April 1, 2026 • 36 mins
Christian Muche has built his career on a contrarian instinct: when the world pulls back, he builds opportunities that bring people together. From co-founding DMEXCO during the 2008 financial crisis to launching POSSIBLE in the middle of COVID, Christian has consistently bet on one idea: real progress happens when the right people are in the same room.
In this episode, he joins Michael Kassan to unpack the limitations of the traditional conference model, why scale is no longer the defining metric of success, and how curated connections, not crowded stages, drive business forward. They explore what makes POSSIBLE different, the growing complexity of the marketing ecosystem, and why in a world of AI, remote work, and constant digital noise, showing up in person may be more valuable than ever. At the center of it all is a simple idea: “POSSIBLE” It is so much more than the name of an event, it’s a mindset. One that reframes complexity as opportunity and focuses the industry on what can be built, together.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good Company is a production of iHeartRadio. It's not just
a name for an event. I think it's a mindset
and what we want to achieve with that is push
the interie industry into this mindset that quite often we
hear about challenges and problems, etc. Which is of course true.
There are problems to be solved in our industry, but
(00:20):
we want to talk and make things possible and focus
on the positive outcomes because they are always new opportunities
when it comes to problems.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
I'm Michael Casson and this is Good Company. Together we'll
explore the dynamic intersection of media, marketing, entertainment, sports and technology.
I'll be joined by visionaries, pioneers, and yes, even a
couple of disruptors for candid conversations as we break down
how these masters of ingenuity are shaping the future of business,
culture and everything in between. My bet is you'll pick
(00:59):
up a lot or two along the way. As I
like to say, it's all good. Christian Muka has spent
much of his career helping the global marketing and media
industry meet the moment, from co founding to Mexico in
(01:19):
the midst of the financial crisis, to launching possible during
COVID while of all places quarantined in New Zealand. That
kind of timing either requires remarkable optimism or a deep
conviction that when the world gets more complicated, people need
to come together and figure things out. Christian is also
(01:39):
one of the true gentlemen of our industry, thoughtful, globally minded,
deeply intentional, and someone who understands the most important ideas
don't just come from a stage, but from the conversations
that happen around it. So today we're going to talk
about building platforms, convening influence, and why in an era
(02:00):
of AI, remote work and digital everything, the simple act
of bringing people together might matter more than ever. Christian,
Welcome to good company. It's great to have you here.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Thank you so much. Michael. It's a real honor to
be with you on your podcast. It's a pleasure.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Thank you, Christian. We've known each other for many, many years,
and over the years I've learned a lot more about
you as I've gotten to know you better. I'm going
to talk to our audience later about the thing most
important to me, about a secret that we share. And
now I've made you smile. Our audience can't see you,
but they can hear you laugh. So you know where
I'm going and I'll get there shortly.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
But we've known each other for a long time and
you've had, as I said in my little opening, a
habit of launching global industry gatherings precisely when the world
seems to feel that wouldn't be the thing to do
to Mexico in the wreckage of two thousand and eight,
possible during COVID. This raises a simple question, what is
(03:00):
it about global chaos that makes you want to throw
a party?
Speaker 1 (03:04):
Yeah, that's a good question. Thanks for this, And I
never thought about doing this on purpose till it came
to this point where the opportunity popped up. And thinking
back of when I launched the Mexico together with my
dear friend and partner, Frank. At this time it was
two thousand and eight, as you said, so during the
financial crisis, and it could be easier at this time.
(03:26):
But then we realized that was the same during COVID,
was possible where not many other people you know would
think about launching new business under these circumstances. And if
you do it right then then you are even more
successful with that concept, and I think in both cases
it delivered. So I've never thought about waiting for those
moments to do a business, but of course taking the opportunity,
(03:50):
taking the advantage of this is then pretty obvious. And
the Mexico was about size at all. That was about
gross becoming big relevant time. This is not the currency anymore.
I think in today's time, it's everybody's time. To bring
people together. This is the most valuable asset. It's not
the budget, not for the sake of growth, but convincing
(04:13):
people to spend their time with you is the most
valuable thing. And that was the key moment during COVID
when we started, you know, with a group of interesting
leaders in our industry and you're part of it, when
we started to think about such a new platform like possible.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
So Christian, you've said something interesting before and you're living
it in real life now, and it's something that I
share with you because we do obviously a lot in
conferences and live events, and the convenient side of my
business is very much in the center of that. But
success today at a conference or an event, it's not
(04:54):
so much about how many people are there. Sure that matters,
because that's one of the metrics we need to keep
score on success. But it's not the only thing. It's
who are the people? You know, I tell people all
the time at some of the larger industry events, can
something that I'm obviously very identified with over the last
quarter century. But you know, when people go, gosh, I
(05:15):
want to get on the main stage, I say, you know,
sometimes a curated, smaller audience is better than the main
stage because in the main stage, whilst you have butts
and seats, you don't know who those butts are. I'm
trying to clean that up. You know, you don't know
if those people are really relevant to what you're talking about,
where as an a curated smaller audience, to me, the
(05:37):
more important thing is did I connect with the people
in the room or those people in the room, people
that are going to make a difference in my world,
in my life, in my business. Can I make a
difference in their life and their world and their business.
It's mutual, it's reciprocity. But that to me is the question.
You know. I know what I said might sound obvious,
but most conferences I guess the analogy because I spend
(05:59):
so much time traveling, not as much as you because
you're going longer distances usually, But is the conference business
like the airline business, just fill as many seats as
you can. You know, what does the right room look
like to you?
Speaker 1 (06:12):
I think you summarize this in an excellent way. And
of course everybody know that you are the master of
creating meaningful connections and building trust. And I think this
is when it comes to events in today's time, exactly
the same. It sounds simple, but if I look into
the event landscape we have, as you mentioned, I caught
a boutique events, you know, small events was maybe one
(06:34):
hundred or two hundred participants, which you know, allows peer
to peer conversations, deep peer to peer conversations, which I
think that makes a wonderful addition to events like possible.
But on the other side, then you have these mass
events and I don't want to mention any dedicated ones,
but I think we all know what I'm talking about,
where tens of thousands of people come together. And I
(06:57):
visited I would say every industry event over the last
couple of years around the world, and I struve it
also as a regular tide when you go somewhere and
you got lost because it's too overwhelming. You cannot create
people's agenda anymore. And this is what I would like
still to do, also with a couple of thousands coming
to Possible But as you said, as long as they
(07:18):
say all the right people you bring together into the room,
then grows happens automatically. And this is what I'm telling
my team and also my share all that all the time,
we don't need to push for this. If this happens,
then we grow automatically in a very meaningful and organic way.
And this is what I want and what I'm looking for.
It's not the number itself anymore.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
But Christian, it's clearly one of the metrics Chairman of
the Possible Conference. I think I can say, as an
former investor but now a stakeholder in a different way,
the numbers matter. But the reality is the numbers will
be driven by the success of the event for next year,
and the success of the event isn't going to be
(08:00):
looked at through the lens of how many people were there.
Each person who makes a decision is going to say
was it good for me?
