitting with my husband and being like, "Wow, I have this opportunity." And we started making a PowerPoint of all the different things I could help hospitality companies with. And I'm like, "I think we could do something here." So, it’s kind of how it started, but I do think the pandemic impacted me in the sense that I probably would not have waited that year, year and a half, to come back. 

SG: Yeah, that makes sense. And also, you come in with all of this empathy from doing the job for so long, being able to transition to kind of giving advice and being on that side of the house. So, how big is your team now?

JS: We are teeny. But for me we're not because we've grown so much. Right now, there's myself and then my amazing co-founder, Stephanie. She handles our operation side of the house. We are the full timers. We have an in-house developer who is incredible. He was actually with us back in the day at our former company, so we've been very blessed. And then, we have an additional developer that's just starting to help him, and we have a marketing manager who is right now working contract for us.  

So, there’s five of us - a mighty team of five. And we really hope this year or next year to start growing and adding. We have had so much interest. We'd love to add a salesperson, but right now we're very much founder-led selling and that's working for us. So yeah, team of five. 

SG: I do think it's always a cool and unique perspective. Somebody went from the startup perspective of building that initial team. Maybe even thinking from a leadership perspective or team building perspective, how did you go about picking these? It sounds like you had some folks who you've worked with in the past. What did that look like? 

JS: We have been amazed at how we have never had to go out and figure out who the next person was. It seems like just through open doors, it kind of falls in our lap. I know that that's not everybody's reality and everybody's story. Through our network and through our connections and people we trust, we have been able to say - for example, we knew in the fall, I couldn't keep handling all of the marketing up keep that we needed, as you understand, and we're tiny compared to Sertifi. And Stephanie's like, "I know exactly who we need to bring on for that." And then it just perfectly worked out. So, we've never had to go out and recruit. And to be honest, we almost always know the next person we want to bring in. Right now, we already talk about the head of sales/salesperson we'd love to bring in, and we kind of plan around that. We usually tell that person we'd love to bring you in in the next six to twelve months, so tell us if you're interested. It’s a little bit different. It's nontraditional, but it's working for us and certainly a blessing for us.

We have been amazed at how we have never had to go out and figure out who the next person was. It seems like just through open doors, it kind of falls in our lap. I know that that's not everybody's reality, but we've been able to grown just with our network.

SG: It’s very similar to what the job market looks like these days. A lot of it is about having those connections, finding people you trust, and building that trusted team.

JS: Yes, yes.

SG: I love all your LinkedIn posts. They're awesome. And I know you recently started on a series where you were sharing some wins and challenges from 2024, and you did talk about how you had a great year, but I think more importantly, you wanted to share some learnings. Could you maybe tell me a little bit more about that and what some of those learnings were? 

JS: I love that you saw that post. Honestly, we see so many highlight reels of everyone all the time through social media - and I love that by the way. I have no issue with highlight reels. But I also think we should be a little bit more upfront about some of the challenges, too, that we have faced over the years. For us, last year was our first year to launch and, probably the biggest lesson we took from it was, we are a bootstrap startup - where are we spending those very precious dollars?

Initially, it was every speaking opportunity, every chance to be on stage, anything we could get, we took, which sounds really good. But we had a couple times where we weren't really in front of the right audience or not sure that it was worth it. And then sometimes we were exactly where we needed to be.

So, one of the biggest lessons in hindsight was to make sure we weigh every option. And to make that practical, we actually created a written filter list for every opportunity we're given. We take everything to this list, and I mean everything. And, because of how flexible Affixify is, we get a lot of different opportunities - licensing, white label, you know, let's do this, you should do this. And we just weigh everything through that filter.

One of the biggest lessons in hindsight was to make sure we weigh every option. And to make that practical, we actually created a written filter list for every opportunity we're given, and we weigh everything through that filter.

The filters are, is this, number one, going to get us in front of our target audience? And I think other businesses could use this too.  

Number two, is it worth the time debt of pulling myself or Stephanie away because we're so busy?

Number three, does this align with our values? Our faith values, our company values. Even though most of the time, yes, at times, that is a great filter to make sure of. 

And then frankly, it's, is this going to be giving us some form of ROI? 

