Samantha Shafto

I attribute my success to building a culture and being somebody that people want to work with. The culture piece is really important to me. I feel that people actually do want to be held accountable, they want to be seen and heard and appreciated. Some people don't like going 'look what I did, look what I did,' so when you see something they did and they didn't know that you knew, and you give them that feedback like 'hey, I saw this, great job,' and their face just lights up - that melts my heart. It's literally about seeing people and understanding why they react the way that they do, why they are the way that they are. A lot of people in hospitality are going to school to be something else, so when they tell me what they're going to school for, I try to give them tasks that match what they're going to do, so their resume can state that and they have a higher chance of getting whatever job it is after school. I do a lot of networking and create networking events to bring people together so I can help connect them as well.

The best career advice I ever received was from Gwen White, the director of HR at Hard Rock Hotel. I had applied for a supervisor position in food and beverage, and she pulled me into her office and asked why I applied. When I said because I'm in food and beverage, she asked 'So what are you gonna learn? What are you gonna take in from that role that you don't already know? You're doing it without the title now, right?' I said yeah, that's just kind of who I am. She said 'So what are you gonna learn?' and told me she was going to move me to housekeeping instead so I could learn something else. She asked what my end goal was, and I said to be a food and beverage director. The advice she gave was: always take the risk of learning something new than staying somewhere and not learning, because eventually, if you're not learning, you're probably not teaching either. Take the jump, even if it's the same company, just different departments or a different area, and learn something that you can take somewhere else.

Buckle up! It's not gonna be the easiest, but it is gonna be the most rewarding. You have so many youth and people to influence in so many ways, because this is a melting pot of different career choices. Not a lot of people are career servers or career bartenders anymore. When you get to be a mentor, keep learning, because if you are the most knowledgeable one in the room, you're in the wrong room. But keep learning. I'm gearing up a lot of women in the next 4 years to basically take over all different kinds of Rock Libation concepts, and I love that piece of it - creating and inspiring other women to be in this field and to have the backbone to be in this field.

The biggest challenge is being a woman in this field - it's kind of difficult in a man's world. You'll hear the comments, or people are like 'can I have the real manager? Where's the man in charge?' And I'm like, as far as you're concerned, I'm the judge, the jury, and the executioner, and there's nobody above me. It's me. That is kind of difficult to deal with. But creating and inspiring other women to be in this field and to have the backbone to be in this field is rewarding in itself. As for opportunities, there's so many in hospitality. If it's a slow month and you know it's slow, you can create really cool events and get vendors involved, get other businesses involved, small businesses involved, and you can make a really cool thing so you can still meet your quota. I love partnering with other businesses - like we're doing a huge Wagyu, sake and Japanese whiskey dinner, partnering with a high-end whiskey bar. We partner with Thompson's Bookstore speakeasy next door, giving diners a special code word for special treatment. Fort Worth and the Star love when you're promoting that area, so we all work together.

Integrity is my main value. Just being honest with everything. If you're honest with me, no matter what the situation is, I'll get you out of it, I'll protect you, I'll help you. But the moment that I can't trust you, then you don't get to have my Rolodex of influencers or people that I can help you with. Integrity to me is huge - standing up to exactly who you are, and not just saying it, but showing it. And just being honest and vulnerable. You need to be a little bit vulnerable and empathetic when it comes to hospitality, because you have no idea what these guests are going through, or why they're flipping out over a burnt fry. You just gotta let it roll.