Podcasts about so anne

This week's conversation is with Anne Morriss and Frances Frei.Anne has spent the last twenty years building and leading mission-driven enterprises, serving most recently as CEO and Co-Founder of GenePeeks, a computational genomics company developing breakthrough ways to identify genetic risk. She has worked with entrepreneurs, companies and governments throughout the United States and Latin America on strategy, leadership and organizational change. Frances is a Professor of Technology and Operations Management at Harvard Business School. Her research investigates how leaders create the conditions for organizations and individuals to thrive by designing for excellence in strategy, operations, and culture.Frances regularly advises senior executives embarking on large-scale change initiatives and organizational transformation, including embracing diversity and inclusion as a lever for improved performance. She is considered a culture consultant - helped makeover Riot Games, Uber and WeWork when trust within those companies at a low.So Anne and Frances both have unique perspectives and insight - that's why I wanted to have them on together.They share how to get the most out of individuals within an organization… to maximize potential and help each person flourish.----Please support our partners!We're able to keep growing and creating content for YOU because of their support. We believe in their mission and would appreciate you supporting them in return!!To take advantage of deals from our partners, head to http://www.findingmastery.net/partners where you'll find all discount links and codes mentioned in the podcast.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week we tackle on of this year's most popular road trips -- the Grand Circle road trip in the Southwest USA. And we have the perfect guest! Anne Howard from Honeytrek shares her insights and tips after having spent weeks in this region over multiple trips. About Anne Howard Anne is the co-founder of the couples adventure travel blog HoneyTrek and co-author of the books Comfortably Wild: The Best Glamping Destinations in North America and National Geographic's Ultimate Journeys for Two. Since 2012, Anne and her husband Mike have been traveling full-time across the seven continents and have road tripped from Baja to The Arctic Circle and 50 US States in between. Mike & Anne Howard left on their honeymoon in January 2012...and never came home. They created HoneyTrek.com to chronicle their journey across all seven continents and help people mobilize their travel dreams. Their story of the World's Longest Honeymoon, savvy tips, and blog have been featured in hundreds of international media outlets—from USA Today to Lonely Planet. Firm believers that love and travel make the world a better place, they authored Ultimate Journeys for Two—National Geographic's bestselling couples travel guide. To write their newest book, Comfortably Wild, they bought a vintage RV (aka Buddy the Camper) and traveled 73,000 miles across 9 countries to find the best glamping experiences in North America. Along the way, they fell in love with RVing and have made Buddy their full-time adventure mobile. They've taken their 1985 Toyota Sunrader from the tip of Baja Mexico to the Arctic Circle of Canada and 50 US states in between. As full-time nomads and travel journalists, the Howards are always on the hunt for off-the-track destinations, uncommon adventures, and the human stories that make each place so special. Follow their adventures at www.HoneyTrek.com or on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. You can also see a gallery of photos from their Grand Circle Road Trip on Facebook. Tips for Planning a Grand Circle Road Trip The Grand Circle road trip is the loop of national parks and monuments in the Southwest including the Zion, Bryce, Capitol Reef, Canyonlands, Arches, the Grand Canyon and many other national monuments, tribal lands, and state parks along the way. Trying to hit the six big National Parks, you need at least two weeks to adequately cover the Grand Circle road trip. You want to leave time to stop at roadside shops, restaurants, photo opportunities, etc along the way. Utah has such amazing landscapes but also has many dinosaur fossils. To start the road trip, fly into Las Vegas. Sometimes camping or RVing in the parks sounds ideal, but it can get hard to find campsites in the national parks so sometimes staying in hotels or other lodging can actually be better. Keep in mind that big RVs aren't able to go in some areas of the national parks and driving a large RV on the small roads or fitting into parking lots can be a big challenge. If you are renting an RV to do the Grand Circle road trip, stick to an RV that is 27' or smaller. The ideal size is probably 22 feet. From Las Vegas, it is only a three hour drive to Zion National Park (versus four hours from Phoenix to the Grand Canyon.) From Zion you will go to Bryce along Highway 12, which is a gorgeous scenic drive. You will also pass by Escalante National Monument, which is massive and you want to leave some time to explore. You will then go to Capitol Reef, then Arches National Park, before heading down to the Grand Canyon. Don't just follow Google Maps, which will just route you the fastest way. After Canyonlands, leave time to go to Bears Ears National Monument, which is underrated but is a sacred destination for various Native American nations and you will have an opportunity to see cliff dwellings and petroglyphs and it is not crowded at all. You will also want to leave time on your trip down to the Grand Canyon to swing through Monument Valley and the Navajo nation's lands and tribal parks. Just 15 minutes or so away from Monument Valley is Goosenecks State Park. It has a double loop in the river, which is a much better photo opportunity than the popular Horseshoe Bend and it is inexpensive and not crowded. It is a true hidden gem! Beyond the national parks, look for other types of public lands -- national forests, Bureau of Land Management land, etc. To find public lands and campsites, you can use iOverlander and UCPublic CG Ultimate Campgrounds app. But please leave reviews and share useful information to grow these communities. Don't miss hiking the slot canyons of Spooky and Peekaboo Canyons in Escalante National Monument. It is a tough road to get there and one is a more technical hike, but doable for kids and well worth the effort. They can get very narrow at points, sometimes no wider than a foot. A more family friendly hike between Bryce and Escalante is Willis Creek Slot canyon. Keep in mind that this could be icy in the winter. This is also much easier to get to. Escalante Yurts is a great spot to glamp when you are in this area. Make sure you hike a slot canyon while in Utah. You can also plan other adventures, like canyoneering in Orderville Slot Canyon near Zion or off-roading in Moab, where there is some of the best off-roading in the world, or do a scenic flight over Canyonland and Arches. Bryce also has astronomy rangers and you can do full moon hikes twice a month. Some big adventures need permits, such as hiking the Narrows. Try to do the national parks midweek and state parks on the weekend to try to avoid some crowds. This can also be a good winter road trip when it isn't as crowded and it can be beautiful in the snow, but not everything may be available. Spring is another great time because there is more water running, more flowers, and it isn't as hot as summer. These areas are warmer during the day and can get colder at night, so be prepared. In Arches, if you can't do the whole park because you are pressed for time, make sure you hike Devil's Garden with the largest concentration of arches. Zion isn't that large and doesn't take too long to do. Canyonlands is huge, and there are also two separate entrances, which makes it almost like two separate parks. The Island in the Sky in the north end near Moab is actually hours aways from the Needle section. The Needle section is actually less traveled and very lovely. Make sure you spend time understanding the Native American history for all of these places. When you are traveling in the Needles section of Canyonlands, Newspaper Rock is a quick stop but it has two thousand years of history in petroglyphs. (Note: this was recently horribly and thoughtlessly defaced.) The Butler Wash Ruins in Bears Ears is another great place to see amazing cliff dwellings from the 1200s (similar to Mesa Verde in Colorado.) Glamping is a great way to experience the outdoors and this area including Under Canvas, which is usually just outside of the national parks, and Wunder Camp, which has a series of camps near national parks but at a lower price point. Be sure to buy Anne's book, Comfortably Wild: The Best Glamping Destinations in North America , for more glamping suggestions. If you need to skip something, you can miss the full 18-mile scenic drive in Bryce as the best parts are at the beginning and it is an out and back drive and not a loop. Be careful about hiking down the Grand Canyon as you have to hike back up and it is a tough hike and plan accordingly with time, water, and energy. This is a good trip to buy a National Parks Pass. It would also be useful to buy the Secrets to the National Parks and Scenic Highways and Byways books for the trip. Anne also covers a lot of the southwest, including Moab and a southwest road trip section, in her book Ultimate Journeys for Two. When visiting this area, make sure you pack a good wide brim sunhat to block the strong sun and layers to deal with the changing temperatures. Anne recommends Asolo hiking boots for women and men, as well as Kyodan leggings with pockets. Full Episode Transcript [00:00:00.060] - Kim Tate Stay tuned, because today we're circling around the southwest.   [00:00:16.090] - Announcer Welcome to Vacation Mavens. A family travel podcast with ideas for your next vacation and tips to get you out the door. Here are your hosts, Kim from Stuffed Suitcase and Tamara from We3Travel.   [00:00:31.000] - Tamara Gruber Hey, Kim, I've missed talking to you.   [00:00:33.580] - Kim Tate I know it's crazy. I feel like we just got done saying, like, we're back and now we are. We had another break.   [00:00:39.430] - Tamara Gruber So it's you know, we've gone to these every other week episodes for a while because we weren't traveling. And now I think we're going to start traveling, which makes it hard find time to record. But in the meantime, we've gotten some feedback from our listeners. And I thought we should maybe take a little bit of time before our interview today just to share a little bit of the feedback, because I always love it when our listeners come back with some advice and some recommendations of their own.   [00:01:08.060] - Tamara Gruber So I thought it would be great to share.   [00:01:09.700] - Kim Tate Yeah, definitely. I love knowing that people are actually listening to us because I really like you and I just love talking to each other and it's kind of fun. But to actually know that people actually care and like us, it's awesome.   [00:01:21.400] - Tamara Gruber I know we say it all the time, but we really, really do get a big smile on our face every time we get, you know, one of these kind of comments or emails or messages. And it just, you know, definitely makes us happy to know we aren't just talking into the void. But I wanted to share about our episode, probably a month or two now ago, we talked about some of our favorite hotels in Florida with Joella.   [00:01:43.330] - Tamara Gruber And I got a message from David and Karen from family boarding pass, and they had some to recommend also. So I thought I would share those because I feel like it is prime vacation planning time right now. And I know that hotels, especially in Florida, getting really booked up. So they had recommended the Pink Shell Hotel, which is in Fort Myers Beach and also the Hilton in Clearwater. And there's lots to do around there. You can walk to beach locations and they also have additional activities like kayaks and bike rentals.   [00:02:12.610] - Tamara Gruber And I know that they gave one other recommendation for old Key West, but unfortunately, that part of the message got cut off. And so, you know, thanks, guys, for sending that in. I always love finding new hotels that people that are like me have tried and liked. So check those out if you're looking for a stay on the west coast of Florida, the summer.   [00:02:32.860] - Kim Tate Yeah, I definitely feel like hotels are kind of people seem to be really into resort vacations right now, and I think it's just they're starting to get ready to branch out a little more. But organizing tours and with some things being closed down, hotels are definitely getting some good travel. I am going to share something because speaking of hotels, we recently had Episode one eight five and we talked to Nate from Room Steals and we actually had a listener, pint sized mommy who left us a message on our Instagram post about it, saying that she used her Room Steals to book a hotel and she saved four hundred and forty five dollars.   [00:03:08.980] - Kim Tate And so she thanked us for that episode. And I think that's cool like we were talking about. It's fun to know that we're actually helping our listeners, too.   [00:03:16.360] - Tamara Gruber So it's a reminder to go back and use that too because, you know, I, of course, like added the extension and then said, I'm not always using chrome. A lot of times I do my searches either on my phone or in Safari. And so I need to go back and try to use that because I am trying to book some things, you know, in the next couple of weeks. So maybe I can get a deal, too, because.   [00:03:36.850] - Tamara Gruber Yeah, Elisa, that's amazing. I mean, 440 dollars. That's that's substantial.   [00:03:42.400] - Kim Tate Yeah, it is. And you know, one of the cool things, you know, we had originally when we were talking to Nate, I wondered about if it defaults to a specific room taken, families might be stuck. But I actually tried it out myself when I was looking at some hotels for a trip that we're planning coming up. And you can actually click through and then you can see different room types and the pricing that they found for those different room types.   [00:04:03.220] - Kim Tate Even so, it's not like you're just buying one room or one price and you just get stuck with whatever room. So they still have the ability to choose a specific room, which was cool. But just so everyone knows, it only works on like aggregator sites like Expedia and stuff like that. It doesn't work if you just go to like Marriott Dotcom. So the idea is that it's it uses those aggregate bulk pricing sites.   [00:04:27.730] - Tamara Gruber Interesting. Yeah, it's good to know. Yeah. And I also wanted to give a shout out to Patty from following the magic on Instagram. She has been a follower for a bit and she gave us some feedback that she really loved the episode that we were talking about my road trip because remember how I went on and on and I felt like it was so long. And so she was like, no, no, I love listening to you guys, you know, share about your travels.   [00:04:48.310] - Tamara Gruber And so I just want to say thank you. I definitely appreciate that. And I know that those always tend to get a little bit even higher downloads than some of the other episodes. And so we are traveling again. And so you'll hear more of those coming up. But that Patti, thanks for that feedback.   [00:05:04.420] - Kim Tate Yeah, we loved hearing that. And it's so funny to actually have her message that because it made Tamara and I both look and we're like, yeah, when you look at download numbers, which with podcasting, you don't get a lot of statistics, but you can definitely see download numbers and then listening time and Tamara and I have both have noticed that you guys seem to like when it's just us rambling on like nonsense. So that's good to know. But we also wanted to take a moment to reach out to you guys and tell you that we're thinking about doing a mailbag episode.   [00:05:33.520] - Kim Tate And if you're a podcast, avid podcast listener, you probably have heard of this where the episode will just be filled with questions from our, you know, listeners. If you guys have a question about maybe you're planning a trip, you need advice, maybe you want Tamara and I to look at a specific destination and help you pick a hotel, maybe you need help with an itinerary or destination ideas, any of that. We would love to hear from you and help you do some travel planning or give you some travel tips.   [00:06:00.160] - Kim Tate So if you have any thoughts or questions for us, send us an email at podcast@VacationMavens.com, or you can always reach out to us on social media @stuffedsuitcase or @we3travel or even @vacationmavens and send us a message. So just let us know and we would love to hear from you and be able to do an episode all about our, you know, our listeners questions.   [00:06:23.860] - Tamara Gruber Yeah. And if we don't have the answer, we may know someone that does or will read it in. One of our listeners may tune in for the next episode to try to give us some answers. So it's the great thing about the community. But in the meantime, we're going to be talking about a really popular road trip. I feel like especially this year, I feel like everyone that I know seems to be planning a trip out here. But a lot of our listeners have also asked for an episode for us to talk about the grand circle through a lot of the Southwest, the Utah parks and some of Arizona.   [00:06:54.190] - Tamara Gruber So we're going to be chatting with Anne Howard, who has spent so much time in this area. And this was an interview that I absolutely loved because she just had so many great tips to share. So definitely stay tuned.   [00:07:05.770] - Kim Tate Yeah, we already love Anne and her enthusiasm about this subject will come through in this episode. So I hope you guys enjoy.   [00:07:21.840] - Tamara Gruber So this week, we're here with Anne Howard and is the co-founder of the couples adventure travel blog, Honey Trek, and also the coauthor of books Comfortably Wild The Best Glamping Destinations in North America and National Geographic's Ultimate Journeys for Two. Since 2012, Anne her husband, Mike, has been traveling full time across the seven continents and have a road trip from Baja to the Arctic Circle and 50 United States in between. So Anne, you've been everywhere. Where are you right now?   [00:07:48.870] - Anne Howard We are in San Miguel de Allende Mexico.   [00:07:51.660] - Tamara Gruber Oh, I've heard such good things about that area.   [00:07:54.170] - Anne Howard Yeah, it's always hard to leave. The camper waits and long term storage somewhere randomly outside of Sacramento, but I'm sure it'll be fine because you got to mix up your adventures domestically, internationally. So we'll be back to the camper in about two months.   [00:08:07.500] - Tamara Gruber Yeah. What is the campers name, Buddy?   [00:08:09.450] - Anne Howard His name is Buddy. Yeah, buddy. The camper. Good old buddy.   [00:08:13.980] - Tamara Gruber Well, you took our you took Buddy on a big road trip. I mean, you've taken Buddy on many, many road trips. But one that I know a lot of our listeners have been asking about is the grand circle road trip is kind of a I'm not exactly sure where and when it got that name, but I've been hearing it kind of pop up in all kinds of chat groups and Facebook groups and things. It seems to be on everybody's radar this year.   [00:08:36.690] - Tamara Gruber So I was hoping maybe you could tell us a little bit about what exactly is a grand circle type of Southwest road trip? What does it include?   [00:08:45.570] - Anne Howard Yeah, the grand circle. I mean, conveniently, many of the most amazing national parks of the Southwest are in a sort of natural loop. Zion, Bryce Canyon lands arches and the Grand Canyon all connect. But what makes it even grander is that there are many national monuments, state parks, Navajo tribal parks that that actually follow this route as well. So it's as grand as you want it to be. And in reality, we've actually done it over the course of two years, really many years.   [00:09:20.340] - Anne Howard We've done many of these parks many times. And then a certain point we're like, wait a second, we just did the Grand Circle Road trip. And because it doesn't need to follow such a linear path, but in its classic sense, it's hitting those big five national parks. But we really encourage people to take as long as they can. And rather than really rush and think about it is like a bucket list thing, like I must do it all in one loop.   [00:09:43.500] - Anne Howard It might be two different trips for you. And that's OK. I'd actually prefer people break it up into two trips because I'd hate to see race by all these other fabulous things just to have it be a check on your bucket list.   [00:09:57.110] - Kim Tate Yeah, totally, I know we talked to I can't remember who our guest was, I want to say, Alison, it was perhaps a while back like it was one of our first episodes. So we'll have to link in the show notes to that episode. But she had mentioned, like, how amazing many of the Utah state parks are and that they can have a lot less of the crowds and offer some of the same amazing scenery. So I agree with what you're saying.   [00:10:19.920] - Kim Tate Like this type of thing isn't maybe to be rushed through and split it up a little and decide, you know, take it in parts maybe. But it is a lot of ground. Yeah, definitely. It's a lot of ground to cover.   [00:10:37.550] - Anne Howard I missed one. So it's Zion, Bryce Capital, Reef, Canyonlands, Arches and Grand Canyon. So six are technically on there. But like I said, there's so many more wonderful national mountains, the state parks along the way.   [00:10:48.710] - Kim Tate Yeah, of course. I think Grand Canyon throwing it in there throws off the big five. That is Utah's big thing. Yeah, it is. It really is. All you tell you.   [00:10:56.150] - Kim Tate Yeah. So do you think how many days, you know, if they are going to try and do it as the grand circle, you know, how many days do you think they. I'm I'm sure you guys are going to say two months, but somebody is going to try and do it with a standard vacation allotment. How many days do you think they need to adequately make the grand circle trip?   [00:11:15.110] - Anne Howard I would say really two week minimum if you could. But every anything is possible, right? You could do all the parts and just, you know, one day I think it's nicer to be at them two days each. There are some sometimes was more significant travel days. You have to realize you're not going to do all of Zion one day and then all of the other because you're going to be you need to actually get between those places, those you happen to be closer than the others, but it's hard to get from Canyonlands to Grand Canyon.   [00:11:43.640] - Anne Howard So that's you have to buffer in a little bit of extra time. And you just you know, that is always the serendipity of a road trip, is you never know what you're going to find along the way so that having those those stops and when you see them incredible photo stop, a fun rock shop, a neat roadside restaurant, you don't want to squander those things.   [00:12:00.590] - Kim Tate Mm hmm. Yeah. There's nothing worse than being on a road trip. And, you know, like because I've experienced this, unfortunately, where you're like, sorry, we don't have time to stop. And like, you actually start skipping like turnouts. Yeah, no, we're not going to get a snack there because we have to get to this hotel and it's almost dark. And, you know, the office closes at ten and that's just miserable.   [00:12:20.090] - Kim Tate You don't you don't want that life.   [00:12:21.890] - Anne Howard Yeah, totally.   [00:12:23.390] - Tamara Gruber I feel like especially that part of the country, you know, for many of us, it's just such a different landscape. It's such a unique place that you do want to stop. Like, would I usually want to stop at a rock shop? No, probably not. But I don't know if I've really seen a rock shop, so maybe I do want to stop.   [00:12:39.740] - Anne Howard You do want to stop at at rock shop. Utah particularly has incredible history and not just geologically, but also dinosaurs. I mean, you'd stop at a rock shot. You're like, I'm pretty sure that's a Tyrannosaurus Rex femur in this guy's backyard. Like, are you serious right now? Like, there's some crazy roadside things to see, especially when it comes to rocks and bones and probably a lot of crafts, too, right?   [00:13:06.080] - Anne Howard For sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah.   [00:13:08.300] - Tamara Gruber So I guess the point is, like, where do you start? Do you typically would you fly into Phoenix, would you fly into Vegas. Like what is if you're not driving buddy, you know, where do you usually start?   [00:13:20.510] - Anne Howard And even though it seems like we have an advantage because we do have a camper, we actually have have done this road trip in many ways. So while we love RV and can sing those praises, we've also done it as traditional road trips where we stayed in camping camps and some of the historic park lodges. So I think it's actually just as cool a trip either way. So don't feel bad if you don't have an RV if you wanted to try it.   [00:13:43.220] - Anne Howard I think it's an awesome way to do it. But it's also really tricky to camp in national parks. They fill up fast. They're crowded, like sometimes camping in RV and national parks is not the way to go. So I think you could do it whichever way makes you happy, because there are so many charming lodging options and they're not massive distances. So you it's you're going to get to your destination before sunset and check into a into a camp or a hotel.   [00:14:11.030] - Anne Howard So it doesn't have to be that way, even though I am a fan of RV. But I would say if you are going to fly in and rent a car or rent an RV, flying into Vegas just makes a lot of sense. If you from from Vegas, it's like under three hours to Zion and there's plenty of cool things. One, there's Vegas is its own phenomenon. So if you want to spend the night there just for fun, it's it's a great kid friendly place as well.   [00:14:33.860] - Anne Howard But then you to get to Zion in under three hours versus if you came from Phoenix is more like four hours the Grand Canyon. And it's just kind of a slog and it's like Vegas ready for that road trip and you know, people are coming for it. So I that would be my recommendation.   [00:14:49.010] - Kim Tate That's some great advice. And I think, you know, one other tidbit about that is I'll never forget being in Yellowstone and seeing the campers and even though they. Parking for RVs. You know, it seems like sometimes the stress for those guys getting in and out of some of those turnouts, especially when you're looking at the bison further, you know, in Lamar Valley, there was times where you just couldn't get in there. And that's kind of disappointing.   [00:15:12.640] - Kim Tate So I see what you mean about maybe RV's aren't the best for national parks.   [00:15:16.170] - Anne Howard Also that also small, big RV's are not the best for national parks. There are length restrictions on many of these like wonderful winding roads that you want to be on. So if you are going to rent an RV, like keep it under twenty seven feet, we think the smaller the better. We think the perfect size of twenty two because yeah. You'll get boxed out of certain opportunities because of your length.   [00:15:36.750] - Kim Tate Well so we talked about flying into Vegas. You think that that's a good one. So does that mean then you're like there's a certain direction that you take the loop or a certain order that you hit the hit the six parks.   [00:15:46.480] - Anne Howard Yeah. I mean, from there you're going to go to to Zion and then you're going to then is Bryce one of the Highway 12 is absolutely gorgeous, like going along that way. But then as you're going to also be passing through Escalante National Monument, which is massive. So you want to give that some extra time, if you can, before heading into Capitol Reef, then Canyonlands. And then I had my map up and then my computer crashed.   [00:16:12.270] - Anne Howard And I don't have my map in front of me right now.   [00:16:14.230] - Kim Tate And I think it's Arches.   [00:16:16.020] - Anne Howard Then Arches, then Canylonlands. And then down to Grand Canyon. But then once again, you're going to pass through if you're going to go just the straight Google map, fastest way they're going to have you skip major things. You also have an opportunity from Canyonlands to go through Bears Ears National Monument, which is totally underrated. It is an incredible sacred destination for various Native American tribes. So incredible opportunities to see cliff dwellings and petroglyphs.   [00:16:43.110] - Anne Howard And it's not traveled at all. So that's a gem. We actually lived in that area of Utah for two months doing a house that taking care of lots of turkeys and chickens. So and we lived we actually took care of a house for two park rangers. So they knew all the best places. And we had an incredible time. And then once again, they might want to speed you just to get to take the fastest highway. No, you should certainly take the very slight detour to go through Monument Valley, which is the Navajo Nation.   [00:17:10.740] - Anne Howard So, no, that's not a national park. But the equivalent of a Navajo national park is their tribal parks for Monument Valley. The highly recommend that before just racing down the Grand Canyon.   [00:17:22.140] - Tamara Gruber I once drove through Monument Valley at sunset. And it was so magical. I mean, this area is not an area that I've had a chance to explore very much. But I did once, as I've told I think on the podcast before, I had to drive from San Diego to New York City after 9/11, and we were like, it was me and my boss, because we were stranded there.   [00:17:42.990] - Tamara Gruber And we were like, if we're going to drive this way, we're going to see one thing. And so we decided to stop at the Grand Canyon and we basically had lunch, took a couple of pictures and then drove through Monument Valley up to Moab that night. But it was I think it was also that time that I was there that to see nature so beautifully and then the sun, it just it was kind of like a healing type of moment.   [00:18:03.690] - Tamara Gruber But that area, I think a lot of people do kind of skip over and it's yes, definitely beautiful.   [00:18:09.030] - Anne Howard And then actually one of our favorite, totally underrated state parks. I swear no one goes there. It is. And it's right next to to Monument Valley with like a 15 minute detour is called Gooseneck State Park. So everybody knows what Horseshoe Bend looks like. Right. It's probably the screensaver on your Windows PC right now. It's like that look like it's an arch with a river going around this peninsula. And it's stunning. Well, gooseneck is that Horseshoe Bend Times, too.   [00:18:36.990] - Anne Howard So it's a double loop around two peninsulas with this snaking river, Red Rock, turquoise water. It is absolutely stunning. And it's five bucks to go and a million dollar photo op and you can camp there and no one's there that night and they barbecue pits and the whole thing. So that's that's a fun extra that I feel like I wouldn't have known without the help of my Utah Park Ranger friends.   [00:19:00.090] - Tamara Gruber Yeah. And I feel like especially now, like this year, I think is going to be a little bit insane when it comes to going to a lot of these national parks. I mean, I've already seen arches tweeting almost every day that by like ten, eleven they're full. You know, it's something that people are going to get to really plan in advance and hopefully really look for those other kind of opportunities. But I feel like between the desire for everyone to be outside but still travel this year domestically and then Instagram, you know, the fact that, like now I see so many people are talking about, like, I want to go to Goblin or I want to like these different places that I had never heard of until Instagram.   [00:19:37.170] - Tamara Gruber Right. So everyone's trying to get that photo op. Everyone's there at sunset or sunrise or, you know, the craziness of it. And I just, you know, I couldn't stand crowds before. So now I'm probably going to have, like, what's the phobia for crowds? I don't know.   [00:19:49.110] - Anne Howard But that's why I also because that's I feel similarily about national parks and that's why we discovered public lands. For every national park, it's that's like the most protected designation of public lands, but then it it definitely eases up and opens up from there. So I highly encourage people instead of thinking I have to stay at the the National Park campground, look at the surrounding public lands. That means National Forests, Bureau of Land Management, land, and that's all wide open and it's usually free.   [00:20:20.500] - Anne Howard So and there are no crowds and there are some some wonderful apps to find that kind of thing. I Overlander is a great app to find public lands, one of our favorite, which I will share, even though Mike is sort of territorial over it. But I do. I will share it if that you are one a good steward of the land and two, you leave a review because that's what this app lacks, is the community element of like people saying, hey, watch out for the pothole on the right or o sounds.   [00:20:49.240] - Anne Howard That is even better over here. I Overlander has that. But the app and I'm, I tell you, UCPublic CG, which is Ultimate Campgrounds app, is an incredible, incredible resource to discover public lands and camping opportunities. It's like five dollars for the app and it's so worth that. So that is a great way to kind of get out of the fray of summer like the the national park traffic.   [00:21:13.690] - Tamara Gruber So I know you don't want to give up all of your secrets, but since we're talking about these more off the beaten path parks and things that we should see, do you have a few others that you would recommend? That would be if you are looking for alternatives to some of the national parks or even if you can do a longer trip to add in there?   [00:21:32.440] - Anne Howard Yeah, I mean, Escalante, national monument is massive and one of the coolest hikes ever. It's a challenging road to get out there and it's a kind of a typical hike. But I also did it with some friends and they had their little kids with them and they were having the best time ever. So I've seen, like, kids age seven do it. I've seen dogs do it. But please don't bring your dog. It's way too complicated for that.   [00:21:53.290] - Anne Howard But Utah has amazing slot canyon. So no matter what, you can't leave Utah without hiking a slot canyon to the technical one I was describing. It's actually two that come together called spooky and peekaboo canyons. And it's sometimes it's only as wide as a foot. It's crazy. So a slot canyon, basically these sort of sheer walls that have been carved by a river or an erosion over time. And they kind of create this magical play of light and it's like a little bit of rock scrambling.   [00:22:23.410] - Anne Howard And and it really is a full body experience. And it's totally magic for those. That's a more challenging version, another one that is super cool and very easy and family friendly. And just kind of on your way between Bryce and Escalante is called Willis Creek Canyon. Funny enough, we did it with my mom and we were staying at Escalante. It's a great camping camp. That's a really wonderful base for your trip. She's like, oh, do definitely do Willis Creek.   [00:22:54.070] - Anne Howard And she didn't she didn't really mention that it might be frozen. So we were like ice skating there and well, still kind of through the river at one point. But it's only no matter what, it's only like four inches deep. So in the summer, that's going to feel really good. It's a waiting. You're wading through the water at very, very shallow levels. You're not going to worry. That swept away. And then it's maybe like a mile and a half and then, oh, it's like amazing.   [00:23:19.180] - Anne Howard Slot Canyon appears at the end and it's not very crowded and it's it's really special. And that's like an easy detour, peekaboo and spooky or like a life experience and a drive and of itself, but very cool. So do slot canyon no matter what in Utah. Also like this is the land of true adventure. Do a do something big. Don't you see, I love hiking, but you have opportunities to try new things. So maybe it's doing canyoneering in Orderville slot Canyon near Zion or maybe it's doing a four by four trip in Moab because they have some of the best rock off roading in the world.   [00:23:57.700] - Anne Howard Maybe it's doing the scenic flight to kind of get a sense of the geology from above what you can do for many places. But there's a great one that kind of loops over both canyons and arches that you could do another fun things if you can time your trip or with the full moon. Bryce does they have their astronomy rangers and you can do full moon hikes two nights of the month. So and that's a totally unique way to see the park.   [00:24:25.420] - Anne Howard So, yeah, mix it up, try new adventures, be it hiking, getting a boat at some point, strapping yourself in for some canyoneering or hopping in four by four and challenge yourself to do something new.   [00:24:38.400] - Kim Tate Yeah, I think that's great tips and kind of fun to think beyond, just, you know, like let's look for some fun hikes. You know, it is the adventure and there are soft adventures, you know. You know that you don't have to be, you know, jumping out of an airplane to have some adventures. Yeah.   [00:24:53.880] - Tamara Gruber It's perfect for our teens too right Kim?   [00:24:56.190] - Kim Tate Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. I mean, I could see it being much better to kind of having teenagers if you have. They always like to have something unique that's cool and that they can brag about with friends. It's not just we went on a hike so. Yeah. Any other, you know, a must see attractions or experiences you think. I mean we've talked a lot in the past about, you know, we've talked about the Grand Canyon, the big five, house boating even on Lake Powell.   [00:25:20.610] - Kim Tate But do you think there's any highlights that are certainly not to be missed? You've talked, of course, about, you know, getting beyond the beyond the standard, but what do you think are some of the must dos for that area?   [00:25:31.600] - Anne Howard It was good to know that some of these truly iconic things like, say, for example, hiking the narrows, which is up around the Virgin River, is an amazing experience. But it needs a permit. So it's not a big deal is you need to know that certain big adventures need permits, not too many. But like, that's one of the most Instagramable things ever. Why? Because it's that popular. And as a result, you now need a permit.   [00:25:54.450] - Anne Howard So don't let that deter you. But at the same time, like not, everything's always going to be available to you. I think to avoid some of this rush in general, though, is to know what days of the week you're going to like, maybe get your your national parks midweek and your state parks on the weekend and also your time of year. I think we chat about season later, but time of year is going to make a big difference about what things are available to you.   [00:26:19.650] - Anne Howard We actually loved doing these this road trip in the winter when, like, no one's around and you know it like seeing like the red hoodies embrace of the blanket of snow or the layers of the Grand Canyon like feathered with white. It's an unbelievable. So I wouldn't rule out I don't want my neck to rush to do it this summer when it's the hottest. Like you can hurry up. Actually, spring is a great time to do it. And spring and winter, our favorite times to go to beat some of the crowds and actually see some more unique things.   [00:26:47.880] - Anne Howard More water runs in the spring. More flowers come out in spring.   [00:26:51.780] - Tamara Gruber I'm really glad to hear you say that about winter because there's been so many times where we've talked about doing it as like our we have a spring break in March. That's two weeks. And we're always like, is it going to be too cold or not? And dances are usually we'll head off somewhere internationally, but obviously not now. But is that what we were actually thinking, like, well, hey, maybe next year we can try to do it for March break.   [00:27:15.660] - Tamara Gruber So if it if it's going to be nice in mid-March, it's still pleasant, you know, where you can still access everything. That sounds ideal to me.   [00:27:24.360] - Anne Howard Yeah. And most of these areas like heat up during the day, they might drop in the morning at night, but it's usually pretty much always hiking weather. You disappear, maybe dress a little. And we actually saw the Grand Canyon in a blizzard, a straight blizzard. And but we had we actually had booked a room at the Bright Angel Lodge on the rim. Actually, that not that was luck. That happened to be one room left. And we took it and we woke up to just the sunniest Grand Canyon, all fluffy white.   [00:27:49.980] - Anne Howard It was absolutely unreal. So I was like, what a benefit. We had seen the Grand Canyon the summer. I was like, wow, you can't beat winter. This is unreal. So, yeah, don't let nature deter you all year round is actually quite good. I'd say summer is probably the least desirable time to go. But hey, if that's what your schedule allows for kids, vacations, whatever, if you can make it work.   [00:28:09.400] - Kim Tate Are there any do you think there's any, you know of the hikes of I mean I'm thinking about of course, Big five a little bit, but were there any hikes that you feel like you have to get there early or do you have to make time for this one? Because the the views are just epic? Or do you or do you feel like maybe there's a hike in, say, because I've seen like Bryce, it looks very different than arches, you know?   [00:28:32.610] - Kim Tate So do you are there any that you're like, yeah, take your time, make sure you do get out and see this or anything like that.   [00:28:39.960] - Anne Howard I see. Well, I mean, say in arches like hiking the devil's garden, if you can't do the whole park, what you know, if you're really crunched for time. Well, Devil's Garden has the largest concentration of natural arches in the world. So, like, that's some place to prioritize. But, you know, all of these parks, like our like Zion isn't that big a place. Arches isn't that big a place. Canyonlands is a massive place.   [00:29:04.200] - Anne Howard And actually, Canyonlands is good to know that it's not one entrance. You actually it's almost two totally separate parks. So know that in your planning that the island in the sky in the north end near Moab is like hours away actually from the other end. The needle section, the needle section is actually less traveled and a really lovely and actually I'd say in general and needles is a good place to do this, but throughout is make sure you spend some time understanding, like the Native American history that goes with all of these places, because, of course, the geology says.   [00:29:38.220] - Anne Howard Eye popping, but really there's there's incredible narratives from various, you know, from ancestral Pueblo ones to the more contemporary Navajo who are who hold these places as sacred and who left their mark in their own way. So like, say, for example, when you're driving the the long road needles to get to the section of Canyonlands newspaper Rock is a quick little stop. But you could certainly miss it if you're not paying attention. And it shows petroglyphs dating back two thousand years and starting with ancestral lines.   [00:30:11.910] - Anne Howard But then, like other groups have layered on and layered on so called newspaper because like literally like kind of putting the news as time goes on on this rock. So it was incredible concentration of petroglyphs that actually are go pretty close to print. So it's very interesting the how different groups, you know, what they're what their symbols were and and spending some time learning about that also on the ancestral puebloan and sort of Native American history of the area.   [00:30:42.180] - Anne Howard Bear Ears there's one place called there's many places, but the Butler Wash ruins is very easily accessible just off the road. And that's where you get to see amazing cliff dwellings from like the twelve hundreds. So it's so cool to see almost like a city in the rocks and in Mesa Verde National Park is an example of that in Colorado, the canyon all the way to Colorado on this trip. We'll know that you can also do it in Utah.   [00:31:05.730] - Kim Tate That's fabulous tips. I think that's good. And I think that's what more people need to be willing to do to help with the overcrowding that we're experiencing in our national parks is you know, I appreciate you guys being such a great voice for that of recognizing, like you said, the heritage of these lands and then also, you know, getting beyond just the borders and the national park entrance and looking for the stories that are around those areas, too.   [00:31:28.110] - Anne Howard Yeah, absolutely. And one thing another way to kind of beat the crowds. And I will shamelessly plug that. We we wrote a book about camping and but it's because we're really passionate about this way to experience the outdoors. And I think particularly when it comes to this sort of everyone checking the same camp or the national parks or trying to be at the historic lodge, they offer great opportunities to places to look into. Under canvas is the most known, but they've kind of built their model about finding the public lands and building their beautiful safari tents just outside the national park.   [00:32:05.050] - Anne Howard So you can get that serenity again. They are more they are higher end or I'd say a higher price point, rather. But another really amazing company who's doing something similar at a more at a lower price point. Equally awesome is called Wunder Camp. And they have a series of camps that are around some of these national parks to where they're setting up tents and helping you kind of set up so that you could be they had various programing. So it could be you're doing the cooking or they're doing the cooking.   [00:32:35.460] - Anne Howard But that's that's a great way to be outdoors. And, yeah, I think I just think life is such a cool way to get in touch with nature and have that serenity and meet the crowds and try something different.   [00:32:46.650] - Tamara Gruber Yeah, I agree. Kim and I have both stated under canvas what can you've been outside a glacier and Yellowstone and I was outside of Mt. Rushmore. And I love that experience. I mean, I've never been drawn to camping as much because I love my bathrooms and things like that. So I really like this kind of in-between world of camping. And it it's just such a unique experience that even if you don't do it for the your entire trip, just to do it for a few nights and have that experience, it really it makes things stand out.   [00:33:14.850] - Tamara Gruber It's very memorable, certainly much more memorable than, you know, staying at the Holiday Inn or whatever. So. Yeah, yeah. So, you know, we've talked a lot about some of the off the beaten path things. And I feel like one of the things that I know I struggle with and I think a lot of people do is letting go of something like, you know, everyone does this and you feel like this pressure like this.   [00:33:38.580] - Tamara Gruber Well, I have to get that picture, too. How can I come back from this trip and not have a picture of Horseshoe Bend or, you know, like some of these things, like you feel this pressure of like, I must do all the things and I'm just wondering, like, what are some of the ones that people feel are so like, you have to do this. You have to do the narrows or, you know, something else that you would say, you know what?   [00:33:58.950] - Tamara Gruber You really don't have to like you're not going to be missing anything. It's OK if you let that one go. Are there any that you think maybe are worth leaving off the list and to be able to fit in some of these other great experiences that you've talked about?   [00:34:12.430] - Anne Howard You know, like, say, for example, we were we showed my mom part of the Grand Circle, actually, we did the complete grand circle with her over the course of two trips and then we wanted to pack and that a lot that day and went to Bryce. And I really need to do the full 18 miles. It's in it's an in and out, so it's not a loop. So you're making the choice to go all the way out that way and turn around like the best of us, really on the front end.   [00:34:37.060] - Anne Howard So not just because it's not fabulous and you have all day go for it and you're going to it's going to get less crowded as you go. There is a benefit to completing, but that's one small example of like, you know, you don't need to do the full thing to feel like you've achieved the goal. And also knowing that when you hike to the bottom of the Grand Canyon, you need to hike back up. So be very aware of how that it's going to make your body feel because you probably haven't hike straight down and then straight up to that degree ever in your life and you are going to feel it.   [00:35:08.980] - Anne Howard So not to say you can't do it, but know that you might just be really sore. And once whatever you do, it's hot and it's you need to be packing your own water and to plan for life pretty extreme. So it's it's more than a mile deep, but it's a mile like you've never experienced before switchbacks. So it's more than a mile. So. Yeah. So really weigh in your mind if you need to go to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and plan accordingly, because it's going to take you all day and you might with kids, you don't want to be stuck in the dark and not make it back in time.   [00:35:41.230] - Anne Howard So take that with a real cautionary tale.   [00:35:45.390] - Kim Tate Yeah, that's a great tip, so we will wrap up and just ask if there's any final tips that you think people should consider. I was just thinking, you know, when you were talking that maybe this is a perfect kind of trip to make sure that you look into maybe buying a annual national parks pass, but maybe also Utah State Parks pass as well. I don't know if they offer it, but might be kind of a good idea. But do you have any tips for families that are thinking of planning this Southwest Grand Circle Road trip?   [00:36:12.120] - Anne Howard Yeah, mean, I think it's just so great the national parks pass with 80 dollars. And if it just inspires any other trip in your year, it's certainly worth buying because it encompasses like hundreds of sites that gets you in for free. And it's just 100 percent do that. And it spurs our park system, which I think is great. Utah State Park Pass is actually a really good tip. I can't tell you specifics on that, but probably worth it.   [00:36:35.190] - Anne Howard And we are big fans of the book, two National Geographic Books, one that's called Secrets to the National Parks and another one that is the scenic Highways and Byways book, which covers the Southwest in great detail, much less the entire country. We reference that book every time we take a big drive. It's fantastic. And then actually we wrote two books, so Ultimate Journeys four two that's published by National Geographic as well. We we love the Southwest and we have various sections.   [00:37:06.930] - Anne Howard We go in super detail on MOAB, which is the home of of Arches and Canyonlands, and then we have a different Southwest road trip. Sections of that could be a great resource for you and also supports us. And it's a really great book. And and then, as we said comfortably, while others are glad book, which has got a lot of SWS options to.   [00:37:24.590] - Kim Tate Perfect. We'll definitely link to those in the show notes. Thanks, guys.   [00:37:28.850] - Tamara Gruber So now for maybe an easier question, I don't know. But it's a question that we ask all of our guests, and that is, what do you wear when you travel? It's hard for you because you guys are always traveling. But so maybe we should focus it on the Southwest. What would you recommend? What is your go to gear when you're doing one of these kind of road trips?   [00:37:47.000] - Anne Howard Oh, my God, you need good hat. You need some strong sun, some incredibly strong sun. You need that, like wide brim, full ball caps. Not going to cut it like you need a proper sun hat. And yeah, knowing that the temperature swing is massive from morning to night. So, yes, layers being key. And I'm not a close person really. It's hard for me. I like, you know, since I literally drive with my closet, I have all things with me at all times.   [00:38:15.860] - Anne Howard So like I've become a terrible packer because like I always have everything with me. But yes, it's a hot place and, you know, hydrating and some coverage and all that is like more important than ever.   [00:38:26.780] - Kim Tate Do you have any favorite, like, shoes that you guys like to wear that works well for various rock shopping and hiking?   [00:38:35.090] - Anne Howard Yeah, I mean, these are a little heavier, but I think they look cool without looking. They don't. They are they're heavy duty. Then they look and they're kind of like Mike, even worse is like jeans and it still looks good. A solo makes a really great, sturdy hiking boot that's actually like not so clunky and aesthetically pleasing. So that's that's great. They have women's and men's. So in the market for any boots I'm probably will get well is the next round.   [00:38:58.370] - Anne Howard And I have these leggings that I swear by because now I'm discovered leggings can have pockets and I really just want like carry all my stuff, like to put a phone in my pocket, a little bit of money as needed. And even your car keys like without having to feel like you're jingling, jangling and things are being knocked around. Is this brand called Kyodan? And they are so soft and they have deep pockets. So I kind of tend to wear those when I hike.   [00:39:30.450] - Kim Tate Great, that sounds awesome, thanks so much for joining us and why don't you let our listeners know where they can find you guys online and follow along on your adventures?   [00:39:39.090] - Anne Howard Yeah, thanks so much. Has been really, really nice to you podcast. So we are we are we I say we my husband Mike and I with our couples travel blog is called Honey Trek. So Trek, like a long walk around the world and we are all over the place, but it's at Honey Trek across Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, wherever you like to hang out. And Honey Trek is also sort of the hub of our our nine years on the road and glamping tips and road trip.   [00:40:07.080] - Anne Howard We have a lot of road trip content in general, and it's also where you can get signed copies of our books for gifts or for your own collection.   [00:40:15.600] - Tamara Gruber That's perfect. Thank you so much. We'll link to those in the show notes and you know where you're going to be after Mexico.   [00:40:22.110] - Anne Howard We bought a one way ticket. I don't want to be in Mexico where the camper is parked in Northern California. So, yeah, I mean, the trajectory. Might we kind of follow the seasons to we are going to probably head more north. Check out the far reaches of Northern California, which I think most people don't get to. Maybe check out Lassen Volcanic National Park, and the sort of the wild north of California and maybe into Idaho.   [00:40:47.070] - Tamara Gruber Good. Well, have safe travels and thank you again.   [00:40:50.580] - Anne Howard Yeah. Thanks so much.   [00:40:55.800] - Tamara Gruber We are back and thanks again for listening. And if you do have any questions for us or, you know, travel advice that you need, just a reminder to send in a message, a podcast@vacationmavens.com or talk to us on social media.   [00:41:09.390] - Kim Tate And in the meantime, tune in in another two weeks, because I'm going to be sharing all about my Oregon to California coast road trip and sharing kind of some of the things we did along the way. So stay tuned for that. Can't wait.  