If those four things pass, then we usually move forward. So that was a huge lesson last year. And I think also one of the lessons we took was just really filtering advice because we've noticed - I don't know if it's every startup - but us as a startup, people love to give us advice. I mean, it's a lot and it's great. We keep a document. But at first, I think we tried really hard to follow everything, and we had to step back and realize again, filter it, and really consider the source and the impact of the business. So, that has been helpful, too. Lots of advice, lots of learning. It was a learning year for sure. A good year, just a lot of learning. 

SG: It sounds a lot like being a new parent.

JS: Yes!

SG: The volume of advice, and how much advice you actually need, very different.

JS: And once you're living it, it’s very different than what you think you would do.

SG: Yeah, and I'm sure you can get advice to verify or un-verify anything that you want to believe about parenting or startup life.

JS: Yeah, you can read all the books, and you can hear from everybody else, but until you're living it, it's completely different.

SG: One thing that you mentioned, too, that I think is also unique to the startup life: you have a small team, and you did talk about time debt. I think, as teams get larger, it's something you kind of forget about: there is a cost to doing this thing, even if it's a free thing. It is taking their time, whether it's to do a podcast or do a speaking opportunity or something like that. What are some of the ways you gauge that? Is it just an ROI perspective or are there other elements that come into play?

JS: Yeah, I love that. No, it's not just ROI. Of course, for any startup in any business, we want to see some of that. We also understand in our industry, especially in hospitality tech, there's a good gap of time from going to market to being accepted by the industry as a “go-to,” and it's just how it is. So, sometimes we'll be on stage, and we don't expect to hear or close anything at six to eight months, just because we know it takes time. So, that is certainly one thing. 

I think for sure it's getting the message in front of the right audience. For us, we service both vendors and hoteliers. It may not be a hotel-heavy audience and specifically management companies, small independent, that sort of thing. We did one event where we were in front of hoteliers, but not at all the right ones for us because these hoteliers had much larger teams that would be making tech decisions. They probably wouldn't need our platform. And then the vendors there were not vendors we had listed. So, we kind of left that meeting thinking, "Cool opportunity, but we weren't really in front of anyone that could be interested in what we're doing."

I think as important as the revenue side is the audience side. You can speak all day, but if you're not speaking to the right audience, there's not a lot there. I also think the values and the faith aspect for us is really important, you know? There's been some projects thrown our way that could have been cool but really brought into question, does this go along with the values and the long-term goals we have as a company? So, it's not all about revenue. I think a lot of it is, but we have other things to consider, too.

I think as important as the revenue side is the audience side. You can speak all day, but if you're not speaking to the right audience, there's not a lot there. There's also been some projects thrown our way that could have been cool but really brought into question, does this go along with the values and the long-term goals we have as a company?

SG: That reminds me of another LinkedIn post I really like that you had. I liked how you framed it. You were talking about your faith, but you said compartmentalizing your life doesn't work for you. And you know, I feel like this could be a generational thing. There were times where it was like work/life = very different. Keep them separated. Then they started to blur. I think now we might be at a time where Gen Z is kind of in the middle. So, in terms of how your faith impacts your work, besides what you said about values, how do you think that impacts your leadership style? 

JS: Oh gosh, honestly, it's a different type of leadership where - and you don't have to be a faith-based leader to do this approach - but it's very much a servant leadership approach. Transparently, in my very early twenties, I was promoted really quickly. And I think I had to get through a lot of pride and "how do I do this?" And now I look back and I'm like, "I would have done so many things differently." But from a leadership perspective, it's actually a me last, everybody else first approach. And sometimes that doesn't make sense to the outside person.

From a leadership perspective, it's actually a me last, everybody else first approach. Sometimes taking care of the person in your business might sacrifice a business goal, but it's for the best of that person.

I was just telling my co-founder that we live in such a world that's so me-focused, and instead, this approach is a lot about what everybody else needs first and then we come last. And Stephanie, my co-founder, is the exact same way. Even with a small team, we want to put that into practice. She shared another podcast, a faith podcast, about how sometimes taking care of the person in your business might sacrifice a business goal, but it's for the best of that person.

And I'm nowhere near perfect at it, but I've been really blessed to work under leaders that were really great servant leaders. So, I've seen that modeled, and we have that modeled, even in our personal lives through our church and things like that. I don't know if that fully makes sense, but it just totally changes the way I approach leading this company and obviously a future team. Instead of, "What does Jasmine want from this," it's a lot more about what's best for everybody else.

