Transcript

[0:00] What’s up everybody it’s Brad Montgomery.

[0:15] Today, we have we have the hat trick. We have everybody. I met our guest,
Industry. It happens to be my industries. So, obviously, I think it’s interesting.
This is the kind of thing we’re most people even don’t even know it exists. We’re gonna learn all about the professional meeting planning industry, hospitality industry,
Hoteliers AV people but she is a meeting planner she’s the owner of Global Source she’s a big deal she’s kind of a big deal.
Welcome to your laptop or your phone or wherever. This is Patty Pelosios. Patty.
Well it’s fun to have a hot shot on the podcast.
Will you meet people at a cocktail party and I say what do you do.

[1:15] You know that’s really,
Into actually planning the meetings. Most people have no idea they think we work on a motel six. I mean, Thanksgiving dinner, you know, with family and extended family. It’s always. So, what do you do? I’m a meeting planner. Oh, you work at a motel. Yeah, okay.
So, it’s very hard to explain what we do because we wear so many different hats but basically, we plan all the logistics.
Of a meeting,
And then once all that is done and the contracts are signed then we begin,
Which we can plan a meeting for. We have one that’s 8600 people. We have meetings that are 20 people. So, and and and everywhere in between, we have carpet clients.
We have association clients. So, think of it this way. There’s an association for everything.
American Medical Association there’s probably an association from left hand of plumbers I mean there is literally about 8000 associations in the world and all of them,
Have meetings. Right. Every corporation in the world has meetings. So, we are the person that actually is behind the scenes,
Working with the hotel that AV company,
The florist the transportation company.

[2:42] I think Patty might experience with you guys has been.

[2:47] You make it look easy so we attend these meetings or even,
And they think, how hard can it be? Someone get some food. They call the hotel and arrange a block of rooms.
They book a speaker.

[3:11] How often do you get that? Like.
What we normally get is oh your party planner,
End the two meeting planner. A true meeting planner is one that actually
Getting someone there to the the air.
The transportation companies getting on from the airport. You know, the worst thing you can do is lose the CEO’s luggage, right?
So there’s always there’s all these little nuances that you have to make sure that you don’t drop a ball in literally we probably have,
And it’s very intricate and so we hope that people like you that come to our meetings.

[4:15] Because there are many things behind the scenes that may not happen flawless. Right. But that we fix before they ever get.
To anyone in the audience. Well, before we go on, you mentioned it, losing the CEO’s suitcase. That’s happened, right? Come on, that’s happened.
Just happy. Yes, absolutely. Not only that, you know, we have had CEOs that have left their passports in their safe, right? And they’re on their way to the airport in the car and they say,
Oh, I forgot my passport in the state and so of course,
Work and I make sure that we get someone to go get the passport out of the say and so that’s where you have to know your hoteliers and say no I need it now not 2 hours from now and then we need to get a driver to drive it out to the airport and meet the person and make sure they get on the flight.

[5:00] So easy right.

[5:09] Hey I sent this most of your job I I feel like,
Make sure we can hear in sound here and see everything that you produce.

[5:27] Right if if you have a flawless meeting it means patties invisible.
Never meet us. They don’t know who we are. It’s normally the people that we have hired us. So, it could be a meeting planner at a company that is hired us. It could be an admin that hired us or it could be, you know, or
Senior vice president marketing. Those are the people that we know because we have to find out, we know, what is there expectation in the meeting? What is their message?
That they wanna get out. So, it’s not just having a meeting, it’s it’s it’s what message they wanna get out. What they wanna achieve by the end of the meeting and all that goes into the prework. So, we may work on a meeting, you know,
Obviously several months a year before that meeting ever happens.

[6:19] That you work for a year for a meeting.
While I’m at the meeting somebody’s already preparing the next year’s meeting they’ve been on it for a couple of months
You know as soon as we finish one meeting we begin working on the next one.

