Keith H: [00:00:00] All right. Emily, welcome to the podcast. [00:00:01][1.5]
Emily Z: [00:00:02] Thanks for having me on Keith. It's so good to see your face. [00:00:05][2.5]
Keith H: [00:00:06] I know it's been a minute. It's been a few years, actually. And then with this, whatever this flat circle is with the pandemic, it's been even harder to see people. So how are you? Where are you? What's going on? [00:00:17][11.7]
Emily Z: [00:00:18] Yes, I'm well, thank you. I am in Texas now, so we work together when we both are at sleep. And then I moved to Texas five years ago. Do you believe it's been five years? Yeah, I'm in the Dallas Fort Worth area. Have a kid now. Life is different. We've been through a pandemic. Lots of changes. [00:00:39][20.6]
Keith H: [00:00:39] We're still going through a pandemic. That's been my hardest thing, too. It's like I keep thinking we're at this tail end of it, but here we are. So I always enjoyed our time together at Slate. But you decided to leave the corporate sales world and venture off and do something a little bit different with Four Day Weekend. Can you talk a little bit about what it is and what you do? [00:00:56][17.0]
Emily Z: [00:00:57] Yeah, absolutely. So Four Day Weekend we are an improv comedy troupe based in the Dallas Fort Worth area. We've been around for 24 years, so believe it or not, so I grew up in Texas. Actually, when we met, I was living in Chicago and working in New York. But I'm from Texas originally, so I actually kind of, in a way, grew up going to see this troupe perform in their Fort Worth location. Twenty-four years ago and fell in love with improv comedy, I have always loved it and actually took classes at the Four Day Weekend theater. So like I said, it's been around for 24 years. We put on shows on the weekends, on Fridays and Saturdays, and then the biggest part of our business is actually our corporate comedy. So event services, where we go to conferences, we host, we entertain, do awards galas and then we do corporate improv training. So I loved Four Day, was a big fan, went through the training program when I was younger. Right out of college. And that's actually what got me to fall in love with improv comedy and moved to Chicago. And that's what took me up there to the second city, but then brought me back. [00:02:01][63.5]
Keith H: [00:02:02] Hey, cool. So what exactly is corporate improv training? Are you teaching people to be funnier? [00:02:07][5.3]
Emily Z: [00:02:08] Yeah, you know, I like to say being funny is a byproduct of a few different things. In improv. everything's based on the key philosophy, which is called yes ,and. And with that and it's fundamental terms as you take what's been given to you and you add to it in a positive way. So when I'm on stage, I do that by act of listening, empathy and support of my fellow performers and moving the scene forward and the byproduct I hope most nights is comedy. But when it applies to the business world, it's the same thing. You know, you and I were improvisers. We don't know what we're going to talk about on this podcast, but we listen, we add and we move things forward. So we do customized training for the corporate world, large keynotes for thousands of people at conferences or smaller workshops where we apply the same skills that we use on stage, but how to utilize that in the business sense? [00:02:59][50.9]
Keith H: [00:03:00] Very cool. And so what kind of companies are coming to you? Are they in crisis in need or is it something that they're trying to add a little bit of a perk to keep people excited and motivated? [00:03:09][9.6]
Emily Z: [00:03:11] Yeah, it's everything and anything, really. My favorite is when there is some sort of change or need in terms of, you know, a company is just gone through an acquisition and there is maybe some trust issues or there's just been a big shakeup, we can utilize improvization to move past that and do that together. And it's innately team building. So even if it's just a fun, everybody's getting together for a happy hour. They bring us in to just have that fun shared experience with a little bit of light training. But any type of industry, it works. And what's lovely is whenever people bring us and they're like, OK, do we need to break out into all different breakout rooms where it's, you know, the administrative assistants are in one room and leaderships in another? What I love about improvization is, like I said, we're all improvisers, so we go through this training and I love doing it all together. So a CEO of a large company might be doing improv activities with an executive assistant. Their jobs are absolutely different, but the fundamentals of empathy and listening and support and positivity really apply to everyone, and it's also fun to see leadership actually step in and do something outside their comfort zone. [00:04:20][69.1]
Keith H: [00:04:21] Absolutely. Do you find there's probably always that one person who's mega comfortable and ready to do it right? Yeah. What about the people who are who are afraid or usually don't get on the stage? How do you work with them to make sure that there is a level of trust and a level of comfort so that they can also explore this area? [00:04:37][16.3]
