Breaking Barriers: Teri Agosta’s Journey to Leadership in Hospitality

Intro: [00:00:04] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for High Velocity Radio.

Stone Payton: [00:00:15] Welcome to the High Velocity Radio show, where we celebrate top performers producing better results in less time. Stone Payton here with you. Today’s episode is brought to you in part by our community partner program, The Main Street Warriors. Please go check us out at Main Street warriors.org. You guys are in for a real treat. Please join me in welcoming to the broadcast, General Manager with Signia by Hilton Atlanta. Ms. Teri Agosta. How are you?

Teri Agosta: [00:00:46] I am great on this beautiful sunny day. How are you?

Stone Payton: [00:00:50] I am doing well. Really been looking forward to this conversation. Got a ton of questions. Terry. I know we’re not going to get to them all, but I think a great place to start would be if you could share with me and our listeners mission. Purpose. What are you and your team really out there trying to do for folks?

Teri Agosta: [00:01:10] Wow, that’s pretty easy because we have simplified it. Uh, we are here to change people’s lives. And, you know, it may sound basic and it may not be congruent with the hotel or hospitality business, but it really is, uh, because we are a state owned property here. Sygnia, uh, by the state of Georgia, uh, managed by Hilton. Um, we feel that we have an obligation to work with the community, uh, most specifically to work with the citizens of Atlanta. So as we bring our team members in, um, they are primarily from this demographic here. And we’ve worked with a lot of organizations, uh, throughout the years that have been here a couple of years, two years now. And, uh, you know, basically Job Corps, Urban League, West side transitions and identified superstars in their organizations, um, that would like to get involved with hospitality and really build a career. Um, so we’ve been able to do that. So as we bring people in, we’re hiring for attitude and training for aptitude. So we start with our team members and then our team members start changing our guests lives. Right. Because what we do is through meetings and conventions, um, you you educate, you elevate, you expose people to things they’ve never been exposed to, uh, through social occasions, weddings. We’re obviously creating memories, uh, different types of birthdays, bar mitzvahs. All these events are really life changing. So our mission really in I think if you ask any team member, we’re about changing lives. And like I said, it starts with the team members and goes to the guest and then the economic ripple through the city of Atlanta and then the state of Georgia. So it’s that simple.

Stone Payton: [00:02:57] Well, I got to know, what’s the back story? How did you find yourself in this line of work and pursuing this particular, uh, niche, if you will?

Teri Agosta: [00:03:09] Um, hospitality and the hotel business, you know, just kind of fell into it. Um, I was born in Michigan, and obviously it’s all about cars and automobiles. And I decided, you know, I really love to be around people, uh, and love to serve. I think if you’re in the hotel business, you are serving people. I got involved with Hilton Hotels. I started in sales and marketing and just really got involved with clients and and delivering exceptional experiences to our guests. And then I said, you know what? I would really like to lead the organization and become a general manager. Um, so, you know, I posted several times for general managers positions and lost out, but I really just said, I know there’s going to be a good one there for me. Uh, and I got my first appointment, uh, in 2000in Washington, D.C., and I’ve loved it ever since and just worked my way up. Uh, and the insignia here in Atlanta is my seventh hotel, uh, with Hilton.

Stone Payton: [00:04:06] Wow. Well, I have to believe I just. I got to believe this must be incredibly rewarding work.

Teri Agosta: [00:04:17] It is. I call it immediate gratification. I think when you’re in a business where you are providing a service or you have people right in front of you, or you have your team members around you, um, you’re going to get immediate feedback like you’re doing well, you’re not doing well. The gas is going to say, I love this, I don’t love this, this tastes great, or this team member didn’t treat me at the level I’d like to be treated. So you’re getting immediate gratification one way or another. Um, which, you know, takes a certain type of person and you’ve got to love that. Definitely. Um, and, you know, I’ve never really worked from home, uh, a day in my life. I love coming in. I love being in front of people. I love being in front of a community. And I love the synergies of just having a variety of people around you.

