oh my god oh wow we need a minute don't we giggles oh gosh
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welcome back to type a unhinged the podcast for the architects of order
and the masters of chaos die the sun is shining it's beautiful here in minnesota
i just made another latte things are good i did too mine's decaf though oh good call mine's not
how excited for e-tail on a scale of one to ten eight oh probably i'm a solid nine
solid nine
i think i'm also a solid nine and i think it would be higher if it wasn't 50 degrees out today
okay but for real so true it's like literally summer outside i'm so sad that it's supposed
to go back i know but at least we won't be here for part of it
if i didn't have something slightly more exciting happening in the near future
i feel like be possible for it to be a 10 out of 10 excited for e-tail
yeah
ever since i went the first time i was hooked that's for dang sure
agreed plus we have a spa day scheduled for the last morning and i've never done that before
it's always been like go go go go go and i have a feeling since it's on the third day we might
get a little bit of fomo and leave early i mean like but but but we only have half a day left
like we need to you know what i mean pack it in so do you think that's like
type a approach to going to conferences or are we just another breed i don't i don't know i think
most people try to get everything in that they can right you feed off of that energy and i think
you know that's i think that's universal there definitely is it is a vibe that's for sure i just
always wonder like people will be so excited when you say you're going to a conference and
definitely the excitement is relatable but also you come back more tired than when you left and
i don't know that
i feel like people don't relate to that and so i have a question like do we just go that hard
i mean that is entirely possible
like in the morning they're like oh gosh i should have gone to bed right
so let's talk about etail let's talk about how we're gonna survive it and get the most out of it
and start with that like pre-show polite panic phase that i think we're
both starting to enter right now as our calendars are filling up i would definitely call it a polite
panic and i think that's like applicable to any show you're going to that's not just like up the
road for a few hours right but here we are a few days away suddenly you're getting a hundred emails
a day of more vendors wanting you to stop by their booth calendars are filling up with appointments
and linkedin messages but i've never been happier to have my google ai assistant answering spam phone
calls for me
oh yes 100 okay so at some point you have to remove yourself from the daily operations and
start planning to go like be on right like when we talk about being tired after our trip there
it's because you are on all day and so i think that that requires like some setup right absolutely
yeah i i always start by triaging my inboxes or anything that absolutely needs to get done while
i'm out that i can hand off to somebody
you
because i can't tell you how many times i walk past at e-tail specifically there's these couches
that you walk past um in like the lobby area on your way to the show and there's so many people
sitting out there with their laptops and some of them i recognize as retailers and they're not just
vendors trying to set up a next appointment type of thing right and like you're here like why are
you spending your time working i mean this is precious time right when you're there being able
to connect with other retailers and get your phone bill and stuff and you're like i can't do this
because i can't tell you how many times i walk past at e-tail specifically there's these couches that you walk
new ideas and find out what the trends are so why would you want to spend your time working i
understand that fires happen things come up but as much as you can like assigning that point person
for each thing while you're out and making sure your your your downline and your your upline too
are aware of like who they can go to when you're not there so you're not having to excuse yourself
constantly absolutely i feel like it's like almost a mental checklist of like what am i most scared
of breaking while i'm away and how do i like have a poc assigned for that so that at least they're
not held up waiting for my answer they are making calls right now and not waiting you know potentially
a few hours for me to see it come through on my phone i also try to you know oracle what
what could happen or what could somebody work on project wise next while i'm out so that i could
like prep them if that makes sense so like hey set up 15 with me
before i'm leaving when i'm in office tuesday or wednesday and i can run through this with you so
you can get a jump on it while i'm out so nate is there a out of office system that you have as a
a go-to to make sure that everything stays running while you're out um again i think the key thing for
me is just thinking about the top five or ten things that i'm most scared of not working right
while i'm out for me i mean the most important thing is like our ads can't break and our cost
of sale can't get out of hand and so as long as i stay out of my office i can't get out of my office
at those guardrails and i make a poc and make sure all of leadership knows who that poc is
um while i'm out then we're fine and usually how i handle that it's the same people
over that typically are helping me captain those kpis anyway uh but they just run the show while
i'm gone i set up with them ahead of time maybe you know like the week or two before my trip when
we're statusing uh we come up with a plan where like hey i might not be available but i'll hit
