How the Art of Mentalism Can Elevate Travel Experiences with David Stryker

We're incredible thrilled to launch Season 7 with a full video interview featuring an LA Based Celebrity Mentalist and Magician, David Stryker, who show us how to apply his techniques to enhance our travel experiences. We wanted to try something a little different and have some fun with our season opener. Both Katherine and Zach from Travel Trends join the discussion with Dan and David to try out a little experiment. You have to watch our amazement. Join us as we explore how the craft of mentalism, rooted in attention, psychology, and presence, can elevate every stage of the travel experience, from pre-trip planning to on the ground guiding and the way memories take hold.

David shares how reading the room is really an act of deep listening, and why a playful approach lowers defenses and unlocks joy. We start by revisiting his captivating Last Vegas performance at Rail Bookers conference, where Dan met David and which he recalls as the best peformance he's ever seen at a travel industry conference. Hands down.

For anyone who designs trips, guides groups, or advises clients, this conversation offers a practical recommendations to improve those experiences. We discuss all of David's key Mentalist principles and how they apply to travel, from matching guests by energy rather than demographics to leaving space for surprise and focusing on wonder and openness.

We finish with a final card trick on Dan and then David shares some final takeaways to apply these concept to you life, work and travels. We hope you enjoy this playful start to our new season and a keep this discussion as an important reminder of the joy that travel and human connection bring to our lives.

👉 How the Art of Mentalism Can Elevate Travel Experiences Now

🔥 Special Thanks to our Season 7 Title Sponsors for their Support: Bokun, Civitatis, Intrepid, Kaptio, Propellic and Protect Group.

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Transcript

Kicking Off Season Seven On Video

SPEAKER_05 0:04

Hello everyone and welcome to season seven of Travel Trends. I'm so excited to be back with you in video. This is the first time that we have launched a season with YouTube and also having video on all our streaming platforms as well. Not every episode will be video in season seven, but many of them will. And this first one is particularly special, and we wanted to bring in a celebrity guest. We have an extraordinary guest that we that you uh some people may know, certainly the Railbookers team will know. David Stryker is a mentalist. He's based in Los Angeles. I had the pleasure and privilege to meet him a few months ago, and I want to share a little bit about that. But what I wanted to do with this first episode is take some of these incredible insights that I learned from seeing him on stage that would apply to the travel industry. And we thought one of the best ways to do that would be in video format because that's what's required to be able to showcase the amazing skills that David has. But first of all, David Stryker, welcome to Travel Trends. So great to have you with us.

SPEAKER_01 1:00

Hey, Dan, great to be with you. This is amazing. Good to be here.

What Mentalism Really Is

SPEAKER_05 1:04

Absolutely. I'm so excited for this. We're going to bring in in a moment two of our team members, Zach and Catherine, two people that, you know, Zach's been with us since the very beginning editing the podcast, and Catherine as well, doing all of our guesting. So I'm delighted that they're going to be able to join us in a moment and be able to see and experience the magic in real time. And this is actually one of the things I wanted to ask you off the top because some of the people listening to this, David, are like, what is mentalism? Would you mind just giving us a bit of an overview of what that actually is?

SPEAKER_01 1:31

Oh, yeah. Yeah, mentalism is mentalism is sort of like uh it's adjacent to magic. So I started as like a kid magician. And mentalism is really magic, magic tricks of the mind. So a magician might manipulate objects like coins and cards and things like that. And a mentalist is really playing with the perception that he is predicting the future, influencing thoughts and sort of picking up on what somebody might be thinking.

SPEAKER_05 1:56

And so tell everyone a little bit about how you got into this, because I saw you on stage, and I'm going to share this in a moment, how we met and why it was I felt it was so meaningful to uh to bring you on the show, and I'm thrilled that you're here. But tell everyone how you actually got into this and how you trained to become a mentalist.

SPEAKER_01 2:10

Yeah, so I started as as I just mentioned as a kid magician. So I was it it is adjacent to being a magician. So it's in the realm of deception and sort of like layered with psychology and some kind of emo emotional tactics to make it feel as powerful as possible. So I started as a kid magician, doing like neighborhood parties and things like that, and uh slowly progressed to the point where I knew that I wanted to sort of connect with people more than maybe a card trick could. I think I think there are some amazing card tricks out there, but when you really start delving into um what somebody might be feeling or a memory that they might have, things get really interesting. So yeah.

Vegas Story And Why It Matters

SPEAKER_05 2:47

Well, in terms of how we met, I just want our audience, and you can add to this by all means, but it was Vegas, uh, November 2025. I had come in to record an event spotlight at the Railbookers conference. My good friend Frank Marini, who's been on our podcast, kindly invited me in. I was sitting and had the good fortune to sit at the executive table right at the the uh the front of the theater. And as you came on stage, everyone kept telling me, just wait for this, just wait for this, because a few people had seen you perform previously. Um and as you entered the stage, you could just see how excitement there was at the table, but no one else really knew what they were in for yet. And I just want to underscore this as we start this conversation. It was the best performance I've ever seen at a travel conference, and I've been going to travel conferences for more than 20 years, and I've seen a lot of great performance. I have never seen what you did on stage and the wow factor it had in the room. And you know, I was blown away, but I could see there was even some skepticism at the beginning, and even the way that you engaged some of the people in the audience and brought them around that didn't think that and it was it was extraordinary, it was fun, it was interesting, it was engaging, and everyone just kept telling me it gets better, it gets better, and sure enough, it did. So that's what I wanted to share with everybody because it was the combination for me, it was so entertaining, but it's like psychology, your presence on stage, your engagement with the audience. And this is where for me I just had this big realization that if somebody like yourself could could share the techniques, since most of it is, as you say, it's learned. It's not, it's it's in the realm of magic, but it's not the supernatural. But these mind-reading capabilities to be able to know how to engage a room, to be able to read people, these are so many things that are important in business, in life, your career, and also in travel. How do you maximize the experience in a destination to really have an incredible experience yourself? Or for travel advisors listening to this that want to make sure that their guests have incredible experiences? How do we take the lessons learned from mentalism and apply them to travel? And that's obviously what we're gonna do today. So tell me how did you end up there in Vegas? Uh, from and uh how much involvement have you had in the travel industry up until now?

SPEAKER_01 4:49

Dan, first of all, thank you for an incredible introduction. If that's not going into my demo uh video, I'm not sure what will. Thank you very much. Yeah, uh you were sitting front and center there in that show. I I think let's see, there's a few questions there. I I got connected with these folks um at a club. They saw me perform at a theater um outside of Las Vegas. And uh yeah, I met Frank and things went from there. Frank was like, we got to have this guy at the event. So really what it's all about is connection. When you make these connections, they're personal, and then you want to bring that into what you're doing on the stage. So as much as it's possible, we're trying to connect with people. You know, that's really what it's all what it's what it's all about. Did you feel you you mentioned that like when people were kind of lit up when I came on stage? Did you feel like it was only that table? Because everyone else is usually a little bit wary at the start of a show, would you say? There's people who are sort of like, you need to warm up. This is gonna be not warm up. I mean, I'm not scary or anything, but there's some degree of like maybe hesitance from some folks until we kind of get to the place of, oh, we're all sort of breathing this together and doing it together.

