June 5, 2019 • 31 mins
Founder + Chief Enjoyment Officer of Akwaaba Bed & Breakfast Inns, Monique Greenwood, explains how she replaced fear with faith as she traded her top post in the magazine industry for a stake in hospitality, and leading her guests closer to what makes them happy.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
That don't get caught up in placing. You know who
I am with what I do. That debt means very
little to me. So leaving editor in chief of sas
to be an innkeeper. That meant nothing to me that
I wasn't going to be with this celebrity or this
this event or nothing whatsoever. Because those same people that
you thought, you know, they love you, blah blah, the
next day when you're not editor in chief anymore and
(00:22):
you can't put them on the cover of the magazine,
they were like, what was that girl's name? What was
that woman? You know? So I never got caught up
in that. Hello and thanks for joining us on the podcast.
But we talk about all things change and transformation. I'm
Lisa Oz and I am Jill Herzegg. Today we're gonna
be talking to somebody who's living a fantasy life. And
(00:44):
it made me want to ask you if you have
one a fantasy life? Yeah, like a dream life that
you have you kind of cradle in your mind. Yeah,
but she's so annoying. What's annoying about like the world's
most uber uber model married to the I don't know
(01:11):
that's quite a fantasy life. Do you have one. Um,
I feel like I forgot to dream one up. It's
like I forgot to fantasize about being a bride, and
then when I got engaged, I was like, I don't know,
what's a lope? I mean, I really like I had
no no ideas, none at all, really like secret goals.
(01:31):
M hmm, more time outside. But that doesn't that's not
a fantasy life, is it. I don't think you know. Well,
our guest today is living her fantasy life, living a
lot of our fantasy lives. Um. She has an empire
of bed and breakfast. She is the CEO of Aquaba
(01:52):
Bed and Breakfast Ends. There are six of these bed
and Breakfast ends. Now she's the former editor in chief
of Essence magazine. Welcome Monique Greenwood. Hi, how are you? Guys?
We're great, Thanks so much for being here and for
having me. It's great to have you. So you are
an innkeeper? Now? Yes, I called myself CEO of a
Quaba Bed and Breakfast sins. But for me, CEO is
(02:13):
cheap enjoyment officer and uh yeah, it makes it sound
even more like a fantasy life even more. Well, it's
funny because I certainly didn't fantasize about only ends. When
I was young, I certainly wanted to go into communications
and be a fashion editor and had my sight set
on that. And in fact, as a child growing you
got to do it, and I did. I did, I did,
(02:35):
And so that's when I decided it was time to
try something to new. But certainly, growing up I never cooked,
I never cleaned, no chores, none of that. I'm a
first generation college graduate, and so it was very important
to my mom that I just be very focused on
my schooling. And so everything I do now is nothing
that I did growing up. I had to learn it
from scratch. How how did that happen? Most of us
(02:58):
don't say when I retire from my really high powered job,
I'm gonna go start cooking for people and making their beds. Well,
you know, I had never stayed at a bed and
breakfast until about twenty five years ago, and once I
stayed in one, I realized that it tied into all
of my personal passions. And I do love decorating, I
love entertaining, and I had this crazy vision of having
(03:21):
a home that I love in a city that I
love for each season of the year. And that was
a pretty vodacious goal. It was a fantasy in fact,
because I grew up and that never stayed in the
bed by myself until I was twenty two, because it
was always my sister pushed up next year, and we
were always queen inside sleeping in a full sized bed.
So at any rate, you know, I thought, once I
(03:42):
stayed at a bed and breakfast that, um, this would
be a fun thing to do, and it would be
a way that I could have actually a home that
I love for each season of the year. So that's
how the whole dream came to be. So let's back
it up for a second. Because you were the editor
in chief of a magazine, it's something we haven't common.
I was the editor in chief of a couple of
magazines as well. So was there what were you seeking
(04:07):
to sort of exit that life, escape that life somewhat
or was it just you know, how how were things
when you decided, hey, I want to change while I
was seeking to get a life. It's really what was happening. Um.
I absolutely loved my time as editor in chief and
Essence magazine. It was my dream job. This is the
job I fantasized about since I was twelve essence was
(04:27):
the magazine that proclaimed me beautiful as a black woman.
I grew up with it on my coffee table, and
I declared that goal. I think, when I was about thirteen,
would be probably among hundreds of thousands of of people
who as a kid dreamed of that. Yeah, exactly. So
at the time, I was really loving my job, but
I wasn't loving me, so um I would I had
(04:50):
one bed and breakfast and I lived in the B
n B, so I would leave UH in the morning
after making breakfast for guests and go make a magazine,
and then I would come home late in the evening
and guests would be sitting by my fireplace, sipping my
tea about the silk and my jacuzy and I had
kind of a bad attitude about that, which wasn't a
good thing. So um. It really just came to a
(05:10):
point where I had this extremely long list of things
to do and I never showed up on it, and
I knew that I had to make a difficult decision
about either continue to run the magazine or step off
and really commit myself to the bed and breakfast, because
doing both meant that I was lost in the middle
somewhere and so it was a difficult choice. But what
really convinced me to make this choice to do the
(05:32):
B and B was to really try to create a
legacy for my daughter. Um. I felt that, you know,
I couldn't leave her a job, but I could leave
her this business to run should she choose to do
since she worked with you. Now, Oh, this is a
continuing battle that we have. She would like to say
that she's following in my footsteps because she's in communications
as well. She's a writer, um, a creative writer. I
(05:54):
get her to hop out from time to time, especially
when it comes to the social media aspect of marketing
the business. But other than that, I have really um
ruined my chances. I think of having her come into
this industry. She sees the life I live, but she
goes like, I want no part of that. Um So
I love it. It doesn't feel like work for me,
but for her this would appear to be a lot
of work, and so she's not that interested in it.
(06:17):
So your first property was in bed sty, Yes, and
it was not exactly in good shape. That's a crazy
leap to oh, there's that crumbling mansion there. I'm going
to buy it and make it profitable. Yeah, I think
the property itself being in bath shape was a leap,
But the bigger leap was the idea of having a
beautiful bed and breakfast in the middle of bed Side
(06:37):
twenty five years ago. Um. You know, Brooklyn is, which
is the hottest neighborhood. Absolutely twenty five years ago. Yellow
cats would pull up and they sit there for a minute,
and then they pull off and I go, what just happened?