And again, it's great to have a business partner that's the same because it's easy to get stuck in the weeds and stuck in the numbers and stuck into this. I mean, she even just came to me the other day and said, "We have this contractor. She's doing amazing. I think we should bump her pay." And, as a bootstrap company, I think the typical response would be, you know what, every penny counts. And of course, the answer was a resounding "yes" because you want to take good care of people. So, it's different, but it works really well for us, and we believe strongly in that approach.

SG: I love the importance of alignment on those values. That could tank a company, especially if the two people at the top are not aligned on what they care about or where they want to focus. That’s fantastic to hear. It seems like that's going great. 

JS: Thank you. Yeah, it is. I cannot imagine. Stephanie and I, we are actually very close friends, too, in real life. So, we have this friendship aspect, this business partner aspect, and people will often say, "How do you guys do that?" And we know it's unusual. We tread lightly. We have to be cautious. But for us it works really well. And the beauty of that is because I know her character as a friend. We try to assume positive intent. I always know that she has the best in mind for me, for the company and hopefully, you know, vice versa. So, I can't imagine. I know there's times where business partnerships go awry, but I'm so grateful for having somebody that completely aligns with my values, too. It's non-negotiable. We're on the same page, which is great. 

SG: That’s awesome. Well, Jasmine, I know we're getting close to time. As I mentioned, this is our first episode, so I wanted to try something. I'd love to close each conversation with this question, and we'll see how it goes. We can always cut it if it doesn’t go well [laughs]. But, forgetting everything else, can you think of a recent really positive hospitality experience you've had? Maybe at a restaurant or a hotel or a venue?

JS: Yeah! I think it's obvious because it's a luxury property, but I was recently at Terranea Resort in California. I was there for the Hotel Technology Forum. And I've been all around the world to amazing hotels, and it was next level just how taken care of I felt. I was only there one night, but I mean, it was incredible. 

But I actually want to contrast that. So, that was hands down one of the most beautiful resorts - best staff, everything taken care of, incredible event, it was awesome. I felt a little bad. I'm like, I'm away from my family. I should be working, but I felt very comfortable. But what I'm going to contrast that with was two weeks later - and this is not your typical hospitality experience - but my husband and I, we're campers. We have an RV, and we go for Thanksgiving. We actually spend the week camping, typical Texan. So, we take our camper, we pull into this campsite, and even though it's not your typical resort, we were greeted with a personal greeting from the camp host. They drove over to us. "How are you doing? Do you have everything you need?" They have the cutest shed with extras if you don't have it, and it's like a little boutique. And I was telling him that I was just at this like crazy amazing five-star resort, but I felt almost just as taken care of at this little campground in South Texas. 

And I think at the end of the day, it's the heart behind it, right? Whether you have the five-star resort on the beach, or you have the cute little campground with not much else, it's all about how you're making someone feel. And both of those have stood out to me a lot as just the heart behind what we do.

SG: I love it. OK, that worked great. We're going to keep this segment. We should call it "The Hospitality Shoutouts" or something like that? 

JS: I love it! Yeah! 

SG: Yeah? OK!

JS: Yeah, it's good. You should keep that. I was winging it there, so... 

SG: No, that was great. We're keeping it. We're keeping it. 

JS: I love it! We're keeping it!  

SG: Well, Jasmine, huge thank you for being our guest today on Creating Hospitality. Thank you for the master class and everything from hotel sales to entrepreneurship. Thank you for sharing your stories. And for all of our listeners for tuning in today; we do hope you got some actionable insights from the episode.

I learned a couple things today. I'll say, one, I learned the importance of networking and having connections, whether it is the student of your father who's a piano teacher or whether it's friends that you have known or colleagues who can join your team as you get going. Those connections are so important to keep and to foster. And I also learned the importance of operating with shared values - being aligned on those and making sure that's part of your litmus test for everything you do as a company. But Jasmine, once again, thank you so much for taking the time today.

JS: Thank you, Shawn. I loved it, and I'm so grateful. I love the team at Sertifi, and I can't wait to tune into future episodes!

SG: Alright! Love to hear it!