Trendsetter Tuesday: The Many Hats of Mandi Graziano, and How She Balances Them All

To celebrate our 2024 Meetings Trendsetters, Meetings Today launched "Trendsetter Tuesday," a podcast series of interviews with the 20 Trendsetters recognized in our July/August issue.

This year, one Trendsetter we recognized is Mandi Graziano, vice president, global accounts at HPN Global, who sets trends in everything she does, from her weekly podcast to her bestselling book. Her passion is to lift emerging leaders, educate mid-season executives and ignite the energy of seasoned pros in the business.

She’s disrupted traditional hospitality sales training by developing a shorter but effective Triple Tactic Training coaching for hotel, DMO and DMC sales teams. Her passion for helping the industry build its best “Business Bedside Manner” led her to trademark the message she’s been sharing for a year. She’s also a board director for CHLA Hospitality Foundation, which awards more than $100,000 a year to students at California colleges pursuing a career in hospitality.

Graziano wears many hats—a sales coach, podcast host, author, professional speaker and now, a 2024 Meetings Trendsetter. Meetings Today's Taylor Smith sat down with this Trendsetter to hear her story and learn about how Graziano stays motivated and inspired. 

[Related: The 2024 Meetings Trendsetters Paving New Paths in the Events Industry]

Listen: 

Transcript:

Editors note: The following transcription was facilitated by AI program Otter.ai and proofed by our editors. Although it is very accurate, there inevitably will be some mistakes, so please consider that when reading. Thank you.

Taylor Smith  
Hello and welcome to this Meetings Today Podcast. I'm Taylor Smith, destinations and features content developer for Meetings Today, and I'm back with another exciting podcast celebrating our Meetings Trendsetters class of 2024!

Every year, Meetings Today selects 20 trendsetters whose unique contributions to the meetings and events industry make them stand out. Those 20 names were revealed in our July/August issue and online at MeetingsToday.com earlier this summer, and I was so happy to see so many familiar faces on this year's list, including my lovely friend Mandi Graziano, vice president, global accounts at HPN Global.

But Mandi wears many hats. She co-hosts a weekly podcast called Adventures in Business Live! with Amani Roberts, who is another trendsetter of ours. She has a bestselling book. She disrupts traditional hospitality sales training by developing a shorter but effective “triple tactic training” coaching for hotel DMO and DMC sales teams. She's a professional speaker, a networking machine and one of the most captivating storytellers I know. She's also a board director for CHLA Hospitality Foundation, which awards more than $100,000 a year to students at California colleges pursuing a career in hospitality.

Her contributions to the industry made Mandi the ideal candidate for our 2024 Meetings Trendsetters, and she's here with us today to tell us all about how she got there. Thank you for joining me, Mandi.

Mandi Graziano
Thank you for having me, and what an honor to be named one of the trendsetters.

Taylor Smith 
Yes, we'll dig into that a little later, because I want to ask…I kind of want to get your story of your first reaction when you found out. But first I want to give our listeners the opportunity to get to know you. So tell us more about your history in the meetings industry and your story and how you discovered this crazy industry.

Mandi Graziano
Yeah. So, I have been in the hospitality industry for 26 years, and I didn't even count the years where I was an intern hauling pumpkins for events or where I was dealing with band writers in Toledo, Ohio, at an event called Rally by the River.

But hospitality's been in my blood. So, the first half of my career, I was an operator and in sales on the hotel side, so I worked for Hard Rock Hotels, Starwood Hotels, which is now Marriott, and Caesars Entertainment, and I worked for a real estate development company that actually, all we did was open private event venues that service the conventions and meetings business.

So, I've had every job in the hotel and hospitality business, from catering manager, sales manager, director of sales, vice president of sales and marketing, meeting planner, event meeting marketing.

I've done all the events, and then 14 years ago, I went to the other side of the business where I became a client to the hotels and to the venues, and I work with HPN Global now, where I find hotels and venues for people all over the world, negotiate their contracts, advise them on meeting trends and destinations.

And so yeah, I would say the first half I was on the one side as an operator, and the second half, I’m client to the operator, but I’m more client-facing and serving customers globally.

Taylor Smith
So, tell us about some of your biggest career successes so far, and even going outside of the hotel and sales part, so like Adventures in Business Live!, and your book, which is called Sales Tales: The Hustle, Humor, and Lessons from a Life in Sales, which has a five-star rating on Amazon, by the way. I did my research.