Speaker 1 (08:08):
Absolutely? And of course we grew up with us, you know,
since we started every year, and this will happen again
this year, so I think we are meeting the expectations
on that end. On the other hand, people I'm asking
who is coming, how many marketerers will be on site?
And this is all about quality, right, This is not about.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
Numbers, and so Christian, what I want to do is
give you a unique opportunity. I hope I want you
to do the promo. I want you to tell our
audience why is possible different. I'm prideful and when I
say this, and I give you the maximum credit for
this as my friend and partner what we did, but
you primarily did. You made possible into a thing. I'm
(08:51):
making air quotes for our listeners. You made it into
a thing in a very short time. When I speak
to marketers, martech, le leaders, ad tech leaders, the intersection
of marketing, media, advertising, entertainment, sports and technology something I've
said about a million times in my career, and Possible
(09:14):
is a manifestation or a personification of that intersection marketing, media, advertising, entertainment,
sports and technology. Why do I need to be there?
And I don't mean me, Why if I'm a marketer
do I need to be there? You know the old story?
Why do I need to go to that conference. I
can see those people in Cleveland. Oh well you don't.
(09:37):
You could, but you don't. That's one reason. But here's
your chance to do the commercial.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
All right, happy to take the chance. Thank you for that.
Most conferences events talk about the future. You know, you
have great content on stages, you listen to great speeches
at possible the people shaping the future are actually in
the room, and we have connecting them in a very
created way, which is still possible because of the size
(10:05):
of the events. And let's think about an event like
Dabbles the Economy World Forum is of course they have
a different agenda, but this is not an event with
tens of thousands of people. There are thousands, but the
most relevant people on our planet. And thinking about the industry,
you described connecting on being the intersection of marketing, technology, media,
(10:28):
culture and creativity advertising. This is where we connect business
with connections and content. And this is exactly where I
believe we do it in the modern way which meets
today's expectations. A marketing leader needs to understand technology, obviously,
a technology company needs to understand culture in today's time,
and so on and so on, And we are not
(10:50):
focusing on one dedicated part of our business. We had
to chant that the opportunity to connect the entire marketing
world everything which plays a role in today's marketing world
in a created way that creates so much more trust
and meaningful connections than any other event just because of
the size. Because you got lost. You have to create
(11:11):
your own agenda. We are helping every attendee to create
their own agenda.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
And Chris should talk a little bit about the strategy
of that in terms of creating the agenda with the
meeting strategy and the meetup, because that's something that Hive,
owner of Possible Now, built for many of their other
events in a very successful way. When you cut through it,
(11:37):
it's primarily I'd like to think people come to hear
the speakers and go to the fun parties and dinners
and all of that, but they really come for those
interactions for that connectivity.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
Yeah, that's why they're there exactly, And that was such
a big benefit, you know, for us also to think
about that offer at the time and when we go
to client Behive they run this hosted meeting program for
years now across other industry event like shop talks in
a very successful way, and for us there was a
(12:08):
perfect edition. Our partners who come on side and want
to meet the relevant audiences marketers, agencies, media partners. They
can do it on their own like at any other event,
but we offer an additional option, and this is Possible
connect those meeting program So this year we are going
to host three thousand meetings between marketeers and vendors and
(12:31):
our solution providers. So all these partners will paying us
to be part of Possible. And this is a pre
scheduled doubloped in meeting. You know exactly who you're going
to meet, between a marketer and a vendor or an agency,
and this is in addition to your own meeting schedule
you can come up with.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
It's the most.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
Targeted opportunity to meet exactly the right people. This is
a huge benefit for us.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
That's an important benefit and it's what separate rates the
Possible conference, I think from many others. Years ago, I
attended something they used to do. You probably remember this.
It was a company called Richmond Events and they used
to do this marketing boat. You'd go on the q
E two or the you know the old big June
(13:18):
RD carriers and you'd have two days, and they did
it offshore enough. They do to one in the UK
and one off the coast of New York, and that
it would be offshore enough where you could have gambling
on the boat. So you had to be beyond the
three mile limit. And you know, and the model was
interesting and it worked. Back in those days. The marketers
never paid. The people who wanted the meetings paid and
(13:41):
you got a certain amount of meetings. I mean basically
a speed dating put into a spreadsheet exactly.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
And you know, this is the beginning of real business opportunities.
It's no longer just having a conference with good content
and some kind of networking opportunities. This is where business
red happens, right, You meet execus those months who can
help you in your dady business.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
Christian, this is an event conversation, not just a possible conversation.
But I can't tell you how many times I've gotten
calls from clients over the years where the chief marketing
officer will call me and say, hey, Michael, can you
guys help me with my POV on why I went
to this conference or that conference, Because my finance folks
(14:22):
are looking at me and going, hey, spent a lot
of money there, and you know at this conference, what
was the ROI. You know, as finance and procurement and
purchasing and sourcing get more involved in marketers' lives, which
is a good thing if you're managing your p and
L right, it's a good thing. But you have to
have justification. So what I'm actually asking you, which you
(14:43):
kind of just did, you gave some of our CMO
friends good justification when I have to explain why they
went to Miami in the third week of April.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
And also to bring their teams, because what we're doing
is we pay for their trouble. You know, we give
every market here who commits to a dedicated number meetings
eight which is not too much. You think about eight
meetings fifteen minutes each across three days, which is nothing
compared to the rest of the event. You know what
otherwise you can explore there, fifteen minutes is a lifetime.
(15:13):
It's it's the letter if you use it right. But again,
the most targeted meeting you can imagine because you see
the person you want to see and meet and talk to,
and then you get a travel reimbursement. So there's no
reason for let's say marketing manager or director to go
to the CEMO and say, hey, I get so much
out of this and I got paid, you know, or
my travel will be reimbursed. There's no more reason why
(15:36):
this should be declined, you know. And this is why
we bring so many more marketers on site and also
do all kinds of different activities. Some of them are
going to the meetings, others are listening to the stage program.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
So Christian, I've taught the teams that I've worked with
over the fifty years of my career a couple of
lessons that I think are valuable. One is my quote
in the room philosophy and Lynn, Menuel, Miranda and Hamilton
made the concept of being in the room where it
happens famous. I'd like to think that I've figured out
(16:12):
how to be in the room where it happens pretty
much throughout my career, and I've been fortunate for that,
very fortunate. But I don't look at it that way.
