After two years Bureau Events are happening in-person with Owner Camp. The energy was great and there is more in store for 2022.
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Gene: What's up my friend?
Carl: So today we released an episode where I say a very, very naughty word.
Gene: Mm, well.
Carl: Yeah.
Gene: Well.
Carl: And I'm being accused now, that it was a marketing move.
Gene: Who said that?
Carl: In the slack channels, Jacob did. He's like, "This is how you know, Carl's a great marketer."
Gene: He knows you too well.
Carl: Well, when you compliment a mistake and you were excited about it... Yeah, yeah, no.
Gene: Yeah no, what you going to do?
Carl: Work.
Gene: You just had an in person event?
Carl: Yeah. I just got back from Owner Camp Palm Springs, and I texted you this morning. It's a Friday. And I said, "Hey, I want to talk about this."
Gene: Roll the tape.
Carl: Roll it. Yeah. So figure around summertime where it felt like COVID was waning, had a lot of people that were signed up for an online owner camp, and they said, "Hey, let's do it in person."
Carl: So we went for it and here's [crosstalk 00:01:56] the crazy thing. No, a lot of people know this. Sold out in two days. Now, normally a camp... It's not inexpensive, right? A camp is around four grand, and normally it'll take five weeks, six weeks to sell out. So it was just like, boom, everybody wants to be there. And I'll be honest, I was a little nervous because we haven't done it in two years. Not even nervous about the health implications. We took all the precautions. We did the things, but it was just this, does it still work?
Gene: So this was the first in person event?
Carl: Yeah.
Gene: Okay.
Carl: Like 642 days, according to Siri.
Gene: Yeah. Isn't that crazy? Wow. [crosstalk 00:02:45] What was the energy like?
Carl: Oh my God, it was over the top positive. It was so good. I'll say this, coming into the event, it was one of those situations where our muscle memory might have been a little fatigued, because we had done these, it was every other month or every six weeks or, so you just get into a groove and it's says like, "Oh, I totally forgot to do that." Or, "Shit we better get this rolling really quick." And Laurie's awesome, right? So Laurie's got all her checklists and all that stuff. So all that stuff's great.
Carl: But I will say, the one place I dropped the ball, was around COVID protocols, and early on. Mainly because we didn't know. What's the community going to want? And we're a community driven organization, but just to say it was one of those things where probably, we just got back, right? So this is December 10th, was probably right around October, where people started asking a little bit like, "Hey, what's policy going to be?" Yeah, so I basically surveyed and just said, "Hey, what would you prefer?" Everybody sends me their vaccination. And when you sign up, it says, you agree that you've been vaccinated.
Carl: We didn't say single or double, booster wasn't a thing at the time. So it's like that. We explained the policy of Palm Springs. The city, also obviously California was pretty rigid. It was hit or miss, though. I'm going to say that. But we got in there and the employees are going to be wearing masks. We don't have to, we're a small group. We're 32. So we're right on that edge of big or small. But I sent it out to everybody and maybe I didn't give all the right options. I had to do another one because we're doing the same event in January and everybody basic-
Gene: Remind me.
Carl: What's that? In Palm Springs again.
Gene: Oh, okay.
Carl: The end of January.
Gene: Yeah.
Carl: Yeah. The exact same event. We ended up with 18 people on the waiting list and we were like, "Okay, well-"
Gene: Shoot, do another.
Carl: Let's do it again." But when I surveyed everybody and said, "What do you want the policy to be?" Everybody said, "Well, you know what? We trust everybody." As long as they said they were vaccinated. Now, it did come back later and this really did upset somebody, but later we found out that the closing dinner was going to require that they get to see your vaccination card, it can be a photo of it. They didn't even compare it to the ID, right? So walk in, but there was somebody who was pretty upset.
Carl: And somebody else who came forward and said, "I haven't been vaccinated." And it was never like a... It wasn't a philosophical thing or a political thing or a cultural thing. Yeah. But they did, they went ahead and got it, but regardless of all that, the other thing I want to share is, if you're running events or even if you're doing your own retreat for your company or whatever, you're not going to win. There are going to be people who are upset on either side, because even with owner summit coming up. We do have a policy around COVID and around people being vaccinated.
Gene: You have to be responsible.
