Ready, lights, camera, action.
Hey friends, welcome back to another episode of Tales from the Service Industry.
My name is Miss B and I'm joined today by your favorite host, Bill.
Welcome back.
Thank you.
And your favorite deviant, Miss Liz.
Hi team.
We are so excited to have you guys back.
We've got a super fun episode planned out for you today.
Well Miss B and I were kind of thinking and we thought to kind of switch the reins on
things.
Yeah, let's dive a little deep.
How did this podcast happen?
Where did it come from?
Well yeah, where did it start?
When did it start?
How did it become?
And kind of where we are now.
We got questions, friends.
All right.
Well, where do we start then?
So when did this idea come to you for this podcast?
Maybe not even the podcast, maybe idea of wanting to share stories within the service
industry.
All right.
Well, that's a little easier to answer then.
So I guess the long version of the story is that it kind of started way back in the very
beginning when I first started working in the hotel industry.
Oh wow.
And the reason I say that is that I would have crazy things happen at work.
I would share them with my friends.
I'd share them with family and I would have people say, oh my God, can you tell the story
of such and such to whoever they were talking to?
Okay.
I've only told it 15 times, but sure, here we go.
And at the time, I mean, I hate to date myself, but-
I was going to ask if you were willing to share when that was that you started in the
industry.
Yeah.
So I mean, my first hotel job was in the mid 90s.
So not like email and internet was a brand new thing.
Well, it still was actually kind of a brand new thing.
Oh, for sure.
But podcasts really didn't exist.
And people would say, oh, you should write a book and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
But a book never will translate the same with the storytelling.
Yeah, that's true.
No, with different flexions of voices, different commentary with co-hosts.
Exactly.
So I mean, you read the book and you read it in your voice, not the voice of sharing
the story, if you will, which would be my voice in this case.
I love it.
So fast forward a whole bunch of years and we get hit by the pandemic and the thought
was, you know, hey, there's a lot of stories to tell.
This is really probably the only way to tell them.
Yeah.
So what?
And at that point in time, podcasts really started booming.
You know, for me personally, I probably started listening to podcasts, I don't know, five,
six years ago.
So not soon after the pandemic hit.
And it makes sense to have it in this podcast form.
So again, you're not only telling your story as you would in a book, but you're getting
to share it with other people who have gone through similar things and have them share
as well.
Yeah.
And that's really part two of it all too, is that there's a part of the telling of the
stories.
It's fun.
You get to sit around, we drink wine and we laugh and we get stupid.
Sometimes sometimes or all the time.
You know, there's been some really great things that have happened.
I mean, you, you ladies have met people that I know that you would never have met otherwise.
And likewise.
And vice versa.
Yeah.
It is right to those listening.
Oh my gosh.
Yeah.
Liz, you've been on the podcast quite a few times, but prior to you being a guest on the
podcast, I had never met you for sure.
And came on once as a guest thought like, all right, this is fun.
And I never stepped coming back.
I know.
So you're stuck with me now.
I know.
I'm the resident deviant.
Well, that's why it's resident and not just deviant.
Thank you.
I love it.
But the other part of it really was that it's cathartic, you know, we get to sit around
and tell stories and shoot the shit.
And it kind of, I don't want to say becomes a competition, but you know, Hey, what do
you have for an a-hole of the week?
And you've got this story and then it's like, Oh, I've got an a-hole that'll top that one.
You know, and it's amazing.
Yeah.
It's just kind of fun.
And yeah, there's, there's kind of a rehashing of the stress of that experience.
But at the same time, it's still a release and it's there's a laugh about it with other
people.
Yeah.
I mean, there's, there's some happiness in numbers, you know?
Yeah.
My husband calls this my weekly recorded group therapy.
It really is.
Yes.
You know, not like any of us have a degree in, in therapy, but you know, like if you're
not in the industry, you sit and listen to some of these stories and you just like that,
come on.
No way.
Is that letter real?
Yeah.
Nobody would say that.
Nobody would do.
Yeah.
If you're not in the industry, you don't have a relation to it.
You'll hear the stories and you'll giggle and you'll laugh along with us, but you don't
really understand.
Yeah, no.
You don't understand.
So you've lived it.
This is a everyday or weekly occurrence for us.
These crazy stories.
Yeah.
And ultimately I never wanted it about the hotel business.
That's not my desire.
That's why it's called Tales from the Service Industry, not, you know, Hotel Nightmares.
Yeah.
But you have done a great job of trying to get people not from hotels.
You know, and when we first started this, it's rough.
I mean, it's not to knock your bill, but yeah, they're rough.
They're bad.
I mean, it's kind of, to me, it's like the audio version of drinking the water in Mexico.
It's just, they're not good.
To be honest, and this isn't like a sick brag on me or anything, but when I share the podcast,
I'm like, yeah, you should listen.
This is kind of what I'm up to.
This is my fun thing I do on the side.
It's like, oh, but maybe don't start at the beginning.
Yeah.
Well, for the subscribers, if you go back, there's episodes that are now missing.
Oh.
Because I've taken them down.
The podcast is growing.
It's evolving.
It is.
And you should still be proud of those first couple episodes.
Yeah.
It's been a great experience.
You know what?
I'm proud of them, but not for maybe the reason you would think.
I'm not proud of them because of the audio quality or the flow or the chemistry or any
of that.
I'm proud of it because after quite a bit of time of contemplation, trying to figure
out do I want to do this?
How do I do this?
What do we call it?
How am I going to balance a full-time job plus doing this plus editing plus all the
other stuff?
You kind of get that analysis paralysis, right?
Where you do so much research that you don't actually do anything.
You're just stuck researching.
Yeah.
I mean, I've got that problem for other reasons, but I'm proud of it that we actually did it.
Yeah.
That it launched.
Not proud of the way they sound.
However, I will interject this.
You have to start somewhere.
True, but I will interject this.
So we've joked about it and kind of alluded to it.
There is a website that's under development.
It's hung up because of me at this point.
I have to write a bunch of copy for it and everything else, but once that's done, I'm
going to read, I don't want to say rebuild, but kind of republish those episodes solely
on the website.
So I've learned how to adjust the audio quality.
I've learned how to do a lot of things since episode one, two, three, four, five, six,
seven.
I think it was about seven or eight that we kind of started to get a little bit of a stride.
I really think the manifesto episode for me as a listener is really where it took a turn
into...
