Building A Company That Values Employees: How Bellamare Challenges the Status Quo of Corporate America with Anna Jane Stanley

Anthony Codispoti (00:01)
Welcome to another edition of the inspired stories podcast where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from their successes and be inspired by how they’ve overcome adversity. My name is Anthony Codispode and today’s guest is Anna Jane Stanley, vice president at Bellamer development in Ridgeland, Mississippi. They are a boutique real estate firm focused on community transformation through innovative projects and responsible investment strategies.

Their portfolio includes everything from historic renovations to large-scale residential and commercial developments. Anna Jane leads key projects along the Mississippi Gulf Coast and beyond, ensuring properties meet high standards. She is a proud graduate of the University of Mississippi and joined Bellamer after serving in leadership roles at Mulberry Vicksburg. Her dedication and drive have earned her several honors.

like the 2023 Certified Hospitality Management Shining Star Award and a nomination for the 2024 Mississippi Apartment Association Rising Star Award. Now, before we get into all that good stuff, today’s episode is brought to you by my company, Ad Back Benefits Agency, where we offer very specific and unique employee benefits that are both great for your team and fiscally optimized for your bottom line.

Imagine being able to give your hotel employees free access to doctors, therapists, and prescription medications. And here’s the fun part. The program actually puts more money into your employees’ pockets. And the companies too. One recent client was able to increase net profits by $900 per employee per year. Now results vary for each company and some organizations may not be eligible. To find out if your company qualifies,

Contact us today at addbackbenefits.com. All right, back to our guest today, the VP of Development at Bella Mare Development, Anna Jane Stanley. Thanks for making the time to share your story today.

Anna Jane Stanley (02:06)
Absolutely, thank you for having me.

Anthony Codispoti (02:08)
So, Anna-Jane, you’re relatively early on in your professional career. You spent about 18 months with Mulberry Vicksburg, which is an amenity-driven community that has both hotel and apartment options, right? How did that opportunity first come about?

Anna Jane Stanley (02:25)
Yeah, so I was actually at Ole Miss and fully invested in going to law school. I had wanted to go to law school since I was 18 years old and I really didn’t have my sights set on anywhere else, but an opportunity came about. I had gotten connected with a hair and makeup artist who knew a guy who was opening a multi-mix use hotel and apartment type of amenity driven community in Vicksburg, Mississippi, right on the Mississippi River.

And that person happened to be who we now know as CEO of Bellarmere Development, Sunny Satie. So Sunny has been a mentor to me since the very beginning, but before we even knew each other, ⁓ he invited me and two other girls down to kind of be atmosphere models for the grand opening event of Mulberry Vicksburg. And so I was able to tour investors around the bank. There was a lot of bankers involved. So ⁓

pretty high profile people that I was allowed to kind of showcase the property to. And that was kind of my first taste of hospitality. I didn’t know anything about the hotel industry. I have no one in my family in real estate. So it was definitely a different environment for me, but I liked it. And so when I was there, I was with two other girls and after everything, we…

kind of showed everyone around and we were wrapping everything up. I Sunny, I walked up to him and introduced myself and I said, is there anything else I can do for you? And he was like, well, I would love if you girls could get some pictures and, know, tag Mulberry in it just to, you know, promote and get the word out that we’re open. And I was like, oh, absolutely. Like no problem at all. So we went around and we took pictures and I guess he’ll tell you in his own version of his story is that he watched me.

tell them and be a leader in that situation to kind of guide and say, okay, this is what we’re gonna do. This is where we’re gonna go to the other two girls. ⁓ I’ll tell you a quick story. So when I was in kindergarten, we did a kindergarten graduation and each person who walked across the stage to graduate from kindergarten got, you know, most likely to be one day award. And, you know, the usual is that most likely to become a doctor one day, most likely to be a veterinarian.

Well, when I walked across the stage at five years old, was told they said most likely to become someone’s boss one day. And so my mom started clapping and she was like, wait a second. I don’t know if that’s a compliment. And so I think that that is very true. Even in my, you know, early years of my life, I’ve always been just very, ⁓ just felt like I needed to lead and be in a position of

Anthony Codispoti (04:57)
Hahaha

Anna Jane Stanley (05:14)
not a demanding authority, but a voice that respects others in the situation, but also commands a room in a way that I don’t really have to say much. just kind of allow myself to be me. And naturally that’s how that leadership is born. And so I think that that kind of shined through when I was there at Mulberry that day. So about two weeks later, I get a phone call from Sonny and he was like, I want to offer you a job. so at that point in time,

I was like, you know, I, you know, I’m going to law school. I’m about to take my LSAT. Like I’m really not interested. And he just pursued and pursued and pursued. And he was like, no, I really see something in you. think you have a lot of potential. And I was like, no one’s ever told me that before. I’ve always felt very confident and in, you know, going to law school and succeeding in that aspect. But, ⁓ him showing me that I had a lot of potential in areas that I had never explored. It allowed me to, you know,

go into business, work for a year, get hands-on experience, and then be able to say at the end of that year, okay, yeah, I love this, or no, I think I’m gonna still go to law school. So that was kind of the beginning of how that all began, and I started my role as events manager four days after graduation from the Ole Miss Business School.

Anthony Codispoti (06:30)
Okay, so go back and unpack a couple of these things here. First of all, I’ve never heard of an atmosphere model. What is that?

Anna Jane Stanley (06:37)
So essentially it’s ⁓ sort of like modeling, but it’s not photography. actually, can hire models to come out. Basically you put on a pretty dress, you show up with a pretty face and you show people around and it allows, it curates an atmosphere that is upscale, high quality, sort of that sort of vibe going on. And that was, that was the brand of Mulberry. That was what Mulberry exuded.

And so the atmosphere needed to match that. So in order to continue that brand experience, you had someone who was dressed up, very professional, and showed you around the property. So that was kind of where ⁓ that came into play.