you up during these hours if i can if you can just you know send me a two-liner of
if anything popped up and what you guys decided to do with it you know go ahead and make those
calls and just keep me in the loop and then we'll go from there but again for me i think it's really
just thinking about like oh man if i if i had a magic playbook and could predict the future like
what what would be the biggest fires potentially that i could be putting out while i'm there that
i just don't want to be dealing with so create that system yep what about you yeah pretty much
the same thing put my oracle hat on and try to think ahead what are projects that my team has
coming up
that i don't want them to stall out on while i'm gone and try to preemptively set up 15 20 minutes
with them make sure they have everything they need to keep it rolling so that they're not
backlogged because they were waiting on an answer from me or wanted to check with me on something
before they started moving 100 so we're peers and sometimes we travel with people in our downline
or our boss and i've
traveled with bosses in the past as well what do you have for tips nate on keeping it
professional but still you know keeping the bible life yeah uh great question die and i think it
definitely varies right on your relation on the relationship that you have with your boss
and so far everyone i've had we we traveled together slightly different but i think it's
important to make sure that you guys dedicate time for like team building you know what i mean
like you can be at these shows
having a great time and still say for these 30 minutes let's make sure we grab a table together
and eat lunch together and like connect or um swap notes yep i love syncing up calendars at a
time too to make sure that you're at events that you think both of you should be at and then also
are you know dividing and conquering when there is an opportunity so that you're not missing out
on one thing maybe there's two different places you'd like to be but um your peer or your boss
could go to the other one and get something out of it too and then compare notes afterwards
a kind of session afterwards too to recap how everything went what we learned what new tools
are out there that we might want to check out um there's another another thing kind of more of a
post show than a pre-show note but uh definitely brings it all closing the loop absolutely okay
so die i had an idea and i'm curious your thoughts let's hear it
i'm so ready what if we made a bingo board for going to etail that we both have to try to
complete we're okay so this is now going to become a thing for every conference that i ever attend
i love this idea i love this idea bingo you know what i actually saw one um miss yes mr etail posted
one on linkedin i want to say like a week or so ago i can't believe i didn't see it
i didn't think about that but yeah he had one and i think we we could probably make one specific
for retailers oh i love it yes so i think we should build this live
yeah what's one thing we need to have on this i feel like
buzzwords there's got to be something around buzzwords how many times you hear
agentic at the show i think especially this year it's going to be more
prevalent than ever okay so all bingo boards need a free space
yep should we say something about a hangover oh gosh yeah i just hearing about somebody
talking about having one we're not wanting to get one that's pretty pretty standard okay
okay related to that what if we did you spot liquid ivy uh yes yes i had a similar idea
i think
maybe you managed to get should we say three the goal is you get three liquid ivs okay okay
because you can do that throughout the week then attain 3x liquid ivy packets so we talked about
like ai and agentic should we say spot a booth that re-boxed the same tool as agentic this year
but didn't have agentic last year kind of thing absolutely that will 100 happen so you'll need
to confirm that so i think that's a good idea i think that's a good idea i think that's a good
idea but they didn't actually add something to their product so you can't just be like oh it has
agentic now and it didn't last year could this be achieved with the wake back machine
absolutely gosh you're so damn it you're like i don't want to talk to them
can i get this info indirectly
yes that will be accepted
okay how about i always feel bad when i end up having to leave the show i'm going to have to
leave the show i'm going to have to leave the show i'm going to have to leave the show i'm going to have to
leave a piece of swag in the hotel room because it doesn't fit in my bag so maybe to be
better stewards this year you get a space if you manage to take home all your swag
oh i don't know if i'm up for that challenge do i really want on my board
what challenge accepted come on take home a hundred percent that's gonna i should do the
emoji of a hundred because that's how that's how big that one is
you're going to have to leave a piece of swag in the hotel room because it doesn't fit in my bag
and that doesn't mean it has to be in your suitcase it just needs to get home
so i mean i already see you diverting around this and shipping it but it counts oh okay okay
one other that i think maybe it would be interesting and maybe a little harder
is if any booth has an actual like it's branded as the hangover kit
i have seen that before it'll be interesting if if those come out again they might have called it
a travel kit but if it's branded hangover yeah that would be something what about a qr code that
doesn't work wow that'd be bad do it put it on there now we're gonna be getting every qr code
are we ever gonna be kidding are we ever gonna get it okay oh should we put like x you have to