Mandi Graziano
I didn't even know that! Thank you!

Taylor Smith
Yeah, you've got a five-star rating on Amazon! So, tell us about that. You know you do wear so many hats. You're all over the place, from a professional speaker to an author to a podcast host. So. how do you balance it all, and what's been some of the highlights of those little journeys that you've taken?

Mandi Graziano
No, it's funny that you say that because a lot of people say that to me. They're like, ‘Oh, are you not with HPN anymore? Oh, are you not writing books anymore?’ And I just take this approach of when you look at actors or producers or directors, right? Like, nobody asks Ryan Reynolds, ‘Oh, you're not owning football teams anymore?’ or, ‘Oh, you're not running a production company?’ or ‘You're not running that mobile company anymore?’

I think that we can all do what we really love, and I really love sales. I love writing hilarious business books, and I wrote Sales Tales because I love reading these books and there wasn't a book out there that really told the truth. I've read all of the business books, and I love them all, but every time I read them, I felt like, ‘Huh? What's missing? What are you not telling me?’

And I was reading between the lines, and I was making some stories up. So, I really wanted to write a book that talked about sales, talked about business, but told stories, really true stories in a funny way, but a tactical way so the reader can just walk away with things that they could apply right away.

So, you know, that's how my accidental business book was born. I’ve got another one I'm writing now that'll come out, I think, in 2026. And I'll probably write funny business books forever and ever. I mean, it's a flow-state thing for me. It makes me happy, and I'm in the field enough that I just keep getting more and more and more stories.

So, you know, with that comes professional speaking, right? You got the book. You got the road map, and then you're taking nuggets from the book or even newer stories and getting on stages and sharing the story and hopefully making an impact, whether it's in our industry or outside the industry. I speak to a lot of sales teams with a lot of different industries.

And, you know, I just use time buckets. You know, for me I have certain parts of the day, certain days of the week where I focus on HPN and sourcing and negotiating contracts for meetings. I focus on certain times of the day where I'm just writing, where I'm on lockdown and I'm not doing anything else but writing, and I focus certain times of the day to build content and to focus on, you know, writing new speeches or rehearsing speeches or practicing speeches.

I think whatever it is you decide to do, whether it's one things or many things, I think you have to really look at your day strategically, have a plan for your day. And I just utilize time buckets. I time myself. I physically time myself.

There are certain times of the day where I give myself 90 minutes to read emails and you'd be shocked how productive you are when you just give yourself a little bit of time.

It's like the big purse, little purse theory, like, the bigger the purse you have, the more junk you have. The smaller the purse you have, the less stuff you have. If you give yourself a finite amount of time to do something, you're so crazy productive in that time. So, I have just a lot of interests, and I want to pursue them all, and I just carve out time for it.

[Related: The Z: Navigating the World of Networking With Mandi Graziano]

Taylor Smith
Yep, I'm going to have to try time buckets out myself because I think my problem is I can't focus on one thing at once, and I'm like, ‘Oh, this person's emailing me, this person's calling me. This person needs me to do that,’ and for me, I feel like I waste more time jumping between tasks than focusing on one and getting it done and then dedicating my full attention to the next one.

Mandi Graziano
Yeah.

Taylor Smith
I just get advice from you all the time that I take and I run with. So, that is one that I will be putting into practice.

Mandi Graziano
Yeah, and I can't—I didn't make that up. I stole it from a coach who I work with. Her name is Doctor Alessandra Wall. So, if anybody's listening, follow her. Her LinkedIn is really inspiring, but she taught me, and it's a practice. It's like yoga or meditation or basketball. If you play that sport, it's a practice. And I've been practicing time buckets for about five years now. It's not easy. It's something that you have to just—you work on little by little.

Taylor Smith
So, you have so many stories to share and so much advice to give, and I know you mentioned that after your book is kind of when you started speaking more, but how did you get involved in the world of speaking? What inspired you to get on stage? Did you ever see yourself, years ago, as a speaker, and for people who are maybe looking to be speakers themselves, what advice do you have?

