Hiding out in the Playroom

Staceyann and Patrick speak with Elizabeth McKenna CMP, CED about managing this "new normal" that 2020 has thrown at us. Learn tips and tricks on how to stay creative and engaged through time management and using the tools we are already have. 

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Transcript

Staceyann VanHorne-Doria  0:17  
Hey, everyone, welcome to another episode of well Season Two podcast and we're here again with another fantastic guest. 

Patrick Brochu  0:24  
Absolutely. I want to go ahead and welcome a good friend of mine to the show, Miss Elizabeth McKenna CMP. And CED. She is the show and events manager for a company in the beauty industry. So welcome, Elizabeth, thank you for joining us today for having me. I'm excited. So our topic is how are you managing all that's been thrown at us? And when we talked about this episode, you were the first person that I thought about because you're in kind of a similar situation to myself. So let's start by talking about juggling life kids and working from home and tell us a little bit about that.

Elizabeth McKenna  0:57  
Well, it's definitely a new normal, that's for sure. I think that's the phrase that kind of comes to mind when everybody is kind of referring to this new normal with COVID. And you know, I went from working downtown in a skyrise driving an hour to and from work to now my full time work at home. And my daughter is not in daycare right now, I am fortunate enough to have come over and watch her in the mornings and help me out till she goes down for a nap. And then my husband's family home afterwards. So it's definitely a juggling act. I've had many conference calls where my daughter screams in the background, and I'm having apologize for that. And I think most people are kind of understanding the situation everybody's in. Patrick, you wanted me to mention I'm actually currently in my daughter's play room. That is

Staceyann VanHorne-Doria  1:49  
I have a blanket over her so no one can see her. Look, it's okay. She might be in a closet. Don't worry about it. Don't judge me

Elizabeth McKenna  1:57  
about video cause she had no problem like coming up to me Mama would be doing I want to say,

Patrick Brochu  2:01  
I can't tell you how many times my kids because I use the virtual backgrounds that you'll just see a head pop up next to me.

Staceyann VanHorne-Doria  2:09  
I think we all went from traveling and going into offices to commute that's all but five minutes, brush your teeth, turn on the tea or coffee pot and turn on the computer. How are you dealing with the transition from being in an office to working at home? I know there's two sides of it. Either you absolutely love it and you never want to see the office again. Or if you absolutely hate it and you want to be back in the office. How are you dealing with it?

Elizabeth McKenna  2:32  
That's a very true statement, everybody that I talk to and even within my company, they either want to be back in the office or they never want to go back I would say I fall in that ladder, really enjoying working. It's surprising for me though, I have always been a corporate girl. You know, I've always enjoyed the camaraderie and the social interaction. I'm a very social person. I think what a lot of people are finding and what I found is you just get to spend so much more time with your family and really appreciate that hour drive to work. And then from work I'm actually getting to spend with my daughter now, which is really gives me so much more of a work life balance. And I just feel like I'm happier from it. And because I have my office set up at home, I put my daughter to bed. I start her routine at 715 I don't mind hopping back on the computer and knocking out a couple emails and I think my company's getting a lot more bang for their buck. Right?

Staceyann VanHorne-Doria  3:30  
Exactly. No, they do they absolutely do. I know I personally made the transition from office life to work at home life about three to four years ago officially before that it was from home but not official. Right. And I knew because I travel so much I traveled about 70 to 80% of the year and I lost my home time time with my family and time to do what you love to do. So I'm in the camp, I don't ever want to see an office again. If I ever was asked like to go back full time in the office, it would take a whole lot of thinking for me to even think about it I feel like I operate better home you know you kind of create your schedule the way you need to know when your meetings are if you need to run to the supermarket in the middle of the day, you can do that and come back and do more work but are about you Patrick,

