What if the most valuable amenity isn’t a butler or a points upgrade, but time you can feel? We sit down with AutoCamp’s Chief Commercial Officer, Bryan Terzi, to trace a career that moves from Starwood and W Hotels to SBE’s celebrity-fueled nightlife, through chef-led creativity at Mother Wolf and Sadelle Group, into CRM scale at Sage—and finally to the surprising power of outdoor hospitality. The throughline: brand clarity, operational empathy, and marketing that translates real moments into stories guests can’t help but share.

Bryan breaks down how brand frameworks scale without going generic, why local relevance keeps off-peak periods alive, and how working beside chefs reframed his role from “promoter” to “translator of passion.” We also dig into the hard pivot that changed everything: leading with landscapes instead of lobbies. From rivers that outdo white-noise machines to campfire conversations that build community without programming, AutoCamp’s playbook sells an outcome—presence—rather than a checklist of perks. And yes, we talk about the number-one guest question: bathrooms, solved upfront with clear visuals and calm reassurance.

On the tech front, AI earns its place behind the scenes—mining data, tightening copy, and improving efficiency—while the guest-facing promise stays defiantly human. “It’s not AI, it’s AutoCamp” captures the shift many travelers crave: two days of analog awe to reset a screen-sick life. Bryan’s leadership lens rounds it out: hire for passion over pedigree, skip the micromanaging, learn operations so marketing respects reality, and treat “networking” as relationship building that pays back in trust and timing.

If you’re rethinking what luxury means now, this conversation offers a clean blueprint: design for memory, remove friction, and let nature headline. Listen, share it with a colleague who geeks out on brand strategy, and leave a review telling us your favorite national park—or the one you’re finally going to visit this year.

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Emotion is the real currency of hospitality, and Kat Bangs knows how to design for it. Blake sits down with the creative mind turned small-town hotelier to explore the choices that turn spaces into feelings, lobbies into communities, and careers into lives that actually fit.

Kat’s path runs from Michelin-level service and national press to leading creative for multiple award-winning hotel openings. She breaks down the difference between spectacle and service, why “never dumb it down” earns trust, and how the cheapest levers—lighting, music, scent, pacing—create the richest experiences. You’ll hear the simple checks she learned to run the moment she walks into a room and how those checks align teams around the guest’s emotional arc from arrival to nightcap.

We also dig into track record versus pedigree. Kat argues that creatives should be judged by solved problems, not cool brand lists. That mindset sparked one of her boldest moves at the LINE DC: scrapping an unprofitable retail space for Full Service Radio, a live podcast studio that recruited dozens of hosts before opening day. The result? A lobby buzzing with locals, weekly content that traveled, and a property rooted in the city’s love of talk radio—community as marketing, culture as strategy.

The conversation ends where many of us are right now: choosing scale with intention. Kat walked away from ever-bigger roles to build a tiny cocktail bar and micro hotels in the Hudson Valley, staying close to the product, the guest, and the craft. Her take is clear: if hospitality brokers in emotion, operator joy matters too. Want to rethink how you design, hire, and grow?

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What if a single bite could send you home again? Chef Ollie Walleck joins us to explore how memory, empathy, and rigor can reinvent what a kitchen feels like—and what guests taste on the plate. From his start as a teenage cook chasing the service rush to leading teams at The Midway in San Francisco, Ollie breaks down the craft behind food that scales to thousands without losing nuance, warmth, or soul.

We get granular about culture change: why the scream-and-throw era doesn’t build loyalty, how radical candor and respect keep teams together, and why calm is the strongest position when the weeds close in. Ollie credits mentors who embodied presence and precision, then shows how he translated those lessons into systems that make large events run smoothly. He argues the most expensive ingredient isn’t caviar—it’s time. Time to think through a dish, teach it, and respect the guest’s time with food that’s clever, consistent, and genuinely satisfying.

We also talk candidly about identity and visibility. As an out trans man, Ollie shares why leadership that’s openly queer matters to hospitality’s future, and why cities like San Francisco feel built from queer joy, not just tolerant of it. The throughline is simple and powerful: judge a chef by what they plate and how they care for people. If you’re a rising cook, a culinary leader, or just a guest who loves thoughtful food—from nightclub snacks to festival service—you’ll find lessons on scalable creativity, systems that hold under pressure, and the kind of kitchen culture that lasts.

If this conversation resonates, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a quick review to help more curious food lovers find us.

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