From Kid Magician To Mentalist

SPEAKER_05 5:52

Yeah. Well, the electricity was at my table. And so that was quick, and it was kind of like I am now, knowing that Catherine and Zach is gonna get a chance to join us in a moment and have the same experience that they felt I was now about to have and what I saw happen across the room. So, no, it was very much limited to that table that people were saying, just wait for this. And then as it continued to progress, I was like, wow, wow. And they're just like, it's gonna get better. And you could just see, like they said, you and but the room definitely, people are skeptical of what's about to happen. Are you gonna start doing mind tricks? Are you gonna like are you reading my mind? Are you gonna get me on stage doing things that are subconscious? I even told somebody yesterday about how much I was looking forward to this. And they they assumed what was gonna happen is that you were gonna program uh that I was gonna all of a sudden you're you're gonna be able to uh to be able to do magic tricks. And that's like that's not it. I think there's a misunderstanding, which is why I wanted to ask you at the beginning about mentalism. So so just to finish on that, and then I'm keen to uh bring in uh Catherine and Zach. So as we think about the world of mentalism and you starting uh with magic and getting into the space, tell us a little bit more about how this process works and you know, really how this has become, you know, it's become a profession. There's a few major mentalists now that have become on the world stage, and I know you're part of that group and have many friends in that space, but it still is in many ways starting to get the recognition it deserves. But yeah, tell us a little bit more about the craft itself.

SPEAKER_01 7:15

Oh gosh, where do I start? Well, I mean, mentalism hasn't is having a moment right now. I think, I think people are quite intrigued by the sort of basicness of mentalism. There's really not much more to it than, you know, let's connect and let's try to kind of feel each other's energy and see if we can create a moment that um will feel amazing and hopefully propel us forward into something better. That's sort of how I think of my work. I would love for things to end. I think people are very drawn to the idea that um there's sort of more to the universe than we can see um with our eyes. We sort of have all of the answers at our fingertips. We have our phones, we have AI now, and people are sort of craving the analog, this sort of the simplicity of mentalism, I think, really delivers something really special for people. I'm I'm really happy to be part of it. I think uh, yeah, I'm I'm thrilled that people are into what I do. I can't tell you how thrilled I am. When I was a little kid, if you told me I'd be doing this for money, yeah, wouldn't have believed you.

SPEAKER_05 8:14

Yeah. Well, and this is where when you think about how it applies to travel specifically, and I guess that's where when I was you know looking forward to our conversation and thinking about all the, you know, you've got this element of uh psychology, you've got a strong, obviously, emotional intelligence. These are things that, you know, um even when we're trying to design guest experiences, the power of human connection, it came up for me after seeing you at the Virtuoso conference. I mean, that is what drives people to travel. It's why people utilize travel advisors, like there. And then the other thing that stood out to me was the memory making, because when you have these incredible experiences, why you're trying to capture them, but actually the work that you do is very intentional. And the way that you read people and then that you uh that you can memorize information and be able to understand that that's the sort of things that I would love to slow down in my travels, be more intentional, really embrace the moment. And you know, when you and I were chatting before, I was talking about one of my favorite books, The Art of Travel. And one of the things that um the philosopher highlights in that book is that one of the challenges with travel is you take yourself with you and you bring all your own baggage.

SPEAKER_01 9:18

Oh man, that is great. That is great. You take your one of the problems that you take yourself with you, yeah, right.

SPEAKER_05 9:23

And you hear it like you know, you hear people at the pool complaining about their job, and it's like, wait a second, you're on holiday. What do you want, what do you like? This is this is your time to relax and escape and be uh away from that world. But so what I'm really looking forward to today is uh how you would apply it to travel. So maybe let's let's start there, because I always think about travel as the pre-trip experience, the experience you're having on the trip and afterwards. Where do you think mentalism could apply um to the pre-trip experience, for example?

Wonder, Analog Magic, And Connection

SPEAKER_01 9:52

Well, it's interesting. It's it's there's I I gave some thought to this. And so the first pre-trip pre-trip is planning, right? You're you're you're planning what you're gonna do, and ideally you're kind of visualizing how you want it to be. I mean, for me, a good trip is sort of like putting yourself in the mindset of what do I want to see. But really, it's like with with traveling, like you can make a plan, but you gotta follow, you gotta follow the energy, you gotta follow the vibe. You can you can make the plan, but when I jump on stage, I really don't know what's gonna happen. I think there's a direct correlation between between traveling, you got a plan for it. You can't go without a plan, you're gonna feel stressed out, but when you get there, will the plan be sufficient? Usually not. Usually the plan needs to be just sort of rolled with. So that's the first thing that comes to mind, if that's helpful. I don't know.

SPEAKER_05 10:36

For sure. And but if we think about the audience, I mean, we have certainly travel advisors listen to this. We've got people in the accommodation space. And you obviously are an avid traveler, you perform at a lot of uh conferences and and events. And when you just think about the core principles of mentalism, uh, how would you say they would apply to travel? What's kind of stands out to you? Obviously, I've mentioned a few that that stand out to me. What are some of those? And then I'm gonna bring Kat and Zach in here so you can actually do some work on each of us to see how it actually will work in practice.

SPEAKER_01 11:07

Okay, a couple things. I think I think a lot has to do with the mental attitude. I think a lot in in terms of my work, I think a lot about my mental attitude. The way that I not only carry myself, but the way that I perceive my surroundings. And so one thing I would say to travelers is expect wonder. I would say, like, that's how I go into a magic show, whether I'm watching it or performing it. I'm expecting good things to happen. If you don't expect good, amazing things to happen, probably not gonna happen. So that's the I don't know. I I would I would give that little nugget. It's something that I take in my everyday life as a mentalist, as an entertainer. I think it it applies to travel. Um I would say to try to try and make it personal. Like um whenever, whenever, again, I'm doing a show for both for myself and other people. If if if people can't tell, if people can't see the show and tell a story back that makes it about connects it to them, like there's really nothing there. So I would say the same for travel. Try to make it try to make it personal. I think people do this naturally, but if we do it with intention, we can make things a lot better.

Applying Mentalism To Travel Mindsets

SPEAKER_03 12:08

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SPEAKER_05 14:01

And now, back to the show. Let's make it personal by bringing in two of our team members that our audience have known for the last three years. So I'm gonna introduce Zach, our producer, the one that runs dinosaur trips. He's co-hosted episodes. He actually, when you start to hear his voice, he does all of the partner ads throughout our series. So Zach, welcome back to Travel Trends.

SPEAKER_03 14:23

Sure. I hadn't thought that uh yeah, people might might be triggered by my voice now. Like expect that to be the break, but stay around, stick around.

SPEAKER_05 14:33

We'll be right back. Okay, now you go. Uh well, Zach, I'm thrilled to introduce you to David. Obviously, David, Zach runs dinosaur trips and is a producer of our show. So great for you guys to uh to connect. And then Catherine, who has worked with us again since the very beginning, done all of our guesting. Catherine's very well known to our listeners as well. She's been a big part of our AI summit, of course. She's done a number of interviews and she's often joined me with some of the intros to our series. So, Catherine, great to have you on Travel Trends for the opening episode of season seven.

SPEAKER_00 15:02

Thank you. Hello, hello. Hi, David. Nice to meet you.

SPEAKER_01 15:05

Hey guys, good to meet you. Likewise. Uh, Dan, can we start with just a quick experiment with these two? Is that cool with you?

SPEAKER_05 15:10

Let's go for it.

SPEAKER_01 15:11

Okay, and we know that the everyone, well, we'll just we'll just set this up for everyone watching. We did not set anything up, we didn't talk um about what's about to happen. Um and Dan, I mailed something to you.

SPEAKER_05 15:25

FedEx arrived yesterday. Yes.

