In today’s show, Meghan gets to know Heather Desmarais (aka HD), our Director of Content Services. We learn about super wipes, volleyball, how to make perfect McDonalds fries and about one of the fastest growing departments at Audigy Group.
Read the transcript:
I’m sitting here with HD. HD has been with Audigy for, I would guess, close to seven years, at this point? I believe that you started in January of 2009.
You did. I mean, I did! But you did your research.
Well, actually I didn’t do any research. I remember, because I remember I started working at Audigy in November of 2008. And I remember your presence when you joined the company, because I remember it being something that was really impactful and something that was a really positive experience for me.
Thanks, Meg.
Yes, so unlike some of our previous guests, I know a lot of your history and introduction into the company. Not everybody knows that, so I would like to talk a little bit about that. But what I don’t know is kind of where you’re at right now. I don’t know your story about how you got to where you are right now, how you built up this team and this department, and kind of pitched an idea and got the buy-in from the people who could support you into making that dream a reality. So let’s start. I guess, what’s your current title?
Well, my current title is Director of Content Services. But I want to go back to when I first started, because the reason that you know so much about me is that we shared a cube wall. And I remember it because, remember, the windows slide?
Yes, oh, yes.
And I didn’t know who you were, and actually I don’t think you were there my first day. But somebody said, oh, yeah, she’s a media buyer. And I was like what is a media buyer, like most people who have no idea what media buying is.
So I remember, though, then you maybe came back from lunch or something. I never saw you, but I heard your voice. And what people might not know about Meghan Kelly is that she’s a master negotiator, I mean, like a bulldog. If you put her on something, this lady, this sweet voice that you hear, this kindness– not that you’re mean. Maybe a little bit, but these reps, right? Like you handle them really well.
Why thank you.
But I hadn’t heard the sweet Meghan. I only heard the master negotiator, Meghan Kelly, and I was like, oh, who is this girl– for this lady really? And then I remember it was a couple days later, or maybe we introduced ourselves that day or something, but it was a couple days later when we first figured out we can slide that window open, and we didn’t have to keep it closed any longer. Like we kind of like all of a sudden bonded. We had a conversation in the kitchen, and then everything changed. But that was like my favorite things, and I’ll never forget that.
Why thank you.
You’re one of my first impression here at Audigy.
So, yeah, I remember you starting as well, like I said. And it was one of those things where you had this like presence that came with you. And I remember you working in events and being like initially introduced into that team having one really specific role, but then sort of becoming like the matriarch of that team and taking care–
Jack of all trades.
Yes, well, taking care of all of the people and all of the– and I also remember this one time where you had this massive shirt ordered for you. Do you remember that?
Oh, my gosh, yes, because we wear polos. And I had an event to go to. It was within the first three or four weeks of me starting. So they’re like, we need to order polos, and they do really cool stuff with them back then– 38th employee when I started. You’re probably 35th or something.
But they embroidered you name in the sleeve back then. And so I was like, let me see the size of them. And they’re not forgiving, and I’m a big girl So I was like, I’m going to need at least two sizes larger on this. And they’re like, OK, well we can definitely make that happen.
And then it was like a week later, but like a day before we were leaving for, I think it was, the international trip like to Mexico or something. And they ordered me a men’s XXL. It was– remember? It was like a sheet.
It was like the size of like a king duvet cover. And I remember you walked in holding this shirt, and you were like–
I had to hold it. It was wide.
There was no way– there was absolutely no way you could–
I couldn’t cinch it.
No, there was no way you could wear this.
And you know it’s big if I can’t cinch it.
There was just no way. There was no way you could wear this thing. And I remember you walked in holding it by the shoulders, and it was like a blanket. And you’re like–
Like, no words.
Well, you’re like, this is my shirt.
Yeah, that happened.
And you had to take it to a special tailor, do you remember? You had to drive to downtown Portland.
