****Please forgive any and all transcription errors as this was transcribed by Otter.ai.****

Phil Mershon 0:00

Hi, I'm Phil Mershon and you're listening to A Shark's Perspective.

(Music - shark theme)

Kenneth Kinney 0:20

Welcome back and thank you for joining A Shark's Perspective. I am Kenneth Kinney, but friends call me Shark. I am a keynote speaker, a strategist, a shark diver, host of this show, and your Chief Shark Officer.

Kenneth Kinney 0:33

What are the events in the conferences and shows that you remember? So many are pretty generic, very vanilla in a sea of sameness. They mean well have good intentions. Many have good experiences, some have even decent experiences with decent speakers. But what are the ones were the moments that stand out to make an event feel extraordinary and ones that you will remember? After all, there is an art and a science to it. Then what does it take to create memorable experiences that are unforgettable?

Kenneth Kinney 1:01

Phil Mershon is the Director of Experience and the former Director of Events at Social Media Examiner, which produces the enormous social media conference known as Social Media Marketing World. He's a jazz saxophonist, a former pastor, and the author of "Unforgettable: The Art and Science of Creating Memorable Experiences."

Kenneth Kinney 1:19

And on this episode, we will discuss a book about experiential events. Baking with the art and science of experience, Social Media Examiner and Social Media Marketing World speakers who are go givers and are part of an event to add value, networking and connection experience killers, the best Social Media Marketing World ever trends with events and the authenticity of sustainability being human centric Wichita to La Jolla, unforgettable songs and elephants, and two must hear Jazz performances, and a lot, lot more.

Kenneth Kinney 1:50

So let's tune into a director of experience who plays jazz with a director of sharks, who's pretty jazzy on this episode of A Shark's Perspective.

[music]

Kenneth Kinney 2:01

Phil, welcome to A Shark's Perspective. Tell us in your own words, a little bit about your background and your career today.

Phil Mershon 2:08

Yeah, so people call me a Swiss army knife because I have a lot of different blades in my at my arsenal that I love to use. I'm an author, I'm a speaker, I'm a musician. I'm a jazz saxophonist, in particular, I'm a former pastor, I'm an Ideator. I love creating connections for people and the list can go on. It all started fresh out of college, when everyone up to that point in my life, though I was a musician. They all said, Phil, you'd be a great computer programmer. So I was programming computers for Boeing, and kind of bored with the job because there was very little people interaction. And then I went to this total quality management training, I saw a guy leading brainstorming exercises and I said, I want to do that someday. I asked him how he did it. And his career path was not one that was attractive. It took him 30 years of being a pastor having a heart attack, and the doctor saying you can't be a pastor anymore. Find something else to do. We discovered facilitating, I said, Well, that's not a very good career path. So I began the learning how to do it. I was doing it for a nonprofit and eventually did it for a large multinational company here in Wichita, Kansas, where I live. And that began the journey, where people would go to trainings that I didn't say, Phil, that's the best training event I've ever been to, or that's the best conference I've ever been to. I'm like, okay, either your standards are really low, or I'm doing something that I need to pay attention to. And that's what eventually after running Social Media Marketing World for a decade, and people kept saying best conference ever. I finally said along the way, okay, there's something here that I'm doing that I need to write down, and I need to put into a book and talk about and so that's kind of really fast overview of how I got to where I am, and I'm doing that today. I'm director of experience for Social Media Examiner, author of unforgettable and loving to talk to people like you about experiences,

Kenneth Kinney 4:05

appreciate it well. So let's talk a little bit about the book unforgettable the art and science of creating memorable experience, whose experiences who was the book primarily written for is this for event planners. This is for marketers, and salespeople, all brands where you sort of view the audience in your own words.

