#035 - Hospitality Meets Eric Jafari - The Disruptive Entrepreneur & Founder

You really can come into hospitality at any time, with any background. Today's guest demonstrates that point beautifully but not only that, how you can come in and really get people thinking about the ways in which things happen.We chat today to Eric Jafari, Chief Development Officer and Creative Director at Edyn Group (www.findingedyn.com) and Co-Founder at Locke Hotels (www.lockeliving.com).This chat is rammed full of interesting conversation with some golden content on re-imagining hospitality experiences.We talk about being grateful for the time you live in, founding business, pursuing moments of joy, rethinking hospitality, finding true points of difference, Locke, learning from failure, Flexible living, hot tubs, outdoor dining, routine, sleep, psychology of experience and so much more.A massive thank you to Eric for being so open.Enjoy!Conversation TranscriptionSUMMARY KEYWORDSpeople, hotels, hospitality, Locke, experience, stay, london, spend, spaces, rooms, lock, week, Eric, unique, brand, moment, design, restaurant, days, SacoSPEAKERSPhil, EricPhil 00:01Welcome to hospitality meets with me Phil street where we take a light hearted look into the stories and individuals that make up the wonderful world of hospitality. Today's guest is Eric Jafari, chief Development Officer at Edyn group, the company behind the amazing Locke hotels. Coming up on today's show. Eric intrigues us all with this statement...Eric 00:22You know, I was brought up with what I've called kind of extreme hospitality.Phil 00:26Phil proves that learning can come from anywhere. How I remember learning about that was from an episode of "The Simpsons", and Eric reveals the one major strategy you need for success.Eric 00:37The reason for why I ended up where I am today was more to you know, kind of scratching my own itch.Phil 00:44All that and so much more as Eric talks us through His story to date, as well as some superb content on rethinking hospitality. Don't forget to give us a like and share across your favourite social channels. Enjoy. Hello and welcome to the next edition of hospitality meets with me your host Phil Street. Today We chat to someone who's definitely not had your your typical route into hospitality but has founded some superb and very recognisable brands, including Urban Villa, Union Hannover and now finds himself as part of the founding team at Locke hotels and Edyn group, as well as being the creative driving force behind those brands. He was also MD of is it SACO property group. Was it SACO? Eric 01:27That was SACO, Yeah.Phil 01:29Yep. SACO Property Group. Welcome to the show, Eric Jafari Eric 01:35Thank you for Thanks for having me. It's a pleasure. Phil 01:38You're very, very welcome. How are you doing? Eric 01:40I'm good. I'm good. I mean, listen, if someone had asked me about six months ago, hey, by the way, Eric, you're not going to be able to travel for four months, you're not going to be able to go to your favourite restaurants, or your favourite bars. You're gonna have to spend most of your time working indoors. That's probably the closest thing to how that is. could have possibly imagined and yes, for one reason or another, I've actually, you know, there's a lot of downside to all this. But I've enjoyed it so much more than I wouldn't have anticipated in ways that I just couldn't fathom. Phil 02:12I completely agree. It's, there's good days and bad days probably i think that's that's the way to sum up for me is that sometimes I'm grateful to have the time and a bit more headspace perhaps, than the normal. And then there's other days where I just put my head in the headlines for a second and I am petrified about what happens next. But it's Yeah, funny all times. Eric 02:36It's an incredible experience that we're going through. I mean, this is one of those, you know, when I was growing up, and you you heard things, I mean, horrific things like world war two or one. It just felt like such a distant past is something that we just I couldn't relate to, and over the course of our lifetime, although there was a number of quite a life defining events Like, like 911 the Iraq War a lot unless you were physically there. It's It's It's distant. And yet this is this one experience. They're they're there. There's nowhere to hide from COVID everyone on the entire planet has been impacted by this and not in a Oh, yeah, I mean, I am I'm impacted, kind of in some way, but came back to seriously. And so it's, um, it's fascinating to see the type of change that this has already had on humanity, on our economy on how we relate to one another on how we consume and our priorities. And that, that, you know, I've always been one of those people that believes that we overestimate the amount of change that will happen over the course the next 10 years and we underestimate the amount of arms we underestimate the amount of change that happens in. Yeah, in basically 10 years and we under up underestimate the amount of change that happens in a year. And so, in this specific set of circumstances, that entire premise has been put to question, I really wonder what life will look like in 24 months time, and how that will impact things in five to 10 years time. Phil 04:22No, it's, I have to salute you as well. We're three minutes in and you've gone deep straight away. We normally reserve that for around about the 30 minute mark, but but well done, you just get it straight away Eric 04:39yeah, I'm not one for pleasantries, Phil, unfortunately, if you if you speak to most people who've literally just met me, I prefer to really get into the meat. Phil 04:49Yep. Yeah. No. Well, I think the thing is, is that your adversity has a habit of uniting us in some way. I think. If you'd have said to me that there would be a A global event that could unite everybody to one common which is that, you know, everybody's been affected by by this in some regard, whether it's health, economic, whatever. It's quite. It's quite a deep point to think about the fact that something like this has actually united everybody in a moment of thought, perhaps Eric 05:21Hmmm, Yeah. Phil 05:23Anyway, that's definitely enough of that nonsense. Let's get back on point. Where abouts are you in the world today? Are you working from home? Are you in one of your sites? Eric 05:35I'm actually quite fortunate. So I'm actually sitting in one of the rooms, I'm at Locke broken Wharf, which is one of our properties that opened in March of this year of all time. So three weeks for COVID and I'm overlooking the Thames. So I've got a view of the Millennium Bridge and Tate Modern, so it's spectacular. I'm really lucky Phil 05:58Nice, nice. I have to say, given that kind of rap sheet that I built you up with at the beginning and then but actually before I wrote these after I wrote these notes. We had a chat about the fact that were also involved in Birch and Hertfordshire that's just opened this week. So the question I have for you on that, is there any business in hospitality that you've not founded? Eric 06:25(Laughs) Yes plenty because most hospitality is quite boring. I might my view on this funny thing is I don't come from a hospitality background. You're my father was one of the lead architects at Disney. And so from a very early age, I was brought up with what I've called kind of extreme hospitality. To say that you could literally create something in the middle of nowhere. And as long as is it's spectacular enough people will come but but really what what I learned through that process And I think we spoke about this once you and I feel was that, you know, we spend so much of our lives pursuing happiness. And I've come to the realisation that it's less less about pursuing this idea of happiness, and more about pursuing moments of joy. And that's what I learned, you know, being kind of the son of father Disney. I mean, you people spend fortunes to travel from all over parts of the world to come to Orlando or California, and really experience these exciting moments of joy that they'll look back on with fondness for the rest of their lives. And I think at a subconscious level, I've always asked myself, you, does that really have to be your Do you have to fly to Disney for that? Is there a way of doing that on? You know, in every city, is there a way of doing that so that instead of someone flying out to Orlando, they can go to somewhere? either go to a go to a city or somewhere within closer proximity to have the same degree of emotion? Yep. That's a constant quest, whether it's in a city like LA, or whether it's in the countryside like birch. I'm obviously not, you know, it was it was an original idea. And now fortunately, Chris brought on Chris and Chris, and they've taken it to a whole different level. And it'll be exciting to see what comes of that as...