Where my guests, you know, and they, you know, just
were intimidated, um a little bit by the neighborhood. But
I always saw the beauty in it. And now I'm
(06:58):
just so fortunate and grateful that Um, I had that
that third eye. You know, the people looked at me
as if I had three eyes and that they thought
that was crazy. But the third eye was the eye
of vision, uh, the ability to see the possibility. And
I realized that Beffer Cyves and I got here this
morning from Best Side in twenty minutes in the middle
of Manhattan, so you know, the proximity, the beautiful brown stones,
(07:20):
all of that convinced me that this would be the
place of our listeners. You just have to imagine the
most idyllic, tree lined streets with these old beautiful brown
stones and town houses. Yes, and your and your BnB
is like this, this jewel in the crown. It is
And like I said, it was, the kids called it
the haunted house in the neighborhood had been abandoned for
(07:40):
about fourteen years and um, you know, it had a fire,
it had gone through a lot, and but I just
believe that it could come back to life. And uh,
that was a lot of the fun of it. It
took about nine months and we were ready to go
and started working with people. We thought we were going
to welcome people from um, you know, outside of the
New York area who were coming to visit with friends
(08:01):
and family who lived in the area. We turned out
that half of our guests immediately were coming from down
the street and around the corner. Just wanted a little
bit of high touch and what has become increasingly a
high tech world. So we kind of, you know, did
that staycation thing twenty five years ago when we started,
and now it's quite popular. Yeah. Now I read though
that the community at first sort of opposed the project. Yeah,
(08:23):
the idea of having an urban bed and breakfast was
something completely new twenty five years ago when we when
we opened and UM, we couldn't find any kind of
zoning codes or regulations or anything that would tell us
what we really needed to do to have a bed
and breakfast in the middle of Brooklyn. Um. So we
we did the best we could to try to make ends,
meeting to try to make sure we were following anything
(08:43):
that made sense, like taking the boot handles course because
we were gonna make breakfast, and calling the fire department
and saying, Okay, this is our place, what's the best
escape route? You know, we want you to know our
place and we want to know what we do. So
we did all those things. But we did have some
neighbors who didn't really quite see the vision. UM didn't
believe that we were actually buying this mansion. UM thought
(09:04):
maybe that the money came from some unseemly kind of
work that we did, or perhaps which was crazy just
start variety. Yeah, so we definitely had some neighbors who
protested every time the media came to cover us, that
they they had their size. They tried to hit airtime.
It was just really really hard. But uh, now the
ringleader of that whole you know, opposition is like great
(09:27):
buddies with my husband after they went to pisticuffs. You know,
it takes. It was tough. So you mentioned your husband,
because when you take on a bed and breakfast or
an end, it's not just you, it's a family event. Um.
Was there any resistance on his part because you were
going to definitely drag him in there to help. Yes,
I mean we live in the bed and breakfast, and
(09:48):
that's really the beauty of the bed and breakfast is
that the guests get to actually live with the host.
And this is also pre airbnb, which is a whole
another story. But um, that's quite a disrupter in our industry.
But husband initially thought this was a great idea. We
would travel to b and bs together. He enjoyed it.
He's very charming and we worked together well, um initially. Uh.
(10:08):
And he was certainly a better cook than I was.
As I said, I didn't know anything about cooking. So
he would make the breakfast and I would serve the
plates and we'd be just you know, having a good time. Well,
when I decided that I needed to have four of
these places, one for each season, that's when things got
a little hairy because we did Kate May and I
spent the entire summer working there, and he was working
(10:29):
in the New York location and that that didn't work
for him. When we come back, we're gonna find out
about those harry times. We've been chatting with Monique Greenwood.
She is the CEO of Clauba Bet and Breakfast Ends,
(10:52):
and you were about to tell us the story of
how things got harry when you you and your husband
started the well your second was your second right, and
decided to move down to the Jersey Shore for this
is the beginning of the empire. This was number two
and um, it wasn't fun for him anymore to have
(11:12):
to do it by himself. Uh. He also felt inhibited
by being in a one property all the time, because
you're kind of housebound, which I love that. I love
being at home. There's no place I'd rather be. But
he wanted to be out and about. Um. The other
thing that became quickly apparent since he was in Brock
he's a broadcast engineer by profession, and he was in
(11:32):
a union, and so the camaraderie of the team the shop,
you know, was important to him. And I don't think
he could articulate that, and I didn't see it at
the time. But you know, when you're an inn keep
versus you and the guests, there's no you know, the guys,
and there's no break every forty five minutes, you know,
mandated break. You know, there's no there's no paycheck even
as you're starting out as an entrepreneur. And so you know,
(11:54):
if you some people see the paycheck and equate that
with the work that they've done. Um, I never paid
myself on the payroll for the business, and so I
knew I was getting paid in the experience, but also, um,
you know, I could take an owner's draw whenever I
wanted to or needed to. But that every two week paycheck,
you know, he missed that, and so his mindset wasn't
(12:16):
that of an entrepreneur. And so when he got a
little bit better about doing it, it was clear. I
was like, Okay, you can't do this anymore. And those
are difficult decisions. You have to tell people, and could
maybe your husband, that that no one's going to reign
in your parade. If this is the thing that you
want to do, you have to make sure that everybody
on your front row is in it with you. I
have to say, I kind of relate to your husband,
(12:38):
And it's interesting to me because we have this editor
in chief experience in common. Um. But after I, after
my career as an editor in chief ended, I I
really felt the lack of that, um, that team being
part of a team, you know, everybody growing in the
same direction and the same rhythm, and yes, the rhythm
(12:59):
of paycheck every two weeks. Yeah, it's a little a
little bit rocked my rocked my boat. But it sounds
like your transition to being an innkeeper, even though it's
so different from being the editor of a big, glossy magazine,
it didn't seem like it was that rough. That's interesting
to me. Well, um, there was clearly a wonderful bond
(13:23):
between me and the other women who produced the magazine
every month. But I create that bond with my guest. Um.
So every person that walks through the door is an
opportunity to make a new friend, to touch a person
in a special way. And so that's the way I
look at what I do. And you know, sometimes I
see people walking through the door, they're very different people. Um,
(13:44):
when they leave a couple of days later, you know
they're uptight, they've gotten off the subway, they're sweating, they're up,
you know, they're just and then we just want to
chill them completely out and they leave very very differently.
Um them out. I'm like signing up right now making
my servation. Well, you know, most of our ins are
in urban areas, and so our our primary guests are
(14:06):
people who live very high pressure lives and so um.
The first thing is when you open the door and
you know them by name. That blows them away. You know,
we we know who's coming through the door. Um. When
when they sit down and you've made them a hot
breakfast in the morning, and you've taken in consideration any
dietary restrictions, whether they're gluten free, vegan, um uh, doing
a keto diet. I mean, because there's tons of those now, um,
(14:28):
and you put that breakfast in front of them. That
blows them away. Because most of us are grabbing a
muffin and a coffee, So to have a beautiful plated
breakfast and put that down is wonderful. We are listening.
This is where my reporting skills come into play. Um,
I'm watching body language. I'm listening, and you know, sometimes
I see couples come in and they don't have anything
to talk about at breakfast. It's a very uncomfortable situation.
(14:51):
And I will start up a conversation and say things like, so,
you know, I'm curious, how did you guys meet each other?
And then I take them back down memory lane and
they we member, oh yeah, oh yeah, I do love
this person. Oh yeah. I mean you actually had a
reality showIn Free Network that went into some of those
story Well, we enjoy doing the show. It was tremendous
(15:14):
and um, it was a real reality show and so
they really just um put a spotlight on what we
do every day and and that kind of um intuitiveness
about what guests need, um is what the show was
really about. So we talked to women who, um, we're
going back to work after their kids were going to
school and being very um nervous about you know, will
(15:37):
the kid kids be cared for being very territorial about
that care, not allowing the husband's to partner with them. Um.
