Well Seasoned The Podcast
Well Seasoned The Podcast
Zoom Fatigue, it's Real!
Staceyann and Patrick are joined by Meir Israel - C.E.O. of of Studio M Photography and Cine, South Beach Photo Booth Company and Hollywood Gameworks. We talk about Zoom fatigue and how to create an engaging agenda for virtual events that include entertainment and supporting adult learning habits with proper agenda planning.
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Email us your questions and event stories to be featured on the show:
wellseasonededucation@gmail.com
If you go to Urban Dictionary of which I am a huge fan, there is no colorful alternative that anyone has written. It is straight up just the words, Zoom Fatigue. That's it. No one's thought of anything else. It's that bad, okay?
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria:Welcome to another episode of well seasoned the podcast, we're here with another great guest,
Patrick Brochu:I am very happy to introduce one of my very best friends in our industry. Mr. Mir, Israel, near is the CEO of studio in photography and Senate, the South Beach, photobooth, company, and Hollywood gameworks. So he's got a lot going on in different facets in the industry to make and you're one of me, and we'll talk a little bit about that. But today's topic is on virtual events. So say hello, Meir.
Meir Israel:Hello, Meir!
Patrick Brochu:So one of the things I want to kick off with is things that are born from downturns in the economy. I actually heard this outside of our industry, but there were a lot of companies that were born during recessions and depressions, and it seems like downturns really push this innovation. So we're just before we got on this call was telling me the history of South Beach photobooth company, and how that was born out of the 2008 recession. So here, give us a quick little glimpse into how you went from just photography. And born into these other facets.
Meir Israel:Yeah, of course. So, in 2008, myself, and my now business partner, Michael Anthony Sabatino, we started a secondary photobooth company. And within the photo booth world, it was a classic story of, hey, let's just buy a photo booth for some, you know, some side hustle, some extra income. Um, I quickly realized that despite the fact that people do trust in photographers, for image quality, and delivery, and so forth, there was something a little bit more pertinent to the idea of a concierge type service, people really recognize a brand and a brand's ability to really hone in on a specific thing, especially when we were already trying to like make a specific look and a specific level of service of what we were doing. We decided to just start an offshoot, a fictitious name, you know, now an actual official training course, these days. And I actually got inspiration from another company at the time, and I'm like, Oh, that's, that's a great, effective, authentic name. I, I suggested to my business partner, I'm like, hey, let's let's do the South Beach Photo Booth Company, I think that would really be a hit, like people 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 doing that? He's like, let's call the Fort Lauderdale Photo Booth Company. I'm like, that reminds me of spring break, and not in a good way. Let's not do that. So hence, the South Beach Photobooth Company was born back in 2009.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria:From the ashes, that's awesome
Meir Israel:Yes exactly. Absolutely from the ashes, you know, from the 2008 recession, definitely greatest accomplishment so far in my business.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria:That's awesome.
Meir Israel:That little history, right there.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria:That's awesome. So like we had said, Today, we're talking about virtual events, right? And you're talking about being born from the ashes. I was talking Patrick previously. And I was like, virtual events would not even be a thing that I would even think of, if it weren't for COVID. Right, we get together and we do events in person, and I do site visits. So we're talking about that, and the amount of options from the platform to use to the time of day to the type of event. So I kind of want to start off at the beginning, like the platform choices, and the amount of options there are to do, what makes the platform strong? Are you seeing trends that you're honing in on with all these platforms for virtual events?