I look at it about just getting in the room
in general, because when you're not in the room, whether
that's the room where it happens or not, it should
be for you in the proverbial room. And what I
(16:32):
talk about at conferences generally is the opportunity. And I'll
clean this up for our listeners, but for that wholeway interaction,
I used to have another expression, but I won't use
it anymore. But now everyone's going to wonder what it
was see Christian, and I got to keep them guessing. Okay,
what the heck? I was always calling it hallway sex,
but it needs more explanation. But you know that moment
(16:55):
when you're walking in the hall or walking on Collins
Avenue in the case im possible, you can run into
people that you can't get to no matter what you
can try, and they all have ring fenced, you know, assistance,
and you can't get through. But when you see that
person in the hallway, we're all human. I could walk
up to Christian and say, Christian, how are you? I've
(17:19):
been trying to you know, and then I got you
right now. Maybe I don't get that next meeting, but
I've enhanced the opportunity.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
You're right, Michael, But let me add two things. First,
you're completely right, and I immediately feel if this happens,
you know, in real life, and you are in front
of somebody face to face, I feel quite often it
goes beyond individual company perspectives, and immediately, if you meet
the right people, you stop thinking about the future of
(17:47):
the ecosystem of our marketing world. And this is not
quite often happens on an ondivitual call. It only happens
if you're in the same room, as you said. And also,
something which I believe makes possible sen different and successful
is because at so many other events, again, as an
attendee on my own, you run into people. Then in
the hallway you have the hallway sex as you said,
(18:10):
but it was a quick one because quite often you say, hey,
let's follow up next week. Let's you know, follow up
when we are back in business. And this is what
I want to achieve. Is possible that being there for
three days in a simple place, not rushing from one
location to another, you should find your time with each
other to really dig into details, deep into conversation. And
(18:32):
this makes a difference. You use your time on site
for real conversations and not just the quick hello thing
and let's follow up next week, because then you don't
need to be there.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
Good company will be right back after the break. Christian,
I want to go back to something you said earlier.
You talked about the people who shape, and you use
(19:08):
the word shape the future the thinking. I want to
compliment you on that. I've recently changed the jargon at
three C when we talk about work we do in
organization or whatever it may be, and people traditionally, including myself,
would use the word future proofing. Yeah, future proofing isn't
(19:31):
the right way to look at it any longer, because
future proof it's like you're trying to prove a fact
or prove something based on the facts and circumstances they
are now, and you want to be ready for what
you think is coming. Nobody can actually do that because
we really don't know what's coming. So therefore I look
at it in that body of work now, I use
(19:52):
the word future shaping, and you use that word, and
I think it's a very important word. And those of
you who listen to what I talk about, well, I'm
all about shaping.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
I like this kind of definition you came up with,
because I agree nobody can prove the future, but we
need people like yourself, like other leaders in the industry
who try to at least predict something, at least based
on their experience as recent experiences, who try to give
a more specific kind of outlook, you know, which helps
(20:25):
others to understand what this, let's say technology means in
our daily business.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
And other trends.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
And this is exactly you know, finding these people who
are able to do this, who have the backing from
a corporate perspective to go on stage and talk about
something which is still uncertain, but they try to shape.
They tried to predict something and push something into a
dedicated direction. And this is what I think everybody needs
(20:53):
a bit more than just listen what we did yesterday,
what we did last week, and come up with case
studies from the past. This is no longer the relevant
speech because of today's complexity, because of today's speed we experience.
I agree this is the right description. Shaping the future
(21:14):
with somebody who is able and willing to shape and
to share and to share and to share exactly and
to share. Yeah, as I said a moment ago, words matter,
sort of names possible. It's such a brilliant name in
that it says so much. You know, think of the
utilization of that word. Is there one thing in our
(21:36):
industry that should become possible in the next decade that
you could identify and correspondingly, is there something that should
become impossible? Let me start why we choose this name
and then come back to original question. I think it's
kind of philosophical moment here because it should provide a
(21:57):
positive momentum. And this to be back to your original
question in the second. It's not just a name for
an event. I think it's a mindset, and what we
want to achieve with that is push the entire industry
into this mindset that quite often we hear about challenges
and problems, etc. Which is of course true. There are
problems to be solved in our industry, but we want
(22:20):
to talk and make things possible and focus on the
positive outcomes because there are always new opportunities when it
comes to problems. I would like to see our industry
developing more into this direction, be in this positive mood,
let's say, and mindset, I would like to see far
(22:41):
more conversations and solutions. In terms of the complexity in
today's world, I think this is the part which overwhelms
people completely, that there are no single developments or trends
tech wise, organizational challenges, internally, etc. It's all connected immediately
and makes it so complicated. And here I would say
(23:03):
this is one of our biggest challenge in our industry.
It's not a single AI trend, which is of course
needs to be discussed with all the impacts. It's not
the data security, it's not fake news, it's these are
single developments, but it always comes together in the big
picture about this increased complexity. And here I think we
need to focus on as an industry, and here most
(23:26):
people need really help.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
You've spent most of your career back to the idea
of being in the room where it happens. You've been
in the business of creating rooms where industries try to
figure out what the shape of the future is. When
people walk out, if possible, in the end of April
and head back to their companies or their you know,
(23:51):
their home, what do you hope that they see different.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
It's about the relevance again, it's not about the numbers anymore.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
So.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
If somebody would go back tomorrow into the business and say,
I've met one new person or company whatever which helps
me in my daily business. This is more valuable than
ten other quick hallway meetups you already know which right
at the Envy combination makes it very good and beneficial
(24:21):
for everybody, but just one one dedicated idea, one dedicated
new business partner who can help you, One dedicated new lead,
inspiring person who might you know impress you to think further.
This is coming from the created approach. I have him
still in mind for possible. This is the outcome I
(24:42):
would like to see. And of course expectations are so different,
so it could be, as I said, a single business
contact an inspiring conversation. But this requires be there and
spend your time and go deep into conversations and have
peer to peer conversations. And this is what possible is
all about.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
Well, Christian, this has been the art of the possible
in terms of good company.
Speaker 1 (25:08):
Today.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
I get to have fun now and do the lightning
round part of the good company conversation. And in your case,
I'm going to start with something a little unusual. But Christian,
you and I stumbled, well hopefully we didn't stumble based
on where we're going, but you and I that was good.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
That was good.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
You and I had a coincidence. Let me say, as
I try to think of another word, and that is
when I was growing up, I had two older sisters,
and my older sisters decided to teach me how to dance,
and I fancy myself a pretty good dancer. And my
fantasy was at the Upfront Network presentations in New York
(25:50):
years ago, Steve McPherson was running ABC and they had
had a summer breakout hit you might remember called Dancing
with the Stars. Yeah, of course, and it was a
summer breakout and it became a regular and obviously is
still there and wildly successful. That year at the Upfront,
Steve McPherson decided not to do the standard issue come
(26:11):
out and say my ratings are better than yours, and
you know, my shows are better than your. He didn't
do that that year. He spent the better part of
three or four months training with one of the dancers
from Dancing with the Stars and came out on the
stage at Lincoln Center in front of, however, many thousands
of people in the industry there to see the new
fall shows from ABC and Disney, and he put on
(26:34):
a dancer team. And I sat in the audience and
I turned to a good friend of both of ours,
Irwin Gottlieb, and I said, you know, Irwin, there are
a lot of things that I can't do, but grabbing
a line from chorus line. I pointed to the stage,
I said, but I could do that, okay, And I
decided that my fantasy was to have a moment in
(26:56):
the industry where I could be dancing with the advertising stars.
