July 28, 2020 • 34 mins
We look back on our first trip to train salespeople and managers in the US.
Us teach North Americans to sell? The land of Zig Ziglar and Elmer Wheeler...
We talk about the great characters we met and the fun and at times bizzare experiences we had, mostly outside of training. We throw in a few sales stories for good measure too.
For more info, free resources, useful content & our blog posts, please visit realitytraining.com.
Reality Training - Selling Certainty
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Bob and Jeremy's Conflab the reality podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Hello and welcome to another episode of Bob and
Jeremy's Conflab.
Thank you so much for choosingto press play and listen in
again.
If this is your first timejoining us, welcome.
So we are on a very differenttopic today, but before we start
I want to find out how the maninvolved in these Conflabs with
(00:37):
me is doing so.
Bob, tell listeners what it'slike during coronavirus time
down in sunny Kent.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Well, it's not too bad actually.
Thanks for asking.
I live in the middle of thecountryside, so I'm very
fortunate that I'm surrounded bygreen fields and trees and I'm
about 20 minutes from the coast.
So occasionally we go downthere and go for a wonderful
walk in a place called Rye,which if you'd never visited I'd
highly recommend.
It's lovely, so it's quite asort of rural idyll down here,
(01:06):
although still no pubs open yet,which is a bit of a blow.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Ah, yes, for listeners tuning in, that is set
to happen this Saturday, Ithink.
Yes.
Does that mean that the nationwill go a little bit potty To be
served a draft ale?
Speaker 1 (01:22):
Oh I think Sunday, is that what?
Speaker 2 (01:24):
people crave.
Do you think they crave thepump?
Speaker 1 (01:27):
No, I think they just want to order a pint in a pub
and drink it.
I think that's the first thingthey want to be able to see
their friends.
What we haven't really thoughtabout is the size of the
hangovers we're going to have onSunday.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Well, it's funny, I'm pretty skilled at drinking
alone or at home, as, in regardsto going to a building for
group indoctrination, I'm prettyskilled at drinking in a solo
capacity.
I don't know if I suppose youyour line is the conviviality
will increase the volume.
Is that what you're saying?
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Yes, and I think what'll happen.
Of course, the excitement ofbeing in a pub for the first
time in three months is thatyou'll go a bit mental.
And I don't know about you, butI'm very partial to a pint and
a chaser, which I think puts mein a special category.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Chases me.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
And you know, I think a few of those and I'll be done
a bit like you.
But I think some people willjust do pint after pint all day
until the point where theyeither have fights or just can't
function anymore, and then Ithink we kind of ruined that
kind of fun element of it.
But after this big delay it'sgoing to be big.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
We should actually share with our listeners who are
interested.
They may or may not be.
You and I have become beerimporters.
During lockdown we found acouple of German companies
because I think we'd rival anylistener to say a nation above
Germany produces better beer andwe enjoy importing mostly
(02:56):
Augustina Brow Edelstoff to givethem a little shout out.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
It's lovely.
And we love talking about beer.
I'm going to guess that you'relining up for Harveys.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Yes, so the pub I'm going to is a Harveys pub.
Harveys is an excellent whatyou might call session beer.
So it's a nice coffable ale,absolutely delicious, and we're
going to have some food there,although the pub we're going to
we've been told isn't doing afull menu, so that's also a bit
of a blow.
So I think we're going to haveto have some food in advance of
(03:27):
this.
I mean, I don't want listenersto get the picture of us as a
very heavy drinking pear Jeremy,because that would be wrong.
But I think it's fair to saythat what we like is quality.
That's the first thing.
But also for me in particular Idon't know about you I love the
social environment going to apub or to a restaurant with
(03:48):
one's friends up until lockdown.
I was somebody who was goingout probably three times a week,
either for work or pleasure, toeat out, so that was my life.
So not to be able to do thathas been a change and I'm
looking forward to getting backto a bit of that because I love
that atmosphere.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
As you know, my local is an extraordinary thing
called the mushroom, which is anot-for-profit pub, and on our
local Facebook groups people aresaying hey, when are you
reopening?
We don't do food but we do dopork scratchings.
When I had a bit more time, Iused to pull pints the odd
Friday evening, but I have lesstime on Fridays now, but that's
(04:30):
going to open up soon.
It's ridiculous what we chargefor a pint a bit Under three
quid a pint.
I mean it's ludicrous.
Wow, which is great, I think.
Brace yourself, because we weretalking to our friend,
christoph in Munich and he wassaying he went to his local and
they said five euros, 50 please.
And he was going right and hesaid the prices have gone up.
So we'll be interested to talkto you next to see what a pint
(04:51):
of Harveys has become to you, myKentish lad.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Well, the other problem, of course, is that
people who have been used todrinking at home for the last
three months and buying alltheir booze from the supermarket
where, of course, per unit it'smuch cheaper when they start
going back to pubs and realizethat hang on a minute this is
costing me 25 quid to buy around of drinks.
I think that's also going tobring in sharp relief the
(05:16):
difference between those twoalcohol purchasing options.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
So let's talk about today's topic.
So we did an episode recentlyabout training in India and we
thought our listeners mightenjoy another continent that we
have traversed.
We're talking about NorthAmerica, and we first went there
at the bite of a recession, andhere we are again, probably
(05:45):
entering another one.
I'm afraid we were there 2007,2008,.
We first started going out tothe US, to the East Coast, with
one of the world's largest eventexhibition organizations.
They did have magazines, butmagazines already declining and
the main income they made wasrunning large events and
exhibitions.
They wanted us to train theirteams in how to get more people
(06:08):
to buy booths.
They call them booths.
Do you remember that?
Get them in the booths.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
That wasn't the first project we had, jeremy, on the
East Coast.
Yeah, the first project we hadwas getting the customers of
this company to buy digitaladvertising as well as the
booths.
It was nothing to do with thebooths it was selling digital
advertising.
This was the transition fromtraditional media to digital
(06:35):
media and, as you and I had bothhad extensive experience
working for various brandsearlier, when digital
advertising suddenly took off,we then had a number of courses
that we sold, and then we wereasked to go and deliver that
course to a large team of peoplein Princeton in New Jersey, in
(06:56):
America, and we traveled outpremium economy, as I recall,
which was a treat.
Paid for by the client, ofcourse, and we stayed in
Princeton in an apartment, doyou remember?
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Didn't we stay in the famous hotel that had a rocker,
not a rocker, fella the YankeeDoodle Dandy painting.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
That was on about the third or fourth trip, Jeremy.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Oh, this is why, listeners, we rely on Bob.
He's his long-term memory.
We didn't stay in thatextraordinary building till the
third or fourth trip, yes, solet me just give you a quick, so
we stayed in an apartment.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
Yeah, let me just give you the quick run down here
.
Okay, we flew into New York.
We stayed in a hotel on TimesSquare for two nights, yes, we
then traveled out to New Jersey.
We stayed in an apartment foranother three or four nights and
then we came home.
That was the first trip.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Hold on a minute.
Was this the suite, some kindof suite thing?
Yes, where they had a swimmingpool out in the back.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Got it, got it, got it.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
And we had an apartment with two bedrooms and
a kitchenette.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
Got it.
I'm there.