Patrick Brochu  4:17  
I think we're all three on the same page here with me. It's similar to listen, I was in a working from an office situation and you know, just that commute daily was taking out additional time out of my day, getting ready going whatever here I'm able to roll out of bed, do breakfast with the kids everything. We weren't really able to do that before and now I'm able to have time and then I come out to my office and then boom, I turn on my camera and my lights and I'm just right with it. On the flip side, the bang for your buck is probably the most true statement. I've had a couple of nights that you know it's like okay, john around five. I go in I have dinner with the family. We put the kids to bed. My wife is normally in bed pretty early anyway, so you know maybe she wants to watch a movie or something and then I come back out to my office. Don't think I'm a lunatic but don't be I'm here to midnight, just working on proposals and different things. But my company is getting a bigger bang for their buck. So it's really worked for me. And obviously, there's some things that I'll need to be going back for, especially because I manage our creative team. But doing more of it virtually, I think his article,

Staceyann VanHorne-Doria  5:13  
I think it kind of goes to the second part, which is everyone's working virtually right now we're all doing this transition from what normal was to what our new normal is. And so what that means is, we're having more of these meetings, more of these zoom meetings, more of these conferences, webinars, more of everything that we weren't having before in the office. So it comes to a point where it's like, how much is too much. And I've become more protective of my schedule, where before I might have said yes to almost everything going on. Now I'm like, you need to send me agenda bruv, I need to know what I'm saying yes to before, I'm putting this on my calendar, because before you know it, you could look at your calendar, and you don't have enough time to even go to the bathroom.

Elizabeth McKenna  5:59  
I have this conversation with my boss all the time, we will open up our calendars. I'm just like, Oh my gosh, I'm in back to back meaning all day. And we both talked about, are we supposed to answer emails and get work calls with takeaways? And when do you have time to do those takeaways. So I actually have started scheduling in my calendar when I'm going to work on certain items, and I blocked it off. So you can't book me at that time. And then I schedule follow up touch bases with my boss to go over items for a meeting or a project I've been working on. I feel like if you are just not organized at this time, it's going to be really difficult for you to find that time to do those things. We're currently about to launch a new innovation, and we have for our trainings that we're leading virtually. And we've been doing this for two weeks now before that we had distributor beating through you sitting on these calls. And it's not like you can do other work while you're on it. Because you have to be focused, you have to be engaged. And you're on video, I had somehow kind of become the little tech expert. For my brand and I'm kind of learning on the fly

Staceyann VanHorne-Doria  7:17  
you don't have a choice. We have to, right?

Elizabeth McKenna  7:19  
Yeah, it's like okay, well, let me try and troubleshoot. Figure out what's going on. And for the most part, I've been able to figure it out. The only thing I can't figure out is when somebody internet or power goes missing. Yeah.

Patrick Brochu  7:31  
Oh, my goodness, Elizabeth, you mentioned about your calendar, I have actually noticed that my calendar has been far more full than prior to COVID. Because now we're doing things virtually. So I've calendar things with my team, that it would have just been somebody coming down the hall in my office. But with that I started doing what you're talking about blocking off different points in the day. Because it's like, if you do all these back to back to back meetings, you know, there's gonna be an action item from each of those meetings. 

Staceyann VanHorne-Doria  7:55  
Exactly.

Patrick Brochu  7:56  
When do you get those action items done. So I've been setting aside block appointments, this block block block to get those things done. But on the flip side in scheduling things, because my schedules become so full, I've started using an app that sends out automatic emails, that helps me when I'm dealing with clients, or fellow co workers like, Hey, here's my calendar, go ahead and click here. And you can pick out a time that works for you based on my schedule, and boom, Oh, so you're not doing that. Please email me all your time of availability, and I can fit it into my thing. Well, yeah, before it would be Hey, Stacey, how about Thursday, and I have these three times, I don't know your schedule. And instead of me even filling out like a doodle poll or something. It's like a link that links to my schedule that they can see my available times that I've set aside and very helpful.

Unknown Speaker  8:38  
Yeah, that's interesting. A lot of my meetings are with people in my company. So we have full access to see everybody's availability. So we're able to kind of schedule those meetings, or if we're doing trainings like these were scheduled over a month ago, and it was kind of like, this is what we're doing it. But I completely agree. I mean, right now, I don't have a lot of events that I'm working on that I'm having to work with a whole lot of vendors, so they're not really outside of the organization. If anything I'm doing I have a lot of different tasks that are kind of new normal for me, I'm really enjoying it, but it's just slightly a little different. I think for for my role right now. 

