Deniz Dorbek on Neuroscience in Hotels, Pattern Recognition, and What 25 Years Across Seven Countries Taught Her

Anthony Codispoti (00:00)
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. As you listen today, let one idea shape what you do next. My name is Anthony Cotaspodi and today’s guest is Denise Dorbeck, founder and CEO of Regulus Collective, a new hospitality platform based in New York City. Regulus brings investment,

brand strategy, technology, and wellness together under one roof to build and guide lifestyle hotel brands for the long term. Through its divisions, Regulus Labs and Regulus Bio, the company offers smart revenue tools and bio-optimization programs designed to lift guest experience and owner returns. Before starting Regulus, Denise spent more than 25 years leading commercial teams for Hilton, Accor,

Kempinski, Hyatt, and Wyndham across seven countries. She later joined the Bright Group as CEO, leading the platform’s strategic and commercial evolution and shaping the development of its brand and operating architecture. She has been at the forefront of integrating data intelligence into hospitality design and commercial strategy. She has an impressive track record of unlocking brand value, turning around underperforming assets, and mentoring rising leaders.

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See if they qualify today at addbackbenefits.com. All right, back to our guest today, the founder and CEO of Regulus Collective, Denise Dorback. Thanks for making the time to share your story today.

Deniz Dorbek (02:35)
Thank you so much for the invitation. Glad to be here.

Anthony Codispoti (02:39)
So, Deniz, you were born in Turkey, you’ve worked all over the globe for the biggest hotel brands in the world, but how did you first get your start in hospitality?

Deniz Dorbek (02:50)
Well, it’s been a long time, actually. And in my early years, I was very ⁓ curious and intellectually driven person. I was reading constantly and I was deeply drawn to ideas, to cultures and understanding how the world works. And alongside that curiosity, I had very strong pull towards travel. I thought hospitality education will be a good start and

and I thought it would allow me to keep learning and give me access to the world. So that’s how the journey started for me.

Anthony Codispoti (03:29)
And have you always worked in hospitality since then?

Deniz Dorbek (03:32)
Yeah, I was ⁓ freshly out of college and started at one of the landmark ⁓ hotels in Istanbul in the front desk. And in the last 25 years, it was the only industry I worked in.

Anthony Codispoti (03:48)
Okay. So

given your experience across seven different countries, always being in the hospitality industry, I’d be curious to get your perspective on something because different cultures have different expectations when it comes to hospitality. What is something different you noticed about other cultures that are mostly American audience would find interesting?

Deniz Dorbek (04:05)
and we’ll

Wow, that’s an amazing question. from my perspective, American culture is incredibly efficiency oriented. ⁓ Our guest profile, appreciate clarity, speed ⁓ and directness. Time is currency and it’s really important.

Parts of Europe and Middle East, hospitality is a little slower and it’s more ceremonial. There is a rhythm to it and the relationship that unfolds gradually. And in Asia, it’s really different. Anticipation and… ⁓

and sublithally are really more powerful than any other interaction. So it’s deeper, it’s more quiet. And what fascinates me is that the guests rarely articulate all those differences, but they somehow feel it immediately. So overall, I believe culture really programs the guest’s expectation. It’s hard to say there are major differences, but you can see that in preferences in different parts of the world.

Anthony Codispoti (05:25)
any constants that you see across many cultures.

Deniz Dorbek (05:30)
⁓ Well, I think dignity is a key word. Across every country I worked in, people want to feel respected and understood. So luxury can vary, design can vary, the rituals and the belief, but the need to feel seen and understood, that’s what I believe it’s the most important and universal. And especially for the hotels, when you create that feeling.

and create the environment success and revenue follows very naturally.

Anthony Codispoti (06:02)
Nice. So as you look back over your 25 years of experience, we mentioned several major hotel groups in the intro, Hilton and Accor, Kempinski. Can you pull out a challenging event at one of these places that even though difficult to go through really shaped how you approach life and business going forward?

Deniz Dorbek (06:25)
Well, Anthony, funny enough, almost every location I worked in, I experienced some kind of social, economical or political disruption. Well, for instance, early in my career, I witnessed the first hand how hospitality shifted after 9-11 happened. In 2007, 2008, financial crisis and its ripple effect across all the markets, then I was in

Thailand during the big demonstrations and the Bangkok shutdown and so many people still remember that. And after that, the Arab Spring happened when I was in Middle East. And shortly after there was a lot of terrorism and demonstration in my city, in Istanbul. Then I was in UK and Brexit happened. And of course, the global pandemic.

happened, COVID happened when I was in United States. So it was a very bumpy road, I will say. And our industry, hospitality, is extremely sensitive to that external shocks. And it’s one of the first industries that feels the impacts. And when you go through ⁓ many cycles, different impacts, different kind of experiences, but overall ⁓ just changing the direction of the industry, and you start to learn like,

stop panicking, just plan a little differently. I think that was my ⁓ exit plan. And I learned always operate with plan A, plan B and C in parallel. And I learned that strategy must be flexible at all times. And I became more, probably more comfortable ⁓ calculating the risk and taking some risk, ⁓ but more informed and structured way.

and started to make a lot of scenario-based kind of decisions. And at this point, I probably I can confidently say uncertainty doesn’t really surprise me. And I assume things will shift and I’ll try to plan accordingly.