Phil Mershon 4:23

So when I started writing the book, it's for people like you shark, people who are event owners, if you are creating events, not necessarily planners, but planners can benefit. I figured a planners gonna get a few good ideas, but someone who's maybe creating their first event or they're scaling their event up and they know they want it to be a lot more experiential than when it's been. That was one group of people I wrote for another group were the corporate event planners out there who are managing events for lots of different managers within the company who aren't necessarily event organizers but they have this area of knowledge they need to create an event around. And those events tend to end up being boring. In the association world, the same thing can be true. There's lots of things that happen in the name of being a member of the association. And those meetings can end up being boring. So those are three different groups that I was writing for. As I'm going and speaking places, there are people responding to the message of the book that are totally unintended people in the hospitality industry, medical offices, people who are, you know, in, or museums and amusement parks are saying, Hey, we're creating experiences, and I resonate with some of the things that you're saying here. So I think the potential audience is huge. I wrote it from the perspective of an event organizer. So I think you'll get the most benefit from the book, if that's what you do. But even network marketers are like saying, Hey, we do parties, we're doing events all year long, we need this.

Kenneth Kinney 5:58

Well, I hate the word triggered. But this can trigger some very positive things for people just thinking about customer experience, as much as it can for event experience. So that's what I loved about it. I love you approach it from an art versus science perspective as well. How much for you, do you think basically comes down to events being the art versus science, which one stands out more? Now that you look back at your decades of experience? How much of it was the gut feeling reaction that you get out of an event? Because to your point, that you mentioned the book, I very rarely I was, I've been thinking about this a lot since reading it. Very rarely can remember. A lot of I remember going to the events I remember, maybe even sitting in the chair, but they are. They're very good. Most of them are very vanilla.

Phil Mershon 6:48

Yeah. To answer the question on art versus science, I think you need to start with the science, you know, just mostly like the way you learn to play an instrument or the way you learn to bake. So that's a core analogy in the book, it's a smart way to learn how to bake from a recipe. Not everyone does, like the Italian mother might teach her son or daughter how to make spaghetti just from scratch by taste. That is a way to, to learn. I remember I developed this whole model of how to train people in the trading business, financial trading, and I presented it to some managers. And as soon as I was done, one of them said, Well, this is a bunch of hogwash, I take my kids to the top of a one diamond or two diamond slope and I say I'll meet you at the bottom. And they've never skied before. He said that's how I want traders to learn how to trade is just by doing it. So there are different models. But I think in general, people want to learn from the science like, how did these ingredients really go together? You know, what's going to make sense? How does color affect things, but then the art is built on top of that, you know, as a musician, I have to learn my scales before I can create great music. Otherwise, it's just going to be a bunch of nonsense sounding stuff. So I don't know, percentage wise, I think it's a before but then it's iterative. You're you're going back and forth. But you want to get to the place where you're competent enough with what you know that you can be artistic and create those moments that will stand out that when you think back to, you know, event X, there's an experience that reminds you of that event. And that experience reminds you maybe of a conversation or something that you learned, you know, I like to call those memory hooks.

Kenneth Kinney 8:36

There was way too many references. For me in here to bread I was getting hungry. I was oh, so because I was really thinking through the analogies. But when when I think through events, even that I participated in a few that were a year over a year. I'm kind of curious, when you think of somebody that was helping run Social Media Marketing World for so many years, which is a huge well known conference. How much of it? Did you try to build on the experience year over year? I mean, do you remember the one that happened in 2017 versus the one that was kind of boring in 20? Whatever I mean, I'm making the the years up. But it's it's hard for sometimes for people to create one a unique experience, but then to keep that sustainably unique if you if that makes sense at all.

