Welcome to the Corvus Effect, where we take you behind the scenes to explore integrated self leadership and help ambitious family men build lasting legacies for themselves, their tribe, and their community. I'm Scott Raven, and together we'll discover how successful leaders master delicate balance of career advancement, personal health, financial growth, and meaningful relationships.

Get ready to soar.

 And hello everybody. Thank you so much for joining me for another episode of the Corvus effect. Today, we are joined by Zeeser Voom, vice president of commercial premium brands at IHG hotels and resorts.

And he's phenomenal. He's transformed his personal struggles into profound strength from battling addiction to leading major hospitality initiatives. Caesar's journey has demonstrated how vulnerability and authenticity can become your greatest assets. And he touches on this in terms of his commitment to helping others through his recent book, the powers of addiction.

So Caesar, thank you so much for joining us on the podcast. It's great to have you here, man.

Thank you, Scott. Looking forward to, the journey and congrats on, everything you're doing, excited about your podcast and happy to be part of it. So thank you.

The pleasure is mine. It's my pleasure when I can. Phenomenal people join me and hopefully we do some good in terms of the two of us yapping back and forth. So we'll go from

That is the plan.

And in terms of the going, let's just start there with the journey in terms of your journey through the hospitality industry to where you are today, And in particular, some of the biggest lessons that you've learned on your journey

Yeah. So it's been interesting, the journey itself, to your point. It's a little bit of a, Half planned, I guess, and half unplanned, meaning that I was kind of,

always is

My options were a little bit limited because just going into college, I didn't have awesome grades, right? I wasn't a really good student.

So the C students are uniting behind you right now.

Yes. Yes. You're cheering me on. I was barely a C. So, you know, then just kind of taking a look at what realistically I could, engage from university perspective. And I also had a friend that was already in the first year of college, got a nice job in Brazil as a waiter in a new hotel.

And so I start following him closely and I said, wow, this looks interesting. So I follow his steps and. Got a job in a hotel and start my hospitality school and really fell in love with the industry. You get to meet different people from everywhere, different cultures, different values, always a great energy.

And I always was very social from that aspect. So I think that kind of that feeling. A natural progression. And then this really carried on from there. I got to the U S in 2001 expecting to be here one year. Now it's 23.

Well, that's what I said about me being in Atlanta and it's now almost 20 years since I've, came to Atlanta. So you never know with these

Exactly. You never know. And that has been a wonderful journey. I think that, I've been very fortunate to have fantastic people to work alongside and that believed in me and gave me opportunities that, you know, honesty, I wasn't always ready for, but I, one thing that I was thankfully very comfortable with my own skin is that I always felt, well, someone's going to do this job.

So why can't I, right? Just go and figure it out.

And I, I'm curious, as you said, you, started life in Brazil before you came over to the States. So it wasn't just challenging yourself from a professional standpoint. It was also challenging yourself from a cultural standpoint in terms of very different rules, when you got here in terms of your personal life, along with your professional life,

yeah, very different. I mean, I think to your point, when I got here, my English was semi okay, so I was still learning. But to your point, culturally very different, and I moved here alone, so yeah, you have to figure out, you need to adapt, you need to embrace, and the first few years away from my family from Brazil was hard.

And I spent some years in Switzerland before I come here. When I was studying hotel school and, but eventually, right? With everything in life, you, you learn how to cope, adjust and evolve. And I think that's really what happened in my career. I think to your point, I knew there is that I'm really good at, but I also know there is that I'm not good at, and just kind of knowing how to navigate that, how to, really, emphasize the areas that I'm really strong at. And how to use that to my benefit. And thankfully has been amazing. And I think to going back to your questions, kind of the biggest lessons to me, there's really a couple, right? Well, I think one never really, and I still tell myself today don't underestimate what we can achieve, right?