Staceyann VanHorne-Doria  9:20  
I think what I've started to do is I had to take a sit, I sit back, I'd seek a seat,

Patrick Brochu  9:25  
A step back

Unknown Speaker  9:26  
Step back 

Elizabeth McKenna  9:26  
Step back

Staceyann VanHorne-Doria  9:27  
That's the word. So I had to take a step back, and really analyze what's really happening with my calendar. Now with the work situation we're in right what I'm starting to use is Microsoft Outlook. They send you emails now where they tell you like where your time was spent during the week and they recommend focus times and I use all those focus times. But also I'm starting to notice because I'm based in Nevada, my company's on the East Coast, my global headquarters is forever away. So I'm dealing with a three and nine hour difference.

Elizabeth McKenna  10:01  
I'm telling you

Staceyann VanHorne-Doria  10:02  
the time zones is killing me. So I'm getting meeting requests for 5am. And it's like, Okay, wait, now that I'm starting to see this trend, and sometimes people aren't cognizant of the fact that they're doing that. And other times to just like, well, it's the only time everyone's available. So I'm doing it. So I have started to use those focus times. But I also have made different hosts kind of like what you said. So I have an admin holds where it's okay, how do I answer all the requests is coming in, and kind of going on to the next topic, which is staying active and not being strapped to my computer all day long. I started to work out in the morning time, because I'm usually not a morning time worker router, but I've actually put a hold on my calendar from 545 to seven o'clock block, because like you said, you can work all day and then go have dinner and then find yourself back at the computer. And then where's your meet time, you know, and it doesn't have to be working out. It could be gardening, it could be walking the dog, it could be whatever, but I like to spin so I need to kind of get up and start my day doing that and feeling like okay, I feel like I did something I don't feel like I wasted my time. You know. So I guess that leads to the next thing. What do you do to actually stay active and not feel like you're at your computer all day long for work?

Elizabeth McKenna  11:20  
Absolutely. I actually have been looking at getting like a stepper or an elliptical. I have one of my Amazon cart right now. I haven't quite pulled the trigger. I understand. Think about this. And one I have a two and a half year old who keeps me crazy running around. When I'm on a call and I don't have to be looking at my computer. I'm typically peeking around the house and I'm back. Okay, sir. Anyway, it gets my creative juices flowing. And I also have a I think it's called a QB under my bed where it's like getting elliptical where I kind of while I'm like working on my at my desk, and then I try and take my daughter for walks, I can take a call and push my daughter in the stroller and just get out and get some fresh air, then we'll do that. And so kind of between all those things, that's kind of how I try and balance while I'm working. When I'm not working. I've decided to DIY my entire house and my husband loves that. 

Unknown Speaker  12:20  
I understand, yeah. Today we're going to Home Depot, I'm making hanging shelves for all my plant. I'm making all these things. Same thing. It's like all of a sudden I'm a woodworker. 

Patrick Brochu  12:30  
Stacey became a plant mom during COVID. 

Unknown Speaker  12:33  
Yeah, I'm a intense plant mom. And I've started using power tools and painting and

Elizabeth McKenna  12:39  
Me too! I've gotten in my husband's power tools.

Staceyann VanHorne-Doria  12:43  
Yeah, exactly.

Elizabeth McKenna  12:44  
He was like, do you even know how to use this and I was like, I don't know,

Staceyann VanHorne-Doria  12:47  
that's what YouTube is for. I'll figure it out.

Elizabeth McKenna  12:49  
I have already had to patch a couple holes in the wall. 

Staceyann VanHorne-Doria  12:52  
Oh, girl. Now I haven't gotten there yet.

Patrick Brochu  12:57  
So you're right about that YouTube is the ultimate how to you know, I mean, you need to how to anything, it's there.

Unknown Speaker  13:03  
Oh, my goodness, I have dental floors and our lunch room hung a beam painted every room. I completely marbled our bathroom countertops to make it look like real marble. I put up ship black wallpaper.

Staceyann VanHorne-Doria  13:21  
Okay, now, okay, do you

Patrick Brochu  13:23  
have a how to Instagram blog, something?

Elizabeth McKenna  13:27  
Like, I really should like start a blog?

Patrick Brochu  13:29  
Did you take a bunch of photos? I mean, if you had photos, we could just go back and write it.