Anthony Codispoti (08:37)
You know, as you went through that list of like big world events, ⁓ it struck me that you seem like you’re always at the epicenter of some giant news story. ⁓ Let’s maybe pick one and one that maybe isn’t as familiar to Americans. ⁓ But the the political uprising in Thailand a few years back. And my memory is a little fuzzy on this, but

Deniz Dorbek (08:49)
Exactly.

Yeah. Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (09:03)
You know, I recall the military took over for a while. There were lots of demonstrations. People took over the airport. Like talk about a lot of uncertainty. What were you in? You were in Bangkok, you were in the capital. And what were you seeing? How was this affecting you?

Deniz Dorbek (09:06)
Yes, exactly.

When everything really started to ⁓ rise, I was in Phuket Island and we were operating an amazing resort out there and it was a high season. The property was packed. So many people needed to travel back to their countries. They couldn’t. They needed to extend the travel. It was a big uncertainty, very stressful period. And there is only thing you can really do. You can just ⁓ go back to the basics.

Anthony Codispoti (09:27)
Yeah.

Deniz Dorbek (09:51)
and really talk to your guests. Be with them and try to understand their anxiety, try to help them.

as much as you can. And more importantly, just keep them entertained, make them feel good. Because at the end of the day, is all about how you make your guests feel. So we were just trying to ⁓ be more empathetic. And overall, it impacted the future business as well. We had tons of cancellations. It wasn’t an easy period. ⁓ We couldn’t really come closer to our forecast. Then we started to focus on the local markets.

Because I mean, in any location, some of the resources of the big brands are more exclusive and more ⁓ dependent on certain market segments and certain clientele. When it’s not exist, you need to redefine a strategy. You need to find alternative methods. ⁓

to keep the flow and ⁓ generate revenue. So that was the goal. And it was great. The same thing happened ⁓ in Middle East as well during Arab Spring. We lost a big amount of revenue because of the wholesale business. was a big tour series in three, four different locations linked each other. And when you had one cancellation, that means the whole ⁓ roadmap is gone.

And to me, reconnecting with the local clientele has always been very special. And you know, feeling the reaction and ⁓ understanding their needs and crafting your service offerings based on that need. But that needs to be done very fast. And if this happened and if you just wait for a while and figure out, try to figure out what you’re going to do, I think you are really losing a lot of

essence because time is essence. We need to react fast. And I think that’s the whole thing. At the end it’s a teamwork, but we need to understand one thing. In hospitality, ⁓ it’s a human business and we need to really rebuild the definition of empathy when any kind of crisis happen around us.

Anthony Codispoti (12:12)
So Denise, help me with the chronology because I forget the timeline. Which came first? Was it the ⁓ disturbance in Thailand or was it Arab Spring?

Deniz Dorbek (12:22)
Thailand was first and Arab Spleen happened later. If I’m not mistaken it was around 2010 or 2011. the Thailand event occurred around 2008 and 2009.

Anthony Codispoti (12:38)
Okay. So given what you went through in Thailand and you made this, you know, pivot to try to tap into the local market because, you know, people weren’t able to travel into the country. ⁓ What specifically did you learn there that made maybe the Arab Spring situation a little easier for you? Like what did, what lessons did you pull from, from Thailand that you were able to, to implement into the

Arab Spring predicament.

Deniz Dorbek (13:11)
is forward thinking. You need to plan tomorrow, the day after, ⁓ next month, next year. When something major happens, all you need to do is very efficient planning. And you need to do that very calmly. And you need to consider all the resources you have, all the… ⁓

know, technical skill set you have, because in both situations, even some of our team members affected, they couldn’t travel, they couldn’t come to work. So it was almost impossible to come together as whole team and, you know, create a strategy. So it was tons of planning, tons of conversation. And more importantly, we reached out all the local authorities ⁓ and we reached out to our community again.

And we also showed our vulnerability. We said, hey, guys, we need help. Let’s do this together. And I think it’s all about, that’s the beauty about having this community, right? And all the hotels really need to create their brands and create this storytelling based on that very important fact. And I will say we really helped each other.

all those institutions, local businesses in the locations we were in, we worked together. And we did a lot of partnerships together. And again, we planned for the future. There was a lot of future projection. I couldn’t really focus to solve today’s problem and save the day. I really focused, OK, that’s the fact and this is we are. But what we’re going to do two months from now.

What are we going to do next year? It’s almost like a domino impact. You have to plan accordingly. So that was the biggest learning curve for me. And it really helped me, even after Thailand, during the Arab Spring, and all the other events we experienced in different locations.

Anthony Codispoti (15:07)
Mm-hmm.

Okay, so let’s talk about Regulus now, because you had a lot of great corporate jobs, good salary, good benefits, good job security. Why leave the safety and comfort of all of that to start Regulus Collective? What was the problem you were aiming to solve?