That was like the third or fourth episode.
It might have been fourth.
I love that episode.
It's so good.
I've told several people, it's like, oh, do you really want to see a day in the life,
listen to this episode and just like dump out it?
And I think that was an episode with just you two, correct?
I don't even remember.
It was so long ago.
I don't recall.
Well, if you were there, I apologize.
No, I mean, obviously...
It was just us.
Obviously Ms. B was there.
It was her story.
But it's come a long way and it's still continuing to grow.
It has.
The other thing that I really like is when we took that break from season one to season
two, I really underestimated how much time I really kind of needed to recoup my own brain
and emotional fortitude.
I think when we took that break, I said something to the effect that we'll see you in the middle
of January, which...
We were 60 days past that.
Oh no, it was worse than that.
It was worse than that because we didn't record again until just after Valentine's Day.
So that was 60 days right there.
And then that didn't publish for another couple of weeks.
Sorry about that.
Swing and a miss.
So there was that gap that took longer than I had thought we would take, but really kind
of needed it.
Yeah, well, everyone needs a break to re-spin the wheels, to freshen up.
Yeah.
Well, one of the challenges that I had is that I didn't want to just kind of keep going
with what we were doing.
I wanted to introduce something new.
But with equipment and time and everything else's limitations, I was really stuck on
what could we do?
That's why I took kind of the...
I don't want to say the easy route, but the easy way out and just went with sound effects.
I love it.
It adds such depth.
It's a little something.
Oh, it totally does.
Yeah.
Well, that was what I kind of found was just kind of fun about it.
There's just a sprinkling.
There's like 12 to 15 or so per episode.
It's not a lot.
I love it.
But it does just kind of add a little something something.
I love it.
I like the F-bomb beep.
I like the whistle.
The coach whistle.
The whistle is my fave, for sure.
Whenever you hear that, I'm like...
Penalty on the field.
Yes.
Oh, I love it.
Well, what do you say, I guess, kind of like looking back to everything we've done so far,
what's been your favorite part about the journey?
Honestly, I think there's a couple of things that I would say are favorite parts.
One is the meeting of new people.
Yeah.
I've gotten to meet a lot of new folks, like we said earlier.
But there's a lot of friend of friend, acquaintance of a friend, acquaintance of an acquaintance,
kind of a thing that's come through the microphones.
So it's been really nice to meet new people that are both in and out of our industries.
Yeah.
You know, networking goes a very long way.
And we get so wrapped up in what we do on a daily basis that we don't usually network.
Yeah, that's true.
I mean, we had to walk some guests last weekend and the hotel that we walked them to, I've
talked to the AGM over email a couple of times, but it's like they're a neighboring hotel.
So when I emailed them today, I'm like, hey, when can we meet to put faces with names?
You never met in person.
No.
They're a different brand, different management company.
Everything is different.
But just because we're different doesn't mean that we can't know our neighbors.
It makes everything better in that regard.
But yeah, so I mean, just meeting people has been a great benefit of doing this.
I would agree.
A thousand percent.
Another thing that I'm proud of with this is I've taught myself a whole bunch of new
skills.
Yeah, that's true.
I mean, like I was saying, you know, when I was looking at trying to do this during
the pandemic, you know, I've listened to podcasts for a long time.
I never thought about what goes into making one.
You can assume when you're listening to another podcast, it's not raw.
You can assume it's edited, but it's so nice when you can't tell.
I did a lot of research from microphones and microphone stands to the mixer to headphones
to whatever.
And again, like I was saying, you know, I kind of got into that analysis paralysis,
right?
Yeah.
But during the pandemic, I didn't have a lot of money to spend, so I bought a bunch of
stuff.
Nobody did.
True.
I mean, fortunately, I was still working, but still it's like, how long is this going
to last?
Nobody knows.
It's money that you don't need to spend, right?
So I bought all sorts of stuff for it.
I mean, what we're using right now is none of what I bought originally.
Oh, remember.
We did a sample episode.
But never made it to the light.
It never saw the light of day.
I spent a ton of time editing it.
I got all done with it and I just said, nope, it is garbage.
You just didn't like it.
No, it was horrific.
It was god awful.
The quality of the microphones was terrible.
Terrible.
It sounded like, ah, Jesus.
I don't even know how to compare it.
For our listeners, a clip from that with the editing and then a clip of like new to kind
of compare and contrast how far it's come.
You know what?
I like that idea.
I don't know if I'm going to seize on that though, because it's bad.
Bill might just pass on that.
For me, I'd just be interested to hear it, to hear what bad sounds like and then what
good and what we're doing sounds like.
I never played it for you.
No, that's how bad it was.
Oh my gosh.
I mean, the audio quality was terrible.
Our chemistry was not there yet.
You know, we were still trying to learn how to do all of it.
Yeah.
And at this point, I feel like probably to me, the biggest piece of what makes the podcast
feel natural is our chemistry.
Ms. B, you and I had the benefit of working together for what?
Two full years.
Yeah.
So we had a rapport outside of this, but you put headphones on somebody, you stick a microphone
in their face.
You know, you're trying to talk straight into the mic, but then you're looking at people
across the table, kind of side-eyed.
It's weird.
It's different.
And there are a bunch of like rules.
Do this.
Don't do this.
Don't move.
Don't make noise.
Yeah.
There's a lot of like other factors that go into it.
Yeah.
Find that happy spot in front of the mic and don't move.
Otherwise you sound like you're running past the microphone.
It's like there's etiquettes and techniques and all that.
And I feel like...
Looking with your eyes, not your head.
Yeah.
Exactly.
And I feel like we've gotten to that point where our chemistry is just natural.
We don't think about any of that anymore.
We just sit down and we talk.
It helps that Ms. B and I also work together for, let's just call it a year.
And I've spent a lot of time together outside of work and outside the podcast.
So it helps that...
We're besties.
It helps that you guys had a rapport and it helps that me and Ms. B had a rapport.
And for the most part, all of our guests that we bring on have some sort of connection to
at least one of us, if not more.
So that just helps the chemistry.
But we have brought on complete strangers as well.
And it totally worked.
Yeah.
And I think that part of that is the comfort that we have.
I mean, if we were lame to hang out with.
Oh yeah.
If we sucked, yeah.
It wouldn't be fun.
No, not at all.
But I mean, we have a very natural, very comfortable flow.
And we're all friendly people.