Elizabeth McKenna  13:34  
Oh, yeah. I mean, I have photos. And I've been thinking about posting on social because I send to my friends. Oh my gosh, they're like you're in an industry.

Staceyann VanHorne-Doria  13:46  
But it's funny like this time has made you realize that you have the ability to do more than you thought, right? I would never be like, let's go to Home Depot and look at wood. And let's paint it like I made this huge piece where it's like painted woods, and it's wine glasses. And it had this huge empty wall. And he finally did it. But it just makes you tap into your own creativity. And in you doing that you do apply that to work as well. Right? You start thinking about different things and how you approach this and you start applying it different ways. But um, you talked about the stepper, underneath your desk in terms of how do you stay active. And me personally, these meetings kill me, right? I'm not a person who could sit here and listen and be fine. I have a fidget spinner in my hand right now. And I had to move away from that because what happens is I end up on my phone, right? And I could play one of those stupid like brick breaker games while people are talking because I can't focus by doing nothing. I need to do something to focus. So like how do you stay engaged in your meetings? Because I mean, there's times when you have a meeting where you know, you just need to be on a meeting for show and you're just you turn off the camera you mute the phone and now you're making lunch you're doing something but how do you actually say engage because The fear is somebody gonna say your name while you're making something and you're like, Oh, snap.

Patrick Brochu  15:05  
Wait, what? Wait, what did you ask me to do again?

Unknown Speaker  15:11  
Oh my god I-- connection. Oh, it was that if you cut out right away, or I'll just hang up and be like, Oh my God, my phone disconnected.

Patrick Brochu  15:22  
Sorry I was answering I was just on mute the whole time I didn't know.

Elizabeth McKenna  15:27  
I swear I hear that all the time all the time.

Patrick Brochu  15:31  
Videos off... you were....

Staceyann VanHorne-Doria  15:33  
your videos up, we all know we all? Well,

Unknown Speaker  15:37  
so I've been using WebEx events for all of our training. And it has a feature that you can like, see, it'll tell you if the attendees paying attention or not. So it can tell like how engaged they are or like if they're doing something else on their computer. Oh, that's a really interesting feature.

Elizabeth McKenna  15:58  
You're like, this is my worst nightmare.

Staceyann VanHorne-Doria  16:00  
Do not tell my company that.

Elizabeth McKenna  16:04  
It's funny, because I think there's, there's different types of people, there's those that you know, they can only focus on one thing and they need to stay 100% focused on that. So I know a lot of people that I work with, they're like, I can't do anything else when I'm on these calls, because I can really just believe focus on that. Whereas me, I'm so used to doing 10 things at once. And if I'm not aboard, like I need something to do. I know I'm gauged in this, but I can listen and still do something else. You know, I always have lots of lists in front of me, a lot of times I'll start looking at my list marking out to do lists, I try and say, you know, close to the computer and making sure that I'm watching that because inevitably they're gonna call my name and I'm gonna have to unmute. Have you want to make sure that you're in close range that I think each person is different? And it just depends on if you're a multitasker or not. I think we are you know, we need to juggle a bunch of different things. But one of the good things is now I'm in my daughter's playroom, which is close to the kitchen. So if I need 

Unknown Speaker  17:08  
plenty of toys, I get it. Yep, so much. Yeah.

Patrick Brochu  17:12  
So Elizabeth, I have a question speaking about engagement. So you have a team, right? you're heading up a team. So for your team? How are you seeing their engagement level? Or are there things that you're doing to keep your folks engaged to make sure that your team members are staying engaged,