You know, so all kinds of things we get into
and we get a lot of women's groups, so we
do a lot of that introspection. Um, and we don't
expect that to happen. But what is very clear to
me is that when the guests show up, they don't
just bring their you know, luggage, Sometimes they bring a
(15:59):
lot of baggage. And if we can have unpacked that,
that's that's really important. It's like you're providing a family
for people who don't have functional families. You're like a
mother hend to all of these people. Yeah we can, um.
We we we meet them where they are, you know,
and and a lot of a lot of us have
needs that are not being met. Um. But sometimes you'll
get a couple there's so very much in love and
(16:21):
you just want to help spark that even more when
when they go out at night for dinner, you run
up to the room and you light some candles and
you sprinkle some rose petals, you run their bathwater. You're
constantly listening to what people say. I mean, just last
week we had a woman olver heard he was talking
about how much she loved peppermitt patties when she was
a kid, and she never sees them anymore. Blah blah
blah blah. We spent the whole afternoon look for those
(16:42):
pepper patties, and they want her nice than when she
came back. Do you stay in touch with them after
they leave, like we have a lot of relationships, um,
and and they come back, they come back for a
tune up, you know. Um yeah, I mean it's and
it's sometimes you're just walking down the street and you know,
I know that face and they're looking at you and go,
wait fifteen years ago, Kate may right. You know. So
(17:04):
you're trying to keep up with them after twenty four years,
it gets a little harder, but um, but they stay
with you in memory. Certainly you may not remember their names,
their faces, or their circumstances, but you know, those experiences
are so rare that people when they are on vacation,
they just kind of exhale, and that's when you can
connect with them. Means hospitality, it means welcome. It means welcome. Yes,
(17:25):
I think it should mean therapy something like that. Now
you also have this much bigger property in the Poconots
that used to be the Woolworth Mansion. Yes, this is
like a major resort, just as um where the reality
show was filmed. And um we've had it now for
seven years and it's a former Woolworth of state sits
(17:47):
on twenty two acres of land. It has a full
spot on premises. It has an Olympic sized pool, indoor heated,
It has a gym, walking trails, tennis courts, um. So
most of our guests who come there never leave. We
try to give them everything they would want me to
do complimentary yoga classes, we do healthy cooking classes, so
whatever experience we can think of. We do pop up barbecues.
(18:08):
We just had one of those last week. So it's
a really special place. And I think what really resonates
with a lot of our guests, especially those of color,
is the fact that they are sleeping in a former
Woolworth estate and that their parents and that their grandparents
weren't able to sit at the counter at Woolworks. So
it's just affirmation of what can be and what should be. Yeah, yeah,
(18:33):
I mean it sounds like it. Um. These respites, these
vacations that people take with you are putting them back together. Yes,
And it's sort of interesting in the context of our
podcast to think about the fact that sometimes we you know,
that's what we're looking for from from vacation, we're not
you know, we think we just want to chill out
and be somewhere pretty, but there's there's repair there's real repair.
(18:55):
Absolutely absolutely. It sounds all perfect and rainbows and butterflies,
but you've got to have some like some stories of
disaster because even like a home, you know things, things
turn sour that it can't all be good all the time.
My things historic properties, and so the maintenance and upkeep
(19:26):
is ongoing and you just have to be ready to
tackle it. You have your emergency fund for those fixes
that you know you need to have. Your plumber becomes
your best friend. Um. And so you try to deal
with those kind of maintenance issues. Well, you know the guests.
I like that part, Yes, I like it. I take
it as a challenge, you know, I see it walking
in the door. Um, I have what I call dragons, right,
(19:50):
these are these are men who are coming with their wives,
and the wives made the reservations. They don't understand for
one bit why they're coming to stay at somebody else's
house that they don't know. They don't get this whole thing. Um,
And so I put everybody on notice. On our team,
we gotta drag in and that means we have to
work extra hard. But for me, I go, let's get
ready to dance. And so you know, I take it
(20:10):
I I really get off one. How do I turn
this around? Um? And by the time they leave, you know,
they are sometimes our biggest, biggest fans and our best ambassadors,
you know, And and that comes from kind of like, Okay,
what's really happening here? You know, why? Why why are
they resistant? How do we change that around? How do
we make them a believer? And that is really exciting
(20:31):
for me? Um, No, I wouldn't say so. I mean,
I just I have learned very well how to say
no to those things that drained me, that overwhelmed me,
so that I can say yes to those things that
motivate me and inspire me. And so, um, I'm really
focused on that. And so I'm only going to do
those parts of the job and those parts of life
(20:52):
that that that I can really say this, this brings
me joy. So you know, I really if I have
to clean the room now, I'll do it. I'm not
happy about it. So I make sure that my housekeeper
gets paid more than anybody else on the staff because
I need her. I don't want to have to do
that job. Well, when we mentioned that what inspires you?
(21:13):
When we come back, we're going to talk about how
you inspire others, particularly women. We're chatting with the CEO
of Aquappa Bet and Breakfast Ends, Monique Greenwood. So you
talked about the people that work for you and how
(21:36):
you support them financially, but you also support them emotionally.
Probably the majority of them are women, right, Um, how
do you encourage them to feel passionate the way that
you do about about these ends? Well, first of all,
I keep my husband in mind with that whole thing
(21:57):
about the guys in the in the shop, you know,
that team thing. So I'm really keen on doing that.
So we we uh, we're in different locations, but we
have a conference call um twice a month, and we
started off talking about tell me a great thing to
happen for you. It's your property this week, and we
let them talk about that. We talk about best practices,
(22:17):
We do a lot of staff development. We do a
retreat every year ourselves. Um, they get to stay at
the other properties. Every Christmas, I give them a gift
to go to like a really fine restaurant or a
really amazing hotel. Because if you've never had great service,
you don't know how to give it. You've got to
know what that feels like. And then you can then
share that with other people. UM. And then I think
(22:39):
mostly is you know when I when I do my
so called evaluations, we're really evaluating, Um, is this job
still serving you? You know what? What what are your
personal goals? How do we help you get there? Um So,
a lot of my innkeepers aspired to own their own properties,
and that is, you know, very exciting for me. So
we're very unselfish with anything that we know that we
(23:00):
can help to to push them forward. And then when
that time comes for them to go, we realize that
time has come and so there's no question of feeling
like that they were unloyal or anything like that. It's
just time for them to spread their wings. And so
that's really most important. Um So. So you provide tremendous
support to your staff, how have you built in support
(23:22):
for yourself? Because you said when you made this transition
many years ago, now you just weren't even on the list.
And it sounds like this is job. So how do
you How does Monique fit into this? Um? You know,
I'm a work in progress with that piece. UM. I'm
always trying to constantly remind myself. I noticed that, you know,
dear friends. They seem concerned at times. They go, You're okay,
(23:44):
you're doing you know, you're doing you and you know,
so they're kind of reminding me, Um, you know if
that's a hard one. UM, I keep uh, I keep
putting off this my so called retirement. So my version
every time will happen next year is hopefully in UM.