Anthony Codispoti (07:20)
Gotcha. And then as we think about that fateful day in kindergarten, as well as you sort of taking charge of the room to get photographs taken for Sunny, there’s always sort of been this leadership quality in you, kind of pre-wired from birth, so to say.

Anna Jane Stanley (07:37)
Pretty much, yes. So my parents are divorced. So I grew up with ⁓ both parents very present in my life, but separated. And that allowed me to watch my mom put herself back through master’s school when I was 10 years old, had a house to herself. So she showed me what it meant to be a strong independent woman and allow, you you don’t need anyone else to depend on you. You can do it yourself in your own, your strength that you use your brain, use your intelligence to.

get you to the next level and where you need to be in life. Don’t ever depend on anyone else. Now, I can say that I’m engaged now, so I will depend a little bit on the love of my life, but at this point in time, it’s always been a very independent driven nature just to say, you know, I am a female in a male dominated industry, but I think that independence allows me to hold my own in situations.

Anthony Codispoti (08:32)
Well, and I’m a big fan of sort of healthy partnerships, right? so it doesn’t, know, committing your life to somebody doesn’t mean giving up that strength and independence, which I think is something that you’re acknowledging, just saying, hey, this has got an additive effect to my life, and I am still strong enough to stand.

Anna Jane Stanley (08:51)
Correct. Correct.

Anthony Codispoti (08:52)
And so Sonny, kept in touch with you. He kind of wore you down over time. He got you to come in as an events manager. And then you later moved into the GM role after being there only for a year.

Anna Jane Stanley (09:06)
Yeah, that is very true as well. So when I first joined Mulberry, I was the events manager, but let me preface it this way that there were no events. There was no such thing as an event at Mulberry. I was curating a rel, an entirely new revenue stream that had not existed prior. So when I walked in, I was tasked with having events. Well, how do you do that? If you have no playbook, you just.

You have to look at other inspiration. pulled a lot of inspiration from Vegas. was like, well, who does events better than anywhere else? And that’s Las Vegas in my opinion. And I looked at, okay, we need to have pool parties. had a ⁓ gorgeous pool area. And I was like, we have Cabanas surrounding it. We need to activate this area and allow it to be an additional revenue stream for the hotel.

Well, it was just me and the general manager at the time. And we continuously did events throughout the summer, which then led into, you know, the upscale Italian wine dinners. did a murder mystery dinner. ⁓ we did a lot of different things that really gained traction in the area and got us connected and allowed us to showcase our abilities and what we had to offer at Mulberry. And that kind of propelled me to, to realize that, okay,

I didn’t know what I was doing before, but I’m going to figure it out no matter what. so that, think Sonny realized that too. He gave me an opportunity to sink or swim and that was, it was, was on me to whether which way I wanted to go with it.

Anthony Codispoti (10:39)
there was no playbook. You hadn’t come from a role at another company where you had any experience in this. You were making it up as you went along.

Anna Jane Stanley (10:49)
None, none at all.

Anthony Codispoti (10:51)
Yeah. And what were the, what was the overall purpose of the events? What were you guys trying to accomplish through this?

Anna Jane Stanley (10:58)
I think mainly it was when we were just a young company, being a boutique hotel, you don’t have the loyalty program. You don’t have the, you know, property operating systems of a major brand flag. So you really have to curate your own standard operating procedures. You have to kind of just make all of it up on your own and hope that, you know, it catches on. Well, part of that is getting your, getting the word out in the community.

And for us, was, we, we did that, we activated it through events and allowed for people to come see it without the commitment of, you know, buying a hotel room or buying something else. They could just come to an event and that allowed them in turn to kind of convert that into hotel stays once they realized, wow, this is really cool property because how do you get the community to walk through a door when they have a house five minutes up the road? They’re not going to necessarily stay at a hotel. They’ll come to an event.

Anthony Codispoti (11:51)
They don’t need a hotel.

Anna Jane Stanley (11:53)
Right. But they’ll come to an event. ⁓ that was kind of the game plan of how do we get people in the door to show them what we have to offer? Cause Instagram, all of the social media platforms can only do so much for you. You actually need to make that physical connection. And I think that was a big player for me too was once I started realizing, okay, these public events are really starting to kind of pop off a little bit.

We also have so much requests for private events. so the private events started going crazy. And so it was just like a continuous, ⁓ you know, evolution of this event program that we had going there. And then once I, you know, kind of transitioned out of that, I actually, and this is like what I was telling you earlier, the public eye of what actually happened, what you see on my LinkedIn is that

You know, just converted, whoop, went over to general management, but I was actually already at Bellamer. I had already told Sunny that I was ready to, I wanted to explore the development side of the company. And, ⁓ and then.

Anthony Codispoti (12:59)
So just to be clear here,

you were the events manager specifically for one hotel property. And there’s a bigger portfolio here, bigger umbrella that we’ll get into here in a moment. And so you went to Sunny and say, hey, I want experience kind of on the other side of this business, right?

Anna Jane Stanley (13:16)
Yeah. So essentially at the time that this conversation was had Bellamere was a one man show. It was sunny all by himself. He was, he was the only one doing developments or any sort of historical renovations. So there was nobody else really that knew this side of the company, but I was very intrigued by it because I was like, Ooh, it sounds like a new challenge that, I can find problems and solutions to it in a new area to grow. I love being a lifelong learner. think that’s really important to my growth and.

the success that I have had up to this point is just being a sponge with every single thing that any mentor, anyone that’s walked the path for 10 plus years. ⁓ I want to know everything that they did, all of the mistakes they made, all of the wins, the losses. I want to know everything. And, and so that kind of, and I think Sonny realized that he was like, look, I, I, I’m fully ready for you to come to the development side, but

Now you have to figure out who your replacement is for Mulberry. So now I had to not only work for Bellamer for this new development side, but also figure out who my replacement was going to be. So then I turned into a hiring firing type of manager. And, then also, you know, when I transitioned over to Bellamer, there was, you know, a few things that could, guess could have been run a little bit better. Some standard operating procedures that we could tighten up on and, ⁓

just round table, open discussion of, how do we, how do we fix some of these issues that we’re having at Mulberry? And they were ancillary things, nothing that was huge, but I just started, and now in hindsight, I’m like, I should have just kept my mouth shut. But I started offering solutions to some of the issues that from a general management standpoint could be ⁓ adopted. And when I said that, I think a light bulb went off in Sunny’s head to be like, perfect. We know exactly who can go.

do be an interim general manager here for a little bit. And so I honestly, you know, people will see that that’s like a stepping stone to the next level. But for me, it was almost a setback because I felt like I had finally gotten to the development side and then not even a month into it. Correct. Correct. Correct. And so I realized like I had made it there and then it was like a month into it.