Yes, and was Ashley Walker’s tailor and Mason’s tailor, and so it’s really special place in the Pearl.
And you bring them this massive shirt.
I bring in this massive polo shirt to a really chic and upscale tailor. And they’re like looking at me, and I’m like, I’ve got two days to make this shirt fit. And I’ll tell you what, all they did was cut it, remove a little bit of fabric, and sew it back together. So it wasn’t like it was a nice tailored fit. I want everyone to know that right now. It was still box-cut style polo shirt.
Do you still have that shirt?
You know, I don’t think I do. It might have been donated to Goodwill. But, you know, someone has it, and they have my name embroidered on the side of their arm.
That’s true. My face hurts.
That’s a good story. I wish people could see though, because I really did– my wing span is like 6’3″ anyway, but I was holding that shirt out. It was probably solid 5’2″.
Oh, it was the largest shirt I have ever seen. But the funniest thing about this was at that point, you didn’t think it was funny. You were just furious. You had just come up– this is my shirt– no humor. And I’m like OK, not appropriate to laugh at this point. At some point, this will become funny. Is not funny right now.
No, but it did become funny.
It did. Like right now!
Which is kind of indicative of my entire journey at Audigy. It’s a great segue, because I feel like I’ve always been given the biggest shirt and been asked to make it work.
And my resilience really had to come through. I mean, it’s a great analogy.
Yeah, that’s exactly what I was going to say. That’s a really, really good analogy. So let’s kind of use that to jump into your current title you said was Director of Content Services, and so what does that mean?
That’s a good question. So basically content for Audigy Group Stratus and Audigy Medical is basically taking anything that we’ve created from an operational strategy and turning it into something that our members can easily digest, understand, and then go implement, as well train their internal teams to be able to help them simplify, understand, and move their businesses forward.
So content really can be anything in the form of our videos that we do from an e-learning standpoint to live instructor-led courses, like our PFL event, our team summit breakouts, courses, things like that– pretty much all over the webinars. That’s lot of content-based stuff. And then anything from an internal training standpoint, helping our on-board new employees here in the building.
So we have our hands in a lot of different things from a content perspective, because really, anything that’s designed or any kind of product that comes to fruition starts with content.
Got you. So you must work with a lot of different teams?
All of them.
Like you’re getting kind of like the project scope or sort of like an idea, maybe even. It might not even be something that scoped out. And you take this idea and make it something that’s actually like–
A product.
Yeah, tangible an actionable, and like– OK
Based upon what the goal is, right? Because what are we trying to do with this particular type of messaging? And we’d say, oh, it’s we want somebody to learn a new skill, or we want somebody to change a behavior, or we want somebody just to be entertained, kind of like the podcast is right now. It’s entertaining.
So once we know that outcome, then we can design what type of medium we go through, and what kind of deliverable we’re going to construct, and which teams we’re going to leverage. But I will say that’s one thing I love about the content team is that with our hands in all these pockets, really, because we don’t work for ourselves; we work for everybody else. I mean, there’s nothing that’s like this is from the content team. No, this is for another team. Go use it in order to drive the business.
Yeah, that makes sense. So who works on the content team?
So we have a pretty good sized team. It’s composed of a couple different sub-teams. We have of our video production team. I mean, do you like want names and titles and things like that?
No, you don’t have to give me names and titles, but like the types of positions that work with you.
Sure, so on the video production team there’s a multimedia producer. We have video editors. We have writer. Have motion graphics designer, which is kind of cool, because that’s an area that it’s not just print. It really takes– and we animate a lot of our staff and/or use really cool templates to really make things stand out and be modern. That team is pretty dialed in.
And then some of those people work with our other side of the team, which is more the adult learning, instructional design side. So we have like we call content development managers, which are basically kind of a glorified project manager, in a way, or like an operations manager. They take a project, and they run it through from initial concept, working with stakeholders, and then manage the projects through, working with all the teams that are involved, whether it be the video production team or somebody who’s designing something for a handheld tool, a PFL, or whatever the case ma be. They own that project.
