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Featured WBE Interview     Lynn Griffith Welcome Florida

Tell us a little bit about Welcome Florida.
Welcome Florida is a full service destination management company. We combine business with pleasure by providing unforgettable experiences that enable corporations to meet their most important goals. Drawing upon our 22 years experience in the Florida marketplace, we blend the attractions and venues that the area has to offer with our in-house creative resources to create memorable experiences for clients during their sales meetings, conventions, incentive programs and product launches. For instance, we worked with WBENC to provide the transportation shuttle between the Loew’s, Delano and the Miami Beach Convention Center during the recent WIB : Contacts to Contracts conference last week in Miami Beach. We also blended the excitement of the local destination with our resources in providing the décor for the Welcome Reception and Silent Auction on the first evening of the Conference. In addition to transportation and décor services, Welcome Florida provides creative and energizing teambuilding events that range from convertible road rallies to water taxi scavenger hunts, to Beach Olympics and our “Build Your Own Boat” competitions.

What made you go into this business?
22 years ago I was a tour guide throughout the U.S. and came to Miami Beach to visit my grandmother. I got a call to do a series of Everglades tours – in French. They sent me a Spanish speaking bus driver. Having never been to the Everglades and not knowing a word of Spanish, the adventure began……….I found that I loved South Florida and its attractions and that there was an amazing absence of companies that catered to the corporate travel market. South Florida had alot of “ground operators” handling family vacation tours and British package travelers. But the corporate market ( incentive programs, sales meetings, etc. ) are entirely different with a different level of service and quality. This was the niche that I chose to carve out for myself and my company.

What has been the worst or the biggest obstacle you've faced or had to overcome?
Without a doubt, it was September 11, 2001. To have been in business for over 15 years at that point, I had come to trust my judgement and make decisions quickly. Faced with massive business cancellations of both current and future business, and with no idea of when American business groups would start traveling again, I had no experience to draw from to make decisions. And I had 14 households that I was responsible for at that time and they all looked to me for guidance. It was challenging from both a financial point of view and a leadership position.

What has been your biggest triumph?
I have two huge accomplishments so far. The biggest is raising my daughter while trying to build the business. Although many times she was pushed into the background for business reasons, she has become a loving and caring teenager who puts a smile on my face every day and who actually wants to join the business as soon as she can. The second is more business related. With two weeks notice, we were asked by the Coca-Cola company to jump into the logistics management for the Olympic Torch Relay in the 1996 Olympics. We started in Niagara Falls and ended in Atlanta, visiting 42 cities in less than 60 days and organizing the hospitality program for Coca-Cola sponsored international torch bearers from over 18 countries. The triumph was being able to coordinate full programs ( transportation, tours, restaurants, relay placement) in each of these cities with only 2-3 days advance warning. The project also proved to be a crash course in international relationships and customs. It was both the most challenging project we have undertaken and also the most fulfilling. The stress gave way to remarkable friendships with torchbearers from around the world with whom I am still in touch.

What is the best advice you've ever received?
It may be that the best advice I ever received happened at the WIB conference last week.  The advice was from Jerome Edmonson in the session he led. The advice is if you want your business to grow, you need to work ON it and not IN it. With that one sentence, so many things became crystal clear to me and my future plans include trying to remove myself from the tons of minutae and to stop micromanaging my business and instead empower the very talented employees that I have to make more of their own decisions while I concentrate on growing the business.

Is there anyone who inspired you and why?
There are many people over the years who have inspired me in many different ways. I think we are all the sum total of our experiences and the people who have crossed our path.

What is the best book you ever read and would recommend?
“Who moved my cheese?” It should be required reading starting for third graders through age 100!!!

What is your favorite quote?
It has been sticking on my computer monitor for the past two years. “Profit in business comes from repeat customers, customers that boast about your project or service, and that bring friends with them.” W. Edwards Deming

What are your goals now and where do you see yourself going?
Building my business in both size and strength are continuous goals. For the past 20+ years I have been very focused on building a reputation and fine-tuning the quality of our service. Going forward I would like to step away from the operations a little bit and focus more on broadening our client base. I would also like to pursue opening offices in other locations, in hopes of creating additional business opportunities with our existing clients.

How has being a member of the WBDC and WBENC helped you?
Since I have always been so operations focused, I tend to send my sales and marketing people to the meetings, seminars and local functions for both WBENC and other organizations that we are members of. WBENC is strongly focused on the actual business owners, which I have found very different. Nancy Allen has been very effective in almost “forcing me” out of my shell and into the position of representing my business myself. Between the coaching from Lynthia Romney prior to the WIB Conference and the continuous support from Nancy and the other members of the Host Committee, I have only just breached the surface of my personal capabilities. I am most excited about being more and more involved and active with both WBDC and WBENC.

What do you want to be remembered for?
In addition to being a loving spouse and doting mother, I would like to be remembered for “playing fair” and for empowering my employees to achieve their goals and be as much as they can be.

How does someone get in contact with you at Welcome Florida?
E-Mail always works:  LGriffith@welcomeflorida.com or by phone at 954-462-7904.