And I told you that story, and then you gave
me a bit of your history, Christian, So go for it,
go ahead, because I think you are the advertising star
of dancing.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
Was that? By the way, I'm still working on my opening,
you know, for this year as possible. Should we might
consider this? You know what you guess, well, maybe you.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
And I can dance exactly.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
Maybe we should turn it into a co host at
the moment here, But yeah, what you refer to is
what I've shared with you as one of the few
in the industry. But now you know, everybody will will
know about this listening to your podcast. So I had
I had a relationship to the Fulton Blau already from
years ago. So I was invited at some stage to
(27:38):
the Font and Blue and to take part in the
World Championship of ballroom Dancing because that was one of
my sports I did hundred years ago.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
Christian, In all due respect, I'm a whole of a
lot closer than one hundred years ago than you are,
so you can't use that.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
Oh ahead, keep going, Yes, that was that was you
know my experience. I practiced a lot of Latin American
and borroom dancing for some time, and obviously we'll we
became some successful, you know, successful, and then you know
this happened, and that was my moment was the Fonton Blau.
It was the first moment. The second moment was I
got married in Miami at the Fonton Blaw thirty five
(28:14):
years ago, so that was my second moment with the
Phonton Blau. So therefore this is not the third moment.
Coming back was possible every year, So it's that's a
good story for me personally as well.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
Good company will be right back after the break. I'm
fortunate to be married to Ronnie for fifty one years. Yeah,
but a little part of our story. Ronnie and I
(28:48):
were in college together, but we didn't know each other
in college only for one year because I transferred back
to California. But we met in Florida. We didn't meet,
but we were both there, and I know that I
was at a party with Ronnie in nineteen sixty eight.
Just to put that in perspective, and that was at
the Fountain Blue Hotel. Because there used to be a
(29:11):
thing that the sororities would do when they had the
new pledge classes, and they used to call it pledges
on Present, and they would invite all the pledge members
of that year's sorority incoming class to come to a
very galla event at the Fountain Blue Hotel and get
all dressed up in evening gowns and long gloves and
(29:33):
you know, like a debutante coming out party for the pledges.
And when Ronnie was a pledge in a sorority, I
was in the room. And so our first meeting, not literally,
but our first interaction was at the Fountain Blue Hotel.
And I will say this to you. You could do
the math. That was nineteen sixty eight, so it's more
(29:54):
than thirty five years ago.
Speaker 1 (29:56):
That's this amazing, amazing, and I mean, you know you
ought to is better than I do. But this was
I mean, now we shed our secrets here with the
rest of the world. So let's see how many people
will remind us.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
Maybe we're going to get there, maybe we're going to
have a dance or two.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
But when we will be at possible in a couple
of weeks time, and.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
Maybe we'll show it is possible. Let me get to
the speed around here, Christian. I had to go there,
and it's a wonderful thing that you and I share
is a love for dance. What's your greatest professional fear, Christian?
Speaker 1 (30:28):
My greatest professional fear.
Speaker 2 (30:30):
Hopefully it's not stumbling while you're dancing. No, your greatest
professional fear.
Speaker 1 (30:34):
Very honestly, it's you know, waking up every morning and
feel that you missed anything because also of the distance,
sometimes not being in the same room all the time,
being in the US, being you know, in all this
noise all the time. And then I realized that it's
not necessarily a fear or something negative because distance being
(30:57):
in New Zealand from time to time, distance also creates
some clarity, especially for me looking into our industry. So
it's really a mixed feeling. Sometimes it feels like a fear,
you know that you miss a lot of things, and
then you also see the positive momentums out of this
as the scribe. So that's my honest feedback. It's a
mixed feeling.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
Here. Was there a particular mentor early in your career
and is there something special. You could say that mentor
that person taught me something. It could be you know,
broad or specific.
Speaker 1 (31:27):
Yeah, interesting because we just shared our secret. And it
goes back to my time when I did dancing. I
had one teacher. Unfortunately he died a couple of years ago,
but he was previously the world champion and he was
the master of dancing, and he taught me, you know,
to go out be on the floor in front of
thousands and thousands of people and become, you know, familiar
(31:51):
with it inspiring environment, you know, to use your creativity
and at the same time to perform in front of people,
which means everybody recognize everything, all eyes on you, all
eyes on you, exactly. And I think that was very
helpful for me personally coming to a person where I
am today, but also for my business later on. So
(32:14):
I would say that was probably my first mentor which
goes back well thirty four years ago.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
Is there anything out there right now that you've seen
recently where you look in the mirror and go, damn,
I wish I'd have thought of that.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
Yeah, I mean maybe maybe you know, to be one
of these tech entrepreneurs, right And.
Speaker 2 (32:35):
I kind of knew you were going there. It's not
where I wanted you to go, But I get that well.
Speaker 1 (32:40):
I mean, I'm in touch with so many impressive people,
you know in our industry who did so amazing jobs,
founded businesses, companies and define new trends. I mean, think
about when we had Elon Mosk on stage in the
first year of Possible. I mean he's independent from his
you know, other active but as an entrepreneur, such an
(33:02):
impressive personality and running so many different companies just as
an example, and we could mention a lot of others.
But yeah, how great would be the thing, you know,
to be one of those, right and to find the
whole industry and maybe part of the future of our work.
But hey, I'm happy with where I am. We do
from our ant you know, and help the industry as
(33:24):
much as we can, so I'm I'm good with that.
Speaker 2 (33:26):
I think one final question I'd ask you in this moment, Christian,
is if you could invite any person in the world,
living or dead, to speak it possible, who would it be?
And it can't be me because I'm already speaking there.
I'm only kidding.
Speaker 1 (33:42):
Well, that's I mean, that's a tough one. Maybe it
would be more like having everybody who drives today's business, entrepreneurs, visionaries, creators,
to have them all to define one moment where you
have them all together in a deep conversation with all
(34:02):
these crazy impressive output. Maybe not one single one, but
maybe a range of people you've never seen before on
stage or in a room speaking with each other.
Speaker 2 (34:13):
That would be my gree Here's the reality, I guess
with the advent of technology. And I don't think we've
said the word AI yet, so I think I just
blew it because I don't think we've said it. But
through the lens of AI, I guess anything's.
Speaker 1 (34:26):
Possible, anything seems to be possible, and we're working on that. Yes,
and you're right, we haven't talked about AI, which I
appreciated this.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
What we did talk about was we can have all
the technology in the world, but it's not going to
replace the importance of being in person. We all know
that companies got back to five days in the office,
and some did and some didn't, And we can debate
that all day long, Christian, but I don't think you
can lose the argument any longer about the importance of
being in person in the convening of events and moments
(34:57):
because I don't think possible as an event. I think
Possible is a thing. I said it earlier.
Speaker 1 (35:02):
It's the thing, and you're right. We discussed about this,
and I think everybody understands why this is important. Doesn't
matter whether you're young or old or experienced. Possible the thing,
and I hope Possible will become a real platform and
not just an event. My idea was never to create
just another event. It was more than that, and you
(35:23):
believed into this idea from the beginning on. And this
rounds everything up here or today's conversation after looking back
three years now where we started and where we are
hitting to into the future, I think there was a
great moment.
Speaker 2 (35:36):
Thank you so much, Christian. I want to say a
few things. I want to say, thank you first for
being a wonderful friend for so many years, Second for
being an inspiration both to me personally and to our industry,
and third for being a mench You're a good man, Christian.