I think,

to

yeah, cause I think a lot of times,

yourself your own worst

exactly. Cause I think a lot of times we can put. Cap and limits in what we can achieve. And sometimes we have uber aggressive goals in a very short term, but when you look like, you know, over the last 10, 20 years, I never thought I would be doing what I'm doing, have the family I have.

So in some ways you achieve more than what you think, but sometimes you really minimize your potential. So I think that's one don't, don't ever. Really shoot high and, you know, you need a plan, you need to take action, but do it.

you do.

And then, never say never because there's a lot of that in my life too.

So eventually I learned to say, I don't know why I won't say never again because

Use not yet instead of never, right? I like that philosophy.

Yeah. And then I think as I, you know, I'm still young, I still, I feel like I'm a 20 year old guy, but I'm 45. But I, one thing that I, and you know this very well ,

I was about to say, there are days where I feel 20 and then I look at the mirror and see my bald head and I'm like, Nope,

yeah, yeah. And I think it's like, you know, just also enjoy life, right? To the point where a lot of times we have so much pressure, right? Both of us, we have families and of course comes financials. And so I think it's hard to sometimes take a breather and appreciate the things that we achieve, the time we have with our family, and that's a struggle that I have, but something that work every day, right?

Yeah. And one thing I know about you is that you're nothing if not authentic. You literally can be an open book at times in terms of not just the highs of your journey, but lows of your journey. And one thing I'd love for you to reflect on for our listening audience is the power of authentic leadership.

Power behind just being you for lack of better term.

Yeah. Yeah. Wow. That's a loaded question. So, so

I don't make them easy around here.

I know that, you know, from working with you from the coaching, you never had easy questions.

Nope. That's not my style.

so, I think losing my mom at an early age, made me realize not at that time, but eventually that, hey, Life is fragile and there's not a lot that you can count on necessarily other than, what do you have now and the abilities you have, the opportunities you have in front of you.

And then I think, especially going back to the conversation earlier, when I moved here, I really was trying to fit in and, you know, different culture, different ways of working, different behaviors. So I wasn't really. Myself, completely. And I think that contributed to, it's not the issue, but contributed to my drinking and my addiction eventually and all that.

But, but also I think that the beauty of authenticity. Is that once you start feeling more comfortable in your own scheme, your understanding and accept there is that you're really good at the things that you have opportunity to be on. And then you start opening up. You usually, I don't know about you, but usually you, you have very positive responses from people

you become very relatable and , I know that you've got a team that you work with folks. You are partnering with obviously in terms of your position with IHG your work. Working across a lot of different styles of people. And I'm curious in terms of how that openness that you bring to the table has positively impacted the team dynamics in the workplace for

Yeah. Well, I think people can take their guard down a little bit, meaning that I think a lot of times, especially when we're work environment, right, you worry, you worry about how are you being perceived. You worry if people perceive you to be professional, good at what you do. Trustworthy.

The professional masks that we

Exactly.

Fit into a role

Yeah, exactly. And listen, you know, there's always things in a professional environment that you got to do, but I think that it doesn't prevent you from being who you are. Right. Because I think from, and that's some things in my career early on, I was trying to portray is like, well, I think they want Caesar to behave this way or Caesar to do this way.

Suppressing parts of who I am and that doesn't work.

And I hear this a lot with people in upper positions at larger companies where to a certain extent you feel less free because you are facilitating a very important role for a larger organization that has. Restrictions, in terms of how that role is supposed to be perceived out in the open.

I don't know if you've ever faced that in your ascending upward.

Yeah. I mean, especially earlier on my career, as I start getting my first manager roles and leading teams, I felt that. But then to your point, as I started. Especially over the last eight years or so that I've been doing a lot of self, analysis and improvement. I realized that, wow, I mean, I'm much better.

Number one, when I am fully myself, I'm starting to unleash my potential. I think to your point, people, the minute you meet someone, you know, if that person's authentic or not. Right?

Yes, I agree.

just immediate. So the trust factor go up. And also people, right? Everyone has something going on.

