Zoom Fatigue, it's Real!

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Meir Israel (00:00):
If you go to Urban Dictionary of which I am a huge

(00:02):
fan, there is no colorfulalternative that anyone has
written. It is straight up justthe words, Zoom Fatigue. That's
it. No one's thought of anythingelse. It's that bad, okay?

Staceyann VanHorne-Dori (00:20):
Welcome to another episode of well
seasoned the podcast, we're herewith another great guest,

Patrick Brochu (00:26):
I am very happy to introduce one of my very best
friends in our industry. Mr.
Mir, Israel, near is the CEO ofstudio in photography and
Senate, the South Beach,photobooth, company, and
Hollywood gameworks. So he's gota lot going on in different
facets in the industry to makeand you're one of me, and we'll

(00:48):
talk a little bit about that.
But today's topic is on virtualevents. So say hello, Meir.

Hello, Meir!

So one of the things I want to kick off with
is things that are born fromdownturns in the economy. I
actually heard this outside ofour industry, but there were a
lot of companies that were bornduring recessions and
depressions, and it seems likedownturns really push this
innovation. So we're just beforewe got on this call was telling

(01:20):
me the history of South Beachphotobooth company, and how that
was born out of the 2008recession. So here, give us a
quick little glimpse into howyou went from just photography.
And born into these otherfacets.

Yeah, of course.
So, in 2008, myself, and my nowbusiness partner, Michael
Anthony Sabatino, we started asecondary photobooth company.
And within the photo boothworld, it was a classic story
of, hey, let's just buy a photobooth for some, you know, some
side hustle, some extra income.
Um, I quickly realized thatdespite the fact that people do

(01:55):
trust in photographers, forimage quality, and delivery, and
so forth, there was something alittle bit more pertinent to the
idea of a concierge typeservice, people really recognize
a brand and a brand's ability toreally hone in on a specific
thing, especially when we werealready trying to like make a

(02:15):
specific look and a specificlevel of service of what we were
doing. We decided to just startan offshoot, a fictitious name,
you know, now an actual officialtraining course, these days. And
I actually got inspiration fromanother company at the time, and
I'm like, Oh, that's, that's agreat, effective, authentic
name. I, I suggested to mybusiness partner, I'm like, hey,

(02:35):
let's let's do the South BeachPhoto Booth Company, I think
that would really be a hit, likepeople really get what we're
trying to do. And at the time,we were located in a part of
Fort Lauderdale, and he said,we're not in Miami, like, What's
it? You know? Why are we doingthat? He's like, let's call the
Fort Lauderdale Photo BoothCompany. I'm like, that reminds
me of spring break, and not in agood way. Let's not do that. So

(02:55):
hence, the South BeachPhotobooth Company was born back
in 2009.

Staceyann VanHorne-Doria (03:00):
From the ashes, that's awesome

Yes exactly.
Absolutely from the ashes, youknow, from the 2008 recession,
definitely greatestaccomplishment so far in my
business.

That's awesome.

That little history, right there.

That's awesome. So like we had said,
Today, we're talking aboutvirtual events, right? And
you're talking about being bornfrom the ashes. I was talking
Patrick previously. And I waslike, virtual events would not
even be a thing that I wouldeven think of, if it weren't for
COVID. Right, we get togetherand we do events in person, and
I do site visits. So we'retalking about that, and the

(03:35):
amount of options from theplatform to use to the time of
day to the type of event. So Ikind of want to start off at the
beginning, like the platformchoices, and the amount of
options there are to do, whatmakes the platform strong? Are
you seeing trends that you'rehoning in on with all these
platforms for virtual events?

Little bit of yes, a little bit of no. I would say
ease of user interface is alwaysparamount to everything, we
certainly see that with what wedo from something as simple as a
photobooth that takes picturesof people, we always try to keep
everything on a straight onetrack KISS, keep it simple,
Sally, and though Zoom andthings like that are really easy
to inundate with securitypurposes, if you're not

(04:17):
monitoring it, and havingsomebody specifically moderate
it the entire time. Zoom, Ithink is still like
predominantly, the way thatpeople go are going, I'm seeing
some things that some people arecreating or themselves, but
realistically, it's just like askin and a portal that goes to
whatever that thing is, youknow, be Zoom be at teams, etc.