Carl: But for some people it's not enough. They say, "No, it's not enough just that they have to say they were, you've got to see the card." It's not enough that you just see the card. You have to pick a path, now with January, we did the survey again. And that group said we would like for you to see the card. Now the other thing is, when that survey went out, Omicron was a thing. So now it's like, okay, it's a little bit different. Nobody had an issue with that one, but regardless of that, we get together and the slack is just, we always put people in slack a week and a half ahead of time, so they can start to say, "Hey." You get a dossier that shows who's there, so you can be looking at it on the plane, figure out who you want to talk to, who's going through similar challenges.
Carl: But once we got together with the opening reception and everybody's there, except for a couple people. We had somebody fly in from Columbia so that was going to... Not South Carolina, but there's [crosstalk 00:07:23] country called Columbia.
Gene: Yes.
Carl: Yeah. There you go.
Gene: Columbia.
Carl: We had, some of our Canadians had flights canceled and they had to, got to love, I just want to thank Laura Boyer because it was both Laura, and I think it might have been Matthew Molan, if I get it wrong, I'm sorry. But they actually had to drive a few hours to another airport to be able to make it, so it was a lot of stuff like that, but by the time we got there, it was magic. Everybody was so ready. And the power, we are social creatures, and the power of seeing everybody and knowing who they were.
Carl: The other thing was just blew my mind was, probably about 10 of the people, maybe even, I had never met in person, but I'd been on Zoom with them so damn much. They attended the online events. They were on the monthly calls. They were all that stuff. And with the exception of not realizing how dollar short somebody might be, which was freaking hilarious-
Gene: On Zoom, we're all the same height.
Carl: We're all the same height, so with the exception of that, it was just like I knew everybody. I didn't even have to worry about people's names and stuff, because a lot of times you'll have half the room is new, and you want to make sure you're getting the names right and all that. And it was nothing. So yeah, no, that opening reception and went for the opening toast and I just felt myself getting emotional, and I was just like, thank God.
Gene: Yeah. We're not dead, man. It's awesome. You have to live. It's interesting that you're split that way now where people want to see the vaccination card.
Carl: Yeah. It's-
Gene: But that's still not, that's not necessarily that invasive, you know what I mean? It's not like they have to parade it around as they're there. They're just showing you and proving you, just send me a picture of it, make sure...
Carl: Yeah. And the thing is-
Gene: That's a more pressure on you.
Carl: It is, but also, as much pressure as I ever have, because I [crosstalk 00:09:33]. Well, no, but I represent what the community wants. So, that's... I'm not enforcing anything that the majority of the people there, didn't say was what they wanted. And anybody who decided they didn't, obviously, they don't have to, but I do think going forward, I'm going to have to have a policy. Because otherwise, when people sign up, it can change on them, once you ask the people who are going to be there. And then if you have something like owner summit, which is going to be 100 plus, 150 people, that's a totally different situation. And then you get into the legalities of it. Like the state of Florida can find you for requesting to see a card.
Gene: What the?
Carl: 5,000 bucks, for instance.
Gene: Hmm. So when you say-
Carl: I made the "for instance" part up, I just wanted people to feel bad for me. I don't know. It might be, I don't know.
Gene: It's a million dollars. So when you say policy, what do you mean? What are you thinking?
Carl: Before somebody submits their payment, it says proof of vaccination will be required prior to entering the theater.
Gene: In some way. So make sure you're vaccinated.
Carl: In some way. Yeah. And the thing is, I really... So I'm at that point, I'll get my booster shot next week. I didn't have time to get it beforehand. A lot of people know this, I'm double vaxxed and I also caught COVID over the summer. So I think I'm all right.
Gene: You're busting out some antibodies, bro.
Carl: I'm like, "Hey, come here, tap a vein. We got you."
Gene: Yes, I got covered.
Carl: But it's one of those things where I just think, and hopefully it goes away in 2022. Hopefully we get to some point where it does become, just OMICRON not being any more devastating. It's still that milder feel, obviously we don't know for sure, but that's where people are saying, they're saying that most of the vaccines seem to treat it as well as they treat Delta, but it is one of those things. And I will say, at the opening reception, it didn't come up. Nobody was really... People were talking about maybe hassles they had to go through-
Gene: You got to think that most people are exhausted from talking about this.
Carl: Well, absolutely. I will say for the Canadians, because the policy changed from 72 hours to 24 hours, that you had to show a negative test, but they had to scramble. Because if you had a test from two days ago, sorry.
Gene: Was that to get home? Or was that to come [crosstalk 00:12:00]?
Carl: That was to get here.
Gene: Okay. To California?