Elizabeth McKenna  17:25  
I think for the most part with our team, we're all pretty self motivated. We're all really hard workers. Unfortunately, I will say a lot of our team was for alone, we're kind of working with a limited path to accomplish still the same things for a full team. It's just so much on our plate to do that. You're constantly just trying to stay focused on the most important priority item of that day and trying to just keep up. But I think, really, I end up talking to my team members, so much more than I ever did in office, I think I went from when I was in the office talking to my boss maybe once a week to now I talked to her every single day, we talk as a team all the time. So I think just keeping that connection, and you know, the phone calls and the meetings and the zooms, they're just important. And we do have a facility here locally that we have gone to a couple times to handle some pack outs. And so I did actually meet one of my co workers at a park nearby for lunch one day, and she brought her dog and I brought my daughter and it was just fun to you know, kind of catch up. I mean, we both know that we're socially distancing, and taking those practices not going and meeting up with a bunch of people. So we kind of felt confident to meet up with each other. And my boss has driven up a couple times. She's not located in the city, and we've been able to meet up and just keep that connection going. And I think we also not only talked about workflow where it was always so much work, work, what's the next project be take that extra time to say? How are you? How was your weekend? What do you have going on and you just become closer, you become closer with your co workers really good to know a lot more about them who they are their heart, and I feel so much closer to them. And it's kind of funny, because it's like, I don't even really think of them as coworkers almost anymore. It's more like, you know, hey, how was your weekend? Okay, I know you were going to see your dad How did that go and build a camaraderie and it makes you really want to go out of your way because you know, everybody has a lot on their plate that I find all of us are like, how can I help you? What can I do to help you make your life easier? Honestly, I mean, I know it's not the greatest of times, but I have a lot of different kinds of joy that have come out of this that really I think have you know evolved me as a person.

Staceyann VanHorne-Doria  19:55  
You're so 100% right? We use teams. So our Monday Teams is just a random picture from your weekend. It could be your garden, it could be from a family visit. It's just happy Monday. Here's what I did. It's a random picture because we're so distant now. And essentially, like I had a team that works in the office, now they're distant, I'm cognizant of the fact that they are used to having that socialization. And so we have meetings on the calendar, like an open watercooler meeting is just an open meeting. And if somebody joins that meeting will pop in. And one rule is nothing work related. It could be talking about your Netflix show, it could be talking about your dog, you talking about your family, and it's just a quick five minute check in and that's it. We keep watercooler meeting on the calendar. And because we communicate so much, we're able to flex our one on one times, we could be like, Listen, I connected with you, we know what's going on. So let's go ahead and take this meeting off the calendar and do what you need to do. And especially because like you said earlier, we're working way more than eight hours, I just have a standing rule with my team, just do your work. I don't need you on a computer nine to five, I don't care if you work nine to one, and then you work eight to three, if there's a meeting, just make the meeting. And all I ask is that you do your work. It kind of allows everybody the flexibility to manage your schedule and not feel tied to just sitting here because I mean, let's keep it real. There are times you're sitting here looking at your computer and you're like, Am I connected to the internet? I didn't get any help. Oh, my God, like what is happening right now? It's blowing up right?

Patrick Brochu  21:38  
I've had that freak out a lot recently, like a few times recently, where you're like, Wait a second. Normally I'm getting like five or six emails in like in a 20 minute period. And I haven't had anything in 20 minutes. I'm like, Whoa,

Staceyann VanHorne-Doria  21:49  
like this understanding what my team Fridays, you know how companies always have like a summer Friday, I don't even give a time to my team. I'm like, Listen, log on, check the flow, do you we all have phones have the internet because you give that freedom to your team, they're responsible when you get more free, they want to do more, right? Because they also know I'm not micromanaging. I'm not writing them. No one is. And it's like, I know that come Friday, if I want to go to the lake and take a call, but the phone sitting on my chest, not saying I did it, I can do that. Cuz you're getting your work done. So I think that's a way to help the engagement because they don't feel forced into something. And they want to give more like I have a team member doing all these MPI classes and doing a lot of certifications because she wants to be more engaged. She wants to know how to navigate this new normal that we're in. And I don't have to tell her that which is great. And then she comes back to me with information that I didn't know. And I'm like, Oh my god, thanks. And I always say that she's the real boss. I'm like, Oh, thank you so much, boss, lady.

Elizabeth McKenna  22:55  
Gotta do things like that. You want to make sure you're staying relevant. You want to make sure you're learning everything that's coming out, especially in this virtual world. I'm constantly looking at things, especially through MPI, and, and joining different webinars and going back to my boss, hey, I have this great idea. I was just on this call of best practices, being on these calls, it saves you so much time off, I'm having to like research what to do. And then you know, somebody who have a recommendation on a platform, what worked, what didn't work, and maybe you were considering one, and you're kind of like, maybe not now.

