Shelley Brown is a keynote speaker, artist, and former hospitality pro who has built a career by challenging the status quo with heart and humor. After decades navigating buttoned-up boardrooms and high-stakes sales, she ditched the script to help leaders embrace imperfection, foster belonging, and lead like actual humans. Susan and Shelley talk about legacy, leadership, and the Dead.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

🎤 The surprising first step to becoming a paid speaker
🪞 How self-awareness fuels stronger leadership
💥 The difference between being real and being unfiltered
💡 What “Rebel Leadership” actually looks like in practice
📉 Why data won’t fix your culture—but conversation might
🫶 A fresh way to think about purpose (hint: it’s not always profound)

Sarah Moss is the Chief of Staff at Hunter Hotel Advisors, where she’s the operational glue behind both the firm and its booming hotel investment conference. A hospitality lifer, she started as a maitre d’ and worked her way through college before joining Hunter full-time, pausing only briefly to crunch numbers at Coca-Cola. Susan and Sarah talk about growth, grit, and good data.

💡 Learn why saying “yes” to the jobs no one wants can be the ultimate power move in hospitality.

🏗️ Hear how Sarah Moss helped double the size of a major hotel investment conference—pandemic and all.

🎤 Get the truth behind conference programming, from booking speakers to dodging $30k “pay to play” traps.

🌟 Find out how she’s leading the charge for diversity and strategic vision in an industry built on tradition.

🧠 Why becoming a “professional Googler” might be the soft skill of the century—and her advice for future leaders.

Donte Johnson is a hospitality veteran with a 20+ year career of transforming hotel experiences through cultural integration and community connection. Now GM at Thompson Atlanta Buckhead, he’s known for blending operational excellence with authentic local engagement. Jason Bass is a serial entrepreneur turned hotel innovator, bringing his background in fashion, spirits, and tech to a new role as Director of Culture and Impact. Together, they co-authored The Impact Hospitality Handbook, diving into passion-powered hospitality, purposeful partnerships, and people-first playbooks.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

🧾 What happens when you toss the traditional org chart and ask, “If we didn’t know how to run a hotel, how would we do it?”

🎽 Why letting hotel staff choose their uniforms might be the most empowering—and stylish—move you can make.

📈 How community-focused strategies drove hard business results, from full staffing to 3 billion impressions.

🍵 What organic tea, local DJs, and free meeting spaces have to do with redefining hospitality.

💼 How not to onboard a consultant.