The Social Media Takeaway - Louise McDonnell

Creating Memorable Experiences for Events by Phil Mershon

• Louise McDonnell • Season 1 • Episode 17

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In this week’s episode of the Social Media Takeaway, I'm thrilled to be joined by Phil Mershon, the founder of Unforgettable Experiences and the Director of Experience at Social Media Examiner. In this episode, Phil and I explore the art and science behind creating memorable events. From his unexpected career path to innovative approaches for captivating attendees, Phil reveals how to transform any event into a memorable experience. Whether you're an event planner, marketer, or simply interested in the power of impactful gatherings, this conversation is packed with insights and actionable tips that will inspire you to think differently about your next event.

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Louise McDonnell:

Welcome to the social media takeaway. I'm your host, Louise McDonnell. And today I'm speaking with Phil Merson, the founder of unforgettable experiences and the director of experience for the social media examiner. Phil is an event strategist and experience designer, and his goal is to create memorable experiences that lead to increased revenue retention and transformation. You're very welcome to the show.

Phil Mershon:

Thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here.

Louise McDonnell:

I'm excited to have you here. So Phil do you want to tell us a little bit about your journey?

Phil Mershon:

Yeah. Well, it's been a very interesting one. Probably not typical for someone who does what I do. I studied Economics undergrad. But while I was working in my first job out of college, I saw a guy lead a brainstorming class teaching us how to brainstorm. And I said, I want to do what he's doing someday, not program computers. And that began a journey into the world of nonprofits. And then after nonprofits into corporate America, doing training for a large oil and gas company. And then after that, I actually went to become a pastor, a music pastor. But when the great recession hit back in 2008, 2009, the church I was serving in the school I was serving at the same time, couldn't keep me on. And that began a quest to find, well, what's next and what am I going to do? And in the middle of all that, I knew Mike Stelzner, the founder of social media examiner. He invited me to start doing some part time contract work. And eventually after two years, that became a full time job. And I've been working on events with him ever since. But really, if you look at almost everything I've done in my career, it is touched upon events and experience. And I think that's partly because I'm a musician. I'm a pastor. I also have degrees in counseling, so I kind of have some understanding of the psychology of what's going on. And I have a music degree too. So all of those things kind of factor together in the way I approach things. And, you know, sometimes I'd tell the story that it started when I was seven. When I lined my brother and sister and all the stuffed animals up on the couch, and I created my first experience by recreating the worship service. We had just seen at church. I was the pastor and they got to participate because they were the younger brother and sister. So I've been doing it in some form or way ever since I was seven years old,

Louise McDonnell:

you know, we used to do something similar in our house. We had a hall table in our hall, in my parents house. And we decided it looked like the altar. So we used to play mass we'd get like, you know, chips and we pretend they were communion. And we'd like, like, when I think about it, I don't think any child nowadays would do that, but we used to play mass,

Phil Mershon:

you know, it's amazing what kids will do if you give them space. So yeah, that's awesome.

Louise McDonnell:

It is so true. It is so true. So, so for anybody who is organizing events or retreats or workshops, this is what Phil does and his expertise is creating the unforgettable experience. Do you want to tell us a little bit about that?

Phil Mershon:

Yeah, I think it again stems from all those experiences, but what I've noticed over time at events, well, there's a couple of couple things. 1 is I would get feedback after I led events, led trainings, led workshops and saying it was the best they'd ever been to. And at first, you know, I'm humble by nature. It's hard to say you're humble, but I don't like to take credit for things by nature. I always diffuse it and say, oh, it can't be that good. But when you hear it enough times. You start to say, well, there's something I'm doing. Maybe it's not the best ever, but for them, it was the best ever. Why? And so I'd start asking questions and start paying attention. And eventually I realized there were some things that I do that are different. And I think when people go to an event, Most of them become forgettable very quickly. There's research for why psychologists have understand that people don't retain what they learn more than 30 days after 30 days, I should say they've lost 90 percent of what they've learned unless you design the event in In a way that reinforces it. So your audience is coaches and consultants. And so, you know, when we're creating events for that are supposed to lead to change for people, we've got to redesign it in a way that it's going to stick then. So part of that is making it memorable, making it something that it's going to stick with them for a long time. And there's a lot of strategies that we can use to do that. So I think it was understanding that Hey, when someone comes to an event, you want them to come back or you want them to go deeper with you. If you've got a coaching program, you're trying to sell on the end of the event, or you want them to re enlist in another year, another quarter, whatever the case might be. So it's gotta be something that leads to change and makes a big impression or big impact on them.