(04:38):
But as of this moment, I thinkright now, that's what the
majority of us are still seeing,which then creates kind of a
miscommunication with what theclient's perceptions are for
what they should be paying hisZoom for, like $13 a month, like
what are they paying you for asan event professional, but To
that end, I've quickly realizedlike, yeah, it could absolutely

(04:59):
feel this way. Like Clients aresaying, you know, some people
are trying to justify, like, whyare you charging this this
money? What is the point of whatyou're doing? Get me started.
But it's literally the samething that we do for live
events. It's a catered service.
It's a social aspect. It's thefact that our expertise and
experience and experience hashad to turn on a dime these
days, by the way, is what youare culminating together. And it

(05:22):
translates to anything thatanybody could do in respect to
myself in my team, can a clientgo out and buy their own photo
booth for several thousanddollars and take it to like
their seven programs across thenation and make their money
back? Yeah, they could? Do theyknow how to do that? No,
absolutely not know how to do?

(05:45):
You know, eventually try but youknow, that's the thing. Like,
are you bringing everything youknow, to the table? Are you
doing the broadcast? The mostinteresting part for event
professionals right now thething that is the time to shine
is the least quantifiableexperience. And the ability to
put things together somethingthat is literally a non tangible

(06:06):
item is the part that's comingthrough right now. Because in
the last portion that'll say, inregards to the platform's the
experience in eventprofessionals right now is
showing that if you know how toput stuff together, like in a
live event, in a almost a realstyle, fashion, underhanded
mishmash of stuff, yeah, to makeit all look seamless, and

(06:28):
polish. That's where it's reallycoming through.

Staceyann VanHorne- (06:31):
Absolutely.
Yeah and we were talking aboutit earlier, too, that so many
people assume because it's avirtual platform, that it's not
as much work and you still haveenough time, and it's no big
whoop, you're just gonna get onZoom and do something. And it's
like, there's stillregistrations, there's still an
agenda. They're learning theplatform, how do you navigate
it? How do you still keep peopleengaged, and I think people are

(06:52):
missing that, like we said,there's so many virtual meetings
happening now. And you couldtell when it's not to disrespect
anyone, but you could tell whenit's just a random person in the
office, just sending out a Zoommeeting. And that's really it
versus an actual planning andagenda and a planner behind it
doing something to actually keeppeople engaged.

And one of the things is, we're doing this
podcast, and we're the three ofus, we can see each other, we're
talking through Zoom, this isgreat for this. It's great for
that networking thing. But thenwhen you go into the actual
conference, and the corporatemessaging that we three are also
familiar with, you know, itneeds to have that structure, it
needs to be clear and concise,because as I always say, that

(07:36):
message or that look, ofballroom or set or something
reflects the brand that we'rerepresenting the same thing with
this online meeting. If you getonline and you're at major
company XYZ, and we're havinginternet issues up and down,
yes, there's some level offorgiveness. But if it's a major
brand, you're relating that overto the major brand. And that's

(07:57):
not acceptable. And what we needto do as meeting professionals,
is really relay that to ourclients, and to Stacey, to your
point about the cost 100%.
That's something that Mir and Ihave actually talked quite a bit
about, it's like, what are youexpecting for this cost my
company, we view your virtualmeeting for this amount of
money. And then there's anothercompany that really doesn't have
experience in this, that'sliterally just doing a Zoom and

(08:17):
relaying your image back out.
And they're doing it for a 10thof the cost. But the end result
is the end result. And it'stotally different. So what is it
that you need to do? And that'smy rant?

Meir are you getting a lot of people
coming to you asking you foryour opinion on what platform to
use and how to do it?

No, I think that a lot of clients are still trying
to kind of create their ownthing. We're not privy
necessarily to that portion ofit, we're still you know, in the
entertainment aspect, we'restill the what is technically
the highest person. So the wholehistory lesson, the lowest
character in the totem pole isactually the most important,
FYI.

Oh, that makes sense.