Stone Payton: [00:05:05] So I’m sure the answer to this question is yes, but I’m going to ask it anyway. But I got to believe with an organization as as large and as well placed and experienced as as Hilton, this opportunity is certainly there. But I’m going to ask anyway, have you had the benefit of one or more mentors along the way to help you, help you kind of navigate this terrain of leading other people and generating results with and through the voluntary cooperation and effort of other folks.

Teri Agosta: [00:05:42] You know, I think, yes, but I think it, you know, I had to go out and grab it, right? I think that especially I mean, if you’re thinking, you know, around 2000, you know, with men and women in the workplace, there still was that posturing of the best way to work together, to synergize together. So a lot of times it took the initiation or the drive from myself to go and ask somebody like, hey, you know, can you help me interpret this? Or how do you see this? Or am I looking at this right? Or do you have a better way to do this? And then I think once you open those doors, um, people tend to be a little more open or free with advice. But I do think, you know, it’s not like somebody came and tapped me on the shoulder and said, hey, let me mentor you, or, hey, let me be your role model. I had to kind of seek it out and say like, oh, this person is very successful. Um, I would like to understand better how they’re doing this.

Stone Payton: [00:06:54] So you found that you had to be willing to to ask. And now I’m sure you’re finding yourself on the other side of being available as a mentor to to other young people and maybe specifically even, uh, uh, female people in the organization to help them, uh, carve their path out. Yeah.

Teri Agosta: [00:07:15] Yeah, absolutely. I think especially females, because, you know, there aren’t, uh, to this day, uh, a lot of females in high level leadership. And, um, it’s just the reality of life. So I think there is always that, uh, question or their curiosity of what are the right moves that need to be made, uh, to get further along in your career or what are some of the political steps or what are some of the landmines that we can avoid? Right. Um, so I do, uh, often find myself I have three mentors. I always, uh, mentees, I always do work with, um, and have regular calls or teams calls, uh, because they’re all over the country, uh, and just, you know, like, how’s it going? What’s going on? Tell me about something, uh, that caused you to say, I’m not sure how to do this. And, you know, we talk through things. Um, and I think that that that’s what you need because. You’ve got to really pick and choose how elevated you want to be about things and how much something’s really going to influence your life. And are you better letting it go, or do you really want to go after it and say, this is something I’m going to choose to really focus on and try to make a difference? I mean, like I always try to say like, if if is what I’m going to say make a difference and is that person going to change their behavior of it? And that’s not always true with everybody, right? And you have to recognize that if somebody is not going to change and you’re not you’re not going to be that person that’s going to make them change.

Teri Agosta: [00:08:54] Um, so don’t waste your effort and put it towards an area or a person where you can really make a difference, and you guys can both have a learning and a growth from it. So I think if you don’t focus on things that are going to drain your energy or not be responsive to your energy, um, and you kind of eliminate that and you go towards more people who are really open and receptive and understand and are going to take words and they’re going to alter their behavior. I think that’s where you’re going to get energized. Right. And that’s kind of a basic. Pretty sick where I live.

Stone Payton: [00:09:34] Well, it’s marvelous Council and I’m so glad that I asked. Now I’m operating under the impression that hospitality in general is, even to this day, still kind of a male dominated industry. Is that accurate?

Teri Agosta: [00:09:50] It’s very accurate. Um, and we’re really trying to change it. Um, but, you know, it it takes a lot of work and, and and the world still is not balanced as far as work life balance. So I think we try to, to do baby steps. Right. And I think that’s the best way to approach a lot of things that are these large mountains to move. So definitely, uh, you know, try to work with as many females as possible recognizing females. But, you know, in today’s workforce, it’s interesting. If you do too much of recognition, then you get some feedback from other areas, too. So you got to kind of love everybody equally and recognize everybody equally. But then at special moments or at moments that might not be as out loud as we say, uh, you really you really work with people that, you know, have promise and that know might need a special hand.

