Episode 001 | Pandemic Productivity and the Virtual Event Renaissance [Transcription]
Justin: I'm Justin Blattner and welcome to Free Coffee. A podcast on the LRNPOD network. I've created content for ad agencies, businesses, and entrepreneurs for over 10 years. And now I've decided to take what I learned, creating content for others and use it to tell the stories that are interesting to me.
Something that I want to hear. I listened to a ton of podcasts, including those with people sitting around a table with some microphones and those shows are great, but this one's going to work a little bit differently. Free Coffee is a show where I take you, my audience on a journey to the internet. No, this isn't the magic school bus, but learning is encouraged.
The journey is full of very talented individuals that I would love to introduce everyone, my friends, my family. So you, the stranger sitting right now, listening that I don't know. I think you may see the value in this journey. Before I forget. And before we get lost into the story, I just wanted to say that when I started this podcast, I really just was doing it because it was interesting to me to kind of record these conversations and, and, um, to genuinely learn and then to help other people kind of learn the, what I was going through, I guess, at the time, but it's really taken off and the shows really progressed, progressing and progressed into something that's bigger than I originally thought.
So I really do think you should stick around and please get involved, reach out. I would love to hear from you. Thank you.
On this week's show, I'm exploring how the pandemic is actually making people more creative and more productive. One would even say that I'm exploring does a pandemic lead to a Renaissance? So in wisdom from the internet tells me that the black death led to the rebirth of the Renaissance. And that in London, um, the globe and other playhouses were shut in early 17th century for 78 months because of pandemics, um, with so much quarantining
it's no wonder we think Shakespeare wrote King Lear during this time, speaking of playwrights, first off, we're going to meet Carli and Hannah. Both very talented individuals who came together during this pandemic time to first try to live stream a play, which didn't work out with the lockdown. And then they created a very funny podcast that I'm actually going to give you a sneak peek to.
Then we have a sit with Lee Mann, who's the head of new business for a production company, based in Soho London. I always looked to his advice. I've worked with him in the past, and he's an excellent macro view on the entertainment industry, outstanding producer and human being, and has some insight on the future of events, which will we will ask about. After getting those insights, we'll explore the future of events from Craig, a corporate event producer and Ralph and event producer and content creator.
We will compare these views and see if we can get an accurate prediction for the future, without calling Ms. Cleo. And somewhere in all this, I attend a virtual event for the first time. We'll get the behind the scenes with Ralph and have some fun. Okay. That's all the housekeeping I have today. Let's meet Carli and Hannah,
Carli: just a couple of gorgeous.
babes trying to make their way in the world.
Justin: These two are absolutely hilarious. I had such a great time talking to them, and I really encourage any of you who are out there to listen to their podcast and donate, support the theater that, that they're a part of. And, um, I think it was enough of me talking as much as I want to bring all these people to you.
I also hate the sound of my own voice. So see you in a bit.
Hannah: Well, I guess we are One Ear Dog productions
Carli: just to clarify that it's because I have a dog that has one ear and, um, I was, I was, I was doodling her one day and I was like, this would be a really good logo for a company. Uh, like when I just, we just said One Ear Dog productions, and then I told Hannah and she was like, let's call our production company that.
Um, I'm, I'm an actress. Um, as well as the writer and I've a voice over artist and Hannah.
Hannah: I am, uh, first and foremost, a singer song writer, musician. Um, but yes, dabbling in writing and performing drama and comedy with Carli.
Carli: So Hannah was the lead singer in, um, My husband when I was in a blues band when I met him 10 years ago.
Uh, and Hannah was the lead singer in the blues band. So we became friends then. Yea a decade
Hannah: and a decade. Oh my goodness. Um, yeah, we realized that we had a lot in common. Um, and we started going to see theater together. I don't know, we got inspired by what we saw and then decided that we like to try and write some things together.
And I dunno, we just realized that we had a lot of, um, experiences that were, felt cathartic to write about.
Carli: I don't know if you've seen LA LA Land when she walks into the casting, waiting room and every other girl that looks exactly the same. It's. Huh. And there's something quite, um, off-putting about going to those kinds of auditions over and over again.