I mean, I've got resting bitch face, but whatever, right?
Same here.
But because of the dynamic with the three of us, when we bring in that fourth person,
it's a comfortable thing for them.
It doesn't feel weird.
It doesn't feel awkward or outsider-ish.
It's like, come on, join.
Here, here's a glass of wine.
How big of a pour do you want, right?
I love it.
How many bottles do we need to open tonight?
And honestly, that's part of why I joined so many different podcasting groups.
It's like there's groups for critiquing.
Do this, don't do that.
This is what I've tried.
This works for me.
This is, hey, you're using the same equipment.
Try this kind of a thing.
And then there's also being able to meet people that none of us know.
That it's like, hey, I'm looking for a guest speaker, kind of permanent co-host, but it's
like third string co-host.
It's interesting to get that kind of a feedback.
And kind of like what we were talking about just a few minutes ago with expanding outside
the hotel business.
Exactly.
Well, when I first started doing this, I only really knew people in the hotel business.
It's like I would talk to people and say, hey, would you be interested in coming on
a podcast?
Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
And there's a lot of hesitancy because number one, most people don't get asked to be on
a podcast.
Number two, it's like, well, that's kind of weird.
Number three is I don't know you.
So maybe not.
But now that we've got, I don't even know how many episodes are out there now.
I think 24.
Wow.
Could we have the research department pull that up?
And keep in mind that what first two or three have been deleted at this point.
The research department has to count one by one.
Oh, sorry.
OK.
So in total published is 20 episodes as of this recording.
By the time we have like four, y'all hear it?
Yeah, we'll probably be up to 25 plus the ones that were deleted.
Right.
So 20 published.
So let's just say like 26.
We had 17 in season one.
We've got three right now.
So that's 20 plus we had.
Isn't that what the research department just said?
No, no, but plus we had the defiled penguins.
Oh, yeah.
Poor penguins.
Boy, that was a misbe rant.
Yeah.
So there was the defiled penguins and then there are the first couple that were deleted.
So yeah.
Close to 30.
I think you were spot on like 25.
So now with this many that are out there, it's become easier because now when I'm talking
to people and there's an interest, it's like, well, here, here's a link to the podcast.
Check it out.
So now people have heard what we've had quite a few hotelies on the podcast, but we've got
retail.
We had food and beverage.
We had law enforcement.
We've had medical of a couple of different flavors.
You know, so it's like there's there's a variety.
And now people that I talked to about it, there's a different level of interest because
there's a tangible understanding of what the podcast is for and what it's about and how
it flows and kind of the dynamic and the chemistry and all the other things that go into it.
So it's been it's been easier to line up, you know, new people, new stories.
I mean, it makes sense.
You hand out that card, they find this podcast, they hear my sultry, sexy voice and they're
like, I need to meet that woman.
And then they come.
It's great.
And they hear my one off one off comment jokes.
And hopefully they think I'm funny.
OK, question for you, Bill.
Sure.
What would be your dream guest on your bucket list right now from what industry or what
specific job?
What's one thing you are hoping to bring on as a guest?
Oh, I know that's that we haven't gotten yet.
OK, wait, wait, wait.
I do actually have like a dream guest.
OK.
And it's actually before I share who that person is.
Is it a let me guess.
Is it a specific person?
It is.
It's a job.
No, no, no.
It's a specific person.
Oh, oh, I knew a profession you wanted on here.
Yeah, I wasn't going to go like that specific like this person.
Let's call him out.
There's a there's a ton of professions that I would love.
You're dying for flight attendants and pilots.
I just want like top three.
OK, well, the ideal podcast guest that I would love to have.
I can't believe we have an individual.
Yeah, actually an individual.
Did you ever watch the show Hotel Impossible?
Yes.
Anthony Mulcair.
He was the host of Hotel Impossible.
Is it the same as Restaurant Impossible?
Same concept where he would go into distressed hotels and help flip them around.
Shout out to Anthony.
We'd love to have you on.
Yeah, absolutely.
I'll send you the direct link to this podcast, but I will DM you insistently.
Who is on your PR team?
And you know, part of the reason why I would love to have him on is that that's what I
like doing.
For the most part, my last few assignments have been distressed hotels.
Yeah, hotels that are failing.
It would be really cool to get his perspective on some things.
I would love it.
I'm not sure if the listeners know you are task force, but I've had other rough assignments
outside of task force.
Yeah, I mean, like the hotel that Ms. V and I worked at together, that hotel was in distress
to.
Yeah, I'm not quite sure like what the correct term is.
So when a hotel is in red zone or whatever their brand or their company's term is for
failing, it's hotel.
Like in that show that Anthony hosted, he would go to places that are deeply distressed.
How are you not shut down the stress?
Verge of bankruptcy, you know, hotels that just should be shut down.
They're unsafe, they're unsanitary, there's problems.
And I worked at one of those.
Yeah, you did.
I spent three and a half months at a hotel that absolutely should not have been open
to the public.
Like where was the health inspector?
And we talked, I think we talked about this on an episode because we talked about all
the things that were wrong and it was just insane.
No, I don't think I went through the whole litany of them.
What?
Really?
Not to my knowledge.
Oh, no.
I mean, like we could, I probably would not publish it.
One thing that everybody should keep in mind, the three of us talk about this off air, is
that we're all working professionals.
So when we share the stories, we are specifically vague on a lot of inconsequential details
that would potentially identify someone or leave us open to some sort of an issue.
So that's why we don't use the brand names.
That's why we don't talk about the hotel names that we work at.
Shoot, half the time we don't even really say what city we work in.
Yeah.
No.
And that's by design, not by accident.
We'll never mention a guest name.
We don't mention an employee name.
Everybody has pseudo names.
For the most part.
But like, you know, when we do throw out names, they're absolutely not that person's real
name.
No way.
You know, it's like I have-
It's hard to ruin them for all of you listeners.
All these names are fake as hell.
Yeah.
The dark side of things.
Like to my knowledge, I don't think I've ever worked with a Tiffany, but I always throw
out the name Tiffany.
That's just kind of my go-to because I've never worked with a Tiffany.
You know, so those little things are there for us to-
To protect ourselves.
Well, I don't want to say protect because I mean, we really don't share anything that
is sensitive or super secret, but at the same token, we're all busy.
We ain't got no time for any sort of-
HR investigation.
It's shenanigans.
Yeah.
It's just easier this way.
Yeah.