Sponsors And Industry Context

SPEAKER_01 15:27

FedEx arrived. Okay, we have the envelope, and we'll get to that in a moment. But first, oh, I love the cat's already nervous. This is good. Cat and Zach, I want I want each of you to think of a number. I want you each to think of a number between one and a hundred. And I want whatever number you land on in your head to be arbitrary to your life. So, not your mom's birthday, not like your volleyball number from high school if you have one. Like just a random number. You both have one? Right. I want the two of you to please focus on the number. You know, we're seeing each other through a screen here. Focus on the number and don't change your mind. My chicken scratch is not amazing. What number are you thinking of pleasing? Zach, what number are you thinking of pleasing? Thirty-seven. Thirty-seven. Thirty-seven and fifty-seven. Interesting. I got close. I wrote down like I wrote down that you would think, or that I am thinking of rather, fifty-nine. Zach, you were No no no. Who was closest? Cat, you were closest. You thought of fifty seven. Fifty-seven. I was off by two. Dan, I mailed you something. I mailed something to your home that arrived yesterday, I believe.

SPEAKER_02 17:23

This envelope? Yeah, and for the listeners, Dan has an envelope that says I have a feeling on it.

SPEAKER_01 17:29

It's sealed in an envelope. It went 3,000 miles to you, Dan. And it leads us to this moment. Would you please tear open the envelope and take out what's inside?

SPEAKER_04 17:42

Now I'm nervous, Kat. This is like, what's about to happen here?

SPEAKER_01 17:45

I have a feeling. Zach, one more time. You thought of the number 37. 37. Kat, you thought of the number 57. And I freely thought of 59. Dan, would you please rip open what's in your hand?

SPEAKER_04 18:00

Alright.

SPEAKER_01 18:08

Cat will be closest. However, cat, I do not make my living getting close. That's not what this is. Dan did not invite me here just to get close. You freely thought of 57. I went with 59. I was off by two. Dan, would you please open the card in front of you?

SPEAKER_04 18:28

This is crazy. No.

SPEAKER_02 18:32

No way. It says, but off by two.

SPEAKER_04 18:38

Unbelievable. I never got to be on stage that day. And now I feel like this is like I'm having that feeling that I've I saw everyone else's faces. This is like, how do you do this magic that you do? How did this happen?

SPEAKER_01 18:51

Well, it takes it takes a willing, it takes a willing flow of uh of a person. So thank you, Kat. Appreciate that.

SPEAKER_04 18:57

Oh, that's extraordinary.

SPEAKER_01 18:58

For those of you listening, the amount of the amount of excitement I've been hit with from these three has been amazing. It's been just really lovely. Dan's like, oh boy, magic, you know?

SPEAKER_05 19:06

So I wasn't sure what was in here. I actually thought that it was gonna be something I had to give to Zach and to Catherine. I was ready to get to drive to both of their houses to give them envelopes. And then I was like, wait a second, this is for me, for me to open. How does it tie together? Now I know. Let's take that example. Like, I mean, so as much as I um I don't want to deconstruct what you do because obviously there's like there's a um it's something that you've uh uh a skill you've acquired over time. Um, but even taking that example, because obviously you're trying the one thing I really noticed about you on stage that I so enjoyed was when you were asking people and um you were very intently watching their faces, you're writing things down, and I was trying to, you could be I'm I'm sure I was one of many people in the room trying to figure out how does this work? I'm like, I'm all we're all trying to solve it. And I'm like, wait a second, are you reading, are you trying to it's it's it's five letters, it's four letters, it starts with an E. It's a there's a T in there, and you're just like, and then you're just like it's a vegetable, and then they're just like, whoa, how to take me through a little bit, or I'm sure it'll be fascinated to know what is what is that process and how much of that is actually memorization and reading people.

SPEAKER_01 20:10

Yeah, it's it's kind of a mixture of all kinds of things. So as I mentioned, as I mentioned earlier, foundationally I'm dealing in some some level of deception, but I do need methods for extracting information or getting sort of like think of think of mentalism in some ways as sort of like branches of a tree. And that's why we have to be like free-flowing and sort of like kind of leave room for for whatever comes, you know, not following the plan, following the energy, because these branches can take us in a lot of different ways. So I will sometimes have certain things planned that I don't really get to because it just doesn't make sense for that particular audience. So when I'm working with someone and trying to seemingly read their minds, um, I'm trying to put them in a state where, well, not a state, this is not hypnosis or anything, but I'm I'm trying to believe um oh man, Dan, you put me on the spot. I'm trying to like find the words without giving away too much. All the other mentalists in the world are watching this right now, going, okay, David, be careful, be careful. Just say it, David. Just say it.

SPEAKER_05 21:08

Just get it out there. I think this is this for you, and I'll just it'll save everyone a lot of time. We can just put it out there. This whole movement, you know, I I know I definitely don't want to behind the scenes. I love the magic too much. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:21

Yeah, I mean, what I would say is this is that all of our brains work surprisingly similarly. How about that? And that there are techniques and linguistic techniques, and there are things that mentalists use, that psychologists use, they're very simple and information can be gleaned. That's the right word, gleaned. It can't be gotten all the way, but we can get we can have some semblance of what someone may be thinking or what direction they're going in. How about that? So and it yeah, and it's sort of it's a bit of a tap dance because as we're doing this tap dance, we might go one direction. But if somebody's not giving us what we need, we go another direction. And maybe we just leave something out entirely. Yeah.

Deconstructing The Craft Without Spoiling It

SPEAKER_05 22:00

Well, and here's a question I want to ask you on this topic, and then feel free, Kat and Zach, to jump in because I actually want to get into Zach, how this could even apply to your business, because clearly people out there listening to this are other tour operators as well. And Catherine, in terms of your travel, you've just come back from a trip with your family. You know, thinking about how we all work too much, we all, you know, that how do we be more present in the moment? These are some of the things I'm uh keen to unpack with you, David. But one of the things that stood out to me is that your approach, especially when it comes to psychology, is cross-cult-cultural. And that's one of the things that I love about travel, is that at the core essence, we're all humans and we all desire to be socially connected. And even the joy of the laughter, that's something that obviously I really enjoy having a laugh. I enjoy when I can make someone laugh. Like it's just, and um, I like the sound that we all make when we do, like, and I like when my eyes will up. And it's just like, I don't feel like a day's got off to a good start until I've had a good laugh. And that's sort of a measure for me of a good day. And that's just a human characteristic. I mean, we all love it makes us feel good. Um, and so when I'm traveling, I'm trying to always be in this. I I find that when people are traveling, one of the things I love about this industry is that when you are in your travel state, you're your best self. And so when you see people on their holiday, it's it's how you want to feel all the time. And I'm and you feel like that for the first few days you get back. It's like saying you want Christmas year-round, right? I want to feel like I'm on holiday year-round. Not because I want to be on vacation, but I just want to feel I just want that approach to life where I want to savor every day and I want to make the most. Last week I was walking on the beach watching sunrises on Mexico and it was extraordinary. I'm like, how do I keep that? I don't have the opportunity to see those sunrises every day. I take some pictures, but how do I keep in that mental state? Is one of the things I was keen to ask you about. So I'd love to know when you're performing for different audiences, especially cross-culturally, what are some of the commonalities of the human condition that enables you to do that when it comes to psychology that are just consistent about us? Because we all think we're so unique. We all think we're snowflakes, and I don't want to burst anyone's bubble here. We all think we do things that are so unique, but 90% of the things we do are pretty consistently similar with each other. And that's so that's yeah, keen to get your take on that. Like, what are those commonalities you see in people?