Meir Israel:Little bit of yes, a little bit of no. I would say ease of user interface is always paramount to everything, we certainly see that with what we do from something as simple as a photobooth that takes pictures of people, we always try to keep everything on a straight one track KISS, keep it simple, Sally, and though Zoom and things like that are really easy to inundate with security purposes, if you're not monitoring it, and having somebody specifically moderate it the entire time. Zoom, I think is still like predominantly, the way that people go are going, I'm seeing some things that some people are creating or themselves, but realistically, it's just like a skin and a portal that goes to whatever that thing is, you know, be Zoom be at teams, etc. But as of this moment, I think right now, that's what the majority of us are still seeing, which then creates kind of a miscommunication with what the client's perceptions are for what they should be paying his Zoom for, like $13 a month, like what are they paying you for as an event professional, but To that end, I've quickly realized like, yeah, it could absolutely feel this way. Like Clients are saying, you know, some people are trying to justify, like, why are you charging this this money? What is the point of what you're doing? Get me started. But it's literally the same thing that we do for live events. It's a catered service. It's a social aspect. It's the fact that our expertise and experience and experience has had to turn on a dime these days, by the way, is what you are culminating together. And it translates to anything that anybody could do in respect to myself in my team, can a client go out and buy their own photo booth for several thousand dollars and take it to like their seven programs across the nation and make their money back? Yeah, they could? Do they know how to do that? No, absolutely not know how to do? You know, eventually try but you know, that's the thing. Like, are you bringing everything you know, to the table? Are you doing the broadcast? The most interesting part for event professionals right now the thing that is the time to shine is the least quantifiable experience. And the ability to put things together something that is literally a non tangible item is the part that's coming through right now. Because in the last portion that'll say, in regards to the platform's the experience in event professionals right now is showing that if you know how to put stuff together, like in a live event, in a almost a real style, fashion, underhanded mishmash of stuff, yeah, to make it all look seamless, and polish. That's where it's really coming through.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria:Absolutely. Yeah and we were talking about it earlier, too, that so many people assume because it's a virtual platform, that it's not as much work and you still have enough time, and it's no big whoop, you're just gonna get on Zoom and do something. And it's like, there's still registrations, there's still an agenda. They're learning the platform, how do you navigate it? How do you still keep people engaged, and I think people are missing that, like we said, there's so many virtual meetings happening now. And you could tell when it's not to disrespect anyone, but you could tell when it's just a random person in the office, just sending out a Zoom meeting. And that's really it versus an actual planning and agenda and a planner behind it doing something to actually keep people engaged.
Patrick Brochu:And one of the things is, we're doing this podcast, and we're the three of us, we can see each other, we're talking through Zoom, this is great for this. It's great for that networking thing. But then when you go into the actual conference, and the corporate messaging that we three are also familiar with, you know, it needs to have that structure, it needs to be clear and concise, because as I always say, that message or that look, of ballroom or set or something reflects the brand that we're representing the same thing with this online meeting. If you get online and you're at major company XYZ, and we're having internet issues up and down, yes, there's some level of forgiveness. But if it's a major brand, you're relating that over to the major brand. And that's not acceptable. And what we need to do as meeting professionals, is really relay that to our clients, and to Stacey, to your point about the cost 100%. That's something that Mir and I have actually talked quite a bit about, it's like, what are you expecting for this cost my company, we view your virtual meeting for this amount of money. And then there's another company that really doesn't have experience in this, that's literally just doing a Zoom and relaying your image back out. And they're doing it for a 10th of the cost. But the end result is the end result. And it's totally different. So what is it that you need to do? And that's my rant?
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria:Meir are you getting a lot of people coming to you asking you for your opinion on what platform to use and how to do it?
Meir Israel:No, I think that a lot of clients are still trying to kind of create their own thing. We're not privy necessarily to that portion of it, we're still you know, in the entertainment aspect, we're still the what is technically the highest person. So the whole history lesson, the lowest character in the totem pole is actually the most important, FYI.
Patrick Brochu:Oh, that makes sense.
Meir Israel:Yes, Foundation, though, we are becoming a little bit more of an important aspect of the entertainment. Whereas if you're talking about like a normal, like 400 person event, they hire us out for one photo entertainment, the corner, your important they pay a good healthy amount of budget for you. But if you weren't there, nothing's gonna suffer. Yeah. However, these days, you're a part of the cultural aspect. So despite whatever they're doing our challenges, of course, to get into whatever platform that they're using. Luckily, the majority of them are either something very simple for us to integrate into where let's say they're doing a HTML based platform for their registration and programs. So for something like Cvent, which has HTML portals, or maybe something that they develop themselves, most of them are, you know, HTML based. Yeah, sorry, they made a mess out. But for us, it's easy because we get to do everything that 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, but we have the ability to mimic you know, everything else. Much like what you You guys understand it's not Yeah, the fact that we have the tools, we have the tools to mimic what the clients, you know, support structure and everything needs to be something like a Zoom call, Patrick and I were talking about this just Friday, actually, you know, our ability to do a digital broadcast studio can work on that, or can work on something like teams, Zoom obviously has a little bit more to it that allows for intermixing, and the ability to kind of mess with stuff or, you know, the beauty of virtual backgrounds and behind all of us are here.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria:I know, you didn't have to show everybody up. That's ridiculous.
