Director of Communications & Projects at Id Est Hospitality and Chef Owner of Kitchen Giant

After leaving culinary school, I took on prep and line cook positions. I was the only woman in the kitchen during my five year stint in the BOH. It was extremely difficult to advance and to be taken seriously as a chef being 5 feet tall and super cheerful. I made a shift to the FOH as a server at a small Thai restaurant and fell in love with taking care of guests. I spent the next five years serving in higher volume and finer dining restaurants, excelling in the art of service and quickly became a server trainer.

As a trainer, I wanted my trainees to master the art of memorable dining experiences and sales tactics. During that time, I realized that management and leadership culture needed to be improved upon. There was an antiquated style of leadership during my serving years, where finding a manager to support the floor was difficult or unavailable.

The only way to see change was to become the change. It was time to take the “pay cut” and move into leadership. It was a huge sacrifice financially to take on this new role, but I wanted to change the culture of leadership. I shifted my mindset from providing memorable service to memorable and impactful support to the FOH team. I spent the next ten years in leadership starting as a floor manager and working my way into a directorship position with focus on positive, supportive and hands on leadership. I created manager training programs to improve leadership culture and found myself living out my dream of impact. My current role took twenty years in the making and finding Id Est, a company that believes in the same culture I worked so hard to create over the years, is a dream come true.

Skills can be taught, however attitude cannot. When hiring, I always look for kind, patient and selfless people. Hospitality is an act of selflessness, putting the needs of others before you. They must find joy in making someone's day better.

Adaptability, transparency and mental fortitude are important skills to possess as a professional in this industry.

There is so much work to do to improve the hospitality industry from diversity in leadership, wage equity, work/life balance and saving the planet. I am inspired by focusing on restoring heritage grains in Colorado and supporting and recreating the network of farmers, millers and makers needed to make a regional grain economy thrive.

To do my job, the one thing I can’t live without is coffee, a fully charged phone and the gym – so more like three things.

Being a woman, you find that there is a glass ceiling that is tough to break through in the hospitality industry as a leader. However, I don’t believe that just being a woman makes you more or less qualified for leadership as opposed to having good character, work ethic and the willingness to push through adversity and setbacks. But when you do break the glass ceiling, it is an opportunity and responsibility to pave the way for more diverse women to achieve their leadership goals.

Having discipline to know when to refocus and reset is important and knowing when to disconnect from work and be present in your life outside of work. Every moment is an important moment whether big or small.

For self-care, I power lift. Weightlifting and gym culture has been the most amazing way to destress from the day-to-day.