Louise McDonnell:

You want to give us maybe a few examples of different events that you've worked on recently that had a unique experience associated with them.

Phil Mershon:

Well, the most recent social media marketing world that we did, we understood after the previous year that we had some things that we needed to fix, you know, post pandemic, you, you discover all kinds of things when you've got turnover and you know, different requirements happening and changing budgets and all that. And so you start to strip things away that you realize, Oh, that was actually kind of important. And so we were looking at, well, what are the moments within somebody's experience that they might, you know, kind of just go into a coasting mode, just saying, okay, it's just another day, just another moment, just another session. 1 of those when is on the last day, when people are arriving, we said, this is an opportunity to get people smiling and get people talking and remembering what's going on. And so our staff, 1 of our teammates and I came up with the idea of doing a, a mock protest. So the team built together a bunch of signs. And they wrote slogans on these signs about all the things that everybody pretty much hates about social media. And so they were standing out front of the building, walking back and forth with these signs. And so when people were coming up and you may have experienced this Louise they didn't know what was going on. They thought, why would someone protest a social media marketing conference? And then they would get up close and they would see signs that said things like, we still call it Twitter. I still call it a tweet. LinkedIn isn't a dating app. Bring back the memes, you know, stuff that was just kind of funny and tongue and cheek, and it was, it was one of those moments that it got mentioned on the keynote stage when people think back to the conference, you know, it's not the main point of the conference by any stretch, most of the things that we do to make something memorable are not necessarily the big things. It's little details that you pay attention to when someone might be checked out, when someone might be not sure, are they going to stick around? Now you've got them in a positive state of mind. They're smiling. You surprise them like, I'm concerned. And now they're smiling because they realize what it is. And some of them even grabbed signs and they helped become part of the protest, which was hilarious because some actually pretty well known people in the industry grabbed signs. So that's one example of something that we redesigned.

Louise McDonnell:

Brilliant. So I suppose when I'm taken from this is. As with any experience, people have a certain level of expectation. And if you can surpass that, that's when you really impress them. Would that be part of it?

Phil Mershon:

I think, yeah, it's going beyond their expectation. Another aspect of this is understanding moments where, where people are either getting distracted. They're getting bored. You know, they're feeling like they're isolated. They're not part of it. What are the things that you can do in those moments that can draw them in? And so music is another great example of things that you can do. And we're going to do one example at the end of this conversation. So, if you're listening to this, do not check out before the end, because we'll demonstrate one. But having somebody playing live music that's engaging with the crowd when you're walking in can be one of those things that people aren't expecting. You're walking into a professional business conference, and here's this guy, this surfer looking dude, he's got these crazy sunglasses on and a hat, and he's playing, you know, classic rock songs, but he's not playing the whole thing. Like I asked him to play free bird and he did like a 32nd version of it, but it was free bird, you know, and so he's like engaging with the crowd. They're stopping and taking pictures. He's talking to them and he's singing to them, you know, so it, again, it's like, okay, I was not expecting that this morning. Here's this guy. He's fun. It's one of those moments where when people walk in to a large event, and this could even be true at a smaller event, they're feeling a little bit insecure. I don't know anybody. I'm not sure where I'm going. So anything you can do to help them to relax, to smile, to meet someone, to have a shared moment is going to increase the likelihood that they keep stepping in. I call it the merry go round effect. So this is if you've ever been on a merry go round, which we all have as kids merry go rounds are fun rides when they're going at the right speed. So if it's going too fast, you're getting sick to your stomach. You want to get off or get thrown off. If it's going too slow, You might lie down or you might just say, this is really kind of boring. Sometimes you get people on the ride that have different tolerances, right? Someone wants to take it really fast. And someone else is saying, this is too fast. It's making me sick. People get off that ride because it's too fast. It's uncomfortable. They get bored and events are the very same way. So we have this constant challenge of keeping people choosing to stay on the ride, choosing to stay in, go to the next level, go to the next thing. You know, if, if someone gets distracted, you know, by the old proverbial smartphone while they're in your session. And they see this message and all of a sudden they decide they're going to respond to the message. They get a response back and now they're on this rabbit trail. And they are lost in that rabbit trail. They may choose to leave the room, go deal with that business and never come back or their mind may never totally Engage in what you were doing. And maybe it was a critical moment in a process. And like, you know, I think for a lot of coaches and retreats and workshops in particular, where everyone's in the same room for the whole time, things are done in a sequential kind of way that it's important that people go with you step by step. And if they miss a step along the way, they're going to get lost. They're more likely to either leave physically or. Or they're leaving mentally and emotionally and in both cases, the likelihood that they're going to take the next step with you has has decreased pretty radically. So we've got to be anticipating. What are those things? And some of it is an attention issue that you've got to keep people's attention. And if you're presenting, you're mixing things up, you're getting them engaged. So, you know, the more ways that we engage people's all five of their senses. Increases the likelihood that it's going to be memorable. It also increases the learning capacity. So people retain things better if they've smelled something, if they've tasted something, if they've felt something and done something like kinesthetically involved, it's not just a knowledge transfer. Most people, if it's a knowledge transfer, stick it in a notebook and my friends Sam and Greg hind called it, it becomes shelf help. So it goes in a notebook, it sits on yourself and it never comes off. That's called shelf help. And I love that phrase. And that's not very useful. Like it's there. It might make us feel good. Look at all the books on myself. But if you're not using it, then you actually just wasted a whole bunch of time out of your life. The planners have wasted a whole bunch of time planning that event that didn't actually impact anyone. So I think We have to think through ways that we disrupt the pattern so that people re engage when they're starting to get bored, when their bodies are starting to get tired and they want to fall asleep, what are you going to do? You know, do you have strategies when you see that happening in the room, you know, by the circadian rhythms, people are going to naturally get a little bit tired right after lunch. So how are we going to counter that? Some people have longer attention spans than others. What are you going to do about that? So I think those are the types of things that we have to think about to keep people moving through an event experience together to get to the payoff. And we don't always know when the payoffs going to be right, Louise. I mean, for some people, it might be at that closing session where you, you bring the big clothes, but someone else that might've happened at 1130 in the morning. You dropped this knowledge bomb that they just can't escape. And that was like, the whole reason they came was because of something that happened or the conversation they had at lunch, right after you dropped that knowledge bomb ends up being the main reason that they were at the event. But if you create the conditions that people stay present and they keep making choices through the event to stay engaged, then they're going to be able to receive more and more of what you have. you know, we never can guarantee that people are going to get all that you were hoping they would, but you can increase the likelihood that they will. And that's, that's kind of what I'm passionate about. Not kind of, I am passionate about that. And I think that some of the methods I've come up with help with thinking through opportunities there.

Louise McDonnell:

And so for somebody who's tuning in that has an event coming up or a retreat coming up, something coming up, you've already given some great advice, but like, what are the steps that they should follow just when they're at the planning stage?

Phil Mershon:

One of the most important steps is to think through the customer journey. Now marketers do this. That's part of what we do as marketers to get someone to the place of making a purchase. I'm talking about from the moment of purchase. What does that journey look like? And most often event planners are thinking about what happens when someone walks through the door of the building, not necessarily what happens from the point of purchase to the door. And I think you need to think about that process as well. There's a couple of phases, depending on how long that is. Like if it's a, a one week window from the date of purchase to the event, it's one phase, but if it's a three to six month window, then there's a couple of phases in there. The first phase is you're just starting to communicate and get them excited. And then you're starting to give them information to help them prepare. And then third, you're trying to start building a sense of community. And I think small and big events, this is important. No one likes to show up to an event and not know anybody. Or, or just you're the only person, Louise, that they know when they walk in of his 10 people. That's not as big of a deal as if it's 50, a 100 or a 1000, you want them to recognize faces have plans to meet with people. If they've traveled, you know, this all changes if it's a local event for half a day versus a 3 day event that you're doing. So there's different dynamics, but looking through the customer journey before the event. How are you preparing them? How are you getting them connected into the community? And then once they arrive, I look at it as the event starts at the hotel. Not at the venue now, if it's all in 1 hotel, that's 1 scenario, but assuming that the hotel is a different place from the meeting venue, then you're starting at the hotel or even at the airport. If it's a big event, you've got budget and people, it can start at the airport, the train station, like, as far back as you can in that journey to help them start to feel ready and get questions answered is great. Then once they walk through the door. That's really is where they think the event is starting, but you've preconditioned them before they ever got there. If you're greeting them, you're giving them the information that they need. They feel like they've got friends that they're going to be looking for. They've got the information of knowing. Not only the agenda, but what's the layout of the building? How are they taking care of my food needs? Like, if they've got dietary needs, they're thinking about all these kinds of things. You're thinking practically about how do I take care of them? So that they're going to feel psychologically safe. That's a big term in event planning is we want psychological safety when people walk in. Yes, against any kind of physical threats. They want to know that. You know, you've got public safety in place. That's going to protect them from, you know, active shooters or anything that might be threatening to them. But then there's also the, you know, the physical, like, Hey, they've got a good temperature. The building feels good. When I walk in, it doesn't feel drab. It feels very inviting. The people feel welcoming at an appropriate level to the event. You know, some events don't want the loud in your face, rah, rah, cheerleader type of greeting. They just want to be warmly greeted. And feel like, Hey, they belong. And there's people there helping them make connections as quickly as possible. So that first impression all the way from the door to getting their name badge and their materials to getting seated in their first session. And however long that takes, and that could be minutes. That could be hours, depending on what you have built in place. All of that is super important because you are. You are creating a first impression and we all know that first impressions are hard to overcome if it's negative. But if it's positive, it builds up all kinds of goodwill for, if something does go wrong later, and let me just put the record straight. Something will go wrong. There is no such thing as a perfect event. Every event has something that didn't go according to plan. It's just a matter of when it's going to happen. And I'm not trying to be a fatalist. Cause I think you have plans for everything and you try to make it as good as possible, but you need backup plans because a battery is going to go out in a microphone. A light's going to go out a, you know, the air conditioner doesn't work. You know, I can tell you a hundred things that we've seen happen over the years that could go wrong. And you've just got to have plans and somebody who has the plan of what they're going to do. And if something goes wrong for a customer, you know, this is, this is like the big application of your customer journey. So walk through the customer journey, each of the steps while they're especially at the building and ask yourself what could go wrong at this moment and then ask, how could we solve that? What's our standard solution that we're going to do for everybody that this happens for somebody lost their name badge. Okay. What's our standard process now when possible, what is your above and beyond strategy? What are we going to do when we can, where we can apply the principle of do for one, what you wish you could do for everyone. Those are things that have by nature are above and beyond if you did it for everyone and then it's standard. But if you can do it for some people and you've created a story of wow, they made me feel special. And those stories get told and that makes someone feel even more invested. Like, Hey, this is my event. I actually saw that happen. Louise, this year, a guy has been coming to the conference for years and years. And he's, he's vocal about his opinions of what he loves and what he doesn't love. But in one situation, he stepped in and confronted someone who is doing something that he didn't think was on brand for our event. And he went up to them and said, Hey, I'm part of this event and I don't like what you're doing. And one of our staff heard and said, you're not part of this event. What do you mean? And they didn't say it to him, but we were reflecting on it after the fact and said, you know what? Even though he didn't do it the way we would have wanted. I love that he felt that level of ownership that he was willing to speak up for the brand.

Louise McDonnell:

Yeah, I think, I think it's, it's back to the basics of marketing that people don't remember, probably won't remember what you said or what they saw, but they'll always remember how they felt, you know, and that's, that's the emotions. It's always the emotions that will, that's what they'll remember. And they mightn't even remember if they're disappointed. They mightn't even remember why in the end, but it was just remember the feeling. So yeah, I, I love that. I love that working through the event, but in terms of the customer journey and the customer experience. Are we over COVID Phil?

