Long Island, NY — Leora Halpern Lanz, a multi-award-winning hospitality marketing expert and distinguished faculty member at Boston University’s School of Hospitality Administration, announces the release of her debut book, Developing Your Marketing Mindset: Real-World Lessons from Hospitality, available September 15, 2025. This is the first in a two-part series, with a companion title scheduled for release on February 2, 2026.
Whether you’re a student, a CEO, a people leader, or someone who simply wants to better connect with your audience, this book delivers practical insights to help you develop a mind for marketing—even if you don’t hold “marketing” in your title. Drawing from over three decades of hospitality industry experience and over a decade of classroom teaching, Lanz shows readers how to think more like a marketer: strategically, empathetically, and purposefully.
“Developing Your Marketing Mindset” is not a textbook. It’s a manifesto. A reminder that marketing isn’t pushing a product but inviting engagement. It’s about resonance, not reach. It’s a book that invites you to shift from transactions to transformation. Bashar Wali, Founder & CEO of This Assembly and author of the book’s foreword
At its heart, this book champions the belief that hospitality is not just an industry—it’s a philosophy of business. Lanz introduces readers to a mindset that places people at the center of decision-making: from customers to employees to communities. By connecting business goals to empathy, purpose, and service, readers gain the tools to inspire teams, attract loyal audiences, and lead with intention.
Through compelling mini-case studies—many drawn from her work with real students and real businesses in her signature courses at Boston University and ESSEC in France— Lanz illustrates how marketing can (and should) reflect wellness, sustainability, and community engagement. She calls this approach conscious marketing and responsible hospitality.
Hospitality is about how we make people feel, Lanz explains. If wellness is about the individual—mind, body, spirit, and soul—and sustainability is about the health of people, place, and planet, then we all have a responsibility to communicate and connect more meaningfully. My hope is that this book helps readers infuse that mindset into their work, their teams, and their leadership.
Readers will come away with tools to:
- Develop a marketing mindset, whether they work in sales, strategy, operations, or leadership;
- Build emotional connections with audiences through more intentional, human centered marketing;
- Infuse wellness, sustainability, and community values into their business practices;
- Think more critically, communicate more meaningfully, and lead with empathy;
- Elevate customer and employee experiences through a philosophy rooted in hospitality.
This book isn’t selling a strategy. It’s selling a worldview, Wali adds. Where wellness and sustainability aren’t tactics—they’re fundamentals. Where building a brand isn’t about volumes, but values.
Praise for Developing Your Marketing Mindset:
Reading “Developing Your Marketing Mindset” feels like sitting down for a lively, inspiring conversation with a trusted mentor who’s seen it all. This book is packed with real stories, smart strategies, and insights that spark fresh thinking and inspire you to see your work—and yourself—in a whole new light. Vera Manoukian, Former COO Sonesta Hotels; Former Global Brand Head Hilton Hotels & Resorts
Leora’s book brings together the classroom and the boardroom. It challenges, inspires, educates, and entertains—and helps leaders navigate marketing with clarity and care. Dr. Jeffrey O, CEO, International Hospitality Institute
This book is for you if you want to:
- Approach business through the lens of hospitality—creating connection, not just conversion;
- Lead and collaborate more effectively, even if you aren’t in a marketing role; – Learn how marketing can elevate purpose, build loyalty, and foster community; – Inspire teams with a mindset that blends strategic thinking with empathy and care;
- Discover how hospitality can transform every touchpoint in a business, from internal culture to external messaging.
Availability:
Developing Your Marketing Mindset: Real-World Lessons from Hospitality – Paperback and eBook formats available via Amazon beginning September 15, 2025
- Companion title Marketing Mindset in Motion: Inspired by Hospitality releases February 2, 2026
About the Author
Leora Halpern Lanz, ISHC is an award-winning marketing strategist and celebrated educator. She serves as Associate Professor of the Practice at Boston University’s School of Hospitality Administration, where she created and teaches the school’s signature Experiential and Digital Marketing courses. Previously, she held senior marketing roles with Four Seasons Hotel Boston, ITT Sheraton Hotels of New York, the Greater Boston Convention & Visitors Bureau, global consultancy HVS, and her own firm, LHL Communications. Lanz has been recognized among the Top 100 Most Powerful Leaders in Hospitality, the Top Influential Educators, and HSMAI’s Top 25 Extraordinary Minds in Marketing. She is also a founding board member of the Center for Responsible Hospitality.
Leora Halpern Lanz, ISHC
Master of Management in Hospitality
+1-516-680-8529
Boston University School of Hospitality Administration
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