Deniz Dorbek (15:37)
Well, ⁓ I think my corporate journey, Anthony, was very conscious choice. I wanted to understand as many markets as possible in different hotel scales, ⁓ different brand structures, different ownership models. And I wanted to see how global systems function.

from the inside. It’s not really possible to digest that if you only watch it from the news, right? And overall, ⁓ would say corporate gave me extraordinary training, taught me discipline, structure, governance. And ⁓ as a woman leader, it kind of prepared me for this new phase with resilience. But corporate environments, this is my very personal perspective by nature.

very heavy structures, even if you have the most brilliant idea and even if you convince every decision maker in the room and your sphere of impact is still very limited. The machine moves slowly and that’s reality and over time I began to feel that the biggest gap in our industry is not capital, it’s not ⁓ talent, it’s creativity and ⁓

intellectual depth. And we don’t really spend enough time looking outside our industry in hospitality. So we don’t read widely enough. We don’t engage deeply enough with ⁓ other disciplines around us. I mean, simple example like neuroscience, behavioral economics, the technology, the philosophy, the cultural shifts, all the events that happen.

in the past, as I mentioned, I don’t think we studied them enough. And because of that, we often ⁓ miss trends until they’re already very obvious. So that’s why I wanted to ⁓ build Regulus. And I just wanted to make it really more boutique, more agile. And that’s the goal. And the structure made up ⁓ with like-minded thinkers.

from various different backgrounds, not only from the hospitality, from finance, from tech, design, longevity, culinary strategy, but those people are really deeply about value creation and ⁓ making partners to feel truly understood. I think that piece is missing as well. And trends are, especially in the last couple of years, trends are moving so fast and we tend to operate in silos. ⁓

And if you focus only one layer, whether operations or brand or technology alone, then you are missing the larger system. And it’s very critical in hospitality. That’s why we wanted to build Regulus as a platform. And we are here to solve one big problem, which is alignment. And we want to solve that across all the hospitality life cycles from

concept creation up to performance. That’s the end goal.

Anthony Codispoti (18:55)
Say more about alignment being the problem that you want to solve alignment between who?

Deniz Dorbek (19:02)
Well, alignment between the investor, when they ⁓ first wanted to invest in hospitality, even without having the concept, they have an idea in mind. And then design teams or the big brands ⁓ started to collaborate and try to define what will be the best product, best kind of brand offering in that particular market. And in some cases, we’re working with the third party operators.

There is a brand, is a third party operator, there is an investor, and there is a builder as well. All those parties, they have different priorities, different perspectives in mind, and they rarely talk. They sit down, they come up with an idea, hey, okay, let’s do that. Let’s do an amazing five-star hotel. But it really requires ⁓ more than what we see in the surface. Idea-wise, you can be aligned, that’s fine. But throughout the…

life cycle, ⁓ pre-opening up to post-opening phase. There are so many things going on and all those parts needs to be aligned as well, starting from the design. Sometimes you can really bring the sexiest design ever, right? The amazing colors, the perfect ⁓ sleek furniture concepts, et cetera. But if it’s not really ⁓ operationally efficient,

for housekeeper team, for instance, for the mates to clean up the room, or if the material is wrong, then you cannot really ⁓ use that product for long years. You need to renew it every two, three years. That’s simple, but those are the little things that we often forget to talk about. And sometimes we open hotels without strategy, without even a general manager. I did so many openings.

without having a director of sales on board. Those things happen. Maybe not every day, but overall alignment is crucial in our industry.

Anthony Codispoti (21:06)
So a customer would typically bring you in when they’ve got an idea for a new hotel and they want to make sure that there’s that strategy, there’s that alignment that, you know, when they hit the ground, they’re going to hit the ground running because you know all of the traditional gaps and you’re kind of like a master coordinator, a project manager that’s ensuring that everybody’s talking together and everything gets done in the correct order.

correct here?

Deniz Dorbek (21:37)
100%. So of course, everything starts with the capital structure and the return expectations ⁓ needs to be defined. The brand positioning defines the differentiations and the technologies and tools will be used, defines scalability and efficiency. And if creative expression is designed without financial context, for instance, or tech is layered in too late, then you create a big friction.

This is what I’m trying to explain. So alignment means those conversation happens simultaneously and ⁓ everybody agrees on that. And simply ⁓ we aim to design future proof systems. There are so many trends, so many fancy, amazing trends going on, but we need to really think what’s going to last in 20 years from now. We shouldn’t really build those concepts for,

two years, three years time. We need to build them for 20 years, 30 years from now. And when you consider the technology, all the trends that we have right now, it’s scary. Even thinking about it is scary. It’s gonna be completely new world. That’s why we need to change our perspective a little bit and think out of the box and introduce something can be more durable over time.

Anthony Codispoti (23:02)
So I’ve got some follow up questions about the trends that you’re talking about. A couple of minutes ago, Denise, you were talking about how the hospitality industry tends to be behind on a lot of the trends. They’re missing out on trends that were popular in other industries. Can you think back to a trend that was kind of making its way through other industries and the hotel space just wasn’t catching on to it?

Deniz Dorbek (23:06)
Yeah.

Well, I think the number one thing I can say is neuroscience. Why neuroscience? Because people are using hotels to rest, to feel better. And there is a big tagline called longevity. We are all into it. We are trying to…

you know, use the supplements and expose the daylight and sleep more hours. All those things are great, but it’s really applicable in hospitality in a super smart way. I’m always giving the same example. For instance, you’re flying from ⁓ Western Europe to US for very important business meeting and you’re going to present something and it’s like the meeting of your year and you feel exhausted. You are jet lag.

what you need, need a great, great, great ⁓ sleep and you need ⁓ a better cognitive performance. You need to feel fresh. Right. And I think it’s really possible to provide ⁓ efficient recovery with the right lighting systems, for example, and you can control the level of the oxygen in the room. So we discuss internally with a lot of neuroscientists, especially to

create our new brand based on that principles. I think it’s pretty possible to improve cognitive performance up to 20, 30 percent in a hotel room. Forget about the hotel room, but all the other social spaces, even the gyms, even the fitness centers that we use, we can really introduce more efficient ⁓ and recovery focused tools and technologies there. I think the end goal is

to make your guests feel renewed and refreshed after this short or long accommodation at your property. So, and that’s possible. We need to focus more on that, I guess.

