Sean Riley - Where Hospitality Meets Heart

Welcome to Season 3 of Bed and Butter, the podcast where passion meets profession in the world of hospitality. In partnership with Southern Maine Community College, we're back with fresh energy and even bigger conversations. This season, we're talking with culinary innovators, a brewery entrepreneur, hotel and industry leaders, a TED Talk speaker and influencer with a purpose-driven message, as well as one of the top tourism execs in the country, all sharing insights that will inspire and elevate your journey.

So whether you're just starting out or aiming for the top, Bed & Butter is your go-to guide. Let's dive in. Welcome back to Season 3 of Bed & Butter. We're turning up the volume on inspiration, hospitality, and a whole lot of heart.

Your host, it's Sean Riley, former teacher, coach, and now the hotel guy with over 40 years in the biz. He's the CEO of MainCourse Hospitality Group, leading 750 associates across 26 hotels from Maine to Florida. And yes, there are more on the way. But don't let the title fool you.

Sean's known just as much for his quick wit and dad jokes as for his leadership. His mission? Simple. To positively impact lives.

And that's exactly what this season is all about. So grab your coffee, settle in, and get ready to meet the people who are making hospitality human again. First up, let's get to know Sean a little better before we dive into the amazing lineup of guests coming your way. Let's go!

I'm excited to be here to help you introduce Bed and Butter. Well, you know, I'm excited to be on the other side of this. Usually I have to keep the flow of the thing going. And now if I screw up or I talk too much, be sure to cut me off.

I sure will. For our listeners' benefit, my name is Jamie Mulley, Corporate Director of Operations from Main Horse Hospitality Group. I've worked with Sean for over 25 years, and today we're going to have some fun. So let's dive in, Sean.

Well, it has been 25 years of fun, so that's good. But maybe the first couple of years I wasn't, you were still washing dishes at a restaurant. But after that, it was probably fun. You know, I'm really honored to be here and sort of flip the script with you and have you as a guest of your own podcast.

The podcast is geared toward aspiring hospitality associates, leaders, students of SMCC, other colleges, universities, or even those considering the hospitality industry. What's interesting about that is that we've started to see who have liked us. And they're people from the Marriott execs, the Hilton execs, people who are executives of big companies throughout the country. I think they like to hear what's going on in the industry from other companies.

And it's really been great. It's expanded beyond just students and new people. But I would say to the new people that if all of these other people are listening, maybe they should too. Absolutely.

You know what, Sean? I think I want to go rewind back in time to season one. And I asked you this question on the very first, very first season of Bed and Butter three years ago, but it's certainly worth asking again. So you were a teacher.

Can you just tell us how you ended up running a motel, a hotel, and now a $100 million company? Yeah, it was quite a transition. I was mowing lawn and taking care of the pool and painting the buildings at this little motel during summers while I was a teacher. And I really liked it, as did my wife.

And so we decided this was a career we wanted to move towards. So we lived there for a number of years, moved to a bigger place, bigger place, bigger place, and so forth. Came to Freeport, Maine, and met up with these partners of ours. We were the only hotel and they had a bunch of restaurants.

So I became pretty familiar with the restaurant business, but we were the hotel and they just decided, wow, we're making more money in this hotel. Let's do another one. Let's do another one. It just kept going.

We affiliated with brands like Hilton and Marriott and Choice and just kept growing. So that's how it happened. But, you know, I think it's interesting, the quality of the people that we had working with us and the culture we had way back in the days when we were starting out is what made the difference. And it's the same thing.

Now that we're a $120 million company, it's really the same thing. It's about the people and how you treat them. And I think that's really, that's what's helped me get to where I am. So if I can shed some light on some new people, what's important to me, and if they want to know, that might be something that they should focus on as to as a people, not necessarily the widgets and the things we have to do every day.

Well, I agree with that, Sean. And speaking from experience of 25 years, it is certainly all about the people, and you've always put that first. So here we are in season three. Tell us about, you know, the first couple of seasons.

What did you enjoy the most? Interestingly, there was some great people. This guy named Matt McClellan. If you want to listen to probably one of the most emotional ones, that day, he had had a cancerous, thing moved from his head.

And he came in and he did the podcast with us. And he just inspired everybody who was listening because they actually, the students were listening at the time. And then everybody after that, there's executives throughout the country that just talk about that. And you'll have to go back.

He talks about sanding the drawers and he talks about a few other things that were just incredible and how he, the things that went on in his life that were really tough, that turned him into who he is today. But then there was a woman named Donda who was with Azamara Cruise Line. She was a CEO. I just happened to hear of her.

I asked her if she'd be on it. She said yes, and I was just amazed. And then we had Jeanette Clark from Apple Reap, probably one of the largest hotel companies in the country. She was amazing.

