01
The Newcomer Advantage.
A market newcomer arrives and the city gathers — for ninety days, and then the rooms close.
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The Newcomer Advantage.
A market newcomer arrives and the city gathers — for ninety days, and then the rooms close.
A market newcomer arrives and the city gathers. Civic leaders, bourbon principals, gallery owners, press contacts — they take a first meeting because the arrival itself is the occasion.
The operator walks in with one line: "I just arrived because I believe in this city."
That sentence opens rooms that nothing else opens. The window stays open for ninety days. After that, the operator is no longer new, and the rooms close.
Properly leveraged, the window produces the coalition that defines the property's next decade.
The methodology that follows is how it gets leveraged.
02
The Methodology.
A three-step process I use in operations and coalition-building, run in parallel, in sequence, inside the window.
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The Methodology.
A three-step process I use in operations and coalition-building, run in parallel, in sequence, inside the window.
A three-step process I use in operations and coalition-building, run in parallel, in sequence, inside the window.
What it looks like applied to Tempo, in the first ninety days, follows.
03
The Coalition. A 30-60-90 Day Plan.
Six rings expanded outward across thirteen weeks, producing the first award by day ninety.
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The Coalition. A 30-60-90 Day Plan.
Six rings expanded outward across thirteen weeks, producing the first award by day ninety.
This is what Tools looks like, applied to Tempo. The coalition is built in three phases: ownership, civic, and press in Foundation; bourbon, cultural, operator, and development in Expansion; the first award launches in Activation.
| Workstream | Found.W1 | Found.W2 | Found.W3 | Found.W4 | Expan.W5 | Expan.W6 | Expan.W7 | Expan.W8 | Activ.W9 | Activ.W10 | Activ.W11 | Activ.W12 | Activ.W13 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01Foundation· Days 0–30 · Ownership, civic, press | |||||||||||||
| Workstream | W1 | W2 | W3 | W4 | W5 | W6 | W7 | W8 | W9 | W10 | W11 | W12 | W13 |
| Weyland VenturesOwnership · the broader Weyland portfolio across NuLu and downtown | |||||||||||||
| Civic, economic & first responder leadershipGLI · Louisville Tourism · LEDA · Mayor's office · LMPD · Louisville Fire · LMEMS · Sheriff's office · Downtown Louisville · NuLu Business Assoc. | |||||||||||||
| Regional press & editorialLouisville Business First · Louisville Magazine · regional columnists and editors | |||||||||||||
| 02Expansion· Days 31–60 · The coalition widens | |||||||||||||
| Workstream | W1 | W2 | W3 | W4 | W5 | W6 | W7 | W8 | W9 | W10 | W11 | W12 | W13 |
| Bourbon principalsRabbit Hole · Angel's Envy · broader Bourbon Trail leadership | |||||||||||||
| Cultural institutions & galleriesKMAC · Speed · Frazier · NuLu gallery network · Kentucky Center | |||||||||||||
| Operator classChefs · restaurateurs · distillery operations · design firms | |||||||||||||
| Real estate & developmentNuLu and downtown developers beyond Weyland · architects shaping the city | |||||||||||||
| 03Activation· Days 61–90 · The coalition produces | |||||||||||||
| Workstream | W1 | W2 | W3 | W4 | W5 | W6 | W7 | W8 | W9 | W10 | W11 | W12 | W13 |
| OutputThe First AwardTempo Honors · seeded with the coalition · launched with the first slate of honorees by day ninety | |||||||||||||
04
The Case Studies.
Two cities I didn't know. Same methodology. The records the coalition left behind.
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The Case Studies.
Two cities I didn't know. Same methodology. The records the coalition left behind.
The methodology has been run twice in cities I arrived to as a newcomer. The detail of each — the coalitions built, the conversations that opened the doors, the tangibles that followed — maps to the same three Ts laid out above.
When I arrived in Sioux City, I was the seventh general manager in two years. The building had been beautiful, and the city had wanted it to work. It hadn't.
The vision was simple, and it wasn't about the hotel. The Warrior had once been the identity of Sioux City, and it could be again. The building deserved to become the center of the community — the place where people brought their friends, their families, their business. I aligned ownership and the on-property team around that vision before stepping outside the building.
The first ninety days were an apology tour that became a coalition. The Sioux City Journal. The CVB. The Chamber president. The Main Street CEO. The investors who had watched six GMs come and go. The museums. Lunch meetings inside the first responders' offices, the sheriff's department, the medical professionals — listening, not pitching. The line carried into every room: I just arrived because I believe in this city, and the building deserves to become its center again. Give it the chance, and it becomes where you bring your friends, your family, your business. The movers and shakers came on board because the vision was about them, not about a hotel.
The relaunch drew over 2,000 people, with multiple chambers in attendance for the finale. Within twelve months, U.S. News named the Warrior the #1 Hotel in Iowa — sustained for two consecutive years — because the coalition had brought their business, their guests, and their advocacy back to a building they were ready to love again.
Hotel Julien was a different problem. The city had loved it for decades. The building had simply retreated from the conversation.
The vision was reactivation, not reinvention. Hotel Julien was already where Dubuque wanted to gather — the building just needed to remember it was that place, and the city needed to be invited back. Aligning ownership and the team around bringing people back to where they had loved being was the first move.
Meetings at pace with the city's key players. The Chamber. The Main Street community. The civic and corporate leadership who had hosted events at Julien for years and stopped. Personal invitations, conversation by conversation, to bring their people back, their meetings back, their celebrations back. Events were rebuilt at the speed those conversations could carry them.
Within nine months, the Dubuque Area Chamber named Hotel Julien Business of the Year — because the coalition was already willing, and reactivation worked at the speed of conversation. The building came back to where the city had always wanted it.