Staceyann VanHorne-Doria  23:27  
And that's how you become more diverse in your role, right? Because now you're picking up all these different skills. And I mean, let's face it, we all have to do it now, right? It's so funny how we went from a time of you got to protect your time, and you got to know what your role is, and stay in your lane and to now being like, you got to do a little bit of everything you got to navigate.

Elizabeth McKenna  23:49  
Yeah, I've had so many new things thrown my way. Just go with it. But I feel like I've gotten so many amazing opportunities. I really enjoy what I do. I love my job. And I loved it before COVID. And I love it even more after, you know, I worked for a beauty brand and I've been in charge of the North America region and because of what's going on, uh, COVID I mean, I've had the opportunity to now I'm helping with global training. And you know, I I've reached a global level, I mean, still on paper on North America, but I'm getting exposure to so many more. So many more people in the company. I'm learning so much. I'm crossing over from just events to marketing and working with them and Creative Services, graphic design. And I've gotten to work on some really, really exciting projects that and I don't know that I would have ever gotten to. I

Patrick Brochu  24:46  
think what you're talking about is great because you found a way and we're hearing this from so many people about becoming more diverse in your role and taking on these challenges and learning things and I think it was last week you were telling me something about you were editing a video in You were like, Who would have ever thought editing a video like and you know, now you're adding all these things. And these are things that beyond your role now beyond the company that you're in, beyond all of this, these are new skills that you've now acquired that you're going to have moving forward. That's been a great thing, one of my bullet points on my notes here to ask you about staying relevant. And I think you've totally nailed it, you actually said, staying relevant. So you're finding these ways. And I think that's been so important for so many people, especially. And I learned this in 2008, when I joined a company, like okay, I jumped into my company pool headed, and then was laid off. And every company I've been at ever since then it's been, I jump in hard to accompany. And then I try to expand as much as I can within and make yourself as invaluable as possible. And things like this COVID are making that more important than ever,

Elizabeth McKenna  25:48  
I think you're nailing it, diversifying yourself, and I could easily sit back and just do the bare minimum. And you know, say, well, that's not in my job description. That's just not me, I'm a hungry person, I'm a go getter. And I believe and I'm passionate about my company and my brand, I want it to thrive, and I want it to thrive COVID, and it's not going to do that if I just stay stagnant. And so for me, I think it's those that have that passion. And that drive, you know, I'm sitting back here, what if we did this, I know, it's not like what we normally do. And I know, technically, it's not my job. If we do this, and this and this, and surprisingly, for such a large company that I work for, they are so open to my ideas, and a lot of my ideas are happening. And I've pitched them I've done the research put together the presentation,

Unknown Speaker  26:40  
because this Boss Lady stuff that you're on right now. Hashtag winning 

Elizabeth McKenna  26:47  
It's so funny, because I have developed a hashtag every time something like so good to my boss. I'm like another win, it's exciting. There are so many opportunities out there. And I think the key place bullets are for people is that, you know, we're in a pandemic, but that doesn't mean that that has to define us or define the situation we're in, there are so many creative ways that he are thinking outside of the box. Just because you can't meet in person doesn't mean you can't get creative, you know, you can still have those virtual events and those virtual platforms, but still, you know, have a little bit of that physical touch, whether it's you know, creating a marketing, mailing it to them. That's interactive. That's something that we're working on right now that my little baby that I'm very excited about. But you know, just trying to find ways to still be able to have that engagement. I mean, I know another thing we're talking about, and I think most people are doing it socially, but we're even talking about, hey, like we have a lot of consultants, a lot of people up should schedule virtual happy hours and touch points with the co founder of our company, like how exciting would that be, 

Staceyann VanHorne-Doria  27:59  
I can tell you that that is a win, you need to do that. It's awesome. And I'll tell you from the management side, the first thing they're going to say is well, what if people don't drink and blah, blah? And what if it's 11 o'clock for you just tell them it's a happy hour, and however you're happy within hours of tea, and no one needs to know what's in my 40 ounce betting?