Phil Mershon 9:23

Yeah, I think, you know, there's this temptation to do rinse and repeat when something works. And sometimes that makes sense. Like you've got to count the cost on, does it make sense to reinvent this? We have a venue that we love going to for one of our parties, that it just works. It's the right size, and it has things that people love and it makes it easy for us to plan it again and we can refresh it in certain ways, but it makes our life easier so that we can focus on things that really do need to be overhauled. You know, and so you don't reinvent all the things every year, because that becomes very expensive. You have to buy all new graphics, you have to buy, you know, pay people to design different things, I think you're looking at what are the places that are going to be most strategic and also knowing your audience, like, I know, when someone's coming to Social Media Marketing World, there's a high likelihood this is their first time. You know, it could be 70% of them, it's their first time. But it's definitely over 50%, who have never been to the event before. So they don't know what we did in the past. But people who are coming back, they want it to feel fresh, they want it to feel exciting. Like there's some new things going on. So I'm looking at what are those wrinkles, those surprises, and those don't have to be super expensive, but they're impactful, that are making people say, okay, they did that new, I wonder what else is going to be new? And you're trying to draw them in? And engage them through the experience?

Kenneth Kinney 10:57

Yeah, that's a very fair point. Because I, you know, I was looking at it through the lens of now having jumped a lot heavier in to being a professional speaker, I had been invited back to events. And so do I sometimes think about it through the lens of what was it like last year versus this year? And do you need to one up yourself each year to make it better, better, but to your point, a lot of people, they just want a great experience, they maybe don't remember what it was three years in a row or so on and so forth. So, but the most important thing, I think you said that a lot of things that we often forget about, whenever we're talking about customer experience that events teaches you really quickly is you gotta look at cost. Because that, that money comes up front and it quick, and it's early. So

Phil Mershon 11:41

now I will say this about speakers, we that's the first thing we'll get feedback on is if a speaker repeats their content, so even if it's 75% new content, but they tell these couple of killer stories that they just use all the time, it feels to them like it's the same talk. And we can have some of the same speakers in the lineup. And even if their subject is different people don't notice like, yeah, the same people speaking all the time. So we were very intentional about refreshing the lineup and making sure it's mostly new faces. You know, some people are just the right person, because their expertise is there's no one that compares with them. And so you have to say yes, but I do think as a speaker, refreshing your content, super important. Unless you know it's 100% new people or even 90% new people, then you're willing to take take the hit there?

Kenneth Kinney 12:40

Well, you do a good job of talking about how much speakers have such a huge impact on an event. Talk a little bit, if you will about the characteristics that you look for in speakers that helped create a great event.

Phil Mershon 12:52

I would use the phrase go giver. So if a speaker is a Go Giver, they're showing up and there's they're present at the event, not just for their one hour session, but they spend at least a day hanging out,

Kenneth Kinney 13:05

I want to I want to stop and applaud that, because that's a conversation I've had multiple times this week, it's very easy for people to fly in, fly out. It's horrible not to be part of the community.

Phil Mershon 13:15

Yeah, I mean, there are events where that makes sense. And there are people you know, if your name is Barack Obama, Secret Service around you, you're not going to hang out at the event. All right, I get it. But most speakers don't have that. And so I look for people who are adding value to the event. And so people come to an event in person versus online, because they want that chance to hang out with you shark or whoever the speaker might be. And if they can't find you anywhere, like you come in, you drop your knowledge and you immediately disappear to a green room and you just hang in the green room all day. Or, even worse, you go back to your hotel, and you're never there, unless you're sick, which that's a different story, which that has happened a couple of times over the years where, you know, someone has to literally disappear because they don't have the energy. But if you got the energy stay for a day, if you can stay for the whole event. You know, you we talked about our friend Mark Schaefer before this. And I love mark, like when he comes to our event, he's there. He's planning events to bring people at the event together. He's just hanging out in what we call a networking Plaza and just sits at a table and it'll talk to whoever comes up to him. Through the whole event. Many of them will have an hour of q&a after their session where they're just standing in the hall until the line disappears. They'll just keep answering questions. That's what a Go Giver looks like. They're saying What else can I do? If you got someone with that kind of mentality, then they're coming in to add value and they want to make the event better. And I think that's what makes all of this better is if you've got partners, you know, you're providing a stage for these people. You're providing an opportunity for them to serve the audience. And if they come in with that attitude, as opposed to You know, I'm the next greatest thing since sliced bread, then, you know, that comes across to the audience. And they can tell very quickly, okay, this person, you know, they just came to drop their knowledge and leave. And you know that I didn't get that much from it.