I love it.
Okay.
So you answered the question on who.
Just given to what jobs, what industries are on your bucket list.
So let's cut it down to top three because you probably have a list of like a hundred.
At least.
Okay.
I'll give you top five.
Okay.
Some of them are pretty standard stuff.
So yes, I would love to have flight attendants on.
When I was working in my very first hotel, I dealt with a ton of different crews.
Okay.
So this hotel had two flights a day from United, two flights a day from American, two flights
a day from Delta.
Wow.
So that's six.
Then we had Hawaiian that would overnight with us.
We had airline out of Canada.
So now we're at eight.
And then there was a private charter company that would stay with us.
And that's a full crew.
God, that's a throwback name.
American Trans Air, ATA.
They're gone.
Yeah.
I've never even heard of that.
They've been gone for a while, but yeah.
So ATA stayed with us.
What I'm hearing is basically all the airline brands that would pay for their employees
to stay in a hotel.
Yeah.
So I mean, literally we had 10 airlines a day and then the 10th one was, it was a private
jet company.
You're talking two pilots and one flight attendant kind of a thing.
But normally we would have 10 crews a day staying at that hotel.
And that was only part of the occupancy of the hotel.
That's insane.
The look on your face was great.
I'm sorry.
I think of all of the naughty things that could be happening with 10 different crews
in one hotel, potentially like let's even say in one floor, one wing.
They have an after parties and cocktail parties.
Are they going down to the restaurant bar and just going ham?
Look, I would absolutely love to have flight attendants on.
But at the same token, I understand that a lot of my most salacious stories all revolve
around them.
So I'm not sure how willing flight attendants would be to come on, but I would love it.
I would love to hear their side of the stories.
Let me just go on flights.
So I have a stripper on your list.
That's on mine.
Okay.
Yes, but exotic dancer.
I think it would also like strippers or porn stars.
That would be amazing.
I would love it.
Someone in, I mean, would you consider a stripper in the sex industry?
Yeah, I would.
Yeah.
Definitely in the service industry.
Well, so, okay.
Can we just say sex industry then?
If I can ever get that to come to fruition.
Oh, he's so excited.
So it sounds like we need to take flights and go to strip clubs.
Okay.
So we do have a research department.
We don't have an HR department.
So I can say I like the way the research department thinks.
No, but shoot.
We're saying if we could ever.
Yeah.
So I mean, like, you know, if we could ever make that happen, I think that would be hilarious.
But lay it out there right now.
It would have to be an explicit episode.
Oh, of course.
Like no coaches whistles.
No filtration of any kind.
Nothing.
I do.
I do filter out quite a lot.
We all do.
You have to type in your birthday before you can listen.
Yes.
Like you have to have a subscription.
You have to be age verified.
You have to say, yes, I understand.
This is for 18 and over.
Yeah.
Oh my gosh.
Because I can professional exotic dancer or a movie star.
Wink, wink.
I mean, I know us at anything.
And there are plenty of subscription websites that have a paywall that may just post photos,
not necessarily even videos.
Everyone knows what I'm talking about.
But if you got one of those pages, maybe drop us a DM.
Yeah, right.
Especially Bill.
Yeah.
But you know, it's like, I want to be clear.
It's not that I want to talk about what they do.
No, no, it's purely-
I want to hear crazy stories.
Yeah, exactly.
It's purely for the story.
You know they've got crazy shit.
Yes.
I want to know those deep, dark, shady, salacious things that happened behind the scenes.
I want to know this week's tea.
Whose girlfriend came in and found them?
Whose wife?
I want to hear the tea.
You know, that would be fun.
I would love to have a tattoo artist on.
Oh.
Oh, we can help with that.
You know tattoo artists?
I actually think I have one now.
We can definitely get a hold of tattoo artists.
Yeah, I would love tattoo artists.
Bud tenders I think would be fun to have.
Oh, that would be fun.
Like dispensary workers.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I would love to have a good bartender on.
I was waiting for you to say bartender.
But here's the thing is that I don't and I'm not trying to throw shade, but I'm not talking
like dive bar bartenders.
Nice.
Because I think that they would have amazing stories and I would love to have somebody
like that on.
But I would love to have somebody on that works at like a snooty high level martini
bar.
Woo.
Because I love hearing those stories of just over the top entitlement.
Yes.
Where people think they know what they're talking about and have no clue.
And they let their ignorance flag fly.
Well, and those different bartenders will give very, very different stories and different
perspectives on things.
Right.
And it goes back to the heart of the concept of the podcast is that it's about the service
industry.
It's not about one particular job title or task or assignment.
It's about sharing this kind of a rainbow, if you will, of experiences and stories.
Other things that I would love would be like somebody that works the return desk at Kohl's.
The craziest things.
Yeah.
You know, amazing.
Yeah.
Like the return desk of any big box retailer like that.
You know, they bring back a dress that's clearly been worn and washed, but has a tag on it.
But it's not in the place where it should be.
Mm hmm.
You know, it's like, I know you can get tagging guns off the internet for a few bucks and
you can redo your tag.
Those costs like eight ninety nine.
That's horrible.
Yeah.
Well, but that's what we deal with.
Yeah, it's true.
You know, and there's a part of me that hopes maybe idealistically that some of the stories
that we share will resonate with people and they won't be a dick at some point and try
and take advantage of people.
You know, it's like, yeah, just I hope that there's something positive that comes out
of our cathartic therapy sessions that we share with the world.
Only if the certain kind of people listen, you know, people like us are going to be like,
oh my gosh, yeah, that was horrible.
And then some people hopefully will reflect and be like, oh, I see what was wrong with
that situation.
Hmm.
I've done that before.
Maybe that wasn't very nice of me to do.
Well, I mean, like some of the stories we have touched on in the past of, you know,
like, well, where did this person go wrong?
You know, how could it have been better handled?
You know, share the good and then try and teach a little lesson here and there.
Yeah, I love it.
And then there's just stupid.
Well, you can't fix stupid.
Can't fix stupid.
Oh, man.
I'm just thinking about like all the crazy stuff I'm going to have this summer.
It's going to be a busy freaking summer.
Oh, like anime con coming up.
That's going to draw an interesting crowd.
Yep.
I'm gonna have some fun stories probably too.
Are there people working the booths at anime that maybe want to be on a podcast?
Well, I doubt.
But like literally anime con is literally across the grass from us and we're hosting a lot
of their different events at our hotel.