Anthony Codispoti (25:27)
Well, this part’s really interesting to me because I’ve never really thought about a hotel in that way before. I’d like to hear, I don’t know if those were kind of all the examples, but like even just like putting more oxygen into the room so you get better sleep. Are there other hotels that are doing this?

Deniz Dorbek (25:46)
It’s just as an example. mean, those are the things that we are constantly brainstorming these days. And what are the other gadgets, other tools that we can ⁓ use in rooms? There are so many amazing longevity treats in different parts of the world. There are good ones ⁓ in Europe, for instance, in Central Europe. There are also very interesting concepts in Southeast.

Asia, in Mexico, for instance, there are more longevity focused places. But I don’t think we have really interesting best practices when it comes to urban hotels and city hotels, especially for business travel segment. ⁓ So that’s the area we are focusing these days. And I think it will be instrumental ⁓ in the future.

Anthony Codispoti (26:35)
Okay. I think maybe what I hear you saying, Denise, is there are some retreat centers around the world where you go and they focus on these kinds of, I’m going to use the term biohacking. don’t know if that’s the right term, but these like wellness, these longevity features. And what you want to do is borrow from some of those ideas and bring them into a New York, a Chicago, a major metropolitan area.

where me as a busy business traveler would get to experience the benefits of this without realizing maybe that I signed up for a hotel that is gonna help me improve my sleep by 20%. Am I understanding all of that?

Deniz Dorbek (27:15)
100%. That’s the goal. And of course, creating some inspiration, Anthony. That’s my very personal point of view. Because when I go and stay in a hotel, I travel a lot as well. I spent more than half of my life staying in the hotels and in air travel. What I really care is to feel very well taken care of when I stay in the hotel. I want to eat well. I want to sleep well.

And I want to interact with good people, know, very empathetic ⁓ team members. And sometimes you end up in a city as you’ve never been before, just for a couple of days. I just want to ⁓ utilize the time well. And I just want to feel inspired. I just want to have a takeaway with me in any location I visit. I just want to learn something new. I just want to ⁓ kind of see…

some sort of ⁓ tool and technology that I can perhaps ⁓ take it with me and try it at home. I think creating that kind of life-changing inspiration is important as well in hospitality. Why? Because again, we are in human business. So people are coming, staying with us. And of course, the reason is different. Sometimes leisure, sometimes business. But I think ⁓ being this inspiration is important.

And it needs to be a part of the brand promise as well.

Anthony Codispoti (28:44)
Now you said something else about trends that I found interesting, Denise. You know, the idea isn’t to just latch onto any trend, know, something that’s going to be a fad sort of in and out in a few months or a couple of years, but trying to think long term, like what is something that, you know, we can put our energy and our investment into that’s going to be, you know, here for the next couple of decades. And you said there are some trends we’re seeing now that are scary. What are the

trends you’re seeing now that maybe are a little bit frightening.

Deniz Dorbek (29:17)
Maybe scary is not the right word, but I personally don’t like exposing ⁓ a lot of technology because throughout the day we are always using our technology. are really dedicated to our phones and laptops and we are surrounded with gadgets and devices and Bluetooth and wire and Wi-Fi. And I think

Again, it’s very ⁓ industrial perspective, but for technology, mean, in hospitality is quite critical. I think the goal should be how we can slow down the pace. It’s very fast outside anyway. It’s just, it’s really ⁓ a lot going on. But when you are in a hotel, you need to feel, okay, now everything is getting…

little more slower. I’m fine tuning myself and it’s just it’s a good wipe. I think that needs to be the goal and if you ⁓ if you really implement tons of technology in your hotel and make them very visible and loud, I don’t believe it will serve the purpose. So technology needs to be invisible. Technology needs to make the ⁓ whole experience more personalized.

We need to use technology in hospitality for this purpose. And of course, it needs to impact the profit margins as well. Most probably five years from now, so many hotel level roles will disappear and we will be able to use AI agent to do many things, but still we have to have our teams in the field. They need to be there. And somebody needs to be on top of technology because I mean,

then it makes things a little more scary, right? We have to monitor, we have to control what’s going on, especially in, again, hospitality space.

Anthony Codispoti (31:19)
So here’s what I’ve heard from some of my other guests in the hospitality space in terms of how they think about AI. And I’d be curious to get your reaction to this, Denise, to see if you agree or disagree with this. Their approach, at least in kind of the near term towards AI, is how can I use that to free up my folks to have more time with the guests? So they spend less time sort of on a screen, kind of interacting with mundane data entry or whatever it is.

so that I can, you know, greet somebody or, you know, spend more time helping them. Or if there’s somebody that don’t, that they don’t get that regular guest interaction, it’s something that can allow them to interact with their staff more. Say like an HR or finance function that’s more behind the scenes. They can use AI tools that take away a lot of that mundane work. So then they’ve got more time to exchange ideas with their coworkers. Is this, I see you nodding your head. Is this kind of how you think about it too?

Deniz Dorbek (32:20)
I put my signature underneath. Yeah, that’s the goal. That’s the goal. Because I mean, in the early days of my career, so many things were pretty much manual. We spent hours, days to put the reports together, put the forecast and budget together. And right now, we can just do that overnight. In few hours, you can just create 10 years projection.