It's it's being more of the ambassador for the for
(24:06):
the for the brand. UM. Literally I am at three
locations in one week. UM. So I put a lot
of miles on my car, a lot of miles on
my body, and so I want to be more conscious
of that. And that's why I've tried to um overpay people,
train people, as I need to get to that place
where I feel comfortable and confident that they can carry
(24:28):
on without me. UM. But right now, hand ask for
help at a higher level. Handed overhand the day to
day man absolutely and the thing. The other thing that
I do is I try to really make the early
mornings a safer time for me. So I get a
really early like six o'clock and like six to eight
is my time. And I've been doing that forever. My
(24:49):
daughter's twenty seven, and she remembers this since she was three,
and she was very good because she would warn my
husband she goes that time, yet don't go in there,
and she to protect that time as well, because I
really learned, um that you do have to give to
yourself before you give yourself away to others. And if
you don't do that, then you'll be giving, but with
a with an attitude a little bit. You know, you
(25:11):
don't want to have that and you want to give
with the opening. Yeah, exactly exactly, So you have to
give yourself to yourself first. So I still try to
work on that, um, but sometimes it gets away from me.
But that's kind of how I try to balance. So
you said you're retiring in your what are you gonna do?
I can't see you sitting with your No, that's never
gonna happen. Um. No, I want to really have more
(25:34):
time with the guests. That's the part of the job
that I enjoy most. Um. So I've already worked my
way out of the kitchen. So really do I make breakfast?
I really try not to make a bed. I just
want to make people happy. That's the part of the
job I like, and so I want to focus on that. No,
I'm not going and you know I'll be showing up
at some end every single day. Um, it's just the
way I'm wired. Um. We just came from Hilton Head
(25:57):
on a little four day vacation. UM, and I just
I was just waiting to get back. I was like, Okay,
I'm done, I'm done here. UM. And that's just the
way I'm worse. So I accept that. Yeah. I was
going to ask you whether being innkeepers has ruined going
to other places, going to other people's hotels and ends
for the Um. No, I I love it. In fact,
I do that on a vacation. And let me look
(26:18):
up the top who's who's top on trip Advisor in
this city, and I'll go by introduce myself. I love
that I take a busman's holiday or whatever they call it.
I still I love that. So yeah, no, I think, Um,
I just want to do I'd like to branch out
into a line of home goods with the Aquama brand,
So I want to give some time to that. Um,
I'd like to write another book. I want to give
(26:40):
some time to that. UM. So I won't be retired,
but I just want to kind of transition a little bit. UM.
And what I currently do on a day to day basis.
So what advice would you give to people who maybe
are at a stage in their careers where they wanted
to leap into something different and are considering in keeping
because it's sounds really delightful from the way you describe it.
(27:04):
Is it? Is it? What are the barriers? Is it?
Is it primarily financial? Is it? Um? Time that's the
big barrier? Well, first of all, to make a change
from another career to go into this, I'm gonna say,
you've got to replace that fear with faith and believe
that you can do it, and that if it doesn't work,
you just do the next thing. Um. So I don't
(27:25):
get caught up in making those adjustments, you know, um,
And I don't get caught up in placing you know
who I am with what I do that that means
very little to me. So leaving editor in chief of
essence to to be an innkeeper, that meant nothing to me.
That I wasn't going to be with this celebrity or
this this event or nothing whatsoever. Because those same people
(27:45):
that you thought, you know they love you, blah blah blah.
The next day when you're not editor in chief anymore
and you can't put them on the cover of the magazine.
They were like, what was that girl's name? What was
this woman? You know? So I never got caught up
in that. UM. I think the biggest barrier to entry
into the B and B world would be the acquisition
of the real estate. UM. So you typically find people
who are um um corporate dropouts, um who go into
(28:09):
this because they can take their little buyout package and
buy the property. Or they're in a different life and
they're downsizing from the big house that they raise their
families in and they're buying this other big house that
guests will stay in and they have a little cottage
in the back, and so that works. So it's very
difficult if this you come out of school or anything
like that and you go, I think I want to
own an end um that buried. The entry is about
(28:30):
finances generally. UM. I think the other thing people should
think about if they are considering in keeping is are
you the kind of person that entertains family members who
come for a couple of days and you're counting down
like it is it Friday? Yet? There yet? And you
just want people out of your space. You couldn't do this. Um.
And you know, my husband will say to me, he
(28:50):
goes like you you're just like always on. I said,
when that doorbell rings, it's Tota, And so that's my
new nickname that he calls me now, Tota. I'm like,
that's okay, uh I be it's turning on. You're ready
to go. And so you have to be that person
to you. You gotta just take the breath. When someone
calls you at three in the morning and says they
can't work the jacouzi, you don't start going with why
(29:11):
they need a jacuzi? Anyway, that's my husband. They was
three o'clock and what do they need? I'm like, well,
that's not the question. The question is let me tell
them what button they should be pushing, you know. So
you just have to figure out if it's your your's
the thing that's gonna jazz you up. And um, you know,
for me, it just works in success period. I just
think that whatever I choose to do, I'm going to
(29:32):
be successful at because I've chosen it. And success is subjective,
or at least it should be. And you know what
rocks my world may feel like a rock in your shoe,
and that's a good thing and so um, but I
love this field and it's a you. You. You get
to live in some amazing places, you meet amazing people,
(29:52):
and just about everything's attacks right off. You'll never have
a full roll of toilet paper, but that's okay because
we always take that little end that's left and that
goes in a big basket in our bathroom, you know.
So there's some trade off to that. Our daught it
was the ring when we went into this business, and
so she had to learn to use her inside voice
at all times. It's made her an amazing person because
(30:14):
she can read people if they if they weren't you know,
kid people when we were raising and there are a
lot of people didn't know we even had a child,
she could sense up and let me, let me go
read my book or a theory about why she wants
to be a writer, because I think from what you're
telling us, you really draw people's stories out of that.
So she's had this front row seat at this amazing
(30:36):
play of people's lives, partly because you get them to
really say what they're dealing. And so she's a storyteller,
like she's an amazing storyteller. She tells her story. She
definitely does memoise her specialty. That's sometimes tricky. I'm like,
I'm showing up there and I don't what are you
saying about me right now? But yeah, I'm encouraging her
(30:58):
in that career choice again. And she will remind me
whenever I get all track and start talking about you
got to do the family business. And I've been known
to say that, She'll start quoting from my own book,
which is called Having What Matters, and she'll say, on
page forty two, you said it is a wonderful book matters. Well,
we've loved getting to hear a little bit of your story.
(31:20):
So thank you so much for being here with us today.
Thank you for having me. If you want to learn
more about Monique Greenwood or her properties, go to aquaba
dot com and book a room right now. It's a
k W A A B A. I am ready to
book a sweet as soon as as soon as we were.