Speaker 1 (35:55):
Thank you so much much. Good Company is brought to
you by three C Ventures and iHeart Podcasts.
Speaker 2 (36:08):
Special thanks to Alexis Borger Purdeo, our executive producer and
Head of Content and Talent, and to Carl Catle, executive
producer at iHeart Podcasts.
Speaker 1 (36:18):
Episodes are produced and edited by Mary Doo. Thanks for
joining us, We'll see you next time.
Good Company is a production of iHeartRadio. It's not just
a name for an event. I think it's a mindset
and what we want to achieve with that is push
the interie industry into this mindset that quite often we
hear about challenges and problems, etc. Which is of course true.
There are problems to be solved in our industry, but
(00:20):
we want to talk and make things possible and focus
on the positive outcomes because they are always new opportunities
when it comes to problems.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
I'm Michael Casson and this is Good Company. Together we'll
explore the dynamic intersection of media, marketing, entertainment, sports and technology.
I'll be joined by visionaries, pioneers, and yes, even a
couple of disruptors for candid conversations as we break down
how these masters of ingenuity are shaping the future of business,
culture and everything in between. My bet is you'll pick
(00:59):
up a lot or two along the way. As I
like to say, it's all good. Christian Muka has spent
much of his career helping the global marketing and media
industry meet the moment, from co founding to Mexico in
(01:19):
the midst of the financial crisis, to launching possible during
COVID while of all places quarantined in New Zealand. That
kind of timing either requires remarkable optimism or a deep
conviction that when the world gets more complicated, people need
to come together and figure things out. Christian is also
(01:39):
one of the true gentlemen of our industry, thoughtful, globally minded,
deeply intentional, and someone who understands the most important ideas
don't just come from a stage, but from the conversations
that happen around it. So today we're going to talk
about building platforms, convening influence, and why in an era
(02:00):
of AI, remote work and digital everything, the simple act
of bringing people together might matter more than ever. Christian,
Welcome to good company. It's great to have you here.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Thank you so much. Michael. It's a real honor to
be with you on your podcast. It's a pleasure.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Thank you, Christian. We've known each other for many, many years,
and over the years I've learned a lot more about
you as I've gotten to know you better. I'm going
to talk to our audience later about the thing most
important to me, about a secret that we share. And
now I've made you smile. Our audience can't see you,
but they can hear you laugh. So you know where
I'm going and I'll get there shortly.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
But we've known each other for a long time and
you've had, as I said in my little opening, a
habit of launching global industry gatherings precisely when the world
seems to feel that wouldn't be the thing to do
to Mexico in the wreckage of two thousand and eight,
possible during COVID. This raises a simple question, what is
(03:00):
it about global chaos that makes you want to throw
a party?
Speaker 1 (03:04):
Yeah, that's a good question. Thanks for this, And I
never thought about doing this on purpose till it came
to this point where the opportunity popped up. And thinking
back of when I launched the Mexico together with my
dear friend and partner, Frank. At this time it was
two thousand and eight, as you said, so during the
financial crisis, and it could be easier at this time.
(03:26):
But then we realized that was the same during COVID,
was possible where not many other people you know would
think about launching new business under these circumstances. And if
you do it right then then you are even more
successful with that concept, and I think in both cases
it delivered. So I've never thought about waiting for those
moments to do a business, but of course taking the opportunity,
(03:50):
taking the advantage of this is then pretty obvious. And
the Mexico was about size at all. That was about
gross becoming big relevant time. This is not the currency anymore.
I think in today's time, it's everybody's time. To bring
people together. This is the most valuable asset. It's not
the budget, not for the sake of growth, but convincing
(04:13):
people to spend their time with you is the most
valuable thing. And that was the key moment during COVID
when we started, you know, with a group of interesting
leaders in our industry and you're part of it, when
we started to think about such a new platform like possible.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
So Christian, you've said something interesting before and you're living
it in real life now, and it's something that I
share with you because we do obviously a lot in
conferences and live events, and the convenient side of my
business is very much in the center of that. But
success today at a conference or an event, it's not
(04:54):
so much about how many people are there. Sure that matters,
because that's one of the metrics we need to keep
score on success. But it's not the only thing. It's
who are the people? You know, I tell people all
the time at some of the larger industry events, can
something that I'm obviously very identified with over the last
quarter century. But you know, when people go, gosh, I
(05:15):
want to get on the main stage, I say, you know,
sometimes a curated, smaller audience is better than the main
stage because in the main stage, whilst you have butts
and seats, you don't know who those butts are. I'm
trying to clean that up. You know, you don't know
if those people are really relevant to what you're talking about,
where as an a curated smaller audience, to me, the
(05:37):
more important thing is did I connect with the people
in the room or those people in the room, people
that are going to make a difference in my world,
in my life, in my business. Can I make a
difference in their life and their world and their business.
It's mutual, it's reciprocity. But that to me is the question.
You know. I know what I said might sound obvious,
but most conferences I guess the analogy because I spend
(05:59):
so much time traveling, not as much as you because
you're going longer distances usually, But is the conference business
like the airline business, just fill as many seats as
you can. You know, what does the right room look
like to you?
Speaker 1 (06:12):
I think you summarize this in an excellent way. And
of course everybody know that you are the master of
creating meaningful connections and building trust. And I think this
is when it comes to events in today's time, exactly
the same. It sounds simple, but if I look into
the event landscape we have, as you mentioned, I caught
a boutique events, you know, small events was maybe one
(06:34):
hundred or two hundred participants, which you know, allows peer
to peer conversations, deep peer to peer conversations, which I
think that makes a wonderful addition to events like possible.
But on the other side, then you have these mass
events and I don't want to mention any dedicated ones,
but I think we all know what I'm talking about,
where tens of thousands of people come together. And I
(06:57):
visited I would say every industry event over the last
couple of years around the world, and I struve it
also as a regular tide when you go somewhere and
you got lost because it's too overwhelming. You cannot create
people's agenda anymore. And this is what I would like
still to do, also with a couple of thousands coming
to Possible But as you said, as long as they
(07:18):
say all the right people you bring together into the room,
then grows happens automatically. And this is what I'm telling
my team and also my share all that all the time,
we don't need to push for this. If this happens,
then we grow automatically in a very meaningful and organic way.
And this is what I want and what I'm looking for.
It's not the number itself anymore.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
But Christian, it's clearly one of the metrics Chairman of
the Possible Conference. I think I can say, as an
former investor but now a stakeholder in a different way,
the numbers matter. But the reality is the numbers will
be driven by the success of the event for next year,
and the success of the event isn't going to be
(08:00):
looked at through the lens of how many people were there.
Each person who makes a decision is going to say
was it good for me?
Speaker 1 (08:08):
Absolutely? And of course we grew up with us, you know,
since we started every year, and this will happen again
this year, so I think we are meeting the expectations
on that end. On the other hand, people I'm asking
who is coming, how many marketerers will be on site?
