Leading When It's All on Fire: The Abyss, Your Alpha, Real Freedom - with guest Rob Hays

----- Download the LeaderGuide for this episode: https://www.sentventures.com/breaking... ----- Rob Hays sits down with Nick Madden to break down what it takes to lead when everything is on fire. Rob took over as CEO of the publicly traded Ashford Hospitality Trust in April 2020 — and within a weekend furloughed 93% of nearly 13,000 associates, ran 700-room hotels with three people, watched revenue fall almost 100% in two months, and defaulted on $4.5B of mortgages across roughly 130 hotels. His father's response: "welcome to your abyss." What he did next is the point: Rob kept the company out of bankruptcy, worked his way through the debt, and led it for five more years before stepping away on his own terms — proof that the principles in this conversation actually hold up under fire. For Catholic business owners, Rob gets practical: the daily-to-quarterly planning cadence that kept him sane, why "all you can control are your inputs," the quality of attention as a near-virtue, unreasonable hospitality as a real edge, hiring the person instead of the need, and the founder filter he built to decide who to back. He closes on the line that reframes everything — "your priorities are how you spend your time" — and the freedom of seeing the four walls of your office as the material of your sanctity. About the guest Rob Hays led the publicly traded Ashford Hospitality Trust as CEO through the COVID crisis, part of a roughly 20-year run at the company he joined as a senior financial analyst. A Princeton graduate who studied philosophy in Rome, he is an active investor, nonprofit board chairman, and father of seven. ----- 0:00 Intro 2:06 From Wall Street to a hotel company 13:44 April 2020: taking the helm as COVID hit 19:33 Triage and the virtue of order 25:38 Detachment from outcomes 34:01 Hospitality as human attention 46:12 Why the humans are your alpha 58:03 The quality of attention 1:09:01 The founder filter: backing people 1:16:56 Bringing faith into work 1:48:02 Closing: priorities and the game plan ---- Connect New episodes of Breaking the Barrier every other Tuesday. Subscribe, and download the Leader Guide to use with your team or small group. ----- ► JOIN THE MOVEMENT: #BESENT Learn More - https://www.sentventures.com Join us for SENT Summit 2026 in Denver, CO: https://www.sentventures.com/sentsumm... ______________________ ► SUBSCRIBE TO BREAKING THE BARRIER iTunes - https://bit.ly/3O8AzOU Spotify - https://bit.ly/4c4OZHY ______________________ ► FOLLOW SENT VENTURES   / sententrepreneurs     / sentventures     / sentventures   https://x.com/SentVentures