You and I Was that where we hadsome coffee from Wolfgang Park.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Yeah, Wolfgang Park.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
Wolfgang Park Always asked for it by name, and we
stayed in this apartment and wehad a snapshot of what life
would be like if we wereactually to live in the same
household for a while, and Ithink I can safely say we've
never bothered to try that since.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
We weren't in the same room, I think we stayed
somewhere else once where it waslike a kind of Spanish holiday
place.
Yes, and I had the child's.
It was a family thing and I hadthe child's room and you had
the parents' room.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
I remember that as well.
So that was.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
That was similar to that time.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
That was in Marbella, yeah, that was.
That's another story, but inthis particular instance we flew
into New York.
We had a couple of nights inNew York and I want to remind
you of one particular time.
On a Sunday morning we went forbreakfast at the Carnegie Diner
.
Oh golly Now this diner isfamous, was famous.
(09:11):
It was around between the 50s,going right into the early part
of this century, and it is nowclosed.
It no longer exists, which is atragedy.
The diner itself was featuredin a number of films, but in
particular in the film Broadway,Danny Rose, where this
(09:32):
theatrical agent went into thisdiner all the time, because
around the walls is hundreds ofpictures of celebrities and
famous people who've eaten inthat diner.
We knew that it was famous andwe went there and we sat there
late morning and we weresurrounded by faces of New York
in this diner, chatting,laughing, having a giggle,
(09:55):
having coffee, having juice, andwe had this huge, immense
breakfast.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
I had pastrami, I had their ham, a bacon thing.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
You ordered bacon.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
And there were so many rashes, I said this is
obscene Bob, how am I meant toeat this?
And you said well, people takeit home and they eat it later,
and then I had a piece ofcheesecake that was like a human
, not human.
Like an entire cheesecake for afamily.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
Well, we will gloss over the fact that you had
ordered cheesecake as abreakfast accompaniment, but yes
, the cheesecake you ordered wasmassive.
I know that at that point youwere particularly struggling to
get through any meal withouthaving some kind of a dessert,
but that area where we sat wasexactly where they filmed Brawl
Bay Danny Rose, where all thesecomedians sat, and I remember a
(10:44):
lady next to us ordered theBrawl Bay Danny Rose sandwich
and it was a massive baconsandwich.
It was immense, and she ate atiny piece of it and then
wrapped the rest of it up infoil to take away with her.
Brilliant, that was how big theportion sizes were.
It was impressive.
So that was wonderful.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
There were Italian types in there, there were
Jewish types in there, therewere native New Yorkers in there
.
We had that kind of PaulSorvino, diane Weist's husband,
that kind of crowd, yeah, as ifI'm trying to think of as Sydney
, sydney, whatever could havewalked in at any point.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
Do you remember what we talked about?
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Did we talk about Woody Allen films?
No, did we talk about?
Speaker 1 (11:29):
portion distortion.
One major piece of discussionwe had, but I'll remind you, we
talked about what our fathersboth our late fathers, would
have made of the sight of youand me sitting in this diner in
New York, going out there withour own business, having our
flights and our accommodationand our food paid for by our
(11:53):
client, and them actually payingus some money to do that work
in America, and the idea thatour fathers would not have
comprehended that fact Becausein their lives that just would
never have happened, would it?
Speaker 2 (12:10):
Well, no, I mean, I'm the son of a salesman and an
artist, but he was more of anartist than a salesman.
He did painting and picturesthis whole life, but he had to
earn.
So he sold.
And he sold to architects in akind of lovely conversational
way to get them to spec histimbers into their designs.
And yeah, and he commuted toLondon from Hadlam in Bucks for
(12:35):
years and years and years.
He'd never have comprehendedthat.
And your father?
He was a school teacher, adeputy head in a special school.
He would have committed to thatsite for years.
The thought of travel and extratrips and expenses was
something that didn't evenfeature on their radars.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
No, and so I think that is a really good comparison
, because at that point in ourlives there we were both
fatherless technically in thatsense, we both lost our fathers
and yet casting that shadow back, because up to that point we
hadn't really registered thatwhat we were doing as a business
(13:14):
was being successful, wastaking us to new places, was
giving us new experiences, Ithink that was the kind of great
comparison we were making inAmerica, I mean in in the United
States America.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
Bizarre we had.
It was a nice early break forus because we we do pretty much
dropping the marketing businessyeah these marketing plans and
2008.
We don't have been going sixyears.
We're fans of Elmer Wheeler.
Yeah, zig zig, ziggler.
Yeah, these great US salestrainers.
Surely they've got this taped.
Surely they don't need uswhatever the expression is,
(13:49):
coles and Newcastle surely theydon't need us coming over there.
Over there, who are you tellingme how to sell digital
advertising?
Yeah, but we had had an amazingbackground.
So the background of it was weboth came to it from two
different places, but ourcombined knowledge was very
valuable.
I'd helped SMEs at Yellow Pagesenter the digital world so I
(14:09):
could be speaking to a growingbusiness that might be turning
over a million, two million quid, something like that, and they
haven't even got a website.
And at Yale we made them one.
They wanted to expand theirreach beyond the, the printed
delivery directory area.
So if you imagine that YellowPages anyone on the doorsteps
within a postcode suddenly theinternet is invented and you can
(14:32):
, you can reach people beyond.
I mean, that is anextraordinary concept for a
plumber who can only reachpeople by a book delivered in a
postcode area.
Suddenly the internet changesthat and you had helped much
more.
Sort of glossy big brands, lotsof tech stuff HP, dell, british
Airways, expedia.
You know you had helped largebrands really change the way
(14:52):
people think about their brands,get them to click on their
banners, go through and buythings, or buy things later.
That was all.
It was fascinating.
That was a great project.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
We created this brilliant content.
We'd already been training itin the UK and also in Europe
we'd done the Holland, I think,and also we then went on to work
in Paris with that project aswell, I seem to remember and
then we went out to America.
So we then, after a couple ofdays in New York, we then got a
train out to New Jersey and wemet a cab driver at the station
(15:20):
in Princeton, got it and he wasin a white, beautiful Cadillac
taxi and his name was BonnieBadelea.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
Bonnie Badelea.
We called it.
He was called Bonnie and wethought well, the only Bonnie we
know is the long suffering wifeof Bruce Willis in the diehard
franchise.
Bonnie Badelea.
She is in another few goodfilms.
She's actually long.
She should get a bit more.
She's in presumed innocence.
She's very good in that.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
Yeah, well, but she would have been getting on a bit
when we mentioned her back then.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
So I mean, yeah, but I see her most weeks because
diehards are on telly all thetime.
My wife falls asleep and shegoes oh, watch when any rubbish
you like, oh diehard too soBonnie Badelea took us to our
apartments with his daughter,with his daughter in the car.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
How does that situation in the front?
Speaker 2 (16:14):
yeah, he held her in there so she would say look,
you'd never want to do what yourold man's done.
And she was doing math revisionin the car, and we talk English
to us as well.
Brilliant reality training wascreated in 2001 by Bob and
Jeremy, both actors you met atdrama school.
Reality delivers training thatis effective, memorable and
(16:37):
entertaining, with a touch oftheatricality to bring it to
life.
We now have a company oftrainers, actors and coaches who
you can work with to createchange programs across your
business.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
Please contact us by reality training dot com anyway,
there we were in Princeton,which is this amazing University
town, and I remember that firstnight and you won't remember
this, it's so funny we went fora drink in Princeton with a chap
(17:10):
we had met with.
