Jenny Broudin, director of the Emblematic Hotel DelMás, Finca La Crucita and Zeus Experience, knows firsthand what effort it takes to achieve what you dream of. This French by birth but Lanzarotean by adoption, began working at the Red Cross and then as a lifeguard in a hotel, but soon realized that she wanted to aspire to more.
In an interview with the radio program Más de Uno Gorumet of Radio Lanzarote - Onda Cero, Broudin takes a tour through his professional life that has led him to manage three establishments at once.
How do you do it to manage all these businesses?
With a lot of motivation and with a lot of desire. Seeing what you are projecting in your mind grow and doing it little by little, growing day by day and focusing on what I like and what I am passionate about. Obviously they are very similar sectors, but they have nothing to do with each other, but in the end it's the person and how they leave the island, with what feeling, with what memories and what you have contributed to them.
Who is Jenny Broudin?
I arrived in Lanzarote when I was three years old and I am French. My parents are French, they came and fell in love with Lanzarote in 1998 and I was here until I was ten years old in La Villa de Teguise. From there I went to France, to the Basque Country, I studied there and I returned to Lanzarote when I was 18 years old.
I love helping people, I feel very useful and it's something I'm passionate about, which is why I was in the Red Cross, where I trained and was in health emergencies. I was in all the projects because when I get involved I like to know about everything. But there was a very big crisis there and I had to rethink my employment situation. After that, I went as a lifeguard to a hotel in Playa Blanca, but I focused and knowing languages I said: I can get to reception. I created my own strategy to get to a position as a reception assistant without any kind of training. After six months I went to the general manager's office and he told me no, but three days later he called me and gave me an opportunity, that's how I climbed positions.
How was the experience of working with personnel under your charge?
It was incredible because I had like a bit the base of social etiquette of the position I represented. There were nights when I dreamed of being at the reception desk because I had to learn everything from A to Z.
Everything is important and the reception is the central core of a hotel. From reception, most departments are managed and you have to anticipate everything and obviously you have to talk to everyone from the head chef, housekeepers, directors to the head of reservations. We have to be the filter and solve problems, and if it cannot be resolved, the management or sub-management handles it.
Then I was director of another hotel in Playa Blanca, but I I already felt out of there because I was looking for something more from my island, to transmit those values, that culture, that gastronomy, that history which after all is what a European tourist looks for, to live the reality of what Lanzarote is. I who love Lanzarote, who am French and have both cultures, for me the most important thing is that tourists see Lanzarote through my eyes. At reception I told them to rent a car and I would take the map and show them where to go or where they had to go to eat.
Did this lead you to move to the north of the island?
I moved to La Villa de Teguise first with a smaller sports tourism project and there I was for six years in a family home of my father's that I transformed. We did surf, surf yoga, and windsurf. I saw that it worked very well, that this island has all the sporting possibilities in all areas because you can do everything from being in the air, underwater, on top of it, to on top of dirt roads or on the road... it has it all and the climate is spectacular. And then I thought about looking for a bigger place to host more sports and broaden the range.
Then you land in Haría...
Yes, I took on all the projects at once and it was not planned. I was looking for accommodation that represented Lanzarote and the Haría of a lifetime, which are traditional villas as if you were at your grandmother's house and that have that charisma, that César Manrique, so then I moved to Finca La Crucita. Here I increase the activities and experiences and now we offer surf, surf yoga, windsurf, wingfoil, apnea, diving, hiking and cycling with a capacity of sixty people weekly. They are eight villas in 10,000 square meters with an indoor pool and another outdoor one, a winery, a restaurant, etc.
They are closed groups that come from France and come to live that experience. We go to vineyards and to wineries. They have so much food there because they have a lot of sports activity. They do sports from ten in the morning until two, then they eat and leave again. We give them recommendations, but they do what they want.
Now we go to the Emblematic Hotel DelMás, how does it end up in your hands?
Shortly after being at Finca La Crucita, the owner of the Emblematic Hotel contacted me to manage the operation of the establishment and talking, we both saw that we had a lot of affinity and that we saw things the same way. The tourism that goes to this hotel seeks added value, quality, experiences, and tranquility. It also greatly appreciates the architecture, nature, and history of Haría, and the Emblematic Hotel is a 17th-century house, it's spectacular.
We have ten rooms and offer breakfast and brunch. For me it is very important that we all reach that service. We have restaurants in Haría such as El Tacande or La Puerta Verde that are gastronomically prepared to receive that type of public and my business logic is that we need each other, not that one person covers everything.
From there I suppose that comes Zeus Experience...
Yes, as I see the trip, how I conceive it and what I want to transmit... there I decided to create a travel agency that represents me, to what I aspire in destination and there Zeus Experience is born. Right now we are present in Lanzarote, Gran Canaria and we are going to expand to France, Basque Country and the north of France virtually.
At just 34 years old, in addition to managing three tourism projects, you also have four daughters. How do you do it?
I have a lot of help. I also have the girls' parents who help me a lot day to day, the family help that there is and obviously I have the most wonderful daughters in the world, which makes it easy for me (Laughter).
When I get home, I become a mother and I seek my refuge with them. I believe they are not yet one hundred percent aware of everything it entails, but they see the sacrifice because I am not there. So, when I get home, many times I try to give them quality time and obviously the phone doesn't stop ringing. I face myself with a dilemma of having to attend to this, but also of attending to them. It's a continuous internal struggle of rethinking everything all the time and I always try to talk to myself and think about how to improve.
Where do you see these projects within a year?
Well, maintain and strengthen what there is, also attract more destinations to those experiences and expand the travel agency, calmly.