And this is all about quality, right, This is not about.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
Numbers, and so Christian, what I want to do is
give you a unique opportunity. I hope I want you
to do the promo. I want you to tell our
audience why is possible different. I'm prideful and when I
say this, and I give you the maximum credit for
this as my friend and partner what we did, but
you primarily did. You made possible into a thing. I'm
(08:51):
making air quotes for our listeners. You made it into
a thing in a very short time. When I speak
to marketers, martech, le leaders, ad tech leaders, the intersection
of marketing, media, advertising, entertainment, sports and technology something I've
said about a million times in my career, and Possible
(09:14):
is a manifestation or a personification of that intersection marketing, media, advertising, entertainment,
sports and technology. Why do I need to be there?
And I don't mean me, Why if I'm a marketer
do I need to be there? You know the old story?
Why do I need to go to that conference. I
can see those people in Cleveland. Oh well you don't.
(09:37):
You could, but you don't. That's one reason. But here's
your chance to do the commercial.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
All right, happy to take the chance. Thank you for that.
Most conferences events talk about the future. You know, you
have great content on stages, you listen to great speeches
at possible the people shaping the future are actually in
the room, and we have connecting them in a very
created way, which is still possible because of the size
(10:05):
of the events. And let's think about an event like
Dabbles the Economy World Forum is of course they have
a different agenda, but this is not an event with
tens of thousands of people. There are thousands, but the
most relevant people on our planet. And thinking about the industry,
you described connecting on being the intersection of marketing, technology, media,
(10:28):
culture and creativity advertising. This is where we connect business
with connections and content. And this is exactly where I
believe we do it in the modern way which meets
today's expectations. A marketing leader needs to understand technology, obviously,
a technology company needs to understand culture in today's time,
and so on and so on, And we are not
(10:50):
focusing on one dedicated part of our business. We had
to chant that the opportunity to connect the entire marketing
world everything which plays a role in today's marketing world
in a created way that creates so much more trust
and meaningful connections than any other event just because of
the size. Because you got lost. You have to create
(11:11):
your own agenda. We are helping every attendee to create
their own agenda.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
And Chris should talk a little bit about the strategy
of that in terms of creating the agenda with the
meeting strategy and the meetup, because that's something that Hive,
owner of Possible Now, built for many of their other
events in a very successful way. When you cut through it,
(11:37):
it's primarily I'd like to think people come to hear
the speakers and go to the fun parties and dinners
and all of that, but they really come for those
interactions for that connectivity.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
Yeah, that's why they're there exactly, And that was such
a big benefit, you know, for us also to think
about that offer at the time and when we go
to client Behive they run this hosted meeting program for
years now across other industry event like shop talks in
a very successful way, and for us there was a
(12:08):
perfect edition. Our partners who come on side and want
to meet the relevant audiences marketers, agencies, media partners. They
can do it on their own like at any other event,
but we offer an additional option, and this is Possible
connect those meeting program So this year we are going
to host three thousand meetings between marketeers and vendors and
(12:31):
our solution providers. So all these partners will paying us
to be part of Possible. And this is a pre
scheduled doubloped in meeting. You know exactly who you're going
to meet, between a marketer and a vendor or an agency,
and this is in addition to your own meeting schedule
you can come up with.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
It's the most.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
Targeted opportunity to meet exactly the right people. This is
a huge benefit for us.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
That's an important benefit and it's what separate rates the
Possible conference, I think from many others. Years ago, I
attended something they used to do. You probably remember this.
It was a company called Richmond Events and they used
to do this marketing boat. You'd go on the q
E two or the you know the old big June
(13:18):
RD carriers and you'd have two days, and they did
it offshore enough. They do to one in the UK
and one off the coast of New York, and that
it would be offshore enough where you could have gambling
on the boat. So you had to be beyond the
three mile limit. And you know, and the model was
interesting and it worked. Back in those days. The marketers
never paid. The people who wanted the meetings paid and
(13:41):
you got a certain amount of meetings. I mean basically
a speed dating put into a spreadsheet exactly.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
And you know, this is the beginning of real business opportunities.
It's no longer just having a conference with good content
and some kind of networking opportunities. This is where business
red happens, right, You meet execus those months who can
help you in your dady business.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
Christian, this is an event conversation, not just a possible conversation.
But I can't tell you how many times I've gotten
calls from clients over the years where the chief marketing
officer will call me and say, hey, Michael, can you
guys help me with my POV on why I went
to this conference or that conference, Because my finance folks
(14:22):
are looking at me and going, hey, spent a lot
of money there, and you know at this conference, what
was the ROI. You know, as finance and procurement and
purchasing and sourcing get more involved in marketers' lives, which
is a good thing if you're managing your p and
L right, it's a good thing. But you have to
have justification. So what I'm actually asking you, which you
(14:43):
kind of just did, you gave some of our CMO
friends good justification when I have to explain why they
went to Miami in the third week of April.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
And also to bring their teams, because what we're doing
is we pay for their trouble. You know, we give
every market here who commits to a dedicated number meetings
eight which is not too much. You think about eight
meetings fifteen minutes each across three days, which is nothing
compared to the rest of the event. You know what
otherwise you can explore there, fifteen minutes is a lifetime.
(15:13):
It's it's the letter if you use it right. But again,
the most targeted meeting you can imagine because you see
the person you want to see and meet and talk to,
and then you get a travel reimbursement. So there's no
reason for let's say marketing manager or director to go
to the CEMO and say, hey, I get so much
out of this and I got paid, you know, or
my travel will be reimbursed. There's no more reason why
(15:36):
this should be declined, you know. And this is why
we bring so many more marketers on site and also
do all kinds of different activities. Some of them are
going to the meetings, others are listening to the stage program.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
So Christian, I've taught the teams that I've worked with
over the fifty years of my career a couple of
lessons that I think are valuable. One is my quote
in the room philosophy and Lynn, Menuel, Miranda and Hamilton
made the concept of being in the room where it
happens famous. I'd like to think that I've figured out
(16:12):
how to be in the room where it happens pretty
much throughout my career, and I've been fortunate for that,
very fortunate. But I don't look at it that way.
I look at it about just getting in the room
in general, because when you're not in the room, whether
that's the room where it happens or not, it should
be for you in the proverbial room. And what I
(16:32):
talk about at conferences generally is the opportunity. And I'll
clean this up for our listeners, but for that wholeway interaction,
I used to have another expression, but I won't use
it anymore. But now everyone's going to wonder what it
was see Christian, and I got to keep them guessing. Okay,
what the heck? I was always calling it hallway sex,
but it needs more explanation. But you know that moment
(16:55):
when you're walking in the hall or walking on Collins
Avenue in the case im possible, you can run into
people that you can't get to no matter what you
can try, and they all have ring fenced, you know, assistance,
and you can't get through. But when you see that
person in the hallway, we're all human. I could walk
up to Christian and say, Christian, how are you? I've
(17:19):
been trying to you know, and then I got you
right now. Maybe I don't get that next meeting, but
I've enhanced the opportunity.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
You're right, Michael, But let me add two things. First,
you're completely right, and I immediately feel if this happens,
you know, in real life, and you are in front
of somebody face to face, I feel quite often it
goes beyond individual company perspectives, and immediately, if you meet
the right people, you stop thinking about the future of
(17:47):
the ecosystem of our marketing world. And this is not
quite often happens on an ondivitual call. It only happens
if you're in the same room, as you said. And also,
something which I believe makes possible sen different and successful
is because at so many other events, again, as an
attendee on my own, you run into people. Then in
the hallway you have the hallway sex as you said,
(18:10):
but it was a quick one because quite often you say, hey,
let's follow up next week. Let's you know, follow up
when we are back in business. And this is what
I want to achieve. Is possible that being there for
three days in a simple place, not rushing from one
location to another, you should find your time with each
other to really dig into details, deep into conversation. And
(18:32):
this makes a difference. You use your time on site
for real conversations and not just the quick hello thing
and let's follow up next week, because then you don't
need to be there.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
Good company will be right back after the break. Christian,
I want to go back to something you said earlier.