Yes, Foundation, though, we are becoming a little
bit more of an important aspectof the entertainment. Whereas if
you're talking about like anormal, like 400 person event,
they hire us out for one photoentertainment, the corner, your
important they pay a goodhealthy amount of budget for
you. But if you weren't there,nothing's gonna suffer. Yeah.
However, these days, you're apart of the cultural aspect. So

(09:19):
despite whatever they're doingour challenges, of course, to
get into whatever platform thatthey're using. Luckily, the
majority of them are eithersomething very simple for us to
integrate into where let's saythey're doing a HTML based
platform for their registrationand programs. So for something
like Cvent, which has HTMLportals, or maybe something that

(09:41):
they develop themselves, most ofthem are, you know, HTML based.
Yeah, sorry, they made a messout. But for us, it's easy
because we get to do everythingthat we have in HTML base. So if
it's as simple as Hey, guys,here's our stuff, put in an
iframe, throw it out there, butwe have the ability to mimic you
know, everything else. Much likewhat you You guys understand
it's not Yeah, the fact that wehave the tools, we have the

(10:03):
tools to mimic what the clients,you know, support structure and
everything needs to be somethinglike a Zoom call, Patrick and I
were talking about this justFriday, actually, you know, our
ability to do a digitalbroadcast studio can work on
that, or can work on somethinglike teams, Zoom obviously has a
little bit more to it thatallows for intermixing, and the

(10:26):
ability to kind of mess withstuff or, you know, the beauty
of virtual backgrounds andbehind all of us are here.

I know, you didn't have to show
everybody up. That's ridiculous.

Sorry. You know, I spent I spent several hours of
this, I'm just going to show itoff as much as I can.

You're just really extra,

That's what all my friends say. Thank you. But, um,
no, no platform specific. Andright now. And I think that I
think everything that we're allgoing to talk about right now,
you know, everything changeshour by hour. This podcast, upon
broadcast, seven days later,might be defunct, like we don't
know. So as of right now we'rerolling with the punches, you

(11:03):
know, Zoom seems to be the mostpredominant, it is something
that we all have to take noticeof too, because I think that we
as vendors, we as serviceproviders are also noticing,
okay, well, here's the proposalI did for some x, y client last
week. This is a proposal I'mgoing to start to do for x, y, z
client this week. And I'm goingto add in these lines of service

(11:27):
and really pressure them intodoing this, let me get a digital
Zoom meeting concierge person,you know, who's just literally
just one person on my staff, whois just helping to manage the
Zoom call as it from a technicalaspect. That's their job. That's
what they do, because it'ssupport staff. And that's the
interesting part. You know, allof Thursday, last week, we did a
full day's worth of broadcastvia declines in call from our

(11:51):
studio, three live versions oftrivia, you know, for this group
support groups around groups,and because of everything that
led up to it as things changelast minute with clients, as we
all know, we eventually employedone of our staff members to
basically help admin their callis we did want a portion of it
to had audience participation,then we did want to have people

(12:12):
muted.

Okay, mere Listen, stop taking over
the time.

Okay, sorry.

You just like all just like, Okay, I
get it. It's your podcast, too.
We get it. Okay. So now we'retalking about pre recording,
right? And yeah, you had someoneactually be the admin on their
side. Explain this to us now.
Now, I'll let you talk again.

The thing is, everything we know, we know from
live events, right? Likeeverything we've learned
experience wise, we all know itfrom live events.

Yeah.

And even we, as top tier professionals, can get a
little blindsided at the idea oflike, oh, a virtual event
doesn't need this, this, this.
And this, there's signage andcall to actions at a live event.
There's like people guidingbooks through hallways, or
telling them where table numbersmight be found, and so forth.
Where is that in a virtual eventright now?

Staceyann VanHorne-Dor (12:59):
Exactly.
Yeah, yeah.

Who's doing that?
And are you proposing it to aclient at the moment, and
listen, I'm guilty of it, too. Ididn't realize until like two
weeks ago, but like, we don'tknow how long this is going to
go on. We don't know how hybridevents may or may not occur, and
who's going to be helping toadminister. Am I going to get
lucky and work with Media Stageon my next team broadcast at

(13:21):
someplace where just the topchair people are there and
everybody else's broadcast live?
I don't know that, you know, soI've got to give a client my
best foot forward to create anenvironment now in a digital
scape that provides all thesupport that I need. And if that
support is my staff members,knowing how to use Zoom,

(13:42):
administering Zoom the way thatit needs to be done, while still
maintaining plank communicationin their brand. That's something
that we should be doing. Sothat's like one of those quick
realizations that we've come tojust over the past couple of
weeks, because everything ischanging. And clients are very
slow to get this whole idea. Butthey're getting there, and
they're getting it.

So is that something -- was that a
service that you were providingpre? Or is this something that
you're adjusting to now?