Kenneth Kinney 15:16

Well, most events are not Social Media Marketing World, or inbound or Dreamforce. Not all of them have big names and huge budgets. So they really do depend on speakers to help develop and build this community and be part of it and be present. And that's easier said than done. But I think sometimes, and I probably didn't realize it as well, until I started working some events as well how much it's you're worried about making certain that the audience feels connected to the speakers. And that's part of it, sometimes just walking around the expo hall and saying hello to people. And it's little things like that. I love though you to kind of dive into this a little bit deeper. You also talked about the idea of networking, just adding the word networking to an agenda does not guarantee it'll happen. So how do you go about developing a more extrovert and introvert friendly event for people so they can be part of that networking?

Phil Mershon 16:08

Yeah, and I think, depending on your industry, you may not even want to use the word networking. If it has baggage like we've, we've started using the word connecting and connections, more than networking. But I think using the word is good. It's not bad. Because it does predispose people to realize, okay, this is a networking break. But if there's nothing that's happening during that break, where you can network like, it's a 10 minute break, let's not call it a networking break. That's really just

Kenneth Kinney 16:40

a break bathroom. And coffee is not a network is, yeah,

Phil Mershon 16:43

there's not time to pause and network. But if it's a 30 minute break, okay, now I can, now I can have a conversation or two. So some things that you can do. I think starting early is very important. Use the word community, we're trying to build a community and you know, whether your event is for an existing community, or you're creating a community around the event, which both are valid models just depends on your your business and what you're doing. Start early, as early as you can, doesn't need to be more than 60 days out, because I don't think people are thinking about your event much more than 60 days out, even if they bought their ticket a year in advance. They're not really starting to make their plans until about 60 days out, and then they're starting to get curious can what's on the agenda? You know, who can I make plans with? Who else is going among my friends? Can I make some new friends? Who are the speakers going to be so have some kind of online way, whether that's as simple as a Facebook group, or you've got your own community that you've built on a third party app, if you have a mobile app, I think that's a really smart thing to release in advance. Some mobile apps allow you to build community, others, it's just the one to one connections. But networking works better in person if it started online. That is very strongly my opinion. That's not the only way some people can walk into a room, and they won't know a stranger. That's not the majority, there's at least 50% of the people coming to your event are introverted, and reserved when they're in a new social setting. We've gone so far as to having workshops for introverts on how do you network and the greatest benefit from that is not the skills we taught them. But now all of a sudden, they've got three new friends. So anything you can do to help people make three connections, even to connections. So another thing we'll do when people arrive on site, is we've got a team that their primary job is to help people connect. We call them the connections crew. We've had paid ambassadors, but those paid ambassadors, created the path for a team of volunteers to come who just loves connecting people like that is their God given gift. They just love to connect people to other people. And they, they'll tell you that it's like, Oh, I get a thrill out of it. The reward for me, is watching two people meet each other and become best friends. I don't You don't need to pay me when I see that happen. If I find, you know, five or 10 people like that, and set them loose within the event. I describe those people like yeast and a loaf of bread. If I have the right number of those people working the event, they'll spread out and they'll start getting people connected to each other. And that's where magic happens. Those conversations sometimes are the things that I remember about events. It's not. What did I learn in session X? It's who did I meet? And what did we talk about? And did I follow up with them and now they're an ally. Those are the things that I remember more than anything.

Kenneth Kinney 19:43

It's a fantastic point. Talk a little bit about what you've seen in your experience that are really experienced killers. is a little bit of a dark laugh.