Meir Israel:Sorry. You know, I spent I spent several hours of this, I'm just going to show it off as much as I can.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria:You're just really extra,
Meir Israel:That's what all my friends say. Thank you. But, um, no, no platform specific. And right now. And I think that I think everything that we're all going to talk about right now, you know, everything changes hour by hour. This podcast, upon broadcast, seven days later, might be defunct, like we don't know. So as of right now we're rolling with the punches, you know, Zoom seems to be the most predominant, it is something that we all have to take notice of too, because I think that we as vendors, we as service providers are also noticing, okay, well, here's the proposal I did for some x, y client last week. This is a proposal I'm going to start to do for x, y, z client this week. And I'm going to add in these lines of service and really pressure them into doing this, let me get a digital Zoom meeting concierge person, you know, who's just literally just one person on my staff, who is just helping to manage the Zoom call as it from a technical aspect. That's their job. That's what they do, because it's support staff. And that's the interesting part. You know, all of Thursday, last week, we did a full day's worth of broadcast via declines in call from our studio, three live versions of trivia, you know, for this group support groups around groups, and because of everything that led up to it as things change last minute with clients, as we all know, we eventually employed one of our staff members to basically help admin their call is we did want a portion of it to had audience participation, then we did want to have people muted.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria:Okay, mere Listen, stop taking over the time.
Meir Israel:Okay, sorry.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria:You just like all just like, Okay, I get it. It's your podcast, too. We get it. Okay. So now we're talking about pre recording, right? And yeah, you had someone actually be the admin on their side. Explain this to us now. Now, I'll let you talk again.
Meir Israel:The thing is, everything we know, we know from live events, right? Like everything we've learned experience wise, we all know it from live events.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria:Yeah.
Meir Israel:And even we, as top tier professionals, can get a little blindsided at the idea of like, oh, a virtual event doesn't need this, this, this. And this, there's signage and call to actions at a live event. There's like people guiding books through hallways, or telling them where table numbers might be found, and so forth. Where is that in a virtual event right now?
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria:Exactly. Yeah, yeah.
Meir Israel:Who's doing that? And are you proposing it to a client at the moment, and listen, I'm guilty of it, too. I didn't realize until like two weeks ago, but like, we don't know how long this is going to go on. We don't know how hybrid events may or may not occur, and who's going to be helping to administer. Am I going to get lucky and work with Media Stage on my next team broadcast at someplace where just the top chair people are there and everybody else's broadcast live? I don't know that, you know, so I've got to give a client my best foot forward to create an environment now in a digital scape that provides all the support that I need. And if that support is my staff members, knowing how to use Zoom, administering Zoom the way that it needs to be done, while still maintaining plank communication in their brand. That's something that we should be doing. So that's like one of those quick realizations that we've come to just over the past couple of weeks, because everything is changing. And clients are very slow to get this whole idea. But they're getting there, and they're getting it.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria:So is that something -- was that a service that you were providing pre? Or is this something that you're adjusting to now?
