And good evening.

You've got more than money, you've got Jean Dickason, r host, your personal financl adviser, for the next halfn hour.

I'm all yours and hopefullu are going to get some information this evening ts going to make your life a little bit more interestin.

I don't know if it's goingo make it easier, but it's gg to be a bit more interesti.

I think you're going to fid out what I mean by that shortly.

Bottom line for us is that we're in a challenging wor.

There's lots going on thatu could rightfully say, man,s is too hard.

This is just a whole want o have to handle.

I can assure you we have fd as a nation far worse under more dire circumstances and come out strong.

You can do the same thing.

Don't let Washington, DC or anywhere steal your joy, sl your excitement about your future.

And when I say future, I ka lot of you out there, young folks just coming out of college, enjoying the show, learning a lot.

And a lot of you are mayben the opposite side, maybe heading into retirement.

And you're saying, well, a future for me is a Barcalounger, maybe an iced and maybe a channel change.

Gosh, I hope not.

I hope your future in retu, Diamant, whatever that mayn is something far more exci, far more dynamic than that.

Because if you've got thatd of excitement about your future, goodness, you might hang around for a very long time indeed.

So one of the exciting this that we have the opportunio do on more than money is ar your questions.

Not this week likely, but f you have a question that yu wish us to answer at a fute show, send those to me, Je, and ask empty .com genie ad ask empty and .com will be happy to review those every single question is answered even though we don't have e to put them on every single on a future show, you'll gt your information directly m us to you.

But this evening we have ay special opportunity to talk about the kind of attitudet makes an exciting future tt gets people excited about getting up in the morning s welcome to our studio, Mr e Haynes of the Hotel Bethle.

Bruce, good afternoon, sir.

And thanks to be here.

Nice to be here.

Nice to see you.

Folks who are not familiarh the name Bruce Haynes are certainly familiar with the name Hotel Bethlehem.

Well, I hope so.

We've been a community hotl for in downtown Bethlehem r one 100th year in fact.

So hopefully this has beena part the hotel has been a t of the Lehigh Valley and at of the lives of generationf people in the Lehigh Valle.

So yeah, I don't need to kw about me.

They need to know about the hotels there to serve.

So many of us have had so y memories made in the hotel, even if it's a function oft walking in on a Thursday morning and having a wondel breakfast and enjoying the ambiance of a 100 year old hotel that also happens toe gorgeous beyond belief and provides tremendous accomme But there's more to the hol than that.

You came to the hotel, the point where it was likely t going to be a hotel.

Tell folks how that unfold.

Yeah, Jane, I was I, I bece familiar with the hotel anI went to school at Lehigh ay parents would come up for parents weekend.

I grew up in New Jersey soy wouldn't necessarily stay overnight.

But we went there.

It was a part of part of my early life in Bethlehem ane I ended up working for US l and went to Pittsburgh andy wife and I spent many, many weekends in Bethlehem comig back to Lehigh and my and seeing my family and the hl was essentially our second home.

And in 1998 the hotel went bankrupt and closed and I a phone call.

I was coming over for the Lehigh Penn State wrestling match and a wrestling enthusiast and they said, m sorry but you're not goingo be able to stay with us ths weekend.

And that was like a crushig blow to us or we just assud that someone in the hotel industry would buy the hot, reopen and so that was in January in 98 and by Septer nothing had happened.

A couple of false starts ae found out that I heard thae Moravians of course, are te great keepers of Bethlehemd something's you know, if something's really in trou, they look for a way to kinf get a get out of it.

And I had heard that they e looking to purchase the hol just to salvage it and sav.

And interestingly enough, y were going to turn it intoa senior citizens home.

I guess I would have qualid it.

So I went to live there anI would have been all right.

But at that point I wasn't quite there yet and but it wasn't just going to be a senior citizens home.

The fascinating part was ty were going to use three wee six guest floors, Hellerto.

So they're going to use the floors for senior citizen apartments and the top thre floors were going to be wos girls dorms for Moravian College.

And you definitely didn't qualify for that.

I definitely qualify.

But it was a unique they we just struggling to figure t what to do with it and Joae and I, my wife decided thae wanted to when we retired,e wanted to come back to livn the historic district.

We love the historic if wee historic Bethlehem.

And so it was always our intention to come back ande here.

But at that time I figuredt would be my retirement yea.

I'd probably become Doylesn and put on the funny hat ad walk around and do tours ad just enjoy myself as a retd person.

Go to Lehigh football Lehih wrestling.