And then we just are now dabbling in internal training. So we have a corporate training manager now, who will be in charge of helping, alongside of internal HR, really move and build kind or an organizational training department.
Nice, so how many people total on the team?
So now we have, including myself, 13.
OK, so that’s a– do all fit in that little room?
We moved to the other building. Yeah, which shows that we haven’t had coffee in a while!
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah, but on the second over at Park, there’s a big huge production studio, and that’s where we do a lot of our filming anyway. And so we just took up a couple of those offices over there and then the big alcove area also. We’re kind of bleeding out into there. We had eight people, and now we have three people out in the other area, as well.
Tell me a little bit more about how you moved through the organization and the different positions that you held along the way.
Sure, so when I started, there was no professional development manager, which is the person that helps implement Patients for Life and the practice with the owners and their staff. When I started, that that’s why they hired me actually. It was to be on the professional development and events team, which was Ashley Schmitz at the time, before she married Mason, and events coordinator, and then I was the third person. So that was your entire professional development and events department.
And I was hired on to basically– they were already doing Patients for Life trainings, these three-day events. I was supposed to come on and create this 90-day implementation plan. So I was going to be the first support to help implement, so instead of just attending a conference, now you had follow-up support, and then manage all the collateral, so all these patient-facing forms that the members could order from us. All that stuff– I was in charge of all of.
How many members did we have at that time?
113’ish
So you were responsible for–
I was like, yeah– I was supposed to, yeah– well, I had to gauge. There was only four territories, the way it was broken up at the time. And I had to work with the newly operations manager, because that was when the SBU structure was born was that year. And we had to figure out which members had the interest to implement. It was basically like I figured out I could work with maybe 20 at the time. And I just tried to create a system of checks and balances for that 90-day period, a couple touch points each month, and who to work with, and the forms that we had to do.
And look, it was all back then, and some of the members that I worked with probably would tell you this, that it was just me talking about the forms and how to use them in the practice. It wasn’t a lot of the big, behavioral stuff that the professional development managers coach on now, which is what the evolution was, which is kind of cool. Because imagine, that was January of 2009, and then five years later, you know, I became a senior professional development manager in like year four. And then we had a team of six professional development managers, and we were a completely different, evolved team.
We weren’t trainers. We were coaches. We weren’t just telling people how to use a form. We were helping them understand their patients and how to ask the right types of questions to get information to help move them forward with better hearing. And it was just a completely different vibe.
Let’s go– this is kind of like my favorite part in these types of interviews, because I like to go way back to like first job and kind of talked a little bit about what your experience was when you first jumped into the working world. Where did you grow up, Wenatchee?
Yakima.
Yakima, OK– I’m not from around here. I think I think everyone’s from Wenatchee.
That’s the center of the state of Washington. It’s a good place to start.
Yeah, how far away is it from Wenatchee?
It’s like an hour, maybe an hour and a half.
So you’re basically from Wenatchee.
Pretty much from Wenatchee, yeah.
Yeah, come on, it sort of sounds like Wenatchee– sounds like a sister of Wenatchee.
Actually, yeah, kind of.
So, Yakima, tell me a little bit about it. Well, first–
There’s a lot apples, agriculture, beer hops, golfing, wine.
OK, are there a lot of fields, and is there any like elevation or anything?
Yeah, it’s about 1,000 feet up. There’s some rolling hills. It’s right on the eastern slopes of the Cascade Mountains. So it actually– it’s like 300 days of sunshine kind of location. You get all four seasons. You’re 45 minutes to an hour from Mount Rainier, skiing a half an hour away. Or you can go to the east, and it’s like the desert. You can go southwest, and there’s like the Columbia River and the Tri-Cities area. It’s hot. Or you can go to the Columbia Gorge in like an hour, just south. It’s a pretty cool area.
OK, yeah, it sounds great.