Emily Z: [00:04:38] Yes, that is big because of a lot of times people think, Oh my gosh, please don't. Please, please don't pick me. They're avoiding eye contact, of course. And those people from the very beginning, what I like to do is let them know this is not stand up. We're not putting you in the spotlight and you're going to start sweating. We're going to make fun of you. It is, and we are all about making the other person you're with the hero. And so we do that from the very beginning. If through some fun improv activities and games where we show them this is incredibly low stakes, nobody's going to be put on the spot. And so you start to build that muscle of trust and it's on our job as facilitators to get them to understand that. But once they do, my favorite thing is to watch, you know, Ed from accounting. He's usually never going to say anything who is like up on stage, totally a different type of personality because it's all within us. It's just building that surrounding of empathy and trust. And typically, I mean, as adults, we, you know, if, for example, if it was a roomful of five year olds and I ask, who in here as a painter, how many hands would go up? [00:05:44][65.6]
Keith H: [00:05:44] I think all of them, right? [00:05:45][0.7]
Emily Z: [00:05:45] All of them. Yeah. But if I ask a room of adults, no one, maybe one person, because they think that they're proficient, we're we're so worried about the way that we're told you can't do it or it's, you know, that's not I'm not a painter. I'm not a creative. I'm not this. From the very beginning of a training session, we let everyone know that again, it's low stakes, but we all have the capacity to do this type of thing. You don't have to be the outgoing loud person to really get something from a training like that. [00:06:12][26.6]
Keith H: [00:06:12] I love that so much, and it's funny. This morning I just wrote, my friend has a newsletter where he walks. It's called Walk It Off and he walks with somebody, and he was talking to a children's author who said a very similar thing that, you know, it starts to get pulled out of us as we grow older, that we have skills or that you don't have to be the best at something. And I, I totally agree with that. And it's fun to have two different people say it to me on the same day. Or yeah, it's totally right. How do you how do you help somebody break that down, right? And again, somebody who Ed, at accounting, who the best CPA and in western Ohio. How do you break it down to say, OK, you're not going to be good at this at first? And that's OK? [00:06:47][34.3]
Emily Z: [00:06:48] Right, well, as I mentioned before, we're all improvisers, and I do this for a living, so I work this muscle all the time. But I used to not be great at public speaking. I used to get really nervous and now I completely improvise live comedy shows for an hour and a half every Friday and Saturday and perform for thousands of people. It's insane. But again, it's like going to the gym. You can't just go walk in and be like 10 pound weights. I'm good. See, in two months. It's constantly working at. And it's also like, just like you said, you have to understand as early as possible that you're not going to be incredible the first time you do it or the second time you do it. And the best way to get better is through experience and practice. And, you know, being a performer. Stage time is king no matter what, being a sales person, getting out there and making those big swings and pitches is paramount. You know, you can read all the books that you can read. You can study and know your product or know your services, know your company. But until you get in front of people and build that connection and make those big swings, it kind of doesn't matter. And so for me, once I realized, like, I've kind of compartmentalized for the longest time, but I'm either a creative, I'm a performer, I'm doing this fun comedy thing. But is that serious? And now I I'm if I don't make it on SNL, then I'm never going to do comedy, that type of thing in my brain. And then the other side, which is how we know each other, is the sales side, which is like, cool. I can make some money at this. I get to work with fun people, but I'm not considered a creative. I'm a salesperson. Once I realized that those two parts of my personality can live together and cohabitate, the better I got it sales. And then I'm incredibly lucky. But I had the opportunity to kind of do both where I sell our corporate comedy services, but I also get to satiate all of my performance needs. So Four Day Weekend, I'm the director of corporate sales and I get to sell anything from like what we're talking about this corporate training to hosting and entertainment to commercial content where we produce for clients as well. So it opened up all this opportunity. But until I stopped making myself decide between being a business person and a creative like when those two things got to get married, it was quite the ceremony. [00:09:12][144.1]
Keith H: [00:09:14] I love that there's so much there. So let's talk about that, you know, because I think that happens to a lot of salespeople, right? Like nobody, especially in digital advertising sales was five years old and said, I want to be a digital ad salesperson when I grow up right. Like, it just kind of happens. You fall into it. And I think for a lot of the reasons you say, definitely for me was, Oh, I can make some good money doing this. [00:09:35][21.2]
Emily Z: [00:09:36] We're not. We're not dumb. [00:09:37][0.7]
Keith H: [00:09:38] Yeah. Yeah, it's not. Yeah, it's not like we're in the minds, like trying to find stuff. It's good money, right? So I think as people get older and mature in the sales world, they start to realize they still have this creative energy. How does somebody get more in tune with that? Improv is not their thing, but they're trying to find another outlet or another thing to do it. How can they start to kind of figure out how to blend creative into the business muscles that they have? [00:10:02][24.5]
