This week I sat down with Adam Hamadache, founder of Formula and host of the Hotel Growth Podcast, a man who has spent the last 15 years helping hotels figure out how to grow in an industry that never seems to sit still for more than five minutes.

What followed was part hospitality strategy masterclass, part therapy session for modern business owners, and part beautifully chaotic conversation about AI, audience-less keynote speeches, and why hiring experts only to tell them exactly what to do might be “the definition of madness.”

From working in a shoe shop during school work experience while dreaming of hotels, to shouting orders on the grill in a Sydney restaurant kitchen overlooking the Opera House, Adam’s journey is full of sharp pivots, curiosity, and a relentless obsession with solving problems properly.

Along the way we get into the terrifying speed of AI, why hospitality still massively underuses its own data, what business owners can learn from bad football defending, and the deeply humbling experience of delivering a keynote presentation to an audience of… one.

And honestly?

The audience of one story alone is worth the price of admission (Which is free by the way)

In this episode, Adam and I get into…

• Why careers often evolve through curiosity rather than rigid planning

• How a failed hotel promotion model accidentally launched an entire hospitality marketing career

• The ongoing battle between hotels and OTAs, and why direct bookings still matter so much

• What operators misunderstand about marketing partnerships

• Why Formula made the bold decision to hire only highly experienced people

• The power of friction, challenge and healthy disagreement in great businesses

• Why “slow down to speed up” might be the most important business lesson of all

• The terrifying speed of AI and how search behaviour is fundamentally changing

• Why hospitality still isn’t using data and technology anywhere near its full potential

• How fear of being left behind can push businesses into bad tech decisions

• Why independent hoteliers often feel isolated when facing huge commercial challenges

• The thinking behind Adam’s new hospitality advisory board concept

And so much more.

Some cracking quote-ables from Adam…

“You don’t buy a dog and bark yourself”

“Search has changed more in the last 18 months than in the previous 18 years”

“You’ve got to slow down to speed up”

“The bold, harder decisions are often much less expensive than the easy decisions you choose to tolerate”

“Doing the same thing and expecting a different result is madness… but so is hiring experts and then telling them exactly how to do their job”

Why this episode is worth your ears

This is one of those conversations that goes way beyond marketing.

Yes, there’s loads in here about AI, growth strategy, technology, customer behaviour and the future of hospitality… but underneath all of that is a really thoughtful conversation about leadership, humility, evolution and the importance of staying curious when the world feels like it’s changing at breakneck speed.

Adam’s honesty around business ownership, difficult decisions, and learning to pause before reacting makes this one feel incredibly grounded and real.

It’s also reassuringly human.

Because sometimes even successful keynote speakers end up presenting to one confused bloke in a conference room.

And somehow…

that might actually be the perfect metaphor for modern business.

Show Partner

A big shout out to today’s show partner, RotaCloud, the people management platform built specifically for shift based teams.

RotaCloud lets managers create and share rotas, record attendance, and manage annual leave in minutes, all from one simple, web-based app.

It also makes life easier for teams, allowing staff to check rotas, request holiday, and pick up extra shifts directly from their phones.

To find out more, head to RotaCloud

This week, I sat down with Gareth Rees, and this is one of those conversations that feels properly important.

Not just for hospitality… but for how we think about people, performance, and what “doing a good job” actually means

Gareth now runs ADHospitalityD, with a mission to educate the industry on neurodiversity, breaking down misconceptions, supporting individuals, and helping businesses create environments where people can genuinely thrive.