Anthony Codispoti (15:26)
which is really where you wanted to be. You wanted to be on the development side. You were just curious about that, okay?

Anna Jane Stanley (15:37)
And now I’m back at the same property where I once was. And not only that, but I was also 45 minutes away from my house. So I was driving 45 minutes back and forth to work every day. mind you too, that our main location was only like 10 minutes from my house. So I went from, you know, this easy commute to the office every day to back to 45 minutes on a busy interstate. So it was, it was a little bit of a, know, I felt like, ⁓ you know, I’m getting demoted again. I’m getting like,

I’m just having to go through all of these tests and these trials and tribulations to get to where I want to be. But honestly, looking back on it, Sunny knew exactly what he was doing in that moment because what it allowed me to do was learn every piece of the operations. So I was able to see it from an operational standpoint. I got to see it from the event side. How do you build new revenue strengths? And then I got to see the general manager portion of it.

And while it was only a short stint of time, there was a wonderful general manager who came in after me to fill that spot who really, really wanted it. And what it allowed me to do was get ⁓ a quick glance of how do you run PNLs? How do you look at, okay, we have really high room revenue this month, but maybe our ADR or average daily rates aren’t as high as they could be. So then I started breaking into some of that data and the analytics that

are behind all of the hotel stuff that I never really got exposed to on the event side. Now I built out, you know, smaller PNLs for events, but not necessarily the whole operations, all of the net operating expenses that were going on. So, but now as I converted over into development, I’m like, this is easy. Like when I look at projections and performance, I’m like, this is exactly what, you know, every, I had to, yes, yes. And no one was,

Anthony Codispoti (17:21)
Because you had to cut your teeth there at the hotel level first.

Anna Jane Stanley (17:27)
And I will say too, I had a great team around me too. You know, if I had any questions, any, had all the resources in the world. Sunny has been such an amazing mentor to me, but so the whole company has. And I don’t think anybody really sees me as like the baby of the group, even though I am the youngest. I am always, I’ve always been kind of that, let me just learn, teach me. If you teach me one time, I’ll get it. You just have to sit down with me one time.

and explain it to me and then I will let you know if I have any questions. And that was how I continued to grow kind of upon where I wanted to be and get to that next level. And so I always treated it as this is just the next step towards a greater goal. And if you treat that every step as a stepping stone and into your next milestone, that’s ultimately where it led me to.

Anthony Codispoti (18:18)
Okay, so let’s get into a little bit more specifically about what all Bellamere does, what’s under this umbrella.

Anna Jane Stanley (18:26)
Right. So, okay. I can give you, I wish I could have like a family tree here. So Bellamere is the parent company that houses pretty much all of our arms, all of the arms that kind of extend off. So we have a construction company that handles all of the contracting work. We have a management company that handles all of the hospitality management. We have third party contracts with other hotel management companies that we kind of partner with on. And then we also have the arm that

houses all of the owner operated hotels, which we have eight in our portfolio that are owner operated. So we oversee all of the income and the revenue that comes in from those and also all of the training, hiring, firing, all of that stuff.

Anthony Codispoti (19:12)
And so what’s different about Bellamere? Lots of companies do similar kinds of things. What sets you guys up?

Anna Jane Stanley (19:19)
Yeah, I think for Bellamere, it was never about just going out and, you know, having as many hotels as possible. was never a volume game. was all about, you know, we realize we’re all Mississippians. We’re local to the area. And when we realized that, okay, we are really behind a lot of us travel and we like to get inspiration when we travel to other places, Sonny, especially he’s been all over the country. And I think a lot of his inspiration pulls from.

seeing how far advanced that Dubai and Japan are and why can’t America be in that same situation? And I think it starts at the lowest tier, which is essentially Mississippi. So we are growing an area that aligns with the state. So one thing that we really looked at into was our governor, Tate Reeves, talked about, you know, attracting talent and, also retaining the talent. Well, to retain talent.

on the level of, you’re talking about your post-grad employees, you have to have the quality of life indicators. You have to have apartments or somewhere that they can afford that they’re, you it’s upscale, but you’re allowing them to have a space that can be called theirs once they’re in sort of that adult job. So I think for us, it’s all about finding ways to enhance the community around us. And, and we, we also sort of benefit too, because we’re part of it.

Okay, if I want a nail salon down the road for me, well, we can, you know, I can put it in a little tidbit there and say, Hey, let’s go find a really good nail operator who, you know, we can place here. And that actually has happened before. And I’ll tell you a quick story about that. I walked into a nail salon. It was right next to my apartment. They were over in Jackson. And next thing I know, I am talking with the owner of the, the, the nail salon. And I’m like, look, I’m in really development. have a property coming soon.