[6:49] So, I actually started on the hotel side. I started at the front desk, worked my way up,
Went into sales and marketing spent most of my time in sales and marketing as the director sales and so that’s really put
Pretty much a value that we bring to our clients. We,
So we bring that knowledge to our clients and help,
Negotiate those contracts for them. We also help negotiate contracts for the destination management company or the AV company or the speaker.
You know, all of that knowledge that I had from the hotel side which was about 18 years on the hotel side. I worked for hotels at Ritz Carlton Hotel Company. Weston, Stouffer Hotels, and then actually went on to the other side
Which we call the other side. The meeting plan inside.

[7:52] My first hotel job was in Detroit Michigan,
Pre opening the hotel. It was a 1400 room hotel in downtown Detroit. It’s my first job and then 6 months later, I got transferred to open another hotel.

[8:13] That is not what I expected,
Yes so pre opening is usually 2 years before the hotel’s open if it’s a large hotel but a year and a half
Half year depends. So I preopened that hotel getting the front desk higher ready trained all of that and then we opened and then,
Kasha was there for about maybe 5 months and they were opening another hotel of Western Hotel in Houston sorry I got transferred to pre open that hotel.

[8:50] There must have been a heavy experience where your young woman and they say Patty you did such a good job we wanna we want we need you,
It was actually amazing. Hey, I was at 20 years old and no.
Had never left Michigan and so I got my car drove to Houston and found out that Houston’s very warm in August and you need air conditioning in your car. So, you know, life lesson learned, right? You know.
Wait so he preopening means you mentioned hiring people hiring for the front desk so you’re a 20 year old person,
Hiring people that are gonna work and represent.

[9:30] Yes. What we call mass hiring when we open a new hotel.
Over the course of 3 days. So, the way that they do it is a first interview is what we could just call the rush. It’s 5 minutes.
Literally you get people in 5 minutes you know do they even got the next level and then when they got the next level and so it’s it’s literally done within a week,
So, you hire, you hire enough staff. So, for that hotel, we probably hired about
So, it’s just yeah, people are just waiting in line and we’re trying to get them through. We have this huge bar room setup where you know, sales is over there and front dusk is here and we,
Start the interview process.
Look in across that table in the five inner 5 minute speed interview.

[10:32] One that’s kinda what I thought do they know I don’t know what I’m doing,
You know just got feelings.
Well it’s Stuart is actually a dishwasher.
So, I realized she really did that. Now, the hotel business which was fine and we were willing to train and so we said, okay, I told her, don’t say that to anybody else cuz that’s really not where you wanna be.
This is where you wanna be until we put it over to that line and so we just keep the line moving that way.

[11:13] Okay that’s a feel good moment right,
And I still keep in touch with her. This person is a director sales at a restaurant.

[11:26] You read my mind cuz I wanted to know if you stored it did.

[11:35] Has she ever said Patty you gave me that break I was gonna be a dishwasher for crying out loud,
Yeah, she did. She’s like, what more I am now?
I mean through my career mat so many people that they’ll come up to me and say you know you probably don’t remember me but you hired me when I was a fun desk clerk that’s where I started in the hotel business and now I’m in sales or you know whatever
And it is fun. It’s great to to see them move out through the through the ranks.
Okay, honestly, I’m just not very good at myself. It just seems so difficult. So, knowing that your gut feelings have paid off, mmm. You go girl.
Let’s let’s talk about the future meanings a little bit and allow me to give you some contacts,
Are you familiar with him? I bet you are. I am. So,
They come out and say, oh, here’s how meetings are gonna be. The old meetings are done but we’re doing it this way. It’s very forward taking. And then Mike experience Patty has been,
Most of my clients.

[13:04] So that that means I listened to Velvet chainsaws and here’s the future and I go oh that’s amazing. Really good thinking that I go out to these conferences and it’s not that way.
What what am I missing? Why?

[13:17] Where is that log jam?
The the tech part of it where you know you can scan your badge and you can you know know how many people have gone through your trade show or whatever.
Through COVID. You know, we had virtual meetings, right? We went from in-person meetings to virtual meetings. Then, we start coming out of COVID and we went into what we call hybrid meeting. So, part in person, part.
Virtual.
In-person part virtual.
Out
And the other thing is, you know, for years, you know, people said, oh, your job’s gonna go away because everything’s gonna be, you know, virtual. People aren’t gonna wanna meet. They’re not gonna get together at hotels and and all this kinda nonsense because.