But his story starts where many of ours do…

On the floor

In this episode, Gareth and I get into…

• Growing up in hospitality with both parents in the industry
• Falling in love with the buzz (and chaos) of a busy service at a young age
• Originally planning a career in sports… before hospitality pulled him back in
• Working his way through the industry via the Exclusive Collection grad scheme
• Why understanding the full guest journey matters in leadership
• Stepping into a Head of Department role, and suddenly hitting a wall
• The shift from doing the job to enabling others to do it
• Struggling with admin, pressure, and expectations, despite loving the industry
• Discovering ADHD later in life and what that explained
• The concept of interest-based vs importance-based nervous systems (game-changer 👀)
• Why traditional productivity advice doesn’t work for everyone
• Adjusting ways of working to suit how your brain actually functions
• And ultimately… turning that experience into a mission to support others

Some cracking quote-ables from Gareth

“We need to value the strengths, but appreciate the struggles”

“I wasn’t failing… I just hadn’t been set up in a way that worked for me”

“At Head of Department level, your output changes, and that’s where it hit me”

“I could do the job… but I couldn’t do it the way everyone else expected”

“You don’t ‘fix’ this, you learn how to work with it”

Why this episode is worth your ears

If you lead people… this one matters

Because it challenges a lot of assumptions we make about:

• Productivity
• Performance
• Communication
• And what “good” looks like at work

Gareth’s story is a powerful reminder that not everyone operates the same way, and that’s not a weakness.

In fact, when you understand it properly?

It can be a huge strength

And for an industry built on people…

That’s something we can’t afford to ignore.

Contact Gareth through his website at https://adhospitalityd.com/ or Instagram

Show Partners

A big shout out to the first of today’s show partner, RotaCloud, the people management platform for shift-based teams.

RotaCloud lets managers create and share rotas, record attendance, and manage annual leave in minutes — all from a single, web-based app.

It makes work simple for your team, too, allowing them to check their rotas, request holiday, and even pick up extra shifts straight from their phones.

Try RotaCloud’s time-saving tools today by heading to https://rotacloud.com/phil

This week on Hospitality Meets, Phil sits down with another Phil, that being Phil Andreopoulos, CEO of YOTEL, for a conversation that starts with washing pots in restaurants… and somehow ends with power naps, gorilla trekking, hotel disruption and leadership philosophy.

Inspired by a first class airline cabin and created by the founder of YO! Sushi, YOTEL has always challenged the “that’s just how hotels work” mentality, and this episode dives into exactly why.

Along the way, the two Phils discuss:

• Why understanding your own energy patterns might be one of the most underrated leadership skills around
• The importance of healthy friction in teams
• Building cultures that aren’t just clones of the leader
• Why communication matters most when uncertainty is highest
• The reality of navigating major business change
• Why hospitality still offers one of the greatest careers in the world
• And why getting promoted from pots and pans to plates and glasses once felt like a massive career breakthrough 😂

There’s also loads of brilliant insight around leadership, culture, growth and vision, without ever disappearing too far up its own backside.

Phil Andreopoulos speaks openly about:

• Growing through the hospitality industry
• His journey from kitchen porter to CEO
• Building franchise growth across global hotel brands
• The recent Hilton partnership with YOTEL
• Why “fun at work” matters more than people think
• And the importance of creating environments where people actually want to be

Some standout quotes from the episode:

“Knowing yourself is a hugely underrated leadership skill”

“If you leave gaps in communication, people will fill them”

“We spend a huge amount of our lives at work. It should be successful… but it should also be fun”

“You don’t build great teams by hiring people exactly like you”

“Hospitality is one of the greatest industries in the world… and I still don’t think we tell that story well enough”

There’s wisdom in this one.

There’s humour in this one.

There’s also a genuinely fascinating story about how a first-class airline seat accidentally became a hotel concept.

Classic hospitality really. Somebody looked at a plane seat and thought:

“…yeah, but what if we put a shower next to it?” 😂

Enjoy.

Show Partners

A big shout out to the first of today’s show partner, RotaCloud, the people management platform for shift-based teams.

RotaCloud lets managers create and share rotas, record attendance, and manage annual leave in minutes — all from a single, web-based app.

It makes work simple for your team, too, allowing them to check their rotas, request holiday, and even pick up extra shifts straight from their phones.

Try RotaCloud’s time-saving tools today by heading to https://rotacloud.com