Whitney Knight from Hilton. It's been just wonderful. And I think what's really worked well is it's been a diversity of the kinds of people we brought on, not only in their jobs, but in their personalities, their careers, what they did, whether they're on the Hilton side, the Marriott side, or our franchisees like we are. They were coming across.

They always had a message to the young people starting their careers. And each one was slightly different, but there was a lot of similarities. So I think, you know, you may want to listen to this season, but don't be afraid to go back and listen to some of the other seasons. We had some amazing guests.

We sure did. I enjoyed the first two seasons tremendously. Tell me about season three. Has your focus shifted at all?

You know what? I don't think it was planned, but just one of the things is I said, okay, I'm mature. I'm not the same age as many of our listeners. So I had to dig in and say, how can I get some people that are maybe in a younger age bracket than I am?

And so I just started Googling things. You know, guy this age, don't Google. It's okay. Actually, no, I did AI.

It was even better. But, you know, I found some, this one person, she became, she's an influencer. She's a TED Talk fan. Guest.

She's done, she's written books and she's, and she has a disability and her story was amazing. Tiffany, you will come up later on. Another guest that we have this year is Fred Forsley with Shipyard Brewery, Sea Dog Brewery. He's an entrepreneur.

And, you know, sometimes you get an entrepreneur on a podcast, you don't know where it's going to go. And I think I asked him two questions and he took the rest of the time telling about life, about his career, about his ups and his downs, the things he lost money at, the things he made money at. And he was so inspiring. I mean, that was a real cool thing.

And I only had to ask two questions and it took the whole time. There's a bunch more that I had that were just, that were really excited about. This year, we have another one, a guy from Marriott, who's a senior executive with a luxury and premium brands. And he talks about how that's distinguished from all the other brands and the different levels.

We have a Hilton exec who deals with products. What kind of soaps do they get and how do they test them and how do they get these things done? So it's really a diverse thing. But that gal who was with Hilton, I found her, she's 30 under 30.

She was with an hotel business. She was under 30 years old and the top 30 in the country. And so I tried to focus a little bit more in the age bracket of a lot of our listeners. But then there's a few others that are not that age bracket, but there's some great stuff.

So I'm excited about this season. I think it could be one of our best. Well, I'm excited to listen to all of these future episodes. Can you talk a little bit about the partnership with SMCC?

Sure. SMCC is Southern Maine Community College. And they have the, probably because I do a lot of walking in that area. I mean, it's a beautiful, beautiful area, right on the water.

But I think one of the things that I really liked about it is that they're producing people out of that program that can step right into the industry. They're not going to be a president of a company in year one, but they can step in. I know we've got two or three people within our company, even in our executive team, that graduated from this community college. One is a general manager, one is an executive with our company.

And I think that says something about the school. But, you know, I think... I wanted to give back and I wanted to shed what knowledge that I might have that might be able to inspire or assist people in their careers. Because if I can help people in their careers, it's not necessarily going to help Main Course, our company.

It might, but if I can get those people in the industry, it's going to make our industry better. And then so by inviting people from around the country at different levels. In hospitality. It gives us a flavor of what they might have for opportunities.

So that really was the reason for this podcast. But what was exciting about choosing and working with SMCC is that they had a new media department. And the new media department takes this recording and turns it into a podcast with music, with an intro. I mean, we're doing a lot of the work today, Jamie, you and I, but in general, they're going to put it all together.

And then the communications department and the marketing department are going to get the word out there. They're going to put it on all the different things like Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and all of those. So they're going to put it all on there, and they're going to do the creative. They're going to do all kinds of things and get it on social media.

So it's really taking a lot of different partners and making it a multidisciplinary podcast, helping students to better themselves. So that was the reason for that one, and it's close by, and it was great. So do you or SMCC have a target audience for Season 3? And does that differ at all from the previous seasons?

It's always, we want to provide for the students that are in the hospitality program now. And I think they would get bored if I asked the same questions three years in a row with the same kind of person. I'm a general manager. I did this.

This is how I got to my career. So we've expanded that to going outside and going nationally and then getting people into one, not necessarily hospitality. This Tiffany, you that I mentioned is not hospitality, but she's got an inspiring story. She's got an inspiring career.

And it's just something to give you a little twist. and it's in the age bracket that they want. So I think that that little twist is there and I'm just excited about the opportunities we had this year to share knowledge throughout the country. And I think the other listeners, like I said, we have a lot of people, I get merit execs that came up to me at conferences or owner's meetings and Sean, when's the next podcast coming out?

You know, I listen to that and I love the one from Hilton and that may be a merit person who loves the Hilton one. So it's just really sharing of ideas in a fun way. Atmosphere. I agree.

I love the different perspectives and the depth of the experience that your guests bring to the table. So it's definitely, there's something for everyone. Just another one that I thought of, we had the director of tourism for the state of Massachusetts. I mean, it's a big deal.