In this episode of the Suite Spot, we dig into the archives to unveil a never-before-heard episode on how hotels can prep for the busy summer season. Host Ryan Embree is joined by Director of Marketing, Anne Sandoval, to share tips and tricks on how to get the most out of this exciting time of year. Ryan and Anne start off by talking about why it’s critical for hotels to maintain their online presence – especially as recovery and travel ramp up for the summer. They share social media strategies to capture guest interest, like promoting local events and attractions. Anne talks about the relationship between guests and review opportunities. They finish the episode by stressing the importance of organization and consistency during such a crucial period for hotels. If you are interested in learning more about optimizing your hotel’s digital marketing for the busy season, you can reach us by calling or texting us at 407-984-7455 or email us at info@travelmediagroup.com. Suite Spot Podcast · 74 - Prepping Your Hotel For The Busy Season Episode Transcript Our podcast is produced as an audio resource. Transcripts are generated using speech recognition software and human editing and may contain errors. Before republishing quotes, we ask that you reference the audio. Hello everyone, this is Ryan Embree, host of the Suite Spot, what you're about to listen to today was actually an episode that we had prepped over a year ago. Like many things, this episode was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, but we felt with the hotel industry really starting to recover and starting to see some strong numbers heading into the spring and summer seasons, a lot of these tips and best practices that we shared in this episode really can be applied to right now. So with that being said, we hope you enjoy and learn some really great tips on how to prep your hotel for the busy season. Ryan Embree: Welcome to Suite Spot, where hoteliers check-in and we check out what's trending in hotel marketing. I'm your host, Ryan Embree. Hello, hello everyone and welcome to another episode of the Suite Spot. This is your host, as always, Ryan Embree working on a great episode for you today. I think hoteliers, around the country, are getting really excited. We're coming out of the winter into the spring and summer season soon. So today's episode is actually a follow up from a topic that we covered all the way back in October 2019, where we were really prepping our hotels for the slow season, things that we could do with our social media, our reputation - to just get geared up and ready for kind of a slower time for hotels around the country. Today we're going to talk about the other side of that, an extension of that episode. We're going to look at how hoteliers can really prep their properties for the busiest time of the year. So with me today, to share some insights, is a very frequent guest of the Suite Spot and that is our Director of Marketing, Anne Sandoval. So Anne, welcome again to the Suite Spot. Anne Sandoval: Hey Ryan, thanks for having me back. Ryan Embree: As I mentioned, I'm excited. Hoteliers are excited, we're starting to get geared up, travelers are starting to plan their vacations, road trips. We're excited. How can we start prepping our hotels for this busy, busy season? So I wanted to first start with the question of why. We know time is of the essence in a hotelier's world, so why should hoteliers even spend the time or prep their digital presence for this season, if they know they're already going to be busy? Anne Sandoval: That's a great question and I think a lot of hoteliers are probably asking it, but we know that no matter what time of year it is, travelers are using a variety of channels to help make their booking decisions, but during and leading up to those busy summer months, we've got an influx of travelers looking at Google listings, online review websites, OTA search results, and on social media.

Today Anne is talking with Jake Sloofman, an arborist living in Brooklyn. They discuss his big reading goal, the pressure to read “serious literature,” and how to alternate light and heavy reads for a balanced reading life. So Anne serves up a mix of weighty literature and frothy “palate cleanser” books to keep things balanced. View the full list of titles and a transcript of the episode on our website https://whatshouldireadnextpodcast.com/277.You can follow Jake on Instagram.Thanks to this week's sponsors:Rothy’s shoes are seamless and fully machine washable, making them ultra comfortable and ultra convenient. Every time they need a refresh, you can simply toss them in the washing machine! Through May 9th 2021, you can get $20 off your first purchase of $100 or more!Trying a variety of styles with ThirdLove is easy, and helps you figure out what works best for your shape and wardrobe. ThirdLove knows there’s a perfect bra for everyone, so right now they are offering our listeners 20% off your first order.Brooklinen is the perfect place to find all the comforts for home, including ultra-soft towels—they offer varying levels of plushness, so you can choose the towel experience that feels most spa-like to you! What Should I Read Next listeners can use promo code READNEXT get $25 off, with a minimum purchase of $100 at Brooklinen.com.

Tiaras. Pink starbursts. Ann with an E. So Anne. Professor Bhaer. Etcetera.

On this episode of the Healthy, Wealthy and Smart Podcast, I welcome Anne Stefanyk on the show to discuss website optimization.  As Founder and CEO of Kanopi Studios, Anne helps create clarity around project needs, and turns client conversations into actionable outcomes. She enjoys helping clients identify their problems, and then empowering the Kanopi team to execute great solutions. Anne is an advocate for open source and co-organizes the Bay Area Drupal Camp. In this episode, we discuss: -Why your website is one of your most important marketing tools -The art of simplicity in branding -How to track the customer lifecycle -The top tools you need to upgrade your website -And so much more! Resources: Anne Stefanyk Twitter Drupal Anne Stefanyk LinkedIn Kanopi Website HotJar Google Pagespeed Accessibility Insights WAVE Web Accessibility Google/Lighthouse Use user research to get insight into audience behavior How to make your site last 5 years (possibly more)   A big thank you to Net Health for sponsoring this episode!  Learn more about Four Ways That Outpatient Therapy Providers Can Increase Patient Engagement in 2020!   For more information on Anne: As Founder and CEO of Kanopi Studios, Anne helps create clarity around project needs and turns client conversations into actionable outcomes. She enjoys helping clients identify their problems, and then empowering the Kanopi team to execute great solutions. Anne fell into the Drupal community in 2007 and admired both the community’s people and the constant quest for knowledge. After holding Director-level positions at large Drupal agencies, she decided she was ready to open Kanopi Studios in 2013. Her background is in business development, marketing, and technology, which allows her to successfully manage all facets of the business as well as provide the technical understanding to allow her to interface with engineers. She has accumulated years of professional Drupal hands-on experience, from basic websites to large Drupal applications with high-performance demands, multiple integrations, complicated migrations, and e-commerce including subscription and multi-tenancy. Anne is an advocate for open source and co-organizes the Bay Area Drupal Camp. When she’s not contributing to the community or running her thoughtful web agency, she enjoys yoga, meditation, treehouses, dharma, cycling, paddle boarding, kayaking, and hanging with her nephew.   Read the full transcript below: Karen Litzy (00:01): Hey Anne, welcome to the podcast. I am so excited and happy to have you on. Anne Stefanyk (00:06): Nice to see you. Thank you so much for having me. Karen Litzy (00:09): So before we get into what we're going to talk about today, which is kind of how to use your website as a marketing tool, and that's putting it lightly, we're going to really dive into that, but I want to talk about kanopi. So for a lot of my listeners, they know that I'm a huge proponent of female entrepreneurs of women in physical therapy. We have a whole conference for it every year. And I love the fact that kanopi is a majority female company. So can you talk about the inception and kind of the journey that you've taken with the company over the years? Anne Stefanyk (00:47): Sure, I'd be happy to. So I founded kanopi kind of off the side of my desk and it actually came from meeting a need that I needed to take care of with my family. My family became quite sick and I had to stop working and as a result it forced my hand to pick up some contract work. And that contract works. Certain cuts soon kind of snowballed into, Oh my goodness, I have actual projects. I probably should hire some people and get out of my personal email to run the business. But it did come from a place where I needed some lifestyle flexibility. So I built a company that is fully distributed as well. And as a result of the business model that we created, it allowed us to really attract and retain really great talent. Outside of major cities. And I have a lot of single moms or a lot of moms and I have some single dads too, but we really are able to, with our business model, attract and retain a lot of top talent. Anne Stefanyk (01:39): And a lot of those are girls. So we're over 50% women and there's only really two men in our leadership, a team of nine. So there's seven girl bosses out of the nine that run the company. And we really have focused on helping people with their websites and making it really clear and simple and easy to understand. We find that there's always too much jargon out there. There's too much complexity and that we all are just craving simplicity. So building the business was twofold, was one to obviously help people with their websites. What was also to really create impactful futures for my staff and give them opportunities to kind of grow and expand in new ways. So I'm really proud that as kanopi has formed our team, I'm part of our retention plan has to really been to take care of our families and put our families first. Anne Stefanyk (02:28): Because if we realize that if you take care of the family, the family takes care of you. And so we've extended a lot of different benefits to be able to support the family journey as part of the business. And we find that as a female entrepreneur, really recognizing and appreciating that we need flexible lifestyles to be able to rear children or take care of elderly parents or we have a lot of demands as females on us. I mean the men do too, don't get me wrong, but as a female I'm creating a space of work where we can create that space for everybody really makes me proud. And happy. Karen Litzy (03:03): Yeah, I mean it's just in going through the website and reading about it, I was just like, Oh gosh, this woman's amazing. Like what a great way to go to work every day. Kind of knowing that you're staying true to what your values are and your mission is and that people really seem to like it. Anne Stefanyk (03:22): Yeah. Yeah. We always say it's not B to B or B to C, it's H to H it's human to human. And what do we need to get really clear to speak to our humans to help them, you know, move forward in their journey, whatever that looks like for them. Karen Litzy (03:34): Right. And, so now let's talk about that journey and it's kind of starts with the website. So let's talk about how you can make your website an effective marketing tool. Because not everyone, especially when you're first starting out, you don't have a lot of money to throw around to advertising and things like that. But we all have a website or maybe we all should have a website and have some sort of web presence. So how can we make that work for us? Anne Stefanyk (04:00): Yeah, definitely. You need a website. It's like a non negotiable factor these days and it really doesn't matter. The kind of website you have, especially when you're just getting started. There's lots of great tools out there from Wix, Squarespace, even WordPress that comes with templates or pre-baked themes. And I think the most important part is to really connect with your user and figure out who your user is and what kind of website needs to support their journey. But yeah, definitely you have to have a website and you actually have to have a good website. Having a bad website is the non, like, it's really bad because it will detract people so quickly and they'll never come back. So you pretty much have that first impression. And then if you don't make it, they won't come back. I think there's a well known stamp that if your site doesn't load within four seconds or three seconds they'll leave. And if it doesn't load within four seconds, they will never come back to that URL. Karen Litzy (04:56): Wow. All right. That's a great stat. I'm going to be, I'm going to go onto my computer, onto my website and start my timer, you know, so there's some really cool tools. Anne Stefanyk (05:06): We can include them in the show notes, but the Google has a page speed test where you can actually put your website URL and see how fast it is and give recommendations on what to fix. Karen Litzy (05:15): Oh perfect. Yeah, and we'll put all those links in the website and we'll get to that in a little bit about those different kinds of tools. But let's talk about, you said, you know, you're human to human business. We have to know who are we putting our website out there for. So how do we do that? Anne Stefanyk (05:34): Yeah, that's a great question. So when you're first starting off, you probably all like if you're just starting your business, you're just trying to figure out who you serve, but you may have special things that you'd like to, you know, that you're passionate about or you specialize in. Like for example, maybe you really specialize in women's health or sports medicine or you know, one of those things. And just to kind of get clear on who is your best customer. If you've been in business for a couple of years, you probably have a pretty good idea who your ideal customer is and how they engage with you. So first off, it's really thinking about who your target audience is and what are their needs. So when we're thinking about a website and thinking about that user journey, you often identify them as certain people. So you may have like, Mmm you know, kind of creating different avatars or different personas so you can really personify these people and help understand their journey. Anne Stefanyk (06:27): And from there you kind of understand that if someone's coming to you for physical therapy, there's going to be different mind States that they come into you with. So when you first have your website, you're going to want to, of course, a lot of people just put up who they are. Like, you know, this is my practice, this is who I am. This is my credit, my accreditation, and my certifications. And maybe maybe here's some testimonials. And then we run and we go off to the races. And that's great to get you out the door. Once you started your business, you're going to recognize that you're people, when they call you, they're going to have a million questions and there's ways to answer those questions using your website. And as a solo entrepreneur, like I ran my business by myself for three years, which means I was everything and I wore all the hats. Anne Stefanyk (07:09): I was the project manager, I was the designer, I was all the things that was the marketer, was the, I know that feeling well. So it took me like three years to operationalize. And I think the first thing I did as a female entrepreneur, I hired an assistant. I would highly recommend that as being one of your first hires as an entrepreneur. And that's just someone who can do all the little itty bitty details and then move on to whatever that looks like for you. But when you're building your website, the next level you really need to take is it