Meir Israel:So with regards to like necessity, right, like from the ashes breed something else? What's interesting is in the digital aspect of these meetings, because we all have to be physically distant. Remember kids, physically distant, not socially distant. So start saying Great job. Because we all have to be that way. We all have to start employing tools that allow us to perform maybe what we commonly performed at a live event in a different way. So some of these tools that we're using, 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're now employing, once this is all over. Whenever that day comes we now have a greater tool for the live event. Once the live events are back. We now have tools that when applied client has a specific need. And they are a little bit more interesting and useful to us and not necessarily in a discounted way either. You know, for example, in the photo booth aspect, we cannot be there live with people. So we have curated what is referred to as the virtual booth, which is essentially a branded photo experience that anybody can utilize via HTML on their mobile device or on their laptop, right before you. And then it creates the ability for anyone across the world to create and curate a branded image, which is, you know, culminated into a gallery or, you know, creates a sense of togetherness or brand awareness or culture, whatever that might be. Now, when we go back to live events, people are going to go right back to the classic photo booth, right there hundred percent, no questions asked.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria:Yeah, for sure.
Meir Israel:However, what's interesting about this from a brand aspect, or persons like myself, now, if a client comes to us and says, hey, we've got 35 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 same time in the same states, you know, for that your budget is one eighth of what it needs to be for us to do that live, that can't be done. However, we have this thing that not only can the people who are there at your activation be made aware of. But you can also make everybody else aware of it to like your entire campaign that's going on across your social media. So now it goes from you didn't have the money for the reach in the first place to We not only have the budget for you, and the reach for all the people that you want to interact with live at these parties and at these events. And now you've got the ability to do that with your entire social platform, if not the world.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria:It's one of those things, too, I think about when I'm planning events, I wouldn't really think about the virtual as much, pre-COVID right? And, you know, you kind of do with the social media, and people kind of stopped with a "Oh, yeah, let's just do a branded hashtag and that's how we're gonna get people involved," or "Maybe we do a Snapchat or Instagram filter. And that's how we get people involved." But because of where we are now, it's kind of like, wait a second, I have another way to get people involved, even national sales meetings, right? Not everybody comes to a national sales meeting. It's probably only in salespeople, but you still have the people in the office, maybe some of the marketing
Patrick Brochu:The support staff
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria:Support who's not there. Now, how are we going to integrate it. And there's a lot of lessons learned in this. And it just makes you think differently. And even with what you're saying with these virtual events, they can be very boring. Because they look at it as just a simple agenda. It's a PowerPoint, whatever. And I love what you guys are doing.
Patrick Brochu:This is actually bringing us to our next topic that we have to talk about with with me or which is engagement. And this is -
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria:Yeah
Patrick Brochu:- on all of the calls that I've been on with clients and potential clients and other you know, networking things. It's been engagement, how are we keeping attendees engaged, especially in this remote virtual world. And I like that Meir, because I haven't heard anybody talk about this yet. But I like what you mentioned, because what we've been talking about here is how you're engaging them with this virtual photo booth. But you're almost taking it a step further by, okay, and this is what I've always liked about you is that you're always thinking forward that -
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria:He likes you Meir
Meir Israel:The checks are clearing
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria:Right?
Patrick Brochu:- that when things come back to normal, or to the semi normal, what's the new normal gonna be, and in this hybrid role, because in my world, in the audio visual side, we know that right, when COVID ends, and there's a cure or whatever, that we're not going back to life as normal, right off the bat day one, it's going to go slow. And we're gonna get into a hybrid of you know, some people, and maybe it's because some companies don't want everybody to travel, maybe it said, some people aren't comfortable with traveling, etc. So in thinking about that, we're trying to think about what do we keep doing when we go back into this hybrid? And you're doing the same thing here, because you mentioned about the photo booth. Okay, well, we can engage the people that are there live through this platform, but we can also engage other people that aren't in that meeting, and bringing them in. So I thought that was really good.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria:It's just gonna change how you see proposals now huh?
Patrick Brochu:Exactly. Hey, here's some add ons.
Meir Israel:Exactly. Because nothing says let me change my proposals like I've already finished my tariffs, starting back in March and April. Let me just keep on going. I didn't need to be finished with it. It's fine. Start all over again.
Patrick Brochu:But here I want to talk. Now because we're talking about this engagement. Let's talk about how you're engaging attendees outside of the photo booth because I know that you've talked about some other activities, what are some other activities that people can use to help keep their attendees engaged?
