The Success Nuggets

The Success Nuggets #50 - Turning Problems into Opportunities, Insights from Sir Riadh Bouaziz

• David Abel • Season 3 • Episode 9

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From a Tunisian childhood to 85 countries, and a luxury empire.

Riadh Bouaziz, the founder and CEO of RKF Luxury Linen, transformed a moment of awe as a child into a hospitality revolution. Today, his patented textiles elevate the experiences of over 50,000 hotels worldwide.

Knighted by the French President and holding 25 international awards, Riadh's journey is one of visionary innovation, fierce loyalty, and unshakable belief, even when the world told him to quit.

In this electrifying episode of The Success Nuggets Podcast, David Abel sits down with a leader who doesn’t just talk about resilience—he lives it.

💡 You’ll learn:

Why the “wow effect” is his north star

How he navigated global crises with bold, unconventional moves

Why health is the real currency of success

Whether you’re scaling a business or stuck at a crossroads, Riadh’s story will inspire you to stop waiting and start building.

🟡 His golden nugget? "If you want to start your business, do it now. Be focused. Go straight forward."

With thanks to One Golden Nugget and Maxwell Preece for editing, support and artwork



Speaker 2:

Thank you about the patterns that drive progress. Get ready to dive into a world of insights and inspiration. This is the Success Nuggets podcast, with the founder of the Digital Lightbulb and your host, david Abel.

Speaker 1:

Today's incredible guest is Riyad Boezic, the visionary entrepreneur, engineer and global leader in luxury textiles. As the founder and CEO of RKF Luxury Linen, he has redefined excellence in the hospitality sector, earning 25 international awards, and was personally knighted by the French president. It's great to have you here, riyad.

Speaker 3:

Welcome, David. Thank you so much for being here joining you.

Speaker 1:

It's a real pleasure to have you on Kicking us off. When did RKF Linen begin?

Speaker 3:

I set up the company in 2000. This means 25 years ago. Any business faces problems. I don't see in my life one business succeeding from the first day without any problems. You're going to have the daily problems, how it's absolutely enormous. But you have also the big ones that you never expect to have, like, for example, the COVID, where no one was expecting that one day it's going to happen. Like when it comes to the financial crisis, for example, when it's happened. Like there is a war in one area he was not expecting and sometimes it happened. I mean, all of us we face some problems, but the most important is to be always focused. Then you're going to move on top of the crisis. I'm really I think for myself lucky and happy to see every single problem. It's an opportunity. I'm the way, the one who changed every problem as an opportunity, and it was a successful opportunity.

Speaker 1:

That's why I like problems how do you teach that mindset, though to see it as an opportunity, because I've worked in many businesses where the slightest bit of bad news and people are highly stressed and they actually go the other way. They go into shock and freeze.

Speaker 3:

You know, when you shock or you freeze, it will never change the situation. It makes it even worse. Your brain will be blocked totally. But if you keep calm, you look at the future and you look the way that you're going to change it in a good way. This is the opportunity camp when, like we take, for example, the case of the COVID. When the COVID came, all the government they say, okay, it's the lockdown, we're going to understand it for our security and we have only all of you enjoying staying home, your family and your friends. That's fine, but some others decide but few of them decide to move to being an actor in the situation. And this is the way that you're going to use the opportunity, because it's the way that you can probably create something.

Speaker 3:

Have the opportunity to have enough time to use this time positively. You can decide wherever you want. Some people go to watch television, cinema, netflix and so on, or play or whatever they do, whatever they want. Others decide to cook and to learn how cooking. Others, they go to make workouts, even at home. But others decide to use this as an opportunity, how it was our case, by the way, and first, it's a value you bring for the society and, by the way, and first it's a value you bring for the society and for the industry. Second it's for yourself, because it brings you also much more powerful position on the market and also it makes growing the company anyway in a great way.