SPEAKER_01 24:05

Well, I mean, I think the first thing that comes to mind is that I don't know how else to put this, but people want to believe that that is the first thing. So very often, I think foundationally, people want to believe it's that it's it's real in the way that they believe it to be real. And I think that's just sort of like part of the human condition of us. We we want to believe that there's more than than what we can see with our senses. And so I think like a mentalist magician gives the experience of that. It sort of like gives validation to those kinds of feelings. Um boy. Um yeah, we we're all seeking wonder. That's another way of putting it. I think, I think wonder, and and I think that translates to travel too. I mean, probably foundationally for travelers, it's just like even if people don't realize it consciously, it's like the draw is wonder. I want to feel alive, I want to feel like I'm doing something that I haven't done before. I think that that can all fall under the umbrella of like of wonderment, quite frankly. And so that's really what it is. It's funny, I think about this, I often think about relatively speaking, earlier in my career, I used to get very nervous about performing for um VIPs, you know, CEOs, or when I was brought into the C-suite room or whatever, and then more and more, you know, doing celebrity clients and stuff like that, thinking to myself, oh, they're gonna be harder to impress, harder to fool with. But no, everybody foundationally, even you know, uh, I've worked for Caltech a number of times and a number of physicists and things like that. And not only are they game, they their minds are not any more equipped than the average person to sort of figure it out. You know, they're they're they're seeking the same things that we all are. So yeah, I mean, that is um for sure. And thank you for mentioning the cross-cultural thing, because I I I do perform for quite a few folks who don't speak English, for example. And I think that um, yeah, mag magic is like music, is just one of those things that translates. So thanks for bringing that up. Yeah, for sure.

Reading People On Tours And Groups

SPEAKER_05 25:58

And one last thing I just have to say on this, and then by all means keen for Kat and Zach to jump in, is one of the big themes for us, and something that I'm quite passionate about, is this 2026 being a year of transformational travel. In the industry, we've been very focused on life-changing travel experiences. It's something that we've been talking about for many years, but this is the year we had Joe Pine, as you know, on our podcast, to end off last season. And now we're starting with yourself, David, and that that's one of the segues I wanted to make with transformative travel 2026. And one of the things you mentioned there, which I really find fascinating, is this idea that people instinctually people instinctually are trusting and they want to believe, and they're also looking for wonder, and all of that applies to the fact that they want to go on you know, a transformative travel experience, they want to go on a journey, they want to come back feeling change, they want to be positively impacted, and more and more they want to positively impact the places they're traveling to. So we're seeing changes in how people are traveling and uh their intentions with traveling, and that excites me with the connection. But um, but Zach, you know, dinosaur trips, for example, hearing David and and uh and being on the I'm still you're I think you're still processing how he did the number trick. I can see your your mind is racing. We're like, I'm gonna figure that out tonight.

SPEAKER_02 27:07

No, I'm absolutely not gonna figure that out. I'm I'm leaving the wonder there.

SPEAKER_05 27:12

But what are your thoughts on this and how it would apply to what you do with running a tour operator and designing trips?

SPEAKER_03 27:17

You know, as you maybe saw my face that I was thinking while you're talking there, Dan, what I was thinking about um and how this relates is you know, I'm a small tour operator, so for many of the trips, I'm still going as the guide and leading the program. And you know, I I think there's something for me to kind of learn from you in in that sense of reading people, um, because it's really important, you know, for for all the logistics that go into trip design, um, for all the you know, trying to get the magic into the thing. Really, once once I'm out there and I'm leading a trip, it's all reading people the the the entire time. That's all you're ever really doing is keeping an eye on the group, um, trying to get a sense of how they're feeling. And so yeah, I just wonder if there's, you know, uh at the most basic level of what you do, you know, for for somebody like myself who more than likely, unless unless this podcast changes my life, more than likely I'm not gonna go down the mentalist track. But what are some things that you should just be looking for in a setting of people where you're, you know, where you're trying to react to how they're thinking and they might not tell you it, you know?

SPEAKER_01 28:19

I think I think you just said it, Zach. I think you know, you're you're reading people. I think another way of saying reading people, a good word, I think there's a number of words that work, but one really good word is that you're listening. Reading people is really just about listening. You know, um probably like when you first started your business and many when I first started approaching shows, it was about what do I what do I want to do? What do I want to say? And then eventually you get to a point where you just start listening more and like what do these people what do they want? And what do, you know, what are what are their sort of desires and dreams, quite frankly, relative to travel. So you listen. It's it's about asking questions. Um and then sort of the the common ways we read people, we we read body language, we get a sense of just sort of how they're feeling, and we try to be empathetic, right? We try to like meet them where they're at and and and go from and go from there. I think all you know, it's so funny. These these kinds of conversations are so lovely because it's like all the same thing, right? Um, I feel like, you know, whether it's travel or or anything else, these types of human experiences just sort of the thing I'm keen to ask you is just a quick follow-up to what Zach when it comes to reading people.

SPEAKER_05 29:25

So in the case with Zach, day one on a trip, many of our listeners are in this exact situation. They offer tours and they have a group of 12 people. There's a lot of small groups. Adventure travel is going through an incredible growth stage, and it's very much connected to this idea of transformative travel experiences. We like to have shared experiences. So traveling with other people, we like to be immersed in other cultures, but also we like to travel with our tribe. This is sort of, again, like one of these fascinating things about human psychology and the human condition that there's some there's safety, and then it's also the enjoyment that comes from it's the same with festivals or concerts. But when you, if you, David, were actually a tour guide, if you if Zach had said, Can you lead this trip to Patagonia next year? And you show up and you see 12 people, are you like Jason Bourne in the movie where he's just like, I know where the exits are, I know how to handle myself. Like, is that is that what tell us like when you look at 12 people, do you do you can you figure things out really quickly? Is that one of your skills?

SPEAKER_01 30:19

I can figure a few things out pretty quickly. The the things that are like rel, you know, relative to my work, I can figure a few things out. But no, I don't have I don't have everything figured out in like the blink of an eye, nothing like that. But I I'm pretty aware. I people often ask me if I, you know, after they see the show, they go, Do you play poker? And like, of course I play poker, you know, why wouldn't I play poker? That's what you know, this is but uh but that said, just like you know, playing poker or or being with a new group of 12 people, uh yeah, I feel like I have a bit of an edge, you know, just a bit of an awareness. But again, this can be developed. And and part of the part of the way to develop this is simply by telling the mind that it can develop, that you that you can do this, that you can be more open and aware. So some of it is just frankly, just um kind of talking ourselves up so that our mind gets used to the idea that it can be done.

Openness, Volunteers, And Group Dynamics

SPEAKER_05 31:07

Just gonna ask if there are any specific signals because one thing I noticed in your show, and maybe the answer is no, but I um I guess I like to think and the that you are picking up on signals from the types of what I say, Mike, maybe not, is because you allow people to self-select. And so it's not as if you're very intentional about picking people out. Um sometimes you were doing that, but other times you were people were nominating themselves.

SPEAKER_01 31:29

That's very, that's very astute observation, Dan. And that is because I would prefer to have someone that wants to do it, that is open. Again, this is that open piece. Uh, you know, if I go through and just sort of try to pick on someone that's sort of that's you know, we want openness here. And that's the thing, is like I I want people that are on board for the ride. You guys want when you guys are uh leading tours, you want, you know, you don't want people being dragged along really. You want people that are there to be present. And those are sort of the the the best moments are from the openness of of folks. So I want that's an interesting question for for for your industry is how to re how to seek out like open customers as opposed to like talking somebody into going on a trip, you know. I don't know. Um that's uh yeah.