So with regards to like necessity, right, like from
the ashes breed something else?
What's interesting is in thedigital aspect of these
meetings, because we all have tobe physically distant. Remember
kids, physically distant, notsocially distant. So start
saying Great job. Because we allhave to be that way. We all have
to start employing tools thatallow us to perform maybe what

(14:31):
we commonly performed at a liveevent in a different way. So
some of these tools that we'reusing, while right now at this
moment, this is the tool to use,like this is the way to do it.
Some of these tools that we'renow employing, once this is all
over. Whenever that day comes wenow have a greater tool for the

(14:51):
live event. Once the live eventsare back. We now have tools that
when applied client has aspecific need. And they are a
little bit more interesting anduseful to us and not necessarily
in a discounted way either. Youknow, for example, in the photo
booth aspect, we cannot be therelive with people. So we have

(15:12):
curated what is referred to asthe virtual booth, which is
essentially a branded photoexperience that anybody can
utilize via HTML on their mobiledevice or on their laptop, right
before you. And then it createsthe ability for anyone across
the world to create and curate abranded image, which is, you

(15:34):
know, culminated into a galleryor, you know, creates a sense of
togetherness or brand awarenessor culture, whatever that might
be. Now, when we go back to liveevents, people are going to go
right back to the classic photobooth, right there hundred
percent, no questions asked.

Yeah, for sure.

However, what's interesting about this from a
brand aspect, or persons likemyself, now, if a client comes
to us and says, hey, we've got35 cities on a tour that we want
to have a photo experience at,but we've only got X amount of
thousand dollars, like, well,you're 35 cities, some of which
are all occurring at the sametime in the same states, you

(16:11):
know, for that your budget isone eighth of what it needs to
be for us to do that live, thatcan't be done. However, we have
this thing that not only can thepeople who are there at your
activation be made aware of. Butyou can also make everybody else
aware of it to like your entirecampaign that's going on across
your social media. So now itgoes from you didn't have the

(16:32):
money for the reach in the firstplace to We not only have the
budget for you, and the reachfor all the people that you want
to interact with live at theseparties and at these events. And
now you've got the ability to dothat with your entire social
platform, if not the world.

It's one of those things, too, I
think about when I'm planningevents, I wouldn't really think
about the virtual as much,pre-COVID right? And, you know,
you kind of do with the socialmedia, and people kind of
stopped with a "Oh, yeah, let'sjust do a branded hashtag and
that's how we're gonna getpeople involved," or "Maybe we
do a Snapchat or Instagramfilter. And that's how we get

(17:09):
people involved." But because ofwhere we are now, it's kind of
like, wait a second, I haveanother way to get people
involved, even national salesmeetings, right? Not everybody
comes to a national salesmeeting. It's probably only in
salespeople, but you still havethe people in the office, maybe
some of the marketing

The support staff

Support who's not there. Now, how are we
going to integrate it. Andthere's a lot of lessons learned
in this. And it just makes youthink differently. And even with
what you're saying with thesevirtual events, they can be very
boring. Because they look at itas just a simple agenda. It's a

(17:46):
PowerPoint, whatever. And I lovewhat you guys are doing.

This is actually bringing us to our next topic
that we have to talk about withwith me or which is engagement.
And this is -

Yeah

- on all of the calls that I've been on with
clients and potential clientsand other you know, networking
things. It's been engagement,how are we keeping attendees
engaged, especially in thisremote virtual world. And I like
that Meir, because I haven'theard anybody talk about this
yet. But I like what youmentioned, because what we've
been talking about here is howyou're engaging them with this

(18:19):
virtual photo booth. But you'realmost taking it a step further
by, okay, and this is what I'vealways liked about you is that
you're always thinking forwardthat -

He likes you Meir

The checks are clearing

Right?

- that when things come back to normal, or
to the semi normal, what's thenew normal gonna be, and in this
hybrid role, because in myworld, in the audio visual side,
we know that right, when COVIDends, and there's a cure or
whatever, that we're not goingback to life as normal, right
off the bat day one, it's goingto go slow. And we're gonna get

(18:51):
into a hybrid of you know, somepeople, and maybe it's because
some companies don't wanteverybody to travel, maybe it
said, some people aren'tcomfortable with traveling, etc.
So in thinking about that, we'retrying to think about what do we
keep doing when we go back intothis hybrid? And you're doing
the same thing here, because youmentioned about the photo booth.
Okay, well, we can engage thepeople that are there live
through this platform, but wecan also engage other people

(19:13):
that aren't in that meeting, andbringing them in. So I thought
that was really good.

It's just gonna change how you see
proposals now huh?