And she asked, I asked if she'd do it. She said, she dropped what she was doing and said, I'd love to do it. And she talked about tourism from another, a lot of different areas, not just hotel or restaurant, which is what a lot of our listeners are. But tourism.

That's a huge thing, way beyond hospitality. And I think that's something that kind of triggers people. Oh, I didn't think of that as part of hospitality. It's really, you know, it's a side of hospitality.

So I think that was a really good one, too. Lots of information that talks about Massachusetts and the things going on there. Let's pivot just a little bit and switch gears. We've talked a lot about the podcast.

Let's talk about you. Tell the audience, tell the listeners how you would sum up, say, some of your greatest skills. Well, I play the spoons. Ah, fantastic.

That hasn't gotten me too far. I've heard them. That hasn't gotten me too far in life. But I do have a podcast.

I have a podcast, but I also have a CD on that. I played on a CD. I was on TV. I was on radio.

But again, that has nothing to do with it. I didn't make any money at it. But, you know, I think my career has been fun. And I think maybe if you say some of my greatest skills, it's the ability to have that fun in the work environment.

You know, I'm the CEO and I'm not sticking to my CEO. Yeah, I put a suit jacket on and I put a tie on occasionally, not as much now since COVID. You know, I think it's getting to know the people and taking them from where they are today to where they're going to be in the future. And I think probably that's a transference when we talked about me as being a teacher.

That's what I did as a teacher. I took the student from where they were. Jamie's a student who can learn this way. John is another student who learns this way.

They might have two different ways to get to where they're going. And that's the same thing in this industry. You know, you might have a general manager who is vibrant, excited, and really like that. to have another one who gets the job done.

And we just got to work with both of them. So I think understanding people and taking them from where they are to where they might be someday. And it's probably some of the proudest moments I have is when I see a person go to the next level or even leave our company and become something great. We've got one GM, the one person who left our company.

He was great. We didn't have anything further right away. And he got a job as an assistant manager of a big hotel, then a general manager, then a regional manager. And it's just wonderful.

You know, and so I think those are the kinds of things that I find perhaps are my skills, but also the things I enjoy most and value most. And I think relationships, I mean, this podcast is a great example. And I've got people from all over the country that are willing to do this because of my relationship with them. Not because they want to be on a podcast in, you know, Portland, Maine, but because they value a relationship that we've established together.

And if I were to give tips to anybody about how I got to where I am, it was through my relationships. It was understanding people and forming relationships, not because I needed something from them or I was trying to get something out of the deal. I was just really trying to form a relationship. And when you do that, it always comes back.

You know, you take care of the people. And I think the last thing is to build a culture. I haven't done it myself. I've been part of building a culture at MainCourse.

And to me, I think that's what sets us apart as a company. When it comes to folks from Hilton or Marriott or communities, they kind of know about Maine Course because of the culture. Again, I'm not part of it. Jamie, you're just as much a part of it as I am.

But there's so many people that are. But the fact that we can do that together and that can be maybe, you know, I have that focus. And I think everyone else does because I have that focus. But they're the ones who actually make it happen when that housekeeper needs help at work.

And how can you have the value of trust and love and caring? You know, and fun. That was a non-starter for me. When we decided we're going to choose our four of the most valuable goals, fun was one of them because, you know, people work here, you know, they're at home for eight hours, they sleep for eight hours, and they come to work for eight hours.

And we got to make this fun. So, you know, and I do some pretty crazy things. Check YouTube and see some of the videos for main course if you want to see them. I didn't say anything about making money.

I didn't say anything about becoming a CEO. Didn't say anything about being the head of organizations out, you know, in other parts of the country. What I'm talking about is the people, the relationships, and culture. That's, to me, what I find is a skill.

I find it's the greatest value that I can provide what I get the most out of. Sean, having been here as many years as I have, I can agree with everything that you just said. Your ability to develop relationships and your genuine care for people truly, you know, sets you apart. It is second to none.

I think that that is, you know, just sort of... You know, part of your persona, part of your character, part of who you are. I don't want it to come across as if I'm, this is self, you know, promotion here. I think what I'm trying to say is that I didn't have a skill set.

I didn't get an education in hospitality, but what I did is I cared about people and I did it. And I think that's what I'm saying to young listeners and even people at Hilton and Merritt, take care of the people and your people will take care of the guests and the guests will keep coming back and we'll all make more money. So at the end of the day, I'm going to make more money. And at the end of the day, I'm going to be a rise in my level of responsibility.

But it's because I took care of the people. And I think that's what I recommend to any listeners that want to know how to move through their careers and feel good about themselves. What else can you tell our listeners about characteristic traits, about being a good leader or other skills that they could develop? I think it's going to come back to the same kind of thing.

