Today we’d like to introduce you to Patrick Huey
Hi Patrick, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My career as a Global Spa and Wellness Director happened by accident. I was pursuing a career as an actor, first in New York and then in Los Angeles, when I started my hospitality journey. I worked as a bellman at Ian Schrager’s Royalton Hotel in Manhattan at 44 West 44th Street. Then at the Paramount and finally at Morgans Hotel. For five years I worked for Ian’s hotels, until I left New York to get my MFA from The Yale School of Drama. When I graduated from Yale and moved to Los Angeles, I of course got a job in a hotel. This time, they hired me to work in the spa as a receptionist. People were always surprised that a Yale grad would take an entry level, hourly paying job in a spa. What was I supposed to do? I couldn’t eat my diploma, and the schedule was flexible enough to allow me to audition. So while I was auditioning to be in your latest McDonald’s commercial, I was quietly being promoted at work and getting great job opportunities within the spa industry. Four years later, I had the opportunity to join the opening team of Four Seasons Westlake Village as their assistant spa director. As with all opportunities, I had to decide – keep auditioning or take this job (which was a serious job) with Four Seasons. I chose the latter, and life changed. I began on an 18 year journey that would take me from Los Angeles to Las Vegas. Then Miami and the Caribbean. Then to Southeast Asia and back to Los Angeles. My career has taken me to over 30 countries, hundreds of cities, and introduced me to the face of humanity. And the needs, I have learned, are all the same; people want to be seen, valued and loved.
My career has not been hard necessarily. I feel like it happened while I was looking the other way. But I will say that I have achieved much in my career and life, by simply saying “yes” to the unexpected opportunities and turns that came my way. I didn’t agonize over decisions, because I felt the doors opening for me did so for a reason. I am also the recipient of many people investing me, forgiving my mistakes, and seeing greater things for me than I thought could be possible.
It was from my hospitality career and journey through the spa industry that I created a podcast called “At the Podium with Patrick Huey” in the middle of the Pandemic. I shot the first episodes right after January 6, 2021. The world at that time felt dark and bleak. As a nation we were so divided, and the certainties that I had taken for granted for most of my life, suddenly felt very uncertain. I envisioned using “At the Podium” to bring human-to-human compassion back into our conversation. I wanted to design a space where I could highlight the stories of people in my life who were doing the extraordinary work of transformation not just of themselves, but of their neighborhoods, their families, their careers, their souls. We have tackled subjects such as drug and alcohol addiction, how to still live when your soulmate dies in your arms, and how to forgive your father who is sitting in a prison cell because he killed your mother. How to take control of your creative destiny as an artist. How as a gay, black man to navigate the tangled journeys of surrogacy to reach fatherhood. How to give voice to the voiceless and give life to the dreams of the forgotten children in our midst. I knew that if we could hear these stories, we could reconnect to the common bonds of humanity that knit us together. Every person who has since come on the show, has inspired me in some way (even if I didn’t always agree with their positions), because they have made me think differently about who I am in the world, and many have challenged the assumptions I have held as bedrock. Their stories invited me to engage in the active work of empathy and listening without judgment. Mostly, I have been inspired by each guest’s generosity to sit with me week after week and plumb the depths of their own life’s struggles, their leaps of faith and their victories to shine a light for us all to follow.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I don’t believe anything in life is a smooth road – or at least that hasn’t been my experience. I was bullied a lot growing up in Alief, TX. In many was middle school and high school were tough. I was called “fag” often, and sometimes quite publicly, before I really understood what that meant. I just knew it was bad. A couple of guys tried to beat me up on the school bus from school in the 8th grade. They double teamed me and called me the “n-word” and one actually punched in the face. The new thing I knew he was underneath me, and my hands were around his throat holding him down. I did fight back and held my own in that instance. But it all somehow didn’t break my spirit or get me down. It made me focus more on what I wanted to do and who I wanted to be. It also made me want to always be excellent, because when you feel like people are routing against you, the best way to silence your critics is to be better than they are, and to be really good at what you do.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I spoke earlier about my podcast “At the Podium.” I’ve had over 2.5 million views of my content and I am production now of the third season of the show, and have shot over 100 episodes. I’m known for several things as it relates to the show. I do my homework on each guest. I don’t just read what’s in the headlines about them. I dig deep to find out who they really are, and I bring that to the interview. It allows me to ask the deeper and more meaningful questions. I hear a lot from them that I ask questions that no one has ever asked them before. I also do a lot of listening on the show. On many podcasts and talk shows the hosts so a lot of talking. On “At the Podium,” I do a lot of listening. And when you listen, people talk and share. You are able to get them to relax and open up and that is when magic happens. I also create a safe space for people to talk. I don’t judge, I probe with good intentions, and I actually take an interest in each person I talk to. I think this is why the show has done so well. It’s been a grassroots effort in many ways, so the results I see make me proud. The feedback I get from listeners and viewers makes me know that I am on the right path. The fact that people willingly sit down with me, lets me know I am working with respect and integrity.
How do you think about happiness?
Traveling really brings me joy. I have traveled to well over 40 countries in the world, and there is an expanding of your mind and understanding and capacity for empathy when you start to interact with people who don’t come from your culture, your neighborhood. Who don’t speak your language. You start to have immense respect for the highly diverse ways of living and believing that exist in the world. You start to understand that your way isn’t THE way, but is A way of approaching life. I was an avid reader growing up, and I think that was because it allowed me to live so many lives and go to so many different places. Now that I can actually go and see the world, it is really an extension of what has been in me since I was a child. Curiosity to go and see and learn.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.patrickhueyleadership.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepatrickhuey/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/patricklamonte.huey/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@patrickhueyatthepodium229
