André Balazs

I'm not sure that we've still [laughs] held true to that.

Andre Balazs wanted op-operable windows.

But there was always this idea that there are certain things that make us really unique.

The way we, uh, we do our guest experience, the way that we deliver our amenity, you know, the way our tone of voice in our marketing, uh, the way that we keep sales and marketing separate.

From the Sunshine State, I'm Greg Carlwood.

And while we are sold a story that anyone with a dream, a little talent, and a can-do attitude can work their way up to the top of any field in the game, the more we learn about the entertainment industry and news media as well as politics, it seems more like many people in prominent positions across our culture were literally bred for the job.

They were born into specific families, put into privileged schools, plugged into the right networks, and taught how to play a role in an inauthentic, manufactured cast of characters that forms the interlocking rings of distraction and public pacification.

In the more examples of this disingenuous, inauthentic role-playing that we notice, the more all-encompassing this theme and infrastructure seems to be until you start to wonder if anyone at all makes a career outside of this framework.

Many of which have had very public and visible meltdowns right in front of all of us when they realized it was always a raw deal.

And it's all insulated by a tight network of agents, managers, handlers, mentors, and producers that hold the keys to the doors many think they want opened.

And in the immortal words of Rod Blagojevich, they've got this thing and it's fucking golden.

You think they're going to give it up for nothing? Well, today's guest, Kirby Sommers, knows about the twisted world of the upper crust firsthand.

with?Yeah, that's correct.

Um, so, uh, during my early days in New York, I was fortunate to meet, um, Ian Nicholson, who at the time used to work with André Balazs, and, and he opened The Standard Hotel in the Meatpacking District and, and then later on went to become the CEO at Faena Hotels.

Uh, and back then he reached out to me and, and presented an opportunity to join the Faena Group, which was very exciting.

They were developing, uh, probably the most innovative new district in, in Miami Beach in, uh, in the Mid-Beach area, which back then wasn't really developed.