We spent time at Ojo, Ten Thousand Waves, Rosewood and Bishop’s Lodge.

Quite the lineup of stays. All fantastic. But I can’t speak highly enough of the latter.

A truly exceptional experience. “Luxury” gets thrown around these days far too much for my liking, but Auberge delivers. Don’t miss it next time you’re in NM.

Q3 began with a trip to the Land of Enchantment in July and ended with two international jaunts to Montreal and Mexico in September.

Leaving the country you spend most of your time in is a refreshing exercise. You remember that your world is not the world. This was certainly true for me here.

I hadn’t left the USA since our honeymoon in July 2023. Given it was my greencard year, I’d purposefully tried to keep international travel plans at bay for 2024. We had no idea how long processing would take when I applied in August 2023. If we’d known it’d only take a record-breaking 78 days, 2024 may have looked different.

As a Brit, you may be surprised that this is only my second trip to Mexico. Less surprising is that both trips were all-inclusive to Cancun. Not something I’d ever done before nor sought out. However, for a few days with great friends, you can’t beat them when the price is right. I always have fun and am ready to return home.

That’s the sign you live in the right place and travel for the optimal time. Right?

I was very impressed by Montreal. A close friend described it as the most European city in North America, and I couldn’t agree more. Don’t miss Tinc Set — a Catalan-inspired natural wine bar with delicious small plates and friendly staff.

MTL’s Francophones were much warmer (read: receptive) to my “parlez-vous anglais?” than my former Parisian neighbours. The city scratches the European itch we all have for history, proper coffee, and the joys of conversing in a new language.

Plus, it came with none of the downsides that a trip from the USA to the continent brings. You know what I’m talking about. 6+ hour often overnight flights. No cell service, ice or air conditioning for weeks on end. Plus, long customs queues and now entry fees for non-EU citizens. You don’t have to deal with that in MTL.

I took a ~2-hour flight from ORD-YUL with TSA Pre✓ on my way out and Global Entry on my way back in. It took 7 minutes from Uber drop-off to the gate at ORD and 9 minutes to complete pre-clearance on my return from YUL.

For reference, that’s approximately half the time I spend watching LHR security empty the entire contents of my bag for absolutely no good reason at all.

It’s true: much of my love for America stems from the fact that you can always pay to skip the line. And there isn’t a better skip-the-line pass in life than Global Entry.

Honestly, it’s just a superior way of travelling.

The best $120 you’ll ever spend at the airport — which is far too easy to do these days — and it will save you from ever having to be stuck in the hours-long customs lines we saw on our return from Mexico. Undoubtedly, the longest queues I’ve ever seen in my 11 years here. And trust me, I’ve seen some bad ones in my time.

Even the line for US citizens was bezerk.

Thanks to the Global Entry app, we were through in an extremely slow 20 minutes. Most transits take sub-5 minutes. Download it. As soon as you land, you take a picture of your face on the plane, which automatically matches your ID. You can then fly through to the front of the queue—ironically skipping all the non-app Global Entry entry users—without having to faff about for any of your documents.

I’m a sucker for any chance to skip the already-skipped line. Plus, it comes with TSA Pre✓ and lasts for 5 years. Several credit cards will even pay your application fee. Making this a free $0 play. Do it! And make sure your whole family signs up. 

If you happen to be an ORD traveller, reach out. I’ve got a special guy for you.

With all this travelling, it was fitting that I got my Irish citizenship on the penultimate day of Q3. Much to my wife’s detest, there will be no more customs lines in Europe for me. One more passport to go until I reach the trifecta.

I’m alive and kicking in the gym. Completed Tour do Echelon. My very own Tour De France. That, plus weekly pickleball singles, has been transformational for cardio and quality of life. The fact this was the sporting summer of a lifetime definitely spurred me on — England’s Euros run plus an old CVMS X-country teammate winning Bronze in the 1500M were highlights (watch her kick in the final 50M). 

Anyway, that’s enough about me. Onto business.

While the cities, audiences, and stage sizes have changed over the years, my process for speechwriting hasn’t. I love to return to the best piece of writing I’ve come across on the topic I’m given and build out the talk from there. My three rules for public speaking are one laugh, one hmm, and one wow. That’s your only job in front of the audience. If you can build around a killer talk around that, you’re good.

Forget everything else — as the audience most certainly will!

It’s wild how many executives still pour tens of thousands of dollars into the same agencies every month and get boilerplate talks in return. I’d put my library of speeches up against any. Speechwriting for top executives is a niche in which I’d love to grow, and this quarter gave me a real sense of its potential in the modern day.

