We Disrupt(HR) This Regularly Scheduled Program

We Disrupt(HR) this program for a very important message.

In this episoide of Grossly Competent, hosts Steve and Patrick get back into the groove of things by doing what they do best: fumbling over intros and talking Aruba. But after that, good listener, the boys (scuba) dive into discussing the recent DisruptHR event that took place in Milwaukee, WI. Patrick discusses his perspective of the event being an audience member while Steve offers a glimpse into being a public speaker, how it feels knowing you are going to say something that 250 people aren't going to like, and reveals some behind-the-scenes info you won't want to miss!

Interested in DisruptHR and want to learn more? Here are some helpful links:

• DisruptHR website
• The DisruptHR-Milwaukee Lineup
• A Sight for Sore Eyes

Go check out some of our favorite speakers of the night:

• Jen Marr
• Dr. Thekla B. Ross
• Dana Echert
• Maria Nicholas-Groves
• Kylene Zenk

And, of course, Aruba-related goods:

• An honest glimpse into Aruba
• The Antilla Wreck

Come for the chat, stay for the laughs, and run from our faces: we're Grossly Competent!

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• Give a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or anywhere you get your podcasts,
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We appreciate you for listening!

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Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:29

Hello and welcome to Grossly Competent, the Learning Development, an adulting podcast that doesn't claim to be pretty. My goodness, no, but we will happily pretend to be slightly competent. I am your host, Steve Council. Oh my. Can't even say my own name. Wow. Wow, that's the way this is starting, huh?

SPEAKER_00 0:48

That is so hard.

SPEAKER_03 0:54

I'm Steve Counsel. Jeez. You know what?

SPEAKER_00 1:00

We're a little rusty. It's been a while. Let's give us that. Let's give us that.

SPEAKER_03 1:04

Normally I would introduce Mr. Patrick by making fun of him. Not going to, because I just what I have is he's a man whose good looks were lost at sea, but apparently my ability to enunciate. My ability to enunciate was lost at sea. So, Mr. Patrick Ailshire, how is it going?

SPEAKER_00 1:27

It's good to good to hear from you, Steve. Good to see you. Uh I I like that at least your attempt of a first contribution in every episode is a roast. It does set the bar really low for everything else that follows.

SPEAKER_03 1:44

You're right about the attempt part. A thousand percent. Sometimes I feel like, ah, got him. But then other times I'm like, ugh, that was kind of like a limp noodle. So oh well.

SPEAKER_00 1:56

You know, I am not gonna try to combine Stephen Cornelius, Dr. Ste Dr. Cornelius, Dr. Council ever again, because the last time I tried that, it was just a whole smorgasbord of crap coming out of my mouth.

SPEAKER_03 2:15

You know, to make matters worse, I was just saying my name. You know, like something that people ask you when they think you're disoriented. Like that's that's how fundamental your brain and its working functions your name is. That I screwed up. So anyway, well, that's nice. Um, folks, we have tons of really cool things we want to talk about this week, and I'm really looking forward to this discussion. But Mr. Patrick, I imagine our listeners out there want to know who is our wonderful sponsor of the week.

SPEAKER_00 3:01

Today's episode is brought to you by rehearsing conversations that will never happen. You nailed the delivery, but the situation does not exist. Rehearsing conversations, confidence in a vacuum.

SPEAKER_03 3:17

Nice. Wow, thanks, big rehearsing conversations that will never happen. Um, you know, that reminds me of a class that I had in college, and it was uh uh psych uh what the heck was it? Like psychology of communications or something like that. It was a really kind of like a bizarre name, but what you're referencing is an actual phenomenon called imagined interactions.

SPEAKER_00 3:46

Really?

SPEAKER_03 3:47

Yep. Yeah, there was an entire book that we had to read on it, and it was like super technical. Um, yeah, it's your brain's way of trying to per like trying to suss out a perceived threat by accommodating different like attacks. Yeah, it's really wild. I'm like, oh, yeah, I don't know. And that was a class I actually did decent in. So I remember it.

SPEAKER_00 4:12

I feel like now I'm sure that I still live by with the sponsor fairly often, but like I feel like my high school and college age, like I was like living this sponsor up. Things I wanted to say to someone, or whatever. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 4:32

Yeah, uh, we all lived or uh or maybe some of us currently do, um, but I agree, those formative years. Absolutely, yeah, big time. No, that's uh well, thank you for bringing that sponsor to us. Uh, your check is in the mail, uh, rehearsing conversations. We appreciate you. Well, man, uh, welcome back into the States, good sir. You uh you were a little jet setter there for a bit, weren't you?

SPEAKER_00 5:02

Yeah, it was uh last week. Uh took a little trip down to Aruba, Jamaica. Ooh, I want to take you um to Aruba. We had I had to I had to say that because I don't know if we talked about on the previous I think it was on the previous podcast episode when you hear Aruba, everyone thinks of Beach Boys.

SPEAKER_03 5:25

Yeah, even our lovely guest last week, uh Sarah Valentine, even she agreed. She goes, Oh yeah, I was singing it in my head.

SPEAKER_01 5:34

Like, yep.

SPEAKER_03 5:35

Yep. So how did it all go? Yeah. It was great.

SPEAKER_00 5:39

It was a uh it was a quick weekend. It was there, uh, it was four days, three nights. Okay. Uh it was two full days. So we had we flew out on a Thursday out of Chicago. You had Friday, all day Friday, all day Saturday, and then it's basically coming back on on Sunday afternoon. Nice. Um gorgeous island. Uh, really incredible. And the thing was, when I was looking into going down to Aruba, I just kind of had an idea in my head that it was part of uh like the Bahamas area or the keys, kind of in that, you know.

SPEAKER_03 6:14

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00 6:14

That uh collection of all those islands, and it's not, it is very far south, it's about 20 miles uh north of Venezuela.

SPEAKER_03 6:24

I guess I didn't realize it's that far south.

SPEAKER_00 6:28

Yeah. Wow. Oh and it the nice thing is like, and kind of just looking some of this stuff up, too, is that they are so far south, so they're out of Hurricane Alley. Like they don't their weather year round, I think it's like at least one of the sources I looked at, the average temperature year round, 84 to 88. Like sunny skies. Oh my god. Amazing. Yeah. So it's incredible. Yeah, really small island. Um, obviously the hospitality was great. I mean, I don't know if it was part of just that they that you're tourists, they want you to come spend money, but they were everyone we interacted with on that was from the island, or either had been born there or had been there for decades, were just very accommodating, super friendly, you know, that's all you answer any questions you had. Um, so yeah, weather was great. Uh we had stayed at the all-inclusive resort, the beach was right there, swim up bar, all that good stuff at the in the pool. Yeah. Um we did a little snorkeling as well, which was so fun.

SPEAKER_03 7:31

Cool, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:32

One of the stops, uh, you jump on this catamaran, there's like 25 people. It was a kind of a brunch, a brunch cruise, so they they gave you some little things to um munch on, some little breakfast wraps and stuff like that. Yeah. And then uh they were serving drinks as well. And so I was able to have a couple mocktails, which was cool.

SPEAKER_03 7:52

So they that's very cool, man.

SPEAKER_00 7:54

Yeah, so that was that was neat, and you're you know, just out in the sun there. Yeah. We were able to uh one of the sites uh in the with the snorkeling was at a shipwreck.