Speaker 1:

The most important is to decide for the right and to have the right decision to move forward for the right project at that time when it all changes, though it can change dramatically For any small entrepreneurs out there who have come so far and they feel like they've lost it and they don't recognize the vehicle changes all the time. Do you see it like that, if you?

Speaker 3:

believe in yourself. You have this strong belief. Whatever happens, you know that you are stronger. That this situation happened For sure we were not expecting, especially because you have this surprise effect. But the most important is to keep calm and to try how to go out. I think I don't meet and see one day one in my life. One entrepreneur never fail. It doesn't exist. To succeed, you have to fail and it's not you choose to fail, because just only the life make it like this, the business make it like this, the situation, the economy, what happened? You can find sometimes situation that makes you failing, but what is important is to be always up on top of that, looking always in a positive way. You can freeze, but it takes few moments, but then after you have to wake up, you have always to think big. You have to be always trusting yourself. And also, the most important for me is the positivity. More you are positive. Whatever happens, you have always to keep positive. Your mindset should always look only in a positive way.

Speaker 3:

And if you become stronger and more you are strong in a positive way, and you become stronger and more you are strong in a positive way, more you will succeed, definitely, and it became a game. It became like a joke. This is a problem. You don't even think about it like it's a problem. It became so funny anyway, and this is what is absolutely interesting.

Speaker 1:

If we move into going to a hotel and going to a spa customer experience. When I think of hotels, I think of customer experience being the front desk and how you're treated, but actually the room plays a huge part in the customer experience. Is it too hot, was the towels good, did the shower work and all those kind of things. And you've got in there into 85 countries and nearly 50,000 hotels with your brand. Did you ever imagine it would get this big?

Speaker 3:

Thank you, david, for the question. I was born in Tunisia. I remember when I was kid going with my parents in the luxury hotel, spending just a few days in summertime and having this amazing welcome, having this feeling, this luxury in the hospitality industry, I say wow, my dream one day is to work in the hospitality industry, in the wellness industry, bringing the happiness to people. I was not knowing that time where and how I would do it. In 2000 I create rkf companyKF company, rkf Luxury Linen and RKF Group and from that point I was thinking how I'm going to bring absolutely luxury input in the industry through the linen. Why? Because I want to make people having the best guest experience they're going to have if they are in the treatment room or they are in the bed, in the room, but not only in the hotel, because they're gonna extend the experience also at home and this is extremely important.

Speaker 3:

We spend eight hours in the bed. We have a lot of stressful work or traveling and we want to enjoy a few times. We want to go to the spa, want to relax and part of this experience is the lean and how well you have a strong effect. We are very focused on the wow effect. I love like seeing people say, wow, that's amazing. When they enter, they see the room and they said that.

Speaker 3:

The second wow when they touch you. Wow, it's so beautiful, this is nice, it's amazing, I just want to jump in the bed. How much is luxury. And the third wow when they are in, the basic wow, I don't want to leave it anymore. I feel so good and this is it's a part of the experience. That's why I think it's very important you have to put yourself first in the place of the guest, because you are yourself also a guest. You go in different places, you discover, you travel, you see and you see there is a different gap Sometimes it's a big gap between one property to another one. Out of that, I say today, there is probably a huge highway in front of me to increase it and to bring it in another level, and this is what I was doing till now you're bordering into harley davidson territory and there's only one thing that probably sets you apart from that is that harley davidson bike owners get a tattoo on their arm.

Speaker 1:

So don't know if anyone's come to you yet with RKF as a tattoo or if you'd be surprised about that, but the fact you're with people eight hours a day from a marketing point of view, it's very important.

Speaker 3:

You know you have some people have a chance only to go once a year to spend a weekend or a holiday in an hotel, and not everyone will go even in a luxury hotel Probably don't have the opportunity, but the idea is to greet the guest experience in a luxury suite, in a luxury palace, in a luxury hotel at all.