The guy who sold mulch oh, wedon't know, it doesn't matter.
Doesn't matter about Dave, dave, something like Dave and we
went to a lovely bar inPrinceton, sort of student bar.
We had a few beers and he was asalesman, had a really
interesting career and I thinkthat's a feature of all of our
trips.
We tend to make friends withone or two people in our
(17:32):
audiences and they take us outand show us the sites and we
went to a couple of bars withhim.
We also wandered aroundPrinceton University, which is
we met his brother.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
We met Dave, dave's brother.
I was a lecture at Rutgers,that's it.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
And I talked about when the term ended in May, june
, and everyone disappeared fromthe university and left
everything in there in theirflats, because they were all
just going to become In a multimillionaires working for us
companies, and so they wouldjust leave things behind and his
brother knew the porters yeah,the university porters and they
(18:11):
would be able to go and clearout furniture which they then
sold Really interesting.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
But, dave, as you say , he sold mulch to Italian
restaurants and make their ownhouse wines amazing and then he
got into selling to big brandslike Johnson and Johnson.
Yeah, like this, this is hechanged his life.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
So I mean, I don't really want to talk too much
about the work because we had a.
We were in a nice hotel, theone that we as a sort of a nice
ish hotel.
We had a big room.
We were doing training withthese people on how to how to
sell.
We did our normal presentation.
It went very well.
They were nice group of people.
There were some real charactersin that group, really
(18:48):
interesting people, some of whomare still friends of ours to
this day, which I was importantto us.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
And Jennifer was wonderful she was great and I
think she's gone on to work witha part of Amazon now.
Yes, she really got a.
She took us to a brilliantsecond hand music shop yes, she
did, and I still got boughtKeen's first album, having not
got into it.
And now I've seen Keen twiceand love them, and she was
(19:16):
terrific she she taught us abouthow she wanted to make a move
to different parts of the world,tom there was a great people
and we met.
We met a guy, mary.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
Mary, yeah, we met a guy who was in charge of one of
the big shows there, a Canadianchap.
He was very, very nice.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
Mike, we met some really nice people anyway his
wife painted David Bowie and wewent to dinner, probably with
them on a on a later trip.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
No, that was on that trip.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
That was on the first night she painted Bowie
brilliantly and then we tookthem out, mike and her out to
dinner.
I tell you what I will do aboutthe work.
The one thing that isinteresting, if anybody's
looking at the charting history,the internet come out and we
invented this concept, or atleast we perpetuated if we
didn't invent it.
The way companies were goingwrong is they would be being
beaten up with the click stick,and the click stick was if you
(20:06):
didn't get enough clicks on yourbanner, I'm not paying for it,
I'm not charging enough.
What Bob had learned through hisbrilliant training at Ziff
Davis was that you don't clickimmediately and go buy through
and buy something.
The advert has an impressionanyway.
Where is the industry washooked on beating up the click
stick.
How many impressions of I got?
And why are they not clickthrough and bought something?
And we really help them relaxthe, increase their revenue.
(20:28):
We got more work out of themwith their moved into training.
Their managers know it was areally good gig, but you're
right we don't talk about theword we can talk.
I think that that was a reallyexciting time because you'll
help me chronologically was itthat trip when Obama was elected
or a later trip?
Speaker 1 (20:45):
later, later, because that's when we were in the in
the.
In, in in, in, in in inPrinceton.
But that first trip, once we'vedone the work we and in fact it
was, that's how long ago it wasto get through to our families
because of the time differenceis hard on Skype, because of yes
to internet issues, etc.
(21:05):
It wasn't great.
And we took Mike and his wifeout to a lovely steak restaurant
where I ate still the biggestsingle steak ever.
It was vast and it was calledPorter House.
It was a porter house steak andI said I don't want any chips
with it because the steak isgoing to be enough.
(21:26):
Just bring me a salad right, Idon't need chips as well as this
massive steak.
And I remember distinctly theybrought the steak up.
It was.
It took up most of the tableand they couldn't resist putting
a couple of scoops of mashedpotato on the side.
I mean, as if I needed that.
I really didn't.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
Anyway, it was a very nice steak I asked to have well
later when we talk about ourwork on the west coast.
Yes, that's a whole differentthat that that we will just tea
up now their obsession withcheese, oh, don't, let's not
know, please, please, we'll holdthat back.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
So that was a really interesting trip.
We did go back subsequently,and we did go back in the winter
, because that was in the summer, we're back in the winter.
And we visited New York in thewinter in December, on a very,
very, very cold day, if yourecall was it that year?
Speaker 2 (22:20):
we went back again quite quickly.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
I think so, and we had to.
I went to New York to someshopping.
You came with me and we thoughtwe would rest perfectly fine
for wandering on New York.
The wind coming down thoseavenues was the most biting,
freezing, cold wind we'd everfelt and within minutes we
bought furry hats, scarves,gloves.
(22:43):
Do you remember?
Speaker 2 (22:44):
offer offer.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
Guy pushing a trolley , yeah he had a trolley was no
full, it was absolutely freezing, but anyway, we digressing.
What we learned in that firsttrip was about the friendliness
of.
The Americans were meeting.
We had some wonderful meals inrestaurants and witnessed
brilliant service from differenttypes of waiter, different
types of A knowledgeable waitersabout the food and what's nice
(23:07):
and what goes with what and howthey serve amazing, what with
the restaurants.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
We met the restaurant manager.
We made friends with him andhis girlfriend.
That was the second trip.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
Yeah, yeah, the first trip where they were.
There weren't that, theyweren't that as many, no, but we
did eat very well, and actuallyOne thing that you will recall
on that first trip was that Ithink it was that trip we met
your friend Barney.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
Barney and with the designer, camilla at the time,
and Victor, another fashiondesigner, barney, my dear friend
Barney Roper, who is a videomaker and film or and yeah, we
ate amazing food in that lovelyFrench restaurant in New York.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
I mean, I don't want people to think that that's the
only thing.
I remember the different foodelements but it certainly was.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
It was important we also make Barney, victor and
Camilla come and watch us dokaraoke.
Probably said it's great mate,it was so kind.
But yeah, barney sitting there,you know they're all pretty
cool fashionistas.
Yeah, looking at star of thedog in the couple of bricks up
there going.
Somebody told me you had anidea.
(24:24):
They suffered that but I waslovely seeing them.
Barney lived in a brownstonesomewhere yeah, doing all right.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
So, yes, so that was our first trip and when we came
back we are pretty stunned thatwe had done that and we gone to
america, been paid good moneyand all our expenses to train
people, and we then realizedthat, yes, we're very lucky to
(24:49):
do it, but there was alsosomething about the fact that
Our voices, the english accent,went down very well.
The double act, you know, thetwo englishman, was well
received and English man in newyork.
That's right.
Is that your sting impression?
It's not bad, is it need towork on a bit, but anyway I'll
(25:14):
work on it later.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
Do I tell you what it did for me In my confidence had
been a bit or golly, are wegonna be up to this number?
Being very nervous the firstday.
But then we realized that wehad such damn good training in
inductions ourselves in ourlives, all of the training that
we've been giving ourselves assales people for years.