[14:38] As we all know, people need to meet. They need to network. It’s not just about the content of the meeting. That’s very important, of course. The education, the content is very important.
But the networking.
Is probably one of the most important things and it will never go away especially with the sales meeting or any kind of really any kind of meeting. Even if you have, you know, a group of accountants.
They all wanna know what, you know, what are you doing? Brad that makes, that make sure job easier or you know, what is helping you and and that’s a networking part. And you you don’t get that unless you are in person,
In it. It’s also if you’re with a corporation,
The different people in your company, the president, you’re not gonna meet the president every day, right? But you’re gonna meet them at a meeting. So those kind of things, orphans of meeting for recognition.
You wanna be with your peers to celebrate?
You know, I did a great job this year. You know, I I wanna be in person. I wanna celebrate with the other people that are winning.
And not only the other people that are winning but people that didn’t make it this year get in encouraged. Right. Alright, people that have won. So, of course, that’s gonna up the sales for any company because they want to also be a winner.

[16:01] I think you nailed it. I think there’s nothing worse than.
Right.

[16:25] Alright so what about the introverts,
The people you’re talking to are calling saying Patty we we’re craving in person.
In the back of my mind I keep wondering about the people who are missing virtual meetings cuz they like staying home and they didn’t like going into that ballroom was a lot of people they didn’t know.

[16:48] Are are they still there or are we ignoring them or how are they being served?
Why don’t they we’re annoying them I think you have to make an effort,
So whether it’s a mentorship program and you have a buddy system nobody wants to walk in your environment with a 1000 people they don’t know no I mean I’m not many I you know even an extrovert is still,
You know, I think that’s a hard situation. So, there are ways that you can do it. You know, or if you have new people going to a meeting, you can do a buddy system where you know, you
First do a newcomer’s meeting saw the newcomers meet each other in a much smaller group and then they go to the larger meetings together,
But you can also do a mentorship where,
You know, you maybe take some of those extra verts and the company knows who those people are, right? So, you take those people and you make sure that they’re included in everything. Right.
And then.
To be involved.

[18:01] I’m an extrovert I still when I’m asked to go to the reception before you so I’m speaking in the morning on Tuesday on Monday night Brad come to the reception there’s a 1000 people in the exhibit.
I hate that.

[18:23] That’s a tough call
Nice to include people into the circle of i’ve always told people if there’s you know five people on a group talking to someone someone’s kinda walking up open the circle make sure that they’re included to the conversation.
What.
One of the things I’ve done
Has limited traction and I wanted to run it past you,
Keyword being facilitated cuz I I think even the extroverts love to be told turn to the neighbor in your left and ask the this use these words.

[19:23] My sense of that is that the introverts love those and the extroverts love those cuz even cuz it’s lonely for everybody,
Can you comment,
You know, I I live in that world which is kind of hard sometimes.
To me, it takes me out of my comfort zone. Right. And so, I think planner shy away from it.

[20:00] So
A group discussion.
It’s not in my comfort zone and maybe in some other people’s but you can just kinda see the whole crowd going,
You know we’re we’re of course we like the whole crowd go Brad’s wonderful and yay let’s do something fun even if you do something that is it just get some energize maybe a little you know exercise with some music or something it’s fun.

[20:41] But I I do know that a lot of the planners do shy away from that.
This is a helpful conversation,
On and team Patty on this one. If you say do you like those sessions or they say turn to your neighbor and have to talk to people and get this ball group?
We also know everyone’s gonna say i hate this.
So, there’s a, right? There’s a mismatch. This is what you’re craving but.

[21:21] How do we how do we handle that.

[21:25] Well, I’m not sure. I think, you know,
Are interesting to that. They select it so they know I want to go to this one. I wanna learn from people in a smaller group on this topic.
The other thing that you can do and I know that we talk about this when we having you at our meeting was talking about doing a little team building.
Afterwards doing maybe a fun project together. That does seem to work. I can say definitely see where people wanna get together and have to,
Build something fun. Right. You know, make some big creative, right? So then you get out now, you have to be careful cuz you get all those A type personalities that are like, I got,
Right?
Exactly so you don’t wanna lose those people.