Thank you so much for joining us, Thanks for everyone
(31:43):
out there listening, and thanks to our producer, Alicia A. Wood.
It's really fun. See you all next time.
That don't get caught up in placing. You know who
I am with what I do. That debt means very
little to me. So leaving editor in chief of sas
to be an innkeeper. That meant nothing to me that
I wasn't going to be with this celebrity or this
this event or nothing whatsoever. Because those same people that
you thought, you know, they love you, blah blah, the
next day when you're not editor in chief anymore and
(00:22):
you can't put them on the cover of the magazine,
they were like, what was that girl's name? What was
that woman? You know? So I never got caught up
in that. Hello and thanks for joining us on the podcast.
But we talk about all things change and transformation. I'm
Lisa Oz and I am Jill Herzegg. Today we're gonna
be talking to somebody who's living a fantasy life. And
(00:44):
it made me want to ask you if you have
one a fantasy life? Yeah, like a dream life that
you have you kind of cradle in your mind. Yeah,
but she's so annoying. What's annoying about like the world's
most uber uber model married to the I don't know
(01:11):
that's quite a fantasy life. Do you have one. Um,
I feel like I forgot to dream one up. It's
like I forgot to fantasize about being a bride, and
then when I got engaged, I was like, I don't know,
what's a lope? I mean, I really like I had
no no ideas, none at all, really like secret goals.
(01:31):
M hmm, more time outside. But that doesn't that's not
a fantasy life, is it. I don't think you know. Well,
our guest today is living her fantasy life, living a
lot of our fantasy lives. Um. She has an empire
of bed and breakfast. She is the CEO of Aquaba
(01:52):
Bed and Breakfast Ends. There are six of these bed
and Breakfast ends. Now she's the former editor in chief
of Essence magazine. Welcome Monique Greenwood. Hi, how are you? Guys?
We're great, Thanks so much for being here and for
having me. It's great to have you. So you are
an innkeeper? Now? Yes, I called myself CEO of a
Quaba Bed and Breakfast sins. But for me, CEO is
(02:13):
cheap enjoyment officer and uh yeah, it makes it sound
even more like a fantasy life even more. Well, it's
funny because I certainly didn't fantasize about only ends. When
I was young, I certainly wanted to go into communications
and be a fashion editor and had my sight set
on that. And in fact, as a child growing you
got to do it, and I did. I did, I did,
(02:35):
And so that's when I decided it was time to
try something to new. But certainly, growing up I never cooked,
I never cleaned, no chores, none of that. I'm a
first generation college graduate, and so it was very important
to my mom that I just be very focused on
my schooling. And so everything I do now is nothing
that I did growing up. I had to learn it
from scratch. How how did that happen? Most of us
(02:58):
don't say when I retire from my really high powered job,
I'm gonna go start cooking for people and making their beds. Well,
you know, I had never stayed at a bed and
breakfast until about twenty five years ago, and once I
stayed in one, I realized that it tied into all
of my personal passions. And I do love decorating, I
love entertaining, and I had this crazy vision of having
(03:21):
a home that I love in a city that I
love for each season of the year. And that was
a pretty vodacious goal. It was a fantasy in fact,
because I grew up and that never stayed in the
bed by myself until I was twenty two, because it
was always my sister pushed up next year, and we
were always queen inside sleeping in a full sized bed.
So at any rate, you know, I thought, once I
(03:42):
stayed at a bed and breakfast that, um, this would
be a fun thing to do, and it would be
a way that I could have actually a home that
I love for each season of the year. So that's
how the whole dream came to be. So let's back
it up for a second. Because you were the editor
in chief of a magazine, it's something we haven't common.
I was the editor in chief of a couple of
magazines as well. So was there what were you seeking
(04:07):
to sort of exit that life, escape that life somewhat
or was it just you know, how how were things
when you decided, hey, I want to change while I
was seeking to get a life. It's really what was happening. Um.
I absolutely loved my time as editor in chief and
Essence magazine. It was my dream job. This is the
job I fantasized about since I was twelve essence was
(04:27):
the magazine that proclaimed me beautiful as a black woman.
I grew up with it on my coffee table, and
I declared that goal. I think, when I was about thirteen,
would be probably among hundreds of thousands of of people
who as a kid dreamed of that. Yeah, exactly. So
at the time, I was really loving my job, but
I wasn't loving me, so um I would I had
(04:50):
one bed and breakfast and I lived in the B
n B, so I would leave UH in the morning
after making breakfast for guests and go make a magazine,
and then I would come home late in the evening
and guests would be sitting by my fireplace, sipping my
tea about the silk and my jacuzy and I had
kind of a bad attitude about that, which wasn't a
good thing. So um. It really just came to a
(05:10):
point where I had this extremely long list of things
to do and I never showed up on it, and
I knew that I had to make a difficult decision
about either continue to run the magazine or step off
and really commit myself to the bed and breakfast, because
doing both meant that I was lost in the middle
somewhere and so it was a difficult choice. But what
really convinced me to make this choice to do the
(05:32):
B and B was to really try to create a
legacy for my daughter. Um. I felt that, you know,
I couldn't leave her a job, but I could leave
her this business to run should she choose to do
since she worked with you. Now, Oh, this is a
continuing battle that we have. She would like to say
that she's following in my footsteps because she's in communications
as well. She's a writer, um, a creative writer. I
(05:54):
get her to hop out from time to time, especially
when it comes to the social media aspect of marketing
the business. But other than that, I have really um
ruined my chances. I think of having her come into
this industry. She sees the life I live, but she
goes like, I want no part of that. Um So
I love it. It doesn't feel like work for me,
but for her this would appear to be a lot
of work, and so she's not that interested in it.
(06:17):
So your first property was in bed sty, Yes, and
it was not exactly in good shape. That's a crazy
leap to oh, there's that crumbling mansion there. I'm going
to buy it and make it profitable. Yeah, I think
the property itself being in bath shape was a leap,
But the bigger leap was the idea of having a
beautiful bed and breakfast in the middle of bed Side
(06:37):
twenty five years ago. Um. You know, Brooklyn is, which
is the hottest neighborhood. Absolutely twenty five years ago. Yellow
cats would pull up and they sit there for a minute,
and then they pull off and I go, what just happened?