Speaker 3:

If you cannot afford it to get it in the hotel or in the palace, you can at least have it at all. Instead of you having the experience for a few days in the room in the palace, you can at least have it at home. Instead of you having the experience for a few days in the room in the palace and then you continue dreaming to your next day. It's amazing also to bring it at home. Then, if it's your home, then you're going to have this experience daily at home. And this is the most, I think, powerful point, because your dream became a reality and we want to participate on making your dream became a reality and we want to participate on making your dream as a reality do you have a dream of owning your own hotel where you manage the whole enterprise?

Speaker 3:

perhaps one day. It's not that my dream. My dream is to continue innovating it, to continue creating, bringing in input on the market. Right now, we have 15 patents on technology. We get 25 international awards. Our latest award was three weeks ago in France, where we get the best innovation of the year, where we create a very sustainable product, an amazing product, wonderful one, and it will participate in the future for this guest experience having this value, and you will feel like wow, impressed.

Speaker 1:

Brand becomes, imprinted, the way of life.

Speaker 3:

Not only that, I was creating something amazing. I was creating the fashion show, a haute couture defile during the fashion week. I want every single person be as a model. You work at home, you feel proud of yourself, you enjoy. You can even make the welcome at home for your friends and family with an amazing dress. It's a bathroom, but it's a very haute couture dress.

Speaker 3:

You want to go tomorrow to enjoy your holiday with your wife and you are in the natives by the beach. She came, madame, in an amazing dress and you see, wow, she's so lovely, but she feels hot. She goes to swing back. She wears again her dress. It's a bathrobe, but it's a very old couture dress. You're going to go outside in a party. You have an amazing dress. It's a bathrobe, modified in a very luxury dress. Combining this luxury to this wonderful industry for the linen, you make something hybrid. It's one of the key of the success To have a success, to reach a high level, to have a goal, but a big goal. How it is, your goal is to be number one. This is my case. I want to be number one. To be number one, I have to create, I have to develop, I have to develop, I have to innovate, I have to be hybrid, I have to be unique. Then I decide to develop Library fabrics. Technology plus fashion show. This is how makes Archive Valshuri Dinan and Archive Group leader in being number one.

Speaker 1:

Wow, so inspirational. Where are you on welcoming outsiders and sort of investing and bringing through youth?

Speaker 3:

First, since I built the company, I still have a team with me, almost 20 years with me, and this is absolutely amazing. You know to be a leader. People love to follow the vision of the leader and they share the same vision. We pass through different situations and crises and taking the right decision. When it's the crisis, people trust you more, believe on what you do, act with you. Some I'm going to probably tell you like an example In 2003, it was the war in a Gulf country and it became very difficult.

Speaker 3:

At that time I remember I was not really sleeping deep how much it was very difficult. And then it was in 2008, the financial crisis. Again, we face a financial situation very complicated 2008. Company have only eight years old, but still it was very, very difficult. I remember I received my banker. He came. We make all you know the numbers in the end of the year and we present it to the bank and the profit at that time was 3%.

Speaker 3:

After this very hard and difficult situation, I was proud of myself having positive result and it was already correct having only 3%. But I said it's already great and I was proud of myself and he said he came. He tried to give me a lesson. He said react, I'm okay, what you do is great, but I don't like these numbers and if it's fine in your, your place, I prefer that you close the company. I don't think so that you have enough front ability and it's not a great choice to keep it open. I look at him, I just answer him once again. I say you don't know how much it's hard work to reach this. You have your comfort. You have your salary every month, chrysler or not. You have it For me. I have a lot of families behind me. I have a bigger responsibility to reach it. I've done it. I'm proud of myself and please let me now help you to go and thank you so much for being here and bringing Derek to the door.