Emily Z: [00:10:04] Yeah, absolutely. I mean, selfishly, I started when I was at Slate, and I worked also at the Onion and ad sales and content creation, and I found myself really getting bogged down in the things that I wasn't good at. So my confidence was a little shaken. So I was not a five-year-old wishing I'd get into digital ad sales. And in fact, when I got this job at the I mean, I remember we know my former boss. I remember he was like, OK, so we're talking about impressions, and I was like, What's an impression? And I just got the job and he was like, Oh, no, this is terrible. So I was so out of my depth and ad sales like I never built decks for people like I was completely, wildly inefficient and my knowledge of that shook my confidence and made me feel like, you know, I was going out to meetings and sitting in these agencies and they're asking me questions about a banner ads. I'm like, Oh my gosh, ads of love. A good banner ad, a homepage takeover. Tell me more. I realized, OK, I need to definitely button-up and learn this. But creatively I had to go back and think, What do we love doing? What's the thing that gets me out of bed? Gets me excited, and I love storytelling, and I love the big picture and the big idea. So creatively I thought, I want to be near the writers. I need to see what they're doing. So I found ways within that job. And for me, the outlet of improvization was helpful. But finding, even if you sell widgets, you know, what's the interesting thing about it? What do you enjoy doing within your job if you don't love it? You're probably never going to love that job, to be honest. But even if you sell widgets, then what's the most interesting part of your day? What do you love doing and finding ways to get more involved in that? For me, it was sitting in the writers room or pitching big ideas, helping to co-create those. Once I allowed myself to do that, my confidence got better. And then when I was faced with something that I truly didn't know and it wasn't my proficiency, I was OK with being like, Let me get back to you. And it didn't shake my confidence, but I say, find what within your current role gets you excited from a creative standpoint and then just really lean into that and then find resources and people to surround yourself with that. Enjoy that same thing. [00:12:21][137.6]
Keith H: [00:12:22] It's such a great point that you make on the business side, having empathy for the creative side and collaborating with them, right? Like before I started working at these quote-unquote traditional publishers or whatever. I always heard about this, you know, church and state, right? This idea that, yeah, you know, edit and business, don't talk to each other. But it was never my experience. Even at Slate, I had somebody come up to me at Slate who had worked at Condé Nast, and she was like, This is pretty cool that we're talking a lot. And I was like, That is pretty cool, that we're talking. Talk to me a little bit about that collaboration and how important that is to the business world, right? Because I think sometimes companies create these false walls of here's the business team. They're wearing suits, they're going on meetings and here's the edit team. They're wild and crazy, and nobody knows what they're going to do. That's all. Yes. Right? Yeah. [00:13:08][46.2]
Emily Z: [00:13:09] Yeah, you have to you have to have both. You have to have both sides. And I think having an understanding as well, like not that every business person has to have a wildly creative side and vice versa. That's OK. Like, if I'm in art at this company, you know, and I this is my silo. It doesn't mean you have to understand every piece of the business side, but being able to co-create, that's paramount. So when I was working at the second city in Chicago, I got the job I was leaving. The onion went to the second city was a dream of mine and I had gone through the conservatory. So it was kind of that same thing of like, I'm a part of the second city, but I was part of the corporate side. And I remember early on they're like, Hey, this doesn't get you on stage. And just because the other second city business guy, this is the business side. And it was almost to my detriment when I first got hired that I was also a performer. And so I felt like back to that same feeling of, OK, well, now I'm just in sales and don't even let them know that I perform on the side and all of that. And then we had a process where we would co-create content and ideas with brands and agencies, and we'd bring them into the theater and we live storyboard creative briefs. So amazing. So like having these world class performers put ideas up on stage and being able to live storyboard. And I like that character and you know, let's move this person here and bring things to life. So it was like one part performance, but it was all co-creation. So you have the business side, you had the agency, you have the brands, for example, like P&G was one of my clients. So I have P&G Secret Deodorant Brand Team in the theater. I have the agency, their representative. Then we have our performers, we have writers, we have the business side knowing like, OK, where do we need to have this hit the end demographic? And are we speaking to that demographic, et cetera? It was so amazing because again, it's buy in from all sides of business and creative. [00:15:04][115.7]
Keith H: [00:15:05] Can we dive into that a little bit deeper because, yeah. You know, not everyone who's listening is in the advertising world. So getting that RFP and getting that thing, let's use this secret example. So what would that look like? Secret would come to you and they would say, All right, we're trying to reach women 25 to 40 who are just juggling so many hats in the workplace. And they would give you that brief because I'm sure that's [00:15:25][20.2]
Emily Z: [00:15:26] because every year, for about every year, she's a millennial mom. Yeah, OK. Yep. [00:15:31][5.0]