Patrick Brochu  28:21  
Well, we're actually almost out of time, I can't believe this is flown by so fast. But before we wrap, I did want to plug Elizabeth on on something else. Elizabeth is also the president of the MPI North Florida chapter, newly inducted I believe, last month, um, and I forgot to mention that at the beginning. So you gotta leave on a high note, go ahead now outside of her job outside of COVID, outside of taking care of her baby, outside of everything. She's also dealing with this whole Association. So what you're saying is you know how to juggle life, you know what you're doing over there? Got it. Okay. Well, congratulations.

Staceyann VanHorne-Doria  29:08  
So we do have one last question.

Patrick Brochu  29:11  
Oh, yeah. 

Staceyann VanHorne-Doria  29:11  
What is your final piece of advice you want to leave for people? And I say it. And I don't mean it has to be world changing. It could be when doing your counters in your bathroom? This is what I recommend. Or while painting. I use this paint

Unknown Speaker  29:29  
or it could be Hey, become an MPI president. Yeah, what's your nugget? One thing to leave us with.

Elizabeth McKenna  29:34  
I guess mine would just be fine, the good and everything. I'm the positive and everything, even when you think days are dark. And I know. It's like there's a lot of those I just try and reflect on what's good. And that's what gets me through this time. And that's what keeps me passionate. Not only about work, but on my family. Like I just focus on the positive and try and find something good even in a bad day. Like Hey, I got this done or at least this happen. I think there's so many times that so many of us just focus sometimes on purpose, but you know, um, the darker the negative side of things and, and that can really make you down especially in a pandemic, when you're not having a lot of social interaction. And some of us may be at home alone and just finding those joys and if you do feel alone moment, I mean, pick up the phone, call somebody, video chat with them, you have no idea how it can change somebody's mood in a heartbeat. 

Staceyann VanHorne-Doria  30:31  
Absolutely. Well, thank you. Thank you for joining us!

Unknown Speaker  30:37  
Yeah. This is a really good episode. And thank you very much for your time. And I know you've been super busy and I think we it sounds like on your end, we fitted in naptime. I haven't heard any I know.

Unknown Speaker  30:57  
Now it's time for one of our growing to be our favorite portions of the show. Everything that means no. Yeah, pretty much. Um, Stacey, why don't we talk about you know what we could talk about? 

Staceyann VanHorne-Doria  31:12  
What? 

Unknown Speaker  31:13  
The symbol of hospitality: the pineapple

Staceyann VanHorne-Doria  31:17  
most favorite thing in the world?

Patrick Brochu  31:19  
What the hospitality or the pineapple?

Unknown Speaker  31:22  
I mean, both, durrr, but I love pineapples. Okay, so I have a bit of an obsession with pineapples. It probably isn't healthy. I just got two more in the mail yesterday. Solar to go

Staceyann VanHorne-Doria  31:38  
on my front yard. I'm so excited. Solar pineapples.

Yes, solar pineapples, and I have some in the back. I stamped it in my concrete. Do you think everyone knows like the significance of the pineapple and what it really means like the hospitality symbol? No. Basically, back in the day, people are traveling by ships, yada, yada. They went to the Caribbean. I'm Jamaican what and they found pineapples. Right. And so it became this like, luxury item, it was super expensive. And they would like traded back and forth. But like it was the item for the rich in today's money terms. It was like $8,000 for a single pineapple. But they traveled with these because they traveled well, right. And so when they got home, they would place a pineapple outside of their home, because that was like the sign of a safe return. And then it became like the symbol of warmth and friendliness. Like you know, if there was a pineapple there, you could stop by anyway, fast forward. It's now the symbol of hospitality, right? So like, I have pineapple pins. And in my house, my easter egg is that in every single room and area of my home, there is a pineapple.

Patrick Brochu  32:46  
And you know what, after knowing how much you love pineapples, I realized at my house, how many pineapples, Paige and I have we don't have necessarily in every room. And I like the fact that you use the word easter egg. And I think that's a great topic that we'll cover another time because I love the idea of an Easter egg. For those of you that are confused about what the hell I'm talking about, keep listening and we'll talk about easter eggs and others. At my house we actually have pineapples that grow in my yard. And they're not necessarily random but they are random they just wildly grow in my yard. I find that

Unknown Speaker  33:18  
Did I tell you that killed the pineapples growing? 

Patrick Brochu  33:20  
No did you? 