[22:31] What is the word of.

[22:46] But I think but this one worked and I thought I was gonna feel really stupid and embarrassed but you made me feel comfortable.
Once you say, I’m gonna break people in the groups. They’re like, oh my gosh, run away.
I was very lucky that I got a host a panel at your meeting but it seems to me that panels.
Often or an afterthought like oh our speaker’s not here we’ll have a panel.
But equally true they’re amazing.

[23:32] I think diversity makes a good panel. You know, you don’t want all the same type of people. You want the diversity of on whatever subject that you’re speaking of.
You wanna make sure that you have.
You know, people on the panel that have bring a different perspective.
To whatever your pianos is speaking about. And so, I mean, that’s why like on our piano, we had, you know, for the meetings industry. We had
A hotelier.
We had a meeting planner. We had a third party which is ourselves and then we had AA V company. All of them we work together with, right? We’re all partners but we all have different jobs and different perspectives that we bring.

[24:27] Well honestly I thought your panel was outstanding and I’m pretty sure it has to do with the final host.
I’m sure,
Hey,
Silent pauses. Yeah. And no one speaking and no one knows what the next question is. That’s the other thing on a panel.
You have to rehearse. I mean, you have to know,
You have to put some work into it. I think people think, oh, I’ll invite four people on a panel. I’ll tell them what the topic is and then we’ll just get up there and kind of make it up.
Yeah not so much.

[25:29] One of the things that has worked for me and kinda change my mindset.
Really in every portion of my work is something I wanted to ask you about.
So, all the people sitting up on that stage are going, oh, this is so awkward. I’m sitting in a chair on stage and people are looking at me. Do my clothes look right and does, you know, are they like,
Do I look okay and am I gonna say something stupid and similarly the person introducing the CEO is worried they’re gonna mess it up but they didn’t sleep for a while the night before cuz they’re ready at the intro and CEO is worried about their
You know, organization and there insecure about it. And once I realize that and,
That changed so many things in a way I approach those people and try to support them,
But it’s not something anyone would guess I think cuz there’s still the CEO they’re in the panel they must be a hot shot.

[26:25] Not always the case.
If especially if it’s a huge audience, you know, they’re they’re touching everybody by actually rotating.
We can’t get one to do it because they’re so insecure. Right. That they’re like, oh, no, I have to do it this way. I have to be straight on. I have to be at the podium. You know, if we can even get one that will walk the stage and walk around, that’s great.
You’re right. Most of the time, they’re like, no, I need to be right here. I need to be, you know, I need to see the monitors. I, you know, so, it’s everybody is and you know, I think,
The audience needs to take that into consideration.
And and just kinda say, you know, we we want this great for everyone. So, if you have questions, make it a flow situation and and say, you know, ask your questions. Let’s give them involved.

[27:26] Yeah.

[27:29] It is powerful, right? It’s trying to picture that CEO. Here they are. See theoretically, all, we would all think there’s CEO, they have,
Proof that they’re amazing. Yeah, they’re thinking I don’t want them to see my butt or I right? I don’t I don’t want them to see this side of my face or my hair looks wrong or whatever.
They’re just like the rest of us.
They’re just like the best of us. It isn’t that a great lesson in life is everybody, you know, we, you know, from the janitor on down. You treat everybody the same way because,
We all have the insecurities. We all have, you know,
Do you remember a time when you made when you that truth became evident to you I’m thinking about that young woman who’s opening hotels.
At some point you realized why these people who are supervising me really don’t know what they’re doing either.

[28:23] Yes I’ve definitely had that actually that’s why I changed over to the meeting writing side actually that’s when I decided that,
I don’t wanna work in corporate America anymore is I realize that the people that were telling me what I should be doing I’m like maybe I have a better idea,
Maybe I need to do it this way maybe I’m more comfortable doing it this way and you know having your own company you get to do that,
You may make some bad choices and you may make some good choices but you know, at least you,
You’re doing it your way and and working to your full potential.
Well, after many years of being in carpet America and starting AA company for some with someone else. And and having their company grow, 10 years ago, I decided, you know what?
I think I can just.