Phil Mershon:

I think we're over COVID in the sense of extreme measures. Now there may be parts of the world that that's not true. But I know in the United States, they've lifted all the restrictions. You still see people wearing masks. I was at the physical therapist this morning and there was a person who felt more comfortable having a mask. And so her therapist was wearing a mask, but nobody else in the room was. And then when you're traveling on airplanes, you're more likely to see some people wearing them, but it's a small percent, so we're over it in the sense of the extreme measures that we were having to take over the last three years. To protect people. Events have gotten better because of it. Venues have had to change their air filtration systems. They've got better processes for keeping things clean. There's, you know, hand sanitizers all over the building. They've changed the way they do water dispensing because they don't want people touching, water faucets with their mouth or whatever. So they want to limit germ transfer. Like, there's a lot of things that have benefited us. And I think the event industry is different because of COVID. So attendance is not the same as it used to be. It's down anywhere from 20 to 40%, depending on what industry and where you look. But that doesn't mean people aren't going to events at the same level. In fact, I've seen stats that say they're going to events more than they were pre pandemic. But what they're doing is they're going to smaller events. At the same level that they were pre pandemic, they're going to smaller events because they realize, yeah, I can connect. And that's good news for all of the coaches in your audience, because most coaches are probably trying to do events for 50 or a hundred people, not for thousands of people. So people do enjoy the intimacy of that, the ability to get to know everyone. I was talking to friends earlier this week who have an event and they used to do 250, 300 people. And they said, you know what? We are scaling it back. We're limiting it to a hundred people because we feel like that's the number of people we can serve well and get to know. And that follows a principle. I'm forgetting the name of it. There's, I think it's called the dumb bar theory or dumb bar something. That says 140 people is the maximum number of people that we can get to know. And beyond that, you need multiple people in charge and the dynamics change. Now, 140 is just is an average, it could be 120, it could be 150, but somewhere in that realm, there is a number where things change sociologically. And so large events, we have to think about, well, how do we break it down so that people can be in smaller spaces where they can find the people that they want to connect with? And that that's actually a whole principle that I would tell you when you're designing your events is if people are coming to your event, they're coming, not just because of what you're going to teach them. Because they probably could find what you're going to teach them online somewhere. There are videos and podcasts, like the one we're doing right here, where you can learn just about everything. But there are things that you can do when you're in person that are only possible in person. And those mostly are about relationships. It could be the relationship with the speaker of, you can ask questions and we can go deep into stuff in person that probably won't happen online. Because maybe I don't feel comfortable answering a question in an online forum. Or maybe I can't get the nuance of your question as easily. We're having a drink, more, more relaxed stories come out that, you know, we weren't thinking about because in presentation mode, you've got your stories kind of all lined up. And people are coming to in person events because they want to make Connections with peers, they want to find people like themselves. They want to find people who can mentor them or they can mentor. Yes, people are also coming to events because of lead generation opportunities to find new business. And that's the increasing revenue and all those kinds of things that are important depending on the type of event. But if we have this illusion that people are coming to the event, just for the learning I think we're wrong and I think we've got to rethink it. And I think the way they want to learn is more relational to like, no, and wants to just sit for eight hours a day and absorb passively. I want to engage with the material and have conversations and know what others are doing with these ideas and giving them space for that, I think is super important. So the way you plan your event needs to have that in account.

Louise McDonnell:

And so pre post COVID people are looking for maybe smaller events, but is there a difference in the way that people when they attend events, are they different because of COVID or is it just something that's in our past and it's like it never happened?