And you're kind of up against other people who look exactly the same. So it's quite made quite clear that it's about what you look like, um, as opposed to just sort of how amazing of an actor you are and, um, I think I just reached the end of my tether. I think I'd had one. I always get asked to dance.
This is my problem. I can't dance. And I always get asked to dance. So I think this particular one was I had to be in a queue for something, and then everybody started doing flamenco dancing. So I just, and I met Hannah afterwards and I was just I'd had enough at that point. I was like, they made me dance again.
And, um, We just started going through all these kinds of situations of being there, being a, kind of like a, the women in the creative industries and putting all these things together. But these situations that played into both music and acting, um, and we came up with this idea of these two actresses who were kind of too far out of drama school to not be working as much.
Or to be working as little as they are and going to these kinds of soul destroying auditions over and over again, and getting fed up with that and just kind of railing against the whole system. Um, and it just kind of came out. Didn't it? Hannah, we just talked about every annoying, I dunno, a time that we'd been kind of patronized or made to do something humiliating and we just put it all on paper.
Justin: with the generally the hardest part of the process done, Carly and Hannah are ready to perform. When did they realize though that performing wasn't going to take place, do this coronavirus pandemic?.
Carli: I re I really, one thing I really remember is having a friend over he's very politically active and he works for Save the Children and the charity.
And so he's very kind of tapped into, especially kind of global affairs. And I remember sitting in my living room saying, this is, this is going to be really bad. This is going to be really serious. And, um, I just because I couldn't really process it. I I'm kind of wanting to be like, Oh no it will be fine... oh, you know, I don't know.
I don't, I don't think I even thought about it that much. I was just like, okay, well, I don't, I don't know that much about it. This is, and it was quite a long time before I think it was kind of last winter. And then just seeing it come coming kind of in dribs and drabs in the news and realizing that he was completely right.
And that he said, this is going to shut down. This is going to change everything. This is going to be. You know, I'm a really big deal and, and just kind of finally accepting that that was true. And, Mmm, I mean, obviously in the UK, we took quite a long time to, to lock down. So I think there was a lot of uncertainty, um, especially with kind of what we were doing with the play.
And we had all these dates coming up and it was very soon and, Mmm. It was just not, I think at the beginning, it's just not knowing. I feel like there was never really a time where we were like, okay, this is happening. And this is where it is. It's just kind of, there's been a lot of uncertainty here, especially, I think
Hannah: we kind of just knew, you know, there's no way you can get,a load of people in a, in a, in a theater together, shoulder to shoulder , it's just not going to happen, but it was sad.
And I think I, dont know, we have. Even though we're both pretty lucky to be safe, you know, we're so fortunate there is still things that you're missing out on a new kind of, LLike looking into our diaries and going , we would have been doing that today.
Justin: So with the realisation setting in that you may not perform the play. Carli. Hannah, are you guys talking to each other?
Hannah: Yeah, we were not much the voice calling.
We are kind of just fire off messages to each other as we think most of the time I'm just kind of yeah. Bleeping throughout the day. Um, but yeah, definitely that thing of, Uh Oh, You know, everything is looking to be closing, stopping, coming to a halt.
Carli: we keep talking about the parallel universe. Don't we. Like Oh, in the parallel universe .we would be getting the train to London. Now in the parallel universe, we'd be loading into the theater now. Cause we would do actually to be in another play at Brighton Fringe as well, um, written by a guy called Stuart Warrick who's local to Brighton.
So we had all these, it was, it was really disappointing. Like Hannah said, I mean, we're so, so lucky to be where we are and everything, but it's that feeling of, we had all these, all of these dates coming up and um, and one by one they were canceled and it was, it was just, yeah, it was really sad.
Justin: okay. So then when does the idea of building a podcast to kind of like fill this creative hole that happened?
Carli: So we found out that performances are canceled or postponed, and we decided to do a live stream of the play because we've got this really great local studio called copper dollar studios that we've done some filming in before.
And we thought, you know, we could do this. We could get are, I've got a camera. We could set it up to like a live link. We could, we could live, stream it to YouTube and try and raise money because the kind of small theaters that we were working with, like, especially the Hope and, and also, um, well, Emergin Arts Fringe, was they're already suffering at the moment, obviously, because they've all had to close down and they've lost, um, kind of all their income.