Believing in something, then the buck, the position. I never focused on the money. I never focused on the titles. I ended up with the money and I ended up with the titles.

But I think it was because I cared about the people. You know, and it's a little things like, you know, I do birthday cards. I love telling this story. You know, I do birthday cards for all our associates.

That's like a thousand people a year. One time, you know, and I get notes back or texts or cards saying, hey, thanks for my birthday card. Thanks for my birthday card from all the associates. But one time I went to a hotel and a person came up to me and said, Sean, I want to say thank you for your birthday card you sent me.

I said, oh, you're welcome. I'm glad you liked it. He said, no, no, no, Sean, really. I mean, it was really important to me.

I said, well, that's great. I'm really here. And I'm thinking, it's not that big a deal. I signed a Santa birthday card.

But then he said, Sean, just so you know, when I came home, And I went into the mailbox. I always get a card from my mother on my birthday. And there was no card in there that day. And it just sort of hit him.

And it hit me when he said that. And I'm getting, you know, a little emotional. And to make it worse, I was on the way home because my girlfriend just broke up with me. And the only thing I had that day was the birthday card from you.

I don't even know what the question was, Jeremy, but I'm glad I could tell that because that's real important to me. But, you know, it's such an important thing. It's beyond the money and the position and the titles. It's caring for the people and doing the little things that make a difference.

Absolutely, Sean. The little things do matter. What are you most proud of? Our culture with main cause.

I'm proud of my family. My kids both are in the family. My family are in the business, and they have the same beliefs about positively impacting lives, and they try to do that on a daily basis. So that's real important to me.

But, you know, I think what I like about it, and I always talk about it, and you hate when I say it, but, you know, if I get hit by a bus or something happens to me, this culture is going to live on. So I think what I'm most proud of is that the culture that I was part of is going to live on long beyond me. You know, whether I, you know, get hit by a bus or go into a nursing home or die or retire, this culture is going to be there because of what we as a group did. And I think that's much deeper than we grew a business and made money for our investors.

Although we did that too, because we did these other things first. That's my proud moments. And certainly something to be proud of, for sure. Let me just ask you one more question, Sean, before we're out of time.

Speak to the listeners a little bit about, perhaps the listeners who are early in their career specifically, what advice can you offer them? Raise your hand and do more than you're asked to do. And by raising your hand, sometimes what happens is someone will say, boy, I wish we had this. And that's all they say.

But if you say, I wish we had this, but how about if I take this project on? I think, you know, I was always one who did one step more than my job required. If I was a front desk associate, I always did other things that maybe I'd go help out in housekeeping or I'd go do something else. And when I was a general manager, I'd do more than that.

And maybe I'd say, how can I help our company put on a general manager's meeting for all our restaurants? Or how can I, and every job I did, I did more than that. Because I raised my hand, the opportunities happened. And I was just reading a book recently and that's one of the things I talked about is, you know, if you raise your hand, You're going to get called on, and then you're going to get remembered.

And when you get remembered, all of a sudden, they're just going to say, here's the job. And other people will say, well, it's about time. He was already doing it. She was already doing it.

And I think you're a great example of that, too. You were just always doing more than your job title, the normal job title was there. You did more. And therefore, you rose through the ranks to be an executive in the company.

So I think that's a thing I would say that's important. And I go back to the same thing with taking care of people. Make it personal, get personal with people and know what they are like. And they will, they'll go to the end of the earth for you.

And so, I mean, there is a result that comes back that you're going to get, you know, you're going to get this person who's going to give all he or she's got for you, but it's because you gave to them and they're going to stand by. And I think I feel fortunate that I've got a lot of people that are loyal to me and, you know, loyal to our company, but loyal to me too. And part of it is because this company and Sean have given to them. And I hope that becomes something that maybe someone can learn out there is that raise your hand, do more than your job, take care of your people, and then really, really care.

And it'll come back to you like it did for me and most executives in my level. Excellent. Well, Sean, I have to agree. MainCourse is certainly unique in the hospitality space.

But it was an honor to be here with you today. It was an honor to sit and chat and have you as a guest on your own podcast for season three. And I really appreciate your time. Well, thank you, Jamie.

And it was a pleasure to sit back and be on the other side of this. But, you know, there's people a lot smarter than me and a lot more successful than going to be on this podcast. So I suggest you listen to this, but two weeks later, make sure you listen to the next one and the next one after that, because they're great. And go back and listen to some others in between, maybe.

Thank you, Jamie. And thank you, listeners. It's great to, it's an honor to work with you. Thanks, John.

Have a great day. Thank you for joining us for another episode of Bed and Butter, the hospitality podcast produced in partnership with Southern Maine Community College. Subscribe to the podcast to ensure that you don't miss any episodes. And while you're at it, share it with someone who might benefit from these insights.