Keith H: [00:15:32] What would you then do with that at Second City? You would bring that brief to the team and walk me through a little bit of that process to get to the point where the agency in the client was sitting there and watching the second city go to work. [00:15:43][11.0]
Emily Z: [00:15:43] Yeah, absolutely. And I have to say just selfishly, this is something that I'm bringing to Four Day Weekend. OK? Because again, back to the co-creation part, the earlier you can have business, create a brand agency all working together, the better. So getting into that process earlier, so for example, with the RFP so that actual clients specifically, I was working with the brand directly and with the agency, they were like, you know, we want to create. They sent an RFP. We want to create this commercial content for social and here's what the demographic is going to be. You know, the millennial working mom doesn't have time in her day trying to get that promotion, et cetera, et cetera. OK, you guys go and come back and pitch us an idea. That's when we started to look at, OK, how about you guys come in and let's work on this together? You already have such great insight into who your end demographic is. We don't want to take anything away from the creativity, of course, of the agency. We want to play with them. And so we're essentially like an engine of creativity. And so that was when we would bring them into the theater and we do this at Four Day Weekend as well, where we take the creative brief and we say the who, what and where, and let's have fun with it. Let's put it up on its feet. So then we create scenes and songs and character monologues with improv. What I love is it's no stakes. It's just our time. Let's put it up. Let's see what we like. Let's actually bring in the demographic. Let's bring in working moms and do that in front of them. So you're getting consumer insights, you're getting content, you're getting copy because everybody's writing down all these great things that come out in the room. And it's that is my favorite process. And we use it, of course, on stage to create comedic content. But it works within companies for commercial, but also for internal just branding as well. [00:17:31][107.7]
Keith H: [00:17:32] Talk a little bit more about the imperfection that it's OK to be imperfect, right? Because the more I've talked to people who are mega-successful, the more they say, Well, I have this thing, but I don't want to publish it, or I've always been meaning to write this book, but I haven't done it. Can you talk a little bit about getting comfortable with being imperfect? [00:17:48][15.4]
Emily Z: [00:17:49] Absolutely. It's something that I've learned to embrace. And in our world, we say you're not imperfect, it's a break in the routine. When something is not perfect and is not in the normal rhythm when we're on stage that usually what might be perceived as something that's been said or done wrong. I promise you, that little break in the routine will turn into comedy. That's where the gold is. That's where the audience is, like blows their mind. How did they come up with that? And I mean, one of my favorite examples. My colleague and fellow performer, he's been with Four Day Weekend for 20 plus years, Oliver Tull. He tells an example of two performers he was teaching in a class. And I'm not going to say this perfectly, but the whole idea was that one person walked onto the stage to do a scene and they said that they were mobsters. And the other person heard monsters, OK. So they start doing the scene, which could have been an absolute train wreck. And to be honest, I would have loved to see the train wreck as well, but instead became this beautiful monster mobster theme. And that's a perfect example to me of like the beauty of imperfection, and it's OK. But that's where Yes, And comes into play, because when I walk on stage, I try to bring my best. But if I may fall again in our world, we call a low percentage choice, not a mistake. If I bring something that might be a low percentage choice, the best thing Keith is I am on stage with some of my best friends that are going to yes and my low percentage choice to a new level. So when it applies to business like surround yourself with people that even if you're not on your best and it's not your best day, they will bring you up and then you actually will get to new heights that you wouldn't even realize. Because, for example, at Four Day Weekend, you know, we have all this conference and corporate work. And when events went away in 20 20. I mean, that's the largest part of our business. So we're most theaters. Having ticket sales is number one for us. Our live shows are essentially calling cards for our corporate work, so we're conference, you know, traveling all over to different hotspots in Vegas, Orlando, everywhere. When that dried up, we took a look around and thought, OK, this is not ideal, but what can we do? Yeah, yeah. There was a definite moment. We kind of we took a second to feel sorry for ourselves. Our public shows were closed down for 15 months. We're like, What do we do? And early on, we have this beautiful theater in Dallas, so we have two locations. Our Dallas location is gorgeous and old 1920s cool church with like stained glass windows that we renovated. It's beautiful, kind of a cool vintage Copacabana vibe, and we thought this looks great on camera. Yeah, everybody is moving to virtual. Let's create a virtual production studio. So because we took that perceived hit, which it was a real hit. Let's be honest. But we thought, OK, well, how can we Yes, And our way out of this, and because of that, we were able to stay incredibly busy performing through the pandemic virtually from our stage, and we surrounded ourselves with experts in that industry. [00:20:58][188.3]