Um, So we, the idea was to do it and to raise money. We would just do to do it that week when we, and then they announced the complete lockdown. Um, so that was like another blow that, you know, obviously it was the right thing to do. Um, but we'd kind of, so, Oh, well we can't do the performances, but to kind of cheer ourselves up, we'll do this instead.
And then that was taken away as well. So. So I think then we were kind of like, what can we do?
Justin: So then an interesting thing happens, Hannah and Carli decide they wanted to start writing something that potentially leads into comedy sketches and well, I'll let them explain
Hannah: an idea of maybe writing, not necessarily even comedy, but sketches for us two to perform and a series of those short cost.
Yeah short stories
Carli: Short audio plays
And then I message Hannah And I was like I cant write drama I am really sorry... everything I keep putting jokes everywhere that's pretty inappropriate.
Hannah: And also, I don't know. It just felt like, Mmm. Yeah, I dunno. That comedy was maybe more helpful. A such a strange time.
Yes.
Both for ourselves and hopefully people listening to it. To laugh at the situation we're in or at something completely not about lockdown.
Carli: Yeah. I think at the beginning you said, you know, we kind of made a conscious decision.
We have some lockdown themed sketches because we kind of wrote some kind of topical news sketches, but two to make a conscious effort, not to make the whole. Mmm. Show about that to kind of have some kind of escapism and comedy for people
Carli and Hannah Podcast: today, I've had to stop a number of barbecues, interrupts
a few groups of teenagers
who really shouldn't be gathering together, making
sure people aren't making any unnecessary journeys.
Bloomin Heck
Alien from Carli and HnnahPodcast: Humans We come in
peace We have traveled many millions of light years
Carli and Hannah Podcast: Hang on can I just stop you there I'm afraid we can't have you doing that.
Alien from Carli and HnnahPodcast: What?
Carli and Hannah Podcast: No unnecessary long journeys,
Alien from Carli and HnnahPodcast: but we come from a distant galaxy.
Carli and Hannah Podcast: I don't care.
I'll tell you exactly what I said to that. Couple of drove down from Stockport for a seaside weekend. Go home, stay in space, save lives, protect the NHS. Do you understand?
Alien from Carli and HnnahPodcast: Can we just quickly go and get an ice cream?
Carli and Hannah Podcast: No.
Alien from Carli and HnnahPodcast: aweeeeeeee
Justin: So from Corona related comedy, to comedy beyond this pandemic, Hannah and Carli are on the right track. And how they got on this track is what's curious to me, is this pandemic leading to their, their creativity and their productivity and their drive during this time. And I think Carli might have some insight.
Carli: I'm like the world's laziest. And I don't know what's happened during knock down. This is like, I'm asking myself the same question because other normally I'm kind of like, I can always be Netflixing. Um, and I don't know why this particular time has just, I've been like the most productive I've ever been.
I don't know if it's because there's no other pressures to go out. I'm not auditioning, so I'm not in and out of London all the time. oh all the time ha, I wish I'm in and out of London, occasionally, um, for auditions and, uh, I'm kind of, my copywriting work is just from home. So I don't know. Maybe it's just having this, having the time of not having any kind of external pressures of having to do anything, you just have all this time to.
And for some reason that's triggered something creative in us, or me,I dunno . I have started gardening as well. I Just know what's going on.
Justin: I think she actually does know what's going on. And she had some amazing insight for those who want to be productive. Um, but I think you should wait till the end, before you get that, I'm starting to think more deeply about what this lock down is teaching is about productivity. Let's meet with Lee and see what he, if he can add to the theory.
Lee: So my name is Lee man, and I am head of new business for a production company based in London, based in Soho called Squire studio. We make a music video, TV commercials, film, documentaries, and we also,
quite heavily involved within the VR and AR world.
look, I think you should let anyone out there who's been affected by this, which is everyone.
You look at your skillset. If it's not available outside the current restrictions that we have you change and you adapt. We've got directors, cameraman, and DOPs is working from their garage, making amazing things.And simple things as well.