Phil Mershon:

I think in some ways, the jury is still out. You know, have we have we really changed? It takes time to see. Have we just defaulted back to the way we used to do things? I see event planners complaining frequently about certain behaviors that. You know, we thought we fixed we'll see. I don't, I don't think we're far enough beyond it to be able to answer that with intelligence. But you know, you're gonna have a generation of people coming up who don't really know any different and there is a default. That happens. Like if you go through school to get certified as a meeting planner, CMP is what the certification is called. There's certain curriculums that have been part of that for a long time. And have they been refreshed? I doubt it. Maybe there's like a layer of COVID stuff that's in there, but it has the fundamental paradigm shifted. I don't think so. You know, the default for most events is you do long form content. And I, I see a lot of events trying to do short form content, and I don't think that's either good or bad. I think there's value in both. I think really good presenters can create very compelling, engaging sessions that go 30, 45, even 60 minutes. They just have to be thoughtful about how they structure it. They can't just talk though for 60 minutes. People are not going to put up with that.

Louise McDonnell:

And so you started off your career as a programmer.

Phil Mershon:

For one year. Oh,

Louise McDonnell:

just for one year.

Phil Mershon:

Yeah. That didn't last long. I was good at it, but I didn't enjoy it.

Louise McDonnell:

You obviously have an understanding of technology, maybe at a different level than other people. What are the latest trends and innovations that you see coming now and in the future for event planning?

Phil Mershon:

Yeah, that's an interesting question. Obviously AI is the topic at du jour, so to speak. And it's affecting event technology too. People are using it for. Planning agendas you know, writing messaging, which you would expect them to do. So that's more marketing kinds of stuff. But yeah, there's a lot of creative ways that AI can help. Like I, I use AI. for some of my, my planning when I'm trying to plan parties or events and say, give me ideas on how to do this, or tell me what the common problems are. I actually heard a brilliant example this morning, listening to a podcast that Mike Stelzner did with Andy Crestodina, which would be worth you linking to if you link to other podcasts. But Andy was talking about the way that he scripts a persona for AI, before he ever asked AI to do something, he describes the industry, the business they're in, what their job looks like. And then he asks AI to tell him, tell me about your common pains and problems that you're having. And I will spit back some information is, you know, write a persona for me of a person who is in this industry who has this job type working for this type of company has this kind of experience. Tell me about them and he'll work with to get that dialed in. And then he'll say. Whatever his prompt is, you know, give me five things that this person would find offensive or, you know, things is controversial, so he's looking for content ideas in that case. if you get that dialed in to your persona, your avatar and let AI help you get to what are those pains and problems and frustrations and desires, the things that we as marketers need to understand, then you can say, okay, give me some ideas of how to address that. Like, you know, what are some content ideas? What are some experiences that I can create and use it as a brainstorming starter? Like I love brainstorming, but AI is super good at it. If you set it up in the right way. And so I think to your point, what are trends we're going to see? I think AI is going to be helping us with things. I think you're going to see people who are lazy in their use of AI and they rely on it too much, and I think you're going to see people who use it smart. I think another application that I hope we see more and more is AI can be very helpful if we can do this in an ethical way, where we can use technology to use the information that people are making publicly available, like through LinkedIn or something to help them make better connections, because you've been to our conference where there's a couple thousand people there. That's great. Everyone's excited to see each other, but there's probably only a handful of people that you really needed to meet. What if AI could say, you know what, please, you need to meet Phil, Joe, Sally, and Sarah. And here's who they are, and here's why I think you should meet them. And now all of a sudden, you've got a short list of people that you're like, that actually does look interesting. Or you could say, you know what, give me some more ideas, because I'm actually looking for people like this. I think AI would be extremely helpful and stuff like that can be helpful with, you know, I think registration technology will keep improving. You know, it's interesting. One of the trends since COVID, COVID caused an uprising, a presence around word or arising up, have a lot of technologies that were created for. For virtual events and just the event industry in general, tons of money was spent you know, on the markets and off the markets and creating companies. Recently, there's been a lot of those companies that are selling off. And going out of business or being bought up by other businesses, people are divesting of certain things because they're just not being used at the same level that they were to two years ago. And so that's true with some of the innovation in technology that makes events better. And I think you will constantly see people trying because people are trying to make businesses, but. My guess is your audience, and this may be a wrong assumption, but if you're a coach, you're a consultant, you're likely creating smaller events, maybe a couple hundred at the most. And so technology isn't the most important thing for small events, it's human connection and planning and having the right people. And so that's like, maybe I know we don't want to get too long here today, but one of my last tips will be hire and recruit the right people to be on your team who have the right skills. You probably can't do it alone. So you need people with you that have the right ethos, people who are really good at connecting and seeing opportunities when they're talking to people are really empathic in the way they approach. Yes, you need people who are operationally and detailed minded on the team to like, if you just have connectors but they're not very detail oriented, then that's not going to go well. I talk about it as the art and science. That's, you know, the name of my book is unforgettable, the art and science of creating memorable experiences. And that you've got to look at both sides. You got to be artistic and looking at music and looking at relationships and making people feel stuff. But you've also got to look at the science to make sure all the details that psychological safety that we talked about is because people have paid attention to all the details. And they've got plans for plans and backups to those plans for plans, right? You need both of those kinds of people on your team in the right numbers. So I think staffing and training of your staff whether they're paid or volunteers, you know, can very much depend on your community. That is an essential part that I don't think every event gets that one right.