Anthony Codispoti (32:23)
Okay.

Deniz Dorbek (32:46)
very accurately. So that’s how we need to use technology. And then we can really spend ⁓ meaningful time for the brainstorming, for more intellectual ⁓ discussions, and of course, ⁓ more with the guests. We can listen to them more. So this is not what we are doing very efficiently today.

Anthony Codispoti (33:07)
Denise, how do you find customers at Regulus Collective?

Deniz Dorbek (33:12)
Well, actually we are very selective about who we will work with. And the good thing is I spend long enough ⁓ time in industry and I do have a great global network and ⁓ we usually

receive a lot of great leads from there. But we are also very active in social media ⁓ and we will continue to be active in that space. And throughout this year, we will attend so many important industry events and interact with all the investors, all the decision makers there. And very soon in two weeks time, we will also put our new website together. It will ⁓ give more idea about the structure.

planning, that’s what we are planning to do.

Anthony Codispoti (34:07)
RegulusCollective.com is the website, correct? Yep.

Deniz Dorbek (34:11)
That’s the one. Right now

it’s more about ⁓ me and more about ⁓ the summary of who we are. It’s been done together very quickly, but the collective’s real website will be up in probably two weeks’ time from now.

Anthony Codispoti (34:29)
Okay, and if folks are listening and they’re curious, Regulus is spelled R-E-G-U-L-U-S. R-E-G-U-L-U-S, reguluscollective.com. And we’ll mention it again as we get a little bit later into the interview. So, you know, in my experience, ⁓ every successful business has a great team behind it. What’s been your approach to both attracting and retaining good talent?

Deniz Dorbek (34:56)
Well, I do believe in one thing, you can always ⁓ teach someone a skill. That’s easy. But finding ⁓ the right people and the right cultural understanding is more important. And our approach is really finding ⁓ curious individuals who personally want to…

be a part of the change, create something unique and new, because our perspective is slightly different and curiosity is a key for me. So, and I always ⁓ were looking to find my tribe, especially when I was younger in this industry. Now I’m building this tribe and I want people.

to feel that way. So we will do this together. It’s not going to be my thing, my creation. I just want to give people a space to do what they want to do in the best possible way. And I just want to encourage them to really contribute to our industry and create the value together. That’s the goal.

Anthony Codispoti (36:08)
Do you think that same philosophy should apply for hotels looking to hire and retain great staff? should they be looking for other qualities?

Deniz Dorbek (36:19)
I mean, I think curiosity is really crucial and the passion is important as well. If you’re in hospitality, really need, by core, you need to be a human person, right? That’s the core. mean, you can be an amazing analyst, you can be the best finance person, but at the end of the day, ⁓ we are serving people and I always prefer to work.

with empathetic team members who can understand ⁓ the essence, the nuance of the business. That part is important. And I think we need to be more open to different backgrounds, different industrial backgrounds as well. So what’s the point just looking for someone with 15 years ⁓ general manager experience in a hotel space only? And in my last few… ⁓

assignments, I personally wanted to work with different backgrounds from the different industries and those people really bring an amazing perspective to the table. And sometimes if you spend long enough years in one industry, you are losing your ⁓ perspective and hearing something new and different direction, fresh pair of eye, it really ⁓ makes the change more impactful.

So I think we need to be more open to that.

Anthony Codispoti (37:49)
I hear what you’re saying, know, pulling in experience from different industries is going to expose you to some of those other trends that you say the hospitality industry is typically missing out.

Deniz Dorbek (37:58)
Sure.

Anthony Codispoti (38:02)
You know, and it’s become clear talking with you, Denise, that you care very deeply, like you really want to make a difference. You want to create value. Can you say more about Regulus Collective’s mission of creating enduring meaning?

Deniz Dorbek (38:02)
yeah.

Well, ⁓ that’s really important because I mean, enduring to me to create really something timeless and timeless design, timeless concept in hospitality is pretty rare because ⁓ we find ourselves really focusing on the famous trends, the hype, but creating timeless is more about creating structure.

That’s why I think ⁓ our goal to make this as long lasting as possible. in the context of hospitality, enduring meaning means something simple. When guests leaves better than they arrived. Just as I said, mean, just create this inspirational environment and make them feel better, make them feel calmer.

make them feel clearer, more refreshed. And for that to happen, design must be served psychology. Marketing must reflect the truth. And more importantly, I believe service must be intuitive. Most of the time ⁓ when I go stay in the hotels, I feel the service is scripted.

Of course, all the new team members, get those trainings and probably they have this elevator pitch and ⁓ how they check in and check out the guests. But it doesn’t sound that way. It needs to be more authentic. again, emotionally intelligent hotels, know ⁓ when to lean in and when to step back. And it understands proximity. It respects the space. When I say respecting the space,

you need to observe your guests and sometimes they don’t want to interact. They don’t want to ⁓ really hear any advice about their restroom ⁓ choices. just seeing this is really important, but none of that happens without proper ageal work. And I think in hospitality, the ageality is a little fragile. It requires real culture and… ⁓

Culture requires leadership. And on the investment side, enduring meaning takes a little different form. It means the asset itself becomes timeless, as I mentioned. Not really 100 % trend driven. Not reactive. I think that’s the best word. Not designed to peak in year two or three and ⁓ fade by year five and 10.

