The CMO Spotlight is a chance to get an inside look into the minds and journeys of high performing marketing leaders. 

Setup CEO Joe Koufman virtually sat down with Kristie Goshow, the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) of Preferred Hotels & Resorts. The full conversation covers how her love for travel shaped her monumental career in hospitality and lodging, how her leadership style aims to empower her team, and her ability to uncover opportunity in the most unlikely circumstances.

WATCH THE FULL INTERVIEW AND READ THE RECAP BELOW. 

Q1 | Tell us about your career path.

Since Goshow was a small girl, travel has always been her passion and joining the travel business at 17 was just the beginning.

From there, she studied the travel buisness at her university. She described her educational experience as “privileged” for being “a part of the movement that strengthened the academic side of our industry to make sure we have the right people in the right places to drive us forward.”

After specializing in integrated transport management, Goshow joined Virgin Atlantic Airways where she worked in loyalty and sales roles as well as the cabin crew. “I loved my time flying the skies, and I always believed that it helps if you walk a mile in the customer's shoes…it prepared me in ways that still today I am very grateful for.” She continued, “Once you've seen every aspect of that experience - as the consumer who sits in the seat for ten hours - then when you go in to talk about and sell that to a travel agent, or to a corporation, or even design a corporate business program, you're in a far better place to pick the right words, to focus on the right outputs and benefits.”

Goshow’s interest in the internet’s impact in the hospitality industry led her to transition to the lodging side of the industry where she joined Utell and Pegasus and built out her expertise in digital. Then she joined and was responsible for the distribution and call centers for Jumeirah, a luxury and hospitality group in Dubai. She has since remained in the luxury side of the industry working with Viceroy, and now Preferred Hotels.

Q2 | What is your super power? 

Goshow noted that she has a natural curiosity and tendency to cross pollinate, which leads to finding more opportunities. Her inspiration for cross pollinating originates from a book she read called The Alchemy of Change that toyed with the idea of applying one industry’s strategy to another. "You “realize how innovation opportunity is everywhere,” she stated.

Q3 | Is there a piece of advice that you wish you'd gotten earlier in your career that would have benefited you today?

When it comes to negotiating in a role, or applying for a new job, Goshow advises people to:

1. Be confident in your worth.

2. Believe yourself into the position.

Q4 | What is the biggest challenge that you're facing in your current role? 

“Challenge number one for me is: How do I understand the psyche or the revised psyche of the consumers that I am trying to speak to.” The pandemic has evidently hit the hospitality industry. Goshow emphasized how important it is to find opportunity despite the obvious setbacks. Their company is looking at the world in a far more granular level as opposed to a continental view.

The second challenge she is facing is keeping her team focused and excited about future opportunities.

“Right now a lot of what we're seeing in the media, what we're hearing is a very unfortunate side of/side effects of the pandemic. And those are very pronounced for our industry…but at the same time, there's innovation and a silver lining to it because when we are forced into a corner, we are at our most creative…we will dig deep and find solutions.”

She continued, “It's my job to make sure that myself and our team are always asking why, what if, and really questioning everything we do.”

Q5 | What are the most important values that you demonstrate as a leader, or that you may even demand from people on your team?

Goshow leads “from behind.” She, like a shepherd, tries to encourage and empower her team to take the lead. This requires understanding their dreams and motivations, as well as listening to their feedback. She believes in the importance of having a voice, and guiding them or putting them in positions where they feel confident to use that voice. “My role is to help them gently ease into those activities that might not be as comfortable for them, but with a safety net around them by providing them with the directions and support…making sure that when they first get out that it’s a safe environment to do that in and the entire process is constructed. So it ultimately comes down to a lot of listening between the lines.”

She then added that honesty and direct dialogue fuel a successful team. “I'm not their parent. I'm there to provide frank and honest feedback to everybody and myself, and I ask other people to do the same in return.” Goshow understands that as the leader, she can’t see everything, so she hopes to have open communiation with and feedback from her team.

Other highlights throughout the interview include Kristie’s belief that chemistry ranks before capability when selecting an agency partner, details on how teams can grow and be inspired by one another, finding your voice, and a discussion about the existence of aliens and the glamour of the vampire world.
For more marketing leadership advice, be sure to watch the full interview with Kristie Goshow, and keep an eye out for more thought leadership from our CMO Spotlights.