It’s better than Wenatchee.
Yeah, OK, so first job in Yakima?
So if we were technical, I’d say I was baby sitter. I babysat a lot. I’m the oldest in my family of my two brothers, like by eight years and 13 years. So I was every summer babysitting.
But did you get paid for babysitting?
No, are you kidding me? No, so that’s why I said technically speaking. And then also technically speaking, at age 14, I worked with my friend Megan. Her parents owned all the McDonald’s in town.
How many were there?
There were five.
Whoa.
It’s a big deal. Yakima’s got 90,000 people. It’s a big deal. But anyway, so if I did fries for the summer when I was 14, which if you think about the child labor law thing? But we worked there. We loved it, and we worked for like four or five hours.
You were only allowed to –work with the fries.
But I only got to do the fries. Until I got promoted to drive-through, but that’s not a job I want to talk about.
Well, actually, I’m not done. I’m not done. Tell me how you make McDonald’s fries.
So there’s a bag that’s in the box. And you make sure the oil is– you just press a button, because it does it all for you, as far as like heat is concerned. You take the bag of fries. It’s already premeasured– at least this is how we did it back then, back in the day. Rip open the easy-tear thing, you dump them into the basket. You press the button. The basket drops down.
How many minutes until they were–
I don’t know, maybe three or four minutes? And then it beeps, and then you have to get it out before it burns, and then you toss it over into the bin, and then there’s one salt shaker, and you salt it a certain way. And then you mix them all up, and then you take the big scoop. You attach the– I can’t believe I still remember this. You’d attach a little carton, and then you scoop it.
And then the key– and anybody’s who’s worked at the movie theaters and had to do popcorn is also key. You have to shake like the thing into the container. Like you have to– what do you call it, the scoop?
You have to kind of shake it so that things kind of settle in appropriately. Otherwise it’s not full, and people get pissed. So you need to make sure you give them their fair share of fries and/or popcorn, you know? So you pack it. It’s a big deal. It’s a technique.
So what is annoying filling the small size, the bag?
Small wasn’t too bad. It wasn’t too bad. It wasn’t too bad. Mediums were like a waste. You’re like, why are you ordering a medium? You can get a small. That’s fine. But you order a large. Mediums are a waste of time. And we never pre-made those, because it was only once in a blue moon somebody’s like, I’ll take a medium.
Who orders a frikkin’ medium?
75-year-old, they’ll order a hamburger, or they’ll say cheeseburger no cheese, a medium fry. I’m making this part up actually.
I bet you can learn a lot about someone if they order a medium. You know, like if they order like the odd size. I wonder what like–
They have to be different.
–the psychological profile of someone who orders–
Or they order two mediums because they think they’re getting a better deal than if they order a large and a small– something like that.
OK, so any burns from the grease or the oil?
I don’t remember, but you slide around a lot. McDonalds’ floors are gross. I remember that.
You didn’t stand on one of those mats?
No, they didn’t– maybe they had them, but I just remember sliding everywhere. It was a death trap. Like it’s like grease compounded. And they were supposed to mop every day, but we’d mop with the same water. It just disgusting. And there was a smell. There was just this– and they were polos back then too. And it just always had this smell on you. It’s like this residue of fried oil.
From McDonald’s– actually how long did you do that for? 14 till?
Two summers, because I couldn’t get a job anywhere else because of child labor laws.
Oh, right.
And it was fun. I got to be with my friend Megan.
Second job or another job that you had that was kind of–
Yeah, favorite– if I were to call it actually my first job, this would’ve been the one I talked about. I was a teleprompter operator for the five and six o’clock news for the local TV station.
My mom has been a dental assistant my whole life. And so therefore she knew– and Yakima’s not big– 90,000 people– works for an amazing dentist. She knows a lot of people. She’s super personable, and people love her. Like we go to the grocery store– my whole life– any grocery store, somebody knows mom.