Mandi Graziano
So, I love a stage. I am in my most comfortable state of mind and state of being when I am on a stage. I don't get stage fright. I love being on a stage. From as little as I can remember, my little sister and I were doing talent shows for the neighborhood on stages, we were making up dance routines. I was in competitive cheerleading and gymnastics my whole life, and we were doing full performances, right? And you have to memorize [the steps]. I think that's where I started memorizing things. I also grew up in a Catholic school where you had to memorize all the prayers, and I really, even though I'm not a practicing…

Taylor Smith 
I think we have the same upbringing, Mandi. Everything that you're saying—competitive cheerleading, gymnastics, Catholic school. All of this.

Mandi Graziano
How did I not know this about you? How fun is that to learn?

Taylor Smith
I'm reliving my life right now listening to you share your story.

Mandi Graziano
But don't you think, because you had to memorize all those prayers and all those cheers, don’t you think it helped you just develop that memory muscle?

Taylor Smith
Oh, 100%. I had to memorize like 10 different Shakespearean sonnets. And that's like a whole different kind of English, too. So, you're really working your brain when you're using those memorizing techniques, I think.

Mandi Graziano
That's a fun party trick to just deliver a sonnet. I'll have to ask you that sometime when I see you next.

Taylor Smith
Yes, I'll practice again.

Mandi Graziano 
OK. So anyways, I've always been on a stage, and17 years ago when I started my sales coaching business, I had somebody asked me to speak at a conference, and I didn't have anything planned, and I asked what they wanted me to speak about, and they wanted me to talk about meetings and events.

So, I just crafted. I wrote a speech. I'm a great writer, right? I wrote a speech. I delivered the speech, and that's when I realized what I was missing, you know? I've been on stages my whole life. I hadn't been on a stage in a while. and I got back out there, and it was just like the dopamine rush all over again. So, I started getting back on stages and speaking about various things, but then when my book came out, it really amplified the speaking.

So, I think my advice to anybody is just get out there, just try it. Get out there, you know, within our industry, interact with your local MPI chapter, your SITE chapter, your PCMA chapter. Everybody needs a speaker. And then in a lot of those educational formats, they want people in our industry to try things. So, try that. Get on a stage. Give it a shot, and then you refine your process.

I learn something about myself every time I get on a stage. There's this one speech I have where I have a bunch of props, and one of the props is a shoe, and I learned that my speech is a little bit better when, when I get done talking about the shoe, I throw the shoe to the side. Where when I originally started giving that speech, I would just put the shoe down, and when I threw it to the side, I got a bunch of laughs.

Like, there's just little nuances you learn about yourself, even after all these years of speaking that I learn, so I just challenge everybody listening. Go out. Try it, if you want to, you know. If you don't, if that's not your jam, then don't. But try it, and then just pay attention to what you can improve upon each time. There's always one little thing you can improve upon.

Taylor Smith 
In a quick 30 seconds, can you tell our listeners what are some of your favorite topics to talk about or topics that you talk about the most often?

Mandi Graziano 
Yeah, great question. So, Business Bedside Manner, it's actually—I trademarked it.
I actually have the registered trademark as of yesterday, it was officially approved by the U.S. Patent Office. Business Bedside Manner.

Taylor Smith
Wow! Business Bedside Manner.

Mandi Graziano
Yeah! And so, that's your approach. Who do you wanna be? How do you wanna show up? Who do you think you are? And so, I give key components to developing about a Business Bedside Manner. Better questions to ask. And it's really an inward look at who you are. Who do you wanna be? Who people think you are on the marketplace.

The other one I like to talk about is how to be memorable in the marketplace by prioritizing personalization and so many things in our industry. We are prioritizing personalization of things, right, like gobos or chocolate placards or T-shirts. But we're not personalizing our interactions, and that one is a great one because it really helps people realize that every little interaction matters.

And then the last one is how to stop being invisible online. And I think I just read a stat somewhere like 63%—this is from Google—63% of people, when they buy online, they look at three reviews first before buying, and if people are doing that with the restaurants or hotel stays or however they're buying, then why wouldn't you put your personal reviews online?

And so that speech, I'm really passionate about because I think so many people are afraid to be visible because there's something about their bragging or you know, they’re not being humble, but we’ve got to get over that because the world's flooded and nobody's going to tell your story but you.

[Related: The Z: 6 Tips to Make Networking Less Awkward]

Taylor Smith 
Yep, that's so true. And that's one thing that I found even on my own personal LinkedIn that I need to just put myself out there and be proud to celebrate my accomplishments and let people know like, ‘Hey, I exist, and here's what I'm doing. And let's be connections. Let's be friends.’ So. that's one talk that I'd like to see one day. Maybe I'll see it soon.