Meir Israel:Let me start by saying Zoom Fatigue is a real thing. It is 100% absolutely a real thing. So much. So if you go to Urban Dictionary of which I am a huge fan, there is no colorful alternative that anyone has written, it is straight up just the words, Zoom Fatigue. That's it. No one's thought of anything else. It's that bad, okay? Zoom Fatigue is a real thing. Again, I will emphasize like everything we know all of our experiences, not just, you know, myself, my team, but everything you guys know, we only learn it from live events. The good part about that is that's people. We know people. And to that end, we know that folks are only engaged if they need to be engaged, if they want to be engaged, folks attention span is very short, especially so like at a corporate event, when they're at home, when they're in their t shirts, not even like work attire anymore, when their kids are around them, surrounding them, seeing what they're doing. Because the kids are bored, you have to capture people's attention. And you have to make it really short and sweet. That is another challenge that we're experiencing right now with some of our clients so that they understand like what they're giving them, if we're providing for them a show, we're going to give them all we can, but it's going to be something that's less than an hour, in fact, sometimes less than 45 minutes so that people get engaged, really get into it, have a memorable moment, and then they're back off to their life because I have never felt so chained to my laptop in all of my time, as opposed to the last few months. And I live with my laptop like I have no problem with it being like next to my bed before I go to sleep like I but there's just something about it where you just feel like you need to have it. So two things that we've been doing aside from the virtual booth, one of the more notable ones is we've been doing hosted trivia. And that's where myself or one of my other MCs, come on a Zoom call, or a corporation for a meeting group for what used to be a gala is now turned into a zoom meeting call. And we come on there and we do a digital broadcast. So it's much like what we would do on stage if we were except now we're doing it through our Digital Studio, back at the office, with music with lights with sound with green screen with a curated game that's been created for the company culture or for this wonderful not for profit organization, or for whatever it might be to keep folks engaged to get them going to get it really simple and easy. And to make it so that the technology is there to do so. So that the regular common layman can use it. Nothing complicated. Nothing.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria:That's that's the thing. Yeah.
Meir Israel:Right. And you can't be like, Alright, well, I'm gonna make a Twitch channel and you guys are gonna put in your answers on the chat. You got to also give them something that's actually worthwhile to pay for. So elevation in whatever you're doing is also really important.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria:Good lord. Yes.
Patrick Brochu:You know, Meir mentioned the galas and the sales meetings and everything. What I've been suggesting, or referring is with something like that trivia game, for instance, something that's interactive for the crowd that's going to get them engaged and keep them engaged and looking at the agenda. Okay, maybe we're gonna break this up into four sections. We can't make this an all day meeting. And we're gonna break this up into four sections. We're going to start intro, Hey, everybody does it off. Today, we're doing our meeting. And we're going to play a game in between, here's what we're going to do. And now we cute to somebody like mirrors company like Hollywood game works. And we say, Okay, here's the MC, they come on, everybody get out your device in between, we're going to be playing the game during the breaks that enough, I'll see you guys in between break one, and then boom, the meeting goes, and then Mir comes back on or somebody comes back on during that next break, and then they play a game. And now we can see the leaderboard, they go back to their meeting. And now he comes back for another segment in between. And here's more of a game. And in that way, it's keeping everybody engaged, because maybe there's a big prize for whoever wins or the top team that wins or whatever. Cuz what we're also seeing in these virtual meetings is how many people are getting on and they're staying logged in, but they're turning off their screen and now they're gonna walk in go do yard work or you know, whatever. Now we have a reason key creating a reason for them to stay engaged and actually pay attention.
Meir Israel:And can I build on that there Pat?
Patrick Brochu:Yeah.