SPEAKER_01 8:05

Oh wow!

SPEAKER_00 8:07

Yeah, so this was the largest ship that I guess this is what from what I recall, the largest ship that sank in World War II was right off the coast of Aruba. And it was called the Antilla, and this thing was dude, this thing was massive. I mean, you could it it it sank in shallow water, so you could actually like when you're snorkeling, yeah. I'm sorry, uh yeah, when you're snorkeling, you could actually just see it. Like if I had had uh scuba gear on, or if I could I could have figured out how to like plug my nose, ears, whatever to go down like 10 yeah, so like you could sit through it. But I did like five feet down and I was my ears were like popping. I'm like, okay, I'm not gonna I don't know how to throw this right now.

SPEAKER_03 8:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:49

But it was like you're it was so awesome just to I mean see how big this thing was. And then um at another location, we ended up you saw some tropical fish, but then also there was some sea turtles and oh man, those things are just amazing, like yeah, just incredible how their lifespan and then also how big they are, and just like fun to look at.

SPEAKER_03 9:11

So that's super cool. So when you I'm wildly curious, you say shallow waters, like this this gigantic ship sank in shallow waters. How shallow are we talking?

SPEAKER_00 9:23

Well, that's a good question. I don't have an exact even like an estimate. I'm just thinking because the ship was so big, so like I mean, literally, like uh it was I don't know how much how many feet uh they said it was like 400 feet and I don't know how long long or length or width or whatever, but this thing was I mean, thing was massive. But it was where like again I could probably go down like if I would have gone down I'd say like 15 feet maybe I would have been able to like swim right by the ship 15-20 feet, we'll say.

SPEAKER_03 9:53

Yeah, that is pretty shallow. Wow, yeah. I just that's so fascinating. That's so crazy. Wow, that's super awesome, man. Yeah. Um now the catamaran that you were on, um, did they put you in like the cargo hold for the entire time? Or were you allowed to mingle and scare with the other guests?

SPEAKER_00 10:16

Oh, I had uh I had to wear a mask for sure. It was actually it was it was it was a they gave me a paper bag at first, but it got wet. So they uh they did give upgrade me to um a plastic bag, which was weather proof.

SPEAKER_03 10:33

Just a hard time breathing in it though.

SPEAKER_00 10:35

Yeah, exactly. But it was fine. They let me take off my mask when I went in the water, but like the salt got in my eye, you know, my salt on my mask, and so it burned for a while, but that's nice. I was more concerned about getting through customs with my passport because my passport doesn't always look like my face, and so oh, oh so dumb.

SPEAKER_03 11:06

I don't know, that just tickled my funny moat. Oh my god, oh my god. Oh, but that seriously, it sounds awesome, man. Like it's a good thing.

SPEAKER_00 11:16

The idea of like, you know, I think you and I are probably the same where we we might take a trip um, you know, once a year, maybe once or twice, whatever. You have your you have your local places you go to maybe a little more frequently, but just the idea of travel itself. Like when I was there, it was I was like, oh my god, I would love to have like a vacation rental here. This would be awesome, you know. Yeah. And think about like I could live here, and then like you get home, you're like, okay, I wouldn't want to live there. But like, you know, it's just I don't know, it's fun to get away and learn about you know, you when you were down in Gulf Shores, like just a cool experience. You got to live with your family, and just it's fun to get away, but also too, it's also nice to kind of get back. Like, I was only in a robot for three for three nights. I probably could have done like just because it was it's traveling sucks, especially if you're going a far away, you know. If I go to I tell people this all the time, if I go like domestically, if I go, I'm a big city guy, so if I go to like New York or Boston or wherever, I'm good like three nights, and like, okay, I get the gist of it, I want to come home. Yeah, but when you're going somewhere a little bit further away, like I probably could have done another day of just like hanging out on the beach or what being, you know, doing whatever. Yeah. But then I then I would have been ready to like, okay, let's get back to reality here. Yeah, you know, just get back to your your day-to-day stuff.

SPEAKER_03 12:30

Um, I I'm completely with you on that. That yeah, that they're that's why they're vacation spots, right? Like, it's nice to visit, and I I would assume that a place like Aruba to live there would be absolutely gorgeous. Like, if somebody was to offer me real estate there with a house and be like, here you go, yeah, I'm not gonna be like, it's a nice place to visit, guys. Like, yeah, I would do that, but you're right. I I there is a a beauty to coming back to your normal and and just kind of going, okay, uh, that was fun. That was a nice little um not even just a vacation, but a break from reality. Yeah, and especially I feel like you kind of touched on earlier when you were talking about that's all inclusive. Like it is such a distortion of real life because you can't just walk up, yeah. You can't just like walk up to places. I mean, some people can, but I have a feeling those less than one percenters aren't exactly our target audience, like they're not listening to us. But I think the average person that is listening to us can agree that we don't exactly have just on-site chefs or I'm thirsty, I'm gonna go grab something to drink from. So, like that doesn't happen. So it is nice to kind of get that reality check of okay, I'm I'm back to my normal. So yeah, that's that's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 14:03

The one thing I wanted I wanted to point out too before we uh get into our topic today is just like again, we're when you're going to these places, I mentioned how far south it is, but like I had to like I didn't even think about it until I was actually on this catamaran. There was a couple next to us from Michigan, go figure. Oh my god. You go across the world and you're swearing it's like Midwest. Oh I know, I know. It was great. So talking at talking to one of the guys, and he was uh he's uh quite a traveler, but he was saying he's like, Yeah, we're actually kind we're this is technically part of South America. And I was like, ooh, I checked, I checked off a continent, another continent off my off my list. Because you're it's part of like the Dutch Republic, so there's like a island of like the with the through the Netherlands, there's like I think like St. Martin, and then there's a couple others that are in that kind of Caribbean area that are part were part of like Dutch history.

SPEAKER_03 14:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:56

But so it's like, okay, cool. It kind of neat to think about like, oh yeah, you're who owns this. You know, it's like when you go to like Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico's not attached to the US, but it is part of the United States. So just really interesting on you know, kind of learn about some of that history and yeah, all that.

SPEAKER_03 15:14

So you know, I I blame uh you when you said it's only like 20 miles away from Venezuela, like I'm thinking in my head, like looking at maps, and it doesn't feel like that, right? Like, and it's kind of funny how like maps that we have kind of distort really the size of specific like land masses and areas. Um, and you'll look at things like, oh, that oh, that's really where that is. Fascinating. I don't know. Um, I probably should do more like uh what is it, Google maps like where you can see like the satellite of the globe. Maybe that would be better because it actually uses I don't know, like real data um compared to like a handwritten one or something, but I don't know. It's just kind of fascinating to see that stuff. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 16:01

Well, if you want to see how far things are, you can just go in and like do the uh walking directions. Oh, yeah. Yeah, you remember this, Steve, when Google, I don't know if it was Google Maps or it might have been MapQuest. I think I know where you're going with this, but yeah, I want to hear when you would try to go from like I want directions from Milwaukee to like Paris, it would tell you to fly to wherever out East Coast, right? And then swim across.