Where my guests, you know, and they, you know, just
were intimidated, um a little bit by the neighborhood. But
I always saw the beauty in it. And now I'm
(06:58):
just so fortunate and grateful that Um, I had that
that third eye. You know, the people looked at me
as if I had three eyes and that they thought
that was crazy. But the third eye was the eye
of vision, uh, the ability to see the possibility. And
I realized that Beffer Cyves and I got here this
morning from Best Side in twenty minutes in the middle
of Manhattan, so you know, the proximity, the beautiful brown stones,
(07:20):
all of that convinced me that this would be the
place of our listeners. You just have to imagine the
most idyllic, tree lined streets with these old beautiful brown
stones and town houses. Yes, and your and your BnB
is like this, this jewel in the crown. It is
And like I said, it was, the kids called it
the haunted house in the neighborhood had been abandoned for
(07:40):
about fourteen years and um, you know, it had a fire,
it had gone through a lot, and but I just
believe that it could come back to life. And uh,
that was a lot of the fun of it. It
took about nine months and we were ready to go
and started working with people. We thought we were going
to welcome people from um, you know, outside of the
New York area who were coming to visit with friends
(08:01):
and family who lived in the area. We turned out
that half of our guests immediately were coming from down
the street and around the corner. Just wanted a little
bit of high touch and what has become increasingly a
high tech world. So we kind of, you know, did
that staycation thing twenty five years ago when we started,
and now it's quite popular. Yeah. Now I read though
that the community at first sort of opposed the project. Yeah,
(08:23):
the idea of having an urban bed and breakfast was
something completely new twenty five years ago when we when
we opened and UM, we couldn't find any kind of
zoning codes or regulations or anything that would tell us
what we really needed to do to have a bed
and breakfast in the middle of Brooklyn. Um. So we
we did the best we could to try to make ends,
meeting to try to make sure we were following anything
(08:43):
that made sense, like taking the boot handles course because
we were gonna make breakfast, and calling the fire department
and saying, Okay, this is our place, what's the best
escape route? You know, we want you to know our
place and we want to know what we do. So
we did all those things. But we did have some
neighbors who didn't really quite see the vision. UM didn't
believe that we were actually buying this mansion. UM thought
(09:04):
maybe that the money came from some unseemly kind of
work that we did, or perhaps which was crazy just
start variety. Yeah, so we definitely had some neighbors who
protested every time the media came to cover us, that
they they had their size. They tried to hit airtime.
It was just really really hard. But uh, now the
ringleader of that whole you know, opposition is like great
(09:27):
buddies with my husband after they went to pisticuffs. You know,
it takes. It was tough. So you mentioned your husband,
because when you take on a bed and breakfast or
an end, it's not just you, it's a family event. Um.
Was there any resistance on his part because you were
going to definitely drag him in there to help. Yes,
I mean we live in the bed and breakfast, and
(09:48):
that's really the beauty of the bed and breakfast is
that the guests get to actually live with the host.
And this is also pre airbnb, which is a whole
another story. But um, that's quite a disrupter in our industry.
But husband initially thought this was a great idea. We
would travel to b and bs together. He enjoyed it.
He's very charming and we worked together well, um initially. Uh.
(10:08):
And he was certainly a better cook than I was.
As I said, I didn't know anything about cooking. So
he would make the breakfast and I would serve the
plates and we'd be just you know, having a good time. Well,
when I decided that I needed to have four of
these places, one for each season, that's when things got
a little hairy because we did Kate May and I
spent the entire summer working there, and he was working
(10:29):
in the New York location and that that didn't work
for him. When we come back, we're gonna find out
about those harry times. We've been chatting with Monique Greenwood.
She is the CEO of Clauba Bet and Breakfast Ends,
(10:52):
and you were about to tell us the story of
how things got harry when you you and your husband
started the well your second was your second right, and
decided to move down to the Jersey Shore for this
is the beginning of the empire. This was number two
and um, it wasn't fun for him anymore to have
(11:12):
to do it by himself. Uh. He also felt inhibited
by being in a one property all the time, because
you're kind of housebound, which I love that. I love
being at home. There's no place I'd rather be. But
he wanted to be out and about. Um. The other
thing that became quickly apparent since he was in Brock
he's a broadcast engineer by profession, and he was in
(11:32):
a union, and so the camaraderie of the team the shop,
you know, was important to him. And I don't think
he could articulate that, and I didn't see it at
the time. But you know, when you're an inn keep
versus you and the guests, there's no you know, the guys,
and there's no break every forty five minutes, you know,
mandated break. You know, there's no there's no paycheck even
as you're starting out as an entrepreneur. And so you know,
(11:54):
if you some people see the paycheck and equate that
with the work that they've done. Um, I never paid
myself on the payroll for the business, and so I
knew I was getting paid in the experience, but also, um,
you know, I could take an owner's draw whenever I
wanted to or needed to. But that every two week paycheck,
you know, he missed that, and so his mindset wasn't
(12:16):
that of an entrepreneur. And so when he got a
little bit better about doing it, it was clear. I
was like, Okay, you can't do this anymore. And those
are difficult decisions. You have to tell people, and could
maybe your husband, that that no one's going to reign
in your parade. If this is the thing that you
want to do, you have to make sure that everybody
on your front row is in it with you. I
have to say, I kind of relate to your husband,
(12:38):
And it's interesting to me because we have this editor
in chief experience in common. Um. But after I, after
my career as an editor in chief ended, I I
really felt the lack of that, um, that team being
part of a team, you know, everybody growing in the
same direction and the same rhythm, and yes, the rhythm
(12:59):
of paycheck every two weeks. Yeah, it's a little a
little bit rocked my rocked my boat. But it sounds
like your transition to being an innkeeper, even though it's
so different from being the editor of a big, glossy magazine,
it didn't seem like it was that rough. That's interesting
to me. Well, um, there was clearly a wonderful bond
(13:23):
between me and the other women who produced the magazine
every month. But I create that bond with my guest. Um.
So every person that walks through the door is an
opportunity to make a new friend, to touch a person
in a special way. And so that's the way I
look at what I do. And you know, sometimes I
see people walking through the door, they're very different people. Um,
(13:44):
when they leave a couple of days later, you know
they're uptight, they've gotten off the subway, they're sweating, they're up,
you know, they're just and then we just want to
chill them completely out and they leave very very differently.
Um them out. I'm like signing up right now making
my servation. Well, you know, most of our ins are
in urban areas, and so our our primary guests are
(14:06):
people who live very high pressure lives and so um.
The first thing is when you open the door and
you know them by name. That blows them away. You know,
we we know who's coming through the door. Um. When
when they sit down and you've made them a hot
breakfast in the morning, and you've taken in consideration any
dietary restrictions, whether they're gluten free, vegan, um uh, doing
a keto diet. I mean, because there's tons of those now, um,
(14:28):
and you put that breakfast in front of them. That
blows them away. Because most of us are grabbing a
muffin and a coffee, So to have a beautiful plated
breakfast and put that down is wonderful. We are listening.
This is where my reporting skills come into play. Um,
I'm watching body language. I'm listening, and you know, sometimes
I see couples come in and they don't have anything
to talk about at breakfast. It's a very uncomfortable situation.
(14:51):
And I will start up a conversation and say things like, so,
you know, I'm curious, how did you guys meet each other?
And then I take them back down memory lane and
they we member, oh yeah, oh yeah, I do love
this person. Oh yeah. I mean you actually had a
reality showIn Free Network that went into some of those
story Well, we enjoy doing the show. It was tremendous
(15:14):
and um, it was a real reality show and so
they really just um put a spotlight on what we
do every day and and that kind of um intuitiveness
about what guests need, um is what the show was
really about. So we talked to women who, um, we're
going back to work after their kids were going to
school and being very um nervous about you know, will
(15:37):
the kid kids be cared for being very territorial about
that care, not allowing the husband's to partner with them. Um.