SPEAKER_05 32:15

Personality traits, people who rank high on openness or um in agreeableness, like there's there are some commonalities between like the psychographic of travelers and like uh the so that that and then that's why they typically get along because if they're disagreeable, they're they're probably not not gonna get not gonna get along with a group. They probably don't want to be there in the first place. Okay, so there's some husbands that get dragged along that fit that description. So you but but it was really interesting that because I was wondering if you were going on signals that you were kind of reading the room and trying to figure out the people. But um, it's interesting that actually the signal for you is the person that puts their hand up.

SPEAKER_01 32:49

Because this usually means to me, this usually means I'm open and I'm I'm a good I'm I'm a good candidate for this. Usually. Unless they're giving, you know, unless they're maybe a little too they've had a few too many drinks or they're saying something that's like, I really want to make this about me. But other than that, usually it's like, yeah, let's let's get the person that wants to do it up there. Yeah. When Frank came up on stage, I think there was some re I forget who else came up with them, but I do remember some reluctance. And uh do you do you remember that when uh toward the beginning? I do, yeah. Frank was like, let's do it. And the other guy's like, uh, and uh, you know, and then you have to sort of overcome those moments to to getting everybody flowing on stage.

SPEAKER_05 33:28

So that's exactly what I was gonna comment on, is because you brought it all the way around at the end of your show where you actually picked out someone that was the most skeptical at the beginning. And that's what I actually loved at the way that things came together. It's actually, and I won't reveal the because I'm not sure if that trick is consistent, but I love the ending of giving him a book, figuring out a word in the book, and then you knew that you knew the word that he picked out in the book, and I was blown away, and clearly he was, and it was all it was, and this was like you you turn someone around that was thinking this is nonsense or like there's something happening here they just can't understand. But it was like, no, it became that much more special for everyone.

SPEAKER_01 34:01

You've got a memory Dan has a memory like a steel trap. For those of you who don't know, Dan, I mean, boy, yes, I was asking for volunteers the whole show, and then at the end of the show, I said, I need I need the this the most skeptical person in the room. That's right. That's right.

SPEAKER_05 34:16

Awesome. That's why I'm so keen to have you here. I was just like, I would, you know, I've been so looking forward to this. But Catherine, I want to bring you into the conversation because you work with a lot of travel advisors, you know that side of the business from PR. When you did our AI summit, of course, you interviewed Devin from Travel Week. And so you really understand the travel advisor side of this. And I know many of them listen to our podcast. And so I would love, if you wouldn't mind, getting some insights from David in terms of how travel advisors can take some of these techniques and apply them to trying to suggest travel experiences. And again, there's that like there's a wonderful connection of uh the psychology of selling and and be and and helping people get excited about a trip with the techniques that he's utilizing on stage. So yeah, I would love for you to jump into the conversation.

SPEAKER_00 34:58

Yeah, David, I'm learning so much from you and how this applies to travel. Um I from what I'm gathering, is like mentalism is like obviously you said there's a level of deception that you um that you play into, but it's not about like all tricks. Um and there's like a a certain level of like awareness that goes into mentalism. So how do how if you were advising um like travel agents or travel advisors, what what kind of tips would you give them um to bring that awareness to their roles?

Transformational Travel 2026

SPEAKER_01 35:34

Maybe asking questions about what they're open to. A lot of times people don't really know what they're open to. The same goes for like, you know, hey, do you want to try this trick? Oftentimes at the start of a show, as Dan saw, people most people are not raising their hand, but toward the end of the show, it's like, oh, maybe I am I am open to that. So starting that conversation, just at work, you know, I don't want to like uh uh uh uh talk down to anyone listening to this podcast with basic questions like where have you been before? But I mean, these are sort of like you know, the the building blocks of just getting back to the basics of where is this person at? What do they need, and what are they open to doing, you know? And if I can if I can get to those three things before I start like a mentalism piece, the the trick is just gonna hit that much harder if I know them a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 36:19

I think maybe the next step in your journey might be like leading tours so that you can Me? Oh, you can help, yeah, you can like uh help connect the group and bring everybody together. And oh, that's interesting.

SPEAKER_01 36:31

Like there are like magical destinations in the world, not only like performance spaces, but pe you know, places that are sort of like imbued with, ooh, that's an interesting idea, like magic tours.

SPEAKER_05 36:41

We'll be right back. And now back to the show. One of the things I wanted to also talk about as we have this conversation about how you can apply this, whether it be pre-travel, during the travel, after travel, those are the three stages that I always think about as a marketer and how can you connect with travelers, make sure they have a great experience, and they come back and they tell all their friends and you know, this is this positive feedback loop and building repeat business. A lot of us in the travel industry are you know very cognizant of that, and that's how you know you build these legacy brands and have these flourishing businesses. So there's all these different aspects to the traveler cycle. And ultimately, what we're trying to do is delight people, keep them engaged. And clearly, travel in and of itself should be a subject matter that most people are interested in, that they want to do, they're gonna have an incredible experience. The one thing I always highlight to all of our listeners is that travel is the second largest spend that people are gonna have after a car or a house. Um, but the interesting thing about travel is that people have even greater expectations because it's it's their holiday time. They only get, like many Americans, two weeks a year. So it's not just the money they're about to spend on this holiday, it's the fact that it's the how precious their time is. And so I wanted to walk through. You have a really fantastic list of how you think like a mentalist. And I wanted to walk through those because we've touched on a couple of them at wonder, even staying curious. But the one I find really fascinating is energy. And it's some of the things that this is where in a destination you want to uh it's really the experience you're looking for and connecting with other people is the energy that comes together when things are more spontaneous. Like if and so one of your principles is follow the energy, not the plan, and that you constantly adjust based on audience reactions. And for travel, some of those best moments come when you ditch your itinerary and you know when you just come alive. So when you do that in shows, how would you kind of translate that to the travel experience?

Practical Advice For Guides And Advisors

SPEAKER_01 38:35

You can't change someone's energy, right? We can maybe have some control to some extent over our own. I believe that our environmental is also dictating our energy, but you can't change someone else's. So, really, what I mean by that is you you follow the energy, but you have to find your people. That's why I'm looking for volunteers. That's why I'm finding the people that are open. So I would say that you know, when you're following the energy, you're following your own energy to where it is um running parallel to other energies. Does that make sense? So I that's what I would say for the travel or even for um um somebody advising people on travel, really listening, trying to get a sense of where their energy is, what they want, what they desire, and how do you line them up with similar energies, whether that's like people, like-minded people, people that vibe the same way, or maybe you can suggest a place that they've never been, but you know this person's in, they're gonna love it there. They gotta go there, you know. And so that's that's what we're trying to line up is just being aware of where I'm at and who who's on that same sort of, you know, who are my people.

SPEAKER_05 39:45

For sure. I mean, it's the same in the conversation when we're matching energy in these types of discussions, but you bring up an interesting point there, which relates to what Zach was talking about with you know, groups and group dynamics. If you match people with their energy, you're gonna see that dynamic, the bond that forms. And it's like why you strike up a conversation with someone and you keep engaging and the conversation just lasts, is because it's exactly what you say. You're matching someone for energy. And there's that expression that I I absolutely love that's so appropriate for um there's some people that charge your batteries, and there's some people that drain your batteries. And and and we want to spend time around people that charge our batteries, and both Zach and Catherine, and ever since I've met you, like these are people that charge my batteries. So uh so there's something to be said there for energy for sure.