SPEAKER_03 16:29

Yep. Yep. Like Yep, I remember that. Yeah. And I I don't know if I am making this up or if like there's like a memory that's been unlocked. I swear somebody sued. Like somebody sued like MapQuest or something like that because they tried they yeah, they like I don't think it was to the extreme of like trying to like go across the ocean, but it was something dumb like um map quest, and I swear it was map quest. I don't think it was Google, it was something along the lines of like kind of the joke of the office, like turn left here, and like they drive into the water, like that, and someone's like that wasn't correct. Like, yeah, dude, it's it's not infallible. Like, come on, really.

SPEAKER_00 17:20

Who wouldn't have directed us the wrong way would have been Jeeves.

SPEAKER_03 17:23

He would not have Jeeves our our bro. No, Jeeves would never do such a thing like that. Jeeves always has our back.

SPEAKER_00 17:32

Jeeves would be like, you don't want to go there. Nah, you don't you don't want to go there. Stay here.

SPEAKER_03 17:37

I don't know. I'm gonna have to see if I can find, or maybe that's just a false memory. I don't know. But I swear, I swear, but I do remember what you're saying about like, yeah, get out, start, start swimming. Like, no. Well, thank you for the the Aruba update. I was genuinely curious about that, man. Um you know what though? No buckies in Aruba. Well, I mean, they all they can do is go up, right? Like when you're at the bottom, you can only go up. I have a feeling Buckeys might take up a lot of space in Aruba, and I uh it might might ruin some of the allure. Yeah, just a little bit. Uh well, folks, it's been a crazy week. Um, normally Mr. Patrick and I only see each other via whatever our kind of video zoom thing that we have going on here, but I actually got to see Mr. Patrick in the flesh. And uh it was gross. It was gross. Uh no, um, for some of you that have been listening to the last several episodes, um, we've been hinting at and kind of talking a little bit about this event that I was very fortunate to be a part of called Disrupt HR. Um, and it was hosted recently in Milwaukee on the 29th of April. And Mr. Patrick was one of my plus ones.

SPEAKER_01 19:15

Wink.

SPEAKER_03 19:16

So thank you for being that. I really appreciate it. But um, I don't know. I I guess I just thought it would be kind of a fun thing to talk about that event because all we ever really said was, I'm doing a presentation for it, and then that's it. And quite frankly, I didn't really know what to expect because I've never been to one of these. It's a completely different genre of conference that I've I've never experienced before. Um, so I thought it would be kind of fun to just kind of talk a little bit about that. Um maybe uh get into some of the the behind the scenes that they don't want you to know about, you know, that kind of stuff, but like just to and give some serious shout-outs to the people that made this happen and the awesome people I was able to share that stage with. I I don't know. I mean, that's that's kind of my thoughts. What does that does that coincide with what you're thinking, my man?

SPEAKER_00 20:09

Yes, I think it would be great to do a little rehash, recap on the event. I as a um as someone who attended and got to kind of s see all that, I thought it was really exciting. You're you're gonna be able to share some of the behind the scenes stuff, which is cool. Um then I can also kind of talk about what I what I thought, you know, and uh sitting by sitting back and you know watching and waiting for uh even Mr. Council to take the stage. It was uh it was just a cool event, and we'll we'll talk about you know the people that were there and just seeing some both you and I saw some being in the HR space, we saw some of these connections from from things from lives past. And it was really neat to like have those little uh check-in conversations and yeah, I agree.

SPEAKER_03 21:00

Um, I I was able to meet a ton of people, whether that was with you, Patrick, or some of the other fine folks that were at our table, or just people coming up and just introducing themselves, like hey, I'm so-and-so. Like it was a really, really nice event, and um the venue is beautiful. Um, folks, if you are ever in the southeast Wisconsin, Milwaukee area, um, the specific venue was called the Gauge, and it's located in West Allis, Wisconsin. Um really a gorgeous, kind of rustic, like it had kind of had that uh like cream city brick vibe to it. Um, but a really just a wonderful place. Apparently they host a lot of weddings um at this specific place. Uh, but it was just absolutely beautiful, a a gorgeous place and a lot of fun. I will also Yeah. That's a good call. Great layout is right. Like there was it was uh they had an upstairs that was dedicated exclusively to um like behind the scenes work, your your audio, sound text, and then us speaker nerds, uh we had the opportunity to go up there and either rehearse or just put our put our jackets and our bags or whatever we felt like up there um just for a little bit of privacy. So if we wanted to rehearse a little bit, it wasn't in front of everybody or like in the bathroom or something kind of odd. So there that was really, really cool. Um, I will also just as a quick aside mention that Patrick, you were one of my plus ones. I was fortunate enough to bring the missus. So she for the this is folks, you have to realize my wife and I have been together, not Mary, just been together for 22 years. Okay, so it's been a little bit of time, and this is the first time she's ever seen me speak in public like this.

SPEAKER_00 23:12

That's amazing. I didn't know that.

SPEAKER_03 23:15

Like, seriously, never. She knows I do it. She like I've done conferences and all these other kinds of things. This was a very unique style of conference, and this I'll admit, I think this is the one I was the most nervous for. Like normally I don't get that way, but this one I was definitely nervous. But and of course, this is the one that she gets to witness. Like, oh, cool.

SPEAKER_00 23:38

So it's it's the first one. This is a little throwback for you. This is the first time she saw you. Saw you really digging deep there.

SPEAKER_03 23:56

I'm thinking, are you gonna make a joke about how she doesn't listen to our stuff? Um God, yeah. Saw. Uh, folks, uh, real quick. The first date I ever took uh my now wife on uh was to go see the movie Saw. So if you ever for a minute think you make a terrible choice, just know it could be worse.

SPEAKER_00 24:27

You could be me. Did you also happen to have another plus one that maybe others might recognize?

SPEAKER_03 24:37

So she actually was not one of my plus ones. She was somebody else's plus one.

SPEAKER_00 24:44

Oh, well, someone that sat at our table. People might recognize no.

SPEAKER_03 24:48

I I'm joking. I'm I'm I'm being very pedantic, but um so uh you may recognize uh from one of our guests we had, Lynnelle Meath. She was also sitting at our table of how many people at our table, like eight, ten, yeah, I can't remember. Something like that. Yeah. Wonderful, wonderful group. She brought a friend of hers, and we also had one of the other speakers sitting at our table with a friend of hers, which uh I will bring up shortly uh because I like to poke how dumb I am. Um but let me I I want to just kind of give a quick little overview of like what what this whole event was about. And the entire concept is to bring forward ideas that not that they necessarily go against the grain, but they kind of instill new thought processes in a very structured format of HR. Like everybody has this idea of what HR is, but the workforce is constantly evolving. So the idea behind this is to get a series of speakers, in this case 12 individuals. We are given five minutes a piece with rotating slides every 15 seconds, and we don't control that. And when I say we, I'm talking speakers, so it is fast-paced, and it is boom, boom, boom, like you really have to make sure you're kind of hitting your marks in order to make sure that what you're saying aligns with whatever um slide you have kicking on in the background. Um, and I will make sure I mention this because I know some venues will give you a little clock, like they'll actually like show you a timer. Nope. Nope. We get to there's a little cheater screen that they have in front of you towards the ground that will show you which slide you're on, yeah, but that's it. Like, so you kind of have to do this mental gymnastics of like, okay, I know that once I get to this word, I should be at this slide, and when I get done with this sentence, it should be here, like so it's it's very different, it's extremely different format than I am used to, but it was I really think it was genuinely probably the most exhilarating because of that restriction. Now I'm curious, um, Patrick, because of being an audience member, and you get to kind of see everything from that outside perspective. I'm curious on your thoughts. Like, did you like that format? Did you is there something that you think should be improved on? Like, I genuinely am curious.