Stone Payton: [00:10:49] Well, it’s a timely conversation because we find ourselves as we’re in this conversation in the middle of Women’s History Month. Uh, I, uh, I am on record more than a few times, uh, sharing that. I actually prefer to work with women. I find them better with money. I find them more open. I find them more relationship oriented. I find I just given a choice. I actually prefer to work with women. So I’m sure you have a lot of counsel on how a female, uh, things they might do or not do to navigate their own career, but I am specifically interested as a fan of women, particularly in the in the workplace. Anything in particular that you would share with, with males to say, hey, here’s what you can do, should do, should be thinking about not doing to create an environment that really allows you to fully capitalize on the power and the talent and the energy of, uh, a pretty, uh, powerful female workforce.

Teri Agosta: [00:11:58] Yeah, I think what you say is valid. But would you report to a woman. Right. And I think that’s a lot of times what’s very different for people. Um, you enjoy working around women, but then you think like, could I report to a woman? Could I have a woman, boss? Huh? And that’s sometimes is a little more challenging for people, right? Um, I think you have to look at it, um, as it’s generational and everybody’s different. Right. And can you take the female component out of it? Absolutely not. And you don’t want to do that. You know, and I think rather than saying women are different and men are different, we have to say people are different and everybody has to be approached in a different way. Um, and if you just really take a look at your female boss or your female direct reports and just say, what is it? Um, what is it that they want? What is the win win situation for both of us? What is their skill set? How do they best receive information? How do they best deliver information to me? And you kind of work from there. Then everything else will kind of. You know, figure its way out. And then I always say there’s, you know, there’s there’s ignorance and malice. A lot of people just don’t know. So and it’s it’s racial, it’s female. It’s a lot of stuff.

Teri Agosta: [00:13:18] But there’s no malice there. So we also have to be willing to dialog about it. So I think there’s a fear where people don’t even want to dialog. They don’t want to ask the question because they feel it might be sexist or racist. But we we do have to be adults about a situation and be open to dialoging. And we have to say, you know, is that okay if I say that this way, or how would you like to be addressed? Or, um, is there a particular place you’d like me to sit at the table? Or, I mean, ask questions. I mean it, and I think then you will get the answers that you want rather than being timid about. I’m wondering what I should do. Um, just kind of start the dialog. Or if you have a relationship with somebody close enough, you can say, hey, I’ve always been wondering about this. Am I approaching this? Right? And hopefully somebody will tell you the right answer. Um, but I think just the communication, the ability to talk and the willingness to know that you’re not doing anything with malice. Now, if there’s malice involved, that’s a different story, right? Yeah. But it kind of helps you filter that these questions don’t have a sharp edge or people are not trying to be mean. Some people just want to know and are just curious.

Stone Payton: [00:14:43] Well, I appreciate you sharing that because my interpretation for what you’re saying in my environment, and I’m a small business person and we have a pretty good size, very successful media company, and a lot of our members of the team are female. But it’s what you’re this conversation is encouraging me to to not walk on eggshells, right? Just have a real conversation with Karen Nowicki out in Phoenix or Angie here in Atlanta and just have that. Don’t walk on eggshells with them just because they are female. Just as I would not walk on eggs with my business partner Lee Kantor, or the guy who runs the North Fulton Studio, right? Just have a real conversation and give them the benefit of of that, that authenticity. Yeah.

Teri Agosta: [00:15:32] Yeah, it’s true, I make missteps. I mean, the other day I said, like, maternal leave. It’s parental leave right now, right? Are I, you know, just little things like that. I’m like, oh my gosh, thank you for pointing that out. And I think that’s a really good example because it’s like, I didn’t even know that. I mean, I didn’t think that way, but now I’m I know that way and I know better. So I’m going to be better. Right? Right. And you say something and they’re going to say, you know, that’s not okay anymore. And you’re like, oh, thanks for pointing that out. And be really rather than saying, you know, don’t be such a, uh, you know, don’t be so wound up about that, you know, be grateful that somebody really had enough initiative to say, you know, we’re not doing that anymore.