You talked about the people who shape, and you use
(19:08):
the word shape the future the thinking. I want to
compliment you on that. I've recently changed the jargon at
three C when we talk about work we do in
organization or whatever it may be, and people traditionally, including myself,
would use the word future proofing. Yeah, future proofing isn't
(19:31):
the right way to look at it any longer, because
future proof it's like you're trying to prove a fact
or prove something based on the facts and circumstances they
are now, and you want to be ready for what
you think is coming. Nobody can actually do that because
we really don't know what's coming. So therefore I look
at it in that body of work now, I use
(19:52):
the word future shaping, and you use that word, and
I think it's a very important word. And those of
you who listen to what I talk about, well, I'm
all about shaping.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
I like this kind of definition you came up with,
because I agree nobody can prove the future, but we
need people like yourself, like other leaders in the industry
who try to at least predict something, at least based
on their experience as recent experiences, who try to give
a more specific kind of outlook, you know, which helps
(20:25):
others to understand what this, let's say technology means in
our daily business.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
And other trends.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
And this is exactly you know, finding these people who
are able to do this, who have the backing from
a corporate perspective to go on stage and talk about
something which is still uncertain, but they try to shape.
They tried to predict something and push something into a
dedicated direction. And this is what I think everybody needs
(20:53):
a bit more than just listen what we did yesterday,
what we did last week, and come up with case
studies from the past. This is no longer the relevant
speech because of today's complexity, because of today's speed we experience.
I agree this is the right description. Shaping the future
(21:14):
with somebody who is able and willing to shape and
to share and to share and to share exactly and
to share. Yeah, as I said a moment ago, words matter,
sort of names possible. It's such a brilliant name in
that it says so much. You know, think of the
utilization of that word. Is there one thing in our
(21:36):
industry that should become possible in the next decade that
you could identify and correspondingly, is there something that should
become impossible? Let me start why we choose this name
and then come back to original question. I think it's
kind of philosophical moment here because it should provide a
(21:57):
positive momentum. And this to be back to your original
question in the second. It's not just a name for
an event. I think it's a mindset, and what we
want to achieve with that is push the entire industry
into this mindset that quite often we hear about challenges
and problems, etc. Which is of course true. There are
problems to be solved in our industry, but we want
(22:20):
to talk and make things possible and focus on the
positive outcomes because there are always new opportunities when it
comes to problems. I would like to see our industry
developing more into this direction, be in this positive mood,
let's say, and mindset, I would like to see far
(22:41):
more conversations and solutions. In terms of the complexity in
today's world, I think this is the part which overwhelms
people completely, that there are no single developments or trends
tech wise, organizational challenges, internally, etc. It's all connected immediately
and makes it so complicated. And here I would say
(23:03):
this is one of our biggest challenge in our industry.
It's not a single AI trend, which is of course
needs to be discussed with all the impacts. It's not
the data security, it's not fake news, it's these are
single developments, but it always comes together in the big
picture about this increased complexity. And here I think we
need to focus on as an industry, and here most
(23:26):
people need really help.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
You've spent most of your career back to the idea
of being in the room where it happens. You've been
in the business of creating rooms where industries try to
figure out what the shape of the future is. When
people walk out, if possible, in the end of April
and head back to their companies or their you know,
(23:51):
their home, what do you hope that they see different.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
It's about the relevance again, it's not about the numbers anymore.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
So.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
If somebody would go back tomorrow into the business and say,
I've met one new person or company whatever which helps
me in my daily business. This is more valuable than
ten other quick hallway meetups you already know which right
at the Envy combination makes it very good and beneficial
(24:21):
for everybody, but just one one dedicated idea, one dedicated
new business partner who can help you, One dedicated new lead,
inspiring person who might you know impress you to think further.
This is coming from the created approach. I have him
still in mind for possible. This is the outcome I
(24:42):
would like to see. And of course expectations are so different,
so it could be, as I said, a single business
contact an inspiring conversation. But this requires be there and
spend your time and go deep into conversations and have
peer to peer conversations. And this is what possible is
all about.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
Well, Christian, this has been the art of the possible
in terms of good company.
Speaker 1 (25:08):
Today.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
I get to have fun now and do the lightning
round part of the good company conversation. And in your case,
I'm going to start with something a little unusual. But Christian,
you and I stumbled, well hopefully we didn't stumble based
on where we're going, but you and I that was good.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
That was good.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
You and I had a coincidence. Let me say, as
I try to think of another word, and that is
when I was growing up, I had two older sisters,
and my older sisters decided to teach me how to dance,
and I fancy myself a pretty good dancer. And my
fantasy was at the Upfront Network presentations in New York
(25:50):
years ago, Steve McPherson was running ABC and they had
had a summer breakout hit you might remember called Dancing
with the Stars. Yeah, of course, and it was a
summer breakout and it became a regular and obviously is
still there and wildly successful. That year at the Upfront,
Steve McPherson decided not to do the standard issue come
(26:11):
out and say my ratings are better than yours, and
you know, my shows are better than your. He didn't
do that that year. He spent the better part of
three or four months training with one of the dancers
from Dancing with the Stars and came out on the
stage at Lincoln Center in front of, however, many thousands
of people in the industry there to see the new
fall shows from ABC and Disney, and he put on
(26:34):
a dancer team. And I sat in the audience and
I turned to a good friend of both of ours,
Irwin Gottlieb, and I said, you know, Irwin, there are
a lot of things that I can't do, but grabbing
a line from chorus line. I pointed to the stage,
I said, but I could do that, okay, And I
decided that my fantasy was to have a moment in
(26:56):
the industry where I could be dancing with the advertising stars.
And I told you that story, and then you gave
me a bit of your history, Christian, So go for it,
go ahead, because I think you are the advertising star
of dancing.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
Was that? By the way, I'm still working on my opening,
you know, for this year as possible. Should we might
consider this? You know what you guess, well, maybe you.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
And I can dance exactly.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
Maybe we should turn it into a co host at
the moment here, But yeah, what you refer to is
what I've shared with you as one of the few
in the industry. But now you know, everybody will will
know about this listening to your podcast. So I had
I had a relationship to the Fulton Blau already from
years ago. So I was invited at some stage to
(27:38):
the Font and Blue and to take part in the
World Championship of ballroom Dancing because that was one of
my sports I did hundred years ago.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
Christian, In all due respect, I'm a whole of a
lot closer than one hundred years ago than you are,
so you can't use that.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
Oh ahead, keep going, Yes, that was that was you
know my experience. I practiced a lot of Latin American
and borroom dancing for some time, and obviously we'll we
became some successful, you know, successful, and then you know
this happened, and that was my moment was the Fonton Blau.