So it means creating a hospitality product that will still hold relevance, still hold dignity and commercial strength in years. So that’s the goal. I know it sounds really hard to achieve, but with all the resources we have, with the technology, with the like-minded ⁓ teams, think that’s really possible. And we want to challenge ourselves on that mission.

Anthony Codispoti (41:32)
Denise, what’s an example of a property that you’ve seen in the past that was super trendy for just a handful of years and made the wrong choices and quickly became what’s the opposite of timeless? I don’t know, but they aged out of the trend pretty fast.

Deniz Dorbek (41:52)
I don’t want to say that loud but yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (41:55)
Don’t name any names, don’t name any names, but

maybe tell us what they did that wasn’t kind of a good long-term vision.

Deniz Dorbek (42:04)
Trust me, I’ve seen many and in some locations, maybe even in your own cities, in your own states, you see a lot of flag change. There is one property and different flags every two year, every three year, because ⁓ that means they couldn’t really. ⁓

digest the brand identity. I think that’s the most important point. You just need to make sure what’s the goal when you are creating the brand and ⁓ what kind of problem you are solving, who you are, who you will talk to. So it sounds very simple, but in hospitality space, the hotels world, it’s very difficult because ⁓ creating those brands doesn’t mean ⁓ telling everyone who you are and what you do.

It’s all about creating this imagination about who they’re gonna be when they come and stay with you. It’s a storytelling. It’s almost like watching a movie. And after a good movie, it stays with you and it just gives you a lot of ⁓ feeling.

good or bad. I think that’s what we need to do when we are creating a hotel brand. and I think again, it just goes back to the inspiration topic. long story short, I’ve seen a lot, not couldn’t make this journey long-term, but also there are amazing examples. They are there since 40 years, 50 years.

And they’re going to be there probably 20 years later. And people really appreciate a lot. So we have the beautiful examples globally.

Anthony Codispoti (44:01)
Denise, growth often comes through overcoming challenges. Can you share a particularly significant challenge that you’ve overcome in your life, how you got through that and what you learned?

Deniz Dorbek (44:18)
Well,

That’s a hard question because I had many and I think living corporate identity was very challenging, Anthony. When you leave a global brand and you leave safety ⁓ and rebuilding identity outside that ecosystem ⁓ is really emotionally demanding. And especially as a mother, because throughout my career, I needed to travel a lot.

I have my four year old and I always felt like I couldn’t spend enough time with my child and I wasn’t there when she need me a lot. And even now, because I am also creating something from scratch and it’s very difficult when you have all those different responsibilities in life. And the hardest part isn’t the risk itself, it’s taking the structure you are used to.

When you are in corporate, you have systems, the standards, and integrating them into an entirely new world on your own terms is hard. And it’s also hard to convince others of your big vision sometimes, even before it has ⁓ these early visible proofs and signs. Because again, in my case, I do have very big visions.

And sometimes it resonates with people, sometimes ⁓ it’s not. And I’m not someone who ⁓ pursues things I don’t believe in. And if I don’t feel ⁓ conviction, I don’t really move at all. And what carried me through that phase ⁓ was more discipline and deep passion.

in the industry ⁓ and of course probably the inner mission that I have because I really believe that’s possible. But all those chapters and especially this last one, not an easy one, I will say. And I think we also need to learn one thing. All the leaders, all the future leaders in different industries, I think we need to learn to be more vulnerable and ask for help.

when we need help. I think that that’s crucial.

Anthony Codispoti (46:52)
You said a lot of really good things there. I kind of want to unpack a bit. You know, you talked about the challenge Denise of being a mother, you know, having a young child and feeling this, this guilt of being, you know, pulled away because of, you know, the time commitments of your work. And this is something I’ve had the opportunity to explore with a number of my female guests who are, you know, very driven, very bright, you know, want the career and they want the family at the same time. And

You know, for some reason it seems to be a lot easier for men to kind of, you know, be on both sides of that fence, but it’s, it’s more difficult for a woman because, well, I don’t want to put words into your mouth. Why?

Deniz Dorbek (47:38)
Yeah, motherhood requires a lot of sacrifice. I think that’s the thing because it comes by nature and to me it’s a very general term.

all the moms that I know, including my mom and her mom, that was the case. And you really want to do your best. You want to give your 100%. And sometimes it’s emotionally draining, sometimes it’s physically draining. I mean, in my case, for instance, I’m working 10 hours, 15 hours a day. and in very young age,

We are sending them the daycares and pre-educations and PK3s, PK4s and kindergartens. And in my culture, for example, ⁓ back in the days, it wasn’t the norm. And right now I don’t have my immediate family, my parents ⁓ here. They are back in Europe. So there are very limited… ⁓

community support in this case. We do have amazing friends. They are our families, of course, and that’s also quite training as well. being an expat in this country and the United States is an immigrant country and so many people leave their ⁓ parents, their ⁓ family members in their countries to be here. And in my case, and even though I spend almost 20 years of my career abroad,

Doing this alone is one thing doing this as a married couple is another thing and doing this with your Four-year-old is completely different thing. So It’s it’s hard it’s not easy but I think ⁓ What really helps me to think that she will respect?

this effort. She will know who I am and she will understand my passion. And hopefully she will also be a very passionate person about ⁓ how she would like to change the world in the future. So that’s kind of gives me a hope and motivation. ⁓ But so many amazing women out there, they’re juggling, they’re multitasking and they are just going through this battle all alone.

very ⁓ quietly without even asking any support. And that’s why in Regulus, we just want to ⁓ keep our foundation as diverse as possible. Because I personally experienced that glass ceiling many times and in many chapters in my career. And I just want to do the right opposite. And again, so that

We are talking about the woman. I don’t think it’s also easy for men in their career path as well, but probably ⁓ the motherhood makes things a little more difficult, it’s more harder.