Keith H: [00:20:58] So, yeah, so you weren't recording... Because I've seen the videos on social right and right. You all were not recording before that or there wasn't a video production capability at Four Day Weekend before that, [00:21:09][10.2]
Emily Z: [00:21:09] just on the commercial sense for creating commercial content and industrials for our clients. But in terms of a virtual offering? Not really. And to be honest, you know, live is king. We always love to be in front of people and have that connection. But I'm really proud of our team being able to adjust and create something that is still naturally us, but is conducive for a virtual world. So that adjustment, it took a lot of building the plane in the air and not being perfect and figuring out what we're doing wrong and hopefully not on a client's dime. But we made it happen, right? [00:21:48][38.9]
Keith H: [00:21:49] So I imagine that the audience response is something that you lose, right in terms of just the energy, the excitement. What are some of the other things that were surprising to you when you went to the virtual world that were completely different? [00:22:00][11.1]
Emily Z: [00:22:02] Yeah, it's weird, maybe I'm just, like, annoyingly positive, but I will say the fact of doing soul crushing comedy to a camera lens with no feedback has actually made me better as an M.C. and host because not just because my expectations are I like trip them on the way in, but now I find that, you know, you have the connection with the audience. That's amazing. But being able to connect with them in other ways, like through a chat system, for example, if we're on some sort of platform where people can chat and there's a delay, that's still a connection. So let's lean in on that. So we found ways to do games and interactive things where people would blow up these corporate chats, which is really fun. Again, it doesn't take the place of being live in a room with 5000 people, but at the same time, there were fun little ways that we got around it, and it definitely helped us from a performance standpoint. It was a new muscle to work. I'm a little bit more trained and being in an ensemble, but now I can be straight to camera, straight to an audience and carry, you know, tens of minutes of content, which I don't think I would have really gotten the opportunity to do had I just kept doing this ensemble-based comedy. So in a weird way, it moved me in a place that I wasn't as confident, but now I'm feeling pretty proficient then. [00:23:23][81.4]
Keith H: [00:23:24] Can we talk a little bit about the straight-to-camera I told you before? My one and only time speaking straight to camera was live in Singapore. I was working for BuzzFeed and I was at a conference and they asked me to go live on, I believe, as Bloomberg News Singapore. And so I didn't see the anchor talking to me. I had a little earpiece in. And the second that they kind of pointed me to live, a marching band started playing behind me and I couldn't hear a thing. And I tried. I was talking. I talked over almost every single question that was asked, and I think they cut it off early. My comms team was just mouth agape when I came back from Singapore, so I learned that talking directly into a camera is mega mega hard. Can you talk a little bit about the differences in being on stage versus talking directly into the camera and what you had to learn through that experience? [00:24:11][47.4]
Emily Z: [00:24:12] Yeah, absolutely. Let me tell you, that experience is so fantastic, and I have to say those are the things at least and my improv world with our company. We kind of joke about those held gigs are necessary, right? You got to have the knock, the the kind of thing where you're like, Oh, well, yeah, but what you learn from it and what I've learned, actually, this is not a total side note, but it makes me laugh. We got it and we had a gig a couple of months ago that was fine, but it was honestly a lot of tech issues that were kind of out of my control. So like, my mic didn't work for all these people. And so I'm trying the project and it's out of my control, but it kind of snowballed from there with the tech side. And my colleague Dave said, You know, and I knew people that were in the audience and he was like, Just remember that your friends and family will always be at the bad show. Yeah, like, that's good. If you keep it in your brain, the people will see only the bad one takes all the stress away now. But you know, I feel like knowing one is the fact that listening and really be intent in the interview process is very hard, especially like, I'm sure you were nervous to say the right thing, right? Yeah, you were probably. And I overthink the question and I'm thinking through what I'm about to say. As present as you can be, especially in the digital and virtual world, that is really huge because it is so easy to talk over each other and do that, you know, and you lose that rhythm and then you get nervous and you're overthinking it. So for me, being able to slow a little bit with virtual was huge and giving other people opportunity to speak and being OK with that kind of pregnant pause in between. No one else cares. It's only in our brain. But that has helped me kind of slow down communication virtually. And that also helps in terms of how performances have gone and hosting on a virtual stage. [00:26:10][118.2]
Keith H: [00:26:11] Very cool. So you've been now down in Texas for five years, moved from Chicago and you decided to leave this digital ad sales world. Do you remember the day that you were like, Screw it, I'm done with this and this is what I want to do. [00:26:25][13.3]