It was the first moment. The second moment was I
got married in Miami at the Fonton Blaw thirty five
(28:14):
years ago, so that was my second moment with the
Phonton Blau. So therefore this is not the third moment.
Coming back was possible every year, So it's that's a
good story for me personally as well.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
Good company will be right back after the break. I'm
fortunate to be married to Ronnie for fifty one years. Yeah,
but a little part of our story. Ronnie and I
(28:48):
were in college together, but we didn't know each other
in college only for one year because I transferred back
to California. But we met in Florida. We didn't meet,
but we were both there, and I know that I
was at a party with Ronnie in nineteen sixty eight.
Just to put that in perspective, and that was at
the Fountain Blue Hotel. Because there used to be a
(29:11):
thing that the sororities would do when they had the
new pledge classes, and they used to call it pledges
on Present, and they would invite all the pledge members
of that year's sorority incoming class to come to a
very galla event at the Fountain Blue Hotel and get
all dressed up in evening gowns and long gloves and
(29:33):
you know, like a debutante coming out party for the pledges.
And when Ronnie was a pledge in a sorority, I
was in the room. And so our first meeting, not literally,
but our first interaction was at the Fountain Blue Hotel.
And I will say this to you. You could do
the math. That was nineteen sixty eight, so it's more
(29:54):
than thirty five years ago.
Speaker 1 (29:56):
That's this amazing, amazing, and I mean, you know you
ought to is better than I do. But this was
I mean, now we shed our secrets here with the
rest of the world. So let's see how many people
will remind us.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
Maybe we're going to get there, maybe we're going to
have a dance or two.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
But when we will be at possible in a couple
of weeks time, and.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
Maybe we'll show it is possible. Let me get to
the speed around here, Christian. I had to go there,
and it's a wonderful thing that you and I share
is a love for dance. What's your greatest professional fear, Christian?
Speaker 1 (30:28):
My greatest professional fear.
Speaker 2 (30:30):
Hopefully it's not stumbling while you're dancing. No, your greatest
professional fear.
Speaker 1 (30:34):
Very honestly, it's you know, waking up every morning and
feel that you missed anything because also of the distance,
sometimes not being in the same room all the time,
being in the US, being you know, in all this
noise all the time. And then I realized that it's
not necessarily a fear or something negative because distance being
(30:57):
in New Zealand from time to time, distance also creates
some clarity, especially for me looking into our industry. So
it's really a mixed feeling. Sometimes it feels like a fear,
you know that you miss a lot of things, and
then you also see the positive momentums out of this
as the scribe. So that's my honest feedback. It's a
mixed feeling.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
Here. Was there a particular mentor early in your career
and is there something special. You could say that mentor
that person taught me something. It could be you know,
broad or specific.
Speaker 1 (31:27):
Yeah, interesting because we just shared our secret. And it
goes back to my time when I did dancing. I
had one teacher. Unfortunately he died a couple of years ago,
but he was previously the world champion and he was
the master of dancing, and he taught me, you know,
to go out be on the floor in front of
thousands and thousands of people and become, you know, familiar
(31:51):
with it inspiring environment, you know, to use your creativity
and at the same time to perform in front of people,
which means everybody recognize everything, all eyes on you, all
eyes on you, exactly. And I think that was very
helpful for me personally coming to a person where I
am today, but also for my business later on. So
(32:14):
I would say that was probably my first mentor which
goes back well thirty four years ago.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
Is there anything out there right now that you've seen
recently where you look in the mirror and go, damn,
I wish I'd have thought of that.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
Yeah, I mean maybe maybe you know, to be one
of these tech entrepreneurs, right And.
Speaker 2 (32:35):
I kind of knew you were going there. It's not
where I wanted you to go, But I get that well.
Speaker 1 (32:40):
I mean, I'm in touch with so many impressive people,
you know in our industry who did so amazing jobs,
founded businesses, companies and define new trends. I mean, think
about when we had Elon Mosk on stage in the
first year of Possible. I mean he's independent from his
you know, other active but as an entrepreneur, such an
(33:02):
impressive personality and running so many different companies just as
an example, and we could mention a lot of others.
But yeah, how great would be the thing, you know,
to be one of those, right and to find the
whole industry and maybe part of the future of our work.
But hey, I'm happy with where I am. We do
from our ant you know, and help the industry as
(33:24):
much as we can, so I'm I'm good with that.
Speaker 2 (33:26):
I think one final question I'd ask you in this moment, Christian,
is if you could invite any person in the world,
living or dead, to speak it possible, who would it be?
And it can't be me because I'm already speaking there.
I'm only kidding.
Speaker 1 (33:42):
Well, that's I mean, that's a tough one. Maybe it
would be more like having everybody who drives today's business, entrepreneurs, visionaries, creators,
to have them all to define one moment where you
have them all together in a deep conversation with all
(34:02):
these crazy impressive output. Maybe not one single one, but
maybe a range of people you've never seen before on
stage or in a room speaking with each other.
Speaker 2 (34:13):
That would be my gree Here's the reality, I guess
with the advent of technology. And I don't think we've
said the word AI yet, so I think I just
blew it because I don't think we've said it. But
through the lens of AI, I guess anything's.
Speaker 1 (34:26):
Possible, anything seems to be possible, and we're working on that. Yes,
and you're right, we haven't talked about AI, which I
appreciated this.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
What we did talk about was we can have all
the technology in the world, but it's not going to
replace the importance of being in person. We all know
that companies got back to five days in the office,
and some did and some didn't, And we can debate
that all day long, Christian, but I don't think you
can lose the argument any longer about the importance of
being in person in the convening of events and moments
(34:57):
because I don't think possible as an event. I think
Possible is a thing. I said it earlier.
Speaker 1 (35:02):
It's the thing, and you're right. We discussed about this,
and I think everybody understands why this is important. Doesn't
matter whether you're young or old or experienced. Possible the thing,
and I hope Possible will become a real platform and
not just an event. My idea was never to create
just another event. It was more than that, and you
(35:23):
believed into this idea from the beginning on. And this
rounds everything up here or today's conversation after looking back
three years now where we started and where we are
hitting to into the future, I think there was a
great moment.
Speaker 2 (35:36):
Thank you so much, Christian. I want to say a
few things. I want to say, thank you first for
being a wonderful friend for so many years, Second for
being an inspiration both to me personally and to our industry,
and third for being a mench You're a good man, Christian.
Speaker 1 (35:55):
Thank you so much much. Good Company is brought to
you by three C Ventures and iHeart Podcasts.
Speaker 2 (36:08):
Special thanks to Alexis Borger Purdeo, our executive producer and
Head of Content and Talent, and to Carl Catle, executive
producer at iHeart Podcasts.
Speaker 1 (36:18):
Episodes are produced and edited by Mary Doo. Thanks for
joining us, We'll see you next time.
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