So like we have their karaoke party at the end of the day.
We have tons at our property.
It's gonna be fun.
When's that?
End of the month.
Memorial Day weekend.
Where all of us managers are required to work it.
Good game plan.
But you know, like so on that note of, you know, like two different bartenders from two
different levels, levels will have very different stories, right?
Well, just like we have different levels of hotel service.
Yeah.
Well, but and I was going to tie it to that with Ms. B's comment about the anime con is
that when I first started working out here was my first experience with conventions.
And when I first got out here, there was there was a lot of conventions that were very business
oriented, you know, so you're dealing with very high end business people, you know, dentists
and physician conventions, things like that.
Your comic cons.
Yeah, I was I was trying to think of like the generic term for all of those.
But I mean, it was my first experience with it was no, that's not fair either.
But my people, that's OK.
I know.
But still, there was one in particular.
And I'm not going to say what it was, but the big music convention that would come to
town.
Oh, yeah.
You know, so there was one year that we had the big music convention.
And then shortly after it, it was one of the to your point, the nerd conventions and the
contrast between the two was insane.
So in the music one.
Yeah, in the music one, you know, we went in and there was we were lucky if it was just
beer cans.
I was about to say rooms get trashed.
Yeah.
But, you know, it's like there were bottles of bourbon that were spilled on the carpet,
like falling over on their side.
They're only a quarter full now.
It's like, how do you get that stink out?
Right.
I remember going into rooms and there were plates with cocaine on them, rooms that were
just trashed.
And then we get the nerd convention.
And perfect.
Well, no, they weren't perfect.
But it's like instead of coke and spilled bourbon, it's empty pizza boxes, you know,
Mountain Dew and Red Bull as like their staple.
Maybe some wig hair, some prop tape.
The room is still trashed just in a different way.
Yeah, but they never really trashed it.
I mean, there would be a lot of trash in the room, but they didn't destroy it.
They didn't destroy it.
You know, it's just it's interesting to see the contrast between two conventions that
are very close in time frame, but just radically different attendees.
Yeah, like the difference between, you know, we just had a rave recently and then this
weekend's as a psychologist convention.
Whoo, rapidly different.
It's a little whiplash for you.
Yeah.
All of them checking in.
I'm afraid they're going to ask me, and how do you feel about that?
Oh, that's messed up.
But at least you own it.
You guys are basically my therapist, but not my psychiatrist.
No, we just prescribe wine.
That's legal medication.
I'm above the legal age.
That's true.
Let's see.
Any other industries that you would like to be guests in the pod?
I would love to have cruise ship employees.
I know some.
I can probably work on that.
I would love to have somebody off a cruise ship because I mean, again, it's kind of floating
hotel, but the questions that people ask on cruise ships is just ridiculous.
OK, what about yacht charter?
Sure.
Crew would love it.
I have a friend.
He's definitely worked on cruise ship, but he's was performer on cruise ships.
That'd be cool.
OK, truthfully, I don't really care what industry people come from, like as far as an additional
guest.
I know I need to start reaching out to people.
I honestly don't want to filter that.
I mean, if you were cashier at a grocery store, I think that would be great, too, because
you know that they've got crazy stories.
I would love a delivery room nurse.
I have one.
Oh, my goodness.
Right?
I'm not kidding.
My childhood best friend is a labor and delivery nurse.
That'd be great.
All right, let me.
You're sleeping on this.
I forget about things.
So you say that.
Well, how about we how about we flip this question around real quick?
What industries would you like to see on?
I mean, I pretty much agree with you.
I think those are the big ones.
To be quite honest, I would love to hear from a room attendant or a housekeeping manager
other than us, other than you guys.
Yeah, I would agree with that.
I would love to like have somebody on that does like construction renovations that deal
with the real high end, overbearing, crazy homeowners.
Another one that I would love, love, love, love, love to get on would be a wedding photographer.
Oh, yeah.
Anything to do with weddings.
Event event planner.
Bride zillas.
Yeah.
Wedding coordinator, any event planner, photographer, ooh, makeup and hair artist.
That'd be great.
Yeah.
Ms. B and I, when we worked at the hotel together, we weren't in events, but we would work with
the events coordinators.
There was one day that we had a wedding that was supposed to be going on and we had a water
leak into the venue space and part of the ceiling came down.
Oh my God.
And the sales manager that sold that event was losing her goddamn mind.
And it's like, relax, we've got this.
And she was just going ballistic.
By the time it was all said and done, I mean, we had the water extracted, we had everything
cleaned up.
There was a temporary patch in the ceiling.
The way the lighting was, it wasn't focused on that.
So I mean, it was super low key.
Wait, I'm sorry, you still had the wedding?
Yeah, of course.
Oh my God, way to go.
We made it work.
Love it.
You know, and it was a hard push to the end, but we got it done.
Boom.
That's what we do.
And it was funny because, you know, I've said it before and I've taken heat for it many
a time and I'll say it again, I don't care.
And that is that sales sells the dream and operations lives the nightmare.
That is our motto.
Our salesperson who has no ops background was just, like I said, she was freaking out.
And here we are with our ops people that are like, okay, well, it's going to take us X
amount of time to extract the carpet.
We can put blowers on it.
We can bring in a heater.
We can do this.
We can do that.
We've isolated the water.
Engineering has been alerted.
They have the materials on hand.
We can get a temporary patch up there.
We've got enough time for it to dry.
We can probably get a second coat shoot.
We can probably even just slap a coat of paint on it.
Oh my gosh.
I mean, we had like 12 hours before the event and we made it work and the clients were incredibly
happy.
They were aware of the situation.
No, no, they had no clue.
Well, that was our job, you know, and it's like the event went off without a hitch and
everything was great.
Did she come back and apologize?
No, of course not.
Sales.
I didn't think so.
I just had to ask.
They went home for the weekend.
You ask questions like that and people know you don't work in the hotel.
Oh, I have one.
What's your big like next goal for the podcast?
What's your short term goal and long term?
Well, I don't know.
I mean, the heart of it was always to just have fun with it.
You know, it was always meant to be this.
It was always meant to be a kind of a cathartic release.
It was always meant to just be fun.
I didn't want it to be a J.O.B.
I wanted it to be F.U.N.
And I've had careers in the past that I've embarked on that stemmed from a hobby that
then I came to loathe and never went back to doing it as a hobby because I was just
done.