Emily Z: [00:26:26] Yeah, so my husband and I decided we were going to move down to Texas, he had an opportunity to move within his company. My family's down here. I now have a three-year-old, but we were thinking about, yeah, we were thinking about starting a family and we're thinking, OK, let's do this in Texas because there's no way I'm pushing a stroller through snow. And it's funny because, you know, you and I were working together at Slate. I remember having a conversation with you that I was going to make this move. And you actually graciously gave me the opportunity to have some flexibility of doing my job from Texas. And I knew that I needed to make the absolute leap because if I kept giving myself the opportunity to do what I've been doing because it was comfortable, I wouldn't have made that jump. Yeah. And again, it's like. It's not about the leap or it's about the leap, not the landing, so my landing, I was hoping, was going to be, you know, success in this industry and being able to get stage time. But I did not know I did not walk into Four Day Weekend and get a position in the cast. I walked in as the director of corporate sales. So that was my in. But I'm a performer. So through getting extra stage time and building the trust of my colleagues, I got more and more stage time. And now I get to host the Dallas show every Friday and Saturday. And so that opportunity was because I wasn't guaranteed it, but I worked hard at it and I put myself in a position where I had the opportunity so I could have easily not gotten there. I could have easily been continuing more of like the sales side, and that would have been fine. But because I just kind of cut the last part of my career just out of the question, I was like, OK, now I really have to like, I can't just do this. What else am I going to do? So it gave me more opportunity to try things out. [00:28:20][113.9]
Keith H: [00:28:21] That's amazing. Was there a different approach that you had this time learning from Second City learning? OK, I'm going to be on the corporate side, but I also want this career on stage that you brought to the Four Day Weekend to make sure the cast, the crew, the people knew that being on stage was crucial to you. [00:28:37][15.7]
Emily Z: [00:28:38] Yeah, I think it's just being honest with my goals. You know, I walked into a company that, you know, it's a small business. It's three guys that started an improv troupe and put, you know, 700 bucks up and never went back to funding, just started this show. And the show continued to build. And then all of a sudden it was OK. Well, we have this show. Do you guys do private events? Sure. Yeah, yes. And it's a little too much for your company. And that's how the whole company has been building and building for twenty-four years. So walking in, I had to be honest because it's not only my career and my hopes and dreams, but it's their business that they've built. So being able to put myself out there and gain the trust of my colleagues that started the company, it's been amazing because I don't take it for granted the fact that they have given me more opportunity within the company and to represent the brand, which is it's their baby. So I think being upfront and honest about my goals, putting myself out there and learning, getting the stage time has all kind of somehow worked out. [00:29:40][61.7]
Keith H: [00:29:41] Have there been times where you wondered if you made a mistake? [00:29:43][2.6]
Emily Z: [00:29:45] No, no, I really don't. I am really grateful for every opportunity I've had. You know, I think I've taken every opportunity and enjoyed it. Now that I really think about it, but maybe the products that I've sold years and years and years ago were not something that I understood or had a passion for, but I loved the people I worked with. I loved the opportunities and learning to not be good at something and then get good at it. I think that that again, that muscles important to work. [00:30:14][29.1]
Keith H: [00:30:15] Can you talk a little bit more about that? That seems to be a thing. As people get older in their career, they realize that it's important to build that muscle and areas that they're not that great at and to embrace that. How important was that to you in this transition to understand like, OK, I'm not an expert in these new things that I'm doing. [00:30:31][15.6]
Emily Z: [00:30:32] Yeah, I think the biggest part of it is I stopped judging myself for not being good at something. I put myself out there and I have fun with it. That's the biggest thing is like, we forget to have fun with what we're doing doesn't mean we need to be reckless or silly. But being able to find the fun in the things that are maybe not the most enjoyable part of being an adult or your job in general, I found ways to kind of gamify that and that was really enjoyable. So, for example, I pitch services, I'm still in sales. So there's a cold calling aspect of things there is putting myself out there, but using my personality and being able to find a tone that works. I think from the other side or from the client-side is hopefully refreshing. And if not, then probably I'm not their cup of tea, and that's OK. But being able to figure out and get to the no quicker and not beat myself up whenever something doesn't work out, because where there's that opportunity, there's a thousand others. And I think that just having a good time and enjoying myself, that rubs off on our clients for sure. And then, you know, then I'm not just moping around because I'm not good at something or I have to do this part of my job I don't like, I mean, even building agreements and invoices, the bane of my existence. I don't ever. I mean, I can't. I hate it so much, but I put on some good music. I, you know, I just find a way to get past it and then get to the part that I really enjoy. [00:32:06][93.4]
