This is the fourth episode of our Sales and Marketing Series.Jay is the Executive Director of Once Upon a Time, a full-service creative agency that specializes in branding, advertising, graphic design, and website development for prominent clients in luxury hospitality.The connection between branding and operations is not often discussed but it’s a link that is fundamental to the success of virtually any business. If you make the effort of defining a brand and creating a story that entices customers to spend money with you but once on site that experience falls short of their expectations, over time you can do irreparable harm to the brand’s identity.That’s why I wanted to end our Sales and Marketing series with a discussion about branding and storytelling. This brings the four episodes full circle and demonstrates how every position is connected and everyone is working towards the same goal. That’s how the best hotels in the world do it, and that’s how you can be successful in your own property.Jay shares some incredible insight on what goes into creating a brand, how brand identity and consistency are connected, how to stand out from the other properties in your comp set and much more.About JayJay Schwartz has over 25 years’ of design experience in brand development, user interface, and creative direction in the hospitality and luxury industries. Jay was the founder of IdeaWork Studios, now Once Upon a Time Hospitality.Hotels benefiting from Jay’s expertise include: 11 Howard, The Darcy, Gansevoort Hotel Group, Gramercy Park Hotel, Gurney’s Resorts, Hersha Hospitality Group, Hard Rock Hotels, Ian Schrager Company (EDITION and PUBLIC), The Jaffa, and The NoMad Hotel. He also plans and designs creative for Jean-Georges, Eric Ripert, Daniel Boulud, Daniel Humm, Charlie Palmer, Andrew Carmelini, and many other renowned chefs. LinksWebsite: https://www.onceuponatime.agency/hospitalityLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jayschwartz/---Thank you to Breezeway for sponsoring this episode. If you’re looking for an operations software platform that will make an immediate impact on your business, visit breezeway.io/provenprinciples to learn more.---For past episodes, show notes or if you’ve got a story that might make a great episode, head over to theprovenprinciplespodcast.com. We’d love to hear from you.You can subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts, even on YouTube... and if you haven’t already, don’t forget to leave us a rating and a review. Thanks for listening to The Proven Principles Hospitality Podcast.