SPEAKER_01 40:27

Totally. Totally. It's important. It's important. And you know the thing with energy is like it's one of those, it's one of those buzzwords that I think is very uh I think most people resonate with the idea of energy, like the just the feeling of we feel things that we can't articulate. And I think instead of trying to like analyze it, you just try to find more of it. Awesome.

SPEAKER_05 40:46

So let's keep going through the list here. So what the first the first one we start should have started off with that I realized is stay curious, but we've talked a little bit about that. So, you know, and and you never assume that you know what someone is what someone is thinking, you're always curious. Yeah. Yeah. And I we're we'll share this, but that's certainly when the best trips happen, it's when you're exploring and not just ending up in the gift shop and buying things. It's like, you know, and and even people who ask questions, it's axe sees it. I actually love when people ask questions on trips and they're genuinely curious about the history and the culture. Um, and they explore and wander off on their own and like they find that wonder. So staying curious for you and for travelers is important. Following the energy, not the plan, which is what we just talked about. But one of the other ones is expect the unexpected.

SPEAKER_01 41:32

Oh, expect the unexpected. I mean, it kind of goes along we talked at the beginning with uh expecting wonder, but I feel I can't relay this enough, and my uh it's just it's been a nugget in my life. Just expect good things to happen. Expect that when you go somewhere, you're gonna see something you've never seen before. Um, I you know, I I just think having that kind of attitude can just lead can lead to incredible things. I I can't I can't emphasize that enough.

Expect Wonder And Follow The Energy

SPEAKER_03 41:59

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SPEAKER_05 44:22

And now, back to the show. There's a few other things I wanted to talk to you about, just like we got started with this discussion, because the fact that you and I met, how we did, when we did, and what I've been working on and the journey that you're on, I think there's a lot of interesting parallels. And so I actually wanted to focus a bit more on the travel experiences and uh from my vantage point, David, knowing that many people listening to this are going to figure out how they can apply this to you know their career or their industry. And that's some of the things that you and I had spoken about before. And I that that's the part that I'm really keen to explore a little bit further with you because I've seen one of your industry colleagues, you know, I've I've watched uh his TED talk and I've seen him been on a number of different podcasts and talking about how you can apply this expertise to your career or to your life. And I found that really fascinating because I think there's a lot to be said for that, because it is a very unique skill that you have. And so when you actually think about how this does apply more broadly, not just to travel specifically in this instance, but just into everyday life that you, you know, uh so very keen to get your take on that. Like when it so doesn't have to be specifically travel, but just how do you take some of those tools from mentalism to impro improve your life and quality of life or succeed at work? All those things that people are keen to do.

Second Round Of Sponsors

SPEAKER_01 45:45

This is probably one of the hardest questions to answer. It's so intuitive uh to me as as as a as a working mentalist, you know, as somebody who performs for a living. Um yeah, I don't entirely live my life as a mentalist. I mean, uh, you know, I have my my everyday routine, I take out the trash and you know, go to dentist appointments and things like that. But but um I would say that yeah, getting back to the openness and awareness, I do I do try to live my my life with a certain type of awareness that I think is a habit that I've just formed because I have to have this habit um to do what I do and to make it feel authentic. And so um, yeah, listening, calming down, and being being open, it sounds it sounds so general because I I wish I could sit here, Dan, and like give you techniques like, okay, I want you to take these breaths and then focus on somebody's left eye and you know, whatever it is, but I I'm I'm not able to do that in this moment. But um what I can say is that um you know slow down, listen, and be authentic to oneself. And if you can do that, you can probably slowly start to get into you know, if you wanted to sort of like open yourself up to stuff like this, it might be possible.

Meaning, Memory, And A Card Stunner

SPEAKER_05 47:00

Yeah. For sure. Well, and that's when I was looking at the list of uh how you think like a mentalist. And I know I was thinking of them in the context of travel, but I was also just thinking more broadly that how these apply. So the stay curious, you know, follow the energy, not the plan, expect the unexpected, read the room, be present, not perfect. I really liked because I think that's incredible. You know, things are not always gonna be flawless. And it's and and when you travel, that's actually one of some of the best experiences you have in travel are the worst days. Often can be the worst moments of the trip at the time, but they're the best stories later. And that's why we always joke. If it's like something that's happened, it's like this is this is gonna make a great story later. But it's that perspective of not then overwhelming yourself to be like, this is really unfortunate right now, but man, this is actually pretty ridiculous and funny. Like we are gonna laugh about this one day.

SPEAKER_01 47:48

Totally. And because I I think because it it created a feeling, right? There was feelings are what lasts. And so, you know, when we're just going somewhere to just see it, because we saw it in a book, it's like there might not be the feeling, but when something goes wrong or when the unexpected happens, that's you know, that's when the good stuff happens.

SPEAKER_05 48:04

And then the looking for meaning, not just beauty is certainly one of those this like when when I saw that in your list, this was like, this is exactly what people are seeking today, is they're not just looking for that incredible vista. You know, those it's the vista with the person they love, with the bottle of wine, with like it's like that's the whole experience. But then what happens in that moment? What is what how what makes it meaningful? And I think these are the things that are often hard to articulate, but it's it's what our souls are often seeking. And then when we get them, we're like, we know that we feel satiated or you know, satisfied from like, oh my god, that was the best trip I've ever done. I love when I hear people say that. It was just like, and I hope that every trip is the best trip they've ever done. Or that was seemed and so the nothing makes me happier to hear that that it was just like because people are so quick oftentimes to um, and I see this in so many human behavior, you know, the tendency to be negative. It's just like, and some people are just genuinely negative. That's your thing about energy. People are just you just can't please them, they're just always gonna find a way to like you know, gripe and complain about something.

SPEAKER_01 49:04

And and and those are the folks that I might not gravitate toward, but yeah, try to try to work with them too when we when we need to, you know. Yeah, I think we talked a bit about um meaning, right? And do you want to try an experiment with me? Is that cool? You want to try a thing?

SPEAKER_05 49:19

Yeah, please, I'd love to.

SPEAKER_01 49:21

Okay, okay, okay. Dan, I have a deck of cards. So this is, you know, a deck of cards is a very common instrument for magician mentalists. And typically, well, not typically, um, by definition, this is this deck of cards in this state, in this box, it has no meaning. This is simply a deck of cards, and that's all it is. Dan, we're gonna try to sign some meaning to this deck of cards. We're gonna start with this. This deck of cards contains number cards, it contains picture cards. Make sense? Like the numbers and all the picture face cards. We're gonna remove some cards. Which are we which are we going to remove, Dan? The number cards or the picture cards? Let's do the number cards. Number cards, great, get rid of them. No more number cards. I'm left with the picture cards. I want you to do this with your you can do this kind of with your eyes open if you want to close your eyes, you can. But I want you to imagine yourself in a car, Dan. You're going down a road, you're in this car, you're going down a road, and there are street signs. Like about every hundred feet, there's another sign, just kind of clicking along. And on these street signs are all of the face cards, all of the cards that are left in the deck are just popping up one at a time. You see a king, you see another king, you see a jack, and so on. Eventually, you're gonna see one of these face cards that really grabs you. It doesn't have to be the queen of hearts, but it could be. It could be any one of the face cards. You're gonna keep clicking along. I feel like he might be changing his mind now because I might have, ooh, I might have touched on something. You let me know, Dan, when you lock into whichever face card you say, that's the one we're gonna use. No wordplay, no hyperbole. On the count of three, name one card. One, two, three. It was the queen of hearts. The queen of hearts. I I gave you the I gave you the option to change your mind, Dan. Would you like to change your mind?