And then sales managers,particularly for you, had
(25:39):
counted for something and weactually knew a lot about how
people buy things, therelationship, the timing, the
skills of listening, repeating,summarizing.
They actually dropped quite alot of very core basic skills
and they had become pictures andwe said to do this.
Digital cell is a lot moreconsultative and deeper and more
(26:01):
educational and lots of them.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
I think we're kind of living in the inbox rather than
sort of making a bit morecontact with people, which is
half battle two.
I would say that what's niceabout thinking about that now is
that since then we've been toamerica on many, many occasions,
and the most recent time wasabout what.
I was there a year ago, butthen prior to that we went to a
(26:25):
conference in miami about 18months ago, if you remember.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
We went together and it's it's a very talk about that
.
Another time we will thatinteresting about that.
The very place that we stayedin was named after the current
man in charge.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
I don't want to talk about that him at all.
All I want to say is I thinkwhat is interesting is a
comparison between that firsttrip and the subsequent trips
and what what I feel america islike on the last two trips.
It is very different.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
It's unfair to the people because I think when you
and I we even heard from jerryspringer in miami when he did,
he was our keynote speaker.
Yeah, he said you know you, westill the same people.
Of course the politics ischanged and when you watching
the news you're getting, but Ican assure you these are
(27:16):
individual pockets, but ofcourse they make the stories on
social media.
You know, you and I may havewatched some extraordinary stuff
recently on social media withpeople talking about not wearing
masks because you're notbreathing gods air.
Yeah, I'm in some extraordinarystuff which is scary, but
that's gonna get the air time.
Where is millions of americans?
Speaker 1 (27:36):
don't think like this , don't act like this if I look
back on our other trips and I'mnot gonna, you know we're not
going to go into them now, butwith the we went to texas, you
went to pennsylvania, I went toseattle.
We've both been to los angeles,minneapolis.
We've seen a lot of the us inthe years that we've been
working and they're all storiesof a different time, buy and
(27:59):
large.
What I feel is that it's aprivilege for us to go there,
because america is thiswonderful melting pot of
humanity and In some way we'reconnected with it, because they
will speak our language and youknow there is something that
connects us to the us in someform, because you know that
(28:19):
there's such a strong linkbetween our nations.
And but at the same time, Ithink we also look at it as this
curious place that has so manydifferent Facets on display
which you perhaps wouldn't haveso Acutely seen in other nations
(28:42):
.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
I think well, we've spent considerable hours, days,
weeks, face to face with many innorth americans, working with
them, getting to know, yes, andthere are people who, in our
country, go there all mad.
Hang on have you actually satdown?
with no no, you know, have youactually spent time with them
walking into an oxford pub andhearing an american accent going
(29:03):
?
Or that's very different tospending considerable time.
We have worked very closelywith north americans Over the
years and you know, we've got toknow them very well and we
always think that that we wouldlove to do more trips, love to
go back, love to work with them,or maybe we should.
My wife is always astoundedwe're not doing more out there.
She said surely you guys godown well over there.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
We do, we do, we do honey.
But but that's not quite howbusiness works.
Sometimes it is.
I remember one gig we did intexas where we had a number of
days of delivery to large groupsand we have one particular
group.
And I remember, you know,sometimes you have a day where
everything you say gets a biglaugh and kind of grows and
(29:44):
grows and grows and people wouldliterally clutching their sides
trying to cope the laughter.
We would really on foot on fireand we had such a great gig and
I just thought this is showbusiness.
You know, I thought we'd, Ithought we went beyond what we
were trying to do.
We would just, we were justmaking entertaining and
unforgettable and I thought wetried to do.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
That is what we always try to do, because sales
has to be fun.
Yeah, management has to be fun.
You know the two of you workingtogether.
Whether you're at this positionof managing a team and trying
to marshal them and coach themand make them make them feel
good, or you're one of thoseindividuals doing that.
That was such a good day, Iremember.
At the end of that, we arepresented with our Texan Badge,
(30:30):
whatever you call them belt,buckles, yeah, and I've still
got that.
I was wearing that belt theother day Really lovely quality
Texan buckles and for a time Iwouldn't wear that.
Actually I thought I can't walkaround this great Texas thing
on me, but maybe I should, whynot?
Speaker 1 (30:48):
My final story about that first trip is linked to
something that you will remember.
When we did this training, oneof the parts of it was we wanted
each person to present back tous what they were going to
suggest to an actual client andwe filmed those presentations on
my little camcorder and we werevery well provided for
(31:11):
refreshments over there andthere were huge baskets of
boiled sweets available toanybody who wanted them, and all
the tables.
Do you remember this?
Yeah, and I was recording thepresentations and all of the
playback and all of thosepresentations.
What you can hear is me suckingaway on these sweets and I
(31:32):
didn't realize and you told methat later and I died.
I thought it was hilarious.
So anybody watching those backwould have thought oh see,
what's that noise?
But there we are.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
You just completely forgot, didn't you?
Speaker 1 (31:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
The connection between sound and vision.
You thought it's pointing atthem.
I can see them.
Yes, of course the camerapicked it up.
No, that was a glorious firsttrip.
There's one other thing that Ihave remembered to conclude.
We did take a walk all aroundthe University of Princeton,
which, of course, is famous forbeing.
Most of the scenes of DeadPoets Society are filmed there.
(32:08):
To give the illusion of that,what they were, the American,
they called prep schools, butactually you're a bit older.
That's the scenes of thesetting.
But no, what a wonderful trip.
Let's hope we get some more,bobby.
Speaker 1 (32:20):
Anybody who's interested on our old YouTube
channel which was called RealityTraining TV.
There are some original shortfilms from that trip where we
did different ways to close adeal.
Five or six, and they werefilmed in and around Central
Manhattan.
(32:41):
And there's one really funnyone where Jeremy's got these two
red chimneys coming out of hishead with a lot of smoke coming
out.
That's hilarious and we thoughtwe were such sages giving this
information.
And there was also a offlicense near Rockefeller Plaza
called Morellen Company, which Ithink must have been related to
(33:01):
me.
I should ask them for adividend, which I think is only
right that we started thispodcast talking about booze, and
we'll finish it by saying thatmy family run an off license in
Central Manhattan.
Speaker 2 (33:13):
Well, we should also finish with the story of the off
license, which is a sale story.
We went in there and you saidlet's just see how much
champagne is in the US comparedto the UK.
We're looking at the champagneand a young chap from working in
Morellen Co comes up and Ithink, oh, bob's going to tell
him that they're related.
But no, the guy says, hi,you're looking at champagne,
we've got a little stopper here.
(33:34):
You just put that in the topand it keeps it, you know, fizzy
for sparkling for a few moredays.
You have that on us and he putit in your hand and I guess what
you meant to do at that pointis go, he's given me the stopper
.
I now select which bottle Ihave with the free stopper, but
of course you then go to thetill and go well, actually I'm
(33:54):
not getting champagne today andyou give the stopper back.
So that was his little freegift for sales for closing was
nice, nice and we coined thephrase for that a bonus close
the bonus close.
We call it a bonus close, that'sright.
Well, on that close, thank you.
And well done, bob, forremembering chronologically our
lives.
So that's 2008.
(34:17):
That's 12 years ago already,bob, the first trip.
Well, time flies when you'rehaving fun.
So, thank you for tuning in.
Thank you very much, bobby.