Right? So I think just, just knowing that, hey, okay, this guy is not perfect. He has his own things going on. I think just give that peace of mind that, hey, I can be myself, right?

Right. You end up giving yourself more grace in terms of, I don't have to be perfect around this person. I think one of the things, and you touched on it is that you've brought that authenticity. Helping break the stigmas regarding addiction and mental health elements. And I'd love for you to elaborate on that a little bit more.

Yeah. Well, and it's interesting because that started because My own bias, , so I had to overcome that personally. And big part as to how I, kind of overcame that is I start realizing it's like, Hey, if. If I don't do that as an addict, how can I expect that to change? How can I expect that to be different?

How can I expect, people to feel comfortable about asking for help? So it was a process. And then I realized that, when you're opening up, there's unfortunately so many people being impacted by either directly or indirectly, but even when it's not necessarily addiction or mental health.

It's something else that they can relate, wow, I'm struggling with this. And then there's always some sort of connection that, makes these relatable and I think give hope to people more important that, Hey, whatever I'm going through, there is people like there that can help me or there's resources, whatever the case may be.

Yeah.

And, I want to go a little bit deeper into that with your personal journey to sobriety. And I know that. This journey was not always easy or pretty, et cetera, but to the point of empowering others who are going through their own things, I think they could learn a lot of lessons from the wisdom that you learned along the way.

Yes, it's interesting how when you help people, you really help them. As much, but you, you help yourself if not more, right, even though that's not the purpose because, you know, it's really big part in my experience of, overcome addiction is really like a big therapy journey.

Where, you really got to analyze, hey, why was I trying to numb the pain, what's the root of that, and then how can we start addressing that, you know, stop the bleeding, , how can I not drink right now, then rebuilding your habits, and, you got to relearn, everything,

Yeah, absolutely. It's like a complete reset. You know, having gone through my own battle with alcoholism and just saying why, you know, why for lack of better term, when you're going to take action,

Exactly. Exactly. And I know, you know, this, but especially in that time where you're still so foggy that, you know, it was like, Hey, I need to do something, but you're not ready, or you don't have the strength. And so it's not a, it's not a good period. It's not a good

no, no, no

so to me, whenever I engage with people and share my journey, it also helps me be grateful, right?

That thankfully I'm here today and not to let ever be that situation again, that can happen.

is one of the biggest gifts that we can give ourselves and you know, part of what I know that your story's about and that you convey to others is. Taking a challenge and turning it into an opportunity. I'd love for you to go a little bit deeper on that in terms of when you started to move the needle forward in terms of your journey to sobriety, what were the opportunities that you found that led you on that path?

Yeah. It's interesting because on that journey, I realized that a lot of the traits and skillset for lack of a better word that I, that triggered and also causing an issue also. It could have the opposite impact. So for example, my ability of navigating almost any situation and the asking people and right.

I was using a very good trait for a better reason. Hey, what if I apply that to good things? . And productive and to, you know, even more so at work to help other people, to help other causes. So I think that was a big aha moment for me where I realized, wow, a lot of these things that really helped me be successful with addiction.

It can really help me stay out of it and really take me to the next level, because I think there's always, opportunities and challenges, and then I don't know if you ever felt this way, but I think that a lot of times when we go through hard times, whatever we overcame.

We become almost like an expert on that, that we can then help others that are in similar situation.

It's learned wisdom. You experienced it yourself and that's some of the most powerful wisdom that's out there to say, this is my story and this is what I learned from it.

Yeah. So that is something that, has been, pretty interesting this journey.

know, I have a lot of people in listeners who are. Entrepreneurs or, executives, in various leadership positions, right? And I think one thing that I found fascinating in getting to learn about your story a little bit is how the recovery principles that you learned enhanced your leadership in the workplace.

And I'd love for you to go a little bit deeper in that.

Yeah. So, there is really four kind of big pieces for me on my recovery journey that really help. And the one is starting with the self awareness, self honesty.