Would you be interested in having a second location? And he jumped all over the opportunity to have a second location. He was like, look, I’ve been looking for so long for something that would align with our branding. we have upscale luxury type of nail salon here, but no one really aligns with that unless you build it. There’s not really anything that kind of gives that just innately out there. And so what we try and cultivate is

not only helping the local community, but also helping out the local small businesses. not, we really try and go after the local businesses who want to grow and give back into Mississippi. And instead of going after national chains, while yes, national chains can give you the highest dollar for sites, it’s not necessarily what’s going to transform our community. And we’re very cognizant of that. And a lot of thought process goes into what we do. You know, there’s always,

there’s always going to be people who say, well, they’re just a big development company who does a lot of projects and they’re all over, you know, the now they’re expanding. But if you look at our portfolio, we really don’t have that many in our portfolio because it’s not about, it’s not a numbers game for us. It’s about, we want to take our time through every single detail and make sure.

Okay, are we selecting the correct site? Are we doing feasibility studies that showcase that not only is this going to transform a community, but it’s gonna create jobs, it’s gonna create economic development. If we put this on a particular location, what does that do for the rest of the community around it? Are the values of the properties around it going to go up? So we really look at it from a holistic perspective and our mission has always been transforming communities one connection at a time. And I think that’s.

That’s shown very strongly in my nail salon story of meeting with that owner. It’s all about connections. We’re based on, we’re a reputation relationship based company.

Anthony Codispoti (23:06)
Is there a way to incorporate feedback from the community on what it is that they’re looking for?

Anna Jane Stanley (23:12)
Absolutely, yeah. So we utilize social media platforms a lot for that. And you’ll see if you go through some of our Facebook posts on there, we’ll say, hey, what would you like to see at this property? This is coming soon. Or ⁓ I can give you an example of one. So we had ⁓ a kind of a retail shopping center area that we needed to fill with tenants, but we’re very strategic on who we place and tenant placement is huge for us.

And so we asked, what would you like to see in this area? And you would not believe how many comments were, we want a dog boarding, you know, a boarding place for our dogs. That’s really nice. We want a nail salon. We want, you know, an express help. And so we get, were able to give people what they wanted and were able to select the right operators to go into those buildings. in turn, now we have a really successful retail shopping area that,

is all a one-stop shop type of place where I can board my dog, I can go get my nails done, can get a poke bowl, and I never have to leave, I just walk to it. And so that’s what we’re trying to do is really just keep doing developments that really go back towards developing the community around us but transforming it while we’re doing it.

Anthony Codispoti (24:30)
And Jane, as you think about some of the stops that you’ve had, events manager, general manager now on the development side, is there one of those transitions that was more challenging than the others for you?

Anna Jane Stanley (24:43)
⁓ yes, for sure. General manager is definitely not an easy position, but neither is managing a portfolio of 130 properties that gross about $3 million in revenue. So, ⁓ it was, it was challenging. You have to imagine that I’m dealing with operators who are coming in and they are successful businessmen and women and you’re.

24 years old and you’re telling them that they have to pay rent to you, that’s a little challenging. So I think there, I really had to dig deep into building a relationship first and then gaining the respect of the people that I was associated with. And then from there, the relationship and the connection was a lot easier. So anytime that there was a maintenance issue that was going on, we have a…

platform at Folio that we use that is very useful in these situations where the tenant can plug in their any type of maintenance request. And so for me, was about now I may not be the most knowledgeable about your HVAC system, but I can be the fastest to get you a solution. And so that was really my goal. in each jump that I made was I may not be the smartest. I may not be the best experienced person in the room, but I can be the fastest.

And for me, the speed of getting back to people responding and following up and making sure that everything is handled appropriately was always the indicator that when we got that survey back of the maintenance surveys, it was like five out of five stars because you were so quick. You had this done within 24 hours. And it wasn’t just me. was, I had to call.

sunny or had to call ⁓ one of the operators who we’ve networked with on other properties to say, hey, I really need you to come out as soon as possible to this property. So it’s not only about networking and building a relationship with your tenants, but also the people who fix the properties that you own. ⁓ so dealing with the plumbing guy, the roofing guy, there was all of these certain situations where, yeah, I don’t know anything about shingles on a roof and what type of shingle

you know, the types of shingles that go up there, but I can tell you that I have a guy who can get it done. And that was always kind of the way that I was able to execute as quickly as possible on that. But it goes back to show that that was probably the hardest transition, because you can imagine it was just me and 130 properties. You can imagine what happens in a, a daily basis, just dealing with that and then collecting rent every month and having to follow up on all of those leads and make sure that we’re collecting.

Anthony Codispoti (27:26)
So moving into these new roles, including the one on the development side, which was the most challenging for you, what was your coping mechanism any time you felt like I’m in a little bit over my head, like I’m sort of swimming here?

Anna Jane Stanley (27:40)
Yeah, I think for me it was, well, I’ll tell you my guilty pleasure is ice cream. So if I ever had a really bad day, you can find me on the couch at night eating Ben and Jerry’s ice cream for sure. Well, I do dairy free. So I like the fish food is really good. And then there’s also a dairy free Caramel Sutra that is probably one of my top favorites, but I’m now a Talenty coffee. It’s a Talenty brand, but it’s the coffee, dairy free gelato. So good. Very, very good. Would highly recommend.

Anthony Codispoti (27:51)
What’s your flavor?

Okay.

All right, so other than ice cream, ⁓ what else? do you work through this?

Anna Jane Stanley (28:10)
⁓ Well,

yeah, so I think for me it was about, you know, compartmentalizing some of the, everything is not a disaster and really thinking about, okay, in the grand scheme of things, this is all going to be okay. And reassuring kind of that mental work of, and this took time. It was not just, you know, I used to get very flustered and very,

Just frazzled kind of in these situations, maybe not in public, but in private, would, you know, be stressing about, okay, I have to do this, this and this. And, know, I got to a point where I, Sonny actually approached me one day and he was like, you’re not actively leading. And I was like, what? feel like I’m being a leader. And he was like, no, you’re actively doing, which is burning. was like, you’re, stressing yourself out because you’re doing everything for everybody. He’s like, you’ve got to start compartmentalizing, realize, make yourself a priority list of what you need to get done.

and when it needs to get done. then also under promise over deliver always. That’s always been my motto. So if I can tell someone I’ll have it done in 48 hours and I have it done in 24, that to me is how I operate. I always will tell someone a little bit of a different time. Sorry if that’s a little bit of a white lie, but that is one way that I kind of contain that, ⁓ the perception of how things are done. But also I think for me it was,

You know, have a fiance now who I’ve been dating for over two years and he really just grounded me in and you know, he’s always been the calming presence in my life to say, Hey, you’re going to be okay. Everything’s going to be fine. Work is not the end of the world. ⁓ but you’re going to, you know, it’s a bad day, not a bad life. And that’s another great motto that I always think about. ⁓ you know, dealing with mental health has been a huge aspect of our company and how do you.