You're welcome and we will seeyou on another episode soon of
our Conflab.
Thank you, take care.
Bye for now.
Bye.
Speaker 1 (34:44):
Bob and Jeremy's Conflab the reality podcast.
Bob and Jeremy's Conflab the reality podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Hello and welcome to another episode of Bob and
Jeremy's Conflab.
Thank you so much for choosingto press play and listen in
again.
If this is your first timejoining us, welcome.
So we are on a very differenttopic today, but before we start
I want to find out how the maninvolved in these Conflabs with
(00:37):
me is doing so.
Bob, tell listeners what it'slike during coronavirus time
down in sunny Kent.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Well, it's not too bad actually.
Thanks for asking.
I live in the middle of thecountryside, so I'm very
fortunate that I'm surrounded bygreen fields and trees and I'm
about 20 minutes from the coast.
So occasionally we go downthere and go for a wonderful
walk in a place called Rye,which if you'd never visited I'd
highly recommend.
It's lovely, so it's quite asort of rural idyll down here,
(01:06):
although still no pubs open yet,which is a bit of a blow.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Ah, yes, for listeners tuning in, that is set
to happen this Saturday, Ithink.
Yes.
Does that mean that the nationwill go a little bit potty To be
served a draft ale?
Speaker 1 (01:22):
Oh I think Sunday, is that what?
Speaker 2 (01:24):
people crave.
Do you think they crave thepump?
Speaker 1 (01:27):
No, I think they just want to order a pint in a pub
and drink it.
I think that's the first thingthey want to be able to see
their friends.
What we haven't really thoughtabout is the size of the
hangovers we're going to have onSunday.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Well, it's funny, I'm pretty skilled at drinking
alone or at home, as, in regardsto going to a building for
group indoctrination, I'm prettyskilled at drinking in a solo
capacity.
I don't know if I suppose youyour line is the conviviality
will increase the volume.
Is that what you're saying?
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Yes, and I think what'll happen.
Of course, the excitement ofbeing in a pub for the first
time in three months is thatyou'll go a bit mental.
And I don't know about you, butI'm very partial to a pint and
a chaser, which I think puts mein a special category.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Chases me.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
And you know, I think a few of those and I'll be done
a bit like you.
But I think some people willjust do pint after pint all day
until the point where theyeither have fights or just can't
function anymore, and then Ithink we kind of ruined that
kind of fun element of it.
But after this big delay it'sgoing to be big.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
We should actually share with our listeners who are
interested.
They may or may not be.
You and I have become beerimporters.
During lockdown we found acouple of German companies
because I think we'd rival anylistener to say a nation above
Germany produces better beer andwe enjoy importing mostly
(02:56):
Augustina Brow Edelstoff to givethem a little shout out.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
It's lovely.
And we love talking about beer.
I'm going to guess that you'relining up for Harveys.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Yes, so the pub I'm going to is a Harveys pub.
Harveys is an excellent whatyou might call session beer.
So it's a nice coffable ale,absolutely delicious, and we're
going to have some food there,although the pub we're going to
we've been told isn't doing afull menu, so that's also a bit
of a blow.
So I think we're going to haveto have some food in advance of
(03:27):
this.
I mean, I don't want listenersto get the picture of us as a
very heavy drinking pear Jeremy,because that would be wrong.
But I think it's fair to saythat what we like is quality.
That's the first thing.
But also for me in particular Idon't know about you I love the
social environment going to apub or to a restaurant with
(03:48):
one's friends up until lockdown.
I was somebody who was goingout probably three times a week,
either for work or pleasure, toeat out, so that was my life.
So not to be able to do thathas been a change and I'm
looking forward to getting backto a bit of that because I love
that atmosphere.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
As you know, my local is an extraordinary thing
called the mushroom, which is anot-for-profit pub, and on our
local Facebook groups people aresaying hey, when are you
reopening?
We don't do food but we do dopork scratchings.
When I had a bit more time, Iused to pull pints the odd
Friday evening, but I have lesstime on Fridays now, but that's
(04:30):
going to open up soon.
It's ridiculous what we chargefor a pint a bit Under three
quid a pint.
I mean it's ludicrous.
Wow, which is great, I think.
Brace yourself, because we weretalking to our friend,
christoph in Munich and he wassaying he went to his local and
they said five euros, 50 please.
And he was going right and hesaid the prices have gone up.
So we'll be interested to talkto you next to see what a pint
(04:51):
of Harveys has become to you, myKentish lad.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Well, the other problem, of course, is that
people who have been used todrinking at home for the last
three months and buying alltheir booze from the supermarket
where, of course, per unit it'smuch cheaper when they start
going back to pubs and realizethat hang on a minute this is
costing me 25 quid to buy around of drinks.
I think that's also going tobring in sharp relief the
(05:16):
difference between those twoalcohol purchasing options.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
So let's talk about today's topic.
So we did an episode recentlyabout training in India and we
thought our listeners mightenjoy another continent that we
have traversed.
We're talking about NorthAmerica, and we first went there
at the bite of a recession, andhere we are again, probably
(05:45):
entering another one.
I'm afraid we were there 2007,2008,.
We first started going out tothe US, to the East Coast, with
one of the world's largest eventexhibition organizations.
They did have magazines, butmagazines already declining and
the main income they made wasrunning large events and
exhibitions.
They wanted us to train theirteams in how to get more people
(06:08):
to buy booths.
They call them booths.
Do you remember that?
Get them in the booths.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
That wasn't the first project we had, jeremy, on the
East Coast.
Yeah, the first project we hadwas getting the customers of
this company to buy digitaladvertising as well as the
booths.
It was nothing to do with thebooths it was selling digital
advertising.
This was the transition fromtraditional media to digital
(06:35):
media and, as you and I had bothhad extensive experience
working for various brandsearlier, when digital
advertising suddenly took off,we then had a number of courses
that we sold, and then we wereasked to go and deliver that
course to a large team of peoplein Princeton in New Jersey, in
(06:56):
America, and we traveled outpremium economy, as I recall,
which was a treat.
Paid for by the client, ofcourse, and we stayed in
Princeton in an apartment, doyou remember?
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Didn't we stay in the famous hotel that had a rocker,
not a rocker, fella the YankeeDoodle Dandy painting.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
That was on about the third or fourth trip, Jeremy.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Oh, this is why, listeners, we rely on Bob.
He's his long-term memory.
We didn't stay in thatextraordinary building till the
third or fourth trip, yes, solet me just give you a quick, so
we stayed in an apartment.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
Yeah, let me just give you the quick run down here
.
Okay, we flew into New York.
We stayed in a hotel on TimesSquare for two nights, yes, we
then traveled out to New Jersey.
We stayed in an apartment foranother three or four nights and
then we came home.
That was the first trip.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Hold on a minute.
Was this the suite, some kindof suite thing?
Yes, where they had a swimmingpool out in the back.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Got it, got it, got it.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
And we had an apartment with two bedrooms and
a kitchenette.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
Got it.
I'm there.
You and I Was that where we hadsome coffee from Wolfgang Park.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Yeah, Wolfgang Park.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
Wolfgang Park Always asked for it by name, and we
stayed in this apartment and wehad a snapshot of what life
would be like if we wereactually to live in the same
household for a while, and Ithink I can safely say we've
never bothered to try that since.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
We weren't in the same room, I think we stayed
somewhere else once where it waslike a kind of Spanish holiday
place.