Carl: Mm-hmm (affirmative). And then they had to reschedule a test to get back. Good. So yeah, all of that, because Canada had changed some things as well. I will say what sucked, was on our final day, where we have this amazing Red Jeep tour of the San Andrea's Fault, a couple of people couldn't go's because they had to get their test scheduled. So that was the thing and it is a little bit of a heartbreaker. You still had an amazing time and enjoyed that little bit extra time by the pool, and all that kind of stuff. But just, I think the thing was that the opening the next day, somebody came in and was wearing a mask and basically just told me, "I've got a cold." I just thought it was better that I wear this. And then when we went around the intros, the first thing said was, "Just so you know, I don't have COVID, I got a cold." And I just didn't want anybody worrying. So I just thought it was a better plan. Which is really cool, but also [crosstalk 00:13:03] that's another side of it. You've got somebody who, they were double vaxxed and boostered, but they were just like, here's the thing.
Gene: Well, they forget about all the other diseases and things, and we just get so super focused on COVID.
Carl: Yeah. We're battling everything, but past all that, getting past the whole getting there and the policy and the, it's going to be hard to please everybody, to totally get. And then, there are still case is where, obviously, the breakthrough cases are all kinds of things. So taking precautions is just going to be the deal. That's just got to happen. But once we got in, I know, I'll go and look and try to see who's met before, that I'm aware of. And I would say, maybe half the people knew each other, the other half were coming in cold. Maybe they knew, maybe they didn't. But man, within 30 minutes of the opening reception, it was like everybody was at a family reunion. Yu knew somebody, somebody knew somebody, you get the breakfast the next morning, everybody's sitting there, laughter permeating. And I just remember, I just looked at Lauri and I went, "Oh, thank God." because you don't know. You're throwing in something new and extra hurdles, but I think it actually made it even sweeter because once you get to the goal, which is being together and sharing and helping each other and talking about things that are just shitty and also sharing ideas for making them better, all of that, just amazing. Amazing.
Gene: That's awesome. Yeah. Well buckle up, dude. You're doing it again in, like what?
Carl: Like six weeks. Yeah. But so, I think the other thing that... I was much better as a host and a facilitator because I've had almost two years to think, in my brain, of all the things I was bad at. And it's one of those where, when you have something and it's really special, and then it's taken away from you, you don't know what you got until it's gone and every other rock ballad, when it comes back, you treat it special. And you're like... I used to let, occasionally, you get to this moment where people are interrupting each other or doing something. And I would just let it play out if it felt like there's... I didn't do that this time. There was actually one time where people were getting really into this one topic, and people were starting to go and all this kind of stuff.
Carl: And I just hit my mic and I went "Whoa, whoa, let's pull it back, pull it back. Appreciate the passion, I love the direction of the conversation, but we got a lot of people here that want to talk. So if everybody could just wait on me to call you, that would be amazing." And you know what? I always scared to do that before, because what I thought was that person, that just jumped in, is right where we want them to be. They are excited and they are engaged and they paid money to be here, and all of those things. But the other thing is, there are 30 other people. [crosstalk 00:16:27] did all the things, too.
Gene: You're the steward of that conversation. People, I think people actually want that-
Carl: Oh, they do.
Gene: They don't want to be told what to do, but they're okay to be guided and coached.
Carl: They absolutely want it. And that's the thing that I think, having been a part of this since 2012, and having helped moderate things since 2015, it felt like I finally understood my job. And it was because we do a lot behind the scenes, and Laurie does so much in preparing for an event. We have a moderator's guide, that basically goes through and looks at all the pre-event surveys and categorizes things so that you can know who had a comment, who was struggling with something, who succeeded with something. And try to pair it up so that you can say, "Well, Stevie, I know that y'all had gone through and rearranged things, so that you'd be able to provide more support. Can you help Tom with what he's talking about?" And then so, because sometimes people aren't going to raise that hand, they aren't going to do those things, and that becomes your job to be the conduit. I also, I used to think my job was to be the filler, like when things were quiet, to fill that space until somebody else had something, and being improv trained in college and all that kind of stuff, I dig that, but it's not about me. It's recorded. This is recorded, right? It's not about me.
Gene: I'm going to stop [crosstalk 00:18:01]
Carl: Yeah. Don't send that to my parents.
Gene: All right. Say it again, go.