[29:29] What’s what surprised you about having your own company.
Not a lot only because you know I I did it with someone else.
Years ago and I think I’ve learned a lot that they drawbacks
And maybe what not to do and maybe some things that I needed to do. So,
Which is probably a good thing.

[30:03] We instruct me.

[30:10] My my informal Brad Montgomery study of successful media schools like this.
They have a very clear vision as in no I don’t want that no I do want this.

[30:30] That seems like you you just seem like I got this people
You know your business, right? You know, hopefully after 40 years, I know what I’m doing. So, you know, your business, you’re paying confident about it. And are those,
Do we have those times you know what we call in the back of the house where we’re like oh my god this is falling apart. Sure.
And we make sure that we get the right people on it and get things moving in the right direction but we know that nothing’s gonna be perfect in our world.
We have to make a perfect and so we have to you have to know who you can rely on and in in everything whether it’s a transportation company or the hotel you have to know
The right people to go to to get something done,
And that will make you successful and you have to have great partnerships out there. I mean, you have to, you know, if you
Treat people with disrespect that’s what you’re gonna get back if you treat everybody with respect,
As long as you you know.

[31:45] Yeah I mean and I’m pretty calm about things I mean you know it’s it we’re not queueing cancer right we are running a meeting so,
We, we know, okay, little things will happen and we are ready for them.
What we are our war room and the war room is where all of our supplies are, all of the planners are in the back with walkie talkies and doing things and making sure that everything is getting done correctly. So,
If you were back there you might hear some things once in a while that we’re like oh my,
Brad always shows up but you know, there are things that happen. Flights. I mean, right now, flights are. Yeah.
Crazy at bass. I mean, it’s getting people in on time, getting people to where they need to be, and I would suggest if you have a very important meeting or you’re giving a speech, you’re doing something, you go the day before, because right now, we, we’re gonna be, we are having trouble with making sure that our people are
You know.

[32:53] The flights are taking off for a lot of cancel flights. So, there’s always something that we’re gonna have to make sure that we watch out for and as long as you know, I had a time, you know, we’ve gotta watch the the flight manifest. We have to know what’s going on with the flights. Make sure that they all get in,
For those of you who don’t know meeting planners,
And then when you get there you’re just making stuff up cuz it’s always broken your constantly fixing things any and attendees have no idea that there’s problems and they don’t know there’s they’re being handled cuz it’s invisible to them but I think that’s what you guys do.

[33:33] In spite of all your planning your kind of fireman.
When we we we plan for every scenario, right? You know, so, I mean, I will tell you, I had a meal that was supposed to be vegan,
And it wasn’t when I saw come out of the kitchen, I was like, well, this is not. I don’t know what the shepherd’s thinking.
And sell it went back had a you know
You know so you check things ahead of time right you know we don’t wait till they’re walking out the door with the meal to say oh help I hope it’s right,
Well, now, we’re gonna be in the back to make sure that it’s coming out right. So, you plan, you plan, and you plan again, and you plan again, and and still something could happen, but you just have to make sure that you have another plan.
Guys, another plan. That’s why they can’t play at night, plan B, play for C.
There have been meetings where you’re in the back of room saying, oh my heavens, everything’s falling off the rails. Can you give us an example of,
The store or is there a conference that went especially bad,
What else are we talking about.

[35:00] So
You know, just don’t select anybody, right? We will go through the list with you. We will sit down with the list and we really don’t like it. Want you walking our CEO. So, we will go through the list with you and we we will tell you.
Who we might need to walk somewhere
So, yeah, I mean, there’s there’s so many things and I don’t think we’ve had meetings that have gone horribly wrong. There’s construction sometimes, even though in our contract.
That 12th not being construction.
Is when there’s construction going on in the hotel hasn’t mentioned it or they’ve mentioned it, you know, a week out.
And,
That’s not gonna happen. Right. So, we’re going to work through the process. I mean, we’ve had them build fake walls. So, that we don’t see the construction.
In a week. Right. And yeah. So, you come up with some pretty creative ideas. And you find a way to make it work.

[36:15] I would love to be there.