So I know it's a weird conundrum for me because I don't want it to really change from what
it is.
But at the same token, be nice to see it grow.
It would be nice to have one to be one of those YouTube stars that has three million
followers and you're clearing $50,000 a month kind of a thing.
I really wouldn't complain in that regard.
No, no, you wouldn't.
No, I wouldn't.
But at the same token, that's really not the point.
True. One of the things that I've really enjoyed
and really try to keep with the feel of what we do is the concept of being at a dinner
party where you're sharing stories and you've got little groups of people and people kind
of drift in and drift out of the conversation.
And everybody just kind of feels welcomed.
And even when they only pick up a single story, it's beginning to end.
So most of our stories take six, seven minutes, but that's kind of how it would be at a dinner
party.
And people just drift in and out and come back together again.
And it's just kind of fun and memorable.
And that's really what my vision for it was.
But at the same token, like I had said earlier, I bought all this equipment and it was all
garbage and I bought it again.
There's expenses for us that I would love to be able to offset.
At least cover.
Yeah.
It's like, I think it would be great if this would be able to, quote unquote, sponsor us
to the point where really nice high-end computer for editing, you know, an actual dedicated
studio space.
Whoa.
That would be amazing.
You mean we're not in a real studio right now?
Well, we are.
We're in the TFTSI studios, which currently is my dining room table.
There's a little BTS for you.
But you would never assume that listening to this.
So guys, we're just around a dining room table with mics and mic stands and glasses of wine.
That's pretty much it.
Yeah.
I love it.
So that's, I mean, ultimately at the end of the day, that's what I would like to get out
of it.
Love that.
Me too.
Okay.
So before recording this episode, we had planned to kind of do an origin and did you do any
reflecting on guests, stories, episodes?
Prior to answering your questions?
Yeah.
No, actually I didn't.
Do you have a favorite story of the podcast so far?
Yes.
What is your favorite memory of telling a story?
My favorite episode so far to date is The Number Will Surprise You, both parts one and
two.
100%.
And part of the reason for that is that I worked with Andy for, I don't know, three,
four years.
And because of our working relationship and what he did as a cop, he was there for all
of the really crazy things.
You know, and it's like, I've shared things like the guy that crawled out on the ledge.
I've shared a lot of those stories that he was there for.
But it was nice to hear it from his perspective and kind of retell and reshare the story.
Yeah, well.
With more detail.
And it was awesome to listen to.
Yeah, because, you know, there were a couple of the stories that we went over in that episode
that were directly repeats of the same story that I had shared in a previous episode.
But the thing that made that episode great was that when the police went in and that
door closed, my story ended.
His story kept going.
He was the cop that was in there.
He was the guy that dealt with the stupidity, you know.
But it's like I was there when he drew down on that woman in the parking lot.
You know, it's like I was there when the guy crawled on the ledge.
I was there with the orgy.
I was there for all of these things.
You know, so it was really fun.
Even though he and I had talked about and kind of hashed these stories out over the
years, it was just kind of fun to be able to give you and the listeners that double
sided perspective of, you know, what it was that I saw, what it was that triggered the
call to him, the event where we're together and then where we separate when he's doing
his job and I bounce out saying ignorance is bliss.
I'll talk to you later, you know.
Well, and that specific story of how many people were in that hotel room still goes
down in history for his department.
People still talk about it.
Years and years later.
Yeah.
And you know, the really ironic part of that is that when they went into that room, there
were 29 men and two women.
To our knowledge, there were never more than two women, but there were far more than 29
dudes.
Because plenty of people had come and gone before.
Yes.
Entered that room.
Yeah.
I mean, even while we were waiting for the other cops to arrive, how many people people
were exiting that room?
Yeah.
And the number would surprise us even to this day because we don't know how many people
actually came in there.
And then-
Do you recall how long the room reservation was for?
It was just for one day.
I think it goes upwards of 75 plus.
I don't know.
I mean, I could definitively say 40 because we had seen people going in and out all morning,
but I would be able to say, yeah, you know what?
There were 29 dudes in there.
I saw at least 11 more.
Wow.
That you personally saw.
That I personally saw.
Yeah.
To this point, that is my favorite episode.
And it's because of the fact that I was there for it.
It's like, those are intensely memorable moments for us.
Yeah.
We're what?
Eight years past those stories?
And that still talked about his old department?
That's amazing.
Those are good stories.
Yeah.
But I mean, there's other stuff that he responded to that we didn't go into.
Some of the challenges that we had with people that had personality disorders that were,
you know, unhoused and whatnot, those aren't really funny.
No.
They're more tragic than anything, but there's a lot of memorable stories with that too.
They're not really shareable in the sense that.
It's good for this environment.
Yeah.
In this platform.
They're not funny.
They're just shocking.
And there are things that, you know, it's like, wow, you guys have to deal with that
kind of stuff?
Yeah.
Yeah, we do.
Yes, in fact, we do.
Yeah.
Constantly.
So you kind of talked about your favorite moments, favorite episode.
Do you have any moments that maybe weren't your favorite or not your favorite episode?
Yeah, there's a few.
Probably the number one is what we talked about earlier with the episode that will never
see the light of day.
Right.
Because of the audio and everything.
The audio is terrible.
It's definitively the low point memory of all of this at this point, because, man, there
was, you know, there was money outlaid for it.
There was time, there was, you know, trying to get people together that, you know, it
was all brand new.
Yeah.
None of us had ever done it.
We were awkward as hell.
And you're like, I put this much time and monetary stuff into this and like, this is
what I get.
Yeah, it was just.
It was terrible.
It didn't take a while to record after that first episode.
Oh, yeah, I was scarred.
I honestly thought about just like, F this.
This is not our cup of tea.
We move on.
I'm so glad you didn't.
You kept going.
You pushed.
You learned.
That's amazing.
A lot of people would not do that.
Yeah.
Well, there's a part of me that, like I said, I just I was done at that point.
Well, I'm glad you weren't.
Me too.
Like we've hashed out a few times.
There's the cathartic part.
There's the teaching yourself something new part and all of that.
But then there's also that last little piece that I didn't get to when you were asking
about like, you know, what I'm most proud of.
And that is just watching the growth.
Yeah.
And I've made comments in episodes about, oh, you know, we've had downloads from this
far flung place, this far flung place.
It's really kind of fun to watch that grow.
Yeah.