Carl: It's all about... Damn it. I did it wrong. No, but the thing was, and I even had somebody comment on this, there's a lot of experience that I had, running my shop, but I don't run a shop anymore. And one thing, though, is that I've been to every single event. I've heard so many conversations. I speak with four or five owners a week and I hear what they're going through. I hear where they're succeeding. I hear the new ideas they're trying. So now, even if it's my stuff sometimes, I won't say that it was something that happened at Engine. I'll just say, one idea is, because if I also know that it's still relevant, but I'll also say a lot of shops because sometimes you can give credit to a shop, you know exactly who did it, but you also know that there were a bunch who came before that, that did it.
Carl: So instead of just filling the gaps, I'll also take notes now. And once we're getting towards the end, I'll say, "Hey, just a few things that resonate a lot in other events, that I want to go ahead and share." So I'm not getting in the way. I know this is another self-serving episode in a way, but I think if you're ever managing people or you're managing a meeting, these are the important things. The better prepared you are. And I... Get somebody to help you prepare, because I am not that person. But the better prepared you are to understand what's coming into the room, who the voices are, what the challenges are, the better you're going to be able to facilitate because you stack the deck, you know? You know what's coming. So yeah, no, it was so good and the other thing-
Gene: You know what that means?
Carl: What?
Gene: You're a professional.
Carl: Okay. You got that. That's recorded as well. Do we actually record these and send out, or is this just you and me talking? Okay.
Gene: Sometimes I've sent out the wrong ones.
Carl: Yeah. You think? And then I get credit for it, as being a great marketer. Well done mother-oop.
Gene: I literally had one with it bleeped out, and I just didn't load it up. Oh-
Carl: Everybody wondering what we're talking about. Go back and listen to the 2022, you should be more about you episode. Where I dropped the-
Gene: To tack onto that, there's a guy I followed, Jocko Willink, if you don't follow him, he has this quote that says, "it's not about you, but all about you." And I think it ties into what you just said, is that you can't make it about you, but you are the one that has to take ownership of all those little pieces parts and do your job to facilitate everybody else.
Carl: Yeah. I think that's right. And you also have to get credibility. There has to be a reason why you're standing up there. For me, I think all those conversations, plus I run that thing.
Gene: Well, that's my point. Somebody has to.
Carl: But it is one of those things, I'll get asked every time it happened again, like what happened to Engine? You can go listen to the series, but it ended up, I fell out of love. We made some bad mistakes and I was in love with the bureau. And it's a great story. It's not anything to fear.
Gene: I know we have like six hours of it.
Carl: I know. And we're getting ready to tack on another 10 minutes. No, but I think that's the other thing, it's people want to know. And I think when you're facilitating, you should let people know what your background is.
Gene: Of course. Absolutely.
Carl: You should let them know what experience you're bringing in, what experience you're not bringing in. And there's nothing wrong with saying, "I have no experience of that. Does anybody else in the room have?"
Gene: But that guy does. Right.
Carl: Yeah. If you know, for sure. The other thing is, don't over architect anything. And that was something that came back. It was just the right amount of structure and just the right amount of loose. Because every conference ever, was the hallway conversations. You and I decided to do a podcast, originally, because we were sitting at the bar, somebody heard us picking on each other and said that should be a podcast. So I think that's the other part of it is, don't feel like you have to plan every single minute. What you need to do is not plan a good several hours, every day.
Gene: Well, you want to think that the value is all the effort I put into planning the flow of the speakers and the flow of the way I introduce stuff and the questions, but the real value, is those people talking to each other and making friends. That's the real value.
Carl: 100%. That's the thing. And we heard that one of the questions they were going to ask when going through the intros, is, what are you hoping to get out of our time together? And quite a few people said community. And at the end, at the closing dinner, you hear all these, just unbelievable amounts of conversation. It is so loud. Nobody wants to leave. Nobody wants it to be over. And that's actually a metric I used to tell Laurie, when we're done with the final scheduled event, which is open skate, where everybody can just throw anything they want in the ring. This is opens skate, if you've got something you want, this is your time. How long does it take for people to leave the ring?
Gene: Ooh, that's cool.
Carl: Because that's a real sign that people wanted to keep going. And honestly, until we start packing up and they feel the pressure, there were a good dozen people, a good third were still hanging out.
Gene: That's good news.
Carl: And then, yeah. So all that stuff's amazing, but I think the biggest thing is just, and maybe I'll catch a little hell for this. I don't know. But, and obviously I have a vested interest in this, right? This is my livelihood. This is what I do to support my family, but we could do just as well without in-person events. We could. We got to a point with the online events where we were very sustainable, very strong, a lot of it due to membership. The increase in membership, we could run that way. But the in person aspect of this, is everything.