Mandi Graziano
Yeah.

Taylor Smith
So, I said I was going to ask you to tell this story earlier when we started recording, but what was your initial reaction to finding out you were a 2024 Meetings Trendsetter?

Mandi Graziano
I was so excited! I got the e-mail, and I was so honored. You know, I see people getting these different awards all the time, and I'm so happy for my friends in the industry. I always want to lift them up, but it doesn’t normally occur to me to be a part of those things. I don't know why.

So, I got the e-mail. I was really excited. I was super honored and it's, you know, it's among great company, too. I scrolled through the other Trendsetters and it was an honor to be awarded with the other people, and a lot of them are my friends who I do business with and interact with, so it was a double honor.

Taylor Smith
I think that's what makes this industry so much fun is that we get to celebrate, but we're also celebrating with people that we've come to, you know, love and have friendships with. And that's, you know, that makes it 10 times more special and memorable, I think.

Mandi Graziano
I agree.

Taylor Smith
So, trendsetters is a common term that we hear a lot, in our industry, outside our industry, but in your own words, how would you define a meetings industry trendsetter? What are some of those trendsetting qualities that you've got to have?

Mandi Graziano
When I look at people that I am following or I'm looking for guidance from, the common theme, for me, is value. People that are giving value to their community, to their audience, to their friends, family, coworkers, investors, you know…Every conversation can have value if you're contributing, if you're connected and if you’re interested.

So many times, we go through life where we're interacting and having these conversations, and you're not paying attention or you're just going through the motions. And so, when I look at a trendsetter, it's that person's providing value, and they're deeply passionate about providing value. And not only are they providing value in our industry, they're potentially looking at the trends of other industries and translating them to how they can be trends in our industry, or they're translating them and how they can apply to our industry, and then they're sharing.

I think it's one thing if you are analyzing the data. But it's more important to analyze the data and then share it with your community. Share it with people so you can take action on it.

Taylor Smith
That's kind of what I do with “The Z.” I see all these studies and statistics and I'm like, ‘I think the world has to know that 60% of recent grad hires lost their jobs this year.’ That's a huge statistic that's not just affecting, you know, our industry but everyone.

And so, I love that approach to it, and I want to know how…What's next for you, right? How do you hope to keep adding value and sharing with the industry and motivating and inspiring others through your work that you do?

[Related: The Z: Planning for the Industry’s Next Generation]

Mandi Graziano
Yeah. I mean, I think, you know, Amani Roberts and I have our weekly podcast, Adventures in Business Live!. We keep tweaking the way we're doing that. We keep tweaking and trying to make it better for the audience. So, I think, in terms of trendsetting on that, you know, when we first started it two years ago, we were just live on LinkedIn. And over the last two years, now we're on all the audio platforms, we’re on YouTube. We hired a podcast manager. We hadn't done that before.

So, I think, the stuff that I'm currently doing, I'm trying to find ways to make them better, make them more efficient and have a bigger megaphone for them.

I'm on the board for the California Hotel Lodging Association Hospitality Foundation, which I've been on the board for three years, but like, every year, I try and just get a little deeper into it. So, for example, when I first got on the board, we have this gala every year. We give $200,000 in scholarships away to hospitality students, like, this is building the bench of our industry. And then we have this gala where we award these scholarships, but we don't teach the students how to network, and I was like, ‘We're throwing these students into this event with all these potential hiring managers, but not giving them the tools to network.’

So, we started a program where, a week before the gala, we do a one-hour interactive networking program, ‘How to Network Effectively.’ And then this year, we're actually doing site inspections for the students the day after, so they can learn, ‘Hey, if you wanna be an operator at a hotel, or if you wanna be a meeting planner, here's what a site inspection looks like.’

So, I think I'm just taking the things that I'm already doing and I'm just trying to amplify them a little bit more and be a little more involved or just add a little bit to it. You know, I'm writing another book, Business Bedside Manner, that'll be out in 2026.

And with my HPN business, I'm really just trying to listen to my customers, get to know my customers and what's on their mind right now—the prices of food and beverage, availability, union strikes. So, as things come up in our business, I just try and pay attention and I have, you know, I have a customer call in November where I do those once a quarter and try and help my customers be more intelligent about the market trends.