hear it 10 times or 15 times the wi-fi here sucks yes that's so easy what do we want to do
10 let's do 10 i think we should put something in there that's
makes us take a respite so whether it's like non-conference event i don't know what to call it
help um you know there's a little cute little putt putt course at the location that's free
right so like you stop and you do a couple holes of like a breakaway yeah
do like the little like boat thing that they have out on the property or just something that's like
take a moment away from everything complete non-show related team breakaway love that okay
look at you okay i have another okay i think you see at least three people
working instead of working out at the gym oh
there's so many people that go and they stand on the treadmill they're actually working or
they're sitting on the bike and they're actually like on a call and they're not actually working
out oh what about observing a wardrobe malfunction fix like someone has to pull out a scarf to cover
up a spill yeah i think that could happen or you see the spill happen or are we making this
oh my god that'd be so bad someone's
spills and we're celebrating because we get to check off a bingo they go for that jelly donut and
just how do i how do i phrase that yeah wardrobe malfunction that could be anything a heel breaks
you know i love it okay how about speaking of wardrobe um you spot a cmo in the traditional
cmo attire graphic
okay so you gotta confirm they're a cmo though we could also do like ceo in a hoodie so should
that be like an or or should it just be cmo so ceo or cmo in graphic t and a half yeah okay
yeah how about a booth touting how tech savvy it is and it has no demo to show you and no screen
or it's like busted they just like can't show you anything
technology-wise but they're a tech company a tech company that's busted
yeah how should i phrase that just like that no a tech company without working tech
what about a booth that only has a line because they have a coffee machine
yeah yeah yes because i'm guilty because the starbucks line is even longer
there's always something interesting with the zennial session no z-suite is that the one that
they talked about returns last year yeah oh my favorite cringeworthy moment
stay at the pit past midnight
i think it'll happen at least once oh for sure let's give ourselves some challenges to like
post on linkedin at least one time i like that i like that i like that i like that i like that i
i'm not i'm not good at posting on my linkedin well this will make you get better at it okay so
post once on linkedin about an engaging session perfect love it okay
okay how about another challenge is you have a conversation where you don't talk about ai
oh
it's important to know when and how it can help
oh what about power something about people fighting over power plugs or on the hunt or
power banks as swag right like yes the primo swag elect five five power banks five oh my gosh
that would be that's a lot three you could like sell them and cover half your plane ticket
i don't know what you're talking about
they are sought after that's for sure
okay
i think we're really close here yes what happens if we win i don't know someone wins
we need we need some sort of steak one of our lunches out or something
yeah lunch on the loser yeah lunch on the loser yeah lunch on the loose i like it yeah i'm gonna
i shouldn't be telling you my secrets but i'm gonna screenshot it and make it my phone's
background so it's just always right there oh i'm gonna print it out too i'm gonna have it
i'm gonna have it with my sharpie and i'm gonna big x make sure that you saw that it happened i
don't want you questioning any of them wow are you competitive die maybe just touch
this to touch okay so real quick wanted to ask you one of the things that are involved with you
know going to any type of conference is packing and i feel like there's a very type a way to pack
so i was curious what's your packing ritual oh gosh i try to start early usually don't because
i have too much going on so it's usually the day before i will get out my suitcase i usually wait
a while to get that out because i'm not going to be able to get it out i'm going to be able to get
it out because the dog gets really upset he knows something's going on uh try to pick out a few
outfits ahead of time and just have them like squared off in my closet until then i have these
packing cubes thanks to you that really save a lot of space that i use now i love them i've used them
so many times that's kind of my thing i just like make sure i have the outfit and i have all of the
accessory pieces that go along with it and last but not least try to get at least one outfit for
uh even though it doesn't always happen i always try to make sure it's all done the night before
and i lay out my my airplane outfit i call it i do not like doing anything the day before i leave
i gotta check all the boxes ahead of time on the days leading up i start making lists and for
packing in particular i like physical lists because i like checking them off and drawing
arrows and adding other things that you know basically a mind map on a legal sheet of paper
wow but throughout the week while you're like you know maybe setting collecting things i'm just
writing down like oh phone charger passport you know everything i can think of our trips you know
on the side is like run to the store and get this and again like you i get everything out i use my
packing cubes i love them they're so great and i get everything all organized instead of like
figuring out outfits i do look at outfits and make sure i have enough but then i go through this like
ritual where i pack it all and then i unpack it all and i figure out what i can remove and then