SPEAKER_00 27:38

So it was uh interesting. I like the format for the uniqueness. I think it was, and I I like the kind of the step out-of-the-box approach, like you mentioned. Again, it's not necessarily going against a grain, but it's something, a new perspective, a fresh perspective that others maybe had think about it.

SPEAKER_03 27:55

That's a great way to put it. Yeah, fresh perspective.

SPEAKER_00 27:58

And it doesn't necessarily mean it's something that you think has to happen. It just these are this is an idea, this is a thought that could possibly could possibly uh change at some point or a new approach to things. So I I like that aspect of it. Now, with this disrupt HR event, it was great. Not only were you provided the entry into the event, but you had a full spread of food. You also had the great yeah, great uh spot there. But also, and the reason I bring that part up is um, and then obviously there was a couple drink tokens, which were awesome, but then you were able to you were given some swag too. So it included a notebook uh to jot some notes down while the presenters were talking. And the reason I again bring that part up is I started that on the first couple, and then I realized I was as I was writing quickly, I'm like, oh, I'm kind of like it's so fast, 15 second points essentially, right? That I'm like, okay, I'm gonna I don't want to lose some of their overall message. So I stopped right, I wrote a few things down, I think for like three people. Sure. Um your time, I just ripped the paper out and crinkled it up and threw it because I figured that was gonna be completely useless. Um, which it was. No, I I I kid. Um it was uh but I I I the interesting part of it was cool because you were like getting idea, but also since it was such a short time, it was like, oh, this is a good thought, but like I want to learn more, but there wasn't any more because it was someone else's turn to go next.

SPEAKER_03 29:38

Yeah. So I think your take is really well put together. Like I agree with you. I can't remember who I was talking to after the fact. Um oh gosh, I'm so mad at myself. I can't remember, but somebody at the venue uh when my wife and I were kind of on our way out, um, they likened it to like watching a series of movie trailers. Oh and it like it was meant to draw you in more, like, oh yeah, I I kind of want to learn more about this specific subject. Um I'm like, oh, that's a fun way to look at it. Yeah, I guess so. Yeah. And really, as far as the time frame goes, I mean, a five-minute quick little blurb on a specific subject, is that really that much different than a two-minute trailer for a two to two and a half hour movie? Like, no, it's really not. Like, it is a great way to introduce a specific topic and kind of have that real world perspective to it. So, yeah, yeah, I I agree with you. And funny enough, on our way out, um, I was talking to a fellow um presenter. Um, oh gosh, it was let me think you're uh Maria Nicholas Groves. I I love that because I I was like, I just remembered the name because it's it's three names in one, right? Um I was talking to her and a friend of hers, and her friend's like, hey, I wrote down a lot of notes for yours, and great, she can read it. I could not, but I understand because she was trying to jot things down so fast. So, to your credit, Patrick. I'm like, Yeah, that makes sense, man. That's uh that's really cool though. I'm glad you got that out of it. That's really neat. Um huge group, too. I guess uh this has grown double in size from last year when they first started. So last year uh was the first disrupt HR Milwaukee event, and it had I think they clocked in at about 110, 120 audience members. This was over 250. So word got out, yeah. It sold out. You're right, it's sold out. Like you could not have fit another person, like I don't even know where you'd put another table.

SPEAKER_00 32:00

There was no room, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 32:02

Just yeah, it would have to be standing room only at that point, but then that's really tough. Uh, so what a what a cool thing. I mean, uh just that it's gaining this traction. People are starting to take notice of I don't want just the norm, I want something to challenge and assert a new idea. I thought that was really cool.

SPEAKER_00 32:26

Um the one thing I really thought was very impressive too, and Steve, you you are welcome to toot your own horn here. There was 12 presenters. There wasn't this wasn't 12 people that uh applied for this. There wasn't 14 people that applied.

SPEAKER_03 32:42

There was a do you have an off offhand off how many people yeah, so I I believe if uh my my information is correct, it was over 60. So yeah. I was really kind of floored by that one. I thought, wow, I didn't even bribe them. Yeah. I mean, so I have I've mentioned this on a previous episode where I have googled my name randomly, like just curious what pops up. And there are much smarter Steve councils out in the world, like one's a professor at uh oh god, I'm trying to think. Um he's a professor in the UK, I'm pretty positive. And there's another one that's like a um computer sciences guy. He lives in Colorado. I'm wondering if the folks at Disrupt HR were like, ooh, yeah, we gotta we gotta get this guy in. And then I show up there like well, that's the last time I let Google decide that for me. What the fuck are you doing? What are you doing? Gross, what? Um, and I will mention in my intro, I made sure Grossly Competent was in there. Patrick didn't believe me. I said, Yeah, you better believe I did. So when the MC, um, oh, I'm gonna butcher her last name, Katie Russell, uh, who I I love the name of her organization. See, she is the founder of Team Awesome Coaching, and she she exudes this awesomeness. She was just an absolute delight, like so energetic, a lot of fun, um, was able to crack jokes like in between the individual speakers, and it always like pertained to them. It did, I would never yeah, it was never um detrimental or hurtful. It was always like just a tongue-in-cheek jab that everybody could kind of get a little chuckle out of, or um like and one of the one of the presentations I definitely want to get into was The New Smoke Break Um by Tekla B. Ross. That was that was amazing. It was such a great one.

SPEAKER_00 35:04

That was one that resonated with me probably the most. It was actually I I went up and spoke with her briefly after at the end of the event, after I said uh uh goodbye to you and the misses, um, and just told her, and that that was it really resonated with me, um, which we can get to in in a little bit here. But yeah, we have just we appreciate and I'll bring it up then uh in a little bit, but we we previously talked about some of this stuff.

SPEAKER_03 35:28

Um two or three episodes ago, yeah, like really recently, yes, and you know what? I'm just gonna get into it. Are you cool if we just kind of start diving into some of these? Um so folks, uh I I will make sure that yeah. Oh, yeah, we're gonna definitely talk about that. Um, I'll make sure that I link uh like specific individuals that we talk about. I'm gonna also link all of the speakers. So if you want to take a look at you know their backgrounds and whatnot, I'd be happy to do that. Um, but there's there was 11 other speakers besides myself. We're just we don't have the time to get into every single one. So I'm gonna kind of cherry pick a little bit. Um so Tecla B. Ross, which by the way, I love that name. I love that name so much.

SPEAKER_00 36:17

Tecla, it's great.

