Hi, everyone. I'm Lale Arakoglu. This is my coho. Hi, I'm Meredith, Carrie. And this is the Women Who Travel Live podcast in Austin. Thank you so much for joining us today.

This week, as a native Texan, I am so excited. I'm like freaking out that we are joined by Liz Lambert.

For nearly a quarter of a century, Liz has been defining Austin's hotel culture.

Over the years, her effortless style has become a gold standard on how to make a hotel uniquely of a place.

And it's why she made it onto our most powerful women in travel lists last week.

Whether you are going to the Hotel San Jose in Austin,

literally down the road, or El Cosmico in Marfa, or Hotel San Cristobal in Baja,

there are enough incredibly groovy spaces for you to travel to for years. It's safe to say

that you are one of the coolest women in Austin. And so we are really

excited to berate you with questions. What a lovely introduction. Is it really a quarter century?

Almost. Almost. We're not there yet. Almost. Okay. I can aspire to that, I suppose. I'm so happy to be here.

Well, I wanted to start out by talking a little bit about your career path, because you didn't start out in the hospitality industry.

I'd love to hear a little bit about your life before you became Liz Lambert Hotel Extraordinaire.

Well, you know, I used to be a lawyer, which was not nearly as exciting.

I mean, I suppose on some days it was, but not...

And it was sort of an accidental path into hospitality.

But my undergraduate degree was in creative writing, poetry, which didn't get me very far at all.

Like natural move to lawyer from creative writer.

Yeah.

I mean, it turns out you don't do a lot with that.

But I, and I went to law school after that here in Austin at the University of Texas.

And then I went to the DA's office in Manhattan and practiced there for a while.

...