serving my humans? Is it serving my audience? So are they able to get the information they need? And I think this strange time that we're in, we're all, this is an opportunity for us to look at our own website and our own stuff and say, is this the best representation possible? Anne Stefanyk (07:52): Because no longer are they just picking up the phone and calling you because your practice is probably closed. You're at home right now, your phones, maybe you if you have them redirected, but either way they're going to your website first. So it's like having the right information there at the right time for the right person. And that really comes to the user journey and that's where you know, if someone is just broken their ankle and they're now told by their doctor, you have to go into physical therapy, that's their first stage as they now are going to Google and saying, you know, PT for San Francisco and interestingly enough as Google wants to keep you there, so here you are. You user is Googling for you or Googling for physical therapy wherever, San Francisco, San Jose, wherever, and up comes the Google listings. If you can get past that point, then they go into your website and they're going to click open a bunch of them. Anne Stefanyk (08:43): That's what we call, you know, your awareness phase. They're becoming aware of you. There's certain things that a user wants to see in that phase. So understanding of someone's looking for you, they're going to, Oh yeah, they specialize in ankles. And I really think you know, Oh, that's person's for me. Versus now they're in the consideration stage and now they've chose likely, but Sally over here and James and Jimmy and we're figuring out which PT to go to, then that's a different level of content and what are they looking at to compare and contrast. And then when they've actually decided to work with you, then there's another layer of content you have to consider. So, Oh, I've decided to work where they're located. How do I get there? Was there anything I need to prepare their forms I need to fill out in advance? Anne Stefanyk (09:27): And then you even have the persona of the user once they've actually gone through all your services as I imagine. And therapy. A lot of you folks are getting referral and word of mouth. Let's nurture that. Let's use the website to nurture the word of mouth and referral work. Let's give your patients a place to go really easily to provide feedback, which will then change, you know, getting those Google reviews up leads to a higher ranking on that Google page. So if you understand where they began and where they pop out at the end, kind of map it all together. You'll start to see your gaps.   Karen Litzy: And is it possible to go through sort of a quick example of what that might look like? So if someone's there on Google, they hit Google, they click on your website, you just said if it doesn't load within a couple of seconds, they're gone. Anne Stefanyk (10:14): Right? So that's a good awareness phase situation, right? What else? Someone's there, they're just click, click, click trying to find someone. What is it that they're looking for in that awareness stage? Like what are they, what is going to be like, Ooh, I like this, this person. I'm moving them from the awareness bucket to the consideration bucket. Yeah, yeah. So they need to see themselves in the way that their problem gets solved. So when they look at the website, they can say, Oh yeah, that person had the same problem and they got help. And then, Oh, look at their results. Oh look, there's a picture of them, you know, back on their skateboard six months later as part of this patient follow-up log. Oh, we don't, you know. So that's the kind of stuff is that when users really want to just be able to see themselves, they crave simplicity. Anne Stefanyk (11:01): And so often I think that if we're too close to it, we don't actually see how complex our stuff is. And sometimes when we're really smart and we have degrees in specialized things, we use vocabulary that our users are not even aware of yet. So it's really when you're talking to getting them from that awareness into considering you, it's about using really basic common language. It's about guiding them through a bit of a story. People love to read stories. So showing them like, Oh, you know, I was really showing another patient and showing the patient journey that all, I considered multiple companies locally, but I ultimately went with Sally as a PT because this, and just showing those things helps the user kind of see the whole journey so they can say, okay, okay, if you've never broken your ankle before, have no idea what to expect. You've never gone to physical therapy, you have no idea what to expect. And just the anticipation, if you can show them what snacks they feel a sense of relief that they'll be taken care of. Karen Litzy (12:04): Yeah. So what I'm hearing is that your testimonial page on your website's pretty important, is that something that should be front and center on the homepage? Anne Stefanyk (12:16): Well, that's an interesting thing. I think the main thing you want to use that front and center is being really clear about what you do. Right? Some people like to put these big sentences up there, but getting to know your user and the problem they have and this, you know, getting to how you're going to solve the problem is the most important part of that, of that real estate upfront. I will warn everybody that please don't use carousels. They're a big fad and they're just a fad. They're from a usability standpoint. And what happens is the end user thinks that whatever you put in your carousel is what you do. So if you're promoting an event in your carousel, they'll think that you're just doing the events. Anne Stefanyk (13:01): They won't even know that you're a physical therapist. Really clear upfront about what you do. You know, like I help people with, you know, however it goes, and then provide supporting content. So a testimonial is wonderful if it can also be like imbedded within a bigger story. So it tells the full story. I like that video. I mean everybody has an iPhone. So, or at least access to video really easily. You could do a quick little video testimonial with one of your clients over zoom for two minutes to say, Hey, you're one of my favorite PT clients and can you get on a quick video with me and just do a video testimonial. That's great way to leverage video content on your website to help the user see themselves as what the solution's going to be. Karen Litzy (13:47): Yeah. Great, great, awesome. And then one stipulation I would say on that is talk to your lawyer because you'll need them to sign a release for HIPAA purposes, right? To make sure that they know exactly where this video is going to be. You have to be very clear on that. Okay, great. So we're out of the awareness phase, so we're in consideration. So let's say it's between me and one other PT in New York city. What should I be looking at on my website to get that person from consideration to yes. Anne Stefanyk (14:20): So one of the greatest ways to do stuff is actually a very tried and it's email marketing or text-based marketing. So if you can capture an email during that awareness phase, even if it's just like you know, Mmm. Interested in getting some tips and tricks on how to rejuvenate your bone health during, you know, it doesn't have to be like sign up for a newsletter or sign up for this. It could be just a very simple, if you know your user is coming there specifically for a thing and you can provide some type of value added content, then there might be some small way to get a snippet of data so that you can continue the conversation. Cause most people are just bombarded with information and overwhelmed. So if there's any way to connect with them so you can feed them information. But another great way to kind of pull them into that consideration content is once you've got their eyeballs hooked and you're in, there is again to kind of figure out what are the common things, questions they need to have, they have answers they need answers to. Anne Stefanyk (15:22): And this might be from your experience, just answering phone calls when people are starting to talk to you. But it's like the questions like you know, maybe how long does it take for me to heal, you know, will I have different types of medicine I'm going to have to take? How much homework will there be? Do I need any special equipment? That's kind of, you know, just showing that you're the expert in the field and you have the answers to questions they didn't even know they had to ask. That kind of aha moment makes them feel really trusted. They trust you because they go, Oh I didn't even think about asking that question. Oh my goodness, I'm so glad they thought about that. I feel so taken care of. And that's where I think a lot of websites drop the ball is they straight up say like this is what we do, here's some testimonials. And they don't put all that soft content and that builds the trust. Can be a little blog, a little FAQ section and this is all like non technical stuff. You don't need a developer to do any of this. It's mostly just your writing time. Karen Litzy (16:18): Yeah, no and it's making me go through my head of my FAQ, so I'm like, Hmm, maybe I need to revisit. That's the one page I just sort of did a revamp of my website. We were talking about this before we went on, but I actually did not go to my FAQ page cause I thought to myself, Oh, it's probably good. It's probably not. I need to go back and do a little revamp on that too, just to think about some of the questions that I've been getting from patients recently and how does this work and things like that. Especially now with COVID. You know, like what about tele-health? What about this or about that? Anne Stefanyk (16:51): Yeah. Google loves when you update your content. Google loves it. Google loves it so much. It is one of the biggest disservices you can do is build your website and leave it. That's just not healthy. People think you have to rebuild your website every two to three years. That's who we are. That's bananas. You have to do it. If you just take care of your website and you nurture it and you love it and you make it, you make it work and you continually work on it and maybe that's just an hour a week, maybe it's an hour every month, whatever it is. Just a little bit of attention really goes a long way and it is something that we believe a website should last for at least 10 years, but that means you got to take care of it, right. A lot of clients come to me and say, Oh well, you know we're going to have to rebuild this in three years, and I'm like, no, you shouldn't. Anne Stefanyk (17:31): It should be totally fine. It's just like if you get a house right, if you don't do anything with your house a hundred years later, it's probably demolished. Like you're going to tear it down versus you've got to do the roof and you've got to replace the carpets and you got to do the perimeter drain. Right. It's kind of the website stuff too. I mean, Google will throw you curve balls if you're spending a lot time on social. Unless you're getting direct business from social media, don't worry about it so much. Google has changed their algorithms, which means that social doesn't count for as much as it did. Oh, so if you're spending two or three hours a week scheduling social, unless you're directly getting benefit, like from direct users, finding one social tone that way down and spend more time writing blogs, spending more time getting you know content on your website is, that's what matters from a Google standpoint. Karen Litzy (18:16): Good to know. Gosh, this is great. So all right, the person has now moved from consideration. They said, yes, I'm going to go and see Karen. This is what I've decided. Awesome. So now how can I make their patient journey a little bit easier?   Anne Stefanyk: So we started at Google, they got from awareness to consideration. They said yes. Now what? Yeah, now what? So it's continuing the conversation and creating kind of being ahead of them. So text messages, 99% of text messages are open and read. Okay. Yeah, I think it's like 13 to 20% of emails are open read. So it would be skillful for you to gather a phone number so then you can text them, alerts, reminders, et cetera. That's a great way. There's a wonderful book called how to, what is it? Never lose a customer again. And it's beautiful. It's a beautiful book. Anne Stefanyk (19:11): It applies to any business. And it really talks about like how when you're engaging with a new client, the first two stages of that are the are the sales and presales. But then you have six steps. Once a person becomes your clients on how to nurture and engage and support that client journey. And that might just be simply as like if they're deciding to work with you and they book their first appointments, there's a lot of cool video. You could just do a little video recording and say, you know, thank you so much for booking an appoint with me. I'm so excited. I really honor the personal relationship that we have together and I want to build trust. So this is a just, and then giving them like a forum to then ask the question to you. So just building that relationship. Cause even though your clients, I mean if they're coming for PT, they might just be a onetime client. Anne Stefanyk (19:57): But again, they also might have lots of friends and family and that works. So when their friends and family and network happened to have that, how do you also kind of leverage the website that way? But a lot of it is just clarity. And you'll notice that big way to find out what's missing is interview your last few clients that have signed up, find out what they found was easy, what was difficult, what they wish they had more information. And if they're a recent enough client, they'll still remember that experience and us humans love to help. It's in their nature, right? So you should never feel worried about asking anybody for advice or insights on this. You know, there's even a little tool that you can put on your websites. It's a tool, there's a free version called Hotjar, hot and hot jar. Anne Stefanyk (20:47): And it's pretty easy to install. We actually have a blog post on how to install it too. It's really, we'll put that blog posts, but what it allows you to do is it allows you to see where people are clicking and whether they're not clicking on your website. So you can actually analyze, you know it's all anonymous, right? It's all anonymously tracked, but you can do screencast and you can do with these color heatmaps, you can kind of see where people are going. You can track this and it's free, right? Three you can do up to three pages for free. So I feel like the guys looking at stuff like that, you kind of get the data that you need to figure out where your gaps are because what you don't know is what you don't know, right? So I first recommend like getting clear on who your user is, you know, if you specifically take care of a certain set, figuring out where their journey is, what kind of content you'd need for each of those and what the gaps are. And then filled out a content calendar to fill the gaps. Karen Litzy (21:42): Got it. And a content calendar could be like a once a month blog post. It doesn't have to be every day. And I even think that can overwhelm you're patients or potential patients, right? Cause we're just inundated. There's so much noise, but if you have like a really great blog that comes out once a month and gets a lot of feedback on it, then people will look forward to that. Anne Stefanyk (22:11): Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. And I mean, humans want to get clarity, they want to receive value. And right now we live in an intention economy where everything is pinging at them. So realistically, the only way to break through the noise is just to be really clear and provide what they need. Simple. It's just simple. It's actually, you just simplify it, remove the jargon, you know, make it easy. And I mean a blog post, it could be as short as 300 