Exactly. Hey, here's some add ons.

Exactly. Because nothing says let me change my
proposals like I've alreadyfinished my tariffs, starting
back in March and April. Let mejust keep on going. I didn't
need to be finished with it.
It's fine. Start all over again.

But here I want to talk. Now because we're
talking about this engagement.
Let's talk about how you'reengaging attendees outside of
the photo booth because I knowthat you've talked about some
other activities, what are someother activities that people can
use to help keep their attendeesengaged?

Let me start by saying Zoom Fatigue is a real
thing. It is 100% absolutely areal thing. So much. So if you
go to Urban Dictionary of whichI am a huge fan, there is no
colorful alternative that anyonehas written, it is straight up
just the words, Zoom Fatigue.
That's it. No one's thought ofanything else. It's that bad,

(20:12):
okay? Zoom Fatigue is a realthing. Again, I will emphasize
like everything we know all ofour experiences, not just, you
know, myself, my team, buteverything you guys know, we
only learn it from live events.
The good part about that isthat's people. We know people.
And to that end, we know thatfolks are only engaged if they

(20:33):
need to be engaged, if they wantto be engaged, folks attention
span is very short, especiallyso like at a corporate event,
when they're at home, whenthey're in their t shirts, not
even like work attire anymore,when their kids are around them,
surrounding them, seeing whatthey're doing. Because the kids
are bored, you have to capturepeople's attention. And you have
to make it really short andsweet. That is another challenge

(20:57):
that we're experiencing rightnow with some of our clients so
that they understand like whatthey're giving them, if we're
providing for them a show, we'regoing to give them all we can,
but it's going to be somethingthat's less than an hour, in
fact, sometimes less than 45minutes so that people get
engaged, really get into it,have a memorable moment, and
then they're back off to theirlife because I have never felt

(21:19):
so chained to my laptop in allof my time, as opposed to the
last few months. And I live withmy laptop like I have no problem
with it being like next to mybed before I go to sleep like I
but there's just something aboutit where you just feel like you
need to have it. So two thingsthat we've been doing aside from

(21:39):
the virtual booth, one of themore notable ones is we've been
doing hosted trivia. And that'swhere myself or one of my other
MCs, come on a Zoom call, or acorporation for a meeting group
for what used to be a gala isnow turned into a zoom meeting
call. And we come on there andwe do a digital broadcast. So
it's much like what we would doon stage if we were except now

(22:03):
we're doing it through ourDigital Studio, back at the
office, with music with lightswith sound with green screen
with a curated game that's beencreated for the company culture
or for this wonderful not forprofit organization, or for
whatever it might be to keepfolks engaged to get them going
to get it really simple andeasy. And to make it so that the

(22:26):
technology is there to do so. Sothat the regular common layman
can use it. Nothing complicated.
Nothing.

That's that's the thing. Yeah.

Right. And you can't be like, Alright, well,
I'm gonna make a Twitch channeland you guys are gonna put in
your answers on the chat. Yougot to also give them something
that's actually worthwhile topay for. So elevation in
whatever you're doing is alsoreally important.

Good lord. Yes.

You know, Meir mentioned the galas and the
sales meetings and everything.
What I've been suggesting, orreferring is with something like
that trivia game, for instance,something that's interactive for
the crowd that's going to getthem engaged and keep them
engaged and looking at theagenda. Okay, maybe we're gonna
break this up into foursections. We can't make this an
all day meeting. And we're gonnabreak this up into four
sections. We're going to startintro, Hey, everybody does it
off. Today, we're doing ourmeeting. And we're going to play

(23:11):
a game in between, here's whatwe're going to do. And now we
cute to somebody like mirrorscompany like Hollywood game
works. And we say, Okay, here'sthe MC, they come on, everybody
get out your device in between,we're going to be playing the
game during the breaks thatenough, I'll see you guys in
between break one, and thenboom, the meeting goes, and then
Mir comes back on or somebodycomes back on during that next
break, and then they play agame. And now we can see the

(23:32):
leaderboard, they go back totheir meeting. And now he comes
back for another segment inbetween. And here's more of a
game. And in that way, it'skeeping everybody engaged,
because maybe there's a bigprize for whoever wins or the
top team that wins or whatever.
Cuz what we're also seeing inthese virtual meetings is how
many people are getting on andthey're staying logged in, but
they're turning off their screenand now they're gonna walk in go

(23:54):
do yard work or you know,whatever. Now we have a reason
key creating a reason for themto stay engaged and actually pay
attention.