So she has connections, and so she’s really good at asking people that she’s connected with. So she knew the general manager of the station because she does his teeth and asked if there’s anything I could do, even if it was just cleaning up at night. And he was like, well, and found out they needed the teleprompter.
So teleprompter operator– old school style. Nowadays it’s all got to be digital. I can’t imagine it not being digital, only just type in their stuff reporters do, and it sends it, and it populates it, and whatever. But back then the reporters would type up their story, and they had to do it in a certain width of text on this paper that when it was printed out, it was the kind of paper that goes through the printer that has the perforated holes on the side, and it grabs it and pushes it through, and it has like four copies on it.
So when it comes out, you tear off those perforated edges, and you’ve got your four copies. My job was to separate it into four piles, and they had all been ordered of the sequence that the producer would give me for the particular news session. And there’s like four segments, the first one being the longest; the second one, not as long; third one, a little bit longer; and then fourth ones really fast, like fun little stories.
So I’d put those all in order. The producer would get one inside of the room. The two anchors would get two copies, their own color. The top copy then I would tape– little pieces of the tape on the bottom corners. And I would just tape them in order of their segments. And then I would tape them up against this wall, and then there was this long conveyor belt, the size of the table, like about a six-foot table and a little camera tacked on to the bottom that was pointing down.
And there was a tiny monitor off to the side with two lines on it, where then I would tape the stream of scripts onto this conveyor belt, and it would go under the camera because it had like a dimmer switch-style. It would turn it for to go faster or slower. And then it would just go underneath this camera, project to the monitor, which then projected up through the cameras, and then they would read.
So what happens– what if there was a wrinkle on the conveyor?
That happened like every other segment, right, because the tape, if I didn’t tape it just right–
And it’s going through, because it wraps background under itself. And if it was going and then it would wrinkle, and then it would be so loud. I’m in the studio with him. And it’s so loud and going, and then the anchors are like, so I, um– and then they pull up their– because they’d have to pull up their extra scripts.
And then I would scrambling, tearing paper inside the studio– the worst place to put a teleprompter operator with paper, and I’m just loud. And I would sweat, and I would just– I mean, I was 16.
I can imagine it was nerve-wracking.
Yeah, I was 16.
So were they nice about the wrinkles and the mess-ups?
Oh, yeah, and I would figure out a system and how to make it better and know when something was going to wrinkle. But you have to realize, when you notice something’s wrinkling– I’m holding the speed control in one hand and operating it with the other. It’s not like I could stop it, because I had to do one or the other. So it was a little bit hectic.
Yeah, so did you progress at the station in any other roles, or how did you kind of leave that job, or what happened there?
I ended up, like every other high-schooler, like, what are my friends doing? So I ended up being a barista. I worked at the movie theaters. I had some other little odd jobs here and there.
Where’d you go?
My first two years I went to Columbia Basin College in Tri-Cities, playing volleyball. And I was– back then they didn’t have full-rides to junior colleges or community colleges, but I had partials. So I still needed to make some money. And so the connection I had at my local TV station– they called their sister station. And I became the tape operator for the 11 o’clock news– or know, it was the 6 o’clock news and the 11 o’clock news.
And I’ll be honest with you, within maybe a year, I became technical director, because I ran the cameras. I did everything inside of that place, and I became second director of the 11 o’clock news, which is a huge switchboard. So every time you see a camera cut to another angle or a story–
Oh, that’s what you were doing?
-or a super wipe. Yeah, I did all of that. I ran–
Oh, wait, a what, a super wipe?
Yeah, where like– Yeah, you know super wipes, duh.
Yeah, I love super wipes.
Who doesn’t know that? But like there’s a super, which is called also a lower third, or it’s where your name comes up at the bottom.
Like the banner across the bottom?
The banner across the bottom– so I would fade that in, fade that out. That was also called a wipe.
