Caitlynn Traylor blends hospitality, sales and Southern service

Caitlynn Traylor is featured by Influential Women for her work as a Catering Banquet Sales Manager at Copeland’s Cheesecake Bistro and Copeland’s of New Orleans in Louisiana. Her profile highlights how restaurant operations, event planning and relationship-based sales shape her approach to hospitality, leadership and community involvement.

Why it matters: - Caitlynn Traylor’s role sits at the intersection of hospitality, sales and event execution across the Baton Rouge and Shreveport markets. - Her profile shows how guest experience, staffing and client relationships can affect both day-to-day service and larger catering business. - The feature also points to ongoing pressure in hospitality around staffing and women’s advancement.

What happened: - Influential Women spotlighted Traylor, a Catering Banquet Sales Manager for Copeland’s Cheesecake Bistro and Copeland’s of New Orleans. - Traylor oversees catering sales, private events, marketing initiatives, networking partnerships and client relations. - Her work covers events ranging from intimate gatherings to large corporate functions serving thousands of guests. - The profile says Traylor’s approach is grounded in Southern hospitality and New Orleans-inspired cuisine. - The company profile is available through Caitlynn Traylor’s Influential Women page.

The details: - Traylor entered hospitality after leaving pre-med studies to raise her son. - She started at TGI Friday’s as a hostess and moved into management within her first year. - After six years there, she joined Copeland’s of New Orleans and later moved into catering, sales and marketing. - Her background in restaurant operations helps her manage both guest experience and business development. - Traylor serves as a board member for Women of Impact, a nonprofit focused on women’s empowerment through outreach, networking and personal development. - She also leads local networking through Alignable as a power partner. - Traylor says small touches such as thank-you cards, sparklers and birthday cards help create memorable experiences. - She describes that added touch as “lagniappe,” a Southern hospitality trait she says shapes her business style. - Traylor says integrity means doing the right thing when no one is looking and holding everyone to the same standard. - She says serious personal commitment means showing up as her best self at work and at home.

Between the lines: - The profile frames Traylor as a people-first leader in a field that remains male-dominated. - Traylor says she has faced disrespect from managers, vendors and guests until a male manager entered the room. - She also says some people underestimate her because of how she looks or dresses, even though she can cook, push orders, and set up venues. - Her comments suggest service, confidence and visible competence are central to earning respect in hospitality. - The staffing shortage she describes reflects broader post-COVID hiring challenges in in-person work.

What's next: - Traylor says young women entering hospitality should keep learning, apply themselves and not shrink their ambitions. - She encourages women to speak up, push boundaries and take up space in leadership settings. - Her profile suggests she will keep building her work around client relationships, event execution and community networking.

The bottom line: - Traylor’s profile presents Southern hospitality as both a service style and a business strategy.