SPEAKER_04 51:10

Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_05 51:11

Okay, I'll I'll go ahead. But uh, but I just wanted to acknowledge the fact that that's where my head that was I saw that passing by on the highway. It was the uh the queen of hearts. And as soon as you said it, I acknowledged I I was I just passed that sign.

SPEAKER_01 51:22

So you have an interesting dilemma. You can stay on the Queen of Hearts or you can change your mind. What's it gonna be?

SPEAKER_05 51:29

I'm gonna change my mind for the benefit of our listeners and also for the the magic.

SPEAKER_01 51:35

Okay, what's what's the new card, Dan? The King of Clubs. King of Clubs. Final answer? Final answer. I told you a moment ago that this deck of cards had no meaning. It had no meaning, Dan, until you gave it meaning. You freely you changed your mind from the queen of hearts to the king of clubs. I reversed just one card in this deck of cards before we got on this call. I reversed exactly the king of clubs. Did you say the king of clubs?

SPEAKER_04 52:07

I said the king of clubs. Yeah, the king of clubs.

SPEAKER_01 52:11

Not only that, Dan, I went a step further. I took the king of clubs out from a blue back deck of cards, Dan. And if that weren't enough, there is more meaning to be had. That is the only card, Dan, that I put in this deck of cards. The King of Clubs.

SPEAKER_04 52:37

Wow, wow, that's incredible. That is like David Blaine. This is street magic. I can't believe I can't believe what is happening right here. This is a that's that's really cool.

SPEAKER_05 52:49

That's really, really cool. Well, and so there's two other ones I wanna I want to highlight because I couldn't be more emphatic when I was going through the list and these last two that for me are are two that I really wanted to hit on. Stay playful, and then the last one is leaving space for surprise. So staying playful to me, that you as a mentalist, when people are playerful, it lowers their defenses so that they're more likely to experience joy. And I'm like, that's like how do we I and I I I think about this myself a lot because you know, I've had young kids, they're now grown up, but I still we on our trip, I you that state of play is actually one of a truly joyful state, and it's like that. So that to me is something I'm actually very conscientious of, just like humor um is being in that state of play and that that mindset that we all too often as adults don't embrace. So so so how so I really want to ask you this question is how do we stay playful? How do you identify that, or how do you how do you encourage people to embrace that?

SPEAKER_01 53:50

It's well, you you you you picked up on something really important, and and that is that when um when things are playful, it puts people at ease. Much of what I do can be seen at times as very serious, you know, I'm holding my temples and sort of trying to create dramatic moments, and it it can kind of put people off guard, but if they realize that we're playing, that we're all in this together, that it's all that it's all for the benefit of everyone and and the game that we're playing, um then people come on come on board with it. I would imagine the same is true of uh of travel, like when people feel like they're on a team, if you're trying to like put people into like you know, uh tour groups and things like that, and people can all be on the same team and they're playing together, you know, I'm sure things go go go much, much more smoothly. So yeah, just just having the playful mindset that this is at the end of the day, it's important, but it's not um so important that we can't be playing through it. You know, yeah, yeah. I'm glad you brought that one up. Um and I I I yeah, when I'm when I'm performing, quite honestly, I I feel like I'm just in my bedroom when I was 10, just like dancing around, like doing the same tricks I was doing to my mirror, you know, and talking. But now there's now there's sort of people that are interacting with me and getting the same benefits. So gotta we have to keep we have to keep playing. Gotta keep playing.

SPEAKER_05 55:02

So, David, the part about staying playful really stood out to me because I interviewed Vince Vince Katalubik, the co-founder of Meow Wolf, on the podcast. And after have having had the experience of seeing him speak, a captivating experience, and specifically Omega Mart, where I had just been in Las Vegas, and many of our listeners may be familiar with that, where you go into what is a grocery store and you start reading things and they're funny, and then you start going down an adventure by opening up refrigerator doors and going down a slide, is that this whole element of play playfulness. And what he highlighted to me that I didn't recognize that I found quite profound was that people like to take agency over their own environment. And so that's actually, but really what they're doing is they're becoming playful. They are, you know, so they're taking ownership and they're exploring on their own. Um, and they're in a play state of mind. And it's like, and what why are we so delighted for being there for an hour or two and walking away and being like, that was so weird and crazy and cool, and like I'm not exactly sure what happened, but I was I got lost in the moment.

Meow Wolf, Agency, And Play

SPEAKER_01 56:00

Meowwolf is a great, like a great sort of like just thing to to bring in all kinds of analogies and connections to to this conversation. But and if for those who haven't haven't gone, Meowwolf is amazing. Yeah, Meowwolf's one of the I mean, Meowwolf or or a magic show, the idea is that we're taking people through a journey and they don't know what what they're gonna come up against. Like in Meowwolf, you've been there, Dan?

SPEAKER_05 56:21

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 56:21

As you mentioned, you can open like you know the the the milk refrigerator and you know there's a slide that you can go through or whatever. But beyond that, I love that like you don't even know what's real and what's not. You don't know if that the the the the fire uh emergency thing is well that they probably wouldn't mess with, but there's all kinds of things around the building that you don't know if if they're really intended to be what you think they are. And so um that is that is play in its uh in its purest form, where everything you come up uh come across come across is not necessarily what you think it is, right? I mean, think about that when you travel too. I mean, oftentimes we're staring at a building, we've seen many buildings in our life, but this one has now has meaning, it has significance um be not only because it's novel, but because it's completely different than anything we've ever seen before, and it has a unique significance. And the same is true in Meowwolf when you look, you know, at a doorknob or something. So um what a wonderful thing to bring up, the way that it simulates uh playfulness. Um yeah, I I I can't get enough Meowwolf collector, quite honestly.

SPEAKER_05 57:29

And I can't wait for there to be meowwolf. I've said to Vince, there's not one in Canada yet. Like every city needs a Meow Wolf experience, and I'm sure there'll be lots of imitators and competitors. And I hope for Vince and the team, they get bought by Disney one day, because I think they're probably doing some of the most innovative things in this space because they're they're true creatives. And uh, but the other one I wanted to ask you about, this relates to your show, and this is the last one that was on your list that it would really struck me, um, was leave space for surprise. And something that you do intentionally is you design for mystery, not certainty. And I really uh I really love that because when I saw people on stage, or when I saw people in the audience, when you were uh what I didn't expect, you know, a great comedian does callbacks, and that's one of the, you know, uh one of the things that you did on stage in a similar uh uh approach is you know, you would go back to something that you had brought up before, and then you put a new twist on it again. And obviously, you did this with some of the Rubik's Cubes. Like, remember earlier when I and all of a sudden something that you had, and I was like, wait a second, we're and I'm like, no way. So tell us about that leaving space for surprise. How important is that in your show and to us in in the travel space?

SPEAKER_01 58:43

What a thoughtful question. Thank you. I yes, so in in in the structure of a show, I I want there to be surprises, I want there to be callbacks, I want there, I want it to feel like a uniform thing so that the place that we started is connected to the place that we ended and so on. Um yeah, that's all by design because I feel like whenever we can when we when we can when we we don't just want to pick up the breadcrumbs, right? We want to connect them. We want to remember the first one that we ate so that there's that it feels like a full meal, if that makes sense. Um and so yes, I designed my shows to be sort of like a journey um where people can go through them and then relive the steps that came first. Um since we're on a travel, since we're on your incredible travel podcast, Dan, bringing it back to travel. Um well, can I ask you? I I have thoughts.