Meir Israel:The numbers are so confusing right now, it is so difficult to truly give a client an idea of what they need to do sometimes when they're floored at the numbers. If they're having a hosted live event, they're usually expecting 200 people, some of these clients are getting 600% I had a conversation with one of our DMC partners that said, normally they expect 1200 they've got 10,000 registers. And then the question becomes, how many of those people are going to need to engage? What are we going to do? And the second half of the numbers are confusing. You'll see some people register but not engage. And then you know, sometimes it's a fraction they're in because the client didn't necessarily do the the call to action they were hoping for or they are really floored, like when they have those big numbers. A majority of them are actually engaging or at least for a short amount of time. So I think don't know anybody have all of my friends in the industry who were in whatever they do have figured out their formula with either their broadcasts or the engagement or whatever it is.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria: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 snafu in it, when I tell you, people are ready to throw their computers because they were so livid. And I'm like, you guys need to realize a lot of the time the engagement is what people is coming here for. They're tired of the usual they want to have fun, they want to play a game they want to network, and it could be the best information ever. But if they're not able to play that game -
Meir Israel:Staceyann, you have no idea how Right you are, let me tell you, let me tell you a story from the live events world, okay? To be our very prominent in like the photo taking world, there's always one type of person that we engage with when we're doing a photobooth. And it's the person with whom doesn't necessarily always agree with how they feel about themselves in a photo. So they express the idea that the booth doesn't necessarily take good pictures.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria:That is your face!
Meir Israel:Yeah, but they'll blame it on -
Patrick Brochu:They're blaming it on the Meir.
Meir Israel:Now, what's interesting in the gaming world, since we do gaming rentals and tournaments, you know, style things at events, when they were all alive, there is another person in the gaming world who now if things aren't perfect, and tournament style, because that's what they used to do in college. They're just yarding up a storm, you know, so like, heaven forbid, a foosball table isn't like even or -
Patrick Brochu:It's leaning to one side!
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria:I can't! You plan for everything. But you know, it's the littlest thing that's going to just -
Meir Israel:Right
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria:They didn't have antibacterial gel within two inches of them, or my room was in the center of the floor. And I like to be towards the ends. And I'm like, don't have that's what I give them. 10 seconds of silence. Let them really think about it. And I'm like, Yeah, but yeah, there's always that one person.
Meir Israel: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. So just carry over what you know. And as Patrick just gave us that beautiful outline of how an entire event goes, you got to have somebody there who's walking everybody through.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria:Exactly.
Meir Israel:So when myself or my team are hosting stuff, we got to be hosts, entertainers. It concierge hospitality
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria:We always wear all hats. Absolutely.
Meir Israel:That's the thing. And my clients, who thus far have gotten a chance to do everything that we have, they are all extremely appreciative. They really understand like, what it is that they got out of this whole thing. But it's I'm really emphasizing this one more time. It's not just a lesson period right now, for clients. It's the lesson period, or us as vendors to really stop and say, but I know this, let me not psych myself out. I know what I'm doing. Let me just really listen to myself, my staff and of course the client. You know what the needs are and provide an excellent, excellent service when somebody finally pulls the trigger, because we all know they're taking their sweet freakin time to sign those contracts.
Patrick Brochu:You know, one thing that I will say, because it's funny, in people prepping for these virtual meetings, what I've seen, the successful ones that we've been doing are the people that aren't afraid to take these breaks. People still need breaks, even though they're on their computer near I think you spawned a whole nother topic for us about fact that we're all feeling like we're strapped to our laptops working more than ever, without anything going on. Like, that's insane. But it's the way that life is. But when people are on their virtual meetings, they need more coffee breaks. And let's face it as an event planner, right now, you're not paying for that virtual economy. Let's take some virtual breaks and get them out. So we're almost out of time and I can't believe it. Mir sir. I was telling Staceyann something kind of funny the other day, and I wanted to get your thoughts on this. Can you tell us a little bit about hey girl emails?
Meir Israel:Hey, girl.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria:Yeah please!
Meir Israel:Okay. All right, hold on. Disclaimer first. All right.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria:Okay.
Patrick Brochu:Okay.
Meir Israel:We're all in a very unique time. Okay. Yes, my inbox contacts are gone. I don't know about 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 many people were just like gone, wouldn't answer auto emails, forwarded responses and stuff like that. We're all unique time. You gotta hustle to make things going. We are in a make or break situation for a lot of books. However, a lot of people are having a moment where they were in a position at a company 1535 staff deep we're now there's only like one or two people left and everybody still on your network list either in LinkedIn or certainly on Facebook has started to veer into you know, whatever they got to do to make a little cash. All sometimes All you know is events, you know, you came out of college, you went straight into events. And that was that was it. So the hey girl message-
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria:With a U or a I?