However, at that point we decided I decided that I ws talking to a classmate of e from Lehigh and said, you , we had to put together a gp of Lehigh alums to buy the hotel.

So we pulled our money.

My wife said, you're crazy.

This place is rundown as gn shag carpet and old windowr conditioner units.

What are you doing?

So fortunately I was able o put together 12 people whol our money to save the hoted our goal was to bring the l back to its glory days of e 1920s of which it was a grd dame hotel on Main Street.

So so we sort of we put I'e put 22 years now into a sed career.

I retired from us still ea, came came east and we moveo the historic district.

Except I just don't have te to give tours.

So now if we fast forward 2 years to the hotel recently received a pretty special t of accolades.

Yeah, this is really very exciting and it really stad in 2019 pre pandemic when e got nominated by a group of travel writers from USA Toy that they engage and they nominated us as one of thep 20 best historic hotels ine country.

Wow.

So that was sort of it wasa wonderful honor just to ben the top 20 of course.

And then what they do is yu vote over four weeks and ao who the top Bechtelsville e and who the top ten are gog to be and then they publise ten best.

So that first year, fortuny we got the community behin.

We sent emails to our customers.

The local newspapers pickep on it.

And again, because the Hotl Bethlehem has in such an in community hotel for so many years and so many decades,e really got the community bd us and we finished third.

So that was really, really pretty cool.

We came we had a big celebration.

We had an open house wheree invited the community in oa Sunday and we dressed peopp as Winston Churchill and se of our former famous guestd we had a really special dat the hotel.

We went through the various generations and to celebra.

And then last year during e pandemic, we were renominae and last year we went intoe last week of the voting and first place just ahead of e Peabody Hotel in Memphis.

So they are a great, great, wonderful spot.

Yeah, yeah.

I know.

If you heard about Peabody ducks, of course been there many times, so we were in e lead going into the last wk and then in the last week y don't show you the leaderb.

So we finished second and s year we were committed to o getting number one and we e out of the chute number one stayed number one, we drewa big enough lead that the cy of Memphis couldn't over override us.

And so here we are.

The Lehigh Valley now has s is great not just for the hotel, it's great for the Lehigh Valley, without a d. And having stayed at many f the hotels that are on that list, I think the Hotel Bethlehem deserves to be nr one.

The Peabody's great.

They got their ducks, but e hotel has its own charm, is own history and its own ght for goodness sakes, that'st a bad thing.

Now, growing up in New Jer, I'm sure you dreamed of beg hotelier as a young man.

What was your dream growin?

I don't know that I had a I mean, I went to Lehigh.

I was good at math and somy said you should be an engi.

So I went to Lehigh and lod it and went to work for usl and no, no concept at all r than about being hotelier, believe me.

And I had a great career te when I started out operatis and in the steel plant simr Bethlehem plant, it was alt an identical plant in Homestead, Pennsylvania, rt outside of Pittsburgh.

And it made all the same products that the Bethlehem Steel plant made.

They you the plates and structuralist and forgingsd then went into sales and ultimately a 35 year career there.

And never in my life invisn to get in a hotel businessa lot.

You know, as somebody saidI stayed in a hotel, I stayen a lot of nice hotels duriny time at USC so I had a prey good feel of what was a god hotel.

And I say Bethlehem long eh to know the grandeur and te great guts that hotel had.

The bones in the balls bons were terrific and it just needed somebody to bring it back to life.

And I'm so happy that we st of achieved that goal.

Certainly recognition for t this year gives us a greatl of my whole partnership grp is so excited about the fat that we kind of achieved or objective.

Let's explore just to see f there's a couple of folks g the way that you would poit to.

Let's talk about your time prior to Lehigh.

Is there anyone that you lk back on in your school dayf family days, those folks wo had an influence on you tht carries forward to today anybody that comes to mind?

Well, I think my father probably among any of all d you know, I was first generation college studente a lot of people in those d. My father my grandfather wa farmer and my father went o work for Acme Supermarketsd started in the produce department, became worked s way up to be a store managr and then a regional managed one of his counterparts the had gone to Lehigh.

And so I my dad hooked me p with this guy and he brouge up here to Lehigh.

And then I had another guyn the community took me to Lafayette as well.

But oh, so it was a real t, tough decision there.

And in the interest of full disclosure, as a Lehigh gr, I'm glad you went to the lt rather than into the dark.

But my dad but my dad continuing on beyond that s probably maybe the most influential thing that I cn really remember is when I s here at Lehigh in my sophoe year, I was struggling in engineering.