Keith H: [00:32:06] Yeah, I try to make it like an invoice morning to get through that part, too, because I don't mind making sure I get the money. I do mind sending out that invoice like, by the way, you owe me money. Yeah. So I'd love to learn a little bit about this process of when you do OK, maybe it's not a cold call. Maybe it's a little bit more of a warm intro when you do have a company that's interested in what Four Day Weekend has to offer. How does that process began to pre-production to get ready for that? [00:32:33][27.3]
Emily Z: [00:32:34] Yeah. So I get down to the need. Let's say, let's say at the conference where I have a client that's doing a multi-day conference. They've never used an M.C. before. They had a magician come two years ago, and he was terrible. You know, we're starting from a baseline. I like to say we have a reverence with the event. You're getting your people together and that's the one time of year. Everybody's together and you're sharing information, you're getting buy in. And maybe it's a company that you have a bunch of franchisees that are there and you need to let them know they're investing in X, Y and Z for this future. That's important, and we don't play with that, but we have fun with the tropes of an event, so I like to compare it to if we're hosting. It's kind of like the late-night talk show. OK, the guest is important. We're interviewing. We're having reverence with the information, but we're having, you know, we're irreverent with the trappings of a late-night talk show. So we'll have a musical guest who is an improv. You know, part of our cast is improvising something they just heard from a presentation and they sing a song about it, then back to the COO, delivering this information, then back to us and we have. So I describe to them this kind of structure where they can, and I compare it to something that's very tangible, like a late-night talk show or the Oscars. And then I build around their important information and their presentations. It's really just a layering of both entertainment and training around what they have as their current conference. And it's really fun because again, it's a creative process, but I co-create with them because they know what they need to deliver. They just don't know how to do it. We're experts in content delivery and making things interesting and sticky. So it's like, All right, let's come together and create this fun thing. And then there's an element of trust. They have to understand that, OK, in this block of an agenda, it's a ten-minute block. And it says Four Day Weekend interview and improvises a song they have to understand. I don't know what that ten minutes is going to be. Yeah, but just trust me, it's going to be fun and it's going to be about you, your company and your people. And so that's really a fun tightrope walk when people are very afraid of the unknown. But I always say, you're paying us not just for this gig, you're paying us for the seven thousand that we've done over twenty-four years. And that's really a fun part of my job is to get people to understand that aspect of it. [00:35:02][147.7]
Keith H: [00:35:02] So the 7000 you done before, do you remember the first one you did? [00:35:06][3.8]
Emily Z: [00:35:08] Well, so the company itself has done 7000. I know my first corporate, Oh, this is good. OK, get ready. You're going to laugh at me. So my first corporate gig at Four Day Weekend and I had done many at like the Second City before, etc. But when I first joined with the guys and I sold this really nice, nice little number and it was we're going to have with this conference. It's an oil and gas company based out of Texas, very large company, big conference. We were doing some hosting, reading some keynote elements. I was actually able to go and help with one of the pieces of content, and I'm on stage and we're doing this activity where I needed a pen to write down what lines of dialog we had already used. So I needed to mark three lines of dialog and I'm up at the podium and I lean over because the CEO of the company is right there. His assistant, a couple other people and I'm like, and I'm kind of mouthing, does anyone have a pen? And I'm doing the pen motion, you know, they're like, Let me close out my tab. So I'm like, Anybody have a pen and the CEOs? And he reaches into his coat pocket and he hands me a pen. Thank you. Great. I do my bit and he comes up after, so I set the pen on the podium. I leave. We finish the conference. The next day. I send the most artful thank you. I thank you so much for having us, it was and kind of getting them to dinner. And then the executive assistant sends me a note back and she's like, Hey, oh my gosh. Everybody compliments galore. Chris was wondering, Do you have? Do you still have his pen, the pen you borrowed? And I was like, The pen I borrowed? It like it's a pen? That's the day I learned what a Montblanc was. [00:36:45][97.0]
Keith H: [00:36:45] Oh man, yeah. [00:36:46][1.0]
Emily Z: [00:36:49] So let's just say the margins of that gig went to buying an executive $5000 pen. And that's my first corporate gig at Four Day Weekend. [00:36:58][9.5]
Keith H: [00:36:59] Oh man. So it wasn't. So obviously somebody took it. So it wasn't, it wasn't on the podium and couldn't be found. Yeah. Now what if this is how this executive gets his Montblanc pens? he just, you know, I'm always looking for the conspiracy in this. What if he was using this as a way and he has like 50 because he would do this on unsuspecting people and hand off. [00:37:21][22.6]
Emily Z: [00:37:22] He just every morning opens up his drawer of all his Montblancs, takes a deep breath and [00:37:27][5.1]