Staceyann VanHorne-Doria  33:21  
So if you guys didn't know I'm in Reno, Nevada. So desert dry, whatever. pineapples need a lot of humidity. Well, I put it outside because I'm like, it also needs a lot of sun. Well, it wasn't humid enough. And within one week, I killed the mine and while I was growing I was so mad and pineapple say you need like a greenhouse or something right? For my anniversary I'm getting I'm building a greenhouse over my two plants are super cheap, but I'm doing that and I'm going to try again to grow pineapple which takes what like a year plus to grow.

Patrick Brochu  33:50  
Yeah, sometimes too. Sometimes too.

Unknown Speaker  33:52  
I one thing that quarantine has taught me is I actually do like gardening and plants. I went from having zero to about 26 plants and I love it but I'm so mad I had a pineapple plant. And the one thing I love the most I killed

Unknown Speaker  34:09  
you know we do here at our house, we buy or get a pineapple we chop the top off. And then I'm in South Florida. So my yard is literally saying like we don't soil sand. So we take it out and I literally just threw it into the ground into the top layer of the sand. Just let it do its thing. And then maybe a year, maybe two years later, there will be a pineapple there

Staceyann VanHorne-Doria  34:28  
And it's a small pineapple. It's not like the big one you get in the supermarket.

Unknown Speaker  34:31  
Oh mine gets to be like bigger than my head or as big as my head 

Staceyann VanHorne-Doria  34:34  
Oh really? You have a big head. 

Unknown Speaker  34:36  
Thank you. Thank you. But we have so many of them throughout the yard. I mean, at one point, we probably had like seven come out of the yard. 

Staceyann VanHorne-Doria  34:44  
Are you serious? 

Patrick Brochu  34:45  
Yeah. 

Staceyann VanHorne-Doria  34:45  
Are they sweet? Are they like good? 

Patrick Brochu  34:47  
They're very sweet. Very, very, very sweet. Ah, we let them ripen on the stock more than they would do like the one that's been harvest. 

Staceyann VanHorne-Doria  34:55  
Yeah, yeah. 

Patrick Brochu  34:56  
So they're naturally getting more and more sweet. 

Staceyann VanHorne-Doria  34:59  
I'm gonna give it a shot I didn't even think about that cuz it's funny I was thinking about 

Patrick Brochu  35:02  
Yeah, don't buy one buy yourself some pineapple, pineapple and then screw the top into you know a planter or whatever you put inside of your greenhouse. Might as well do like you know four or five minutes on or 

Unknown Speaker  35:15  
What I didn discover is that the pineapple has a really small root system, did you know that?

Unknown Speaker  35:21  
Yes, they are. I believe Oh my god, people are gonna fact check me because I'm not a plant guy but I believe they're in the vermiliad family. You are correct in the vermiliad family. Most vermiliads can actually be like air plants. They don't necessarily need a lot of soil if any. Now obviously pineapples need to be in soil but they're in that family so they don't need a lot because they don't have big root systems.

Staceyann VanHorne-Doria  35:45  
I am happy said just going to seed market and cutting it off. Because there's this online company that I got my plants from one time I will never do it again. So overpriced, and now they're selling pineapples because summer blah blah, but do you know they're selling a pineapple plant for $65? Are you kidding me? I wasn't big mad. 

Patrick Brochu  36:07  
I have a few thousand dollars worth of plants my backyard.

Staceyann VanHorne-Doria  36:12  
I was like are you kidding me? Sounds like I'm not doing

Patrick Brochu  36:16  
it basically me me date went up and just send it to you. Thank you. I'm actually looking at my portrait now but some of the plants are actually rather large. Some of them are almost come up to about my chest and

Staceyann VanHorne-Doria  36:28  
I'm big jealous. I'm gonna have to grow a pineapple plant and take a picture and post it because I'm gonna do it. That's so cool down a little bit of paprika.

Unknown Speaker  36:38  
Well, thank you guys all for joining us again for this episode of well season the podcast. Thank you to our special guests, Elizabeth McKenna one more time and until next time. We'll see you guys

Unknown Speaker  36:51  
Episode produced by Patrick Brochu and  Staceyann VanHorne Doria sound editing by Rocci Doria. And song by Dr. Delight

Transcribed by https://otter.ai