You know, I mean, it still cracks me up and I will still compliment whoever it is that's
in Belgium.
You know, consistently listen, consistently listen.
We love you, Belgium.
Every single episode, there's two people in Belgium that download every single episode.
That's amazing.
In the same city?
No.
I mean, I don't know what the drive time is.
Right, right, right.
But there are two definitively different cities that they are downloading from.
Guys, we need to do a field trip to Belgium.
Go meet our fans.
So we've had downloads on literally every continent except for Antarctica.
Wow.
Well, hey, for those who are listening, especially those consistent listeners, I implore you
to give us a rating and review on whatever platform you are listening to and give us
a shout out.
Hey, I'm that guy from Belgium.
Yes.
You know, so just to kind of piggyback on what you said, not to sound like we're groveling
for follows and reviews and all that, but it actually helps us quite a bit.
There's algorithms for everything in our world at this point.
So you know, when somebody leaves a rating, when somebody does a follow, it affects how
the podcast is put in front of other people.
Yeah.
You know, leaving a review would be amazing.
Obviously, I would love a five star review.
Who would not, right?
Leave your one stars at home.
Yeah, exactly.
Every review helps.
Every follow helps.
We are way too busy to put out a ton of content.
So we are not going to be blowing up your alerts every single day.
We got full time jobs, guys.
Don't worry.
We've got more than full time jobs.
I mean, when you start balancing careers and kids and all the other stuff, it becomes a
very big mess.
Boyfriends, whatever.
That's true, too.
But it really does take what, 15 to 45 seconds to give a rating.
You can do it, guys.
I believe in you.
45 if you're giving a review.
And that would be a juicy review, too.
You know, it would be.
Whoever's listening, if you're not following, give a review, give a follow.
Send us on YouTube also.
Yes.
And turn on your notifications.
OK, so one last question for me, I think.
I know it's not really fair to give out favorites, but who's your favorite co-host?
No, I'm kidding.
I'm kidding.
Both of you, but for very different reasons.
Oh, I was joking, but you can compliment us.
Nice.
I fell for your bait.
Yeah, you did.
I really was going to go left turn from there, but I'll let you go ahead.
Honestly, I very much like having both of you on for just very different reasons.
I love the fact that with Ms. B, you ask a lot of great questions.
Yeah, very true.
You ask a lot of questions that are not really deep, but they're not surface questions either.
You ask questions that are interesting.
They're easy for people to answer.
It moves the conversation along and you can piggyback well.
So I very much appreciate and like the way you help move the podcast along.
Well, thank you.
Can I add to that?
Her questions are 1000% genuine.
She wants her own question answered.
It's not coming from bait or trying to get a certain side of the story or lead the story
in any other way.
You generally care about all the stories and you are just baffled by everything everyone
has to say.
I have to know.
So it's from a genuine space, all of your questions.
Before we move on to you, this is kind of the behind the scenes thing for listeners
is that we aren't scripted.
We don't plan out what we're going to talk about.
We've kind of alluded to it in the past, but when people come over, we'll spend what, 10
minutes maybe, and it's just like, hey, I had this kind of a story or this kind of event.
It's very 30,000 foot gloss over it.
The reason for that is we kind of understand what each other is going to share.
We know how to dovetail our stories and that's the extent of our episode planning.
It's great.
It's so funny because I'll say, oh, I have a crazy boat story and you're like, oh, okay,
don't tell me anything else.
I want to hear when we're recording.
Yeah.
Well, and why is that?
Because-
genuine reactions.
It's exactly that.
It's the chemistry.
It's the concept of let's bring people into the dinner party.
I don't want to know all the details in advance.
I want you to give me the tea when it's hot.
Even the tea.
I love the tea.
But that's what keeps it genuine and authentic.
It's like when we're laughing, it's because something's funny.
Something messed up just happened and the reaction is genuine.
I mean, it could be the story or it could be me and Bill just making weird faces to
each other.
And me trying to learn more about the trash company.
When we were sitting and talking with Walter, you two were having a very legitimate, very
honest conversation.
You were asking questions that you wanted the answers to and Liz and I are sitting here
side-eyed just dying because it was just innuendo after innuendo and our 12-year-old
brains kicked in and the wine.
Yeah.
Well, I hadn't had that much to drink.
I can't fall back on that one.
It was hilarious.
Yeah.
Stupid adolescent brains kicked in and we were just giggle factories.
Couldn't tell you what the story was.
I'm excited to hear when it comes out.
It's coming out soon.
Have no idea what the story was.
I can only tell you what the story was because I edited it.
I went back and listened to the whole thing, but I was laughing so hard.
There was points that I couldn't breathe.
I was just quiet because it was just so ridiculous.
At that point, we had to move the mics away and just giggle in our arms just because we
didn't want to disrupt the story too much.
I was dying to hear the answers.
To finish off your question, question, question, whoever's question.
One of us.
The things that I like about working with you, Liz, is that you and I share a very similar
sense of humor.
I would agree.
It's a little dark.
It's somewhat twisted and there's a definitive juvenile layer to it.
100%.
I do love how we'll be telling a story and you guys are just giggling, looking at each
other on the same wavelength.
Yes.
We are typically on the same wavelength.
There's been many a time where a little too much red wine has hit me and you'll look over
at me and you can see that I've already checked out on my train of thought and Liz is there
rushing out of the phone booth with cape waving in the wind for the rescue.
It's like, thank you.
Sometimes too, I will be so engrossed in listening to a story and maybe ask a few questions and
something hasn't popped up to me yet additional to ask and you come in with these amazing
questions and I'm like, yeah, I want to know that.
Thank you so much.
I like you have a sprinkling of humor that you'll throw in that is, and I'm not referring
to this in the juvenile giggle factory that we often get into, but you have a way of throwing
in little things that are genuinely funny that are not distracting.
The little one liners, man.
I don't know where they come from.
It's natural.
And they work.
They're not offensive.
They're not snarky or smarmy or any of the other little things that they could be.
That would probably be more my comment that would come out.
Maybe.
But I really like that aspect that you bring to it.
Me too.
Sometimes I might not have crazy stories, so I'm purely here to ask questions, clarify
things and-
Have a good time and a glass of wine.
Give my one liners when I see fit and-
Bum boom boom.
I normally can fit a few in on each episode.
And the number may surprise you episode.
I had nothing.