And can I build on that there Pat?

Yeah.

The numbers are so confusing right now, it is so
difficult to truly give a clientan idea of what they need to do
sometimes when they're flooredat the numbers. If they're
having a hosted live event,they're usually expecting 200
people, some of these clientsare getting 600% I had a
conversation with one of our DMCpartners that said, normally

(24:27):
they expect 1200 they've got10,000 registers. And then the
question becomes, how many ofthose people are going to need
to engage? What are we going todo? And the second half of the
numbers are confusing. You'llsee some people register but not
engage. And then you know,sometimes it's a fraction
they're in because the clientdidn't necessarily do the the

(24:48):
call to action they were hopingfor or they are really floored,
like when they have those bignumbers. A majority of them are
actually engaging or at leastfor a short amount of time. So I
think don't know anybody haveall of my friends in the
industry who were in whateverthey do have figured out their
formula with either theirbroadcasts or the engagement or

(25:09):
whatever it is.

Yeah, and let me tell you something, I
just did a virtual meeting,education base c based, highly
successful in that regard. Now,when the engagement part of it,
the trivia game had just a snafuin it, when I tell you, people
are ready to throw theircomputers because they were so
livid. And I'm like, you guysneed to realize a lot of the

(25:31):
time the engagement is whatpeople is coming here for.
They're tired of the usual theywant to have fun, they want to
play a game they want tonetwork, and it could be the
best information ever. But ifthey're not able to play that
game -

Staceyann, you have no idea how Right you are, let
me tell you, let me tell you astory from the live events
world, okay? To be our veryprominent in like the photo
taking world, there's always onetype of person that we engage
with when we're doing aphotobooth. And it's the person
with whom doesn't necessarilyalways agree with how they feel

(26:05):
about themselves in a photo. Sothey express the idea that the
booth doesn't necessarily takegood pictures.

That is your face!

Yeah, but they'll blame it on -

They're blaming it on the Meir.

Now, what's interesting in the gaming world,
since we do gaming rentals andtournaments, you know, style
things at events, when they wereall alive, there is another
person in the gaming world whonow if things aren't perfect,
and tournament style, becausethat's what they used to do in
college. They're just yarding upa storm, you know, so like,

(26:40):
heaven forbid, a foosball tableisn't like even or -

It's leaning to one side!

I can't! You plan for everything.
But you know, it's the littlestthing that's going to just -

Right

They didn't have antibacterial gel
within two inches of them, or myroom was in the center of the
floor. And I like to be towardsthe ends. And I'm like, don't
have that's what I give them. 10seconds of silence. Let them
really think about it. And I'mlike, Yeah, but yeah, there's
always that one person.

Of course, of course. But that was the lesson.
The lesson was from live events,everything we didn't live
events, that's all we know. Sojust carry over what you know.
And as Patrick just gave us thatbeautiful outline of how an
entire event goes, you got tohave somebody there who's
walking everybody through.

Exactly.

So when myself or my team are hosting stuff, we
got to be hosts, entertainers.
It concierge hospitality

We always wear all hats.
Absolutely.

That's the thing.
And my clients, who thus farhave gotten a chance to do
everything that we have, theyare all extremely appreciative.
They really understand like,what it is that they got out of
this whole thing. But it's I'mreally emphasizing this one more
time. It's not just a lessonperiod right now, for clients.
It's the lesson period, or us asvendors to really stop and say,
but I know this, let me notpsych myself out. I know what

(28:01):
I'm doing. Let me just reallylisten to myself, my staff and
of course the client. You knowwhat the needs are and provide
an excellent, excellent servicewhen somebody finally pulls the
trigger, because we all knowthey're taking their sweet
freakin time to sign thosecontracts.

You know, one thing that I will say, because
it's funny, in people preppingfor these virtual meetings, what
I've seen, the successful onesthat we've been doing are the
people that aren't afraid totake these breaks. People still
need breaks, even though they'reon their computer near I think
you spawned a whole nother topicfor us about fact that we're all
feeling like we're strapped toour laptops working more than
ever, without anything going on.
Like, that's insane. But it'sthe way that life is. But when

(28:41):
people are on their virtualmeetings, they need more coffee
breaks. And let's face it as anevent planner, right now, you're
not paying for that virtualeconomy. Let's take some virtual
breaks and get them out. Sowe're almost out of time and I
can't believe it. Mir sir. I wastelling Staceyann something kind
of funny the other day, and Iwanted to get your thoughts on
this. Can you tell us a littlebit about hey girl emails?