[36:23] Okay. Well, it’s it’s down like two major hallways. So, we actually had them build a wall and do kind of mural design on it with companies logos,
Ah cover.
That’s what you do. You you think of something else to make it work. But yes, we’ve literally had I mean everything’s thrown at us that
And this is why Patty owns her own meeting funny company.
Well, you know, you go to beach hotel. Oh, did we tell you the pool’s closed? No. You did not.
So, you know, Yona Hotel right next door. I guess we’ll be using that pool. Well, you can’t use that pool cuz that’s their hotel. Well, yeah, we will be using that pool. So, you know, there it definitely things that happen at hotels.

[37:28] That they don’t always make us aware of.

[37:34] In very much time to prepare for them. I’m gonna tell you a story that happened to me recently and you’ll say, oh, of course, I know about that. But
The question’s gonna be advice how how would you advice some of younger members on your team or people new to the industry how to do this so this will not shock you there was an audio visual crew that didn’t have the stuff I asked for,
So even though with my client had said them stuff way ahead of time and I’d literally offer to call them,
Heads but the crew doing that room had none of that,
It was gonna be horrible,
If I’m a little grumpy here that the meeting planner might not understand or you know I’m supposed to be funny in 45 minutes,
The metaphorically, you’re gonna have to build a wall.

[38:42] I I’m not the meaning planner. I’m a I’m a vendor. I’m a speaker.

[38:47] But being hunters can do this how do you coach younger people to say you gonna have to stand up to some people who are.
And make him do it. How do you coach him on that?
To make a decision you’re gonna hit a brick wall and you’re gonna keep hitting that brick wall. So, you have to make sure that okay, if you hit one brick wall, you need to go.
Higher up and get someone that will make the decision and get it done and you can’t be afraid to do that. I mean, that’s we.
Obviously do that hot attack.
She figured out what to do and make sure she was just like, she was tough. She’s like, it’s in the contract, get it done. You got 45 minutes, go.

[39:43] What time is it?
Okay, if you’re saying no, I’m going to your boss. You’re starting the contract and you’re gonna look bad.
And you’re I know what’s going my way you just don’t know yet,
If you’re a pleaser that’s hard.
The person that hire you to do the meeting which is to see if I were whatever and even if you’re the planner, I mean, we are trying to please that person to make sure that it goes right. So,
You know.

[40:29] You have to get things done right,
Can you tell us a little bit about the state of the meeting and convention industry just before we started recording you told me a little bit about how busy you are
I heard about that but as we record this it’s the end of June 2022 what.
So we are back to 2019 and beyond we are actually the hotel side is on fire
Quite honestly the rates are,
It’s very hard to find space to have a meeting right now. The compression is enormous.
In this couple reasons for that. One is meetings are back, right? That’s plain simple. Meetings are back. Everybody wants to be at a meeting. The other part of that is that leisure is double what it was.
So, pre COVID,
Double. So, the leisure market, I mean, everybody had a more exposible income.

[41:42] That you know they didn’t go anywhere for 2 years and so now everybody is going on vacation whether they’re driving, flying, or whatever. So the hotels are extremely busy.
The group is probably about 60% of the hotel depending on
City any it differs from resource to,
The group can make up about 60% of the hotel and right now leisure is really boosting that up to more of a 50 50 market and with all the groups.

[42:15] Trying to book short term because you know, for 2 years, they didn’t book anything, right? They were waiting to see what happened. Sure.
Or now everybody waited until the last minute now they want space and so trying to find space is very hard it’s very compressed the hotels are sold out they have very few dates left,
You know, our large meetings, we are booking now for 27 and 28 and people find that, you know, they just,
They don’t understand that. They’re like,
Much further out and then the smaller meetings we book within you know 6 months to a year but they the business is the hotel business is
Back the meetings business is
That’s great to hear because,
Throughout COVID. I mean, if you go, I was in Las Vegas last week. To see hotels being locked down in Las Vegas. Anyone had to open, it doesn’t.
Have a key that they like every night. You know, their hotel is open forever until they, you know, are not. And to see,
Hotels actually being locked.

[43:39] And all the workers. So, we think about the workers that had no jobs and now, it’s back and it was just, it was really refreshing to see that. So, it’s great.