words. You don't need to write a massive thing. You can even do a little video blog. Yeah. You don't like writing, you can just do a little video blog and embedded YouTube video and boom, you're done. Right? Karen Litzy (22:46): Yeah. Yeah. I love this because everything that you're saying doesn't take up a lot of time. Cause like we said before, when you're first starting out as a new entrepreneur, you feel like you've been pulled in a million different directions. But if you can say, I'm going to take one hour, like you said, one hour a month to do a website check-in, right? One hour a month to get a blog post together or shoot a quick video. Like you said, we've all got phones embedded in every device we own these days. So it doesn't take a lot. And I love all those suggestions. Okay. So now I'm in the nurturing phase and what we've done is, because I didn't use jargon, I was simple, clear to the point, filled in the gaps for them. Now those patients that who have come to see me are referring their friends to me and we're starting it all over again. So it's sort of this never ending positive cycle. Anne Stefanyk (23:41): Exactly, exactly. And that's what we really frame. We call it continuous improvement, which is the methodology of that. You always need to be taking care of it, nurturing it, loving it. Because if you just let it sit, it will do you no good. Right. And that's where you know, when you're that little bit of momentum and it's about pacing yourself and choosing one goal at a time. Like if you're feeling like, Oh my gosh, where am I going to start? What am I going to do? You know, just say, okay, I just want my site to go faster. Just pick one goal. You run it through the speed test, it's scoring forward of a hundred you're like, Oh, I need to make my site faster. So then you look at that and you say, okay, I've learned, you know, big images create large page speed load. So it'll tell, you can go through and look at your images and say, Oh, I need to resize this image. Or maybe I need, if I'm using WordPress, put a plugin that automatically resizes all my images. You know, a lot of it is content driven that you can kind of make your cycle faster with an accessibility. Accessibility is so dear and near to my heart. Karen Litzy (24:44): When you say accessibility for a website, what exactly does that mean? Anne Stefanyk (24:48): I mean, yes. So that means that it is technically available for people of all types of ranges of ability from someone who is visually impaired to someone who is physically impaired, temporarily or permanently disabled. So if you think about someone who's got a broken arm and maybe it's her dominant arm. I'm doing everything with my left. Try using a screen reader on your own website and you will be shocked that if you can't type you know with your hands and you're going to dictate to it, you'll be a, is how your computer does not actually understand your words. So it's about making your website really technically accessible with consideration. Four, font size, color contrast. Yeah. Images need to have what we call alt tags, which is just a description. So if your image is like one, two, three, four, five dot JPEG, you would actually want to rename it as lady sitting in a chair reading in a book dot JPEG because that's what a screen reader reads. Oh. So it's about the technical stuff, so that if somebody needs to use a screen reader or if somebody can't use their hands from physical, they can't type, they're reading, they're listening to the website. It's about structural, putting it together correctly so the tools can output. Karen Litzy (26:12): Mmm. Wow. I never even thought of that. Oh my gosh, this is blowing my mind. Anyway, so there's tools out there to look, let's talk about if you want to just maybe give a name to some of those tools. So how about to check your websites? Anne Stefanyk (26:28): Yeah, so it's Google page speed and it's just a website that you can go in and put your URL. There's another plugin called lighthouse, and lighthouse is a plugin that you can use through Chrome. And then you just on that and it'll output a report for you. And some of it's a little nerdy, right? And some of it's, you know, some of it's very clear. I love it. They, they'll put some jargon, let's just say that they don't quite understand that not everybody understands laptop, but if you're on a tool like Shopify or Squarespace or Wix, which a lot of like first time entrepreneurs, that's a great place to start. It's really affordable. They take care of a lot of those things built in. So that's the benefit of kind of standing on the shoulders of giants when it comes to those. But lighthouse is a good tool because it checks accessibility, performance, SEO and your coding best practices. Karen Litzy (27:28): Oh wow. Okay. So that's a good tool. Cool, any other tools that we should know about that you can think of off the top of your head? If not, we can always put more in the show notes if people want to check them out. But if you have another one that you wanted to throw out there, I don't want to cut you off, if you've got more. Anne Stefanyk (27:45): Oh no worries. There's lots of different checkers and I think the big thing error is just to be able to understand the results. So I'm always a big fan of making technology really accessible. So if you do need help with that, you know, feel free to reach out and I can get more help. But generally we look at search engine optimization, which is are you being found in Google? And there's some tools like SEO. Moz is one. And then we look at accessibility, is it accessible to all people and then we look at performance, can it go fast, fast, and then we look at code quality, right? Like you want to make sure you're doing your security updates cause it's a heck of a lot cheaper to do your security updates than unpack yourself if there is. Karen Litzy (28:27): Oh gosh. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And, like you said, on some of those websites, that security part might be in like already embedded in that or is that, do you recommend doing an external security look at your website as well? Anne Stefanyk (28:44): Exactly. Most of the time when you're using a known platform like Shopify or if you're using WordPress or Drupal, then what you want to do is you want to work with a reliable hosting provider so they will help you provide your security updates. It's just like you would always want to lock your car when you would go out in the city. It's just like some do your security updates. So, but yeah, that's the benefit of being on some of these larger platforms is they have some of that stuff baked in. You pay a monthly fee but you don't have to worry about it. Karen Litzy (29:14): Right. Perfect. Perfect. And gosh, this was so much good information. Let's talk a little bit about, since we are still in the midst of this COVID pandemic and crisis and what should we be doing with our websites now specifically to sort of provide that clarity and calmness that maybe we want to project while people are still a little, I mean, I watch the news people are on edge here. Anne Stefanyk (29:47): Yeah. I think everybody's a little on edge, especially as things are starting to open. But nervous about it. All right. So I think the main thing that you can do is provide clear pathways. So if you haven't already put an alert on your website or something, right on your homepage, that speaks to how you're handling COVID that would be really skillful in, that could just be if you, you know, Mmm. Some people have an alert bar, they can put up, some people use a blog post and they feature it as their blog posts. Some people use a little block on their home page, but just something that helps them understand that what that is, and I'm sure most of you have already responded to that cause you had to write, it was like the first two weeks, all of our clients were like, we got to put something on our website. Anne Stefanyk (30:26): Right. And so, from there is I think being very mindful about how overwhelmed your peoples are and not trying to flood them with like tips and tricks on how to stay calm or how to parent or how to, you know, like that's where everybody's kind of like on overwhelm of all the information. So for right now, I would say that it's a wonderful time to put an alert up so people visit your site. If you've switched to telehealth and telemedicine, it'd be a great time to actually clarify how to do that. So if they're like, okay, I'm going to sign up for this and I want to work with you. Mmm. But how does it work? Are we gonna do it through zoom? Is it through Skype? Is it through FaceTime? Is my data secure? You know, like you said, updating all your FAQ is like, we're in this weird space where we really have almost like no excuse to not come out of this better. Anne Stefanyk (31:16): You know, as an entrepreneur we have this like lurking sense of like, okay, I gotta make sure I'm doing something. And the web is a great place to start because it is your first impression. And to kind of go through your content, and maybe it is if you don't have a blog set up is setting up a blog and just putting one up there or writing two or three and not publishing it until you have two or three. But it is kind of figuring out what is your user need and how do you make it really easy for them to digest. Karen Litzy (31:41): Perfect. And now before we kind of wrap things up, I'll just ask you is there anything that we missed? Anything that you want to make sure that the listeners walk away with from this conversation? Anne Stefanyk (31:56): I think the big thing is that this can all get really confusing and overwhelming very quickly. And all you need to just think about is your humans that you're servicing and like how can I make their journey easier? And even if it's like if nothing else, you're like, Hey, I'm going to get a text messaging program set up because I'm going to be able to actually communicate with them a lot faster and a lot easier. Or, Hey, I'm just going to focus on getting more five stars reviews on my Google profiles, so I show up. I'm just going to make that the focus. So I think the big thing is just a one thing at a time, and because we're in a pandemic, set your bar really low and celebrate when you barely hit it because we're all working on overwhelm and overdrive and we're all exhausted and our adrenals are depleted. Even in overdrive syndrome for like 11 weeks or something. Now I know it's kind of like, Oh my goodness, my websites maybe a hot mess. I'm going to get one thing and I'm going to give myself a lot of wiggle room to make sure that I can take care of the pressing needs and just being really like patient because it isn't a journey where you're going to have your website and your entire business. Karen Litzy (33:00): Yeah. We never got to turn off your website. Right. I hope not. Oh, you never will. Right. Telemedicine is going to give you a new kind of way to practice too. It's revolutionizing the way we treat patients. A hundred percent yeah, absolutely. I personally have have been having great success and results with telehealth. And so I know that this is something that will be part of my practice going forward, even as restrictions are lowered. I mean here in New York, I mean you're in San Francisco, like we're both in areas that are on pretty high alert still. But this is something that's definitely gonna be part of my practice. So if there is a silver lining to come out of this really horrible time, I think that is one of them. From a healthcare standpoint, I think it's been a game changer because you're still able to help as you put it, help your humans, you know, help those people so that they're not spinning out on their own. So I love it. Now final question and I ask everyone this, knowing where you are in your life and in your career, what advice would you give yourself as a new graduate right out of college? So it's before, even before you started. Anne Stefanyk (34:21): Yes, yes. Honor my downtime. I think especially as a girl boss, that's always like, I've been an entrepreneur pretty much since I was in high school. I never took weekends and evenings for myself until I became like a little older. I would've definitely done more evenings and weekends because the recharge factor is just amazing for the brain. When you actually let it rest, it figures out all the problems on its own, get out of your own way and it'll like just, you know, even this COVID stuff. I find it so interesting that you know, as a boss you feel like you want to do so much and you want to get it done and you want to help your staff and you've got to figure out how to be there for them and then it's like, wait, you gotta put on your own mask before you put it on the others. Anne Stefanyk (35:04): And I feel like healthcare professionals, it's like so important for you to honor that little bit of downtime that you have now. Yeah, I mean, if I knew that back then, I'd probably be way stronger way would have honored myself. And as a woman, self care seems, we put it like second to our business and our families and second, third, fourth, fifth. So it's like, you know, advice to pass out. Let's take care of you. Yeah. It will be great. You will do wonderful things. Take care of you. You'll feel great. You know, I broke my ankle because I wasn't taking care of myself. Yeah. Karen Litzy (35:36): Oh wow. What advice. Yeah. Honor the downtime. I think that's great. And I think it's something that a lot of people just don't do. They think that in that downtime you should be doing something else. So you're failing. Anne Stefanyk (35:48): Yeah. And it's just so silly. It's just this weird, you know mental game that we have to play with ourselves. I listened to one of your recent podcasts and I just loved the girl that was on there said like, you know, successes is 20% skill, 80% of mind game. And I could not agree with that. You know, having a company full of women, imposter syndrome is the number one thing that I help coach my females with. It's like, no, you know exactly what you're doing because nobody knows what they're doing. We all learn, right? There's no textbook for a lot of this stuff. Like we went to school, there was a textbook, there was structure. We got out of school and now we're like go learn. It's like okay, okay so I find the entrepreneurial journey so cool. And that means like kind of like also finding out other tribes like where can we lean into and that's why I love you have this podcast cause it really focuses on like building a tribe of entrepreneurs that are focusing on taking it to the next level. Like how can we be empowering them to do their best, be their best selves. Karen Litzy (36:47): Exactly. I'm going to just use that as a tagline from now on for the buck. Perfect marketing tagline. Well and thank you so much. Where can people find more about you and more about kanopi. Anne Stefanyk (37:00): So you can go to kanopi or you can simply just look for me just go to kanopi on the Googles and you'll find me. But if you want to reach out via LinkedIn or anywhere, I'm always just a big fan of helping people make technology really clear and easy to understand. So find me on LinkedIn or on stuff and we can chat more there. Karen Litzy (37:23): Awesome. Well thank you so much. And to everyone listening, we'll have all of the links that we spoke about today and I know there were a lot, but they're all going to be in the show notes at podcasts.healthywealthysmart.com under this episode. So Anne, you have given so much great information. I can't thank you enough. Anne Stefanyk (37:39): Well thank you so much for it. I'm really grateful for the work that you're doing. I think it's fantastic. Karen Litzy (37:45): Thank you. And everyone else. Thank you so much for listening. Have a great couple of days and stay healthy, wealthy, and smart.     Thanks for listening and subscribing to the podcast! Make sure to connect with me on twitter, instagram  and facebook to stay updated on all of the latest!  Show your support for the show by leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts!