SPEAKER_03 36:18

Tecla, what a sweet ass name. Anyway, so um her uh her section was the new smoke break, what's really killing your bottom line. And I I think if you just take a moment, you could probably figure out she is talking about your phone. Just the constant reminders, your email, the technology that we think as being this wonderful boon is often a detriment to our bottom line because there's a realignment issue, you take so much time to get back into focus. It's a really incredible thing. Um, now the thing I want to mention, and I Patrick, I I think you know where I'm gonna start with this. She did something to start that I was I was like, you you gotta be kidding me. Abs are you joking? So some of our longtime listeners out there will know my opinion on icebreakers. And I'm I'm cautiously on the fence. I think there is a time and a place. Yeah, and when Tecla began her section, her presentation, she said the words Alright, everyone stand up, and I could feel the hair on the back of my neck, all three of them just bristle. I was like, and I looked, and Patrick, who is sitting right, so it was I was sitting in a spot, my wife is to my left, and then Patrick, and Patrick just whips his head right towards me, and he has this giant smile, like, oh, what are you gonna do? What are you gonna do?

SPEAKER_00 37:59

And I'm like, God, this is I was my initial my initial reaction when that when she said those words, I was kind of annoyed, like Yeah, yeah, but I thought we were trying to waste some of the five minutes here.

SPEAKER_03 38:16

But you know what? It worked so well, it worked so and I made it a point. So folks out there are thinking, like, God, you're just like crappy on this woman. No, I made it a point after the fact um to to talk to her, and I flat out told her I was very honest, and I said, Tekla, got to admit, when you told everybody to stand up, every fiber of my being hated you. Like, every I'm like, oh my god, this is ridiculous. But it worked so well for what you were talking about, just that human interactive piece, it worked so well, it completely sold me on the entirety of your your presentation. So, like, kudos. You walked that fine line and you crushed it, and she was beyond kind, like just a wonderfully kind person. So, um, Tecla, you you were amazing.

SPEAKER_00 39:08

Not that I'm assuming you're listening, but if the off chance you are the the energy you were amazing that presentation, it was just so uplifting. And again, I for me, I was like for part of for almost that five minute whole five minutes, I had a little bit of a smug look on my face because I'm thinking here, like 250 people, maybe maybe, maybe let's say five people out of the 250 were like me who had been thinking about this topic for the last month or longer, right? I told I mentioned I read the book Stolen Focus, which kind of got me on in uh on the idea of like, okay, this is what these devices, how just crazy addictive they are now. And so all this, a lot of the stuff which she was sharing, which was she was um making it into the workplace, but also involves our whole lives. I was sitting there like, oh my god, yep, I've I've heard that stat, or ooh, that's a really good one too. I want to be able to share that. She had a lot of really good information, and the fact that she's writing a book about it is even uh co-authoring a book, and that's gonna be coming out in the next year or so. And yep, just just amazing. And so that yeah, that really resonated for sure.

SPEAKER_03 40:18

Yeah, I really, really enjoyed hers. Um, I I would be remiss if I did not mention the first out of the gate. Oh, the uh the presentation that was done by um Jenmar. And that was Own the Awkward, Why Human Disruption is the real leadership challenge. Um, folks, if you do not know who Jen Marr is, you owe it to yourself to just give take five minutes and just take a look at this this just incredible woman. She is she's a delight. Like I have the honor and privilege of saying that I I know her and I've I've been able to share coffee with her and just chat with her, and she is an incredible person, and I can't think of a better person to start things off at that uh event than her, and she nailed it, just crushed it. Um I I almost don't want to give away too much because in the the off chance that she does this again or I I don't want to spoil it, sure. Um, but I'll tell you, if you have the chance to see her, you really and you're in this space. Like if you're in like leadership, uh the human side of work, and you see Jen Mars on the docket, um, drop everything and go see her. She's incredible. I'm sorry, I interrupted you, man. Go ahead.

SPEAKER_00 41:50

I thought the yeah, I thought her intro was fantastic, just a little like it was and it all tied in together really well, but just the the uh the the prop, you know, was was perfect. Oh yeah. So we'll not that, but uh it was it was it was neat.

SPEAKER_03 42:04

Talk about subverting expectations, like and it's funny because everybody that I spoke to said the exact same thing, like, oh, I was expecting this, and it was just like a ha ha, just kidding, like it was and it just it it called to her playfulness too, that she's so comfortable in this arena that she can also poke a little fun at it as well, which I think really only comes with just having that confidence and that know-all of this is what I'm able to provide. It was it was really cool. Um before I because I feel like I've only just been naming the ones that I really like. Are there ones that jumped out to you that I haven't already mentioned? Um, just I don't know. I hate to put you on the spot, I'm just kind of curious.

SPEAKER_00 42:54

No, I um I'm just thinking back to some of the presenters. I mean, there were so again, the 12 all had really good points. Some stuck out a little bit more than others, just that's kind of natural.

SPEAKER_02 43:05

Oh, yeah, of course.

SPEAKER_00 43:06

I definitely want to give a shout out to you first. While I'm thinking of someone else, Steve, I want to say your presentation was just tremendous. I love that you you played off the audience knowing that it was gonna be a little controversial. Uh and I'll let you I'll let you kind of talk about since it was your presentation, I'll let you talk a little bit about what kind of the the idea from that. But I thought you played it really well. You had such so thinking of all the 12 presenters, I would say a lot of them were very, very polished. There was some you could you could tell a little bit like the timing was just a little bit off because it's it's tough. Not saying it's easy, like oh, I could go and do that. No, I would need I would need definitely time to practice. But the idea of that of slides changing every 15 seconds is that you are hitting a point and then you're using some of those seconds to transition to your next thought. Where there was a couple uh that were like kind of just waiting for the The screen to change. It's not easy. I'm not saying it's just like I oh I can't believe it. I just noticed there was a couple like oh yeah, you're kind of just waiting for things, and then it made like that five minutes actually seem a little bit longer.

SPEAKER_03 44:13

That's fascinating. Yeah, I can see that. Sure.

SPEAKER_00 44:16

And like kind of a little, and the best part is I was sitting next to your wife, right? And yeah, we were she was nervous for you because she's she felt confident, but also like I know I think you were probably a little bit nervous before. And then actually she said that to me, and then I was like, Well, now I'm nervous. So like it was like kind of funny. Like, I knew you were gonna do a great job, and it was like it was so awesome. Um another one I actually thought was was that stuck out was Allie Payne, who talked about Gen Z. Oh, the reason that stuck out to me is because I am like a Gen Z advocate in these trainings I do with my employer, because a lot of times there's not anyone in Gen Z to like defend themselves. And I'm like, wait a minute, and she used the phrase that I have before, and I thought it was awesome. Like, people complain about Gen Z, like, but those are your kids, you know. Like people are I love that you raise them, and I have you I love that, I love the phrasing of that. Yes, so that was another one that really stuck out to me.

SPEAKER_03 45:21

Um, yeah, so that one I I did really enjoy that. So Allie's, I was only able to catch about half of hers because um I went up after her, sure, and um, yeah, I was kind of just like, I don't know, for lack of a better term, in the zone, like just kind of like focusing more on like okay, I uh this is what I need to say, these are the things they do. But I do remember her saying that about these are your kids, and I I actually like audibly laughed out loud, like, yep, that was that's so well put.

SPEAKER_00 45:55

Um she took a good approach too, where it wasn't like some of this, like it's not our fault, right? It's just different generations are they're different for because of it's a 15-20 year gap, and people change and technology changes, and we change how we we look at the world, and so it's not a finger pointing thing, and that's what I when I talk about bridging the gap in the generational workforce, it's the same thing, it's not a finger pointing, it's how can we use our skills, our benefits to work together across this, and I will always get behind that logic, like that line of thinking is paramount because it's so easy just to point and be like, well, it's their fault, you know, they're lazy, or they don't want to talk on the phone.