Phil Mershon 19:54

No, it's it's a really funny question because it's it's a question that I love to ask others. So when I'm interviewing them is like, how would you kill an event. So here's one, you're speaking at an event. And you've got a deck of 40 slides for a 30 minute session, and every slide is full of dense content. And people's eyes start to glaze over. And you're speaking in a very monotone voice. So like the energy is not there, or you walk into a networking party, and there's not any music. Or it's the wrong music. Well, wrong music could actually be worse than no music, but But you walk into this room, there's not very many people there. And there's nothing that's inviting about the room, there's no music, it's not very colorful, they called it a networking party. But maybe you got there just when it's starting. So it really hasn't started yet. That can be that can kill it. Like I'll leave a situation like that, because it feels so awkward. So I think those are a couple if there are long lines, and they don't have a plan for how to activate people within the line and make that a bit more of a enjoyable experience, at least not making it a bad experience. Long lines can kill an event in a heartbeat, or speakers who just aren't a good fit. You know, they maybe they're not, they are exciting, they're energized, they've got good slides, but they're at the wrong event. Like they're speaking on a topic that no one cares about, or they're too advanced or too basic for the people that are in the room. That also will turn people off in a heartbeat. There's just there's so many things that there's a fee for you.

Kenneth Kinney 21:37

Yeah, though, and I think it's great. I one of the things I'm sure you probably thinking about a lot when you're helping coordinate these now and deliver an experience to people Social Media Marketing World is thinking about how one speaker and another speaker fit in a schedule as well. Because if you got two people in the morning that are higher energy, and then you're closing out the afternoon, after they've had a lot of carbs, and they're put you to sleep speakers, like it'll kill the experience, you kind of have to figure out that ebb and flow with people as well as the other ones I know you mentioned you talked about is no coffee, which is a horrible thing for me, bad Wi Fi. It's horrible at almost every Vegas casino, not enough power chargers. Now, I used to complain that everybody else was sitting by the side of the wall. But now I'm the worst at having my own battery pack backup. But I agree with all those I think sometimes we hear a lot of the times expression with the maybe the killers is not the right word, but the ones that really turn off an event. But I think people don't nearly take enough. Look at the details that you talk about in the book, it really looking at the details, they start adding up really quickly to destroy an event, it doesn't take a bad meal, it's not just the bad meal or the bad speaker. It's the collection of them. And they add up so quickly.

Phil Mershon 22:54

Yeah, and I would add something to that shark. That is we all can recognize a bad event. You know, something that's really terrible. And we all could probably tell those stories. And we probably can also remember a couple of events that were incredibly good, that stand the test of times, like Man, that was my baby, my favorite killer is not the word that I would use. Because I think what what the worst is or the silent killers, the things that just make the event filled net. And you're it's not something that you forget, or that you wish you could forget about or it's not something you wish you would never, you could never forget it's instead is those things in the middle that are just kind of boring, and just there and you're not moved by it, you're not changed by it, you kind of are glad you're there. Those are the ones that to me are the worst. Those are the ones that had the potential of becoming good. The ones that are terrible, really, we should just kill them, put them to rest and let's move on. I don't think we can rescue those into your

Kenneth Kinney 24:01

point, especially with with Social Media Marketing World would be if people in social media aren't talking about it, then you've got to one you almost want it to super succeed. You don't want it to fail, but at least they're talking about it then if they just if you don't see a lot of conversation going on. So I'm curious in all of the experiences you've had from your events. Was there any one particular year at Social Media Marketing World? That was the best in your eyes? Why was it the best in your judgment?