I didn't tell any single story, but-
No, but you know what you were was you were the host because Andy and I effectively became
your guests.
Oh my God, you were two little girls gaggling it up and like-
I know.
This was Wine Wednesday that you two were just like, oh my God, I've been seeing you
forever.
Let's catch up.
I was like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
Okay.
Where were we in the story?
Yeah.
And I apologize for that.
But I mean, before he recorded that, I hadn't seen him in four years, a fair amount of time
in a minute that passed.
So it was really good to catch up with him, but the dynamic changed.
It did.
And that was again, another reason why I really enjoy having you on the show because that
dynamic changed radically and you just kind of adapted with it and we rolled and it was
a great episode.
I love it.
It was.
One of my favorites.
I love listening to it.
Oh my God.
Thank you.
So.
Okay.
But my true question, I didn't try on purpose to go that route of who your favorite cohost
is, but I think it was a tie.
Miss B, would you agree?
I would definitely agree.
Okay.
My real question was if you had a favorite guest and I don't think me and Miss B count
as guests anymore.
No, you don't.
We're a part of the mix.
So other than us, I mean, I know it might not be cool to like play favorites.
That's just hard.
I know, but would it be Andy since you have such a nostalgic connection with him?
You know what?
I would probably say yes, but because of the fact that I've known him for so long and there's
a lot of history there, I'm going to eliminate him from the favorite because I'm definitively
biased.
Right.
Was there anyone else you direct?
I guess would Mike be eliminated?
Did you work with Mike?
Oh, but can I make him my favorite because that was the hardest I've ever laughed in
an episode.
You can a hundred percent make him your favorite.
He was my favorite.
I laughed so hard I couldn't breathe and I might have peed myself just a little.
It's okay.
Just a tingle.
So other than those two.
I'm going to have to basically jump on the same bandwagon as Ms. B on that one because
yes, Mike and I have worked together.
In fact, I worked together with Mike far longer than I worked together with Ms. B. I worked
with Mike at one hotel for two years and then the hotel Ms. B and I were at together.
Mike was there for two years and then our career paths diverged.
He went to work for another company, different brand.
He now works for the same company I work for.
So we've kind of come back together, but he doesn't work anywhere near me.
He works in a very different region.
It's kind of like, I don't know.
I think it's kind of like picking your favorite child.
Yeah, that's exactly what I was going to say.
I enjoy different aspects, but yeah, for me it's how hard can you make me laugh?
And that one definitely made me laugh with the sex doll in the wind for me.
Oh no, the one that I was thinking of is the octopus arm.
No, that was, that was the same doll blowing away in the wind.
No, the first episode he was on was, um, oh, you're right.
Can you deliver it to the funeral?
Yeah.
Yes.
That's the one where we laughed so hard we couldn't breathe.
Yes.
When he was telling that story about, uh, oh my gosh, I remember that with the, when
he told the guests there are exactly four plump gentlemen that work here.
Yeah, that's right.
I was dying.
I don't know.
But I mean like everybody has brought a very different flavor to the show.
I mean like we've got episodes that are upcoming.
Yes.
Well, since this little BTS, but you can pick one of those that hasn't been released, but
will be released at the time.
This is released.
That was a mumbo jumbo.
We have an upcoming episode with Pat.
Some of his stories I really, really enjoy.
Yeah, they were good.
I mean like the whole thing about pulling fire alarms to hide your tardy punch for work.
Yeah.
Ridiculous.
Insane.
You know, so I mean, it's really hard for me at this point to say that there's a favorite.
Okay.
You like all of your podcast guests, children.
Yeah.
Look, at the end of the day, and I think that listeners will even agree, there are some
episodes that are better than others.
There's stories that flow better.
There's stories that the special guests, the fourth guest, whatever label you want to put
on it, feels more comfortable and things just kind of jive better.
I also do have to give a shout out to Ellen because that was a natural episode.
Oh, she was awesome.
For all parties involved.
Yeah.
There was no learning curve for her.
She jumped in right away, told great stories and shared them very, very well.
And I mean like that night, when she recorded with us, I had talked with her over text a
few times.
Never met in person.
No, I had never met her in person.
It was, you know, hey, I've got this podcast, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
She said, you know, I'd be interested in coming on.
I said, fantastic.
And that was the extent of it.
That's awesome.
Here is the time and place.
See ya.
I just, I don't know.
I can't put a favorite on that question.
You know what?
I'm okay with that.
Me too.
We've had a lot of great moments.
There's much more to come.
Yeah.
We're not done yet.
No.
Oh, you know what?
Wait, before we sign off, I'm going to share, I wanted to share something with both of you
ladies and kind of to those listening too.
You know, I've been trying to work kind of behind the scenes of growing awareness of
the show and developing connections.
And I don't want to say cross marketing, but you know, cross supporting other podcasts
on and so forth.
The company that I'm working with is Avenue Podcast dotnet.
They're kind of hosting service, if you will.
There's a wide variety of podcasts on there.
So it's kind of nice to be able to work with them and get a little bit of awareness developing.
I love that.
That's great.
Love that.
And then, you know, like I've said earlier, we do have a website that's coming.
So it's on me.
Sorry.
There's a delay with that.
You can only do so much in a day.
No worries.
That's why we're here.
Anything we can help with.
Yeah, so that's that's going to solve our terrible email address that I set up initially.
But it's also going to allow me to put the old episodes that I deleted that need to kind
of be reworked.
So they'll live on the website, even though the streaming platform.
Correct.
I'm going to leave all of those terrible episodes on YouTube at this point still.
But all of them are going to be gone from Spotify and whatnot.
All right.
On that note, I want to thank everybody for listening.
Thank you for tuning in, subscribing, liking, commenting, reviewing, especially reviewing.
Thank you for tuning in.
And we hope you enjoyed this episode kind of behind the scenes of the magic and are
excited about all the things to come.
Ms. B, I appreciate the questions.
Liz, you've been awesome.
Thank you.
I've actually enjoyed this.
It's kind of nice to kind of flip the script and get a little back history and understand.
So thank you for doing that for me tonight.
If you have stories that you would like to share, you can reach out to us via email at
tails from the service industry at gmail.com.
That email address is long and cumbersome, but it's going to go away soon.
I promise.
While it is still active, if you have any stories, use it free to send them in.
Yep.
Thanks for listening.
We appreciate your following us and we will see you in two weeks.
Bye guys.
Bye team.