Brandon McConnell, corporate executive at Delavan Lake Lawn Management, learned hospitality before he learned long division — garnishing plates at his mother’s diner at age six, stripping hotel beds in middle school, and eventually turning a TQM class on a Tuesday night into a professional philosophy that followed him through Disney, Grand Geneva, and now Lake Lawn Resort. He’s also finishing a 330-page book on AI psychosis through a Johns Hopkins research cohort.

✨ Key Insights You’ll Learn:

• Diner childhood: learning hospitality through food, family, and 4:45 AM wake-ups

• Skipping class to vocational school: how TQM lit up Brandon’s mind and redirected his career

• Disney at scale: timing housekeepers with a stopwatch to save $40K per property annually

• Grand Geneva turnaround: diagnosing a four-diamond property in 30 days and moving the needle in 90

• Hire for aptitude first, attitude second, availability third

• Lake Lawn Resort: Wisconsin’s oldest resort spanning golf, spa, marina, and residential real estate

• Night golf and short courses: where the sport is headed and what Lake Lawn is building

• Imposter syndrome as a reminder of the journey rather than a reason for fear

• AI psychosis research: what LLMs are doing in suicide prevention that surprised even Brandon

• Why the AI moment mirrors where social media was a decade ago

🌟 Brandon’s Key Mentors:

• His Mother: Introduced him to hospitality through her diner and modeled hard work and human connection

• TQM Instructor (Vocational School): Gave Brandon the process framework that redirected his entire professional life

• Disney Leadership Teams: Taught alignment, scale, and people-centric operations at an institutional level

• COO of Development (Former GM, Delavan): Hired Brandon twice and shaped his long-term trajectory

• Johns Hopkins Research Cohort: Challenged Brandon to think rigorously about AI from a non-clinical standpoint

👉 Don’t miss this conversation about what hospitality actually teaches you about people, why imposter syndrome belongs on the table not buried underneath it, and how a resort executive ended up writing one of the more unusual books on AI and human psychology.

🔗 Connect with Brandon McConnell:

Website: https://www.lakelawnresort.com/

Social Media: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandon-m-mcconnell-1aba4240/ 

📤 Transcript Available: Brandon McConnell on A People First Mentality in Hospitality + His Book on AI & Human Psychology

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📤 Special Thanks to Anthony Codispoti & AddBack Benefits Agency — Providing innovative employee benefits solutions that improve employee well-being while optimizing your bottom line. Website: addbackbenefits.com