As much as I love public speaking myself, helping someone else master it is equally electrifying. It’s not just putting words on a page. Rather, it is the art of capturing someone’s voice and weaving it effortlessly into the larger purpose of the event.

While my process hasn’t changed much over the years, my range as an advisor certainly has. What started as storytelling-as-a-service — think speechwriting, ghostwriting, branded content — grew to include sparring and has since evolved into network intelligence or what I like to call executive profiling. 

If you’ve got no idea what I’m talking about, this scene from Devil Wear’s Prada explains it best. Meryl Streep’s character — the editor-in-chief of the fictitious magazine Runway — struggles to identify a guest approaching her at a significant event. Her dutiful assistant, Emily Blunt, can’t remember who the guest is. Anne Hathaway saves the day by whispering the guest’s name in Meryl’s ear at the last possible second. She cooly greets the ambassador by name, and the rest is history.

ICONIC scene. This is what I do for executives. Without the whispering.

Think about it as social capital-as-a-service.

Think about it as social capital-as-a-service.

At conferences, functions, parties, etc., understanding who’s who often makes all the difference. My expertise in people research has been honed through years of cold emails, curiosity conversations and trawling beyond page 10 of Google search.

I give executives timeless insights into key individuals they may/want to meet. Creating dossiers that can be easily digested on the go — think digital, subtle and to the point — and explain how mutual interests may or may not intersect.

Seeing this put into action with leaders you read about in the news Everyday is exhilarating. Helping executives build social capital is one of my greatest strengths and joys, especially when everybody else struggles to remember names.

With most of July and August spent on product development, I shifted my focus to mapping out the market in September. I don’t need to tell you how big (and small) the hospitality industry is, particularly in the full-service restaurant sphere. Charting out the footprint of major players felt essential to our future success.

The map is not the territory. 

I combed through the archives of the James Beard Awards and Michelin Guide since records began. The takeaways were eye-opening. It’s incredible how much you can learn when you really commit to research.

Chicago is one of three places in the world with a Michelin guide and multiple winners of the coveted Outstanding Restaurateur Beard Award. The others are NYC (no surprises) and California, which is a state.  

At the time of writing, Chicago has 151 restaurants in its Michelin Guide. 1.3% have 3 stars, 2% have 2 stars, and 9.9% have 1 star. 30% are Bib, and 57% are Guide.

Hospitality groups represent 11% of the listings on Chicago’s Guide. 21% are independent owners with multiple concepts. 27% are stand-alone units. 5% are bar groups. 32% are smaller omakase-type places, which are definitely having their moment in fine dining.

The fact we’re just as good a fit for solo operators as we are for hospitality groups tells you everything you need to know about our potential.

Chicago’s Michelin Guide is pretty well-balanced.

However, in a smaller market like Colorado, hospitality groups are responsible for about 40% of entries in its Michelin Guide. Fun fact: in Chicago, not a single group has every designation (e.g., 3*, 2*, 1*, Bib, Guide), which I thought was fascinating. Alinea and Boka are closest, but both are missing one.

As we head into Q4, I’m excited to see where our first “home” will be in the world of hospitality. Whether it is with a multi-unit group or an independent operator, I do not yet know. Yet the fact we’re just as good a fit for solo operators as we are for hospitality groups tells you everything you need to know about our potential.

Knowing who your top customers are and how much of your brand and product suite they’ve experienced over time gives owners a powerful edge when it comes to retention, loyalty, and personalizing upsells to expand lifetime value (LTV).

That’s how you surprise and delight guests at scale.

On the radio front, I took a short, unexpected break this summer — a hiatus that started when my recording window shifted (my wife’s art class schedule changed).

I wonder how much creativity in life can be ascribed to changes in or the asynchronous nature of a significant other’s schedule. It couldn’t have come at a better time. Pausing the mixes allowed me to stumble across new sounds. Seeing Fred again.. at Alpine Valley and the legendary Roots at Ravinia helped greatly.

Some ended up in this Friday Night Lights mix.

This playlist was born from one of those magic moments where every track on shuffle hit for about an hour straight. It was a Friday evening. I was riding the post-workout high, getting cleaned up, and ready to go out. It’s an ode to Jermaine Cole, one of my favourite shows ever, and the return of daylight savings + football SZN. 

If you’re looking for a playlist to help you through winter, christen a new space, or get you into a particular headspace, hit me up. I’d love to curate something for you.