i pack it all again so i usually it's like three or four times i've packed and unpacked so that i
can get it into like the most optimal small that sounds exhausting why would you do that i stress
out over it but the end result is like i can go anywhere for like a week and with a carry-on
that's fair i also overpack chronic overpacker always bring at least one maybe let's be honest
two or three extra outfits just in case i think i'm tearful
are fine if that worked or malfunctioned that you put on well have you seen those memes where it's
like I'm going on a three-day trip and you have like eight pairs of underwear like that's how I
start that's why I have to pack and unpack and pack and unpack valid valid okay so when you get
to the airport I'm prepared with my liquids at the top of my carry-on like backpack right and my
laptop at the edge like I'm ready to go so when I get in that security line I'm like and then I'm
happily surprised when they're like leave everything in the bag right um yes though I do
not like for one I do not want to be the one person in line that holds up the whole line like
I would die if I got up there was not ready I can just see you sorry sorry sorry sorry so like
part of my routine though is I I pack a certain way so like my toiletry bag is right on top of
my bag always I keep my passport in the same spot so I never have to like figure
out what I'm going to do and I'm like I'm going to pack a certain way so like my toiletry bag is
where it is you know what I mean like I I am successful when I'm a creature of habit like
even when it comes to like my car keys when I come home I put them in the exact same spot every day
because if I don't I spend an hour the next day looking for my car keys you know what I mean
I wonder what percent of people right now are listening and going oh my gosh that's a hundred
percent me or like these people are crazy I mean I even have those when you set it down some rush
like oh I'll never forget because of xyz like oh it's right here it's the only time I've done this
and then like three hours later you're like where the heck did I put my car keys and it's a whole
thing like I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know
like I hate that so okay so once we are there I'm just curious I think to wrap it up here is
there anything high level that you think we should kind of like declare as one of our missions in the
field one of our missions sure I want to make sure that whenever I'm talking to an AI vendor
I'm discovering whether or not they are using an LLM that they've just wrapped
and they're presenting the information to you differently utilizing your own knowledge base
to help prompt it or if they have actually tuned an LLM and have their own unique sauce
that they're utilizing or if they've gone like full scale and have completely created something
new I think that's something that we all need to look out for I agree because so many times
people will be like oh we have this proprietary AI model and we're not going to be able to do it
and it's literally them putting a one paragraph system prompt in front of whatever command you
give it right and they haven't even actually trained like they're using an open model you
could come up that prompt yourself and you could put it in chat GPT or Gemini as a gem and probably
get the same result you're just building an API connection and literally just you perfect you're
a prompt engineer right you've perfected the prompt which can be valuable but yes exactly
one of mine a little less specific than yours but I just really hope one of my main goals is I want
another retailer that is hyper seasonal like I it's easy to network other or it's easy to network
with other retailers while you're at shows like this but like we sell Halloween costumes at our
day job like I want to I don't know a Christmas tree company like something where it's like they
actually do 60 70 percent of their yearly sales in a two or three month period like we do and just
kind of talk about their struggles I'm sure there has to be some similar and and yeah kind of make
a friend yep I love that that's fantastic well
Dai I am excited to travel with you once again to e-tail yes best travel buddies
I yes I can't wait to share everything that we learn and take away sometimes it's so easy to
get stuck in your bubble of everything that you're working on and all of the new goals
and things that are coming at you that you are trying to achieve and being able to just broaden
the outlook and hear from what other retailers what's working and what's not working and what's
not working and yeah just get some new ideas it's uh it's like hard not to thrive off the energy
I think at the end of the day right like whether you're out getting drinks with some other retailers
or you're talking about some cool new tech with a vendor or you're in a session and you're
frantically jotting down notes of things you could take home and implement with your own process like
it's kind of coming at you at all angles and that that can be exhausting maybe we'll come
back with some new friends that we can talk to on the pod mutual energy you know with the stuff
that they're working on yes
yes that should be another mission of ours
all right well until
next all right well until next time stay typing and a little unhinged
Thanks for listening.
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I just got super distracted because I realized that all of the notes I added to this somehow got erased.
Oh, no.
And here we'll take a brief pause.
So Nate's type A.
I promise.
I am not an introvert.
Okay.
Oh, my God.
I just had a moment.
Watch it be me.
Watch me be the wardrobe failure.
I mean, you're the one that brought it up.
So I know a little bit.
Okay.
Here we go.
Here we go.
Here we go.