Stone Payton: [00:16:13] Yeah.

Teri Agosta: [00:16:13] And if I can just.

Stone Payton: [00:16:14] Be real with them, they’ll appreciate that. And they’ll just be real with me. And neither of us are having to dance around this, uh, all these unspoken concerns that we have. Okay, I want to hear more about this property. Tell us more about this. About this property.

Teri Agosta: [00:16:30] Absolutely. Signia is first purposeful brand, uh, built high end meeting and convention hotel. Thousand rooms, 100,000ft² of meeting space, eight restaurants. Uh, just really changing the landscape of Atlanta, Georgia, on the Georgia World Congress campus here, uh, which is super exciting, welcoming meetings and conventions from around the world. About 40% of our business is new to Atlanta. So we’re bringing people into Atlanta that have never been here before. Our crown jewel is Capolinea, our Italian restaurant, just voted as one of the top ten restaurants in Atlanta. Great reviews on our Italian food. We also have a more casual nest sports bar, which is super exciting. Uh, those are really the two top favorites here at the hotel, but invite you to come and look around it. Really. We’re really shaking up hospitality, and we’re really bringing back southern hospitality to at the highest level with our team members, because they’re so excited to be a part of this project. And, you know, people are really hiring some hospitality and service, uh, generated team members.

Stone Payton: [00:17:40] So I’m always interested to know a little bit about how the sales and marketing thing works for for my guests. As a general manager, do you have a role in the whole sales and marketing side of things to get that convention business, to get that guest business, to get that dining business? Or how does all that work for somebody like you?

Teri Agosta: [00:18:03] Absolutely 100%. Any successful person has a sales vein in their body.

Stone Payton: [00:18:09] Amen.

Teri Agosta: [00:18:12] So let’s just start with that. So yeah, I mean people want to know that their, you know, sales person is representing the operation. The operation can pull it off. So clients that are booking multi-million dollar events want to see that synergy between the the general manager and the salespeople. Yes. What they say is true. Yes. We are going to be able to execute it. Yes, we’re going to be able to welcome you. Yes, I know of your laundry list of expectations and we can meet them. So I think people want to know that, um, they aren’t being sold at a level that might not be executed. So that partnership is so important. So yeah, I do greet a lot of guests and a lot of meeting planners and, uh, we have a lot of really great conversations about how we see their meeting or convention, uh, you know, really developing at the hotel.

Stone Payton: [00:19:04] Well, I must confess, I entered this conversation with a frame of reference or a preconceived notion that your world, your business was largely transactional, I guess would be the right word. But the more I’m hearing you speak of the work, the more I’m hearing of the way that you interact with your team. And the more I hear about the way that you’re trying to serve others. Man, nothing could be further from the truth. So much of your work is truly grounded in building relationships and creating the the right experience for people, isn’t it?

Teri Agosta: [00:19:42] That’s why we’re successful. You’ve got to operate from the heart, and you’ve got to operate from the people around you. And we all have to feel the same way. And it really goes back to treating the team members with respect and love and just saying hi to them every day. And they’re going to say hi to every guest that walks through the door. We’ve created that habit here. Um, and we’re all really, really proud to be a part of this, this project. And I welcome you to come down and take a look as well.

Stone Payton: [00:20:11] You should be and color me there. I will bring my bride down and we will make an evening of it. I cannot wait. I’m going to switch gears on you for just a moment before we wrap. Uh, I don’t know when in the world you would find the time, but I’m going to ask anyway. Uh, most of my listeners know that I like to hunt, fish, and travel. Before we came on air, I shared with you that I had an opportunity to go fishing this morning. Uh, outside the scope of your work, hobbies, interests, pursuits that, uh, that you try to pursue. Yeah. Outside the scope of your of your work.