Phil Mershon 24:31

Every year has had things about it that I loved. So I don't know if there was a best. Yeah, because I could talk about the year that we were in 2020. We were four days before the world shut down. And we're concerned about, you know, is the pandemic and it hit the event and yet we had an amazing event. I could talk about 2019 a year that I had to leave because my father passed away so I had to go home for a funeral. All and yet Mark Schaefer knocked it out of the park with a closing keynote where we had an indoor firework show, which, you know, was one of those amazing things that you can see online. There were the years for years that we went to the Midway for a party. But content wise, you know, I think we're having better and better content and conversations now, even post pandemic, when numbers are, you know, arguably not the same as they were pre pandemic, because people just aren't going out as much to be more selective about where they go with their conference dollars, that we're seeing such deeper, richer conversations, like literally, we had a speaker this year, who was the last session of the day, the last day, right before the closing keynote. And he had people standing in line after his session for an hour and a half missing that keynote, because that's how engaged he was with the audience. And so it's hard for me to say there's one that was better than another. You know, personally, there was one year where I went in with three goals, I think this was 2017, or 18. I went into with three goals that I wanted to achieve during the conference. And they all happen before the conference started. So for me, that was a personal highlights, like, Okay, I was not expecting any of my goals to be met, I don't even go into an event usually with them. But we started with an activity where we asked everyone to write down, you know what your goal is, and share it with somebody. And I was kind of blown away to watch all three of those things, fulfill themselves, within a matter of a couple of hours of that meeting. So

Kenneth Kinney 26:40

when you think about where we're going with events, one of the things over the last few years is you start seeing a lot of things that are buzzword at my company word, sustainable, I hear about things like sustainable, which are is, as a diver, somebody is extremely important. And then I think about as much as it becomes part of the packaging with what kind of straws you use, or you know what your footprint is, I think about the 2000 people that got on a plane and flew somewhere. And it made me think a little bit as it when I started thinking through that lens with where we're going with what's next. How do you start thinking about designing out an experience? That's not just a trend?

Phil Mershon 27:18

That's a great question. So I do think we have to consider where is technology going to play a role in the future of events, like, the carbon footprint that we take up when 2000 People get on a plane or car or train, going to an event is something we hadn't thought about that much five years ago. And now we're thinking about it more carefully. We're thinking about, you know, when we create an expo hall, and we're laying down $20,000 worth of carpet, on that expo hall and find out that that carpets being thrown away, then you start to ask yourself, well, what are we doing here? You know, that's a lot of waste for a three day event. So you start challenging assumptions that we have to have carpet. Do we have to do this event in person? Could we do it online? Future, this isn't here today. But VR could change the way that we do events one day, I've got friends in the industry who say 100%, that's happening. That's where we're going. I don't know, I think people still want to meet one face to face, they still want to touch each other. I think that we're going to see more smaller events happening than necessarily the huge events. I think that's where things will go. But the way that we keep it from just becoming a trend and jumping on the latest bandwagon is making it human centric. So we want to focus on the experience of people, what are they really looking for. And if we have their best interests in mind, we're looking at the journey that they're going on through the experience, what the needs are with their emotional journey is how we can best serve them. And we're never going to be on a trend, because it's always about people. And if we're people connecting with people, we're creating experiences for people, then the trends aren't gonna matter so much. It's really funny shark. I wrote this event starting six years ago. And when I started that I was not aware of any books out there that talk about experience, the way that I'm writing about it. I was on a call earlier today. This is in August with a group from Google that is leading the charge on basically exploring all this stuff that I've written about in the book and more and doing like academic research and putting money behind projects trying to understand all these things. Like I was excited. I was a kid in a candy store saying what? You know, why didn't I know about this sooner? Well, it's only a year old project. So that's why I didn't know about it sooner. But you know, experience design is like the buzzword right now. Experienced design It is not new. But the things that we're thinking about inexperienced design are new. But when it's focused on people and what's best for people and not just what's, you know, new and artsy or novel, but some of the things they're going to do are like, Okay, that's interesting. We'll see how that goes. But you know, it's all in the spirit of experimenting and saying what's going to enhance this experience for people and make it memorable? You know, and I don't think their goal is necessarily memorability number, being memorable as much as it is having an emotional impact on people and making people feel safe, helping them feel connected to a community, which will all lead toward the transformational kind of conversations and learning that we are desiring.