To start there.

that is a big one. Then of course, gratitude. It's another big one.

Amen.

community, right? I mean, a good, Good people around you, people that you can open up and really bring you positive energy.

And then lastly, health habits, whatever that is for people. And you're exactly right. I think, the beautiful thing when I went through that self awareness, self honesty journey that is still going, there's never an end to that, but it's really, realizing is like, Hey.

This is really where I'm at. Just becoming very self-aware, I think helps you become a better leader because you understanding, hey, how can I then optimize my team knowing where I'm at and what we need to achieve? And then, of course, learning the strengths and opportunities of everyone in the team and how

Yeah. And I want to go a little bit deeper on that because you talk about community, you talk about the people around you, and particularly as a professional leader, you have two groups. You have the group of people that you can completely control in terms of. Who is in or who is not in your life that you have the ability to select and then you have the environment which is around you where you may not have control, but you still have to be able to have positive interactions anyway.

And part of what I would love to learn about your enhancement of leadership is how you elevated both of those elements of community.

Yeah. That's a great observation. Absolutely. So I think, number one became. Much more selective and I had to, what's my inner circle and influence, right? Because then your habits, everything goes along with that. That's a little bit, I think, to your point, easier because you can select the piece.

And then I think everything else in life, there are situations where you don't have control of what is happening or who is in the mix. But right to your point, you can control how you react, how you engage. And I think that's where that self awareness comes in place. Not only to know, watch out for my triggers, my blind spots.

But then also, I think one thing, that I think I gained a lot from my sobriety journey was empathy. I think understanding that, hey, just sometimes whenever you don't get along with someone, just kind of try to understand that people are usually coming from a good place. People are usually

Right.

to achieve the same, If you're in a work stream, right?

Everyone wants to be successful. Everyone wants to achieve the goal. So just, help

Battle the idea, not the person.

Yeah. So then how do you approach that? How do you navigate? So it's not always easy. Doesn't always, work, but makes it a little bit more achievable.

Right. And I know one of the big things for you, switching tracks a little bit, is to parlay all of those concepts to the home life. I talk very in depth in terms of this concept of work life integration. That work is one role that you play across many in your life.

And with all the different things that you've got going on, I think my listeners would be incredibly benefited by hearing some of your strategies towards Work life integration that you have found work better for you

Yes. So that's again, a work in progress for me.

Always is it's a work in progress for everybody.

And, but yeah, I think, as you learn and grow, you start to adapt and to me, I think really comes down to prioritizing because we have a limited amount of time. And you have unlimited options. So I think it's just really helping prioritize what's the most important and trying to limit choices.

So then you understand, hey, you taught me this very well. It's like, , whenever you say yes to something, you're saying no to something else. So,

an opportunity cost. Absolutely

So what is right? Are you happy with that choice? And I think, , to me it's just ensure that, hey, whenever it's family, if it's important things, I wanna make sure that I'm there for school plays and things that I know that my daughter will be very proud and happy to see me there.

I'm sure Gabby is, I'll put it that way.

Yeah. So, you know, and then at work, right? A lot of times, , sometimes we have more to do than we can, , choose. So what are the things that I can do in my position that, , no one else can do or can do as well? And then also understand when, hey, this is, I can do this, but I shouldn't be doing this, right?

Yes,

So I think helping those pieces are really great. And then just ensuring also that you leave a little bit of time. For taking care of yourself because that's easy to get neglected. So it doesn't have to be long times, right? But just making sure you have some time just to be on your own, whatever.

Do meditating, breathing, walking, exercise, whatever works for everyone.

Right. One of the things in terms of the philosophy that I have is you move from yourself to your tribe, to your community, to achieve your definition of Lexi, I think. One of the things that you may do better than others is give the appropriate level and focus to the community without sacrifice being present for yourself or your tribe.