SPEAKER_03 46:47

So what? Dude, so what? Like, just think come on. They fine, they don't want to speak on the phone, but they have a million other wonderful things they're they're doing beyond your measures. Like, come on anyway. Sorry, that's not what this is about. You can tell I you sucked me in.

SPEAKER_01 47:05

You you got me in there.

SPEAKER_03 47:07

Um, I gotta give a shout out to my fellow token male of the the roster. So a kind of a fun little Oh, right, right, yeah, I suppose. Kind of a fun little uh bit of the behind the scenes is uh before the presentations were about to start, there was murmurs that there was a speaker that was missing that like had not arrived yet. And we didn't we couldn't figure out who it was, because I mean, whatever, there's people everywhere. And they're like, okay, I tell you what, we're gonna have all the speakers go up into this loft area and we're gonna go over microphone etiquette, like making sure you you don't eat the thing, but you also you don't want to weigh down whatever, right? So we're most of the speakers are already up there by the time I I get there, and they're kind of standing in a little circle, and true to my form, I walk up and I say, Oh, is this where all the cool kids are at? Like, just whatever. And they do exactly what you did. It's kind of the ha kind of a laugh, whatever. And um, one of the presenters, and I can't remember to save my soul, one of the speakers goes, Oh, our token mail. And I look, and sure enough, I'm the only guy. And I went, I thought there was something different about my invite. Like, well, okay, fair enough. So, and I I don't care. Like, I I'm just happy to be a part of it. You kidding me? And I also know that HR is typically a woman-dominated industry, and that's I totally get it. Not worried about that. So we go over etiquette, great. Um, we're and wonderfully, they offered to uh take a picture of the entire speaker group. Um, so we there's a big old banner, we go downstairs, we're standing in front of it, and then this gentleman who like rushed in. You can kind of see some of the sweat in his brow, right? He's like trying to figure out where to like get into the group. I don't know who he is. I'm like, yeah, man, get on in here. Like, get wherever, stand wherever you want. I don't care, like random by person. No, he was uh he was the missing speaker. Uh his name is uh Marcos Mejia, and he I dude, I gotta give this guy mad props. His section was on how HR and finance partner for success. Simple as that, right? Um, but I made it a point after our picture and I found out who he was. I'm like, hey man, thanks for uh not making me be the uh the loan token. And he laughed, and he's like, you know, we gotta stick together, brother. Like he was a great guy. Um why I want to give him so much credit is he is a CFO, he's a chief financial officer talking to an audience of HR. And I don't think it's a secret that there is some animosity typically between HR and finance because finance holds the purse strings, which rightfully so it's their damn position. And HR wants all of these things for the employees where finance is like, whoa, hey, pump the brakes, money isn't growing trees, guys. Like, what are you doing? So there's this kind of battle. And he really walked into the lion's den on this one. And I what I liked about his is um he did a really nice job of keeping it light and poking fun at that kind of combative nature between these two departments. Um what I what I like, what I loved, but I also was like, oh god, is on one of he had like two or three slides successfully where he talked about myths about HR and finance. And the very first one that popped up was HR is an admin function, and the audience was like growing, like, oh like oh, I'm so sick of hearing that. Yeah, that was in my presentation is that HR is an admin function because sorry guys, I got I got news for you. It is okay, it is, it's an administrative function that that's it. That's that's all there is to it. Um, so I knew once the they reacted that way, I went, oh boy, this is gonna be rough. Oh man, and I was in my head trying to think like, okay, can I reformulate what I say on that specific slide? Um, but then I thought, no, I'm just gonna embrace the uncomfort and just call it out. Just well, it was jokingly just slam that out there.

SPEAKER_00 51:52

You went with HR sucks. I thought that was a really twitch.

SPEAKER_03 51:56

Yeah. So I I've mentioned this on a previous episode, um, but my section on uh for disrupt HR was um we need to talk. HR and L and D need a divorce. And really the crux of the whole thing was just it was tongue-in-cheek. It used the analogy of a divorce to show that when these two departments, these two entities split off, they can actually grow stronger and find out more about themselves than when they're conjoined together. Um, and I I use the divorce analogy to kind of show that like relationships start with really great intention, but something time will always kind of measure whether there's compatibility or not. And in this case, time has kind of shown that perhaps they're better off as two separate entities rather than one mixed up jumble of a department. And I I feel like a lot of the audience definitely caught that. Like they they kind of joked, like, oh, I that's so funny. Um, and I I I I joked about how um how marriages sometimes will stay for the kids, quote unquote. Um, and then shortly thereafter it said, and just to make sure my analogy sticks, uh, when I mention kids, I'm talking about employees. And HR and L and D, I think that's something we can all agree on. Like, which did actually catch a chuckle, which I was hoping would happen, quite frankly. Like, oh my gosh, please let this joke land. Like it would be kind of important if it doesn't. Um, but then I I finished off things by saying, like, look, I'm not blaming HR that LD hasn't thrived, um, but I've been friends with L and D a heck of a lot longer, so I am biased. Like, so just poking fun at it, but the slide that came up where I mentioned that HR is an admin function where L and D tends to lend itself more to strategy for the workforce. I was so nervous for that. I was like, oh, these people are gonna grab pitchforks, but you know what? Everybody was gracious about it, they they had some fun with it. Even afterwards, when I was talking to people, I I kind of joked and used the line from Rick and Morty, and that is uh um, I will take your booze because I've seen what makes you applaud. And uh just poking fun at it. And uh people were so gracious. My god, were they gracious? Just it was a it was a real breath of fresh air to kind of have that. It was just it was a fun, fun endeavor to do something totally out of my element, just completely out of it. Um, but yeah, well, I I'm gonna give you one more little background piece, and this will I think also add to my oh my god. So I didn't want to have a piece of paper like to like rehearse off of because I didn't want to the way I was uh practicing was not having something in my hands. What I would do is I would hold my phone because I had to be holding a microphone. Like I wanted to be as true to the experience as possible when I was practicing, so I didn't want paper in front of me like I'm reading over it or like using it as a cheat. And what I'm like kicking myself. So I saved the presentation, the Google slide, or I'm sorry, the PowerPoint into my Google Drive and my quote unquote script, like the things I knew I wanted to hit for every slide as its own separate piece in my Google Drive as well. Um and then I what I thought I did was I updated my script and replaced that. No, I no, I didn't. I had my old script, and I was like, oh no, well, I can't even look at this, like to even practice because it's wrong. It's totally I revamped it. I was like, oh shit, and I'm like, oh that's okay. I know what I want to say for each of the slides, so I'll just review the slides. My phone yells at me and says, Um, it's this is too big to preview. It's like, oh my god. Oh my god, like everything that I needed to do wasn't working, so I am scouring like, okay, how can I open a zip drive? Like, oh my god, like trying to figure all these things out, whatever. I end up going out onto a balcony and just trying to rehearse it from memory, like, okay, this is what I want to say here, this is what this is, and whatever.

SPEAKER_00 56:51

You couldn't tell. You couldn't tell that all that happened behind the scenes.