How do you overcome challenges when you feel like the world is crashing down around you? And I think for us, we really wanted to hone in on the aspect of let’s give back to our people. Let’s make sure that we’re giving them the quality of life in the same way that we do developments. Are your employees happy is going to show way more than the developments that you do or the properties that you own. ⁓

When you walk into one of our hotels, you’ll see smiling faces. I can assure you because it is one of our biggest ⁓ meetings that we talk about. mean, it’s one of the topics at every meeting that we have. So for us, it’s really just keeping everyone aligned and on the same page, but also doing the mental work yourself and having the resources to go to when you do feel like, hey, this is really overwhelming. But also speaking up, saying something.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed, have resources around you to kind of mitigate some of that. And I think it’s very admirable to utilize those resources instead of just trying to be the hero in the situation. And that’s been very hard for me too as a very independent person who I used to never ask for help. And now I see it as a precursor of.

growth. feel like maturity comes when you realize, hey, I can do all this on my own, but have people around me who can support that. really Bellamere has allowed all of our companies really that are underneath the Bellamere umbrella are all about coming together and making sure that these employees are treated the right way. And that, starts from the top and trickles all the way down.

Anthony Codispoti (31:44)
I’m kind of curious to hear a little bit more about what that looks like, because you talked about kind of the bigger Mississippi state plan. You the governor talks about, we want to attract, you know, good workers into the state. We want to retain those good workers. And this sounds like it very much aligns with what you guys are doing at Bellamer and your ⁓ sister company, the certified hospitality management that manages the hotels. You know, when you think about those frontline workers,

and how to make their job more attractive, how to bring in good folks, how to retain those good folks. How do you guys think about that? What are some things that you’ve found that have been successful?

Anna Jane Stanley (32:23)
Yeah, I’ll tell you that we are not the conventional corporate strategy of how hiring and firing should go. actually, we really kind of ⁓ turn away from that method. We feel that there’s much better employee, employer relationship practices that we can implement. And it really does go to show ⁓ how effective that it can be. I think for us, when we look at the employer employee relationship, we don’t necessarily get put out job applications. Now, to some extent you do, but

Again, it goes back to the reputation, the relationships that you build along the way. You would not believe just talking to anyone. If you go through a fast food drive-through and you say, Hey, I love the way that person was very respectful in the line. And you say, Hey, if you’re ever interested, here’s my card or here’s my number, please call me if you’re ever interested in doing hospitality. think it would be amazing. Your personality is a great fit for this because you’re so bubbly and you’re so light on your feet and you love what you do and it shows in your work.

And I think just intentionality through every interaction that you make is so vital to what needs to happen. ⁓ The hiring firing process of interviewing and having four or five rounds of interviews is, worked in one day and age, but now people don’t really want to go through the headache of that. And when you think about you put mental health on top of that.

Think about the people, how anxiety-ridden people, you may have a wonderful candidate who is a terrible interviewer. And that doesn’t mean, that’s not a reflection on themselves. It’s not a reflection on who they are as a person. You just didn’t get them in the right, you’re not getting them in the right scenario to really shine through in what they are capable of. And so for us, it’s about making those ⁓ organic connections.

but also finding the people and then placing them in roles. like I said, it kind of goes back to just finding the people first and then building the role around them. ⁓ Now, like you said, your line level employees, of those sorts of people already have, you know, there’s a guideline around all of that. So yes, there are certain requirements, but I think another aspect that goes deeper than just, hey, you can come work at the hotel is in front desk. We also offer therapy options. ⁓ So we’re

actively implementing having the therapy sessions. We have an in-house therapist that comes into our office on Thursdays for the executive leadership team. our main goal in that is to kind of be a test run for how we’re going to implement that across all of our properties. ⁓ And I think that eventually will trickle all the way down to the line level employee offering them free solutions for therapy when that’s needed.

You’d never imagine what people go through on a daily basis and you really, you don’t know what people’s walks of life are until you talk with them and really allow them to open up. ⁓ I was a general manager at the time when I had an employee whose sister passed away in a terrible car accident. And for me, it was, I had to really understand, okay, she’s still showing up to work. This is really, this is a really tough time for her in her life.

How can I show up for her? And so we started to go fund me for her sister. And that was not something that I was told to do or, you know, that was the employees around us saying, Hey, we really need to show up for her in a big way for, you know, all of everything that’s gone on in her life and ⁓ offering those, those therapy sessions, also general management sometimes means that you are the therapist and you do have to kind of lean into your employees and be intentional.

with those relationships. think if you cultivate a good employer-employee relationship even at the hotel level, that goes way beyond any job title you could ever have.

Anthony Codispoti (36:22)
I really love that. I appreciate you sharing that. ⁓ Because you know, one of the things that we talk about frequently on this show is mental health. And like you put it, like the struggles that are going on under the surface. Now, in this one scenario, you know, it was very public, people knew about the horrific ⁓ car accident. Even still, you don’t know what’s sort of coming up for them under the surface. And beyond those really public things, there are things that are very much under the surface, you have no idea you

Anna Jane Stanley (36:39)
Bye.