It was you know, it's a to, tough road and I remember calling home my sophomore , probably the middle of the semester.

And I said, you know, to mm on the phone, I said, Mom,m thinking about changing frm engineering to business sc.

So you at that Lehigh in te days that happened a lot.

If you were struggling, you kind moved over to the buss school and went that route.

And I remember it wasn't is an hour later that there wa knock on the door at the fraternity and my father ad mother or at the back doord he said, Sandra, let's go o let's go to lunch.

And we went over to the hol Bethlehem Emmaus on a Sundy morning and I the discussin basically went something le this.

Basically my dad said to m, son, your mom and I didn't raise you to be a quitter.

And I'll never forget that.

And I so I got that out in engineering.

And I think that little ony lecture probably has been instilled to me the rest oy life about never really gin up on what you believe in r what you just because it'sa little difficult.

So so I'd say my dad maybee biggest influence on my lie your your story gives a lof parents out there hope bece you love it would love to believe as a parent that we giving those wonderful stos day in and day out.

But it just takes that onet takes that pivotal one that your dad could communicateo you and just the right way.

Just the right time to make that difference.

But you didn't stay away fm business.

My understanding is you end up at the Wharton School as well.

I did, yeah.

I guess, you know, I guess ultimately I did go to the business school that was a decision I made.

I went army.

I started with US Steel anI went I was in ROTC at Lehih and went the army and I haa two year career there and n I got back out, I decided I really wanted it to be more than an engineer.

And I really like the busis side actually.

Tell you the truth, I guess another person that had a g influence in my life was of my professors at Lehigh, my senior year.

I remember him saying, you know, while while I say I struggled my sophomore yeaI ultimately graduated.

But I remember this was anr counseling session that I d with a professor.

My senior year.

And he said to me I was studying metallurgical engineering and he goes, B, he said, I assume you I hoI assume you're not thinking about going on to graduate school to get a master's in metallurgy.

He said, you know, I thinku do well in sales.

So it was sort of a subtley of saying, you know, you'r, but I think maybe here's a direction in your life.

So that was diplomatic, vey difficult, very diplomatict apparently good advice.

Good advice.

And yeah, so I applied to e Wharton School and I got of the army.

I went two years the Whartn School got an MBA, went bao US Steel and when I went bk there, a lot of my classmas award, they were all goingo Wall Street and other plac.

But I was pretty dedicated.

I really liked what I did S Steel.

And I actually went back to being a slab yard foreman h my MBA walking in the yardd managing the crews.

And I remember one rainy dy the superintendent of the l Carla Kohler out the windod I was there with my hard ay green jacket and walking on the rain and he goes, Hey,t MBA really did a lot of go, didn't it?

So I remember that to that other incident.

You know, we laughed aboutt and all that.

Ultimately I had a great cr at USC, love what I did was Products, which was really.

I was in charge of all the plants that made our pipe d for the downhole drilling n the oil and gas and for the pipelines that were, you k, transporting natural gas al over the country.

And maybe we made the steer the oil well industrial ans industry and that was proby the most fun job of my 35 r career.

US Steel, let me bring youk to to your military experi.

I Lehigh as well.

Air Force ROTC or Army ROT.

You spent some time there s there it was a difficult t. That was a difficult era te wearing a uniform in any w, shape or form was difficul, challenging time for the country.

We look back on it now with lots of questions, maybe en more questions now than wee answers.

But the influence the miliy had on you was a passing pe and we move on or where ths some things that you pickep in your time there that agn you were able to carry thrh your career.

Well, I think there's no question I had a great I fortunately had a great experience in the militaryI was in during the Vietnam .

But the but since I had wod at US Steel, believe it or% the military actually whilI wound up at Aberdeen Provig Ground as a project officer testing armor and armor equipment.

And so they basically tooky engineering background andI ended up in a position acty normally was held by a capn or a major.

But quite frankly, they ned more captains majors in Vim than they needed second lieutenants.

So I had a great experienc, worked with a lot of great military people who were officers and also a lot of civilians that worked at Aberdeen.

That's a great testing facy where they tested all new equipment before it went oo the field.

To be sure was safe and die job.

So I had a great experience there and a lot of great mentors.

Colonel Wheeler, who was my boss, boss's boss, the bosf you will, was very, very instrumental and the public employees that were the government employees that s was their full time job and they just, you know, put up with us two years, you kno, shiny officers, second lieutenants coming through.