Kenneth Kinney 30:42

Yeah, this was an I didn't mean to make this or benefit. Sustainability was the best example. But I noticed this few years ago, where people were starting to use that as marketing jargon in and I've been noticing some of the ways with people the way they present, you start seeing how everybody starts to flock that way. And so nobody's got a crystal ball with the exception of you just made a fantastic point, that now that I think more and more about it, although I probably if I had been there, I would have recognized and love the firework show to what you had mentioned earlier, I probably would have loved talking to you or any of the other people there at the place that much more. That's what really what, for me has always been the experiential part is just being able to network within that community. And again, it shows the importance of the platform and experience you've created. So, Phil, there aren't a lot of these in Wichita in Kansas where you are, but what is your favorite kind of shark and why you're on a sharks perspective? Oh, my. Do you have any experience with the La Jolla outside of San Diego and CMD

Phil Mershon 31:50

Yeah, I mean, so I don't think it's my favorite, but it's the one that I have the most relationship with and that's the great white because I I will never forget reading JAWS for the first time driving from Kansas to Iowa in the summer in the story have made me sick to my stomach so much that I threw up. When I got to the scene, you know, we're the circ is tearing up the body and then knowing of people I didn't know any of the people who got bit by them out there, off the Hoya off of Torrey Pines there in San Diego, that, you know, people who are out there swimming for triathlons and stuff. So we lived in Orlando for a while and so, went out to the my wife grew up in North Florida in Gainesville, so good whatever, to St. Augustine, and so we'd see them out there on the pier. I think they're the tiger

Kenneth Kinney 32:42

you see a lot more bull sharks in Volusia County, up in that area? Yeah. Well, you see, luckily, you see a lot more leopard sharks in La Jolla than than almost anything that in six skill. The waters are about 50 degrees cooler and California. That's a better place for great whites. But anyway, we'll fill it's a special time in the show. Are you ready for the five most interesting and important questions you're gonna be asked today?

Phil Mershon 33:08

Let's go for it. I'm ready. All right.

Kenneth Kinney 33:11

You wrote the book and forgettable, but let's talk about a different kind of unforgettable. Do you like better Nat King Cole's original, unforgettable? Or what should be your walkout music by the way? Or the virtual duet remake? That was with his daughter, Natalie Cole. Which of the two

Phil Mershon 33:31

definitely the digital remake? Okay, father daughter? Yeah. 100%. Why do you say that? Just the family connection? Yeah, it just feels a little fresher to little more. My generation. Yeah, that's the version. I've actually been trying to find a new version of it that I like, and I haven't found one yet. Like, there hasn't been another remake that has a more modern vibe to it that I think is cool. Well,

Kenneth Kinney 34:00

Tony, I think Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga did one that was okay. Yeah. So, and we lost Tony too. So Alright. Number two. On the cover is an elephant. So we're going to talk about unforgettable elephants. All right, Dumbo, or Babar.

Phil Mershon 34:15

Oh, boy. I'd have to go with Dumbo. Yeah, it's just a classic story.

Kenneth Kinney 34:22

Yeah, agreed. All right, number three. I think you'll appreciate this one. You liked jazz saxophone? I remember reading about Kenny G or Kirk Whalum.

Phil Mershon 34:32

Kirk Whalum every day of the week.

Kenneth Kinney 34:35

Thank you. And one. I know Kirk Whelan when I was on TV and radio. I had him on Delphi TV show my radio show yours because He's based in Memphis and has been an artist in residence for years. And he played the most well known jazz solo on on a album in history. Whitney Houston. I will always love you.

Phil Mershon 34:53

That was him. I was Kurt Whalum. Yeah. Wow. He's,

Kenneth Kinney 34:56

he's amazing.

Phil Mershon 34:57

I've met him a couple of times. Just Is the gentlest soul.

Kenneth Kinney 35:01

Oh my Lord.

Phil Mershon 35:03

I wish I could hang out with him. My they're very,

Kenneth Kinney 35:05

very very very involved in his church. Yeah.

Phil Mershon 35:08

Yeah is basically a pastor his gospel according to jazz albums are among my favorite. So yeah.

Kenneth Kinney 35:15

Do you have any jazz saxophones around?