Yes, and I had the child's.
It was a family thing and I hadthe child's room and you had
the parents' room.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
I remember that as well.
So that was.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
That was similar to that time.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
That was in Marbella, yeah, that was.
That's another story, but inthis particular instance we flew
into New York.
We had a couple of nights inNew York and I want to remind
you of one particular time.
On a Sunday morning we went forbreakfast at the Carnegie Diner
.
Oh golly Now this diner isfamous, was famous.
(09:11):
It was around between the 50s,going right into the early part
of this century, and it is nowclosed.
It no longer exists, which is atragedy.
The diner itself was featuredin a number of films, but in
particular in the film Broadway,Danny Rose, where this
(09:32):
theatrical agent went into thisdiner all the time, because
around the walls is hundreds ofpictures of celebrities and
famous people who've eaten inthat diner.
We knew that it was famous andwe went there and we sat there
late morning and we weresurrounded by faces of New York
in this diner, chatting,laughing, having a giggle,
(09:55):
having coffee, having juice, andwe had this huge, immense
breakfast.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
I had pastrami, I had their ham, a bacon thing.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
You ordered bacon.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
And there were so many rashes, I said this is
obscene Bob, how am I meant toeat this?
And you said well, people takeit home and they eat it later,
and then I had a piece ofcheesecake that was like a human
, not human.
Like an entire cheesecake for afamily.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
Well, we will gloss over the fact that you had
ordered cheesecake as abreakfast accompaniment, but yes
, the cheesecake you ordered wasmassive.
I know that at that point youwere particularly struggling to
get through any meal withouthaving some kind of a dessert,
but that area where we sat wasexactly where they filmed Brawl
Bay Danny Rose, where all thesecomedians sat, and I remember a
(10:44):
lady next to us ordered theBrawl Bay Danny Rose sandwich
and it was a massive baconsandwich.
It was immense, and she ate atiny piece of it and then
wrapped the rest of it up infoil to take away with her.
Brilliant, that was how big theportion sizes were.
It was impressive.
So that was wonderful.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
There were Italian types in there, there were
Jewish types in there, therewere native New Yorkers in there
.
We had that kind of PaulSorvino, diane Weist's husband,
that kind of crowd, yeah, as ifI'm trying to think of as Sydney
, sydney, whatever could havewalked in at any point.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
Do you remember what we talked about?
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Did we talk about Woody Allen films?
No, did we talk about?
Speaker 1 (11:29):
portion distortion.
One major piece of discussionwe had, but I'll remind you, we
talked about what our fathersboth our late fathers, would
have made of the sight of youand me sitting in this diner in
New York, going out there withour own business, having our
flights and our accommodationand our food paid for by our
(11:53):
client, and them actually payingus some money to do that work
in America, and the idea thatour fathers would not have
comprehended that fact Becausein their lives that just would
never have happened, would it?
Speaker 2 (12:10):
Well, no, I mean, I'm the son of a salesman and an
artist, but he was more of anartist than a salesman.
He did painting and picturesthis whole life, but he had to
earn.
So he sold.
And he sold to architects in akind of lovely conversational
way to get them to spec histimbers into their designs.
And yeah, and he commuted toLondon from Hadlam in Bucks for
(12:35):
years and years and years.
He'd never have comprehendedthat.
And your father?
He was a school teacher, adeputy head in a special school.
He would have committed to thatsite for years.
The thought of travel and extratrips and expenses was
something that didn't evenfeature on their radars.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
No, and so I think that is a really good comparison
, because at that point in ourlives there we were both
fatherless technically in thatsense, we both lost our fathers
and yet casting that shadow back, because up to that point we
hadn't really registered thatwhat we were doing as a business
(13:14):
was being successful, wastaking us to new places, was
giving us new experiences, Ithink that was the kind of great
comparison we were making inAmerica, I mean in in the United
States America.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
Bizarre we had.
It was a nice early break forus because we we do pretty much
dropping the marketing businessyeah these marketing plans and
2008.
We don't have been going sixyears.
We're fans of Elmer Wheeler.
Yeah, zig zig, ziggler.
Yeah, these great US salestrainers.
Surely they've got this taped.
Surely they don't need uswhatever the expression is,
(13:49):
coles and Newcastle surely theydon't need us coming over there.
Over there, who are you tellingme how to sell digital
advertising?
Yeah, but we had had an amazingbackground.
So the background of it was weboth came to it from two
different places, but ourcombined knowledge was very
valuable.
I'd helped SMEs at Yellow Pagesenter the digital world so I
(14:09):
could be speaking to a growingbusiness that might be turning
over a million, two million quid, something like that, and they
haven't even got a website.
And at Yale we made them one.
They wanted to expand theirreach beyond the, the printed
delivery directory area.
So if you imagine that YellowPages anyone on the doorsteps
within a postcode suddenly theinternet is invented and you can
(14:32):
, you can reach people beyond.
I mean, that is anextraordinary concept for a
plumber who can only reachpeople by a book delivered in a
postcode area.
Suddenly the internet changesthat and you had helped much
more.
Sort of glossy big brands, lotsof tech stuff HP, dell, british
Airways, expedia.
You know you had helped largebrands really change the way
(14:52):
people think about their brands,get them to click on their
banners, go through and buythings, or buy things later.
That was all.
It was fascinating.
That was a great project.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
We created this brilliant content.
We'd already been training itin the UK and also in Europe
we'd done the Holland, I think,and also we then went on to work
in Paris with that project aswell, I seem to remember and
then we went out to America.
So we then, after a couple ofdays in New York, we then got a
train out to New Jersey and wemet a cab driver at the station
(15:20):
in Princeton, got it and he wasin a white, beautiful Cadillac
taxi and his name was BonnieBadelea.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
Bonnie Badelea.
We called it.
He was called Bonnie and wethought well, the only Bonnie we
know is the long suffering wifeof Bruce Willis in the diehard
franchise.
Bonnie Badelea.
She is in another few goodfilms.
She's actually long.
She should get a bit more.
She's in presumed innocence.
She's very good in that.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
Yeah, well, but she would have been getting on a bit
when we mentioned her back then.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
So I mean, yeah, but I see her most weeks because
diehards are on telly all thetime.
My wife falls asleep and shegoes oh, watch when any rubbish
you like, oh diehard too soBonnie Badelea took us to our
apartments with his daughter,with his daughter in the car.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
How does that situation in the front?
Speaker 2 (16:14):
yeah, he held her in there so she would say look,
you'd never want to do what yourold man's done.
And she was doing math revisionin the car, and we talk English
to us as well.
Brilliant reality training wascreated in 2001 by Bob and
Jeremy, both actors you met atdrama school.
Reality delivers training thatis effective, memorable and
(16:37):
entertaining, with a touch oftheatricality to bring it to
life.
We now have a company oftrainers, actors and coaches who
you can work with to createchange programs across your
business.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
Please contact us by reality training dot com anyway,
there we were in Princeton,which is this amazing University
town, and I remember that firstnight and you won't remember
this, it's so funny we went fora drink in Princeton with a chap
(17:10):
we had met with.
The guy who sold mulch oh, wedon't know, it doesn't matter.
Doesn't matter about Dave, dave, something like Dave and we
went to a lovely bar inPrinceton, sort of student bar.
