#206 Kevin Brown with Alliants, on Creatively Disrupting the Conventional

Live from IMEX America in Las Vegas, Bart sits down with Kevin Brown — Senior Manager of Go-to-Market and Editorial Strategies at Alliants. From an unexpected encounter with a hotel CEO to building a career on creativity, Kevin shares how gut checks, human connection, and breaking norms have shaped his professional journey and his philosophy on hospitality. Major Takeaways /LearningsGut Checks Lead to Growth: Kevin’s career pivots from music industry to hospitality were guided bylistening to instinct and embracing change, not rigid plans.Creativity Is a Muscle: His early years experimenting with acting, painting, writing, and failingforward built resilience and problem-solving skills.No One Succeeds in Isolation: Great ideas emerge through collaboration and challenging conventional thinking.Redefining Roles: At Alliants, Kevin’s hybrid position was created around his strengths and passions a model for modern organizations.Connection Through Better Questions: Asking meaningful questions like “What makes you come alive?” creates deeper, faster rapport.Technology as an Enabler: Alliants builds tools that reduce admin tasks and increase time for real guestconnection blending context with hospitality.Trust as ROI: Hospitality success is built on human trust more than on loyalty points or amenities.Happiness as a Metric: Kevin champions measuring “Happiness Per Employee” as a driver of service excellence.Competitive Socialization: Shared experiences (like F1 racing simulators) can teach workplace lessons oncollaboration, patience, and communication.   Memorable Quotes“Failure’s only a failure if you don’t learn anything fromit.” — Kevin Brown“It’s not about your idea. It’s about the best idea — andthat comes from collaboration.”“Most people don’t put people first… but they should.”“Technology should give time back to humans, not take itaway.” “Ask better questions, and you’ll build betterconnections.”   Why It Matters / How to Use It For Leaders: Create roles around people’s passions, not just job descriptions.For Teams: Lead conversations with curiosity and connection not titles or logos.For Hospitality Pros: Use tech to build context, not walls. Every second saved on admin is a secondgained for real service.For Event & Sales Teams: Break formalities, ask meaningful questions, and connect on a human level.For Organizations: Measure and prioritize employee happiness to elevate guest experience.For Culture Builders: Gamified experiences (like F1 Arcade) can double as learning labs for communication and teamwork. Resources and Links: Bart Berkey: MostPeopleDont.com | LinkedIn