SPEAKER_03 56:54

Uh I was like, you've got to be kidding me. If anybody was outside it sometime, they definitely heard me saying some four-letter words. Are you are you joking right now? Oh, I could not believe it. But it was one of those things I knew I was coming up. Like, well, it is it's now or never. I'm just let's do this. I'm just going out there. But uh well, I'm happy to hear that it seemed like it went so uh so clean.

SPEAKER_00 57:22

You can tell that you do facilitation as part of your day-to-day. Oh, well, thank you. You know, that it again it seemed very polished, and there wasn't like yes, you had some some hiccups possibly that came up before that you were yeah you had to kind of pivot for, but like yeah, that's that happens to us a lot. Oh gosh, that we have to just without a doubt. You have to adjust and make it.

SPEAKER_03 57:44

You always have to have a plan B, right? Like there's always technology fails, and this is a great example of that. Like, what I should have done was still just had a print off in case, just in case. Um, and I understand where I was coming from, like I think my logic was sound, but I should have prepped for the worst case, and I didn't. But I guess all the hours that I spent rehearsing and practicing did work out, and um, I told my wife this that like I was I was nervous, I won't lie, I was very nervous, and it's one thing to speak in front of an audience that you're facilitating, like uh a department, a team, a company, uh whatever. Like, I can do those all day long. That's totally fine. But being in front of a large group of your peers, and you're also throwing something at them that goes against the grain of like their beliefs, that's rough. Like, that's a that's a s that's a strong one to take. Um but it was I would not take it back, I would do it again in a heartbeat, and as soon as I got up there and I started talking, I could actually feel those nerves dissipate. Like, okay. Because and and folks out there, my biggest bit of advice, and Patrick, I you I I'd love to hear what your thoughts are on this. If you are that type of person that has been afraid to present in front of an audience, or you're not you feel like you're not good with the public speaking. My number one recommendation is know what you're going to say, like know your content. Because if somebody asks you about a hobby of yours, you have no qualms about that. Like, yeah, it's blah, blah, blah. Like, you'll talk about that all day long. What people get hung up on is they feel like they have to have everything memorized, like they have to say it verbatim, word for word. That's really not the case, and the audience knows that too.

SPEAKER_00 59:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 59:52

And it what and when you screw up, typically, unless you call it out, people don't know. Like it's it's not as big of a nightmare scenario as most people probably play it out to be. Um, so just my my words of wisdom, if you will.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:09

Um I feel like we're running long, but there are a few things I really wanted to make sure I hit. So are are you okay with that?

SPEAKER_00 1:00:16

Let's do it.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:17

All right. Um, my I gotta give a shout out to you, Mr. Patrick. What's the problem? Um, yeah, we definitely have to put this in the show notes. Um, and I did we put some oh, maybe I can't remember if I put something on Instagram. Instagram. It is, okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:36

I posted that.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:37

Nice. Um, so after everything was all said and done, the speakers all spoke. Um, I was met by Mr. Patrick handing me a brown paper bag so we could take our grossly competent picture there live. Um, and it was awesome. Like just that absolutely just cracked me up. That was so awesome, and it was a great way just to like have that relief of like, okay, yeah, you're right, I can come back down to reality. Wow, this is incredible! Like, that was so cool, dude.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:15

The so I went out to my I went out to my car at intermission because I know you were coming up next. I'm like, okay, I'm gonna go, I'll wait till so I'll wait till intermission, and then you're gonna be up a couple people after that. Yeah. And so I I brought it back with me, and Tara looks at me and she's like, What is that? I'm like, oh, I want to take a pic, I want to get some pictures with Steve's. I think I'd like at first I think she got a little nervous, like, oh my god, don't put that on your head. Like, you know, while other people are talking. She's like, You're gonna wait till after. I'm like, oh god, yeah, no, this isn't for me to sit here at the table. Like, what a dick move. If like you're you're all nervous, you come out and you look over at the table, and there's a guy with a brown paper bag with a smiley face on it. I was like, no, no, no, no, no. I go, this is for like whenever this whole thing's over. I want to get a picture of Steve with the bag. She's like, okay, she goes, Well, put it under the table, he's gonna see it. So, like, we had like it was great. We were like, Okay, so we put it under the table, under the tablecloth, so you couldn't when you came back and sat down, you couldn't see they were there.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:14

So it was I gotta tell you, um, it even if you would have been wearing it, I don't think I would have seen it. Um, only because and they told us this like during the uh um like the the a microphone etiquette. I was trying to think of what they called it the microphone etiquette bit. They told us deliberately, like, make sure you stand only between these two specific spaces. Um, and they were right because if you ventured too far over, the lights they had were blinding. Oh, okay. Were blinding. So like I could really only see the people directly in front of me. Like, and by say directly, I mean like if you kind of just like tunnel vision go forward, and even that was difficult just because of the lights, but people to like my the right and the left hand sides, no, like it I couldn't have told you, honest to goodness, if there was nobody at the table, I couldn't have told you that. Like it was, and plus, I'm your brain is going into overdrive of like I need to make sure I hit these pizza pieces, right? Um, so I I love it and I appreciate that because maybe in the off chance, I just saw that and probably just busted out laughing. Who knows? Maybe that maybe you should have. I don't know, man. It'd have been a great, uh, great way to introduce the the pod. Be like, you see that guy right there. I interrupt him all the time on our podcast. Now he's doing it to me right on, man. Um, that was I loved that so much. Um, and and interestingly, directly after we were taking our pictures and we we take them off, the bags off, and we're sitting there chatting, there was a very nice woman standing off the side, and I thought she was trying to get past you and I to go to like these back rooms or something. Sure. And she goes, Well, no, I I wanted to talk to you, and she points at me. And I kid you not, my first thought was why?

unknown 1:04:28

What?

SPEAKER_03 1:04:29

Uh no, she was lovely. Uh Casey, if you are listening, um I promise I I have been thinking a lot about what you were asking me, and I'm I'm trying to compile some things for you. Um, but it was just a wonderful, wonderful little conversation, and I that really that really pulled my heartstrings. I thought that was very sweet that she came up to me and was asking me my opinion. Yeah, I know she was asking my opinion, which I don't really know what that says about her character, but uh she was asking about it, and it was just it was really nice. Um, the the last thing I'll bring up, and then I'm gonna seriously leave leave you to do the the rest of the talking. So I mentioned how Jenmar was at our table, and she brought a friend of hers, and I sat next to her friend, and when I was looking at her, I'm like, you look familiar, but like I don't know, who knows? Like you could be a hundred million people, and I I only talked to her for like little bits at a time, and just a wonderfully delightful person, just such a wonderful woman. And it was only the next day that I was talking to Linnelle Meath, and Linnelle says to me, Do you know who you were sitting next to the whole time? Well, and I I kid you not, I said, Yeah, Jen's friend. Right? I'm like, yeah, she was super nice. She goes, Well, yes, that is Jen's friend, but that's also Katrina Cravey. Yep, recognized her. And I was like, Why do I know that name? And she goes, Oh, just because she's like an Emmy winning journalist. Has like just this absolutely unbelievable career. And I am going, I am so glad I didn't know that at the time because I think I would have been like nervous to talk to her. Like, and I just was shooting the breeze with her like I would with anyone. Like, hey, so her bubble, just nothing. I just because I'm dumb. And I wonder if part of her was like, Thank God this idiot doesn't know who I am. So, Katrina, you I this is too lowbrow for you. This this podcast too lowbrow. No. Um, she was an absolute delight, just a fantastic person to talk to, but I thought that was really, really eye-opening. Like, oh, okay, fair enough. I guess I'm just sitting next to journalism royalty to my right, and I'm too oblivious to know. So you did know, like you you were aware?