We had a few beers and he was asalesman, had a really
interesting career and I thinkthat's a feature of all of our
trips.
We tend to make friends withone or two people in our
(17:32):
audiences and they take us outand show us the sites and we
went to a couple of bars withhim.
We also wandered aroundPrinceton University, which is
we met his brother.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
We met Dave, dave's brother.
I was a lecture at Rutgers,that's it.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
And I talked about when the term ended in May, june
, and everyone disappeared fromthe university and left
everything in there in theirflats, because they were all
just going to become In a multimillionaires working for us
companies, and so they wouldjust leave things behind and his
brother knew the porters yeah,the university porters and they
(18:11):
would be able to go and clearout furniture which they then
sold Really interesting.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
But, dave, as you say , he sold mulch to Italian
restaurants and make their ownhouse wines amazing and then he
got into selling to big brandslike Johnson and Johnson.
Yeah, like this, this is hechanged his life.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
So I mean, I don't really want to talk too much
about the work because we had a.
We were in a nice hotel, theone that we as a sort of a nice
ish hotel.
We had a big room.
We were doing training withthese people on how to how to
sell.
We did our normal presentation.
It went very well.
They were nice group of people.
There were some real charactersin that group, really
(18:48):
interesting people, some of whomare still friends of ours to
this day, which I was importantto us.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
And Jennifer was wonderful she was great and I
think she's gone on to work witha part of Amazon now.
Yes, she really got a.
She took us to a brilliantsecond hand music shop yes, she
did, and I still got boughtKeen's first album, having not
got into it.
And now I've seen Keen twiceand love them, and she was
(19:16):
terrific she she taught us abouthow she wanted to make a move
to different parts of the world,tom there was a great people
and we met.
We met a guy, mary.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
Mary, yeah, we met a guy who was in charge of one of
the big shows there, a Canadianchap.
He was very, very nice.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
Mike, we met some really nice people anyway his
wife painted David Bowie and wewent to dinner, probably with
them on a on a later trip.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
No, that was on that trip.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
That was on the first night she painted Bowie
brilliantly and then we tookthem out, mike and her out to
dinner.
I tell you what I will do aboutthe work.
The one thing that isinteresting, if anybody's
looking at the charting history,the internet come out and we
invented this concept, or atleast we perpetuated if we
didn't invent it.
The way companies were goingwrong is they would be being
beaten up with the click stick,and the click stick was if you
(20:06):
didn't get enough clicks on yourbanner, I'm not paying for it,
I'm not charging enough.
What Bob had learned through hisbrilliant training at Ziff
Davis was that you don't clickimmediately and go buy through
and buy something.
The advert has an impressionanyway.
Where is the industry washooked on beating up the click
stick.
How many impressions of I got?
And why are they not clickthrough and bought something?
And we really help them relaxthe, increase their revenue.
(20:28):
We got more work out of themwith their moved into training.
Their managers know it was areally good gig, but you're
right we don't talk about theword we can talk.
I think that that was a reallyexciting time because you'll
help me chronologically was itthat trip when Obama was elected
or a later trip?
Speaker 1 (20:45):
later, later, because that's when we were in the in
the.
In, in in, in, in in inPrinceton.
But that first trip, once we'vedone the work we and in fact it
was, that's how long ago it wasto get through to our families
because of the time differenceis hard on Skype, because of yes
to internet issues, etc.
(21:05):
It wasn't great.
And we took Mike and his wifeout to a lovely steak restaurant
where I ate still the biggestsingle steak ever.
It was vast and it was calledPorter House.
It was a porter house steak andI said I don't want any chips
with it because the steak isgoing to be enough.
(21:26):
Just bring me a salad right, Idon't need chips as well as this
massive steak.
And I remember distinctly theybrought the steak up.
It was.
It took up most of the tableand they couldn't resist putting
a couple of scoops of mashedpotato on the side.
I mean, as if I needed that.
I really didn't.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
Anyway, it was a very nice steak I asked to have well
later when we talk about ourwork on the west coast.
Yes, that's a whole differentthat that that we will just tea
up now their obsession withcheese, oh, don't, let's not
know, please, please, we'll holdthat back.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
So that was a really interesting trip.
We did go back subsequently,and we did go back in the winter
, because that was in the summer, we're back in the winter.
And we visited New York in thewinter in December, on a very,
very, very cold day, if yourecall was it that year?
Speaker 2 (22:20):
we went back again quite quickly.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
I think so, and we had to.
I went to New York to someshopping.
You came with me and we thoughtwe would rest perfectly fine
for wandering on New York.
The wind coming down thoseavenues was the most biting,
freezing, cold wind we'd everfelt and within minutes we
bought furry hats, scarves,gloves.
(22:43):
Do you remember?
Speaker 2 (22:44):
offer offer.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
Guy pushing a trolley , yeah he had a trolley was no
full, it was absolutely freezing, but anyway, we digressing.
What we learned in that firsttrip was about the friendliness
of.
The Americans were meeting.
We had some wonderful meals inrestaurants and witnessed
brilliant service from differenttypes of waiter, different
types of A knowledgeable waitersabout the food and what's nice
(23:07):
and what goes with what and howthey serve amazing, what with
the restaurants.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
We met the restaurant manager.
We made friends with him andhis girlfriend.
That was the second trip.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
Yeah, yeah, the first trip where they were.
There weren't that, theyweren't that as many, no, but we
did eat very well, and actuallyOne thing that you will recall
on that first trip was that Ithink it was that trip we met
your friend Barney.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
Barney and with the designer, camilla at the time,
and Victor, another fashiondesigner, barney, my dear friend
Barney Roper, who is a videomaker and film or and yeah, we
ate amazing food in that lovelyFrench restaurant in New York.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
I mean, I don't want people to think that that's the
only thing.
I remember the different foodelements but it certainly was.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
It was important we also make Barney, victor and
Camilla come and watch us dokaraoke.
Probably said it's great mate,it was so kind.
But yeah, barney sitting there,you know they're all pretty
cool fashionistas.
Yeah, looking at star of thedog in the couple of bricks up
there going.
Somebody told me you had anidea.
(24:24):
They suffered that but I waslovely seeing them.
Barney lived in a brownstonesomewhere yeah, doing all right.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
So, yes, so that was our first trip and when we came
back we are pretty stunned thatwe had done that and we gone to
america, been paid good moneyand all our expenses to train
people, and we then realizedthat, yes, we're very lucky to
(24:49):
do it, but there was alsosomething about the fact that
Our voices, the english accent,went down very well.
The double act, you know, thetwo englishman, was well
received and English man in newyork.
That's right.
Is that your sting impression?
It's not bad, is it need towork on a bit, but anyway I'll
(25:14):
work on it later.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
Do I tell you what it did for me In my confidence had
been a bit or golly, are wegonna be up to this number?
Being very nervous the firstday.
But then we realized that wehad such damn good training in
inductions ourselves in ourlives, all of the training that
we've been giving ourselves assales people for years.
And then sales managers,particularly for you, had
(25:39):
counted for something and weactually knew a lot about how
people buy things, therelationship, the timing, the
skills of listening, repeating,summarizing.
They actually dropped quite alot of very core basic skills
and they had become pictures andwe said to do this.