Speaker 3:

I take this decision and I send an email by minute to cancel my collaboration with the bank. I don't have another bank with me as a partner. How will it be if the company continues working without a partner? With a bank partner? It's a very big challenge to say just only how much it's powerful when you trust yourself, when you believe in yourself, how much you're going to go far and how much you're going to know that you're going to succeed, even you're going to have all the doors closed around you, and this is one of the example. My team look at me. They say are you making a mistake? I say no. If you want to go, it's time to go, if you believe on me. They say are you making a mistake? I say no. If you want to go, it's time to go. If you believe on me, stay. We will succeed. And this is how it is.

Speaker 1:

Things happen at the wrong time always.

Speaker 3:

Absolutely. But you know and this is the beauty of life we learn from every single day or from every single situation. It's the most important is when you learn from it. Try to don't make it again. Try to use it as a great lesson for life. Try also to share it with people as an experience. Share it with your friends and family, with your team, with your kids. It's very interesting, it's very important to be as a mentor.

Speaker 3:

It's not about the age. It's about the experience and the problem you face, how you resolve it, how you find a solution, and you will become bigger and a leader, even if it's a small. But at that time you are a leader because you win it. And this is how it's a small, but at that time you are a leader because you win it. And this is absolutely amazing and step by step increasing. This makes you stronger. Having these big goals and to be number one. You will face all this daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, but it doesn't matter. They can come all the problems. You know that you're going to do it and you are not be scary. Opposite, come all the problems, you know that you're gonna do it and you are not be scary. Opposite, you are be even happier than you came because you know that you're gonna face them in a good way.

Speaker 1:

It's been fantastic talking to you. What is your one golden nugget for life?

Speaker 3:

I gotta say if you have a target in life, if you want to start your business, do it now, don't do it tomorrow. Be focused, go straight forward.

Speaker 1:

You look really well. Have you got a health tip or a regime that our audience can steal from you?

Speaker 3:

My daily routine is absolutely amazing. A few years ago I decided to take care of myself really, really well. I'm the one who exercises a lot. I do workouts because to be successful you have to have an amazing health. It's even for me, the first point, the strongest one in success is health, and if you ask me what is your success, I will ask you my health. This is the most important one. Probably gonna be nice if I share with you, like in a minute, my, my daily life, because when I wake up in the morning, I smile to myself I'm still in the bed and I say I open my eyes, I say wow, thank you so much, god, I'm in a life. This is wow, nice.

Speaker 3:

I go to the bathroom, I wash my face and I look myself in the mirror and I do that. They say watch, you are the one You're going to do it. I believe in myself. It makes me much stronger. And then I go to make my 300th abdominal stay. Takes what? 10, 15 minutes With a few push-ups. No need to go to the gym and spend a lot of time doing this daily, even if you travel no excuse, you travel jet lag wherever you want. You want to be the leader you want to succeed. This is the way. Be healthy, be you, be yourself, trust yourself and this is how you feel After that. You know, when I do my exercises, I feel so strong, so good Making, shaving, making my shower, making a healthy breakfast. Never drink, never smoke. Look always in a positive way. This is the only ingredients and then you're going to succeed.

Speaker 1:

With all of these ambitions and all of this growth, it leaves one question unanswered for me where does it all end? Do you like have more and more?

Speaker 3:

goals, david. Life is very short if you, if there is no stop, sky is not even a limit why you want to stop. I think in my 60s, 70s, 80s, ifs, if I'm going to continue, I will. If I have the opportunity, I will. I have a target in my life. Definitely. I probably want to later on reduce a bit my work, but to change it into something I want to make much more work out. My target is, at 85 years old, having my six-packs. This isn't my target.

Speaker 1:

Maybe you've inspired me to do a bit more. So, anyway, for the audience, there you go Another incredible guest, and if we are bold enough to act on him, yes, you can do anything. Thank you again for coming in. So, riyad, who was this?

Speaker 3:

Thank you so much, david, it was really good. Thanks again.

Speaker 1:

Join David and his incredible guests next time on the Success Nuggets podcast and to find out more, visit OneGoldenNuggetcom.

Speaker 2:

Thank you for listening.