SPEAKER_00 1:07:26

I I recognized her, yeah. I said I it took me about probably about probably about 30 seconds. I was like, I know that face somewhere. And those of you that are listening, she was again, as Steve said, um multi-award-winning journalist in the Milwaukee area. She was on our one of our local local um affiliates, uh Fox affiliates for I think gosh, probably 20 years or so, and has done gone on to do some other great things as well. But I I recognized the face, and so I was like, Yeah, I think that's her. And so I didn't I didn't go ahead and like fanboy, but I was like, I I just I recognized her.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:58

I'm gonna butcher this, but I I'm gonna try my best. Um so when I told my wife this the next day, I'm like, Yeah, did you know this? And she's like, Oh my gosh, no, I feel really dumb. I'm like, oh don't. Like, I mean, you don't know what you don't know, right? She's like, Well, I kind of want to find out more about this woman. So she does, and she's like, Oh, oh, like every every like line of information she's reading about this person, she's like, Did you know she was an intern for Ronald Braggan's speech team? I'm like, Wow, yeah, and then she spent five minutes listening to me. Like, what? Oh, okay, like, yeah, I think she's got a pretty strong storied experience background. Like, oh my god, like just crazy, but she was so nice.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:55

So you're saying she's listening to us now.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:00

I don't know. Maybe, maybe, I I guess, but uh, I I'm gonna I told you I was gonna stop after those couple things. If there's anything you felt like adding good, sir, please do.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:12

No, I mean, overall, it's uh to kind of wrap up. I think it was a great event. It's definitely unique. Yeah, I know they're they're doing these nationwide now, so yeah. The joke I always I gave was that uh Milwaukee disrupt HR, you more like disrupt West Allis because that's where we are. But it's a joke. I am a Milwaukee and so I like to give West Allis a great little city west of Milwaukee. But um, no, I thought it was really cool. I I love the variety of the different presenters, even ones that I didn't maybe that didn't connect with as much. I think they were all interesting in their own way. And oh yeah, that's a good that's something really good to think about. So yeah, I and I I doing the work that I do, I I did tie into a few of them that really were like hit home. Yeah, especially one of the last ones of uh that Dana mentioned, who really owns psychological safety. I thought that was pretty cool too, because that's something that we talk a lot about at uh with my employer. So yeah, overall I thought it was great. Yeah, just a cool event. I appreciate you offering um allowing me to come be your plus one.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:20

Oh no, I I loved having you there, man. Sincerely, thank you so much. Well, uh, Patrick, do you know who we should never be disruptive of?

SPEAKER_00 1:10:31

The spinarouski.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:34

Yeah, the spinnerouski! It is indeed. And while Mr. Patrick fires up the very wooden wheel, a reminder for listeners each episode we spin the spinneruski. It's a wheel of names that might belong, hopefully, to the woman who so generously shoved Mr. Patrick and I into the ugly club all those years ago. Uh, the goal, of course, is to eventually land on her name and thank her properly. Mr. Patrick, are we ready to fire that bad boy up?

SPEAKER_00 1:11:03

Let's do it.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:04

Do you have your gloves on so you don't get any splinters?

SPEAKER_00 1:11:07

Uh yeah, I did have to find some because last week, oof, yeah, got a little got some splintes.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:15

All right, Patrick. Spin that roosty.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:22

Round she goes. Millen. Millennium. We're gonna get a good one this week.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:30

I think so. Quinn!

SPEAKER_00 1:11:32

Quinn? Yes, Quinn!

SPEAKER_03 1:11:36

Wow! Quinn!

SPEAKER_00 1:11:38

I I don't know any Quinns, but I love the name.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:41

I I do know a Quinn, but Quinn's a man.

unknown 1:11:46

Oh.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:47

That's interesting. I never knew Quinn was asexual.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:51

Quinn was on um Quinn was a character on Glee, if I recall correctly. I or at least I heard about that. Never saw that show. No.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:01

Nerd. What? What? Yeah, that was one of the characters on interesting. Wow. That one really I think that took us both out. Like, whoa, Quinn? Quinn? Quinn? Well, Quinn, my goodness. If you're listening, thank you so much. I hope it was you that shoved Mr. Patrick and I so generously into the ugly club all those years ago in the basement of Boomers in Peewake, Wisconsin. You're a delight. And uh we can't thank you enough for uh shoving us out of the way so you could talk to the silver fox himself. Who's by the way? It's his birthday today.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:41

Happy birthday, Joe. You're the man, Silver Fox and Yeah, he is.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:48

He is. He's silver foxing extra silver. No way, man. Happy birthday. Nah, no, he it he makes it look good. He makes it, he's got the salt pepper thing. There's nothing that that boy can do that makes him look gross. No, it's disgusting, and I hate him for it. So thank you, Quinn. You rock our worlds.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:12

Well, Steve, it's about time for some shout-outs, and I will go ahead first. I was gonna just shout out uh Mr. Joe since it is his birthday. Uh I just want to say you're the man. You know, I know Steve, you considered him a good friend. I consider him a friend, but he's also my brother-in-law, so it's pretty awesome uh having him around. And you know, all those years ago, it just if it wasn't for him, yeah, we wouldn't we wouldn't be here. I mean, maybe physically on Earth, or maybe. But the fact that we're we're doing this podcast, you know, living with uh the shame and regret for 20 years has allowed us to at least speak to the public and to share our story. And so I I appreciate I appreciate all you've done for us, Joe, even if it's uh backhandedly.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:04

I agree with that. Um I do have an additional shout out, but I do want to add happy birthday, my man. Uh, the man of a million nicknames. Sincerely, I hope you have an awesome one. Uh, so my shout-out should probably come as no surprise. I genuinely want to thank the entirety of the Disrupt HR team, the sound text, like everybody that had a hand in making that night what it was. It went off without a hitch. Like, there was never a moment where audio got fuzzy or someone's mic dropped that, like, nothing like that happened, and that is not an accident. There is a shit ton of work that goes on in the background, and I think every single one of those people that had a hand in that deserves some serious praise. So, this is my opportunity to say really well done. It was a masterclass in just executing effectively. So, thank you guys all so much. Um, just and I'm gonna make it a point to add some uh bits in the show notes about individuals that make the Disrupt HR Milwaukee team what it is because they are just fascinating and amazing people.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:14

Very well said, Steve. Yes, very nice.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:17

Well, I think that's about it, right, man?

SPEAKER_00 1:15:20

Yeah, that's right.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:21

All right, all right. Uggo's out there. That's it for this episode. We thank you again. You're a delight, and um yeah, I suppose we'll see you next time.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:40

Out out of the Wow.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:18

I really felt the present cheese of that. It was good.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:22

It's been a while. We haven't I haven't uh we haven't recorded in a while.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:26

I mean, you know. And um I'm a little sad we didn't sing happy birthday to Mr. Joe. You don't want to hear that.