Meir Israel:You know, whichever.
Patrick Brochu:Hey girl, hey gurl,
Meir Israel:It's generally how people are taught when you have subscribed to a multi level marketing scheme. And they tell you start with your network, start with your inner friends and so forth and it's usually girlfriend or girlfriend and it starts with one of those because you've started your own company. You have your friends and the message usually starts with a chummy a very camaraderie-esque Hey girl!
Patrick Brochu:Hey girl, I'm now selling pots and pans. Hey girl, I'm now selling makeup.
Meir Israel:Yeah.
Patrick Brochu:Hey girl, or in this case, Hey, Meir!
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria:Hey Meir.
Patrick Brochu:Hey Meir! You need some Lululemon?
Meir Israel:I have I've been trying to work out you might you never know
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria:It would go great with your shirt. They have colorful ones that would match it.
Patrick Brochu:But it's but it's funny. Because when you started telling me about this the other day about the Hey, girl, emails, it's like, Hey, girl, what are you talking about? And then when you explained I was like, Oh my God. That's exactly what my wife is going through. She gets these like multiple times a week. Hey, Paige. Hey, girl. Yeah, you know, Hey, girl, I haven't talked to you in for and Paige just just yesterday, I told her that you told me this year. And she was like, Oh, I had this friend from you know, whatever middle school that I went to summer camp with one time that reached out to me. And she's like, I don't even I haven't talked to them and you know, 30 years, 20 years, whatever.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria:They're but they're having a virtual like Tupperware party that she has to attend.
Patrick Brochu:Hey girl. And she was like, Okay, goodbye.
Meir Israel:And the ones that were getting her like, you know, wine and cheese ones now, you know, whatever it is, wine tasting boxes
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria:Oh God, wine tasting is huge.
Meir Israel:That's the majority
Patrick Brochu:We're raising the class at least
Meir Israel:Exactly.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria:Thank you, Mir.
Meir Israel:Yeah!
Patrick Brochu:Meir, before we do let you go, we have one more question for you. And I'll let Stacey ask
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria:what is your nugget of wisdom that you'd like to leave, and it's anything it could be from stop sending Hey, girl emails to I personally like ham and cheese sandwiches. But it's your nugget of wisdom.
Meir Israel:We're on a very weird time. Now one would almost say that we are all in mourning for the world. And certainly for live events. It is 100% Okay, to feel whatever you're feeling those feelings are valid, and those feelings are part of being human, which we all are. Persevere, reach out to a friend, either for yourself or for them. We're all gonna get through this. And we're all gonna come out better on the other side. I hope to see all then.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria:Oh!
Patrick Brochu:Awesome.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria:#tears!
Patrick Brochu:That was a good one.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria:That really was! Thank you Meir!
Patrick Brochu:That's a good one. Thank you Meir. All right.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria:So you know what time it is. It's time for a little paprika. So go ahead, pepper. Give it to me.
Patrick Brochu:You know, I've been thinking I miss traveling a lot. I don't miss some of those days. But I don't know if you had any of these. But you did the long like cross country for a meeting and then hopping back on a plane. You don't know what I'm saying let you fly in. And then you turn right back around, flying in you land -
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria:You meet, and then you get right back to the airport.
Patrick Brochu:- 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 three hours, and then turning around. You know, I kind of missing it in a weird sick way. But kinda not missing it. I don't know. Let's talk about some travel stories. You have any?
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria:It's funny you say that, because the other day I was like, Oh, I'm so happy to not be in anybody's airport. Do I have travel stories? Duh. Don't we all that's like another book on its own. But I mean, one time I was sitting in first class, I was coming from Vegas. It's like the six o'clock in the morning fight and I'm exhausted. And this guy comes on wearing the hotel slippers hotel robe. And his suitcase is a garbage bag full of clothes. And I was so like, it's six o'clock in the morning. I can't process that at that time in the morning. Insane. But that was like one of them than another one. Actually on that same trip. If I go backwards, I checked into the hotel, I get to my room and this man has all of his clothes in the closet. So like I run out the room. I go back downstairs, I go to security. And I'm like, uh, can you tell me like this people's clothes in my room security comes back up and they check and they're like, oh, he might have just been running from his bookie. This happens all the time. And I'm like, excuse?