Louise McDonnell:

Yeah. And you know, I think sometimes if you've been running the same event over and over for years and years, sometimes just a fresh perspective, a fresh person on the team can see, you know, something in a, in a totally different light. I must say anyone listening in feel free to tag us if you've got, if you've got a comment or you want to share some examples or anything at all, feel free to tag myself and Phil. you'll find us both on all the socials. Phil, how can people find out more about you? You mentioned your book.

Phil Mershon:

Yeah, so I've got a book, I'll show it to you here because it's very recognizable if you see it, it's called unforgettable, the art and science of creating memorable experiences and this little elephant, his name is Remembrant. And if you end up buying the book, you can reach out and I'll, I'll send you the story about who he is and how he got that name. It's kind of fun. So you can buy the book wherever you buy books online. If you're in the United States, you can also buy it through my website at film or merson.Com. And you'll be able to get it there as far as connecting with me, LinkedIn is maybe the best. I'm also on Facebook and Instagram and Twitter, but LinkedIn is probably the best one. I'm phil.merson. Don't confuse me with the filmer, Sean, because that's another guy that we're another musician who's in digital marketing, which is kind of crazy, but that's not me. And then if you need to email me, phil@philmerson.com

Louise McDonnell:

fantastic. Phil, you're going to finish with a little treat for us.

Phil Mershon:

Yeah. So here's what we're going to do. I'm going to get my horn out and I'm going to ask you to think about a question. I want you to give me three words, Louise, that are emotional that are going to be takeaways for you from this conversation that we've had here today. What are your three words?

Louise McDonnell:

My three words from this conversation are enlightened, excited, and grateful.

Phil Mershon:

And grateful. Okay. All right. Those are all like uplifting, right. Kind of words. All right. So enlightened in the sense of new knowledge inspired. Okay. Excited because this feels like you can do it.

Louise McDonnell:

And I'm also excited to share with people who will really appreciate the knowledge.

Phil Mershon:

Okay. Excellent. And then grateful for

Louise McDonnell:

grateful for your time and your expertise.

Phil Mershon:

Cool. So here's what we're going to do. I'm going to create for you a one of a kind song that is based on this and it will have a little bit of my own experience baked into it as well. I'm, I'm a little bit shy to ask this question, but do you have a favorite style of music?

Louise McDonnell:

Oh, do I have a favorite style of music? Let me think. I like popular music. Yeah. I like popular music.

Phil Mershon:

All right. Then I'm not going to feel restrained. Have a penny whistle, an Irish whistle that I almost pulled out because you're from Ireland, but it's actually not out it's in my case. So I won't do that. So here we go. This is going to be an enlightened, excited, grateful song.

Louise McDonnell:

Oh, ode to Louise.

Phil Mershon:

Perfect. Ode to Louise.

Louise McDonnell:

Perfect. Thank you so much, Phil Merson, sean does not, does not just talk about memorable experiences. He delivers them and he delights and it will be memorable. Thank you so much.

Phil Mershon:

You are welcome. Thank you for having me.

Louise McDonnell:

You're welcome. Mind yourself.