Anthony Codispoti (36:51)
come in contact with somebody at work every day and you don’t know what their struggles are. I’d be curious, Jane, to hear about maybe a big challenge in your life that you’ve gone through, how you work through that and what you learn going through the other side of

Anna Jane Stanley (37:07)
Yeah. Well, can I tell you, first of all, that Sonny Satie of Bellamer is one of the most incredible humans in this aspect. He really does care about mental health because he has, he himself has shared in these challenges and I’m going to try not to cry when I talk about this, but ⁓ we really got vulnerable from the start of our relationship, our working relationship. And I think that, you know, when we got opened up to each other,

it allowed us to really connect on a deeper level and understand, okay, she’s not, you know, not being productive because she doesn’t, she’s lazy or she doesn’t want to be, but her mind is going 90 to nothing on stuff, unsolved issues from the past, unsolved trauma that has never been unpacked by a professional. And ⁓ so I was sexually assaulted when I was in college at Ole Miss and I didn’t tell anybody for eight months. It was, it was a

very hard topic to even talk about ⁓ without these emotions just welling up and bursting into tears. Because I really felt like there was no hope that I was worthless. I didn’t feel like I had this shame and guilt of this was my fault. I should have never allowed this to happen. And when I stepped back away from the issue and look at it from a third perspective, I opened up to Sunny and I was like, look,

I really don’t know why this happened like years and years and years ago, but I can’t get it out of my head and it’s affecting my work. And he realized that and he didn’t, he met me where I was. And so we sat down and we literally said, do we think that we need to bring in a therapist and, not just therapy for you, but therapy for all of the employees. If you’re struggling with this, imagine what other people have never ever talked about in their life. And, it’s really hard, you know,

Sexual assault is so stigmatized because people who are survivors of it don’t ever speak up sometimes. You never know and it happens so frequently that you never truly know what happened. You never know in detail what someone is going through and how much it impacts you. The trauma lives in your body and I actually got a book from the therapist after I started going through Bellamere offering free therapy services.

I was able to unpack that through EMDR, which I highly recommend, eye movement desensitization recovery. ⁓ It unlocked a different side of my brain to be able to speak about this today without, again, bursting into tears because it allows you to process what happened and disassociate from the fact that the shame and the guilt and the emotions that you feel around it.

And once I did that, was like this weight lifted off of my shoulders and I was able to, my capacity for what I was able to achieve was exponentially, it was just next level. I don’t know how to tell anyone without someone actually going through that, going through the process of therapy and, you know, unpacking the trauma that happened. But when you do it,

you will notice a difference. And it wasn’t just me, was Sunny as well. Like when he was doing the therapy, he realized, my gosh, like I’ve kept all of this stuff buried inside of me and didn’t realize how much it was affecting me because your unconscious mind is just filtering through. should have, how should I have gotten myself out of that situation? And you never realized that that’s running in the background. So it clouds what you’re doing in front of you. ⁓ So that really, you

That was my indicator of this is where I need to be. These are the people that I need to surround myself with in my next journey through life. And I really just believed in the company after that point. said, if someone is willing to meet me where I am, imagine what we can do for an entire community. And if we can transform communities through the employees themselves, you can see it in us. And then in turn, that allows people

my age and you know who are going through post-grad who may not know, hey, I don’t know which career path I want to go down, but you know, that company sounds awesome. And I really haven’t heard of any other company doing it. So to be a trailblazer in an area that is almost like taboo or used to be taboo ⁓ is it’s it’s an honor to be in such a wonderful experience.

Anthony Codispoti (41:48)
I’m so grateful for you opening up and sharing about that, Anna Jane. I’m curious, how long ago ⁓ did you and Sunny have this sit down where you’re like, Hey, I think I probably need some help with this.

Anna Jane Stanley (42:01)
pretty early on I was, I believe it was.

So right after I started in sales and events. ⁓

Anthony Codispoti (42:17)
This is a couple of years ago. Yeah. And then once you started therapy, how long was it before EMDR was introduced to you?

Anna Jane Stanley (42:19)
Mm hmm. Yeah.

EMDR started pretty early on. She realized that there was a lot to unpack there. So we started almost, that was my first understanding of, okay, I really do need to go see a therapist. I thought I could work through it on my own. I thought I didn’t need the help. thought that, again, this is about some of that maturity, the growth that happened through this, but I really thought, you know, this happened so long ago. I shouldn’t even like give it a thought. I shouldn’t have to worry about any of this, but

It was like every single time that the date that it happened came up, my body shut down and I didn’t know how to explain that. And so I took a day that I never took sick days. never took all like, if I had to take off, something was bad, wrong. And I texted Sonny one day and I was like, look, I don’t think I can, I don’t think I can do it. And so he was like, let’s talk and let’s let’s unpack some of this. And yeah. ⁓

that conversation happened and we, you he saw exactly what needed to happen. And then the EMDR started probably my second session of therapy. My first one was kind of the introduction. I had already met the therapist beforehand. So she knew who I was, knew that I was in the company, did not know my story, obviously, through confidentiality purposes. But ⁓ yeah, she realized that there was a lot to go through in that time period.

Anthony Codispoti (43:52)
For people listening who have never heard of EMDR before, can you quickly explain what the experience is like?

Anna Jane Stanley (43:58)
Yeah, so I’m not as knowledgeable in this aspect. The therapist would be much better to explain some of this, but yeah. So EMDR allows the brain to activate both sides. So you have a logical brain and an emotional brain, your left and right brain. So when you do EMDR, you’re actually tricking the brain to use both sides. You’re mixing the logic with the emotion and it allows you to unpack some of those, the emotional side of the trauma.

Anthony Codispoti (44:04)
Yeah, from your perspective, like what took place.

