On Wednesday October 8, Hughes Marino opened its doors to the Georgetown Club of San Diego for a special event featuring Georgetown alumna and celebrity chef Melissa d’Arabian.

I was introduced to the Georgetown Club of San Diego by my daughter, Nicole, currently a senior at Georgetown studying history & government. Hoyas are a fiery and brilliant bunch, loyal and proud and bent on making their mark while making the world a better place. The Jesuit tradition seems to be alive and well from Washington DC to San Diego.

Although our San Diego headquarters are more than equipped to host a celebrity chef, Melissa d’Arabian wasn’t here to teach alumni (and a few Hughes Marino team members) how to prepare a gourmet meal. Instead, she addressed the local chapter of the Georgetown Club on how she used the entrepreneurial strategies learned during her time at Georgetown University to become the Season 5 winner of Food Network Star, subsequently making her a household name in culinary circles and beyond.

Melissa went on to tell how she has utilized her entrepreneurial skills to not only win the cooking show competition, but to host her own television programs including the Food Network’s Ten Dollar Dinners, and the Cooking Channel’s Drop 5 Lbs. with Good Housekeeping. The key, according to Melissa, is playing the game she knows she will win. She wasn’t going to win Food Network Star as a head-to-head cooking competition. She acknowledges that she is a fine cook, but she would be competing against professional chefs with years of training. But if she could alter the game to play to her particular strengths then she would win, every time. So what were her strengths?

As a mother of four young girls, Melissa knows how to cook under pressure with a deadline. And, as a graduate of the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown, Melissa knows about marketing and brand positioning. She also knew that two of the three judges were business professionals, and she was able to present herself in terms that resonated with their business thinking. Melissa showed the judges that her “brand” was ideally suited to the target demographic of the Food Network, and she won.

Melissa’s novel approach to the age-old concept of playing to our strengths is refreshing, and, personally, it reminded me that this game theory has application in all areas of our lives. Everyone who attended the event walked away with fresh ideas about how to compete and win when it counts.

I know that I speak for everyone at Hughes Marino when I say that we genuinely enjoyed opening our doors to the Georgetown Club of San Diego, and we look forward to partnering with their great organization again in the future.