And I'd love to learn more in terms of the things that go into how you make that work for you.

hmm. Yeah. Yeah. And this community part got really important to me. Post recovery, because I realized that I wouldn't be here if it wasn't, you know, for, of course, my family and everything, but also for some strangers that they barely knew me, but they were there and they helped me in my journey and then made me realize how fortunate I was.

And that the least I can do is to be able to contribute in some shape or form and really pay it forward. So then it became a great, opportunity and, when you start thinking about options and to your point, when you don't limit your own thought. Opportunities some start coming your way.

So a lot of great

Law of attraction.

came up from community engagement. And then, I saw the ones that he spoke most to me. And for example, I am on the board of Hope Atlanta that supports, homeless. And then also American Cancer Society.

All the cancer organizations, you're dear to my heart,

yeah, I know that. So for example, the homeless was easy because I saw as was recovering that I could easily be one of them, right? If I stayed where I was, if I didn't die before, I'll be homeless for sure. So I think you start realizing how fortunate we are. And how we can make an impact if it's someone's life.

Hey, that's fine. If it's hundreds, a thousand, so be it. But if you can just do any good, to me that, that speaks a lot to me.

It's phenomenal, and it's a beautiful segue into the traditional clothes that I have with my episodes. My interviews. I always reference Randy Posh is the last lecture. It was the last lecture that he ever gave at Carnegie Mellon, and he wrote in the book. Did you catch my final head fake?

This story was written for my kids, so I want you to fast forward the clock a little bit in terms of your daughter, Gabby, listening to this podcast in its totality and reflecting on what are the big things that you hope Gabby. Takes away from this podcast as she progresses on her own journey.

Yeah, well, there is a lot, but I would say, number one, be your authentic self, right, to your point, and thankfully she's very confident at this stage in her life, so I hope that carries on where, she's a beautiful soul, and I just think that, , there's so much ahead of her that she can do, by being herself.

So especially being happy and healthy, and then, also don't put limitations on what you can achieve because, the options are endless and be always kind, be always kind and help others.

There you go. You have your book, the powers of addiction. And, I'd love to give you an opportunity to give my listeners a little bit more information on it and where they

Sure, sure. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So this is started actually as a self reflection when I first began my sobriety journey. So I wrote about half of it. Six to 10 months in and didn't revisit up until COVID. And then I connected with a mutual friend of ours, Chris, tough. And I shared with him what I had and he said, Hey, you have to finish.

You have something here. So then I finished and I was really. really a twofold process, right? One was very helpful for me in the beginning, but then also is really kind of being part of that lifeline that, that. that support system that someone can have it because it can be helpful for anyone that actually is going through addiction themselves.

Someone that is supporting a loved one or even anyone that's going through a hard time, right? Because a lot of times you don't see the way out, whatever is the situation, but usually there is always a way out. So that was it. And I'll make sure that was really unfiltered.

I put very raw, so can relate back and hopefully help people understand what

I wouldn't expect anything less from you, man. Now, where can people find the

Amazon is the easiest. Just put their powers of addiction by Caesar worm and I'm sure it's gonna pop up.

All right. Well, we'll make sure when we put this episode up that we will have a link in our show notes so that people can go and get the book. And any final thoughts from you before we close out here?

I appreciate, you know, if anyone would like to reach out, I'm always accessible, happy to help anyone. I'm also happy to give any free speeches on that, to help people. So feel free to reach out, via LinkedIn or,

Where's the best place for them to reach out to you?

If they just go caesarvorm. com, they can find my LinkedIn profile or just Google me.

Yep. And just so that we make sure we got the spelling right. That's Caesar W U R

Yes, sir.

For people who were trying to figure out how do you spell that

is true.

Well, Caesar, this has been a wonderful conversation. Thank you so much for coming on the podcast and, you know, blessing my listeners with so much wisdom.

I really appreciate it, buddy.

Thank you, Scott. It's my pleasure.

For everybody who's listening. I hope you found a lot of value in this episode. Please make sure to subscribe and to share this with your friends and colleagues, and we will see you on the next episode. Take care.

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