[43:50] It is exciting. I’m kind of exciting. Just as a human on the planet to see people who have it.
Had work get it again,
Well, I wonder if I can ask you.
You know I’m I’d be crazy not to take advantage of this. I am a speaker so I wanna ask you about speakers roles in your meeting in the meeting industry.
For my informal poll of my buddies people who have been doing this as long as I have.
But very few people are saying it’s the same as it was 2019 and before.

[44:36] You said a lot of what your booking is very far ahead but you also have.
Understand the disconnect between what you said is our hotels are full and our meetings being planners are killing it. Speakers are saying, it’s getting better.
Well I think for the short term.
And they just don’t need a speaker. For the larger meetings, they use the speaker and so those are being booked further out and the speaker, unfortunately, is not the first thing that we book.
Anna let’s probably towards the end right you get your air done and your meditation and the hotel and this and that and then you think,
I need a speaker. Right.
That it will definitely be back to pre 2019 levels. Very soon. I really do. I mean, I was shocked.

[45:46] I knew it would come back and I knew it would come back strong.
But if you, if you look at history, history repeats itself.
And then what happened right after the flu epidemic?
We’re back to that word you know people people
Cities or countries, you know, and say, god, I haven’t seen you in 2 years. I said, it’s just great for them to be back out there.

[46:31] Hallelujah.

[46:43] Are so many things I wanna ask you but we we have a limited time is there before I start to close this up cuz I wanna respect your time is there anything I should have asked you.
For people who wanna know what meeting planners are and do.

[47:01] Hopefully, through our conversation, they kinda get the gist of what we do. You know, my mother didn’t know what I did for years. She said, I said, what do you think I do? And she said, I think you talk on the phone a lot.
I do but,
How speakers are you know you have so many things to plan the speakers are last I was just talking very recently to one of my buddies and we are having this very conversation cuz of course we speakers think we’re awesome and we’re so important and we’ve worked so hard to do our thing,
And then we we get to a high end meeting and really we realize we’re just like tiny we’re like we’re like a condiment,
Over
But they are one piece of a very large pie. Right.
Yeah which.
They are not the entire pine.

[48:17] Some speakers can have an eagle.

[48:30] What’s a
Incorporate this.
It’s so weird job and I I think it’s the same in every job to some degree but you have to have an ego to be good at it.
Broom full of people and say hey look at me what I’m gonna say is gonna be great unless you have some ego at the same time too much ego.

[49:08] It’s a weird,
If you get one take away from the speaker right and and that’s what our people were able to obtain from you is they had it take away,
You know that, you know, you’re awesome, right? And so, you know, I think you remember during our meeting, where you said, you know, text someone or whatever and tell them they’re awesome and,
One of the guys in the audience had someone call and go what do you want? You know, like, what’s wrong? Yeah, because he said he was awesome.
And you have that takeaway and that’s good and it’s a feel good, right? So, everybody wants to feel good and that’s really was the goal of our meeting,
We didn’t wanna hear about, you know, it the change in the industry. We all know, right? We all had to pivot. We all had to change our ways. We all had to do things differently until
Our world came back and so we wanted to feel good.

[50:20] Oh
And i have used it several times and it goes like this you so.
We were talking about negotiation and the message from all of your panelists was,
Just talk to each other. Quit holding back information. Just be honest. Like what do you need? What are the problems? Why can’t you do that? Why? Why do you need this? And it works out better.
And I’m telling you Betty since that time there have been many times with my clients where I’ve thought of that and said I just need to call.

[50:58] And and do it like that. Like what do you really need or what’s the problem? And here’s what I really need. Can you help me get that? And and it oh it’s so,
Magical.
They’re used to texting.
Oh there I used to climb because and if you do call you don’t leave a message right they see it on their phone and they’re like why did you leave me a message now I gotta listen to a message I’m like oh my goodness that’s just it’s kinda crazy but they’re right about that so I stopped leaving messages I’m like wow but they see that I call but,
Especially if to me I tell my team listen if you have an email that’s going back and forth more than two or three times.
Pick up the phone? Yeah. Have a conversation because guess what? You’re gonna get so much more.
Ben, you even want it from the conversation. I need something from a hotel this morning.
I needed a better rate. I needed them to lower my resort fee for my client,
By my email that I bet I won’t get the same response.