OK, so volleyball– you mentioned volleyball a couple of times, and that’s something that is pretty interesting. Obviously you were pretty good if you were getting these types of scholarships, right? Straight I know nothing about volleyball. I don’t really like any sport with a ball. I feel like if I’m holding something and people are coming at me, I feel like I just want to give it up, rather than fight for it.
Got it.
I just don’t have that, like– but foot race? Man–
You’re on it.
Oh, yeah, as long as you’re not going to like come after me, I will run away from you.
Foot race– got it, OK. I know how to pique your interest.
Yeah, oh, yeah, challenge me to a foot race. Through the cemetery– I’ll beat you every time, even if I die. OK, so talk to us a little bit about volleyball and your college years and beyond, if you continued to play.
Well, I actually did want to go back and talk about volleyball in the sense of when I started it, because it actually has played a major role in pretty much the resilience and determination that I have today. Because– so I danced from age three to age 12. It was really cute, and who doesn’t want a little girl that dances.
What kind of dance?
Tap, jazz, ballet, and I started doing toe ballet, gymnastics. But obviously, I got a little bit too tall for all of that. And I just stood out like a sore thumb, and it was sixth grade. My friends in middle school were going to play volleyball, and I wanted to do it too because my friends were doing it. And then my mom said, you’ve got to choose one or the other. They’re expensive.
It wasn’t like I was just playing like middle school volleyball. It was the club, like year-around, traveling.
It’s not sponsored by the school.
Yeah, you paid for it, yeah. So my mom said you’ve got to choose, and I chose volleyball. So back then– I mean, we’re talking late ’80s into the early ’90s, when I was going through my sixth grade to 12th grade volleyball time. It was still dominated by a lot of male coaches, and they were not kind. It was not everybody gets a trophy. It was, who’s the MVP? Who’s most valuable on the team? That was the awards that we had the pizza party at the end of the season, and you always wanted to be the captain or the MVP. Otherwise– or most improved. Those were the only three awards. It wasn’t like, everyone, here you go for a great season.
So there was always this drive for competitiveness, and there were levels of you were either on the gold team, or you were on the red or the white team, so you either where the best or you weren’t. And so the club was a major drive for me because it helped me to deal with people being in my face, yelling at me. I mean, the coaches were not– and that’s back when the parents were like, listen to your coach.
Like nowadays parents challenge coaches, and it’s not fair for my child, but that’s a whole other rant I don’t really want to get into. But it built some character for me. There was a lot of challenges and trials and tribulations, where I would be crying at home, and my mom would say– I’ll never forget this– don’t listen to how they say it, just listen to what they’re saying. You can do this. It doesn’t matter what they think. If you want it, we can go get it.
So then I always had that instilled in my mind. And so I just told myself, I’m going to go play in college. Like I don’t ever remember a time where I was worried about going to college. We didn’t have the money for it, but I never thought anything other than I’m going to get a scholarship. I didn’t apply to colleges. I didn’t write like essays or anything like that, but I just knew that that’s what I want to do, and I was going to do it.
Luckily, I did get picked up by that community college. And then the end of those two years– it great. I played all the games. I started. I got better. I remember my friend, my setter on the team, who was also my really good friend in college, she was being recruited by Eastern New Mexico University. And so they were watching her game tapes and making sure– they were going to fly her down and all this stuff. She was getting lots of opportunities like that.
And these coaches who were watching the game tape, and they saw her and I together and how it wasn’t just her. It was the combination. Her success also was how well we worked together, and I was the position where it’s called right-side, and it’s right behind the setter. So she sets backwards to me. So we were fast. Like, I could say one word, and I’d be right there, and we just worked really well in unison.
And so they were like, oh, who’s this 6’3: right-side? And then there was also a middle blocker that all three of us together were kind of this dynamic trio. So they brought all of us down for a visit as a group and had us play with the team and try out basically, in a sense. And on the spot, offered all three of us full-ride scholarship, and so we came down as a group.
That must have been like– because you were with your team– was that reassuring?