Carl: It is everything, because you feel the other presences, you know that you're not alone. And I'll say this. I think one of my absolute favorite things that happened, was so Laura Boyer, when she joined the community eight months ago, six months ago, I'm not even sure. A year ago. She asked me if she could start a club called the bad bitches wine night. And I was like, who am I to stop the bad bitches?
Gene: You can't say anything.
Carl: And I had called out.... I've been called out for naming it that before. I was like, "Whoa, I didn't call. I didn't say it. I didn't use that." I may drop an MF for one time or another, but I'm not going to ever call anybody [crosstalk 00:25:01], but they went out to this place called Boozehounds, which is a restaurant, it's supposed to be super nice, but the name is just awesome. Right? They go into the women's restroom and there is a neon red sign that says "bad bitches"
Gene: Logo.
Carl: And here's the thing, they had... Oh, they did a logo, buddy. They got a logo. But they went in there, and they just freaked out. And so, I hope I don't forget to say anybody, but it was Laura and Sarah and Kathy and Eileen and Megan, I'm trying to think if anybody else was in that photo, but they're also all the bad bitches club, which is just women leaders, women owners. And so, they sent that to me, that photo they were so happy of. And they should be. It's fucking amazing. But they had never met in person before, they had only met first Thursday of the month, 7:30 PM Eastern. Let's get together, little thumbnails, talking to each other. You could not, they were thick as thieves, my friend. You could not separate them. And it made me so happy. And I will say one person on their way, as they were traveling home, they sent me a direct message.
Carl: "Thank you for the love of the bureau of digital. Thank you for everything you do to make it work. And thank you for these bad bitches." And you're just going, I literally, I'm just trying to do what people are asking me to do. But I guess that's it. Right? And honestly, the closing... And I hope this doesn't sound disrespectful in any way, because it's not intended to, but at the closing toast, we've all had dinner, we're on the edge of that food coma, plenty of people are having alcohol. Plenty of people are not. It's like everybody bring your jam, but I went to the toast and I just heard myself say, "You're the owner camp first responders. In many ways, you're the bureau first responders. You said over the summer, we will be in person. And here you are." And I mean, I'm a little choked up right now. It's like, they refuse to let it not happen. Just like when the videos came out about membership, and they refused to let the bureau suffer. Here we are together having this amazing four days and sharing with each other and watching people who were reserved, come out of their shell and give that hug, or watching people who are really boisterous hold back because they know the other voices need to be heard.
Carl: I tell you, dude, it's just...
Gene: That's awesome.
Carl: It's unbelievable. And I'm stoked to do it again. One of my favorite things was Jesse from Generations Beyond, the next day, he sends this photo where he is going to this dinosaur robot museum. And I didn't know this at the time, but I'm totally going when I go back, it was the dinosaurs from Pee-Wee's Big Adventure.
Gene: Oh, that's cool.
Carl: Right? Yeah. So I was just like, "What?" Then he send this one photo that says, I'll get it wrong, but it's something like a dinosaur robot museum and it's this sketchy looking shack with painted in red, it could be blood like the thing and yeah, it was, yeah. And of course, when I'm there, somebody's going to record me going, "Everybody's got a big but, Dotty. Tell me about your big butt." I got to watch that movie again.
Gene: It's been a while. Well man, that's excellent. Excellent. Sounds like you're super-
Carl: Back in person, baby.
Gene: Excited.
Carl: I am. And you know what? It's going to, I think anybody who's organizing anything, if it's within your company or if it's for other, just know it's going to be hard getting back out there. There's going to be so much stuff in the news that makes you question, are you going to get stuck or hurt? And you know what? If you're with the right people, you're not. And be smart. All of the venues and all that kind of stuff, if you just tell them you need better, get out of free cards, they'll give them to you.
Gene: Yeah. Smart, good advice.
Carl: That's the thing. All of the [inaudible 00:29:33] your stuff is super, it's in your court now. The venues need you as much as they need anybody. And don't go back to the way it used to be, where you had to sign away everything in $15, domestic beers and all that nonsense. That stuff's hopefully done.
Gene: Well, that would be really good news.
Carl: Yeah.
Gene: All right.
Carl: Gene, we can call it there.
Gene: Nah. All right.
Carl: I'm not going to hold this much longer.