Anna Jane Stanley (44:28)
with the logical aspect that this wasn’t my fault. And so the way that I handled it was she waved her fingers across my face in a very fast motion and asked questions. No, this was hand in front of the face and I was to follow the fingertips across the face. ⁓ And so I focused on her hands moving very, very quickly and she would ask me questions while doing this. So this allowed this eye shifting

Anthony Codispoti (44:39)
so you didn’t have the light bar. This was different. Okay. Got it. Okay.

Anna Jane Stanley (44:56)
was allowing me to activate both sides of my brain because I was having to follow one thing while she’s asking me other questions about my feelings. And so my logic brain was saying, follow the fingertips, follow the fingertips. And my response, my verbal speech was unpacking the feeling that came up. And so she asked me questions. What did it feel like in this scenario? I mean, she was detailed, very detailed. I don’t want to go too deep into it, but basically, how did this situation feel?

How did it feel when this part of it happened? so that I was able to like literally say exactly everything without my conscious brain thinking about what was the next word that I was gonna say because I was focused on the fingertips. So was just, whatever was deep inside of me was just spewing out. It was crazy.

And so that situation, if no one’s ever experienced EMDR therapy, I highly recommend it. I highly recommend doing a research. I’m also very big on make sure that you’re researching what you’re doing before you’re doing it. I would never recommend doing it without knowing what you’re getting into because it is very deep. very, it unlocks a different part of your brain, a different aspect of the situation, but you view it in a completely different light after that.

It’s like the ball that was in your stomach at one point just explodes.

Anthony Codispoti (46:18)
Yeah, this is not something I’m an expert in either, but I’ve talked with a number of people who have been greatly helped by EMDR. And so I kind of echo what you’re saying, especially for folks who have had specific elements of trauma in their life. Historically, this has been a really effective tool for people to be able to let go of it much in the way that you’re describing here, Anna-Jane. I appreciate you opening up and talking about that because I think folks that hear this, they’re going to be like, ⁓ OK, I wasn’t familiar with that before. This is something I need to check out. ⁓

Anna Jane Stanley (46:20)
He

Anthony Codispoti (46:47)
And you know, I kind of, you know, see like a little bit of a of an arc in your life, right? You can tell me if this this sort of fits. You know, you grew up ⁓ living with your mother, you know, put herself through master school, strong, independent woman. ⁓ You know, you a great living example there in front of you. And you’re like, that’s me, too. Like, I’m I’m strong, I’m independent, I can do this on my own. And, you know, as you’ve matured a little bit in life now, you you’re

you’re coming to a new realization that you can continue to be strong and independent while also asking for help and while also inviting someone that you love into your life. Am I seeing this correctly?

Anna Jane Stanley (47:29)
That is correct, yes.

Anthony Codispoti (47:31)
I think it’s a beautiful arc and you know, obviously a lot of the stories yet to be written. How would you characterize Anna Jane, your superpower?

Anna Jane Stanley (47:42)
gosh, okay, so I feel that I have had this gift for a long time and it is the gift of discernment. I feel that when I walk into a room, I can tell you exactly who people are. I can read a room ⁓ very well. I can, watch body language. I can recognize patterns in people. So I can tell who’s talking to who and kind of

integrate that into a logical response to say, okay, that guy looks important over there, or this one over here is the decision maker. But this guy’s kind of leaning back a little bit on the wall. So he may be the boss boss of all of them kind of overseeing, you know, his flock of sheep over here. So I think that some of that is just innately in me, but also, you know, I’ve also gained some of ⁓ expanded upon that skill.

with Sunny because Sunny has the ability to do some of that same, some of the same abilities. And so, you know, it, it, goes over into the development side as well. When you’re thinking about the vision for a property or what you want to put next or what needs to happen, it allows you to say, okay, I can discern between this is probably not the best option. And then this is

kind of the vision of what we wanted, you the direction that we want to go in. think a lot of times, ⁓ and I’ve actually, I haven’t really unpacked all of this yet, but Sunny and I have talked about it a few times about being creative analysts. So we, we put together creative visions. So we have the strategic vision that is going and, kind of the creative aspect of it. So I really enjoy like.

the branding, the brand experience, what is the customer experiencing from an operational standpoint. But then I coupled that with the analytics of would this actually be viable property? Would this actually be revenue producing asset? And so I think for that aspect of it, I’m still unpacking some of that and what that looks like for me, because I never really saw myself as a creative, I guess, but also not really an analyst either. Like I didn’t, I don’t really love Excel spreadsheets, but I can do them.

You know, and I love branding, but I don’t necessarily want to be a marketing girl. You know, it’s just like, where do you fall in between? so ⁓ candidly at one point in time of my career path, I used to be called the hybrid because they didn’t know what my job title was. was just kind of like, she helps everybody. She’s, you know, she’s, she’s here to whatever you need, let Anna Jane know or give it to Anna Jane. She’ll figure it out sort of situation. So.

Anthony Codispoti (50:17)
Jack of all trades.

and get you a t-shirt

that says Swiss Army Knife on it.

Anna Jane Stanley (50:27)
That’s what people used to call me until I kind of found my niche with the development side. So it’s been a great journey.

Anthony Codispoti (50:36)
Yeah. What’s the future of Bella Mare look like?

Anna Jane Stanley (50:41)
Yeah. So, ⁓ obviously now my life has taken me to be with my fiance and, he is based in Bowling Green, Kentucky, right outside of Nashville, Tennessee. And so I have taken the life. ⁓ No, it’s not. It’s about seven hours. We used to do long distance though. So was seven hours back and forth on a weekend. So if you can imagine 14 hours round trip for 48 hours, not the most ideal, but when you love someone, you do it. So.

Anthony Codispoti (50:52)
That is not really close to Mississippi.

Anna Jane Stanley (51:09)
we used to trade off weekends. we would be like, yeah, by the way, it’s your weekend this time. So you have to come down here, but he, he’s been amazing throughout all of it. So I think closing that gap was very ⁓ strategic for us to build a family and continue on. ⁓ we are planning to have a wedding in June of 2026. So that’s exciting. I’m also, ⁓ not only just in development, but I’m also a wedding planner at this point in time. So, ⁓ I had many hats at the moment.