Justin: okay we have some evidence here. Now, Lee is saying that these creatives are home creating .Sounds a bit obvious, yes, I know, but we were kind of amazed at Shakespeare wrote King Lear during the pandemic. So at least we know that the creatives are home creating still. As opposed to not creating, which is something that I was doing while watching tiger King.
So it's not as obvious as you think
Lee: London has some of the best filmmakers. I personally think , I am not being biased , but I realldo think we have some the best filmmakers out there and, that's given us the golden opportunity of time to work in the film industry. Time is always against you.
We'll have a, uh, a brief land on our desk, right? We need a treatment sending over the next hour and you know, we're shooting this music video in the next week or so.
So time can, you know, time constraints are always there, anything you do in life, but for us at this moment, it gives us that opportunity to really think about, things that we want to do a and w w w I think we're coming up with some quite interesting, um, and unique experiences. So hopefully this time has given us that opportunity.
It's amazing. You know, I don't think this time has been in, in , not in history, but of late the most creative time for people who aren't creative. Think about that. Think about that, you have to get creative. Otherwise you're going to lose your mind slightly . People are taking up new hobbies, my girlfriends, brother just bought a guitar to learn.
Justin: Recap, creative people are getting more creative and non-creative people are taking to the arts. From learning a new instrument to a different art form, a different medium, to writing a play, to starting a podcast, um, is the pandemic a requirement for a Renaissance. So far the signs point. Yes. So if you're a Medici cheap patron out there looking for a new artist in a new art form, podcasting is the right one and you should call me .
With all these new and improved creative minds. When will the events be put on again? When can I see the plays that are being written? When, when can I go to the movies to see the films that are written during this time? When can I go to the museums to see the paintings of this digital Renaissance?
Let's chat with Craig and see what his insights from working in the event industry. Um, tell him about moving into the future.
Craig: I think Like in terms of like travel. There will not be a lot of that until the last quarter of this year. So like the October onwards. Um, I don't think we'll see at a return to mass events until things like premier league football.
We'll go back when crowds start, go back into stadiums. So. I would love to be able to see a concer this year. Um, I dont think , we will, um, but probably early 2021 before a normal what we would deem as normal. So
Justin: Craig is an event planner, event coordinator, event producer ...globally. And during this time he decided to look at his business and evaluate for the future.
Simple enough, but not as easy, especially when your business is to make events. And Corona destroys that for the foreseeable future
Craig: Hi I am Craig McGee, I am the chief eventorganizer of Panoptic Events
We are a company that since 2014, has developed over two and a half thousand events.
Justin: So I asked Craig kind of give me the runway that led up into this pandemic time.
Craig: The business grew and grew and grew over the last two and a half years and taking me all over the world, um, 2019, a hundred, 126 days of travel. And last year, our growth was 170% on the year before, um, our team tripled in size.
And basically it was coming into 2020 with so much momentum. It was so exciting and the growth plan was to bring in two new team members. And just, um, on the way up to the, the global pause,
Justin: what Craig said, there was interesting, the global pause, the recognition that the world has stopped, paused. And this recognition I think allows for the. The thought process began of what do we do during this pause? What, what can I do? What do I want to do? Do I want to think about the future? Do I want to focus on now?
Do I want to better myself? Do I want to pivot my brand? Do I want to streamline my processes like Craig did
Craig: I was just like reviewing the plan, going what we were doing was working, and we kept on targets. And we're just about to suddenly have this amazing year where we would have two events in Brazil. We were at a boat to confirm events in Thailand. It was shaping up to be a lovely year, basically. And it was just, it was a lot of positives to be taken from what had happened. Up to that point,
Justin: that point for Craig and for everyone was the turning point in the Corona pandemic COVID-19 pandemic. This is when people started to realize that maybe there is something to this afterall and Craig happened to be traveling from, from event to event across European airports. So his perspective is interesting.
So you're traveling to different events that you're, you're participating in.
Craig: Yeah
Justin: And meanwhile, while traveling, you're going through different airports and noticing the changes that are are happening at the airports.
Craig: Yeah. So I started to see the stations and there was one airport outside in, I think it was Frankfurt.