Oh, absolutely. It was a small town, and everyone just embraced us. There were news articles about this trio from the Pacific Northwest, and it was really cool. I started this in sixth grade, and I went through probably eight years of turmoil and hardship, and I had to navigate a lot of rough waters. And thank the lord my mom was a part of that, obviously, with me and shaping how I did that. It wasn’t until the final two years that I really experienced that success, like where I got to taste it and feel like all my hard work had paid off.
And as I got into the work world, it’s kind of like I started that journey all over again. And a lot of times when you’re in the moment, you don’t think like that. You just think, things are happening to me. This is so hard. There’s no end in sight. I don’t know how I’m ever going to get around this. And then if you just keep your head down and remember the things happening, not like necessarily to you, but how you react to them, and then, all of a sudden, you come out the other side. And all of a sudden, things are amazing. That’s where I’m at now.
You, know, I’ve been with Audigy for seven years, and it’s just the past probably year that I’m like where I was at in the end of my volleyball career, where it’s like, wow, it’s all making sense. It’s all been worth it, like all of it, and I wouldn’t change a thing.
Yeah, well, let’s end on this. Let’s end on your perfect day. If you could choose– or your perfect, let’s say, wake up to bedtime. What does that day look like for you without spending like too much time thinking about it. Let’s start right now. You wake up.
Well, I wake up, and it’s like [9:45] or [10:00] in the morning, and I will have gotten like awesome sleep and had really cool dreams, like the kind where you wake up, and you’re like, oh, it’s a good time to get up. I wake up to the smell of bacon. And Nate, my boyfriend, would have already been up for probably three hours, because that’s pretty standard anyway, and he will have made a triple-layer German chocolate cake from scratch, which is also not out of the scope of reality. He just did it last weekend. And he will have bacon ready, and probably a coffee from Starbucks, my quad grande Americana with cream, not to be specific, but to be specific.
And he’d be sitting there with a straw. And I would then sit down in the big chair, and I would put this quilt on me, and I would be starting whatever new season of Orange is the New Black would be on. But there’d be a new season on, and I would get to have a full day of marathon watching of Orange is the New Black. And Nate would want to watch it with me, and he’d be like, OK, what can I get you now? Would you like your bacon? Would you like a slice of cake– whatever the case might be.
And then he would say, oh, and by the way, we’re going to barbecue ribs tonight. We’re going to have people over, and it’ll be outside. The weather would just be tremendously perfect, like 72 degrees, and not like hot at all, grass is green. Bricks is like super happy and running around the backyard. People would bring their dogs over, and have six or seven or eight friends– nothing major. But we would drink Jameson on the rocks. We would smoke some cigars. And at night in the dark we’d play like Zac Brown, like would be just booming, and like neighbors would be like talking to us over the fence and enjoying that whole experience.
Remember, I just watched a whole season of Orange is the New Black, so there’d need to be a time warp. But that kind of like sharing in a moment, but still having my me time, that’s the perfect day for me. Like, let me have my alone time, and then let me have my big social people time.
What time does the social people thing end?
Oh, not till after [6:00], by the way.
That what time it starts?
Yeah.
What time does it end?
[2:00] in the morning.
OK, it goes late. It goes really late.
Well, depending on if they have kids or not. I mean people with kids would probably leave around [11:00] or [12:00]. And then there would be a couple of really cool intimate conversations with whoever was left, and you’ve had that two or three whiskeys too many. And you guys are just talking, and you start talking about stupid stuff that you know nothing about, like politics. I don’t even like talking about that, but if I had a cigar and too many Jamesons, that might be exactly what I want to talk about, and I’d sound ridiculous.
Well, HD, thank you so much for joining us today. I had so much fun. I have never left this hard on a podcast. Anyone who’s listening, we had to take a little bit of a break because I could not stop laughing. And I actually felt like I had like a facial injury from laughing.
Oh, I miss you Meg– good times.