But also, you know, just allowing the ⁓ ability to even go to Bowling Green and be with the love of my life while also still working for Bellamer is huge because a lot of companies would say, you’re moving like, bye, see you later, you know, but Bellamer meets you where you’re at and it follows you where you go. And I think that that’s really the powerful tool that, you know, I want other people to say, hey, if I really don’t know where I want to, what a

where I want to be in life or what career path I want to do. But, you know, real estate development sounds pretty interesting or property management sounds interesting. I think that people can see that pursuing your passion and really believing in the product that you have at the end of the day converts into if you’re good at what you do and you love what you do, it will follow you where you go. so I just my main goal in Kentucky and Tennessee, overseeing those divisions of development is

to continue transforming those communities where I live now. So I think the goal is to transform the entire United States and beyond. I don’t think we have a ceiling of where we want to stop. I think it’s more about strategic placement of really being transformative. And I think it even goes back to, have city planners who are looking into economic development and they’re like throwing their hands up at it because they’re like, we really don’t know what to do here, but.

you guys are doing transformative projects, you know, for our neighbors over here in this other city, well, can you come do that for us too? So now we’re kind of dipping into that city master planning and being that developer involved there. So it really is a cool journey just to see, you know, how impactful you can be and how people recognize that you are doing good and you are allowing ⁓ that good work to show through and allowing it to go.

beyond boundaries that you didn’t imagine.

Anthony Codispoti (53:34)
So are you still doing a lot of travel back and forth to Mississippi? Are you carving out new territories in the Bowling Green area?

Anna Jane Stanley (53:43)
Yeah. So I am well currently, this week I came back to Mississippi and this is kind of just an example of before you have kids and before you’re really ⁓ tied down to one location, you have the flexibility to do all of this. But I drove from Memphis to Madison, Mississippi. Then on Tuesday, I left and drove up to Gulfport, Mississippi. And we had a Christmas party Tuesday night left and drove to Gulfport, Mississippi, which about three hours from here.

⁓ And then gave a presentation Wednesday night to the Gulf Blue Initiative for the blue economy up there and kind of told them about, you know, the projects that we have going on, how it impacts their economic development. then went Thursday, had a partner fly in from California toward him around the Gulf for area and showed him, you know, some of our projects we had going on. ⁓ And then, you know, had a meeting with him about some, new business concept that he wants to bring from California.

And then today I drove back yesterday night, back to Madison, having the podcast with you today. And then Saturday I will be up in Oxford at Ole Miss looking at sites for more site selection. So it is busy, but this is the best way to be as jam packed when I come back and travel back down south. Luckily, my parents are gracious enough to let me come crash at their place for a little bit. So I call it Hotel De Casa.

when I’m back, but it allows me to see my family, see my little sister who’s still in high school and ⁓ be connected while also pursuing my dreams.

Anthony Codispoti (55:21)
Love it. What’s your favorite thing to do outside of work? What do you do for fun?

Anna Jane Stanley (55:26)
Travel, I love traveling. ⁓ Recently, so actually my fiance and I met in Rome, Italy while we were on, I was on an award trip with my dad and ⁓ he had also won the award in pharmaceuticals and I didn’t know who he was and ⁓ really just that was kind of the start of our love story was we sat on a couch for five hours talking and I was like, yeah, I don’t know. This is like way too good to be true. We’re in Rome, Italy, like when in Rome, but.

I this is like really crazy that you live in Bowling Green and not on the other side of the universe. And so I really think, you know, everything happens for a reason. I’m a firm believer in that. And, know, we rekindled and about eight months after that trip and it was just, it was immediate. I was like, this is the man I’m going to marry. so from there, I think our travel has just kind of been ingrained in our relationship. And so we love to go.

explore new places together. It allows us to understand culture and the different communities and how they operate. I think it’s important to not be closed-minded and just stay where you are, where you grew up, and in your hometown. While that can be nice sometimes, ⁓ it’s not my story. And I think that integrating some of the culture and the community aspects from other places is very inspirational in our projects. ⁓

garnering ideas and new visions that other people may have and getting inspiration in those areas.

Anthony Codispoti (56:55)
like it. And Jane, I’ve just got one more question for you today. But before I ask it, I want to do three quick things. First of all, anybody who would like to get in touch with our guests today, you can find Anna Jane Stanley on LinkedIn, search for Bellamere development, and she’ll come up. We’ll also include a link to that in our show notes. As a reminder, if you want to get more employees access to benefits that carries a financial upside for the company to reach out to add back benefits.com

And finally, if you’ll take just a moment to leave us a comment or review on your favorite podcast app, you’ll hold a special place in my heart forever. Thank you. So last question for you, Anna Jane, a year from now, you and I reconnect and you’re celebrating something big. What’s that big thing you hope to be celebrating?

Anna Jane Stanley (57:40)
Wow. I hope that in a year from now, we’ve already broken ground on a new project in Bowling Green. think that would establish us in the Kentucky area for Bellamer. It would be the first Bellamer project that originated from my own relationships rather than having the company to back that. was brought into the company. And so that is the next pillar of where I want to be. I want to establish myself as a woman developer and

The youngest of the women out there and inspiring women to join a real estate development firm or any other male dominated career path is very ⁓ admirable. And I think that if that’s your path in life, that you should pursue it wholeheartedly and don’t let anybody tell you differently, even if you’re female or if you’re young.

Anthony Codispoti (58:30)
I love it on both accounts. Anna Jane Stanley from Bellamer Development. want to be the first to thank you for sharing both your time and your story with us today. I really appreciate it.

Anna Jane Stanley (58:41)
Thank you. I appreciate you.

Anthony Codispoti (58:43)
Folks, that’s a wrap on another episode of the Inspired Stories podcast. Thanks for learning with us today.