Hey, girl.

Yeah please!

Okay. All right, hold on. Disclaimer first. All
right.

Okay.

Okay.

We're all in a very unique time. Okay. Yes, my inbox
contacts are gone. I don't knowabout you guys. Yes, in April, I
get an email just to say hey,and I didn't know what to expect
with regards to either how manypeople were just like gone,
wouldn't answer auto emails,forwarded responses and stuff
like that. We're all uniquetime. You gotta hustle to make

(29:36):
things going. We are in a makeor break situation for a lot of
books. However, a lot of peopleare having a moment where they
were in a position at a company1535 staff deep we're now
there's only like one or twopeople left and everybody still
on your network list either inLinkedIn or certainly on
Facebook has started to veerinto you know, whatever they got

(29:57):
to do to make a little cash. Allsometimes All you know is
events, you know, you came outof college, you went straight
into events. And that was thatwas it. So the hey girl message-

With a U or a I?

You know, whichever.

Hey girl, hey gurl,

It's generally how people are taught when you have
subscribed to a multi levelmarketing scheme. And they tell
you start with your network,start with your inner friends
and so forth and it's usuallygirlfriend or girlfriend and it
starts with one of those becauseyou've started your own company.
You have your friends and themessage usually starts with a

(30:37):
chummy a very camaraderie-esqueHey girl!

Hey girl, I'm now selling pots and pans. Hey
girl, I'm now selling makeup.

Yeah.

Hey girl, or in this case, Hey, Meir!

Hey Meir.

Hey Meir! You need some Lululemon?

I have I've been trying to work out you might you
never know

It would go great with your shirt.
They have colorful ones thatwould match it.

But it's but it's funny. Because when you
started telling me about thisthe other day about the Hey,
girl, emails, it's like, Hey,girl, what are you talking
about? And then when youexplained I was like, Oh my God.
That's exactly what my wife isgoing through. She gets these
like multiple times a week. Hey,Paige. Hey, girl. Yeah, you
know, Hey, girl, I haven'ttalked to you in for and Paige
just just yesterday, I told herthat you told me this year. And
she was like, Oh, I had thisfriend from you know, whatever

(31:21):
middle school that I went tosummer camp with one time that
reached out to me. And she'slike, I don't even I haven't
talked to them and you know, 30years, 20 years, whatever.

They're but they're having a virtual
like Tupperware party that shehas to attend.

Hey girl. And she was like, Okay, goodbye.

And the ones that were getting her like, you know,
wine and cheese ones now, youknow, whatever it is, wine
tasting boxes

Oh God, wine tasting is huge.

That's the majority

We're raising the class at least

Exactly.

Thank you, Mir.

Yeah!

Meir, before we do let you go, we have one more
question for you. And I'll letStacey ask

what is your nugget of wisdom that
you'd like to leave, and it'sanything it could be from stop
sending Hey, girl emails to Ipersonally like ham and cheese
sandwiches. But it's your nuggetof wisdom.

We're on a very weird time. Now one would almost
say that we are all in mourningfor the world. And certainly for
live events. It is 100% Okay, tofeel whatever you're feeling
those feelings are valid, andthose feelings are part of being
human, which we all are.
Persevere, reach out to afriend, either for yourself or
for them. We're all gonna getthrough this. And we're all

(32:29):
gonna come out better on theother side. I hope to see all
then.

Oh!

Awesome.

#tears!

That was a good one.

That really was! Thank you Meir!

That's a good one. Thank you Meir. All right.

So you know what time it is. It's time
for a little paprika. So goahead, pepper. Give it to me.

You know, I've been thinking I miss traveling a
lot. I don't miss some of thosedays. But I don't know if you
had any of these. But you didthe long like cross country for
a meeting and then hopping backon a plane. You don't know what
I'm saying let you fly in. Andthen you turn right back around,
flying in you land -

You meet, and then you get right
back to the airport.

- and then you literally hop back on a plane.
So you're spending you know,your entire, like, you're maybe
on the ground for two or threehours, and then turning around.
You know, I kind of missing itin a weird sick way. But kinda
not missing it. I don't know.
Let's talk about some travelstories. You have any?