Keith H: [00:37:28] says, Oh, who am I going to trick today? What company am I taking down? Oh, that's rough. Yeah. So any advice for people who you know, maybe they don't have this corporate company who's going to say, yes, let's do this. Yes, and let's do this. They're stuck at home. You know, we've been home for now 18 months, and the Zoom calls are just adding up and the fatigue is coming in. Any advice, any thing that you would give to somebody to kind of find that enjoyment during the day or to kind of find that break in the day that they can learn from you? [00:37:57][29.3]
Emily Z: [00:37:59] Yeah, that's a great question. I think what do they enjoy? What's fun? I can't say it enough. Do the fun things like life's too short? If you've ever wanted to take a music class, there's music classes virtually. I love, I can't say enough about Master Class. I, you know, I turn on my master class and learn some sort of skill and try to keep that fresh in my mind going. I just I am not a fan of monotony. And that's what this last 18 months has felt like. There's a lot of that. OK. Same day. Or, you know, a different day. Same routine. Trying to shake it up. I think being able to find the break in the routine, find something that you're not comfortable in doing. Do it until you're comfortable. I mean, there's so much fun in that. And then surround yourself with people that enjoy that type of thing or that, you know, make you think differently as well. I have to say, like, you know, to be completely honest, I moved to Texas and I now work and talk with people that have different viewpoints than I do and the fact that like, I can surround myself and not be in a negative place and learn from people, but then be open minded as well. I think just getting yourself out of your bubble as soon as you can will definitely help with all, all things involved. [00:39:18][78.6]
Keith H: [00:39:19] It's great advice. We have this new variant and we're continuing to be careful and cautious. But what does the next year or two look like for you? Ideally. [00:39:27][8.2]
Emily Z: [00:39:29] Yeah, so we are playing the dance of hybrid in our world, so, you know, we do have our shows where our cast is vaccinated, we mask up when we're in the room, but when we're on stage, we're not masked, but we're kind of in each other's bubbles. So we're very cognizant of that. But in terms of our corporate work, we have a lot of live slash hybrid gigs where, you know, a conference that would have thousands and thousands of people. Now there's going to be 20 people in the room or 100 people in the room and the rest is broadcast out. So we're finding really creative ways to do that. For example, I'll be hosting the Southwest Airlines Leadership Summit in a week and that was going to be live. Now it's virtual kind of more of a hybrid model, and so we've had to adjust on a dime. So creating content that at any point can be used live, but also could switch to virtual. So we're really working our improv muscles and making sure there's always a Plan B for everything. [00:40:27][58.1]
Keith H: [00:40:28] Yeah, it's just wild how I think so much, especially now as we're going back into the fall. In the winter, the plan to go back and now back to hybrid, the lessons that you've learned by being hybrid might be some other things that other people can take away, right? I think mentally, a lot of us were ready to get back into an office and see each other and goof around. You know, the thing that I miss that I talk to people about is the walk and talk after a meeting right where you find out what actually people thought of the meeting. Yeah. How can people create some of those moments, a little bit more serendipity in their lives because so much of it is Zoom call? Two minute break to go get coffee, Zoom calls, Zoom call, Zoom Call. Is there something that you would offer that they can kind of break up the monotony in their day and maybe have a little bit of serendipity with their coworkers? [00:41:12][44.1]
Emily Z: [00:41:14] Yeah. You know, I mean, I think it's in fact there is, you know, the Zoom meeting, but there's the chat afterwards, like you said, the walk and talk. For me, that's happening via Slack. That's happening via text. You know, making sure I still maintain those connections with my coworkers and just enjoying the few times that we do get to be together. I mean, that's that's really been a breath of fresh air, for sure. But yeah, I mean, I think it's just making sure you're checking in with your colleagues. We do something backstage before we walk on stage where we literally slap each other in the back and say, Got your back. And it's actually it's a really nice reminder that when I'm on stage, like I said, I'm going to bring my best. If I don't, they've all got my back. So I mean, what could possibly go wrong? But it's really nice. Whenever we're doing big corporate events, virtual or not, I'll get text messages from my colleagues right before I walk on stage and it's just as got your back, which is just a great reminder that we're kind of all in this shit together. [00:42:14][60.2]
Keith H: [00:42:16] Yeah. Emily, thank you so much. It's been super fun reconnecting, chatting with you. If people want to learn more about Four Day Weekend, where do they go? How do they find out more information? [00:42:24][8.0]
Emily Z: [00:42:25] Absolutely. So you can go on our website, which is www.FourDayWeekend.com. They can email me Emily at Four Day Weekend com again, all spelled out, and they can follow us on all the social channels for week weekend comedy. [00:42:40][15.9]
Keith H: [00:42:41] Awesome, Emily, thank you so much. [00:42:42][1.4]
Emily Z: [00:42:43] Thank you, Keith. It's so good to see your face. [00:42:43][0.0]
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