Intentional Business Travel And Joy

SPEAKER_05 59:31

I'll share one thing. It relates to this, but I I think it's relevant and as maybe say important to share because it just tells you the way I approach travel, even with business travel. So I for me, I genuinely love travel, all aspects of travel. I love business travel, I love personal travel. When I travel for business, I speak to a lot of people, and this is where I'm amazed the number of people that work in the travel industry that complain about traveling. And this is sort of like it's you know, and I understand business travel is different than personal travel. You don't necessarily always want to be away from family, especially when you've got young kids. Totally get that. So, like I'm very conscientious of family time and the importance of whatever you can, we I know which our kids travel with us. But no matter what, when you travel, you have an opportunity to do something you haven't done before. So for me, even though I was traveling half the time when I had a young family and I was traveling for a lot for business, and a lot of those meetings were stressful, they were intense. So going into them, there was dread, like genuinely dread going into the airport, thinking about what I had to contend with, the people I had to meet with, the difficult conversations I was going to have. And so what I would do is I would always pick something in the destination to look forward to. And so whether it was going to see a comedy show, going to a restaurant, going for a walk on a particular trail or doing a hike, I would find my piece of joy. I would find what is the thing that I'm gonna do on this trip that I'm not gonna say, I just walked into an airport hotel, went into a boardroom, got back on a plane, and I didn't see anything. The number of people I hear, and this is me calling out the people in our industry that make this comment that is like, you know, I didn't see anything. I was just there for meetings. And it's just like, that's on you. That's on you that you decided not to see anything. Because the reality is we all have the same number of hours in the day. It's always how we prioritize our time. And if you prioritized an hour to do something that reminded you why you love this business, then you know, it's got shame on you for not exploring that, I guess is what I want to say to people.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:20

No, that's good. Yeah. And I mean, that's I mean, we gotta go into it without intention. If we don't wanna, if we don't go into it with intention like that, we're not gonna get some anything out of it. You know? We're not gonna get out what we want.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:32

Well so I know that wasn't exactly the answer to your question, but that's something that I I felt compelled to share in that context. Um, but that's sort of the I guess the intentionality that I go into with travel and why I love all the aspects of what you do, because I just there's so much to me that we won't even cover in today's conversation that I I know that I'll take away, and hopefully our listeners will as well, when they read through this list and they you know and they start to think through this through a bit. I mean, even if some of our listeners, even if you take away one great idea from today, or a couple of like if something has inspired you from what David has done, or some of the um the converse parts of the conversation we've had, my hope is that this is you know, this has been absolutely worthwhile for the people that I will hear from to say, you know what, you made me think differently or looked at something with a different perspective. And this was a different concept for a show. You weren't just talking about the trends, you're talking about you know, this big overall trend of transformative travel and how mentalism applies to that. That's you know what I hope is the big takeaway from this discussion.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:30

That would be incredible, and I hope so too. And and I well, I can we can start with this, Dan. You've already transformed one person because I I I've never really connected these dots. And so this has been just spending the last couple of weeks just thinking about my work. And okay, you know, I think I think of it in terms of my everyday life, but but specifically travel. Travel is magical. Travel is transformative, um, like a magic show.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:53

Well, and my hope for you and all of our listeners too, because um, is that as an outcome of this conversation, you know, many of you will be seeking out more information about David's, checking him out on the social channels, and hopefully you'll even see him at a travel industry conference soon, just like when Frank and the team brought you in. They saw you, they brought you in, they were so excited. I was so excited to meet you afterwards, have you as part of this podcast. And I'm sure this will just continue to evolve because I'm sure there'll be many opportunities for you to speak and perform at travel conferences, hopefully as a result of this conversation. But I I think it will evolve. And you, like someone like Joe Pine, is certainly someone I'd love to have back because it feels like this is the start of the conversation.

Core Takeaway And How To Find David

SPEAKER_01 1:03:34

Yes, it does feel like that. I there's more to be mind, you know, like uh right? More to be mind. And uh I Dan, thank you so much for your interest in having me on and your confidence in having me on. Um I'm I'm honored and uh it's it's been great. It's been great. Thank you so much. For sure.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:50

So one last closing question, and then we'll make sure people can uh learn more to connect with you after this. But if if you had the um the option to make sure that someone takes away one, whether it be a mindset shift, but if someone, if travelers or travel advisors adopted one part of our conversation today, what would you hope that might be?

SPEAKER_01 1:04:11

I I think it's probably the first thing that we've kind of touched on. It's in the realm of go with the flow, but that is follow the energy, not the plan. You know how how how how how many of us can say, you know, our lives are not where we we we thought it would be? You know, here's the plan, here's what happened. Keep that mindset, make the plan and go with the energy.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:34

Yeah. One of the one of the lines that you know this so aligns, it's like that uh my wife and I have had for many years is that you know the universe is moving you along. Like it's just like there's certain times where just all indications are that's the right decision. And you can just like and it's just like I guess the universe is it's giving us very clear direction on this matter. And so you you need to read that and just and follow along.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:58

Yeah, yeah. The best things happen. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:00

Now let's make sure that any of our listeners can learn more about you to be able to engage you for conferences, events. I know you do a lot of private events. I love following your social channels. I know we can't reveal some of the people that you uh do speak, you know. You're in LA, so clearly you're close to Hollywood and a lot of people in that space. And I've seen you, and then you're like, and then I speak to you, and you're like, guess who that was? And I'm I won't reveal it right now because I'm sure you can't reveal some of the people you perform for, but it's it's really extraordinary. The world you live in is really fascinating to me because the types of people that are intrigued to engage you and bring you into these events, because I don't see it as purely entertainment, and I'm sure many other people don't either. Like this is this is where I see it different. Your art form, I see it quite differently than say a magic show. Um, because there's there's there's more to take away and to really think about. And so, yeah, I want to make sure. So having said all of that, how can people connect with you, David, and find out where you're gonna be performing?

SPEAKER_01 1:05:56

So my my website is uh David Stryker. S-T-R-Y-K-E-R.com, Davidstriker.com. Um, there's links to my socials there. And uh next month I'll be in Nashville, Tennessee at a theater club called House of Cards, the 23rd through the 30th, if anyone is interested. Um, Nashville 23rd through the 30th. So there you go.

Season Roadmap And Closing

SPEAKER_05 1:06:18

Fantastic. Well, I look forward to seeing you over the course of the year, and I can't thank you enough for doing this and starting off season seven. So thank you, David. I really appreciate you being here. And yeah, I look forward to seeing you in the in the real world again soon.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:29

I greatly appreciate you, Dan.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:31

Great getting to know you and see you next time. Thanks so much. And thanks to all of our listeners for joining us for the opening episode of season seven. And I thoroughly enjoyed the conversation with David Stryker. I hope you enjoyed this conversation as well. And seeing two of our great friends, Zach and Catherine, joining us for some of this magic and inspiration as we start this season seven. We have five themes lined up. The next one is going to be on luxury hotels. Then we're going to get into sun holidays. We're talking about agentic AI. Loyalty is back, one of our most popular topics, and then experiences as well, which this relates to, of course. And so we've got 20 episodes coming back and a number of captains of industry. We're also going to be doing much more videos, so you can watch this if you didn't already on YouTube or any of the streaming networks. And of course, we'll post clips and highlights on our social channels, which you can find at Travel Trends Podcast. Thanks again for joining us, and until next week, safe travels.