Teri Agosta: [00:20:49] Yeah. I told you, I love to garden. I, um, actually live in midtown, and I’m often at the botanical gardens there. They’re absolutely gorgeous. Uh, and I do a lot of yoga. I do yoga at evolution yoga, um, and practice meditation, which keeps me centered. So the more you’re in nature and the more you’re in heart, your heart, the better your life is going to be. So I feel very balanced. Thank you.

Stone Payton: [00:21:13] That’s a great way to put it. Staying centered I’ve often heard it described as creating a little bit of a white space, but it’s so important, I think, for entrepreneurs, people in leadership positions who are genuinely responsible for impacting a lot of lives and a lot of different ways, it’s important to to get centered and and and give yourself an opportunity to, to re-energize so you can come back and attack the rigors of the day, isn’t it?

Teri Agosta: [00:21:44] Yeah. You got to plug in your battery.

Stone Payton: [00:21:47] Absolutely, absolutely. Okay, one last thing I’ll ask of you. And it’s, um, I well, I call them pro tips. You know, just a few things. You’re obviously a seasoned leader. You’ve learned a great deal about business in general, about serving. You’ve learned about leading other other people. Anything from what you’re reading, some dos or don’ts, some lessons learned. But anyone who might be tapping into this con, uh, into this content that might give them just one little thing or two to be that’s actionable, you know, something to think about a working discipline. I’d love to leave them with a with a tip or two.

Teri Agosta: [00:22:28] I mean, I think one thing I’ve realized is, um, people just lack recognition and love and appreciation for what they’re doing. So any time, you know, I’m even out, uh, at a restaurant by myself or, uh, experience any level of service, I try to thank people for their hard work and for their service. And I think I’m always amazed at how people light up when you do that. So I think recognizing what people do in every aspect you touch, you know, even when I got out of yoga the other day, I thank the guy for refolding all the blankets and lining them up so nicely. And he’s like, I can’t believe you recognize that. You know? I mean, it’s just like the simplest little thing, but, you know, everything people do puts bread on the table for their family, and you need to respect people at that level, and you need to thank them for putting forth that effort to provide for their family and their loved ones.

Stone Payton: [00:23:34] Oh, I’m so glad I asked. That is fantastic. So guys, if you want to get some great free counsel from some very learned, experienced people, get yourself a radio show, man. You can learn a ton. That’s marvelous. All right, let’s make sure that our folks know where the property is and any other coordinates you might want them to have to tap into your work. And the great things that you guys are, are doing out there at Signia by Hilton Atlanta.

Teri Agosta: [00:24:02] Yeah, I suggest our website. We put a lot of time into it. It’s very colorful. It’s very engaging. Uh, talks about all our restaurants. That’s, uh, you know, Signia by Hilton in Atlanta. And that’ll walk you through everything. We have a beautiful spa here and health club, uh, so you can even just come and have a little lunch and get a spa treatment, or just have a spa treatment and walk around, have a cocktail. So there is really a lot of things going on here. After a game, you can come over to the nest and enjoy. Uh, but I would suggest starting with our website.

Stone Payton: [00:24:33] Well, you had me at cocktail. Terry. That’s so good. Color us there, Terry.

Teri Agosta: [00:24:39] I look forward to seeing you.

Stone Payton: [00:24:40] It has been an absolute delight having you on the show. Thank you for sharing your insight and your perspective. Keep up the good work. Let’s do this again sometime. Maybe we’ll, uh, we’ll circle back and find out how how it’s going. But you’re really you’re doing important work. You’re impacting a lot of lives. And we sure appreciate you, Terry.

Teri Agosta: [00:25:02] Yes, I appreciate you, too. Thank you for spreading the good word. Have a great day.

Stone Payton: [00:25:06] My pleasure. All right, until next time. This is Stone Payton for our guest today, Terry Augusta, general manager with Signia by Hilton Atlanta. And everyone here at the business Radio X family saying we’ll see you in the fast lane.