Now , the first call would usually be anyone who's elderly or with children come forward first. But the first call was if anyone's been to China in the last 14 days, if anyone's been to this country in the last 14 days, make yourself known. I think it was set in waiting to go on that flight we suddenly realised, oh this is getting really serious.
Justin: with the realization that the pandemic is getting more and more serious, will it lead to a creative inspiration for Craig?
Craig: So suddenly started writing this list on a bit of paper and from that it's suddenly everything I needed for the business. I thought, well, Let's use this time to go operationally slick.
To Batten down the hatches and then get all our marketing materials in order so that we can go out , but all the while let's speak to people.
So I built a CRM system. I got in touch with all my clients and I just know it. And then I got in touch with all my suppliers and all my leads. And it's just led to so many amazing conversations, knowledge sharing opportunities, so much so it's almost felt like a....it felt like I started the business again. And one, you've got an idea for that business two. You've got some opportunities that may or may not arise, three, you get getting all your systems in place and it's like, excitement. There's our rush coming through. And then four there is no clients, you know, nobody's buying events currently.
So suddenly it was like, there's no distractions of our events and day to day. Everything's about on the business , and that's been very, very beneficial.
Justin: So Craig's approach was to look at the business that he had today and to focus on his existing customers and his audience, instead of trying to find new customers in this time.
And by doing that, he sets himself up to be ready for when this is all over. So while Craig didn't write a play or pick up a guitar, Um, he did teach us something more about this pandemic time. And I think why it is that creatives are getting creative, more creative and non creatives are, you know, learning new skills in the arts.
And I think it's the, the lack of pressure and time, you know, I think Carly, you mentioned this and he's touching on it now. Um, it just allows us to free ourselves from pressure and time .
On the other side of the spectrum, we have Ralph Cochrane who is also involved in events. Um,albeit more content production, but his business solely relied on traveling around the world like Craig and participating in these events.
So his, his world also was in an essence shattered once this happened. Um, his story is a bit different. Here's Ralph
Ralph: I've hit record. So this is recording as well.
Justin: Perfect.
Ralph: So my name is Ralph Cochrane and I I'm one of the co founders of event.Video, which is a production company, really built for the coronavirus era.
We specialize in remote production, live streaming and creating video for virtual events. Um, and before the lockdown hit, I was running a fairly traditional production company, which was called The Creative Grid.
And I've been doing that for almost 10 years, but the focus on staying at home uh really, let me think a lot more about how to create great content, even though people are at home.
So a lot of people that we interview. Um, all using that laptops or kind of, I guess, in the home environment, which is not what you would typically expect. And then it's, how do we create something really great from that? Um, and one of the early events that we've produced as the podcast festival, which is, I think how you found us, Justin.
Justin: Yeah, that's right. That's right. And, um, can you paint, like, can you remember the moment where you decided to go towards digital events? Was there, um, some turning point that led to you? Like, okay, this is something I have to look at.
Ralph: Yeah, I discovered of all things. This is probably not what you were expecting, but I discovered that Google do domain names.
And, um, so, you know, kind of sat there with a cup of tea thinking let's just have a look at what domains are out there. And I stumbled across event.video and actually corporate.video as well, which I also own. And then I was thinking as well about the, the collapse really of the event. Industry.
Justin: So we see Ralph at home on the couch, drinking tea, perusing, some domains to see what's out there.
And when he comes across one, he connects with it and it allows for this spark of creativity and forward-thinking. But who is Ralph? Let's find out a little bit more about what he was doing before this pandemic struck.
Ralph: This year, we'd got off to a great start. We've been in Barcelona filming for Cisco.
There's a big event called Cisco live. And we were expecting actually to go back to Barcelona and film at mobile world Congress, which is something I've done for years and years. And suddenly everything ground to a halt, but it was also kind of a slow, painful, um, stall, if you like as well, because we were having lots of calls about events that people thought might go ahead, you know, really big events.
Everybody knows like NAB and the broadcast industry. Um, and we're still having to join these calls. Even though I kept thinking to myself, there's no way we're going to be going to Las Vegas in April. Um, and obviously in our world, we only get paid when we actually do the filming when we turn up at an event.
