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Conference Calls

For the seventh straight year, I served as executive producer this month for a franchisor’s annual Conference. Planning these events begins in October and really kicks in come January. There are a lot of moving parts, as you might imagine if you’ve ever attended one.

Instead of a keynote speaker, for the first time the client wanted to hire a comedian to serve as emcee and provide standup interludes. The speaker’s bureau offered 15 people – and none ‘did it’ for me, so they sent a second batch. I saw one name on the list, and without even watching his video clip told my client, “That’s our guy.”

How did I know? Well, I’ve shared his YouTube video – 15 million views – with a lot of folks. It’s one of the most spot-on satires of corporate America you’ll see. It’s also hilarious… and when we played it as part of a funny way to introduce him, the audience roared in laughter.

Throughout our prep phone calls and during rehearsals before each show, he was professional and easy to work with – this despite fighting off a bad cold and nearly losing his voice. Nary a complaint about that, by the way.

Folks who make their living speaking typically utilize canned presentations with some tweaking for the sponsoring organization. He took a different approach – developing several bits to engage with the audience… and even brought along a videographer and created a ‘man-on-the-street’ video with attendees that was hilarious.

So, if you’re looking for a speaker – yes, he has a keynote, if that’s what you want – or emcee for your next event, consider… Tripp Crosby. You can thank me later.

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Just Believe

“I believe. I believe. It’s silly but I believe.”
~ Eight-year-old Natalie Wood in Miracle on 34th Street

Like that little girl in the holiday classic film, a lot of people talk to themselves. In my case, sometimes it’s in hoping that a wish will come true. Often, it’s to reaffirm my positive attitude. Occasionally, negative thoughts pop into my head and, if I’m not careful, lead me down a path of imagining the worst possible outcome.

While the rest of the animal kingdom simply reacts to what’s right in front of it – based on thousands of years of flight-or-flight instincts, the gift of being human is that our complex minds are able to imagine and create new ways of doing things. Thus, we have Starbucks, Google and iTunes today… and some unknown ‘got to have’ tomorrow.

Of course, the downside is our complex minds are able to imagine things that have a nearly zero chance of coming to fruition. That’s why the zombie apocalypse is a thing, could explain why Bitcoin is up nearly 150 percent this year… and might be the reason insomnia impacts more than a quarter of the U.S. population.

Limiting the impact of our imaginations requires mindfulness – a highfalutin new age term that means being able to take a step back from the thoughts whirling around your head and make a conscious choice about your actions.

If you’re awake in the middle of the night worried about an 8 a.m. meeting with executives, rather than dwell on what could happen in six hours, spend five minutes writing down your thoughts, then turn out the light, allow your mind to focus on something that relaxes you… and go to sleep.

This isn’t easy to do. It’s takes practice. Then some more practice. However, if you master the art of letting it go, you’ll get a good night’s rest and be better prepared to address things in the morning.

Perhaps the words from a song by Josh Groban in a much more recent holiday film – The Polar Express – will serve as your mantra: “You have everything you need / If you just believe.”

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Three Decades

June, 1989 – Let’s get in our Magic Time Machine and go back to see what’s happening in the world.

The first HDTV broadcasts take place in Japan. The Solidarity Party is victorious in Poland’s election, setting off anti-Communist uprisings in Central and Eastern Europe. The events of Tiananmen Square are forever etched in our memories.

And… in Arlington, Texas… Kathy and I exchange vows… 30 years ago today. We’ve shared many wonderful experiences…

the births of three children, now adults and soon to all be graduates of our alma mater, the University of Texas at Austin; UT football game tailgating; family vacations to Mexico, Walt Disney World (twice) and a few other wonderful places; Phantom of the Opera in London, limbo dancing in Jamaica and Sonoma County’s Russian River Valley wineries; our favorite restaurants; good health; financial resources; loving family and close friends

Happy Anniversary, Kathy. Here’s to 30 more.

Addendum: When I met with our long-time family priest to schedule the wedding at his church, his secretary came in with the parish calendar. She named several dates and I said, “That won’t work. The Rangers have a game that day.” After three tries, we found one. He later told us that when I left, she looked at him and said: “That marriage will never last, if he can’t give up going to a Rangers game for his wedding.” He had a good laugh… since she didn’t know I was the producer of their cable broadcasts.

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Worldly Knowledge

When I agreed to travel to Romania to work with the management team at two plants outside of Bucharest, I must admit my thoughts were: ‘What kind of former Communist country am I going to and why did I say yes?’ Most of the people I told said something like: “That seems odd. What’s in Romania?”

Then I spent a week there and my thoughts were: “Who knew?”

From the beautiful architecture of Bucharest, to the green fields and flowing hills near Ploiesti and Campina, to the incredible friendliness of the people, Romania was wonderful. (Heck, I even saw a shepherd tending to his flock right outside the second-floor window of the company’s headquarters.)

What did I learn?

There is an amazing five-star resort in Ploiesti that may have the nicest swimming pool I’ve ever seen… certainly the bluest water.

The area’s Mediterranean cuisine is delicious.

“Former Communist country” doesn’t mean antiquated. One of the plants has AI technology and a nearly silent manufacturing environment.

Life under dictator Nicolae Ceausescu was demoralizing and repressive prior to the December 1989 uprising and his execution a week later. That said, the people I spoke with who were of age appear to have moved on. “We were hungry, but we figured out a way to survive… and about six years later things got better” was a common theme.

Most everyone I met had a high level of English. One person told me that he learned Romanian as a child, French starting in third grade, Russian beginning in seventh… and didn’t speak English until he was 27.

Bottom line?

My pretrip cognitive bias of Romania as a country that only offered the world Dracula’s Castle, Bela Lugosi and Nadia Comaneci was way off the mark… and that’s a reminder not to judge another place or people without first experiencing them for yourself.

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Spoiled Broth

Recently I asked a lifelong friend (‘Joe’) to assist another friend (‘Jim’) with a social service project Jim was leading. With all of the other things going on in Joe’s life, it appeared he waited right up until the deadline to provide some guidance to Jim. “I’m leaving town for a week and won’t be able to help,” wrote Joe, “so here is a summary of what I think you should do.”

I was copied on that email and after reading Joe’s comments, I realized there were several things missing and a few items that needed clarifying. So, of course, I quickly weighed in with my ideas in a Reply All. Then about 10 minutes later, I thought: “Why did I get in the middle of this?” I just confused things for Jim even further.

Later that day, I received a text from Jim: “Tell me again why you thought I needed your and Joe’s help?” Point taken. Too many cooks indeed.