Anthony Codispoti (51:00)
I think so. Certainly from what I’ve observed, even just in my own relationship, you know, my wife took time off of work to have our kids early on and she felt drawn to come back into her career that she had spent a long time, you know, going to school to be prepared for and then getting good at through practice. And, and she felt this guilt of, you know, am I a bad mom for wanting to go back to work when I have the opportunity to stay home? And so

Deniz Dorbek (51:02)
Thank

Exactly.

Anthony Codispoti (51:28)
I’ve seen

that like upfront sort of that, you know, that tug of war that takes place. ⁓ But it sounds to me like, you know, you’re being a great living example to your daughter of, you know, the kind of person that you are and that you hope, you know, that she’ll grow into to find her own areas to be, you know, really passionate about and to want to make the place a better world. And I appreciate what you’re saying also about, you know, being vulnerable and learning to ask for help. Can you give an example of

Deniz Dorbek (51:56)
Exactly.

Anthony Codispoti (51:57)
you know, how this has worked for you in your own life.

Deniz Dorbek (52:02)
⁓ Having a good mentors in the early part of your career is crucial. And I was so lucky because I had the opportunity to work with amazing leader. And I will say the generation before me, they were very special, ⁓ very dedicated. ⁓ And they were the ones to really change ⁓ the overall ⁓ industry norms.

I feel very fortunate because I built this relationship over time. They became my family. They became my ⁓ very close friends. And sometimes I feel really struggled and I feel all the comfort to reach out to them and ask help. And even though if you feel like, I have the best idea of the world, you still need ⁓ verification sometimes. And also the… ⁓

the goals change as well. And one day you wake up and say, hey, that’s the goal. And two months later and events occur and you need to kind of update a strategy and adjust from here and there. I think my biggest recommendation would be to have that mentor in life.

not necessarily in the business and the career field, but someone to go to. ⁓ And we all have this ⁓ inspirational people in our lives. And sometimes we feel a little hesitant to go out and ask. And even just ⁓ demanding this is a good start. And going to someone and saying, hey, you know what? I really adore you, and you’re an amazing.

person and you are extremely successful in what you are doing, can we spend some time together? Can we grab a coffee? And do you mind if I just come to you when I have some questions about work or life? So I think we should be more proactive on that.

Anthony Codispoti (54:09)
Love that Denise, what is your superpower?

Deniz Dorbek (54:15)
Wow, it’s a hard question. I think my biggest superpower is my pattern recognition. I tend to see structural misalignment before it shows up in numbers. And the other one should be creativity. And I genuinely enjoy looking at problems from different angles.

And I’m not trying to reinvent the wheel or bring completely different contexts in certain problems, but I don’t like default answers. I like challenging the obvious path and finding solutions that aren’t really super visible. And for that, I actively ⁓ push my own thinking system and I expose myself.

to different ideas out of hospitality. And I try not to stay intellectually comfortable. ⁓ I think that’s what I do the most.

Anthony Codispoti (55:23)
How do you

do that? How do you challenge yourself? Because being in one industry for so long as you have, you’ve seen those patterns. You recognize what the solutions are because you’ve been through it 50 times before. How do you push yourself to say, well, that was the solution that worked the last 50 times, but maybe there’s something different I should consider this time?

Deniz Dorbek (55:45)
Um, well, I think the only one thing I do for this is reading a lot and learning a lot. So that was my habit. And I think it was a very good habit. Um, I think it was during COVID, I started to dedicate hour and a half every day to start reading articles, watching YouTube videos and listening podcasts. It’s like,

dedicated learning hour for me. And that gave me tons of amazing ideas about various different areas, not specifically in hospitality. And each time I hear something interesting, I read something interesting. The first thing was, can we adapt this idea to our industry? Is there a way that we can use this best practice in hospitality? And there are certain challenges. They’re like,

very repetitive. You always ⁓ come across with those things and you know what they are. And each time we sit with a team ⁓ for any kind of strategy meeting, this is my very first question. Just bring me a problem, but bring me

four different solutions to that particular problem. And maybe those solutions will not be solid, concrete. Maybe we need to work on those. Maybe it’s like in an idea phase. Doesn’t matter. Just shoot it out. Then we can work on that. We can just, you know, ⁓ improve those solutions and see if it’s going to work or not. We need to be open to change and try ⁓ something new.

and especially when it comes to problem solving. And I highly recommend everybody to dedicate a time. Can be 30 minutes, not necessarily hour and a half, but just try to read, listen, and learn something new every day.

Anthony Codispoti (57:46)
Well, you just taught me something. I picked up an idea from you that I’m going to implement with my own team. Cause you know, it’s one thing I’ve been coaching my team on is, Hey, if you come to me with a problem, great. Come to me also with a proposed solution. You’re taking it step farther and saying, come to me with four solutions and maybe the, you know, maybe it’s three, maybe it’s five, whatever, but give them a number because it pushes them to think about more than one way to approach this. Right.