So there's this kind of slow, painful death of, or hiatus of the, um, of the event industry. And at the same time, I find myself on Google domains thinking, well, what. What kind of things are out there. What about the brand? Is that clear? What I offer?
Justin: Like everyone we've spoken to thus far the increase in amount of time that one had, and the absence of deadlines allows everyone for a little bit of introspection to look at themselves and their businesses and kind of see what can they do moving forward
Let us see what Ralph does.
Ralph: I came across event video, and then at the same time, I started to think a lot more about virtual events, because if you know the event industry as a whole is so big, uh, I mean, it's a huge part of the marketing mix and the idea that it just stops and there's nothing that's going to replace. It seem to me to be crazy.
And I came across a few of the technical platforms that people use to do events. Uh, so the podcast festival is running on Hoppin. There's also another one called Brella and a third Glisser, all three we work quite closely with, and it just kind of appealed to me that it was live streaming. Um, it was about connecting people, but I could see that the quality of the content was not that great.
Um, the audio quality, certainly the visual, um, being able to mix things together, kind of bring things to life in more of a. I guess you'd say almost like a news style, you know, packages where you cut away to Australia. If that's what you're talking about and then come back again and nobody was doing that.
Um, so I started to experiment and, um, and kind of get into the technology a bit. And then really the rest is just followed because I think we've become quite well known for producing this kind of TV quality. Live streaming that goes into virtual and now hybrid events. There's the lockdown comes to an end.
Justin: So Ralph like Hannah and Carly. Dove into his own skillset and just tried to find a way to reach out and to connect to people within this time, the performers in Hannah and Carly couldn't help themselves, but to do what they knew best and to put themselves out there, and this was the right direction, put themselves out there.
The trend I see in all of these people is that this pandemic is like thrust us into the future. And the future is. Communicating to audiences, wherever the audiences are. So the audience is quarantined you go there, the audience just on the beach and a hammock, and they want to attend the event in Cairo.
They're there too. So let's talk more about to Ralph.
Ralph: I think when we come out of lockdown, despite everything you might be feeling about let's go back to normal. We did have a big movement around climate change before, um, this hit and I think there's a big point there, which is like, you know, why do people need to travel to an event in. I dunno, Orlando, Florida, if they can log on from a home environment and they can get most of the benefit of being there in person. So there are those technical solutions that allow you a for instance, one of the events I'm working on, when you join the event, you answer a couple of questions and then it will tell you who the four or five people are that you should really meet to that event.
And you can request a meeting. And if you think about some of the big trade shows you've been to in the past, um, that's one of the problems is just navigating the event. It's so big and then finding the right people to talk to can be difficult because you don't know who some of the exhibitors are. So I'm not saying that one replaces the other, but I think there is this emerging new world of live streaming plus event, plus some kind of clever networking that actually adds a lot of value.
Justin: Well, you definitely sold me. I'm excited for the future events and I'm excited to go to the future of podcasting event this week, which I'll definitely be telling you guys about. Um, this is the event that, that Ralph actually produced.
Um, so all the benefits he said about virtual events, I'm going to put them to the test and really see what the future of, of events are like.
Ralph: Yeah. So the podcast festival has got, um, the video speed dating, I call it, but the networking idea, it's running on a platform called hopin. Um, and I think you'll enjoy the fact that you can watch the main stage, which is the part that we're producing with the live streaming.
Um, but in terms of. What the event offers. I think it's not just kind of tune into a live stream and listen to, or watch the broadcast. It's also, who else is at the event? How can you connect with them? And that's what the festival is, is trying to bring to life through the technology.
Justin: Ralph explained to me that he read somewhere that what had just happened was two years of digital transformation in the period of two months.
And. That brought an awareness to him that he was living through. Something much like something he's lived through in the past.
Ralph: I don't know. It reminds me a bit of the web. I'm old enough to remember. Um, you know, when the web kind of became mainstream, which I think contrary to what a lot of people think would have been around about 2005, something like that when broadband became more available. And I remember walking into my local pub and somebody saying to me, Oh, you work on the web, don't you? Oh, that's cool. And that's the first time I hadn't been ridiculed as a geek, you know? Cause I was, I used to work in research software research for the internet basically. And, um, I was always the geek in the village kind of thing.