You know, so all kinds of things we get into
and we get a lot of women's groups, so we
do a lot of that introspection. Um, and we don't
expect that to happen. But what is very clear to
me is that when the guests show up, they don't
just bring their you know, luggage, Sometimes they bring a
(15:59):
lot of baggage. And if we can have unpacked that,
that's that's really important. It's like you're providing a family
for people who don't have functional families. You're like a
mother hend to all of these people. Yeah we can, um.
We we we meet them where they are, you know,
and and a lot of a lot of us have
needs that are not being met. Um. But sometimes you'll
get a couple there's so very much in love and
(16:21):
you just want to help spark that even more when
when they go out at night for dinner, you run
up to the room and you light some candles and
you sprinkle some rose petals, you run their bathwater. You're
constantly listening to what people say. I mean, just last
week we had a woman olver heard he was talking
about how much she loved peppermitt patties when she was
a kid, and she never sees them anymore. Blah blah
blah blah. We spent the whole afternoon look for those
(16:42):
pepper patties, and they want her nice than when she
came back. Do you stay in touch with them after
they leave, like we have a lot of relationships, um,
and and they come back, they come back for a
tune up, you know. Um yeah, I mean it's and
it's sometimes you're just walking down the street and you know,
I know that face and they're looking at you and go,
wait fifteen years ago, Kate may right. You know. So
(17:04):
you're trying to keep up with them after twenty four years,
it gets a little harder, but um, but they stay
with you in memory. Certainly you may not remember their names,
their faces, or their circumstances, but you know, those experiences
are so rare that people when they are on vacation,
they just kind of exhale, and that's when you can
connect with them. Means hospitality, it means welcome. It means welcome. Yes,
(17:25):
I think it should mean therapy something like that. Now
you also have this much bigger property in the Poconots
that used to be the Woolworth Mansion. Yes, this is
like a major resort, just as um where the reality
show was filmed. And um we've had it now for
seven years and it's a former Woolworth of state sits
(17:47):
on twenty two acres of land. It has a full
spot on premises. It has an Olympic sized pool, indoor heated,
It has a gym, walking trails, tennis courts, um. So
most of our guests who come there never leave. We
try to give them everything they would want me to
do complimentary yoga classes, we do healthy cooking classes, so
whatever experience we can think of. We do pop up barbecues.
(18:08):
We just had one of those last week. So it's
a really special place. And I think what really resonates
with a lot of our guests, especially those of color,
is the fact that they are sleeping in a former
Woolworth estate and that their parents and that their grandparents
weren't able to sit at the counter at Woolworks. So
it's just affirmation of what can be and what should be. Yeah, yeah,
(18:33):
I mean it sounds like it. Um. These respites, these
vacations that people take with you are putting them back together. Yes,
And it's sort of interesting in the context of our
podcast to think about the fact that sometimes we you know,
that's what we're looking for from from vacation, we're not
you know, we think we just want to chill out
and be somewhere pretty, but there's there's repair there's real repair.
(18:55):
Absolutely absolutely. It sounds all perfect and rainbows and butterflies,
but you've got to have some like some stories of
disaster because even like a home, you know things, things
turn sour that it can't all be good all the time.
My things historic properties, and so the maintenance and upkeep
(19:26):
is ongoing and you just have to be ready to
tackle it. You have your emergency fund for those fixes
that you know you need to have. Your plumber becomes
your best friend. Um. And so you try to deal
with those kind of maintenance issues. Well, you know the guests.
I like that part, Yes, I like it. I take
it as a challenge, you know, I see it walking
in the door. Um, I have what I call dragons, right,
(19:50):
these are these are men who are coming with their wives,
and the wives made the reservations. They don't understand for
one bit why they're coming to stay at somebody else's
house that they don't know. They don't get this whole thing. Um,
And so I put everybody on notice. On our team,
we gotta drag in and that means we have to
work extra hard. But for me, I go, let's get
ready to dance. And so you know, I take it
(20:10):
I I really get off one. How do I turn
this around? Um? And by the time they leave, you know,
they are sometimes our biggest, biggest fans and our best ambassadors,
you know, And and that comes from kind of like, Okay,
what's really happening here? You know, why? Why why are
they resistant? How do we change that around? How do
we make them a believer? And that is really exciting
(20:31):
for me? Um, No, I wouldn't say so. I mean,
I just I have learned very well how to say
no to those things that drained me, that overwhelmed me,
so that I can say yes to those things that
motivate me and inspire me. And so, um, I'm really
focused on that. And so I'm only going to do
those parts of the job and those parts of life
(20:52):
that that that I can really say this, this brings
me joy. So you know, I really if I have
to clean the room now, I'll do it. I'm not
happy about it. So I make sure that my housekeeper
gets paid more than anybody else on the staff because
I need her. I don't want to have to do
that job. Well, when we mentioned that what inspires you?
(21:13):
When we come back, we're going to talk about how
you inspire others, particularly women. We're chatting with the CEO
of Aquappa Bet and Breakfast Ends, Monique Greenwood. So you
talked about the people that work for you and how
(21:36):
you support them financially, but you also support them emotionally.
Probably the majority of them are women, right, Um, how
do you encourage them to feel passionate the way that
you do about about these ends? Well, first of all,
I keep my husband in mind with that whole thing
(21:57):
about the guys in the in the shop, you know,
that team thing. So I'm really keen on doing that.
So we we uh, we're in different locations, but we
have a conference call um twice a month, and we
started off talking about tell me a great thing to
happen for you. It's your property this week, and we
let them talk about that. We talk about best practices,
(22:17):
We do a lot of staff development. We do a
retreat every year ourselves. Um, they get to stay at
the other properties. Every Christmas, I give them a gift
to go to like a really fine restaurant or a
really amazing hotel. Because if you've never had great service,
you don't know how to give it. You've got to
know what that feels like. And then you can then
share that with other people. UM. And then I think
(22:39):
mostly is you know when I when I do my
so called evaluations, we're really evaluating, Um, is this job
still serving you? You know what? What what are your
personal goals? How do we help you get there? Um So,
a lot of my innkeepers aspired to own their own properties,
and that is, you know, very exciting for me. So
we're very unselfish with anything that we know that we
(23:00):
can help to to push them forward. And then when
that time comes for them to go, we realize that
time has come and so there's no question of feeling
like that they were unloyal or anything like that. It's
just time for them to spread their wings. And so
that's really most important. Um So. So you provide tremendous
support to your staff, how have you built in support
(23:22):
for yourself? Because you said when you made this transition
many years ago, now you just weren't even on the list.
And it sounds like this is job. So how do
you How does Monique fit into this? Um? You know,
I'm a work in progress with that piece. UM. I'm
always trying to constantly remind myself. I noticed that, you know,
dear friends. They seem concerned at times. They go, You're okay,
(23:44):
you're doing you know, you're doing you and you know,
so they're kind of reminding me, Um, you know if
that's a hard one. UM, I keep uh, I keep
putting off this my so called retirement. So my version
every time will happen next year is hopefully in UM.