Patrick Brochu:Did you say running from his bookie?
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria:Yeah, like I'm gonna need another room because if he's if this person knows that he's in this room, I don't want to come for me. I'm like, you got to change my room, bruv. I couldn't say.
Patrick Brochu:I remember there was one time I was coming back and I believe it was from IMEX. I'm pretty sure it was IMEX. And it was the red eye is I used to be crazy like that and take those red eye flights. But you're on that red eye and I fell asleep and find Las Vegas to Miami and somewhere over New Orleans like Louisiana or something like that. I woke up to the lady screaming bloody murder in the seat in front of me. Obviously I was you had that instant Panic of oh crap we're going down. But it turns out and I believe she was speaking Portuguese but I was sitting in the window and this was in the row in front of me and this lady was sitting in the window in front of me in the middle seat was her husband. And then there was another person in the aisle and her husband who is in the middle, she woke up and apparently she realized he was cold and not breathing. Oh shut and they did the whole doctor on the plane. There was a huge freakout the guy in that was an aisle guide up and like left, yeah, and then some doctor put him down on the ground. They laid him flat on the sea. And then they were like pumping his legs trying to get blood back in whatever they were doing all these things, and he had passed away in his sleep, no redeye.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria:No.
Patrick Brochu:Yes. So then because by that point, with all of the chaos happening, we were over the gulf on the way back down Florida, and the decision was made because he was deceased not to stop.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria:So you guys continue flying to Miami?
Patrick Brochu:Correct, yeah, because apparently, had they stopped it would have thrown everything on wait.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria:Wait! So what did they do with his body?
Patrick Brochu:He stayed on the seat in front of me.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria:Patrick Brochu!
Patrick Brochu:Laying down and they landed they asked everybody politely, which this is the first time this has ever happened, by the way a different story. But you know when they make the announcement Hey, everybody, so and so's on this plane and in the back and needs to get off. Please stay seated until they exit and then everybody gets up in that person can't get off the plane they miss their connection.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria:Yeah.
Patrick Brochu:They made the announcement for everybody to stay seated. And everybody did. The paramedics came on. They picked up the person and took them off. And then we all deboarded the plane in the middle of the night. It was nuts.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria:Patrick, I can't Okay, wait, but
Patrick Brochu:I thought I was going down but I thought I was going to take
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria:there's so much to unpack in this story. So this woman she's sleeping and she wakes up and she feels that her husband is now cold and is not breathing. Or I'm assuming probably not but
Patrick Brochu:we didn't know what she was saying because I don't speak Portuguese. So I didn't know that at the time.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria:Why did you make me start with my story? My story is BS compared to yours. Okay, wait, hold on. So now this poor grieving woman who knows that her husband has passed away has to sit in the seat next to her
Patrick Brochu:And she was crying just crying the whole time.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria:What are you gonna do? What else is there to do?
Patrick Brochu:I mean, it was a few hours it must have seemed like an eternity to her.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria:It had to, yeah,
Patrick Brochu:Yeah, I didn't go back asleep
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria:Yeah. There was a
Patrick Brochu:and by the way, I didn't make you go first.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria:Okay.
Patrick Brochu:You went first
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria:Okay okay, because you don't tell me what to do. So...
Patrick Brochu:...and that's a wrap. Thank you all for joining us today for Well Seasoned the Podcast.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria:I'm not done. I'm not done.
Patrick Brochu:This may or may not be the last episode of Well Seasoned the Podcast
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria:You not gonna tell me what to do. I still have to talk about. Shoot. Stupid face. Anyway, I'm Salt
Patrick Brochu:And I'm Pepper. We'll see you next time.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria:Bye! Episode produced by Patrick Brochu and Staceyann VanHorne-Doria. Sound editing by Rocci Doria and song by Dr. Delight