Digital cell is a lot moreconsultative and deeper and more
(26:01):
educational and lots of them.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
I think we're kind of living in the inbox rather than
sort of making a bit morecontact with people, which is
half battle two.
I would say that what's niceabout thinking about that now is
that since then we've been toamerica on many, many occasions,
and the most recent time wasabout what.
I was there a year ago, butthen prior to that we went to a
(26:25):
conference in miami about 18months ago, if you remember.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
We went together and it's it's a very talk about that
.
Another time we will thatinteresting about that.
The very place that we stayedin was named after the current
man in charge.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
I don't want to talk about that him at all.
All I want to say is I thinkwhat is interesting is a
comparison between that firsttrip and the subsequent trips
and what what I feel america islike on the last two trips.
It is very different.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
It's unfair to the people because I think when you
and I we even heard from jerryspringer in miami when he did,
he was our keynote speaker.
Yeah, he said you know you, westill the same people.
Of course the politics ischanged and when you watching
the news you're getting, but Ican assure you these are
(27:16):
individual pockets, but ofcourse they make the stories on
social media.
You know, you and I may havewatched some extraordinary stuff
recently on social media withpeople talking about not wearing
masks because you're notbreathing gods air.
Yeah, I'm in some extraordinarystuff which is scary, but
that's gonna get the air time.
Where is millions of americans?
Speaker 1 (27:36):
don't think like this , don't act like this if I look
back on our other trips and I'mnot gonna, you know we're not
going to go into them now, butwith the we went to texas, you
went to pennsylvania, I went toseattle.
We've both been to los angeles,minneapolis.
We've seen a lot of the us inthe years that we've been
working and they're all storiesof a different time, buy and
(27:59):
large.
What I feel is that it's aprivilege for us to go there,
because america is thiswonderful melting pot of
humanity and In some way we'reconnected with it, because they
will speak our language and youknow there is something that
connects us to the us in someform, because you know that
(28:19):
there's such a strong linkbetween our nations.
And but at the same time, Ithink we also look at it as this
curious place that has so manydifferent Facets on display
which you perhaps wouldn't haveso Acutely seen in other nations
(28:42):
.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
I think well, we've spent considerable hours, days,
weeks, face to face with many innorth americans, working with
them, getting to know, yes, andthere are people who, in our
country, go there all mad.
Hang on have you actually satdown?
with no no, you know, have youactually spent time with them
walking into an oxford pub andhearing an american accent going
(29:03):
?
Or that's very different tospending considerable time.
We have worked very closelywith north americans Over the
years and you know, we've got toknow them very well and we
always think that that we wouldlove to do more trips, love to
go back, love to work with them,or maybe we should.
My wife is always astoundedwe're not doing more out there.
She said surely you guys godown well over there.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
We do, we do, we do honey.
But but that's not quite howbusiness works.
Sometimes it is.
I remember one gig we did intexas where we had a number of
days of delivery to large groupsand we have one particular
group.
And I remember, you know,sometimes you have a day where
everything you say gets a biglaugh and kind of grows and
(29:44):
grows and grows and people wouldliterally clutching their sides
trying to cope the laughter.
We would really on foot on fireand we had such a great gig and
I just thought this is showbusiness.
You know, I thought we'd, Ithought we went beyond what we
were trying to do.
We would just, we were justmaking entertaining and
unforgettable and I thought wetried to do.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
That is what we always try to do, because sales
has to be fun.
Yeah, management has to be fun.
You know the two of you workingtogether.
Whether you're at this positionof managing a team and trying
to marshal them and coach themand make them make them feel
good, or you're one of thoseindividuals doing that.
That was such a good day, Iremember.
At the end of that, we arepresented with our Texan Badge,
(30:30):
whatever you call them belt,buckles, yeah, and I've still
got that.
I was wearing that belt theother day Really lovely quality
Texan buckles and for a time Iwouldn't wear that.
Actually I thought I can't walkaround this great Texas thing
on me, but maybe I should, whynot?
Speaker 1 (30:48):
My final story about that first trip is linked to
something that you will remember.
When we did this training, oneof the parts of it was we wanted
each person to present back tous what they were going to
suggest to an actual client andwe filmed those presentations on
my little camcorder and we werevery well provided for
(31:11):
refreshments over there andthere were huge baskets of
boiled sweets available toanybody who wanted them, and all
the tables.
Do you remember this?
Yeah, and I was recording thepresentations and all of the
playback and all of thosepresentations.
What you can hear is me suckingaway on these sweets and I
(31:32):
didn't realize and you told methat later and I died.
I thought it was hilarious.
So anybody watching those backwould have thought oh see,
what's that noise?
But there we are.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
You just completely forgot, didn't you?
Speaker 1 (31:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
The connection between sound and vision.
You thought it's pointing atthem.
I can see them.
Yes, of course the camerapicked it up.
No, that was a glorious firsttrip.
There's one other thing that Ihave remembered to conclude.
We did take a walk all aroundthe University of Princeton,
which, of course, is famous forbeing.
Most of the scenes of DeadPoets Society are filmed there.
(32:08):
To give the illusion of that,what they were, the American,
they called prep schools, butactually you're a bit older.
That's the scenes of thesetting.
But no, what a wonderful trip.
Let's hope we get some more,bobby.
Speaker 1 (32:20):
Anybody who's interested on our old YouTube
channel which was called RealityTraining TV.
There are some original shortfilms from that trip where we
did different ways to close adeal.
Five or six, and they werefilmed in and around Central
Manhattan.
(32:41):
And there's one really funnyone where Jeremy's got these two
red chimneys coming out of hishead with a lot of smoke coming
out.
That's hilarious and we thoughtwe were such sages giving this
information.
And there was also a offlicense near Rockefeller Plaza
called Morellen Company, which Ithink must have been related to
(33:01):
me.
I should ask them for adividend, which I think is only
right that we started thispodcast talking about booze, and
we'll finish it by saying thatmy family run an off license in
Central Manhattan.
Speaker 2 (33:13):
Well, we should also finish with the story of the off
license, which is a sale story.
We went in there and you saidlet's just see how much
champagne is in the US comparedto the UK.
We're looking at the champagneand a young chap from working in
Morellen Co comes up and Ithink, oh, bob's going to tell
him that they're related.
But no, the guy says, hi,you're looking at champagne,
we've got a little stopper here.
(33:34):
You just put that in the topand it keeps it, you know, fizzy
for sparkling for a few moredays.
You have that on us and he putit in your hand and I guess what
you meant to do at that pointis go, he's given me the stopper
.
I now select which bottle Ihave with the free stopper, but
of course you then go to thetill and go well, actually I'm
(33:54):
not getting champagne today andyou give the stopper back.
So that was his little freegift for sales for closing was
nice, nice and we coined thephrase for that a bonus close
the bonus close.
We call it a bonus close, that'sright.
Well, on that close, thank you.
And well done, bob, forremembering chronologically our
lives.
So that's 2008.
(34:17):
That's 12 years ago already,bob, the first trip.
Well, time flies when you'rehaving fun.
So, thank you for tuning in.
Thank you very much, bobby.
You're welcome and we will seeyou on another episode soon of
our Conflab.
Thank you, take care.
Bye for now.
Bye.
Speaker 1 (34:44):
Bob and Jeremy's Conflab the reality podcast.
Popular Podcasts
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.