[52:07] Yeah. Such a good lesson.
Yeah. I’m like, it has a, it’s a phone app.
Yep or even say siri call Patty.
I wanted to ask you. Were there people who got you to this place? You know for my keto that I’m interested in encouragement and mentoring and acknowledgement and,
Building up others.

[52:53] I’m actually in a mentorship program where I do mentor people. Because when I was starting out,
Take me and say don’t do that do this you know this is what the direction you need to go in because I had no idea I didn’t I knew I wanted to be in the hotel business but I didn’t know what part of the hotel business I wanted to be and there are 32 different departments I mean I I knew it wasn’t food and beverage I can’t cook I can’t
Serve I’m just not a food magged person and some people are total foodies so I knew it wasn’t that,
So I actually when I was at the front desk would go down to convention services.

[53:33] And just like the poor guy. I just like satin his office. Like this stupid 19 year old kid sitting in his office and he’s like what do you want to know? I’m like I wanna know what you do because I I think that’s the job I want. Like that’s what I want. And so,
I am on my days off. I would go in and follow him around.
And he was
That’s right. And so, I did and I really learned that that was not the job I wanted. I actually wanted sales and marketing. So, it was close to that but it wasn’t quite that. So, then I started calling that poor guy around. And and learned what I really wanted. That took me years to get into sales market
I mean I had to go to the whole,
You know, work my way up and and everything which I did and in a few years, you know, I was able to get into sales and marketing and that’s where I found my niche. That’s what I really love to do.
And then from there check it over to
Well I think I would like the planning side of it too and so having
And know the ins and outs of every department and who you go to to get something done without maybe offending the person that you say I’m going above you
You just go to the person above right away and then you had no one have to offend them. I think that really,
Helps me do my job because I I know that side of it so.

[55:01] Well,
Came in on your day off to shadow people.

[55:15] Yeah, I figured that was the only way that I could get someone to notice me. So,
Not very often. I’ve had a couple. I’ve had a couple which is good and the other thing I do is I will tell someone if you’ve never worked at a hotel and you wanted to do what we do. I’m gonna set up a training program, add a hotel for you.
You’re gonna learn the back of the house. You’re gonna see what the kitchen looks like. You know, you’re gonna see where it takes to serve up,
2000 plates. You know, there’s literally a conveyor belt that does 2000 plates. I didn’t know that til I worked at a hotel and so you get to learn all those things.

[55:58] Good for you.
It’s a treat plus you have a I lived in Mexico for a while which is code for I’m pretty bad at Spanish but I know some.
And there’s this word owned which is hard to I don’t think there’s an English word for it but it’s like vibe or like scents and you have a really great owned you’re just like,
Pleasant and.

[56:32] Glad to have that.
Industry.

[56:51] Yeah.
You know I think we talked about it is is I have hope for the future for the people coming up in in our world,
Is I want to be able to help them find their niche.
And my hope is that they will keep our industry alive and running and they’ll find that niche that they want because our business, you know,
It’s it’s funny. When you ask people how they got into this business, it’s never a clear path. It’s just, it’s usually pretty muddy,
But i got here and I’m so glad I got here because you know, a lot of people, if you’re at a dinner party on Sunday night and they talk about their jobs, right? Oh, I have to go to work tomorrow. Right.
I want to go to work tomorrow because i love what I do,
That is really the the true blessing. So, I hope that everybody is able to find that niche that they want and if we need to help them find it,
You know we wanna be here to mentor them to do that.

[58:04] You’re a rock star it’s Patty Pelosi global sources spelled funny G L oh B,
Aux.
In it and we we source business. Obviously, to hotels and so, when I went to open my company, I mean,
You know I had a cocktail and thought oh that just spell it different.
I don’t even know actually.
I’m so grateful for your time thanks for sharing some light on your very cool industry in your.

[58:54] Thanks Brad.
When you’re negotiating just call just call all the time.

[59:05] Thanks Patty hold with me everyone else be good.