In this episode of the Suite Spot, we continue sharing helpful insights and tips to help hoteliers combat the unprecedented COVID-19 crisis. Host Ryan Embree is joined by Travel Media Group’s Director of Marketing, Anne Sandoval, to discuss 5 Strategies of Crisis Response. Anne, who studied crisis management and has a graduate certificate in corporate communication, talks us through each component of crisis response. Ryan and Anne then apply these crisis response strategies to the hotel industry. They share insightful statistics surrounding these strategies and give some specific examples of how they can be implemented at a property level. These 5 crisis response components – responsiveness, transparency, accountability, consistency, and action – build the foundation of an effective game plan for managing this global emergency. If you are looking for more information on the hotel industry and coronavirus visit Travel Media Group’s COVID-19 hotel marketing resource center online or reach out to us by phone or text at 407-984-7455. Episode Transcript Our podcast is produced as an audio resource. Transcripts are generated using speech recognition software and human editing and may contain errors. Before republishing quotes, we ask that you reference the audio. Ryan Embree: Welcome to Suite Spot where hoteliers check-in and we check out what's trending in hotel marketing. I'm your host, Ryan Embree. Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of the Suite Spot. This is your host Ryan Embree recording remotely again during this COVID-19 crisis. And with me today we have another frequent guest of the Suite Spot, also recording remotely for the first time, Anne Sandoval. So Anne, I know you've been with us a couple times, definitely a different location than when we are usually recording, but want to welcome you to the Suite Spot. Anne Sandoval: Hey Ryan, thanks for having me. I definitely prefer when we are able to record face to face, but I'm glad this is working out. It's awesome. I'm so happy to be here, once again. Ryan Embree: Absolutely, feeling very thankful that we're able to give all of our listeners content, insights, and education on the current ongoing COVID-19 crisis today. We've got a really great episode that I think is going to be very relevant to what's going on and best practices and tips on how hoteliers can implement ways to handle this COVID -19 crisis that really we've never been through before. So Anne, is not only our Director of Marketing at Travel Media Group, but has studied at the University of Central Florida with a master's in mass communication and a certificate of corporate communication and has studied crisis management. So I thought no better person to bring on with us today to talk about some of the components and strategies of crisis response than Anne. And what we're going to do today, in this episode, is we're actually going to go through the five components or strategies of crisis response. We're going to go through each one, we're going to talk to them from a high level of how these tips and strategies would work just overall, and then we're really gonna drill down into the hotel industry and how we can apply that to the hotel that you may be managing during this crisis today. So let's go ahead and get started with the first tip. Anne Sandoval: Of course, yeah. Thanks Ryan for that introduction. So the first component of crisis response that's important to talk about is responsiveness. And the reason I'm going to mention it first is because it's so time sensitive. Some industry experts say that you have just 15 minutes to respond when a crisis occurs. And you might be thinking, "Why is that, 15 minutes sounds almost unreasonably fast?" But the reason is because now information is shared 24/7/365 and consumer expectations are higher than ever. If it's a small crisis, like a negative tweet about your business, it might seem a little more reasonable to respond...

In this episode of Suite Spot, we discuss a research study recently conducted by Booking.com regarding Generation Z and travel. Host Ryan Embree is joined by Director of Marketing, Anne Sandoval, to explore the different traits of this maturing generation and their travel preferences. Ryan and Anne breakdown the data by identifying six distinct travel trends concerning Generation Z’s travel habits. Next, they share ideas on how to use digital marketing to attract and gain more share of Generation Z travelers. They also discuss social media influencers, adventure travel, and more ways to inspire this young generation to travel. To get more information about reaching Generation Z online or to submit a question for future episodes, call or text 407-984-7455. Resources: https://destinationgenz.com/ Episode Transcript Our podcast is produced as an audio resource. Transcripts are generated using speech recognition software and human editing and may contain errors. Before republishing quotes, we ask that you reference the audio. Ryan Embree: Welcome to Suite Spot where hoteliers check in and we check out what's trending in hotel marketing. I'm your host, Ryan Embree. Hello and welcome to another episode of the Suite Spot, I am your host Ryan Embree, and if you're a frequent listener of the Suite Spot, you'll know that the first ever episode that we did here was about reaching millennials on Social Media. Now today we're going to take this a step further and talk about another demographic and that's Generation Z. Now, Booking.com recently released a comprehensive research study called Gen Z Unpacked where they surveyed Generation Z , which they consider between the ages of 16 and 24. They asked them about what was important to them when they travel and were able to get some really cool analytics about this up and coming generation. If you're looking for the study itself, you can reference the link in our show notes. I'm joined by Anne Sandoval, our Director of Marketing, and we are going to be discussing six trends and traits that we've found in these statistics. We're going to break those down and then we're going to talk from a digital marketing standpoint, how you can leverage these statistics to make sure you are prepared to market and advertise your hotel to Generation Z as they mature and as they start traveling more and more. So without further ado, I'll go ahead and welcome Anne to another episode of the Suite Spot. It's great to have you on again Anne. Anne Sandoval: Thanks for having me again, Ryan. I'm happy to be here. Ryan Embree: So let's go ahead and get started with the first trend that we uncovered in these statistics, which is Generation Z's relationship with solo travel. One of the statistics that Booking.com revealed to us was that 34% of Generation Z planned to travel on their own at least once within the next decade. So a huge difference from, you know, maybe the other generations and hotels are really going to have to start accommodating for solo travelers. So Anne, how can hotels maybe just some tips and best practices on how they can do that. Anne Sandoval: Well, the first thing that comes to mind for me with solo travel is safety. You already have some great features at your property that are intended to help travelers feel like they and their belongings are safe and secure. So you can share with travelers amenities that you have, including an in-room safe. You can highlight other features like your well lit hallways, indoor corridors, and digital key cards to imply that you have traveler's safety as a priority. The other really interesting stat that Booking shared is that 33% of Gen Z travelers prefer to be on their own in general when they travel. So this really implies that they're not necessarily looking for a lot of human interaction, which is a little counterintuitive sometimes in hospitality. So you may want to consider incorporating technology...

American journalist Anne Helen Petersen has been writing about celebrities since she was at uni and over that time she's noticed one thing - the rise of unruly women. Unruly is described as disorderly, disruptive and not amenable to discipline or control. And, if you look around Hollywood you'll see this kind of behaviour everywhere. So Anne decided to collect her thoughts and research into a book and that’s how Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud was born. Show Notes Your host is Mia Freedman. With thanks to special guest Anne Helen Petersen Buy Anne's book Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud by going to apple.co/mamamia This podcast was produced by Elissa Ratliff  CONTACT US Suggest a guest via: podcast@mamamia.com.au Tweet us @mamamiapodcasts Or join the conversation on facebook This show is part of the Mamamia Women’s Network   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

American journalist Anne Helen Petersen has been writing about celebrities since she was at uni and over that time she's noticed one thing - the rise of unruly women. Unruly is described as disorderly, disruptive and not amenable to discipline or control. And, if you look around Hollywood you'll see this kind of behaviour everywhere. So Anne decided to collect her thoughts and research into a book and that’s how Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud was born. Show Notes Your host is Mia Freedman. With thanks to special guest Anne Helen Petersen Buy Anne's book Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud by going to apple.co/mamamia This podcast was produced by Elissa Ratliff  CONTACT US Suggest a guest via: podcast@mamamia.com.au Tweet us @mamamiapodcasts Or join the conversation on facebook This show is part of the Mamamia Women’s Network   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

American journalist Anne Helen Petersen has been writing about celebrities since she was at uni and over that time she's noticed one thing - the rise of unruly women. Unruly is described as disorderly, disruptive and not amenable to discipline or control. And, if you look around Hollywood you'll see this kind of behaviour everywhere. So Anne decided to collect her thoughts and research into a book and that’s how Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud was born. Show Notes Your host is Mia Freedman. With thanks to special guest Anne Helen Petersen Buy Anne's book Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud by going to apple.co/mamamia This podcast was produced by Elissa Ratliff  CONTACT US Suggest a guest via: podcast@mamamia.com.au Tweet us @mamamiapodcasts Or join the conversation on facebook This show is part of the Mamamia Women’s Network   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Giving is a wonderful thing and there is certainly a beautiful array of terrific charities addressing so many issues. So many of us feel compelled to give, sometimes out of a sense of guilt. Anne is interested in encouraging people to give to issues that have great impact for them, in whatever area has true meaning for them. As a donor once said to her “my mom always said ‘give until you feel proud’”. So Anne and Lynn will talk about how you find out what makes you proud? http://www.annemackayconsulting.org/ http://www.stepright.ca