We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Erica Kennedy. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Erica below.

Erica, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s talk legacy – what sort of legacy do you hope to build?

I aspire for my legacy to be: “She built places that worked and people who thrived.” As an architect, hospitality consultant, yoga instructor, and career coach, my core principle is clarity, transforming complex projects and careers into calm, focused progress.

Professionally, I aim to be remembered for elevating the hospitality standard, protecting owner value and guest experiences through rigorous owner representation, leveraging third-party reviews, and incorporating operator-centric details. I envision teams noting that the projects we’ve touched operated with enhanced efficiency, characterized by fewer surprises, change orders, and improved handoffs, resulting in stronger post-opening performance.

Personally, I desire to be remembered for the feeling my spaces evoked – a sense of steadiness, kindness in my truth-telling, and the simplification of challenging situations. Yoga manifests as mindful pauses before critical decisions and intentional space within agendas. Coaching translates into questions that foster personal growth beyond mere deliverables.

I envision my mentees reflecting that I championed their advancement alongside my own – sharing checklists, frameworks, and introductions, while making things simpler.

Erica, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’m Erica R. Kennedy, AIA, FCSI, CDT – an architect turned hospitality consultant, owner’s rep, yoga instructor, and career coach. I founded Kennedy Consulting Services (KCS) to do what I’ve always loved most: helping hotel owners and teams turn complex projects into calm, coordinated execution, and assisting the individuals doing that work lead with clarity.

How I got here:

I started in architecture, spending years deep in hotel prototypes, brand standards, and third-party reviews across Marriott, Hilton, and other flags. Along the way, I served on several boards (CSI, HTA, Design Review Board, etc.), collaborated with permitting agencies, and led ADA assessments and municipal ordinance projects. That mix of brand rigor, municipal process, and real-world operations became my edge. I saw how often projects struggled not from a lack of talent, but from a lack of alignment. KCS was my answer.

What KCS provides:

Hospitality Consulting & Owner’s Rep:
Early diligence & test fits: site/program alignment, back-of-house and ops flows, brand feasibility.
Third-party reviews: drawings, specs, and submittals for brand compliance, ADA/life safety, constructability, and cost risk.
Standards & scope clarity: turning brand manuals into checkable scopes, finish schedules, and punch-ready details.
Operator-smart decisions: value engineering that protects guest experience and ongoing maintenance.
Process & meetings: decision logs, RFI/ASI hygiene, and GC/owner/brand alignment to ensure deadlines are met.
Leadership & career coaching for architects, PMs, and owner teams (communication, influence, prioritization).
Yoga for teams: breathwork, focus, and nervous-system tools you can use before a hard meeting or milestone.
Leadership and Yoga Retreats for Team Building and Burnout.

I’m here to protect outcomes and relationships. You can hit the date and keep the team intact. I’ll tell the truth kindly. If a decision puts budget, schedule, or guest experience at risk, I’ll surface it with options. You’ll get artifacts, not just advice. Expect checklists, scopes, and decision records you can drop into your process on day one. We’ll breathe, then execute. A minute of calm often saves a month of chaos. My signature promise: Brand-true, guest-centric, operator-ready, and a team that leaves stronger than it arrived.

If you’re a hotel owner, developer, or brand leader seeking cleaner delivery and a more stable team, let’s talk.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

Two things built my reputation: proper rigor and generous networking. Both were sharpened through communities like CSI, AIA, and HTA.

CSI (Construction Specifications Institute) – Earning my credentials (FCSI, CDT) made me obsessive about how decisions are documented. Specs, submittals, and scopes aren’t paperwork; they’re risk management and guest-experience insurance. CSI provided me with the discipline and peer network to identify gaps early, translate brand standards into actionable items, and protect budgets without compromising design intent.

The AIA (American Institute of Architects) honed my public-facing leadership skills through presenting, mentoring, serving on committees/boards, and engaging with municipal counterparts. That visibility and the practice of clearly explaining complex issues built trust across owners, brands, and jurisdictions.

HTA (Hospitality Tourism Alliance). Roundtables and Board Meetings connected me to the operator and technology sides of hotels. Understanding Property Management Systems integration headaches, back-of-house workflows, and maintenance realities helped me recommend details that are not only compliant but also operator-ready. Being fluent in “brand + ops + tech” is a differentiator clients notice immediately.

Proof points I’m proud of:

Brand-true, operator-ready delivery on hotel projects where change orders and rework dropped because we aligned early and documented decisions well.

Mentees stepping up, PMs and emerging leaders who now run calmer, clearer projects using the same tools I left behind.

Cross-stakeholder trust, municipal reviewers, brand reps, GCs, and owners who’ll all take my call because they know I’m fair, prepared, and solution-oriented.

Bottom line: My reputation grew where technical excellence (CSI) met public leadership (AIA) and operator fluency (HTA), and was amplified by a give-first networking style. If you need someone who can translate standards into scopes, chaos into checklists, and pressure into progress, that’s my lane.

Have you ever had to pivot?

I didn’t plan to start my own firm – I was pushed. I was let go from my previous role. In the quiet that followed, I realized two things: (1) the parts of the job I loved most – owner-rep rigor, third-party reviews, brand standards, and mentoring were exactly what many hotel owners struggle to find in one place, and (2) I already had the tools to help them.

So I turned a setback into a start line. I filed the paperwork and launched Kennedy Consulting Services (KCS) in January 2025. It is the dream job I didn’t know I was building toward.

Why it worked:
My background is a blend that the market rarely finds in one person: architect (details, drawings, specifications), hospitality consultant/owner’s representative (schedule, budget, brand), yoga instructor (calm under pressure), and career coach (strong communication and leadership hygiene). On projects, that meant I could translate between brands, owners, GCs, and operators – and keep the room steady when things got tense.

What changed in me:
Being let go stripped away the illusion that I needed a title to do my best work. It forced me to design my practice around what clients actually need: clear scopes, early risk calls, and meetings that end in decisions. I also stopped over-functioning to “save” a project and started installing systems that make teams self-sufficient.

Getting let go closed a door. KCS opened the right one. Today, I get to do my favorite work with my favorite people, on projects that run more smoothly and teams that leave a lasting impact. That’s the dream job and the pivot that made it real.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.kennedyconsultingserv.com/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erica-kennedy-aia-fcsi-cdt