So, I, you know, I'm just gonna continue to build on what I already have but add little nuances that help make every little area of it a little more impactful.

Taylor Smith
How do you stay motivated and inspired? What do you do to keep amplifying those things that you mentioned and keep moving forward in your career?

Mandi Graziano
I mean, my brain is on fire all the time. I'm really inspired as a human being. I listen to a lot of podcasts. Your podcast is fantastic.

Taylor Smith
Thank you.

Mandi Graziano
I listen to Pivot. I listen to On. I listen to Armchair Expert and SmartLess. It's not all business stuff all the time, so I listen to a lot of podcasts to try and get ideas and inspiration there.

I read a lot. LinkedIn! I'm inspired by so many people on LinkedIn, especially when they publish an article. And then I'm constantly talking to people, you know, talking to different speakers, talking to different market leaders, to people in the C-Suite, like, their job right now is harder than ever before, and I'm just trying to put my ear to the ground to understand how to best support, you know, that segment of people.

So, I am inspired by people and so I'm just trying to talk to more people.

Taylor Smith
This is a good industry to be in, if that's the case.

Mandi Graziano 
Yeah, yeah.

Taylor Smith
What is one piece of advice you'd give to our listeners or others in the industry who are looking to become trendsetters themselves? Or maybe even just inspire themselves and find that inspiration the way you do?

Mandi Graziano 
I mean, I think you've gotta really listen to your gut. And I think there's a lot of people out there that are fake inspirational people, right? Like they say what they think you want to hear, but it always comes off so ingenuine.

So, I think if you want to be a trendsetter, what is that thing that really matters to you? And it's OK if you might think it won’t matter to anybody else. But if it matters to you and you speak passionately about it, or you write passionately about it, you are going to find those people that also are passionate about it.

So, I would just find that thing, like, for me, it's sales. It’s sales all day, every day. And so, I love to talk about it, think about it, read about it, all that.

So, find that thing that you're passionate about and just do more of it, and then share it. Do not forget to share how remarkable you are. You are so remarkable, but no one's gonna know that unless you share that.

So, I think it's listening to your gut and finding that thing that you're passionate about, and then telling the world about it.

Taylor Smith
I love all of that, and I will take that and run with it the way I do all the advice I get from you.

Mandi Graziano
Ah.

Taylor Smith 
So, how can our audience stay connected with you if they want to find you or need more advice, right? Where can they go?

Mandi Graziano 
I'm available. I mean, they can Google, Mandi Graziano—Mandi with an I, Graziano with a Z. You can e-mail me, coach@mandigraziano.com, and go to my website www.MandiGraziano.com. I'm on LinkedIn.

Tune in to our weekly podcast, and that's a live one, so it's super fun just to drop questions in the chat. We do answer them live, but then we repurpose that so you can find us on all the platforms as well, and that's Adventures in Business Live!.

But yeah, I mean, just however you track me down, I will always respond. I'll always answer, and I'm really passionate about lifting up everybody in our industry. So, please let me know how I can support you because I might be able to learn some things from you.

Taylor, in the short time we've known each other since March of this year, I learn from you every time we interact, and I love learning from people. So, yeah, I encourage everybody to reach out and engage with me and, you know, we can help each other on this on this crazy hospitality meetings train that we're on.

Taylor Smith
Well, thank you, Mandi. I've learned so much from you, too, and, you know, you really are always there and willing to help. So, I'm very excited to get, you know, our audience aware of you and just bring more people into your light because it's a very fun place to be.

Mandi Graziano
Thank you. I agree. Ditto, right back at you.

Taylor Smith
Those were all my questions for you today, but did you have anything else that you wanted to say or talk about before we wrap up?

Mandi Graziano
No, nothing else.

Taylor Smith
All set? OK. Well, thank you, Mandi. That was, it's always great talking to you. I appreciate you making the time to be here today.

Mandi Graziano 
Absolutely. Anytime.

Taylor Smith
That was Mandi Graziano, vice president, global accounts at HPN Global and one of our 2024 Meetings Trendsetters. Once again, I'm Taylor Smith, destinations and features content developer for Meetings Today.

I want to thank you all for joining us for this special Meetings Today Podcast! If you're interested in listening to more of our podcasts, visit us at www.MeetingsToday.com, and thank you again for listening.

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