Leave People Better Than You Found Them | Jessica Southworth - Hotel Football cover art

Leave People Better Than You Found Them | Jessica Southworth - Hotel Football

Leave People Better Than You Found Them | Jessica Southworth - Hotel Football

Listen for free

View show details
What if one of the best measures of success was simply this:Did you leave people better than you found them?That idea runs through the way Jessica Southworth approaches work, relationships, community and the city she calls home.Jess is a hospitality leader with more than two decades in the industry and is Cluster Sales and Marketing Director across Hotel Football and Stock Exchange Hotel Manchester.In this special episode of TEDx and Talks, Jess joins Simran Whitham for a conversation about Manchester, community, collaboration and why creating a great experience has far more to do with people than products.Hotel Football joined TEDxNorthernQuarter 2026 as an Event Partner, but this isn't really a conversation about a hotel.It's about the person behind the partnership.Jess talks about what happened when Hotel Football stopped trying to make its social media polished and corporate and simply started behaving more like the people who actually worked there.She explains why she believes in collaboration over competition, why the strongest organisations become part of their communities and why some of the most important things a business does may never appear in its sales material.That includes a decision by the Hotel Football team to mark the hotel's tenth birthday not by spending a £10,000 celebration budget on themselves, but by giving it to a local charity.The conversation becomes much more personal when Jess talks about supporting NACOA, the National Association for Children of Alcoholics.After losing their father, who had lived with alcohol dependency, Jess and her sister became ambassadors for the charity and created a fundraising gala with support from Hotel Football.At one of those events, an anonymous guest donated £125,000.Jess reflects on the extraordinary chain reaction behind moments like that: an idea becomes an event, an event gets people into a room, a conversation happens — and something changes that nobody involved could have predicted.It's why she believes so strongly in putting people together and creating opportunities for connection.There is also a lot of Manchester in this episode.Jess and Simran explore what makes the city feel different, from its friendliness and resilience to the willingness of people and businesses to help one another even when they technically compete.Jess shares why she has never wanted to leave, why Manchester's people are its biggest strength and why confidence in the city doesn't have to become arrogance.There are some brilliant hospitality stories too - including the night rapper Dave appeared on Hotel Football's rooftop, casually posted where he was, and within an hour around a thousand people had turned up outside.But underneath the stories is a consistent philosophy.Create experiences people remember.Open doors for other people.Say someone's name in a room when an opportunity might help them.Tell people when you can see something in them that they haven't yet seen in themselves.And whenever you can, leave people a little better than you found them.TEDx and Talks is the official podcast of TEDxNorthernQuarter, taking you beyond the red dot to discover more about the people, stories and ideas behind the talks.This episode is hosted by Simran Whitham.Hotel Football supported TEDxNorthernQuarter 2026 as an Event Partner, helping us create the wider speaker experience around the event. This conversation was recorded as part of that partnership.Recorded by THE CLUB MCR in Manchester.TEDxNorthernQuarter 2026 took place at Stoller Hall, Manchester on 11 September 2026, bringing together 16 speakers to share ideas worth spreading.Find out more about TEDxNorthernQuarter:Website: https://www.tedxnorthernquarter.com/Podcast: https://podcast.tedxnorthernquarter.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tedxnorthernquarter/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tedxnorthernquarter/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tedxnorthernquarterConnect with Jessica Southworth on LinkedIn or @jess_southworth on IG and find Hotel Football at @hotelfootballuk.Content note: This episode includes discussion of bereavement and parental alcohol dependency.TEDxNorthernQuarter is an independently organised event under license granted by TED.Send us Fan Mail
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_t1
No reviews yet