I mean, but the disciplinef the military was really a wonderful experience.

I think I felt like everyby is very committed and obviy I'm a very patriotic kind f person, to be honest with .

So, you know, when I came n I would come out or when Ie back, obviously that was ay difficult period to have st hair and be a military guy.

When you came back to your every other parts, when hee home or whatever, there waa lot of controversy going o.

But, you know, I, I, I was instilled from my father wo was an army guy wounded in France in World War Two.

So, you know, I just I ble.

I bleed America red, whited blue.

So I'm with you on that.

With you on that.

The dichotomy in your cares between corporate and entrepreneur is pretty dramatic.

There's a lot of young fols listening out there right w that are saying, I think I might be going into a corpe career or hey, I think I'de better off being an entrepreneur or being in mn business making something happen if you were able toe advice to both of those lie separately, one to a young person heading into the corporate life, one to somy who might want to start thr own business, what advice d you give to those groups of young people?

I certainly I never perceie that I would ever be an entrepreneur, to be honesth you.

I never gave that a though.

I mean, I came out of schol and came to college and weo work for big, big companie.

Right.

And I went to try to offern offer from US Steel or an r from Bethlehem Steel.

I think you are still payie $15 for a month, a month.

But they were the number oe steel company in Bethlehems number two.

So I chose I chose that anI wanted to see Pittsburgh ad so, you know, I the adviceI would give to anybody going into the corporate world or even any initial job is thI never planned out where I wanted to be.

I never really unlike a lof people who I know have vis, this is where they want toe and this is it.

You I just sort of took eah job as it came to me and te to do the best I could on t job and hope that would soy lead me to get a promotiond be able have more responsibility and fortunay that did happen to me at oe company I was able to stayn You stayed a lot longer.

You tended to people tendeo work for one company for tr careers today.

That doesn't happen very o, but I would say that wheneI actually thought about leag US Steel, it seemed like aI would never say anything to anybody, but it was just Is even starting to think abot along the way.

All of a sudden I would get promoted.

I don't know, something wod happen, you know, and someg or if it wasn't even a promotion, it was a lateral move.

So my advice would be to, u know, don't preprogram your life.

Just take it as it comes ad you know, things will happn and opportunities will pret themselves and take advante of those opportunities.

Don't don't don't cubbyhole yourself right?

That would be the advice Io every time I was offered te opportunity to move, I. I was transferred to Connecticut.

I was a salesman for the we state of Connecticut.

I lived at home, worked ouf my home, went to Houston, k to Pittsburgh, always in ad out of Pittsburgh.

You know, I never turned dn an opportunity that leads o the conclusion that Joannet be a pretty special she isa special woman.

She has nobody Gordon.

She's the one that said I k you're crazy to them.

And so it worked out.

And then eventually actualI met Joanne.

She was a buyer for Gimbels Department Store, so she wa clothing buyer.

She was from West Virginia.

I met her in our apartment building at the in Pittsbu.

She was in apartment on one side.

I was on the other.

I was outside cleaning care day and this good looking n walked across with a bunchf garbage in the garbage bag broke and I was Sir Galahad came over and say, Can I hp you with your garbage?

What a great line.

I know her mom said, I told you, Joanne, you're never g to meet the right guy in a.

So that's how it turned.

Shoemakersville we're at te garbage St Clair years.

Is it at this.

46.

46.

And they said it wouldn't t come five years ago I recrd to come back and open up te shop the which is the ladys boutique.

Oh.

Gift shop and lady's boutie at the hotel.

I said listen with all of r background as a buyer, it's time for you to come out of retirement and we had a lie cubbyhole shop sort of just qualified as having a giftp and down in the lower lobbd we had this great storefrot opportunity on Main Street.

So she took that from nothg to really it's a home run d it's been she's done a gret job.

She always takes care of te flowers of the shop and the hotel, the decorating for Christmas, which just spectacular show.

That's her that's her bailiwick.

And I stay out of the way.

We should do some researchd find out what garbage bag company made such a poor product that it gave you te opportunity to walk into.

Probably the best sales jou ever made.

It was a woman to agree to.

Yes.

Send her our very best.

I will.

Thank you, Jean.

Congratulations on all that you've accomplished.

We've barely scratched the surface.

I apologize.

Our show is so darn short.

I want to at some point ine future dig into your formif your investments and how tt has worked and all your relationships.

We simply don't have time s evening.

But first, thank you so vey much.

Hey, thanks for having I ry appreciate you.

Thank you.