And then suddenly I became quite cool because people were making a lot of money from web and I think live streaming has gone the same way. You know, if you weren't a gamer. I mean, I think if you're into gaming, you know, all about live streaming, you know, about refresh rates, you know, about bandwidth, uh, ping times, like this is not new.
Um, but for the corporate world, It was just becoming like a thing that you should probably do, but people were still saying, you know, maybe, maybe a deligates won't buy tickets, come to our event. Cause they'll just watch the live stream, which is, I've never seen that comment be true. Uh, I think you reach a wider audience.
Well, now we're catapulted into this world where. We know people are not going to go,I dont know, to the event in Cairo. They're just not going to go, but they are interested in that market. And so can you charge them a fee to do something online and maybe in the next six months to a year, you do still have a small event in Cairo, but you've now got to do both.
It's no longer a Oh, that's kind of interesting, you know, live stream. Yeah. It could be interesting, but actually worrying about stands and exhibition design and things like that. You've now got to do both. So suddenly we went from being a nice staff to being okay, how, how do we do this and how do we make it look good?
Um, and that's music to my ears really.
Justin: so it's definitely an interesting time. Um, some details that I think that are relevant for us to figure out answers to our questions are that Hannah and Carli are definitely creative individuals. Um, yeah. According to Carli, she had more drive during the lockdown. Um, this is interesting to note. That the creatives are getting more creative.
They're getting more drive to create the motivation is there. The execution is there.
The art is in the execution.
Lee explained to us that the, in the video production world, there's an endless supply of pending deadlines and that time is always running out. So the global pause, freed the creatives of these mental restraints and thus allow them to create beautiful things with less resources, more time, less demands.
Um, he also noted that even those who aren't artists managed to get creative, which I thought was interesting entrepreneurs like Craig, for example, um, you know, he felt a similar drive to Hannah and Carli allowing them to him to streamline his business in a way that was, priming himself for success, as soon as the industry decided to turn on.
And, and he felt this drive came from having no clients at the time because of the pandemic. And again, we have more time, less demand. Um, and then we have Ralph who decided to innovate and pivot his live streaming experience into a virtual event production company. Um, and he did this while leisurely sipping tea on the couch.
Because he had more time and less demand on his mind. So everyone's creating, so to do the pandemics cause Renaissance, are they, do they lead to a Renaissance rather? Um, in this case, maybe a digital one, as we touched on with Ralph in the end, that he really thinks that this time changed events for the future of the way people gather.
And I think even with Hannah and Carli, their first inclination was to live stream was to broadcast themselves. So I do think the medium and how we're communicating is changing. Um, I think I'm just gonna leave you as my audience with. Something that Carly said earlier on, but after talking to everyone, I kind of like, I think there's more meaning to it.
So I'm going to leave you with that. And I look forward to...it is not next weeks show , cause I think it's going to come out in two weeks, but the next show Um slowly, we'll be releasing weekly. Just want to thank everyone for joining me on episode one of free coffee, a content creators journey through the internet. Um, please reach out.
Let me know what you like dislike and let me know what you want to hear. Thanks.
Carli: I think just take all the pressure off yourself. I'm wondering if that's why we've been so productive, because there seems to be there isn't a lot of pressure on us at the moment, because everyone's just saying kind of take care of yourself, stay healthy, you know, relax. If you need to, this is a really tough time.
And I think having that pressure taken off, whereas normally I'm like, this is my job. My job is to be creative. I need to be making things all the time and it can completely block you up mentally. Um, You kind of create a day. So I think just take all the pressure off yourself and just find something that you enjoy and do it when you feel like it and don't do it when you don't feel like it.
And eventually you kind of end up coming to something. That's what happened with us anyway.
Host:
Justin Blattner
https://www.linkedin.com/in/blattnerjustin/
Guests:
Carli Fish & Hannah Robinson
https://laughtercompendium.buzzsprout.com/
https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/fishandrobinsonslaughtercompendium
Lee Mann
https://www.linkedin.com/in/lee-mann-030734b0/
Craig McGee
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mcgeecraig/
Ralph Cochrane
https://www.linkedin.com/in/cochraner/