It's funny you say that, because the
other day I was like, Oh, I'm sohappy to not be in anybody's
airport. Do I have travelstories? Duh. Don't we all
that's like another book on itsown. But I mean, one time I was
sitting in first class, I wascoming from Vegas. It's like the
six o'clock in the morning fightand I'm exhausted. And this guy

(33:46):
comes on wearing the hotelslippers hotel robe. And his
suitcase is a garbage bag fullof clothes. And I was so like,
it's six o'clock in the morning.
I can't process that at thattime in the morning. Insane. But
that was like one of them thananother one. Actually on that
same trip. If I go backwards, Ichecked into the hotel, I get to
my room and this man has all ofhis clothes in the closet. So

(34:10):
like I run out the room. I goback downstairs, I go to
security. And I'm like, uh, canyou tell me like this people's
clothes in my room securitycomes back up and they check and
they're like, oh, he might havejust been running from his
bookie. This happens all thetime. And I'm like, excuse?

Did you say running from his bookie?

Yeah, like I'm gonna need another room
because if he's if this personknows that he's in this room, I
don't want to come for me. I'mlike, you got to change my room,
bruv. I couldn't say.

I remember there was one time I was coming back
and I believe it was from IMEX.
I'm pretty sure it was IMEX. Andit was the red eye is I used to
be crazy like that and takethose red eye flights. But
you're on that red eye and Ifell asleep and find Las Vegas
to Miami and somewhere over NewOrleans like Louisiana or
something like that. I woke upto the lady screaming bloody
murder in the seat in front ofme. Obviously I was you had that

(35:02):
instant Panic of oh crap we'regoing down. But it turns out and
I believe she was speakingPortuguese but I was sitting in
the window and this was in therow in front of me and this lady
was sitting in the window infront of me in the middle seat
was her husband. And then therewas another person in the aisle
and her husband who is in themiddle, she woke up and
apparently she realized he wascold and not breathing. Oh shut

(35:25):
and they did the whole doctor onthe plane. There was a huge
freakout the guy in that was anaisle guide up and like left,
yeah, and then some doctor puthim down on the ground. They
laid him flat on the sea. Andthen they were like pumping his
legs trying to get blood back inwhatever they were doing all

(35:45):
these things, and he had passedaway in his sleep, no redeye.

No.

Yes. So then because by that point, with all
of the chaos happening, we wereover the gulf on the way back
down Florida, and the decisionwas made because he was deceased
not to stop.

So you guys continue flying to Miami?

Correct, yeah, because apparently, had they
stopped it would have throwneverything on wait.

Wait! So what did they do with his
body?

He stayed on the seat in front of me.

Patrick Brochu!

Laying down and they landed they asked everybody
politely, which this is thefirst time this has ever
happened, by the way a differentstory. But you know when they
make the announcement Hey,everybody, so and so's on this
plane and in the back and needsto get off. Please stay seated
until they exit and theneverybody gets up in that person
can't get off the plane theymiss their connection.

Yeah.

They made the announcement for everybody to
stay seated. And everybody did.
The paramedics came on. Theypicked up the person and took
them off. And then we alldeboarded the plane in the
middle of the night. It wasnuts.

Patrick, I can't Okay, wait, but

I thought I was going down but I thought I was
going to take

there's so much to unpack in this story.
So this woman she's sleeping andshe wakes up and she feels that
her husband is now cold and isnot breathing. Or I'm assuming
probably not but

we didn't know what she was saying because I
don't speak Portuguese. So Ididn't know that at the time.

Why did you make me start with my
story? My story is BS comparedto yours. Okay, wait, hold on.
So now this poor grieving womanwho knows that her husband has
passed away has to sit in theseat next to her

And she was crying just crying the whole
time.

What are you gonna do? What else is
there to do?

I mean, it was a few hours it must have seemed
like an eternity to her.

It had to, yeah,

Yeah, I didn't go back asleep

Yeah.
There was a

and by the way, I didn't make you go first.

Okay.

You went first

Okay okay, because you don't tell me
what to do. So...

...and that's a wrap. Thank you all for joining
us today for Well Seasoned thePodcast.

I'm not done. I'm not done.

This may or may not be the last episode of Well
Seasoned the Podcast

You not gonna tell me what to do. I
still have to talk about. Shoot.
Stupid face.
Anyway, I'm Salt

And I'm Pepper.
We'll see you next time.

Bye! Episode produced by Patrick
Brochu and StaceyannVanHorne-Doria. Sound editing by
Rocci Doria and song by Dr.
Delight

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