And maybe out of that four, one or two of those you can pretty easily peel off is unrealistic. But at least you’re putting them in a mental position to go and think more creatively to find other ideas that could address this.

Deniz Dorbek (58:32)
Yeah. And it works so well. And it just also gives them a lot of motivation and excitement as well. Each time someone from my team come to me, they know they need to be prepared. But that preparation phase is fun. And that’s where you push their limit. And it’s priceless. I love that.

Anthony Codispoti (58:52)
You know, the other thing I enjoyed was, you know, setting aside time to learn, read a podcast. And I wonder if there’s a podcast or a book or a course, something like that, that’s been particularly helpful for you that you might recommend to our listeners.

Deniz Dorbek (59:07)
Well, ⁓ actually, I have cried a lot these days. ⁓ And I’m just trying to remember the right name. ⁓

So first of all, think I’m more like a books person. I really enjoy reading more than any other things will do. And quite recently, Will Godera, ⁓ he was ⁓ one of the owners of Medicine 11, the three Michelin star restaurant ⁓ in New York. And ⁓ his newest book is amazing.

It’s very refreshing perspective for the overall hospitality industry. I highly suggest everybody to read that because it’s really show how ⁓ empathetic approach really upgrades the operational efficiency as well. So that’s one of the book ⁓ stayed with me in the last year. And I haven’t.

Anthony Codispoti (1:00:21)
And what’s the name of that book?

Deniz Dorbek (1:00:24)
hold on a minute. My mind’s really freezed right now. I’m sure I’m going to remember.

Anthony Codispoti (1:00:32)
Okay, give me the name of the author again.

I’ll look it up.

What’s the name of the author, Denise?

Deniz Dorbek (1:00:40)
Unreasonable hospitality. I get it. ⁓

Anthony Codispoti (1:00:42)
⁓ that’s the one I thought you were talking

about. It gets mentioned so often on this show, even from people outside the industry. It’s a great one. Yep.

Deniz Dorbek (1:00:47)
Yeah. And

Will Gujara is the writer and it’s really amazing one. And the second one actually, ⁓ the creative act by Rick Rubin. And it’s not really a business manual, I will say, but it’s about entering a creative state. It’s about listening. It’s about allowing ideas to surface.

So for me, it’s a masterpiece, especially when you’re building something from scratch and want to stay inspired ⁓ without losing structure. I read widely, but those two, will say, I read both of them in the last part of the year, last year. So it really stayed with me. And I remember.

⁓ having a marker in my hand underlining as I went. So especially Will’s book, if we are talking about hospitality, I highly suggest. I’m so sorry I couldn’t remember the name right away.

Anthony Codispoti (1:01:55)
I thought that’s the one you were talking about, but I want to make sure. Yeah. And I’ve read it myself. One of my guests sent it to me who’s not even in the hospitality space. So people listening in other industries, I think it’s a good one to pick up. What’s your favorite thing to do outside of work, Denise?

Deniz Dorbek (1:02:03)
So nice, look at that.

Well, ⁓ many things actually. mean, reading is one of them for sure, but I will say slow travel and long dinners with family and friends, conversations that challenge my perspective. I’m a certified Kundalini Yoga teacher. So yoga is not only a hobby for me, but it’s almost like a foundation. And I’m also an amateur sailor.

being at sea or just being near the sea ⁓ is really a big need for me. And I will say the ocean ⁓ resets my scale. So those spaces keep me grounded when I ⁓ build these ambitious things.

Anthony Codispoti (1:03:01)
Denise, I just have one more question for you today. But before I ask it, I want to do three quick things for the audience. First of all, if you want to get in touch with Denise, we’re going to have her LinkedIn profile and the show notes. But her name is spelled D-E-N-I-Z Denise and then door back is D-O-R-B-E-K. Denise, door back, Regulus Collective. You’ll find her.

Also, their new website, which is gonna be out by the time that this episode drops, reguluscollective.com. We’ll have a link to that in the show notes too. And if you’re enjoying the show today, please take a moment to subscribe wherever you’re listening. It sends a signal that helps others discover our show. So thank you for taking a quick moment to do that right now. And as a reminder, you can be the hero advisor that helps clients give their employees access to therapists, doctors, and prescription meds while…

paradoxically increasing their net profits, real gains that can change how a business is valued. Learn more today at addbackbenefits.com. So last question for you, Denise, a year from now, what is one very specific thing that you hope to be celebrated?

Deniz Dorbek (1:04:09)
Wow, even thinking about it is very exciting. ⁓ The year from now, I hope to celebrate the successful announcement of Collective’s first flagship proxy. And that project will be a very ⁓ tangible expression of our team’s vision and my vision and our shared ambition to create something that contributes ⁓ and even in its own way, ⁓

to a better world in hospitality. And on the advisory side, I hope we’ll also be celebrating the kind of partnership where the people we work with feel genuinely proud of what we build together. I really want to put a big smile on their face. ⁓ And hopefully it’s going to happen in a year time.

Anthony Codispoti (1:05:02)
I love it. Denise Dorbeck from Regulus Collective. I want to be the first to thank you for sharing both your time and your story with us today. I really appreciate you being here.

Deniz Dorbek (1:05:12)
Thank you. It was wonderful. Thank you for the thoughtful questions and being a great host.

Anthony Codispoti (1:05:19)
Folks, that’s a wrap on another episode of the Inspired Stories podcast. Thanks for learning with us. And if one thing stood out, put that into action today.