It's it's being more of the ambassador for the for
(24:06):
the for the brand. UM. Literally I am at three
locations in one week. UM. So I put a lot
of miles on my car, a lot of miles on
my body, and so I want to be more conscious
of that. And that's why I've tried to um overpay people,
train people, as I need to get to that place
where I feel comfortable and confident that they can carry
(24:28):
on without me. UM. But right now, hand ask for
help at a higher level. Handed overhand the day to
day man absolutely and the thing. The other thing that
I do is I try to really make the early
mornings a safer time for me. So I get a
really early like six o'clock and like six to eight
is my time. And I've been doing that forever. My
(24:49):
daughter's twenty seven, and she remembers this since she was three,
and she was very good because she would warn my
husband she goes that time, yet don't go in there,
and she to protect that time as well, because I
really learned, um that you do have to give to
yourself before you give yourself away to others. And if
you don't do that, then you'll be giving, but with
a with an attitude a little bit. You know, you
(25:11):
don't want to have that and you want to give
with the opening. Yeah, exactly exactly, So you have to
give yourself to yourself first. So I still try to
work on that, um, but sometimes it gets away from me.
But that's kind of how I try to balance. So
you said you're retiring in your what are you gonna do?
I can't see you sitting with your No, that's never
gonna happen. Um. No, I want to really have more
(25:34):
time with the guests. That's the part of the job
that I enjoy most. Um. So I've already worked my
way out of the kitchen. So really do I make breakfast?
I really try not to make a bed. I just
want to make people happy. That's the part of the
job I like, and so I want to focus on that. No,
I'm not going and you know I'll be showing up
at some end every single day. Um, it's just the
way I'm wired. Um. We just came from Hilton Head
(25:57):
on a little four day vacation. UM, and I just
I was just waiting to get back. I was like, Okay,
I'm done, I'm done here. UM. And that's just the
way I'm worse. So I accept that. Yeah. I was
going to ask you whether being innkeepers has ruined going
to other places, going to other people's hotels and ends
for the Um. No, I I love it. In fact,
I do that on a vacation. And let me look
(26:18):
up the top who's who's top on trip Advisor in
this city, and I'll go by introduce myself. I love
that I take a busman's holiday or whatever they call it.
I still I love that. So yeah, no, I think, Um,
I just want to do I'd like to branch out
into a line of home goods with the Aquama brand,
So I want to give some time to that. Um,
I'd like to write another book. I want to give
(26:40):
some time to that. UM. So I won't be retired,
but I just want to kind of transition a little bit. UM.
And what I currently do on a day to day basis.
So what advice would you give to people who maybe
are at a stage in their careers where they wanted
to leap into something different and are considering in keeping
because it's sounds really delightful from the way you describe it.
(27:04):
Is it? Is it? What are the barriers? Is it?
Is it primarily financial? Is it? Um? Time that's the
big barrier? Well, first of all, to make a change
from another career to go into this, I'm gonna say,
you've got to replace that fear with faith and believe
that you can do it, and that if it doesn't work,
you just do the next thing. Um. So I don't
(27:25):
get caught up in making those adjustments, you know, um,
And I don't get caught up in placing you know
who I am with what I do that that means
very little to me. So leaving editor in chief of
essence to to be an innkeeper, that meant nothing to me.
That I wasn't going to be with this celebrity or
this this event or nothing whatsoever. Because those same people
(27:45):
that you thought, you know they love you, blah blah blah.
The next day when you're not editor in chief anymore
and you can't put them on the cover of the magazine.
They were like, what was that girl's name? What was
this woman? You know? So I never got caught up
in that. UM. I think the biggest barrier to entry
into the B and B world would be the acquisition
of the real estate. UM. So you typically find people
who are um um corporate dropouts, um who go into
(28:09):
this because they can take their little buyout package and
buy the property. Or they're in a different life and
they're downsizing from the big house that they raise their
families in and they're buying this other big house that
guests will stay in and they have a little cottage
in the back, and so that works. So it's very
difficult if this you come out of school or anything
like that and you go, I think I want to
own an end um that buried. The entry is about
(28:30):
finances generally. UM. I think the other thing people should
think about if they are considering in keeping is are
you the kind of person that entertains family members who
come for a couple of days and you're counting down
like it is it Friday? Yet? There yet? And you
just want people out of your space. You couldn't do this. Um.
And you know, my husband will say to me, he
(28:50):
goes like you you're just like always on. I said,
when that doorbell rings, it's Tota, And so that's my
new nickname that he calls me now, Tota. I'm like,
that's okay, uh I be it's turning on. You're ready
to go. And so you have to be that person
to you. You gotta just take the breath. When someone
calls you at three in the morning and says they
can't work the jacouzi, you don't start going with why
(29:11):
they need a jacuzi? Anyway, that's my husband. They was
three o'clock and what do they need? I'm like, well,
that's not the question. The question is let me tell
them what button they should be pushing, you know. So
you just have to figure out if it's your your's
the thing that's gonna jazz you up. And um, you know,
for me, it just works in success period. I just
think that whatever I choose to do, I'm going to
(29:32):
be successful at because I've chosen it. And success is subjective,
or at least it should be. And you know what
rocks my world may feel like a rock in your shoe,
and that's a good thing and so um, but I
love this field and it's a you. You. You get
to live in some amazing places, you meet amazing people,
(29:52):
and just about everything's attacks right off. You'll never have
a full roll of toilet paper, but that's okay because
we always take that little end that's left and that
goes in a big basket in our bathroom, you know.
So there's some trade off to that. Our daught it
was the ring when we went into this business, and
so she had to learn to use her inside voice
at all times. It's made her an amazing person because
(30:14):
she can read people if they if they weren't you know,
kid people when we were raising and there are a
lot of people didn't know we even had a child,
she could sense up and let me, let me go
read my book or a theory about why she wants
to be a writer, because I think from what you're
telling us, you really draw people's stories out of that.
So she's had this front row seat at this amazing
(30:36):
play of people's lives, partly because you get them to
really say what they're dealing. And so she's a storyteller,
like she's an amazing storyteller. She tells her story. She
definitely does memoise her specialty. That's sometimes tricky. I'm like,
I'm showing up there and I don't what are you
saying about me right now? But yeah, I'm encouraging her
(30:58):
in that career choice again. And she will remind me
whenever I get all track and start talking about you
got to do the family business. And I've been known
to say that, She'll start quoting from my own book,
which is called Having What Matters, and she'll say, on
page forty two, you said it is a wonderful book matters. Well,
we've loved getting to hear a little bit of your story.
(31:20):
So thank you so much for being here with us today.
Thank you for having me. If you want to learn
more about Monique Greenwood or her properties, go to aquaba
dot com and book a room right now. It's a
k W A A B A. I am ready to
book a sweet as soon as as soon as we were.
Thank you so much for joining us, Thanks for everyone
(31:43):
out there listening, and thanks to our producer, Alicia A. Wood.
It's really fun. See you all next time.
Road to Somewhere News
Hosts And Creators
Lisa Oz
Jill Herzig
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