Phil Mershon 35:18

Yeah, I happen to have one, play it play a sick note or two and neuter two all right

Kenneth Kinney 35:48

what an honor, I really appreciate it. That was amazing. I could play a kazoo and that's about it now. So I let my piano skills go. This is gonna be really hard to follow up. And so number four, little Social Media Marketing World type question. If you were going to post a video of that, would you rather post it on Tik Tok? Or Instagram rails?

Phil Mershon 36:11

Instagram rails? Why so? Mostly because I've tried it. I tried to Christmas last year and the people following me and commenting on it on Tik Tok. Were not my people. We'll just leave it there.

Kenneth Kinney 36:27

Interesting. And you know what's funny, too, is I have not heard anything about threads and at least like three weeks now, so it's been kind of nice to not even hear any more about Instagram and they'll just kind of stick go back to some of their roots anyway. Alright, number five. And the most important question that you're going to be asked today is biscuits or cornbread? Who cornbread. Okay, good, man. All right, so we're at

Phil Mershon 36:50

are in honey, of course. Oh, of course. So Phil,

Kenneth Kinney 36:52

where can people find out more about you get a copy of this book, look at the conference and more.

Phil Mershon 36:58

Yeah, so you can find out about me at philmershon.com. All of my social links are there on the top of the page. You can buy the book directly from me, but I'd encourage you to go buy at your favorite online bookstore. And as of right now, it's not available in any in person bookstores except if you live in Wichita, Kansas, you can go to watermark books, and then Social Media Marketing World get his social media examiner.com. And you'll see a place to click to find out more information once you get there to do one more thing for you. So one of the things I like to do is create an experience. So I played unforgettable because you talked about it. But a lot of times I will create an experience based on the interview that we've just had. And this is going to be my take on a search perspective, okay.

Kenneth Kinney 38:16

God bless you. That's That was amazing. Thank you so much for doing that. That's fantastic. Phil, thank you so much for being with us today on a shark's perspective.

Phil Mershon 38:27

It's been my pleasure. Thanks for having me.

[music]

Kenneth Kinney 38:35

So there was my conversation with Phil Mershon, the Director of Experience and the former Director of Events at Social Media Examiner, which produces the enormous social media conference known as Social Media Marketing World. He’s a Jazz saxophonist, a former pastor, and the author of Unforgettable: The Art and Science of Creating Memorable Experiences. Let's take a look at three key takeaways from my conversation with him.

Kenneth Kinney 38:59

First, he gave some great advice to speakers and he seen a lot of them at such a big conference. Refreshing the lineup is often worth a lot, but he is looking for what he calls go givers. He went on to elaborate how speakers plays such an important role at events and I see this too many fly in and out without being part of the show. And that should include time off the stage in most instances. Phil looks for people who add to the experience of an event, not just their time on stage. So stay around for a bit and be in the moment of the show, and more speakers need to refresh their content and not look the same year over year over year. speakers have a big impact on an event. Let's maximize that and add to events. Look what Phil did even as a guest on my show. He broke out the saxophone and played to make the experience better.

Kenneth Kinney 39:44

Second, Phil gave great advice on what many call networking breaks. In his conference, they now call it connecting but trying to actually help facilitate connections. Bathroom and coffee is not a networking break. He says to help facilitate is building your community as early as you can As early as makes sense, as many people know, the value doesn't always come from the person on stage, but the new connection and conversations you have beyond the stage.

Kenneth Kinney 40:09

Third, I think Phil's most important discussion point is when we started talking about trends, there's so much that people trying to do with fireworks and packaging and plastic straws and buzzwords and the hottest trends of the moment. However, what matters more is being human centric and keeping focused on that connection with the attendees. That's something really long for too many shows forget that when the focus goes elsewhere.

Kenneth Kinney 40:32

Got a question? Send me an email to Kenneth at a sharks perspective.com. Thank you again for the privilege of your time, and I am so thankful to everyone who listens. Let's create an amazing experience today, and listen to some jazz while doing it. Please join us on the next episode of a sharks perspective.

(Music - shark theme)